At my second wedding amongst other things I was given a collossal mirror as a present from papa Polkijn, it came out of his old fashioned house with a high attic at the Kloveniersburgwal, which could not be used in the more modern house at the Weesperzijde; he had it carefully glued on with paper and wrapped in a strong chest for us. I had taken the chest from Batavia to Padang and had not been unpacked yet; I was therefore pleased, that I had to opportunity to lend the unused piece of furniture to family Schnelle. The mirror hung on a dignified spot in their for the rest neatly furnished inner veranda of the high captain’s home and remained there until after my departure.
Capt. S. later on was transferred to Padang Pandjang, where he couldn’t use the mirror either and so suggested me to sell the thing; it was put on a sale, raised very little money and came to hang in the Padang-Pandjang Social club.
The second of my inspection trips to describe is the one to Loeboe-Sikaping. My year mate Yzerman chief of the construction of the S.S. on Sumatra had allowed me to use the worktrains as much as possible, that’s why I profitted from this easy means of transport from Padang to Kajoe-Tanam.
Here I stayed with the controller’s family de Lannoy, a nice couple of people, who received me in a very hospitable way and where I learned to appreciate Mrs.’ culinair art.
I made a small inspection locally and visited also the hospital, which stood under the guidance of the officer of health v.d. Scheer, not suspecting that I had to consult him once as a specialist in intestinal illnesses after my retirement.
From Kajoe-Tanam my trip with my own horse led into the Highlands and so still reached Padang-Pandjang the same day through the beautiful Aneh valley; on the way I often stopped to enjoy the wonderful views and I also stopped at a lapo ( warong ) to have a cocunut and offered my horse a full hand of bananas, for which it was very grateful, as will be seen later on.
Towards the eveniing I arrived in Padang-Pandjang and stayed at the only hotel there; I stayed here for three days to make an inspetion which turned out better than expected, because the officer who was in charge of the engineer service, ltnt. v.d. Gronden had his job in very good order and so there were as good as no remarks to be made.
footnote:
warong = street stall
Because of this reason precisely it doesn’t surprise me that I can remember so little about what happened during my stay there.
From my next inspected garrison I don’t can’t tell much with certainty; on my trip to it, I mean Fort de Kock, I noticed that I had passed the border where the coconut trees cease to grow and saw instead the most beautiful treeferns along the road; besides the vegetation along the whole track was absolutely wonderful.
In Fort de Kock I stayed in hotel van Praag, of which the owner permitted herself the luxury to keep a few very fat daughters. One of these daughters was married to Mr. Theuvenet, who later on became the registrar of Rapat in Loeboe-Sikaping, and which couple was the sweetest for my eldest daughter, when she had just been married to Hendriks, who was a military commander there.
From Fort de Kock the trip went via Katoer to Palembajan through the so called waterbuffalo hole; along zigzaging roads one descends in this nearly 100m ravine and then has to cross a quite strong flowing river; with this manoeuvre my horse lost the ground and tried to swim to get further; it was a strange sensation and I would certainly have fallen into the water, if an indigenous guide wouldn’t have supported me.
In the boarding house in Matoer lived health officer Fiebig, who was in charge of a particular governmental task and then was allowed to work that out; he had many children, of which one had died because a large fruit had fallen on his little head in the coconut tree garden; knowing this it surprised me greatly to see one of his sons walking over the railing of the house, which was built on 2.5m high poles. Dr. Fiebig claimed that he allowed this so the children would learn never to be afraid.
In Palembajan I stayed with the controller and left the next morning to Si-Pisang, where I stayed in the boarding house.
From here I went via Bondjol to Loeboe-Sikaping and enjoyed a rijsttafel with the controller, who was housed in a very neat and roomy governmental house, to which a cool swimming pool was attached, which I also enjoyed.
The road to it was the most difficult part of the whole trip; it was not ready yet and for a large part cut away into the rocks, of which in most places sharp stones were poking out and riding on it made it very difficult; so it was noticeable how carefully my riding horse placed his feet; with the neccessary result that the trip took long and I arrived at my destination when it was already dark.
Both officers Krol v.d. Hoek and Rochemont were waiting for me in full uniform and gave me the impression that they both drank quite a lot of beer outside service time, which seemed to have a different effect to each; the first one was skinny as a nail, the last one was fat and swollen and had grown out of his clothes, sothat he looked ludicrous.
With both my subordinate officers we had a meal and I was given a roof over my head in an indigenous house, where Rochemont was staying.
