e not tramcars now? Even the
stately streets of Stamboul are not free from them. The street cab of
Batavia is a "dos-a-dos" literally so called, as the passenger sits
with his back to the driver's, thus forming a mutual support.

Batavia is intersected by canals, the largest or main canal running
alongside the road leading from the lower town to Weltereoden. As we
drove along we saw hundreds of natives taking their morning dip in the
dirty stream; though, as a matter of fact, they have no fixed time for
their ablutions, but bathe at all hours of the day and night.

We reached the "Nederlanden" after half an hour's drive. As all
European houses in Java are built on the same principle, a description
of our hotel may serve for all. The Nederlanden was built entirely on
the ground floor, and having long wings which projected back for some
60 or 70 yards. In these wings are the bed-rooms of guests, while the
centre building contains the drawing-room, dining-room, and sleeping
apartments of the host and hostess. Under the verandah of the front
portico stands a large round marble table, surrounded by about a dozen
rocking-chairs. Here the men of the house congregate before dinner and
breakfast for "Peyt," a villainous compound which is drunk with gin,
and is supposed to stimulate the appetite.

The food and cooking in Java may be said to be the worst, as are its
hotels the dearest, in the world; and it seems surprising that the
mode of living adopted by the Dutch in this trying climate does not
injure their constitutions more than it does. The following may be
taken as a specimen of the manner in which they live:--

Breakfast, from 6 till 9, consisting of sardines, Bologna sausages,
eggs, and cheese(!). 12.30: _Dejeunner a la fourchette_, a truly
disgusting meal, its Dutch name being _Ryst tafel_, literally "Rice
meal." Rice is here the chief ingredient, accompanied by soup, fried
fish, pork, pickled eggs, sardines, and various kinds of sambals--also
little seasoned messes, handed round with the boiled rice, which is
eaten at the same time and off the same plate as all these condiments;
a tough, underdone beefsteak and fried potatoes follow. Dinner is
precisely the same, with the addition of sweets and dessert. And this
from day to day invariably forms the Dutchman's _menu_ in Java.

Smoking is carried on throughout dinner and breakfast, which I was not
sorry for, as it counteracted in some degree the smell arising from
t