with his new “elder brother,” and shortly afterwards Verbrugge mentioned that the Resident also, whom he had accompanied part of the way back to Serang, had spoken very favourably of the Havelaars, who had spent some days at his house when they passed through on their journey to Lebak. He had added that Havelaar, being highly thought of by the Government, would most probably be ere long promoted to a better position, or at least transferred to a more “advantageous” division.
Max and “his Tine” had only recently returned from a voyage to Europe, and felt tired of a “life in boxes,” as I once heard it called rather aptly. So they considered themselves lucky, after long wanderings, to live at last again in a spot where they would feel at home. Before their trip to Europe Havelaar had been Assistant-Resident of Amboina, where he had encountered a good many difficulties, as, owing to a series of mistaken measures that had been taken for some time past, the population of that island were in a condition of ferment and rebelliousness. With considerable energy he had succeeded in suppressing this spirit of opposition; but, chagrined by the scant assistance accorded him in this matter by the authorities, and irked by the miserable form of Government which for centuries has depopulated and ruined the glorious land of the Moluccas . . .
If the reader is interested in the subject, let him see what was written thereon as early as 1825 by Baron Van der Capellen, and published by this humanitarian in the Indian Gazette of that year. The condition has by no means improved since that time!
However, Havelaar did at Amboina what was possible and permitted, but the depressing irritation at the lack of support on the part of those whose first duty would have been to assist his efforts had made him ill, and this had induced him to go to Europe on leave. Strictly speaking, on his re-instalment he had had a claim on a better choice than the poor and by no means thriving division of Lebak, as his sphere of work at Amboina had been of greater importance, and as there, without a Resident over him,
