Travels in the East Indian Archipelago

Front matter

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Chapter I. The Strait Of Stjnda And Batavia

Object of the Travels described in this volume — Nearing the coast of Java- Balmy breezes of the Eastern Isles — ^King bolus's favorite seat — A veil of rain — First view of Malays — Entering the Java Sea — The Malay language- Early history of Java — Marco Polo^Hinduism in Java — History of Batavia — The roadstead of Batavia — The city of Batavia — Houses of Europeans — Mode of cooking — Characteristics of the Malays — Collecting butterflies — Visit Rahden Saleh — Attacked av ith a fever — receive a letter from the Governor-General 13-41

Chapter II. Samarang And Surabaya

Sail from Batavia for the Moluccas — My companions — Mount Slamat — The north coast of Java — Mount Prahu — Temples at Boro Bodo and Brambanan — Samarang — Mohammedan mosque — History of Mohammedanism — Mount Japara— The Guevo Upas, or Valley of Poison— Gresik— Novel mode of navigating mud-flats — Surabaya — Government dock-yard and machine-shops—Zoological gardens — History of Hinduism— The Klings— Excursion to a sugar plantation — Roads and telegraphic routes in Java — Malay mode of gathering rice — The kinds of sugar-cane . . 42-70

Chapter III. The Flora And Fauna Of The Tropical East

Leave Surabaya for Macassar — Madura — The Sapi — Manufacture of salt — The Tenger Mountains — The Sandy Sea— Eruptions of Mount Papandayang and Mount Galunggong — Java and Cuba compared — The forests of Java — Fauna of Java— The cocoa-nut palm— The Pandanus— The banana— Tropical fruits — The mangostin — The rambutan — mango— duku — durian — bread-fruit —

Contents

Bali — Javanese traditions — Limit between the fauna of Asia and that of Australia — A plateau beneath the sea — Caste and suttee practices on Bali '71-96

Chapter IV. Celebes And Timue

History of Celebes — De Barros — Diogo de Cauto — Head-hunters of Celeoes — The harbor of Macassar — ^Voyages of the Bugis — Skilful diving — ^Fort Rotterdam — The Societeit, or Club — ^A drive into the country — The tomb of a native merchant — Tombs of ancient princes — Sail for Kupang, in Timiir — Flying-fish — The Gunong Api in Sapi Strait — Gillibanta — Sumbawa — Eruption of Mount Tomboro — The Eye of the Devil — ^Tloris and Sandal-wood Island — Kupang — Fruits on Timur — Its barrenness and the cause of it — Difiereut kinds of people seen at Kupang — Human sacrifice — ^Purchasing shells — Geology of the vicinity of Kupang — Sail for Dilli — ^Village of Dilli — Islands north of Timur — The Bandas — Monsoons in the Java and China Seas 97-129

Chapter V

Description of the island and city of Amboina — Dutch mode of governing the natives — A pleasant home — A living nautilus is secured — Excursion to Hitu — Hassar steering — History of the cocoa-tree — Indian corn — Hunting in the tropics — Butterflies — Excursion along the shores of Hitu for shells — Mode of travelling in the Spice Islands — The pine-apple — Covered bridges — Hitulama — ^Purchasing specimens — History of the Spice Islands — Enormous hermit-crabs — ^An exodus — Assilulu — Babirusa shells from Burn — Great curiosities — Jewels in the brains of snakes and wild boars — Description of the clove-tree — History of the clove-trade — ^Watched by the rajah's wives — Lariki and Wakasihu — A storm in the height of the southeast monsoon — Variety of native dialects — Dangerous voyage by night — An earthquake — Excursion to Tulahu ISO-lVG

Chapter VI. The Uliassers And Ceeam

The arrival of the mail at Amboina — The Uliassers — Chewing the betel-nut and siri — Haruku — ^We strike on a reef— Saparua Island, village, and bay — Nusalaut — Strange reception — An Eastern banquet — Examining the native schools — Different classes of natives — ^Yield of cloves in the Uliassers — Nullahia, Amet, and Abobo — Breaking of the surf on the coral reefs — Tanjong — Travel by night — Ceram — Elpaputi Bay and Amahai — Alfura, or head-

CONTENTS. 9

hunters, come down from the mountains and dance before us — ^Land on the south coast of Ceram — Fiendish revels of the natives — Return to Saparua andAmboina 17Y-212

CHAPTER YII.

