Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/132

114 assumed the appearance of a beautiful garden, with a river running on one side of it, to enhance the cheerful beauty of the place.

This work had been accomplished by two gentlemen, residents in Surabaya, who obtained permission of the municipal authorities to carry out their scheme, on condition that suitable dwellings should be provided for the villagers; and that, if it proved a failure, a new village should be erected where the former one had stood, and that solely at their own expense. Though still unfinished at the period of our visit, the works were so far advanced as to enable the inhabitants to enjoy the boon of so pleasant a retreat near the crowded town. We were agreeably surprised, on visiting it, to find how much had been made of such a limited space. Shrubberies, ponds, aviaries, were to be seen in all directions; suspended from the trees, were perches, with bright-coloured parrots, sheltered under parasols of tin, gaudily painted, to protect