From the importance which the Dutch, in the days of their greatness, attached to their East-India commerce, of which Batavia was the emporium, and the importance which this commerce conferred upon them, from the desire excited in the other nations to obtain a share in its advantages, and the crimes committed to maintain its undivided monopoly, some idea may be formed of its magnitude and value. When the French troops, in the summer of 1672, under Louis XIV. had overrun the territory of Holland, with the rapidity and irresistible force of the sea after bursting the dykes, the Republic formed the magnanimous resolution of transporting its wealth, its enterprise, and its subjects to another hemisphere, rather than submit to the terms of the conqueror, and fixed upon Batavia, already the seat of its eastern commerce, as the capital of its new empire. They could have found shipping in their own ports for the transport of fifty thousand families; their country was inundated with the ocean, or in possession of the invader; their power and political importance consisted in their fleets and colonies; and having been accustomed to maintain their naval superiority by the fruits of their eastern trade, and to buy the corn of Europe with the spices of the Moluccas, they would have felt less from a removal of their seat of empire from the north of Europe to the south of Asia, than any people who ever contemplated a similar change; while, at the same time, the very project of such an extraordinary emigration, and[Vol I Pg 211] the means they had of carrying it into effect, give us the highest ideas of the independent spirit inspired by their free government, and of their commercial prosperity, derived, in a great degree, from their eastern establishments and connexions.

The same advantages which the Europeans derived from the navigation of the Mediterranean, the inhabitants of the Malayan Archipelago enjoyed in a higher degree; and it cannot be doubted, that among islands lying in smooth and unruffled seas, inviting the sail or oar of the most timid and inexperienced mariner, an intercourse subsisted at a very early period. To this intercourse, and to the fertility of the soil of Java, which soon rendered it an agricultural country, must be attributed the high degree of civilization and of advancement in the arts, which, from the monuments of its progress which still exist, there is every reason to believe it once attained. In short, to adopt the expressions of Dr. Adam Smith, when speaking of a very different country[54], Java, "on account of the natural fertility of its soil, of the great extent of its sea-coast in proportion to the whole of the country, and of the number of its navigable rivers, affording the conveniency of water carriage to some of its most inland parts, is conveniently fitted by nature to be the seat of foreign commerce, of manufactures for sale to the neighbouring countries, and of all the improvements which these can occasion."

But though there can be little doubt that Java very early emerged from barbarism, and rose to great commercial prosperity, to determine the precise time at which these events took place is perhaps impossible; and to approach the solution of the question would involve an inquiry that will be better reserved till we come to treat of its languages, institutions, and antiquities. If, in the consideration of these topics, it should be made to appear, that, in very remote ages, these regions were civilized from Western India, and that an extensive Hindu empire once existed on Java, it will be reasonable to infer a commercial intercourse still earlier than the communication of laws and improvement.

In the remarkable account of the rich commodities conveyed to ancient Tyre, it would appear that there were many articles[Vol I Pg 212] the peculiar produce of the Malayan States; and in that given by Strabo of the importations into Egypt, cloves, which we know to be the exclusive produce of the Moluccas, are expressly mentioned. The same taste for the fine kinds of spices, and the same desire to obtain them, which prompted European nations successively to make themselves masters of these islands, must in all probability have operated, in a very remote period, on the merchants of Hindustan, and even of countries lying farther to the westward, who had already found their way into the gold regions; and if the hypothesis, which places Mount Ophir on Sumatra or the peninsula of Malacca, cannot be maintained, it will at any rate be admitted, that previously to the discovery of America, no country was known more rich in gold than the Malayan Islands, and that, on that account, they were peculiarly attractive to foreigners, who could not be supplied from any other quarter.

The Arabs, it is known, had in the ninth century, if not long previously, made themselves acquainted with these countries; and the Chinese, if we may trust the Javan annals, had visited Java at the same period. According to Kempfer, the MalÁyus in former times had by far the greatest trade in the Indies, and frequented, with their vessels, not only all the coasts of Asia, but even ventured to the shores of Africa, and particularly to the great island of Madagascar; "for," adds this author, "John de Barros in his Decades, and Flaccourt in his History of Madagascar, assures us, that the language spoken by the inhabitants of that large African island is full of Javan and Malayan words: subsisting proofs of the commerce with these two nations, about two thousand years ago the richest and most powerful of Asia, had carried on with Madagascar, where they had settled in great numbers."

Whatever credit we may attach to these statements and inferences, respecting the commerce of these islands before they were visited by Europeans in the fifteenth century, it is certain that, at this period, an extensive trade was established at Malacca, Acheen, and Bantam, then the great emporiums of the Eastern Archipelago. Hither the rich produce of Sumatra, Borneo, and the Moluccas, was conveyed in the small trading craft of the country, and exchanged for the[Vol I Pg 213] produce of India and China. These ports were then filled with vessels from every maritime state of Asia, from the Red Sea to Japan. The Portuguese, who preceded the Dutch in India, and who had fixed upon Goa, on the coast of Malabar, as the capital of their eastern settlements, selected Malacca as the most convenient station for conducting and protecting their trade with the islands, and erected it into a secondary capital. The Dutch finding this desirable station pre-occupied, and being foiled in their attempts to dislodge their rivals, first established a commercial settlement at Bantam, and subsequently subdued by force of arms the neighbouring province of JÁkatra, (or JokÁrta), on which, as will be afterwards mentioned, they built the fortress, the city, and the port of Batavia.

Nor was it without reason that they selected this spot for the capital of their new empire. "What the Cape of Good Hope is," says Adam Smith, "between Europe and every part of the East Indies, Batavia is between the principal countries in the East Indies. It lies upon the most frequented road from Hindustan to China and Japan, and is nearly about midway on that road. Almost all the ships, too, that sail between Europe and China, touch at Batavia; and it is, over and above all this, the centre and principal mart of what is called the country trade of the East Indies, not only of that part of it which is carried on by Europeans, but of that which is carried on by the native Indians, and vessels navigated by the inhabitants of China and Japan, of Tonquin, of Malacca, of Cochin China, and the Island of Celebes, are frequently to be seen in its port. Such advantageous situations have enabled these two colonies to surmount all the obstacles which the oppressive genius of an exclusive company may have occasionally opposed to their growth: they have enabled Batavia to surmount the additional disadvantage, of perhaps the most unwholesome climate in the world."

It would be as difficult to describe in detail the extent of the commerce enjoyed by Java[55], at the period of the establishment [Vol I Pg 214]of the Dutch in the eastern seas, as it would be painful to point out how far, or to show in what manner, that commerce was interfered with, checked, changed in its character, and reduced in its importance, by the influence of a withering monopoly, the rapacity of avarice armed with power, and the short-sighted tyranny of a mercantile administration. To convey an idea of the maritime strength of the native princes anterior to this date, as giving a criterion by which to judge of the trade of their subjects, it may be sufficient to state that warlike expeditions, consisting of many hundred vessels, are often reported to have been fitted out against Borneo, Sumatra, and the peninsula. In the art of ship-building, however, they do not appear to have advanced beyond the construction of that sort of vessel adapted to the navigation of their own smooth seas, and now to be met with in all their ports and harbours; nor do they seem to have had any knowledge of maritime geography beyond the shores of their own Archipelago, and the information which they gained from the reports of the Arabs, or the traditions of their own more adventurous ancestors. This circumstance would lead us to infer that the trade of Java was carried on chiefly in foreign vessels, and through the enterprize of foreign adventurers. The habits of the people had become agricultural; they had nearly deserted an element which they had no powerful temptation to traverse, and on which they could reap little, compared with what they could draw from the fertility of their own territory. Leaving therefore their ports to be filled, and their commodities to be carried away by the MalÁyus, the BÚgis, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Arabs, they for the most part contented themselves with enjoying the advantages of a trade, in which they incurred no chance of loss; and thus, though their own country yielded neither gold nor jewels, they are said to have been plentifully supplied with these and other valuable articles on their own shores, in exchange for the produce of their tranquil industry and their fertile soil. This kind of traffic was almost entirely annihilated, or at least very much diverted from its ancient course, by the restrictive system of Dutch colonial policy. Some branches of it were, it must be allowed, partially encouraged by the influx of European capital and the demand for particular articles which bear a high price in the European[Vol I Pg 215] market; but this was an inadequate compensation for the loss of that commerce, which may be said to be as much the growth of the country as any of its indigenous plants. In order to show to what insignificance it was reduced under Dutch oppression, and what tendency it has to improve under a better system, it is only necessary to compare its state during the latter years of the Dutch government, before the blockade, and afterwards during the short interval of British administration. For the first of these purposes, I have drawn, in the introduction to this work, a short sketch of the condition of the Dutch East India Company, for a considerable period previous to our arrival; and I now proceed to give some account of the external and internal trade of Java, as it existed at the time when we restored it to its former masters.

The extent of this commerce, since the establishment of the British government, and since a greater freedom of trade has been allowed, may, for a want of a better criterion, be estimated from the amount of tonnage employed since the beginning of the year 1812, at which period the operations of the military expedition had ceased, and the transports were discharged.

In the year 1812, the number of square-rigged vessels which entered the port of Batavia amounted to 239, and their aggregate tonnage to 48,290 tons, and in the same year the native craft amounted to 455 vessels, or 7,472 tons, or together 55,762 tons. The quantity cleared out during the same year was 44,613 tons of shipping, and 7,762 of native craft, making together 52,375.

In the year 1813, the number of square-rigged vessels was 288, and the tonnage 51,092, the native craft amounting to 796 vessels, or 13,214 tons, or together 64,306 tons.

In 1814, three hundred and twenty-one ships, or 63,564 tons, cleared out with 568 native vessels, or 9,154 tons, shewing the total tonnage of Batavia during this year to have amounted to 72,718 tons.

The returns for the following year have not been received, but they are estimated to exceed either of the two former years, and not to have fallen much short of one hundred thousand tons; and it may be noticed, that during one year after the first accounts were received of the successes of the[Vol I Pg 216] allied armies against France, no less than thirty-two ships, measuring fifteen thousand tons, cleared out, and carried cargoes, the produce of Java, to the London market.

The average annual tonnage which cleared out from the port of SurabÁya, for the three last years, amounted to about thirty thousand tons, and the native tonnage trading to the neighbouring port of GrÉsik is estimated to have even exceeded that quantity.

