hour or two,
joins the dinner-table, if he has not dined, or smokes a cigar if he
has, and drives away again. This seems an easy life: and the colonist
who can thus lounge through the world certainly has not much reason to
exclaim against fortune. Yet this is the general life of all foreign
settlements. Among the guests a Mr Frazer's they met a remarkable
character, a Mr M'Cleland, a Scotsman. His history was adventurous; he
was the individual mentioned in Washington Irving's _Astoria_, who, on
the return of the party overland, left them, and pushed on ahead by
himself across the Rocky Mountains. From America he went to China, and
then fixed in Java, where, by energy and intelligence, he has made an
ample fortune. He is now possessor of a large foundery in the island.
The population of the town was about sixty thousand. The Javanese are
described generally as an excellent race of people, patient,
good-tempered, and very handy. The man who is to-day a carpenter, will
turn blacksmith the next, and the peasant will become a sailor. They
seem also to be as candid, as they are ingenious. One of the officers
at table said that a servant who had been for several years his
coachman, asked one day for permission to leave his service and go as
a sailor. On his being asked in turn whether he had any complaint to
make, the answer was, that he was only "tired of seeing the Colonel's
face every day."

The Javanese gentleman is fond of dress, and his dress argues
considerable opulence among his class. He usually wears a smart green
velvet or cloth jacket with gold buttons, a shirt with gold studs,
loose trousers, and sometimes boots, and a petticoat and sash, in the
latter of which is always a large creese or dagger, ornamented with
gold and diamonds. The women of the higher class live retired, those
of the lower are seen every where.

Life seems singularly busy in Sourabaya. The Chinese gentleman is
driving about all day in his pony chaise; the Chinese of the lower
order is running about with his wicker-cases as a pedlar, or else
selling fruit or cooked provisions, with a stove to keep them warm; or
sitting, in the primitive style, under a tamarind tree, with silver
and copper coinage before him to cash notes. And the river is as busy
as the shore; there are always groups of people bathing; men and women
are washing clothes; boats of all sizes, and for all purposes, laden
with produce, or crowded with people, are constantly passin