planters,
as a class, are much more identified with the native princes than with
the Dutch officials. In a subsequent chapter I shall have occasion to
speak of the development of horse-racing in Java, and of the support
which is given to the movement by the native princes. At Tji Wangi I was
shown a recent importation from Sydney--Lonely, who was destined to
lower the colours of the Regent of Tjandjoer recently carried to victory
by Thistle, also an Australian horse. The stables (like everything else
in Java) were built of bamboo. They were kept in first-rate order. The
stalls were occupied chiefly by country-bred ponies, the progeny of the
native races of the neighbouring islands of Sandalwood and Timor.
H---- said modestly that his stud was a very small one, but that if I
would visit a Dutch neighbour I should see a stud of fifteen racers,
beside brood mares. Race meetings and the various social gatherings
connected with them are among the most important resources of the
planter's life. H----'s nearest European neighbours were seven miles
away, and he said that he could seldom entertain visitors at Tji Wangi,
because of the scarcity of game in the neighbourhood. Indeed, the
loneliness of the life is its great objection. The case of the Dutch
planters is rather different. They are often married, and with their
managers, form quite a little society of their own. But an Englishman
rarely has the courage to bring a wife so far from home. In most cases
it is the near prospect of returning with a fortune which alone makes so
isolated an existence bearable.

Under these circumstances, it was not strange that H---- should keep a
number of canine pets. Among them Bob, an English bulldog, was his
favourite. He was as good-natured as he was ugly, seldom misbehaving,
even when tempted beyond doggish endurance by the proximity of dark
skins and waving drapery. On one occasion, however, he did give way to
anger; but it must be admitted that he had provocation. H---- had some
black ducks which he had carefully reared to ornament the little lake in
the garden. One afternoon, when Master Bob was taking his siesta in the
neighbourhood of the kitchen, with his small white teeth protruding,
after the manner of bulldogs, from his black lips, and gleaming in the
light, an unfortunate duck came by. Seeing the white oblong-masses in
the region of Bob's mouth, she very naturally concluded that they were
grains of rice left by the careless qua