As the prevalence of disease in the town and harbour made it especially desirable that we should as speedily as possible change our quarters, in order not to be surprised by a visit on board from a guest so formidable, we made all possible efforts to complete with the utmost dispatch the revictualling of the ship, and transact whatever other business was necessary. For this purpose we were recommended in several quarters to employ a Chinese merchant, whose name is already favourably mentioned by Commodore Wilks on the occasion of his visiting Singapore in 1842. This was Whampoa, a ship-chandler, who indeed in similar departments of trade carries on by no means insignificant competition with the long-established English firms. His business is unquestionably the most extensive in this line in Singapore, and furnishes a striking example of what Chinese industry, economy, and perseverance are capable of. Immense quantities of provisions and ship-stores are accumulated in his extensive warehouses, so that he can supply orders to any extent in an incredibly short space of time. Within two days, Whampoa had completely victualled the ship for six months, besides supplying her from the adjoining stream with 100 tons of good water, which was brought alongside in boats specially constructed for the purpose, and thence pumped through hose into the iron water-tanks in the hold, an operation which in any European port would have taken thrice the time required here. Moreover all the articles supplied by Whampoa were of the best quality, and proportionally moderate in price. He employs none but Chinese, with long tails, and black silk apparel. All the books are kept in the Chinese language, and even the additions and subtractions are not made in the European method, but by the Chinese counting board, that is, by shifting a number of wooden beads or rings, which run in different rows, and have a variety of values. This reckoning-board consists of an oblong frame, divided in its length by a partition into unequal divisions, in the larger of which are hung five, in the smaller two, beads upon metal cross wires. Each wire with the seven beads running upon it constitutes a single row, and in each such row, a single bead of the smaller division is equal in value to the five corresponding beads in the larger compartment; while, just as in the Russian reckoning-board, each row represents a value tenfold greater or less with reference to the two arms adjoining it on either side. On the Chinese board the number of cross wires is not always the same, but depends upon the extent of the calculations intended to be made upon it.[32]
Accordingly when a Chinese wishes to make a calculation upon his reckoning-board, he lays it crosswise before him, with the large compartment next himself, pushes the beads of the two divisions to the edge of the frame, whence, as the process of calculation may require, he shifts them into the middle against the partition-wire, or pushes them back again. In the former case the beads are said to "count on the board," in the latter to be "off the board." Consequently, in order to have 1, 2, 3, and 4 "counting," a corresponding number of beads in the larger compartment must be pushed away from himself till they reach the partition; to mark 5, he similarly draws towards himself a bead in the smaller compartment, and as 6, 7, 8, and 9 are formed by the addition of 5 and 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, these will be marked by adding one bead from the lesser compartment to the requisite number of beads in the greater. The tens are indicated by the beads of the next wire to the left; the hundreds by the next again to that, &c.
Within his own house, Whampoa lives entirely in the European fashion. Plentifully blessed with this world's goods, he displays a degree of luxury such as we are unaccustomed to see save in the most elevated circles of society. One of his properties, which is several miles in circumference, has a spacious, elegantly furnished mansion with a splendid colonnade, a beautiful flower-garden, and a perfect menagery of useful domestic animals. Within the house all the arrangements are European, with the exception of the oval doors, communicating between the great saloon and the antechambers, which are pushed into the wall on either side, and have a very surprising effect. In the evening, especially when the saloon is illuminated, if a person passes through this oval entrance, the effect is as of a life-size portrait set in a golden frame. It would not be a bad idea to introduce this Chinese form of door-way into our European residences and country-seats, and it is assuredly not the only improvement in the decorative art which we could borrow with advantage from the Chinese. Whampoa's own favourite habitation is about four miles outside the town, and presents a curious admixture of European comfort and taste with Chinese notions of ornament. In the saloons, adorned with a quantity of neat fancy ornaments, are suspended from the walls verses and proverbs of the most renowned Chinese poets, all written on long elegantly illustrated rolls of paper. Our host also showed us a variety of objects which had been presented to him by foreign ship captains, officers of the navy, and even singers, as the late Mrs. Catherine Hayes Bushnell, whom he had shown much attention to. A banquet, to which we were invited by this hospitable Chinese to meet a number of the most prominent commercial magnates of the colony, was served entirely in the European style. The viands were cooked by a Chinese cook, in the English and French styles, only the dessert came part from Japan, part from China, and consisted of a variety of fruits, which were utterly unknown to the eye and the palate of the European guests. Our Chinese host seemed quite at home in doing the honours. Although outwardly a Chinese of the most orthodox stamp, with shaven head, (except the long tail reaching almost to the earth,) and his body robed in a black silken stuff, he drank to each of his guests in good old English style, and seemed as little afraid of Sherry as of Champagne. Indeed, we even had toasts, in the course of which this Chinese friend to foreigners remarked in English, that any amelioration of the present critical condition of his native land, can only be effected by the progressive influence of the British government. Whampoa is in all probability the first Chinese who has sent his son to Europe.
