turn to the
drawing-rooms, and music, conversation, reading and company fill up the
hours till midnight, when the third bath is taken immediately before
retiring. This routine is seldom varied, except by the arrival of
strangers, bent, like our party at Batavia, on sight-seeing. _We_ soon
wearied of the very voluptuousness of this stereo-typed course of
indulgence, and welcomed in preference the fatigues and annoyances of
exploring the thousand objects of interest that were beckoning us onward
to jungle, mountain or sea-coast. Our friends, who were old residents,
shook their heads knowingly, and prophesied sunstroke or jungle fever;
but we went sight-seeing continually, filled our specimen baskets, and
escaped both fever and sunstroke. The climate of Batavia is, however,
extremely insalubrious for Europeans: a deadly miasma everywhere
overshadows its luxuriant groves and lurks among the petals of its
brightest flowers, rendering absolutely necessary regular habits of
life. Before the occupation of the New City, when merchants and officers
all resided on the seaboard, in the immediate vicinity of their
business-places, the mortality was fearful, till utter depopulation
seemed to threaten the colony. The inland location of the New City is
more salubrious, and the extensive grounds that surround each dwelling
give abundant freedom for ventilation, while the few hours passed by
business or professional gentlemen at their offices--and those the best
hours of the day, from breakfast to luncheon--are not deemed specially
detrimental to health, even for foreigners. The Malays, Chinese and East
Indians generally reside anywhere with impunity.

[Illustration: LIEUTENANT OF THE SULTAN'S GUARD.]

As our ship would be several weeks in port, discharging and taking in
cargo, we availed ourselves of so fortunate an opportunity to explore
some of the native settlements in the interior of the island. A Dutch
officer, long resident in Java, kindly offered his escort, and obtained
for us such passes and other facilities as were needed. Our first
stopping place was at Bandong, the capital of one of the finest
provinces of Java. It is under the nominal control of a native prince,
who bears the title of "regent," holding his office under the government
of Holland, from which he receives, an annuity of about forty thousand
dollars. Among the natives he maintains the state of a grand Oriental
monarch, and his subjects prostrate themselves in p