six years) he was colonial minister in Holland.
His daughter's husband was killed by a native running _a'muck_ (this
is a Javanese expression) some years ago. She seems a gentle person,
and has a daughter eight years old. We all speak French, which is an
improvement on my Manila experiences.

They started at six on the morning of the 10th, in three carriages-and-six,
and slept the first night at a place called Chipana, where they 'were to
have ascended' a mountain 9,000 feet high, but were prevented by the
'rain.' The next day's journey brought them to the high table-land of
Bantong.

[Sidenote: Bantong.]
[Sidenote: Javanese _soiree_.]

_February 11th.--Bantong_.--About 120 miles from Batavia, on a plain
about 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. The weather comparatively
cool, though this is the hot season. I have just (10 P.M.) returned
from a Javanese _soiree_. The Regent (a sort of native lord-
lieutenant) invited me to his house to see some dancing. This Regent
is very rich, about L12,000 a year, which he receives from a tithe
paid to him by all producers in his regency. The dancing was performed
by four girls wearing strange helmet-shaped head-dresses, and garments
of a close-fitting stiff character reaching to the ground. They swayed
their bodies to and fro in a melancholy way to a very monotonous
plaintive sort of music, but their chief art consisted in the
wonderful success with which they twisted their arms and fingers. In a
second dance they carried bows and arrows, and went through a kind of
pantomimic fight. After this was over, as I had expressed a wish to
see more of his house, I was taken across a court to another ground-
floor room, and was startled by finding myself suddenly introduced to
_Madame la Regente_, an odd little woman, with a wizened face, and
mouth and teeth blackened by betel nut. I was rather put into a
difficulty in finding conversation for her, for I did not know whether
she would like being complimented on the _ballet_ we had just seen. I
then went to look at the musicians and their instruments, the latter
consisting chiefly of coffee canes struck by a sort of gong-sticks.
The sound at a distance was bell-like and not unpleasing. I was
informed that the Regent had paid L500 for his set of instruments.
After this I returned to my inn in my carriage. How I got to this