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JAVA
FACTS AND FANCIES
BY
AUGUSTA DE WIT
WITH 160 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
CHAPMAN & HALL, Ltd.
1905
When the Lady Dolly van derDecken, in answer to questions abouther legendary husband's whereabouts,murmured something vague about"Java, Japan, or Jupiter," she hadJava in her mind as the most "impossible"of those impossible places.And, indeed, every schoolboy pointsthe finger of unceremonious acquaintanceat Jupiter; and Japan lies transparenton the egg-shell porcelain of many an elegant tea-table.But Java? What far forlorn shore may it be that owns the strange-soundingname; and in what sailless seas may this other UltimaThule be fancied to float? Time was when I never saw a globe—allspun about with the net of parallels and degrees, as with somevast spider's web—without a little shock of surprise at finding"Java" hanging in the meshes. How could there be latitude andlongitude to such a thing of dreams and fancies? An attempt at[vi]determining the acreage of the rainbow, or the geological strata ofa Fata Morgana, would hardly have seemed less absurd. I wouldhave none of such vain exactitude; but still chose to think of Javaas situate in the same region as the Island of Avalon; the Landof the Lotos-Eaters, palm-shaded Bohemia by the sea, and the Forestof Broceliand, Merlin's melodious grave. And it seemed to me thatthe very seas which girt those magic shores—still keeping theirgolden sands undefiled from the gross clay of the outer world—mustbe unlike all other water—tranquil ever, crystalline, with aseven-tinted glow of strange sea-flowers, and the flashing of jewel-likefishes gleaming from unsounded deeps. And higher than elsewhere,surely, the skies, blessed with the sign of the SouthernCross, must rise above the woods where the birds of paradise nestle.
Where is it now, the glory and the dream? The soil of Java ishot under my feet. I know—to my cost—that, if the surroundingseas be different from any other body of water, they are chiefly soin being more subject to tempest, turmoil, and sudden squalls. Ifind the benign influences of the Southern C