how I was
to get across the river, not knowing there was a ford in the
neighbourhood, my poney, which had come the road in the morning to meet
me, settled the question, by suddenly darting off, through a gap in the
hedge at the road-side, down the river bank, at the top of his speed,
and, before I could collect my scattered senses, was across the stream
and up the opposite bank, to my no small surprise and pleasure. He was a
noble little animal, of a mouse colour; and was originally purchased
from a native dealer for twenty-eight guilders (about 2l. 6s. 8d.).

At Djockdjocarta are to be seen many ancient residences of the Javanese
Chiefs; amongst others, the celebrated _Cratan_ or palace, the taking of
which, in 1812, cost General Gillespie a hard struggle. It is surrounded
with a high wall, which encloses an area of exactly one square mile:
outside the wall runs a deep, broad ditch. The place could offer but a
feeble resistance against artillery, in which arm Gillespie was
deficient when he attacked and took it. Another curious building is that
in which the Sultans, in days of yore, used to keep their ladies: it is
composed entirely of long narrow passages, with numerous small rooms on
each side; each of which, in the days of their master's glory, was the
residence, according to tradition, of a beautiful favourite. To prevent
the escape of the ladies, or the intrusion of any gallants, the whole
pile is surrounded with a canal, which used to be filled with
alligators: the only entrance was by a subterranean passage beneath this
canal, and which ran under it for its whole length. When I visited the
place in 1824, the canal, passage, &c. were all in good order, though
the latter was getting damp from neglect;--a proof that the masons and
plasterers of Java, in old times, must have been very superior workmen.

Djockdjocarta was the birth-place of Diepo Nogoro, and the scene of his
earliest warlike movements against the Dutch. So unexpected and sudden
was his first attack, that he caught the garrison napping, and had them
within his grasp before they knew he was in the field.

In the _Cratan_, the Sultan had, in 1824, three noble elephants, each
kept under a separate shed. I went, with three other visitors, to see
those animals; and we passed sometime amusing ourselves by giving them
fruit and other dainties. We did not remark, however, that one of our
friends had been for sometime teasing one of them, by offering him a