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troops were coming up, were praised for the resistance they had already made, and were urged that they must dissemble a little longer. And indeed thirty regiments were now marching upon Paris. The pretext was public tranquillity; the real object, the dissolution of the Assembly."

"I could never ascertain," writes Necker, "to what lengths their projects really went. There were secrets upon secrets; and I believe that even the King himself was far from being acquainted with all of them. What was intended was, probably, to draw the monarch on, as circumstances admitted, to measures of which they durst not at first have spoken to him. With me, above all others, a reserve was maintained, and reasonably, for my indisposition to every thing of the kind was decided.

The nobles continued increasingly arrogant and defiant. Openly they declared their intentions to crush the Assembly, and openly boasted that, with an army of fifty thousand men, they would speedily silence all murmurs of the people. Loaded cannon were already placed opposite the hall, and pointed to the doors of the Assembly. This state of menace and peril excited the Parisians to the highest pitch, and united all the citizens, high and low, to defend their rights. They knew that some heavy blow would soon fall upon them, and anxiously they watched to see from what direction it would come.

A JAUNT IN JAVA.

At

tlemanly Englishmen; but her crew were Las-
cars with a bull-headed negro, who every month
had prophetic trances, for "burra-tindal," or
boatswain's mate, while her cargo was-what do
you think?-eighty-nine convicts from India on
their way to Singapore for life! Most of them.
were murderers, and all were willing to become
such, while every tribe from the north of India had
its representatives. There were Bengalis, Hin-
dustanis, Sikhs, Thugs, Mahrattas, and a crowd
of others. They were all shackled, and at night
secured under grated hatches; but in the day-
time half the number were allowed to be on
deck at once, and such a Babel as there was go-
ing on all the time I never before heard.
first there would be the low drone of murmur-
ing voices in conversation, then as each one
would become interested in what he was saying
and forgetful of his situation, he would speak
louder and louder, and add the clash of his
shackles to the din as he violently gesticulated,
until there would arise such an uproar that the
captain or one of us, leaping to his feet in a
frenzy on the poop, would shout, "Chub-chub!"
(silence!) "Chub-chub!" would yell the ser-
geant, jumping from his recumbent position on
the booby-hatch. "Chub-chub!" would fiercely
re-echo the sentinels, checking themselves in
their talking and laughing with the convicts
around, and disdaining the fact that they were
as bad as any, they would again harshly cry,
"Chub! chub!" and rap over the head any
unlucky pariah who happened to be near. Then
there would be one delicious pause of quiet only
to be succeeded by the same routine.

LEFT Pulo Pinang in a "country ship," that is, one built and sailed in the East Indies. Among the crowd there was every tinge of It was an old teak ark, strong as any thing could color, save white, that the human skin is capabe imagined, and with a model like a tub. Her ble of, and almost every style in which the hair windlass, capstans, and all the labor-saving in- of the head could be arranged, cut, or shaved. ventions so thickly scattered about a ship, were There were bald pates, crowned pates, pates of the crudest and most ancient pattern, while with side locks, or with one, two, or three those admirable blocks and the improvements ridges, and then the luxuriant, black, shining in the rig aloft, seen in our modern and model crop of hair with which Nature, if she had been ships, were entirely wanting. She had a big allowed her own way, would have covered the poop-cabin and an equally large top-gallant fore-heads of all. Conspicuous among the rest were castle, and the greater part of her running rig- Brahmins of different rank, most of them of a ging was of coir rope, the detestation of European lighter color than the others, but all distinguishseamen. Her captain and officers were very gen-able by their mystic three-plied cords falling from

THE COUNTRY SHIP.

their necks over their chests. Most of these Brahmins were sentenced for murder, frequently of the most cruel description, and for other crimes of nearly as black a dye; but among their fellow-convicts they still asserted their superior sanctity, and it was allowed. These copper-colored Pharisees would take possession of the large tubs in which the daily allowance of water was put, and dipping into them their brazen "lotahs," they would pour, at arm's-length, the sought-for liquid into the vessels SW of the "common herd," who, revderently crouching, would be careful not to contaminate by their

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touch even the metal drinking-cups of the holy Brahmin murderers. Had any pariah touched the water, the Brahmins must stay thirsty or lose their caste; so, to preserve their privileges, and at the same time wet their whistles, they became butlers in ordinary to the "ignobile vulgus." They seemed to ignore the fact that they were supplied from the watercasks of the Christian dogs, their masters, which had been filled by polluting Mussulmans!

