Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
XI
Lombock: Manners and Customs of the People
Having made a very fine and interesting collection of the birds of Labuan Tring, I took leave
of my kind host, Inchi Daud, and returned to Ampanam to await an opportunity to reach Ma-
cassar. As no vessel had arrived bound for that port, I determined to make an excursion into
the interior of the island, accompanied by Mr. Ross, an Englishman born in the Keeling Is-
lands, and now employed by the Dutch Government to settle the affairs of a missionary who
had unfortunately become bankrupt here. Mr. Carter kindly lent me a horse, and Mr. Ross
took his native groom.
Our route for some distance lay along a perfectly level country, bearing ample crops of
rice. The road was straight and generally bordered with lofty trees forming a fine avenue. It
was at first sandy, afterwards grassy, with occasional streams and mud-holes. At a distance of
about four miles we reached Mataram, the capital of the island and the residence of the Ra-
jah. It is a large village with wide streets bordered by a magnificent avenue of trees, and low
houses concealed behind mud walls. Within this royal city no native of the lower orders is al-
lowed to ride, and our attendant, a Javanese, was obliged to dismount and lead his horse
while we rode slowly through. The abodes of the Rajah and of the High Priest are distin-
guished by pillars of red brick constructed with much taste; but the palace itself seemed to
differ but little from the ordinary houses of the country. Beyond Mataram and close to it is
Karangassam, the ancient residence of the native or Sassak Rajahs before the conquest of the
island by the Balinese.
Soon after passing Mataram the country began gradually to rise in gentle undulations,
swelling occasionally into low hills towards the two mountainous tracts in the northern and
southern parts of the island. It was now that I first obtained an adequate idea of one of the
most wonderful systems of cultivation in the world, equalling all that is related of Chinese in-
dustry, and as far as I know surpassing in the labour that has been bestowed upon it any tract
of equal extent in the most civilized countries of Europe. I rode through this strange garden
utterly amazed, and hardly able to realize the fact, that in this remote and little known island,