It was a small shack with a very small entrance, sothat even I with my short body had to bend over to get inside.
The inspection ended well against my expectations: the work looked good and administratively was managed properly. The English proverb “Never judge by looks” was certainly true here.
The return trip to Padang went by the same route as I had arrived; in Palembajan I didn’t find the controller at home and so I had to have lunch with the clerk; there I was only rice and brains and chilli paste, sothat my children will understand how I feasted. My riding horse was luckier, which suddenly stopped in the Aneh valley, when I rode with him around the corner; it obviously was the same Lapo, where I had treated him to a hand of bananas and I couldn’t do anything else but to repeat the treat.
During my trip Jantje Grootehuis had been transferred and was replaced by Simon Blok, whose father owned the wellknown bookstore at the Binnenhof in the Hague; it was a nice young Jewish boy, who did his work well and in company was very shy;
one evening in the Social club I wanted to get him to dance, but he refused this firmly to which I made a bet with him that he didn’t dare to ask a wellknown good dancer to a waltz. As he could now earn 2 and a half guilders the Jewish nature rose immediately and he floated with the lady through the hall.
My first mate capt. Ruempol didn’t like dancing and the company of women either and continued his batchelor life; I had warned him that I couldn’t excuse him any longer and gave him the advice to get married as soon as possbile if he wanted to succeed at all; then he didn’t want to know anything about it.
Before I will describe my third trip I have to tell that the engineer’s ltnt Idenburg was put under my command in the location of Padang-Pandjang. I paid him a farewell visit in the hotel, where I found him in the company of a few missionaries and a German lady from Barmen, who was sent out to get married with a to her unknown missionary in the Toba lands. Hearing I would leave with the first opportunity to Siboga they asked me to look after the German bride, which I took on.
On board I had little trouble from the miss; she only appeared at dinnertime and in Siboga she was collected by her heavily bearded missionary.
The trip from Siboga to Taroetong took 2 days and went along the difficult road made on the back of a spruce Batak horse, which was kindly offered to use; halfway I had to stay the night in a boarding house, situated at a creek with clear cool water, in which I took a lovely bath. The second day I set off early on my travels; all the time going through difficult terrain and I first came towards sunset in the valley of Taroetong; it was impressive to arrive so sudden out of the jungle into this sweet valley; it consisted of rice fields, cut in half by two small rivers and on the hill around it stood several little churches of the Barmenian missionaries, of which the bells were just ringing.
At the beginning of the valley the road to Taroetong bends to the left and before one arrives at this place one passes a Batak school; there I suddenly heard the Batak children singing: “Ein fester Burg ist unser Gott”, it was really impressive.
In Taroetoeng was Pl. Mil.Commander capt. Visser and Pl. engineer chief ltnt. Plantenga, the younger brother of the capt. with whom I stayed in Batavia in 1882; he had the nickname of “De Lijn” and the same eyes as trapdoors as major Jaquier de Rompret, who in my second chapter mentioned as being in the first expedition of Col. Ermeling. He was a bit simpel.
During my inspection he apparently sat there crying as he had not often been diligent in the service.
However I postponed the inspection until after my return from Lagoe-Botie, from where I left the day after my arrival. It was a whole cavelcade which accompanied me a long way on my trip there. The controller with his dog travelled the whole trip with me.
The transfer from the bowl of Taroetoeng to the highlands of Tobah is a real climb, however our horses made it there easily. Nearly at the end of the hill one could see steaming sulphur pools and here our guide turned back and we rode on firmly so as to arrive before dark at the boarding house in the middle of the plateau. This boarding house was situated on the Aik-Air-Itam ( blackwater river ), in which we took a bath, which was so cold, that we were shivering and so we left as soon as possible.
The next morning we rode on to Baligen, the location of the assistant Resident, situated on lake Tobah. and from here along that lake to Lagoe-Botie, where we arrived towards sunset. During our trip over the pleateau the sky was overcast and we didn’t see the sun; however I don’t remember ever have gotten so sunburnt, I could pull the skin of my face, which remained painful for days.
I stayed with my friend Dr. Vollema, with whom I payed a visit to the Barmenian missionary, whose wife I had chapperoned from Padang to Siboga. Die Frau fand das ganz nett and treated us to a lovely glass of Rhinewine, I had not yet tasted one like that in the Dutch East Indies.
The inspection in Lagoe-botie and also the returntrip to Taroentoeng didn’t show anything in particular; 6 days after my departure I arrived here again and the inspection would start the next day; that day however was the festival of price shooting of the garrison, to which all the officers and I too were invited.