Among the convicts there were some mere youths, one of whom, a boy of only twelve years,

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had deliberately murdered a smaller child for the sake of its ornaments, worth about twentyfive cents; and there were two lads of fourteen and sixteen, who had murdered their mother by way of pastime. Brahmins they were too!

The prisoners were guarded by twenty sepoys of the Calcutta Militia, under the command of a sergeant, whose military appearance was somewhat injured by his generally going about in the simple dress of a mud-colored garment wound round his middle, and an equally dingy cloth tied over his whiskers, which made him look as if he had a perpetual toothache. His whiskers were the sergeant's pride; coal-black, glossy, and enormously bushy, they were cut in military style, and gave him a most ferocious appearance when he got into his regimentals; the protecting cloth was to keep every individual hair in place, and to retain the nourishing oil which was so copiously bestowed upon them. The sepoys were a miserable, lanky, insubordinate set of scarecrows, who laughed at their sergeant, and lounged about the deck playing the gallant to the five women convicts. When on guard, these fellows would stick on their regimental coat and a foraging cap, but the effect of the dignity which this gave them was rather destroyed by their bare spindleshanks and fluttering breech-cloth below. They were armed with old muskets, half of which wouldn't go off at all, and the other half kicked their possessors over, as we tested at sea, when, wishing to see if the arms on board were in order, we had every thing firable on deck popping away at a school of porpoises. After the first attempt at a volley from the sepoys it was thought best not to let them try again, if we wanted the convicts to be kept in awe of their guard. I had my American pride augmented on this occasion, by finding that my little Colt's revolver, a six-inch

AT THE WATER-TUB.

barrel, would send its ball farther than any weapon on board.

If Ulysses on his way home from Troy could have got into the Straits of Malacca, I should have no difficulty in accounting for his long voyage. Baffling winds continually changing, calms, counter-currents, and sands, make this little journey of four hundred miles generally to require as much time for a sailing vessel to accomplish it as crossing the Atlantic. Then the heat! and in our old bark, the flies! nothing, save the plagues of Egypt ever equaled them!

We worked through, in course of time, however, and were glad enough when we dropped anchor in Singapore roads. I leaped into a "sampan" and was soon flying to the shore.

Singapore has been so often and so well described that I won't attempt a repetition; but will merely here enter my protest and disgust at there being no ice there. In every other part of the East, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Batavia, China, and Manilla, the residents have subscribed and imported ice from America; but in Singapore, flourishing place as it is, they don't have it.

There was a little steamer which came up from Batavia every month at the time when the Bombay steamer with the mails from Europe touched at Singapore, and in this little craft, commanded by a very pleasant and well-bred Englishman, after a month's stay on shore, I took passage for Batavia. We arrived at night, and after a breakfast the next morning-for we didn't hurry ourselves, as our party, consisting of a young German Prince who was a supernumerary lieutenant on board a British man-o'-war in these seas, an English officer of the Bengal army and myself, were all traveling for pleasure-we got into a boat and pulled ashore, or rather part way, for as the Dutch have run their education in shape of a canal a mile out to sea, we pulled to

the canal, and then the boatmen, stepping on the wall, "tracked" us the rest of the way.

When we landed, our luggage was examined by the Customhouse officials, and we had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Mynheer Van Hogezand, the worthy Israelitish proprietor of the Hotel der Nederlanden. As we had been recommended to take up our quarters with him, we allowed him to conduct us to where a carriage was in waiting. When we saw the carriage, it required all our powers of gravity and sense of politeness to restrain our risible propensities. Imagine for driver a little dried-up Javanese who, [ over the dingy cotton handkerchief worn around the head by all Malays, had perched a hard, shining, glazed leather hat with a painted white cockade, and with the brim curling up just where it shouldn't. The rest of his livery consisted in a blue shirt with a broad white belt, while his whole appearance, and decidedly his mournful, sorry expression resembled strongly that of the monkey in a circus who has to ride the pony. The two quadrupeds in harness-we can't call them horses-were very diminutive frames of small ponies with rough hides stretched over them. However, they proved able to move, and pretty briskly too, so that our drive of three miles to the hotel was not a disagreeable one.

In the old town of Batavia no foreigners now reside, unless of the lowest class, and the buildings are all used for merchants' offices and store-houses, for shops, mechanics' work-places, and for Malay, Chinese, and half-breed dwelling-houses. The Governor's palace, the hotels,

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THE CARRIAGE.