Governor Arriens invites me to accompany him to Banda — The Gunong Api — Road of the Bandas — Banda Neira and its forts — Geology of Lontar — The Bandas and the crater in the Tenger Mountains compared — The groves of nutmeg-trees — The canari-tree — Orang Datang — We ascend the volcano — In imminent peril — The crater — Perilous descent — Eruptions of Gunong Api — Earthquakes at Neira — Great extent of the Residency of Banda — The Ki andArru Islands — Return to Amboina — Geology of the island of Amboina — Trade of Amboina — The grave of Rumphius — His history . 213-252

Chapter VIII

Adieu to Amboina — North coast of Ceram — ^Wahai — Burn — Kayeli — Excursions to various parts of the bay — ^A home in the forest — Malay cuisine — Tobacco and maize — Flocks of parrots — Beautiful birds — History of Burn — The religion and laws of the Alfura — Shaving the head of a young child — A wedding-feast — Marriage laws in Mohammedan countries — A Malay marriage — Opium, its effects and its history — Kayu-puti oil — Gardens beneath the sea — Roban — Skinning birds — Tropical pests — ^A deer-hunt — Binding — A threatening fleet — ^A page of romance — ^A last glance at Buru 253-297

Chapter IX. Ternate, Tidore, And Gilolo

Seasons in Ceram and Buru — Bachian and Makian — Eruptions of Ternate — Magellan — Former monopolies — The bloodhounds of Gilolo — Migrations — A birth-mark — The Molucca Passage — ^Malay pirates — They challenge the Dutch 298-322

CHAPTER 5.

THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF CELEBES.

Mount Klabat — Kema — A hunt for babirusa — A camp by the sea — Enormous

snakes — From Kema to Menado — Eruption of Mount Kemaas — Population

of the Minahassa — Thrown from a horse — The Bantiks — A living death —

■ History of the coffee-tree — In the jaws of a crocodile — The bay of Menado —

Lake Linu — A grove by moonlight 323-355

10 CONTENTS.

Chapter XI. The Minahassa

The waterfall of Tinchep — A mud-well — A boiling pool — The aucient appearance of our earth — Lake Tondano — One of the finest views in the world — Palm-wine — Graves of the natives — Christianity and education — Tanjong Fiasco — Gold-mines in Celebes — The island of Buton — Macassar — A raving maniac 356-383

Chapter XII. Sumatra

Padang — Beautiful drives — Crossing the streams — The cleft — Crescent-shaped roofs— Distending the lobe of the ear — Canons — The great crater of Manindyu — ^Immense amphitheatres — Ophir — Gold-mines . . . 384-405

Chapter XIII. To The Land Of The Cannibals

Valley of Bondyol — ^Monkeys — The orang-utan — Lubu Sikeping — Tigers and buffaloes — The Valley of Ran — ^A Batta grave — Riding along the edge of a precipice — Twilight and evening — Padang Si dempuan-^ Among the cannibals — Descent from the Barizan — The suspension bridge of rattan — Ornaments of gold — The camphor-tree . . . . . . 407-434

Chapter XIV. Return To Padang

Bay of Tapanuli — The Devil's Dwelling — Dangerous fording — Among the Battas — Missionaries and their brides — The feasts of the cannibals — The pepper trade — The English appear in the East — Struck by a heavy squall — Ayar Bangis and Natal — The king's birthday — Malay ideas of greatness 435-457

Chapter XV. The Padang Plateau

Thunder and lightning in the tropics — Paya Kombo and the Bua Valley — The Bua cave — Up the valley to Suka Rajah — Ancient capitals of Menangkabau — The reformers of Korinchi — Malay mode of making matchlocks — ^A simple meal — Geological history of the plateau — The Thirteen Confederate Towns — The ilanks of the Merapi — Natives of the Pagi Islands — ^Where the basin of the Indian Ocean begins . ...... 458-485

CONTENTS. 11

* CHAPTER XVI.

CROSSING SUMATRA.