On the very last day of our stay in Singapore, a melancholy accident occurred on board. One of our sailors named Rossi, while unbending a sail for the purpose of repair, fell from the fore-yard on the forecastle, where he lay insensible, and died a few hours afterwards. Latterly repeated instances had occurred at short intervals, of the sailors, while working at various elevations, losing hold and falling on deck, but none of these had had such a tragical result as the present, and a few slight injuries was all the penalty the sufferers received for their carelessness. Singularly enough, such accidents mostly occur to the able seamen, because that class usually feel themselves as secure while resting on the foot-ropes, and working among the masts and sails, as on the ground itself, and from their carelessness come much more frequently to grief, than their comrades less experienced in manœuvring among the cordage. Rossi was reverently committed to the earth in the Catholic burying-ground of Singapore, and arrangements were at the same time made for the erection of a small grave-stone over his distant resting-place, informing the visitors to this "Court of Peace," that below reposes a member of the Novara Expedition, who had lost his life in the discharge of his duties.
As we were now at the season of the change of monsoon, at which period the always difficult navigation of the narrow seas between Singapore and Batavia demands an unusual degree of carefulness, in consequence of frequent squalls, we engaged a pilot, who for a stipulated sum of 175 dollars was to convoy us to the next station on our voyage. Captain Burrows, as our pilot was named, had the reputation of being a specially competent, thoroughly trustworthy person, who for a long period had navigated these waters in his own ship, and, as we were informed, had, owing to some unfortunate speculations, been compelled to become a pilot of other vessels, after having for years sailed in command of his own ship. He had already come on board with his traps, but, as wind and tide were both unfavourable, he obtained permission to return to shore till sunset. This however the pilot did not do, and on the following morning, finding he did not come off despite our signals, we set sail without him about 9 A.M. with favourable wind and tide. No one could account for the default of a pilot so strongly recommended on all hands, particularly as all his baggage had remained on board, and must now of course make the voyage to Batavia. For a moment we conjectured that he had immediately on landing been seized by the dread distemper, only it seemed improbable we should not have been informed of such a catastrophe. And in fact it afterwards appeared that his having missed us was entirely due to his own inattention.
We at first had intended to pass through the narrow strait of Rhio,[33] by which the route is materially shortened, but as the squally weather had fairly set in, while the breeze had crept round to the S.E., and the tide set strong to the northwards, we abandoned this plan, and decided on sailing through the channel between Horsburgh light-house and Bintang, so as to pass to the eastward of this island as far as Graspar Straits, which however we only reached the following day, owing to light fitful breezes from the northwards. So soon as we entered Gaspar Straits we found the sea, which is here of no great depth, never exceeding 25 fathoms, partly covered with trunks of trees and sea-weed, while the water had lost its transparency and was of a dirty green colour.
At 10 A.M. of the 25th April, we crossed the equator for the third time, and the same day about 11 P.M. were in sight of the rocky island of Tothy, a rain-squall from the N.E. blowing at the time. We passed between this island and the dangerous because invisible Vega Rock, just below the surface of the sea, and found ourselves in an archipelago of islands and shoals requiring the utmost vigilance in navigating ships of large size. But the moon, "the seaman's friend," shone brightly at night, and the well-known transparency of the air in tropical countries enabled us even during the hours of darkness to make out with perfect distinctness islands lying 25 to 30 miles distant, so that we were by these means, coupled with occasional casts of the lead, enabled on every occasion to make out with sufficient exactness at what point we had arrived. We were so lucky as to have never once throughout this intricate navigation been compelled to cast anchor (as is so frequently the case here), and thus succeeded in overhauling in Gaspar Straits more than one merchantman, that was a far better sailer than the Novara.
