to
buy--and they sold the most attractive looking fruits and vegetables,
together with a variety of flowers. The population is large, and for
some distance round the town stretched rows and rows of native houses
built close together, backs and fronts facing each other in every angle
and position, showing that the people must surely live together in
unity, _en famille_ or rather _en masse_, in marked contrast to the
Malay villages, where, as a rule, each house stands in an enclosure of
its own grounds. But there they have unlimited space, here apparently
they have unlimited people.

Himself living an isolated life amongst a native race, it was only
natural that X. should be more inclined than the ordinary traveller to
notice the people of the country and their surroundings. He had heard so
many stories of their oppression by the Dutch and the uncomfortable
conditions under which they lived, that the actual appearance of the
natives came as a surprise, which only increased the more he saw and the
further he travelled in Java.

As to higher life in Java, to any one who has been there or knows
anything of the country, its social conditions are well known. But
however much may have been previously heard of them, it cannot but give
the ordinary Englishman a shock, when he is for the first time
confronted with them in their reality. Intermarriage with the people of
the country is not only condoned, but almost encouraged, and it is no
uncommon thing to meet the children of these marriages in the highest
society. Cases occur where people, holding great positions, legitimize
their children, and after years of unsolemnized intercourse lead their
mother to the altar. The mothers of many children being educated in
Holland, probably in the future to enter the service of the country, are
simply native women still living in their villages. The accident of
birth would seldom be considered a bar when ascending official heights,
nor is a mixed parentage any obstacle to such distinction.

Many instances of this were observed by X. during his visit, and, though
the state of affairs appeared to him rather strange, he was obliged to
own that from a Dutch point of view there existed many and weighty
arguments in its favour, the _pros_ and _cons_ of such a question are
certainly beyond the scope of a book which only purports to note for the
benefit of intending travellers such things as merit observation.

So far as I can gather, there wer