e, make vivid points of colour in the foreground of blue
mountain and dusky forest. A copper-coloured boy carries on his head a
basket of gold-fish large as salmon, the westering sun glittering on
the ruddy scales.

Traditional servility remains ingrained in Preanger character, and the
crouching obeisance known as the _dodok_, formerly insisted upon, is
still observed by the native to his European masters, the humble
posture giving place to kneeling on a nearer approach. The kind
proprietor of the Soekaboemi Hotel offers every facility to those
guests anxious to penetrate below the surface of Soendanese life,
placing his carriage and himself at the disposal of the visitor, and
affording a mine of information otherwise unattainable, for books on
Java are few and far between, and the work of Sir Stamford Raffles
continues the best authority on island life and customs, though a
century has elapsed since it was written. Why, one asks in amazement,
did England part with this Eastern Paradise? rich not only in
vegetation, but containing unexplored treasures of precious metal and
the vast mineral wealth peculiar to volcanic regions, where valuable
chemical products are precipitated by the subterranean forces of
Nature's mysterious laboratory. In the far-off days when "the grand
tour" of Europe was the climax of the ordinary traveller's ambition,
beautiful Java was relinquished on the plea of being an unknown and
useless possession, too far from the beaten track of British sailing
ships to be of practical value. The remonstrances of Sir Stamford
Raffles, and his representations of future colonial expansion, were
regarded as the dreams of a romantic enthusiast, and the noble English
Governor, in advance of his age, while effecting during his brief
tenure of office results unattainable by a century of ordinary labour,
found his efforts wasted and his work undone. Instead of returning
home, he applied himself heroically to the developement of Singapore,
the eternal monument of patriotic devotion and invincible courage.

The line to Tjandjoer, the starting point for Sindanglaya, traverses
one of the exquisite plains characteristic of Java. Mountain walls,
with palm-fringed base and violet crest, bound a fertile expanse, where
myriad brooks foam through fairy arches of feathery bamboo and long
vistas of spreading palm fronds. Rice in every stage of growth, from
flaming green to softest yellow, covers countless terraces, the
pictur