t which, despite its many
coats of whitewash, is still recognizable as a human skull. Set in the
wall is a tablet bearing this inscription:

"In detested memory of the traitor, Peter Erberveld, who was
executed. No one will be permitted to build, lay bricks or plant
on this spot, either now or in the future.

Batavia, April 14, 1772."

Erberveld was a half-caste agitator who had conspired with certain
disaffected natives to launch a revolt, massacre all the Dutch in
Batavia, and have himself proclaimed king. Fortunately for the Dutch,
the plot was betrayed through the faithlessness of a native girl with
whom Erberveld was infatuated. Because of the imperative need of
safeguarding the little handful of white colonists against massacre by
the natives, it was decided that the half-caste should be punished in
a manner which would strike fear to the hearts of the Javanese, who
have no particular dread of death in its ordinary forms. The judges did
their best to achieve this object, for Erberveld was sentenced to be
impaled alive, broken on the wheel, his hands and head cut off, and his
body quartered. Why they omitted hanging and burning from the list I
can not imagine. The sentence was carried out--the contemporary
accounts record that he endured his fate with silent fortitude--and his
head is on the wall to-day. But I think that, were I the
Governor-General of the Indies, I should have that grisly reminder of
the bad old days taken down. Many nations have family skeletons but
they usually prefer to keep them out of sight.

CHAPTER IX

PUPPET RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS

Hamangkoe Boewoenoe Senopati Sahadin Panoto Gomo Kalif Patelah Kandjeng
VII, Ruler of the World, Spike of the Universe, and Sultan of
Djokjakarta, is an old, old man, yet his brisk walk and upright
carriage betrayed no trace of the worries which might be expected to
beset one who is burdened with the responsibility of supporting three
thousand wives and concubines. When one achieves a domestic
establishment of such proportions, however, he doubtless shifts the
responsibility for its administration, discipline and maintenance to
subordinates, just as the commander of a division delegates his
authority to the officers of his staff. The Sultan, who is now in his
eighty-ninth year, is a worthy emulator of King Solomon, the lowest
estimate which I heard crediting him with one hundred and eighty
children.