At the small port of SÚmenap, situated at the east end of MadÚra, which is a principal resort for the native trade, the tonnage which cleared out was

And the estimated value of the same,

The value of the imports and exports of SemÁrang, on which duties were actually collected at that port, were

The native tonnage which cleared from RembÁng was as follows:

The trade from the other minor ports was inconsiderable, the effect of the regulations passed in 1813 being yet hardly felt. From PakalÚngan the tonnage which cleared was for 1812, 5,962 tons, and for 1813, 4,679 tons, the imports being about 150,000 rupees, and the exports 300,000 rupees in each year; from TÉgal for 1812, 2,445 tons, and for 1813, 1,926[Vol I Pg 217] tons, the imports being about 50,000, and the exports about 60,000 rupees in each year.

The amount of tonnage which touched at Anyer, on the way through the Straits of SÚnda, to and from Europe, Africa, and America, was

By an official return made in March 1816, it appears that the total quantity of tonnage in vessels boarded on their passage through the Straits of SÚnda, amounted in 1812 to 45,000 tons; in 1813, to 56,000 tons; in 1814, to 64,000 tons; and in 1815, to 130,000 tons; to which, adding a third for vessels which passed without being boarded, the whole amount of tonnage for these four years, would be 390,000, the quantity in the fourth of these years being nearly triple that of the first.

The commerce of Java may be considered under the two general divisions of the native and the European, the former including the internal and coasting trade, with that of the Malayan Archipelago in general; the latter comprehending that carried on by Europeans and Americans with India, China and Japan, Africa, America, and Europe.

Java has already been described as a great agricultural country. It has long been considered as the granary of the Eastern Islands.

The southern coast is for the most part inaccessible, and seldom visited by traders; but along the north coast there are no less than thirteen principal ports, besides numerous other intermediate and less considerable ones, frequented by native vessels at all seasons of the year. Many of these are sheltered, and form safe harbours in all weather, as Bantam, Batavia, RembÁng, GrÉsik, and SurabÁya. Even where the vessels lie in an open roadstead, the wind is seldom sufficiently strong to render the anchorage unsafe. Several of the rivers are navigable for many miles into the interior, and most of them are capable of receiving native vessels into the heart of the town, through which they generally run; but the rivers of Java, as well as those of the eastern coast of Sumatra and the western coast of Borneo, are for the most part obstructed at[Vol I Pg 218] their entrance by extensive bars, which preclude the admission of vessels of any very considerable burthen. Piers have been run out in many places, to remedy this inconvenience; but in consequence of the quantity of soil annually carried down, the bars or banks are continually increasing, and in some places, as at TÉgal, have nearly blocked up the communication between the rivers and the sea.

The produce and manufactures of the country are conveyed from one district to another and to these maritime capitals, either by water or land carriage. The principal navigable rivers to the westward, are those which disembogue themselves below TÁng'ran, KrÁwang, and IndramÁyu, and the produce brought down by them is usually conveyed to Batavia. To the eastward, the great SÓlo river, which is navigable from SÚra-kÉrta, affords, with the KedÍri, the principal and only outlets from the native provinces by water towards the northern coast. Down the former, which empties itself by several mouths, near GrÉsik, into the great harbour of SurabÁya, during the rains, large quantities of the produce of the richest provinces of the interior are conveyed. The boats employed, which are of considerable burthen, return with cargoes of salt. This river runs through many valuable teak forests, and consequently affords the means of easy transport for the timber; an advantage which is also derived from several smaller rivers on the northern coast, particularly in the neighbourhood of the principal building yards. Facilities of the same kind are also found at most of the sea ports, which are generally seated on rivers passing through forests in the interior, down which timber required for house-building and the construction of small craft is floated with ease. An inland navigation is carried on to a considerable extent, by means of small canals, in DemÁk and some of the neighbouring districts, where it is common, even during the harvest, at the driest season of the year, to observe innumerable boats with their light sails crossing an extensive, flat, and highly cultivated country and traversing the corn-fields in various directions. In the rich and fertile delta of SurabÁya, the whole produce of the adjacent country is conveyed by water carriage, generally on light rafts constructed of a few stems of the plantain tree.

Goods not conveyed by water carriage, are usually carried[Vol I Pg 219] on the backs of oxen or horses, or on the shoulders of men and women, carts not being generally used, except in the western districts, where the population is thin, or in some of the more eastern districts, particularly those recently under Chinese direction. The cart of the western districts, termed pedÁti, is of clumsy construction, running on two large solid wheels, from five to six feet in diameter, and from one to two inches broad, on a revolving axle, and drawn by two buffaloes. It is the ordinary conveyance of goods to the capital, within a range of about sixty miles from Batavia.

Few countries can boast of roads, either of a better description, or of a greater extent, than some of those in Java. A high post road, passable for carriages at all seasons of the year, runs from Anyer, on the western side of Bantam, to within twenty miles of BÁnyuwÁngi, the eastern extremity of the Island, being a distance of not less than eight hundred English miles. Along this road, at intervals of less than five miles, are regular post stations and relays of carriage horses. A portion of it towards the west, which proceeded into the interior, and passed over some high and mountainous tracts, was found to occasion great delay and inconvenience to passengers, and to impose an oppressive duty upon those inhabitants, who, residing in the neighbourhood, were obliged to lend the use of their cattle, or the assistance of their personal labour, to aid carriages in ascending the steeps; this part of the line has therefore been abandoned, and a new road has recently been constructed along the low lands, from Batavia to ChÉribon, by which not only the former inequalities are avoided, but a distance of fifty miles is saved. This route is now so level, that a canal might easily be cut along its side, and carried on nearly through all the maritime districts of the eastward, by which the convenience of inland navigation might be afforded them, for conveying the commodities continually required for the consumption and exportation of the capital. Besides this main road from one extreme to the other, there is also a high military road, equally well constructed, which crosses the Island from north to south, leading to the two native capitals of SÚra-kÉrta and YÚg'ya-kÉrta, and consequently to within a few miles of the South Sea. Cross roads have also been formed wherever the convenience[Vol I Pg 220] or advantage of Europeans required them; and there is no part of the Island to which the access is less difficult. But it is not to be concluded, that these communications contribute that assistance to agriculture or trade on Java, which such roads would afford in Europe: their construction has, on the contrary, in many instances, been destructive to whole districts, and when completed by his own labour, or the sacrifice of the lives of his neighbours, the peasant was debarred from their use, and not permitted to drive his cattle along them, while he saw the advantages they were capable of yielding reserved for his European masters, that they might be enabled to hold a more secure possession of his country. They were principally formed during the blockade of the Island, and were intended to facilitate the conveyance of stores, or the passage of troops necessary for its military defence. The inhabitants, however, felt the exclusion the less, as good inferior roads were often made by the side of these military roads, and bye-roads branched off through all parts of the country, so that the internal commerce met with no impediment for the want of direct or convenient lines of communication.

Nor is it discouraged by the want of understood or established places of exchange. Bazars or public markets (here called pÉkan) are established in every part of the country, and usually held twice a-week, if not oftener. The market days are in general regulated by what are called pÁsar days, being a week of five days, similar to that by which the markets in South America appear to be regulated. At these markets are assembled frequently some thousands of people, chiefly women, on whom the duty devolves of carrying the various productions of the country to these places of traffic. In some districts, extensive sheds are erected for the accommodation of the people; but, in general, a temporary covering of thatch, to shelter them from the rays of the sun, is made for the occasion, and thought sufficient. Where the market is not held within a town of considerable size, the assemblage usually takes place under a large tree, in a spot occupied from immemorial usage for that purpose. In these markets there are regular quarters appropriated for the grain merchant, the cloth merchant, venders of iron, brass, and copper ware, and dealers in the various small manufactures of the country, as well as those of India, China,[Vol I Pg 221] and Europe. Prepared eatables of every kind, as well as all the fruits and vegetables in request, occupy a considerable space in the fair, and find a rapid sale. In the more extensive bazars, as at SÓlo, the kris handle makers have their particular quarter, and in an adjoining square, horses and oxen are exposed for sale.

Small duties are generally levied in these bazars, the collection of which was formerly farmed out to Chinese; but it being found that they exacted more than the settled or authorized rate, and that they contrived, by means of the influence which their office conferred, to create a monopoly in their own favour, not only of the articles of trade but of many of the necessaries of life, that system has latterly been relinquished wherever practicable, and government has taken the management of that portion of the public revenue into its own hands. In the bazars, accordingly, regulated under the immediate superintendence of its officers, extensive sheds are built, and a small compensation only is required for the use of them by those who there intend to expose their goods for sale. This duty is collected at the entrance into the market-place, and is taken in lieu of all other taxes or customs whatever, formerly levied on the transit or sale of native commodities. It is to be regretted, that this improvement had not been extended to the native provinces, where every article of produce and manufacture is still impeded in its progress through the country to the place of consumption or export, by toll duties and other impolitic exactions, and charged on its arrival there with heavy bazar duties, to the discouragement of industry and enterprize, and the depression of agriculture and trade, in a degree not compensated by a proportionate benefit to the revenue[57]. [Vol I Pg 222]

Almost all the inland commerce, beyond what is thus carried on though the medium of bazars, is under the direction of the Chinese, who, possessing considerable capital, and frequently speculating on a very extensive scale, engross the greater part of the wholesale trade, buy up the principal articles of export from the native grower, convey them to the maritime capitals, and in return supply the interior with salt, and with the principal articles imported from the neighbouring islands, or from foreign countries. The industry of the Javans being directed almost exclusively to the cultivation of the soil, they are satisfied if they can find an immediate market for their surplus produce; and the Chinese, from their superior wealth and enterprize, offering them this advantage without interfering with their habits, have obtained almost a monopoly of their produce, and an uncontrolled command of their market for foreign commodities.

The trade carried on by native vessels along the coast, with the neighbouring islands, and with the peninsula of Malacca, has been even more shackled than that placed under the impolitic restraints of interior regulation; and if it exists now to any considerable extent, it is owing only to the great natural advantages that attend it. Independently of the dangers to which the peaceable unprotected trader has so long been exposed, from the numerous pirates who infest the Eastern Seas, and who for many years have been in the habit of annually sweeping the coast of Java, the various restrictions, penalties, and prohibitions established by the Dutch government, in order to insure their own monopoly, closed all the minor ports against him.

