are some
interesting monuments outside. According to a wooden tablet within,
it was built between the years 1693 and 1695 by Pieter Van Hoorn.
It contains some handsome silver candelabra and a richly gilt
pulpit, and in the vestry there are some handsome old chairs.

The native quarter is remarkable for the picturesque medley of its
people and their houses. There are also in the Chinese Campong many
fine private houses, which are furnished with courtyards, and
elaborately finished. In the decorations of the roof the favourite
form of the Chinese dragon is constantly repeated, and
extraordinary effects are produced by a sort of mosaic work, with
which the spaces over the doorways and windows are filled, and
which has a shiny surface almost like majolica ware.

Weltevreden has many handsome buildings, and some which are
interesting. Most of them are grouped round the two great squares
or parks, the King's Plain and the Waterloo Plain. The former is
lined by four magnificent avenues of tamarind trees (_Poinciana
regia_), which form a graceful arch of small-leaved foliage, broken
here and there by a still wider-spreading waringin tree. On the
west side stands the museum, which contains a very perfect
collection of the antiquities and industries of the island. There
is also a library, and new buildings are in course of erection. It
is governed by a directory, which consists in full of eleven
members, who have power to fill up any vacancies which may occur.
There is a president, a vice-president, a secretary, and a
librarian. This latter gentleman is generally to be found at the
museum, and a little conversation with him, and a few hours spent
in the ethnological and antiquarian sections, form the very best
commencement of a tour through the island. Directly opposite the
museum is the Weltevreden station and the great black dome of the
Dutch church. This latter is noticeable as being the place where
the few people who do go to church in Batavia attend, and where
marriages are solemnized after the preliminary ceremony at the
registrar's.

[Illustration: THE WATERLOO PLAIN, BATAVIA. _Page_ 78.]

The Waterloo Plain is not nearly so large as the King's Plain. On
two sides it is lined by officers' bungalows; and the east side is
occupied by a large pile of Government offices, called the Palace,
and by the military club, the _Concordia_. In front of these
buildings there are some prettily laid out gardens, in the centre
of w