Full text of "The Book of history; a history of all nations from the earliest times to the present, with over 8,000 illus. With an introd. by Viscount Bryce, contributing authors, W.M. Flinders Petrie and many other specialists"

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Volume III

THE FAR EAST

Malaysia . The East Indies
Java . Sumatra . Borneo . Moluccas, etc.

The Philippine Islands
Oceania . Hawaii . Samoa, etc.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

INDIA

NEW YORK . . THE GROLIER SOCIETY
LONDON THE EDUCATIONAL BOOK CO.

Printed by The Colonial Press, Boston, Mass., U. S. A.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME III

THE COLOUR OF INDIA FRONTISPIECE

SECOND GRAND DIVISION (continued)

THE FAR EAST

MALAYSIA

PAGE

Map of the Malay Archipelago 886

Races of Primitive Culture .......... 887

Wanderings of the Malays . . . . . . x . . . 890

Coming of the Asiatics . . . . 895

Europeans in Malaysia ........... 900

THE ISLANDS AND THEIR STORY

Java: The Centre of the Dutch Indies 900

Sumatra: The Stepping-Stone from Asia 915

Borneo: Largest of the Malay Islands .... . 919

Celebes: Smallest of the Larger Islands 923

Moluccas and the Sunda Islands . . . . . . . . ' . 9 2 5

Philippine Islands . 929

OCEANIA

Men and Manners in Oceania 937

The Island Nations of the South Seas 945

THE OCEANIC ISLANDS AND THEIR STORY 957

Hawaii: Beginning and End of a Kingdom . . 968

Samoa and its Settlement by the Powers . .... 975
Tonga: The Last South Sea Kingdom .... .981

New Zealand 9$5

Later Events in New Zealand ...... 1002

The Western Powers in the South Seas . . 1003

Oceania and Malaysia in our own Time . 1006

AUSTRALIA

Map of Australia and Tasmania ... IOI

The Nature of the Country .... . . . IOIT

Native Peoples of Australia and Tasmania .... IOI 9

British in Australia IO2 9

Development of New South Wales IO 4 2

THE BOOK OF HISTORY
EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLONIES

Tasmania: The Garden Colony 1052

Victoria and Queensland ........... 1057

Western Australia: The Youngest State . 1063

South Australia in Development ......... 1067

Modern Development of Australia ......... 1071

Australia in our own Time .......... 1087

Later Events in Australia .......... 1099

Great Dates in the History of Australia ....... noo

PACIFIC OCEAN

Before Magellan's Voyages . . . 1101

Pacific Ocean in Modern Times 1106

THIRD GRAND DIVISION

THE MIDDLE EAST

Map of the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . 1120

Plan of Third Grand Division ......... 1122

Interest and Importance of the Middle East . . . . . . . 1123

INDIA

Beauties of Nature and Art .......... 1129

The Land and the People . . . . . . . . . . 1145

Gems of Indian Architecture Plate facing 1154

ANCIENT INDIA

The Aryan Invasion 1155

Map of India . . . . . . ... . . . . 1161

The Aryan Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . 1167

Buddhism and Jainism ........... 1185

Indian Temples ....... Coloured Plate facing 1196

From Alexander to the Mohammedans ........ 1201

MOHAMMEDAN INDIA

India before the Moguls 1215

The Mogul Empire ............ 1225

Disruption of the Empire ........... 1238

MODERN INDIA

Princes and People of Modern India ........ 1245

The Foundation of British Dominion ........ 1251

Map of India in 1801 1266

Expansion of British Dominion . . . . . . . . . 1267

Completion of British Dominion ......... 1285

The Story of the Mutiny . . . 1301

Edward VII in India 1313

MAL7\YS

THE ISLAND WORLD OF THE EASTERN SEAS

RACES OF PRIMITIVE CULTURE

MALAYSIA is the general designation
of the largest group of islands in the
world ; it stretches out in front of Asia to
the south-east, forming the stepping-stone
to the mainland of Australia on the one
side, and to the Melanesian archipelagoes
and the island-realm of Oceania on the
other. It is known also as Indonesia, or the
Indian Archipelago. The numerous mem-
bers of the group include some of the most
gigantic islands on the globe, with moun-
tain ranges and navigable rivers, as well
as diminutive islets, which hardly supply
the sparsest population with the necessaries
of life ; we find, as we go toward the east,
the first traces of Australian
Extremes of drvness an( j desolation as well
Natu . as regions of tropical luxuriance

Conditions and splendid fertility. The

term Malaysia is also extended to the
Malay Peninsula, but its restricted use is
adopted for convenience in these pages.

For a long period there was no idea of
any general name for all these islands and
island groups, least of all among the
natives themselves, who often have hardly
recognised the larger islands as connected
territories. Their narrow horizon, on the
other hand, has completely prevented
them from realising the sharp contrast
which exists between their own island
homes, with extensive and deeply indented
coast lines, and the neighbouring
continents, of which only a small part is
in contact with the sea. At least they
have never thought of emphasising such

a distinction by collective names. The
geographers of Europe, having the whole
picture of the world before their eyes,
were the first to mark out the two large
groups of the Sunda Islands and the
Philippines. The title Malaysia, of course,
emphasises the purely ethnological point
of view, meaning the region inhabited by
that peculiar brown, straight-haired race,
to which we give the name Malayan,
recognised from very early times as a
distinct type of mankind.

One member of the ethnological group,
however, Madagascar, belongs geographi-
cally so clearly to Africa that it is treated
in connection with that continent, instead
of being included in the present section.

The Indian island world belongs as a
whole to the tropics, and in its chief parts
to the moist and warm tropical plains.
Highlands, which are of incalculable im-
portance for the culture of tropical coun-
tries, as the ancient history of
Physical America in particular shows, are
^ ea l u . rcs . found to any appreciable ex-
' tent, only in Sumatra, although
there is no lack of mountain ranges and
lofty volcanic cones on the other islands.
If we recall the doctrine of Oskar
Peschel that the oldest civilised countries
lay nearer the tropics than those of
modern times, and that, therefore, the
chief zones of civilisation have withdrawn
toward the Poles, it can at least be con-
jectured that a region so favourably
situated as Malaysia was not always of

887

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

such trifling importance in the history of
mankind as it is at present. We need not
picture to ourselves a primitive highly
developed culture, but one which, after
reaching a certain level at an early period,
remained stationary and was outstripped
by the civilisation of other regions. The
Dyak in Central Borneo has reached, it
Prim is certain, no high grade of

civilisation, but a comparison

CivffltatioA Wlth thC reindeer - hunters of

n the European Ice Age would
certainly be to his advantage. The entire
ethnological development of the country,
and the influence which it once asserted
over wide regions of the world, prove
that at a remote period a comparatively
noteworthy civilisation was actually at-
tained in the Malay Archipelago.

Malaysia, notwithstanding its place as
a connecting link between Asia and
Australia, occupies from the view of
ethnology an outlying position. It is
true that culture could radiate outwards
from it in almost every direction ; on
the other hand, this region has been
affected almost exclusively by movements
from the north and west, from Asia, that
is, and later from Europe, but hardly at
all from Australia and Polynesia. These
conditions find their true expression in
the old racial displacements of the Malay
Archipelago. The drawbacks of this geo-
graphical situation are almost balanced
by the extraordinarily favourable position
for purposes of intercourse which the
Malay islands enjoy a position in its
kind unrivalled throughout the world.

The two greatest civilised regions of the
world the Indo-European on the one
side, the East- Asiatic on the other could
come into close communication only by
the route round the south-east extremity
of Asia, since the Mongolian deserts con-
stituted an almost insuperable barrier ;
but there in the south-east the island- world
of Indonesia offered its harbours and the
_ riches of its soil to the seafarers

" ur * wearied by the long voyage,

Commerce and mv ^ ed them to exchange
wares and lay the foundation
for prosperous trading towns. This com-
mercial intercourse has never died away
since the time when it was first started ;
only the nations who maintained it have
changed. The present culture of the
Archipelago has grown up under the
influence of this constant intercourse ;
but the oldest conditions, which are so
888

important for the history of mankind,
have nowhere been left unimpaired. We
need not commit the blunder of taking the
rude forest tribes of Borneo or Mindanao
for surviving types of the ancient civilisa-
tion of Malaysia. The bold seamen who
steered their vessels to Easter Island and
Madagascar were assuredly of another
stock than these degenerate denizens
of the steamy primeval forests.

It is difficult to give a short sketch of
Malayan history because justifiable doubts
may arise as to the correct method of
statement. First, we have to deal with
an insular and much divided region';
and, secondly, a large, indeed the greater
part of the historical events were pro-
duced and defined by external influences.
The history of Malaysia is what we might
expect from the insular nature of the
region ; it splits up into a narrative of
numerous local developments, of which the
most important at all events require to
be treated and estimated separately. But,
on the other hand, waves of migration
and civilising influences once more flood
all the island-world and bring unity into
_,. , the whole region by ending the

The Struggle natural isolati(m b f the groups.

Individuality And ^ ^ is Unit y * Onl y
apparent ; for even if new

immigrants gain a footing on the coasts
of the larger islands, and foreign civilisa-
tions strike root in the maritime towns,
the tribes in the interior resist the swell-
ing tide and preserve in hostile defiance
their individuality, protected now by the
mountainous nature of their homes, now
by the fever-haunted forests of the valleys
in which they seek asylum.

Since there no longer exists any doubt
that man inhabited the earth even at
the beginning of the Drift Epoch, and
since the opinion might be ventured
that his first appearance falls into the
Tertiary Age, it is no longer possible to
deduce in a childlike fashion the primitive
conditions of mankind from the present
state of the world, and to look for its oldest
home in one of the countries still existing.
Least of all must we hazard hasty con-
clusions when we are dealing with a part
of the earth so manifest y the scene of
the most tremendous shocks and trans-
formations, and so rent and shattered by
volcanic agencies, as Malaysia. In quite
recent times, also, the discovery of some
bones at Trinil in Java by Dr. Eugene
Dubois, which Othniel Charles Marsh

MALAYSIA RACES OF PRIMITIVE CULTURE

ascribes to a link between man and the
anthropoid apes, caused a profound
sensation in the scientific world and
stimulated the search, in Malaysia itself,
for the reg on where man first raised him-
self to his present position from a lower
stage of existence. However this question
may be answered, it is meanwhile calcu-
lated to discourage any discussion of
origins ; it especially helps us to reject
those views which unhesitatingly look
for the home of all Malayan nationalities
on the continent of Asia, and from this
standpoint build up a fanciful foundation
for Malayan history. The linguistic condi-
tions warn us against this misconception.
On the mainland of Southern Asia we
find monosyllabic languages ; but in the
island region they are polysyllabic. There
is thus a fundamental distinction between
the two groups.

Two main races are represented in the
Malay Archipelago, which in the number
of their branches and in their distribution
are extraordinarily divergent. They show
in their reciprocal relations the unmis-
takable result of ancient historical occur-
_. _ rences. These are the brown,
* hc w straight-haired Malays in the
Mala sU wider sense and the dark-
skinned Negritos, who owe their
name to their resemblance to the negro.
Since the whole manner in which the
Negritos are at present scattered over
the islands points to a retrogression,
there will always be an inclination to
regard them, when compared with the
Malays, as the more ancient inhabitants
of at least certain parts of the Archipelago.

These Negritos form a link in the chain
of those equatorial dark-skinned peoples
who occupy most part of Africa, Southern
India, Melanesia, and Australia, and
almost everywhere, as compared with
lighter-skinned races, exhibit a retrogres-
sion which certainly did not begin in
modern times, and suggests the conclu-
sion that the homes of these dark racial
elements were once more extensive than
they are to-day. It is doubtful, indeed,
whether we are justified in assuming
these negroid races to be closely con-
nected, or whether, on the contrary,
several really independent branches of
the dark-skinned type of mankind are
represented among them. One point is,
however, established ; the Negritos of
the Malay Archipelago, by their geo-
graphical distribution, and still more by

their physical characteristics, are most
closely allied to the Papuans, who inhabit
New Guinea and the Melanesian groups
of islands.

It follows that the Papuan race
once extended further to the west, and
was worsted in the struggle with the
Malay element. According to one view,

even the dark-skinned inhabi-
Evolution tants Qf Madagascar would be

closel y akin to the Melanesians
The Negritos are in no re-
spect pure Papuans ; not only are they
often so mixed with Malay tribes that
their individuality has disappeared except
for a few remnants, but many indications
point to the fact that there have been
frequent crossings with tribes of short
stature, whose relat : on to the Papuans
may perhaps be compared with that of
the African pigmies to the genuine negroes.
These dwarf races cannot in any way be
brought into line with the other dark
peoples. Kinsfolk of the .low-statured
race, which has mixed with the Negritos
or perhaps formed their foundation, exist
on the peninsula of Malacca especially
in its northern part, on the Andamans,
and in Ceylon. There were also, in all
probability, representatives of this dwarf
race to be found on the larger Sunda
Islands, and in East Asia.

At any rate, it is a fact that some of
the eastern islands of the Malay Archi-
pelago, particularly the Philippines, still
contain dark tribes, although, in conse-
quence of numerous admixtures and the
small numbers of these petty nations,
their existence has often been doubted.
Karl Semper describes the Negritos, or
Antes, of the Philippines, as low-statured
men, of a dark, copper-brown complexion,
with flat noses and woolly black-brown
hair. Where they have preserved to some
degree their purity of race, they are a
characteristic type, easily distinguishable
from the members of the Malay race. There
appear to be hardly any

Negritos on the Sunda Is-
Character- ^^ n Rut in the

Ncgrltos south, on Timor, Floris, the
Moluccas and Celebes, more or less distinct
traces point to an admixture of a dark-
skinned race with the Malay population.
The same fact seems to be shown on Java.
Where the Negritos are more differen-
tiated from the others on the Philippines
especially they usually live in the in-
accessible interior of the islands, far from

889

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

the more densely peopled coasts, and
avoid the civilisation that prevails there.
It is sufficiently clear that these conditions
point to a retrogression and displacement
of the Negritos ; but it is difficult to arrive
at any certainty on these points.

The Papuan strain, which is so often
to be found in the vicinity of the dwarf
race may be traced to an immigration
from Melanesia, which has had its parallels
even in quite modern times. The Papuans
of Western New Guinea, who were
bold navigators and robbers, penetrated
to the coasts of the eastern Sunda

Islands, and planted settlements there ;
or possibly they immigrated to those parts
as involuntary colonists, having been
defeated and carried away by the Malays
in their punitive expeditions. On the
whole the relation of the Papuan to the
Malayan civilisation is very remarkable.
An explanation of it is much needed,
and would prove of extreme value for
the history of both races. The Papuan
has not merely been receptive of Malay
influences, but has also, to some slight
extent, created and diffused an in-
dependent and self -developed civilisation.

THE WANDERINGS OF THE AALAYS

A LTHOUGH a certain migratory im-
** pulse which is innate in the Papuan
has caused considerable migrations of the
race, yet these are completely over-
shadowed by the wanderings of the Malay
peoples, which are distinctly the most
extensive known to the earlier history of
mankind ; the more so because the Malays,
not content with spreading over a con-
tinent, took to the sea as well, and thus
became a connecting link between the four
quarters of the globe.

The expression " Malays," since it is
used sometimes in a narrower, sometimes
in a wider sense, has given rise
to many misunderstandings

and un P rofitable disputes. The
source of the confusion lies
in the circumstance that the name of the
people which at the period of the European
voyages of discovery seemed most vigor-
ously engaged in war and trade has been
given to the whole ethnological group, of
which it formed only a single, though
characteristic, part. This group, for whose
accepted name it is difficult to find a
substitute, is a branch of the human race
easily distinguishable from its neighbours
and admirably adapted to the nature of
its home; its homogeneity is further
attested by the affinity of the languages
which are spoken by its various branches.

We may assume that it was originally
an amalgamation of various primitive
races. In the islands, as in Northern
Asia, long-skulled (dolichocephalic) peoples
appear to have spread first, but soon to
have received an admixture of short-
skulled (brachycephalic) immigrants.

It is an idle question to ask for the ori-
ginal home of these two component parts
of the Malay race, in face of the incon-
testable fact that the kernel of the Malay

890

nationality occupies at present, as it has
occupied since early times, the island
world of Melanesia ; on the other hand,
comparatively small fragments of the
stock, with a larger proportion of mixed
peoples of partly Malay, partly Mongol,
elements, are found on the continent of
Asia. In this sense the region we are now
surveying is the cradle of the Malay race
as a separate group of mankind : it was
the starting-point of those marvellous
migrations which it is our immediate
intention to examine more closely. The
larger islands within the Malay island world
have exercised an isolating and warping
influence on the inhabitants, and thus
have produced nations as peculiar as
the Battaks on Sumatra, the Dyaks on
Borneo, and the Tagales on the Philippines ;
but this fact must not shake our con-
viction that, taken as a whole, the Malay
race, as we call it, is a comparatively
definite idea. The later infusions of Indian
and Chinese blood, which are now fre-
quently observable, do not concern the
earliest periods.

At first sight, it ought not to be a difficult
task to describe the culture of those racial
elements which migrated from Malaysia
in various directions. Among the de-
scendants of the emigrants there are many

tribes, especially in Oceania,
_ e which have found little oppor-

Factor n tunity on solitary islands to

acquire new wealth of civilisa-
tion, and therefore may have preserved
the old conditions in some degree of
purity. It must also be possible even at
the present day to determine, by the
simple process of sifting and comparing
the civilisations of the different branches
which have differentiated themselves from
the primitive stock, what was the original

MALAYSIA-WANDERINGS OF THE MALAYS

inheritance which all these had in com-
mon with one another.

But the conditions are by no means so
simple. Quite apart from the possible
continuance of changes and further de-
velopments in remote regions, we must
take into account the losses of culture
which are almost inseparable from exten-
sive migrations. Polynesia in particular
is a region where a settlement without
such losses is almost inconceivable ; the
natura 1 conditions are such that it is
impossible to maintain some of the arts
of civilisation.

If, therefore, at the present day, as we
advance towards Oceania, we cross the
limits within which a large number of
crafts and acquisitions are known ; if on
the eastern islands of Indonesia iron-
smelting ends ; if on the Micronesian realm
of islands the knowledge of weaving and
the circulation of old East Asiatic or Euro-
pean beads, and on Fiji the potter's art,
cease, the cause of these phenomena is not
immediately clear. It is indeed possible
that the inhabitants of Polynesia emigrated
from their old homes at a period when smelt-
ing, weaving, and the potter's

* PrfoSi'e art WerC StiU unknown ; but *
Islanders' * s P er ^ a P s more probable that
at least one part of the civili-
sation possessed by the small coral islands
of the oceans has been simply forgotten
and lost, or finds a faint echo in linguistic
traces, as the knowledge of iron on Fiji.
And, even in the first case, the question may
always remain open whether the different
branches of knowledge reached their
present spheres of extension in the suite of
migratory tribes, or whether we may
assume a gradual permeation of culture
from people to people, which is possible
without migrations on a large scale, and
may have continued to the present day.

The most valuable possession which can
furnish information as to earlier times is
the language, but unfortunately there is
still an entire want of investigations which
would be directly available for historical
inquiry. This much may certainly be
settled that there are no demonstrable
traces of Indian or Chinese elements in
the Polynesian dialects any more than in
those of Madagascar. It is thus at least
clear that the great migrations must have
taken place before the beginning of our
era.

A proof that the islands proper in
ancient times possessed a civilisation of

their own, nearly independent of external
influences, is given by the supply of
indigenous plants useful to man which
were at the disposal of the inhabitants,
even at the period of the migrations.
Granted that the cultivation of useful
growths was suggested from outside
sources, still these suggestions were appa-
_, . rently followed out indepen-

Fnutsand dently in the islands> Ri ce , the
Cereals of , J 11 i r T j-

l . . most valuable cereal ol India
and South China, is not an
ancient possession of the islands' culture,
which is acquainted instead with the taro,
the yam, and sesame. Among useful
trees may be mentioned the bread-fruit
palm, and perhaps the coco-nut palm,
which are widely diffused, in the Malayo-
Polynesian region at any rate. Of useful
animals man appears in earlier times to
have been acquainted only with the dog,
possibly the pig, but not with the ox or
the horse. This is again an important
fact. Attention is elsewhere called to the
probability that the agriculture of the
Old World was older than the cattle-
breeding industry, which in its developed
form was introduced into India only by
the Aryans. While, therefore, in ancient
times the practice of agriculture may have
been brought to the islands from the
mainland, the knowledge of cattle-breeding
at the beginning of the migration had not
reached them by that road. We are not
able to settle any fixed date, but these
facts at least confirm the view that the
years of migration fall in a comparatively
early period.

The seamanship of the immigrants and
the fact that even in Polynesia they
continued to inhabit the coasts and peopled
the interior of the islands only sparsely
justify the conclusion that the mass of
the migratory bands was sent out from
typical maritime nations. Java, possibly,
which favoured the growth of population
by the fertility of its soil, and where pre-
. historic weapons of polished
stone lead us to assume the

existence even in early times of

Java the
Base of

a centre of some civilisation, was
the chief starting-point for the migrations,
which split up into various subdivisions,
now hardly distinguishable. For the
most part it would not have been a
question of enormous journeys, but of an
advance from island to island, where the
immigrants would have been content first
to occupy a part of the coast, and then, in

891

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

the traditional manner, to build up a new
system of life by cultivating clearings in
the primeval forests, by fishing, and by
profitable raids. The arts of shipbuilding
and navigation must have reached a com-
paratively high stage ; double canoes and
outriggers, which enabled boats to keep
out at sea even in bad weather, and to
cross wide expanses of water, must have
already been invented. Even at the
present day the boats of the Polynesians
and of the Melanesians, who are closely
connected with them in this respect are
the best which have been made by primi-
tive races ; while in
the Malay Archipe-
lago the imitation of
foreign models has
already changed and
driven out the old
style of shipbuilding.
The sail must have
been known to the
ancient inhabitants,
and it is more than
probable that they
understood how to
steer their course by
the stars and the
movement of the
waves, and that they
possessed the rudi-
ments of nautical
cartography.

The social condi-
tions of the early
period certainly en-
couraged the spirit
of adventure. No
ethnological group in
the world has shown
a stronger tendency
than the Malays and
Polynesians to en-
courage the system
of male associations
as distinct from families and clans.
The younger men, who usually live and
sleep together in a separate bachelors'
house, are everywhere organised as a
military body, which is often the ruling
force in the community, and, in any
event, welcomes adventure and dangers
in a spirit quite different from families
or clans burdened with the anxiety of
wives and children. These conditions
create a warlike spirit in the people,
which regards feuds and raids as
the natural course of things, and finds

892

A CANNIBAL CHIEF OF BORNEO

its most tangible expression in head-
hunting, a custom peculiar to the Malayo-
Polynesian stock. Originating in the
habit of erecting the skulls cf ancestors
as sacred relics in the men's quarter, it
has led to a morbid passion for collecting,
which provokes continual wars and never
allows neighbouring races to remain at
peace. Thus there remain even now the
traces of a former state of things in which
bold tribes of navigators and freebooters
were produced.

We are here dealing with such remote
ages that there can be no idea of assigning
any precise dates to
the different migra-
tions ; they can there-
fore be only briefly
sketched, in an order
which does not imply
any necessary chrono-
logical sequence.

A first wave of
migration flowed to
the north. It is, in
the first place, very
probable that Malay
tribes settled in the
Philippines at a later
period than in the
great Sunda Islands,
the proper home of
true Malay life ; but
for this nation of
skilful seamen it was
only a step across
from the Philippines
to Formosa, where
tribes of unmistakably
Malay origin are still
living. This can
hardly have been the
ultimate goal. There
are numerous traces
on the mainland of
South China which
point to an immigration of Malays.
Again, the peculiarity of the Japanese
is best explained by an admixture of
Malay blood ; it is indeed not incon-
ceivable that the political evolution
which began in the south was due to
the seafaring Malays who first set foot on
the southern islands and mixed with the
existing inhabitants and with immigrants
from Korea. Since this political organisa-
tion took place about 660 B.C., the
migration might be assigned to a still
earlier time. The first migration northward

GROUP OF THE COMMON PEOPLE OF BORNEO

SUMATRAN

SULU ISLANDER JAVANESE HEAD-DRESS USUAL MALAY HEAD-DRESS

TYPES OF THE NATIVE RACES OF MALAYSIA

893

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

was also followed by a subsequent one,
which reached at least as far as the
Philippines, if not farther.

A second stream of emigrants was
directed toward the east. On the Melane-
sian islands, which since early times were
occupied by a dark-skinned race, numerous
Malay colonies were founded, which ex-
ercised a marked influence on
Migration to the Melanes i anS) but were

if * gradually, and to some degree,

absorbed. Even the continent
of Australia must have received a strong
infusion of Malay blood. The Malay
migratory spirit found freer scope on the
infinite island world of the Pacific, and
weighty facts support the view that
isolated settlers reached even the shores
of North-west America. How those voy-
ages were made and what periods of time
they required is not known to us. Only
the tradition of New Zealand tells us in
semi-mythical fashion how the first immi-
grants, with their families and gods, took
the dangerous voyage from Sawaii and
Rarotonga to their new home, in their
immense double canoes.

The third ethnological wave swept over
the Indian Ocean, and bore westward
to Madagascar the first germs of a
Malay population ; the Arabic " Book of
Miracles " relates an expedition of three
hundred sails from Wakwak to Mada-
gascar in the year 945 A.D. Possibly even
the African coast was reached in this
movement, although no permanent settle-
ments were made there.

Thus we see that, at least a thousand
years ago, the Malay race spread over a
region which extends from the shores of
America to the mainland of Africa, over
almost two-thirds of the circumference
of the earth. The Malayo-Polynesians
have kept aloof from the continents. The
oceans studded with islands are the in-
heritance of their race, which has had no
rival in the command of the seas except
the European group of Aryan

V !* nations in our own days.
Avoided T r j.i_ i r

Co . It the lessons of comparative

philology and ethnology supply
all our knowledge of the old migrations,
we have, in compensation, another eth-
nological movement more directly under
our eyes, which also began with mem-
bers of the Malay race, and forms
a fitting counterpart to earlier events.
The name of Malays did not originally
belong to the whole race, but only
894

to one definite people of the Archi-
pelago ; and it is this very people which
by its migrations in more modern
times has reproduced primitive history
on a small scale, and thus shown itself
worthy to give its name to the whole
restless group. Probably, indeed, it was
not even the whole stock with which we
are at present concerned that bore the
name of Malay, but only the most promi-
nent subdivision of it.

The original home of this people lay on
Sumatra in the district of Menangkabau.
The name " Malayu " is applied to the
island of Sumatra even by Ptolemy ; and
in 1150 the Arabian geographer Edrisi
mentions an island, Malai, which carried
on a brisk trade in spices. Indian civilisa-
tion, it would seem, had considerable
influence on Menangkabau, for according
to the native traditions of the Malays it
was Sri Turi Bumana, a prince of Indian
or Japanese descent according to the
legend, he traced his lineage to Alexander
the Great who led a part of the people
over the sea to the peninsula of Malacca
and in 1160 founded the

Europe's
Early Records

centre of his power in Singa-
T y , J * CC . ras Pore. The new state is said

to have aroused the jealousy
of a powerful Javanese realm, presumably
Modyopahit, and Singapore was ultimately
conquered in the year 1252 by the Javanese.
A new Malay capital, Malacca, was
subsequently founded on the mainland.
In the year 1276 the reigning chief,
together with his people, were converted
to Islam. The Malays, who had found
on the peninsula only timid forest tribes
of poor physique, multiplied in course of
time so enormously that it became
necessary to send out new colonies, and
Malay traders and settlers appeared on
all the neighbouring coast districts. To-
ward the close of the thirteenth century
the State of Malacca was far more powerful
than the old Menangkabau, and became
the political and ethnological centre of
Malay life. The result was that the true
insular Malays apparently spread from the
mainland over the island world of the
East Indies. The Malay settlers played to
some extent the role of state builders,
especially in Borneo, where Brunei in the
north was a genuine Malay state ; other
states were formed on the west coast.
The Malays mixed everywhere with
the aborigines, and made their language
the common dialect of intercourse for the

MALAYSIA THE COMING OF THE ASIATICS

Sunda Islands. The Bugi on the Celebes
also spread over a wide area from their
original homes.

Trifling as all these modern events may
be in comparison with those of old times,

THE COMING

'T'HE influences of the voyages and settle-
* ments were not so powerful as those
foreign forces which were continually at
work owing to the favourable position of
the islands for purposes of intercourse.
Asiatic nations had long sought out the
Archipelago, had founded settlements,
and had been able occasionally to exercise
some political influence. The islands were,
indeed, not only half-way houses for
communication between Eastern Asia
and the west ; they themselves offered
coveted treasures. First and foremost
among these were spices, the staple of the
Indian trade ; gold and diamonds were
found in the mines of Borneo, and there
were many other valuable products. The
Chinese from East Asia obtained a footing
in the Malay Archipelago ; from the west
came the agents of the East Asiatic
commerce the Hindus first, then the
Arabs, and soon after them the first
Europeans, the present rulers of the island
world.

The Chinese are not a seafaring nation
in the correct acceptance of the word.
It was only when, after the conquest of
South China, they acquired a seaboard
with good harbours, and mixed at the same
time with the old seafaring population,
that a maritime trade with the rich
tropical regions of Indonesia (i.e., the
Indian islands) began to flourish ; only
perhaps as a continuation of an older
commerce, which had been originated
by the northward migration of the
Malayan race, and conse-
, quently lay in the hands of

Influence in Malayan tribes> Since South

China therefore came into the
possession of China in 220 B.C., it must
have been subsequent to that time, and
probably much later, that the influence
of the Chinese was fully felt by the in-
habitants of the Archipelago. Permanent
connections with Annam can hardly have
been established before the Christian era.
It was not the love of a seafaring life
that incited the Chinese to travel, but the
commercial instinct, that appeared as
soon as other nations commanded the
commerce and sought out the Chinese in

Early

Chinese

Traders

still they teach us to grasp the conditions
prevailing in the past, and to realise the
possibility of migrations as comprehensive
as those which the Malayo- Polynesians
accomplished.

OF THE ASIATICS

their own ports. The Chinese fleet then
quickly dwindled, the number of voyages
lessened, and the merchants of the
Celestial Empire found it safer and more
convenient to trade with foreigners at
home than to entrust their precious lives
to the thin planks of a vessel. But the
stream of emigration from over-populated
China developed independently of these
occurrences, and turned by preference,
whether in native or foreign ships, toward
the East Indian Archipelago, in many
countries of which it produced important
ethnological changes.

Very contradictory views are entertained
about the extent of the oldest Chinese
maritime trade, and especially about the
question, with which we are not here so
much concerned, of the dis-
tance which Chinese vessels
sailed toward the west. It
appears from the annals of
the Liang dynasty, reigning in the first
half of the sixth century of our era, that
the Chinese were already acquainted with
some ports on the Malacca Straits which
clearly served as marts for the trade
between India and the Farther East.

As early as the fifth century commercial
relations had been developed with Java,
stimulated perhaps by the journeys of the
Buddhist missionary Fa-hien, who, driven
out of his course by a storm to Java,
brought back to China more precise
information as to the island. The south
of Sumatra also at that time maintained
communications with China. The politi-
cal system of Java was sufficiently well
organised to facilitate the establishment
of a comparatively secure and profitable
trade. From these islands the Chinese
obtained precious metals, tortoise-shell,
ivory, coco-nuts, and sugar-cane ; and
the commodities which they offered in
return were mainly cotton and silk stuffs.
There are constant allusions to presents
sent by island princes, on whom the
Chinese Court bestowed high-sounding
titles, seals of office, and occasionally
diplomatic support. In the year 1129 one
such prince received the title of King
of Java. Disputes between the settled

895

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Chinese merchants who plainly showed
even thus early a tendency to form state
within state and the Javanese princes
led, in later times, to not infrequent
interruptions of this commercial inter-
course ; indeed, after the conquest of China
by the Mongols hostile complications were
produced. A Mongol-Chinese army in-
vaded Java in the year 1293,

after it had secured a strategic
Invasion bage Qn the island Qf 3 iUitoilj

but it was forced to sail away
without any tangible results. During
the age of the Ming Dynasty, the trade
was once more flourishing, and we can
even trace some political influence exer-
cised by China. In the years 1405-1407
a Chinese fleet was stationed in the
Archipelago ; its admiral enforced the
submission of a number of chieftains,
and brought the ruler of Palembang
prisoner to China.

The coasts of Borneo, which were
touched at on every voyage to and from
Java, soon attracted a similar influx of
Chinese merchants, to whom the wealth
of Borneo in gold and diamonds was no
secret. The kingdom of Polo, in the
north of the island, which appears in the
Chinese annals for the first time in the
seventh century, was regularly visited by
the Chinese in the tenth century. On
the west coast, Puni, whose prince sent
an embassy to China for the first time in
977, was a much-frequented town ; while
Banjermassin, now the most prosperous
trading place, is not mentioned until 1368.
As the spread of Islam with its con-
sequences more and more crippled the
trade of the Chinese with the Sunda
Islands, they turned their attention to a
nearer but hitherto much-neglected sphere,
the Philippines. There, too, the Malay
tribes were carrying on a brisk commerce
before the Chinese encroached and estab-
lished themselves on different points along
the coast. This step was taken in the

fourteenth century at latest.

But then the Chinese trader

? al : ead ,y fo *r d i by

emigrants, who settled in large
numbers on the newly-discovered territory,
mixed with the aborigines, and in this way,
just as in North Borneo, called into life new
Chinese-Malay tribes. When, after the
interference of the Spaniards, the Chinese
traders withdrew or were restricted to
definite localities, these mixed tribes re-
mained behind in the country.

rk .

To sum up, it may be said that the
Chinese, both here and in Indonesia,
exercised a certain amount of political
influence, and produced some minor ethno-
logical changes, and that they are even now
still working in this latter direction. On
the other hand, the intellectual influence
of China has not been great, and cannot
be compared even remotely with that of
the Indians and Arabs. Chinamen and
Malays clearly are not in sympathy with
each other. At the present day a large
share of the trade of the Archipelago once
more lies in Chinese hands, the immi-
gration has enormously increased, and the
" yellow peril " is nowhere so noticeable
as there. But the Malayan must not,
in any way, be called for this reason an
offshoot of Chinese civilisation. The China-
man shares with the European the fate of
exercising little influence on the intellec-
tual life of the Malay. The cause in both
cases is the same ; both races appeared
first and foremost as traders and rulers,
but kindled no flame of religious zeal.
The Chinaman failed because he was
indifferent to all religious questions ; the

wk ok- European failed because
Why Chinese j^^ ^^ ^ geater pQwer

influence Qf enlisting f o n owers> pre .

vented Christianity, on which
it had stolen a long march, from exerting
any influence. It is possible that in earlier
times the Chinese helped Buddhism to
victory in the islands, but at present
we possess no certain information on the
subject.

The inhabitants of India have influ-
enced their insular neighbours quite differ-
ently from the Chinese. They brought to
them, together with an advanced civilisa-
tion, a new religion, or rather two religions,
which were destined to strike root side by
side in the Archipelago Brahmanism and
Buddhism. The Hindus and the other
inhabitants of India, who have gained
their civilisation from them, are as little
devoted to seafaring as the Chinese, for
the coasts of India are comparatively poor
in good harbours. Probably the first to
cross the Bay of Bengal were the sea-loving
inhabitants of the Sunda Islands them-
selves, who, first as bold pirates like the
Norwegian Vikings, ravaged the coas's,
but also sowed the first seeds of commerce.
But after this the inhabitants of th? coasts
of Nearer India, who hitherto had kept up
a brisk intercourse only with Arabia and
the Persian Gulf, found something very

The finest of the numerous bas-reliefs in the famous temple of Boro-Budur. Women Bas-relief, showing a
are shown carrying vessels at a pond, where lotus flowers grow and birds disport, prince receiving presents.

General view of the immense temple of Boro-Budur, in Java.

Bas-relief, showing a sea-storm on one side, and a royal couple, with a child, handing gifts to certain of the
mariners, who have evidently reached the shore. This is the lowest in a general scheme of four panels.

TEMPLE OF BORO-BUDUR, IN JAVA, THE FINEST EXISTING BUDDHIST MONUMENT

897

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

attractive in the intercourse with the
islands, which first induced some enter-
prising merchants to sail thither with their
store of spices, until at last an organised
and profitable trade was opened. Many
centuries, however, must needs have passed
before the spiritual influence of Indian
culture really made itself felt. Since
. the Hindu has as little taste
Influence of for recording history as the

Malay, the beginning of the
intercourse between the two
groups of peoples can be settled only by
indirect evidence. The two articles of
trade peculiar to the islands, and in earlier
times procurable from no other source,
were the clove and the nutmeg. The first
appearance of these products on the
Western markets must, accordingly, give
an indication of the latest date at which
the intercourse of Nearer India with the
Malay Archipelago can have been syste-
matically developed. Both these spices
were named among the articles imported
to Alexandria for the first time in the age
of Marcus Aurelius that is to say, about
180 A.D. ; while, a century earlier, the
" Periplus of the Erythraean Sea " does
not mention them.

If, then, we reflect that a certain time
would have been required to familiarise
the natives of India with these spices before
there was any idea of shipping them fur-
ther, and that perhaps on the first trading
voyages, necessarily directed toward the
Straits of Malacca, products of that region
and of more distant parts of the Archi-
pelago had been exchanged, we are
justified in placing the beginnings of the
Indian-Malay trade in the first century
of our chronology. This theory is sup-
ported by the mention in the " Periplus "
of voyages by the inhabitants of India to
the " Golden Chersonese," by which is
probably meant the peninsula of Malacca.
Chinese accounts lead us to suppose
that at this time Indian merchants had
j , even reached the south coast
avi \e of China. At a later period more
Earl Trade detailed accounts of the islands
reached the Graeco - Roman
world. Even before cloves and nutmegs
appeared in the trade-lists of Alexandria,
Ptolemy, the geographer, had already in-
serted on his map of the world the names
" Malayu " and " Java." Various other
facts point to the position of the island of
Java as the centre of the island civilisation,
and the emporium for the commerce which

some centuries later was destined to allure
even the ponderous junks of the Chinese to
a voyage along their coasts.

Following in the tracks of the merchants,
and perhaps themselves condescending to
do a stroke of business, Indian priests gra-
dually came to the islands and won reputa-
tion and importance there. India itself,
however, at the beginning of the Christian
era, was not a united country from the
religious point of view. Buddhism, like an
invading torrent, had destroyed the old
Brahma creed, had shattered the caste
system, and had then sent out its mission-
aries to achieve splendid success in almost
all the surrounding countries.

But it had not been able to overthrow
the old religion of the land ; Brahmanism
once more asserted itself with an inex-
haustible vitality. At the present day
Buddhism has virtually disappeared in its
first home, while the old creed has again
obtained an almost exclusive dominion.
The growth of Hindu influence in the
islands falls in the transition period when
the two forms of religion existed side by
side, and the religious disputes with India
are not without importance for
f H- A this out P st of Indian culture.
Reli fens Buddhists and Brahmans come
on the scene side by side, often
avowedly as rivals, although it remains
doubtful whether the schism led to any
warlike complications. The fortunes of
the two sects in the Malay Archipelago are
remarkably like those of their co-religion-
ists in India. In the former region Bud-
dhism was temporarily victorious, and left
its mark on the most glorious epoch of
Javanese history ; but Brahmanism
showed greater vitality, and has not even
yet been entirely quenched, while the
Buddhist faith speaks to us only from
the gigantic ruins of its temples.

The thought is suggested that the
Brahman and the Buddhist Hindus came
from different parts of the peninsula.
James Fergusson conjectured the home of
the Buddhist immigrants to be in Gujerat
and at the mouth of the Indus, and that of
the Brahman to be in Telingana and at
the mouth of the Kistna, or Krishna.
The architecture of the Indian temples on
Java, and the language of the Sanscrit
inscriptions found there, lend colour to
this view. We may mention, however,
that recently it has been asserted by
H. Kern and J. Groneman, great autho-
rities on Buddhism, that the celebrated

MALAYSIA-THE COMING OF THE ASIATICS

temples of Boro-Budur must have been
erected (850-900) by followers of the
southern Buddhists, whose sect, for
"example, predominated on South Sumatra
in the kingdom of Sri-Bhodja. Brahmans
and Buddhists certainly did not appear
contemporaneously in Java.

The most ancient temples were certainly
not erected by Buddhists, but by worship-
pers of Vishnu in the fifth century A.D.
Some inscriptions found in West Java,
which may also be ascribed to followers
of Vishnu, date from the same century.
The Chinese Buddhist Fa-hien, who visited
the island about this time, mentions the
Hindus, but does not appear to have
found any members of his own faith there.
According to this view the Indians of
the Coromandel coast would have first
established commercial relations with the
islands ; it was only later that they were
followed by the inhabitants of the north-
west coast of India, who, being also con-
nected with the civilised countries of the
West, gave a great stimulus to trade, and
became the leading spirits of the Indian
colony in Java. This, then, explains the
later predominance of Bud-

f dhism in the Malay Archipelago.
In the eighth century A.D. the

f immigration of the Hindus,
including in their number many Bud-
dhists, seems to have increased in Java
to an extraordinary extent. The con-
struction of a Buddhist temple at
Kalasan in the year 779 is recorded
in inscriptions. The victory of Indian
civilisation was then confirmed ; the
rulers turned with enthusiasm to the
new forms of belief, and spent their accu-
mulated riches in the erection of vast
temples modelled upon those of India.
From Java, which was then the political
centre of the Archipelago, the culture and
religion of the Hindus spread to the neigh-
bouring islands, to Sumatra, South Borneo,
and other parts of the Archipelago. The
most easterly points where Buddhism
achieved any results were the island of
Ternate and the islet of Tobi, north-east
of Halmahera, which already formed a
stepping-stone to Micronesia. At that
time Pali was the language of the educated
classes. The Indian systems of writing
stimulated the creation of native scripts
even among those tribes which, like the
Battaks in the interior of Sumatra, were
but slightly affected in other respects by
the wave of civilisation. The influence of

India subsequently diminished. In the
fifteenth century it once more revived, a
fact that may certainly be connected with
the political condition of Java. Since Bud-
dhism had at this time almost disappeared
in Nearer India, this revival implies also a
strengthening of the Brahman doctrine,
which had survived, therefore, the fall of

the Indian civilisation. In

Comin ^ meantime the victorious

ommg successors to Hinduism, the

Islamitic Arabs, had appeared
upon the scene. The Arabian trade to
Egypt and India had flourished before
the time of Mohammed, had received
the products of the Archipelago from the
hands of the Indian merchants, and had
transmitted them to the civilised peoples
of the West. It is possible that Arabian
traders may have early reached Java
without gaining any influence there. It
was Islam which first stamped the wander-
ings of the Arabs with their peculiar
character ; it changed harmless traders
into the teachers of a new doctrine, whose
simplicity stood in happy contrast to the
elaborate theology of the Hindus, and to
the degenerate form of Buddhism which
could have retained little of its original
purity in the Malay Archipelago.

The new duties which his religion now
imposed on the Arabiail merchant inspired
him with a fresh spirit of adventure, and
with a boldness that did not shrink from
crossing the Indian Ocean. The rise of
the Caliphate, which drew to itself all the
wealth of the Orient, secured to the bold
mariners and traders a market for their
wares and handsome profits. Bushira then
attained prosperity, and was the point
from which those daring voyages were
made whose fame is re-echoed in the mar-
vellous adventures of Sindbad the Sailor
in the Arabian Nights. Oman, on the
Persian Gulf, became an important em-
porium, but even the older ports in
Southern Arabia competed with their new

rivals, and still retained the

trade at least with Egypt.

The voyages of the Arabs at
a the time of the Caliphate form
the first stage in the connections between
the Archipelago and the world of Islam,
which seem at first to have been of a
purely commercial character. The enter-
prising spirit of the Arabian merchants
soon led them, after once the first
steps had been taken, beyond the
Malay Archipelago to the coasts of China,

899

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Decline of

Arabian

Trade

which, in the year 850, were already con-
nected with Oman in the Persian Gulf by a
flourishing maritime trade. This, how-
ever, necessitated the growth of stations
for the transit trade in the Archipelago
itself, where Arabian traders permanently
settled and, as we can easily understand,
endeavoured to win supporters
for Islam. Even then conver-
sions on a large scale might have
resulted had not the over-
throw of the Caliphate gradually caused an
extraordinary decline in the Arabian trade,
and consequently in the influence of the
Arabs throughout the islands.

A new stimulus was given to the inter-
course between the states of Islam and
the Malay Archipelago when, at the time
of the Crusades, the Mohammedan world
regained its power, and the dominion of
the Saracens flourished, about 1200 A.D.
Nevertheless, Islam appears to have
achieved little success at that time in the
islands, apart possibly from the conver-
sion of Mohammed Shah, a Malay prince
resident in Malacca. This event, however,
which, according to a somewhat untrust-

THE EUROPEANS

\7ICTORY cheered the missionaries of
V Islam at the end. A few decades later
the first Europeans appeared in the Archi-
pelago. They, indeed, were fated to win
the political supremacy, but their spiritual
influence was not equal to that of Islam.

The Portuguese admiral, Diego Lopez
de Sequeira, and his men, when they
appeared in the year 1509 on the coast of
Sumatra, were certainly not the first
navigators of European race to set foot
on the shores of the Malay Islands. Many
a bold .trader may have pushed his way
thus far in earlier times ; and the first
traveller in whom the European spirit of
exploration and strength of purpose were
embodied, the great Venetian, Marco
Polo, had visited the islands in the year
1295, and reached home safely after a
prosperous voyage. No brisk intercourse
with Europe could be maintained, however,
until a successful attempt had been made,
in 1497-1498, to circumnavigate the
southern extremity of Africa, and thus to
discover the direct sea route to the East
Indies. After that, the region was soon
opened up.

The first expedition under Sequeira
with difficulty escaped annihilation, as it
was attacked, by order of the native

900

worthy account, occurred in 1276, was o*
great importance for the future, since the
Malays in the narrower sense became the
most zealous Mohammedans of the Archi-
pelago. The third great revival of trade,
produced by the prosperity of the Turkish
and Egyptian empires in the fourteenth cen-
tury, prepared the way for the victory of
the new doctrine, which was permanently
decided by the acquisition of Java. The
first unsuccessful attempt at a Moham-
medan movement on Java took place in
1328 ; a second, equally futile, was made
in 1391. But little by little the continuous
exertions of the Arabian merchants, who
soon found ready helpers among the
natives, and had won sympathisers in the
Malays of Malacca, prepared the ground
for the final victory of the Mohammedan
doctrine. The Brahmans, whose religion,
as now appeared, had struck no deep roots
among the people, offered a feeble and
ineffectual resistance to the new creed. The
fall of the kingdom of Modyopahit, which
had been the refuge of the Indian religious
party, completely destroyed Brahmanism
in Java in the year 1478.

IN AALAYSIA

prince, while anchoring in the harbour
of Malacca. In any case the governor,
Alfonso d' Albuquerque, when he was on
his way to Malacca, in 1511, had a splendid
excuse to hand for adopting a vigorous
policy and plundering the Malay merchant-
men as he passed. Since the Sultan of
Malacca offered no satisfactory indemnity,
war was declared with him ; the town was
captured after a hard fight, and was made
into a strong base for the Portuguese
power. Albuquerque then attempted to
establish communications with Java, and
made preparations to enter into closer
relations with the Spice Islands in the
East, the Moluccas. After his departure
repeated efforts were made to recover
Malacca from the Portuguese, but the fort
held out.

The Portuguese had followed on the
tracks of he Arabs as far as Malacca,
_ the crossing point of the Indian

* and East Asiatic trade, and they
Malays'! naturall Y cherished the dream
of advancing to China, and
thus securing the trade with that country.
A fleet under Fernao Perez d'Andrade
sailed in the year 1516 from Malacca, and,
after an unsuccessful preliminary attempt,
reached Canton in 1517. Communications

THE EUROPEANS IN MALAYSIA

with the Moluccas had already been In the same year new disturbances
formed in 1512 through the efforts of broke out in the Moluccas, since the en-
Francisco Serrao ; and, since the Portu- croachments of the Portuguese com-
guese interfered in the disputes of the manders, who had taken the King of
natives, the commander of their squadron, Ternate prisoner, had incensed the subjects
Antonio de Brito, soon succeeded in of this ally. When the new commander-
acquiring influence there, and in founding in-chief, Gonzalo Pereira, to crown all,
a fort on Ternate in 1522. They were declared that the clove trade was the
unpleasantly disturbed in their plans by monopoly of the Portuguese Government,
the small Spanish squadron of Ferdinand the indignation was so intense that the
Magellan, who had himself been killed queen ordered him to be murdered, and
on Matan on April 27th ; this fleet, after the lives of the other Portuguese were
crossing the Pacific, appeared on November in the greatest jeopardy. Peace was
8th, 1521, off Tidor, and tried to enforce restored with the utmost difficulty. Fresh
the claims of the King of Spain to the disorders were due to that corrupt mob of

Moluccas.

adventurers who ruled the islands in the

Generally speaking, it was clear, even name of the King of Portugal, abandoned
then, that the Portuguese could not themselves to the most licentious excesses,
possibly be in a position

to make full use of the
enormous tract of newly
discovered territory, or
even to colonise it. There
was never any idea of a
real conquest even of the
coast districts. A large
part of the available
forces must have been em-
ployed in holding Malacca
and keeping the small
Malay predatory states in
check, while the wars
with China made further
demands. The Malay
prince of Bintang, in

and undermined their
own authority by dis-
sensions among them-
selves. The governor,
Tristao de Taide, brought
matters to such a pitch
that all the princes of
the Moluccas combined
against him (1533) I
his successor, "" Antonio
Galvao, at last ended
the war with considerable
good fortune, and restored
the prestige of Portugal
on the Spice Islands.
His administration cer-
tainly marked the most
prosperous epoch of Por-
tuguese rule in those

particular, with his

large fleet, continually

threatened the Portu- AN EA RLY PORTUGUESE GOVERNOR parts. Later, the struggles

guese possessions on the Alfonso d 1 Albuquerque, explorer, navigator, began again, and finally,

e.-o; ^f TU^I^^o, *A and Governor of the Portuguese East : -^,-Q^ ~\~A ~ v,~

of Malaria anrl and Governor of the Portugu
01 Malacca, ana Ind i eS) who plundered the Mala

ays in 1511.

^
'

after 1523 caused great evacuation of Ternate

distress in the colony, until his capital by the Portuguese and their settlement

was destroyed in 1527. The position in Tidor.

of the Portuguese on the Moluccas was Thus the influence of the Portuguese
also far from secure, since the state was restricted to parts of the Moluccas
of Tidor, which was friendly to Spain, and some places on the Strait of Malacca,
showed intense hostility. Commercial The Archipelago was in most respects only
relations had been established since the thoroughfare for the Chino- Japanese
1522 with the state .of Sunda in trade, which "at first developed with as
Western Java, but the permission to much promise as the East Asiatic missions,
plant a settlement in the country itself The principal station of the trade con-
was refused. On Sumatra, where Men- tinued to be Malacca, notwithstanding
angkabau was visited by the Portuguese its dangerous position between states of
as early as 1514, some petty states Malay pirates and the powerful Achin
recognised the suzerainty of Portugal ; on Sumatra.

Achin, on the contrary, was able to The history of Spanish colonisation in

assert its independence, while attempts to the Malay Archipelago is almost entirely

establish intercourse with Borneo were bound up with the history of the Philip-

not made until 1530.

pines, and is treated of in that section.

901

THE TOWN OF BANTAM IN THE DAYS OF THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY

The Portuguese rule in the Archipelago
was as brief as in India. At the end
of the sixteenth century the two nations
which were destined to enter on the rich
inheritance, the Dutch and the English,
began their first attempts at commerce
and colonisation in the Indian waters.
The Dutch in particular, through their
war with Spain, which
cr i pp ied the hitherto pro-

Commercial

* n sperous

the I6th Century

trade with the

compelled to seek new fields for their
activh y. Their eyes were turned to India,
where Portugal, weakened rather than
strengthened by the union with Spain
(1580), tried in vain to enforce its influence
over a vast tract of territory. Even with-
out at once becoming hostile competitors
to Portuguese trade, the Dutch merchants
might hope to discover virgin lands,
whose exploitation promised rich gains.

The first Dutch fleet set sail from the
Texel on April 2nd, 1595, under the com-
mand of Cornelis de Houtmans, a rough
adventurer, and anchored on June 2nd,
1596, off Bantam, the chief trading port of
Java. This expedition did little to secure
the friendship of the natives, owing to
the bad qualities of the commander ;
but at least it paved the way for further
enterprise. In the course of a few years
a number of small trading companies arose,
which succeeded only in interfering with
each other and causing mutual ruin, until
they were finally combined, through the
co-operation of Oldenbarneveld and Prince

902

Maurice, on March 20th, 1602, into a large
company, the " Universal Dutch United
East India Company." This company
soon obtained possessions in the Malay
Archipelago, and after 1632 exercised full
sovereign sway over its territory.

The company founded a permanent
settlement in Bantam, whose prince made
friendly overtures, and they took over the
already existing trading enterprises in
Ternate, Amboina, and Banda, the exist-
ence of which proves incidentally that
even the Dutch had at once tried to win
their share of the spice trade. Disputes
in consequence arose on the Moluccas in
1603, when the natives, exasperated by
the oppression of the Portuguese and
Spaniards, took the side of the Dutch. The
undertakings of the company were, how-
ever, first put on a systematic basis in
the year 1609, when the office of a governor-
general was created, at whose side the
" Council of India " was placed, and thus
a sort of independent government was
established in the Archipelago.

The Spaniards now suffered a complete
defeat. And when in their place the Eng-
^ s ^ a PP eare< ^ anc ^ entered into
ser i us competition with the

i r company, they found themselves
1 confronted by the Governor-
General, Jan Pieterszon Coen, a man who,
competent to face all dangers, finally
consolidated the supremacy of the Dutch.
The English tried in vain to acquire influ-
ence on Java by the help of the Sultan of
Bantam. Coen defeated his opponents,

THE EUROPEANS IN MALAYSIA

removed the Dutch settlements to Jacatra,
where he founded in the year 1619 the
future centre of Dutch power, Batavia,
and compelled Bantam, whose trade was
thus greatly damaged, to listen to terms.
" We have set foot on Java and acquired
power in the country," Coen wrote to the
directors of the company ;
" see and reflect what bold
courage can achieve!" To
his chagrin the Dutch
Government, from con-
siderations of European
policy, determined to ad-
mit the English again to
the Archipelago. This pro-
ceeding led to numerous
complications, and finally
to the massacre of a num-
ber of Englishmen, on the
pretext that they had tried
tp capture the Dutch ports
on Amboina. Coen's whole
energies were required to
hold Batavia, which was
besieged in 1628 by the

FOUNDER OF DUTCH POWER

IN THE EAST

J.T- ' i_- t, J an Pieterszon Coen, the Governor-
J avaneSC. HlS death, Which General of the Dutch East Indies, from

occurred in that same year, 1618 to 1628 > and founder of Batavia -
was a heavy blow to the Dutch power.
The influence of the company, however,
was now sufficiently assured to withstand
slight shocks. The Portuguese had been
little by little driven back and forced
almost entirely to abandon the East

Asiatic trade. The English found a field
for their activity in India, and the Spani-
ards retained the Philippines, but were
compelled in 1663 definitely to waive all
claim to the Moluccas. Java and the
Spice Islands were the bases of the Dutch
power, which reached its greatest pros-
perity under the Governor-
General, Anton van Diemen
(1636-1645). Malacca was
then conquered, a friendly
understanding was estab-
lished with the princes of
Java, and Batavia was
enlarged and fortified in
every way. Soon afterward
the sea route to the East
Indies was secured by the
founding of one station at
the Cape of Good Hope
and another on Mauritius.
But in this connection the
huckstering spirit of the
trading company was un-
pleasantly shown in the
regulations which were
passed for the mainten-
ance of the spice monopoly
in the Moluccas, and were fraught with
the most lamentable consequences for the
native population.

Greater attention was now gradually
paid to the hitherto neglected islands of
the Archipelago, especially as Formosa,

THE CAPITAL CITY OF BATAVIA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
The headquarters of Dutch power in the East, founded by Coen in the year 1619, and then called Jacatra.

903

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

British
Withdrawal
from Java

captured in 1624, was in 1662 lost to the
Chinese. The attempts to set foot on
Borneo met at first with little success ; on
the other hand, factories were founded on
different points of the coast of Sumatra,
and in the year 1667 the Prince of Macassar
on Celebes was conquered and compelled
to conclude a treaty to the advantage of
the company. In Java the
influence of the Dutch con-
tinually increased ; Bantam
was humbled in 1684, and the
final withdrawal of the English from Java
was the result. But even in later times
there were many severe struggles.

Like almost all the great sovereign
trading companies of the age of discovery,
the Dutch East India Company enjoyed
but a short period of prosperity. The old
spirit of enterprise died away ; a nig-
gardly pettiness spread more
and more, and produced a
demoralising effect on the
servants of the company,
although their dangerous
posts and the tropical
climate must have served
as an excuse in any case
for numerous excesses. In
1731 the Governor-General,
Diederick Durven, had to
be recalled, after barely two
years of office, on account
of unparalleled misconduct ;
but the state of things did
not improve appreciably
even after his departure.
The misgovernment weighed

A blow directed at that was necessarily
keenly felt. It was observed in Holland
with a justifiable anxiety that the English,
whose naval power was now the first in
the world, once more directed their activi-
ties to the East Indies, and came into
competition with the company not only
on the mainland but also on Sumatra and
the Moluccas, answering all remonstrances
with thinly veiled menaces. The moulder-
ing officialism of the Dutch company was
totally unable to cope with this fresh
energy. While individuals amassed wealth,
the income of the company diminished,
and all profits on the unceasing wars with
Malay pirates and similar costly under-
takings had to be sacrificed.

Toward the close of the eighteenth
century the States-General were compelled
to aid the helpless sovereign company by
sending a small fleet of
warships. But when the
Netherlands, after their
transformation into the
" Batavian Republic " on
January 26th, i~95, were
involved in war with Eng-
land, the fate of the com-
pany was sealed ; it fell as
an indirect victim of the
French Revolution. The
Cape settlement first went ;
then Ceylon and all the
possessions in India were
lost. In 1795, Malacca also
fell, and a year later Am-
boina and Banda were
taken. Ternate alone offered

A CELEBRATED DUTCH
GOVERNOR

most heavily on the Chinese Anton van Diemen, Governor-General any resistance. Java, which
merchants and workmen of h the Dutch East indies (IGSG-JS) for the moment was not

who were settled in the
towns. At last, in Java, this part of
the population, which was essentially
untrustworthy and had always been
aiming at political influence, was driven
into open revolt. Since the Chinese
rendered the vicinity of Batavia insecure,
the citizens armed themselves, and at
the order of the Governor-General, Adrian
Valckenier, massacred all the Chinese
in the town in October, 1740. But it
was only after a long series of fights that
the insurgents, who had formed an alliance
with Javanese princes, were completely
defeated, and the opportunity was seized
of once more extending the territory of the
company.

The strength of the company was based
on its jealously-guarded trade monopoly.

904

attacked by the English,
was soon almost the only relic of the
once wide realm of the company, which,
harassed with debts and enfeebled by the
political situation at home, could hold
out a few years longer only by desperate
means. The company was dissolved in
the year 1798, and Holland took over its
possessions in 1800.

The change of the Batavian republic on

May 26th, 1806, into a kingdom held at

, the will of Napoleon, and the

A KCSUlt Of T> -i f- r TT 11 J

^ t , French occupation of Holland

iNapoieon s T , , / i j

^y ar on July 9th, 1801, involved

further important consequences
for the East Asiatic possessions. The
British took advantage of the propitious
moment to become masters of the colonies
which had now become French, and in the

THE EUROPEANS IN MALAYSIA

year 1811, as a final blow,
equipped an expedition
against Java. Its success
was complete ; Batavia
fell without any resist-
ance, and the small Dutch
army, which held out for
a short time in the vicinity
of the capital, was forced
to surrender on Septem-
ber i8th.

