ent is kept up; so that the traveller has only to apply to the
post-master of Batavia, pointing out the road he wishes to travel, and
to pay his money according to the number of miles: he obtains, with a
passport, an order for four horses all along his intended line of route,
and may perform the journey at his leisure, the horses, coachmen, &c.
being at his command night or day, till he accomplishes the distance
agreed for. Thus, a party going overland from Batavia to Samarang, a
distance of three hundred miles, may either perform the journey in three
days, or extend it to three weeks, should they wish to look about them,
and to halt a day or two at various places as they go along. In no part
of British India is there any thing approaching to such admirable and
cheap facilities for travelling. And what an inestimable blessing they
are to the Batavian invalid, who can thus, in a few hours, be
transported, with perfect ease and comfort, into the cool and delightful
mountainous regions of Java, where he may choose his climate, by fixing
himself at a height varying from one thousand to seven thousand feet
above the level of the sea! Java, from east to west and from north to
south, is a favourite region with me, and, I believe, with every
Englishman who ever visited it. Gin and brandy have killed five-sixths
of all the Europeans who have died in Batavia within the last twenty
years; but with pleasure I can add, that this destructive habit has
almost entirely disappeared: hence the diminished number of deaths, and
the more robust and ruddy appearance of the European inhabitants. The
surrounding country is both salubrious and beautiful, rising gradually
as you proceed inland, till you reach Buytenzorg, forty miles S.S.E. of
Batavia, where the Governor-General of Netherlands India generally
resides, in a splendid palace, surrounded with extensive and magnificent
gardens. The climate is cool and pleasant, more particularly in the
mornings and evenings, and the ground is kept moist by daily showers;
for it is a singular fact, that scarcely a day in the year passes
without a shower in this beautiful neighbourhood.

Buytenzorg is a favourite resort of the merchants of Batavia, who take
advantage of the facilities for travelling to visit it on the Saturday
afternoon, remaining the whole of Sunday, and returning to town, and to
the renewal of their labours, on the following morning. The scenery is
magnificent; and the view (well known