A Visit to Java - With an Account of the Founding of Singapore

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Visit to Java, by W. Basil Worsfold This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: A Visit to Java With an Account of the Founding of Singapore Author: W. Basil Worsfold Release Date: November 4, 2008 [EBook #27152] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VISIT TO JAVA *** Frontispiece. MOUNT SALAK, FROM THE HÔTEL BELLE VUE, AT BUITENZORG. See Page 134. A VISIT TO JAVA WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE FOUNDING OF SINGAPORE BY W. BASIL WORSFOLD. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, Publishers in Ordinary to her Majesty the Queen. 1893. (All rights reserved. ) PREFACE. In writing these pages I have had before me a double purpose. First, to present [iii] to the general reader an account of what seemed to me to be a singularly interesting country, and one which, while being comparatively little known, has yet certain direct claims upon the attention of Englishmen. Secondly, to provide a book which, without being a guide book, would at the same time give information practically useful to the English and Australian traveller. In sending this book to the press I have to acknowledge the courtesy of the editors of the Field and of Land and Water . To the former I am indebted for permission to make use of an unusually interesting quotation from Mr. Charles Ledger's letter to the Field on the subject of cinchona introduction, and also to include a short article of my own on "Horse-racing in Java" in Chapter XII. The latter has kindly allowed me to reproduce an account of my visit to the Buitenzorg Gardens, published in Land and Water . My general indebtedness to standard works, such as Raffles' "Java," and Mr. Wallace's "Malay Archipelago," and also to those gentlemen who, like Dr. Treub, most kindly placed their information at my disposal in Java, is, I hope, sufficiently expressed in the text. Professor Rhys Davids has very kindly read over the proof sheets of the chapter on the Hindu Temples; and I take this opportunity of acknowledging my sense of his courtesy in so doing, and my indebtedness to him for several valuable suggestions. The spelling of the Javanese names and words has been a matter of some difficulty. The principle I have finally adopted is this. While adopting the Dutch spelling for the names of places and in descriptions of the natives, and thus preserving the forms which the traveller will find in railway time tables and in the Dutch accounts of the island, I have returned to the English spelling in narrative passages, and in those chapters where the reader is brought into contact with previous English works. But I have found it impossible to avoid occasional inconsistencies. In my account of the literature of the island I have kept to the Dutch titles of Javanese works as closely as possible; but I have modified the transliteration in accordance with the usages of English oriental scholars. W. B. W. 1, P UMP COURT , TEMPLE, E.C., November, 1892. [v] [iv] [vi] A JAVANESE ACTRESS. [vii] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL ACCOUNT UP TO THE PRESENT DAY. PAGE Hindus—Mohammedans—Portuguese—English— Dutch— Legal basis of Dutch possession—British occupation—Return of Dutch—Culture system— Eruption of Mount Krakatoa 1 CHAPTER II. TRAVELLING AND HOTELS. Area—Climate—Permission to travel—Chief objects of interest—Means of locomotion—Language— Hotels 17 CHAPTER III. THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIVES. Dutch possessions in the East—Government—Army and navy—Administration—Development of natives—Raden Saleh—Native dress—Cooking and houses—Rice cultivation—Amusements— Marriage ceremony 38 CHAPTER IV. BATAVIA. Tanjong Priok—Sadoes—Batavia—Business quarter—Telephoning—Chinese Campong— Weltevreden— Waterloo Plain—Peter Elberfeld's house—Raffles and Singapore 62 CHAPTER V. THE HINDU TEMPLES. The temple remains generally—The connection between Buddha and Brahma—The BoroBoedoer—Loro-Jonggrang ANNEX : The Routes to the Temples [viii] 86 100 CHAPTER VI. BUITENZORG. Batavian heat—To Buitenzorg by rail—Buitenzorg— Kotta Batoe—Buffalo—Sawah land—Sketching a Javan cottage 103 CHAPTER VII. THE BOTANICAL GARDENS. History of the Buitenzorg