ast, through friends in Amsterdam, he obtained
the appointment of surgeon to a transport, on board of which, in
September 1837, he sailed from the Helder for the island of Java.
Besides the ship's company, he had for companions of his voyage a
hundred soldiers and two officers. The Dutch East Indies hold out small
temptation either to civil or military adventurers. Few visions of
speedy fortune, fewer still of rank and glory, dazzle the young and
ardent, and lure them from their native land to the fever-breeding
swamps of Batavia. Thus the Dutch government cannot afford to be very
squeamish as to the character and quality of the men it sends thither.
Dr. Selberg's account of his fellow-passengers is evidence of this.
"Amongst the soldiers," he says, "were natives of various countries,
Dutch, Belgians, French, Swiss; nearly half of them consisted of the
refuse of the different German states. Most villanous was the
physiognomy of many of these; the traces of every vice, and the ravages
of the various climates they had lived in, were visible upon their
countenances. They were men who had served in Algiers, Spain, or the
West Indies, who had been driven back to Germany by a craving after
their native land, and who, after a short residence there, weary of
inactivity, or urged by necessity, had enlisted in the Dutch East India
service. The Dutchmen consisted of convicts, whose imprisonment had been
remitted or abridged, on condition of their entering a colonial
regiment. These were the worst of the whole lot; they feared no
punishment, being fully persuaded that death awaited them in the
terrible climate of Java, and it was scarcely possible to check their
insubordination and excesses. Another very small section of the
detachment was composed of adventurers, whom wild dreams of fortune,
never to be realised, had induced to enlist for the sake of a free
passage."

Idleness would render such motley herds of evil-doers doubly difficult
to restrain, and the Dutch government provides, as far as is possible on
board ship, for their occupation and amusement. On the Betsey and Sara,
the name of Dr. Selberg's transport, guards were regularly mounted;
pipes, tobacco, dominos, nine-pins, and even musical instruments, were
abundantly supplied to the restless and discontented soldiery. But it
was the season of the equinox, and, for some time, sea-sickness caused
such toys to be neglected. Only when they had passed Madeira, the
weather be