Great Britain took
possession of the Dutch
colonies, and proved her
loyalty 'to those great
principles which have
raised her to be the first
maritime and commercial
power of the world by abolishing the

DUTCH EAST INDIAN MERCHANT SHIP OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

monopolies and establishing free trade.
But the precipitate introduction of these
reforms and
other injudi-
cious measures
soon led to all
sorts of con-
flicts and dis-
orders, which
deprived the
British Go-
vernment of
any advantage
which might
otherwise have
been gained
from their new
possession.
After the fall
of Napoleon,

colonies which had been taken from them,
with the exception of the Cape and Ceylon.
On June 24th, 1816, the Dutch com-
missioners at
Batavia took
over the
government
from the hands
of the British
commander.
Nevertheless,
the British
soon afterward
struck a severe
blow directly
at the Dutch
colony, by ad-
ding to their
possessions
o n Malacca,

A MALAY VESSEL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY which had

the Netherlands, by the Treaty of London been held since 1786, the island of Singa-
of August I3th, 1814, received back the pore, which they acquired by purchase,

and by establishing there
in a short time a flourish-
ing emporium for world
trade. Batavia was the
chief loser by this, and its
population soon sank to
one-half of what it had
formerly been.

The dissolution of the
company, and the British
reforms, had broken down
the narrow-spirited system
of monopolies, and the
Dutch Government had
no option but to conform
to the altered conditions.
A small country like Hol-
land, however, could

905

DUTCH EAST INDIAN WARSHIP OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY UNDERGOING REPAIR

THE COLLYER QUAY AT SINGAPORE

SCENE FROM PENANG WHARF

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE

ON THE RIVER AT SINGAPORE

GREAT BRITAIN IN MALAYSIA: VIEWS OF SINGAPORE AND PENANG

Phdtosraphs by G. Lambert, Singapore, and Underwood & Underwood, London
Q06

THE EUROPEANS IN MALAYSIA

neither, from economic reasons, adhere
to the British system of free trade nor
waive all direct national revenue, and in
its place await the indirect results of
unrestricted commerce ; the colonies were
compelled not only to support themselves
and the colonial army which had now
been formed, but also to provide for a
,., surplus. Thus the spice mono-

* poly in the Moluccas, which had

of Monopoly r J r V i_

. ..,. \ been successfully abolished, was

Modified , , i ji i

reintroduced, though in a

somewhat modified and less profitable
form than before, since in the interval the
cultivation of spices had been introduced
into other parts of the tropical world. The
bulk of the revenue had to be supplied by
the patient population of Java, which,
in accordance with a scheme drawn up
by the Governor-General, Jan von den
Bosch, in 1830, was employed on a large
scale in forced labour on Government
plantations, and was also burdened by
heavy taxes.

The Dutch possessions from that time
were no longer menaced by foreign
enemies ; but the colonial army had to
suppress many insurrections and conquer
new territories for Holland. The Dutch,
by slow degrees and in various ways,
obtained the undisputed command of the
Indian Archipelago. For a long time, in
the large islands of Sumatra and Borneo,
they exercised only a more or less acknow-
ledged influence on the coasts, while the
interior, even at the present day, does not
everywhere obey their rule ; in any case
the coast districts gave them much work
to do, as their desperate battles with
Achin, or Acheh, prove. The native princes
were almost everywhere left in possession
of their titles ; but on many occasions the
Dutch, not reluctantly perhaps, were
forced to take different districts under
their immediate government. The splen-
did training which their colonial officials

received assured them success. A great
change in the intefnal conditions began
in the year 1868. The situation of the
natives on Java, which had become
intolerable and still more perhaps the
knowledge that, in spite of ah 1 the forced
labour, the profits of the Government
plantations did not realise expectations
led to the abolition of the corvee and the
former unsound and extravagant methods
of working. The campaign which the
Dutch poet and former colonial official,
Eduard Douwes Dekker, had conducted
since 1859 against the abuses in the
government, contributed to this result,
although for a long time no direct effects
of his attacks were noticeable. The coffee
monopoly, indeed, was left, though some-
what modified ; so, too, the principle that
the native should be left to work on his
own account, and that then the results of
his labour should be compulsorily bought
from him at a very low price, is still
enforced, since the balance of the Indian
finances must be maintained. It was
possible to abandon the Javanese system
of forced labour without excessive loss
owing to the fact that the development of
tobacco-growing on Sumatra since 1864
and of coffee-growing on Celebes opened
up new sources of revenue. Accordingly,
in 1873 the antiquated spice monopoly
on the Moluccas was finally abolished
without inflicting an insupportable blow
on the State finances.

The scientific exploration of the region
has been begun and carried out in a

very thorough fashion. From
Models foi many points of yiew the

Dutch possessions are models
Administrators for the F colonial administra-
tor ; and, in spite of all mistakes, the earlier
development shows how a small European
people can succeed in ruling an infinitely
larger number of unstable Asiatics, and
in making them profitable to itself.

907

THE FOUNDING OF BRITISH POWER IN MALAYSIA
In the year 1824 the island of Singapore was ceded to Great Britain by the Sultan of Johor by

Surchase, and in the hands of the british the town of Singapore speedily became the greatest port
i Malaysia and one of the most important of the many centres of British trade in the Eastern seas.
The picture, by Mr. Caton Woodville, illustrates the state entry of the British into Singapore in 1824.

908

THE ISLANDS AND THEIR STORY

JAVA: THE CENTRE OF THE DUTCH INDIES

JAVA is far from being the largest island
of the Archipelago, but it is certainly
the most fertile, so that it can support
a very dense population ; it is also the
most accessible, and consequently was the
first and favourite resort of traders.
It is true that culture has been able to
take root easily only on the comparatively
flat north coast with its abundance of
harbours, while the steep south coast,
looking out on a sea seldom navigated
in old days, has never attained to any
importance. The long, narrow island,
through which a chain of lofty volcanoes
runs, divides into a number of districts,
in which independent political constitu-
tions could be developed.

Apart from slight traces of a population
resembling the Negritos, Java was origin-
ally inhabited by genuine Malays. No
reliable early history of the
_ av ' * island is forthcoming, since
the first records, which are
still untrustworthy, date from
the Islamitic Age. We are thus com-
pelled to have recourse to the accounts
supplied by other nations, and to the
remains of buildings and inscriptions
which are still to be found plentifully
on the island. In any case, Java was
the focus of the Archipelago, so far as
civilisation was concerned, and to some
extent the political centre also, and it
has retained this position down to the
present day.

Our earliest information about Java
can be traced to the Indian traders, who
had communication with the island since,
perhaps, the beginning of the Christian era.
The fact that the Indians turned special
attention to Java, which was by no means
the nearest island of the Archipelago,
must certainly be due to the existence there
of rudimentary political societies whose
rulers protected the traders, and whose
inhabitants had already passed that
primitive stage when man had no wants.

The Indian merchants, by transplanting
their culture to Java, and giving the princes
an opportunity to increase their power
and wealth through trade, had no small
share in the work of political consolida-
tion. We must treat as a mythical in-
M thical carnation of these influences

L y * d* f ^ e ^y* Saka, who stands at
Early History the beginning of the native
tradition, and is said to have
come to Java in 78 A.D., for which reason
the Javanese chronology begins with this
year. He gave them their culture and
religion, organised their constitution,
made laws, and introduced writing. The
Javanese legend mentions the names of
some of the kingdoms influenced by Hindu
culture. Mendang Kamulan is said to have
become important at the end of the sixth
or beginning of the seventh century ; in
896 the dynasty of Jangala, and in 1158
that of Pajajaram or Pajadsiran, are said
to have succeeded.

The first immigrants to Java were
worshippers of Vishnu, who were followed
later by Buddhists ; this fact appears
from the inscriptions and ruins and is con-
firmed by the accounts of the Chinese
Fa-hien. The oldest traces of the Hindus
have been discovered in West Java, not
far from the modern Batavia. There
must have been a kingdom in that part,
between 400 and 500 A.D., whose monarch
was already favourable to the new culture
and religion. -It is possible that the first
Buddhists then appeared on the island and
acquired influence. Important inscrip-
tions dating from the begin-
ning of the seventh century
tell us of a prince of West Java,
Aditya Dharma, an enthu-
siastic Buddhist and ruler of a kingdom
which comprised parts of the neighbouring
Sumatra. He conquered a Javanese
prince, Siwaraga whose name leads us
to conclude that he was a supporter of
the Brahman doctrines and built a

909

Revelations
of Ancient
Inscriptions

THE MARKET PLACE IN JAVA, AS EVERYWHERE ELSE, IS THE FAVOURITE RENDEZVOUS

magnificent palace in a part of Java which
can no longer be identified. It does not
seem to have been any question of a reli-
gious war which led to this conflict, but
merely of a political feud. We learn from
Chinese sources that there was a kingdom
of Java to which twenty-eight petty princes
owed allegiance, and that in the year 674
a woman, Sima,
was on the throne.
This kingdom,
whose capital lay
originally farther
to the east, em-
braced presumably
the central parts
of the island, and
was not therefore
identical with that
of Aditya Dharma.
Buddhism, at all
events, supported
by a brisk immi-
gration from India,
increased rapidly
in power at this
time, especially in
the central parts
of Java, while in
the east, and per-
haps in the west
also, Brahmanism
held its own. In
the eighth and
ninth centuries
there were flourish-

NATIVES OF EASTERN JAVA

ing Buddhist kingdoms, whose power and
splendour may be conjectured from the
magnificent architectural remains above
all, the ruins of temples in the centre of the
island and from numerous inscriptions.
The fact that in the year 813 negro slaves
from Zanzibar were sent by Java, as a
present to the Chinese Court, shows the
extent of Javanese
commerce of that
time. If we may
judge of the im-
portance of the
states by the re-
mains of the
temples, the king-
dom of Boro -
Budur must have
surpassed all
others, until it fell,
probably at the
close of the tenth
century. After the
first quarter of that
century hardly any
more temples or in-
scriptions seem to
have been erected
in Central Java,
a significant sign
of the complete
decay of the na-
tional forces. With
this, the golden
age of Buddhism
to an end.

cl & Underwood, London

QIO

THE ISLANDS OF MALAYSIA-JAVA

At the same time the centre of gravity
3f political power shifted to the east of
the island. Inscriptions of the eleventh
century tell of a king, Er-langa, whose
hereditary realm must have lain in the
region of the present Surabaya. By suc-
cessful campaigns he brought a large part
of Java under his rule, and seems to have
stood at the zenith of his power in the year
1035. His purely Malay name

Malay King *&?* the *?*** fr m

and Warrior wtll 9 h he s P run S was of natlve
origin. He was, however,

thoroughly imbued with Indian culture,

as may be concluded from the increase of

Sanscrit inscriptions in East Java after

the beginning of the eleventh century.

A Chinese account leads us to conjecture

that about the same _.. .. ..,,,, , wi ,

time a kingdom existed

in the west of Java |

which was at war with j

a state in Southern \

Sumatra.
The next centuries j

are somewhat obscure. [

This may be connected

with a certain decline

in the trade, and thus

in the influence of the

civilisation of India ;

but it is principally

due to the division and

subdivision of Java

into numerous petty
states. But, in spite

of this want of union,

the attempt of the

Mongol monarch

Kublai Khan to seize
Java proved unsuccessful ; only a part
of the east was laid waste. That side
of the island contained among others
the states of Pasuruan, Kadiri, and Sura-
baya, the first of which gradually lost
in importance. The states in Central
Java apparently sank into insignificance
compared with those of the east, this
condition of things lasting until the inter-
course with Nearer India once more
flourished, and the kingdoms of Solo and
Semarang began, in consequence, to revive.
The new Hinduistic age, in which
Brahmanism again became prominent,
had, however, a stimulating influence on
the East, where the kingdom of Modyo-
pahit rose to be a mighty power. In the
west at that time the kingdom of Paja-
jaram was the foremost power. Javanese

records give the year 1221 (according to
the Saka reckoning, 1144) as the date of
the founding of Modyopahit, or, more
correctly, of the preceding kingdom of
Tumapel, and name as the first sovereign
Ken Arok, or Angrok, who took as king
the title Rayasa, and is said to have died
in 1247. The kingdom of Modyopahit in
the narrower sense was probably not
founded before 1278 ; the first king was
Kertarayasa.

Modyopahit is the best known of the
earlier Javanese kingdoms, since it lasted
almost to the arrival of the Europeans,
and an offshoot survived destruction by
Islam. A glance at the power of Modyo-
pahit is therefore instructive, since it is
typical of the peculiar conditions of the

SCENE ON THE SOLO RIVER !N JAVA

Malay Archipelago, and all the seafaring
population of the states on the coast or
on the islands. Modyopahit never made
an attempt to subjugate completely the
island of Java and change it into a united
nation, but it made its power

Extension f -,. r j.v i.

ielt on the coasts of the neigh-
e bouring islands, just as Sweden

for a time ruled the shores of
the Baltic without annexing Norway, or as
England had long laid claim to the French
coasts before Scotland joined hands to
make the British realm. We may allude, in
passing, to the colonies of Ancient Greece,
to Carthage or Oman. In the west of Java
a strong kingdom still stood, which for a
time reduced Modyopahit to great straits.
The advance of Modyopahit was naturally
possible only when a large fleet was

911

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

available ; this is said to have destroyed,
in 1252, the Malay capital Singapore.

The kingdom attained its greatest size
under the warlike king Ankavvijaya, who
mounted the throne in 1390, and is said
to have subjugated thirty-six petty states.
It is certain that the kingdom had pos-
sessions on Sumatra and settled Javanese

colonists there, also that the
Zenith of south coast of Borneo stood

r . nc partially under its influence. It
is probable that the Javanese,
who, as can be proved, settled on the
Moluccas, had also gained political power
there. The island of Bali in the east of
Java formed an integral part of Modyo-
pahit. The kingdom seldom formed a
united nation, but it exercised a suzerainty
over numerous petty states, which gladly
seized every opportunity of regaining
independence. A great war between West
and East Java, which had no decisive
results, broke out in the year 1403, and
led to the interference of Chinese troops.

In spite of all the brilliance of the Hindu
states, the seeds of corruption had been
early sown in them. The immense pros-
perity of the Arabian people had, centuries
before, brought into the country Arab
merchants, who ended by permanently
settling there, as the merchants of India
had already done, and had won converts
for Islam in different parts of the Archi-
pelago, chiefly among the Malays on
Malacca, but also among the Chinese
traders. " The Oriental merchant," says
Conrad Leemans, " is a man of quite differ-
ent stamp from the European. While the
latter always endeavours to return to his
home, the Oriental prolongs his stay, easily
becomes a permanent se.ttler, takes a wife
of the country, and has no difficulty in
deciding never to revisit his own land. He
is assimilated to the native population,
and brings into it parts of his language,
religion, customs, and habits." It was
characteristic of the heroic age of Islam that
Oriental ^ Arabian merchants had

Prints other aims be y nd winning
& rich profits from trade; they

tried to obtain political do-
minion by means of religious proselytism.
Apparently the kingdom of Modyopahit,
the bulwark of Hinduism, had early been
fixed upon as the goal of their efforts.

The comparatively feeble resistance of
the Buddhist and the Brahmin doctrines
is partly explained by the fact that both
were really comprehended by the higher

912

classes alone, while the people clung to
outward forms only. A Chinese annalist
at the beginning of the fifteenth century
calls the natives of j ava downright devil-
worshippers ; he does not therefore put
them on a footing with the Buddhists of
China or Further India, so familiar to him.
The first victory of Islam was won in the
Sumatran possessions of Modyopahit. The
new doctrine found converts among the
nobles of the kingdom ; of these Arya
Damar, the governor in Sumatra, and,
above all, his son Raden Patah, are men-
tioned.

The improbable Javanese account of the
fall of Modyopahit only leads us to sup-
pose that a revolt of the nobles who had
been won over to Islam, probably assisted
by female intrigues, cost the reigning
monarch, Bromijoyo, his throne in 1478.
The Brahmanists, who remained loyal,
withdrew to the island of Bali, whence for a
long time they commanded a part of the
east coast of Java, and, when that was no
longer possible, they at least hindered the
advance of Islam on Bali. The victory of
Islam in Modyopahit soon had its counter-
_ parts in the other states of the

ofthe island ' Even in I552 the ruler
Creeds ^ Bantam sought to obtain the
protection of the Portuguese
against the Mohammedans ; but it was
too late. When, two years afterward, a
Portuguese fleet appeared, the important
trading town was in the hands of the
Mohammedans. Since the conversions in
the several districts of Java took place
at different times, and were mostly
associated with disturbances, a number of
petty states soon arose, of which Pajang
and Damak were the most powerful. On
the island of Madura, whose destinies were
always closely linked with those of Java,
there were three independent kingdoms.

About a hundred years after the
triumph of Islam the situation was altered.
The princes of Mataram had gradually
attained greater and greater power, though
their country had originally been only a
province of Pajang ; in the end they
had subjugated most of the east and the
centre of the island. In the west, on
the contrary, Bantam, now Islamitic,
was still the predominant power. The
Dutch, after 1596, tried to negotiate an
alliance with it, which could not per-
manently prove advantageous to Bantam.
The founding of Batavia and the inter-
ference of the English soon led to hostile

THE ISLANDS OF MALAYSIA JAVA

complications, but the attempt to expel
the Dutch once more from the island did
not succeed. The Dutch Trading Com-
pany, naturally, also came into conflict
with the ambitious kingdom of Mataram.
The Sultan, Agong of Mataram, had
formed a scheme to subdue the west
of Java, and had proposed an alliance
to the Dutch ; but he found no re-
sponse from the cautious merchants, and
consequently twice, in 1628 and 1629,
made an attempt to seize Batavia. After
his death, his son Ingologo (1645-1670)
concluded a treaty of peace and amity
with the company (1646). Since the

Truna Jaya once more drew the sword
against the apparently unpopular Amang
Kurat, drove him out from his capital,
and selected Kadiri as the capital of
the kingdom which he had intended to
,. _ found. But the decision rested

Preserve with the Dutch ' and ^
A T j^ e ^ V \ were resolved to keep the old

dynasty on the throne, for
the good reason that the expelled prince
was forced to submit to quite different
terms from those offered by his victorious
rival. They defeated the usurper and
placed on the throne the son of Amang
Kurat, who had died meanwhile ; a small

The Sultan of Jokjakarta in semi-dress. The Sultan of Solo in full dress.

THE TWO NATIVE RULERS OF JAVA IN 1864

Dutch did not for a time try to extend
their possessions on Java, the peace was
one of some duration. Ingologo's suc-
cessor, the Sultan Amang Kurat, first
invoked the help of the Dutch against a

Burinese freebooter who had
Z, he Dl l settled in Surabaya. The latter
c ra lg was expelled, and a rebellious

prince, Truna Jaya, also suc-
cumbed to the attack of the Dutch fleet.
The company, in the Treaty of Javara
(1677), were well paid by concessions of
territory and trading facilities for the
help which they had rendered.
But the complications were not yet ended.

Dutch garrison was left in the capital to
protect him.

In the year 1703 the death of the sultan
gave rise to violent disputes about the
succession. Once more, naturally, Paku
Buwono, the candidate who, with the help
of the company, suceeded in establishing
his claim to the throne, had to show his
gratitude by surrenders and concessions
of every kind (1705). The disputes, how-
ever, still lasted. Henceforth the sultans of
Mataram could hold the sceptre and avert
the fall of their feudal sovereignty only
by the continuous support of the Dutch.
Confusion reached its height when, by the

913

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Growth
of Dutch
Power

revolt of the Chinese in the year 1740,
the power of the company itself was shaken
to its foundations. The reigning sultan, as
well as the princes of Bantam and Cheribon,
encouraged the rebellion, though they
feigned devotion to the interests of the
company. The result was that the sultan
had to consent to fresh concessions after
the defeat of the Chinese,
and, what was most impor-
tant, to renounce his sove-
reignty over the island of
Madura. The kingdom of Mataram, after
the loss of the coast, became more and more
an inland state, and consequently was left
helpless against the maritime power of the
Dutch. The seat of government was then
removed to Solo, or Surakarta.

But. the greater the influence which the
company acquired over Mataram, the
more it saw itself dragged into the endless
rebellions and wars of succession which
had now become traditional in that king-
dom. From 1749 to 1755 a war raged,
which was finally decided by a partition
of the kingdom. By treaties in 1755 and
1758, the Sultan JPaku Buwono III. re-
ceived the eastern part, with the capital
Surakarta ; his rival, Mangku Bumi, the
western, with J ok Jakarta as chief town ;
while a third claimant was granted
some minor concessions. Besides the
tw r o states formed out of the ancient
Mataram, there still remained in the west
the kingdoms of Bantam and Cheribon,
both entirely subject to the company.

Under the conditions thus established
the more important disputes were ended ;
but the maladministration of the com-
pany, together with its oppression of the
natives, produced their natural result
in a series of petty disturbances during
which robbery and pillage were carried on
without a check. The final collapse of the
company', and the chequered fortunes of the
Netherlands in 1800, naturally increased
the disorders in Java, and the reforms
which General Herman
T , Willem Daendels finally car-

Comnaly lied Ut in the y ear *&*<***

too late. Britain took pos-
session of the island in 1811, and held it till
1816. At this time the remaining terri-
tories of Bantam and Ceribon were taken
away, and nothing was left to the two
sultans beyond a pension and the empty
title. Thus only the Susuhnna.n of Sura-
karta and the Sultan of Jokjakarta were
left as semi-independent rulers ; but both,
914

as a penalty for their resistance to the
British, were once more confined to their
own territory, and watched by garrisons.

With the second occupation of Java by
the Dutch a new, but on the whole hardly
more prosperous, era opens for the islands.
The narrow-spirited monopolies and trad-
ing restrictions of the old company were, it
is true, not revived, or revived only in
a modified form ; and since the Govern-
ment devoted its attention to the widest
possible cultivation of useful plants, it not
only enlarged its revenue, but promoted
the increase of the population and of the
general welfare. But all the more heavily
did the burden of the corvee weigh upon
the natives. Insurrections were, therefore,
still very frequent ; one of them ended
with the banishment of the discontented
ex-Sultan 'of Bantam (1832). An earlier
rebellion, which broke out in 1825 m
Jokjakarta, under the leadership of the
illegitimate Prince Dhigo Negoro, against
the Governor-General Godard van der
Capellen, had been still more dangerous.
As had happened in previous cases, the
troops of the princes of Madura, who
T were loyal to the Dutch, lent

efficient aid in its suppression.
e Although this revolt exposed

many weak points in the adminis-
tration of the Dutch Indies, it is only since
1868 that radical changes have been made.
The corvee was virtually abolished in the
case of the natives, and a more equitable
system of government introduced. Of
late years no events of importance, beyond
several volcanic eruptions and a native
insurrection in 1888, have to be related.

The area of Java, with the adjacent
island of Madura, is 50,554 square miles,
and the population 36,000,000. The whole
of Dutch India is under the administration
of a Governor-General, nominated by the
Queen of the Netherlands, who has the
power of passing laws but who must con-
form to the constitutional principles laid
down in the " Regulations for the Govern-
ment of the Netherlands India." He is as-
sisted by a council of five. The chief towns
in Java are Batavia, with a population
138,551 including- 18,000 Europeans ; Soe-
rabaya, with a population 150,198, includ-
ing- 15,000 Europeans; and Samarang,
with a population 96,660, including 4,800
Europeans. The principal agricultural
products are rice, maize, cotton, sugar
cane, tobacco, indigo, cinchona, tea, and
cacao. There is also coal and mineral oil.

THE ISLANDS

OF
MALAYSIA

AND THEIR

STORY

SUMATRA: THE STEPPING STONE FROM ASIA

Indian
Influence in
Sumatra

QUMATRA, which is far larger than Java,
*3 but of a similarly elongated shape,
rises in the interior into numerous uplands
possessing a comparatively cool climate ;
the east coast is flatter and more acces-
sible than the west coast, in front of
which lies a row of small islands. The
political attitude of Sumatra has been de-
termined by its geographical position ; it
has been connected on the one hand with
the Strait of Malacca, on the other with
Java. But ethnographically it is a purely
Malay country, the place probably from
which the ancient migrations
to the west started. In the
Battaks of the interior a people
has been preserved which,
although largely impregnated with the
results of civilisation, has still retained
a considerable share of its original pecu-
liarities, and has resisted the introduction
of any religious teaching from without.
Sumatra, as might be expected from its
position, probably came into contact with
India and its culture at a somewhat
earlier period than Java, since the rich
pepper-growing districts on the Strait of
Malacca were the first to create a syste-
matic commerce. It is quite
in harmony with these condi-
tions that the districts on the
northern extremity, the modern
Achin, were the earliest which
showed traces of Hindu influ-
ence, and, consequently, the
beginnings of an organised
national life ; thence this in-
fluence spread farther to the
inland region, where signs of it
are to be found even at the
present day among the Battaks.
The older kingdoms of the
northern extremity were Poli
and Sumatra; the capital of
the latter, situated east of
Achin, has given its name to
the entire island. In Java it
was the culture and the religion
of the Hindus which made
themselves chiefly felt, while
the political power remained in

Southern
Sumatra
and Java

A NATIVE RULER
SUMATRA

The Sultan of Jambi, from
a portrait taken in 1880

the hands of the natives. In North
Sumatra, on the contrary, the immigrants
from India seemed completely to have
assumed the lead in the state, and to
have created a feudal kingdom quite in
the Indian style. This kingdom, whose
capital for many years was Pasir, held at
times an extended sway, and comprised a
part of the coasts of Sumatra.

While the Indian civilisation thus
struck root in the north, and the political
organisation of the kingdom of Menang-
kabau in the central districts was probably
also due to its influence, it
began indirectly to affect the
south, where,' according to
Chinese accounts, a state had
been formed as early as the fifth century.
Southern Sumatra, by its geographical
position, has always been fated to be in
some degree dependent on the populous and
powerful Java. In the earliest Hindu
period of Java we learn of a prince whose
territory lay on both sides of the Sunda
Strait. It is possible that the inhabitants
of Southern Sumatra enjoyed greater in-
dependence afterward, since we have no
detailed accounts of the relations between
the two islands, except Chinese
accounts of wars between West
Java and Southern Sumatra in
the tenth century. In 1377
Southern Sumatra, whose ruler
actually appealed to China for
help, was conquered by the
Javanese ; for a time it belonged
to Modyopahit. Palembang
was then founded by Javanese
colonists. We have already
seen how Islam found its first
adherents there, and became a
menace to the kingdom of
Modyopahit.

In the north, also, Islam
effected the overthrow of Hin-
duism. At the beginning of the
thirteenth century the first
preachers of the new doctrine
appeared in the Strait, of
Malacca, and at first gained
influence over the Malays in

9*5

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

the narrower sense of the word who came
originally from Sumatra and ruled the
peninsula of Malacca and the adjacent
islands. In Achin itself, on the other hand,
they won no success until the beginning
of the sixteenth century later, that is,
than in Eastern Java. At any rate, the

PALACE

THE SULTAN OF SIAK IN SUMATRA

political supremacy of the Hindus seems
already to have broken up, and to have
given place to native dynasties. All
Moghayat 'Shah was, according to a
credible tradition, the first Mohammedan
sultan of Achin. Ala-ed-din al-Kahar
( I 53- I 552) seems to have completely
reorganised the political system ;
he also conquered a Battak-
Hindu kingdom, which continued
to resist the new doctrine in the
north. In the succeeding period
Achin blossomed out into a
powerful state, and was natur-
ally soon involved in the wars
which raged almost without
intermission on the Strait of
Malacca between the Portuguese
and the Malays. The fleets and
armies of Achin repeatedly
appeared off Malacca, and made
successful attempts to capture
the town from the Portuguese.

The Dutch having obtained a
foothold in Java, extended
their influence from that island
over the south of Sumatra, and
also in Lampong, which paid
tribute to the Javanese kingdom of Bantam.
The most important kingdom, Palembang,
appears to have enjoyed a short period
of independence after the destruction of
Modyopahit, but it was conquered by the
Ceding Souro who originally came from
Demak in Java in the year 1544 and
thus received a Javanese dynasty, which

916

reigned until 1649 j after that a new line
occupied the throne until 1824. A factory
was set up in the vicinity of the town of
Palembang by the Dutch as early as 1618,
and events then took their usual course.
After the natives in the year 1662 had
attacked the factory and massacred almost

the entire garrison, the town of

Palembang was destroyed by a
Dutch fleet, a favourable com-
mercial treaty was exacted from
the intimidated sultan, and this re-
mained in force until i8il. Palem-
bang acquired new interest for the
Dutch who meanwhile had been
forced on one occasion to end a
civil war by their interference
when in 1710 immensely rich tin
mines were discovered on the island
of Banka, belonging to that king-
dom ; the company promptly
secured for itself a share of the
profits by a separate treaty. The
usually friendly relations between the Dutch
and Palembang were immediately destroyed
when, after the occupation of Java by
the British, the whole garrison of the
Dutch factory at Palembang was mur-
dered by the sultan's order in a most
horrible manner. The British undertook

DRAWING-ROOM

PALACE OF SULTAN OF SIAK

a punitive expedition, but failed to restore
order thoroughly ; and the Dutch, after the
restoration of their East Indian possessions
in 1816, were not more successful, until in
1823 they summarily incorporated Palem-
bang as a province of their colonial empire.
The Dutch, on entering upon the
inheritance of the Portuguese, took over

THE ISLANDS OF MALAYSIA-SUMATRA

the

their unfriendly relations with Achin.
At first everything seemed to go well.
The Dutch turned their attention more
to Java and the Moluccas, and contented
themselves with concluding a sort of
commercial treaty with Achin in the
year 1602, and with obtaining
concession of a strip of terri-
tory for the establishment of fac-
tories ; in the meantime, also,
owing to internal disorders, the
power of Achin had greatly waned.
But the keener the interest felt in
Sumatra, the clearer it became that
the originally despised Achin was
a formidable and most invincible
antagonist. After the middle of
the nineteenth century it became
the most dangerous piece on the
chessboard of Dutch colonial
policy. A dynasty of Arabian
stock, whose first ruler, Mahmud
Shah, mounted the throne in the
year 1760, resolutely resumed the
struggle with the Dutch. Achin
had, it is true, been recognised as a sove-
reign state by the Treaty of London on
March lyth, 1824; but the fact was
gradually made evident that a free Malay
state, with its inevitable encouragement
or tolerance of piracy, could no longer

the sultan led to no result. The war,
which began on March 25th, 1873, proved
unexpectedly difficult and costly. An
obstinate resistance was offered by the
population on various occasions, and
particularly when, on January 24th, 1874,
the sultan's palace was stormed by the

ON THE RIVER AT PALEMBANG, SUMATRA

HOUSE OF A PADANG CHIEF, SUMATRA

Dutch under Lieut. -General J . van Swieten.
But this difficulty was greatly increased
by the unfavourable nature of the scene
of operations and the unhealthy climate.
It was not until 1879 that the country
could be considered subjugated ; even then
it still required an un-
usually large garrison, and
occasional insurrections
continue to show on how
uncertain a foundation the
Dutch rule in these parts
is reared. No other fea-
ture in recent events re-
quires to be noted, except
the volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes of 1883.

Sumatra has an area of
161,612 square miles and
an estimated population
of about 4,000,000, in-
cluding" over 100,000 Chi-
nese. The largest towns
are Padang, Palembang-,
Benkulen, and Medin.
The mineral products are
gold, petroleum, and coal,

be allowed to exist in so dangerous a and the chief produce consists of tobacco,

place as the Strait of Malacca.

Finally, therefore, in the year 1870,
Holland, in return for a promise to resign
its possessions in West Africa, received
full permission to take any action it
wished against Achin. Negotiations with

coffee, rubber, gum, rattan and spices,
including pepper and nutmegs. As part of
the Dutch East Indies, its administration
is in the hands of the Governor-General,
who exercises his functions through
the agency of subordinate Residents.

917

THE FIRST BRITISH FOOTHOLD IN BORNEO

James Brooke, afterwards Rajah Brooke, making his first treaty with the Rajah of Borneo, in 1842.

9T8

BORNEO: LARGEST OF THE MALAY ISLANDS

BORNEO, the largest island of the Malay remains of buildings and idols, but also
Archipelago has not hitherto, in the literary evidence to prove that the Hindu
course of history, attained anything like kingdoms of Java affected, both by
the importance to which its size should conquest and by example, the adjoining
entitle it. A glance at the geographical parts of Borneo. Modyopahit, in par-
features of this clumsily shaped island, ticular, received tribute from the kingdom
which is surrounded on almost every side of Banjermassing and other states on
by damp, unhealthy lowlands, will satis- the south coast ; even after the fall of
factorily account for this destiny ; indeed, the Brahman state the Islam princes
Borneo would have probably drawn of Java kept up this relation for some
the notice of maritime nations to itself time. The legends of Borneo point in
even less, had not its wealth in gold and the same direction when they record that
diamonds proved so irresistibly alluring. Banjermassing was founded by Lembong
If the physical characteristics of the Mangkurat, a native of Nearer India,
huge island are unattractive to foreign who had immigrated from Java,
visitants, they also inspire its inhabitants At the time of the fall of Modyopahit,
with little disposition for seafaring, migra- Banjermassing was the most powerful
tions, and commerce. The Dyaks, who state in Borneo. It certainly owed its
are the aborigines of Borneo, are mainly prominence to the advanced civilisation
a genuine inland people, which in the which, evoked by a large Javanese immi-
course of history has shown little mobility gration, was naturally followed by the

and has tenaciously pre-
served its ancient customs.
There is no trace of polit-
ical societies on a large
scale in the interior of the
island ; the coasts alone,
washed by the waves of
foreign peoples, show the
beginnings of national
organisations, which from
their position are influenced
by the other islands of the
Archipelago and the chief
routes of maritime trade
far more than by the land
on which they are estab-
lished. It would, for ex-
ample, have been a less

adventurous journey for an bUL1AJN u * * UKIxmu 1JN 1H8 Landak, the other
inhabitant of the north coast to visit the of the south coast, were subject to Bantam,
ports of China than to penetrate a dozen equally Islamitic, favoured the introduc-
miles into the interior of his own island, or tion of the Mohammedan faith, which first
even to migrate as far as the south coast, struck root in 1600. But all recollection
Thus, the old tradition, that originally the of Modyopahit was not lost ; most of
island was divided into three large king- the princely families of the south coast
doms Borneo or Brunei, Sukadana, and traced their descent from its royal house.
Banjermassing is untrustworthy in this The north, on the other hand, was con-
form. The south coast of the island was siderably influenced in early times by
influenced in a remarkable degree by the China; even at the present day pieces
vicinity of Java. We have not only the of Chinese porcelain, which evidently

919

introduction of Hindu
creeds. According to the
legend, a son of the royal
} house of Modyopahit
I founded in the fourteenth
I century a Hindu dynasty
1 which reckoned thirteen
I princes down to Pangeran
I Samatra, the first Islam
1 ruler; the daughter of
f Pangeran Samatra was
1 married to a Dyak, who
| became the founder of a
new dynasty. The circum-
stance that Banjermassing
became tributary to the
Islam state of Demak on
, while Sukadana and

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

reached the island through ancient trading
transactions, are highly valued by the
Dyaks of the interior. The earliest men-
tioned kingdoms in Borneo, Polo in the
north and Puni on the west coast, may
have acquired power from the trade with

RAJAH BROOKE

The venturesome Englishman who founded
the British Dependency of Sarawak

China ; in the fourteenth cen-
tury, certainly, Puni also was
subject to Javanese influence.
In addition to the Javanese, the
Malays in the stricter sense of
the word exercised great in-
fluence over Borneo, whose
coasts in quite early times had
become the favourite goal of
their voyages and settlements.
It was through them that Brunei,
the chief state of the north
coast, was founded, though the
date cannot be accurately fixed ;
perhaps it was merely a con-
tinuation of the old kingdom of
Polo. Malay immigrants had
probably come to Brunei, even
before their conversion to Islam,
which took place in the middle
of the thirteenth century.
Modyopahit also gained a tem-
porary influence over Brunei.

the Spaniards broke out, and further
collisions followed later. Other Malay
states on the west coast were Pontianak
probably the ancient Puni Matan, Mon-
gama, and others. Banjermassing, Suka-
dana, and Landak were also originally
founded by Malays, and only subsequently
brought under Javanese rule.

From the east the Bugi of Celebes
sought new homes on the shores of Borneo,
and also founded a number of small
kingdoms, whose existence depended
originally on trade and piracy. All these
immigrations have naturally produced
the result that the coast population of
Borneo is everywhere an inextricable
tangle of the most various racial elements,
and that the aboriginal Dyaks have
intermixed freely with Malays, Javanese,
Chinese, Bugi, and others. Which racial
element predominates depends on various
contingencies from time to time. In the
mining districts of the kingdom of Samba

TYPES OF THE INHABITANTS OF SARAWAK

When, however, the first Europeans visited
the country, it was a powerful and com-
pletely independent kingdom, which for
a time extended its sway over the Sulu
Islands and as far as the Philippines.
In the year 1577 the first war with

920

in Western Borneo, for example, Chinese
were settled after the second half of the
eighteenth century in such large numbers
that they were far too strong for the
Malay sultan, and were finally suppressed
by the Dutch government only in 1854.

THE ISLANDS OF MALAYSIA BORNEO

The first Europeans who attempted to
form connections with Borneo were the
Portuguese, after 1521 ; they met, how-
ever, with little success, although they
renewed their attempt in 1690. Mean-
while the Dutch East India Company
had opened, in the year 1606, a factory in
Banjermassing, whose business was to
export pepper and gold dust; but,
owing to the vacillating and often hostile
attitude of the sultan, it was no more
successful than the Portuguese settlement,
and was finally abandoned, in consequence
of the murder of Dutch officials and
merchants at Banjermassing in 1638 and
1669. The residence of the sultan, since
Banjermassing had been de-
stroyed by the Dutch in 1612,
was removed to Martapura,
and remained there, although
Banjermassing soon rose from
its ashes. In 1698 the English
appeared upon the scene, and
were at first successful, until
the destruction of their factory
in the year 1707 thoroughly
discouraged them from further
undertakings. The Sultan of
Banjermassing, in spite of his
faithless behaviour, was in no
way inclined to abandon the
advantages of the European
trade, but once more turned to
the Dutch.

At length, then, in 1733, the
Dutch resolved on a new
attempt. Since that date, not-
withstanding frequent mis-
understandings, their relations
with the island have been
practically unbroken. The in-
terference of the company in a
war about the succession to
turned the scale and procured
the sovereignty over Banjermassing ;

which they fought from 1850 to 1854 on
the west coast, as also from 1859 to I ^^ 2
on the south-east coast. Banjermassing
itself, after the interference of the Dutch
in the succession to the throne in 1852
had caused a rebellion, was deprived of
its dynasty in 1857 an< ^ completely
annexed in 1864. A fresh rebellion in
1882 did not alter the position of affairs.
At the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury the sultanate of Brunei had lost much
of its power ; when, therefore, in the year
1839, an insurrection was raging in the
province of Sarawak, the governor gladly
accepted the offer of James Brooke, an
Englishman, to come to his assistance.

and thus the greater part of the south
coast of Borneo, as well as the coveted
monopoly of the pepper trade, passed
into its hands in 1787. During the
occupation of Java by the English the
reigning sultan consented to make further
concessions, which after January ist, 1817,
benefited the Dutch.

To this period belongs the romantic
attempt of an Englishman, William Hare,
to found an independent kingdom in
South Borneo. The Dutch have con-
siderablv extended and consolidated their
power by new treaties and> by the wars

ORIGINAL RESIDENCE OF RAJAH BROOKE AT SARAWAK

the throne Brooke, born on April 29th, 1803, at
for it Bandel, in Bengal, had then formed the
plan of founding a colony in Borneo at
his private cost ; he appeared in June,
1839, with his crew on the coast, and
actually conquered the opponents of the
sultan, who . in gratitude entrusted the
governorship of Sarawak to him in 1840,
and in 1842 formally invested him with
the province.

Since "Rajah" Brooke was no ordinary
adventurer, but a man of noble nature and
strong character, his administration proved
a blessing to the disorganised country.
When the sultan showed signs of suspicion,
the rajah relied upon England, and com-
pelled the sultan in the year 1846 to cede

921

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

TYPES OF MALAY HOUSES IN BORNEO

the island of Labuan to the British, and
finally, after he had suppressed various
risings of the Malays
and Chinese, made
himself absolutely in-
dependent of Brunei.
Shortly before his death
he offered Sarawak to
the British government.
But the offer was re-
fused, and after his
death in 1868 the state
of Sarawak passed to
his nephew, Sir Charles
Brooke. Subsequently
the British government
reconsidered its former

Thus the entire island of
Borneo, the largest in the
world except Australia and
New Guinea, is divided,
politically, into two parts,
about three-quarters of the
island being a Dutch colony,
and the remaining fourth
the north and north-west
portion being British, and
being composed of British
North Borneo (31,106
square miles), Brunei (4,000
square miles), and Sarawak
(42,000 square miles), with
the contiguous island of
Labuan (31 square miles).
The territory of British
North Borneo is adminis-

decision, and in 1888
both Brunei and Sara-

tered by the British North Borneo Com-
pany through the agency of a resident
Governor, whose ap-
pointment is conditional
upon the approval of
the Secretary of State.
The chief products of
British Borneo are
timber, coffee, rice,
sago, tobacco, rubber,
gums, and spices. There
is a railway of about
120 miles and there is
telegraphic cable com-
munication with the
outer world. The
chief town of British
North Borneo is San-
da kan, with a popula-

FAM.LY TOMB OF THE RAJAH OF D.NDA jTs 'LfC J^l

\JL OdldWdlv LI1C C-lild

terms that internal administration should town is Kuching, also the capital, with
be left entirely in the hands of their re- a population of a little over 30,000.

spective rulers, but that

the foreign relations of
both states should be con-
trolled by Britain. The
declaration of this protec-
torate came as a natural
sequel to the acquisition of
North Borneo. This pro-
vince was granted to the
British North Borneo
Company as its private
property in the year 1881.
It passed under the pro-
tection of England at the
same time and on the
same terms as the states
of Brunei and Sarawak.

A RIVERSIDE VILLAGE IN THE ISLAND OF BORNEO

Q22

THEISLANDS

OF
MALAYSIA

AND THEIR

STORY

IV.

CELEBES: SMALLEST OF THE LARGER ISLANDS

A Land

of Gulfs and

Mountains

HTHE fourth large island of the Archi-
pelago, Celebes, is of quite a different
character from Borneo. Instead of the
clumsy contour of Borneo, we find here a
most diversified coast line. Immense
plains such as we find in Borneo are
wanting in Celebes, which is a land of
mountainous peninsulas separated by
deeply indented gulfs. If the island has
not attracted commerce to its shores
to the extent that might be expected
from these favourable natural conditions,
the reason is, doubtless, that
attention has been diverted
from it by the proximity of
the spice-bearing Moluccas.
Celebes, although fertile and not actually
poor in ore and precious metals, and for that
reason a valuable possession at the present
day, does not contain those tempting
products which hold out to the merchant
the prospect of rapid and splendid profits.
But although the accessibility of the
island has not been thoroughly appre-
ciated by foreigners, it has exercised great
influence on the fortunes of the native
population it has sent them to the sea
and turned them into wandering pirates,
traders, and settlers.

Celebes has thus acquired for the
eastern Malay Archipelago a significance
similar to that of Malacca for the western.
Celebes was not regarded by the old
inhabitants of the Archipelago as a
single united country. The northern
peninsula with its aboriginal population
of Alfur tribes had nothing in common
with the southern parts, which were
inhabited by the Macassars and the
Bugi ; and even the Dutch have recognised
this difference so far as to place the two
districts under different Residencies.
Celebes, on the whole, is a genuine Malay
country, although there are many indica-
tions among the Alfurs that there was
an admixture of dark-skinned men ; but
whether we must think of these latter as
stunted Negrito-like aborigines or as immi-
grant Papuans, is an insoluble problem for
the time being. The Bugi and Macassars
are pure Malays, who, in their whole life

and being, probably most resemble those
bold navigators of Malay race who have
peopled Polynesia and Madagascar.

In view of the fact that the bulk of the
population is still divided into numerous
small tribes, which show little inclination
to amalgamate, we cannot venture to
assign an early date for the rise of large
kingdoms in Celebes. Tradition in the
south can still tell how the shrines of
separate localities, from which emigrants
went to other parts of the island, first
acted as a rallying point for small tribes,
or hindered the disintegration of others
which were increasing in numbers and
extent of territory ; the chiefs of the
several localities recognised the possessor
of the most ancient and .most potent
magic charm as their superior lord,
assembled from time to time at council
meetings in his village, and thus prepared
the way for the erection of larger political
communities. This process probably was
carried out in Celebes with comparatively
little interruption and without the help
of foreigners. Even of Hinduism only faint
traces can have reached the island, as is
shown, among other instances, from the
absence of Sanscrit words in the original
dialects of the Bugi. The small tribes
were engaged in constant feuds among
themselves before any states were formed,
and after that epoch these wars were
continued on a larger scale, and alternated
with sanguinary conflicts within the still
incompletely organised king-
s' Viol domS ' The annals f Macassar
relate, for example, as a note-
worthy fact, that one of these
princes died a natural death. The fore-
most power, among the Macassars was
Goa, later Macassar ; among the Bugi,
on the contrary, the foremost power was
Boni, from where the Bugi gradually
spread far over the coasts of the Eastern
Malay islands and to some extent founded
new states.

The Portuguese opened communications
with Celebes in the year 1512. The king-
doms into which the island was then
divided could hardly have been long

9*3

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

established ; for even if the annals of the
Macassars enumerate 39 princes, who
occupied the throne in succession down
to the year 1809, the average duration of
a reign during those early days of barbarism
and bloodshed must have been short.
Assuming, therefore, that the records are
fairly trustworthy, the state of Macassar
may have been founded subsequently
to the year 1400. The Portuguese first
tried to secure a footing on the island in
1540, when they set up a factory in Menado,
and later also in the south. They obtained,
however, no better results than the
English and Danes at a somewhat later
period. The Dutch, who had turned their
attention to Celebes after 1607, alone met
with ultimate success.

But meanwhile Islam had reached the
island. In 1603 the Prince of Macassar,
with his people, adopted the new faith.
The great ideas of this world-religion were
here, as in so many other places, a stimulus
to the prosperity of the country, so that
the influence of the kingdom of Macassar
made vast strides in the next few years,
until its supremacy in Southern Celebes
was indisputable. It was en-
K P S S a g ed in repeated wars with

st t s Boni ' the state of the Bugi>

since the people of that demo-
cratically organised kingdom refused to
accept Islam, and resisted the new creed,
first with their prince at their head, and
then, when he was converted to the
Mohammedan faith, in opposition to
him. The Sultan of Macassar interfered
in these quarrels, and succeeded, in the
year 1640, in subduing Boni. Thesamefate
was shared by numerous petty states.
Macassar, with its naval power, partially
conquered the coasts of Sumbawa and
Buton ; but it was destined soon to dis-
cover that the age of large native states
was past.

The destruction of a Dutch factory on
Buton compelled the East India Company
to take active measures ; in- doing so it
relied on the conquered, but still dis-
affected, Boni, whose royal family had
found a friendly reception as fugitives
among the Dutch. The Sultan of Macassar
was soon compelled to abandon his
conquests and resign the throne of Boni
to Rajah Palaka, a protege of the Dutch,
who from the year 1672 onward raised
Boni to the ruling power in South Celebes.
After his death (1696) a part of his kingdom
became the absolute possession of the

924

company. Although the Dutch always
took full advantage of the inveterate
hatred between Macassar and Boni, yet
their attempts to extend their rule still
farther led to repeated and troublesome
wars, until the temporary British occupa-
tion of the island (1814-1816), and the
ensuing disorders, resulted in drastic

_ modifications of the political

Estab hshment situation A war ^ the

Supremacy pmcesof South Celebes ended
in 1825 with the victory ol the
Dutch. The independence of the native
states would have then ended for ever
had not the rebellion in Java diverted
attention in another direction. It was
only after new struggles in 1856 and 1859
that their annexation to the colonial
empire of the Dutch East Indies was
effected.

The history of North Celebes really
belongs to that of the Moluccan Archi-
pelago. The state of Menado may be
noticed as an important political entity.
When the northern peninsula, and es-
pecially the hilly district of Minahassa, had
proved to be suitable for coffee plantations,
European influence easily became pre-
dominant there, and all the more so since
Islam had not yet won a footing. Else-
where in the Dutch East Indies there have
been few or no conversions to Christianity ;
but a part of the inhabitants of Minahassa
have been converted. The eastern and
smallest peninsula of Celebes has also in
its external life been subject to the in-
fluence of the Moluccas.

Celebes is administered, like the other
islands of Dutch East Indies, by the
Governor-General, with headquarters in
Batavia. The area of the island is
71,470 square miles, and the population
is conjectured to be about two million,
but there seems to have been no authori-
tative basis for this estimate. The chief
town and port is Vlaardingen, or Macassar,
with a population of 20,000, in the extreme
south of the island. Other
industrial trading ports are Menado and

'J, * ' Kema on the northern penin-
1 sula. The climate of Celebes is
much healthier than that of many other
islands in the Malaysian group. Mining
is prosecuted to some extent, valuable
coal deposits existing in the northern
parts. Gold has been found, and there is
possibility of remunerative enterprise in
its exploitation, and in the south sulphur
is plentiful.

THE AOLUCCAS AND THE SUNDA ISLANDS

'"F'HE modern history of the Malay
* Archipelago centres in the west round
Java, but in the east round the Molucca
Islands. In the earlier period, when the
trade in muscat nuts and cloves had not
yet attracted foreign shipping to its shores,
the group of the Moluccas may have been
less conspicuous ; small tribes and village
communities probably fought against each
other, and may have extended their war-
like expeditions and raids to Celebes and
New Guinea, and these visits were probably
returned in similar fashion. The trade in
spices then raised the wealth and power
of certain places to such a pitch that they
were able to bring under their dominion
large portions of the Archipelago. Jilolo,
on the northernmost peninsula of Hal-
mahera, is considered to be the oldest
kingdom ; in 1540 it was absorbed by
Ternate. It is a remarkable fact that
the influence of China on the Moluccas
seems to have been very slight, since the
islands are hardly mentioned in the
Chinese annals before the fifteenth century.

The Portuguese on
their arrival found
two large kingdoms,
Ternate and Tidor ; both
originally rose in small
insular districts, their
chief towns lay in close
proximity, and as hos-
tile rivals each was bent
on eclipsing the other.
The population of these
two states was even
then, probably, much
mixed ; in addition to
the Alfurs, presumably
the oldest occupants,
who, on Halmahera es-
pecially, and also on
Seram, had preserved a
large share of their in-
dependence, there were
on the coasts Malays,
Bugi, and the descen-
dants of other nations
occupied in the spice

trade. These included Javanese who seem
at first to have been almost exclusively
occupied in transporting spices to their
native island Arabs, and probably also
Chinese and Hindus. About Ternate we
know that the seventh ruler mounted the
throne in the year 1322 ; in his time Javan-
ese and Arabs are said to have immigrated
in exceptional numbers. Ternate and
Tidor were maritime and insular states ;
they kept closely to the coast, and while
their fleets were powerful they never
possessed extensive territory on Halma-
hera and Seram. Since their power was
entirely based on the spice trade, the
princes of the two states courted the
favour of the Portuguese, who indeed first
appeared as traders. When Ternate proved
successful in this respect, the monarch
of Tidor threw himself into the arms
of the Spaniards, who then came forward
with their claims on the Moluccas. The
outrages of the Portuguese led to many
rebellions and conflicts

The Dutch first appeared on the scene
in the year 1599, an d
planted a small settle-
ment on Banda ; another
half century elapsed,
however, before they
felt themselves strong
enough to seize the
monopoly of spice-grow-
ing and the spice trade.
The sultanates of Ter-
nate and Tidor, which
had some power over the
coast districts of Celebes
and New Guinea, were
allowed to remain; but
the spice islands proper
Amboina, after 1605,
and Banda especially
were placed under Dutch
administration. As it
seemed impracticable to
watch over all the
islands, the company

ENEMIES OF THE DUTCH IN BALI determined to allow the

cultivation of cloves and
925

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

muscat nuts only in certain places, and
everywhere else to effect a complete
destruction of the spice trees.

The execution of this purpose necessi-
tated a war, which in 1621 almost
annihilated the population of the Banda
Islands, so that thenceforth the com-
pany was able to introduce slaves, and
thus exercise a stricter supervision. But
since the seeds of the spice trees were
continually being carried by birds to
other islands, annual expeditions were
undertaken to destroy the young planta-
tions on prohibited soil, by force of arms
if necessary ; and unspeakable misery
was in this way spread over the islands.
These sad conditions, whose prime mover
was the Governor, Arnold de Vlaming,

play the least conspicuous part in history.
Devoid of any political unity, they stag-
nated in their isolation until foreign
immigration introduced a higher type of
social life, and small kingdoms sprang into
existence here and there along their coasts.
The interior of the islands remained
unsubdued and unaffected by this change.
Bali affords a solitary exception to the
general rule. This island, although pro-
foundly influenced in ancient times by
Java, frequently enjoyed political inde-
pendence. When the Brahman states of
East Java increased in strength towards
the close of the first millennium of the
Christian era, Bali also was a state with
Hindu culture. Ugrasena ruled there in
the year 923 ; in 1103 another prince,

THE DUTCH SOLDIERS IN HOLLAND'S EAST INDIAN WAR

A Dutch fort on the island of Bali where the inhabitants resisted the soldiers of Holland for thirty years.
The war was most sanguinary and the mortality appalling.

lasted down to the British occupation
in 1810, and were afterward renewed,
though in a modified form. In 1824 the
destructive expeditions were discontinued,
but the last traces of the spice monopoly
disappeared only in 1873, when the plan-
tations were sold to private speculators.
During the time when the small Spice
Islands had so chequered a history, the
main islands long remained neglected.
The Dutch gradually succeeded in acquir-
ing influence over the semi-civilised Alfurs,
of whom those who live on Seram are organ-
ised in peculiar secret societies, which
originated in the peculiar system of male
associations to which reference has been
made. Of all the districts of the Malay
Archipelago, the "small" Sunda Islands

926

Jayapangu, is mentioned. Bali later
formed a part of the kingdom of Modyo-
pahit. It was impossible for Islam to con-
vert the Balinese, who, at the time when
they formed a united people, actually as-
sumed the aggressive, oppressed the Moham-
medan Sassaks on the temporarily con-
quered Lombok, and menaced Sumbawa.
Brahmanism defied its rival in this case at
least, and has lasted on Bali down to the
present day. In consequence of the pre-
vailing system of small sovereigns, complete
political disintegration gradually set in.
There were eight petty states in Bali in the
nineteenth century, when the Dutch in the
years 1846, 1848, 1849, an< ^ I ^68 undertook
campaigns against Balinese princes. Never-
theless, the Dutch, even within the last

SEAPORT VILLAGE ON THE ISLAND OF SERAM

twenty years have required a comparatively
strong levy of troops to crush the resistance
of one of the princes.

Javanese influence also temporarily
touched Sumbawa, the development of
which on the whole was affected by the
seafaring inhabitants of Southern Celebes,
the Macassars and Bugis. It was formerly
split up into six small and independent
states, Bima, Sumbawa, Dompo, Tam-
bora, Sangar, and Papekat. The popu-
lation of the " kingdoms " of Tambora and
Papekat suffered terribly under the devas-
tating eruption of Tambora (April loth,
1815), as, to a somewhat less degree, did
those of Sangar, Dompo, and the town of
Sumbawa. In the east of Floris, or Flores,
of which the capital is Larantuka, Malay
and Buginese immigrants predominated ;
the west, Mangerai, was dependent on Bima,
one of the states
on Sumbawa,
and connected
with it by a com-
mon language.
Timor may have
been mostly in-
fluenced by the
Moluccas, and
saw small prin-
cipalities formed
on its coast at
a comparatively
early date ; these
principalities
had mostly dis-
appearedbyi6oo
in consequence
of the advance
of Timorese, in
the stricter sense

of the word, who inhabited the east of the
island and originally, perhaps, had their
homes in Seram. The most north-easterly
part of Timor (Deli or Dilhij is the last
remnant of the Portuguese possessions in
Indonesia; in the south-west (Kupang)
the Dutch have had a footing since 1688.
The total area of the Moluccas, or Spice
Islands, is about 43,864 square miles. They
consist of two main groups, the northern
including Jilolo, Ternate, Tidore and the
Obi group, and the southern includingBuro,
Ceram, Amboina and the Banda group.
The total population is estimated at about
500,000. The chief town and commercial
cent re is Amboin a , on the islan d o f t he s ame
name, with a population of about 8,000, and
an annual trade of about $425,ooo.The chief
products are cloves and other spices, rice,
sago, maize, timber, coco-nuts, and cocoa.

ATTACK OF THE OLD MALAY PIRATES

927

THE ttANIFESTO

OF A

MODERN PATRIOT

AGUINALDO'S OATH OF ALLEGIANCE

T HEREBY renounce all allegiance to any and all so-called Revolutionary
* Governments in the Philippine Islands, and recognise and accept the
supreme authority of the United States of America therein. I do solemnly swear
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to that Government ; that I will at all
times conduct myself as a faithful and law-abiding citizen of the said islands, and
will not, either directly or indirectly, hold correspondence with, or give intelligence
to any enemy of the United States; nor will I abet, harbour, or protect such
enemy ; that I impose upon myself these voluntary obligations without any mental
reservations or purpose of evasion, so help me God."

AGUINALDO TO HIS COUNTRYMEN

u T BELIEVE I am not in error in presuming that the unhappy fate to which
* my adverse fortune has led me is not a surprise to those who have been
familiar with the progress of the war. The lessons taught with a full meaning,
which have recently come to my knowledge, suggest with irresistible force that a
complete termination of hostilities and lasting peace are not only desirable, but
absolutely essential to the welfare of the Philippine Islands.

" The Filipinos have never been dismayed at their weakness, nor have they
faltered in following the path pointed out by their fortitude and courage. The
time has come, however, in which they find their advance along this path to be
impeded by an irresistible force, which, while it restrains them, yet enlightens
their minds and opens to them another course, presenting them the cause of
peace. This cause has been joyfully embraced by the majority of my fellow
countrymen, who already have united around the glorious sovereign banner of the
United States. In this banner they repose their trust and believe that under its
protection the Filipino people will attain all those promised liberties which they
are beginning to enjoy.

"The country has declared unmistakably in favour of peace. So be it. There
has been enough blood, enough tears, and enough desolation. This wish cannot be
ignored by the men still in arms if they are animated by a desire to serve our
noble people, which has thus clearly manifested its will. So do I respect this will,
now that it is known to me. After mature deliberation, I resolutely proclaim to
the world that' I cannot refuse to heed the voice of a people longing for peace, nor
the lamentations of thousands of families yearning to see their dear ones enjoying
the liberty and the promised generosity of the great American nation. By
acknowledging and accepting the sovereignty of the United States throughout the
Philippine Archipelago, as I now do, and without any reservation whatsoever,
I believe that I am serving thee, my beloved country. May happiness be thine."

928

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
THE STORY OF A STRUGGLE FOR NATIONALITY

HTHE large group of the Philippines,
which comprises over 3,000 distinct
islands and islets and which in a geo-
logical as well as ethnological sense
represents the link connecting Indonesia
to the region of Eastern Asia, forms
the north-eastern portion of the Malay
world of islands. Malayism is always
predominant in the Philippines ; it may,
indeed, have prevailed in Formosa also,
and thence have made further conquests.
The Philippines were not always in
the possession of the Malays. In the
earliest historical age we find the islands
inhabited by the Negritos, who were
only gradually driven back to the
mountains of the interior by the im-
migrating brown
race ; it was only
on the north
shores of Luzon
that they kept
their position on
the sea - coast.
There were pro-
bably two inva-
sions of Malays ;
the tribes of the
first intermixed
very largely with
Negritos, and on
the second immi-
gration shared
their fate, since
they, too, were
forced to retreat
to the mountain-
ous interior of the
islands, while the
newcomers occu-
pied the coasts.