Pl. = plaatsvervangend = substituting
Die Frau fand das ganz nett = the woman found it very nice
I read in the Padang newspaper that day that my captain Ruempol was going to hold a sale; one of the officers had learnt from his collegue in Padang that R. wanted to say goodbye to the batchelor’s life and therefore had moved into the hotel, where the teacher Breyman was staying, on which miss he had set his eyes.
The inspection about the Lijn took a full three days due to the neccessary particular additions; a lot of technical remarks could be made about the establishment, which I put all together in a remarks memo, however were done as kindly as possible; I was actually convinced that Lijn had done his best this time.
The last evening he gave a farewell party in my honour and I told him that I would hand him the results of the inspection the next morning so not to spoil the mood.
At the farewell which he and captain Visser and several other gentlemen did, he looked particularly pale, but when I gave him the results in question and he quickly looked at it, his nose curled up and his trapdoors nearly opened with pleasure, he shook my hand and thanked me real kindly.
I made te return trip to Siboga with a military engineer superintendent who was transferred to Batavia; we were accompanied by the already mentioned controller’s doggy, who had the remarkable habit of accompanying all guests from Taroetoeng to Siboga and then return by himself.
When we had travelled quite a way through the jungle, we saw the little dog at a distance standing quivering and a dangerous snake in an attack position near him; we raced with our horses to the monster, which luckily got a fright and disappeared in to the jungle; further we peacefully followed our way.
Upon my return in Padang I learnt from my first mate that he was truly engaged to Miss Breyman; so he had taken my advice obviously to heart and I couldn’t do anything else than congratulate him with it.
One fine day a real storm broke loose above Padang and had caused great damage to the hospital in Oeloe-limau-Manies which was still under construction; since capt. Ruempol would accompany me on my local inspection and he would use my riding horse; I borrowed my Artillery collegue Julius’s horse which was known to have a hard mouth; consequently I had great difficulty to keep the animal under control and so we rode slowly.
In Oeloe-limau-Manies we found the damage enormous; from the wooden buildings all the airvents were blown off and some even 40m thrown around; the cassava hospital walls were as it were all flattened, though because of their resilience stood themselves up again after the windhoses; although in the meantime everything in the rooms had been thrown about and what was breakable was shattered; the largest damage had been suffered by the Army Service corps, whilst the engineers got off relatively well.
A few days after our trip the just mentioned major Julius suddenly died; it was the result of a fall from the same horse that he had lend to me; the animal had bolted and ran into a tree. Julius died instantly and his wife, a real hysterical; walked through her house with a revolver, sabre or razorblade however without hurting herself at all.
Not long after the wedding of capt. Ruempol took place, for which I acted as a witness; I don’t remember much about it, only that it was remarkable that during the dinner, which good friends of the bride in honour of her had given chocolate sauce was served with the steak instead of gravy, which made the hostess blush.
In Padang-Pandjang the engineer Idenburg was still the local engineer’s chief; he had been given the order to build some officer’s houses; to the project for these houses was a particularity connected for me; it was made up by my predecessor Haver-Droeze and I got it a long time after my appearance back to review. I did fill the order immediately and not long after, the chief returned it again with a lot of remarks, whilst in a hurry a new drawing was included, sothat ltnt. Idenburg could start with the building.
The latter happened, but I could not let the given remarks rest; I wrote to the chief, that, when I put the by me handed in project next to that of my predecessor and the writing of the chief in the middle, it was clear, that I had fulfilled the order litterally; as an answer I then got; that the upcoming remarks were not for me but for my predecessor. Strange way of doing business!
The building of the houses meanwhile was done by Id. who now and then wrote lengthy reports about it, so much so, that I warned him in writing to make these shorter.
I haven’t got much more to tell about my stay in Padang; some time before I left there, I received a telegram of the Chief containing the following: “Would you shrink from the difficulty to act as Commander of the engineer troups?” The answer to this childish question was not difficult and sounded: “On the contrary, I aspire after this position in view of my further career”; so soon I was transferred to Malang as such and I followed my new destination on the 8th June 1890, in the company of my 7 year old son and heir.
Captain Krol v.d. Hoek who had been tranferred back from Loeboe-Sikaping to Java, was my travel companion, whilst a certain Miss Chauvigny de Bloth, sister of the later to be mentioned head engineer Wyss, also made the journey.