Among these restrictions, none operated more forcibly to prejudice the native trade than the rigid and enforced monopoly of the teak timber; an article of produce with which Java abounds, and of which the shipping of the Archipelago had, from time immemorial, been principally constructed. The facilities for building and repairing vessels along the coast, while the sale of timber was unrestricted, not only allowed a more abundant supply of shipping at a cheap rate for the convenience of the native trader, but attracted the beneficial visits and the intercourse of foreigners, and encouraged a species of trade, which under the recent system has been lost. The[Vol I Pg 223] BÚgis and Arabs of the different eastern ports, navigating in large vessels, were induced to give them an annual repair on Java; and rather than depart in ballast, frequently carried out cargoes, the profits of which alone, independently of their refit, would not have been sufficient to tempt them to the speculation. These adventurers not only imported considerable quantities of gold-dust to defray the expence of their repairs, but many other articles the produce of the Malayan islands; for which they in return exported large quantities of salt and other bulky commodities, which would otherwise hardly repay their freight. In consequence of the stop put to this kind of intercourse, the Malayan States were principally supplied with salt from Siam and the Coromandel coast, or manufactured the article for themselves, while an accumulating undemanded surplus for many years remained on Java unsaleable. Of the nature of the restrictions under which the internal commerce and the native trade in general were placed until lately, some idea may be formed from the amount of the duties which were exacted at ChÉribon prior to the introduction of the land revenue settlement[58].

These, with still heavier and more vexatious duties and exactions, were levied on trade in other districts of the island. Constant requisitions were made by the Dutch government for the services of native vessels, at rates far below a just compensation to the owner, and the native traders were forbidden to traffic in any of the articles of Dutch monopoly; considerations which incline us rather to express our surprize, that there should have been any native trade at all, than that there should be so little as now exists.

The coasting trade is carried on in vessels belonging chiefly to Chinese, Arabs, and BÚgis (natives of Celebes), and in smaller Malayan prÁhus[59]. The enterprize of the Arabs, [Vol I Pg 224]Chinese, and BÚgis is very conspicuous. They are in general fair traders; and Europeans acquainted with their several[Vol I Pg 225] characters can rely on their engagements, and command their confidence. Many of them, particularly the BÚgis, are possessed of very large capital.

By means of the coasting trade, the produce of the maritime and inland districts is conveyed to Batavia, SemÁrang, and SurabÁya, the principal ports of consumption and exportation; and in return those districts receive iron, steel, and other articles of foreign produce and manufacture from abroad. The western districts being but thinly inhabited, do not yield a sufficient supply for the consumption of Batavia; and on this account, as well as its being the principal mart of foreign commerce, the trade of the eastern districts is attracted to it, in a higher degree than to any of the other great towns in their own immediate neighbourhood: but owing to the unhealthiness [Vol I Pg 226]of the climate, the loss occasioned by the paper money, which the native traders of other islands could never understand, and the various vexations and impositions to which they were subjected, these latter invariably prefer the more eastern ports of SemÁrang and SurabÁya, or rather GrÉsik, in the immediate vicinity of the latter, which has always been the principal establishment and residence of the Arabs.

The BÚgis import into Java from the other islands, Malayan camphor, tortoise-shell, edible birds'-nests, bees'-wax, cloth called sÁrongs, of a very strong texture, their own manufacture, and gold dust, which they lay out in the purchase of opium, iron, steel, Europe chintzes and broad cloth, and Indian piece goods, besides tobacco, rice, salt, and other productions and manufactures of Java, with which they return eastward during the favourable monsoon.

The Arabs navigate square-rigged vessels, from fifty to five hundred tons burden. The Chinese also have many brigs, besides their peculiar description of vessels called junks, as well as native-built prÁhus. They extend their voyages to Sumatra, the Straits of Malacca, and eastward as far as the Moluccas and Timor, collecting birds'-nests, camphor, bich de mar, and other articles, making Java a grand depÔt for the produce of all the countries to which they resort. Throughout the whole of Java, trade is usually conducted by the Chinese: many of them are very rich, and their means are increased by their knowledge of business, their spirit of enterprize, and their mutual confidence.

If a cargo arrives too extensive for the finances of one individual, several Chinese club together, and purchase the goods, each dividing according to his capital. In this manner a ready market is always open at Java, without the assistance of European merchants, and strangers are enabled to transact their business with little trouble or risk.

The objections which have been made to the political influence of the Chinese and Arabs in the Eastern Islands, do not equally apply to them as traders. In this last capacity, and subject to regulations which prevent them from uniting the power of a chief with the temper of a merchant, and despotism with avarice, their value cannot be too highly rated.[Vol I Pg 227] The persevering industry and speculative turn of the Chinese is too well known to need description; and the Arab traders are here what they are all over the world, keen, intelligent, and adventurous. The BÚgis have long been distinguished among the Eastern Islands for the extent of their speculations and the fairness of their dealing.

Java exports, for the consumption and use of the other islands of the Archipelago, including the Malayan ports on the peninsula, rice, a variety of vetches, salt, oil, tobacco, timber, Java cloths, brass ware, and a variety of minor articles, the produce of her agriculture and manufactures, besides occasionally, as the market admits, a considerable quantity of European, Indian, and Chinese goods. Almost the only articles for which Java is at present dependent on its neighbours are gÚmbir, imported from Lingen (Ling'ga) and Rhio, where it is produced to the annual amount of from twenty to thirty thousand pÍkuls,?—and pÁmur, the metal used for damasking the Javan krÍs, of which a small quantity is imported from Biliton and CÉlebes, where alone it is found. The following articles, the exclusive produce of the Eastern Islands, are collected at its principal ports, for re-exportation to India, China, and Europe: tin, from BÁnka; gold-dust, diamonds, camphor, benjamin and other drugs, edible birds'-nests, bich de mar, rattans, bees'-wax, tortoise-shell, and dyeing woods, from Borneo and Sumatra; sandal and other fine woods, nutmegs, cloves and mace, coarse, wild and damaged spices, kÁyu-pÚti and other pungent oils, from the Moluccas; horses and sapan wood, from SumbÁwa; BÚgis cloths, and many collections for the Chinese market, from CÉlebes. Cloths are also sometimes imported from BÁli, and pepper is collected at BÁnjermÁsin, on Borneo, and from several of the Malayan states.

The tin brought to Java is almost exclusively from the mines of BÁnka. This metal is also exported from several of the other islands, and from the peninsula of Malacca, whence these countries have been considered the Temala of Ptolemy, timÁh being the Malayan word for tin; but the quantity obtained from all other sources falls far short of what is procured on BÁnka, which exports to the annual[Vol I Pg 228] amount of thirty thousand pÍkuls, or nearly forty thousand cwt. of this metal. The mines on BÁnka are worked by Chinese, who deliver the metal into the government stores in slabs, at the rate of about eight Spanish dollars the pÍkul, of one hundred and thirty-three pounds and a quarter.

A very extensive branch of trade is carried on by a direct communication between Java and China, entirely upon Chinese capital, in a description of vessels called junks. From eight to ten of these vessels arrive annually from Canton and Amoi, with cargoes of teas, raw silk, silk piece goods, varnished umbrellas, iron pots, coarse china-ware, sweetmeats, nankeen, paper, and innumerable minor articles, particularly calculated for the Chinese settlers. They are from three to eight hundred tons burthen, and sail at stated periods, generally reaching Batavia with the north-east monsoon, about the month of January. Of all the imports from China, that which produces the most extensive effects on the commercial and political interests of the country is the native himself: besides their cargoes, these junks bring a valuable import of from two to five hundred industrious natives in each vessel. These emigrants are usually employed as coolies or labourers on their first arrival; but, by frugal habits and persevering industry, they soon become possessed of a little property, which they employ in trade, and increase by their prudence and enterprize. Many of them, in course of time, attain sufficient wealth to render themselves independent, and to enable them to remit considerable accumulations yearly to their relations in China. As these remittances are generally made in the valuable articles, such as birds'-nests, Malayan camphor, bich de mar, tin, opium, pepper, timber, leather hides, indigo, gold and silver, the return cargoes of these vessels amount to an almost incredible value.

The quantity of edible birds'-nests alone, annually exported from Java to China on vessels of this description, is estimated at not less than two hundred pÍkuls, of which by far the largest proportion is the produce of the Javan rocks and hills. It is well known that these are the nests of a species of swallow (hirundo esculenta) common in the Malayan islands, and in great demand for the China table. Their value as a[Vol I Pg 229] luxury, in that empire, has been estimated on importation to be weight for weight equal with silver. The price which these nests of the best quality have of late years brought in the Canton and Amoi market, has been forty Spanish dollars per kÁti, of rather more than a pound and a quarter English. They are usually classed into first, second, and third sorts, differing in price from forty to fifteen Spanish dollars, and even to ten and less for the most ordinary. The price in the Batavian market rises as the period for the departure of the junks approaches; but as the principal produce of Java is still a monopoly in the hands of government, it is difficult to fix the price at which they might be sold under other circumstances. Generally speaking, however, they sell throughout the Eastern Islands considerably lower than they are calculated to do in China, which may be accounted for by the perishable nature of the commodity, and the great care necessary to preserve them from the damp, as well as from breakage. On this account, they are seldom bought by European traders. Birds'-nests consigned by the Javan government to the Canton factory in 1813, sold to the amount of about fifty pÍkuls, at an average rate of about twenty dollars per kati: but this was at a period when the China markets were unusually low.

The quantity of birds' nests obtained from the rocks called KÁrang bÓlang, on the southern coast of Java, and within the provinces of the native princes, is estimated, one year with another, at a hundred pÍkuls, and is calculated to afford an annual revenue to the government of two hundred thousand Spanish dollars. The quantity gathered besides by individuals, on rocks and hills belonging to them, either in private property or held by farm from the government, in other parts of the island, may amount to fifty pÍkuls; making the extent of this export not less than one hundred and fifty pÍkuls, besides the amount of the collections from the other islands of the Archipelago.