On 30th April in 2° 48′ S., and 107° 16′ E., we celebrated the anniversary of our departure from Trieste, with hearts filled with gratitude to the illustrious projector of an expedition devoted to such lofty aims.
Although during our stay in Singapore the cholera had not alone carried off its victims in the town, but also in the harbour, especially in the screw corvette Niger, anchored in our immediate vicinity, which lost at the rate of about a man daily till she changed her moorings, and ultimately had to put to sea (which under such circumstances gives hope from the very first for a change for the better in the requisite sanitary conditions for restoring to health), yet the crew of the Novara seemed destined to escape the slightest evil effects from our six days' stay in this plague-stricken harbour. But the result did not justify these expectations. Five days after our departure from Singapore, just as we were entering Gaspar Straits, one of the ship's boys fell ill with all the symptoms of the Asiatic pestilence, and two days after the man appointed to attend him was similarly seized. Every necessary precaution was taken, the crew were kept as much as possible on deck, the band played frequently, in order to keep up cheerfulness, and thus by great good fortune the malady was confined to the two individuals seized. The attendant ere long recovered, but the lad, after the choleraic symptoms had subsided, gradually fell into a typhoid state, under which, despite the utmost medical skill, he succumbed on the afternoon of May 4th. Owing to the rapidity with which decomposition sets in in organic structures in these hot latitudes, it was at once arranged that the body should be committed to the deep the same evening. It was the first occasion throughout the voyage that we had to perform this sad but most impressive ceremony. The officers and crew mustered on the deck. The body wrapped in an ensign lay upon a platform, close to the man-ropes on the starboard side. The chaplain prayed over the corpse of one so young, about to rest in the bosom of ocean far from friends and family, after which there was a dull hollow sound; the sea had got his prey, the waves closed with sullen glee over their booty,—and all was over!
In the course of the passage we also celebrated a funeral service on board for Austria's great, never-to-be-forgotten commander, Field-marshal Radetzky, of whose death we had shortly before been apprized. As far as circumstances admitted, everything was done to celebrate this solemn duty in a befitting manner.
Several times during this part of our voyage, owing to the slight depth, averaging only 14 fathoms, of the Gaspar Strait, we observed sea-snakes basking on the surface of the sea, and letting the waves roll them lazily forward, several of which, about four feet long, were caught in a common insect-net.
At last, on the afternoon of May 5, we anchored in the roads of Batavia, in 6 1⁄2 fathoms, mud bottom. The aspect of the roads, especially in bad weather, is rather melancholy, the coast being low and swampy, and densely covered with mangrove-bushes, through which glittered a portion of the red-tiled roofs of the lower ancient city of Batavia, now abandoned on account of its insalubrity. Under a more cheerful sky the country round would of course assume a more agreeable and even imposing appearance, when the outline of the gigantic volcanoes of Java come into view in the background, with their heavenward towering peaks, partly covered with snow, permitting us to form some faint conception of the prodigality of Nature in this, the most beautiful island of the Malay Archipelago.
In the roads of Batavia we found much less bustle and animation than one could anticipate, considering the favourable situation and immense importance of the place. A short distance from us lay the Dutch frigate Palembang, carrying the flag of a Vice-admiral, and the steam-corvette Gröningen, besides which we counted some sixty foreign merchantmen, and over a hundred native boats and coasting vessels. This rather small evidence of commercial activity is the more noticeable when one has just come from the free port of Singapore, where several hundred ships are always lying at anchor, sporting the flags of every sea-faring nation, without taking account of the almost innumerable Chinese and Malay coasters, trading between Singapore and the other islands of the Sunda Archipelago. Moreover, there are here no small boats plying to and fro, because the communications between the city and the roadstead being over a space requiring an hour and a half to traverse, the transit is necessarily dear, and remains therefore confined within as small limits as possible. For a small boat with two rowers from the roads to the landing-place the charge is from four to five florins (6s. 8d. to 8s. 4d.), and 3 1⁄2 florins (5s. 10d.) more for a vehicle to transport them to the town. For this reason no artisans, trades-people, or washerwomen will come off to where the shipping is at anchor, to take orders—every commission of whatever nature must be executed in the city itself. Here we lay at anchor, an Austrian frigate, surely a most unwonted visitant, from the afternoon till the following morning without one single boat coming off to visit us!