GOING ASHORE.

and the domiciles of the Europeans are situated some three miles farther inland, though in driving to them you do not appear to leave the town, as the whole way is thickly settled. This part of Batavia forms one of the handsomest places I have ever seen, as the roads are wide, wellkept, and shaded by fine trees, while the houses, large and well-built, are inclosed in "campongs" filled with trees and shrubbery. By each street, however, runs a canal, giving a Dutch appearance to the scene rather inconsistent with the Oriental luxuriance of foliage, the dusky natives, and the lofty mountains in the background. These canals are by no means disagreeable in the season when I was there; but when the rains come, I was told that they overflow, and cause a great deal of sickness. At each crossing of the streets there is a bridge, and between the bridges there are flights of steps down the banks, where, at almost all hours of the day, may be seen groups of Javanese naiads, bathing, splashing, combing out their long black hair, and laugh

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ing and chattering like a flock of blackbirds. These damsels are by no means disconcerted at the observtation of strangers of the other sex; but, at the same time, they are quite modest, wearing a long sárong wrapped around the breasts and reaching below the knee, and they cover this wet one with a dry garment before removing it, when they have finished their bath. The Javanese are like the Malays, of good figure but with precious ugly faces, and to our eyes they don't heighten their beauty by a fashion they have of carrying an enormous quid of tobacco and betel between the lips.

But it is high time that we reach the Hotel der Nederlanden; so, passing the

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Governor's palace, we trot on a short distance another half hour doors began to open, and the and draw up at the side of it. The main build- inhabitants to appear, while our eyes opened ing of the hotel is not a very large one, of still wider to find that all were in their "sleeponly two stories, and with the customary broad clothes." Our astonishment, however, didn't veranda running the width of the house. En- stop the progress of things, and people still came tering the front door, we find a spacious hall, out, with their hair all frowzy, rubbing their eyes with a suite of rooms on each side and the large and stretching their limbs. Most of them took dining-saloon at the back. Above are several tea, all took schnapps, and all the men smoked. suites of rooms; but the majority of chambers are The ladies wandered about with their bare feet in the bungalows at the back, which stretch out thrust into straw slippers, their hair hanging on each side at right angles from the house, to an down their backs, and with no covering but a indefinite extent, forming a sort of street, which petticoat and a thin cabeiyo (a sort of josey), looks still longer by the kitchens and stables being through which, when they would pass through beyond the bungalows; and that these latter are the indiscreet rays of the sunlight, the contour not small, may be imagined from the fact that of their forms was plainly discernible. They there were forty carriages and one hundred and didn't mind it, however, but gracefully moved eighty ponies there housed. The eaves of these about, paying calls on their neighbors, coquetbungalows, projecting and supported by wooden ting with gentlemen as lightly clad as thempillars, form verandas along which the inhabit- selves, and accepting their escort to the bathingants of the chambers saunter and sit. When room doors. We sat down and looked around. we arrived all was still and quiet, and no one These verandas and buildings, which seemed was seen moving but occasionally a bare-footed deserted but a little while before, were now servant, who stole along gently and softly. We swarming with life; women talking, men smoking, and children running about. Pretty soon the ladies had disappeared, and the men gradually retired into their rooms, whence they emerged in about twenty minutes, dressed for dinner. We noticed that each of them hastened to swell a little crowd congregated on the back veranda, and thither we went too. The nucleus, we discovered, was the table on which the schnapps bottle rested-when it did rest at all.

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OUR HOTEL.

didn't know the customs of the country, and,
consequently, were by no means so silent; and
I'm afraid that we must have been mentally con-
signed to all kinds of bad places by our neigh-
bors, for after our chambers were designated and
our luggage located therein, we, in ignorance
that we were not alone in these solitudes,
laughed, whistled, shouted to each other from
our several apartments, and finally yawned till
our jaws cracked.

To a stranger it seems as if a Dutchman in Java went through the following routine, and I believe it is nearly correct. When he gets up, he takes a glass of schnapps and smokes; before his "little breakfast" at eight o'clock he has another drop of schnapps, and after it he smokes; all the forenoon he smokes, and mayhap wets his whistle as well; and before the breakfast at noon he takes his schnapps again. Again he smokes and then turns in for his siesta; that concluded, he takes tea and schnapps and smokes; and when he is dressed takes schnapps and bitters to give him an appetite for his dinner. He bolts this meal to get at his cigar, and after smoking all the time he is taking his digestive drive or lounge, he sits all the evening drinking his "grock" (grog) of Geneva, with a glance of water in it, and consumes his weed the while.

