in the south. It is
also divided by the stream called the Kali Bezar, or Great River,
and intersected by numerous canals. The pavements are of red brick,
and the roads covered with a reddish dust; indeed, the prevailing
tone of the whole place is a warm red-brown, varied by salmon-pink
and green masonry, and generously interspersed with bright yellow,
deep crimson, and olive-green foliage, though not unfrequently a
spreading waringin tree or a group of feathery palms overtops the
general mass. Additional colour is given by the natives, who are
clothed in light cottons and silken stuffs of delicate tones and
graceful shapes, carried with an easy carelessness and unfailing
novelty of combination. Sometimes they are gathered into dark brown
masses round the base of some one of the many bridges which span
the river or canals, prepared for the luxury of the tropics--an
afternoon bathe.

[Illustration: BRIDGE LEADING TO THE PAZER BAROE, BATAVIA. _Page_
70.]

All three quarters are possessed of a separate beauty. The
elaborately carved pediments and ponderous doors, the heavy
balconies and eaves of the houses, give an old-world quaintness
to the first, which is enhanced by the crowd of many-shaped and
variously coloured boats that line the quays that front the offices on
either side of the Great River. Nothing could be more delightful than
the setting of the red-tiled roofs, with their dragon-decorated ridges
and parapets, on the wooden trellis fronts and canvas blinds of the
Chinese houses. Weltevreden, too, is not without attractions. The broad
porticoes of dazzling white, with their Ionic columns and marble floors,
are often set in a fair surrounding of green trees. The compounds and
gardens are always verdant, and sometimes radiant with bright-leaved
shrubs and flowers. Especially the broad green-covered squares and the
wide roads arched with noble trees speak of coolness and repose in a hot
and weary land. On the outskirts of the town, along the country roads,
where the cocoa palm and banana plantations begin, are the bamboo
cottages of the Sundanese natives.

But it is after nightfall that this place becomes a veritable
fairyland. The open porticoes of the Dutch houses are seen to be
thronged with gaily dressed people, the ladies often still wearing
the sarong, and looking like AEneas' mother--

"Proved to be a goddess by her stately tread,"

and in harmony with the pillars and pediments about them.
Everywher