[27] City of Lions, from Singha, the Sanscrit for Lion, a title of Indian princes, which we again meet with in Singhala, the kingdom of Lions, as Ceylon is called in ancient records and histories.
[28] Captain Alexander Hamilton's "New Account of the East Indies, 1688-1723." Edinburgh, 1727. 8vo, Vol. II., p. 63.
[29] From this shrub is prepared the drug Kino, once much used in the Pharmacopœia, but now displaced by catechu.
[30] A similar system prevails to this day throughout Hindostan, where the necessity for convoy of specie forms one of the most important items of expense in the maintenance of local police, outlying military stations, &c. And unfortunately such a policy reacts upon the respect of the natives for British rule, for seeing that even the government requires such convoys, they naturally presume that government feels itself insecure, and hence refuse to co-operate in the development of Indian resources.
[31] The net produce of an acre of land grown with poppy amounts to about 20 or 30 rupees, producing about 30 lbs of opium. The oil extracted from the seed-vessels of the plant gives a return of from 2 to 3 rupees per acre.
[32] Among the valuable contributions of the Russian Embassy to Pekin, respecting China, its people, its religion, its political institutions, its social peculiarities, &c., there is one long and very copious treatise upon the Chinese reckoning-board, and the method of using it. See the German translation of the work by Dr. Karl Abel, and F. T. Mecklenburg. Berlin, F. Heinicke, 1856, vol. i. p. 295.
[33] The Rhio group of islands is about 50 miles S.E. of Singapore, the most important of which is Bintang, with a town of the same name.
In order to get from the roadstead of Batavia to the "Stad Herberg," the sole landing-place for boats, distant some miles from the open sea, it is necessary to steer for some distance up the canal-like channel of the Tjiliwoeng (pronounced Chili-wung) River. Old Batavia (Jacatra), built by the Dutch in 1619, on an extremely swampy and most unhealthy spot, is at present entirely abandoned by the white population, and the numerous handsome edifices still standing there are now only used as warehouses, counting-houses, and offices generally. Where in days of yore a hundred thousand human beings bustled to and fro, there are at present dwelling but a couple of thousand wretched, poverty-stricken Portuguese and Javanese. The Dutch in selecting such a site undoubtedly took their own Amsterdam for a model, and the houses were accordingly built as close as possible to each other, and several storeys high, a mode of building eminently unsuited to a tropical climate, and accordingly adding another element of insalubrity. The thick fog, which every evening at sundown spreads over the city, situate as it is hardly above the level of the sea, is not only very injurious to Europeans, but proves quite frequently fatal, so that by 5 P.M. old Batavia assumes the appearance of a city of the dead, and a regular emigration takes place in waggons, on horseback, or on foot, to the more elevated and therefore more healthy parts of the town, to Ryswick, Molenvliet, Weltevreden, &c., where during the last twenty years an entirely new and very elegant settlement has sprung up. Handsome villas rise amid the blooming fragrant gardens, and everything is arranged in accordance with the requirements of a tropical climate; and of an evening, when the low verandahs and beautifully furnished drawing-rooms of these airy, well-ventilated mansions are profusely lit up, and filled with a gaily-dressed social circle, while numbers of equipages, carrying torches, flit through the wide streets, the whole scene has quite a fairyland appearance. The gloom without makes the dazzling brightness within-doors still more marked, and renders the law a perfect boon, by which no native, so soon as it becomes dark, is permitted to walk through the streets unless he carries a lighted torch (obor). Owing to the distance intervening between each house, Batavia, although numbering only 70,000 inhabitants, apparently covers a larger area than Paris, and as the wealthy classes are concentrated in the upper quarters of the town, just as they are in the West End of London, it is there that one may see all that Batavia has to show of luxury, comfort, and elegance. The old haughty, aristocratic capital of the Netherland Indies, whose beauty once obtained for her the title of "Queen of the East," is found here in more than pristine freshness, and not alone in wealth and splendour, but even in social stiffness and pedantic etiquette, vies with the most ultra-refined centres of fashion in Europe.
The Novara had long been expected in Batavia, and months beforehand orders had been issued by the Governor-general to all the Dutch colonies in the East Indies, for the courteous reception of the Expedition, and energetically assisting its members. A German merchant from Celebes, whom we happened to meet the day of our arrival, informed us that in Macassar the entire population had been for several months past looking for the arrival of the foreign man-of-war, and those on the look-out at the signal-station, as often as a large ship made its appearance on the horizon, were continually hoping that it might prove to be the long-expected visitor.
