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Java
The little [Van Noort?] arrived off [Singapore?] in the early evening of April 5th. We talked of going ashore and taking a [illegible] but the Doctor got an invitation from the Dutch Captain and another man to go with them and three Dutch ladies. Therefore with [dread?] so as to allow her to go. The port holes were all closed, partly because of the dust aroused by the cargo partly to keep mosquitos out, and partly because there are plenty of thieves who carry long sticks with hooks on the end, which they insert through the ports and remove what they wish. On deck there were four [cane?] seated settlers each provided with a cushion and pillows. I ensconced myself on one and slept off and on until one o'clock. The Dr. and party got back about midnight having seen nothing and having had a horrid time. We did the best we could to sleep with our fan and arose early. We went ashore about 8:30 with the three Dutch ladies who had gone out the night before—one having lived n Singapore agreeing to act as guide. We went by train a long distance and then took rickshaws for the Botanical Gardens which proved a long way off. It was so hot to walk around, so we saw what we could. It is a beautiful garden but not to be compared with that at [Kandy?]. We returned by a different route and feel upon an interesting experience. Either a great Chinaman was being buried, or it was a day in which all Chinese honor their dead. He could not learn which. The street was simply
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crowded, with rickshas [rickshaws] and these were filled with Chinese. Husbands and wives with children: fathers with children, mothers with children, women together and men together, for these rickshas [rickshaws] [illegible]. Each one carried an offering. Form must hung great strings of paper forms which I believe are prayers. These were folded into squares, triangles, boats &c. Then there were baskets of fruits, vegetables, rice, prayer sticks and I counted six coasted [illegible] The [Imagination?] could not picture the variety of these offerings. We must have met or travelled in the pro-cession with at least one thousand of these [rickshaws?] We saw something of the native town, the best streets of the Europeans and got back to the boat just in time—noon Postals 1, 2, 3, 4. Meanwhile, the Singapore passengers had come on, and the ship was crowded from [stern?] to stern. That night, Friday, at about one o'clock we crossed the Equator. It was a comfortable night and the whole journey was comfortable and une-ventful [uneventful]. There was a fair breeze each day and on deck it was not very hot. We arrived off Batavia or rather [Jandiong?] [Priok?] the port of [Batavia?] about 7:30. The Dr. was ready at 6 and I at 7. But we did not come alongside the key (quay) until 8:30. Meanwhile a group of four ladies
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three young girls and a nice man were waiting for us—poor things. There was no place for them to sit. The leader was the Dr.'s sister who has been a apothecary here for thirty years. She is 65 years old, a handsome, well preserved [Jewess?], and she was clad in a beautiful white gown which utterly outclassed anything we had. The Dr. was dressed in a white dress somewhat mussed, somewhat soiled and considerably sloppy around the waist. I wore my grey linen, which was not only mussed but decidedly soiled. We certainly looked the part of globe trotters. All the Dutch ladies wore fresh white dresses and looked very nice. The young girls presented us with bouquets of beautiful white flowers the center being big chrysanthemums (April 7) There was a new law and it took time to inspect all the passengers. All who were not Dutch had to pay 25 guilders—$10 which they promise to return. Then their were customs and we had to give assurance that we had no concealed weapons or opium. At last all was attended to and we found ourselves in a nice carriage car bound for Batavia. We passed through a perfect jungle of nuts and bananas interspersed with strange trees and vines—a perfect lux-ury [luxury] of vegetation. Arrived in Batavia the Dr. and I went first to the sister's house, our luggage being cared for by the hotel runner. She lives in a big tropic house and
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the front is the apothek. The back is an immense verandah shut in with slab curtains during the head of the day and furnished like a drawing room as all these houses are. The floor was marble and it was very pretty. Marble steps led down to a back yard full of [illegible] and trees, great bunches of a beautiful white orchids fairly covering one. She [illegible] us to an iced orangeade and the two sisters talked while I went fast asleep in my chair. About noon we took a carriage and went to our Hotel Netherlands. It is built on the plan of modern [illegible] asylums—many small houses near the central one which contains the dining room. We share a house or pavilion with a doctor. We have a setting room and a very large bed room with a [perfectly?] immense marble floored verandah proved with tables and chairs. We have five wardrobes, two desks seven tables &c. But we have to go quite a distance into a back court to the W.C. and a quarter of a mile to the drawing room. We got our [illegible] in our room. It is a hot walk to lunch, but as dinner comes at 8 p.m. that walk is easily managed. The bed room is provided with two beds—a very big one and a single one. This time I