Bay of Bencoolen — Rat Island — Loss of Governor Raffles's collection — A trap for tigers — Blood-suckers — Pits for the rhinoceros — virgin children — Plateau of the Musi — From Kopaiyong to Kaban Agong — Natives destroyed by tigers — Sumatra's wealth — The Anak gadis — Troops of monkeys — From Tebing Tingi to Bunga Mas — We come upon an elephant — Among tigers — The Pasuma people — Horseback travel over — The land of game 486-520

Chapter XVII. Palembang, Banca, And Singapore

Mount Dempo — Rafts of cocoa-nuts — Floating down the Limatang — Cotton — From Purgatory to Paradise — ^Palembang — The Kubus — Banca — Presented with a python — The python escapes — A struggle for life — Sail for China 521-542

Appendix A. Area of the principal islands, according to Baron van

Carnbee 543

" B. Population of the Netherlands India, 1865 . . . 544 " C. A table of heights of the principal mountains in the archipelago 544

" D. Coffee sold by the government at Padang .... 545 " E. Tradeof Java and Madura during 1864 . . . .546

Indes 547

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

SAVED BY GRASPING A FEEN, ....

WIVES OF ONE OF THE HIGHEST PRINCES IN JAVA,

POULTRY-VENDER,

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, BATAVIA,

JAVANESE AND FAMILY,

RAHDEN SALEH,

RAHDEN SALEH' S PALACE, .

WATERING THE STREETS, JAVA,

AKLING,

A TANDU, . . .

THE SAPI, OR OX OF MADURA,

BAMBOO,

FRUIT-MARKET, JAVA,

A CHINESE TOMB, .

BETEL-NUT PALM,

MALAY BELLES,

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE JAVANESE,

A DYAK OR HEAD-HUNTER OF BORNEO,

LANDING THROUGH THE SUKF, CERAM,

THE LONTAE PALM, ....

MALAY OPIUM-SMOKER,

A TROPICAL JUNGLE,

THE GOMUTI PALM, ....

APPROACH TO THE CLOVE, NEAR PADANG,

WOMAN OF THE PADANG PLATEAU,

RIDING ALONG THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE,

SUSPENSION BRIDGE OF RATTAN,

NATIVE OF THE ISLAND OF NIAS,

NATIVE OF BILUCHISTAN, .

SCENE IN THE INTERIOR OF SUMATRA,

NATIVES OF THE PAGI ISLANDS, .

RIVER SCENE, SUMATRA, .

WOMEN OF PALEMBANG,

PALEMBANG AT HIGH WATER, .

SINGAPORE, ....

KILLING THE PYTHON, .

Frontispiece.

. PAGE 26

" 27 " 30 " 34

419 428

445 448 462

580 530 636 541

TRAVELS

EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO

Chapter I. The Steait Of Sunda And Batavia

On the 19 til of April, 1865, I was fifty miles east of Cliristnias Island, floating on tlie good stip " Memnon " toward the Strait of Smida.

I was going to Batavia, to sail thence to the Spice Islands, which lie east of Celebes, for the purpose of collecting the beautiful shells of those seas.

I had chosen that in preference to any other part of the world, because the first collection of shells from the East that was ever described and figured with sufficient accuracy to be of any scientific value was made by Rumphius, a doctor who lived many years at Amboina, the capital of those islands. His great work, the " Rariteit Kamer," or Chamber of Curiosities, was published in 1705, more than sixty years before the twelfth edition of the " Systema Naturae " was issued by Linnaeus, " the Father of Natural History," who referred to the figures in that work to illustrate a part of Ms own writings. When Holland became a province of France, in 1811, and it was desig^ned to make Paris the centre of science and literatnre in Europe, it is said that this collection was taken from Leyden to that city, and afterward returned, and that during these two transfers a large proportion of the specimens disappeared ; and that, finally, what was left of this valuable collection was scattered through the great museum at Ley den. It was partly to restore Eumphius's specimens, and partly to bring into our own country such a standard collection, that I was going to search myself for the shells figured in the " Rariteit Kamer," on the very points and headlands, and in the very bays, where Rum]3hius's specimens were found.

As we neared the coast of Java, cocoa-nuts and fragments of sea- washed palms, drifting by, indicated our approach to a land very different at least from the temperate shores we had left behin.d; and we could in some degree experience Columbus's pleasure, when he first saw the new branch and its vermilion berries. Strange, indeed, must be this land to which we are coming, for here we see snakes swimming on the water, and occasionally fi'agments of rock drifting over the sea. New birds also appear, now sailing singly through the sky, and now hovering in flocks over certain places, hoping to satisfy their hungry maws on the small fishes that follow the fioating driftwood. Here it must be that the old Dutch sailors fabled could be seen the tree — ^then unknown — ^that bore that strange fruit, the double cocoa-nut. They always represented it as rising up from a great depth

BALMY BREEZES OF THE EASTERN ISLES, 15

and spreading out its uppermost leaves on the surface of tlie sea. It was guarded by a "bird, that was not bird but half beast ; and when a ship came near, she was always drawn irresistibly toward this spot, and not one of her ill-fated crew ever escaped the beak and formidable talons of this insatiable harpy.

