fing-match with one of the native vendors--Chinese, Malay, or
Javanese--who are ever ready to persuade you to buy the commonest
trifles at the most fancy prices.

The native servants are very quick and willing to do the visitor's
commands; indeed, disasters generally arise from an excess of diligence
on their part. For instance, in a damp climate it is an excellent
general rule for your "boy" to keep your clothes aired by laying them in
the sun two or three times a week; but it is a trifle embarrassing to a
modest and impecunious person to see the whole of his wardrobe exhibited
_urbi et orbi_ in front of his room on the verandah. The pyjamas,
suspended in airy fashion, floating in the wind; the coats and trousers
hung up on strips of wood so that their full extent is exposed to the
sun and air; the pair of pumps, on which only last night he had
congratulated himself as looking quite smart by gaslight, now standing
confessed in all the unseemliness of bulging sides and torn lining;
even the domestic slippers too. Yet such was the scene which met my gaze
as I returned from breakfast at nine o'clock in the courtyard of the
Hotel Belle Vue at Buitenzorg. _Trop de zele_, I thought.

[Illustration: CHINESE BARBER.]

CHAPTER III.

THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIVES.

Dutch possessions in the East--Government--Army and
navy--Administration--Development of natives--Raden
Saleh--Native dress--Cooking and houses--Rice
cultivation--Amusements--Marriage ceremony.

The Netherlands India, as the Dutch possessions in the East are
officially styled, includes the whole of the Malay Archipelago, with the
exception of the Philippine Islands belonging to Spain, part of Borneo
in the possession of the North Borneo Company, and the eastern half of
New Guinea, which is shared by Germany and England. The total area is
officially stated to be 719,674 square miles, and the total population
29,765,031. It is administered by a Governor-General, a Government
secretary, and a Council of State consisting of five members, who are
appointed from among the chief Dutch residents in the island of Java. As
all matters of general policy are controlled by the Secretary for the
Colonies, who is a member of the Home Government, the functions of the
Colonial Government are mainly executive and consultative. So close is
the connection that the colonial estimates for revenue and expenditure
have to receive the approval of the Home Gov