All that the resources of a mighty and generous power, such as is that of Holland in Java, could furnish to make our short stay at the island as agreeable and instructive as possible was exhibited on the most lavish scale, and all that could be done to promote our objects in view by men of science, of which Java possesses a considerable number, and even some of European celebrity, was offered with the most praiseworthy alacrity. Several eminent scholars and naturalists, headed by the renowned ichthyologist, Dr. Bleeker, who shortly before had been decorated with an Austrian order of merit for his valuable contributions to our knowledge of the natural history of the Sunda Islands, did the honours, so to speak, for the members of the scientific commission, of whom they became the constant companions.
The very day we landed we visited the Museum, in the company of our new friends, where we found an extremely interesting and most valuable collection, principally of ethnographic objects. Here we saw idols of the palmy days of Buddhism, made of bronze and silver, beautifully carved, which came from the interior of Java, as also from Sumatra and the Engano Islands; clothes of the bark of trees, garments of fish-scales, of a species of Scarus (probably Scarus Schlosserii), head-gear, armlets, and necklaces of the teeth of men and wild animals, richly adorned "creeses" or Malay daggers, lances and arrows of bamboo, whose iron heads were poisoned by a wash of arsenic mixed with lemon-juice; a great variety of musical instruments, among which were specimens of the well-known and singular Gamelang, which consists of a row of bells of all sizes and tones, which are struck with slender pieces of bamboo, and makes a regular orchestra of bells. There was also a very singular-looking collection of parasols, which as used by the natives are emblems of rank, and of which there are no less than thirty different kinds. Any one may carry a simple green, or blue, or black parasol, but those with gold thread or gold tassels are only permitted to be used by persons of a certain social standing, so that one may always know the social position of a Javanese by the parasol he carries, just as among the Chinese, rank is indicated by the number of peacock feathers, and the colour of the button on the bonnet. The higher the rank, the broader is the gilded fringe, so that the parasol of a Javanese prince of the highest rank is all gold together, and when fully expanded consists of three parasols, one above the other, which open by one and the same movement. Most of these parasols, prepared from the leaves of the screw-pine, are imported hither from China.
In one of the rooms is a statue of Durga, one of the goddesses of the old Hindoo mythology, moulded in metal, a present from the Sultan of Surakarta in the centre of Java to one of the former governors of the island, who presented this fine specimen of native art to the Museum. A large number of Javanese and Sunda MSS., written on palm-leaves, have been placed by, and at the expense of, the government in the hands of Dr. Friedrich, a German philologist, to be deciphered and translated. In the same apartment we saw a large number of trachytes, with very beautiful sculptures and inscriptions, as also several figures from the island of Bali, quite modern in aspect, carved in wood and coarsely painted, representing some beautiful female figures; other hideous caricatures, which are used by the natives as decorations of their household altar, but without any religious significance being attached to them. The fact that these sculptures are no longer, as formerly, executed in stone, but are carved in wood, may be held to evidence the decay of this branch of art. A rather considerable craniological collection, comprising some 60 heads of the various types of races inhabiting the Malay Archipelago and the adjoining continent, was in the most handsome manner presented to the Expedition, and must, considering the many difficulties which stand in the way of our acquiring correct scientific knowledge of this interesting question, especially among races inhabiting uncivilized countries, be regarded as an exceedingly valuable addition to our collections of objects of natural history at home.
