This letter to be kept till you arrive in the Dutch Colonies, Sumatra & Java.
My dear Miss Addams,
This letter need not to be read before you have a leisure moment on the steamer to India, it contains nothing else as informations for your stay in Sumatra & Java.
Probably and I should advise you to do so, you go from Penang to Sumatra, (East-coast) and arrive first in Médan.
The addresses of ladies to which you can offer one of the blank introduction cards are:
Mrs. C. Oostveen-Termeulen
Sirdangweg 85, Médan.
Mrs. M. Cohen-van der Linden,
5a Voorstraat, Médan
Mrs. L. Hoogstag-Schiff,
Voorstraat 127, Médan
One of these three ladies you certainly will find. Ask to Perhaps they like that you should speak there, give them a pacifist, speech.
Ask there information to go by [page 2] auto over the mountains to the West-Coast of Sumatra, a beautiful trip.
You arrive [then] in Padang. At this moment I do not find one address there, but in Médan you certainly can get one.
From Padang you must make a trip to Padang-Pandjang and another to "Padangsehe [Govenlanden]" Fort de Kock, where you can go by railway. From Fort de Kock you should go by carriage or auto higher up in the mountains, where you are in the midst of the Menang Kebau’sehe women, from which the story of the [OR?] comes. In this part of the world the women are the heads of the family.
When you [arrive] in Java I gave you already two introductions, but I add some more. First is the one to [page 3] Mr. [Hinloopen] Labberton, a professor on a high-school, a friend of the colored people, a revolutionist, who knows much about the ↑social↓ conditions in Java. A man, I feel sure, you like to talk with.
The other letter is to Mr. Vreede, a young engineer, who married a younger sister of Mrs. Palthe; he is also a revolutionist. He has given up his position to be free to work in behalf of the Javanese natives. Both, husband and wife, are worth while to talk with. They are living in Semarang, one of the three prominent towns in Java.
Mr. [Hinloopen] Labberton or Mr. Vreede must give you an introduction to the Prince of [illegible] ↑Paku Alam↓ in Djokjakarta and if possible to the Sultan in [Surakarta]. Perhaps Mr. & Mrs. Vreede like to accompany you there.
If you have no other introduction in [Surakarta], you can ask to see the doctor [page 4] of the Sultan, Dr. [Rajiman], and show him one of my introduction-cards. He is a Javanese, a very clever doctor, who studied in Amsterdam. He belongs to the Sultan's family.
Don't neglect to go in Java to Djoejia & [Surakarta], that is in Middle-Java where you will find the real Javanese life.
When you come in [Bandung], you can go to: Mrs. Van Traa, Nieuw Merdika 22, where you by showing my card certainly will be very welcome.
Mrs. Catt & I [traveled] from Semarang to the Philippines by a steamer of the Java-China-Japan line, and have had a delightful trip from of about ten days. One day we stopped at Makassar (Celebes), and nearly two days in Borneo.
I should like to accompany you on the trip through Sumatra & Java. I hope you will enjoy it.
Yours
Aletta H. Jacobs.
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