Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/339

Rh culturists, and understand irrigation very well. There are over 550,000 Chinese and about 30,000 Arabs; they both intermarry with the Javanese. There are various languages in the island. In 1900 there were 76,000 Europeans, and to-day 800 of these are Germans, 274 Belgians, and 180 British. The people, though professedly Mohammedans, are in reality mostly pagans. This rich, beautiful, populous land is a Garden of Eden, despite the volcanoes, and the people are both contented and happy under Dutch rule, which suits them; and long may they continue under it, despite some present clouds in the sky.

The great buildings and cities of former days seem to have been extraordinary in size and magnificence. How strange, then, it seems that the dwellers in Java of those days had not penetrated south from island to island on to New Guinea and Australia. Who knows but yet, in the unknown interior of New Guinea, ancient Hindu ruins may be found, showing they had been there. [The natives of Macassar, in Celebes, in recent times have been in the habit of going as far as Port Darwin and the Northern Australian coast, and it is thought have done so for a long period of time. I still think that either in Dutch New Guinea, or even in Northern Australia, traces of ancient habitation may yet be found. When one remembers that the huge Hindu ruins in Java lay for centuries forgotten and concealed in tropical jungle, it is quite possible the almost impenetrable jungles of New Guinea may hide interesting secrets.] The ruined city of Majapalut covers miles of ground. The bricks used in construction are of marvellous beauty, and appear to have been welded together with some invisible cement. Some of the brick architecture is very imposing. At Brambanam, in the centre of the island, are