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with a manicured thatch roof but much smaller, a shrine made of carved stone and wood, dressed in a wide skirt of black-and-white checked cloth. A Balinese temple, Tigran told her.
    Five hundred people, husbands, wives and children, occupied this kampong on the river bank. The rice, the herds of animals, the vegetables and fruits supplied the house and the kampong first, and any surplus was sold in the market. Charlotte realised quickly that thousands of people lived on Brieswijk alone.
    Charlotte had been somewhat startled at the number of domestic servants. At least a hundred gardeners worked tirelessly to confine the ever encroaching jungle, tend the fruit and spice trees and grow the lowland vegetables. Cows, sheep and goats grazed on the low slopes by the river. Cotton, kapok, java jute and a myriad of other grasses and plants were harvested, and in the kampong the women wove, dyed and printed the cloth for the house and for the town. In the big house, there was an individual servant for every chore, and each jealously guarded his or her preserve. Keeping squabbling at bay was one of the senior housekeeper’s most onerous duties. The fire servants would not gather the wood, which was the wood servant’s job, nor the oil for the lamps. The cooks would not cut the food; the bath maid would not wash the floor. The maid who ironed the sheets would not touch the tablecloths. Charlotte had four personal maids, each with her appointed task, and she transcended their duties and privileges at her peril. She reflected that the Javanese domestic enjoyed a life of ease which her sisters in Scotland would have envied. All of this Tigran related to her as they moved along the path, the little horses’ tails waving gently from side to side, flicking at the occasional insect which annoyed their flanks.
    She was glad no one here was a slave. Her Scottish family had been vehemently against slavery; her grandfather had been, she knew, a vocal and heartfelt supporter of Wilberforce and the abolitionists.
    She questioned Tigran on the Dutch Indies attitude towards slavery. Where did the slaves come from?
    They were sold to Bugis and Macassarese slavers by the local kings themselves, he said. The chiefs rounded up their own people, the poor, the destitute and the criminals of their islands and sold them to the markets in Batavia.
    Charlotte looked at Tigran. He knew what she was thinking. The English ideas on this matter were common knowledge.
    Raffles, Tigran said, during his command of Java, had tried to convince them all of the benefits of getting rid of the practice, but, apart from his own sister and a few others, no one had been receptive to these ideas. Raffles had imposed a tax on slave keeping and the official numbers had dropped dramatically, Tigran said with a wry smile. Raffles had officially prohibited the trade, but many, even in his own entourage, kept slaves and concubines, which caused no end of trouble. It was well known, for when they left, they advertised their sale quite openly in the Java Gazette .
    The Sundanese people of West Java, this area, and the Javanese of the east had never been enslaved, not by their own kings, not by the Dutch; it was strictly forbidden. Mohammedans did not enslave those of their faith, and the Dutch were careful not to antagonise the Mohammedan population. The slaves came from the other islands, from Sumatra, Bali, Makassar, Ambon, Kalimantan, the eastern islands. In the VOC days, they came from everywhere: Africa, India, wherever the Dutch had colonies. Tigran admitted that during his father’s time he had thought nothing of keeping slaves. The slaves at Brieswijk were treated with kindness; many of their domestic slaves more like old friends. The worst abuses, he had heard, were generally at the hands of some of the nyai wives, who, being too much surrounded and spoiled, grew petulant and cruel. They were often jealous of the pretty slave girls who might catch the