The second
wave of immigra-
tion, like the first,
flooded chiefly the
south of the Archi-
pelago, andethno-
logically changed
it, while the
Negritos on the

AGUINALDO, THE NATIONAL HERO

coast in the north-east of Luzon once more
escaped extermination. The Malays of
the second migration brought to the
Philippines an advanced civilisation which
shows traces of the influence of India ; this
event may have occurred, therefore, some
centuries after the Christian era. Though
not absolutely convincing, many arguments
support the view that the second immi-
grants came from Sumatra, the cradle of
the Malay race ; other features of resem-
blance point to the Dyaks of Borneo. The
Tagals on the peninsula of Luzon became
the representatives of the native semi-
civilisation. A third immigration, which,
however, was not so thoroughly carried
out, is connected with the advance
of Islam into
the Malay island-
wor 1 d . The
Malays of Brunei
in Borneo under-
took expeditions
of conquest and
conversion to the
Philippines about
1500. They sub-
dued Palawan and
firmly established
themselves on
Luzon. Almost
simultaneously
immigrants from
the Moluccas
settled on Min-
danao and seized
the Sulu Islands.
A Mohammedan
pirate state arose
there, while pre-
viously, as we
learn from Chinese
records of 1417,
the group of
islands was
divided into three
kingdoms.

The Philippines
were reached,
from the east, on

929

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

March i6th, 1521, by the Portuguese

Magalhaes, who was in the Spanish service,

and were called St. Lazarus Isles ; later the

name Islas de Ponientewas given them ; the

name Philippines was not adopted until

1565. The islands excited little attention

at first, while an obstinate struggle deve-

loped between the Spaniards and the Portu-

guese for the possession of

>tru | g . the Moluccas. When Charles

M . n V. abandoned the Moluccas

and Portugal

Philippines also would probably have fallen

into the hands of the Portuguese if private

Spaniards had not set foot on them, and if

Portugal had not attached light importance

to their possession. It was not until 1543

that a Spanish fleet appeared once more in

the Archipelago with the commission to

found a

Spanish

settlement.

But this

finally fell

into the

hands of

the Portu-

guese, who

theoreti-

cally still as-

serted their

claims to

the Philip-

pines. A

renewed at-

tempt in the

year 1565

met at last

with suc-

cess ; the Spaniards established them-

selves first on Sebu, then on Panay. In

1570 they turned to Luzon, and founded

in the ensuing year the town of Manila.

The Spaniards, after Portugal had been
united to their kingdom in 1580, found
two other rivals who endangered their
existence the Mohammedans, or Moros,
advancing from the south, and the Chinese,
who were largely represented, especially
on Luzon. These latter had long main-
tained commercial intercourse with the
Philippines, and seem sometimes also to
have won political influence. They con-
stituted a perpetual menace to the Spanish
rule, but required, nevertheless, to be
treated cautiously, since the revenues of
the colonies depended almost wholly on
the trade with China. In the year 1603 a
terrible revolt of the Chinese broke out.

930

FILIPINO INSURGENT CHIEFS

It was quelled with great slaughter of the
insurgents by the Spaniards with the help
of the natives and of Japanese, who were
also resident on Luzon for trading pur-
poses.

A few years later, however, the num-
ber of Chinese settlers in Manila had
once more risen to an alarming height.
A new revolt was suppressed in 1639, and
when, in 1662, the Philippines were
threatened by the Chinese freebooter
Cheng Ko Chuang, whose father, Koxinga,
had conquered Formosa, there was once
more a massacre, which, however, did not
result in the total exclusion of the
undesirable guests.

The Spaniards met with more success in
their struggle against Islam. Christianity,
thanks to the active zeal of the Spanish

monks ,
completely
outstripped
Islam on
Luzon,
while on
Mindanao
and the
other south-
ern islands
the progress
of the Mo-
hammedan
teaching
was at least
checked.
The task of
ruling the
natives was
facilitated
through the circumstance that no large
kingdoms appear to have existed on
the Philippines before the conquest.
The Spanish Government was most
anxiously concerned to obtain the complete
monopoly of the trade of the Philippines.
Commerce was permitted only with the
American colonies of Spain.

Tradin A P rt WaS founded at Aca ~

pulco for the purpose of this

Restrictions r

trade, and once a year a great
galleon sailed thither from the Philippines,
bearing native spices and goods from
China, Japan, and India. The price
of this cargo was usually paid in silver
dollars. A definite maximum in goods
and money was fixed, which might
not be exceeded. Direct trade with
Europe was prohibited, notwithstanding
frequent attempts by the merchants of

INTERIOR OF FORT SANTIAGO, MANILA SCENE ON THE PASIG RIVER, MANILA

CHURCH OF SAN SEBASTIAN, MANILA

MANILA'S PRINCIPAL BUSINESS ENTRANCE TO THE WALLED CITY,

STREET MANILA

Underwood & Underwood, London

931

PHILIPPINE COCO-NUT FARM

PHILIPPINE SUGAR MILL

BKMSBF^-*

NATIVE BATHING HOUSES IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MANILA

SCENE IN MALOLOS, AGUINALDO'S
CAPITAL

NATIVE HOUSE IN THE TOWN OF
ERMITA

Underwood & Underwood, Londor

932

THE DEFENCE OF MALOLOS. AGUINALDO'S CAPITAL, BY NATIVE TROOPS

AGUINALDOS TROOPS ON THE DEFENSIVE IN A FIELD ENGAGEMENT

Underwood & Underwood, London

933

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Plundered
Galleons
of Spain

Seville. The richly laden vessels which
were engaged in the commerce with
America naturally tempted all the pirates
and admirals of unfriendly nations, and
were not unfrequently plundered, as, for
example, by Anson on the coast of
the island of Samar in 1743.
After 1758 the trade lay in the
hands of the Real Compania
de Filipinas. The harbour
of Manila was first opened to all maritime
nations in 1803; in 1814 free trade was
introduced, and in 1834 the company was
dissolved. But even then foreign com-
petition was checked as much as possible
by all kinds of vexatious customs duties ;
the ruinous to-
bacco monopoly
was not done
away with until
1882.

Although these
ridiculous r e -
strictions o n
trade and the
ascendency of
the reactionaries
hindered all pro-
gress, still the
Philippines, dur-
ing the union of
Portugal with
Spain (1580-
1640), formed
the centre of a
splendid colonial
empire. But
through the
competition of
the Netherlands,
Spain was soon
Philippines proper, which now for a
long time were anything but prosperous.
Nevertheless the spread of Christianity
among the natives helped to consolidate
the colony. When a British fleet appeared
off Manila in the year 1763, and the Chinese
and Indians rose against the Spaniards, the
latter received the help of the Christian
native population.

These allies could not save Manila
from falling for the moment into the
hands of the British, but the Treaty of
Paris restored to the Spaniards all that
had been conquered from them in the
Philippines. Their power was now un-
challenged, except by such rebellions as
the dislike of the monastic and mendi-
cant orders produced among the native

934

FILIPINO TRENCH TAKEN BY AMERICANS

Underwood & Underwood, London

restricted to the

races, and by the more formidable dis-
content of the Malayo-Spanish half-castes,
who had received a tinge of European
culture, but felt themselves slighted and
were eager to play a leading part. Unrest
showed itself in 1824. The mutiny of
the troops in 1872 might have been most
dangerous had it not been smothered by
prompt action. The political power of
Spain seemed on the whole to have been
consolidated in the course of the nineteenth
century ; and Spain gradually succeeded
in annexing to her sovereignty a part at
least of the hitherto independent districts
such as Southern Mindanao and the Sulu
Islands. But the ineradicable tradition of

treating the
colonies as
sources of profit
for place hunters
and for the eccle-
siastical orders
prevented any
real prosperity ;
it was equally
impossible to
treat the Tagals
for all time as
the Indians of
Paraguay had
been treated at
the time of the
Jesuit supre-
macy. The
thought of free-
dom gradually
gained ground ;
secret societies,
resembling free-
masonry , formed
the rallying-point of discontented Fili-
pinos, whose hatred was directed chiefly
against Spanish officials and the friars.

Though nominally a Spanish colony
for 327 years, the Spanish arm did not
reach over the greater part of the group.
The Government was virtually subserv-
Tnfiti* f * ent to tne monastic orders,
Monastic wh ' throu h influence at the
Orders Court, could make or unmake

the Governor-General. They
absorbed some of the best land in the
colony, and by their intrigues and their
quarrels among themselves injured the
influence of the Europeans among the
natives.

A revolt against the power of the monks
was inevitable as soon as the natives began
to acquire wealth. At first it took a

AGUINALDO AT HOME WITH HIS LITTLE SON Keystone View Co.

SPANISH MEZTIZA GIRLS OF MANILA IN NATIVE DRESS

Underwood & Underwood, London

935

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

constitutional form. Among other griev-
ances the natives complained that monks
usurped the duties of the secular clergy
and acted as spies in every Christian
village, procuring the deportation of any
native obnoxious to them without trial.
Many of the Filipinos had been ordained
priests, and the natives demanded that
n . Mass in the country villages

T should be celebrated by the

FmZos secular cler ?y' the mmistra -

tion of the friars being confined
to missions. In 1872 the monasteries
retaliated by a Bill of Indictment against
the richest and most influential native
families, who were deported summarily to
the Ladrone Islands, while four ring-
leaders of the native priests were publicly
garrotted, and the native clergy were
declared thenceforth to be incompetent to
have the cure of souls. It was no longer
a matter for constitutional methods, and
the Filipinos began to talk openly of revo-
lution. Philippine committees were founded
at Madrid and Barcelona, and native
scholars trained in Europe began to
introduce -new ideas.

The most distinguished of these was the
late Dr. Rizal, who at once joined issue
with the monks by disputing their legal
title to the lands they occupied. It was
open war, and Rizal became the idol of
his fellow-countrymen. His life being
unsafe, he returned to Europe, but in
1892, having received a safe-conduct from
the Governor-General, he returned. He was
immediately arrested, however, at the in-
stance of the monks, on a charge of intro-
ducing seditious leaflets in his luggage.
The monks demanded his execution, but
the Governor took the halfway measure of
banishing him to the island of Mindanao.
. The familiar machinery of the

1 *P ln monastic orders was now put

into motion, and the procur-
AgainstSpam f , ,,' ,.

in Madrid obtained from the Government
the recall of Governor-General Despujols,
though he had been only eight months in
office. The revolutionaries immediately
planned a rising in arms, and in the desul-
tory guerilla warfare of 1896 Emilio
Aguinaldo came to the front as com-
mander-in-chief of the rebels.

The revolt of 1896, inspired by the
Filipino League, closely followed by the war
between Spain and America in 1898, finally
put an end to the wretched pretence of a
Spanish Government, and when Manila

936

was ceded to the Americans the real
trouble began. The Filipinos were hun-
gering for the loot of the city, and to leave
the country to their tender mercies would
have been an unthinkable crime. Common
humanity, no less than policy, forced the
hands of the American Government, and
the Philippines had to be conquered from
end to end. For more than two years an
army of 60,000 men was kept fully occu-
pied, and it was not until fifteen months
after the capture of Aguinaldo and his
lieutenant Malvar that resistance was
stamped out. The Americans lost no time
in substituting civil for military ad-
ministration, and as soon as peace pre-
vailed throughout the islands a legislative
assembly was formed. The franchise for
the Lower House was confined to property
owners and persons who could speak
English or Spanish. The Upper House
had a majority of American members.
At the same time overtures were made for
buying out the various monastic orders.
In 1916, almost complete self-government
was granted by the United States and
now the Senate as well as the House is

elected by the people. The
Philippine total area of the Philippine

P hc y f Islands is about 127,853
square miles. The largest
islands are Luzon (40,969 square miles)
and Mindanao (36,292 square miles).
The population, according to an estimate
made in 1913, is 8,831,618, of whom
647,740 are uncivilised. Manila, the cap-
ital of the group, had a population of
250,000 in 1913. The islands contain
about 25,000 Europeans and Americans,
and about 100,000 Chinese. The executive
department consists of six secretaries
one American and five Filipinos under
a Governor-General. The whole area of
the islands is now under civil governors,
and the country is fast settling down to
industrial life and progress. The chief
products of the Philippines are hemp,
coffee, sugar, copra, tobacco, rice, and
indigo. Before the coming of the Amer-
icans the mineral resources of the Philip-
pines had not been investigated, but under
American enterprise prospecting is being
carried out. The most important min-
erals seem, from present indications, to
be lignite, gold, iron, copper, lead and
manganese. For the year 1915 the ap-
proximate revenue was 15,329,000 dol-
lars, and the expenditure amounted to
14,654,000 dollars.

^jf$jf~^r^4^^^

MEN AND MANNERS IN OCEANIA

r r\

HULA GIRLS OF HAWAII

Edwards. Litt

iLANDS

NATIVE LADY OF FIJI HIGH-CASTE NATIVE OF FIJI

Underwood & Underwood, London

^^^^r^^^^

937

GROUP OF YOUNG WOMEN OF THE BETTER CLASS, TAHITI

' jjfctf - /:V '

YOUNG MEN OF TAHITI

XC^0^lT^0^^^^

WARRIORS, WOMEN, AND BOYS OF NEW CALEDONIA

MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE NEW HEBRIDES

939

\^^^^^^^^^^

YOUNG WOMAN OF TONGA AND SAMOAN "ORATOR,' WITH FLY FLAPPER

SCHOOL-GIRLS OF SAMOA AND FRUITSELLERS OF NEW CALEDONIA

Kerry, Sydney

KC^^jT^eTljf^f^^

NATIVES OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS

~J FIJI WARRIORS REPRESENTING A FIGHT WITH CLUBS

O Vnderwood & Underwood, London

^LJ CF ^

ito^r^^0^0^^r^

'MONKEY SHAVE" IN NEW BRITAIN NATIVES OF GERMAN NEW GUINEA

Underwood & Underwood, London

DYAK FIGHTING MEN OF NEW GUINEA

It^tJT^tJT^t^L&^ttJ^^

942

^-^5> - $-0 r "2*0r^^

LRLY SOLOMON ISLANDER SOLOMON MAN WITH BLEACHED HAIR

Underwood & Underwood, London

GROUP OF NATIVE MEN OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

^JT^jrtJT^^&LP^J^^

943

XC^f^0~^0^f^^^

MAORI MOTHER AND CHILD

YOUNG MAORI IN FULL DRESS AN OLD MAORI CHIEF

Photographs : J. Valentine, Dundee

YfJ^jTkJ^^J^J^J^^

944

THE ISLAND NATIONS OF THE
SOUTH SEAS

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ISLANDS

f^ROM a geographical point of view
* Oceania is a unique feature of the
surface of the globe. In the first place it is
of enormous size. From the Pelew Islands
in the west to Easter Island in the east
it stretches over 120 degrees of longitude,
that is to say, over fully a third of the
circumference of the earth, and from
Hawaii in the north to New
Zealand in the south it covers
80 degrees of latitude. It resem-
bles, therefore, in this respect
the giant continent of Asia, while with its
entire land and water area of 27,000,000
square miles it is nearly half as large again.
The distribution of this "world of
islands " within this enormous space is
most uneven. Speaking generally, the
islands are less densely clustered and
smaller in size as one goes from west to
east. Though Melanesia does not include
many large islands, it includes New
Guinea, a country which is not only twice
as large as all the other islands of Oceania
put together 320,000 square miles to
177,000 square miles but represents the
largest insular formation on the globe.

The Bismarck Archipelago and the Solo-
mon Group contain islands which in size far
exceed all the Micronesian and most of the
Polynesian islands ; New Caledonia alone
is in area almost twice as large as all the

Polynesian islands put together, if Hawaii
be omitted 7,000 square miles to 4,000
square miles. New Zealand, finally,
has almost exactly ten times the area of
the whole Polynesian realm of islands
including Hawaii 106,000 square miles
to 11,000 square miles. Melanesia forms
the inner of the two great belts of island
groups which curve in a thin line round
the continent of Australia, while the
outer belt contains all Micronesia and
West Polynesia. But between the island
clusters of Melanesia, in spite of their
considerable area and their dense grouping
on a narrow periphery, stretch broad
expanses of sea. How thinly scattered,
then, must be the islets of Micronesia
and Polynesia, with their insignificant
area, over the vast waters of the ocean !
This isolation is the mam feature in

their distribution. Our maps
Isolation of Qf the p adfic are alwayg Qn &

m very small scale arid cannot
Island Groups ^ ^ ^ peculiarity<

The Caroline Islands, to give an instance,
do not indeed appear on them as a dense
cluster, but still show clearly how close
their interconnection is. Including the
Pelews they comprise forty-nine islands
and atolls, whose total area is six hundred
square miles ; or, to give an American
parallel, about one-third the area of

945

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Long Island. This is certainly not
much in itself, and how infinitely small
it appears when distributed over the
expanse of sea which is framed by the
archipelago ! . Stretching over thirty-two
degrees of longitude and nine degrees of
latitude it covers almost precisely the
same area as the Mediterranean namely,

one hundred thousand square

* 12cof miles. We are, therefore,

ra dealing with magnitudes which

practically allow of no com-
parison; and all the more so since,
of those six hundred square miles, five
islands which, it may be remarked, are
the only ones of non-coralline formation
contain more than two- thirds. The small
remainder is distributed over forty- four
atolls, hardly rising above the level of the
sea, which, with their average size of one
square mile, literally disappear in that
vast waste of waters. The case is the
same with the majority of the Micronesian
and Polynesian archipelagoes. Even if
the distribution is not so thin as that of
the Caroline Islands, still the ins : gnificance
of the land surface in comparison with
the sea is shown by the fact that the
Spaniards in the sixteenth century cruised
for some decades up and down the south
seas without sighting more than a few
islands, which formed part of the densest
clusters.

This distribution of its homes over so
vast a region has been of the greatest
importance for the inhabitants of Oceania.
In the first place, they could reach their
ultimate home only by navigation ; and,
besides that, it was impossible to form
and maintain any relations with neigh-
bours by any other means of communi-
cation. One result of this was that the
natives in general had attained a high
degree of skill in seamanship at the time
of the arrival of the Europeans ; another
that they showed a marvellous disregard
of distances and a mobility most unusual
Race f am n g primitive races. Not

Seamen* and ne amon & a ^ ^ e P eo pl es of

the earth can comparewith the
loat-builders Oceanians in aU these respects .

The clumsy Melanesians, it is true, remain
in the background ; but where can we
find ships to compare in grace and sea-
worthiness with those of Polynesia or
Micronesia, or voyages so extended as
those of the Pacific rac^s ? And what
primitive people can point to colonisation
so wide and so effective as the Polynesian ?

946

Yet it must be borne in mind that all
these astounding performances were exe-
cuted by races who knew nothing of iron
until quite recent times, and were restricted
to stone, wood, and shells.

The configuration of the islands in the
South Sea has exercised as great an
influence on the racial life as their geo-
graphical distribution and size. According
to the degree of their visibility from the
open sea the realm of islands is divided
into high (mainly volcanic) and low
(or coral) islands. There is no sharp
local differentiation of the two groups
within the vast region. Some archipe-
lagoes indeed, such as the Tuamotu,
Gilbert, and Marshall islands, are purely
coral constructions ; others again, like all
the remaining groups of East and West
Polynesia, are high islands. But generally
speaking, the fact remains that coralline
formations, whether fringing reefs or
barrier reefs, are the constant feature of
the high islands. This is also the case
with the five high islands of the Carolines.
This peculiar arrangement, as well as
the configuration of the islands, has in
various points greatly in-
fluenced the Oceanians and
their historical evolution. In
the first place the labour of the
coral insects always increases the size ol
the land. This is most clearly seen in
the atolls ; the reef-building capacity of
those insects has produced the whole
extent of those dwelling places for man.
The activity of the corals, though less in
itself, is more varied in its effect in the
case of the high islands surrounded by
reefs. First, the beach is widened and
thus the entire economic position of the
islanders is improved. The fertile delta
of the Rewa on Vila Levu, as well as the
strips of shore from half a mile to two
miles broad which border the Tahiti
islands, lie on old reefs. These themselves
are, wherever they occur, the best fishing
grounds ; besides this, they always form
excellent harbours and channels a most
important point for seafarers like the
Oceanians. The seamanship and bold
navigation of this racial group has thus
been markedly affected by the activity
of diminutive molluscs.

The great poverty of the islands as a
whole has been an important factor in
their history. From a distance they
appear like earthly Paradr'ses, but on
landing the traveller finds that even the

Islands make
Nations

MAP OF THE ISLANDS OF OCEANIA
Showing: their relationship to the Australian continent and the great island of New Guinea.

Paradises

Poverty

most picturesque of them offers little to
man. Barely a hundredth part of the sur-
face of the coral islands is productive ; in
the majority of the larger volcanic islands
the fertile soil does not amount to more
than a quarter, or according to some
authorities to more than an eighth, of
the entire surface. There is also often
an entire lack of fresh water.
Under such circumstances the
possibility of settlement is
confined within narrow limits ;
if the population exceeds a definite
figure there is imminent risk of death
from starvation or thirst. The South
Sea Islanders are therefore, in the first
place, prone to wander ; . in the second
place they adopt the cruel custom of
infanticide, in order to check the growth
of the population.

A third result of the poverty of the
islands, and one which is important for the
geographical aspect of the settlements,
is the limitation of the habitable region
to the outer edge of the islands. This
peculiarity is, on the atolls, a necessary
consequence of their circular shape ; but
it is the rule also among the high islands,

even the largest of them. Even in New
Guinea itself, that immense island, with
its enormous superficial development, the
coast districts seem to be distinctly more
densely inhabited than the interior. This
is the most striking fact about the distri-
bution of animal and vegetable life in
Oceania. The land is poor ; the sea, the
only means of communication, is rich in
every form of life.

The poverty of this world of islands is
partly connected with the nature of the
soil and the enormous distances, which
most organisms cannot cross, but partly
also with the climate. If we leave out of
consideration New Zealand, which extends
into temperate latitudes,
Oceania possesses a tropical
n OeeanU climate tem pered by the sur-
rounding ocean. The tempera-
tures are not excessive even for Europeans.
But uniformity is their chief feature ; the
diurnal and annual range is limited to a
few degrees.

The differences in the rainfall are more
marked. Although generally ample, in
places amounting to two hundred and fifty
or three hundred inches in the year, it is

947

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

almost completely wanting in parts of
that vast region, which are so dry that
extensive guano beds can be formed.
The contrasts in the rainfall on the several
groups and islands are the more striking,
since they are confined to a smaller space.
These are not, of course, noticeable on
the flat coral islands, which scarcely project
a couple of yards above the
sea ; but the elevation of the

oun ams on high j slands into the mo i ster

strata of the atmosphere pre-
supposes a strong differentiation between
the weather side and the lee side. The
side sheltered from the wind escapes the
rain. These two sides do not face the
same points of the compass throughout
the whole Pacific Ocean. Its western
part, as far as the Solomons, belongs to
the region of the West Pacific monsoon ;
the east, however, is the definite region of
the trade-winds. Hence, in the east, the
most luxurious tropical vegetation covers
the east and north sides of the islands in
the Northern Hemisphere, and the east
and south sides of those in the Southern
Hemisphere ; while on their lee ?side the
true barrenness of the soil shows itself,
whereas, in the west, the conditions are
almost reversed.

The effect of this climate on the develop-
ment of the culture and history of the
Oceanian is at once seen in the difference
of temperament and character between
the wild and energetic, yet politically
capable, Maori on far distant New Zealand
with its bracing Alpine air, and his
not ungifted northern kinsmen, indolent
and politically sterile, who have been
unnerved by the unvarying uniformity of
temperature. On the other hand the
steadiness of the meteorological conditions
has allowed the Oceanians to develop into
the best seamen among primitive races.

Where, as in Oceania, one can be certain
of the weather often for months in advance,
it is easier, from inclination or necessity,
to venture on an excursion

* nto

un k nown than in

Weather

regions where the next hour

Conditions < 11 i i A 11

may upset all calculations. The
regularity of the winds and currents of
the Pacific Ocean has played a great part
in the theories that have been formed
about the Polynesian migrations ; in
fact, most of them are absolutely based
upon them.

Thanks to geographical exploration,
we now know that this regularity is by

948

Po ert
e ' y

no means so universal as used to be
assumed ; that, on the contrary, in these
regions also, the wind veers with the
variations of atmospheric pressure, and
the currents with the wind. Here also
from time to time deviations from the
usually prevailing direction that is, from
the eastern quadrants are to be noticed.
On the other hand, we are indebted to the
spread of ethnographical investigation for
the knowledge that the seamanship of
the Polynesians not only extended to
sailing with the wind, but that an
occasional tacking against it was not
outside the limit of their nautical skill.
The ocean and its meteorology thus lose
some of their value as sources furnishing
an answer to the question of the origin
of the Polynesians, in comparison with
anthropological and ethnographical evi-
dence ; but it would be at any rate
premature to disregard them altogether.
Even if skilful use of the last-mentioned
methods of inquiry is likely to solve the
problem of origin, the other and almost
equally important question of distribu-
tion over the whole ocean can be answered

on ^ ky gi ym g full weight
to geographical considerations.
^ e mam future of the flora
of Oceania is its dependence on
the region of the south-east Asiatic mon-
soon. This feature is very marked in
Melanesia ; but further toward the east it
gradually disappears, while the number of
varieties generally diminishes. Strangely
enough, it is this very scantiness that has
proved of such importance for the history
of Oceania. The Melanesian, surrounded
by a luxuriant wealth of vegetation, dreams
away his existence and leaves no history ;
his wants are supplied by the unfailing
store of the ocean or the rich forest. We
first find a historical life in the Fiji
archipelago, where nature is less prodigal.
The inhabitant of Polynesia or Micronesia
has not been so spoilt. Scantily endowed
with fertile soil and edible plants, he is con-
fronted by the wide ocean, which he has
nevertheless learnt to subdue. Although
he did not possess a single tree which could
furnish him with seaworthy timber, he
became a craftsman, whose skill compen-
sated for the deficiencies of Nature. But
by so doing he had in one direction freed
himself from the constraint of Nature,
and nothing could hinder him from
mastering her in another. Progress in
echnical skill has always been the first

OCEANIA ISLAND NATIONS OF THE SOUTH SEAS

step toward every other form of progress, some of gigantic size the largest species

including the annihilation of distance.
Nevertheless, the Polynesians would not

measured thirteen feet in height roamed
the vast plains. At the present day it is

Coco-nut

have been able to extend their wanderings one of the long extinct" classes, having

so widely had not Nature, so niggard in fallen a victim to the insatiable craving

I o t ce ever ything else > given them of the Maori for flesh food. It is easy to

of the further support in the shape understand that the small islands are poor

of the coco-nut palm. Its seeds, in animal life, for with their scanty space

together with those of a few they could not afford the larger creatures)

other plants, can cross spaces as vast as any means of existence. On the other

the distances between the Pacific islands hand, the poverty of the fauna of New

without losing their germinative power ; Guinea is more surprising ; notwithstand-

thus these seeds have been the first ing the tropical luxuriance of its soil, its

condition of the diffusion of the Polynesian fauna is even more scanty than that of

over the wide realm of islands. It is only Australia. The pig alone has proved

recently that, other food plants have
become more important for the nourish-
ment of the islanders
than the coco-nuts.

This does not apply
to New Zealand. Just
as the country clima-
tically is distinct
from the rest of the
island world, so its
flora bears an essen-
tially different stamp.
It is unusually varied,
and the number of
species can be
counted by the thou-
sand. Only two
p 1 a nt s , however,
have proved of- value
to the aborigines
the rarauhe, a fern
with an edible root,
and the hara-keke,
or New Zealand flax.
The value attached

valuable to the population.

The result of this limited fauna, as
reflected in an ethno-
graphically import-
ant phenomenon, has
been of much conse-
quence in the histori-
cal development of
the races of Polynesia
and Micronesia. The
races living princi-
pally on islands of
very small size are
at ~the present day
either entirely with-
out bows and arrows
as weapons, or retain
them merely as a
survival. This has
been traced back to
the want of oppor-
tunity for practice,
which is more essen-
tial for the bow than
for any other weapon.

to it by the first CAPTAIN COOK This opportunity

Europeans, and their The English naval captain who circumnavigated the globe, COllld never have

Consequent efforts to and " im P rtant geographical surveys and discoveries. T _, f 4-

obtain it, led to the first friendly inter-
course between the Maoris and the whites.
The characteristic of the fauna of

very frequent,

even if the supply of game had been
ample at the time of the immigration of
the hunters. The loss of any weapon

Oceania is its poverty in mammals and which would kill at a distance must
animals of service to man, in the east even naturally have appreciably altered the
more than in the west. Even the dingo,
which the wretched native of Australia
could make his somewhat dubious com-
panion, has not been vouchsafed by
Nature to the Oceanian. It is only in
quite modern times that the kindness of ^ Warfare * ^ e s ^ n stone or tne throw-

tactics of the islanders.

It is true that, on some groups of

islands, fighting at close quarters, which
all primitive peoples dread,
was avoided by the adoptioa

foreigners has supplied the old deficiency

ing club in place of the arrow ;

by the introduction of European domestic but, as a rule, the transition to hand-to-

animals. New Zealand was once rich in hand fighting with spear, axe, or club

the species and number of its large was inevitable. This always denotes an im-

fauna. Many varieties of the moa, provement in tactics, as is shown by the

Q49

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

classic examples of the Zulus in South
Africa, who, merely from the method of
attack in close order introduced by Tchaka,
and the use of the stabbing spear as the
decisive weapon, won the foremost place
in the south-east of the Dark Continent.
In Polynesia the new method of fighting
certainly contributed to that bloodiness of
the battles, both among the natives them-

selves and against the whites, which dis-
tinguishes its history from that of all other
primitive races. The political consequences,
from want of any suitable antagonist,
could naturally not be so important here
as in South Africa. Nevertheless, the
comparatively rigid organisation of the
majority of the Polynesians is certainly to
a large degree the result of their tactics.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PEOPLE

CTHNOLOGY separates the population
*-* of Oceania into three large groups
the Melanesians, who inhabit the inner belt
of coast from New Guinea to New Cale-
donia and Fiji ; the Micronesians, on the
Caroline, Marianne, Pelew, Marshall, and
Gilbert islands ; and the Polynesians, who
inhabit the rest of the great world of
islands, including New Zealand.

The question of the racial position, the
connection and the origin of these three
groups, has occupied scientific
Isl* inquiry since the early days of

Races their discovery, and has created

a truly enormous literature, al-
though no thoroughly satisfactory solution
has hitherto been found. So far as the
Melanesians are concerned, the question
is indeed to be regarded as settled, since
no one at the present day feels any doubt
of their connection with the great negroid
group of races. Even on the subject
of the Micronesians there is a general
consensus of opinion that they can no
longer be contrasted with the Polynesians.
They are seen to be a branch of the
Polynesians, and that branch indeed
which, on account of the close proximity
of Melanesia, has received the largest
percentage of negroid elements.

Thus it is only the Polynesian question
which awaits solution. Nothing supports
the view that the Polynesians grew up
in their present homes. Such a theory
is impossible on purely geographical
grounds. We are left, therefore, with
immigration from outside. The claims of
America, on the one hand, and of Malaysia
on the other, to be the cradle of the
Polynesian race have each their sup-
porters. Under the stress of more modern
views on the penetration and wanderings
of nations, the disputants have agreed in
recognising a physical and linguistic con-
nection with the latter region, without,
however, denying ethnological relations
with the former. The racial affinity of the

950

Polynesians with the inhabitants of the
Malay Archipelago is firmly established on
the strength of physical and linguistic
resemblances. There is more difference of
opinion as to the nature and amount of
the foreign admixture. As matters stand,
a negroid admixture can alone enter into
the question. Even those who believe in
the former racial purity of the Polynesians
must allow such an admixture in the case
of Micronesia. As the result of numerous
modern observations, it appears probable
that a similar admixture exists as far as
Samoa and still farther ; even remote
Easter Island does not appear quite free
from it.

A multitude of facts supports also the
ethnological connection of Polynesia with
America. The faith and religious customs
in both regions rest as a whole on the same
basis of animism and ancestor worship.
In both we find the same rude cosmogony,
the same respect for the tribal symbol,
and the same cycle of myths, to say
nothing of the numerous coincidences in
the character of material culture possessed
by them, and in the want of iron common
to both. Ethnology, in face of these
coincidences, is in a difficult position. Few
Q . . ethnologists still venture to

*K" i*? A tnm k of any direct migration
from America. It is certain that
the Polynesians were bold
sailors, and often covered long stretches
in their wanderings, voluntary or involun-
tary ; but to sail over forty to sixty degrees
of longitude without finding an opportunity
to put into port anywhere would surely
have been beyond their powers, and still
more beyond the powers of their fore-
fathers.

Under these circumstances the most
satisfactory assumption is that of a large
Mongoloid primitive race, whose branches
have occupied the entire " East " of the
inhabited world, East Asia, Oceania, and
America. This theory extricates us at

OCEANIA ISLAND NATIONS OF THE SOUTH SEAS

once from the difficulty of explaining
those coincidences, but it does not directly
solve the problem of the great differences
in the civilisations belonging to the
different branches of the Mongoloid family.
It seems audacious to explain it by
absorption of influences of the surrounding
world, but the theory offers possibilities.

The first really historical activities of
the Oceanians are their migrations. At
the present day they are the most migra-

Itory people among the primitive races of
the world, and voyages of more than a
thousand nautical miles are nothing
unusual among them. There are various
incentives to such expeditions, such as
the wish and the necessity of trading with
neighbouring tribes, starvation, which is
not infrequent on the poor islands, political
disturbances, and a pronounced love of
roaming. This last is the most prominent
feature in the character of the Malayo-
Polynesian, which has, more than anything
else, scattered this ethnological group over
a region of 210 degrees of longitude, from
Madagascar to Easter Island, and over 80
degrees of latitude. Compared with this, the
s<js other causes of migration shrink
in general significance, although
' e locally they are often of primary
5S importance and have had great
bearing on history. The number of the
journeys known to us is not great ; the
interval since the opening up of the island
world of Oceania is too short, and the
region is too remote. Yet the number is
sufficient to bring more than one character-
istic of the past history of these races
clearly before our eyes.

In the first place the frequent involun-
tary voyages, when the seafarers were
driven far out of their course, teach us that
the winds and currents have not set from
east to west with that persistency which
old and celebrated theories maintain, and
that therefore no natural phenomena
hindered the Polynesian from spreading
from west to east. Under these conditions,
the way from the west as far as distant
Easter Island was not barred. Secondly,
the frequency of these voyages allows us
to understand the true character of the
Pacific Ocean. It is no waste of waters,
where islands and archipelagoes, like the
oases in a desert, lie remote and solitary;
but a sea full of life, where the constant
traffic prevents any one group of islands
from being absolutely cut off from the
outer world.

The ocean has not presented this fea-
ture for the last few centuries only ; it
has been characteristic of it since the
day when the first keel touched the shores
of Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter
Island. We have the evidence of the
aborigines themselves for this. Their rich
store of legends hinges on their old wander-
. ings, and as it deals more par-
ticularly with the earliest
voyages it gives us a welcome

iions i . < .* * i

insight into the original rela-
tions of the islanders with one another
and with the outside world ; it is thought
that the question of the original home of
the Polynesians might be solved in this
way. The part which the land of Hawaiki
under its various names Sawaii, Hawaii,
Hapai, Hevava, Awaiki and others
plays in the ancestral legends of most
Polynesians is familiar even beyond the
circle of ethnologists. It recurs among
the Maoris of New Zealand, in Tahiti,
Raiatea, Rarotonga, the Marquesas,
Hawaii, and elsewhere. To see in it a
definite and limited locality, from which
the streams of emigration flowed at different
times to the most varied directions of the
ocean, appears impracticable in view of
the fact that the geographical position of
Hawaiki is not accurately fixed in all the
traditions, but varies considerably ; it even
meets us as the land of ghosts, the
western land where the souls sink together
with the sun into the lower world.

Nevertheless, the investigation of the
primitive period in Polynesian history is
benefited in several instances by tracing
out the Hawaiki myth ; especially if this
task be supplemented by a review of the
anthropological, ethnographical, and geo-
graphical evidence. We may then assume
with great probability that the island of
Savaii, which belongs to the Samoa
group, was the starting point of the migra-
tion of the Maoris to New Zealand.
Under the name of Hawaii it also forms the
starting point of the inhabi-
Polynesia tantg Qf Raiatea and Xahiti.

To this fact, again, point the
legends of the Marquesas and
the Hawaii group; partly also of Raro-
tonga, which, on its side, as the " nearer
Hawaiki " of tradition, served the Maoris
as an intermediate station on the way to
New Zealand, while it was a regular
starting-place for the inhabitants of the
Austral and Gambler islands. A final
starting-point was the Tonga group.

THE REMARKABLE ART OF MELANESIA: SPECIMENS OF NATIVE CARVING
The Melanesians were backward in political culture but their arts were highly developed. These examples of
their carvings, chiefly from drawings made from specimens in European collections, are more graphic and
realistic and display far more observation of Nature than those of the Micronesians, illustrated on the opposite page.

Not only is the number of starting-
points surprisingly small in comparison
with the size of the territory occupied by
the Polynesians, but the original relations
among the several groups appear simple
to an astonishing degree. Examined in
the light of ethnology and
of the history, this simplicity can-

\ ~ not be maintained. It is

UUU Groups an ^^rt^j fact M re .

gards the Maoris that their immigra-
tion did not occur in the form of one
single wave, but that fresh batches came
from the north ; and a very late
subsequent immigration is specially re-
corded. The inhabitants of the Hawaii
islands are connected with Tahiti by
language, customs, and legendary travels ;
on the other hand, the place names show
the enduring recollection of Samoa.
Rarotonga is the focus of the entire
remotest south, while it was itself peopled
with settlers almost simultaneously from
Samoa and Tahiti. In the end, Tahiti
seems to have sent emigrants to Raro-
tonga and Hawaii, also to the Southern
Marquesas, as the resemblance in language
and customs proves.

It is difficult to determine the date of

952

these migrations, since these movements
are a constant feature. Obviously, no
reliance can be placed in the genealogical
lists of the several islands, which vary
from twenty to eighty-eight generations.
History does not carry us very far ;
ethnology alone tells us that the disper-
sion of the Polynesians over the Pacific
Ocean cannot go back to any remote
period, since they have not had the time to
develop any marked racial peculiarities.
It can be only a question of centuries for
New Zealand and many other countries.
In the case of Tahiti, and perhaps Hawaii,
the first settlement may be assigned
possibly to an earlier date. But in no
case need we go back more than a millen-
nium and a half. The wanderings extended
also to Melanesia, in the east of which, as a
consequence of the distances, more settle-
. ments were planted than in the

tparative west p...^ in respect of sodal

and political customs, shows
almost as many Polynesian
traits as its two neighbours, Tonga and
Samoa, and has experienced a considerable
infusion of Polynesian blood. In New
Guinea, on the other hand, we find marked
traces of this blood, but an .almost total

DECORATIVE ART OF MICRONESIA: SPECIMENS OF NATIVE CARVING

A comparison between the examples of Micronesian carving:, illustrated above, and the Melanesian carvings shown on
the opposite page gives evidence of a less free and imaginative art in the former, but a considerable feeling for decorative
effect and genuine craftsmanship is to be seen by a careful inspection of the detail of these Micronesian objects.

absence of Polynesian customs and politi-
cal institutions. It can hardly be shown
at the present day, when the Western
Pacific contains so mixed a population,
in what proportion migration has been
deliberate or involuntary ; but, doubtless,
besides the frequent driftings to east
and west, there were many cases of
systematic colonisation. We thus get
to know an aspect of the Polynesians

which is not often represented among
primitive peoples.

In Africa the only examples are the
Wanyamwesi of Central German East
Africa, who since the middle of the
nineteenth century have colonised the
whole equatorial east of the continent,
and advanced their settlements far into
the Southern Congo basin, and the
Kioto iii the Western Congo State.

THE BEGINNING OF OCEANIC HISTORY

of the Polynesians and Micronesians,
as in that of the Australians, it admits
of no doubt that their present stage of
civilisation does not denote the highest
point of their development, but that in
many departments of national life a
distinct retrogression has taken place.
In Melanesia, on the other hand, where
the civilisation does not even reach the
present stage of the neighbouring peoples
on the east, all evidence of a previous
higher culture is wanting. Melanesia
is, in this respect, like a hollow between
an elevation in the west, the Malay
civilisation, and a second somewhat lower

953

knowledge of the history of Oceania
goes scarcely beyond the discoveries
of the island world, for the tradition of
Polynesia, which goes considerably further
back into the past, does not distinguish
between fact and fiction. Nevertheless,
even in Oceania it is possible to have a
glimpse of the past. Here, as in Australia,
we find remains of old buildings and sites
whose nature presupposes certain definite
political and social conditions then
existent ; but, besides this, we have
adequate data in the information which
the early explorers give as to the state
of things they discovered. In the case

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

elevation in the east, the Polynesian
civilisation.

This by no means implies that the

culture possessed by its inhabitants was

in itself inferior or lacked originality.

On the contrary, the arts were highly

developed in Melanesia ; indeed, much of

the material culture, and some branches

of intellectual culture, sur-

. pass anything shown by the

? eg " es f Micronesians It least. It is

L/ivilisation , ,.,. , , ,,

only in political respects that
the Melanesian is behind. The cause
of this is to be found primarily in
the character of the negroid race,
and, secondly, in the absence of any
stimulus from outside. Where these
causes are absent, as in Fiji, even the
Melanesian has shown himself capable of
political development.

The decadence of the Polynesian and
Micronesian civilisation is shown in two
ways first, in buildings and works of a
size, mass, and extent which preclude all
idea that they could have been erected
by a population at the stage in which the
first Europeans found them ; and, secondly,
in the political and social institutions,
which bear every trace of decay. The
South Sea is not poor in remains of the
former class. On Pitcairn Island, which
has long been deserted by all primitive
inhabitants, the stone foundations of
ancient temples are to be found even now ;
on Rapa old fortifications crown the hills,
and on Huaheine a dolmen rises near a
cyclopean causeway. Under the guano
layers of the Christmas Islands roads
skilfully constructed of coral-rag bear
witness to an age of a greater spirit of
enterprise, of a higher plane of technical
skill, and of a more pronounced national
life. Tinian, one of the Marianne g oup,
has its colossal stone pillars, crowned with
capitals, to mark the dwelling-places of the
old and more vigorous Chamorro. But all
E . this is nothing in comparison

with the ruins of Nanmatal on
of an Earlier n 1,1

Civilisation Pon *P e > and the stone images

on Rapanui in Easter Island.
The decadence in the political and social
field is not generally so obvious as that
in technical skill; but it is incontestable
everywhere, and has been distinctly more
disastrous to the national development of
the islanders. This is shown by the loss
of the old patriarchal society, in which
the king was reverenced by the people as
a god ; where he was the natural owner

954

of all the land, and where the view pre-
vailed that all was from him and all was
for him. When Captain Cook and his con-
temporaries appeared in the South Sea, in
many places hardly any trace of such
a society remained, while in others it was
rapidly disappearing. The ancient dynas-
ties had either been entirely put aside and
the states dissolved, or, if they still existed,
only a faint gleam of their former glory
was reflected on the ancient rulers. The
old organisation of the people, with its
strictly defined grades, had already been
destroyed, and a struggle of the upper class
for property and power had taken the place
of the former feudalism. This effort had
been everywhere crowned with success,
and had mainly contributed to break up
the rigid and yet universally accepted
system. Finally, even religion entirely lost
its ancient character. The original gods
were indeed retained ; but their number,
at first limited, had been in the course of
time indefinitely multiplied, since the gods
created from the class of the high nobility
were gradually put on a level with the older
deities.

Thus the national and popular religion

was changed into a superstitious worship of

_ the individual. It is one and

the same thing which destroyed

?' the State and the religion of
Superstition the p olynesians _ the de 5 grada .

tion of the old civil and religious authori-
ties or the promotion of the formerly
lower degrees. But in any case the
abandonment of the old idea of a state
was complete. The tokens of retrogression
in Oceania, when collected, speak a clear
language. They tell us, in the first place,
that there must have been a time in the
prehistoric period of the South Sea
Islanders when an overgrowth of the
population on the already settled islands
made it necessary to send out colonies ;
we learn, further, that the period of
colonisation must have also been the
period of the highest development of
culture.

Colonisation was possible only under
the government of a rigid political organisa-
tion, of which we can at most discover a
reflection in the subsequent life of the
South Sea races. We may not assume a
growth of technical knowledge on the
settled islands, such as was requisite
for the erection of large buildings ; so
that even in the field of material culture
we can suppose the existence of only an

Valentine, Dundee

THE NATIVE ART OF NEW ZEALAND : SPECIMENS OF MAORI CARVING
1. Carved window frame with sliding sash at Rotorua Lake, South Island: the woman is a Maori guide. 2. Maori
gods. 3. Carved portal of Maori house. 4. Figure from Lake Pukaki in South Island. 5. Maori canoe.

ancient culture has come down to us.
When the Europeans appeared on the
scene, marked traces of this culture in one
place a vigorous national life, in another
stupendous monuments were extant only
on the outer belt, in Hawaii, New Zealand,
and the remote Easter Island.

The fall of the Maoris is the best illustra-
tion of the rapidity with which the attain-
ments of civilisation can be lost. At all
times addicted to violence and intolerant
of united effort, they split up the larger
states of their twin islands into numerous
mutually hostile and aggressive communi-
ties, from which every notion of a
national unity and its effect in maintaining
a civilisation has disappeared. At the
same time the originally vigorous racial
character lost more and more in moral
restraint, and became more savage and
cruel. The downfall of the an-
cient religion finally ensued. The
T>ec* old gods lost their personality,
and were transformed into a
multitude of forest and sea demons, un-
paralleled for extravagance and grotesque-
ness of form. Art and technical skill did
not escape. As early as Captain Cook's
time, it was no longer possible to produce
carvings of the older kind.

955

original and more universal standard of
accomplishment. We thus find the pheno-
menon, interesting both from the historical
and the geographical point of view, that the
moment of the widest dispersion of a race
denotes the beginning of its decadence. This
Dispersion P henomenon is not surprising
Promotes WC 6 mt account the

Decadence nature f ^e homes of the race.
It is easier for the population
of small islands to attain a higher culture
and a more strict political organisation
than to maintain themselves at the stage
which they inherited or brought with
them. The narrow limits of space make a
comprehensive scheme easy and possible,
but involve the danger of a conflict be-
tween opposite parties, and thus the
destruction of the existing system. None
of the Polynesian islands escaped this
fate, especially since the character of the
people shows few traits of conservatism.
Quarrels and disputes have been the chief
and the favourite occupation of the Poly-
nesians as long as we have known them.
The decadence is the greatest whe/e the
island communities are the smallest, and
where, therefore, destructive influences are
most powerful ; thus in the centre of the
world of islands hardly a trace of the

CAPTAIN COOK'S DISCOVERIES IN THE SOUTH SEAS

The three voyages of the famous navigator, Captain James Cook, were fraught with momentous
consequences to his country and the world. In his first voyage (1768-71) he circumnavigated New
Zealand and surveyed the east coast of Australia. During his second voyage (1772-75) he cruised
among the Pacific islands. In his last voyage (1776-79) he discovered the Sandwich and other
groups of islands, and was killed in an attempt to land on Hawaii, on February 14th, 1779.

956

THE OCEANIC ISLANDS AND THEIR STORY

VV7E come now to the separata histories
W of the three groups of islands of which
Oceania consists Melanesia, Micronesia,
and Polynesia beginning with the first,
and treating them in the order named,-

MELANESIA

Melanesia, apart from Fiji, has no history
properly so-called. We are acquainted
merely with the treatment which the
inhabitants have received at the hands
of foreigners.

The chief cause of this phenomenon,
which recalls the passivity of the Aus-
tralians, is the slight political capacity of
the negroid race. A second cause is that
isolation from the outside world which
can be partly attributed to the dreaded
fierceness of the Melanesians. The more
enterprising Polynesians have never shown
any great inclination to attempt colonisa-
tion on a large scale in Central and
Western Melanesia, and the whites have
not entered on the task of opening up these
islands with the zeal which they have
shown in the rest of Oceania since the days
of Cook. Exploration and missionary
activity are tardy and timid in these
parts, and European colonisation is still
later in coming.

Notwithstanding this late beginning of
serious encroachments from outside, the
Melanesians came early into hostile con-
tact with the whites. Out of the long
roll of explorers, from J. Le Maire and
W. Schouten (1616), past W. Dampier
(1700) and J. Roggeveen (1722) to L. A.
de Bougainville and De Surville (1768),
there is hardly one who had not
been guilty of the greatest
cruelties to the natives. Even
Cook, in 1774, ordered the
natives of Erromango to be shot down
with cannon for some trifling misconduct.
But the nineteenth century has behaved
still more outrageously to these islands.
Their wealth in sandalwood soon attracted
numerous traders, English and American
in particular, but also Polynesians. All
these persons, who sought merely their

upon the
Melanesians

own advantage, behaved like savages.
They plundered peaceable tribes, and
forced them to work as slaves on other
islands ; they cut down the valuable
trees, and thus caused disputes with their
owners, which generally ended in the
defeat of the latter.

Extortions and unprovoked bombard-
ment of villages were matters of daily
occurrence. The traders captured a chief,

A Histor anc * on ^y released him at a
w . ransom of a shipload of sandal-

w ritten -, * , .

in Blood w - I and once when the
inhabitants of Fate in the New
Hebrides fled from the crew of an English
ship and a body of Tongan allies into a
cave with wives and children, their
opponents lighted a fire at the entrance
and suffocated all the fugitives.

The consequences of this treatment of
the natives were soon seen. The war-
like and able-bodied Melanesians returned
blow for blow, and avenged the outrages
committed by the whites upon their
fellows when and where they could.
Whoever was imprudent enough to land
upon their coasts was murdered. It
thus comes about that the history of the
exploration of Melanesia down to the
present day has been written in blood.
Even -missions have met with greater
initial difficulties here, and found a harder
task than anywhere else in the South Sea.

The long duration of racial struggles
has produced the result that the national
characteristics of Melanesia are no longer
in their primitive integrity. New Guinea,
where little more than the fringe of the
island has been explored, has, indeed,
suffered little, and the inhabitants of the
Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomons
have hitherto successfully repulsed any
serious attack on their modes of life and
thought or their material possessions. The
state of things is less favourable in the
more easterly archipelagoes, Santa Cruz,
New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and Fiji.
Here, undoubtedly, the stronger infusion
of Polynesian blood has weakened the

957

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

A TYPE OF

Underwood & Underwood, London

MELANESIAN CANOE

These strangely constructed Reef Island canoes sail
incredible distances among the Melanesian group, trading
fish and coco-nuts for the products of the larger islands.

powers of resistance of the population,
while these groups have also been longest
exposed to the brunt of the attacks of the
whites. The result, as is always the case
where the barbarian comes into touch
with civilisation, has been a decline in
the numbers, physique, and morals of the
native population. This is most marked
in New Caledonia, where the natives,
under the influence of the French system
of transportation, have sunk from a war-
like and honour-loving nation, endowed
with high intellectual g.fts, into a ragged
mob. It is difficult to form an idea of
the numerical shrinkage, since the older
accounts are mere estimates. Neverthe-
less, the inhabitants of the New Hebrides
and Santa Cruz have undoubtedly much
diminished in numbers, a change which
in Fiji can be proved by actual statistics.
FIJI

The great political capacity, judging
by a Melanesian standard, of the Fiji
Islanders can be traced to the strong
admixture of Polynesian elements and
the position of the archipelago, which
lies advanced toward the east. Their
history begins with those feuds which
have played a part in all the Polynesian
islands for centuries. In these wars, un-
important enough in themselves, the
Europeans interfered about the beginning

958

of the nineteenth century, without any
political intentions at first. In 1804
twenty-seven convicts, escaped from Nor-
folk Island, took sides, sometimes with
one, sometimes with another chief ; but
the crew of the slaver Eliza, which was
wrecked on the cliffs of Nairi in 1808, had
a still more decisive share in the course of
events, since they possessed muskets.
Their choice fell on the chief Naulivau
of Mbau, who thus was enabled to over-
throw the head of the " State " of Verata
in Great Fiji, or Viti Levu. His successors
remained in possession of the supreme
power until 1874. After a reign full of
military successes, which won him the
surname Vuni Valu, meaning " root of
war," Naulivau died in the year 1829.
He was followed by his brother, Tanoa,
one of the most ferocious cannibals whom
Fiji ever knew.

Under his son, Seru, better known by
the name of Kakobau or Thakombau
(1852-1883), the kingdom founded by the
first Vuni Valu reached its greatest
prosperity and extent, comprising almost
the entire archipelago. His accession
occurred at a time when the Fiji Archi-
pelago had attracted, in more than one
respect, the attention of the whites. The
Wesleyan mission had obtained a footing
here since 1835 ; in 1844 the Catholic
mission also. Principally through the

Underwood & Underwood, London

THE WORK OF AN EARTHQUAKE
This beautiful rock in Blanche Bay, New Britain, was
thrown up by volcanic disturbance thirty years ago.

ISLANDS OF MELANESIA

l."Tambo" House, Laembay, Utupua, Santa Cruz. 2. Native houses, in the Bismarck Archipelago,
use in the New Hebrides. 4. Native house in the Fiji Islands. 5. Native village in New Caledonia.

3. Aerial house in the New Hebrides.

Hurricane-proof house in Port Vila, Santa Cruz.

Chiefly from photos by Underwood & Underwood.

959

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

activity of the former the old feuds had
stopped, at any rate in the coast districts
of Great Fiji; British, American, and
other white traders were able to settle
there in complete security. In 1847 the
United States of America, in order to
express their appreciation of the newly
discovered field, established a consular
agency there.

At the same time artful aspersions were
cast on the Wesley an mission in order to
weaken British influence. In 1849, when
the house of the consul, Williams, was
burnt, the natives stole some of his
property. Williams demanded from Tha-
kombau compensation to the amount of
" three thousand dollars, twelve and a half
cents." An unprejudiced witness informs
us this " exact " sum was not justified,

unsuccessful attempt at settlement in
1844, French Catholic missionaries tried
once more to gain a footing on Viti I.evu.
Since Thakombau, who in 1854 na -d
adopted Christianity, partly from convic-
tion, but mostly on political grounds, felt
the impossibility of any longer maintaining
his position, especially as his relations with
Tonga were very strained at that time,
ie determined to escape from his diffi-
culties and cede his land to England. On
October i2th, 1858, he made a treaty
with the British Consul, Pritchard, to
which all the chiefs of the island subse-
quently agreed, to the following effect :
Thakombau, who wished to become a
British subject but to retain his title
and suzerainty, promised 200,000 acres
of land ; in return, Britain was to take
over the American debt.
The British Government,
from the wish riot to cause
unpleasantness with
America, refused the offer.
Now, not only did the
Americans immediately press
their claims, but Tonga de-
manded a large sum ot
money for the assistance
which it professed to have
previously rendered. The
monarch in his difficulty
accepted the proposal of the
Melbourne Polynesian Com-
pany in 1868, which pro-
mised to satisfy the claims

THAKOMBAU, A FAMOUS KING OF FIJI f A C ?f * "f re * U ,

He ruled over the greater part of the Fiji Islands from 1852 to 1883, and was grant Ol the land Ottered to

nominally Christian. Under him, the islands reached their greatest prosperity, the "British Government

and he voluntarily ceded his country to the British Government in the year 1871. ~! n . *

Ine nourishing condition of
and was not paid. In the next year,
in consequence of other thefts, it had
mounted to five thousand and one dollars
and thirty-eight cents. Williams laid this
demand before the commanders of two
American warships, with a request for
support, but it was rejected. In 1855,
however, Captain Boutwell, who had been
sent to Fiji for a rene.wed inquiry, ordered
Thakombau to pay capital and interest
forthwith. The sum to be paid was fixed
in a second letter at 30,000 dollars, and

threats of force were held out. Finally,
Boutwell sent for the chief on board his
ship, demanded 45,000 dollars, and threat-
ened to hang him. Thakombau then
signed the agreement.

Complications, also, were threatened
with France. Fourteen years after the

960

the German trading firms, which had been
active in the country since 1860, had
drawn public attention to Fiji. On con-
clusion of the treaty, the company paid
the Americans $45,000. In return, it at
once received 110,000 acres.

During these negotiations there had
been incessant disputes among the natives
themselves ; at the same time there had
been quarrels between them and the
numerous white immigrants. In order to
put an end to this state of things, Thak-
ombau in 1871 formed a constitutional
government, with a Ministry composed of
twelve chiefs, a legislative council chosen
by the whites, and a supreme court. So
long as the interests of the Government
and the colonists coincided, this artifice,
frequently tried in the South Sea, was

SUVA, THE CAPITAL OF THE FIJI ISLANDS Underwood & Underwood

This, the chief town of Fiji, is on the south coast of Viti Levu, the largest island in the group. It is the centre of trade
and has a population of over 1,000 Europeans. It is extremely healthy, tne temperatut e varying from 93 to 61.

allowance until his death in 1883. The
sales of land completed before the British
annexation were not at once recognised, but
gradually tested ; in 1885, more than ten
Settlement y ears ^ ater ' tne Germans con-
of German cerne< ^ were compensated with
Claims

harmless in results ; but when the whites
were required to pay taxes, they simply
ignored the laws. The public debt soon
grew to $400,000. Thakombau saw no
alternative left him but to renew the offer
of his land to Great Britain, but this time
as a gift. England at first refused it
again, and only changed her purpose from
the fear that other Powers America, or
Germany, which was interested just then
in the enterprise of the Godeffroys might
close with the offer. On Sep-
oL S |"Bri'ish tember 30th, 1874, England

DccoiiiC oriiisii . i i-i i i >

~ , accepted 1 hakombau s oner,

Crown Colony , . , . '

actually m

interval been made to the German Empire
and declined by it. Fiji became a British
Crown colony. England took over all the

a small solatium of $53,100
. In the spring of 1902 Fiji con-
cluded a separate federal treaty with New
Zealand. The individual islands in the
Fiji group number over 200, and of these
some 80 are inhabited. The total area
of the islands is 7,435 square miles. The
population is estimated at 148,891 of whom
2,500 are Europeans, and over 48,000
Indians. The largest islands are Viti Levu
(4,250 square miles) and Vanua Levu (2,600
square miles). The government is in the

debts, and ~paid Thakombau a yearly handsof a governor appointed by the British

Crown, and assisted by an
| Executive Council. There is
also a Legislative Council
consisting of ten official
members, six elected mem-
bers, and two native mem-
bers. For native go '/ernment
the colony is divided into
provinces, which are ad-
ministered through native
chiefs. In 1912 the revenue
was $1,419,735, and the ex-
penditure $i 340,790. The
chief products of the islands
consist of sugar cane,
coco-nuts, bananas, maize,
tea, tobacco, and rice, and

961

FIJIAN TEMPLE, FORMERLY A SCENE OF CANNIBALISM

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

there are several sugar mills, a tea factory,
a soap manufactory, and some saw mills.
There is regular communication with
Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa,
Honolulu and Canada.

MICRONESIA

The small average size of the Micronesian

islands has not prevented the inhabitants

from developing a peculiar, and, in many

respects, a higher, culture than

Feuds and their kinsfolk in the east and
Decadence soutn - The several localities
have, indeed, proved too limited
for any development of political import-
ance. The only events to be recorded are
the usual feuds between the hostile village
communities, although, judging by the
ancient buildings and terraces on the
Pelews, on Ponape, and the Marianne
Islands, the conditions for a politically
organised activity must have been far
more favourable in earlier times than at
the present day. It is at a^^^^^^
present impossible to
determine whether the
decadence of the Pelews
and the Carolines is due
to other reasons than the
antagonism of conflict-
ing interests produced
by the cramped space.

On the other hand,
the process of disintegra-
tion on the Marianne
Islands can be accu-
rately traced. All ac-
counts from the period
anterior to the begin-
ning of the Spanish conquest and con-
version speak in the highest terms of the
condition of the islands, their high stage of
civilisation and large population. Guam
was compared to an immense garden, and
in 1668, at the beginning of the Jesuit mis-
sion, contained 180 splendid villages. The
total number of the Chamorro, as the
aborigines were called by the Spaniards, is
reckoned variously ; a favourite estimate
is 200,000, but even 600,000 has been
given; the lowest calculation does not
sink below 40,000.