But such wonders unfortunately fade away before the light of advancing knowledge ; and the prince of Ceylon, who is said to have given a whole vessel laden with spice for a single specimen, could have satisfied his heart's fullest desire if he had only kno^vn it was not rare on the Seychelles, north of Mauritius.

The trades soon became light and bafiling. Heavy rain- squalls, with thunder and lightning, were frequent ; and three days after, as one of these cleared away, the high mountain near Java Head appeared full a quarter of a degree above the horizon, its black shoulders rising out of a beautiful mantle of the ermine- white, fleecy clouds, called cumuli.

Although we were thirty-five miles from the shore, yet large numbers of dragon-flies came round the shij), and I quickly im|)rovised a net and captured a goodly number of them.

After sunset, there was a light air off-shore, which carried us to within a few miles of the land, and at midnight the captain called me on deck to enjoy " the balmy breezes of the Eastern isles ; " and certainly to myself, as well as to the others, the air seemed to have the rich fragrance of new-mown clover, but far more spicy. At that hour it was quite clear, but at sunrise a thick haze rose up from the ocean, and this plienomenon was repeated eacL. morning that we were trying to enter the Strait of Sunda. As we had arrived during the changing of the monsoons, calms were so continuous that for six days we tried in vain to gain fifty miles. When a breeze would take us up near the mouth of the channel, it would then die away and let a strong current sweep ns away to the east, and one time we were carried most un]3leasantly near the high, threatening crags at Palembang Point, near Java Head. Those who have passed Sunda at this time of the year, or Ombay Strait in the beginning of the opposite monsoon, mil readily recall the many weary hours they have passed waiting for a favorable breeze to take them only a few miles farther on their long voyage.

During those six days, at noon the sun poured down his hottest rays, the thermometer ranging from 88° to 90° Fahr. in the shade, and not the slightest air moving to afford a momentary relief. Although constantly for a year I was almost under the equator, these six days were the most tedious and oppressive I ever experienced.

The mountain back of Java Head seemed to be King Eolus's favorite seat. Clouds would come from every quarter of the heavens and gather round its summit, while the sun was reaching the zenith ; but soon after he began to pass down the western sky, lightnings would be seen darting their forked tongues around the mountain-crest : and then, as if the winds had broken from the grasp of their king, thick cloud-masses would suddenly roll down the mountain-sides, lightnings dart hither and thither, and again and

A VEIL OF RAIN. 17

again tlie thunders would crasli aiid roar enougL. to shake the very firmament.

We are not alone. Six or eight vessels are also detained here — for this Strait of Sunda is the great gate through which pass out most of the valuable teas and costly silks of China and Japan, and these ships are carrying cotton goods to those lands to exchange in part for such luxuries. On the evening of the sixth day a more favorable breeze took us slowly up the channel past a group ^^ large rocks, where the unceasing swell of the ocean was breaking, and making them sound in the quiet night like the howling and snarling of some fierce monster set to guard the way and unable to prevent his expected prey from escaping.

With the morning came a fine breeze, and, as we sailed up the strait, several small showers passed over the mountains, parallel to the shore, on the Java side ; and once a long cloud rested its ends on two mountains, and unfolded from its dark mass a thin veil of sparkling rain, through which we could see quite distinctly all the outlines gind the bright-green foliage of the valley behind it. . The highly-cultivated lands near the water, and on the lower declivities of the mountains, whose tops were one dense mass of perennial green, made the whole view most enchanting to me ; but our captain (who was a Cape Cod man) declared that the sand-hills on the outer side of Cape Cod were vastly more charming to him. On the shallows, near the shore, the clear sea- water took a beautifal tint of emerald green in the bright sunlight, and here we passed long lines of cuttle-fisli "bones and parts of mysterious fruits wliere tlie tides met, that were setting in different directions.

Nearly all tlie islands in tlie strait are steep, volcanic cones, witli tlieir l)ases beneath tlie sea ; tlie brigM-green foliage on tlieir sides forming an agreeable contrast witli tlie blue ocean at tlieir feet wlien tlie waves roll away before a strong breeze ; but when it is calm, and the water reflects the light, as from a polished mirror, they appear like gigantic emeralds set in a sea of silver.