In the Malayan islands in general, but little care is taken of the rocks and caverns which produce this dainty, and the nests procured are neither so numerous nor so good as they otherwise would be. On Java, where perhaps the birds are fewer, and the nests in general less fine than those to be met with in some of the more Eastern Islands, both the quantity and[Vol I Pg 230] quality have been considerably improved by European management. To effect this improvement, the caverns which the birds are found to frequent are cleansed by smoking and the burning of sulphur, and the destruction of all the old nests. The cavern is then carefully secured from the approach of man, the birds are left undisturbed to form their nests, and the gathering takes place as soon as it is calculated that the young are fledged. If they are allowed to remain until eggs are again laid in them, they lose their pure colour and transparency, and are no longer of what are termed the first sort. They are sometimes collected so recently after their formation, that time has not been given for the bird to lay or hatch her eggs in them, and these nests are considered as the most superior; but as the practice, if carried to any extent, would prevent the number of the birds from increasing, it is seldom resorted to, where the caverns are in the possession of those who have a permanent interest in their produce. Much of their excellence and peculiar properties, however, depend on the situation of the place in which they are formed. It has often been ascertained, for instance, that the same bird forms a nest of somewhat different quality, according as it constructs it in the deep recesses of an unventilated and damp cavern, or attaches it to a place where the atmosphere is dry, and the air circulates freely. The nature of the different substances also to which they are fixed, seems to have some influence on their properties. The best are procured in the deepest caverns, (the favourite retreat of the birds), where a nitrous dampness continually prevails, and where being formed against the sides of the cavern, they imbibe a nitrous taste, without which they are little esteemed by the Chinese. The principal object of the proprietor of a birds'-nest rock is to preserve sufficient numbers of the swallows, by not gathering the nests too often, or abstracting those of the finer kinds in too great numbers, lest the birds should quit their habitations and emigrate to a more secure and inaccessible retreat. It is not unusual for a European, when he takes a rock under his superintendence, after ridding it of the old nests and fumigating the caverns, to allow the birds to remain undisturbed, two, three, or even more years, in order that they may multiply for his future advantage. When a birds'-nest rock is[Vol I Pg 231] once brought into proper order, it will bear two gatherings in the year: this is the case with the rocks under the care of the officers of government at KÁrang bÓlang.

In the vicinity of the rocks are usually found a few persons accustomed from their infancy to descend into these caverns, in order to gather the nests; an office of the greatest risk and danger, the best nests being sometimes many hundred feet within the damp and slippery opening of the rock. The gatherers are sometimes obliged to lower themselves by ropes (as at KÁrang bÓlang) over immense chasms, in which the surf of a turbulent sea dashes with the greatest violence, threatening instant destruction in the event of a false step or an insecure hold. The people employed by government for this purpose were formerly slaves, in the domestic service of the minister or resident at the native court. To them the distribution of a few dollars, and the preparation of a buffalo feast after each gathering, was thought sufficient pay, and the sum thus expended constituted all the disbursements attending the gathering and packing, which is conducted by the same persons. This last operation is however carefully superintended by the resident, as the slightest neglect would essentially deteriorate the value of the commodity[60].

Although the Malayan camphor, which is the exclusive produce of Sumatra and Borneo, is much stronger than the camphor from China, it has not yet been considered an article of extensive export for the European market. It is always, however, in the greatest demand in China, where it is either consumed, or as has been supposed by some, it undergoes a certain process previous to its re-exportation under a different appearance. It is not known in what manner the China camphor for the European market is prepared; and unless the Malayan camphor is used in the composition, it seems difficult to account for the constant demand for it in China, whence it is never re-exported in its original state. Whatever value may be set on the Chinese camphor, that[Vol I Pg 232] exported from Japan is of a still superior quality, and more in demand for the European market.

Bich de mar is well known to be a dried sea slug used in the dishes of the Chinese: it is known among the Malayan Islands by the name of trÍpang, and collected on the shores of nearly all the islands of the Archipelago. It usually sells in China at from ten to fifty dollars per pÍkul, according to its quality, but being an article still more perishable than the birds'-nests, and very bulky and offensive, it seldom composes the cargoes of European vessels. It would be very difficult to ascertain the average price, as it varies according to the difficulties experienced in collecting it, and the immediate demand in the market, for its perishable nature will not admit of the excess of one season being laid by to meet the deficiency of another. It requires constant care on the voyage, and a leaky vessel frequently loses a whole cargo.

Stic-lac, used in dying, is procured in many parts of Java, and can easily be obtained in a quantity sufficient to meet the demand. The insect which yields it abounds in the Bantam districts, and the lac prepared is considered of good quality; but it is not an article which appears to have attracted much attention.

The trade between Java and China in vessels belonging to Europeans, at present consists principally in carrying out tin, pepper, spices, rattans, and betel-nut, for the China market, and receiving in return a few articles of China produce in demand for the European market, a balance of cash, and a supply of manufactures required annually at Batavia; but it is calculated that cotton, rice, and timber, which may be considered as the staple produce of Java, might be exported to China with advantage.

A small quantity of Javan cotton lately sent to China, was sold at a higher rate than the ordinary prices of the cotton from Western India[61]. Cotton-yarn is an article sometimes [Vol I Pg 233]exported to China, but in the existing state of society on Java, the exportation of the raw material is likely to be attended with the greatest advantages. Some writers have estimated the capability of Java to export raw cotton almost incredibly high, but it must be admitted, that although the soil is not universally favourable, yet few countries afford greater general advantages for the cotton cultivation, it being practicable to raise it to a great extent, without interfering with the general grain produce of the country. It could be grown as a second crop on the rice fields, being planted shortly after the harvest, and attaining maturity before the season again comes round for irrigating the lands. Nothing can convey a higher idea of the richness of the soil of Java, and of the advantages of its climate, than the fact, that during one half the year the lands yield a rich and abundant crop of grain, more than sufficient for the ordinary food of the population, and during the other half a valuable staple, which affords the material for clothing them, and opens in its manufacture a source of wealth and of continual domestic industry through the year.

Enterprising individuals, merchants of Batavia, have not been wanting to engage in the valuable fur trade, hitherto carried [Vol I Pg 234]on principally by the Americans, between Kamtschatka and China. Mr. Timmerman Thyssen, an enlightened Dutch gentleman, whose name for honourable dealing and extensive business has always stood high among the merchants of Batavia, has entered into more than one speculation of this kind. Vessels fitted out from Batavia took in furs at Kamtschatka, which were intended to be exchanged in China for dollars; but the dangers of the passage in one instance, and the informality of the papers in another, rendered this bold and promising enterprize productive of but little pecuniary advantage. Nothing, however, has occurred, to prove that the adventure would not have fully answered its intention in time of peace, the principal difficulties which attended and frustrated it ceasing with the war.

Since the conquest a very extensive trade has been carried on by the English country ships importing from Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, all kinds of piece goods, opium, and other articles, the returns for which have been usually made by bills, gold-dust, bees'-wax, tin, Japan camphor, sago, and teak timber.

The piece goods of Western India have always formed an extensive article of import into Java, and the annual value of those latterly imported cannot well be estimated at less than a million of dollars. Those generally meet a ready sale, at an advance of from thirty to forty per cent. upon the prime cost in India, and much more when the supply is scanty.

In consequence of these heavy and valuable importations, the returns to Bengal were till lately made principally by bills, obtainable either from government, or individuals desirous of purchasing colonial produce for the European market by means of funds in Western India. But there are also several articles, which experience has proved well calculated for making their returns direct to Bengal, particularly Japan copper and teak timber. Java is known to abound with valuable teak forests, and the quality of the wood has been considered as superior to that of Pegu or the Malabar coast. The restrictions under which this export was formerly placed as a government monopoly, prevented its finding its way beyond the immediate Dutch dependencies; but the extent to which it was even then sent to the Moluccas, to Malacca, and to the Cape[Vol I Pg 235] of Good Hope, where all the public buildings are constructed of Javan teak, sufficiently attests the value and extent of the forests, as well as the good quality and durability of the wood. This valuable, but bulky article of export, is always in demand for ship-building in Bengal, and has afforded to the merchant a very liberal profit on exportation, after paying the present government prices, which are calculated at something above ten per cent. upon the actual expence of cutting and dragging the timber from the forests to the port of exportation. During the last two years, large ships have taken cargoes to Bengal, and afforded very handsome profits. From the neighbourhood of RÉmbÁng, where permission has been given to individuals to cut the timber, on paying a duty of ten per cent. on the estimated value when worked up, it has not only been exported at a cheap rate to Bengal, but several ships have been constructed of it, while along the whole line of coast, from SemÁrang to GrÉsik, small vessels and country craft are launched every month.

But although the direct trade with Bengal has thus been always against Java, the demand for sugar in the Bombay market always affords the means of a circuitous return of capital. Large quantities of Javan sugar have been exported to Bombay during the last four years, principally on the returning ships in ballast touching at Batavia on their way from China, and these cargoes have afforded considerable profit. A lucrative trade in this article is also sometimes carried on by the Arabs to the Red Sea, and particularly to Mocha; but Arab traders, of sufficient capital for these extensive speculations, have, by the effects of the former monopoly on Java, long been driven out of the market, and sufficient time has not been given for them to return.

The extensive produce of this fine island in sugar and coffee of superior quality, and the pepper and various other articles, either yielded by it or collected from the neighbouring countries, such as sago, tin, Japan copper, spices, elephants' teeth, sticklac, long pepper, cubebs, tortoise-shell, gold, diamonds, Japan wood, ebony, rattans, indigo, &c. present fine subjects for commercial speculation to all parts of Europe and America, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius; and the more so, as from the extensive native and[Vol I Pg 236] European population, a very considerable and constant demand exists for the produce and manufactures of Europe, not only for the consumption and use of the island itself, but to supply the neighbouring Malayan states by way of barter.

The quantity of sugar seems to depend almost entirely upon the demand, and is likely at all times to equal it, few countries affording equal advantages for its manufacture. Owing to the want of a demand for this kind of produce, for several years antecedent to the conquest, many of the manufactories were discontinued; but since the trade has been opened, and the demand renewed, many of them have again commenced working, and the quantity produced in the year 1815 was not less than twenty thousand pÍkuls.

The manufacturers being no longer compelled to deliver their produce to government, can afford to sell the sugar at Batavia at from four to six Spanish dollars (or from twenty to thirty shillings) per pÍkul, the quality being distinguished into first, second, and third sorts, of which the first may be bought in the market for exportation at six Spanish dollars per pÍkul, or about twenty-five shillings the hundred-weight. The quality of this sugar is altogether different from the sugar in Bengal, and is said to be equal to that of Jamaica, being manufactured in a great measure according to the same process. While the European market is open for coffee and other light articles, the sugar of Java is always in demand for dead weight, and large quantities have recently been sold in the London market as high as ninety and one hundred shillings per hundred-weight[62]. [Vol I Pg 237]

The quantity of coffee delivered to government in the year 1815, exceeded seventy thousand pÍkuls; about thirty thousand pÍkuls more may have been exported by individuals, and the produce is greatly on the increase[63]. [Vol I Pg 238]

The Batavian arrack is well known in the European market, and was at one time imported in considerable quantities into [Vol I Pg 239]the continent of Europe. It is distilled in a great measure from molasses, in which respect, as well as in the process employed, it differs so materially from the arrack of continental India, that it cannot with propriety be considered as the same spirit: it is in fact vastly superior to it, and capable of competing in the European market with the rum of the West Indies. Its price at Batavia, where any quantity can at all times be procured, is for the first sort about sixty Spanish dollars, for the second sort fifty, and for the third thirty Spanish dollars the leaguer; the first sort, which is above proof, thus selling by the leaguer of one hundred and sixty gallons, at the rate of about twenty-pence the gallon. In consequence of the prohibitory duties against the importation of this article into Great Britain or British India, this branch of commerce has latterly declined, and many of the distilleries have been discontinued.