In addition to an advanced agriculture,
which, notwithstanding primitive tools,
could boast of cultivating rice, we find an
excellently developed art of navigation,
a knowledge of pottery, a regulated
calendar, and so forth. The Spaniards
destroyed all this in a few years. Accord-
ing to an accurate calculation, in 1710,

96*

forty-two years after the arrival of the
Jesuit father Sanvitores, there were 3,539
Chamorro still left ; in 1741 there were
1,816. Their rapid diminution was caused
by the fierce fights which broke out so
soon as the freedom- loving inhabitants
perceived that conversion in the ultimate
resort aimed at subjecting them to the
Spanish yoke. The census of 1741 brought
home to the Spaniards the magnitude of
the devastation wrought by them. In
order to make up for the alarming mor-
tality they introduced Tagals from the
Philippines. The number of the in-
habitants after that increased ; in 1783
it amounted to 3,231 souls ; in 1803 to
4,303 ; in 1815 to 5,406 ; and in 1850 to
more than 9,000. But an epidemic of
smallpox swept off the population in 1856.
It had risen again to 5,610 only in 1864,
and at the present day it reaches to about
double that figure. The reckless exter-
^^^^^^^_^^,^ mination of the people is
| almost the least evil
which the Spaniards
perpetrated on the
Chamorro ; the annihila-
tion of the national
characteristics was still
worse. At the present
day no more traces are
left of the old culture,
with its buildings, its
navigation, its agricul-
ture, and technical skill,
than of the old strong-
and proud physique of
the inhabitants. In
place of a love of freedom the miserable
half-caste people of to-day show a dull
indifference, while lethargy has taken the
place of industry, and an unthinking use
of Christian customs is substituted for a
frank paganism. Next to the Tasmanians
no people in the South Sea can have felt
more deeply the curse of contact with
the Europeans than the
Chamorro. An account of
the history of the Polynesians
presents difficulties, in so far
as every separate group has its own
history. It is the exception to find any
points of connection between neighbour-
ing archipelagoes. This necessitates the
separate treatment of the larger and more
important groups, at any rate, although
certain broad characteristics recur regu-
larly. Since this phenomenon is still more
marked in the case of the smaller and

YOUNG KING AND QUEEN
OF THE MARQUESAS

The Curse
of the
White Man

THE OCEANIC ISLANDS AND THEIR STORY

less densely peopled archipelagoes, whose
importance is slight, we shall abandon
the task of any detailed description,
and refer the reader for their most
interesting features
to the chapter on
missionary work.

Within the region
of Polynesia the
Hervey, T u b u a i ,
Society, Tuamotu
and Marquesas
Islands form a mass
which stands out
apart from the other
clusters. This purely
external grouping has,
it is true, no geologi-
cal foundation, but
justifies the inclusion
of the archipelagoes
under the general title
of East Polynesia,
although the relations
of the groups among
themselves belong
mostly to prehistoric
or very early times.
TAHITI

The history of East
Polynesia, whether
native or colonial, is QUEEN POMARE AND HER HUSBAND

Connected mainly This queen of Tahiti assumed power in 1827, and reigned sacred

with the double island for fifty years ' In her time the French took pos ion> *

of Tahiti. It is the only focus of an inde-
pendent development, and also the natural
starting-point and centre of the French
Colonial Empire in East Polynesia. When
Samuel Wallace finally discovered the

island on June iQth, 1767, he found three
states there, which were fighting savagely
for the upper hand. The Spaniards took
possession of the island on January ist,
, 1775 ; but they soon
I abandoned it again
I after the death of
their captain, Do-
mingo de Bonechea,
on January 26th. In
1789, the mutineers
of the Bounty landed
on Tahiti. Some
preferred to remain
there, took the side
of the king, Otu, or
Pomare, as he pre-
ferred to call himself,
and thus enabled
him to extend his
sovereignty over the
other islands of the
archipelago.

The first English
missionaries landed
there on March 7th,
1797, and were des-
tined soon to play a
large part in the
political life of Tahiti.
In 1802 Pomare
carried away the
Oro figure
from the Marae at

Atahuru, the possession of which was
fiercely contested, and which he was
compelled to surrender. He died sud-
denly on September 3rd, 1803, and his
son, Pomare II., born in 1780, was

PALACE OF QUEEN POMARE IV. AT PAPEETE, THE CAPITAL OF TAHITI, IN THE YEAR 1876
The residence of the French Governor is seen immediately beyond the Royal Palace

963

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

forced to fly. He took up his abode on
Murea, the headquarters of the Christian
mission. In July, 1807, he crossed with a
number of Christians over to Tahiti,
surprised his enemies, and massacred
them so relentlessly that the whole
island rose against him and the mis-
sionaries, and drove them back to Huahine
and Murea. But in the battle
y at Narii November I2th,
1815 King Pomare II., who
had become a Christian on
July I2th, 1812, completely defeated
his enemies ; the other islands of the
archipelago adopted Christianity in con-
sequence. Pomare crushed the power of
the nobles, and gave the islands at the
end of 1818 a new and written constitu-
tion. He died on November 3oth, 1821.
Pomare's infant son died on January
nth, 1827. His sister Aimata, a girl
of seventeen, then mounted the throne
as Pomare IV. or Pomare Wahine I.
while her aunt, Ariipaia, remained regent,
in accordance with custom.

The reign of Aimata is marked by an
overflowing tide of calamity, which soon
burst on Tahiti, and ended in the loss of
its independence. It began with the
attempt of the Catholic Church made
in November, 1836, from the Gambier
Islands to gain a footing in Tahiti.
In consequence of a law introduced by
the British preachers of the Gospel, the
French missionaries were forbidden to
land; they therefore appealed to France
for aid. On August 27th, 1838, Captain
Abel Dupetit-Thouars appeared off
Papeete with the frigate Venus, in order
to demand satisfaction. He insisted upon
an apology under the sign manual of
the queen, and 2,000 piastres in
Spanish money. The queen was forced to
comply. In April, 1839, Captain Laplace
demanded that the Catholic Church should
be granted equal privileges with the
Protestant, and that a building site for a
church should be conceded.
Aggression by Jn September5 ^^ Dupetit-

\\** Thouars, who had returned,
once more expressed extrava-
gant " wishes " to the Government, and,
when they could not be granted, pro-
claimed a French protectorate in defiance
of the protests of the queen and the
English missionaries.

When a Tahitian popular assembly,
relying on the intervention of the British
Captain Nicholas, declared for Britain

964

and Pomare IV. (1843), Dupetit-Thouars
on November 6th deposed the queen, and
threw into prison the British Consul
Pritchard, in whose house she had taken
refuge. The storm of indignation roused
in England by this procedure forced
France in 1844 to reinstate Queen Pomare
IV. ; but the protectorate over the island
was retained. It was only after a three
years' war, waged with great fury .on
both sides, that the Tahitians submitted,
on February 6th, 1847, an d the queen
returned from Murea to Papeete.

Pomare IV. died, after a reign of fifty
years, on September I7th, 1877. Her
son, Pomare V., abandoned all his imag-
inary sovereign rights to France on
June igth, 1880, in return for an annuity
of $5,000, and died in 1891.

The political development has not been
favourable in any way to the preserva-
tion of the national existence. In Cook's
time the inhabitants were estimated at
120,000, a figure far too high, but one
which in any case denotes an unusual
density of population; in 1912 the
numbers hardly reached 1 1,000. The
..introduction of disease, im-
morant y' and drunkenness has
taught the Tahitians a bitter

]ess * n about the , blessings -

of civilisation. Tahiti, as one of the
French colonies in the Eastern Pacific, is
administered by a governor assisted by a
Privy Council and an Administrative
Council. The island has an area of about
600 square miles. The chief town is
Papeete, with a population of 4,282, of
whom 2,490 are French. The chief pro-
ducts are copra, sugar, rum, pearls and
mother of pearl. Coco-nuts, bananas,
oranges, and sugar cane grow luxuriantly,
especially near the coast. There is regular
steamer communication with San Fran-
cisco, New Zealand, and Australia. In
1912 the imports were of the value of
about $1,549,435, and the exports of
$1,696,270.

THE ISLAND GROUPS AROUND TAHITI

The history of the island groups which
cluster round Tahiti, the Society, Tuamotu,
Marquesas, the Cook, and Tubuai, or
Austral, Islands, is not without some
anthropological, political, and religious
interest. The picture presented to the
discoverers was everywhere the same ;
war and discord prevailed, limited usually
to the separate islands and groups. The
warlike inhabitants of the Tuamqtu Islands,

THE FAMOUS STONE IMAGES AT RONORORAKA IN EASTER ISLAND

undertook, even at the beginning of
the nineteenth century, bold expeditions
to other islands, plundering and carrying
off the inhabitants as captives, until a
stop was put to their proceedings by the
influence of Tahiti.

The relations between the natives and

the Europeans in these parts were every-

n . ee . u . where due to the instrument-

1 ality of the missions. It would

of K lous haye been wdl if the matter

had rested with the introduc-
tion of one denomination only. But the
Protestant missionaries were soon followed
on every group by Catholics under the
protection of France. The inevitable
result was an effort on the Protestant side
to keep the intruders off, and on the side
of the French Catholics to gain a religious
and political footing. In all this the
native was the scapegoat. Any infectious
diseases which the traders had not intro-
duced were . communicated by the crews
of men-of-war. The French tricolour now
floats over the whole large group of islands,
and the Roman propaganda has succeeded,
though not to the full extent desired, in
breaking down the undisputed power of
Protestantism. European civilisation has
diminished the number of inhabitants and
has put a mere caricature in the place of
a nationality which, despite many dark
traits, was primitive and vigorous.

EASTER ISLAND

Easter Island, or Rapanui, as the Poly-
nesians call the most remote islet of the
vast island world, is, with its area of forty-
five square miles, one of the smallest high
islands of the Pacific Ocean. Neverthe-
less, it draws our attention on account of
one of the weightiest problems of ethnology
and thus of the history of mankind. If
any connection at all exists between Poly-
nesians and Americans, we must regard
Easter Island as the most easterly pier in
the bridge. There is nothing in the ethno-
graphy of Easter Island which supports
such -a theory, Salmon, the Tahitian who
accompanied the German Hyena expedi-
tion of 1882 under Lieutenant-Captain
Geiseler, and the American Mohican ex-
pedition of 1886, reported a story of the
natives of Easter Island, according to which
they are supposed to have come in a large
p ,. boat from one of the Galapagos

of Euter Islands with the trade- wind and
? - * s e to have landed at Anakena
in the north of the island ;
but he did not disguise the fact that this
tradition was contrary to the ideas of
other natives, who maintained that there
had been an immigration from the west.
The architecture of the island is supposed
to show resemblances to buildings in
Central and South America ; but the
simple huts of the Easter Islanders are not

965

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Coming
of the
Dutch

to be compared with those colossal
erections. Again, -the construction of
the famous stone images, some fifteen
feet high and made of lava, extends to
comparatively recent periods, when there
can be no possible idea of America's
influence ; besides this, productions of
similar size, although not of quite the
same character, were nothing
extraordinary among the other
Oceanians, at least in earlier
times. For this reason the
modern relations between Easter Island
and America are all the more frequent.
Intercourse with the whites generally has,
indeed, only brought the islanders misery
and destruction hitherto. The beginning
of the " mission of civilisation " is marked
by the landing, on April 6th, 1722, of the
Dutchman, Jacob Roggeween, who ordered
the natives to be fired upon without any
reason whatever. He found the island then
most prosperous and densely populated, an
appearance which it has long since lost.
The natives were possibly too friendly
and yielding to the whites. In 1805 the
ship Nancy, from New London, which
had been engaged in seal fishery at Mas-
a-fuera, south-west of Juan Fernandez,
came to Rapanui and carried away
twelve men and ten women after a
desperate fight. The men, when, three
days after, they were released from their
chains on the open sea, sprang over-
board immediately, in order to reach
their home by swimming ; but the women
were carried to Mas-a-fuera. The crew of
the Nancy is said to have made several
subsequent attempts at robbery. The
American ship Pindos later carried
away as many girls as there were men
on board, and on the next morning as a
pastime fired at the natives collected on
the beach.

The most calamitous period began in
1863. Peruvian slave dealers then estab-
lished a depot on Easter Island in order
to ^ m P ress labourers for the
guano works in Peru from the
Smallpox surrounding archipelagoes; for
this purpose they carried away
the majority of the inhabitants of the island.
Most of them were, however, brought back
at the representations of the French
Government ; but, unfortunately, small-
pox was introduced by them and caused
great ravages. In 1866 Catholic mission-
aries began their work, but they left the
island after a few years, accompanied by

966

some faithful followers, and went to
Mangarewa. The last reduction in the
number of the population was effected by
the deportation of 400 Easter Islanders
by a Tahitian firm to Tahiti and Murea,
where they were employed as plantation
labourers.

The population has not been able to
bear such frequent and heavy drains on
its vitality. Estimated by Cook at 700
souls, by later travellers at 1,500, and
numbering before 1860 some 3,000, it has
dwindled at the present day to 150, whose
absorption in the mass of the immigrant
Tahitians, Chilians, and others is only a
question of time. Since 1888 Easter Island
has been used by Chili as a penal colony.
PITCAIRN

The history of Pitcairn, an isolated island
lying far to the south-west of the Tuamotu,
is, during the period which we can survey,
detached from the framework of native
history ; its personages are almost en-
tirely European immigrants. Pitcairn is
one of the few islands which were unin-
habited when the Europeans discovered
them, although numerous remains in the
form of stone images, relics of
vi cnccs jy[ arae> s t O ne axes, and graves
with skeletons, attest that the
5 island was once populated.

The modern history of the island begins
with the mutiny of the crew of the
Bounty against their captain, Bligh,
1779, as related in the story of Australia.
While the latter steered with his eighteen
companions in his open boat to Batavia,
the twenty-four mutineers sailed first to
Tahiti. A number of them remained behind
there, while eight men, under the leader-
ship of the helmsman Christian, accom-
panied by six Tahitian men and twelve
women, set sail in January, 1790, for the
uninhabited island of Pitcairn. In order
to prevent any escape from the island,
Christian burnt the Bounty, whose tall
masts might have betrayed the refuge of
the mutineers. The beginning of the
community was at once marked by dis-
putes and quarrels ; the men were killed
in fighting, and in 1801, John Adams, aged
thirty-six who died in March, 1829
was the only man on the island, with some
women and twenty children.

Adams, realising by the previous course
of affairs the danger which threatened
the little society, struck out other paths.
By his care in educating the young
generation a tribal community was

THE OCEANIC ISLANDS AND THEIR STORY

developed which
united many of the
good qualities of the
Europeans with the
virtues of the Poly-
nesians, and by its
sterling character and
high morality, won
the sympathies of
Great Britain to no
sm all extent,
especially since these
colonists regarded
themselves as English-
men and spoke
English as familiarly
as Tahiti an. Great
Britain has always
watched over the
welfare of this little
society. The limited
water supply of the
island having
threatened to prove
insufficient for the
growing numbers, the
eighty-seven inhabi-
tants then living were
removed by the
British Government
to Tahiti in 1831 ; but
most of them soon
returned to Pitcairn. When, in 1856,
in consequence of hurricanes, it became
difficult to find food for the once more
rapidly increasing population, 187 of the
194 settlers were removed to the then
uninhabited Norfolk Island. The majority
remained there, and increased and pros-
pered. In 1871 the number had risen
to 340 souls;
in 1891 it
reached 738
souls ; and,
according to
the last ac-
count, it is
now about 900
souls. Some,
however, this
time also,
could not live
in a strange
island, and
returned to
Pitcairn ,
where their
number in
1879

CHILDREN OF THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS

George Young:, son of Young: the midshipman, with his
child and wife, Hannah Adams, daughter of John Adams.

HOME OF JOHN ADAMS ON PITCAIR.N ISLAND

again risen to 79souls.
The population of
Pitcairn at various
periods was as follows:
1800, 29 ; 1825, 66 ;
1831, 87 ; 1837, 92 ;
1841,114; 1856,194;
1864, 43 ; 1873, 76 ;
1879, 93 ; 1884, 104 ;
1898, 142 ; 1901,
126; 1907, 144.
Contrary to the dis-
quieting rumours
circulated in 1896,
to the effect that
Pitcairn no longer
supplied the require-
ments of human in-
habitants, the popu-
lation is thriving at
the present day.

The size of the
island is not more
than three miles long
from east to west
and two miles broad
from north to south.
There is a range
of steep hills, the
highest being Out-
look Ridge, which is
i, 008 feet high. The

village of Adamstown is on a plateau about
400 feet above sea-level. Bounty Bay is
the best of the three landing places, but
even it is dangerous by reason of the
violence of the sea and the currents. The
climate is rainy but somewhat uncertain,
hence the danger of drought. The chief
food of the islanders is the sweet potato,

but pine-
apples, ba-
nanas and
yams grow
abundantly.

The chief
of the re-
maining
islands of
Polynesia -
Hawaii,
Samoa, Ton-
ga, and New
Zealand are
treated inde-
pendently at
greaterlength
in the follow-
ing chapters.

967

OCEANIC

ISLANDS &

THEIR STORY

HISTORIC

ISLANDS OF

POLYNESIA

HAWAII : BEGINNING AND END OF A KINGDOM

THE Hawaiian group of islands, other-
wise called the Sandwich Islands,
have a total area of 6,449 square miles.
The chief members of the group are
Hawaii ( 4,015 square miles), Maui (728
square miles), Oahu (598 square miles),
Kauai (547 square miles), Molokai (261
square miles), Lanai (139 square miles),
Niihau (97 square miles), and Kahoslawe
(69 square miles).

The history of Hawaii begins for us with
its discovery by Captain Cook ; all that
took place on it previously bears the im-
press of myth. The legends mention
sixty-seven ancestors of Kamehameha I.,
and place therefore the beginning of the
settlement of Hawaii at a period which
would approximately correspond to the
sixth century of the Christian era. As a
matter of fact, human bones have been dis-
covered under old strata of coral and lava
streams ; in any case, with such a system
of chronology a large margin of error must
be allowed for. Far more important is
the exceptional evidence for the solution
of the question of the origin of the native
people. A large mass of the traditions point
to the Samoan Sawaii as the chief point
of emigration, without necessarily ex-
.. eluding accretions from other
Hawa " groups of Polynesia. The re-
P* S l d currence of Samoan geograph-
ical names in Hawaii is an
argument in favour of the legends. If
we may judge by the frequent mention
which they make of Tahiti and the Mar-
quesas, the main route seems to have led
over these islands.

It seems probable that some twenty
generations after the first immigration i.e.,
about the eleventh century a new wave
of nations touched Hawaii, produced by a
general movement in the island worlds of
the South Sea, which, again, was due to the
expulsion of Polynesian immigrants from
the Fiji Islands, Into this period, there-
fore, fall, according to legend, the journeys
of famous chiefs and priests to distant
isles, rendered possible by the greater
enterprise of the ancient races and the
higher perfection of navigation at tfrat

96.8

time. The first and only attempt at
oversea expansion gave way to a tresh
period of isolation, which lasted at least
into the sixteenth century, probably down
to the date of Cook's landing. During this
long period the Hawaiian people developed
all its peculiar characteristics ; then it was
that those numerous states and societies
were founded, which were mutually hostile.

C min e waves f war sur g e d high

ommg j n ^ e fourteenth century, when

King Kalaunuiohua tried for

the first time to unite all the
islands under his sceptre. The first inter-
course with Europeans dates from the six-
teenth century. In 1527 one of the three
vessels of Don Alvarado de Saavedra is
said to have been wrecked on the cliffs of
South Kona, and in 1555 the Spanish
navigator Juan Gaetano is supposed to
have discovered the Hawaiian Islands.
This intercourse, even if it is based on fact,
produced no results on the external and
internal history of the country.

James Cook, on his landing (1778), found
three states Hawaii and Maui, both of
which were governed by one ruler (Tarai-
opu, or Terriobu), since the ruler of Hawaii
had married the queen-widow of Maui ;
and, thirdly, Oahu, to which Kauai and
Niihau belonged. Not only were Oahu
and Hawaii at war with each other, but
all these states were riddled with internal
dissensions. The task of reducing this
chaos to order was reserved for Kameha-
meha L, or Tamea-Mea (1789-1819), who
not only won more foreign successes than
any other Polynesian ruler, but in intel-
lectual gifts towered above the average of
his race. He had distinguished himself in
war as a young man, and national bards
prophesied of him that he would one day
unite the people. A few years after Cook's
murder (February I4th, 1779) he began to
put into practice his bold plans, on
Hawaii at first, and afterwards on Maui
(1781) and the other islands. Partly
by his personal valour, partly with an
army disciplined by the help of Euro-
peans to which after 1804 a fleet of
itwenty-one ships was joined Jhe attained

HAWAII: BEGINNING AND END OF A KINGDOM

his object in 1795. After storming the fort account also his majestic bearing, which

" Pali " on Oahu, to which island Kame- commanded respect, the vastness of his

hameha is said to have crossed with influence is at once accounted for.

16,000 men, he proclaimed himself sole The course of Kamehameha's reign, after

monarch of the Hawaiian
Isles. The two north-
west islands, Kauai and
Niihau, then voluntarily
submitted.

Like the Zulu king,
Tchaka, and the Wan-
yamwesi leader, Mirambo,
Kamehameha has been
compared to great rulers
of the Mediterranean
sphere ' of civilisation.
Turnbull places him by
the side of Philip of
Macedon, and Jarves calls
him the Napoleon of the
South Sea ; to others he
has suggested Peter the
Great. He must have
been a powerful person-
ality. Adalbert de Cham-
isso was proud of the

he had united his king-
| dom, was peaceful. It
I was for the Hawaiians an
I era of revolution in every
I field, though least so in
I that of social life. Kame-
| hameha made no changes
j in the relations of the
1 several classes of the
j people to each other and
to the monarch. The
I lower class remained then,
I as formerly, in its strictly
I dependent and subservi-
I ent condition, and he had
I further weakened the
power of the nobility,
which even before his
time had been slight. A
new feature was the
external reputation
gained by political union,

fact that he had shaken SANDWIC BLANDER W,TH MASK l nd \ he ^ rovfih of

hands not only with General Marquis de
Lafayette and Sir Joseph Banks, but
also with the great Hawaiian. Kame-
hameha I. was great not merely in
intellectual capacity, he was still greater
by his moral strength and the power
and purity of his will. If we take into

people into a power unprecedented in the
Pacific. This, at an early period for
Oceania, had quickly turned the attention*
of the European Powers and of North
America to the north of the Pacific Ocean,
as is shown by the numerous British,
Russian, American, and French expeditions.

DOUBLE CANOE OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS WITH MASKED ROWERS

^Reproduced from an engraving accompanying the .original edition of Captain Cook's "Voyages"

969

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

KING KAMEHAMEHA

The changes in the domain of culture and
economics involved more momentous
consequences for the future of the
Hawaiian people. Only the higher classes
of the people were materially Europeanised ;
i he masses had to continue for some time
in the old paganism and the ancient
Polynesian semi-culture. Nevertheless it
could not be long before the whole nation
was subject to this change. Kamehameha
neither intended nor suspected that it
should take the form of a complete dis-
integration of the old national life. This
decline was mainly produced by the
introduction of European immigrants, who
made their way into all the influential
posts, and produced a temporary economic
970

prosperity by transmarine
commercial enterprise and
a policy of tariffs ; but at
the same time their inti-
mate relations with the
natives were destined to
destroy the old religion,
the stronghold of Hawaiian
nationality.

As long as Kamehameha
held the reigns of govern-
ment with the strong hand,
the crash was delayed.
Kamehameha was all his
life a firm supporter of
paganism, for only through
a strict observance of the
traditional doctrines was
it possible in those times
of ferment to retain the
respect of the people for
the person and power of
the godlike monarch. His
death, which occurred on
May 8th, 1819, changed
the situation, Liholiho, his
son, who mounted the
throne as Kamehameha II.,
immediately sank to be
a puppet in the hands of
his, nobles, and especially
of his co-regent Kaahu-
manu, the. favourite wife
of the late king, and his
aged chief counsellor, Kalei-
moku, the " Pitt of the
South Sea." By their
advice he abolished the
ancient and revered custom
of Taboo, and compelled
women to share a large
public banquet and to eat
the pork which was forbidden them.
The majority of the people gladly wel-
comed this step. The minority, who, under
the lead of Kekuaokalani, a cousin of the
king, remained true to paganism, were
defeated in the sanguinary battle of
Kuamoo ; Kekuaokalani fell, together
with his heroic wife, Manona. The destruc-
tion of the old temples and images, already
initiated, was carried out with renewed
zeal ; nevertheless idolatry had many
supporters in secret. The half-heartedness
of the reforming policy was more unfortu-
nate ; the Hawaiians had been deprived
of paganism, but nothing tangible was put
into its place.
The visits of European and American

1815

HAWAII: BEGINNING AND END OF A KINGDOM

squadrons during this
period induced the mon-
arch to seek an alliance
with Great Britain, partic-
ularly since Russia and the
United States had already
shown signs of establishing
themselves permanently in
the archipelago. Kame-
hameha I., in order to
increase his dignity at
home by the support of
the great world power,
had made over his king-
dom to Britain in February,
1794, but his offer did not
meet with any cordial
response. In 1823, Liholiho
and his consort, Kama-
malo, went to London, in
order in this way to
anticipate the wishes of
others. They both died in
1824 in England, but were
buried in their native
country. Liholiho's suc-
cessor, his brother Keau-
keauouli, was only nine
when placed on the throne
under the name of Kame-
hameha III. The regency
during his minority was
held by Kaahumanu and
the old and tried Kalei-
inoku. Both found work
enough in the succeeding
years. It is true that Pro-
testant missionaries had
laboured since 1820 with
good results ; but all their
efforts were stultified by
a faction of morally and
physically corrupt white immigrants, whose
numbers grew from year to year. Drunken-
ness and immorality became so rampant
that no improvement of the conditions
could be hoped for except by legislation.
Toward the end of the " twenties " the con-
test of the Christian missions for supremacy
began on Hawaii. The Protestant mission
was under the protection of the Americans ;
the Catholic gained ground only after
threats from French warships. In the

KING KAMEHAMEHA V. AND HAWAIIAN NOBLES IN 1870

Kaahumanu, followed in 1832. Kame-
hameha III. declared himself of full age
in 1833, when he chose another woman,
Kinau, for his co-regent, and nominated
her son, Alexander Liholiho, heir to the
throne.

The first newspapers printed in the
Hawaiian language appeared in 1834.
Churches and schools of every sort were
erected in large numbers. At the same
time the first sugar plantations were laid

year 1837 the French extorted a declara- out, and silkworm breeding was intro-
tion of universal religious liberty, which duced by the British. Soon cotton-
growing was added as a new branch of
industry. In October, 1840, the kingdom
received its first constitution. It was
drawn up by the American, Richards, and

put an end to the violent persecutions

often suffered by the Catholic Christians.

The wise Kaleimoku died in 1827, and

the death of the energetic queen-regent,

971

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Citttion

presented a strange mixture of ancient
feudalism and Anglo-American forms. The
ministry consisted entirely of foreigners.
Richards became Minister of Public
Instruction ; Wylie, a Scottish doctor,
represented the Foreign Office. The
finances were administered after 1842 by
Dr. Judd, under whom the public revenue
increased from 41,000 dollars in the year
1842, to 284,000 dollars in 1852.

In spite of religious toleration the
disputes between the Protestant and
Catholic clergy continued until
the year 1837. They were

? ften f x P loit ^ b y the French
Consul in order to put strong
pressure on the Hawaiian Government in
favour of the Catholic mission. At the
same time the British Consul took steps
which seemed to point to an annexation
of the islands by Great Britain. This
induced the Hawaiian Government to
obtain a guarantee of the independence of
the kingdom from the United States of
America in December, 1842, from France at
the beginning of 1843, and from England
on July 26th, 1843. The action of Lord
Paulet, commander of the frigate Carys, in
taking possession of the island (February
25th, 1843), on his own responsibility, was
not recognised by the British Government.
The constitution of 1840 was changed in
1852, 1864, and on July 6th, 1887 ; with
every revision it resembled more and more
the usual European constitutional forms,
especially when, in 1864, the old institu-
tion of the queen-regent was abolished.
A privy council, consisting of the Ministers
and a number of members nominated by
the king, stood next to the sovereign.
The Cabinet contained first five, and later
four, members ; the Parliament was com-

posed of a House of Nobles and a House
of Representatives. The most important
offices have always been filled by foreigners.
Kamehameha III. died in December,
1854. His successor, Alexander Liholiho
Kamehameha IV., married to Queen
Emma then aged twenty, lost no time in
placing himself on better terms with France,
which, in defiance of the independence
guaranteed in 1843, had overwhelmed
the kingdom with difficulties and had
repeatedly humiliated it. A final treaty
between the two countries was effected.
in 1858. On the death of Kamehameha IV.
in 1864, his elder brother, who had some-
thing of Kamehameha I. in him, succeeded
to the crown. The first act of Kame-
hameha V. was to alter the constitution of
1864. In the next year an immigration
bureau was instituted as a check on the
constant shrinkage in the population ;
500 Chinese were brought into the
country, to be followed by the first
Japanese in 1868. Finally, measures were
taken to check the leprosy which had been
introduced from China in 1853, and had

*Kr.-nk. spread alarmingly. Kame-
bhnnkage hameha y died sudderi l y in

p t] \ .. 1872, the last of his family.
Population po / some months Iunamoa

kinsman of the Kamehamehas, held the
sceptre. After his death, which occurred on
February 3rd, 1874, Colonel David Kala-
kaua, born on November i6th, 1836, in
Honolulu, was elected king. In spite of his
somewhat frivolous nature, Le was a far-
sighted monarch ; in 1875 he concluded a
commercial treaty with the United States of
North America, which secured for his king-
dom the most favourable tariffs and greatly
promoted the prosperity of the islands.
The cultivation of sugar and rice, the two

H. C. White Co.

GENERAL VIEW OF HONOLULU, CAPITAL OF HAWAII, SANDWICH ISLANDS
Showing, in the inset the former palace of Queen Liliuokalani, now the United States Executive Office.

972

King Kamehameha V.

King Kalakaua I.

Queen Liliuokalani.

THE LAST THREE NOTABLE RULERS OF HAWAII

HUis & Walery

principal exports, increased enormously,
and indeed there was a general increase
both in exports and in imports. But
this revival of trade benefited only the
whites. Want of labourers made it once
more necessary to introduce foreigners.
In 1877 the first Portuguese came into
the country from the Azores ; in 1884
there were some 10,000. At the same
time increasing streams of Chinese and
Japanese flooded the land; in 1890
there were counted 15,301, and 17,360.

The numerical proportion of these ethno-
logically undesirable Mongols to the native
population has, up to the beginning of
the twentieth century, steadily increased.
In moving forward to the conquest of the
Pacific, the yellow races have found
Hawaii the best point of attack. The
growth of economic and political relations
with America during the reign of Kala-
kaua (1874-1891) has been as rapid and
continuous as the Mongol immigration.
As long ago as the winter of

oThT 8 ' 1873-1874, Pearl Harbour, near
Honolulu, was offered bv Luna-

Amencans ,., . t A . , J .

hlo to the Americans by way of
compensation for commercial concessions.
When the treaty of 1875 required to
be renewed in 1887, the United States of
North America claimed this place as a
permanent possession ; further, Hawaii
was not to venture to conclude treaties
with any other foreign Power without their
consent, while they claimed the right to
land troops in Hawaii at all times. The
influence of the British residents pre-
vented Kalakaua from conceding these
humiliating conditions. The refusal of

the American proposals signified, from
an economic aspect, the beginning of a
financial crisis, by which the Hawaiian
dynasty was ruined.

Kalakaua died on January 2oth, 1891,
at San Francisco. The seventeen years of
his reign had been outwardly rich in " pro-
gress." He had a small standing army at
his disposition ; Hawaii had obtained lines
of railroads and steamships ; palaces and
lighthouses had been built and Honolulu
lighted by electricity. Waterworks and
telegraph lines had been con-
structed, and large stretches of
barren country had been made
cultivable by irrigation works,
stage of European civilisation

Record
of a
Reign

The

began, it must be confessed, with an
enormous load of debt, attributable to
the frivolity and the extravagance of the
popularly beloved king, who had been
married since 1863 to Kapiolani, but had
no issue.

He was succeeded by his sister, Lydia
Kamakaeha Liliuokalani, a woman of
fifty-two, who was proclaimed Queen on
January 29th, 1891. Her short reign
ended with the downfall of the Hawaiian
monarchy and the annexation of the
island by the United States. Under the
dominion of the new American tariff laws,
which secured considerable export bounties
to native sugar producers, Hawaii could no
longer compete in the world market ;
exports rapidly fell off, and the national
prosperity flagged. The foreign section of
the population, which was dependent
chiefly on the American trade, found this a
reasonable cause for supporting more

973

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

boldly the idea of close connection with the
United States. The results were dissen-
sions in the Government, an over-rapid
change in the constitution, which was
intended to weaken the influence of the
foreigners, and a threatened coup d'etat
on the queen's part. The end was the
deposition of the queen and the procla-
mation of Hawaii as a republic
on January I7th, 1893. The

Still-lorn efforts of the victorious Ameri-
cans of Honolulu toward a close
connection with the United States were at
first unsuccessful. President Harrison,
shortly before the expiration of his term
of office, which ended on March 4th, 1893,
advocated annexation in a message to
the Senate ; but his successor, President
Cleveland, was opposed to it. The king-
dom thereupon was declared to be changed
into the Republic of Hawaii on July 4th,
1894, and a constitution was framed,
which provided a Legislative Assembly,
a Senate, and a House of Representatives.
The constitution, however, hardly lasted
long enough to become an actuality ; after
President McKinley's entrance on office in
the spring of 1897 the incorporation with
the Union was effected without any diffi-
culty. The constitutional position of the
island group was settled on June I4th, 1900.
Hawaii now forms a territory of the United
States ; the popular element in its govern-
'ment consists of a Senate with fifteen
members and a House of Representatives
with thirty members. The first election
of a representative to Congress took place
on November 6th, 1900. The Governor,
a secretary, and the judges of the most
important courts are nominated by the
President of the United States, the other
officials by the Governor.

The planting of the Stars and Stripes
in the middle of the Northern Pacific
Ocean is not the first step which American
Imperialism has taken since 1898, but
it is one of the most momentous. Tutuila
v f in the Samoan group and Guam

* 1 in the Marianne Islands are

United 1 States b th like feders which are
stretched out far towards the

south-west in the direction of Melanesia
and Australia ; the broad surfaces of the
Philippines flank the important inter-
national trade route from Europe to the
eastern margin of Asia. In the case of
Hawaii a higher standard must be applied.
When the Isthmus of Panama has been cut
through, and the United States really

974

becomes a power in the Pacific, then Hawaii,
apart from its trade, will be indispensable
as a strategic base commanding the
northern half of the Pacific. It will be the
only intermediate station on the long
route from the Central American canal and
from San Francisco to Eastern and South-
ern Asia. The annexation of Hawaii by
America is a particularly hard blow for
Japan, which had itself been forced to
see a similar attempt fail.

Only remnants are now left of the native
race, and only traces of the nationality
of Hawaii. There has been an uninter-
rupted decline in the native population
since the discovery of the islands. In
1778 there were estimated though the
calculation is certainly excessive to be
400,000 souls ; in 1832 the first actual
census gave 130,313 natives. Four years
later there were only 108,579 ' m 1860,
71,019; 1884, 40.014; 1910, 26,041. At
the present day it is extremely difficult
to fix the number of pure natives, on
account of the numerous half-castes,
whose numbers were put at 6,186 in 1890,
and 12,506 in 1910, an increase of more
than 100 per cent, in twenty
years. At the same time the
full-blooded Hawaiians have
diminished by 10 per cent.
We cannot make the Europeans entirely
responsible for the alarmingly rapid re-
trogression of the Hawaiians. Besides the
diseases introduced by the former, the
original laxity of morals, the drunkenness,
various epidemics, and more than all the
traditional practice of infanticide, have
been the chief causes. In place of the
natives there w r ill soon be only Chinese,
Japanese, Europeans, and Americans in
Hawaii.

The Hawaiian islands are extremely
fertile, and export sugar, rice, coffee, wool,
hides, bananas, pineapples, and sisal.
During the fiscal year 1912 the imports
were of the value of over $31,268,800
three-quarters being from America, and
therefore duty free while the exports,
mainly to the United States, and consist-
ing nearly entirely of sugar, aggregated
$57,723,550. So entirely is Hawaii imbued
with the modern American spirit that
Honolulu, the capital, is lighted by electri-
city, has its electric tramway, and nearly
every family has a telephone installation,
while the Marconi system of wireless
telegraphy is in commercial use between
the islands.

The Death
of a
Nation

OCEANIC

ISLANDS &

THEIR STORY

HISTORIC
ISLANDS OF
POLYNESIA

SAMOA & ITS SETTLEMENT BY THE POWERS

MORE labour has been devoted of recent
times to the investigation of the his-
tory of Samoa than to that of all the other
Polynesian island groups put together.
The results obtained are hardly propor-
tionate. The long list of proud genea-
logies with an infinity of names tells of the
vigorous life of the petty states on the
several islands and their divisions ;
tradition also records various invasions
from Fiji and Tonga. But we do not
obtain the slightest information about the
date of the various events to which the
legends refer. The investigations go to
prove that the general condition of Samoa
in the periods before its discovery by
Europeans was hardly distinguished from
that of other archipelagoes. Its political
organisation, and to some degree its stage
of social institutions, had alone been
somewhat more fully developed. The
vendettas and disputes between different
influential families, which are also recorded,
are of little importance to the world,
although they have naturally been exag-
gerated to great events from the perspec-
tive of the Polynesians.

The traditions of Samoa do not run back
very far ; we need not assume more than
500 years for its inhabitants as a historical
nation ; how far before that date their
immigration must be placed, it is impossible
to calculate. The chief event
of early history is the subjuga-

s tion by the Tongans and the

Heroic
Age of

Samoan war of liberation which
was connected with that according to
one authority about 1600 A.D., according
to another about 1200 A.D. That was
their heroic age. Malie tau, molie toa
" Well fought, brave warriors " was,
according to legend, the admiring shout
of the Tongan king to two young chiefs
as he pushed off from shore on his return
journey. This title, which then passed
to the elder of the two brothers, Savea,
has been hereditary in his family down
to the present day.

Samoa is the land of titles. Above the
common people stand the nobles, at the
head of whom are the village chief, Alii, and
the district governor, Tui, while the highest

CheT "

chief, or king, bears the title of Tupu.
Little inferior to him are the Tulafale, or
orators, whose political position, generally,
depends entirely on their personal abilities.
Besides this, titles taken from certain
districts or places, in commemoration of
certain persons or events, are conferred
as honourable distinctions, whose posses-
sion is a preliminary condition for the
attainment of the political headship.
The most famous of these titles is the
above-mentioned " Malie toa," which the
township of Malie, lying nine miles to the
west of Apia, has the right to confer;
a second and hardly less renowned is
" Mataafa," which is bestowed by the
village of Faleata. On the
other hand, the claim to the
soverei g nt Y rests on the law-
fully conferred right to four
names, Tuiatua and Tuiaana, Gatoaitele
and Tamasoalii, the last two of which are
traced to the names of two princesses

Shortly before Jean Frangois Count
Laperouse landed on Samoa in 1787,
Galumalemana, a chief of the Tupua
family, had, after fierce civil wars, usurped
the sovereignty of the whole island. On
his death, about 1790, violent struggles
broke out between the brothers entitled
to the inheritance, from which at first
Nofoasaefa, an ancestor of Tamasese,
emerged victorious. He could not, how-
ever, permanently maintain his position,
but retired to his ancestral home, Asau,
on Savaii, and once more revived the
cannibalism which had almost been for-
gotten in Samoa. Galumalemana's posthu-
mous son, Jamafana, who even before his
birth had been called by the dying father
prophetically the uniter of the kingdom,
finally inherited the throne. He was
succeeded, after 1800, by Mataafa Fili-
sounuu, who was at once involved in
serious wars with the Malietoas. The
victory rested with the Malietoa Vaiinupo,
an ally of the ruler of Manono, who seized
the power on the same day of August in
the yeai' 1830 on which John Williams
set foot on Savaii as the first missionary.
Malietoa assumed in consequence the title
" Tupu," which has since been customary

975

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

in Samoa. He also was converted to

Christianity, and received the name of

Tavita, or David ; he died on May n, 1841.

The two decades after his death were

in Samoa once more a war of all against

all. Out of the number of claimants to

the throne, Malietoa Laupepa and his

uncle Pea, or Talavou, finally

held the power jointly for some

General ^^ ^ influenced by the

foreigners in the country, the
Samoans, in 1868, resolved to put only
one chief at the head of affairs, and to
assemble the estates of the realm no
longer in Manono, but in Mulinuu, near
Apia. Manono, jealous of its ancient
precedence, declared Pea king, and con-
quered Malietoa Laupepa and his
followers. Finally, in 1873, through the
intervention of the foreign consuls, who
had been appointed in the interval, a
treaty was concluded by which the ruling
power was put into the hands of the seven
members of the Taimua, an Upper House,
by the side of which the meetings of the
district governors, the Fai Pule, or Lower
House, still continued. But in 1875
disorders were renewed, and this time the
impulse came from outside.

As far back as 1872 the enterprising
New Zealanders had advocated a British
annexation of Samoa, and had offered to
equip a ship for that purpose. At the
same time the United States had obtained,
on February I7th, 1872, the concession of
the harbour Pango-Pango on Tutuila, the

best of the group. The annexation of all
Tutuila, proclaimed by a sea captain on
his own responsibility, was not sanctioned
in Washington. About the middle of
1873, the American " Colonel " Stein-
berger, a German Jew by descent, appeared
as a commissioner in Samoa, in order to
study the resources of the island group
This cunning and ambitious man soon
raised himself to the most influential
position, and induced the natives to ask
for a protectorate of the United States.
Steinberger himself conveyed the petition
to Washington ; he returned on April ist,
1875, to Samoa, but only with presents
and a letter of introduction from the
President, Ulysses S. Grant. Steinberger
gave the country a simple constitution,
appointed Malietoa Laupepa nominal
king, while he himself modestly assumed
the title of Prime Minister. He settled
the succession, arranged the system of
jurisdiction, and established order and
peace throughout the land. But in De-
cember, 1875, at the instance of the jealous
missionaries and the English
population, he was carried off
~ by an English man-of-war,

Constltut ' OB after a bloody battle, and
taken to New Zealand. He died in
New York toward the end of the century.
The intentions of the United States
toward Samoa were now more apparent.
In 1887, the American Consul hoisted his
flag, and only the energetic remonstrances
of Germany and Great Britain hindered the

Peace
and a

976

NATIVE HOUSE AT APIA IN THE SAMOAN ISLANDS

Kerry, Sydney

GENERAL VIEW OF THE TOWN OF APIA, THE CAPITAL OF GERMAN SAMOA
The mountain in the middle distance is Vaea, on the top of which Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous novelist, is buried.

Americans from firmly establishing them-
selves. In June of that year the German
Government concluded a treaty with the
Samoans, by which they were prevented
from giving any foreign government
special privileges to the prejudice of Ger-
many. On January lyth, 1878, the Ameri-
cans, for their part, entered into a treaty
to secure friendly relations and promote
trade with Malietoa Laupepa ; at the
same time the harbour of Pango-Pango
was definitely given over to them.

On January 24, 1879, Germany was
assigned the harbour of Saluafata, on
Upolu, as a naval station ; Great Britain
also, by a treaty of August 28th, 1879,
secured for herself the use of all these
waters, and the right to choose a coaling
station. On September 2nd, by a treaty be-
tween Germany, Great Britain, the United
States, and Malietoa, the district of Apia
was declared neutral territory, and placed
under a municipal council to be appointed
by the three Powers in turn. Finally, on
December 23rd, on board the German ship
Bismarck, Malietoa Talavou was elected,
by numerous chiefs, to the dignity of king
for life, with Laupepa as regent.

Since the middle of the 'fifties the Ham-
burg merchant house of Johann Cesar
Godeffroy and Son had made the South
Sea the chief sphere of its enterprises, and,
a decade and a half later, had monopolised
the trade with the central and eastern
group of islands ; it had also acquired

large estates on the Carolines and the three
large Samoan islands, Savaii, Upolu, and
Tutuila. Misfortunes on the stock ex-
change placed the firm, toward the end
of the 'seventies, in so precarious a position
that, in view of the Anglo- Australian
movement to occupy all the unappro-
priated South Sea Islands, Prince Bismarck
abandoned his colonial policy of inaction,
and, at the beginning of 1880, introduced
the " Samoan proposition," by which the
empire was to interfere and undertake
to guarantee the small tribute due from
the Godefrroys. But the German Reich-
stag rejected the proposition on the third
reading on April 29th, 1880,

King Malietoa Talavou died on Novem-
ber 8th, 1880. His nephew, Malietoa
Laupepa, was totally unable to check the
renewed outbreak of civil war among the
natives ; in fact, at the beginning of 1886
one party chose the chief Tamasese as king.
He found support from the Germans,
because Laupepa, in November, 1885, had
secretly offered the sovereignty to England.
Continued injury to German interests, and
insults and outrages inflicted by Laupepa's
adherents on German civil servants, led,
in August, 1887, to Laupepa being arrested
by German marines, and taken first to the
Cameroons and then to the Marshall
Islands

Tamasese's rule was also brief. On
September gth, 1888, the adherents of
Malietoa Laupepa proclaimed the

977

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

renowned Mataafa king, and defeated
Tamasese. When his people ventured on

war continued. Malietoa Laupepa then
died on August 22nd, 1898. Only two

outrages against the Germans, the two candidates for the succession were seriously

.& : 1.1

RIVAL KINGS IN THE CIVIL WAR OF

German warships lying off Apia, at the
request of the
German Consul
K nappe, landed
their crews ; but
through trea-
chery they fell
into an ambush
on December
1 8th, and were
almost annihi-
lated. Stronger
German detach-
ments were re-
quired before
the rebels were

repulsed. In ad- King . Tamasese, the candidate
ditlOn to this, a chosen by the German officials.

hurricane, on March iQth, 1889, wrecked
the two German gunboats, Eber and Adler,
in the harbour of Apia, and ninety-five
'brave sailors lost their
lives. The English ship,
H.M.S. Calliope, escaped
by steaming out, and the
captain, Kane, displayed
the greatest skill and
Seamanship. The Ameri-
cans suffered nearly as
heavily as the Germans.

A settlement of Samoan
affairs was the result of
a conference held in
Berlin during the sum-
mer of 1880, to which
Germany, England and
the United States sent
representatives. In the
final protocol of June
I4th, the island group
was declared independent
and neutral under the
joint protection of the
three Powers. Tamasese
and Mataafa were de-
posed, and Malietoa
Laupepa, who had been
brought back to Samoa
in late autumn, was
reinstated on the throne.
Mataafa, however, was
soon re-elected king by
his party, but in 1893 was conquered
on Manono and banished by the Powers
who signed the treaty. Tamasese the
Younger took his place, and the civil

978

1889

King: Mataafa, the candidate
chosen by the Samoan people.

KING OF SAMOA
Wearing his royal head-dress.

to be considered the banished but popu-
lar Mataafa, and
Tanu Mafili, the
son of Laupepa,
aged sixteen, a
protege of the
English mission,
and thus of the
British and
American Go-
vernments.
Tamasese the
Younger was
kept by the
British in re-
serve merely as
a substitute for
Tanu.

The subject of the drama, which was un-
folded in the winter of 1898-1899 in the
distant South Sea archipelago, was not
merely the welfare of the
few Samoans or the posses-
sion of the small islands.
There were far weightier
conflicting interests. No
words need be wasted
about the causes of the
intense Anglo-Australian
longing for the islands.
The United States, who
had obtained Hawaii
and the Philippines
immediately before this,
thus possessed magnifi-
cent strategic and com-
mercial bases for the
northern part of the
Pacific, but not for the
south. The interests of
Germany, finally, were
based on economics. In
production and trade it
considerably surpassed
both parties ; and it was
a point of honour with
the German Government
not to let the prize which
had once been grasped
escape in the end from
their fingers.

The Samoans chose
Mataafa by an overwhelming majority.
At the same time the American Chief
Justice Chambers, on December 2ist,
declared that the young Tanu was elected

SAMOA, AND ITS SETTLEMENT BY THE POWERS

with his approval, and that Mataafa could
not come into the question, since he was
excluded by the Berlin protocol, although
a clause to that effect proposed by Prince
Bismarck had not been adopted in the final
version. The remonstrances of the German

Consul Rose, and the German

f Gre7t munici P al councillor,Dr. Raffel,

Britain* were disregarded. Mataafa then

took the matter into his own
hands and drove the supporters of Tanu
out of Apia down to the sea and the
ships of the allied Powers. After repeated
bombardments of the coast villages by
the British and American war vessels in
the second half of March, a joint com-
mittee of inquiry was instituted in the
spring of 1899 at the suggestion of Ger-
many, and this, in July, transferred the
rights of the abolished monarchy tem-
porarily to the consuls of the three
Powers. On November I4th, Germany and
Britain came to an agreement, and in the
Washington protocol of December 2nd the
United States also gave their assent.

Great Britian under this treaty entirely
renounced all claim to the Samoan
Islands. By the repeal of the Samoa
Act, Upolu and Savaii, with the adjacent
small islands, became the absolute property
of Germany, while Tutuila and the other
Samoan Islands east of 171 W. longitude
fell to the United States. Germany in
return renounced her claims to the Tonga

Islands and Savage Island in favour of
Britain, and ceded to the same Power
the two Solomon Islands, Choiseul and
Isabel. The German Reichstag approved
the treaty on February I3th, 1900. On
March ist the newly nominated German
governor, Solf, took formal possession of
the islands. On August I4th, finally,
the wisely conceded self-government
of the natives came into force again.
In August, 1914, German Samoa was
occupied by British forces.

The German islands, Savaii and Upolu,
have an area of 660 and 340 square miles
respectively, with populations of 13,201
and 18,341. The white population is
under 500, rather more than one-half
being German. The exports are chiefly
copra and cocoa beans. In 1911 the
imports were of the value of $1,016,560 and
the exports $1,097,495. The chief island
in American Samoa is Tutuila, with an
area of 54 square miles and a population
of 3,800. Manua and the smaller islands
under the Stars and Stripes
have a total area of 25 square
miles and 2,000 inhabitants.
The harbour of Paga Paga, in
Tutuila, is an American naval station, and is
the only good harbour in the islands. The
chief product is copra, in which com-
modity the natives usually pay their taxes.
In 1911 the import trade was $94,190
and the export trade under $142,740

Resources
of Samoan
Islands

THE DISASTROUS HURRICANE AT APIA IN 1889
This memorable storm wrecked two German gunboats, and ninety : five German sailors were drowned. The
British ship H.M.S. Calliope escaped only by a feat of seamanship by its captain, who steamed out to sea.

979

SURRENDER OF THE TONGA OR FRIENDLY ISLANDS
The arrival of the British Fieet at Tonga on May 1 >th, 19'H, to receive from
Germany formal possession of the islands under the trvty of 11'. "3, whereby Germany
abandoned all claims to the group in exchange for half of tiie island of Samoa.

980

OCEANIC

ISLANDS &

THEIR STORY

HISTORIC

ISLANDS OF

POLYNESIA

TONGA: THE LAST SOUTH SEA KINGDOrt

(~\F the islands in the central part of
^ Oceania, only the Tonga Archipelago
or Friendly Islands, in addition to Fiji and
Samoa, has a noteworthy history. We
know little of its course before the arrival
of Captain Cook, with the exception of
its social conditions.

At the head of the constitution stood
the Tuitonga, monarch and god in one,
with absolute power over persons and
property. Of less importance in repu-
tation and sanctity was the Tui Ardeo, said
to be the descendant of a dethroned
royal family, which had still retained a
minor chief tancy. The Tuitonga had to
show peculiar honours to the Tui Ardeo
on different occasions. The king and his
family composed the first class (Hau) of
the nobility. The second (the Eiki or
Egi, who also bore the title Tui, or lord)
furnished the highest officials in the
kingdom and the district governors, and
was appointed by the king, although the
dignity was hereditary. The first of the
second class was in pre-European times
the Tui Hatakalawa, the Minister of
the Interior ; in Mariner's time (1810)
he came in precedence after the Tui
Kanakabolo, or War Minister.

Since in the nineteenth century the
Tuitonga was excluded from all share in
the wars, the War Minister easily attained
to greater influence than the monarch
himself ; indeed, the Minister has been
taken by more than one traveller for
the king. The last class of

i/To nobility, or Matabule, furnished

councillors and servants of
the Eiki and the Tuitonga,
district governors, public teachers, and
representatives of the most honourable
crafts, such as shipbuilding and the
making of weapons. The three classes
of nobility were the sole possessors of
the soil, as well as of the power of Taboo.
The common people had no share in either ;
they possessed only personal freedom,
and supported themselves merely by the
cultivation of the lands of the nobles, by
handicrafts, or by fishing. Among handi-
crafts those requiring superior skill were
reserved for the higher class of the

commons, the Mua, while agriculture and
the profession of cooking were assigned
to the lower class, or Tua.

Captain Cook, in 1773 and 1777, found
that the Tubou nobles, had secured all
the important offices of State. The kings
apparently took their wives only from the
family of Tubou. Toward the end of the
eighteenth century this concentration of
power had increased to the extent of deny-
ing the authority of the royal house.
This roused other Eiki families to imitate
the example of the Tubou. The regents of

_,. . Hapai and Vavau first re-

ihe Little volted . thoge of Tongatabu

followed. After long struggles
the victory rested with Finau,
the Eiki of Hapai, although he could no
longer force the whole archipelago to obey
his rule. At the beginning of the nine-
teenth century he shifted the political
centre of gravity to Vavau. In 1830
Taufaahau, the lord of Hapai, and Tubou,
the Eiki of Tongatabu, adopted Christi-
anity ; and when the Finau died out in
1833, Vavau fell to the former. In this
way Taufaahau governed over the same
kingdom as Finau I. had done thirty
years earlier. In 1845 Tubou, or, as he
was called after his conversion, Josiah of
Tongatabu, died also. Taufaahau, as King
George Tubou I., now united the whole
archipelago into one kingdom. This state
bore from the first the stamp of European
influence. The Wesley an mission had soon
extended its activity to political and social
matters. In 1839 George issued an edict
for Hapai and Vavau, which established
a court of justice of four members and
a written code, and abolished the old
customs, according to which each chief
administered justice at his own discretion.
The legislation of 1862 finally raised the
existing serfs to the position of free farmers
of the soil, from which they could not be
ousted so long as they paid their rent.
The taxes, 253. a year, were uniformly
imposed on all male inhabitants over
sixteen years of age.

After 1838 on Tonga also there were
quarrels between the Catholic and Pro-
testant missions. In December, 1841,

981

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

threats of a French warship caused the support Thakombau in his difficulties,

ruler of Tongatabu to seek an English George Tubou I. completed the internal

protectorate, which was not granted him. reforms of his island kingdom by the

The Catholic missionaries, however, ob- constitution of November 4th, 1875. This

tained admission. Their success in the was partly the creation of the king himself,

religious field was never important ; but partly that of his old and loyal councillor,

in the political field they had, even in the Wesleyan missionary vShirley Baker.

1847, so great an influence
over Tongatabu, that the
chiefs of that part created
opposition to the rule of
George I., which was
repressed in 1852 by the
storming of the fortresses
Houma and Bea, de-
fended by French mis-
sionaries. Although the
chiefs were reinstated in
their former posts, and
the missionaries received
no injury to life or pro-
perty, France felt herself
aggrieved. She extorted
in 1858 an official per-
mission for the Catholic
teaching, and put various
Catholic chiefs in the place

Its contents kept closely
to English forms ; in its
ultimate shape, as settled
by the chambers and
printed in the English
language in 1877, it pro-
vided for a legislative
assembly, which met
every three years. Half
of its members belonged
to the hereditary nobility
and were nominated by
the king ; the rest were
elected by the people.
The executive power lay
in the hands of a ministry
of four, who, together
with the governors of the
four provinces and the
higher law officers, com-

of Protestants. OF . T . f ) ". ISLAND h s posed the Privy Council.

,.,. ... Poulaho, of whom this portrait is given by 1 . . , J ,. f

King George, notwith- Captain Cook, was the ruler of the Friendly The administration of
standing, found time to islands at the time of his visits in 1773 and 1777. j ust i ce was put on an

make expeditions to other countries. The independent footing, and comprised a
Tongans had at all times, owing to their supreme court, jury courts, and police
great nautical skill, undertaken cam- courts. Education was superintended

paigns against Samoa and Nuka Hiwa,
and had caused panic especially in the

by the missionaries, who had erected
well-attended schools on all the islands.

neighbouring archipelagoes. The people An industrial school and a seminary,

of Fiji had thus a strong tinge of the
Polynesian in them. A few years after
Cook's second visit (1777), a Tongan

which was called Tubou College in
honour of the king, were founded. The
prohibition against the sale of land to

adventurer played a great part in the foreigners, which was inserted in the
Fijian disorders. In 1854 King George constitution at Baker's advice " the
appeared with a large fleet, avowedly to Tongans are not to be driven into the

A NIGHT DANCE BY TONGA WOMEN AT HAPAI IN THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS

Reproduced from a plate accompanying the original account of the voyages of Captain Cook.

982

TONGA: THE LAST SOUTH SEA KINGDOM

sea " was important for the economic
future of the Tongans ; even leases of
land were allowed only after notice had
been given to the Government.

In view of the increased interest which
the European Powers in the 'seventies
took in the South Sea Islands,
Tonga, with its favourable
situation, could not perma-
nently be neglected. King
George and his chancellor,
Baker, were on terms of open
friendship with Germany.
On November ist, 1876, this
" good feeling " took the
form of a commercial treaty,
establishing friendly relations
with the German Empire,
according to which the har-
bour of Taulanga on Vavau
was ceded as a coaling station.
On November 2Qth, 1879,
Tonga concluded a similar
treaty of amity with Britain.
By an agreement of April
6th, 1886, Germany and Britain decided
that Tonga should remain neutral terri-
tory. On August ist, 1888, a treaty was
made with the United States.

In 1890 Shirley Baker had become so
unpopular with the chiefs and people that
the British High Com-
missioner removed him
from the group, replacing
him, at the king's request,
with Mr. Basil Thomson,
who was commissioned to
reorganise the adminis-
tration and finances, and
to draft the penal code
which became law in 1891.
King George Tubou I.
died on February i8th,
1893, at his capital,
Nukualofa, aged ninety-
five years. He was suc-
ceeded by his great-
frandson, George Tubou
I., a timid youth of nine-
teen. English trade had
been steadily displacing
German trade in spite of
a monthly subsidised ser-
vice of the North German Lloyd to Tonga
and Samoa, and when, in March, 1899, the
German warship Falke appeared off
Tongatabu, nominally with orders to
occupy the harbour of Taulanga until
Tongan debtors had paid the sum due

KING GEORGE I. OF TONGA

LAST NATIVE SOVEREIGN

IN OCEANIA
George Tubou II., King of Tonga.

of $100,000 according to another state-
ment merely with orders to induce the
king to open the Tongan courts to the
recovery of debts to foreigners an English
warship/from the Australian station sailed
in on April 10, and paid George II. $125,000
m^anH^ip on tne s l e Condition that the
I king made no concessions
I whatever of landed rights to
I any foreign Power. In return
I for this Britain renewed her
guarantee of independence
for Tonga. Since that time
the group of islands has been
valuable to Germany only as
the object of an exchange ;
in the treaty of November
8th, 1899, she abandoned all
claims in exchange for half
of Samoa. Thus Tonga and
the adjoining Savage Island
were, in spite of the protest
of King George II., placed
under a British protectorate
on May i9th, 1900.
With the Tongan kingdom, the last of
the native states of Oceania disappeared.
It is true that the constitution, formulated
on a European model, was, in many details
unadapted to the Polynesian nature. But
Tonga preserved many other points which
recalled the old nation-
ality. These relics of an
indigenous development
are fated soon to die
away.