gardens—Teysmann— Scheffer—Three separate branches—Horticultural garden—Mountain garden—Botanical garden— Dr. Treub—Lady Raffles' monument—Pandanus with aërial roots—Cyrtostachys renda—Stelechokarpus— Urostigma—Brazilian palms— Laboratories and offices—Number of men employed—Scientific strangers 117 CHAPTER VIII. FROM BUITENZORG TO TJI WANGI. View of Mount Salak—Railway travelling in Java— Soekaboemi—No coolies—A long walk—Making a pikulan—Forest path—Tji Wangi at last 134 CHAPTER IX. THE CULTURE SYSTEM. Financial system previous to the British occupation— Raffles' changes—Return of the Dutch—Financial policy—Van den Bosch Governor-general— Introduction of the culture system—Its application to sugar—To other industries—Financial results of the system— Its abandonment—Reasons of this— Present condition of trade in Java—Financial outlook [ix] 147 CHAPTER X. ON A COFFEE PLANTATION. The Tji Wangi bungalow—Coffee plantations— Cinchona—Native labour—A wayang—Countrybred ponies—Bob and the ducks—Loneliness of a planter's life 169 CHAPTER XI. ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. Mr. Wallace and the Malay Archipelago—Animals— Birds—General characteristics of plants— European flora in mountains—Darwin's explanation—Fruits— History of cinchona introduction—Mr. Ledger's story—Indiarubber 186 CHAPTER XII. SOCIAL LIFE. Dutch society in the East—Batavian etiquette— English residents—Clubs—Harmonie— Concordia— Lawn-tennis—Planters—Horseracing 207 CHAPTER XIII. THE HINDU JAVANESE LITERATURE. The Hindu Javanese literature concerned with the past—Javanese alphabet—Extent of Javanese works— Kavi dialect—Krama and Ngoko—The Mahabharata and the Ramayana in Kavi—Native Kavi works—The Arjuna Vivaya—The Bharata Yuddha—Episode of Salya and Satiavati—Ethical poems—The Paniti Sastra— Localization of Hindu mythology in Java [x] 223 CHAPTER XIV. WORKS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN PERIOD. Uncertainty about the history of the Hindu kingdoms given by the chronicles—Character of the babad, or chronicle—Its historical value—Brumund's treatment of the babads—Account of the babad "Mangku Nagara"— Prose works—The Niti Praja—The Surya Ngalam— Romances—The Johar Manikam—Dramatic works—The Panjis— Wayang plays—Arabic works and influence—The theatre—The wayang 241 CHAPTER XV. SINGAPORE. Batavia and Singapore—Raffles' arrival in the East— Determines to oppose the Dutch supremacy in the Archipelago—Occupation of Java—Is knighted— Returns from England—Foundation of Singapore—Uncertainty whether the settlement would be maintained—His death—Description of Singapore—Epilogue 263 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MOUNT SALAK, FROM THE H ÔTEL BELLE VUE, AT B UITENZORG A JAVANESE ACTRESS MOHAMMEDAN ARMOUR A PORTUGUESE H OUSE, BATAVIA C HINESE BARBER PALACE OF A N ATIVE PRINCE WOMAN COOKING R ICE. KOMPOR A BULLOCK C ART A SAWAH PLOUGH THE KING 'S PLAIN, BATAVIA BRIDGE LEADING TO THE PAZER BAROE, BATAVIA THE WATERLOO PLAIN, BATAVIA SKETCH MAP OF JAVA SECTION AND GROUND PLAN OF THE BORO BOEDOER TEMPLE Frontispiece vi xii To face 6 37 To face " " 43 51 54 61 To face 67 " " " 70 78 89 " 94 A JAVANESE C OTTAGE N ATIVES SQUATTING A H APPY C ELESTIAL A PRODUCE MILL R OSAMALA TREES WOMEN BARKING C INCHONA A D ALANG C OFFEE BERRIES A WAYANG FIGURE THE ESPLANADE, SINGAPORE THE C AVANAGH BRIDGE, SINGAPORE " 114 116 133 To face " 156 170 176 To face 179 185 262 To face " 264 282 MOHAMMEDAN ARMOUR. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL ACCOUNT UP TO THE PRESENT DAY. Hindus—Mohammedans—Portuguese—English—Dutch— Legal basis of Dutch possession—British occupation— Return of Dutch—Culture system—Eruption of Mount Krakatoa. [1] In the centre of that region of countless islands termed not inaptly the "Summer of the World," midmost of the Sunda group of which Sumatra lies to the west, and Flores to the east, with the fury of the tropical sun tempered by a physical formation which especially exposes it to the cooling influence of the ocean, lies the island of Java. Rich in historic remains of a bygone Hindu supremacy, when the mild countenance of Buddha gazed upon obedient multitudes, in memorials of Mohammedan, Portuguese, and Dutch seafaring enterprises, it is a country singularly alluring to the student and antiquarian. Nor is its present [2]