Page:Scidmore--Java the garden of the east.djvu/358

travel, an island of beauty and delight to the increasing number of round-the-world travelers, who each year are discouraged from visiting the country by less heedful ones who have ventured there.

Whether, as pessimists foretell, a Mohammedan rebellion shall desolate the isle; whether it remains in Dutch leading-strings, arrives at even the limited independence of a British colony, or succumbs to Germany's colonial ambitions, as the French so freely prophesy, Java is certain soon to loom larger in the world's view, and for a time at least to occupy the stage.