The Dutch possessions of Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Moluccas, dependent on the government of Batavia, always received their principal supplies of rice from Java, and [Vol I Pg 240]considerable quantities have of late been occasionally exported to those places, as well as the Coromandel coast, with great advantage. During a scarcity of grain in England, the Java rice has also found its way to that market[64].

From Europe the most important imports, and those in constant demand for the native population, are iron, steel, copper, printed cottons of a peculiar pattern, and woollens. Of iron, not less than from one thousand to fifteen hundred tons are annually imported, which is worked up into the implements of husbandry, and into the various instruments, engines, and utensils, required in the towns and agricultural districts. The price has varied, during the last four years, from six to twelve Spanish dollars: the average has been about eight dollars per hundred weight for the English, and about nine per hundred weight for the Swedish iron. The small bar iron is always in demand[Vol I Pg 241] in the market, in consequence of its convenience for working up into the different implements required. Steel is also in demand, to the extent of two or three hundred tons annually.

English printed cottons, of peculiar patterns adapted to the taste of the natives and Chinese, and white cotton sheeting cloth, always meet a ready and extensive sale; but the great objection to the former is the want of permanency in the colours, a disadvantage which all the English printed cottons labour under. A very extensive and valuable assortment of these cottons, imitated after the Javan and Malayan patterns, was recently imported into Java by the East India Company, and on the first sale produced very good prices; but before a second trial could be made, the natives had discovered that the colours would not stand, and the remainder were no longer in any demand. Would it not tend greatly to the improvement of the British manufacture, and consequently greatly extend the export, if the enquiries of scientific men in India were directed, in a particular manner, to an observation of the different dye-stuffs used in Asia, and to the manner followed by the natives in different parts, for fixing the colours and rendering them permanent?

Broad-cloths, velvets, glass ware, wines, and in short all articles of consumption and use among Europeans, may on Java be considered also, in a great measure, in demand by the native population, who free from those prejudices which preclude an expectation of the introduction of European manufacture into Western India, generally indulge in them according to their means. The climate of many parts of the Island renders the broad-cloth, particularly at some seasons of the year, an article of great comfort, and among the higher orders it is usually, as with Europeans, worn as a jacket: sometimes this is of velvet. A constant demand, limited only by the means of the purchaser, is also daily increasing for gold-lace and the other European manufactures used in dress, furniture, saddlery, &c.; it may therefore be easily conceived, to what an extent the demand for these articles is likely to be carried, among a native population of more than four millions and a half of souls, advancing in wealth and intelligence.

It is unnecessary to notice the extent of the articles re[Vol I Pg 242]quired from Europe by the European population, as they are the same in all parts of India. The demand is, of course, partially affected by the extent of the military force, and by the wants of the officers; but where there is a permanent resident European population, of not less than a thousand souls, generally in good circumstances, it may be inferred that the demand is always great.

A continual traffic is carried on between Batavia, the Isle of France, and the Cape of Good Hope, by which the latter in particular is supplied with timber, rice, oil, and a variety of articles of consumption, the voyage being frequently effected in five weeks. While the Bourbon coffee bore a higher price in the European market, considerable quantities of coffee were sent from Java to that island, and from thence re-exported as Bourbon coffee.

The American trade was carried to the greatest extent during the existence of the anti-commercial system of the late French ruler, when American traders purchased the Java coffee at the rate of eighteen Spanish dollars the pÍkul at Batavia, and by a circuitous route imported it into France, at an advance of one hundred per cent. During this period, the purchases of the Americans in the market of Batavia amounted in some years to nearly a million sterling, for which they obtained principally sugar, coffee, and spices.

Having thus given some account of the internal and external trade of Java as it at present exists, of the advantages for an extensive commerce which it enjoys, of the articles which it can supply for the consumption of other countries, and those which it receives in return for its own consumption, and of the places with which its dealings are or might be most profitably conducted on both sides, I might now be expected to enter into the history of that trade since the subjection of the Island to the Dutch, the regulations enacted and enforced by them, for restraining or directing it, and the fluctuations it has undergone during two centuries of a rigid monopoly; but this inquiry would lead me to swell this part of the work to a disproportionate size. I shall now merely present my readers with a few extracts from the orders made in 1767, and strictly enforced throughout the Archipelago, for regulating the trade and navigation of the dominions subject to Batavia, and with[Vol I Pg 243] a brief abstract of the amount of exports and imports during some of the subsequent years.

"All persons whatever," says the first article of those orders, "are prohibited, under pain of death, from trading in the four fine kinds of spices, unless such spices shall be first bought of the Company." Opium was placed under the same restrictions, and enforced by the same penalty. The exportation of pepper, tin, and Japan copper was prohibited, unless bought for the Company; and the importation of them not permitted, except for sale to the Company, under the penalty of confiscation, and a fine of four times the value of the article. The import and export of Surat silks and of India cloths, were strictly prohibited under the same penalty. White cotton yarn and all other sorts of it, SemÁrang arrack, and unstamped gold, were prohibited from being exported under the penalty of confiscation. No port was open to any vessel coming from the northward or from the Moluccas, except Batavia. No prÁhu or vessel was to carry any greater quantity of gunpowder and shot, than might be permitted, and regularly entered in the pass given to the party, under penalty of confiscation of the vessel, and the infliction of a corporal punishment similar to that inflicted for theft. All persons belonging to the coast of Java were strictly prohibited from sailing from any part of the coast where there was not a Company's Resident. No navigation was allowed to be carried on by the vessels of BÁnka and BÍliton, except to PalÉmbang. All navigation from Celebes and SumbÁwa was prohibited, under pain of confiscation of the vessel and cargo. No vessel from the latter place could pass Malacca, and the Company's pass to proceed to Siak was given only once in a year to three vessels from Batavia, two from the coast of Java, and one from ChÉribon. The China junks were only permitted to trade at Batavia and BÁnjer-mÁsin. No trade or navigation whatever was permitted beyond the west point of Bantam, without a pass from Batavia. Such are the most important of thirty-one articles of restriction, serving to shackle every movement of commerce, and to extinguish every spirit of enterprize, for the narrow selfish purposes of what may be called the fanaticism of gain. After perusing them, the reader will[Vol I Pg 244] rather be inclined to think the following amount of the trade too highly stated, than be surprised that it is so low.

The precious metals have always been a great article of import into Java, as well as into the other regions of the East. In 1770 there was imported into Java from Holland, cash and bullion to the amount of 2,862,176 Java rupees[65], and the sums imported from other quarters in the same year, and raised by bills of exchange on Holland, amounted to 1,419,565 rupees, making in all 4,281,742, or more than half a million sterling. The amount imported in that year was almost as great as that in any subsequent year till 1803, when the importation of precious metals was estimated at 7,617,122 rupees, or nearly a million sterling. This period corresponds with that of the greatest exportation of sugar by the Americans, who, no doubt, imported the precious metals in exchange for their cargoes, as the quantity brought from Holland in the same year amounted only to 448,370 rupees. In the following year (1804) the quantity imported was 6,499,001 rupees, of which none at all came from the mother-country. In forty years, from 1770 to 1810, the total of the imported precious metals amounted to 118,607,472 Java rupees, or nearly three millions annually upon an average. A great portion of this was re-exported to India, China, and the Dutch possessions in the Archipelago, to pay for the articles brought to Batavia for the supply of the European demand. The quantity of goods imported from all quarters of the globe, exclusive of cash and bullion, amounted in the year 1770 to the value in Spanish dollars of 2,350,316, and the exports to 3,318,161, leaving a balance in favour of the exports of 867,845 Spanish dollars. A great part of the exports was destined for Holland, and a great part of the imports came from Holland. The imports from Holland were again re-exported to China, Japan, the Spice Islands, &c. from which, and from Bengal, Ceylon, the coasts of Coromandel and of Malabar, and the Cape of Good Hope and other eastern countries, the other shipments came, and to which the other exports proceeded. The profits on the sale of that portion of the imports of 1770, disposed of in the market of Batavia for the consumption of Java, are stated [Vol I Pg 245]at 7,895 Spanish dollars, so that, so far as the import trade was concerned, Batavia only became the entrepÔt between the mother-country and her other possessions or stations of commercial resort in the Indian seas. The exports of Java almost every year exceeded the imports, as will appear from official returns which follow.

There was, of course, a lamentable falling off in the foreign trade of Java after the commencement of the war of the French revolution: some of the best markets were almost entirely closed to it, and the intercourse with the mother-country was nearly destroyed. The total of exports to Holland and her eastern possessions, from the year 1796 till 1806, amounted in value to only 7,097,963 Spanish dollars; the imports to 3,073,894 Spanish dollars; leaving a surplus of exports of 4,024,069 Spanish dollars. The Americans began to frequent the market of Batavia in 1798, and through them principally was the trade carried on till the conquest of the Island by the British, except during the short interval of the peace of Amiens. No specie (with which Holland chiefly paid for her eastern commodities) was imported from the mother-country[Vol I Pg 246] from 1795 downwards, except during 1802-3 and 1803-4, during which there was only the very inconsiderable sum of about half a million of rupees imported.

It is impossible to convey a just idea of the native or foreign trade of Java, without adverting to the commercial and political state of the other islands of the Archipelago. Of these it may be stated generally, that the interior is possessed by the natives, collected under leaders who have taken advantage of the great extent of the country, in proportion to its population, to render themselves independent of the lawful sovereign; that the coast is occupied, in many places, either by pirates, by some of the ruder tribes whom it is dangerous to invade, or by adventurous traders, chiefly MalÁyus and BÚgis. These traders arrive in well-armed vessels, which some of them remain to protect; others travel up the country, not unfrequently to the distance of a hundred miles, and at the change of the monsoon return to their companions, charged either with plunder, or with the fruits of a commerce carried on with the natives at an exorbitant profit. The pirates, as they drive the peaceable and honest trader from the coast, recruit their numbers from among the seafaring men to whom he used to give employment. The decay of commerce is accelerated; and the natives retreat into the interior, where, for want of a market, they cease to collect the rich productions of their country, and rapidly sink into poverty and barbarism. The sea and the coast remain a scene of violence, rapine, and cruelty. The mouths of the rivers are held by lawless banditti, who interrupt the trade of those who inhabit their banks, and capture the vessels destined for the inland towns: the bays and harbours are entirely within their power; and in these smooth seas they are never driven a moment from their stations, or diverted by danger from their predatory vigilance. The sovereigns of the country have too little authority over their nominal subjects; and their resources are too confined for them to oppose any effectual resistance to these outrages. All restraints are withdrawn by the divisions and weakness of the native governments; and men, rendered desperate by the experience of lawless violence, are induced to join in the system of plunder against which they can find no protection.