The Emma harbour was not finished yet, so we were brought aboard from the Boom by a steampaddler of the proa ferry and so for the last time we saw the Apenberg where a colony of monkeys were busy bathing and drinking in the Padang river. Hardly passed around the Apenberg, a dangerous raincloud came on and the captain of the boat had difficulty to move forward, whilst the water was streaming over the deck and besides that we got soaking wet, hence Miss Ch. d. Bl. sheltered Johan under her raincoat. The storm stayed on and the captain of the small boat, a real drunk duck, got totally confused reason why the captain of the Ned.Ind. Stoomvaart Bowbyes pushed him off the steering gear and took over the command. With the neccessary seamanship he knew how to get the paddlesteamer behind his own steamship, which was attached to two heavy anchors and from which they threw out the lifebuoys, which were caught on the boat and thus the last one was attached to the steamer.
The little boat was pulled along side and the passengers transferred to the steamer, who were treated there to a good meal and further were awaiting the end of the storm. When this had died down, we were taken aboard the Javaboat in a normal way and the departure and further journey went without a hitch.
During the journey it was clear that Miss Chauvigny was an excellent drawer for which she also had a highschool teacher’s diploma; she drew amongst other things, a very lifelike counterfeit of a pastor, who made the journey as well; besides she was a cheerful lady, who was all the time in our company and even did a game of omber with us.
Krol v.d.Hoek was head over heels in love with her and I certainly would have thought, that they both would become a couple, still a few days later I heard, that she had become a nun and had a job as a drawing teacher in the Cloister, where she remained for the rest of her life.
Upon arrival in Batavia I reported at once with the Chief and asked for 8 days leave to be able to give my children an extra pleasure. I went straight away to the Great Cloister and found the four girls in very good health and they declaired in the presence of Mere Augustine that it was very nice; they let Milly and Carey play a duet on the piano for me and the girls were properly dressed. Still, I got the impression that everything had been covered with a layer of varnish, which impression later on was also confirmed.
The next day I went with the three eldest girls and Johan to Buitenzorg and we booked into the Hotel Bellevue, where we had very nice lodgings. Attached to the hotel was a roomy bathroom with running water, of which I made use every day with the children; at one of these occasions I had pushed Milly for fun under water and she ws so frightened by it, that ze did not want to learn to swim before her marriage.
Back in Batavia I enquired with several famlies, where the children sometimes visited, what they thought of the education of the Cloister; I especailly wanted to get to know from the family Willemstijn, from whom I heard strange things: it seemed to me, that Carey was much on her way to be a devout and full of admiration of one of the nuns, mere Marguerite and that Jop and Lotje were being worked on to give their souls; the clothes which they were wearing when I arrived, were also used for other children, whilst the education in history and artithmatic were very one sided and superficial.
What turned the scales in my findings was Milly’s complaint, when the 3 eldest girls had dinner with me in the hotel der Nederlanden the evening before my departure, she told me amongst others that the nuns were not nice for them at all.
So I left for Malang with the absolute intention to make an end to the children’s stay at the cloister and placed an advertisement in the newspaper for a young lady to run my household and to raise my childen.
From the many applications for the job the one of a Miss ter Meulen seemed the best, she had excellent credentials and I hired her starting on 1st July.
I asked my friend captain de Vos in Batavia, the guardian of my children to take care of the discharge from the cloister and the sending of the girls to Malang.
To understand my relation with capt. de Vos, I have to go back to the time that I came back from leave from the Nethelands and was staying in Hotel Wisse.
As a result of my agreement with the Chief of the firm v. Hoboken in Rotterdam, I applied as soon as possible with the president of the orphan’s court to clear the inventary from Medan. Because I had deposited no money and had not given any proper assets I was discharged by the chamber of the management for inheritance; when however I showed the neccessary receipts, that after the death of my first wife there was in fact was no capital, I was after several discussions reinstated and given a complete clearance of charges.
With the last discussions incidentally came the mention, that I had been remarried in the Netherlands. “So, have you been remarried? Then I have to prosecute you, because you had not given any knowledge of this before to the orphan’s court”. Whether I told them that in Amsterdam I had learnt that, since there was no capital, I further had nothing to do, it didn’t make any difference and I was summoned at the Court of Justice; here I was charged with discharge from my guardianship and in the next sitting I had to name and swear in a new guardian. I then asked my friend de Vos to take on the guardianship and he was accepted as such.
Except for the already mentioned sending of my children he never had anything to do with my children later on; seeing I kept the right of fathership.