Produced by a Project Gutenberg volunteer from digital material generously made available by the Internet Archive ACROSS THE EQUATOR. [Frontispiece: TEMPLE, PARAMBANAN.] ACROSS THE EQUATOR. A HOLIDAY TRIP IN JAVA. BY THOS. H. REID. KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED, SINGAPORE--SHANGHAI--HONGKONG--YOKOHAMA. 1908. [all rights reserved.] PREFACE. It was at the end of the month of September, 1907, that the writer visited Java with the object of spending a brief vacation there. The outcome was a series of articles in the "Straits Times," and after they appeared so many applications were made for reprints that we were encouraged to issue the articles in handy form for the information of those who intend to visit the neighbouring Dutch Colony. There was no pretension to write an exhaustive guide-book to the Island, but the original articles were revised and amplified, and the chapters have been arranged to enable the visitor to follow a given route through the Island, from west to east, within the compass of a fortnight or three weeks. For liberty to reproduce some of the larger pictures, we are indebted to Mr. George P. Lewis (of O. Kurkdjian), Sourabaya, whose photographs of Tosari and the volcanic region of Eastern Java form one of the finest and most artistic collections we have seen of landscape work. SINGAPORE, _July, 1908_. CONTENTS. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BATAVIA 1 THE BRITISH IN JAVA 15 BOTANIST'S PARADISE AT BUITENZORG 23 ON THE ROAD TO SINDANGLAYA 33 SINDANGLAYA AND BEYOND 42 HINDU RUINS IN CENTRAL JAVA 49 THE TEMPLES OF PARAMBANAN 58 PEOPLE AND INDUSTRIES OF CENTRAL JAVA 65 THE HEALTH RESORT OF EAST JAVA 73 SUNRISE AT THE PENANDJAAN PASS 77 HOTELS AND TRAVELLING FACILITIES 87 First Impressions of Batavia. When consideration is given to the fact that Java is only two days' steaming from Singapore, that it is more beautiful in some respects than Japan, that it contains marvellous archaeological remains over 1,100 years old, and that its hill resorts form ideal resting places for the jaded European, it is strange that few of the British residents throughout the Far East, or travellers East and West, have visited the Dutch Colony. The average Britisher, weaving the web of empire, passes like a shuttle in the loom from London to Yokohama, from Hongkong to Marseilles. He thinks imperially in that he thinks no other nation has Colonies worth seeing. British port succeeds British port on the hackneyed line of travel, and he may be excused if he forgets that these convenient calling places, these links of Empire, can have possible rivals under foreign flags.