The kingdom of Tonga
consists of three island
groups Tonga, Hapai,
and Vavau with an area
of 390 square miles, and
a population of 22,707, of
whom 240 are British or
European. The chief
articles of produce are
copra, green fruit, and
fungus, and the trade i^
chiefly with New Zealand
and New South Wales.
In 1912 the imports were
of the value of $847,360.
and the exports of the
value of $1,082,555 Ac-
counts are kept in pounds, shillings and
pence, and the only legal tender is now
British coin. The weights and measures
used are as in the United Kingdom. There
is regular steamer communication with
Australia and New Zealand.

983

THE PICTURESQUE SCENERY OF NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand is rich in natural beauty ; parts, such as the Milford Sound, seen in our first view, suggest the
Norway Fiords, while falls such as those of Waitakerei, illustrated above, or the Waiau River, lower, recall
scenes in the British Isles ; but the geysers or hot springs, and the giant fern gullies, are peculiar to the country.

Photos by Valentine, Dundee, and H. C. White Co. London

984

NEW ZEALAND

THE BRITISH DOMINION FARTHEST SOUTH

NEW ZEALAND, which, on geogra-
phical and ethnological grounds,
may be considered here rather than in
connection with Australia, occupies a
geographical position reminding one
strongly of that of the neighbouring
island continent. To the south and east
of New Zealand the ocean is quite
free from any considerable islands ;
only toward the north and west are
relations possible with the habitable
world on the one side with Australia
and Tasmania, on the other with New
Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, and the Cook
Islands. New Zealand is situated as
regards all these countries so that the
lines of communication with it are almost
radii of a circle, a fact important geo-
graphically and historically. It was
merely a consequence of the inferior
seamanship of the inhabitants of Aus-
tralia, New Caledonia, and Fiji that the
original immigration to New Zealand did
not take place from these places.

New Zealand lies about twelve hundred
and fifty miles from the islands just
mentioned. This distance, in spite of
their advanced nautical skill, was too far
for the navigation of the Polynesians,
and thus must have prevented any
permanent and systematic ex-
pansion of the Maoris ; their
naval expeditions did not go
beyond one or two voyages to
the Hawaiki of legend, and the occupation
of the neighbouring Chatham Islands,
which was effected in 1834 with the help
of a European captain.

The case was otherwise for the New
Zealand of the Europeans. Two or three
generations ago its proximity to Australia
and Tasmania enabled a thorough and
rapid scheme of colonisation to be carried
out thence ; at the present day, when it
feels itself strong in the number of its
inhabitants and its resources, it lies far
enough off to be able to entertain the
idea of an independent national existence

of the
Maoris

by the side of the Australian Common-
wealth. A feeling in favour of independ-
ence was discernible as early as 1860 or
1870, hardly a generation after the
beginning of the colonisation proper.
The interference of New Zealand in
Samoan affairs in the year 1872 was
followed by the annexation of the Ker-
madec Isles to New Zealand,

After NadLal ln l88 ?' and f the C k
Indl endive Islands and Manihikis in I 9 00;
Fiji appears nearing the same
destiny now. The influential circles of
New Zealand are universally of opinion
that all the island groups of Polynesia
belong to it as naturally as, according to
the idea of the Australians, the Western
Pacific Ocean falls within their magic
circle. Each of the two countries feels
itself a leading power in the Southern
Hemisphere ; hence the grandiose phrase,
" the position to which this land is entitled
in the concert of the Powers," used in
1900 by Richard Seddon, the Prime
Minister of New Zealand, who died on
June 10, 1906.

Although the population of New Zea-
land, according to the census ot 1911,
amounted to only 1,008,468 it would be
unwise to ignore its pretensions. Apart
from their advantageous position for the
command of the Southern Pacific Ocean,
the two islands possess a coastline so
greatly indented that it surpasses Italy
itself in the number of its bays. Besides
this, it now produces gold and coal in
considerable quantities, while copper,
silver, iron-ore, sulphur, platinum, and
antimony are" also plentiful.

New Zealand, lying entirely within the
temperate zone, possesses a further ad-
vantage in its climate, which, judging by
the physical and intellectual qualities of
the Maoris, must be credited with a con-
siderable power of modifying racial types
for the better, unless it be indeed the case,
as is sometimes asserted, that it has a
bad effect on the physique of Europeans.

985

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Agriculture in New Zealand, as in Australia,
is rapidly increasing ; although the climate
is temperate, there are cold nights in
summer, making the produce of the har-
vests very variable. Nevertheless there are
more than 14,000,000 acres of land under
cultivation at present. According to rough
calculations 40,000,000 acres nearly
70,000 square miles, or two-thirds of the
entire surface are suitable for agriculture
and grazing, though at present one-third
of the country is covered with forests.
The backbone of the industries of New
Zealand, as of Tasmania, which in many
respects enjoys the same climatic con-
ditions, is the breeding of cattle and
sheep. This industry is steadily growing,
as cattle can remain out in the open and
find sufficient food the whole year through.
Of the exports for the year 1912, amount-

NEW ZEALAND

English Miles

ing to $108,852,905, nearly $75,000,000
came from animal products ; gold produced
$6,725,655, and agriculture, timber, etc.,
$28,205,980.

The area of New Zealand is nearly twice
the size of Florida. The Dominion consists
of three islands, of which the southernmost,
Stewart Island, has an area of just over
630 square miles, and is sparsely settled.
North Island is about the size of Pennsyl-
vania ; Middle Island is a little larger than
the state of Illinois. New Zealand has
for dependencies the Cook Islands, the
Chathams, and several uninhabited
islands, south or south-east of Stewart
Island.

The original inhabitants of New Zealand,
the Maoris, were benefited by the advan-
tages of their country only to a certain
degree ; their physique indeed was im-
proved there, but in-
dustrially they were un-
able to profit by the
green fields or the splendid
forests of Kauri pine.
They made use of the
native fauna only so long
as there were creatures
to hunt and eat ; even
yet the heroic ballads of
the Maoris tell of con-
flicts with the gigantic
moa, the first species of
the fauna, which had
lived on for thousands of
years unmolested, to fall
a victim to the intrusion
of man.

The first Maoris im-
migrated into the two
islands, then uninhabited,
fully 500 years ago ; in
the course of time batches
of fresh immigrants fol-
lowed them, the last
perhaps in the eighteenth
century. The point from
which the migration
sorted was Hawaiki, the
theme of so many legends,
the Savaii of the Samoan
Islands ; the intermediate
station, and for some
Maoris the actual starting
point, was Rarotonga.

According to the legend,
the chief Ngahue, with
800 vassals in twelve ships,
ZEALAND whose names are still kept

A MAORI MIGRATION IN THE EARLY COLONIAL DAYS

The Maoris were formerly migratory, but are now settled and pursuing: the peaceful paths of agricultural industr>
The illustration shows a family on the march accompanied by all its worldly wealth pigs, dogs, spears, and babies,

sacred, landed in the Bay of Plenty on
North Island. When the British began
to colonise, the population was estimated
at 100,000 to 200,000 souls. Such an
increase in a comparatively short
time could be the result only of periods
of undisturbed tranquillity. The beasts
and birds above all, the
numerous gigantic species of
moa, reaching thirteen feet in
height did not enjoy this
peace. The inhabitants, accustomed to
a flesh diet and ever increasing in
numbers, looked for a substitute, and
were driven in desperation to canni-
balism. With this momentous step, the
first crisis in the history of the Maoris,
the prosperous time of peace was irrevo-
cably past ; the ensuing period was one of
continuous murder and slaughter, tribe
against tribe, man against man.

During the centuries immediately after
the first immigration, all evidence points
to the existence of large states, which
occasionally were subject to one common
head. There seems also to have been a
religious centre. This was the period of
the national prosperity of the Maoris,
when their workmanship also attained
its highest perfection. Europeans had

only a passing knowledge of them in
this advanced stage ; Abel Tasman saw
in 1642 large and splendid double canoes
in use among them. Such canoes the
Maoris of the eighteenth century were no
longer able to build. The decadence was
universal. The ancient kingdoms broke
up into small communities of bold incen-
diaries and robbers, who recognised no
political centre, but were engaged in fierce
feuds one against another. The belief
in the old gods gave way to a superstitious
belief in guardian spirits, charms, and
counter- charms. The national character,
always inclined to pride and tyranny,
ended by becoming more and more blood-
thirsty, revengeful, and cruel.

The intercourse of the Maoris with the

Europeans at the end of the eighteenth and

the beginning of the nineteenth

e century rendered the incessant

Euro eans * V ^ WaFS n ^ more nerce

by the introduction of fire-
arms. In the year 1820 the chief Hongi,
accompanied by the missionary Kendall,
visited England, and was presented to
King George IV., who received him with
marked attention and showered presents
upon him. Having soon learnt the
political condition of Europe, and being

987

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

A Maori

Would-be

Napoleon

dazzled by the still brilliant reputation of
the victorious career of Napoleon, he
exchanged most of his presents in Sydney
for weapons and ammunition, armed his
tribe, and filled the North Island until
1828 with all the horrors of war. Thousands
of Maoris were shot or made slaves, and
hundreds eaten. Hongi, having
neglected to wear in some battle
in 1827 the cuirass which the
King of England had given
him, received a shot in the lungs, from the
effects of which he died fifteen months
afterward.

The diminution of the native population
owing to such protracted wars was an
advantage to the whites already settled in
the country. Ever since the year 1800,
there had been a large number of " pioneers
of culture " runaway sailors, escaped con-
victs from New South Wales, and other
adventurers. Their relations with the
Maoris had at first been restricted to a
barter of New Zealand flax and timber for
rum, iron, and other European products ;
later, a trade in tattooed Maori heads
sprang up, to which, even at the present
day, European and American museums
give testimony.

In 1814 the Anglican mission under
Samuel Marsden began its labours in the
Bay of Islands, and soon obtained such an
influence among the natives that it seemed
in 1820 as if the North Island would develop
into a Christian Maori state. The horrors
enacted on the island by Hongi stopped
this movement only temporarily : after
Marsden's death not only did the work of
conversion proceed rapidly, but the idea of
a Maori state under Anglican guidance was
approaching its realisation. There was at
that time in England little inclination to
organise a state colonisation of New
Zealand ; Australia lay nearer and had
a less dangerous population. But when, in
1831, a French warship anchored in the
Bay of Islands the missionaries induced
F K thirteen leading chiefs of that
Tn * k District to petition King Wil-

Com Itfflon Ham IV< f r P rotection for New
Zealand. The Government

consented, and nominated, in 1833, James
Busby, a colonist from New South Wales,
as Resident, entrusting him with a juris-
diction over the British settlers which was
backed up by no force at all. Busby's first
act was to grant a national flag to New
Zealand, which was officially recognised
by Great Britain toward the end of 1834.

The missionaries thus obtained the object
for which they had so perseveringly striven,
a Maori state apparently self-governing,
but in reality dependent on them. At
Busby's instigation, this state, represented
by thirty-five chiefs of the North, was
called, after the autumn of 1835, the
United Tribes of New Zealand. At
the same time the chiefs declared that
they would annually hold an assembly,
and there pass the necessary laws. Busby
himself wished to conduct the Government
with the help of a council consisting of
natives, for which, after a definite interval,
representatives were to be elected. The
preliminary costs of this new constitution
should, he proposed, be defrayed by Great
Britain, which was to be petitioned not
only for a loan, but also for the further
protection of the whole scheme.

Busby's plan, which was ridiculed by
all who were acquainted with the conditions
of New Zealand, had been suggested by
another fantastic undertaking, that of
Baron Thierry. This adventurer had
commissioned Kendall, the missionary,
to obtain large tracts of land for him
m New Zealand, and Kendall

had bo^. * I 8 **' 40,000
acres on the Hokianga, from
three chiefs, whom he paid for
them with thirty-six hatchets. But Thierry,
without entering on his property, roamed
about in South America, in order to
become the " sovereign " of some people,
even if it were the smallest Indian tribe.
Later, he pursued the same aims on the
South Sea Islands, and was finally chosen
by the island of Nukahiwa in the Mar-
quesas to be its head. As " Sovereign Chief
in New Zealand and King of Nukahiwa,"
he announced to the British Resident in
North New Zealand his speedy arrival
from Tahiti (1835). The kings of Great
Britain and France, he declared, as well
as the President of the United States,
had consented to the founding of an
independent state on Hokianga Bay, and
he was waiting only for the arrival of a
suitably equipped warship sent from
Panama to sail to the Bay of Islands.

Busby's counter-measure was the found-
ing of the United Tribes of New Zealand.
Strange to relate, this step was taken
seriously in Great Britain, though not in
Australia, and every protection was guaran-
teed to the chiefs. There was a strictly
correct exchange of notes between Thierry
and Busby, until Thierry, at the close of

AA AAA A

of La'alT'

* H * K t

Photos Edwards, Littlehampton, and H. C. White Co.. London

1. Houses of Parliament, which were destroyed by fire in December, 1907 ; 2. Customs House ; 3. Queen's Wharf; 4. The
port in the year 1843 ; 5. General view of the town, showing Government House, Cathedral, and Houses of Parliament.

VIEWS OF WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, PAST AND PRESENT

989

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

1837, accompanied by ninety- three Euro-
pean adventurers, appeared in person on
the North Island. At first amicably
received by some of the chiefs, he soon
perceived that the British settlers, as well
as the missionaries, were working against
him. When it appeared that his announce-

ment that hundreds of his

m subjects would soon follow him

p mg * was idle talk, Thierry became

the laughing-stock of whites
and Maoris, was deserted by everyone,
and thenceforward eked out a scanty
existence as a pauper.

Thierry's French name, the founding
of French companies for the colonisation
of the east side of the South Island, and
finally the settlement of the French
missionary Pompallier in New Zealand-
all this gradually aroused a keen interest
in the two islands among private circles
in Britain. Captain Cook, who had ex-
plored the islands in 1769-70, 1773-74,
and 1777, had always advocated an
occupation of the country, and even
Benjamin Franklin had proposed to found
a company for the colonisation of New
Zealand, but both without results. It is
true that in 1825 a New Zealand Com-
pany was formed, and some emigrants
were sent to New Zealand, but the
behaviour of the natives alarmed the
new-comers so that, with the excep-
tion of the four most stout-hearted, who
remained in the country, all returned
to Australia or England. The attempt,
which had swallowed up $50,000
was a failure. In 1837, tne idea f
colonisation was again taken up by
Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the founder
of the Colony of South Australia, by
Lord Durham, the leader of the attempt
of 1825, an d by other representatives
of the British Parliament ; but since the
Association for the Colonisation of
New Zealand could not break down
the opposition of the missionary societies,
A of the Government, and of the

two Houses of Parliament, it
towards 11 * A 1 1

r . .. was broken up. At the
Colonisation , r ,, C T ~ , ,

end of 1838 the New Zealand

Land Company, also founded by Wake-
teld and Lord Durham, took its place.
This wished to acquire land from the
Maoris, in order to resell it to English
emigrants. The price was to be adjusted
so that not only a surplus should be pro-
duced for the construction of roads,
schools, and churches, but also an ade-
990

quate profit for the shareholders. When
the company, on June ist, 1839, publicly
put up to auction 110,000 acres of New
Zealand land, so many bidders were forth-
coming that very soon $500,000 was
received.

In view of the fact that a vigorous
colonisation of New Zealand was unavoid-
able, the Colonial Minister, the Marquis
of Normanby, now tried to anticipate the
New Zealand Land Company and to secure
for the Government the expected profits.
Under the influence of the Wakefield
agitators, Lord Glenelg, the predecessor of
Normanby in office, had planned the
appointment of a British consul to New
Zealand and the annexation of districts
already occupied by whites under the
Government of New South Wales. On
June i5th, 1839, Captain Hobson was
nominated by Normanby consul for New
Zealand, with a commission to induce the
natives to recognise the sovereignty of
the Queen of England. He was to ad-
minister the island group belonging to
New South Wales, in the capacity of a
deputy Governor. In order to nip the
plans of the company in the

Action by f i TT l r , i

u . .' bud, Hobson was further in-
ternment structed to bind the Maori
chiefs to sell land exclusively
to the Crown, and to suppress the
speculation in land which was raging
in New Zealand, by requiring that all
purchases of land effected by British
subjects should be investigated by a
special committee.

But the Government came forward too
late with their measures. An expedition
of the New Zealand Land Company, under
the guidance of a brother of Wakefield,
had already landed in Queen Charlotte's
Sound on August i6th, 1839, nac ^ obtained
an immense territory from the natives for
a few articles of merchandise, in spite of
all the efforts of the missionaries, and had
lost no time in founding the town of
Wellington on Port Nicholson. The
capital of the " Britain of the South Sea "
was thus created. One out of every eleven
acres of the purchased land was to remain
reserved for the natives as an inviolable
possession.

Since also a French company was
well on its way to secure a strong footing
in New Zealand, Hobson, who had landed
on the North Island on January 29th,
1840, concluded with the support of
the missionaries, who saw in a Crown

1.
ago

General view of the town in 1850 ; 2. Scene from the wharf to-day ; 3. Heart of the town of Auckland fifty years
; 4. The principal street of Auckland during: the ceremonies on the occasion of the Duke of York's visit, 1891.

VIEWS OF AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, PAST AND PRESENT

991

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Colony the smaller evil the Treaty of
Waitangi with a number of the more
important chiefs, in which they absolutely
and for ever resigned the sovereignty of
their land to the Crown of England. The
Crown in return guaranteed to the Maoris
the royal protection, all the privileges of
British subjects, and all their rights to land
T and property, but reserved

the right of pre-emption of
ri 1 every district which the natives

should be willing to sell. The
few dozens who first signed were soon
joined by other chiefs, so that the number
of signatures shortly before the middle
of the year 1840 reached 512. In June,
therefore, the British sovereignty could
also be proclaimed over the South Island
and Stewart Island " on the basis of the
right of Cook's dis-
covery." On September
I9th, Hobson hoisted
the British flag in Auck-
land. Finally, on Novem-
ber 6th, 1840, New
Zealand was declared a
Crown Colony. Hobson
was nominated Governor,
and Auckland became
temporarily the seat of
government.

The Treaty of Waitangi
is in various respects an
event of historical im-
portance. For the first
time a European nation
laid down the funda-
mental principle that

which could serve as a strong base within
her widely distributed colonial empire
in the South Pacific. The French ships
which arrived off New Zealand in July,
1840, were compelled to return without
having effected their purpose.

Who will prove victorious in the fight
for the supremacy in the Pacific Ocean ?
The answer is difficult. At the present
day the Pacific is a stage trodden by many
actors ; in a possibly not distant future it
may become the theatre of war for the
United States, Russia, Great Britain, and
possibly J apan. In any case, New Zealand
will possess great value, owing to her geo-
graphical position. Strategically she forms
a splendid flanking outpost for Australia,
which is otherwise exposed defenceless to
every attack from north or east; and as
far as industries go she
is at least as well dowered
as her larger neighbour.
Inferiority of size is com-
pensated by more favour-
able climatic conditions.

The Treaty of Waitangi
soon involved momentous
consequences for the
colony itself. The British
Government, which had
never recognised the New
Zealand Land Company,
reduced its claims
20,000,000 of the
46,000,000 acres of land
" bought " by Europeans
first to 997,000, and
after

a more exact m-
the natives, even of NEW ZEALAND : S "FIRST GOVERNOR vestigation in 1843, to

an Uncultivated COUntry, Captain Hobson, who was appointed Governor 282,000 acres. To the
HQTTO -full -rv/^ccaco/^t-TT ^ New Zealand in 1 839, and who executed the rr.,,,-,! ,vu~- TI /u , ^ n i

nave possessory Treaty of Waitangi with the Maori chiefs. Englishmen who claimed

rights over their own the remaining 26,000,000

land. We may contrast with this the con- acres, only 100,000 were awarded ; to
duct adopted by the Government arid the
settlers toward the neighbouring Austra-
lians and Tasmanians ! Now, for the
first time, " savages " were officially put
on a level with colonists that is to say,
were treated as men.

The treaty is also important politically.)
Great Britain, by firmly establishing herself
in front of the broad expanse of the Pacific
Ocean, secured a commanding position
in the entire Central and Southern Oceanic
world. This was an exceptionally hard

Beginning
of Maori
Discontent

blow for France, since, after the total
failure of her Australian and Tasmanian
schemes of colonisation, there was no other
considerable tract of territory to be found
992

the London Mission only 66,000 instead
of 216,000 acres. The rest in all cases,
instead of being given back to the natives,
was declared to be Crown land and
bought by the Government.
From that time, the natives
had quite a different notion
of the value of their land,
which they had hitherto unsuspectingly
sold for muskets, rum, tobacco, blankets,
and toys. They began more and more
frequently to dispute the old bargains, first
by complaints and protests, then by blows,
and finally by war and murder. After the
Maoris had murdered several Europeans
in 1843, and repeatedly torn down the

1 Port Chalmers Otago ; 2. Napier, "the Garden City of New Zealand"; 3. High Street of Christchurch ;
4. Dunedin from North-east Valley : 5. Nelson from Britannia Height.

SOME OF THE PROSPEROUS CITIES IN THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND

Photos H. C. White Co.. Edwards, and Underwood & Underwood, London

Q93

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

British flag, Britain xvas obliged to con-
sider herself at war with the islanders. The
successor of Hobson, who died in 1842, was

Company in 1846 and 1847 a SUm f
$1,180,000 free of interest, and the Crown
lands of the district of New Munster were

Robert Fitzroy, known as the commander assigned to it until July, 1850. The mini-

of the Beagle, which had carried Charles mum price for an acre was fixed at 5

Darwin on his voyage round the world, dollars. With the company's co-opera-

Fitzroy was, hbwever, incompetent for his tion, the Free Church of Scotland founded

post, and by all sorts of concessions, such as the Colony of Otago on the South Island

remissions of entrance-tolls and in 1847, and the Church of England
restitution of land sold by -the settled Canterbury in 1849. These were
Maoris to the immigrants, he the last acts of the company, whose

directors were compelled to suspend the
business finally in 1850 from want of funds.

A too
Supine

prompted the natives to make
renewed demands. His measures with

this view rapidly emptied the colonial a fortunate turn for the development of

coffers. The New Zealand Land Company, the Colony of New Zealand, which had

in consequence of the perpetual disturb- suffered only from the juxtaposition of

ances, also fell into difficulties and tempor- the company and Government. For this

arily suspended its operations. Besides
this, the British forces, from want of
artillery, did very little
against the brave Maori

In November 1845,

won his spurs as the
first Governor of South
Australia, arrived in New
Zealand. Since the at-
tempt to quiet the insur-

was unsuccessful, the
Governor prohibited the
importation of arms and
ammunition, and rapidly
defeated the chiefs Heki
and Kawiri. He was able
to conclude peace by the
end of January, 1846.
Isolated subsequent out-
breaks were suppressed

reason the Government remitted the
payment by the company of the sum
advanced, and assigned
to the shareholders, in

as compensation for their

Sir George Grey's term
* ^ ce en ded on Decem-
ber 3ist, 1853 ; after a
short furlough at home
he was transferred to

1852, before leaving, he
had obtained for the two
islands that same privi-
lege of self-government
which had been granted
by the mother country
to the Australian colonies
that is, a responsible
government. The con-
stitution, which was

with equal promptness, pacified New Zealand by his vigorous policy, largely due to Grey
Grey's next object was to prevent the himself, provided for six provinces with
recurrence of civil wars by a system of
suitable reforms. Besides the above

mentioned reduction of the landed pro-

separate administration under a separate
council and an elected superintendent.
The provinces composed a Federal State

The First

perty of the missions, he put an officer with a Parliament, which, consisting of an

elected lower house of representatives and
a nominated legislative council,
met for the first time in 1854
at Auckland, the seat of the
Governor and of the central
Government. Simultaneously with the
final settlement of the Australian constitu-
tional question in general, the forms of
responsible government were extended
to New Zealand in all its parts. In the
matter of the native question alone the
Home Government reserved the right of
interference until 1862. The colonial

into the native secretaryship, which
had been hitherto administered by a
missionary, and settled the land question
in the interests of the natives.

The new constitution, recommended
by the British Government, which gave
the colony complete self government, ap-
peared premature to him, and was not
therefore put into force ; he contented
himself by dividing the colony into two
provinces. In order to revive immigra-
tion, which had almost ceased, steps were
taken to advance to the New Zealand

994

Freezing works in Canterbury dist

Scene on a North Island stock farm

New Zealand's chief industry Loading wool for export.

Sheep fair at Ohaupo, in North Island, an important stock centre.

NEW ZEALAND'S GREAT LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

995

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

COMMANDING OFFICER'S HUT DURING THE
MAORI RISING OF 1846

Cabinet included a native Minister, but
his powers were slight ; all matters relat-
ing to the natives and their lands were
really settled by the Governor and an
Imperial official known as
the native secretary.

The departure of Sir
George Grey was followed
by a cycle of years of
external tranquillity, and
of visible prosperity for
the colony. Nevertheless
they contained the germ
of fresh troubles. From
fear lest the chambers, in
which they were not re-
presented, should weaken
the power of the central
Government, which had
been greeted with confi-
dence, the natives of the
North Island, in 1856,
combined into the "Land
League," which was in-
tended to check completely
the further sale of land
to the Government. In 1857 matters
culminated in a national combination,
which was intended to block the growth
of the foreign element. The centre of the

movement lay on the shores of Lake Taupo
in North Island, a region in which the
natives still kept their lands. South
Island had by this time passed completely
into European hands, and therefore did not
come within the sphere of war. The lead
in the struggle was taken by the chiefs
of the Waikato Valley, who proclaimed
the old chief Potatau as their king. But
Potatau was of a conciliating temper,
and the leading spirit of the whole agita-
tion was the young and vigorous Wocemu
Kingi, or William Thompson, of the tribe
of the Ngatiawa, called the king-maker,
who had the support of the younger
chiefs. As long as the " King of Peace,"
Potatau I., lived, the Maoris kept quiet.

TOMB OF POTATAU, THE FIRST MAORI KING

wahia, where he is buried.

996

SCENE OF THE MAORI TROUBLE IN 1845

A view of the town of Korarika, better known to-day as Russell, in the Bay of
Islands, North Island. It was partially destroyed by the Maoris in March. .1845.

Under his successor, Potatau II., hos-
tilities to the whites broke out in 1860,
and soon assumed such proportions that
the British Government sent out Sir
George Grey to New Zealand for the second
time. In spite of all the respect which
the natives entertained for him, and
of the constitution which he gave them,
he was unable to procure more than a
brief suspension of hostilities. The ques-
tion now to be answered was which race
should remain in the country. The great
Maori war lasted fully ten years, if several
interruptions owing to the exhaustion of
both sides are included. The Maoris
showed a courage and endurance which
places them in the first rank of all
primitive peoples ; on the other hand, the
British operations were hampered by
He was a lover 'of peace, continual friction between the Colonial

THE EARLIEST GOLD DISCOVERY IN NEW ZEALAND
Conference between Lieut. -Governor Wynyard and Maori Chiefs at Coromandel in 1853, concerning gold discoveries.

Government, the Governor, and the sacrificed the lives of a considerable
commanders of the military forces sent proportion of the colonists,
from home. These dissensions were not The natives, their pride crushed, and
the less disastrous because the blame they themselves deprived of all hope of
for them lay rather with the system of maintaining their nationality or even
dual control itself than with the in- their race, withdrew into Kingsland, a
dividuals who were fated to work it. district some 1,600 square miles in
One defeat of the British size, to the north-west of

followed another ; troops after ft 40^ Lake Taupo, where they

troops were sent across from u tfeplfe were ^t unmolested for a

England and Australia as time U WgHf time - Tne last tnree decades

went on. At length, in 1866, 1 ^^iSI have not been entirely free

William Thompson, the chief MlllHlllh from collisions with the wnites ;

of the Waikato confederacy, JlM^BiHl but} on the whole ' the Maoris

made his submission; a last jfilffiHISSS^ ^ ave res ^S nec ^ themselves to
effort on the part of his more .^SlI^SSPMli tne situation. They have culti-
irreconcilable supporters was ^HffilHHP vated a considerable part of
crushed in 1868 and 1869 by BSiH^Kiik Kingsland on a sensible sys-
the colonial troops, the British ^^HH|^nfv tem > and tne Y possess more
regiments having left the BiiHliilf than 3> ooo oo sheep, 50,000

island. Practically the war jjjjjyjii |UI|rK /) ca tt j e, and 100,000 pigs. Al-
was at an end by 1867. In j|| , IBHB^^ most al can speak and write
that year an agreement was * $f . ^S English, and all have been

made that the Maoris should ^mttjjjm baptised; they eagerly vote for

have four seats in the Lower iBHP^^pS P^liament, where they are re-
House. In 1870 peace was JT\ |7^^^ presented by four members in
completely restored. The war ^JuJ4^ the Lower House and two in

had cost the colony and the * the Upper House. It is true

mother country a large sum of MAORI PEACE-MAKER tnat n .ere, too, the old nation-
money, had imposed a heavy The peace-maker was formerly ality is gone irrevocably; the
burden of debt, of which the ^^S^SS^c^ 45,ooo Maoris for such is the
effect was to be felt for the messages between hostile figure to which the nation num-
next fifteen years, and had peace. Hbp^o.^^ bering 150,000 in its palmy

997

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

days has shrunk hardly resemble their
ancestors in any one respect. They have
not, for two generations, practised can-
nibalism, but, on the other hand, they
have become addicted to drunkenness ;
and consumption, asthma, and scrofula
have followed in the wake of this vice.

Almost a century had elapsed since
Captain Cook had hoisted the flag of
Great Britain on its shores, and there
were not yet 100,000 European colo-
nists in the country. The causes of this
slow movement, as compared with the
rapid development of New South Wales
and Victoria, were not to be found in
the nature of the country ; the South
Island, which was almost entirely spared

Eft

AN EPISODE IN THE MAORI WAR OF 1863
The 57th Regiment taking a redoubt on the Katikara River

from disturbances, developed during those
first decades considerably faster than the
North Island, where war was raging. The
squatters and shepherds who immigrated
from New South Wales and Tasmania,
soon perceived that the South Island was
very suitable for sheep farming, and a few
years after the founding of the Church
Colonies, Otago and Canterbury, almost
the entire centre and east of the island
were divided into pasture lands. In 1861
the island exported roughly 8,000,000 Ib.
of wool of the value of $2,500,000 dollars ;
in 1912 wool was by far the chief export
of New Zealand, standing at $35,527,415.
The South Island also gained much from
the discovery of gold. The finds at Coro-

998

mandel on the North Island and at Nelson
on the South Island in 1852 remained
solitary instances until, in 1861, the dis-
covery of the rich alluvial deposits at
Otago produced a veritable gold fever.
After they were exhausted, the pro-
ductive fields on the west coast were
worked. Otago exported in 1863 gold to
the value of more than $10.000,000, the
west coast, in 1866, rather more. Toward
the end of the 'sixties the production
and export from the North Island in-
creased. Owing to this the confidence of
the Mother Country in the future of New
Zealand was immensely strengthened ; the
London money market shows a long list
of loans made during the last thirty years
for the development of the resources of
the country. New Zealand at the present
day has the largest public debt per head
of population of any country in the world.
On March 3ist, 1913, it was 450,303,815
dollars, equivalent to $420.25 per head.

The ad-
ministra-
tion has un-
d e r gon e
very few
a 1 1 erations
in the
course of
the last
half-cen-
tury. At
the begin-
ning of the
'sixties it
was certain
that the
union of the
provinces,
which in
course of time had increased by three
and were working independently side
by side, was only a question of t*me.
After Wellington, which lies in the centre
and on Cook Strait, had been chosen
for the federal capital, the privileges
of the provinces were abolished in 1875.
Since then New Zealand has consisted
of eighty-one counties, which send
their representatives to Parliament at
Wellington. On the question of foreign
policy, and the decision regarding federa-
tion with the Australian Commonwealth,
the reader can refer to another part
of this work.

Decentralisation is the striking feature
of contrast between New Zealand and

NEW ZEALAND THE BRITISH DOMINION FARTHEST SOUTH

Australia. There NWK3HKUE
isnoovershadow-
ing city, such as
Sydney or Mel-
bourne. Auck-
land, Christ-
church, Dunedin,
and Wellington
are the four chief
towns. Auckland,
the largest, has
102,676 in-
habitants;
Dunedin, the
smallest, 64,237
None of them
exercises any
special political
influence, the
reasons being in
part geographi-
cal, in part his-
torical. The means of communication in
New Zealand were, until recently, by sea,
and Auckland was a four-days' voyage from
Dunedin. The North and South Islands
were also parted by a wide and stormy
strait. Naturally, under such circum-
stances, intercourse between the coastal
towns was difficult. Each city, too, except
Auckland, which is more of a trading
centre, owed its existence to the pastures
of its hinterland. Their spheres of influence
were rather from east to west than from
north to south. The historical reason for
this comparative isolation is to be found in
the character of the early settlements. The
South, or rather the Middle Island of New
Zealand was colonised systematically by
settlers who were connected with each other
by the strong ties of religion or race. Christ-

FRIENDLY NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE NATIVES
A large conference between settlers and Maoris held near Napier, Hawkes Bay, in 1863.

church was settled by a company, in which
shares could be held only by members of
the Church of England. Dunedin in the
same way was the home of a Scotch settle-
ment. Until 1864 the Home Government
recognised the character of New Zealand
settlement by giving each province an
independent constitution. The provincial
governments were abolished in 1864, and
a centralised Government established at
Wellington. Living in the happy islands of
New Zealand is probably the easiest in the
world. The climate is singularly favour-
able to agriculture, and the surface of the
earth is broken into numberless hills and
vales, giving a variety to New Zealand
scenery which is wanting on the Australian
plains. The Government has resumed land
freely for closer settlement, so that the rent
of a holding is very low ;
Government departments
grade the farmer's wheat,
freeze lambs, and generally
tend to smooth difficulties
from the path of agricul-
ture. The result is a com-
munity without great in-
equalities of wealth. New
Zealand has no million-
aires, but she need have no
paupers. The line of life
is similar to that of a town
to which parents have
been attracted by a great
school, where all have
about the same income
and the same interests.

999

MAORI HOUSE OR " WHARE

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

NEW ZEALAND'S TIMBER INDUSTRY
Woodmen felling a Kauri tree in North Island. These

trees often gro\

But if it

160 feet high and up to 15 feet thick.

were necessary to sum up
in one word the dominant love of New
Zealand life, ' ' wholesomeness " would be
the word of choice. There is something in
the climate, soil, and water of New Zealand
which gives physical vigour to man and
beast. The sheep and
lambs of the far-famed
Canterbury plains are
without any question the
best in the world. Trout,
introduced from Europe
into the rivers and lakes
of New Zealand, without
losing any of their game-
ness, reach a size and
weight which would be re-
garded as impossible in
their native haunts. In-
deed, many anglers now
visit New Zealand instead
of Norway, attracted also,
no doubt, by the prospect
of deer-stalking in the
South Island. The hot
springs are found in both
North and Middle Island,
but the world- famed hot
spring of Rotorua have
given the North Island a
special distinction in this

1000

respect. The curative effect of these
springs, and the healthiness of the climate
in their vicinity, is best indicated by the
attraction the district possessed for the
Maoris.

New Zealand, after some hesitation,
has decided to hold aloof from the
Commonwealth of Australia. As one of
their statesmen said : " The 1,200 miles of
sea between Auckland and Sydney
furnishes us with 1,200 reasons for keep-
ing to ourselves." In effect, as the High
Commissioner points out, New Zealanders
are insular and self-contained. Like all
islanders, " they have a special objection
to interference by outsiders in their own
affairs, and absorption in these, with
entire indifference to the politics of other
countries, and an excellent conceit of
themselves. Nine-tenths of them know
almost as little about ordinary Australian
politics as do Englishmen. They have no
animosity towards, or jealousy of, the
big island continent ; but their interest,
their pride, their hopes, are centred in
their own islands."

Federation, indeed, held out to them
a practical inducement namely, that
they should be included within the
ring fence of the Australian tariff. But
this was not sufficient ; for the eyes
of New Zealanders look eastward, and
their dream is to be the head of a
Pacific Federation, which leaves them

ON THE WAIROA RIVER

NEW ZEALAND THE BRITISH DOMINION FARTHEST SOUTH

indifferent to the Commonwealth in the
West. For a generation at least New
Zealand wil pursue her course alone,
connected with England, in spite of the
distance, more closely than with Australia

a misdemeanour to lock-out or strike
without submitting the dispute to this
Court. There followed a whole code of
labour laws providing for fair working
conditions not only in factories, work-

-because the national spirit is not yet shops, and mines, but also in open-air

industries. En-
couragement was
given to the forma-
tion of unions both
of employer and of
employed. Old Age
Pensions were
granted to the aged
poor, and the State
took upon itself the
whole burden of
public charity
outdoor relief, hos-
pitals, and lunatic
asylums. Of course,
there are carpers
at such free-handed
largess from the
State ; but, on the
whole, it appears
that these measures
have not produced
the fatal con-
sequences which
should have fol-
lowed such a daring
violation of the
" laws of political
economy " ! It is

awakened and she
is too weak to
stand alone she
will always be the
purest jewel in the
Crown of Empire.
Though Australia's
future may be
greater. New Zea-
land's, at any rate,
will be great and
bright enough for
the people so they
think. It may be
that the distin-
guishing title of
" Dominion," be-
stowed on it in
1907, will tend to
encourage this in-
clination to politi-
cal separation.

New Zealand was
the first British
community to make
a serious and syste-
matic attempt at
improving the lot
of the people by

means of legislation. The Land question
first presented itself, and was met by a
bold and, on the whole, successful series
of measures to break up the big private
estates and to give an opportunity for
the closer settlement of the small farmer.
In fact, the Land Law of New Zealand
aims at preventing any but small or
middling farmers from acquiring agri-
cultural land from the Crown. The
methods are a progressive land tax, an
absentee tax, and the levying of rates
upon unimproved values.

Equal consideration was shown to the
town workers. Beginning with the
Industrial Arbitration Act introduced
by the Hon. Wm. Pember Reeves it
provided a tribunal with coercive powers
to hear and determine every class of
industrial dispute. It did not, however,
like the New South Wales Act, make it

RICHARD SEDDON

He was born in Lancashire and went to New Zealand
as a mechanical engineer. He entered politics, and by
his force of character and intense national patriotism
soon took a commanding position in New Zealand affairs.

alleged that prices have risen ; but there
is nothing to show that the rise in
New Zealand is greater than that which
has occurred everywhere during the last
few years. It will be safer to take
Mr. Reeves' appreciation of these measures.
" The notion that New Zealanders, as a
people, have as an ideal some elaborate
State Socialism may be dismissed .
They are not even curiously Fabian
Socialists, but they find in practice that
by collective actions they can do many
things which they wish to do. They
are, so far, "satisfied with the chief
experiments they have tried . . . The
competent farmer, skilled mechanic, and
able-bodied labourer, have usually a
more hopeful life than in other countries.
. . . The contentment of the man of
small means is nowhere disturbed by the
contrast of flaunting wealth."

loot

BATTLE CRUISER

NEW ZEALAND" PRESENTED BY THE COLONY TO THE
BRITISH ADMIRALTY IN 1912

LATER EVENTS IN NEW ZEALAND

/COMPULSORY military training for all
V? male citizens between the ages of 12
and 25 was established in New Zealand in
1910. As in Australia, boys from 12 to 18
are enrolled in the Cadet Corps, and from
18 to 25 in the Territorial Force, with
short periods of training in the field. The
peace effective stood at 30,000 in 1913.
Although some opposition has been made
by the peace societies to the compulsory
military training of boys, the New Zealand
Government has declared itself satisfied
that the system is now firmly established,
and that the character and physique of the
youth of the Dominion are benefited by it.
Eighteen British officers are now serving
the Dominion, and the Dominion forces
are commanded by Major-General A. J.
Godley, C.B.

In the matter of naval defence, the
Dominion presented a super-Dreadnought
battle cruiser, the New Zealand, 18,800
tons, to the British Admiralty in 1912,
and this vessel is now stationed in the
home waters. In his speech in the
Dominion Parliament in September, 1913,
The Prime Minister, Hon. W. F. Massey,

1002

declared that New Zealand had not the
slightest intention of going into partner-
ship with Australia in naval defence ; and
the Defence Minister, Hon. Colonel James
Allen, insisted that New Zealand must be
prepared to undertake further responsibili-
ties in duty to itself and the Empire.

Next to military and naval defence, a
further instalment of industrial legislation
is notable in the recent history of the
Dominion. The Industrial Arbitration Act
of 1913 rendered the workman who is
bound by an award, and who subsequently
participates in an illegal strike, liable to
a penalty of $50, and the employer, who is
similarly bound, and who illegally locks
out his workmen liable to a fine of $2,500
A trade union was also made liable, if a
majority of its members take part in an
illegal strike, and power was given to the
Court to cancel its registration. But even
with this legislation, two serious strikes
of export slaughtermen and waterside
workers took place in New Zealand in 1913.
With the outbreak of the Great War, New
Zealand soldiers gave a good account of
themselves in Europe and in Asia.

THE WESTERN POWERS IN THE SOUTH SEAS

/~\CEANIA, at the present day, is in its
^ full extent colonial territory ; the few
land surfaces on which as yet no white
power flies its flags are uninhabited or
barren rocks and reefs. The New Hebrides
alone are not yet disposed of. The value
attached to Oceania by the Western
Powers, which is expressed in its
Tt, u A political annexation, dates from
i he ^ ra rec ent times. Apart from the

Ocealia Marianne Isles > on wh ich the
beginnings of Spanish colonisa-
tion go back to the sixteenth century, no
group of islands found favour in the eyes
of European governments before the close
of the eighteenth century. The reason
was the deficiency of Oceania in precious
metals, valuable spices, and rich stuffs.
This deficiency made the region valueless
to the leading colonisers of early times,
Spain and Portugal ; the others, how-
ever, Holland, France, and England, had
their hands full with the development of
their Indian, African, and American
colonial possessions.

The first steps toward the colonisation
of Oceania in the nineteenth century
were taken by the French. Since the
conquest of Algeria was not enough to
prop his tottering throne, Louis Philippe
had, after the middle of the 'thirties,
issued the programme of a Polynesian
colonial empire. The plan succeeded only
in East Polynesia, where a really compact
region could be brought under French
suzerainty ; elsewhere France had already
opponents of her schemes to contend
against, and these were found not only in
the ranks of the Protestant missionaries,
but also in the Cabinets of London, Wash-
ington, and St. Petersburg. She was thus
able to annex only the south-east wing of
West Melanesia, New Caledonia, and its
vicinity.

Great Britain has had to take over a
large part of her present Oceanic posses-
sions, even New Zealand, under compul-
sion, not from choice. In earlier times the
constantly recurring fear of French rivalry

was the moving cause. As German trade
relations with the South Sea developed,
there was the additional anxiety of
German encroachment, and in this con-
nection the Australian Colonies and New
Zealand, now conscious of their place in
history, had become the representatives of
the British idea of colonisation. When
the German Empire stepped on to the
colonial world stage, the annexation of
new territories to the British colonial
empire ceased to be half-hearted and
became the natural event. At the present
day Great Britain regards Central Mela-
nesia, Central Polynesia, and South-east
Micronesia as her sphere of interests.
The " free " New Hebrides, French New
Caledonia, and German Samoa make little
difference to this.

Germany became a colonial Power in
consequence of long-standing commer-
cial relations. In this way it could partly
occupy unclaimed countries ; partly also,
following the American example, it en-
tered upon the inheritance of the oldest
Pacific Power, the Spaniards. At the
beginning of the Great War, Germany
ruled a compact territory, important both
by its extent and wealth, which comprised
a large part of Melanesia, and almost all
Micronesia, but, like the French posses-
G , sions, it suffered from its ex-

p er ny * cessive remoteness from the
Oceans centre of government. Besides
this, Germany had rivals, which
were formidable both industrially and
politically, in the new American colonies
of Hawaii and the Philippines, and still
more in Australia. During the Great
War, by which Germany hoped to secure
greater possessions, all were lost.

The Power which has appeared last in
order of time on the Pacific stage is the
United States of America, whose right of
entry has been bought by the expulsion
of Spain. The firm footing of America
on the Philippines, Hawaii, Mariannes,
and Samoa (Tutuila) that is, on four
places distributed over the whole range

1003

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

of islands becomes important from
the change in the political situation
thus produced ; America, which hitherto
has turned its face merely toward the
east, now looks to the Pacific. At the
same time it has now cut through
the only obstacle to the development of
its power on the west, the Central-
American isthmus.

The total effect of this American move-
ment is that the possession of Oceania
is valued more highly than before, and
that the Pacific Ocean has become the focus
of interest. Recent events on the east coast
of Asia furnish the best proof of this.
Oceania has room for colonisation only
by the Great Powers. Spain has been
compelled to leave it, since it has been
blotted out from the list of living world
Powers. Portugal, following the decisive
sentence of a pope, has never set foot
on it. Holland, at the most easterly
extremity of its colonial kingdom, just
touches the Pacific with Dutch New
Guinea ; but it has not yet been active
there. Chili possesses Easter Island
merely for show. Japan, finally, has
The Powers found ^ e doors closed to her
in the on Hawaii. The whites acquired

Pacific influence over the destinies of
the Australians and Oceanians,
as over the majority of primitive peoples,
in two ways by taking possession of their
territory politically and exploiting its
industries, and by introducing Christianity
into the national paganism. It is a
characteristic feature in Oceania that the
impression produced by the missions far
surpassed the other in permanence and
to some degree in results. This is not the
case with the Australian continent, where
missionary attempts have always remained
occasional and, in comparison with the
gigantic area, of trifling extent ; they
were timidly begun and achieved no
important results. Much indeed is told us
of the achievements of native pupils in
reading, writing, and arithmetic, but that
says less for the general success of the
mission than for the intellectual gifts of
the race. The love of the Australian black-
fellow for an irregular, hand-to-mouth,
hunter's life has been ineradicable.

Better prospects were open to the
missionary in Oceania. In the first place,
the confined area allowed a concentration
of all available forces ; and, in the next
place, the national disunion of the
Oceanians prepared the ground for the
1004

M . .

Wor"?n the
South Seas

missionaries, as the conversions of Tha-
kombau, Pomare, and Kamehameha II.
show. The prospect of the political
support of the white preachers of the
Gospel was too alluring, and many availed
themselves of the easy method of an almost
always superficial change of faith. The
real results of conversion are, neverthe-
less, generally unimportant.

The , ve % P, r mis j" beginning
mac * e m I am ti sunered a severe
set-back after the interference
of the missionaries in the disputes for the
throne. In New Zealand the disorders
under Hongi brought the work of con-
version to a standstill for years, as was
the case in Hawaii from the struggle
of the Kamehameha dynasty for the
political headship in the archipelago. It
was only on Tonga that the conversion of
the entire north was completed within ten
years of missionary work, from 1830 to
1 840 . The kings Tauf aahau and Tubou lent
it valuable aid ; and, besides that, the field
was then left exclusively to the Protestant
Church. From the moment when the French
bishop Pompallier set foot on the soil of
Tongatabu in 1841 we have presented to
us that picture of denominational discord
and intense jealousy among the disciples
of the different schools of religion which
only too easily poisoned other phases of
national life.

This hostility between the denomina-
tions is one of the greatest hindrances to
missionary work in Oceania, and prevents
any disinterested feeling of joy being felt
when a whole group of peoples is won for
Christianity. It is difficult to decide on
whom the chief blame rests, since the
accounts of individual efforts, as well as
of the combined result, vary according to
the denominations. But in the great
majority of cases the Catholic missions,
which came too late, were the disturbing
element. Since they enjoyed the protec-
tion of France everywhere, they made

up for their tardiness bv un-
Cathohc ,/ . ri-i

tiring activity, of which the

p ' events on Tahiti, the Marquesas,

Protestant ^

luamotu in Hawaii, and,

above all, in the Loyalty Isles, supply us
with examples. In the Loyalty Isles,
the English missionary Murray had won
over the greater part of three islands to
Protestantism. In 1864 the group of
islands was occupied by the French, at
the instigation of Catholic missionaries,
and Protestant were replaced by Catholic

THE WESTERN POWERS IN THE SOUTH SEAS

services. The French soldiers treated the
natives so harshly that various Powers
lodged protests with the Government of
Napoleon III. But this interference
became disastrous only in 1872, 1873, and
1880. when regular religious wars occurred
between the members of the two Churches,
in which even women and children were
Reli ious not spared. On the other hand,
Factions* ^ Protestant missions must
at War ^ e ma( ^ e responsible to a large
degree for having often com-
bined the functions of missionary and
trader. This practice, which had been
adopted by John Williams, the apostle of
the South Sea, has not been discontinued,
in spite of frequent prohibitions by Great
Britain. The co-operation of all whites,
which is an essential condition for an
effective mission of civilisation, was thus
destroyed ; the professional trader had no
motive for supporting the Church whose
labourers were obnoxious to him as
competitors.

There was also a second reason. While
the Catholic missionary sharply defined
the exterior boundaries of his community,
and then devoted himself exclusively to
it the success of the Jesuits in building up
large communities, upon which practice the
increase of Catholics on Hawaii followed
the Protestant was distracted by reason of
his business as a trader. Both Churches
were equally open to the reproach
of having interfered in the political
affairs of the Oceanias as long as any
territory was still to be obtained. It
is true that the missionaries, working
alone in the middle of turbulent tribes,
were often forced to take one side or the
other if they did not wish to risk both
their lives and the success of their mis-
sions ; but just as frequently we find no
apparent cause. In New Zealand there
had been an attempt to found a separate
Maori kingdom under ecclesiastical rule, a
counterpart of the Jesuit state in Paraguay.
What did missions do for the
Oceanians ? In the controversy

ft as to the value of missions in the
Oceania n ,, , . ,

South Sea, many voices entirely

condemned their line of action. Charles
Darwin, on the other hand, has pointed
out that, apart from other progress, mis-
sionary activity had the noteworthy result
of creating a network of stations over
the wide South Sea, before the value of
that proceeding was realised by the
Western Powers, and by so doing indis-

putably civilised the habits of the native.
We have only to compare the little-visited
Solomon islanders with the formerly
savage and now quite peaceful Fijians.
The credit of this does not belong en-
tirely to the missions, however. So long
as they alone represented Europeanism,
there was, on the contrary, much blood-
shed in Oceania. It was only when the
strong hands of the Colonial Governments,
which were more concerned with the
undisturbed possession of the country
than the welfare of the inhabitants,
guided the helm that these improve-
ments in culture were evident.

The mixture of good and evil in the
achievements of the missionaries is visible
in the domain of knowledge. It must not
be forgotten with what zeal the more
enlightened of them identified themselves
from the first with the national feelings of
the Oceanic peoples, and how much they
collected which has been essential for
our later comprehension of the subject.
But it is none the less to be remembered
that in the complete although possibly-
inevitable destruction of the national

_ characteristics of Oceania, no

Destruction Qns took t more

of National f .1-1-1

. ignorantly than these very mis-

Character v . J ^, ; ,

sionanes . I hey unscrupulously

invaded every branch of the national life in
order to adapt them to their own views.
They even substituted, in many parts,
the ugly calicoes of Europe for the time-
honoured dress, at once tasteful and
practical, of Oceania ; they introduced
fashions which were bound to jar on the
native sense of beauty, and which, by
their total disregard of hygienic laws ;
have promoted the increase of various
chronic diseases.

Now, when the island world of Oceania
is divided, missions with their thoroughly
successful enterprises have played their
historical part. The history of mankind
takes broader strides : its wide paths
surround even the islands of the Pacific.

What can we say of. the future of the
Oceanic islands ? Apportioned as they
are among the Great Powers of the
world, they will probably develop a
history more industrial than political.
In great measure they will become over-
run by European and Asiatic immigrants.
" Civilisation " has done for these natives
its worst ; education and scientific political
systems hereafter may atone for what has
gone before.

1005

OCEANIA AND MALAYSIA IN OUR OWN TIttE

BY BASIL THOMSON

BROADLY speaking, the inhabitants of
all the scattered islands lying between
the east point of New Guinea and the
west coast of South America are divided
between three races, called for convenience
the Malayo-Polynesians, the Micronesians,
and the Melanesians. The Polynesians
inhabit all the large groups lying east of
Fiji, including Hawaii, Tahiti, Rarotonga,
Tonga, Samoa, and New Zealand ; the
Micronesians, the small atolls about the
Equator which form the Gilbert and
Ellice groups ; and the Melanesians all
the groups lying west of Fiji namely,
the Solomons, Loyalty, New Hebrides,
New Britain, and New Ireland. Fiji
is the meeting ground of the two
great races. None of ^m^^P"
these are of unmixed
blood. Throughout the
Polynesian Islands there
are individuals of almost
negroid characteristics,
and, as the prevailing
wind blows from the
south-east, Polynesians
have for centuries drifted
into the Melanesian
groups and been cast
away there. The latest
suggestion that of Dr.
A. H. Keane and others
is that the substratum
of the Polynesian race
is Caucasian ; that the
islands were peopled by
a stream of immigrants

taught them the masculine arts of war
and navigation, intermarried with their
women, and founded the present mixed
race. Thus they would account for the
backwardness of the feminine arts, such
as pottery and weaving, and the com-
paratively advanced quality of the mascu-
line arts of shipbuilding and fortification.
Almost all the Polynesian tribes speak
of Bulotu, a place in the Far West, as
the land of their origin and the place to
which their spirits will return after death.
Bulotu has been identified with various
places in the Malay Archipelago, but such
identifications must always be purely
conjectural.

In physique the Polynesians are muscu-
, lar, tall and well-pro-
portioned ; of an olive
complexion, inclined to
reddish- yellow, that may
be best compared with
cafe-au-lait. Their limbs
are fleshy, though well-
proportioned, and the
chiefs of both sexes are
prone to corpulency.
Their hair is naturally
wavy and black, but
frequent smearing with
lime dyes it a tawny
brown, like sealskin.
Their faceb are generally
open and pleasant, and
sometimes even beautiful,
especially in the men,
who might be used as

BASIL THOMSON

from Asia Still in the -The writer of this chapter was for some years models by a Sculptor.
Neolithic period Of CUl- Prime Minister of Tonga and is recognised Xhe political institu-

as One of the foremost anthnrlHM nn Orpama.

ture, whose progress is
marked by Megalithic remains, such as
are to be found in Western Europe and
in the Malay Peninsula, and that after
they had been settled in the islands for
long ages, a stream of negroid marauders

from the
1006

westward conquered them,

tions were generally
governed by hereditary chiefs, subject
to the checks which a powerful aris-
tocracy might put upon their power.
In some of the islands the hereditary
chief was regarded as the incarnation
of a deified ancestor, and sometimes

OCEANIA AND MALAYSIA IN OUR OWN TIME

evolution of this idea had produced a
dual monarchy, the one spiritual and
the other temporal, like the Mikado and
the Shogun of Japan. Among no
people in the world does noble birth
carry so much prestige. In Tonga a
plebeian had no soul, and nowhere in the
islands could a man rise above the station
Presf to wmc h h e was born. In

ofBlue* Hawaii, as in Siam and in
Blood ancient Egypt, the king some-

times married his half-sister in
order that the royal blood might not be
diluted. Rank derived from the mother
counts for more than that inherited from
the father; but this is less a relic of
matriarchal institutions than an acknow-
ledgment, in a race of dissolute habits,
of the uncertain paternity of a child.

The religion of the Polynesians was
remote ancestor worship ; but there was
no powerful priesthood, and in practice
the religion was nothing but a regard for
the taboo and the occasional propitiation
of chiefs lately dead. Certain acts were
permanently taboo, or forbidden. The
Marquesan women must not enter a canoe.
but must swim whenever they had to
cross water. A taboo, or prohibition, was
laid upon some article of food that was
growing scarce, and until the ban was
removed none could use it. Those who
touched a corpse were taboo until they
had cleansed themselves by expiation ;
and contact with a chief would in itself
bring sickness unless it was removed by
pressing his feet against the abdomen a
custom which became so irksome to the
Tongan chiefs that one of them conse-
crated a vessel given him by Tasman
to be a substitute for his feet.

The Polynesian picked his way through
life in dread of infringing the taboo. It
was in the air he breathed, in the things
he touched and ate, and not until he was
safe in the grave was he freed from its
dangers. It was the fountain of the chiefs
power and his engine of govern-

ment The chief was believed
to have a sort of spiritual ex-

halation, called Mana, that
invested his every word and deed with
power, and withered up the plebeian who
incautiously approached him. The penalty
for an infringement of the taboo was death
by disease of the liver ; and in Tonga it
was a common practice to open the bodies
of the slain to see whether they had been
virtuous. Christianity has swept away

all these beliefs, and the power of the
chiefs has waned. Most of the Polynesian
tribes are decreasing, but not very
rapidly ; and they have shown so much
readiness to adopt European customs
that it is probable that they will eventu-
ally be absorbed, and that the population
of the islands in the distant future will
be a hybrid race with a strong admixture
of European blood.

The Melanesian varies a good deal in the
different groups. As the name implies,
his complexion is dark, inclined to be
black, with a dull, sooty tinge under the
skin. His hair is frizzy and matted. He
is muscular, but shorter and more thick-
set than the Polynesian. His language,
though derived from a common source, is
split into an infinite number of dialects,
varying so widely that they are almost
unintelligible beyond the limits of the
tribe.

In some parts of Melanesia there are
hereditary chiefs, but their influence is
small. There are no powerful confedera-
tions, and they govern through a council
in which every warrior has a voice. In
other parts each little tribal unit is a
miniature republic, with man-
rences hood suffrage. They are more

warlike and sava S e than the
Polynesians, and infinitely more
primitive. To go from Samoa to the New
Hebrides is to travel back through the
centuries ; to pass from the society of men
into the society of schoolboys. The Mela-
nesians have little pride of birth, and
whereas few Polynesians will indenture
themselves as labourers for Europeans,
Melanesians are always ready to leave the
islands for the plantations of Fiji and
Queensland. After working for three
years and adopting European habits and
dress, they come back to their islands,
distribute their clothes, and revert to
their original savagery. Familiarity with
Europeans has not made intercourse with
them easier. It is now unsafe to explore
islands where 'Cook was received with
friendliness. Outrages upon unarmed ves-
sels, which have long been impossible in
Polynesia, still occur occasionally in the
western groups.

No argument as to the origin of these
races can be founded upon their arts.
Artistic skill seems to be sporadic and
accidental. Whereas the Maoris have
much decorative skill in sculpture and
carving, other Polynesian tribes, such as

1007

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

the Samoans and Tongans, have none at
all. Decorative art is more developed in
Melanesia, and in the island of New
Georgia, in the Solomons, it rises to a very
high pitch of excellence. The Melanesians
are very industrious both as planters and
artificers. They have got beyond the
outrigger in canoe-building. Their women
are more moral than the Polynesian
women ; their men show greater aptitude
for acquiring foreign handicrafts, but they
are decreasing even more rapidly than the
Polynesians, partly from the former de-
population of their islands by the labour
trade, partly from the European diseases
introduced by returning labourers.

The population of the islands before the
arrival of Europeans is difficult to esti-
mate. The Marquesans and the Fijians
were apparently decreasing when they
first came under observation. Like the
Aztecs at the time of the Spanish con-
quest, they seemed recently to have
developed intertribal warfare to a pitch
unknown before. As far as can be judged
it seems probable that the inhabitants of
all the islands, including Hawaii and New
Zealand, never numbered more than two

f millions. They have shrunk
_ s ' now to something less than

'!* half a million. The Microne-
1 sians, on the other hand, are
not decreasing. The islands lie so low
that the water in the wells is always
brackish, and the soil is so unproductive
that fish and a certain kind of taro are
the staple foods. Mindful of the danger
of having a population too large for the
food supply, the increase is artificially
limited, and popular opinion does not
permit a woman to have more than five
children. Their physical type is distinct.
The skin is light brown, like the Poly-
nesians ; the hair is coarse, black, and
rather straight. The eyes are sometimes
oblique, like the Mongolian's. The body is
long and the legs short, thick, and muscu-
lar. At first sight one would take the
Micronesian to be a hybrid between the
Mongol and the Polynesian.