As we approached Angir, where ships bound to and from China frequently stop for fresh provisions, we saw, to our great alarm, a steamship ! Was it the pirate Shenandoah, and was our ship to be taken and burnt there, almost at the end of our long voyage ? I must confess that was what we all feared till we came near enough to see the " Stars and Stripes " of the loyal flag of our native land.

Here many Malays paddled off in their canoes to sell us fruit. We watch the approach of the first boat with a peculiar, indescribable interest. It contains two young men, who row. They are dressed in trousers and jackets of calico, with cotton handkerchiefs tied round their heads. This is the usual dress throughout the archijDelago, except that, instead of the trousers or over them, is worn the sarong^ which is a piece of cotton cloth, two yards long by a yard wide, with the two shorter sides sewn together, so as to make a bag open at the top and bottom. The men draw this on over the body, and gather it on the right hip ; the loose part is then twisted, and

ENTEEING THE JAVA SEA. 19

tucked under tlie part passing around tlie iDody, so as to form a rude knot. Tkere is a man in tke stern, sitting witli kis feet under kim, steering tke canoe, and at tke same time kelping it onward witk kis paddle. He is dressed in a close-fitting red skirt ? No ! He is not encumbered witk any clotking except wkat Nature kas provided for kim, save a narrow clotk about kis loins, tke usual working-costume of tke coolies, or poorer classes. He brings several kinds of bananas, green cocoa-nuts, and tke " pompelmus," wkick is a gigantic orange, from six to eigkt inckes in diameter. He seems perfectly kapjDy, and talks witk tke most surprising rapidity. From an occasional word tkat may be kalf Englisk, we suppose, like traders in tke Western world, ke is speaking in no moderate manner of tke value of wkat ke kas to sell.

Mount Karang, back of Angii', now comes into view, raising its crest of green foliage to a keigkt of five tkousand feet ; a ligkt breeze takes us round Cape St. Nickolas, tke nortkwest extremity of Java. It is a kigk land, witk skarp ridges coming down to tke water, tkus forming a series of little rocky keadlands, separated by small sandy bays. Tkese, as we sail along, come up, and open to our view witk a most ckarming panoramic effect. Near tke skore a few Malays are seen on tkeir praus^ or large boats, wkile otkers appear in groups on tke beackes, around tkeir canoes, and only now and tken do we catck glimpses of tkeir rude kouses under tke featkery leaves of tke cocoa-nut palm.

We are in tke Java Sea. It seems very strange, after being j)itc]ied and tossed about constantly for more tlian a liundred days, tlius to feel our sMp glide along so steadily; and after scanning the horizon by tlie hour, day after day, hoping to be able to discern one vessel, and so feel that we had at least one comj)anion on " the wide waste of waters," now to see land on every side, and small boats scattered in all directions over the quiet sea. That night we anchored near Babi Island, on a bottom of very soft, sticky clay, largely composed of fragments of shells and coral. A boat came off from the shore, and, as the coxswain could speak a little English, I took my first lesson in Malay, the common language, or lingua franca^ of the whole archipelago. As it was necessary, at least, that I should be able to talk with these natives if I would live among them, and purchase shells of them, it was my first and most imperative task, on reaching the East, to acquire this language. The Malay sj)oken at Batavia, and at all the Dutch ports and posts in the islands to the east, differs very much from the high or pure Malay spoken in the Menangkabau country, in the interior of Sumatra, north of Padang, whence the Malays originally came : after passing from island to island, they have spread over all Malaysia, that is, the great archipelago between Asia, Australia, and New Guinea, Perhaps of all languages in the world, the low or common Malay is the one most readily acquired. It contains no harsh guttm-als or other consonants that are difficult to pronounce. It is soft and musical, and somewhat resembles the Italian in its liquid sounds ; and one who has learned it can never fail

EARLY HISTORY OF JAVA. 21

to Ibe cliarmed by tlie nice "blending of vowels and consonants whenever a word is pronounced in Ms presence. The only difficult thing in this language is, that words of widely different meaning sometimes are so similar that, at first, one may be mistaken for another. Every European in all the Netherlands India speaks Malay. It is the only language used in addressing servants ; and all the European children born on these islands learn it from their Malay nurses long before they are able to speak the language of their parents. Such children generally find it difficult to make the harsh, guttural sounds of the Dutch language, and the Malays themselves are never able to speak it well ; and, for the same reason, Dutchmen seldom speak Malay as correctly as Englishmen and Frenchmen.

