The Island of Java

is much the most valuable, the soil is rich, and the native people gentle and industrious. The varied scenery of mountains, valleys, and flat lands is very beautiful. In my time there were no railways, but excellent roads and well-managed posting and post hotels; so that an overland journey, which I made in the year 1835, from Batavia to Samarang and Sourabaya, about 500 miles, was most interesting and delightful. Java was taken by the English, and held from 1811 to 1817. My uncle, Mr John Brown, was then appointed Master Attendant of the dockyard at Sourabaya; on his account I was well received and entertained by his friend, the Sultan of Madura, when I paid a visit to him at his palace on an island not far from Sourabaya. In the year 1837 I returned page 21 for a short time to Europe, and hud the happiness of being once more amongst kindred and friends of my early days in Scotland; and of pleasing my dear father and mother by the testimonials I had received of my position in the East, as well as enjoying much kindness and hospitality from relatives and friends at Dundee and in other parts of Scotland; and then I went back to Java in a Dutch East Indiaman sailing from Rotterdam. In