This extensive, rich, and beautiful cluster of islands is thus[Vol I Pg 247] deprived of all the advantages which it might derive from the sea with which it is surrounded; its harbours become the retreats of marauders, instead of the resort of peaceful commerce; its seafaring people are reduced to a state of nature. Where force decides right, no sovereign is possessed of paramount authority to sweep this pest from his shores; no vessel is safe, no flag is respected. The trade is thus confined to desperate adventurers only, to whom the existence of piracy is more advantageous than the unmolested security of navigation, as the danger which it creates drives away all competitors of a less daring character, and gives them a monopoly of these ports. It is too true, also, that European traders have materially contributed to the strength of the pirates, by the supply of arms and ammunition. At the port of Sambas, European vessels had not dared to touch openly for twenty years; but such means of resistance as the pirates were found to possess in two recent attacks upon it, could never have been collected without large supplies from British traders.

The small colonial craft, so necessary for the prosperity of these regions, cannot without great risk venture beyond the coast; while armed Malayan and Bugis prÁhus, and a few European speculators, engross most of the trade.

The above observations apply more particularly to the coasts of Borneo and the adjacent islands; but they are, in a great measure, applicable to many parts of Sumatra. The unfortunate king of Acheen, who has long been intimately connected with the British establishments, is a young man of estimable qualities, with a title ancient and undisputed, though perhaps a weak prince. All his chiefs acknowledge his authority, though none submit to his control. Native traders from the coast of Coromandel, and Europeans from Pinang, frequent every river; and the profit derived from their dealings furnishes the inhabitants with inducements and means to throw off their allegiance. The king, too feeble to reduce the revolters, is only able to keep up a state of continual alarm and warfare, to which the mutual jealousies among the petty usurpers themselves mainly contribute. The trade of his dominions is in a great measure carried on like smuggling, by armed boats running out at a favourable moment, hiding themselves from danger, or fighting their way through opposition,[Vol I Pg 248] as occasion may require, and laying their account with making up for frequent losses by exorbitant profits. In some places, these almost independent bands are commanded by Malabar chuliahs; and, in most instances, the petty chiefs whom they elevate to authority are foreign vagrants. Those places which, from their vicinity to the residence of the king, are least able to resist his power, are supported in their opposition by the interests of the English traders; and it is not to be forgotten, that when he made a partial attempt to regain his authority over all the neighbouring country, they petitioned the European authority to prevent, by its interference, his levying a duty upon his own subjects. The petition was attended to; and the king was compelled, by the command of strangers, to forego the only means by which he could have preserved his dominions from anarchy and confusion. At the period, therefore, when the resources of his kingdom would have been unfolding themselves, by the improving industry of a well-regulated population, it is falling into decay, through the personal imbecility and political weakness of the monarch; and, breaking into detached fragments, is about to form as many separate principalities, as formerly there were independent governments throughout all the Archipelago[66].

That there has been, at some time, a more extensive commerce on the shores of the Archipelago is highly probable, and that there might be cannot be doubted. The great resources, vegetable and mineral, with which they abound, such as spices, camphor, gold, and diamonds, and the facilities which they enjoy for navigation, offer means and inducements of the highest nature. The general character of the people, also, as far as it can be ascertained, appears[Vol I Pg 249] equally favourable to commercial intercourse. They are represented as mild, inoffensive, not indisposed to industry, free from any obstinate prejudices of superstition, and altogether of a different temper from that of the few who remain in a constant state of warfare on the coast.

Another favourable circumstance is the existence of sovereigns, whose rights, however infringed, are in principle acknowledged, and who have never been known to favour, what must be considered the chief misfortune of these countries, and the source of almost all the rest, the horrible system of piracy. The evil is manifest, and the remedy is not of difficult discovery. Were legitimate and acknowledged sovereigns assisted in resuming their due authority, piracy and rebellion might be destroyed, these shores would be peopled with their native inhabitants, whose industry, awakened and invited by the opening of a safe navigation to the capitals, would in fleets of small vessels, so essential to the prosperity of the Eastern settlements, bring the produce of the interior down the innumerable rivers, and communicate to countries, beyond the reach of foreign adventurers the comforts of civilised life.

A few years of repose to these islands, and of safe uninterrupted commerce, with its attendant blessings, would repay with gain incalculable, what they now claim from the benevolence and philanthropy, if not from the justice of Europeans, who have so essentially contributed to their degradation. If left neglected, without capital, without a safe navigation, almost without laws, the government disunited, the people groaning under vassalage and slavery, these races must descend still further in the scale of degradation, until scarcely a vestige will remain to vindicate the records of their history; and their political existence will only be testified by acts of piracy perpetrated on defenceless vessels, which from accident or ignorance may visit their inhospitable shores.

In all their Eastern settlements, the favourite policy of the Dutch seems to have been to depress the native inhabitants, and give every encouragement to the Chinese, who, generally speaking, are only itinerants and not children of the soil, and who follow the almost universal practice of remitting the fruits of their industry to China, instead of spending them[Vol I Pg 250] where they were acquired. The Chinese, in all ages equally supple, venal, and crafty, failed not, at a very early period, to recommend themselves to the speculating Hollanders. They have, almost from the first, been their agents; and in the island of Java, in particular, they acquired from them the entire monopoly of the revenue farms and government contracts. Many of the most respectable Dutch families were intimately connected with the Chinese in their contracts and speculations, and whole provinces had been sold in perpetuity to some of them, the extensive population of which were thus assigned over to their unfeeling oppression, for the purpose of raising temporary supplies of money.

On Java, the Chinese have been generally left to their own laws and the regulations of their own chiefs; and being, for the most part, merely temporary residents in the country, they devote themselves to the accumulation of wealth, without being very scrupulous about the means of obtaining it: when, therefore, they acquire grants of land, they generally contrive to reduce the peasants speedily to the condition of slaves. The improvement of the people, which was never much attended to by the Dutch, was still less so by the Chinese, and the oppression which they exercised in the vicinity of Batavia had opened the eyes of the Dutch themselves. A report of the Council of Batavia, a short time prior to the landing of the English, accordingly states, that "although the Chinese, as being the most industrious settlers, should be the most useful, they on the contrary have become a very dangerous people, and are to be considered as a pest to the country; for which evil," they add, "there appears to be no radical cure but their expulsion from the interior." Wherever the Chinese formed extensive settlements in Java, the native inhabitants had no alternative but that of abandoning the district or becoming slaves of the soil. The monopolising spirit of the Chinese was often very pernicious to the produce of the soil, as may be seen even at this day in the immediate vicinity of Batavia, where all the public markets are farmed by them, and the degeneracy and poverty of the lower orders are proverbial.

The Chinese of Batavia are a very numerous body, and possess considerable wealth. They are active and industrious,[Vol I Pg 251] enterprising and speculative in the highest degree in the smallest or most extensive concerns, and equally well adapted for trade or agriculture; but, at the same time, they are cunning, deceitful, covetous, and restless, and exceedingly unwarlike in their habits and dispositions. This is the character given of them by Mr. Hogendorp, who, in considering the injurious consequences of their extensive influence on Java, has drawn a very just and able representation of it[67]. [Vol I Pg 252]

In all the Malayan states, the Chinese have made the greatest efforts to get into their hands the farming of the port [Vol I Pg 253]duties, and this has generally proved the ruin of the trade. In addition to these circumstances it should be recollected, that the Chinese, from their peculiar language and manners, form a kind of separate society in every place where they settle, which gives them a great advantage over every competitor in arranging monopolies of trade. The ascendancy of the Chinese requires to be cautiously guarded against and restrained; and this, perhaps, cannot be better done, than by bringing forward the native population, and encouraging them in useful and industrious habits.

Some of these observations regarding the Chinese are, in a high degree, applicable to the Arabs who frequent the Malayan countries, and under the specious mask of religion prey on the simple unsuspicious natives. The Chinese must, at all events, be admitted to be industrious; but by far the greater part of the Arabs are mere useless drones, and idle consumers of the produce of the ground: affecting to be descended from the Prophet and the most eminent of his followers, when in reality they are commonly nothing better [Vol I Pg 254]than manumitted slaves, they worm themselves into the favour of the Malayan chiefs, and often procure the highest offices under them. They hold like robbers the offices which they have obtained as sycophants, and cover all with the sanctimonious veil of religious hypocrisy.

Under the pretext of instructing the MalÁyus in the principles of the Mahometan religion, they inculcate the most intolerant bigotry, and render them incapable of receiving any species of useful knowledge. It is seldom that the East is visited by Arabian merchants of large capital, but there are numerous adventurers who carry on a coasting trade from port to port, and by asserting the religious claims of Sheikh, generally obtain an exemption from all port duties in the Malayan states. They are also not unfrequently concerned in piracies, and are the principal promoters of the slave-trade.

This may serve, in some degree, to illustrate the necessity of establishing an equal and uniform system of port regulations throughout the whole of the Malayan countries; for if the Chinese, on the one hand, are permitted to farm import and export duties in different ports, they have every facility allowed them to form combinations, in order to secure a monopoly to Chinese traders; and on the other hand, if the Arabs, under religious pretexts, are entirely exempted from duties, they may baffle all competition, and engross the trade of the Malayan countries to the exclusion of European traders altogether.

