As
No Vessel Had Arrived Bound For That Port, I Determined To Make
An Excursion Into The Interior Of The
Island, accompanied by Mr.
Ross, an Englishman born in the Keeling Islands, and now employed
by the Dutch Government to
Settle the affairs of a missionary who
had unfortunately become bankrupt here. Mr. Carter kindly lent me
a horse, and Mr. Ross took his native groom.
Our route for some distance lay along a perfectly level country
bearing ample crops of rice. The road was straight and generally
bordered with lofty trees forming a due avenue. It was at first
sandy, afterwards grassy, with occasional streams and mudholes.
At a distance about four miles we reached Mataram, the capital of
the island and the residence of the Rajah. It is a large village
with wide streets bordered by a magnificent avenue of trees, and
low houses concealed behind mud walls. Within this royal city no
native of the lower orders is allowed to ride, and our attendant,
a Javanese, was obliged to dismount and lead his horse while we
rode slowly through. The abodes of the Rajah and of the High
Priest are distinguished by pillars of red brick constructed with
much taste; but the palace itself seemed to differ but little
from the ordinary houses of the country. Beyond Mataram and close
to it is Karangassam, the ancient residence of the native or
Sassak Rajahs before the conquest of the island by the Balinese.
Soon after passing Mataram the country began gradually to rise in
gentle undulations, swelling occasionally into low hills towards
the two mountainous tracts in the northern and southern parts of
the island. It was now that I first obtained an adequate idea of
one of the most wonderful systems of cultivation in the world,
equalling all that is related of Chinese industry, and as far as
I know surpassing in the labour that has been bestowed upon it
any tract of equal extent in the most civilized countries of
Europe. I rode through this strange garden utterly amazed and
hardly able to realize the fact that in this remote and little
known island, from which all Europeans except a few traders at
the port are jealously excluded, many hundreds of square miles of
irregularly undulating country have been so skillfully terraced
and levelled, and so permeated by artificial channels, that every
portion of it can be irrigated and dried at pleasure. According
as the slope of the ground is more or less rapid, each terraced
plot consists in some places of many acres, in others of a few
square yards. We saw them in every state of cultivation; some in
stubble, some being ploughed, some with rice-crops in various
stages of growth. Here were luxuriant patches of tobacco; there,
cucumbers, sweet potatoes, yams, beans or Indian-corn varied the
scene. In some places the ditches were dry, in others little
streams crossed our road and were distributed over lands about to
be sown or planted. The banks which bordered every terrace rose
regularly in horizontal lines above each other; sometimes
rounding an abrupt knoll and looking like a fortification, or
sweeping around some deep hollow and forming on a gigantic scale
the seats of an amphitheatre. Every brook and rivulet had been
diverted from its bed, and instead of flowing along the lowest
ground, were to be found crossing our road half-way up an ascent,
yet bordered by ancient trees and moss-grown stones so as to have
all the appearance of a natural channel, and bearing testimony to
the remote period at which the work had been done. As we advanced
further into the country, the scene was diversified by abrupt
rocky bills, by steep ravines, and by clumps of bamboos and palm-
trees near houses or villages; while in the distance the fine
range of mountains of which Lombock Peak, eight thousand feet
high, is the culminating point, formed a fit background to a view
scarcely to be surpassed either in human interest or picturesque
beauty.
Along the first part of our road we passed hundreds of women
carrying rice, fruit, and vegetables to market; and further on, an
almost uninterrupted line of horses laden with rice in bags or in
the car, on their way to the port of Ampanam. At every few miles
along the road, seated under shady trees or slight sheds, were
sellers of sugar-cane, palm-wine, cooked rice, salted eggs, and
fried plantains, with a few other native delicacies. At these
stalls a hearty meal may be made for a penny, but we contented
ourselves with drinking some sweet palm-wine, a most delicious
beverage in the heat of the day. After having travelled about
twenty miles we reached a higher and drier region, where, water
being scarce, cultivation was confined to the little fiats
bordering the streams. Here the country was as beautiful as
before, but of a different character; consisting of undulating
downs of short turf interspersed with fine clumps of trees and
bushes, sometimes the woodland, sometimes the open ground
predominating. We only passed through one small patch of true
forest, where we were shaded by lofty trees, and saw around us a
dark and dense vegetation, highly agreeable after the heat and
glare of the open country.
At length, about an hour after noon, we reached our destination -
the village of Coupang, situated nearly in the centre of the
island - and entered the outer court of a house belonging to one of
the chiefs with whom my friend Mr. Ross had a slight acquaintance.
Here we were requested to seat ourselves under an open den with a
raised floor of bamboo, a place used to receive visitors and hold
audiences. Turning our horses to graze on the luxuriant glass of
the courtyard, we waited until the great man's Malay interpreter
appeared, who inquired our business and informed us that the Pumbuckle
(chief) was at the Rajah's house, but would soon be back.
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