After dinner it is customary to take a drive, and then the turn-out is much better than the one I have before described. The carriage is a nice one, the ponies are in good condition, and though the attempts at livery are rather ridiculous, the whole affair makes a very creditable appearance. By this time the sun is nearly down, so that you can ride with the top of the At about half-past three in the afternoon phaton lowered, and, if it be the proper day, waiters began to fly round with cups on trays, you drive to the King's Square to hear the muand, heading one off, we discovered to our sic of the band. There you will find all the amazement that it was tea they were carrying."beauty and fashion" of Batavia congregated; "Rum time to take tea, this!" said the English- the private equipages very handsome and in man; "why, we have not had dinner yet!" In good taste, while their fair occupants are almost

always very pretty, their dresses in the last European mode, and with no ugly bonnets to conceal their charming heads, on which the hair is dressed back over cushions in that style so becoming to a round, full face. A bonnet, indeed, is never seen in Java, save perhaps on the head of some foreign skipper's wife, and that is then stared at in astonishment and horror.

By the time that the band has ceased playing it is nearly dark, and you observe that every footman has a bundle of pithy reeds, forming a large torch. It is too pleasant to go back to the hotel immediately, so you drive about, passing open carriages full of pretty Hollandaises, chatting and coquetting with the well-mounted cavaliers cantering by their sides, while the overarching foliage renders the dusk still darker, and the long shadows in the red light of the footmen's torches seem to people the way with a strange, fantastic, silent-moving crowd. The first time that a stranger drives through this part of Batavia in the evening, he thinks that there must be an illumination, for every house, even those where no persons are discernible, is as brilliantly lighted as oil can make it. In front of every dwelling is the enormous veranda, of the whole width of the building, and from twenty to forty feet deep; in it are chandeliers, tables, sofas, easy chairs, and ottomans, while scattered here and there over the marble pavement are perhaps a few Turkey rugs. This is the common sitting-place of an evening, for though there are handsome drawing-rooms within, by common consent the veranda is preferred. As in all hot countries, the private dwellings have their parlors and bedchambers on what we call the second floor, and the French le premier, and consequently a flight of steps at each end lead to the veranda. This height enables the interior to be seen over the shrubbery from the road, and though to us such a publicity of domestic life would seem extremely undesirable, it is thought nothing of here, and is really not disagreeable, for as the houses each have a cer

THE DUTCH WIFE.

tain amount of grounds and shrubbery around, they are protected from the inquisitive gaze of a too-near neighbor.

This land is the paradise of smokers, for here a man is scarcely ever seen without a cheroot between his lips; and even when you go to pay a call, which here is always done in the evening, though you don't exactly walk up and pay your respects with a cigar in your mouth, you still do not fling away the cherished stump until you are ascending the steps of the veranda, and then as soon as you are seated, a plate of cheroots and a lighted allumette are offered to you by your fair hostess.

After your drive you may either sit and drink "grock," or you may go to the opera or concert, if there be one. The Dutch, like the Germans, are a musical people, and very creditable concerts are got up here nearly every week by amateur performers. The opera company is French, and considering the distance from home, and the almost impossibility of getting performers of high rank to come out here, the singing and acting are remarkably good.

One evening the Governor-General attended, and when he entered the whole house rose, while the orchestra played the national air. The Governor was a rather tall, thin man, with an extremely rigid expression of countenance. He bowed stiffly and took his seat, while his suite sat and stood behind. The post of GovernorGeneral of the East India Dutch possessions is not to be despised, for he is a perfect king, and has a salary of £20,000 sterling per annum, besides £12,000 a year for entertaining expenses, and £3000 for supporting the Botanical Gardens. This latter sum is doubtless entirely appropriated to its legitimate use; but the £12,000 suffice, I was told, not only to pay for the entertaining, but nearly cover all the expenses of the Governor; so that he is enabled to lay by, if he see fit, a good £20,000 a year. In this way one could in a very few years acquire a comfortable competency!

And now, after the opera, you wend your way homeward, and penetrate into your little apartment, which, by being on the ground-floor with its door opening into the open air, seems like quite a separate bachelor establishment; and pottering over the brick floor smeared with red clay, after the usual change of attire, you wage furious war against the mosquitos around the net, and popping into bed, you find yourself sprawling over your "Dutch wife." Don't start! You won't get a curtain lecture; for a "Dutch wife" is merely a round, hard bolster, which, to the astonishment of every stranger, is to be seen in every bed laid neatly and stiffly down the middle like a small corpse. What its use could be I was a long

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