he Dutch, as the first
horticulturists of the world, we realise the far-reaching wisdom,
which in a few decades transformed the face of the island, clearing
vast tracks of jungle, and pruning that riot of tropical nature which
destroys as rapidly as it creates. A lengthened survey of Java's
political economy and past history would be out of place in a slight
volume, written as a "compagnon de voyage" to the wanderer who adds a
cruise in the Archipelago to his Eastern itinerary, but the colonial
features of Dutch rule which have produced many beneficial results
demand recognition, for the varied characteristics of national genius
and racial expansion suggest the myriad aspects of that creative power
bestowed on humanity made in the Divine Image, and fulfilling the great
destiny inspired by Heavenly Wisdom.

JAVA.

BATAVIA AND WELTEVREDEN.

From the railway station at Batavia the comfortless "dos-a-dos,"
colloquially known as the _sado_, a vehicle resembling an elementary
Irish car, and drawn by a rat-like Timor pony transports us to the
fashionable suburb of Weltevreden, away from the steamy port and
fever-haunted commercial capital. The march of modern improvement
scarcely affects old-world Java, where jolting _sado_ and ponderous
_milord_ remain unchanged since the early days of colonisation, for
time is a negligeable quantity in this lotus-eating land, too apathetic
even to adopt those alleviations of tropical heat common to British
India. The Java of the ancient world was considered "The Jewel of the
East," and possesses many claims to her immemorial title, but the
stolid Dutchman of to-day contents himself with the domestic
arrangements which sufficed for his sturdy forefathers, scorning the
mitigations of swinging punkah or electric fan. The word Batavia
signifies "fair meadows," and these swampy fields of rank vegetation,
exhaling a deadly miasma, were considered such an adequate defence
against hostile attack, that forts were deemed unnecessary in a
locality where 87,000 soldiers and sailors died in the Government
Hospital during the space of twenty years. Batavia proper is a
commonplace city of featureless streets, brick-walled canals, and
ramshackle public buildings, but the residential town of Weltevreden,
suggesting a glorified Holland, combines the quaint charm of the mother
country with the Oriental grace and splendour of the tropics. The broad
canals bordered by colossal cabbage-palms, th