All the Polynesian and many of the
Melanesian tribes are now nominally
Christian. Beginning with the voyage of
the ship Duff, sent out by the London
Missionary Society in 1797, mission enter-
prise has had an astonishing success.
Hawaii went to the American missionaries,
the eastern groups to the London society,
disputed at various points by French

1008

Roman Catholics ; Tonga and Fiji fell to
the Wesley ans, who have since sent out
emissaries to New Britain and the d'Entre-
casteaux group ; the Presbyterians and
the Church of England divide Melanesia
between them.

The tendency of the missions in some of
the islands was to become political
p .... organisations. Great chiefs

became Christian from political
Work of j ,1 i r i

... . motives, and their people iol-

lowed them like a flock of sheep.
Often when professing Christianity, the
natives do not at first believe their own
gods to be false gods rather that it is con-
venient to discontinue worshipping them
for a season. How could they be false gods
when they are their own ancestors, of
whose existence upon earth there could be
no shadow of doubt ? Nevertheless, con-
versions continued to be rapid, and
apostates rare. The Polynesians are born
orators, and here was a field that per-
mitted the meanest of them to declaim
from the pulpit, though under the old
order they had been born to silence. For
this reason the Wesleyans, with their
hierarchy of native ministers, catechists,
and local preachers, have been more
prosperous than the Roman Catholics, who
may not delegate the functions of their
priests. There are signs that the influence
of the missionaries is now waning. From
time to time there have been symptoms
of a craving for a native Church, free from
the trammels of a European priesthood,
and it is impossible to foretell what form
of religion the future may bring forth in
Polynesia.

Most of the South Sea Islands have now
been appropriated. Tahiti, the Mar-
quesas and New Caledonia belong to the
French. Germany holds the Marshalls,
most of Samoa, an island in the Solomons,
New Britain, and a strip on the northern
coast of New Guinea. The Americans
have Hawaii and an island in Samoa.
Fiji, the Ellice and Gilbert
' groups, Rarotonga, the remain-
der of the Solomons, South
Eastern New Guinea, Norfolk
Island, and a number of small islands,
annexed with a view to future cable
stations, belong to Britain, which also has
a protectorate over Tonga. The New
Hebrides are not yet actually appropriated
owing to the opposition of the Australians
to any French penal colony so near their
shores.

of the
Islands

OCEANIA AND MALAYSIA IN OUR OWN TIME

Nature
of the
Climate

There is now settled government through-
out Polynesia, but in some of the Melane-
sian groups the protectorate is nominal.
The European population of these islands
can almost be counted on the fingers, and
where there is no European settlement it
is impossible to make the government
self-supporting. Most of the Melanesian
islands are malarious, whereas
Fiji and the islands to the east-
ward are healthy ; and though
the climate is hotter than our
average summer and the damp heat of the
rainy season is trying, Europeans are able
to do any kind of work except field labour.
The future of the islands is bound up with
that of Australasia. Every kind of tropi-
cal produce thrives luxuriantly, but the
market is overstocked. Fiji and Hawaii,
where enormous sums have been invested
in the latest machinery for producing sugar,
have been hampered by the necessity of
importing labourers, the former from
India, the latter from Japan. The second
great staple, copra, or dried coco-nut,
from which oil is pressed for soap and
candle making, has to compete with
plantations nearer the European market.
Coffee has been nearly destroyed by the
leaf disease. Tobacco and tea, though
both are of excellent quality, have not
yet become known to European buyers.
When the population of Australia attains
ten millions, the market difficulties will
vanish.

Great Britain is the only Power that as
yet has succeeded in establishing a self-
supporting colony in the South Seas, and
in governing and training the natives
of Fiji without a single soldier or ship of
war in the islands. In the time to come
it is probable that all the islands will be
politically dependent upon Australasia.

For many generations perhaps the
islands will be holiday resorts. Europeans
will conduct the business of the towns
and manage the plantations and the mines,
and the country trade will be
in the hands of coloured people,
Indians, natives and Chinese.
The labouring population will
undergo great changes. Little by little
the natives will disappear as a distinct
race, and a mixed people, a blend between
all the races that now inhabit the islands,
will take their place. The process has
already begun, and prosperity, attracting
men of other races to the centres of com-
merce, will accelerate it enormously.

The

of Hybrid

Races

Speaking geographically and ethno-
logically, the Philippines do not belong
to the islands of the South Seas, though
one of the three races inhabiting them,
called for want of a better title, Indonesians,
may be nearly related to the Polynesians.
Probably the original inhabitants of this
important group were the Negritos, a
negroid people of low stature and dark
skins, flat noses, thick lips, and woolly
hair. They are a timid, nomadic people
who seldom emerge from the forests on
the mountain slopes of Luzon, Panay,
Negros and Mindanao, where they live by
hunting and on the wild fruits of the forest.
The Indonesians are confined to the island
of Mindanao. Physically they are not
unlike the Malayo-Polynesians. All their
tribes are pagan, and some of them are very
warlike. But the great majority of the
Filipinos are of Malayan origin, though the
type has been modified by intermarriage
with other peoples. Of the forty-seven
Malayan tribes seven are Christian, seven
Mohammedan, and the remainder pagan ;
but the Christians and Mohammedan tribes
together form the bulk of the population.
Among them is to be found

ever y sta & e of social devel p-

ment. from the highly educated,
Present

_ ... .

almost primitive savage. The total native
population of the group is thought to
exceed 7,000,000, but accurate figures of
the nomad tribes are almost impossible to
procure.

The Philippines contain enormous unde-
veloped wealth in copper, coal, and gold,
and as the mines are developed by Ameri-
can capital and wealth pours into the
islands, education and peaceful settlement
will do something towards welding the
diverse human material into a homogeneous
whole. Even if public opinion in America
should oppose colonial expansion, it is quite
impossible for American government to
relinquish the islands. The Filipinos would
accept no other rulers, and for the time
they are quite incapable of ruling them-
selves. It is not a country where Euro-
peans can do outdoor labour, and for many
generations will it be unsafe to place the
balance of power in the hands of the natives.
America has, in fact, blundered into Empire
against her will, just as England had
responsibilities forced upon her in the
days when Empire was regarded as a
burden.

BASIL THOMSON

1009

1010

AUS^ RA1 IA

THE ONLY CONTINENT - STATE

THE NATURE OF THE COUNTRY

""THE position of Australia, from the
^ standpoint of the history of the world
and of civilisation, is best described as
terminal or marginal. In this respect it
has many features in common with Africa,
and especially with the southern half of
Africa. Just as the African continent
runs out toward the west into the narrow
but almost landless Atlantic, and toward
the south into the desolate and inhospit-
able Antarctic Ocean, so the mighty
waste of waters of the Southern Indian and
Southern Pacific Oceans spreads round the
western and southern halves of Australia.
Australia is shut off from the open sea
only upon the east ; we there find large
clusters of islands, which, on the map at
least, produce the impression of a dense

, mass. But, in reality the area
Geographical Qf these eastem jj^ . g

nothing in comparison with
the expanse of ocean and
the continent ; and leaving New Zealand
out of the question, they cannot, with
their diminutive superficial size, be
considered as having influenced Australia
in the past.

Australia is thus the most insular of all
continents. It would appear completely
free and detached from the other con-
tinental land masses were it not for the
dense Malaysian group which lies to the
north-west, and forms a connecting link
with the south-east coast of Asia. This

old i

Features of
Australia

group contains larger islands than its
Oceanic continuation ; it is also more
densely packed, so that it seems admirably
adapted as a bridge for migrations. And
it has undoubtedly served such purpose.
In the case of certain plants and animals,
the migration from Asia to Australia can
be proved, and it is extremely probable
that the ancestors of the Australian native
tribes crossed the Indonesian bridge.

If we consider Australia, under these
circumstances, as part of the Old World, we
are certainly treating the

i uestion ri htl y ; onl y> this

conclusion is less frequently
based by historians on the
facts of geography, zoology, and botany
than upon the evidence of native culture
and institutions, which are entirely bor-
rowed from the civilisation of the Old
World. But the first argument is more
interesting and historically more far-
reaching, since it brings into our field of
view not only Australia, but also all
Oceania, which is, much more obviously
than Australia, connected with the Asiatic
continent. The path from Asia to both
regions is almost precisely the same.

The marginal situation of Australia has
produced on its aboriginal inhabitants
all the effects which we find in every
primitive nation in the same or a similar
position. The whole development of their
culture bears the stamp of isolation. The

ion

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

disadvantageous position of the continent
is by no means balanced by variety of
internal conformation. The coast line
compares favourably in extent with those
of South America and Africa when the
greater superficial area of these two con-
tinents is taken into account. So with
the number of its peninsulas, Australia
fares better than those two
? es continents. But what profit

8 could the natives derive from

these very slight advantages if
the islands and peninsulas are as sterile,
inaccessible, and desolate as most of the
coast districts, and the greater part of the
interior itself ?

The Australian continent, according to
its vertical configuration, is a vast plateau,
rising in the east, and sinking in the west,
which slopes away from north to south.
This tableland is only fringed by mountain
ranges on its edges. A chain of mountains
runs along the east coast from, the southern
extremity, and follows the coast line at a
varying though never great distance,
until it ends in Cape York. From this
great watershed the land gradually slopes
away in a south-westerly direction to the
Indian Ocean, seamed by a few detached
ranges and mountains, which rise to a
Considerable height in isolated masses.

The western coast range is not so high as
the eastern ; but, in contrast to the latter,
it is prolonged into the interior as a table-
land, which, abounding in mineral wealth
and furnishing good pasture, stretches far
into the centre of the country. On the
^outh and north there is no such high
ground bordering the coast and turning
inwards. Some half century ago, this non-
existent high ground played an important
part in the current theories as to the
interior ; since its existence was assumed,
necessitating the belief that the interior
was an enormous basin, in which the rivers
from all sides united their waters in a
large inland sea. We know now that the
M *K nor th rises so gradually from

of an ^ e sea . to the interior that the

. rivers, in consequence of their

1 gentle and uniform fall, overflow
their banks far and wide after every heavy
downpour of tropical rain. There is still
less difference of height observable between
the interior and the south coast. The
lake district, which runs in a long line
from Spencer Gulf to the north and north-
west, lies almost on the level of the sea.

Except in the south-eastern district of

1012

New South Wales, where the Murray
rises, none of the Australian mountains
is high enough to form among perpetual
snows a reservoir for the constant supply
of the rivers ; but the principal, and,
from its position, the most important,
range that of the east coast is high
enough to divert the atmospheric moisture
from the remaining parts of the continent.
The existing conditions are precisely
similar to those in South Africa, which
geographically and ethnographically, has
many points of affinity with Australia.
Just as the curving ranges of the east
coast of Africa collect on their wild and
rugged flanks all the aqueous vapour of
the south-east trade-winds blowing from
the Indian Ocean, so the moisture con-
tained by the Pacific south-east trade-
winds does not go beyond the limits of
the high grounds of East Australia.

As a result of this restricted area of rain-
fall, there is no river system of importance,
except that of the Murray and its tributary
the Darling, on the east of the continent.
This testifies to the absence of any water-
shed in the interior, in so far as its sources
, comprise the whole western
r * lla * slopes of the East Australian
Water coast range from New South
Wales to Queensland. We are
concerned, therefore, only in its eastern,
northern and western parts with measure-
ments such as Europe can show. The
real value both of these rivers and of most
of the others in Australia, whether rapid
or stagnant, lies in the facilities they offer
for navigation and irrigation by the free
uie of dams, locks and weirs. The Darling
is by far the longer but shallower arm,
which, even without artificial works,
becomes navigable after floods, and can
then be ascended by steamers of small

A U S T R A LI A

BRITAIN CONTRASTED WITH AUSTRALIA

Area of Great Britain, 88,729; that of Australia, 2,946,358

square miles.

MAP OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA, INDICATING PRODUCTS OF THE DIFFERENT DISTRICTS

draught as far as the point where it cuts the
thirtieth degree of southern latitude. The
Murrumbidgee, the right tributary of the
Murray, is open to navigation for six months
in the year. The Murray is now available
at all times for the objects of commerce.

In the north and north-east, owing to
the heavier rainfall, there is less scarcity
of water. We find there numerous water-
courses of considerable breadth, of which
quite a number are navigable for a short
distance inland. They open up the interior
of the country up to the foot of the coastal
ranges. Only the still little known streams
of the northern territory, the Roper, the
Daly, and the Victoria can be ascended
by large vessels for a very considerable
distance.

In the west and the south, and in the

interior, during the greater part of the
year the channels of the rivers either
lie quite dry, or consist of a chain of
broad ponds, which are divided by banks
and never connected after their forma-
tion. These beds, however, become real
watercourses at the time of the summer
rains, when they swell to such a size that
their overflow fertilises huge tracts of
apparently barren country. Even the
water which disappears in the ever- thirsty
ground forms great underground reservoirs,
which are tapped by artesian bores. The
south coast, again, as far as the mouth of
the Murray, is entirely devoid of any river
worth mentioning. It is sufficiently
obvious that such a lack of uniformity in
the water supply of the continent must
have the most far-reaching effects on all its

1013

tors

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

phenomena of life. Ethnographically, the
uncertainty of the rainfall in the interior
has compelled the natives to be continually
migrating if they wish to find sufficient
food ; it is one reason why these unsettled
migratory bands can never attain any
size, if, indeed, the scanty supplies of the
soil are to be enough to feed them.
This, however, will not suffice to
e . explain the splitting up of the
aborigines into a number of
small tribes, which do not
cohere, since this feature of their polity
is similarly characteristic of the races in the
coast districts, where food and water are
plentiful. It may rank, no doubt, as a
contributory cause ; their gradual dis-
appearance without leaving any mark on
history is a necessary sequel. This main
feature of the hydrography of Australia is
not limited in its effects to the natives only ;
it has, on the contrary, exercised a marked
influence on the density of colonisation by
the whites. In the parts of the country
remote from the coast, the colonist, pre-
cisely as in sub-tropical South Africa,
required ample room, and it is no mere
coincidence that the colonies of Australia
were everywhere founded in the more
fertile coast districts.

The characteristic feature of the climate
of the interior of Australia is its dryness.
The country, from its position between the
tenth and fortieth degrees of southern lati-
tude, is for the most part, and through-
out its whole length, included in the
region of the southern trade-winds. In
addition to this there is the disadvantage
which we have already mentioned, that the
highest ranges of mountains are found on
the weather side of the continent, the result
of which is that the main portion of the
country is sheltered from wind and rain.
Under these circumstances, there is in the
interior excessive heating of the soil, which
also receives the tropical rains of the north
coast. The former produces, especially in
C1< summer, an extensive Central

CoTdVionsof Australian zone of low pres-
Astralia sure, which gives rise to a
rain-bringing north-west mon-
soon, and draws it far into the continent,
sometimes even to the south coast. Unfor-
tunately this wind, in the extent of the
regions over which it passes and in its effect
on the climate, is far inferior to the south-
east trade-wind, under the dominion of
which many tracts are for months without
any rain whatever. The west, which it

1016

reaches after all moisture has been
deposited, suffers peculiarly from this
drawback. It must always, however, be
remembered that the arid portion occupies
a comparatively small portion of the con-
tinent, and that every year lands which
were considered desert are found to be
suitable for cattle and sheep.

The conditions of the rainfall in Austra-
lia go by extremes. "It never rains but
it pours " aptly characterises the manner
in which the water pours down from the
clouds ; in Sydney, on one occasion,
ten inches of rain a quarter, that is to
say, of the annual rainfall fell in two
hours and a half. The vegetation of the
country is nowhere sufficient to store up
such volumes of water, but every year of
settlement sees an increasing portion of this
precious surplus stored by artificial means.

Except on the coast, where there is a sub-
tropical richness of vegetable growth, the
vegetation of his native soil greatly* assists
the Australian in his struggle for existence.
The Australian flora of the interior, like that
of all steppe regions, is rich in varieties, of
which it affords, for example, more than
Europe ; but in its general
onh characteristics of dryness, stiff -
^ ness, and want of sap, it is

1 quite in keeping with the per-
vading nature of the country. Australia is,
however, productive of a variety of grasses
and salt-bush, which furnish nutritive food
for sheep and cattle. The characteristic of
stiffness and dryness is found in every
blade of the notorious Australian spinifex
or porcupine -grass plains with their dry,
sharp-edged grasses ; and we find it most
conspicuously in those districts seamed
with sandhills, salt plains, and stony tracts,
where the steppe becomes a desert, and
where only the extraordinary abundance
of certain grasses and thorns succeeds in
keeping the soil from being absolutely bare.
These features, however, are found only in
a small area and not at all in the inhabited
portion of the continent, which, except in
the tropical jungle of the northern districts,
presents few obstacles to a settler.

The forest, or, as it would be more
correctly called, the Australian heath,
with its tree trunks standing far apart
and its want of underwood, has never
interfered with the wanderings of the
natives or the whites. On the contrarv,
with the vigorous growth of grass which
has been able to spring up unchecked every-
where between the smooth, branchless

AUSTRALIA-THE NATURE OF THE COUNTRY

stems, it has
formed a carpet
over which the
settler could
march to the
tempting pasture
grounds of the
hinterland. The
economic centre
of gravity of the
rontinent lies,
even at the present
day, in these open
forests and mea-
dow-like districts,
which are general
in all parts of the
interior.

For some time
very successful

attempts have been made to increase the animals that might be thought of for such
value of the drier districts by a system purposes are all considered too wild,
of wells, and the labour expended has The dingo, the only mammal available
already repaid itself many times. With food for domestication, was, in all probability,
plants of all kinds the native has not been introduced in a domesticated state and
so stingily provided by the continent as has since become wild. In addition to
the older accounts seem to assert. The this, hunting, owing to the fleetness of all
bulbs so characteristic of steppe countries animals of the chase, is a very difficult
are indeed insignificant in Australia ; undertaking for the aborigine armed with

inadequate weapons ; none even
numerous well-equipped

COLONISTS HUNTING THE KANGAROO

but in their place the native, who is

Fauna

certainly not fastidious, has at his disposal

numerous other roots, various wild kinds Continent European expeditions have

of corn, mushrooms, berries, and blossoms,

so that there can be no question of any themselves with food by this means. The

actual lack of food.

nocturnal habits of an unusually large

The Australian has been most inade- number of animals greatly increase the
quately endowed with a native fauna, difficulty of catching them. These diffi-
As one might expect from the general culties, insuperable for the aborigines, the
physical features of the continent, it is European has met in the best possible
limited ; so much so, that it has not way by introducing European domestic
provided the aborigines with a single animals. They have all succeeded admir-
domestic or useful animal. The few ably, have multiplied to an astounding

degree, and now represent
a most valuable part of the
national property ; in fact,
together with the mineral
output, sheepbreeding has
contributed the largest
share to the marvellously
rapid development of the
colonies. Even the mineral
wealth of the country has
entirely failed to affect the
position of the native. He,
like the Bushman of South
Africa,has never gone so far
as to employ any metal in
its crude state, but meets
the European as a fully

AUSTRALIAN NATIVES HUNTING WALLABIES

1017

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

developed man of the Stone Age, or of a yet
earlier stage. The whites have set about all
the more vigorously to make use of the
mineral treasures of Australia. The opening
of the gold-fields about the middle of the
nineteenth century certainly marks the

only the range of a genial and temperate
maritime climate. There is an abun-
dant and perpetual supply of water both
running and stagnant, and Tasmanian
vegetation is of a luxuriance such as on
the mainland is found only in the more
favoured parts of Victoria, or
on the northern rivers of New
South Wales and Queensland.
Tasmania really deserves the
name of " Australia Felix,"
which was formerly given to
the south-eastern portion of
the mainland.

It may appear at first sight
astonishing that from such a
favourable foundation the
aborigine has not mounted to
any higher stage of culture
than the Australian, but the
explanation is not far to seek.
There appears to be no affinity
of the Tasmanian and the
Australian, yet the intellectual
abilities of the two races are on
a par. Even in the domain of
ethnical psychology, the law
of inertia holds good ; the
better conditions of life enjoyed

AUSTRALIAN BIRDS: THE EMU AND THE

most crucial chapter in the history of the
Colonies. Even now, when the "gold
fever " has long since given way to a
normal temperature, the mining industry
has all the greater importance for the
development of Australia and its position
in the great future which we may antici-
pate for the Pacific Ocean, because its
wealth in other useful minerals, especially
in coal and iron, is undisputed.

The natural features of Tasmania call
for little remark. In the conformation of
its surface, a direct continuation of the
coast range of East Australia,
it resembles in its flora and 1
fauna also the south-east of t
the continent. On these and, I
above all, on geological
grounds it cannot be separated
from the mainland, in com-
parison with which, however,
it is singularly favoured by
climate. Tasmania has neither
abrupt contrasts of heat and
cold nor an uncertain supply
of water ; a large rainfall is
distributed over the whole
year, and the temperature has AUSTRALIAN

1018

LYRE BIRD by the Tasmanian are balanced
by the greater isolation and
seclusion of his country. The forest and
the sea, which runs far inland in numerous
creeks, have furnished the native with a
more ample diet ; but an opposite coast,
which might be the transmitter or source
of new achievements in culture, was more
completely wanting there than even in the
case of Australia. The coasts of the main-
land were out of the quest'on as promoters
of culture ; and the Tasmanian navigated
the sea only to the most modest extent ;
longer voyages would merely have brought
him to an unprofitable wilderness of water

Saai^vatss!

ANIMALS : THE DINGO AND THE PLATYPUS

NATIVE PEOPLES OF AUSTRALIA

AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE TASMANIANS

WHAT, then, is the state of the inhabi-
tants of these countries, whose
external conditions have just been sketched
as guides to the historical development,
and what is the state of the makers of
their history ? What place do the primitive
inhabitants take in the circle of mankind ?
Are they autochthonous in their land, or
have they immigrated ? Have they kins-
men, and, if so, where ? And what, lastly,
is the composition of the modern non-
native population of the continent ? We
will endeavour to answer these questions.

A satisfactory consensus of opinion now
prevails as to the anthropological position
of the Australians. The similarity of their
methods of life, the uniformity of their
attainments in culture and of their habits,
and to some degree the identity of the
languages, might lead to the erroneous
view that they are a homogeneous race,
which cannot be grouped with the Malayan
or Papuan. Anthropological investigation
has now proved that this homogeneousness
does not exist, and that the native popula-
tion of Australia represents, on the con-
trary, a mixture of at least two very dis-
tinct elements. This view finds corrobora-
tion in the differences of the colour of
the skin and the formation of the hair,
and also of the shape of the face.

The colour of the skin varies from a true

yellow to a velvety black with numerous

intermediate degrees, among

Australian which the dark-brown tint is
far the most common colouring.
The hair, too, with a prevalent
tendency to curl, ranges from the true
straight-haired type to the complete
woolly-haired type of the negro. The
shape of the face and skull, finally, shows
a multiplicity of differences, such as cannot
be greater even in nations proved to have
a large admixture of foreign blood. The
flat negro nose, on the one side, and the
typical Semitic nose on the other, form the

Origin
of the
Natives

extremes here. It is thus clearly estab-
lished that a dark, woolly-haired race and
a light, straight-haired race shared in the
ancestry of the Australian. But 'where,
then, was their original home ? Both races
obviously could not be autochthonous at
the same time ; indeed, the nature of the
continent seems to exclude the possibility
that it was the cradle even of one race.
Whence, therefore, did the two
elements of admixture come,
and which is the earlier on
the new soil ? A key to this
problem we find even at the present day
on the north coast of Australia, in the
still existing trade of the Malays with
the north-west, and in the immediate
vicinity of New Guinea with a Papuan
population, which also has a predilection
for crossing the group of islands of
the Torres Straits to the south. For the
migration of the Papuan-Melanesian, or,
in more general terms, of the negroid ele-
ment, no other path than that by New
Guinea can be thought of. But two roads
were open to the Malayan the direct road
from the Indian archipelago, which even
at the present day maintains a connection
with Australia, and the detour by Poly-
nesia. We have no evidence that this
second one was used ; but we know now
from the ethnography of New Guinea
that its population had a distinct infusion
of Malay an- Polynesian blood. But what
in the case of New Guinea is demonstrable
fact lies in the' case of Australia within the
range of probability, since the conditions,
of access to both countries from Polynesia
are practically identical.

The question of priority sinks into the
background compared with the solution
of the main problem. An answer also is
barely possible, since the migration from
both sides to Australia must not be regarded
as an isolated event but as a continuous
or frequently recurring movement. A

1019

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Sea

certain coincidence of time is, under the
circumstances, to be assumed.

From another standpoint also the
question of priority gives way before that
of the predominance of the one or the
other element. The point, briefly put,
is to ascertain clearly the causes of the
wonderful inability of the modern Austra-

' Native ^ an - to nav i& ate the sea a
peculiar defect, which has pre-
* ven ted him from settling not
only on the more remote of the
coasts which face Australia, but even on
the neighbouring islands. When we see how
the negroes and all the dusky remnants of
nations on the southern margin of Africa
feel the same dread of the sea, and when we
reflect that the nature of his present home
has induced the Melanesian to become
a navigator, although he is far removed
from being a true seaman, we must at
once entertain the conjecture that it is
the negroid blood in his veins that fetters
the Australian so firmly to the sod. Up
to a certain point this conjecture is doubt-
less correct, for the law of heredity holds
good in the domain of ethnical psychology.,
It is impossible, however, to make Papuan
ancestry alone responsible for this pecu-
liarity ; it has not hindered the Melanesians
from arriving, under favourable circum-
stances, at a fair degree of proficiency in
navigation. If the Australian has failed
to do the same, it is partly because his
circumstances have made him unfamiliar
with the sea.

The full force of this second cause is
apparent when we consider the nature of
the country, and the extent to which the
economic basis of the Australian native's
life is narrowed by the poverty and in-
hospitable character of his surroundings.
He who must devote every moment in
the day to the task of providing food and
drink for his body, and is forced to roam
unceasingly as he follows his fleeting
quarry from place to place, has neither
The Primal ^ e time nor the inclination
. to retain or to develop an

otruggle for ,. , ,., r .

Subsistence accomplishment like naviga-
tion, which requires constant
practice, and which does not at first seem
necessary in a new country. And even if the
ancestral Malayan blood had transmitted
to the young race any nautical skill, such
as we admire to-day among the Polynesians
and western Malays, the Australian con-
tinent would have put an end to it, for it
has always been the country of material

1020

anxiety, and, as a consequence, the
country of continual decadence.

The loss of seamanship is in reality
only a sign of this. The aloofness from
the outer world engendered thereby was
the first step toward that complete dis-
appearance of Australia from history
throughout the millenniums that have
elapsed since its first colonisation. But
other completely remote races have de-
veloped a history and a civilisation.
It was not only the absolute seclusion from
the rest of the world and the unbroken
quiet in which Australia reposed, as the
corner ^pillar of the Old World between
the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, that the
entire absence of any historical develop-
ment of its own was due, but also to the
total impossibility of creating a true
national life on its niggard soil. The
attempts to do so, which the Europeans
found on their arrival, can at best be termed
a caricature of political organisation.

The Tasmanian has also not progressed
far in the field of political development.
Since the nature of his country is richer
in resources than Australia, economic con-
siderations must be excluded from the list
of possible causes. The same

t0 the

fi f

t Ak proficiency in navigation,

of Abongmes w / noticed also f nA us-

tralia. The explanation can be found only
in that close affinity of the Tasmanian to
the Melanesian ethnical group, upon which
all observers have insisted. This is pri-
marily shown in the physical charac-
teristics ; but, secondarily, it appears in
the inability of the Papuan to rise higher
than the stage of village communities.
New Guinea offers the closest parallel.

The whites do not belong to the con-
tinent, but have made it commercially sub-
ject to them, and have thus, in contrast
to the aborigines, who have never sue-,
ceeded in breaking the strong fetters of
nature, become the true makers of its
history. This history even now looks back
on barely a century, a period of time that
hardly counts in the life of a people. Yet
it has already been full of vicissitudes,
even if, in this respect, it has been greatly
surpassed by the outwardly similar history
of the United States of America.

In contrast with America, which for
centuries has been a crucible for almost
all the races and peoples of the globe, the
immigrant population of Australia, Tas-
mania, and New Zealand is unusuallv

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES: YOUNG MEN

homogeneous. It is composed almost
exclusively of Britons, by the side of
whom the members of other nationalities
practically disappear. Even the hundred
thousand Germans who have settled there
hardly affect the result, especially since
their absorption into the rest of the popula-
tion is merely a question of time. The
Chinese, since they never make their
home in the country, may be disregarded
as factors in the growth of national life.
The ethnical unity of the white popula-
tion of Australia is of
extreme importance for the f
British Empire. England's I
dominant position on the f
Indian Ocean may appear I
most favourable ; but in-|
view of the efforts made
by the colonial Powers of
continental Europe to
strengthen their recently
acquired possessions in &
those parts and to increase
their influence generally,
this position may grow less
tenable. The same turn of
fortune is in prospect for
England, and all other
European colonial Powers,
on the Pacific. There it
is the cutting of the
Central American isthmus
which is to the advantage,
both strategically and eco-
nomically, of the United

YOUNG NATIVE WOMAN

YOUNG AND OLD AUSTRALIAN NATIVES

States, above all other Powers, and
threatens to give them in the South Seas
a great superiority over all rivals. The
interests of England are, from the position
of affairs, most at stake. It is for this
reason a great stroke of good fortune
for her that the corner pillar, which
both supports the dominions on the
Indian Ocean, and is, on the other side,
the chief agent of British interests in the
Pacific Ocean, is, as it were, a part of Eng-
land itself. In thought and action, customs
and habits, mother and
daughter exactly resemble
each other. Even in the
matter of dress the daughter
country has not found it
necessary to consider the
change of climate.

This feeling of complete
sympathy gives ground for
great confidence in the
future. The similarity
between Australia and
Great Britain justifies the
assumption that the same
community of feeling must
reign in every other depart-
ment of life. This feeling
is so strong that even the
latest and boldest of all the
political steps of the Austra-
lian Colonies, their union
into the Commonwealth
of Australia, which was
proclaimed on September

1021

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

lyth, 1900, is regarded in England and
Australia alike as taken entirely in the
interests of union. Indeed, as the newest
conception of the British Empire as an
alliance of self-governing nations united
by the ties of kinship tends to replace
the old ideas of headship and subordina-
tion, the cohesion of all the parts becomes
greater as each independently develops
its own resources.

One of the greatest achievements of
the nineteenth century in the field of
ethnology, the art of reconstructing from
prehistoric finds the natural history of
long- past years, which lie beyond all tradi-
tion and written record, fails in Australia.

This does not imply that discoveries
of the kind might not be made ; quite the
reverse. The continent has its mirnjongs,
or ash-heaps, measuring sometimes ten
feet in height, and often several hundred
yards in circumference, and containing
pieces of bone and stone axes ;
these are very common in
South Australia and Victoria,
particularly on Lake Conne-
warren, and form an exact
counterpart of the " kitchen
middens " of Denmark. Great
heaps of mussel-shells are also
found in the vicinity of the
sea-shore ; there is even one
really artistic erection dating
from prehistoric times. This
ancient monument, as we may
fairly call it, is the stone
labyrinth of Brewarrina on
the* upper Darling, some sixty
miles above Bourke. It con-
sists of a stone weir a hundred
yards or so long, which, built on
a rocky foundation, stretches
diagonally through the river.
From this transverse dam
a labyrinth of stone walls
reaching some ninety yards up
stream has been constructed,
which is intended to facilitate
the catching of the fish which
swim up or down stream.
The walls form for this purpose
circular basins of from 2 ft. to
4 ft. in diameter ; some are
connected together by intricate
passages, while others possess
only one entrance. These
walls are so firmly built of
ponderous masses of rock that
the mighty floods, which some-

times poured down with a depth of
20 ft., were able at best only to dislodge
the topmost layers of the stones.

The conclusions which we can draw
from the existence of the mirnjongs and
the shell mounds, but especially from the
Brewarrina Labyrinth, throw some little
light on the ancient Australians. Each
of the three constructions presupposes
in the first place that the population, at
least in the south-east, was considerably
denser in early times than at the time of
the landing of the Europeans ; otherwise
the piling up of the refuse mounds would
imply periods of whose length we could
form no conception. The building of the
labyrinth also can be explained only by
the employment of large masses of men,
especially since the materials had to be
brought from a considerable distance.
But, besides this, it can have been
erected only by an organised population.

GROUP OF FEMALE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES

1022

NATIVE PEOPLES OF AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA

CIVILISED AUSTRALIAN NATIVES

Australian hordes of the present day would
be incapable of such combined efforts.

Another circumstance confirms our
assumption of the retrogression of the
Australians both in numbers and in
culture. The boats, whether they consist
of nothing better than a piece of bark
tied together at both ends, and kept
apart in the middle by pieces of inserted
wood, or appear in the shape of simple
rafts, carry in the middle on a little pile
of clay a fire, the modern object of which
is merely the immediate cooking of the
fish that are caught ; but its invariable
presence there suggests the thought that
it is a survival from former regular sea
voyages, when the custom was justified.

This proof by probability that the
Australians have retrograded in numbers
and in civilisation is all that can be de-
rived from the evidence of the country and
the national life. This is no great achieve-
ment ; but it shows how completely un-
favourable natural conditions have over-
whelmed the energies and capabilities
of the natives. It is, for the time being,

impossible to judge the length oi
the periods with which we have
to reckon, or to determine whether
a deterioration of the climate has
contributed to this decline ; such
a contingency is not impossible.

After all, we can follow the
history of the Australians and
Tasmanians only from the moment
of their intercourse with the white
men. There is no question here of
a true development, such as can
be traced in all nations except
a few border nations in the north
and south of the globe. The expres-
sion "history" really connotes too
much in this case ; for all the
European civilisation and the white
men brought to them tended to
one and the same result ultimately
the slow but sure extinction of
the whole race. The methods of
extermination may differ, but the
end is always the same.

In physical geography the ex-
pression "geographical homologies"
is constantly employed. It is
borrowed from comparative ana-
tomy and signifies the recurrence
of the same configuration, whether
in the horizontal outlines or in the
elevation of the surface, which we
find in the countries of our globe.
The best known of these homologies
is the striking similarity in the contours
of South America, Africa, and Australia,
which, in the words of Oskar Peschel,
display as great a uniformity of shape
as if they had been constructed after
a model. It is not our intention
to examine this similarity closely ; but
we must consider for a few moments
that exact correspondence of the
southern extremities of those continents,
which goes far beyond a mere linear
resemblance.

The tapering away into a wedge-like
point, facing the Antarctic, which is a
feature peculiar to the three continents
if the island of Tasmania is reckoned as
part of Australia is, so far as its shape
goes, an. excrescence breaking througn
the general scheme on which their out-
lines are modelled. The meaning and cause
of this precise contour have remained a
mystery to men like Humboldt and
Peschel. But there is no doubt as to the
influence which these vast and lonely
promontories, tapering away into the

1023

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

oi the World

ocean, have exercised on physical geo-
graphy and the distribution of culture.

From the first point of view, their posi-
tion and shape determine the course of
the entire circulation of the seas of the
Southern Hemisphere. The character of
the climatic conditions is influenced by
them, and the greater or less degree to
T which the land masses of the

? rn Southern Hemisphere can be
inhabited is in the last resort

, . , , , ,, ^ . .,.

decided by them. On civilisa-
tion the effect of this wedge-like shape is
exclusively negative. It places the inhabi-
tant of those promontories on the remote,
southern edge of the habitable world,
cuts him off to the north from the centres
of civilisation, and confines him to regions
which are continually narrowing. Still
more momentous are the consequences on
the art of navigation. The vast ocean,
limitless and islandless, surrounds each of
the three extremities. How, then, should
primitive people venture on the high seas
when even a highly developed navigation
cannot flourish without some opposite
coast which can be reached ?

But the homology goes still further for
Africa and Australia in a large degree,
and in a more restricted degree for South
America. It shows itself this time in the
destiny of the natives during intercourse
with the whites. The Bushmen, the
Hottentots, and the Australian aborigines
at the present time can hardly be called
even the fragments of a nation. The
aborigine of southern South America has
hitherto fared better. Neither Patagonians
nor Araucos have, it is true, emerged
unscathed from intercourse with the white
intruders ; but they have been able to
retain the characteristics of their race,
and have remained free and independent.
No careful observer will imagine that this
is a consequence of Creole courage ; what
has preserved the Indian hitherto from
destruction is merely the political imma-
r turity of his opponents and

k T *K the insufficiency of their
with South i i A i

America numbers to people the vast
territory of South America.
The Australians and Tasmanians did not
fare so well as the Indians. The Tas-
manians have been for a quarter of a
century blotted out from the list of living
peoples ; the same fate impends upon the
Australians, and is, to all appearance,
inevitable. The Tasmanian tragedy is
not only the most gloomy from its denoue-
1024

The Tragedy
of the

ment, but has a sad pre-eminence for the
large number of sensational details. It
opens on May 4th, 1804, when the natives,
on approaching the new settlement of
Hobart in a friendly spirit, were, through
an unfortunate misunderstanding of their
intentions, greeted by the English garrison
with a volley of bullets ; or we can, if we
prefer, take the date June I3th, 1803,
when the first batch of English convicts
landed on the spot where the present
capital of the country, Hobart, stands.
This year saw the birth of the Tasmanian
woman, Trukanini, or Lalla Rookh, who
was destined to survive all her tribesfolk.
She died in London in 1876. The death
struggle of the whole people had thus
lasted precisely a lifetime.

The destruction of the Tasmanians was
not accomplished without vigorous resist-
ance on their part. By natural disposition
peaceable, harmless, and contented, they
had endured for many years the ill-
treatment of the transported convicts and
the colonists without transgressing the laws
of self-defence. It was only after 1826 that,
driven to frantic desperation, they amply
revenged the treatment they
had suffered, and murdered all
Tasmanians tne ^ r tormentors who fell into
their hands. The twenty-two
years that had intervened do not add
fresh laurels to the history of English
colonisation, or redound to the honour
of mankind generally. In the very first
years of the settlement, the hostilities,
which, according to the official admission,
were always begun by the whites, assumed
such proportions, and the oppression of
the natives was so harsh, that in 1810 a
special law had to be passed which pro-
posed to punish the murder of an aborigine
as an actual crime. This remained a dead
letter, since it was impossible to obtain
legal evidence in the case of blacks, who
were despised and possessed no rights.
The relation between whites and natives
resolved itself into a perpetual series of
outrages and reprisals.

It was not only by these persecutions
that the growth of the Engish colony
exercised an adverse influence on the for-
tunes of the natives. Until the landing of
the whites, the sea, with its inexhaustible
store of fish, molluscs, and other living
creatures, had supplied all their food ;
but in proportion as the colony increased,
with the growth and prosperity of the
towns, the advance of the colonists, and

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES DANCING AT A CORROBOREE OR NATIVE GATHERING

the multiplication and extension of their
pasture grounds, the region where the
natives could live was curtailed ; above
all, they were driven away from the coast.
But this was a vital question for the
Tasmanians, since the rough and wild
interior was absolutely wanting in all the
means of life. We now understand how
these originally timid natives became verit-
able heroes from desperation, and waged
unceasing war upon the whites when and
how they could.

The victory of the English was not
lightly won. The natives, driven by force
into the interior, soon acquired so accurate
a knowledge of the country, covered with

dense forest and intersected by ravines,
that it was difficult to get at them. As
Charles Darwin tells us, they often escaped
their pursuers by throwing themselves flat
upon the black ground, or by standing
rigidly still, when, even at a short distance,
they were indistinguishable from a dead
tree trunk. Unable to control the natives
while they lived at large, the English
finally resorted to other measures. By a
proclamation they forbade the natives to
cross a x certain boundary. They then, in
1828, offered them also a reservation
where the persecuted and pursued might
collect and live in peace. Both measures
proved futile. The first would never have

NIGHT SCENE OF NATIVE AUSTRALIAN LIFE NEAR SYDNEY A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Reproduced from an engraving of the year 1804

1025

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

been really understood by the people, even
if they had grasped the sense of the words.
For the second, the time was^already past :
the natives were no longer' susceptible to
a fair treatment, and the Europeans were
not disposed to maintain a pacific attitude.
The old order of things continued. Finally,
the Governor, Colonel Arthur, endeavoured

to sweep the natives into cne

district by drawing a cordon
versus across the island. The atterr pt

failed ignominiously. An ex-
penditure of $150,000 resulted in the
capture of two natives !

With the failure of this last atterr.pt
at suppression, the tragedy of the Tas-
manians enters on another phase. This
.was free from bloodshed, but was not less
disastrous than the former, and is insepar-
ably connected with the name of George
Augustus Robinson. This extraordinary
man, by trade a simple carpenter at
Hobart, and unable to write English
correctly, offered, when all warlike mea-
sures were ineffective against the natives,
to induce them by peaceful overtures
to emigrate. We know how thoroughly
he accomplished his self-imposed task.
Unarmed and single-handed, he attained
by pacific negotiations a result which a
whole populous colony had failed to
achieve in decades of bloody warfare.

Through the mediation of Robinson, one
tribe was assigned to Swan Island, three
others to Gun Carriage Island. Later, in
1843, all the natives were united on Flin-
ders Island. These " tribes" were by this
time not very numerous : powder and shot,
smallpox, and other diseases had caused
too great ravages during the last forty
years. In 1804 the native population
was put at 8,000 souls roughly ; in 1815
some 5,000 were still estimated to exist.
Their number in 1830 reached some 700,
and in 1835 had dwindled to 250. In 1845,
when the survivors were taken across
to Oyster Cove in the D'Entrecasteaux
r ., Channel, only 45, and in 1861

of tlTe onl y I8 > were left The last

Tasmania!* ma * e Tasmanian, King Billy, or

William Lanne, died in 1869
at Hobart, aged thirty-four, and in 1876
the race of the Tasmanians became entirely
extinct on the death of Trukanini the
fate that awaits all primitive races from
intercourse with civilisation.

It is idle at the present day to load the
parties concerned with reproaches. No
nation, vigorously engaged in colonisation,

1026

has yet been destined to keep the shield
of humanity spotless and pure. It must
also be admitted that in later years
earnest attempts were made to atone for
the wrongs done to the natives in the
earlier period. That the wrong methods
were chosen is another consideration,
which does not do away with the crime,
but may be pleaded as an extenuating
circumstance.

The knell of the Australians has not
yet sounded. The restless race still roams
the vast steppes, still hunts here and there
the nimble kangaroo, and throws with
strength and skill the spear and the
boomerang. But how cooped in its once
wide domain ! The whole of the east,
fairly rich in resources even for the lude
savage, the north-east and south-east, have
long been taken by the white man. Now,
in most recent times, the latter is making
vast strides from the west into the in-
terior, and the north is being more and
more encroached upon. The aborigine
is faced by the alternatives of retiring
into the desert-like interior, or of being
forced to capitulate to civilisation and
become the servant of the
European. Neither alternative
is calculated to perpetuate
either him or his peculiar na-
ture. The tragic history of the Australians
is distinguished from that of the Tas-
manians in two respects : it was of longer
duration, and covered an incomparably
larger area. Anyone who knows that the
political organisation of ancient Australia
found practically its only expression in the
claim of each single tribe to one definite
territory within the tribe itself the land
was at times divided between the various
families will also understand that the rude
encroachments of the first Europeans,
whether convicts or free colonists, could
not fail to provoke grave disputes. Among
the natives themselves violation of terri-
tory ranked as the most flagrant breach
of the peace.

Next to this the class of human beings
who were first brought to those shores
greatly influenced the form which subse-
quent conditions assumed. There may
be a division of opinions about the value
of transportation as a means of punish-
ment or as a measure for colonisation, but
there can be no doubt that it has been
ruinous to native races, whose fine qualities
might have been turned to good account.
Tasmania, to give an example in our

Australian
Aborigines
at Bay

NATIVE PEOPLES OF AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA

Influence
of the
Convict

Nor was this spirit of humanity lacking
even in the convict settlement- of New
South Wales. In 1839 a voluntary society
was founded for the protection of the
aborigines, and by its influence a law
was passed which provided for the
appointment of commissioners who should
be responsible for the care of the natives.
And now in all the states blacks and
half-castes within the settled districts are
fed, clothed,
housed and
taught at the
public expense.
They also have
the privilege of
travelling with-
out charge on
the Government
1 railways.

The number
1 of the Australian
I natives has never
I been actually
*2 determined. The
H (1 iiri ^ highest estimate

LAST TWO MEMBERS OF A VANISHED RACE allows for more
King Billy, or William Lanne, the last male Tasmanian aborigine, who than I,IOO,OOO
died in 1869, and Trukanini, the last native woman, who died in 1876. Australians at

learned to be the beginning of the European immigration.
This figure is certainly far too high, and is
universally rejected. Other calculations
range from 100,000 to 200,000 for the
pre- European period. Beyond doubt
the continent was sparsely peopled. So
far as aborigines are concerned, it is
incomparably more so now ; 50,000 is
certainly too high an estimate. The
diminution of the native population has
therefore proceeded at an
alarmingly rapid rate. In Vic-
toria in 1836 they were counted
to be some 5,000 souls ; in 1881
they had sunk to 770. The shrinkage has
not been so great in all districts, but it is
universal. The birth rate among the
natives is nowhere equal to the death rate.
According to tlie latest census the total
number of aborigines on the continent
was 20,758, the distribution throughout
the various states being as follows :
New South Wales, 4,287 ; Victoria 652 ;
Queensland, 6,670 ; South Australia, 3,888 ;
West Australia, 5,261. The number would
be considerably higher if the half-castes
were included.

own field, has proved this ; so, too, New
Caledonia and South-west Africa under
German rule in the twentieth century;
and it was patent in Australia. That
shiploads of convicts were disembarked
without precautions, and were still more
carelessly looked after, is admitted even
by the 'official reports of the time; in
1803 complaints were made that the
number of guards was insufficient. Under
the circum-
stances it was
very easy for
the prisoners to
escape into the
bush, and they
did not fail to
use the opportu-
nity.

The consd-
quences for the
unfortunate
blacks were soon
apparent. The
first gifts to them
consisted of
smallpox and
liver diseases,
brandy and to-
bacco ; and they soon
immoral, foul-mouthed, beggars and
thieves. And while the natives were
at first peaceable and friendly, the coarse-
ness and brutality of the convicts soon
led to their becoming more and more
hostile, until they, on their part, began
that guerilla warfare which has lingered
on for over a century. There has, how-
ever, been no lack of good
intentions on the Australian
continent. The energies of the
Government have been more
than once directed toward the object of
gaining over the natives ; the term of office
of the first governor, Phillip, was full of
such praiseworthy efforts ; but there could
be no idea of any success unless all the im-
migrants radically changed their behaviour
towards the natives, and the settlers,
whose immigration began in 1790, did their
honest best to fill the cup to overflowing.
English Governments, however, have
always endeavoured to mitigate the
inevitable cruelties and misunderstandings
which result from a collision between
settlers and aborigines in a new country.

Decline of
Australian
Aborigines

IO27

1777

CAPTAIN COOK LANDING AT ADVENTURE BAY, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, IN
A graphic representation of the reception of the famous navigator by the Tasmanian aborigines, who
regarded the white men with mingled dread and veneration. The last native Tasmanian died several
decades ago, chiefly as a result of the convict settlement of the island, and the race is now quite extinct.

1028

THE BRITISH IN AUSTRALIA

AND THE FOUNDING OF NEW SOUTH WALES

"THE efforts of the Europeans of Austral-
* asia in the field of economics and
politics have been crowned with great
success. From a corner of the world
which Europe during a whole century and
a half, from its discovery by Abel Tasman
in 1642 to the landing of Phillip in Botany
Bay in 1788, had not deemed worthy of
any notice, they have conjured forth a
state which at the present day needs only
a sufficient period of development, inde-
pendence, and a more considerable popula-
tion in order to be reckoned as one of
the important factors in the making of
the history of mankind. These deficiences
are such as will repair themselves in
course of time.

The history of the discovery of Australia
is deeply interesting, both as regards the
history of civilisation and of international
trade, because its effects have
been parallel in many ways to
r those produced by the discovery

of America both continents
required to be twice discovered by the
civilised world before it appreciated their
value and occupied them permanently.
This similarity is expressed even in the
intervals of time between the old and new
discoveries, which are to some extent pro-
portional to the size of the two land
masses. In the case of America, the
period that 'elapsed between the voyage
of the Northmen and the voyage of
Columbus was 500 years ; in the case of
Australia little more than a century and
a half elapsed between the voyage of
Quiros in 1606 through the Torres Strait
and the discovery of the east coast by
James Cook in 1770. If we consider Abel
Tasman's voyages in 1642 and 1644 as
the first proper discovery, the interval is
considerably diminished.

The abandonment of the first discovery
was no accident in the case of the two
continents ; no necessity then existed

for bringing the new worlds into the
sphere of civilised activity, At the period
of the first finding of America, as in the
centuries preceding, the centre of gravity
of Europe inclined one way toward the
East, which had long supplied all its needs,
both material and spiritual. Europe
therefore neither understood nor valued
the new discovery, and let it sink into
complete oblivion.

At the second and final revealing of
America the position of affairs was quite
altered ; in fact, it may be said
J n that the discovery itself was a
America consequence of the very altera-
tion. Europe, after the year
1000, had gravitated strongly to the East
as the Crusades and the prosperity of the
city-states of the Mediterranean prove ;
but since the appearance of the Ottoman
Turks the centre of gravity had been con-
siderably shifted, and men felt more and
more urgently the necessity of freeing them-
selves at least from the necessity of trading
through Egypt, Syria, and Pontus, and
of securing the communication with the
south and east coast of Asia by a direct
route. There was no cause to abandon
this goal, which was at first supposed to
have been reached in the voyages of
Columbus and his contemporaries, even
after it was recognised that the lands
reached were a new world.

Such important economic considerations
do not concern the first visits to and
subsequent neglect of Australia. The
whole story of its discovery comes rather
under the head of the search for the great
unknown southern continent, which lasted
2,000 years. The search originated with
an assumption that the great continents
of the Northern Hemisphere must be
balanced by similar masses of land in the
south. The hypothetical southern con-
tinent always excited an interest which
was purely theoretic ; and herein lies

1029

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

the explanation why in the sixteenth inferior to the coast of Portuguese South
and seventeenth centuries, that age of Africa. No corn grew there, no roots, no
practical tendencies, so little attention pod fruits or vegetables from which food
was paid to the problem. The explorers could be got. The miserable aborigines
of the southern seas hoped to demon- had neither clothing nor houses, and were
strate the existence of this country ; but the most wretched creatures in the world,
the idea of making full use ___________| Compared with these blacks

of it crossed no one's mind. I ' jjPB^ I ^ e ver y Hottentots seemed

Australia, after the first I ' - I gentlemen. The results of

glimpses of her shores, was I I this report by Dampier, which

allowed to relapse into I I was unfortunately as to the

oblivion. Tasman's first I I part which he visited only

voyage had proved that the I I too much based on fact,

ocean was landless for many I |Hi| I snow themselves in the entire

degrees of southern latitude I cessation of voyages of dis-

that is to say, the presumed I I covery to Australia for more

continent did not exist in ! I than two-thirds of a century,

that region. Although Dutch f I apart from some attempts at

ships had touched or sighted | 1 colonisation in the country,

points of the west and north m^f *- ^jjJB I sucn ^ nac ^ already been

coast of Australia several MBtela^MHSHHBB made by the Dutch in 1628.
times since 1606, no one ^^ The fam A ous E Dutc^!^or, who, Even the final and lasting
guessed that in this winding in seeking for the supposed cir- discovery ot Australia by
course Tasman had circum- iffi?Sfere^ James Cook in 1770 did not

navigated a continent. Scien- round the continent of Australia, immediately lead to the ex-
tific curiosity was satisfied with the nega- plorationot the continent. That far-sighted

>y his voyage, explorer certainly had such a goal before his
rho know the eyes when he took possession of the whole
east coast, from the thirty-eighth degree

tive conclusions established fr
It is not easy for those wl
great natural wealth of Australia and the

beauty of its landscape to realise the of southern latitude as far as Cape York,
disappointment of those navi- in the name of his king, for England ;
gators who first landed on its certainly the glowing accounts which his
shores. It was, indeed, a mar- companion Banks, the botanist, brought

back of the magnificent scenery and the

vellous misfortune for the con-

tinent that the majority of the numerous splendid climate were calculated to attract
navigators who set foot on the shore before the attention of governments to the possi-

James Cook were fated to land on spots
which were especially bleak, sterile, and

bility of colonising this new earthly
paradise. But the political situation was

inhospitable. This was the case of the not favourable to such plans. England
Dutchman, Dirk Hartog, who landed on stood on the eve of her tedious war with
the shores of Shark Bay in 1616 ; and such the united colonies of North America ;
were the experiences of the numerous
other Dutchmen who in the first half of
the seventeenth century set foot on the
west, north, and south coasts, Abel Tasman
among their number.

The opinion of the Englishman, William
Dampier, was, however, fraught with con-
sequences for the continent. This navi-
gator, as successful in piracy as exploration,
who, with a mind full of the discoveries of
Cortes and Pizarro, in two voyages (1689-

she required to guard her position on the
_. near Atlantic, and could not

of the possibly think of following out

~ , any plans in a remote corner

Colonies Qf ^ southem geas And

yet the birth of the Australian Colonies
dates from the War of Independence in
America.

England had, since 1600, transported a
large number of her criminals to the
Atlantic colonies, where their hard labour

1699) at tne en d of the seventeenth century was welcome. The convicts were bought

surveyed a considerable part of the west by the colonists at sums ranging from $40

coast, penetrated to some distance into

the interior in search of the rich cities of

an antique civilisation. His verdict was

-rushing enough ; according to him the

< ountry was the poorest in the world, far

1030

upwards, and they became a source of
considerable profit to the Government at
home. The War of Independence brought
this arrangement to an abrupt end in
1779, and England, whose prisons were

THE BRITISH IN AUSTRALIA

System
of Penal
Colonies

soon overcrowded, was compelled to look
round for some other locality. Of the
districts proposed in Parliament in 1783
namely, Gibraltar, the Gambia territory,
and the region of Botany Bay in New
South Wales, only the last, from reasons
easy to explain, could be seriously con-
sidered. Gibraltar did not offer room
enough, the transportation to
Gambia would have simply
meant " the execution of
capital punishment by mal-
aria," as the phrase in the Parliamentary
report ran. The objections to Australia
were only the enormous distance and the
difficulties attending the transport of such
numbers. In any case the decision of
Parliament, in spite of the Royal assent,
was not put into action soon enough to
anticipate the plan of a certain Mr.
Matra, subsequently English Consul in
Tangiers. He proposed to settle in New
South Wales the numerous families who
had been expelled from North America
on account of their support of the mother
country, and at the same time to improve

Hopes

Regard!

Botany

appreciably the position of England in
the trade of Europe by the increase in
production which might be looked for.
Matra also failed to carry his plan then.
The Secretary of State, Lord Sydney,
certainly favoured the scheme in 1784,
but he finally recurred to the idea of
transportation.

In August, 1786, Lord Sydney submitted
a memorandum to the Admiralty request-
ing that arrangements should be made
for the transport and convoy of "at least
seven or eight hundred convicts." The
new settlement was intended to be some-
thing more than a prison. It was hoped
that it would supply flax, hemp, and timber
for naval purposes, and that it would grow
a sufficient quantity of "Asiatic products "
as " may render our recourse to our
European neighbours un-
necessary." One ship was to
be set apart for women, and a
tender was to be employed in
conveying to the new settlement a large
number of women from the Friendly
Islands, New Caledonia, and other parts
which are contiguous thereto, where
any number might be procured
without difficulty.

The text of this memorandum,
together with the protests and
criticisms of Captain Arthur
Phillip, R.N., who was appointed
the first Governor, and to whose
foresight, energy, and humanity
Australia owes a deep debt, are
printed in the series of historical
records published by the Govern-
ment of New South Wales. Had
Phillip's advice been followed and
a shipload of free mechanics and
agriculturists sent out six months
in advance of the main expedition,
most of the difficulties which beset
the early settlement would have
been avoided. But then, as now,
the demands of the " man on the
spot " were ignored by a British
Government ; and only the heroism
and patience of Governor Phillip
extricated the young colony from
the starvation and other evils which
he had predicted before leaving
England as a necessary consequence
of faulty arrangements. And even
Phillip would have failed had he
DAMPiER'S FIRST SIGHT OF THE BOOMERANG not left behind him a powerful and

One of the exploits of William Dampier, seaman and buccaneer, devoted believer in the future of
was the exploration of part of Australia. He afterwards rescued A C' T u r> i

Alexander Selkirk, " Robinson Crusoe," from his island prison. Australia Sir J OSCph Banks,

IO3I

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

at Sydney
Harbour

President of the Royal Society, who had
sailed with Cook on his voyage and given
the name to Botany Bay on account of
its varied flora. Next to Phillip, Sir Joseph
Banks is the man to whom Australia
owes most.

A frigate and a tender of the Royal
Navy, six transports, and three store
ships, having on board, all told,

3 souls > of whom 443 were
free, sailed from England on

May I3th, 1787. They arrived
in Botany Bay between January i8th
and 2oth, 1788. As, however, the anchor-
age was bad, and water scarce, Phillip
did not disembark his convoy in fact,
no convict ever landed at Botany Bay
but pushed along the coast in search of a
better site. His seaman's instinct led him
to select Port Jackson, where, as he writes
to Lord Sydney, " I had the satisfaction
of finding the finest harbour in the world,
in which a thousand sail of the line may
ride in the most perfect security." Sydney
Cove was selected as most suitable for
landing, and on January 26th this was
occupied -as the site of the new colony.
It was none too soon. Two days after the
arrival of the fleet at Botany Bay, and
during Phillip's absence, two sail were
announced off Botany Heads, and stand-
ing for the entrance to the bay. They
turned out to be the Boussole arid
Astrolabe, under Admiral la Perouse. Thus
narrowly did the
French miss be-
coming owners
of Australia !

In February,
1788, the Gover-
nor removed a
small number of
convicts, under
the superintend-
ence of Lieu-
tenant King and
some soldiers, to
Norfolk Island,
which lies almost
halfway between

vegetables, and devoted himself tc the
manufacture of flax.

But in spite of all efforts it was not
possible either here or on the mainland
to feed the colony from its own products.
The need for some help in the way of
provisions was most urgently felt by
both countries during the early years.
The same need had been felt by some of
the early colonists on different parts of
the east coast of America, in Virginia and
Carolina ; and this was the cause of the
failure of the great French scheme of
colonisation in Cayenne in 1763. Virgin
soil is not at once in a condition to feed
large masses of inhabitants, especially
when it is treated with as little technical
knowledge as was shown by the settlers
of Phillip and King, no one of
Difficulties whom understoo d anything of

* r y . agriculture ; besides, the soil
of Sydney is not fertile.
Again, the criminals, who preponderated
in numbers, felt little desire to work.
According to Phillip, twenty-three men
did more than a thousand convicts. The
leading thought of the whole of Phillip's
term of office was to increase the number
of free settlers and to bring over skilled
agriculturists. But when Phillip volun-
tarily resigned his post in December,
1792, through shattered health, the number
of free immigrants was still insignificant.
The bulk of private holdings were in the
hands of " eman-
cipists," or time-
expired convicts,
who were hardly
more industrious
than the con-
victs themselves.
Under the pre-
vailing circum-
stances, the
internal condi-
tions of the
colony were
terribly dis-
organised during
the first years.

NewZealand and Two GREAT FI GURES IN AUSTRALIA'S EARLY HISTORY The want

New Caledonia. & &2^<^ZS!S^ SS^S, *p5t visions, which

The dutV of this * n England the policy of Governor Arthur Phillip on the right in \yas felt SOOn
the latter's heroic efforts on behalf of the settlement of the new colony. ,. , ,.

minor colony was after landing, be-

to manufacture the flax which Cook had
found there in large quantities, in order to
supply the main colony cheaply and con-

veniently with material for clothing. Kin
set to work with zeal, planted corn an<
1032

came so acute in 1790 that for months only
half rations or less could be distributed ; the
cattle that had been brought with the
settlers escaped or died, and the first fields
which were sown produced nothing. In

THE BRITISH IN AUSTRALIA

addition to this, scurvy broke out
from want of fresh meat. The
soldiers were disobedient and
mutinous, and drunkenness be-
came a besetting vice. Robbery,
murder and arson were daily
occurrences. In February, 1790,
the distress became so acute that
the Governor found himself com-
pelled to send 200 prisoners to
the Norfolk Islands, although there
was anything but a superabund-
ance of food there. Meanwhile,
fresh transports kept arriving from
England with prisoners, masses of
poor wretches crowded together,
more than half of whom frequently
died on the long voyage. The
survivors were then often so weak
that, half dead, they had to be
unloaded at Port Jackson in slings
like bales of merchandise. On the
other hand, provisions, seed corn,
and cattle did not arrive.

