Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to examine the variety and beauty of tropical nature; or to the moralist and the politician
who want to solve the problem of how man may be best governed under new and varied
conditions.
The Dutch mail steamer brought me from Ternate to Sourabaya, the chief town and port
in the eastern part of Java, and after a fortnight spent in packing up and sending off my last
collections, I started on a short journey into the interior. Travelling in Java is very luxurious
but very expensive, the only way being to hire or borrow a carriage, and then pay half-a-
crown a mile for post-horses, which are changed at regular posts every six miles, and will
carry you at the rate of ten miles an hour from one end of the island to the other. Bullock
carts or coolies are required to carry all extra baggage. As this kind of travelling would not
suit my means, I determined on making only a short journey to the district at the foot of
Mount Arjuna, where I was told there were extensive forests, and where I hoped to be able
to make some good collections. The country for many miles behind Sourabaya is perfectly
flat and everywhere cultivated; being a delta or alluvial plain watered by many branching
streams. Immediately around the town the evident signs of wealth and of an industrious pop-
ulation were very pleasing; but as we went on, the constant succession of open fields skirted
by rows of bamboos, with here and there the white buildings and tall chimney of a sugar-
mill, became monotonous. The roads run in straight lines for several miles at a stretch, and
are bordered by rows of dusty tamarind-trees. At each mile there are little guard-houses,
where a policeman is stationed; and there is a wooden gong, which by means of concerted
signals may be made to convey information over the country with great rapidity. About
every six or seven miles is the post-house, where the horses are changed as quickly as were
those of the mail in the old coaching days in England.
I stopped at Modjokerto, a small town about forty miles south of Sourabaya, and the
nearest point on the high road to the district I wished to visit. I had a letter of introduction to
Mr. Ball, an Englishman long resident in Java and married to a Dutch lady, and he kindly in-
vited me to stay with him till I could fix on a place to suit me. A Dutch Assistant Resident
as well as a Regent or native Javanese prince lived here. The town was neat, and had a nice
open grassy space like a village green, on which stood a magnificent fig-tree (allied to the
Banyan of India, but more lofty), under whose shade a kind of market is continually held,
and where the inhabitants meet together to lounge and chat. The day after my arrival, Mr.
Ball drove me over to the village of Modjo-agong, where he was building a house and
premises for the tobacco trade, which is carried on here by a system of native cultivation
and advance purchase, somewhat similar to the indigo trade in British India. On our way we
stayed to look at a fragment of the ruins of the ancient city of Modjo-pahit, consisting of