The Ethnographic Museum and the library attached are, however, only branches thrown out by the indefatigable activity of the oldest scientific society in Java, the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, which, founded in 1778 by the Europeans then resident in Batavia, has since that period published some thirty volumes of valuable statistics of the various objects of which it takes cognizance, and is in correspondence with upwards of 150 learned societies. Since 1852 there has also appeared under the auspices of this Society, conducted by three members of the direction, Dr. Bleeker, Mr. Netscher, and Mr. Munnich, a monthly journal of Indian History, as also of physical and ethnographic statistics (the "Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal Land en Volkenkunde"), of which seven volumes have already appeared, published in 8vo. Not less valuable, especially in the interests of natural science, is the Association known as the "Natuurkundige Vereeniging," which has been in existence since 1850, and, under the superintendence of that indefatigably active scholar Dr. Bleeker, has within that period published a considerable number of most interesting memoirs, while the Society for the advancement of Medical Science (Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Geneeskundige Wetenschappen in Nederlandsch Indie), under the guidance of the distinguished Dr. G. Wassink, has given to the world through its annual publications a large variety of experiences and observations on the study of Medicine.[34] All these scientific institutions are the more deserving of commendation, when we reflect that there are but 6000 emigrants from Holland, scattered abroad throughout the Netherland Indies, of whom only some 3000 are in Batavia, and that the white population is for the most part constantly changing. It is obvious this latter condition must have this prejudicial effect, that the various branches of scientific inquiry cannot always enjoy a uniform degree of attention, and that the task of maintaining them in a proper degree of efficiency must depend almost exclusively upon the continuance in office and constant attention of individuals. Owing to this frequency of change the active prosecution of scientific inquiry has undergone marked fluctuations in Batavia, and while occasionally it was at the lowest ebb, so to speak, at another time, as happily was the case at the period of our visit, it presents, in the convergence of numerous powerful minds devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, the imposing spectacle of a strong set of public opinion towards intellectual enjoyment and cultivation.
Accompanied by Dr. Bleeker the members of the Expedition visited several of the most interesting of the public institutions, the establishment of which reflects the greatest honour on the government, as well as the public-spirited individuals who projected them. The Military and Civil Hospital at Tjiliwoeng, or Great River, does not indeed present the palace-like appearance of the Misericordia Hospital at Rio, but the small neat buildings, one storey high, scattered among beautiful flower-gardens, and occupying a flat space of great extent, are kept scrupulously clean, and are arranged with great comfort. Six physicians are on duty here, and the most exemplary care and attention are bestowed on patients. Officers and public servants who fall sick have, in particular, large, light, airy, elegantly furnished apartments; other patients are received into lofty, well-ventilated, spacious halls, usually holding from 50 to 60 beds. Altogether the hospital can accommodate 600 patients. The most common diseases are dysentery, intermittent fever, and heart and liver complaints. Here we saw numerous cases of Beri-Beri (the Barbiers of English medical writers), that singular, usually incurable disease which begins with intermittent fever, and generally ends with paralysis of the spinal chord. In the year 1857, of 500 patients at Batavia no fewer than 348 were attacked with this frightful complaint, of whom 249 died within a brief space. In the medical section of the Novara publications will be found a complete account of this most interesting malady, which fortunately is very limited in its ravages, and hitherto has been almost exclusively confined to the natives.
In one of the wards we were shown a Dutch sailor labouring under an asthmatic attack, whose hands and feet had been shockingly mutilated in 1846 by pirates in the Straits of Malacca. We also found among the patients several German sailors and soldiers, whose transports of joy were unmistakeable on hearing once more the sound of their native language, and at the opportunity of conversing with a fellow-countryman.
The heavy expense of building in Batavia, and the anxious vigilance exercised over those of the community who are sick, will best be understood from the fact that one single new ward, making up from 60 to 80 beds, cost the government about 60,000 guilders (£5000). One of the buildings, at a little distance from the rest, is set apart for female invalids, as also for lunatics and sick prisoners. Attached to this hospital is a school of midwifery for the instruction of native women in obstetrics, which at the period of our visit was attended by sixteen women from various islands in the Malay Archipelago, and which, in a land where the birth of a child is accompanied by so many superstitious and hideous ceremonies, cannot fail to be followed by most beneficial results.
One very important and useful establishment is the Javanese medical school (Geneeskundige School voor Inlanders), which, founded in 1851 by Mr. Bosch, at that period chief of the medical staff, is intended to supply the sons of the more prominent natives of Java and the adjacent islands with a thorough training in and acquaintance with the art of medicine as practised in Europe. Government defrays the travelling expenses of these youths, as also all expenses of maintenance and education. Among the four-and-twenty scholars here, we saw sons of native princes of Java, Palembang, Celebes, Amboina, Ceram, Sumatra, and Borneo, who intended following up the profession; and it is worthy of remark that two natives of Menado in the island of Celebes of the savage cannibal race of the Alfuras, were pointed out to us as among the most apt and docile of the scholars! Those of the students who are Christians, are clothed in the dress of Europeans, the rest, chiefly Mahométans, wear Oriental attire. Instruction is imparted in Malay, since as a rule not one of the students on entering the college understands a word of Dutch. For the same reason the books usually employed in instruction cannot be made use of, while, owing to the poverty of the Malay language, any translation into it must be fraught with difficulty. All technical names are therefore converted into Latin. The course of instruction is carried on the first year in the class-room, the second by the bed-side of the patient, or the dead body. After strict and thorough examination each pupil receives a diploma as a "Doctor—Java," besides a monthly salary of from £2 2s. to £2 10s., and an outfit of the most important drugs and surgical instruments. By this system some fifty young men have already returned to their homes as physicians and government officials, and thus greatly contribute to the extension of European civilization.
