atavia may well be characterised as a
tropical Holland.

The governor-general usually resides at his country-seat, called
Weltevreeden, a superb mansion, about an hour and a quarter's walk from
the city. He there resides in great state, and never goes about without
being attended by a body-guard, dressed in coats of scarlet cloth richly
laced with gold.

The ordinary habitations of the Europeans are of brick, run up in a
light airy manner, and stuccoed on the outside. They have sash-windows.
The interiors are all on the same plan. The fronts are in general
narrow, and the houses extend back a long way from the street. Fronting
the entrance, a narrow passage, with a parlour on one side, leads to a
large long room, lighted from an inner court, into which it opens. This
apartment is called the "gallery," and here the family live and dine.
The floors are of large, square, dark-red stones. No hangings are to be
seen, but the walls are neatly stuccoed and whitened. The furniture
consists of some arm-chairs and two or three sofas. On the walls are
numerous looking-glasses, and chandeliers or lamps are hung in a row
along the ceiling of the gallery, and are lighted up in the evening.
The stairs leading to the upper rooms are generally at the end of the
gallery. The upper parts of the houses are divided much as below. They
are generally but scantily provided with furniture; indeed, from the
heat of the climate but little is required. Behind the gallery are the
lodgings for the slaves, the kitchen, and the out-houses. Instead of
being glazed, the windows are often closed with a lath-work of rattans.

Few of those in the city have gardens. In the country, on the contrary,
the greatest attention is paid to them, many of which are very
beautiful, though laid out in the formal Dutch style, as they are full
of the choicest flowers and shrubs. Newman was especially struck with
them.

"Ah, this would indeed be a beautiful country to live in, if people
could but manage not to die!" he exclaimed. Unhealthy as the country
undoubtedly is, the city itself is far worse, so that, as a place of
residence, it is almost abandoned by the more wealthy merchants, who
only visit it as a place of business--their fine mansions being turned
into stores or counting-houses.

Europeans at Batavia, of whatever nation, live much in the same way.
They rise at daybreak, and sit for some time cooling themselves in the
thinnest dress in whic