. Facts and fancies about Java . of Batavia, the largestand most remarkable by far is the famousKoningsplein. It is not so much a square assimply a field, vast enough to build a cityon, dotted from place to place by pasturingcattle, and bordered on the four sides of itsirregular quadrangle by a triple row of branch-ing tamarinds. From the southern distancetwo aerial mountain-tops overlook it. Thebrown bare expanse of meadowy ground, lyingthus broadly open to the sky, with nothing butclouds and cloudlike hill-tops rising aboveits distant rampart of trees, seems like atract of untamed wilderness
. Facts and fancies about Java . of Batavia, the largestand most remarkable by far is the famousKoningsplein. It is not so much a square assimply a field, vast enough to build a cityon, dotted from place to place by pasturingcattle, and bordered on the four sides of itsirregular quadrangle by a triple row of branch-ing tamarinds. From the southern distancetwo aerial mountain-tops overlook it. Thebrown bare expanse of meadowy ground, lyingthus broadly open to the sky, with nothing butclouds and cloudlike hill-tops rising aboveits distant rampart of trees, seems like atract of untamed wilderness, strangely setin the midst of a city, and all the moresavage and lonely for these smooth sur-roundings. Between the steins of the deli-cate-leaved tamarinds, glimpses are caughtof gateways and pillared houses; the easternside of the quadrangle is disfigured by aglaring railway-station ; and, notwithstand-ing, it remains a rugged sohtary spot, awaste, irreclaimably barren, and which, bythe sheer strength of its unconquered wild-. THE TOWN Bl ness, subdues its environment to its ownmood. The houses, glinting between thetrees, seem mere accidents of the landscape,simply heaps of stones; the glaring railway-station itself sinks into an indistinct white-ness , dissociated from any idea of humanthought and enterprise. Now and then a native traverses the field,slowly moving along an invisible track. Hedoes not disturb the loneliness. He is in-digenous to the place, its natural product,almost as much as the cicadas trilling amongthe grass blades, the snakes darting in andout among the crevices of the sun-bakedsoil, and the lean cattle, upon whose backsthe crows perch. There is but one abidingpower and presence here—the broad brownfield—under the broad blue sky, shiftingshades and splendours over it, and thathorizon of sombre trees all around. This vast sweep of sky gives the Plein atone and atmosphere of its own. The changesin the hour and the season that are butguessed at from so
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