charge, the regular troops being all sent away to the scene of war. As I
do not intend to return to the subject, I may as well mention here,
that the war lasted five years, and that it would have lasted five years
longer, had Diepo Nogoro not been taken prisoner--I fear by treachery. I
saw him landed at Batavia, in 1829, from the steamer which had brought
him from Samarang. The Governor's carriage and aides-de-camp were at the
wharf to receive him. In that carriage he was driven to gaol, whence he
was banished no one knows whither; and he has never since been heard of.
Such is the usual fate of Dutch prisoners of state! Diepo Nogoro
deserved a better fate. He was a gallant soldier, and fought bravely.
Poor fellow! how his countenance fell--as well it might--when he saw
where the carriage drew up! He stopped short on putting his foot on the
pavement, evidently unwilling to enter the gloomy-looking pile; cast an
eager glance around; and, seeing there was no chance of escape, walked
in. Several gentlemen followed, before the authorities had the door
closed, and saw the fallen chief, with his _two wives_, consigned to two
miserable-looking rooms. Java has been quite tranquil ever since.

The society of Batavia, at the time I am referring to, was both choice
and gay; and the influence of my good friends threw me at once into the
midst of it. The Dutch and English inhabitants did not then (nor do they
now) mix together so much as would, in my opinion, have been agreeable
and mutually advantageous. A certain jealousy kept the two parties too
much apart. Nevertheless, I have been present at many delightful parties
in Dutch families, the pleasures of which were not a little heightened
by the presence of some ten or a dozen charming Dutch girls. Charming
and beautiful they certainly are while young; but, ere they reach
thirty, a marvellous change comes over their appearance: the
fair-haired, blue-eyed, laughing romp of eighteen has, in that short
period of ten or twelve years, become transformed into a stout and
rather elderly-looking matron, as unlike an English woman of the same
age as one can well fancy. When I look back on those gay and pleasant
parties, and think how few of the individuals who composed them are now
alive, the reflection makes me sad. What a different class its English
inhabitants of the present day are from those of 1823-1826! I may be
prejudiced in favour of the former state of society; but, in giving the
p