Let the Chinese and Arabs still trade to the eastward. Without them, the trade would be reduced to less than one-third of even what it is at present, for it is only through the stimulus which they give to the industry of the country that its resources are to be developed: but let their trade be regulated; and above all, let them not be left in the enjoyment of immunities and advantages, which are neither possessed by Europeans, nor the indigenous inhabitants of the country. Since the reduction of the Dutch influence in the East, several of the ports formerly dependant on them have almost become Arab colonies. The evil is obviously increasing every day, and can only be checked by encouraging the native population, and regulating on equal terms the duties of the Malayan and other Eastern ports. [Vol I Pg 255]

In many other respects besides those which we have stated, the commercial policy adopted by the Dutch, with regard to the Eastern islands and the Malayan states in general, was contrary to all principles of natural justice, and unworthy of any enlightened and civilized nation[68]. [Vol I Pg 256]

From authentic accounts it appears, that they attempted to destroy and eradicate from a vast range of countries the most advantageous produce of the land, in order to favour their own petty traffic, and burnt a large proportion of the residue, in order to keep up their monopoly price in Europe on a small proportion of this produce. Against errors of this kind, it is to be hoped the more enlightened policy of the present era will be an effectual preventive; but there are others, so interwoven with the interests of these islands, and so local in their nature, that they may not so easily attract the attention of the governing power.

One feature of the Dutch policy in the Eastern Isles seems to have been the exclusion of all foreign trade, whether European or native; excepting at certain specified ports under their own immediate control. This policy was as much connected with the general government of the country, as with the commercial profits of the Company; for in an Archipelago of such unparalleled extent, inhabited by tribes of such various characters, formidable in a high degree from their very want of civilization, it was necessary to bring forward some of the most powerful and most favourably situated of these numerous states, and to hold them answerable for the proceedings of the several districts under their influence. Such views gave rise to the establishment of certain regular and determined trading ports, and led to the vigilant suppression of all [Vol I Pg 257]attempts at competition and independence on the part of the inferior states.

Had this measure been combined with a liberal encouragement of the home trade, as it may be denominated, between these privileged ports established by the Dutch, and the various countries under their influence, little doubt can be entertained that it would have tended materially to promote the civilization and general improvement of all the neighbouring nations. Very different, however, was the object of the Dutch agreements with the different rajas of the Eastern Archipelago. In some cases it was to secure a monopoly of all the tin, pepper, camphor, and other saleable articles produced in their dominions; in others it was to bind the chiefs themselves to destroy the only saleable articles that their country could furnish, lest the monopoly price of the Dutch should be injured by a greater quantity of such produce being brought to market. The Dutch genius, though exclusively devoted to commerce, has never yet been able to discover the truth of the maxim, that in the long run it may be as gainful "to make small profits on large sales as large profits on smaller sales;" their policy, on the contrary, has not been inaptly compared to a man putting out one of his eyes to strengthen the sight of the other.

It must be admitted, that the line of conduct pursued by the English towards the Malayan nations, had by no means been of a conciliatory or prepossessing character. Our intercourse with them had been carried on almost exclusively through the medium of adventurers little acquainted with either the country or people, who have been frequently more remarkable for boldness than principle[69]. Indeed, the want of any settled basis of traffic, and the long indifference of the British government to the complaints of either party, had produced so many impositions, reprisals, piracies, and [Vol I Pg 258]murders, that any eastern trader must have felt himself very much in the situation of a dealer in spirits, tobacco, and blankets, among the Indians of North America. It was the remark of Mr. Farquhar, than whom no man is more extensively acquainted with the interests and resources of East insular India, that the indifference of the British government must have originated solely in the want of information or incorrectness of knowledge; since it is not improbable, that the riches of Sumatra and Borneo are equal to those either of Brazil or New Spain; and it is only from the disadvantages under which we had hitherto entered into the competition, that these great sources of wealth had so long been engrossed by other nations[70].

The doctrine, that a colony should always be considered a distant province of the mother-country, has been foreign to the political creed of the Dutch; and at any rate the radical want of strength in the government of Batavia may have prevented them from venturing to act upon it. Of course, they must always have contemplated the prosperity of the eastern tribes with the invidious regret of a rival shopkeeper, and regarded their progress in civilization with the jealousy of a timid despot. The fact sufficiently establishes the truth of this remark.

Independently of the effects of the European influence just described, the causes which have tended most to the depression of the Malayan tribes, and the deterioration of their character, are the civil commotions to which every state is liable, from the radical want of strength in the sovereign; the constant wars between the petty chieftains and heads of villages; the ill-defined succession to the throne, from the doctrine of primogeniture being imperfectly recognized; the prevalence of piracy in all the Eastern Seas; the system of domestic slavery, and all its concomitant evils, as wars for the purpose of procuring slaves, and the want of confidence between family and family, man and man; the want of a generally-established, and recognized system of laws, civil and criminal; the want of a similar system of commercial regulations respecting[Vol I Pg 259] port duties, anchorage, and other charges, to prevent arbitrary exactions and impositions in the various Malayan ports; and, finally, the monopoly of the trade assumed by the Malayan rajas. Had Java remained permanently annexed to the British crown, the redress of these evils would have been, in a great measure, in the power of the English nation: the undertaking would have been worthy of their general character, and there was no other nation that could have possessed the means in an equal degree, even if it had indeed possessed the inclination.

The prevalence of piracy on the Malayan coasts, and the light in which it was viewed as an honourable occupation, worthy of being followed by young princes and nobles, is an evil of ancient date, and intimately connected with the Malayan habits. The old Malayan romances, and the fragments of their traditional history, constantly refer with pride to piratical cruizes.

In addition to other causes, which I shall not stop to specify, the state of the eastern population, and the intolerant spirit of the religion of Islam, have eminently tended to increase the practice. The Arab Sheikhs and Sayeds, whatever doctrines they failed to inculcate, never neglected to enforce the merit of plundering and massacring the infidels; an abominable tenet, which has tended more than any other doctrine of the KÓran to the propagation of this religion. Numerous and various are the tribes of the Eastern Isles which have not embraced the religion of Islam to this day, and consequently are reckoned infidels: cruizes against such were, and are, constantly certain of receiving the approbation of all the Arab teachers settled in the Malayan countries. The practice of piracy is now an evil so extensive and formidable, that it can be put down by the strong hand alone; though precautions against its recurrence might be taken, by rendering, under the system of acknowledged ports, every chieftain answerable for his own territory.

Connected with this evil, though of much wider extent, is the system of slavery in the Malayan countries, which, to apply the energetic language of Mr. Pitt to this subject, has been none of the least efficient causes of keeping down these regions "in a state of bondage, ignorance, and blood." In the[Vol I Pg 260] beginning of the year 1805, the Marquis Wellesley abolished slavery throughout India; and, on the 4th of June, 1811, the Earl of Minto, by an order to emancipate all the government slaves at Malacca, and to direct that hereafter no slaves should be purchased or received on account of government, gave to the Malayan nations an earnest of his sentiments on the subject. It is certainly to the credit of our countrymen in the East, that they have ever opposed all attempts to introduce the abominable slave traffic into our settlements there. It was prohibited at Madras by an act of the Governor and Council, of so early a date as 1682.

The sources of slavery in the Malayan countries are chiefly piracy at sea, captivity in war, manstealing along the coast, and the penalties enacted in the Malayan law respecting debts and sundry misdemeanors. The surviving crews of vessels which fall into the hands of the pirates are generally disposed of by sale at the first market. The captives taken in the constant wars which the Malayan chieftains carry on against each other, are generally employed in domestic occupations, tending cattle, and cultivating the ground, where there is no opportunity of bringing them to market. This, however, is seldom the case, since such numbers are constantly required by the Arabs and Chinese traders, and heretofore by the Dutch. Many of the Arab trading vessels are almost exclusively navigated by the slaves of the owner; and in their progress from island to island, they find little difficulty in recruiting their crew, by receiving presents of slaves, or if that should fail, by kidnapping the unfortunate natives. This forms a strong argument against admitting the unrestricted range of the islands to either Chinese or Arab traders; for while this is permitted, the abolition of the system of kidnapping would be absolutely impossible. The pagan tribes in the vicinity of the Mahometans, such as those on BÁli, and some of the tribes of Celebes, the HarafÚras, the black PapÚas or oriental negroes, the original inhabitants of HÁlamahÍra, Coram, and other easterly nations, are in a great measure the victims of the kidnapping system, and being infidels are considered as fair booty.

Nothing has tended more decidedly to the deterioration of the Malayan character, than the want of a well defined and generally acknowledged system of law and commercial regu[Vol I Pg 261]lation. The Malayan nations had, in general, made considerable progress in civilization, before the introduction of the Mahometan religion among them: they had, accordingly, regular institutions of their own, some of which were probably of considerable antiquity, derived from the continent of India, and consequently radically different from those of the Arabs.

Some difficulty appears to have occurred in adapting these institutions to the general tenor of the Mahometan law, and many anomalous ones appear accordingly to have sprung up in different states. These occur in every part of jurisprudence, whether commercial, civil, or criminal, and are recited in the Undang Úndang and Adat MalÁyu, which are the systems of national law among the MalÁyus. They vary considerably from each other in different states, and still more from the generally acknowledged principle of Mahometan law, as received by the Arabs. Hence there is, in almost every state, a constant struggle between the adherents of the old Malayan usages and the HÁjis, together with other religious persons, who are desirous of introducing the laws of the Arabs, in order to increase their own importance.

Among the numerous and important evils which result from this complex and ill-defined system, may be reckoned its affording an opening for the caprice and tyranny of the rulers, and producing a general insecurity both of person and property.

The state of the Moslem religion is very different here from what it is in the old Mahomedan states, such as Persia, Turkey, or Arabia. In many of the Eastern Islands paganism still remains: in some districts there are many Christians, and the Chinese swarm in every Malayan country, and live intermingled with the Mahomedans. This mixture of religion and tribes has tended, in some degree, to soften the intolerance of the Mahomedan system among the Malayan nations, and neither the positive authority of Islam, nor the persuasions of their Arab teachers, have hitherto been able to induce them to abandon entirely their own peculiar usages and customs. With some of these usages, especially those which relate to wrecks on the Malayan shores, and the commercial regulations of the different ports, it becomes incumbent on[Vol I Pg 262] the supreme European authority to interfere. In revising these, the opportunity might perhaps be taken to procure the abandonment of some of those maxims and usages, which have the strongest tendency to prevent their improvement, and counteract the habits of civilized life.