In the chief streets of Batavia the stranger comes upon some small open watch-houses, or rather huts, consisting simply of four poles and a roof of palm thatch, in which is suspended a long, slender piece of wood (Tong-tong), which is used for three different objects. The Javanese who in this little hut is watching over the property and personal safety of the inhabitants, strikes the Tong-tong with a sort of drum-stick, in order to announce the hours of the night, or to give notice of the outbreak of a fire, or in case of any one running a-muck. This singular phenomenon, in which a Malay with open knife or drawn dagger rushes madly through the streets, and seeks to kill every one he encounters, occurs perhaps a dozen times a year. The first murder is very probably intentional, the offspring of hate or revenge, but that once accomplished, the murderer, usually under the influence of opium, runs recklessly forward through the streets, with the wild cry of "Amok"—"Amok" (Kill!—Kill!), knocking down and stabbing whoever he encounters. As one can only approach the miscreant at the peril of one's life, there is kept in these watch-houses a peculiarly constructed weapon of long wooden staves, and shaped at the upper end not unlike a hay-fork, with which the desperate wretch can be seized. The various methods in which the Tong-tong is struck at once conveys notice as to which one of the three announcements conveyed by the instrument it is the watchman's object to make.
The natives, although they divide themselves into the Java and Sunda nations, belong nevertheless to the same race, viz. the Malay, and are readily recognizable by their short thickset form, round face, wide mouth, short narrow nose, small black eyes, by their brown complexion, verging on yellow, and their luxuriant but always rough and coarse hair. As to their moral characteristics, the Javanese are a mild, easily contented, temperate, simple, industrious people. The principal occupation of the 10,000,000 inhabitants of Java and Madura, is agriculture, which with them is at least equally, if not in a much higher degree, understood by them than by any other Asiatic community, with the exception of the Chinese. This is apparent from the neatness and careful cultivation of their fields, the excellent condition of their farm-stock, the careful observance of seed-time and harvest, and above all by their regular irrigation of the soil. When Java first became known to Europeans, the chief produce of the island consisted of rice, leguminous vegetables, indigo, and cotton. Intercourse with Europe has superadded to these two American products, maize and tobacco, and one African, coffee.[35] The Javanese have even less time for the mechanical arts than for agricultural pursuits, yet in the construction of boats and dwelling-houses, as also in making agricultural implements, shields and weapons of war, they have more aptitude than the majority of the people of the Malay Archipelago.[36] The only other stuff, except cotton, of which they make clothing is silk, chiefly the raw, coarse, Chinese silk; all endeavours to naturalize the silk production in these islands having failed hitherto.
In addition to the ordinary language used for communication and every-day purposes there are in Java two special idioms,—Javanese in the centre and east of the island, and Sunda in the west of the island. The small river Losari in the province of Cheribon on the north side of the island indicates the boundary line of the two languages. Owing to the circumstance that both the idioms are used in Cheribon, many writers have deduced thence the origin of the name of that province, which signifies in Javanese "mingled," or mixed. The Javanese tongue, which of the two is far the more highly cultivated, has been a written language for untold ages, and its alphabet is universally used among the Sunda groups as well as in the adjoining Malay groups. Various inscriptions in stone and brass carry us back in the history of Java to the 12th century, and it would almost seem that the Javanese at that period had already attained the same degree of civilization as when four centuries later the Europeans for the first time landed on their soil.
Of the original Javanese language there are three dialects,—the language of the populace (Ngoko), or low Javanese, the ceremonial language (Kromo), known as high Javanese, and the old mystical dialect, or Kawi.
Javanese has borrowed a number of words from Sanscrit, Arabic, and Telingu, especially since the introduction of religion and commerce.