We are now off the ancient city of Bantam, and we naturally here review the voyages of the earliest European navigators in these seas, and the principal events in the ancient history of this rich island of J ava.

The word Java, or, more correctly, " Jawa," is the name of the people who originally lived only in the eastern part of the island, but, in more modern times, they have spread over the whole island, and given it their name. The Chinese claim to have known it in ancient times, and call it Chi-po or Cha-po, which is as near Jawa as their pronunciation of most foreign names at the present day.

It was first made known to the Western world by that great traveller, Marco Polo, in his description of the lands he saw or passed while on his voyage from CMna to the Persian Gulf, in tlie latter part of tlie tMrteenth. century. He did not see it himself, but only gathered accounts in regard to it from others. He calls it Griaua, and says it produces cloves and nutmegs, though we know now that they were all brought to Java from the Spice Islands, farther to the east. In regard to gold, he says it yielded a quantity " exceeding all calculation and belief." This was also j)robably brought from other islands, chiefly from Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes.

In 1493, one year after the discovery of America by Columbus, Bartholomew Dias, a Portuguese, discovered the southern extremity of Africa, which he called the Cape of Storms, but which his king said should be named the Cape of Good Hope, because it gave a good liope that, at last, they had discovered a way to India by sea. Accordingly, the next year, this king * sent Pedro da Covilham and Alfonso de Payva directly to the east to settle this important question. From Genoa they came to Alexandria in the guise of travelling merchants, thence to Cairo, and down the Red Sea to Aden. Here they separated — Payva to search for " Prester John," a Christian prince, said to be reigning in Abyssinia over a people of high cultivation ; and Covilham to visit the Indies, it having been arranged that they should meet again at Cairo or Memphis. Payva died before reaching the principal city of Abyssinia, but Covilham had a prosj)erous journey to India, where he made drawings of the cities and harbors, especially of Goa and Calicut (Calcutta), and marked their

* Yalentyn, " History of the Moluccas."

EARLY VOYAGES TO THE EAST. 23

positions on a map given Lim by King Jolin of Portugal. Tlience lie returned along tlie coast of Persia to Cape Guardafui, and continued soutli to Mozambique and " Zofala," where lie ascertained that tliat land joined the Cape of Good Hoj)e, and thus was the first man who li,neio that it was possible to sail from Europe to India. From Zofala he returned to Abyssinia, and sent his diary, charts, and drawings to Genoa by some Portuguese merchants who were trading at Memj)his.

On receiving this news, King Emanuel, who had succeeded King John, sent out, during the following year, 1495, four ships under Vasco di Gama, who visited Natal and Mozambique ; in 1498 he was at Calcutta, and in 1499 back at Lisbon.

In 1509 the Portuguese, under Sequiera, first came into the archipelago. During the next year Alfonso Albuquerque visited Sumatra, and in 1511 took the Malay city Malacca, and established a military j)ost from which he sent out Antonio d'Abreu to search for the Spice Islands. On his way eastward. D'Abreu touched at Agasai (Gresik) on Java.

In 1511 the Portuguese visited Bantam, and two years later Alvrin was sent from Malacca with four vessels to bring away a cargo of spices from a ship wrecked on the Java coast while on her way back from the Spice Islands.

Ludovico Barthema was the first European who described Java from personal observation. He remained on it fourteen days, but his descriptions are questionable in part, for he represents parents as selling their children, to be eaten by their purchasers.

and himself as quitting the island in haste for fear of being made a meal of.

In 1596 the Dutch, under Houtman, first arrived off Bantam, and, finding the native king at war with the Portuguese, readily furnished him with assistance against their rivals, on his offering to give them a place where they could establish themselves and commence purchasing pepper, which at that time was almost the only export.

The English, following the example of the Portuguese and the Dutch, sent out a fleet in 1602, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. These ships touched at Achin, on the western end of Sumatra, and thence sailed to Bantam.

In 1610 the Dutch built a fort at a native village called Jacatra, " the work of victory," but which they named Batavia. This was destroyed in 1619, and the first Dutch governor-general, Bolt, decided to rebuild it and remove his settlement from Bantam to that place, which was done on the 4th of March of that year. This was the foundation of the present city of Batavia. The English, who had meantime maintained an establishment at Bantam, withdrew in 1683.

In 1811, when Holland became subject to France, the French flag was hoisted at Batavia, but that same year it was captured by the English. On the 19th of August, 1816, they restored it to the Dutch, who have held it uninterruptedly down to the present time.