A circumstance highly injurious to the commerce of the Malayan nations is the trading monopoly, which in most of the Malayan ports is actually assumed by the chiefs. Of this monopoly there is no trace in the Undang Úndang of the MalÁyus, or in the fragments of their history which have yet come to light, and it is a question whether this pernicious practice has not been copied from the monopoly regulations of the Dutch. Where this system has been fully carried into effect, it has generally succeeded effectually in repressing industry and commercial enterprize; and where it has been for some time established, its evils have been felt so deeply, that it may be presumed the Malayan chiefs might be induced to relinquish it in favour of a regulated commerce, whenever they might regain the power of collecting regular duties in lieu of it. The Malayan laws and customs are fortunately of a very different kind from those adopted among the great nations of the continent in their vicinity. These nations, especially the Siamese and Cochin Chinese, have long been accustomed to look up to the Chinese, with whom they coincide in religion and manners, and from whom they have adopted their exclusive maxims of foreign intercourse. The MÁlayus, on the other hand, though accustomed to look up to the Arabs as their religious instructors, seldom hesitate to admit the superiority of both the Europeans and Chinese, both to themselves and to the Arabs, in the arts of life and general science; and it is certainly our interest to encourage them in this mode of thinking, and to prevent the increase of the Arab influence among them.

The Dutch nation appears to have pursued, as a principle of policy, the propagation of Christianity among the Eastern Islands. The same object had been previously followed by the Portuguese with great success, and there are now several small islands in the Malayan Archipelago, inhabited almost exclusively by Christians of the Catholic persuasion. In many other islands the Protestant persuasion has made con[Vol I Pg 263]siderable progress, and teachers, in the flourishing times of the Batavian Regency, were dispersed over all the low chain of islands which extend from BÁli and Lumbok (SÁsak) to the great island Timor. The islands in which the Christian faith has been most extensively diffused are the great island EndÉ or Meng' arÁi, the great island of TÍmor, and the several small islands in the vicinity, and Amboina. In many of these islands the natives having no written character of their own, have been instructed in the Roman character, and taught to read Malayan and other dialects in it There have also been various formularies printed for their use, and translations have been executed for them in some of their languages, which have little or no affinity to the Malayan. The propagation of Christianity among these islands is obviously liable to none of those objections which have been urged against its missionaries on continental possessions. A great proportion of the natives are still pagans, under the influence of a wild and almost unintelligible superstition, the principles of which are not recorded in books, but are handed down, like stories of ghosts, fairies, and witches, with all the uncertainty of tradition. In most instances, the people, though they stand in great awe of the priests or enchanters, or dealers with invisible spirits, are very little attached to the superstition in which they are educated. Many of them are said to be very desirous of procuring instruction, and in some places they look up with a degree of veneration to the Mahomedans, as a people who have received something which they still want.

These observations on the Malayan Islands in general, apply to no part of the Archipelago more than to the important and great island of Borneo.

Borneo is not only one of the most fertile countries in the world, but one of the most productive in gold and diamonds[71]. [Vol I Pg 264]Its camphor is the finest known, and it is thought capable of producing every kind of spice. Its eastern coasts, which [Vol I Pg 265]abound in sago, also furnish a greater quantity of birds'-nests, sea-slug, and other commodities in great demand in the [Vol I Pg 266]Chinese market, than the other islands of the East; but the interior has never been explored by Europeans. It may be [Vol I Pg 267]conjectured, that the ignorance of the state of the country is one of the principal causes that no European settlement on it has hitherto proved advantageous, but has generally been abandoned after a short trial. The only exception to this observation is the Dutch settlement of BÁnjer-mÁsin, which continued from 1747 to 1810, when it was formally abandoned by Marshal Daendals to the Sultan, by agreement, for the sum of fifty thousand Spanish dollars. The Sultan soon after sent an embassy, inviting the English to settle; and previous to the conquest of Java, the Earl of Minto received the ambassadors at Malacca, and accepted their invitation.

The only territory to which the Dutch had any claim on the island of Borneo, was the coast from SÚkadÁna to MempÁwa; this territory they acquired by virtue of a cession from the Sultan of Bantam in 1778. They destroyed SÚkadÁna, and established factories at PontiÁna and MempÁwa, which however they abandoned as unproductive after a period of fourteen years.

In no other part of the island of Borneo has there been any European settlement. The English, in 1772, intended to have established a factory at PÁsir, but they abandoned the design on some commotions taking place in that state. Its object was to make PÁsir a depÓt for opium and India piece goods, and for the contraband trade in spices. In 1774, a short time after the first settling of BalambÁngan, Mr. Jesse was deputed as Resident to Borneo proper, and concluded a treaty with that state, by which he acquired for the settlement of BalambÁngan the exclusive trade in pepper, stipulating in return to protect Borneo from the piratical incursions of the SÚlu and MendanÁwi men. Neither of the parties, however, fulfilled its agreement, though the Residency at Borneo was continued for some years after the first breaking up of the settlement of BalambÁngan in 1775.

On the north-east of Borneo proper lies a very considerable territory, the sovereignty of which has been long claimed by the SÚlu government; a very considerable part of this, together with the islands off the coast, have been for upwards of forty [Vol I Pg 268]years regularly ceded to the English by the SÚlus, and has also at different periods been assumed by them, without any objection on the part of the government of Borneo proper. This ceded district, extending from the river Ki-manis on the north-west, which forms the boundary of Borneo proper, to the great bay on the north-east, is undoubtedly a rich and fertile country, though in a rude and uncultivated state, and it is admirably situated for commerce, notwithstanding the different failures of BalambÁngan may seem to indicate the contrary. BalambÁngan is one of the small islands off the northern extremity of the island of Borneo, and included in the SÚlu grant to the English. It would be foreign to the present object to enter into any details concerning the history of the settlement of BalambÁngan, but it may be proper to mention, that all the gentlemen who were engaged in the last attempt were convinced that the bottom of the great MalÚdu Bay would have been infinitely preferable as a settlement on every account. BalambÁngan is exactly analogous, in every respect, to Pinang; it does not admit of territorial extension, and must exist, if at all, by commerce solely. MalÚdu, on the other hand, is a dependency on the island of Borneo, which admits of any degree of territorial extension, may always subsist any number of inhabitants by its own produce, and is said to communicate, by a land carriage of little more than forty miles, with the central lakes in the vicinity of the gold countries.

From every inquiry, however, and the result of some experience, and much reflection, it may be stated, that no settlement which is founded on a commercial, instead of a territorial basis, is likely to succeed in that quarter. We have already acquired territorial rights, and therefore the only question seems to be, whether these cannot be turned to advantage, as well by cultivation as by commerce. The DÁyaks, or original inhabitants of Borneo, are said to be not only industrious, but particularly disposed to agriculture, and so manageable, that a handful of MalÁyus have, in numerous places, reduced many thousands of them to the condition of peaceful cultivators of the ground. Indeed nothing seems wanting but a government strong enough to afford efficient protection to person and property. In the case of the DÁyaks, it must be considered as[Vol I Pg 269] an advantage, that they have not hitherto adopted the religion of Islam, and would consequently be more ready from the first to regard us as their friends. It ought to be calculated among the inducements to form a settlement on Borneo, that in that quarter our territorial arrangement would interfere with the claims or the rights of no European nation. To recommend, however, the immediate establishment of a settlement at this particular spot, and on a basis so new, would obviously be premature, as notwithstanding the length of time we occupied BalambÁngan, not only the interior of Borneo was almost unknown, but until lately, even a great part of its coasts. This supineness in the government of BalambÁngan is perhaps not unexampled. The want of local information has, indeed, often proved fatal to the infant settlements of the English. "Colonies and settlements of every kind," says the author of the Letter on the Nagrais Expedition, "must at first be attended with many difficulties, which however a judicious perseverance will surmount, if there be not some original fault in the establishment. It must be obvious to every one, that the English never made a settlement, in which they were not impeded by some unforeseen difficulties, so as at least frequently to make abandoning the infant establishment appear the most prudent step, without even hoping any return for the prodigious expense which may have been incurred by the undertaking."?—"Various reasons," adds that author, "may be ascribed for this event; but incapacity in the person entrusted with the management, and the want of previous examination of the place, seem to me the most common and the most considerable." Without stopping to inquire how far the want of success in our several attempts to settle BalambÁngan may have been fairly attributable to either of these causes, it may be confidently asserted, that the last establishment failed chiefly from its being solely of a military nature, without either professional merchants or mercantile adventurers being attached to it.

These observations respecting BalambÁngan apply to it chiefly as a territorial establishment; but there is no doubt that it would speedily attain commercial importance. Many of the commercial advantages which recommended its selection still exist, to an equal or greater extent; especially those[Vol I Pg 270] which related to Cochin China, Champa, and Cambodia. But this digression has already exceeded its reasonable limits, and it is necessary to revert to the more immediate point under consideration, the commerce of Java. Any account of this commerce would be imperfect, which after stating the extent to which it is carried, and the mode in which it is conducted with the adjacent islands in the same Archipelago, should omit to mention the advantages of an intercourse with Japan, and some notices on the Japan trade.

The history of the Dutch connexion with that country is well known, and can never be forgotten. Perhaps there is not such an instance in the annals of commerce, of the disgraceful arts to which mercantile cupidity will resort, and the degradation to which it will submit for the attainment of its object, as in the Dutch proceedings at Japan; nor is there, perhaps, a more remarkable example of the triumphant success, and complete disappointment of commercial enterprize. As it may be interesting to many readers to see an authentic history of the origin, fluctuations, and decline of the Dutch Japan trade, and as even a very succinct statement of it would swell this chapter to a disproportioned size, I have placed a short history of it in the Appendix to this work, to which I beg leave to refer those who have any curiosity for such details[72]. From the year 1611, when the Dutch established commercial relations with Japan, till 1671 (a period of sixty years), their speculations were unrestricted and their profits were enormous. This was the golden age of their trade: they opened a mine of wealth, and they fondly thought it inexhaustible, as well as rich and easily wrought. In 1640, the Company obtained a return in gold, that yielded a profit of upwards of a million of guilders. They had been accustomed to procure, for some time previous to 1663, a return of silver to the extent of two hundred chests of one hundred pounds each, and it was suggested that it would be desirable for as many chests of gold of the same weight to be sent in future. The golden and silver ages of Japan commerce being past, the latter half of the seventeenth century began with what the Dutch called its brazen age, that is its export of copper, which [Vol I Pg 271]has ever since continued the staple of the Japan market. The trade was on the decline during the whole of the last century, and had become of so little importance about 1740, that the Company deliberated upon the expediency of its total abandonment. From employing, as at one time, eight or nine ships, and exporting copper alone to the amount of more than thirty thousand pÍkuls, of one hundred and twenty-five pounds each, it diminished to the use of two vessels, and the purchase of cargoes of five or six thousand pÍkuls. The Appendix contains an account of the nature of the trade, and the result of the Dutch adventures of 1804-5 and 1806, and of our own in 1813.

[54] Great Britain.