One of the most important events in the history of the Javanese was their conversion to Brahmanism, and still later to Mahometanism. The precise period at which the first of these took place seems to be as yet quite uncertain, but this much is known, that from the 13th to the 15th century Brahmanism prevailed in Java. The conversion of the Javanese to Islam, whose religion is at present professed by the great majority of the inhabitants,[37] took place in 1478 under the ruler of Salivana, after Arabian, Persian, Malay, and Mahometan Hindoos had since the year 1358 vainly endeavoured to introduce that faith.[38]
In addition to the native population there is also a large number of foreign settlers in Java, of whom the Chinese constitute far the largest contingent. Their number is above 140,000, and would be much greater were their attempts at colonization not kept down by numerous limitations, and heavy taxes and imposts. The Chinese, who in more than one respect may be regarded as the Jews of India, are only admitted by the Indian Government at certain points of the coast, and in many of the Regencies must not transgress those limits. Although they are extraordinarily industrious, ingenious, and well suited for hard labour, yet the government is of opinion that their unchecked intercourse with the natives would inevitably prove prejudicial to the latter, who are plundered by the Chinese in every possible manner. Their main, indeed sole, object is to make money, and at all public auctions it is they who chiefly buy at a small price, and directly afterwards succeed in getting off their purchases at an enormous advance. One can purchase of these Chinese dealers at prices almost unheard of for cheapness, but quality and lasting capabilities are not guaranteed. A German writer compares the Kampong or Chinese quarter to a Polish country town on a fair day. Every house and store is crammed with all manner of useless trash, and everywhere there is the utmost bustle. The most various articles are exposed for sale in each magazine. Here too are found the Chinese theatrical booths, in which at various hours throughout the day Chinese comedians, richly dressed in Chinese fashion, perform Chinese plays, which are applauded by a numerous ragged auditory, collected in the open space in front!
Each Chinese colony, or Kampong, has a chief, appointed by government, with the title of lieutenant, captain, or major, available within the limits of the Kampong, but which, it is needless to say, confers no military privileges. Those of the Chinese residing in Java belong to mutual societies, whose members assist each other, and which have not merely humanitarian, but also political tendencies.
We are in possession of the affiliation-ticket of a member of the native Chinese society of Hoei, or Tuité-Huy (Brotherhood of the Heavens and the Earth), printed on a fabric of reddish cotton, which bears 91 various written characters, for the following translation of which, as also for the accompanying particulars respecting the objects of this very remarkable society, we are indebted to the kindness of the renowned Chinese scholar, Professor J. Neumann of Munich:—
"The Brotherhood of the Heavens and the Earth frankly declares that it considers itself called on by the Supreme Being to put an end to the frightful contrast between wealth and poverty. In its view the possessors of earthly power and wealth have come into this world under the same ceremonies, and leave it in the same manner, as their defrauded brothers, the poor and oppressed. The Supreme Being never willed that millions should be held in slavery by a few thousands. Father Heaven and Mother Earth have never conferred on the few thousands the right to swallow up the property of millions of their brethren for the mere satiating their own luxury. To the rich and powerful their fortunes were never bestowed by the Supreme Being as an exceptional right; it consists rather in the labour and the 'sweat of the brow' of the millions of their oppressed brethren. The sun with his beaming face, the earth with her treasures of wealth, the universe with all its joys, are boons common to all, and must be seized from the grasp of the few thousands for the satisfaction of the necessities of the naked millions. The world must ultimately be purged of all oppression and woe; this must be initiated in brotherly unity, must be steadily followed up with mind and hand, and must be completed. The good seed of this brotherhood must not be stifled beneath noxious weeds, rather is it our duty to root up these noxious weeds, that overshadow all things, to the benefit and advancement of the good seed. The problem, be it frankly confessed, is a mighty and a difficult one, but let each man bethink him, that there is no victory, no redemption without storm and strife. Until the great majority of the dwellers of all the cities of each province have taken the oath of fidelity, each man may continue outwardly to obey the mandarins, and ingratiate himself with the police by presents. Ill-timed demonstrations will injure the plan. So soon as the majority of the inhabitants in each city and province has acceded to the bond of our union, the old monarchy must fall to the ground, and we shall be able to found the new reign upon the ruins of the old. Millions of grateful brethren shall honour the founders of our brotherhood after they shall have gone to the grave, mindful of the mighty benefit they have conferred;—the redemption from chains and bondage of a ruined social system."