Governor Phillip, in the midst of
all this misery, which often forced
him to live on half rations like the
convicts, never lost heart for an
instant. With prophetic instinct, he
declared in the colony's darkest
hour, " This country will prove
the most valuable acquisition
Great Britain ever made." Amid
the mass of duties which devolved on him
in the way of constructing houses, laying
out gardens and fields, and continually
battling with famine and

Who Made mutm y' ^ e f un d the time to

interest himself in the explora-
Austraha

tion of the interior ; he was

desirous of forming amicable relations also
with the natives. One thing alone was
calculated to fill this patient, dogged man
with distaste for his post, and that was
the opposition, passive indeed, but all
the more obstinate, which his own troops
showed to all his measures. As a matter
of fact, up to the end of 1790, the Marines,
and then the New South Wales Corps, a
regiment specially organised for Australia,
thwarted every one of his regulations.
The soldiers disregarded the Acts of
Parliament, in virtue of which Phillip
exercised his office, and submitted to
military laws only.

A successor to Governor Phillip was
finally appointed at the end of 1795 in
the person of Hunter, also a sailor, who
had accompanied the expedition of 1787.

EARLY DAYS

ction of the convicts, upon their landing at Sydney, by Governor
the first and grea test Governor of the penal settlement.

The interval of nearly three years was
filled by the government of two officers
of the New South Wales Corps, Major
Grose and Captain Paterson. The ad-
ministration of both is conspicuous for
the enormous growth of the abuses
against which Phillip had vainly con-
tended. Above all, the general vice of
drunkenness had assumed most danger-
ous dimensions, being chiefly encouraged
by the increased trade in spirits, which
the soldiers of the militia as well as their
officers made their chief business, from
want of military duties. The name " Rum
Corps " that was soon given to

of Vice these tro P s has perpetuated
this strange conception of

and Outrage .,., V

military service. For the

colony itself, it clearly involved great
losses. The convicts, instead of being
educated to be peaceable and industrious
families of farmers, were being ruined by
the vilest alcohol. As a result, the
coarsest immorality, blood-curdling
outrages, and inhuman * cruelty were
the order of the day.

1033

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Captain Hunter, the second Governor, tion of the Blue Mountains ; and to the

was unable to check these evils during the discovery of coal seams near Point

term of his office, which he held from Solander. It was also found that the

September, 1795, to 1800. He certainly cattle which had run away in the early

put an end to the tyranny of the military, days of the colonisation had begun to

and re-established the civil courts which multiply into large herds of half-wild

had long been in abeyance.
He also, as far as possible,
suppressed the distilling of
spirits in the colony, and
checked the general im-
morality. But the evils were
by this time too deeply
rooted to be eradicated so
quickly by a somewhat
imprudent man like
Hunter. Drunkenness
therefore continued rife, as
did the ordinary quarrels of
the whites among them-
selves and with the natives.
Even the enormous tracts

animals ; and in this way it
was proved that the sup-
posed impossibility of accli-
matising cattle did not in
fact exist.

The introduction of syste-
matic sheep farming with a
view to the wool, which is
now one of the most im-
portant branches of industry
on the continent, is insepar-
ably connected with the
name of John Mac Arthur.
During the whole of the
unedifying struggle between
the Governor and the mili-

of country which Hunter's (? a ?5in S HuSer D whoTr?ed N ^?h tary, this officer had been the
predecessors had distributed some . success, to reduce the early most vigorous representative

. ., , . v ' convict colony to law and order. < ,, " . -

to civil servants and mill- of the movement in favour

tary officers remained in their possession, of making and selling spirits. He was
as well as the excessive number of convicts, altogether a shrewd and practical man, to
whom they ruled despotically like slaves, whom among other things the Australian
It would, however, be unjust if we judged wine trade owes its origin. In 1794
Hunter's administration by this one side MacArthur procured sixty Bengal sheep
of it : on the contrary, it distinctly pro- from Calcutta, to which he shortly
moted the development of the colony in added some Irish sheep. By crossing, he
more than one department. The cultiva- created a breed whose fleeces were a mix-
tion of large tracts, which was compulsorily ture of hair and wool. In 1797, in order

to produce a finer wool, he
obtained, through the agency
of some friendly naval
officers, a few sheep from
Cape Town. These were, as
it happened, fine merinos, a
God-send to the continent,
for these few animals, and
some ordinary Cape sheep,
which were subsequently
added, were the progenitors
of immense flocks, and the
foundation of the present
wealth of Australia.

The results of MacArthur's
breeding were prodigious.
When in 1801, inconsequence

enforced by the owners, did
much to relieve the scarcity
of food the chief mis-
fortune of the colony up to
the nineteenth century ;
but, on the other hand, it
placed the monopoly of all
economic advantages in
the hands of a few. These
were indeed the two
objects that Major Grose
had contemplated when he
made similar regulations in
his time.

The two new achieve-

ments by which Hunter's ORIGINATOR OF SHEEP .
term of office was honour- FARMING

ably distinguished are more J. ohn . MacArthur, who estab- o f a duel with a fellow officer.

J ,' 1 K * 4- 1 lished Australia s chief industry. , , , . -^ -, ,

partial, but not less im-

he was ordered to England,

portant in results. Firstly, under him he took back specimens of the wool he

the knowledge of the geography of the had grown himself and put them before

continent was widened. This was due experts in London. Their verdict was most

to the voyage of Mr. Bass, a naval surgeon, favourable. MacArthur's proposal, that

which proved clearly that Van Diemen's land and convicts should be assigned him

Land was an island ; to the first explora- in Australia with the definite object of

1034

THE BRITISH IN AUSTRALIA

providing the English woollen industry
with Australian material on a wholesale
scale, was favourably answered in October,
1804. Lord Camden, the new Secretary
of State, instructed the Governor of New
South Wales to concede to MacArthur
s 5,000 acres in perpetuity for

to Encourage & azin Z P ur POses, to give him
, . convicts as shepherds, and
rmmg to afford him generally every
possible assistance. The Governor there-
upon issued a proclamation, in which
the concession of tracts for sheep farming
or cattle breeding was publicly announced.
MacArthur himself received the land he
selected in the best part of the colony, on
Mount Taurus in the cow pasture district,
where the half-wild herds of cattle had
been found in 1795. There with his original

The New South Wales Corps was more
powerful than ever in the country, and
had just given a proof of its influence in
London by effecting the recall of his
predecessor. As might be expected, the
brandy trade was in full swing ; not less
than 20,000 gallons were stored in Sydney
alone. Even of other wares the civil and
military officers had a practical monopoly,
which was exceedingly remunerative to
them, though it did not bring in the 1,200
per cent, which the spirits paid. King's
first step was to check this abuse. Em-
powered by the Government in London to
make the landing of spirits in Port Jackson
dependent on his consent, he prohibited,
in the autumn of 1800, their importation
and sale without a special permission. All
that came by ship in defiance of this order

PORT JACKSON. THE HARBOUR OF SYDNEY. IN 1860

One of the finest natural ports in the world, the first Governor, Phillip, having truthfully reported that in it
"a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security."

flock, augmented by purchases in England
and Australia, he established his breeding
farm, which he called Camden Estate, in
honour of the Secretary of State. This
became the centre of the new and rapidly
flourishing wool-growing industry.

Since 1800 the Governor had been Philip
Gidley King, a man who seemed more
qualified than anyone else to rescue from
the quicksands the misdirected fortunes
of the Australian colonisation. King is
the same man whom we have already
met with as Vice-governor of Norfolk
Island, where he had displayed excellent
qualities in his ten years' struggle against
the deficiencies of Nature and the insubor-
dination of his charges. The inheritance
to which he succeeded was not hopeful.

was either sent back again in one year, ac-
cording to Zimmerman, no less than 32,000
gallons of spirits and 22,000 gallons of wine,
although the number of adults in the colony
was only 4,200 or was bought by King
and sold again at a cheap price. The
cheapness ensured only that the usurious
trading profits ceased. It is easy to con-
ceive the reception which the
measures of King found among

the members of the New South
Wales Corps, especially when

we consider what a strong backing they
had in London. Owing to the perpetual
European wars the import of Spanish wool
to London had come to a standstill, so that
the proposals of MacArthur to provide the
industry with raw material from Australia

1035

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

GOVERNOR KING

were thankfully adopted. MacArthur him-
self obtained a splendid position at home
through it, as did the entire New South Wales
Corps, whose most influential member he
was. Notwithstanding the exasperation of
the corps, things did not go so far as open
hostility to the Governor.
The corps certainly made the
Governor's life as unpleasant
as possible through the in-
fringement of his regulations
in a thousand ways, while
King retaliated by limiting
the authority o f the regiment
to purely military affairs.
But this did not prevent the
Governor from honourably
and hones tlyhelping
MacArthur in his efforts in
wool-growing. Nevertheless
the perpetual friction was
quite enough to induce King
to resign his responsible post One of ~ t h"e capable Variy Governors cultivation, c

in July, 1805. He retired of the penal colony, whose tenure of domestic

without expecting or receiving of office was beset wlth d " ficultles - ----
thanks from the Home Government, which
had always listened to his opponents more
attentively than to him. He might, how-
ever, take the consciousness with him that
he had done good service to the

Suppressing colony The suryey Qf the

y ,. western part of the south and
Monopolies ^ ^^ between Cape

Stephens (33 S.) and Cape Palmerston
(22 S.) which was carried out during
King's term of office, as well as the ex-
ploration of the Gulf of Carpentaria by
Matthew Flinders, were valuable addi-
tions to geography, and important for
later colonisation. The
formal annexation of the
continent by means of
extensive schemes of
settlement was his work.
This step was necessitated
by the unceasing efforts of
the French to gain a firm
footing in Australia.
King, indeed, impressed
upon the French explorers
the prescriptive rights of
England, but at the same
time he thought it ex-
pedient to make these
rights patent to all by an
immediate colonisation of
different places. In 1803
Van Diemen's Land was
occupied, while, simul-

taneously with the removal of the convicts,
who constituted a common danger, two
settlements were founded at Restdown, or
Risdon, on the left bank, and Hobart Town
on the right bank, of the Derwent. At
the same time the first, but unsuccessful,
attempt at colonisation from
London was made at Port
Phillip, the great bay on
which Melbourne now lies ;
and, lastly, the foundations
were laid of Launceston,
on the north coast of Van
Diemen's Land, and of New-
castle, now the second har-
bour of New South Wales.

King might also be satisfied
with the results of national
industries at the end of his
career. On the departure of
Phillip in 1792, about 1,700
acres were under permanent
and the number
animals could
hardly be reckoned in dozens.
In 1796, a year after Hunter's arrival, the
number of such animals had reached 5,000,
and there were 5,400 acres under the plough.
In August, 1798, the figures were 6,000
acres and 10,000 head of cattle ; for August,
1799, 8,000 acres and 11,000 head. The
white population had amounted to 4,000
souls when Hunter entered on office. On
his retirement in 1800, their number was,
according to Mossman, 6,000. Under
King's five years of government this
inheritance had developed into the follow-
ing dimensions. In 1806, according to
Zimmerman, 165,882 acres had been given

RESIDENCE OF GOVERNOR KING

1804

The Governor's house was situated on Rose Hill in the township of Parramatta.
In the foreground on the right of the picture the stocks may be seen.

1036

GENERAL VIEW OF THE TOWN OF SYDNEY AS IT WAS IN THE YEAR 1800

away in estates or reserved for the Crown ;
of these, 20,000 acres were cleared ; 6,000
acres were planted with wheat, 4,000 with
maize, 1,000 with barley, 185 with
potatoes, 433 served as garden ground.
Of the districts allotted, 15,620 acres
were held by civil officials, 20,697 by
officers ; 18,666 acres were the property
of 405 " emancipists." There were 112
free settlers ; in addition, there were 80
discharged sailors and soldiers, and 13
persons born in the colony. The number
of stock was as follows : 566 horses, 4,790
cattle, 23,110 sheep, 2,283 goats, 7,019
pigs ; altogether, 37,768 head. The white
population amounted to 9,462 persons in
1806. Of these there were 5,172 men,
1,701 women, and 2,589 children.

The successor of King, nominated in
1805, was William Bligh, long well known
in geographical circles for the wonderful
voyage in the course of which he traversed
in an open boat large portions
of the Pacific and Indian
oceans. Being commissioned,
as captain of the ship Bounty,
to transplant the bread-fruit tree from
Tahiti to the West Indies, he had caused
such discontent among the crew by his
terrible severity that in the middle of
the voyage they placed him with eighteen
companions in a boat, in which he eventu-
ally reached Batavia, while the rest of
the crew either returned to Tahiti or
founded on Pitcairn Island the small com-
munity which has been so often described.

Tyranny
of the
Governor

duties.

Captain
of the
Bounty

Bligh's marvellous rescue had not
deprived his character of any of its
original roughness. As commander of a
man-of-war he had provoked a mutiny of
the crew by his tyranny, and in New South
Wales, also, where he arrived in the middle
of August, 1806, he contrived to make
himself unpopular from the first by his
inhuman severity. He was not, indeed,
deficient in an honourable intention of
promoting the interests of the
colony, which now showed
such promise ; but he lacked a
proper comprehension of his
Caprice of every sort, brutal
floggings even of free settlers, the razing
of houses of which the position dissatisfied
him, the compulsory removal of colonists
in 1807 from Norfolk Island to Van Die-
men's Land all these were measures
which made the new Governor hated. He
also by such acts repelled the better class
of people, so that he was surrounded with
persons of ill-repute in their place.

The episode which brought the ill-feeling
to a head is, as Mr. Jenks expresses it in
his " History of the Australasian Colonies,"
" the most picturesque incident in the
early history of the colony." In accord-
ance with his instructions, which required
him to continue the measures directed by
King against the excessive power of the
New South Wales Corps, and, above all,
to proceed against the still flourishing
brandy trade, Bligh had issued an edict
in February, 1807, which absolutely

1037

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Historic

Australian

Quarrel

prohibited the making and sale of spirits,
and forbade the erection of distilling
apparatus on private property.

Now, MacArthur had ordered some
distilling apparatus from England, in
connection with his attempts at vine cul-
ture. This was taken from him and sent
back by the orders of the Governor. The
strained relations thus pro-
duced between the two men
were aggravated by Bligh's
accusation that MacArthur had
received his 5,000 acres of pasture land by
supplying false information. MacArthur's
self -justification by reference to the order
of the Privy Council was finally answered
by Bligh with a command to appear in
court, because a convict had fled to one of
the breeder's ships. MacArthur refused
to pay the fine, and the Governor seized
his schooner. MacArthur de-
sisted from supplying the
crew with food. The un-
fortunate sailors therefore
landed in defiance of a port
regulation. This was enough
for Bligh, who at once
arrested the crew, and
MacArthur for " causing
them to commit an illegal
act." Even if Bligh had law
upon his side, yet his sharp
procedure was unwise in view
of MacArthur's honourable
position.

The indignation of the New
South Wales Corps at once The
in

by the end of the year, but there every-
one was so occupied with the Napoleonic
wars that another year elapsed before any
steps against the rebels were decided
upon. Lachlan Macquarie was entrusted
with the mission. Johnston was brought
back to England under strict arrest on
a charge of mutiny. All the appoint-
ments and assignments of land which had
been made after Bligh's arrest were
declared null and void, and all the old
officials were reinstated. Bligh, who was
still living on his ship in Australia, was
recognised as Governor, but immediately
recalled and replaced by Macquarie.
MacArthur was finally expelled from the
country. He thus had the hardest lot ;
keenly interested in its industrial welfare,
he was compelled to remain for years far
away from the country and his under-
takings. It was not until 1817
that he was allowed to return
to his Camden Estate. John-
ston fared better, since,
thanks to the representa-
tions made by Macquarie to
the proper quarters as to
Bligh's character and method
of governing, he was merely
cashiered. Honours were
finally showered upon Bligh
himself in England. He be-
came Vice-admiral of the
Blue, and a Fellow of the
Royal Society. He died on
December 7th, 1817.

Macquarie had not come

vented itself in action. At the most tyrannous governor of across from England alone,
the instigation of the officers, the early Australian settlements. Qn the cont % e b ht
--"-* who le line

Major Johnston liberated the prisoner on
January 26th. 1808, occupied Government
House, and, agreeably to the wish of Mac-
Arthur and other prominent colonists,
declared the Governor deposed, and sent
him as a prisoner on board a ship lying
in the harbour. All the executive officials
who had supported the Governor were
dismissed or arrested, the colony was put
under martial law, and, for almost two
years, until the arrival of the new
Governor on December 3ist, 1809, was ad-
ministered by Johnston and the members
of his corps. MacArthur himself, on a
fresh hearing of the case, was unanimously
acquitted.

The attitude of the British Government
toward the unpleasant incident was long
in making itself known. The tidings of
what had happened had reached England

1038

a wnole line regiment of soldiers with
him. This meant nothing less than a
complete change of system. The New
South Wales Corps was incorporated
into the English Army and withdrawn
from Australia for ever ; the Governor
henceforth had at his disposal disciplined
Regulars instead of a corps which had been
ruined by twenty years' sojourn
in a penal colony. Macquarie
had generally a much easier
position than any of his pre-
decessors. Twenty years of work had pro-
duced valuable results, notwithstanding all
hindrances and cessations, and after King's
careful tenure of office the colony had made
great advances in prosperity. In 1810
there were already 11,590 white colonists ;
7,615 acres were under the plough ; the
number of cattle reached 12,442, that of

Military
Problem
Solved

THE BRITISH IN AUSTRALIA

sheep 25,888 ; the taxes brought in nearly
8,000 annually.

Under these favourable conditions the
energy of Macquarie could be principally
devoted to matters of a positive and
executive nature, as was most in keeping
with his disposition. In this respect he
was the direct opposite of Bligh, whose
abilities were merely directed toward
the repression of abuses, while he displayed
no sort of talent for organisation. Mac-
quarie's first care was to establish well-
regulated conditions in Sydney. He nearly
rebuilt the town ; the construction of
new streets, the organisation of police,
the erection of public buildings, especi-
ally schools and churches, the laying out of
promenades all this is his work. In
1816 the first bank was set up, followed
three years later by a savings bank. He
made it his obj ect to construct ,
good roads in the vicinity of
the town, as well as to regu-
late the courses of the rivers.
He especially encouraged the
cultivation of the soil in
every direction, and not
least so by extreme liberality
in grants of land. This libe-
rality, coupled with the ex-
tensive demands for public
that is to say, home assist-
ance for his reforms, exposed
him even then to much
censure, both in England
and Australia.

Swelling
Tide of
Prosperity

country. Macquarie, in spite of the
hundreds of miles of most difficult ground
between Sydney and the new territory,
at once set about constructing a road,
which was ready to be opened in 1815.
At the same time the town of Bathurst
was founded as the centre of the newly
opened up country, which soon became
^ e seat f a brisk wheat -
g row ing industry and the

s ur ? of ** rapid prosperity
of the colony. New South
Wales owed this renewed prosperity
largely to the favourable period at which
its discovery and exploitation had taken
place. With the close of the Napoleonic
wars, England's hands were untied ; even
private persons revived their interest in
the oversea possessions. New South
Wales now became the goal of a con-
tinuously swelling stream of
emigration, which added to
the existing settlers a large
percentage of free colonists,
who were either time-expired
soldiers or discharged con-
victs.

Macquarie himself was by
no means friendly to the new-
comers. From the very first
he supported the view
" Australia for the convict,"
and tried by every means to
check the influx of free im-
migrants. In 1818 he actually
* carried a measure by which

MacquarieY efforts to ex- SSSS+oSEi3. these latter were deprived of
tend the range of colonisation early colony and the maker and the free passage which had
were not less meritorious or * amser of s y dne y as a town - been customary since the

than his attempts to raise the moral tone

and develop the industries within the

colony itself. His four predecessors had

all been sailors, whose interest in geography

was exhausted by voyages of discovery

along the coast. The contour and shape

of the Australian continent had, it is true,

been definitely ascertained by them, but

_ for a full quarter of a century Thus he became

oMhe' >ftafter the landing in Botany prietor ; but the

Bay nothing more was known

of the interior than the narrow
strip of land between the coast and the
Blue Mountains looming in the west,
which had always been considered im-
passable. Macquarie urged the colonists
to new efforts, and finally, in 1813, Went-
worth, Blaxland, and Lawson discovered
a way through the mountains, and found
beyond them immense plains of fertile

founding of the colony. The results turned
out quite otherwise from what Macquarie
expected. The small man indeed kept
away, but not the man of means. The
latter, however, could at once set to work
on a large scale. He required only to
buy sheep, the Government supplied him
with land and with convicts as shepherds,
a large landed pro-
convict was not the
least helped by Macquarie's measures.
In spite of all his popularity, the obvious
favour which he showed to the emancipists
provoked a feeling against him among the
free settlers.

A special commissioner, Mr. Bigge, was
sent from England in 1818 to make an
inquiry into the condition of the colony
and the administration of the government,
and on the receipt of his report in 1821

1039

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

which still remains the best authority for
the condition of the colony since the de-
parture of Governor Bligh Governor
Macquarie was recalled. The unfavourable
attitude of the Government towards him
was intensified by the outcry of the great
landed proprietors. These claimed wide
tracts of land for their grazing farms ; but
the Governor was pledged to
c support the small proprietors

' who had been convicts pre-

viously. This was sufficient
incentive to the now powerful wool
industry to advocate the recall of Mac-
quarie, which took place in 1821.

Macquarie had still more reason to be
satisfied with his results than King. Even
the statistics presented a quite different
aspect. In 1821 the white population of
the colony was estimated roughly at
39,000 souls ; 32,267 acres were under
cultivation ; there we^e 103,000 head of
cattle, 4,564 horses, and more than 250,000
sheep. The annual revenue of the com-
munity was 150,000 dollars. Besides this,
internal affairs were splendidly organised,
and there was confident hope that the
stream of immigration would not dry up.
In short, the departing Governor might
fairly feel that it was his own diligent
activity for eleven years that had extri-
cated Australia from her seemingly hope-
less position in the swamp of corruption.

Macquarie's entrance into office had
brought with it a change of system in
the administration, and a similar change
signalised his departure. The former had
substituted the civil administration for the
military ; the latter put the beginnings
of a constitution in the place of the auto-
cracy. All the governors of the colony had
been hitherto practically despotic ; they
had marked out the methods of colonisation
according to their own judgment, and
embodied in themselves the legislative
power ; they were indeed the ultimate
court of appeal. They were, it is true,

responsible to the British Secre-
Beguming tary Qf ^^ for War and the

Constitution Colonies; but London was
far away, and the political
situation in Europe guaranteed sufficiently
that too much notice would not be taken
of Australia. Bligh's motto, " My will is
the law," is characteristic of this view.
So long as the majority of the population
consisted of convicts or was descended
from them, unlimited authority might be
concentrated in one hand ; but as soon
1040

as the free population predominated, this
situation was impossible. Even in 1812
the creation of a board of assessors, com-
posed of officials and colonists, had been
suggested, but Macquarie had considered
that such an institution, which had proved
its value in all other English colonies, was
unsuitable for Australia.

After his departure, the limitation of
the power of the Governor was an accom-
plished fact. The New South Wales
Judiciary Act, which received the Royal
Assent on July igth, 1823, adopted most
of the recommendations of Bigge's report.
A Legislative Council of not more than
seven or less than five members, nomi-
nated by the Governor, was created, but its
functions were purely advisory, although
the Governor's power to impose taxes was
limited to taxes for local purposes. If the
Council disapproved of the Governor's
action, its objections were submitted to
England, where the Colonial Office gave a
final decision. In the one case of a rebel-
lion the Governor had dictatorial power.

On the legal side, the reforms were also

extensive. Hitherto the Governor had been

the highest court of appeal in

c ? all questions of law ; now these

Introduced were aDS ^ ute ^y withdrawn
from his decision in favour of a
supreme court of judicature on the English
model, and the jury system was introduced.
The only right retained by the Governor
was the remission of sentences on criminals,
subject to the approval of the English
Government. The first Governor who
ruled under these new forms was Sir
Thomas Brisbane (1821-1825), but that
they were strictly adhered to and achieved
the results intended was entirely due to
the accident which caused the appointment
to the first Chief Justiceship to be in favour
of a sound and fearless constitutional
lawyer. To Francis Forbes is due the sub-
ordination of the executive to the law, and
the firm application of the British legal
principle that a wrongdoer cannot plead in
justification the command of a superior
officer. Thanks to Forbes, the administra-
tion of Sir Thomas Brisbane kept strictly
within the limits imposed on the Governor ;
but, in compensation, he devoted his chief
attention to the further exploration and
opening up of the country. The course of
the Murray and Murrumbidgee was now
traced ; the country was traversed diagon-
ally as far as the south coast in the vicinity
of modern Melbourne, the shores of

THE BRITISH IN AUSTRALIA

Queensland and North Australia were
explored, and the continent secured from
the renewed designs of the French by settle-
ments on various outlying points. The
first observatory on Australian soil was
constructed by Brisbane at Parramatta.

Brisbane gave the perpetually increasing
number of free immigrants the land
for grazing purposes free, and con-
ceded to the Australian Agricultural
Company, founded in England in 1824
with a capital of $5,000,000 not less
than 1,000,000 acres of land near Port
Stephens and in the Liverpool Plains.
He encouraged production and trade in
every way ; in 1825 there were 45,514 acres
under cultivation ; more than 4,000 cwt.
of wool was exported, and some
thirty Australian ships were engaged
in fishery and commerce. The incomings
(over 350,000 r . _ __

without the certificate of the Chief Justice
that it was not repugnant to the laws
of England. Immediately upon his arrival
Governor Darling, acting upon instructions
from England, carried a measure im-
posing an annual licence upon newspapers.
Forbes, who sympathised with the views
of the paper principally aimed at by the
measure in favour of an extension of
popular government, refused his certificate.
Darling retaliated by a measure imposing
penalties for the publication of seditious
or blasphemous matter and another
putting a duty upon newspapers. Forbes
again refused his certificate. The dispute
was ended by the new Constitution of 1828,
which gave wider legislative powers to the
Council established in 1823 ar *d increased
its numbers to fifteen. The necessity for
the Chief Justice's certificate was abolished.
,,.. Darling at once

dollars) had
more than
doubled since
1821.

Two other im-
portant and es-
sentially dif-
ferent events fall
into the term of
Brisbane's office :
the separation of
the island of
Van Diemen's
Land from New
South Wales,

and the Official Sir T. Makdougall Brisbane on the left pursued the unwise policy Serving on Crimi-
o f of encouraging indiscriminate immigration, and his successor, Sir na 1

TWO OF AUSTRALIA'S PROMINENT GOVERNORS

reintroduced a
Newspaper Bill,
the harsher pro-
visions of which
were subse-
quently modified
at the instance
of the British
Government.
The new Council
also dealt with
the jury ques-
tion and a law
passed excluding
emancipists from

declaration

the freedom of

the Press. The

Ralph Darling on the right fought against the freedom of the Press.

former was decreed in
1823, and took effect in 1825 ; the latter
was announced in 1824, but its actual
application was postponed until the ad-
ministration of Bourke.

Brisbane's successor was another military
officer, Sir Ralph Darling, who ruled the
destinies of the colony from 1825-1831.
His lot was not cast in easy times. As a
legacy from his predecessor he inherited
a difficulty with the colonial Press, which
was unrestrained in its attacks upon the
measures of Government, and exercised
a dangerous influence upon the convicts.
By the Constitution of 1823 it was pro-
vided that no Bill should become law

]unes. By a
Rule of Court of
the same year the professions of barrister
and attorney were formally divided,
and regulations drawn up governing
admission to them. This Constitution
Act also abolished the Grand Jury and
substituted in its place the Attorney-
General, " in whose name all offenders
should be prosecuted by information."

This system continues to the present day.
Darling's recall 'was due to an unfounded
attack upon him, engineered by the Press
The charges were investigated in Sydney and
by a Parliamentary Committee in London,
and Darling was absolutely acquitted of
all wrongdoing. But before his character
was thus cleared he had quitted Australia.

1041

THE DAWN OF A NATION

AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES

TTHE period 1831-43 marks a transition
* from the old to the new in the history
of the colony. The abuses of officialdom
are curbed. Free settlers are already
more numerous than bond. The country
is settling into the normal conditions of
English life. Capital in abundance has
flowed into the country ; and merchants
share with pastoralists the responsibility
for public affairs which is felt instinctively
by the leaders of society in any British
community. Consequently we read less
of squabbles with the Governor, and more
of movements and policies.

The first sign of national self-conscious-
ness was a demand to control the public
lands. Previously to 1824 lands had been
practically given away at the Governor's

will, the only incumbrance
e being an insignificant quit rent

an< ^ *^ e ^i at i n to employ

Question

one convict to every hundred

acres. Governor Brisbane had made these
conditions more stringent and had abo-
lished free grants. But the demand for land
increased, as Bigge's report made the
tavourable conditions of Colonial life
more widely known. In 1824 the Colonial
Office directed that $1.25 per acre should be
the upset price of land and that no one
person should be allowed to purchase more
than 9,600 acres.

The object of this limitation was to
suppress the speculation in land which
was then rampant. The land was to be
reserved for bona fide settlers, and,
further, only so much was to be cultivated
as the needs of the colony required. The
object finally was to look to the future
with its growing claims for land. The
results did not correspond to the unweary-
ing solicitude of the Government. On
Darling's departure, the area of the land
sold or leased amounted to 3,422,000
acres, which obviously could not be
kept entirely under cultivation by the
51,155 white colonists. In the short
period from 1831 to 1835, this number

1042

increased by no less than 585,000 acres,
which had been purchased by auction.
The Government had realised by this sale
the sum of $1,013,000: but it could not
fail to see that only the smaller part of
these estates had been bought with the
immediate object of cultivation ; the vast
majority were merely bought as a specu-
lation. This applied to the 1,548,700
acres, which had been publicly sold in the
years 1836 to 1840.

The area expressed by these figures
was far too gigantic to be required
by the real demand for land, notwith-
standing the brisk immigration of those
years. Nevertheless these figures testify
to the enormous impetus which was then
given to the prosperity of the colony,
a prosperity which was indeed interrupted
at the opening of the " forties " by a dis-
astrous industrial crisis. Its beginnings
were foreshadowed in the figures for the
years 1839 and 1840 : 1836, 389,500 ;
1837, 368,600; 1838, 315,300; 1839,
285,900 ; 1840, 189,400 acres.

Hardly less than the trouble caused
by the speculative purchaser of land was
that which arose from the common
practice of " squatting." This is a word
which originally came from North America;
but the practice designated by the word
proved more important for the develop-
ment of Australia than for the history
of the United States. This
process of squatting was ex-
L a tremel y simple ; sheep or cattle
breeders, on their own responsi-
bility, without any authorisation, and
without payment of purchase money or
quit-rent, took possession of tracts of
country for grazing purposes, and thus
withdrew them from any possibility of
being legally divided among later can-
didates.

it was in the first place essential for
the squatter's trade of stock breeding
that the " run " which he appropriated
should cover a large extent of country.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES
Moreover, if endless quarrels and disputes endeavoured to discourage the holding of

were to be prevented among the owners
of the herds, no other expedient was left

large " runs." Undoubtedly the system
had led to abuses ; but in the absence

for them except that of all pastoral societies of a plentiful sapply of labour pastoral

under simple conditions, indeed of all
primitive farming generally ; that is to
say, since the country offered no natural
boundaries, and there was no inclina-
tion, time or means to erect artificial
boundaries, a clear demarcation
obtained by leaving broad tracts unused

occupation is practicable only over large
Aa tracts. As a beginning to clear

Unwise
Decree

his path the Governor issued a
decree declaring that no one
could acquire or had acquired
was any title to Crown Lands by mere occu-
pancy; and, in 1837, made the right to

between the separate estates. There was squat dependent on the payment of a

in fact a reversion to the most primitive fee of $50 annually. Whoever paid it

type of boundary ; that which consists had a right to settle on any unoccupied

of a strip or border of land. It is a type lands. This was resented by the party

still to be found in the case of African of self-government as being arbitrary

village communities, which are often sur-
rounded by zones of wilderness or forest;
it was prevalent in Europe of the Dark
Ages, and some German villages had
boundaries of this kind down
to the time of the Hohen-
staufen dynasty.

The most complicated diffi-
culties were thus produced
for the Government. It had
d3clared in England that the
whole continent was its
property, and all land be-
longed to the Crown. In this
way it possessed the incon-
testable right to dispose of
the land at pleasure ; but, on
the other hand, the equally
incontestable obligation was
imposed on it of directing

taxation, and was one of the causes
which led to the Constitution of 1842.

One of the measures adopted by Sir
Richard Bourke, on the recommendation
of his Council, had a disastrous
effect in encouraging specu-
lation in land. Possessed of
the Old World idea that men
would not go far to occupy
land if they could own a
freehold nearer the capital,
the Governor was persuaded
that the upset price of $1.25
per acre was too high and
induced squatting. He was,
therefore, empowered to re-
duce this to any lower
minimum he thought fit.
As might be expected, even

mi RTPHARn ROTIRK-F these arrangements did not

oiK K1CHAKL) oUUKiv.ii ,," . -. r .

its distribution in such a way This Governor's unfortunate attempt remove all the deficiencies
that all who shared in the ^ solve the land question contributed w hich are connected with

j , to the grant of a constitution in 1842. , . ,

most important duty of a young pastoral industry,

developing the colony mother country, Stock, indeed, flourished, and their profits

Colonial Government, and settlers alike were enormous. In 1839 there were

might have their rights secured. This reckoned to be a quarter of a million of

was, however, no easy task, owing to the cattle and more than a million -sljeep.

conflict of interests between large landed
proprietors and small farmers, between

The revenue of the colony was also
materially increased by the grazing tax,

cattle breeding and agriculture, which then fixed at 50 annually, to which
had rapidly been produced under the were added payments of two cents for

every sheep, six cents for every ox,
difficulty presented and twelve cents for every horse ; and the

squatter system.
The " squatting

tself to Sir Richard Bourke (1831-1838) enterprising spirit of the sheep farmers
as that which pressed most alone had made the colony economically
urgently for a solution. Un- independent. Of the export trade, which

* mp

TrTT witting that Australia had had risen in 1840 to 25,000,000 dollars

n not reached that stage in her by far the greater part was due to the

development when small holdings were wool industry.

desirable, and that the carrying capacity of But two drawbacks of the system are

unimproved land for sheep which had now incontestable : firstly, the uniformity of the

become the mainstay of the colony was
not more than a sheep to five acres, he

tax brought great grievances with it ; and,
secondly, pastoral enterprise on a large

1043

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

scale, the form of industry which alone
was encouraged by it, exercised a far-
reaching, but not beneficial influence on
the entire social development of the white
population of the continent. The right to
occupy land thus depended on the payment
of the fee, but after that the choice of
locality as well as the quantity
c * of land were entirely in the
HoUin s discretion of the colonist.
Under these circumstances,
most of the estates were far larger than
was required to graze the stock of the
owner, even if full weight is given to the
often pleaded excuse of the growth of
the herds ; and properties as large as a
German principality were not uncommon.
This mattered little, so long as free land
was available and to spare. But when
the supply grew limited these enormous
estates were felt to be hindrances on
colonisation, and the more oppressively
so since the gross disproportion between
the holdings was now obvious to all.

A few instances show for what the pro-
clamation of 1837 is responsible in this
respect. Apart from the inconsiderately
large assignment of land to the Aus-
tralian Agricultural Company one million
acres and the gifts to the officers and
the officials of the New South Wales
Corps, the con-
cessions of land
in the first de-
cades of the
century had been
confined within

very modest limits. Even the most wealthy
man could not call more than a few hundred
acres his own. How different was the posi-
tion of the pastoral kings of the 'forties and
'fifties ! When Governor Gipps, in 1845,
made a searching inquiry into the property
of some colonists, he ascertained that in
one district eight persons with eight licences
occupied 1,747,000 acres, while in the same
part nine others with nine licences had
only (!) 311,000 acres. The four largest
stock breeders of the colony were masters
of a territory covering approximately
seven million seven hundred and fifty
thousand acres.

The colossal size of such tracts of
property could not but be harmful to the
community. The pastoral industry re-
quires, on the one hand, immense tracts ;
on the other, and especially under the
favourable climatic conditions of Australia,
it has no use for a large supply of labour ;
even the largest sheep farmers retain
very few hands in permanent employ-
ment. The immediate result is a twofold
loss to the entire population.
The wool clip brings large sums
of money into the country,
which, instead of circulating,
remain in the hands of a few, and thus
encourages capitalism. Closely connected
with this is the impossibility of raising the
density of the population above a certain
minimum rate. Where hardly a dozen
hands are employed on hundreds of square
miles, and where, further, the settlement of
other independent colonists would diminish

Australian

Economic

Conditions

CHARACTERISTIC SCENE ON THE PASTURE LANDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES
1044

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES

the profits of the sheep owner, it
is impossible for the population to
become dense. As a matter of
fact, even at the present day, the
rural population of the interior is
trifling in comparison with that of
the towns on the coast.

Still more serious, however, than
all these defects in the Regulations
of 1837 was tne immunity of the
greater part of the land to which
claim was laid from the payment
of the grazing tax, since it inevit-
ably jarred upon the popular idea of
justice. A man who was fortunate,
or sufficiently unscrupulous, could
acquire a kingdom for his $50,
while his neighbour could call only
a few clods his own. As a matter of
fact, the owner of the above-mentioned
gigantic tracts had not paid a cent more
than any other colonist who had obtained
land after the promulgation of the regu-
lations. Sir George Gipps, who had been
at the head of affairs in Sydney since 1838,
attempted to check the extension of
squatting, and issued a proclamation
with retrospective force, by which every
squatter was bound, for the purpose of

THE HOME OF AN EARLY SQUATTER

at a time when there was no labour for
intension culture. The only result was
to stimulate the purchase of land, in
which too much of the colony's capital
was already locked up. Sir George Gipps,
however, carried the day. He impressed
upon the Home Government that the con-
tinuance of the practice which had hitherto
obtained would soon deprive the Crown
of all available land ; and . by this argu-
ment, and by proving that the greatest
outcry was made by the largest landed
proprietors, he succeeded in up-
holding his enactments ; only in
small points was any consideration
shown to the squatters. In 1842,
a new law was promulgated
which fixed the minimum price
for an acre at 5 dollars. The
sales of land fell off still more. In
1843, 4,800 acres, and in 1844 only
4,200 acres, were sold. It was
only when the crisis ended thai
these figures improved once more
to 7,200 acres in 1845, and 7,000
acres in 1846.

The change for the better coin-
cides with the fall of the Ministry

LATER STYLE OF SQUATTER'S RESIDENCE Q f p ee j Qn j une

maintaining his existing title to his
property, to buy at least 320 acres of land
by auction ; any improvement to the land
would be taken into consideration. If he
did not do this, he exposed himself to the
risk of being ousted from his position by
any other squatter who had conformed to
the prescribed conditions.

This proclamation met with the worst
possible reception from the people. Three
hundred and twenty acres, which form a
large farm elsewhere, could not in most
parts of Australia support a single family

new Colonial Secretary, Earl Grey, at
once returned to the old paths and
allowed the " concession of pasturage
rights for fourteen years, with the right
of pre-emption. At the same time the
regulations as to the recovery of the
quit-rent were considerably modified.
The land legislation in the succeeding
year went still farther in this direction,
since, on March 9, 1847, tne Governor
of New South Wales received authority
to let, in the uncolonised districts, tracts
of 16,000 or 32,000 acres for eight or

1045

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

fourteen years. Each lessee received with
his contract the right to acquire 640 acres
at the fixed price of 3,200 dollars as a
homestead, and to have the lease renewed
after the expiration of the fourteen years
for a further term of five years. The
rent was based on the number of the

head of stock ; a run which
Conditions i i_ t

f L a was l ar S e enou gh for 4,000
sheep was to cost 50 dollars.
Acquisition The F lease at the same time

gave the lessee the right of pre-emption.
The land question in New South Wales
thus obtained its definite settlement for
a decade and a half. On the whole, it
cannot be denied that the proclamation
of 1844 was bound to injure the colony
if we reflect on the bad economic conditions
of Australia. This was intimately connected
with another question, the difficulty of

obtaining labour. _,_ ,,_

During the first four decades
of Australian, history the
demand for labour was
adequately satisfied by the
assignment of convicts to
settlers. But in 1822, in
consequence of the publication
of Bigge's Report, the immi-
gration of freemen began to
assume large proportions ;
but the increased demand for
land more than absorbed the
additional supply. Wages,
which had been a matter for
Government regulation, be

SIR GEORGE GIPPS

of living, and consequently a desire for
better wage than that previously paid.
Competition with convict labour had
hitherto so degraded the free workers that,
as a rule, they were willing to live upon a
wage so small as compared with the
current prices of commodities as to render
it impossible for them to maintain even a
semblance of decency, to say nothing of
comfort, and even after the class of assigned
servants had been largely diluted by free
immigration, the convicts, emancipated or
bond, comprised one- third of the total
population, and had a proportionate influ-
ence on the labour market. But as the
colony grew, and the demands of the
settlers for assigned servants became far
in excess of the supply, the influence of
the convict element was to a great extent
removed. Wages rapidly rose, and about
,,.,, four years alter the arrival
of the first assisted settlers
the prospects of the working
classes greatly improved.

The commercial crisis of
1843, which shook the very
foundations of the new settle-
ment, was, like all such crises,
the sign of a legitimate but
over-strained prosperity. The
success of the colony in
attracting immigrants proved
for a time its undoing. By
the advice of his Council, Sir
Richard Bourke set apart the
proceeds of land sales as a

gan to be determined by the This Governor's efforts to settle the fund for paying the expenses

market rate. The distance
from Europe had acted as a
protective duty, and led to the establish-
ment of manufacturing of woollen cloth,
hats, earthenware, pipes, salt, candles,
soap, beer, leather, and many other
articles in common use, so that Went-
worth, writing in 1819, and not fore-
seeing the cheapening of freights, antici-
pated that the time was near when the
necessity of importing manufactured goods
from England would cease. Mr. Tregarthen,
who writes upon this subject with special
knowledge, estimates that " previous to
1836 the average daily wage of mechanics
in building trades was almost $1.50., and
iarm and other labourers, taking one year
with another, were paid at the rate of about
$90 per annum, with food and lodging."
. During the years following 1836, larger
numbers of free immigrants came to Aus-
tralia, bringing with them a higher standard

1046

of free immigrants, who, in
consequence, entered the
colony in a steady flow after 1837.

" The new arrivals were greedily looked
for and warmly welcomed by the settlers,
and all industrial pursuits revived amaz-
ingly. With the increase of enterprise,
wages rose, and the standard of living was
greatly improved. The thrifty and in-
dustrious found that, with the expenditure
of the same amount of energy which was
Tiv required at home to keep the

of Labour* W lf fr m the d r ' the y C uld
and Capital earn sufficient to live in com-
parative comfort and luxury.
Glowing accounts went to England of
the magnificent prospects of the colony,
while the demands of the increased and
more industrious population caused a
rapid expansion of trade and commerce.
The eyes of European capitalists were
attracted to Australia as a possible field

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES

for the profitable investment of their
money, and capital soon began to flow
into the country with a stream relatively
greater than even the stream of immigra-
tion. There were already two large banks
in existence, the Bank of New South
Wales and the Bank of Australia ; now
four new banks were established, to say
nothing of other loan and trust companies.
With increased facilities for borrowing
came an increased desire to borrow, and
enormous transactions in land and live-
stock took place all over the country,
payment usually being made by long-
dated bills on one or other of the banks.
The prospects of the colony seemed
excellent and fascinating, dreams of rapidly
acquired fortunes began to float before
the eyes of farmer, pastoralist, and
merchant alike."

In this feverish condition
of affairs the Government
policy of restricting land sales
proved an additional factor of
disturbance. Australia cannot
be a country of small holdings,
and English ideas on the
proper size of an estate were
ludicrously inadequate. The
Secretary of State, no doubt,
considered that a holding
limited to 320 acres was a
liberal allowance to any
settler; while the Governor,
not appreciating the almost
unlimited extent of good land
in the colony, feared to ex-
haust the Crown's domains.
The consequence of this limi-
tation of sales was to increase the price of
private lands. In the meantime money
was abundant ; four new banks had been
established, making six in all, and each
was eager for business. Advances were
freely made in many cases far in excess
of the value of the mortgaged property.
Mr. Tregarthen quotes an instance in
which $50,000 had been lent by one
. . bank, which only returned
ofTnac g ial $ 5oo per annum when taken
. . over by the mortgagees.

Meantime, wages increased
and notes were replacing gold in currency.
Finally, in 1843, the whole unsubstantial
fabric collapsed.

" The men who had been living
luxuriously on other people's money "
again we quote Tregarthen, because
the passage describes equally well the

A Time
of Great
Panic

later crisis of 1892 " found themselves
brought up with a round turn, and at
once tried to realise what they could.
Property upon property was forced into
a market in which all were sellers and
none buyers, and prices fell to ridiculous
figures. The rebound was even more
unreasonable than the infla-
tion. Sheep were sold by the
sheriff's officer for 12 cents per
head, and large stations near
Yass and on the Hunter River sold,
land and all, at the price of about 75
cents per head for the sheep which were
on them; cattle bought at 31 dollars
each were parted with for less than
a dollar per head. Houses and per-
sonal property all went the same way.
Carriages which in the prosperous days
had cost $700, sold for $15, and were
run as cabs by the servants
of the late owners."

The national self-conscious-
ness which found expressions
in the effort to resume the
use of Crown lands for the
people generally - was also
manifested in a movement
for constitutional reform. The
party was headed by a young
native of the colony, William
Charles Went worth, who had
returned to Sydney upon
taking his degree at Cam-
bridge. Governor Bourke

WILLIAM CHARLKS yielded one important step to
^ENTWORTH Wentworth's demands in 1831

A native of Australia and chief by Consenting to place the CSti-
agritator for a constitution. mates Qf expenditure before

his Council. But he roused the ire of the
reformers by his licence fee on squatters.
Wentworth, at a public meeting in 1833,
denounced this in correct style as " taxa-
tion without representation," and became
president of a Patriotic Association, which
was formed to secure self-government for
the colony, and to that end petitioned the
House of Commons and maintained a
parliamentary -agent in London. These
representations so far prevailed that in
1842 the English Parliament passed a new
Constitution for New South Wales. The
Council was increased to thirty-six mem-
bers, twenty- four of whom were to be
elected, and District Councils were formed
to administer the funds for the police and
local works.

The new Council, which met in August,
1843, soon came into conflict with the

1047

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Governor, Sir George Gipps, over his
Land Regulations. Went worth declared
the collection of licences to be " taxation
by prerogative." Gipps, however, held
to his own scheme and the dispute was
still unsettled when he handed over the
Governorship to Sir Charles Fitzroy (1846-
1851), under whose rule the struggle for

free institutions continued.

But before recounting the

C^stitution^ tails of. this struggle it will
be convenient to group together
the events connected with the successful
opposition to convict importation, which
was closely connected with the movement
for self-government.

During the first four decades of the
colonial development of Australia, the
question whether the introduction of
English convicts was useful or harmful
did not come forward. It was only at
the time when the free settlers began to
outnumber the others, and the influx of
resoectable English countrymen produced
an adequate supply of free labour, that a
movement made itself felt in favour of
checking or diverting the still numerous
arrivals of criminals from the Old Country.
In favour of this agitation was the notice-
able fact that the presence of so many
persons of low morality in the country
had a most detrimental effect on the
characters of both old and young. Out
of 60,794 inhabitants of New South
Wales, there were, in the year 1833, no
fewer than 16,151 convicts, and in 1836,
27,831. Many of these, however, would
return to England at the expiry of their
sentence. The number of crimes and
misdemeanours committed by these con-
victs reached an alarming figure. The
colony received an annual subsidy of
$i ,000,000 to defray the cost of maintaining
the convicts, and out of the subsidy there
was a substantial balance available for
public works. The system also meant
cheap labour. But these were poor set-
offs to the moral degradation
vl1 for which the system was

responsible-so at least thought
one party ot the colonists.
At the same time, it had been observed
that transportation was to blame for an
increase of crimes. While the population of
England had increased between 1805 and
1841 by 79 per cent., the number of crimes
had risen by 482 per cent. ; and from 1834
to 1845 as many as 38,844 prisoners were
transported. Transportation, however, was

1048

not reckoned as a punishment in the circles
which it concerned. It was owing to this
movement that a commission appointed
by the lower house recommended that the
transportation of criminals to New South
Wales and Van Diemen's Land should at
once be discontinued, and expressed its
opinion that it was desirable to facilitate
the emigration of prisoners to other
countries when they had served their
sentences. These resolutions went too far
for some Australians, although they had
so often petitioned for the discontinuance of
transportation. They feared to lose the
cheap labour hitherto available, and
begged, therefore, but without success,
that the existing arrangement should be
continued. The penal colony of Moreton
Bay, established in 1826, was done away
with in 1839 ; an d on May 22nd, 1840,
New South Wales was struck out from
the list of countries to which prisoners
could be transported. Only Van Diemen's
Land and Norfolk Island retained tem-
porarily their old character.

The new regulations did not, indeed,

meet with universal assent ; on the

. contrary, in consequence of the

a gcs ln renewed outbreak of wild spe-
the Fena culation in landj and the loss

suffered by the already perma-
nently settled districts, violent demonstra-
tions were made in these latter. The
Government, however, had neither incli-
nation nor time to destroy the work so
laboriously brought to a close and to begin
again ; so the cries for alteration died
away unheard.

But the Mother Country soon found a
difficulty in obtaining room for her
criminals when transportation to New
South Wales was abolished. Van Diemen's
Land was quickly overcrowded, and the
plan of founding a new convict settlement
in North Australia was shown to be
impracticable. At the same time the
thought of once more stocking with con-
victs the districts of East Australia, which
had been so capable of receiving them for
more than half a century, forced itself
forward ; and all the more so as the
colony of Port Phillip, now Victoria,
which had arisen meanwhile in the south,
cried out loudly for cheap labour, and in
New South Wales there were still land-
owners who earnestly desired to see the
restoration of the old condition of things,
with its abundance of workers. Both
encouraged the Home Government (1848)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES

to resume the old policy. The Act of 1840 with all its dazzling appeals to the passions
was repealed, and the institution of new of the people, can never be got rid of except

penal colonies was contemplated.

by the indirect process of Free Trade, which

Foremost in the movement against will gradually and imperceptibly loose
transportation was a young ivory-turner, the bands which unite our Colonies to us
who afterwards, as Sir Harry Parkes, was by a mistaken notion of self-interest."
the founder of Parliamentary institutions Earl Grey, in 1847, made an attempt to

grant a constitution which would make
a Customs Union and a Federal Govern-
ment inevitable. This was

in Australia, and subsequently of the
Commonwealth. Public meetings of pro-
test were held in Sydney ; but Mr. Glad-
stone, then Secretary of State, was

Constitution denounced by Wentworth as
Certain , -., ,.,. ,

regardless of expressions of Colonial feeling. ObJ . ations an interference with political

Two shiploads of convicts were sent over

liberty. The English Govern-

in 1849 The one ship was allowed to ment had abolished the preferences to

land her freight at Sydney, when the con-
victs were at once secretly hired by private

Colonial products in British markets.
Australia had therefore nothing to gain by

persons and sent up country ; the other, submitting to any limitation to her powers
which tried to land at Melbourne, had to of self-government. The terms of the
return with all on board. The vigorous Constitution will be more fittingly dealt
opposition of the people did not prove with in discussing the development of the
ineffective in the sequel. In ^^^^^^^^^^^^ severa -l colonies.
1851, New South Wales finally I The internal development

ceased to be considered as I I of New South Wales, which

a sphere of transportation. I was shown conspicuously

The prospects for Victoria I ^^KiSil during the 'forties and 'fifties

were hardly less favourable ; I by the treatment of the land

and in 1853 Van Diemen's I B|E?iP question and the transporta-

Land gained exemption for I tion question, was accom-

the future from any further panied by a corresponding

influx. After 1853 only I widening of the sphere of

Western Australia was still P l^iHI^K c l n i sa ti n - But while the

employed as a transportation I IKl ^ an< ^ l ues ti on mn g e( l chiefly

district ; and since South I JUt on t ^ ie distribution of the

Australia from the first had I |^l| districts which lay roughly

been constituted on a different H I within the boundaries of

principle, the institution did ^^^^^^^^ modern New South W T ales,
not last much longer. It was 0^*00" o? N^W ^outh W.L, this territorial expansion went
abolished there also in 1868. 1846-1851, under whom the struggle far beyond such limits. In
Closely connected with the for free institutions continued. the first enthusiasm of ea rly
popular movement for the abolition of colonisation, attempts were made to
transportation was the agitation for self- cover the whole continent at once ; but
government. The Constitution of 1842, when the deficiency of their powers was
which had given the Council a modified recognised, the settlers were content to
control over public expenditure, had also occupy some few districts, which were
whetted the popular appetite by accus- very unequally distributed along the coast
toming the people to elections. A per- of the continent ; for while they -were
sistent pressure was brought to bear in numerous in the south-east and east, the
England for an extension of Parliamentary distant west lay isolated, and the north
Government, which was only was entirely uhcolonised.

too acceptable to the pedants This peculiar distribution is very closely

Opinion Of e , v r^l/^m'ol nfTfi/^ rl^ of ^^nrio/-forl TirifVl fVio >licfnrw rkf fV ric*

Colonies

of the Colonial Office, who at connected with the history of the rise

that time were obsessed with of the different daughter colonies of New

the amazing notion that separatism was South Wales ; this again was strongly

a source of strength and the main- influenced by the course of the geographi-

tenance of an empire a danger to Great cal exploration of Australia. As a general
Britain.

The prevalent sentiment of the " In-

rule, exploration came first, and colonisa-
tion followed. This order of things was

tellectuals" of that day was thus expressed reversed only in 'the founding of Western
by Richard Cobden : "TThe Colonial system, Australia; there colonisation began in

1049

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Eiploratum

Interior

one part which had long been known ;
but the exploration of the hinterland was
the concern of later decades.

The successful expedition ot Went-
worth, Blaxland, and Lawson, in the year
1812, across the Blue Mountains into
the interior, had fired the zeal for ex-
ploration. The years 1817 and
^ gaw the discovery by

J' ? Xley f the extensive

grazing grounds known as the
Liverpool Plains. In 1824, two young colo-
nists, Hamilton Hume and William Hovell,
were the first to reach the vicinity of
Geelong, near modern Melbourne, from
Sydney, having traversed the whole south-
east of the continent, past the sources of
the Murrumbidgee and the Murray.
At the same time Allan Cunningham,
the botanist, continued the explorations
of Oxley in the north as far as the Darling
Downs (1827). Finally, in the years 1828
and 1829, came the important journeys
of Charles Sturt in the district watered
by the Darling and Murray Rivers. These
journeys not only threw new light on the
river system of the country, but also
guided the colonial expansion of Australia
into other paths. In this respect parti-
cularly all these travels were rich in
results.

The first successful founding of Port
Phillip was the direct consequence of the
journey of Hume and Hovell. Various
sheep farmers of the interior followed
Allan Cunningham's tracks, and thus laid
the real foundation of the later Queens-
land. The favourable report by Sturt
on the district between the Lower Murray
and the Gulf of St. Vincent was entirely
responsible for the colonisation of South
Australia. The travels of later years did
not, with one exception, produce any
political results when once the foundation
. of the new states had been

aying e laid. Geographically they are

not, for the most part, inferior
Other State, to '^ ^ ^ ^ ex

ploration, and certainly brought more
definite information as to the industrial
value or worthlessness of the soil than
the first rapid journeys.

This applies particularly to the expedi-
tions which took as their object the accurate
investigation of the river system of the

Darling-Murray, the travels, that is to say,
of Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, who
succeeded in accomplishing his survey
after six years of strenuous effort. It
also applies to the discovery of the interior
of Victoria " Australia Felix " by the
same traveller, and not less to the enter-
prises of the brave Edward John Eyre
born 1815, died January, 1902 on the
soil of inland South Australia, in the low-
lying lake region, and on the terribly
barren south coast as far as King George's
Sound (1839-1841).

Finally, similar results were achieved
by numerous exploring parties in the
heart of Western Australia. The majority
of these travellers could not bring back
very pleasant reports. Apart from
Victoria, all accounts of the industrial
value of the country were discouraging
or absolutely deterrent. The north-east
alone formed a striking exception ; there,
later travels accomplished results which,
to some degree, are comparable to those of
the first explorers. It was the journeys
A , of Ludwig Leichhardt which

Debt a* can claim this marvellous effect >
* and Queensland and North

Oerman A j. i- \~ 1-1

Australia are the regions which
owe their real discovery and opening up
to a German. It is not too much to
say that Leichhardt's splendid expedition
from Darling Downs to Port Essington
(1844-1846) increased the possible area
of colonisation by about a million square
miles, or one-third of the whole .con-
tinent. The colonists required only to
follow the steps of the explorer in order
to come into possession of an almost
incalculable expanse of profitable land.

A peculiar feature of all Australian
exploration before the middle of the
nineteenth century was its restriction
to the edge of the continent ; the centre
was not reached. The explanation is
found in the novelty of the sphere of work.
Until the broad strip of territory along
the edge was thoroughly explored in
most of its parts, there was no motive to
attack the real heart of the country.
Even when, in the second half of the
nineteenth century, the centre was chosen
as a goal, the want of any tangible attrac-
tion greatly checked the course of ex-
ploration.

1050

TEAM OF OXEN TRANSPORTING GIANT TIMBER

.2*

HARVESTING THE PINEAPPLES ON A GREAT FRUIT FARM

STORING THE SUGAR CANE PREPARATORY TO THE CRUSHING

ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S LEADING INDUSTRIES: SHEEP-SHEARING

SCENES FROM THE COUNTRY LIPE OF AUSTRALIA

Photos by Underwood & Underwood, London

1051

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLONIES

TASMANIA: THE GARDEN COLONY

the six colonies which compose the
Commonwealth of Australia, only
three Tasmania, Victoria, and Queens-
landare offshoots from New South
Wales ; South Australia and Western Aus-
tralia like New Zealand also were, on
the contrary, founded by direct colonisa-
tion from England. Considering the enor-
mous difficulties with which New South
Wales had continually to contend, this cir-
cumstance is not surprising. In the case of
Western Australia, the mere distance from
the east coast of the continent was sufficient

to restrain enterprise from the
Founding eastem side Rut South Aus .

* alia , was > in ^ origin, so
hazardous an experiment that
the Government in Sydney did well to
play the part of an unconcerned spectator.
In other respects even there, east of the
Great Australian Bight, the question of
distance was not devoid of importance.
It is, at least, no accident that the three
daughter colonies lie in one zone with
their mother colony ; that Van Diemen's
Land, an island comparatively far away
from Sydney, was colonised as the first
offshoot, to the complete neglect of the
neighbouring parts of the mainla'nd ; and
that even the first steps toward founding
Victoria were taken not from Sydney,
but from Van Diemen's Land. Seldom
has the natural advantage which attaches
to the position of an island facing a wide
stretch of opposite coast been so clearly
shown as here/

The first step of the Australian mother
colony towards the establishment of
independent offshoots was the founding
of the penal colony of Van Diemen's
Land in the year 1803. The cause of this
settlement was primarily the fear of
French schemes of annexation, which
more than once had given rise to the
erection of military posts on the coast of
Australia. In the next place, the English
Government did not think it advisable to

1052

concentrate too large a number of crimi-
nals in any one place. A small convict
settlement on Norfolk Island had already
been founded under the influence of this
idea, but had not proved successful. Van
Diemen's Land seemed, both in point of
size and of remoteness from the continent,
a more desirable place than Norfolk
Island for the confinement of dangerous
criminals. To carry out these intentions,
Governor King sent Lieutenant Bowen
with a detachment of soldiers and some
convicts to Van Diemen's Land in June,
1803. A settlement called Restdown, a
name later corrupted into Risdon, was
founded on the left shore of the estuary
of the Derwent.

About this same time the plan had
been formed in England of colonising the
shores of the recently discovered Port
Phillip on the south-east corner of the
mainland. The execution of the plan
was entrusted to Colonel Collins, a man
who had gone to Port Jackson as a judge
in the first convict ship, had been Advo-
cate-General of New South Wales for a
long time, and happened then to be in
London. The expedition, consisting of
two ships with four hundred convicts
and the necessary warders, landed on
the south side of Port Phillip, near
the site of the modern Sorrento. Small
excursions into the country soon showed it
to be bare and inhospitable, and as Collins

v * A** * also ' after Prolonged search,
First Attempt found no ^ ater> & he aban .

!?. , doned the district on J anuary

27th, 1804, in order to take
his people over to Van Diemen's Land,
a course which Governor King sanctioned
at his request. He sailed directly for
the estuary of the Derwent, broke up the
colony of Bowen there, and founded a
new joint settlement on the right bank
of the river at the foot of Mount
Wellington. He called the place, in
honour of Lord Hobart, the Colonial

EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLONIES TASMANIA

Minister of the day, Hobart Town, a
name abbreviated in 1881 to Hobart.
The north of the island was also occupied.
Simultaneously with Collins's expedition,
and again owing to the fear of a French
occupation, Colonel Paterson conducted
another troop of convicts from Sydney to
Van Diemen's Land, where, on the west
shore of Port Dalrymple, Yorktown was
immediately founded. Its first inhabi-
tants could not make themselves at home
there, and in 1808 they were taken further
into the interior and settled in a locality
called Launceston,
after King's native
town in Cornwall.
The occupation
of this new field
lor colonisation
from opposite
sides had greatly
hastened the ex-
ploration of the
island, and, with
it, the knowledge
of its economic
advantages ; but
the first steps had
been taken without
the orders of the
Home Government
and by no means
to its satisfaction.
The permanent
shortage in pro-
visions, which had
shown itself in
the early days of
colonisation in New
South Wales and
Norfolk Island,
was soon felt in
the newly-planted
colony. The cause
was primarily the
strict embargo on
the landing of any except convict ships ;
and next the complete economic depen-
dence on New South Wales. Under
ordinary conditions this would not have
led to inconvenience ; but when, as
happened in the year 1806, owing to the
great floods of the River Hawkesbury,
supplies ran short in the mother colony,
the position of all the settlers could not
but be the more precarious, since about
that time (1^07) the number of the in-
habitants of Van Diemen's Land was
increased by the entire population of

GOVERNOR DAVEY'S PROCLAMATION
This pictorial proclamation was intended to teach the natives
that British justice is even-handed, and that punishment would
follow bad treatment of the natives on the part of white men
as well as criminal acts on the part of the natives themselves.

Norfolk Island, where settlement had
always proved somewhat of a failure.
The conditions of life in Van Diemen's
Land under these circumstances did not
for the moment appear hopeful. For a
long time the Government was forced to
leave it to every convict to find his own
food, clothing, and shelter. Since the
flesh of the kangaroo was known to be
a suitable article of food, the convicts at
once scattered over the whole irterior.
This was advantageous for the explora-
tion of the country, but not calculated
to produce law
and order among
the colonists, and
still less to main-
tain good rela-
tions with the
aborigines.

The mutual rela-
tions of the whites
gave rise to many
difficulties. To
many a convict
who had been
given leave for a
kangaroo hunt,
but especially to
the numerous
prisoners who had
escaped from the
gaols, it did not
occur to return
from their rovings
in the interior to
the yoke of servi-
tude. They soon
acquired a taste
for the free life of
the bush, formed
themselves into
bands, which lived
by plundering the
white settlers, and
with this comfort-
able vocation, which was disastrous to the
prosperity of the colony, laid the founda-
tion for that wild bushranging which up
to 1830 was such a curse to Van Diemen's
Land, and spread later to the mainland.
The energetic Governor Arthur at last
succeeded, by a rapid campaign, in check-
ing the evil for a time at least (1825-
1826). Twenty years later, under Gover-
nor Wilmot, it revived with much greater
force.

Considering all the misery which the
bushrangers brought upon the island, it

1053

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

was fortunate that the outrages by which 3,000 souls, and about 3,000 acres were
they thoroughly intimidated the settlers under cultivation.

were confined mostly to the interior ;
the south and north coasts remained, on
the whole, free from such calamities, and
were therefore able to develop steadily
though slowly. Collins himself, who died
at Hobart Town in 1810, did not live to

see much of this progress. He
Enterprise had ^ the f oundations f or
in the

But there was as yet no cattle breeding
or sheep farming. These industries were in-
troduced in the succeeding years. Davey's
place was filled by William Sorell, an able
man, whose chief concern was not to place
free and respectable immigrants among a
population composed of convicts ; he next
turned his attention to the economic

N Col n ^ when he began, in 1807, to development of the island as well as to

construct the marvellous road
from Launceston to Hobart Town, but,
under the prevailing conditions, it had
not lain in his power to develop it farther.
Lieutenant-Colonel Davey, his successor,
arrived at Hobart Town only at the
beginning of 1813. In the interval, Gov-

the suppression of bushranging. He, like
Davey, was unable to achieve great results
in that field ; on the other hand, he had
attracted settlers in large masses, thanks
to the favourable terms which he offered.
Not only did the Government grant free
allotments of land, but it also supplied

ernor Macquarie had paid his first visit food for six months, lent the entire stock

(November, 1811), which was an impor-
tant event for Van Diemen's
Land, since Macquarie with
characteristic energy flooded
the island with an infinity of
new schemes, urged the con-
struction of roads, public
buildings, even whole towns,
and, what was most essential,
succeeded in awakening the
public spirit of the better
classes.

Now, for the first time, a
systematic organisation was
noticeable, which soon
showed itself in the procla-
mation of Hobart Town as

of cattle required at the outset as well as
the first seed corn, and,
besides this, guaranteed
a minimum price for the
entire produce in grain and
meat. When, in 1821,
Governor Macquarie set foot
for the second and last time
on the soil of Van Diemen's
Land after an interval of ten
years, the white population
amounted to 7,400 souls, who
had 14,000 acres under cul-
tivation and 180,000 sheep
with 35,000 cattle on their
pasturages.

The introduction of syste-

the capital of the country LIEUT.-GOVERNOR COLLINS matic sheep f armmg coin-

in the year 1812. Davey's
term of office, which lasted
until 1817, hardly carried out the extensive
plans of Macquarie. Mr. Jenks says of
him: "Davey seems to have treated his
office more or less as a joke. He was
totally without ceremony and would
drink and jest with anyone." Bush-
ranging alone was an eyesore to him, and
the wish to suppress it finally led him
to exercise his office. His first act was to
place the whole island under martial law ;
but besides this he forbade any inhabitant
to leave his house at night without per-
mission. If, under this regime, there was
any progress at all, it was entirely due to
private persons. In 1815 the colony was
already in a position to export wheat,
and in the following year salted meat,
to Sydney. In 1816, the first newspaper
was started in Hobart Town. When Davey
left, the white population counted quite

1054

cided indeed with Sorell's
governorship, but the credit
belongs to Colonel Paterson, who induced
the experienced sheep breeder, Mac-
Arthur, to send him over a shipload of
his famous flock. An attempt, made
in 1819, to put wool on the English
market failed lamentably ; in 1822, how-
ever, 794 bales were exported and re-
ceived gladly by the market. At the
present time the wool trade

from ^ as ^ on k een one f trie
most important industries.

It is easy to understand that
under these circumstances the colonists
regretted the departure of the Governor,
who was also personally popular. When
he was recalled in 1823, the Home
Government was actually petitioned to
appoint him for a second term.

Sorell's successor, Arthur (1823-1836),
did not do so well, in spite of a long

Tasmania

EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLONIES-TASMANIA

administration and great
services. His personal cha-
racter was partly to blame
for this : partly, also, his
stiff official bearing toward
the free settlers. Arthur's
entrance on office was con-
nected with important
changes in the constitu-
tional position of Van
Diemen's Land. The rapid
growth of the white popu-
lation during the last few
years had made the want
of an independent govern-
ment widely felt. Not only
were all questions touch-
ing the common interest GENERAL VIEW OF HOBART TOWN IN i860
dependent upon Sydney, but even the at the outset, demanded all his energies,
matters of daily occurrence were decided Soon after his arrival a band of more
there. Even though Macquarie tried to than one hundred criminals had escaped
check this evil by conferring larger powers from Port Macquarie and pillaged the

island. The strengthened military force
proved sufficient to check their excesses,
and 103 of the culprits were executed
by the orders of the Governor.
Clemency towards criminals was not a
characteristic of Arthur, although he
thought his island was intended only
for them, an opinion which Macquarie
in his day had held about Australia.
Arthur regarded the free settlers as
a necessary evil. The outcome of this
biassed attitude was an unremitting,
if not exactly paternal, solicitude for
the prisoners. When, in 1832, Macquarie
Harbour, on the west coast, had to be
given up on account of the excessive
density of the population, he estab-
on the Lieutenant-Governor, the position lished a new settlement at Port Arthur
was bound to become intolerable. This on the south-east, where the prison
view was held in London ; the same Act system was raised to a veritable science,
of Parliament, in 1823,
which limited the powers
of the Governor of New
South Wales entirely
severed Van Diemen's
Land from the parent
colony and put it on the
same footing as New South
Wales.

Colonel Arthur was ap-
pointed the first Governor.
His twelve years' tenure of
office was the most eventful
in the whole history of
Van Diemen's Land. The
settlement of the convict
question, which met him

1055

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HOBART

THE BUSY PORT OF HOBART TO-DAY

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

The second task of Arthur was the native
question. Notwithstanding all the unrest
which the struggles with the convicts as
well as with the aborigines, produced in
the island, they were not serious enough to
check the growth of the colony in any
sensible degree ; there was a surprising

increase during Arthur's term
* apld u of office both in the population

and the area of cultivated land.

At his arrival the population
had amounted to something over 10,000
souls ; when he left, in 1836, this total was
quadrupled, and the area of cultivation
had similarly increased. The number of
sheep then reached nearly a million ; and
the exports, which in 1823 had amounted
to approximately 125,000 dollars, had
risen to over $2,500,000.

In order to open up the industries
of the island on a large scale, the
Van Diemen's Land Company had been
formed in England, which obtained a
concession first of 250,000 acres, and then
of 100,000 acres more. It exercised an
influence on the development of the colony
up to quite recent times. For educational
purposes there were twenty-nine schools,
while religious needs were provided for by
eighteen churches. Peace was at last con-
cluded between the Government and the
newspaper Press, with which Arthur for
years had waged as bitter a war as Sir
Ralph Darling in Australia; after 1828
complete freedom of the Press prevailed.
On the whole, Arthur and the colony could
be satisfied with the results.

The subsequent fortunes of Van Die-
men's Land up to the beginning of the
second period in Australian development,
which began in the same way and about
the same time for all the Colonies, can be
given in a few lines. Arthur's successor
was Sir John Franklin (1836-1843), who
had already gained renown by his explora-
tion of the North Polar regions. Fitted

by his whole disposition for

scientist scientific p ursu its, he was the

as Colonial ^ competent to face the

numerous difficulties of his
responsible position, since the decline of
Australian industries began in his time.
Yet he too did good service to the
island. The organisation of the educa-
tional system was entirely his work. He
was further the founder of the Tas-
manian Society, now known as the Royal

Society of Tasmania ; he enabled William
Jackson Hooker to complete his work
on the flora of Tasmania, and finally
initiated the study of the geology and
natural history of the island by encourag-
ing numerous travellers. His adminis-
tration was the scientific era in Van
Diemen's Land.

The brief administration of his successor,
Sir Eardley Wilmot (1843-1846) was
occupied with the struggle between the
colonists and the English Government
about the abolition of transportation.
Van Diemen's Land had always enjoyed
the dubious advantage of being provided
with large masses of criminals in propor-
tion to its area. The detrimental effects
of penal colonisation in its moral and
economic bearings had therefore been most
noticeable there, and in 1835 there began
a systematic agitation of which the object
was to prevent convicts from being landed
on the island for the future.

This agitation did not completely stop
even in the succeeding years, and when,
at the beginning of the 'forties, the

prisoners of Moreton Bay were
Suppression taken ^^ iQ the island> h

. e immediately flared up again

Colonisation brightly> jj^j wag ^ded to

the flames when, under Wilmot's govern-
ment, 2,000 prisoners were brought over
from Norfolk Island, which after 1825 had
once more become a penal settlement, and
when it was seen that new batches were
constantly arriving from England. Up to
1844 the number of criminals sent to Van
Diemen's Land amounted to 40,000. The
most worthless of these were the Norfolk
Islanders, many of whom escaped to the
bush, where they combined in marauding
gangs of from 100 to 500 men, and waged
guerilla warfare on everyone. They
burnt the houses, killed the inhabitants,
drove away the cattle, and revived the
worst features of the old bushranging.
This was the climax. The agitation against
the system of penal colonisation became
general. A great league against it was
founded, and in the government of Sir
William Denison, who had succeeded
Wilmot in 1846, after several years of
effort, transportation to Van Diemen's
Land was finally abolished in 1853. This
reform was accompanied by a change in
the name of the colony, which has since
then been known as Tasmania.

1056

THE

AUSTRALIAN
ICOLONIES II.

THEIR

EARLY

HISTORY

VICTORIA AND QUEENSLAND

INK

DAUGHTER STATES OF NEW SOUTH WALES

quently granted, in consideration of the
dreaded encroachment of the French.
Henty's success prompted further enter-
prise, which was once more directed
toward Port Phillip. The leader of this
attempt was John Batman, a wealthy
sheep farmer of Van Diemen's Land. He
started in May, 1835, with several com-
panions for the south coast of Australia,
inspected the country, and "bought," on
June 6th, 1835, for a couple of dozen axes,
knives, and scissors, some blankets, 30
mirrors, and 200 handkerchiefs, with the
stipulation of a yearly payment of
about one thousand dollars in goods, two
enormous territories extending over a
total area of more than six hundred
thousand acres. The consequence
was the founding of an association
of various settlers of Van Diemen's
Land, the Port Phillip Association, and
the planting of the first settlement in
Geelong. The contract of
j sale was sent to England ;
I the Government naturally
\ termed it worthless. If the
j country was English, the
j natives had no right to
alienate the land without the
Governor's sanction ; if it was
| not English, the association
had no claim on the protection
of England. The association,
realising in the end that it had
no case, was content with
2p,ooo acres, worth then some
$37,500. In 1836 it was dis-
solved. In England there was
at first little inclination to
allow a new colony to be
founded. Circumstances were, however,
stronger than the will of the Govern-
ment. Even on August 26th, 1835,
Governor Bourke of New South Wales
had prohibited the occupation of land
round Port Phillip without his permission ;
but only a year later, in September, 1836,
he and the English Government saw

1057

colony of Victoria might, with
some justice, be spoken of as a
granddaughter rather than a daughter of
New South Wales," says Mr. Jenks. It
was finally founded by settlers from Van
Diemen's Land ; it was purely Australian
only in the period before it was definitely
colonised. This begins with the attempt
of Colonel Collins, which we have already
noticed, to establish a penal settlement on
the shores of Port Phillip in 1803. The
plan failed, with the result that no one for
more than twenty years troubled about a
country which was considered " unpro-
ductive and unpromising." In 1825 the
attempt was renewed, in consequence of
the favourable reports of Hume and
Hovell, and also with the object of fore-
stalling the French. The penal station of
Dumaresq was founded on Westernport,
which was mistaken for Port Phillip ; no
water, however, could be found, and the
settlement was discontinued
in 1828.

This concludes the pre-
liminary stage in the history
of the colony. The real found-
ing of Port Phillip, as modern
Victoria was called until 1851,
was due to private enterprise.
The few fishermen and sailors
who in the first half of the
nineteenth century led a half-
savage existence on the eastern
parts of the south coast of
Australia, were joined in 1834
by a family named Henty,
which settled in Portland Bay.
The members of it had
already taken part in the
unlucky enterprise in Western Austra-
lia, had afterwards hoped to find
tree land in Van Diemen's Land, and
now, since they were at the end of their
resources, ventured on a bold plunge into
the unknown. The special permission to
settle for which they applied was at first
refused by the authorities, but subse-

THOMAS

The Founder

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

MELBOURNE

1837

themselves compelled by an unexpectedly
large influx of immigrants to open the
country to colonisation.

After this concession, development was
rapid. The administration had in 1835
started with a single Government official,
a Captain Lonsdale. In the following year
it was enlarged by a regular police force,
with whom three land surveyors were
associated. In 1837 Sir Robert Bourke
himself laid the foundation of Melbourne
and Williamstown, and in 1842 the former
received a municipal government. In June,
1836, there were calculated to be 177
colonists with 26,000 sheep ; two years
later both figures were tripled or quad-
rupled. At the same time the exports of
the young colony amounted to 60,000
dollars, while the imports reached
$575,ooo. 'As in New South Wales, the
Crown lands were sold by public auction,
except for the period 1840-1842, when the
plan of allotment at a fixed price was tried.

Owing to the strong
tide of immigration,
by the end of 1841
no fewer than 205,748
acres had been trans-
ferred to fixed pro-
prietors, and in return
$1,971,500 had been
paid to the land fund,
from which source the
expenses of govern-
ment were defrayed.
This large sum illus-
trates the superabund-
ance of money in the
country at the time.
Owing to the scarcity
of workmen, wages of

1058

2j dollars a day and
upward were not con-
sidered high. An ox
cost from $60 to $75, a
horse $500 or more,
a sheep up to $15.

The inevitable re-
action followed. The
over - production o f
corn and cattle, which
very soon appeared,
led in every depart-
ment to a collapse
of prices, ending in
a regular bankruptcy.
Wages rapidly sank ;
the price of an ox
was hardly a twentieth
part of what it had fetched in the
past, and hundreds of businesses sus-
pended payment. The crisis was violent
but short ; it was ended by the middle of
the " forties." Since that time, apart from
the gold fever, which set in a little later,
and the declaration of the independence of
the colony, no event of great importance
has disturbed the development of Port
Phillip. It made continuous but rapid
progress. In 1840 Melbourne was declared
a free port ; in 1843 the trade of the
colony amounted to $1,705,000 ; in 1848 it
had reached $5,245,000. The proceeds of
the sales of land increased in proportion. Of
the $1,250,000 which composed the whole
revenue of the colony in the year 1850,
more than half came from that source alone.
The outgoings were 30 per cent, less than
the incomings.

It is pleasant to record that good rela-
tions existed from the first between the
colonists and natives. This is partly

THE GOLDFIELDS OF BALLARAT

1860

1059

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

traceable to the sensible behaviour of the
early settlers ; it is partly due to the ser-
vices of William Buckky, whose romantic
adventures are well known. He had been
a convict, and had escaped from Collins's
expedition in 1804. He then lived thirty-
two years among the .natives, and now
was the mediator between the two races.
We hear of hardly any outrages, fights
with the blacks, or similar occurrences, in
the history of Port Phillip. The settlers
could extend their sheep runs farther and
farther into the interior without molesta-
tion. In 1849 Port Phillip owned more
than a million sheep ; the export of woo?
amounted to nearly 13,000,000 Ib.

This splendid growth brought up as
early as 1842 the question of the political
severance of the colony from New South
Wales. Nevertheless, a whole series of
representations to the English Govern-
ment on the subject produced no effect.
The colonists then, in July, 1848, resolved
on a step as bold as it was original. Six
representatives should have been elected
to the Legislative Council which sat at
Sydney. The candidates were requested
to withdraw their applications, and the
English Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Earl Grey, was chosen as their solitary
representative. The scheme was, of course,
apparent. At the subsequent election in
October the Government insisted on the

nomination of proper deputies. But the
object of the colonists was so far attained
that the separation of the two colonies
was now seriously considered in England.
The Board of Trade took up the question,
the Ministry gave way, and in the Constitu-
tion Act of 1850 the settlement, numbering
77,000 souls, was raised to an independent
colony under the name of Victoria. The
news of this decision reached Melbourne
in November, 1850 ; but it was not until
July ist, 1851, that the new order of things
came into force.

QUEENSLAND

The expedition which had been made
by Oxley along the east coast north ol
Sydney had prompted several attempts
at colonisation. Settlements had been
founded at Port Essington, on Melville
Island, and at other points, but no re-
sults had been obtained. When, a little
later, the maintenance of the convicts in
Van Diemen's Land began to cause diffi-
culties, the expedient of founding a penal
station on Moreton Bay was adopted.
This lasted until 1840, and has, under
the name of Brisbane, remained to the
present day the seat of government of
the later Queensland. But it must not be
regarded as the true nucleus of the colony.
In the first place, the presence of the
penal station deterred all free settlers from
going there ; and next, the land in its

1060

EARLY PIONEERS ON THE BUSH TRACK IN QUEENSLAND

AN EPISODE OF EARLY COLONIAL LIFE IN QUEENSLAND
Native police under English officer preparing for an engagement with the blacks

neighbourhood was not offered for sale.
Queensland thus, at least for its first
beginnings, showed a unique development
from the standpoint of political geography.
It developed from the interior toward
the coast.

Queensland's real origin is traceable
to the squatters who followed the track
of Allan Cunningham from New South
Wales to the north. They continually
drove their flocks on further from the
Liverpool Plains to the New England
district and the Darling Downs. These
districts were even then the best pasture
grounds in the world, but suffered much
from want of access to the sea, since
owing to the intervening chain of moun-
tains the long detour by New South
Wales had to be taken before the value of
the products could be realised. Even the
discovery of a difficult mountain path to
Moreton Bay was of no use, since the
authorities absolutely prohibited the
squatters from any communications with
the place. A change was first made in
1859 after the abolition of the penal
station. Practicable roads were now con-
structed over the mountains, public sale
of land was introduced in 1842, and the
fresh stream of immigration was diverted
into the newly opened districts. Yet
there was not at once a marked develop-
ment ; good land was abundant, but the
labour was not forthcoming. In nine years
less than 2,500 acres had been disposed of.

Efforts were soon made to obtain poli-
tical separation from New South Wales.
The request was granted in 1859 ; the
north-east corner of Australia was pro-
claimed an independent colony under
the name of Queensland.

The aspect of Queensland at 'the
moment when it received independence
was essentially different from that of the
other Australian colonies at the same
stage in their career. The entire white
population amounted in 1859 to only
30,000 souls, who were equally distributed
between the town and the country.
There were some twenty towns, of which
Brisbane then contained 4,000 inhabi-
tants, while others of them boasted only
of some hundreds. The so-called town
of Allora had only fifty-five inhabitants.
These settlements were mere villages, not
only from the small number of their inhabi-
tants, but in their essential nature ; they
did not show a trace of organised muni-
cipal government. The greater credit is
thus due to the certainty and rapidity
with which all the authorities adapted
themselves to the new conditions suddenly
burst upon them. The example of Queens-
land proves the high capacity of the
Anglo-Saxon to adapt himself to any
form of polity, for the Queenslanders
entered upon self-government without
any such preliminary training as all the
other Australian colonies had enjoyed in
their gradual process of development.

1061

Travelling to the diggings in the days of the gold "rush."

Scientific mining: Battery of 105 stampers at Bendigo.

Diggers engaged in surface mining.

1062

In the old days : Military escort accompanying the transport of gold from the mines.

SCENES IN THE LAND OF GOLD: OLD METHODS AND NEW

Photos Underwood & Underwood, London

WESTERN AUSTRALIA : THE YOUNGEST STATE

YY/ESTERN Australia was founded
W directly from England. It is true
that a number of convicts had been sent
in 1826 from Sydney to the west coast of
the continent in order to counteract any
French schemes; but the establishment
of the stations of Albany and Rockingham
can hardly be termed a colonisation in
the proper sense of the word. The first
real settlement was in 1829. In the
previous year a Captain Stirling had
published a glowing account of the district
at the mouth of the Swan River, which
induced the Government to order Captain
Fremantle to hoist the English flag there.
But further measures of the Government
failed from want of means.

The moving spirit of the private enter-
prise which first started the colonisation
was Thomas Peel. In combination with
others he offered to send in the course of
four years 10,000 free emigrants to the
Swan River on condition that, in return for

. the cost, which he estimated at

e f $1,500,000, an area of 4,000,000
acres should be assigned to
him. When the Government
did not accept this offer, Peel consider-
ably reduced the scale of his scheme,
and this time was successful. Under
the guidance of Captain Stirling, destined
to be the Governor of the new colony,
to whom 100,000 acres of land had been
promised, the first band of emigrants
sailed from England in the spring of 1829,
arrived in June on the Swan River, and
founded at its mouth the town of Fre-
mantle, and higher up stream the town of
Perth. In the course of the next year
and a half thirty-nine emigrant ships, with
1,125 colonists, attracted by eulogistic
descriptions, followed the first party
to Western Australia. Fortune did not
smile on the attempt ; there was land
enough and to spare, but there was a lack
of working men, of roads, and of markets.

Peel's plan had been to cultivate
tobacco and cotton, sugar and flax, to
breed horses for India, and by fattening
oxen and swine, to provide the English

fleet with salted meat. All this came to
nothing ; the colonists themselves had
hardly enough to eat, and the larger their
landed property the greater their help-
lessness and distress. Many settlers, and
among them the Henty family, left the
ungrateful soil of the colony ; others lost
all they possessed : Peel himself, who had
settled with 200 colonists, is
fF i said to have lost $250,000. The
Settlers 7 found ers had, from the very be-
ginning, never given a thought
to the support of the new-comers, nor had
anyone troubled about dividing the land
even roughly, to say nothing of a proper
survey. It was nothing unusual for the
settlers to lie for months after their arrival
shelterless on the shore, exposed without
protection to the scorching Australian sun,
to sandstorms, and to violent downpours
of rain. Thus much of the labour that
had been expended on the soil was wasted,
while the health of the people suffered.
If they were finally in a position to occupy
the tract assigned to them, difficulties of
another sort began.

From the very first hour the relations
between the settlers and the aborigines
were most hostile ; and the aid of a
troop of mounted police was required for
the protection of the former. Under
these circumstances there could be no
idea of progress in the sense in which it
can be recorded of the majority of
other Australian colonies in their early
days. Everything went on very slowly,
especially as immigration, after the first
wave, absolutely came to a standstill.
The few settlers left in the

Slow Progress \ j , i > i .1

N land certainly did their ut-

~ * most ; they most energetically

set about breeding sheep and
horses, laid the foundation of some other
towns, and settled King George's Sound.
Development in the first six years did not
go beyond this; of 1,600,000 acres distri-
buted to the colonists as such, in 1834,
only 564 acres were under cultivation.

Some stimulus was given to development
by the Western Australian Association,

1063

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

founded by Major Irwin in 1835, which
was intended to encourage emigration
to Western Australia and safeguard its
interests in other countries. Among its,
members, besides English gentlemen, were
included some residents of Calcutta,
who contemplated the establishment of a
health resort as well as a trading settle-

_ ment. The company benefited

Development tfae CQ][ ifl many wayg . but

by Capital m ^^ Qf ^ agitation it

could not alter the slow course
of the economic growth. In 1840 the
population had amounted to only 2,300
souls ; two years before, the^ colonists
had received the privilege of sending four
members to the Legislative Council.

The year 1841 saw the formation of
some large undertakings to exploit Western
Australia. One was a limited company,
founded by the Western Australian
Association with the object of buying up
cheaply the land once assigned to Captain
Stirling, and then disposing of it in small
lots. Five dollars were to be paid
down for each acre. This plan never
came into execution. The other under-
takings of the same Western Australian
Association promised greater success. At
the suggestion of the traveller, George
Grey, of whom we shall hear more, a
settlement, which received the name of
Australind, was founded in the Lesche-
nault district on the north coast of
Geographe Bay, some hundred miles
south of Perth. It was flourishing splen-
didly when the company broke up ; the
small town still exists.

The want of labourers, which became
more urgent from year to year, drove the
colony to follow the example of Queens-
land. In 1845 the Council seriously con-
templated inviting German settlers, under
the impression that the harsh treatment
of German immigrants in the United
States would make it easy to divert the
stream. At the same time the advisa-
. bility of admitting pauper

Settlers immigrants was considered. The
Admitted most momentous resolution,
however, was the introduction
of transportation. According to a resolu-
tion of the Council of 1846, a certain
number of convicts, whose passage was to
be provided at the cost of the mother
country, were to be admitted annually,
in order to be employed on road-making
and other public works. The English
Government accepted the proposal only

1064

too willingly. While it did nothing at all
to help the execution of the two other
schemes, it lost no time in disembarking
shipload after shipload of convicts on
the welcome new transportation territory,
as Western Australia was officially de-
clared to be on May ist, 1849. After 1850
" ticket-of- leave " men were sent out,
and allowed freedom of movement within
the colony, subject to the obligation of
periodically reporting themselves to the
police.

In contrast to New South Wales and
Van Diemen's Land, the Colony of Western
Australia was greatly assisted by the
introduction of penal colonisation. By
April, 1852, there were 1,500 transportees
in the country, half of whom were ticket-
of-leave men. This number implied a large
staff of officials, and a stronger military
force ; it also necessitated the construc-
tion of large buildings, for which the sum
of $430,000 was granted by England alone.
Thus money and life were brought into
the colony. The old colonists took heart
again, a new stream of free settlers flowed
in, more and more land was bought and
cultivated, and the land fund
grew in an encouraging fashion.
Coal-fields were also discovered,
guano beds were exploited,
and sandalwood exported ; the Madras
Cavalry began to obtain their remounts
from Western Australia, and a pearl
fishery was started in Shark Bay. Under
these circumstances it is not wonderful
that the white population, which had
only amounted to 5,000 in 1850, was now
trebled. The number of sheep and cattle,
as well as the volume of trade, showed a
corresponding increase.

There was, however, a dark side to this
bright picture. In spite of the increase
in sales of land, the incomings did not
cover the expenditure. In order to make
good this deficit, an arrangement had been
made by which the ticket-of-leave men
should be able to buy their liberty at a
price varying from $35 to $125, according
to the length of their sentence. But in
spite of the extensive use which the
transportees, who in Western Australia
belonged exclusively to the male sex,
made of this privilege, the measure was
ineffectual ; the colony was more than
ever dependent on liberal subsidies from
the mother country. This had an im-
portant effect on political development,
since this financial dependence, in

Colony
Saved by

Convicts

THE IMPORTANT MANUFACTURING TOWN OF FREMANTLE

MUNDARING WEIR ON THE GREAT WATER SYSTEM OF COOLGARDIE

GENERAL VIEW OF PERTH, THE CAPITAL OF THE COLONY
SCENES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA TO-DAY

Photos Creenhatn & Evans, Perth

1065

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

MUSTERING CATTLE ON AN AUSTRALIAN STATION

connection with the transportation which
suited England, was the chief reason why
Western Australia was absolutely ignored
when a responsible government was granted
to the other colonies. A third reason was
the composition of the inhabitants and
their stage of civilisation in 1850.
Even in 1859, 41 per cent, of the male
population were actual or former convicts,
and in most localities these convicts

Caused bad blood in
the adjoining colonies,
as well as the circum-
stance that many
convicts from Western
Australia, on serving
their sentence, turned
their steps toward the
east. In 1864, Victoria
raised a violent protest
against the continu-
ance of penal colonisa-
tion in the far west
of the continent, and
demanded measures of
repression. Finally, in
1868, the English
Government struck
Western Australia out
of the list of penal
colonies, after it had
received in all 9,718
transportees. The
complete ruin of the colony, which
the colonists who had been enriched
by convict labour prophesied, did not
occur.

It is only recently that it has been
able to meet its outgoings from its
own resources, and not until 1890 did
it receive self-government and attain
the same footing as the other colonies.
But the discovery and working of

outnumbered the free colonists. The large goldfields in the interior guarantee
number of illiterate persons, excluding to it, however, perhaps the most suc-
the actual convicts, reached 37! per cessful course of any of the Australian
cent. It was absolutely impossible to colonies,
place a commun-
ity so constituted
on an independent
footing.

Western Australia
was long in making
up for its original
inferiority to the sister
colonies. It lost, how-
ever, its character of
a penal colony quicker
than was acceptable
to the free and the
emancipated colonists,
who were spoilt by
the cheap price of
labour and the sums
of money spent by
the mother country on
transportation. The
continuous influx of
escaped criminals soon

1066

RUNNING IN" HORSES FROM THE BUSH

SOUTH AUSTRALIA IN DEVELOPMENT

""THE founding of South Australia, which,
* like Western Australia, was colonised
from England, was really due to the
favourable accounts brought back by the
explorer Sturt as to the country seen by
him at the mouth of the Murray, and to
the report of Captain Collet Barker, who
was entrusted with the exploration of the
Gulf of St. Vincent. In consequence of
this, the South Australian Land Company,
which included, besides a number of
members of Parliament, Edward Gibbon
Wakefield, was formed in London in 1831.
Wakefield had learned from personal
experience the defects of English prison
life ; he saw the only remedy in a
systematically conducted removal of the
superfluous English population, which,
in his opinion, plunged the masses into
distress and misery and assisted crime, to
new scenes, such, for example, as South
Australia, just then coming into notice.
According to his plan, large uncultivated
tracts of land should be
assigned to a colonisation

sufficient means, on the
understanding that it founded settled com-
munities. The company was to indemnify
itself for all initial expenditure by the sale
of land at fixed prices ; the profits above
that were to be applied to the cost of
bringing over English workmen to the
colony. This idea of an emigration fund
raised by sales of land originated with
Wakefield, and was the essential feature of
his system. It is discussed and warmly
praised by Mill in the last chapter of his
" Political Economy." In every colony
there were to be neither more nor less
hands available than required.

The Government at first took up almost
the same attitude toward Wakefield's
plans and the proposals of the South
Australian Land Company as toward the
founders of Port Phillip. There was a
reluctance to sap existing settlements by
establishing new ones ; and, further, it
seemed impolitic to confer legislative
rights on a private company. On the

f L

other hand, the influence of the Wakefield
family was strong, and possibly this new
system might prove more lasting than
those previously adopted. The Govern-
ment therefore, in 1834, resolved to make
an attempt on the lines of Wakefield's
plan. The means for the undertaking
were to be furnished by the company.
The direction of land sales and

emi S ration was P lace( * in t] ? e
nan ds f three commissioners in
London ; in the colony itself
the Government reserved the right to
nominate a Governor and some other
officials, while the rest were to be nomin-
ated by the company. It was definitely
promised that no convicts should be
transported from the United Kingdom
to the colony. The first three ships sailed
from England in February, 1836. Two
landed in July on Kangaroo Island,
where the passengers immediately began
to establish themselves on Nepean Bay ;
the third ship, which did not arrive until
August, sailed to the coast of the main-
land and the banks of the River Torrens.
The choice of this landing-place by
Colonel Light seemed to most of the new-
comers as unsuitable as the choice by them
of Nepean Bay appeared to him. In the
next year, the votes of the colonists were
finally given in favour of the spot chosen
by Light ; and the building of a town,
which, at the wish of King William IV.,
was called Adelaide, after his consort,
was at once begun.

The development of the young colony
shows a brighj and a gloomy side. The

. . existence of two sets of officials,

, and the numerous restrictions
m the Early , . ,
, which were imposed on the

officials of the company, soon
led to such friction that the majority of both
parties had to be recalled. These measures
exercised little influence on the purely
economic development. In 1837 alone
more than 60,000 acres of land were sold,
from which $215,755 accrued to the com-
pany. Up to the middle of 1839 a quarter
of a million acres had been sold, bringing

1067

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

in $1,150,000. In 1840 there were 10,000
settlers, who owned 200,000 sheep and
15,000 head of cattle.

The rapid and brilliant rise of South
Australia, like that of Victoria, was
followed by a great financial crash. The
frenzy for speculation in land had grown
to a prodigious extent ; and, although
wages reached a giddy height

eculation (sknled workmen earned up to

V 1 _ over twelve dollars a day), the

' profits to be made by speculation
proved a greater attraction and distracted
many from industrial enterprise. In
addition to this, the second Governor of
the colony, Colonel Gawler, allowed him-
self to be led into constructing large public
buildings and parks, although the mother
country had expressly refused to bind
herself to any contributions. The colony
had very soon to deal with a debt of
$2,025 ,000. The South Australian Company
was equally to blame with Colonel Gawler
for this turn of affairs. The head of the
company, Angas, had also speculated in
a manner quite contrary to the objects
which Wakefield had in vew. He invested
half the company's capital in land, engaged
in whale fishery, trading, and banking,
and induced the colonists, by guaranteeing
them an excessively high interest on
deposits, to entrust him with their cash.
The commissioners also did not rightly
understand their duties. The price which
had been fixed for land before the founding
of the colony was $5 an acre ; huge tracts
had been disposed of at that figure. But
instead of raising
the price, they
took the aston-
ishing step of
reducing it to
three dollars.

Some improve-
ment of the situa-
tion was finally
effected by the
appointment of
George Grey to
guide the colony.
His name will
always be con-
spicuous in the
history of the
British colonies,
but it is also famous in the field of ethno-
graphy. On his return from his two
journeys through Western Australia in 1837
to 1839 h e na d prepared a memorandum,

1068

VIEW OF ADELAIDE IN 1

showing the methods by which the British
possessions in the South Seas and in South
Africa should be administered. When South
Australia declared itself bankrupt in 1841
the opportunity was offered him of putting
his theory into practice. By his appoint-
ment to be Governor in Adelaide the
administration of the Colonies practically
was transferred to the English Govern-
ment.

Grey found a heavy task awaiting him.
The treasury was empty ; a host of
officials had eaten up the revenue of the
colony, and the burden of debt was
crushing, notwithstanding that some of
the bills drawn by Gawler upon the Home
Government, which had been dishonoured
on presentation, were ultimately paid by
the British Parliament. Grey's first step
was to discontinue all building not
imperatively urgent, to dismiss super-
fluous officials, and to lower the salaries
of the rest. An improvement was soon
apparent. In 1841, out of 299,077 acres
sold, only 2,503 had been under cultiva-
tion ; at the end of 1842 there
f e a were more than 20,000 culti-

**T C ' . va ted, and that with an increase
Pro-l/onsul ., 1 . r

in the population from 14,000

to 17,000 souls. Unfortunately for the
colony, the mother country was not willing
to take over the rest of the old burden
of debt. Grey was neither able nor willing
simply to break with the existing financial
methods ; he issued bills drawn on the
Home Government, but only a small part
of them were paid. This caused ill-feeling
in South Austra-
lia, where the
financial crisis
reached its height
in 1843. Mean-
while the situa-
tion grew more
tolerable as rich
veins of copper
were discovered
and worked.
From that time
South Australia
has developed
regularly with a
few trifling fluc-
tuations, easily
explicable from
the youth of the undertaking. The pop-
ulation amounted in 1848 to 38,600
whites, against 3,700 natives ; the trade,
in 1839 onl y $2,i35,foo, reached in 1849

PRESENT-DAY SCENES IN ADELAIDE,
1. Parliament House ; 2. Town Hall ;

the sum of $4,440,000, of which $2,520,000
came from exports.

The term of office of George Grey, so
fraught with blessing for South Australia,
ended in 1845 it was his fortune always
to be placed in a position where a keen
sight and a tight grip were necessary
for he was then removed to New Zealand.
The history of his unimportant successors
is featureless except for the efforts of the
colonists to win political self-government.
When the colony was founded, the English
Government had intended to give it a
constitution as soon as the number of
inhabitants reached 50,000. In 1842,
when the system of commissioners was
abolished, a council of eight members,
four of whom were officials and four

Photos. Edwards and Exclusive News Agency.

THE CAPITAL OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
3. University ; 4. The principal street.

colonists selected by the Governor, was
placed under the Governor. In spite of
the growing prosperity of South Australia,
some years had yet to elapse before the
Home Government would make any
further concession, although the interests
of the colonists were insufficiently repre-
sented by the new institution. It then
happened that in 1849 the population,
contrary to expectation, amounted to
52,000. The Government kept faith, and
in 1850 South Australia became a recog-
nised colony. On August 2Oth, 1851, a
council of twenty-four members met for
the first time ; of these, two-thirds were
elected by the colonists, eight but of
these only four might be officials were
nominated by the Governor.

1069

SOME OF THE LEADING EXPLORERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT

Flinders circumnavigated Australia in 1801 and charted much of the north coast. Burke and Wills were the first to
cross the continent from south to north, but died of starvation on their way back (1860). Sir Thomas Mitchell, in the
thirties, made four expeditions into the interior, and his labours were extremely valuable. Warburton crossed to Western
Australia from the east : Sturt was another of the chief explorers, and explored South Australia and the interior in 1845.

1070

THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF

AUSTRALIA

AND THE BIRTH OF THE COMMONWEALTH

""THE favourable and rapid development
^ of the younger Australian Colonies in
the second half of the " forties " had fos-
tered, among those English statesmen who
were interested in the colonies, the idea
that the same measure of self-government
should be granted them that New South
Wales had enjoyed since 1842. Van
Diemen's Land and Port Phillip, which
were in a position to meet their outgoings
entirely from their own resources, had
the foremost claim to the independent
control of their revenues ; but South
Australia also was rapidly approaching
this same consummation. Western Austra-
lia alone lagged behind.

In 1847 these ideas took some tangible
shape. Earl Grey, then Secretary of State
for War and the Colonies, openly expressed
to the Governor of New South Wales his in-
tention of granting to the young colonies
the constitution of 1842 ; in fact, he wished
to take a further step, and to establish
in all Australian Colonies, by the side of
the Legislative Council, an Upper House,
whose members should be drawn from the
town communities. Since a vigorous
protest against the last two heads of the
plan was raised in Australia, he aban-
doned them, but put the matter before
the Committee of the Privy Council for
Trade and Foreign Plantations. As the
result of their deliberations the com-
mittee recommended the introduction of

a constitution, modelled on
that Qf Ngw South Wales> for

Van Diemen's Land, South
Australia> and p ort phillipi

and the last-named was to be separated
from New South Wales.

The elaboration of details was to be
entrusted to the various parliaments ;
but the committee expressed their ex-
pectation that the Customs duties and

Proposals
for New
Constitutions

Excise would at first require to be ad-
ministered by the British Parliament.
At the same time the committee advised
the introduction of a uniform tariff for
all the colonies. The Bill, which was
drafted in accordance with the sugges-
tions of the committee, became
law on August 5th, 1850, under
the title, "An Act for the
Better Government of Her
Majesty's Australian Colonies." Van
Diemen's Land, South Australia, and
Victoria hitherto Port Phillip received
the constitution recommended by the
committee. Western Australia had the
prospect of obtaining it so soon as it
was able to defray the cost of its civil
administration. Every proprietor of land
of the value of $500 who was at least
twenty-one years of age, had the franchise,
as had everyone who occupied a house
or rented a farm at the annual value of
$50 The customs and excise were settled
on the understanding that the colonial
Governments decided their amount ; but
no differential duties were to be imposed.
At the same time goods intended for the
use of English troops were not dutiable,
and existing commercial contracts were
not to be prejudiced.

With the Act of August 5th, 1850, the
chief step toward the alteration of the
constitution of the Australian Colonies
was taken ; but it did not signify any
final settlement. It is true that the
receipts from the customs were guaranteed
to the colonies, but they were still collected
by officials nominated from England.
Again, tho profits from the sale of the
Crown lands were not entirely at the
disposal of the Australians, since half
was applied by the mother country to the
encouragement of emigration. Finally,
the nomination of the higher officials

1071

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

rested completely with the Home Govern-
ment. A general agitation against the
retention of these powers was raised
directly after the introduction of the new
constitution. Absolute self-government,
without any restrictions, was demanded,

, and the English Government
Government did not dday t() concede this

clamorous demand. In April,
8 1851, the entire management
of the Customs was put into the hands of
the colonies ; the following year the
application of the proceeds of the digger's
licences was entrusted to them, and at
the same time it was left to their dis-
cretion to bring before the English
Government their further wishes as to the
completion of the constitution. At the
end of 1854, the colonies submitted their
propositions to the Government. Those
of South Australia and Tasmania received
the Royal assent at once, while those of
Victoria and New South Wales were
reserved to be confirmed by Act of Parlia-
ment, on the ground that they involved
concessions which the Crown by itself
was powerless to make. The confirmation
of Parliament was granted, after some
slight amendments had been made, in the
year 1855.

The contents of the new constitutions
may be briefly recapitulated as follows.

The most essential innovation, which was
common to all four colonies, was the transi-
tion from the single-chamber system to
the dual-chamber system. By the side of
the former Legislative Council, which was
thenceforth the First Chamber, or Upper
House, came in each case an Assembly, or
Lower House. In New South Wales the
former consisted of twenty-one members
nominated by the Crown for life, while the
Lower House, according to the scheme,
numbered fifty-four representatives, who
were chosen from the well-to-do classes of
electors possessing a certain income.
At the present day the number of members
of the Upper House is unlimited, while that
of the Lower House amounts to ninety ;
these are elected for three years. The
Council of Victoria comprised, after the
law of 1855, thirty members at the present
day forty-eight; the Assembly, seventy-
five (now ninety-five). Both Houses are
n .. elective in this colony. The

of the New members hold office for six

and three years. In South

Conshtuhons Australia ^ Coundl> nomi .

nated by the Crown, consisted of twelve ;
the Assembly, elected by votes, comprised
thirty-six members ; but in 1856 voting
was introduced for the Upper House also,
and the number of its members was fixed
at eighteen. The number in the Upper

IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE GOLD RUSH : A BUSY SCENE AT BENDIOO
1072

GOLD-SEEKERS: THE PIONEERS WHO HAVE FOUNDED SO MANY AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITIES

House was raised later to twenty-four,
sitting for twelve years, and in the Lower
House to fifty-four members, elected for
three years, who were well paid. In 1902,
however, the number of representatives
was lowered to eighteen and forty-two.
In Tasmania, finally, the Council has
always numbered eighteen, and the
Assembly thirty-seven representatives,
who are all elected.

In each colony there is a Governor,
nominated by the Crown, but paid by
the colony. The usual term of office is six
years. The position of the Governor with
regard to the legislature and the Cabinet
is that of a constitutional sovereign.
But his power is also limited by the in-
structions which he receives from the
Colonial Office. His assent is necessary
to all Colonial Legislation ; but a Bill which
has received his assent, though it is then
provisionally enforced as law,
may be disallowed by the
Colonial Office. It would not
be possible to discuss within
the limits of our space the question as to
the real influence which the Governor
exercises in virtue of these legal powers.
Indeed, his influence, which in the case of
a man of strong character may be very

great, is, like that of the King, rather

personal and extra-legal.

The highest executive officials are the

Ministers, whose number varies from six

in Tasmania to nine in New South Wales.
The grant of full self-govern-
ment to the Australian Colonies

The New
Colony of
Queensland

in the middle of the nineteenth

Powers
of the
Governors

century, and the separation
of Victoria as an independent colony from
New South Wales, did not complete the
organisation and the external enlargement
of this Colonial system. Since gold had
been found in large quantities in the
district of Moreton Bay, in 1858, at the
petition of the inhabitants this also was
separated from New South Wales, and,
under the name of Queensland, was pro-
vided with the same self-government as
the elder sister colonies. The Legislative
Council contains forty-one members nomin-
ated by the Crown, the Assembly seventy-
two members elected for three years.
Seven Ministers are associated with the
Governor, who is nominated by the Crown.
The growth of Queensland has been as
steady as that of most of the other colonies.
The year 1866 brought drought and great
mortality among the cattle, involving the
ruin of many businesses and private

1073

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Queensland's

Material

Prosperity

individuals ; the financial crisis also, at
the beginning of the " nineties " struck
the colony with great force. But in
spite of these blows the population has
grown comparatively rapidly and prosperity
has increased. The number ot inhabi-
tants, which in 1861 hardly amounted to
35,000, had reached 147,000 in 1873 ; on
January i, 1913, it amounted
to 636,425 souls. This growth,
which is due principally to
large immigration, has been
much helped by the policy of subsidising
the immigrants, adopted since 1871. The
rich gold-fields, of which some twenty-
five are being worked at the present day,
attracted large multitudes. The immense
size of Queensland, stretching through
eighteen degrees of latitude, and the
consequent variety of industries in the
sparsely-peopled north all the tropical
products are grown, while in the densely-
inhabited south the crops of the temperate
zone are cultivated led some years ago
to the idea of its division into two provinces
with separate governments, but a common
central administration. The twenty-first
degree of southern latitude was suggested
as the boundary line.

Western Australia was the last of the
Australian Colonies to receive self-govern-
ment. The system of transportation was
in force there until the year 1868. Its
discontinuance did not alter the relations
to the mother country. The year 1870
saw the introduction of a Legislative
Council composed of members partly
nominated, partly elected ; but it was not
until October 21, 1890, that the previous
Crown Colony joined the ranks of the
other colonies on equal terms. Its Council
contains twenty-four members, the
Assembly forty-four, all of whom are
elected. The development of Western
Australia has only recently been more
rapid, since large gold-fields of great extent
were discovered in 1887. The population,
Grant numbering in 1881 barely

o/Self 30,000 souls, has increased,

Government almost entirel Y through im-
migration, to over 300,000.
The internal development of the Colonies
was early accompanied by the effort to
spread the power of Australia beyond
the limits of the continent. This was
noticeable as far back as 1869 in the
opening of the Fiji question ; but no real
oversea expansion took place before 1883.
Notwithstanding the position of New
1074

Guinea in the immediate vicinity of
Australia, neither the Colonies nor England
itself had ever shown any inclination to
acquire territory there. It was only about
the middle of the 'seventies, when
rumours of Germany's intentions on the
immense island were prevalent, that the
Australians remembered its proximity, and
New South Wales suggested off hand the
incorporation of that part of New Guinea
which was not subject to Dutch suzerainty.
England assented, on the stipulation that
the Australians bore the cost of adminis-
tration ; that they refused. The question,
however, was still discussed in Australia,
and when the Germans really threatened
to take steps, the Premier of Queensland,
on his own responsibility, declared that
he had taken possession of the eastern
portion of the island in March, 1883.
England then shrank from placing the
destiny of so large a territory in the
hands of the small population of Queens-
land, although the Australian Colonial
Conference in December was in favour of
the acquisition. Meanwhile Germany
actually took possession of the north of
XK R * k the island, and England was
ihe Bri n obliged to content herself, on

New Guinea November 6 > 1884, with the
south-east alone. At the pre-
sent day British New Guinea is governed
by the Commonwealth as a separate colony.
A Governor and a Chief Justice have been
appointed by the Federal Government and
the island is a dependency of Australia.
The solution of the question of self-
government would certainly not have
been so quickly reached had not all the con-
ditions in Australia at the beginning of the
'fifties been suddenly and radically
altered by the discovery of rich gold-
fields in various districts. Gold had
already been found during the construc-
tion of the road over the Blue Mountains
(1814). The Government had hushed up
the discovery from fear that it would be
unable to control the excitement which
would assuredly be caused by its publica-
tion. It was only when the opening of the
Calif ornian mines in 1848 had attracted
the attention of the world that serious
attention was paid to the precious metal
in Australia. An Australian blacksmith,
Hargreaves, who had spent some years in
California, carefully examined the moun-
tains near Bathurst, in February, 1851, and
on the 1 2th of that month he found quan-
tities of alluvial gold in Lewes Pond Creek.

HOISTING THE BRITISH FLAG IN NEW GUINEA

Fearing that the Germans would take over the island of New Guinea, the Premier of Queensland took
formal possession of the eastern portion in March, 1883. Germany took over the northern portion.

69 1075

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

This discovery did not remain a secret
like the former one. The whole continent
rang with the news, and by May dense
crowds of colonists were flocking to the
place. A few weeks later gold was also
found near Ballarat in Victoria ; then in
October also near Mount Alexander, north
of Melbourne. A few months later the
.pk e veins of gold at Bendigo to the
G * south were also discovered. In
Fever Queensland, gold was not found
until 1858, and in Western
Australia not until 1886-1887.

The effect of these discoveries upon the
world was indescribable. In the first
place the whole population of Australia
caught the gold fever. Every man who
could work or move, whether labourer,
seaman, or clerk, rushed to the gold
washings. The old settlements were so
emptied of their inhabitants that Mel-
bourne for a long time had only one
policeman available. South Australia pro-
duced the impression of a country in-
habited merely by women and children.
The situation was the same in Tasmania,
and even in New Zealand. Afterward,
when the news of the discoveries reached
America and the Old World, a new wave
of immigrants flooded the country, and
the whole overflow of the population
streamed into the gold-fields.

Under these circumstances the popula-
tion of Australia rapidly increased. In
Victoria, where the influx was the greatest,
the population had numbered 70,000 souls
in July, 1851 ; nine months later that
number was living on the gold-fields alone,
and in 1861 the whole population of the
colony amounted to 541,800 souls. New
South Wales then reckoned 358,200 inhabi-
tants; South Australia 126,800; Tasmania
90,200 ; Queensland had 34,800, and
Western Australia 15,600. This rise in
the figures of the population was encourag-
ing to the economic development of the
Colonies, but it put the Government which
n . et . was suddenly confronted with

Cas7d T these occurrences in a very
* U j SC f, : difficult position. The exodus
of civil servants from their
recently created posts was so universal that
the administration threatened to come to
a standstill. Salaries were doubled, but
to no purpose ; the attraction of the gold-
fields was too potent. The Governor of
Victoria found himself finally compelled
to apply to England for a regiment of
soldiers, who could not run away without

1076

being liable to a court-martial. The
Government offices were at the same time
filled by two hundred pensioned prison
warders, brought over from England.

The Government was soon faced by
another class of difficulties arising from
its legal position toward the new branch
of industry. According to the view of
the legal advisers of the Government all
mines of precious metals, whether on
Crown land or private property, belonged
to the Crown. They advised the Governors
therefore to prohibit gold-mining abso-
lutely, in order not to disturb the peaceful
development of the Colonies. Under the
prevailing conditions this counsel was as
superfluous as it was foolish, since the
means at the disposal of the authorities
were absolutely insufficient to enforce it.'
Sir Charles Fitzroy, the Governor of New
South Wales, contented himself with
issuing a proclamation, as soon as the
first find of gold was publicly announced,
which permitted gold-mining on Crown
land only on payment of a fixed pros-
pecting tax of seven dollars a month ;
and on the discovery of rock gold claimed
Laws to ^ or t ^ ie Government ten per
Regulate cen t- of the proceeds of work-
ing the quartz. This order
Gold - mlomg naturally met with little re-
sponse from the gold-diggers, however
much in other respects it was calculated
to aid the development of the colony by
increasing the public resources. It is true
that they agreed to it in New South
Wales, where the political situation had
not been so violently disturbed, but not
so in Victoria, where the Governor had
also adopted the enactment of Sydney.
For one thing, the Government was not
so firmly established there as in the
mother colony ; and Victoria had also
received a very high percentage of the
roughest and most lawless people as new
members of the population. Not every
one of them was so fortunate as to find
gold ; they could not pay the high fee,
and began to agitate, first, against the
amount of the impost ; secondly, against
the institution itself. The ill-feeling was
soon universal, not only in the gold-fields,
but also in the old settlements and towns.

The prevalent idea was that the applica-
tion of the large sums derived from the
licences and imposts merely to the pay-
ment of the costs of the administration
did not meet the interests of the popula-
tion, and that the system should be

1077

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

changed. A reduction of the tax did not
satisfy anybody ; on the contrary, dis-
turbances in the camps became more and
more frequent. A murder had been com-
mitted in October, 1854, in Eureka Camp
near Ballarat. The feeble police force
made some blunders in following up the
case, and consequently disturbances broke

out among the gold-diggers,
Disturbances

n c the hated prospecting licence ;

and, finally, when the Governor
had sent all the troops at his disposal into
the riotous district, a regular battle was
fought on December 3 between thirty
gold-diggers and a body of soldiers. Out
of the 120 rioters who were captured, the
ringleaders were sent to Melbourne to be
tried, but there was no court to be found
which, in spite of the overwhelming
evidence of guilt, would pronounce a
verdict against them.

The tax question was settled only in
1855. A gold-digger's licence, costing $5
for the year, was substituted for the
monthly prospecting tax, which was
abolished. In order to cover the loss of
revenue to the colonial exchequer, an
export duty of half a dollar on every
ounce of gold was imposed. This wise
measure laid the imposts primarily on the
successful gold-digger, a policy which
secured a good reception for the law and
satisfied all parties. Before the end of
the year the Governor of Victoria was able
to report to London that quiet prevailed
in every camp.

It is not necessary to follow in detail
the respective histories of each colony,
because each has followed, in the main,
along the same lines of political and
economic development. The turning-
point with all was the discovery of gold,
which caused a rush of population from
Great Britain that entirely shifted the
political centre of gravity.

The first use which every state made

^ * ts new P owers was i n t* 16
direction of democratising polit-

w ical institutions. The franchise

was gradually reduced until
all disabilities from poverty were re-
moved ; and, since 1900, universal adult
suffrage, without distinction of sex, has been
established in every state except Victoria.
Every colony also has had its conflicts
between the elective Assembly and the
nominated Council, which have resulted
either in a lessening of the money qualifica-

1078

Votes
es

tion of the councillor, or, as in Victoria
and South Australia, in the replacement
of the nominee by the elective system.

It has been found by experience that
those Upper Chambers which rest upon an
elective basis are more powerful than
those whose members are nominated.
Thus, the Legislative Council of Victoria
has always been able to assert its will in
opposition to the Assembly ; while the
Legislative Council of New South Wales,
like the House of Lords, having always
the fear of " swamping " before its eyes,
has always yielded to the ascertained wish
of the majority of electors. Disputes
between the two Houses have generally
arisen over money Bills, the Assembly
claiming that the Upper House has only
the powers of the House of Lords with
regard to these that is to say, that it
may reject but not amend them, the
Council insisting that it has every power
of a legislative chamber, of which it has
not been expressly deprived by the
Constitution Act. Usage has confirmed
the claim of the Assembly in this respect
until it has become a part of the unwritten
The U er const i tll tion. The constitution
Ho ^"d ^ Victoria expressly prohibits
-,. * "* the Council from amending

-T in&ncc -i-\-ii T-ti i i

a money Bill. This led to
the two gravest political disputes in
Australian history.

In 1863, the McCulloch Ministry im-
posed protective duties. The measure
was rejected by the Upper House. The
Customs Duties Bill was then tacked to
the Appropriation Bill. The Council
refused to be tricked in this way, and
rejected the Appropriation Bill. An appeal
to the electors returned a large majority
in favour of the new duties. Meantime,
in the absence of an Appropriation Bill,
public servants could not be paid their
salaries, and all creditors of the Crown
had to wait for their money. The ingeni-
ous device was then resorted to of drawing
money from a bank to pay the State
creditors and immediately confessing judg-
ment when the bank sued for its recovery.

The order of the Supreme Court thus
became a warrant to repay the money to
the bank, by whom it was immediately
lent again to the Government and the
same process repeated. In order to pre-
vent Parliamentary proceedings from being
reduced to a farce, the Council, after a
conference, yielded. But a similar diffi-
culty arose again in 1873, when, Sir

AUSTRALIAN BANK CRISIS OF 1892: SCENE OUTSIDE THE UNION BANK, MELBOURNE

Graham Berry being Premier, the Council
rejected a Bill for the payment of Members.
This was again tacked to the Appropria-
tion Bill, which was again rejected by the
Council. The Government on this occasion
simply deferred the payment of its debts
and dismissed most of the public servants.
The situation thus created was so im-
possible that the two Houses soon agreed
to terms. The Appropriation Bill was passed
without the sums for the payment of
Members, and the dispute was referred to
the Secretary of State in London. Sir
Graham Berry and Professor Charles
Pearson, a member of his Cabinet, person-
ally preferred a request to the British
Government to provide a means of escape
from constitutional deadlocks. The Sec-
retary of State, however, refused to inter-
fere, and thus finally estab-
. lished the principle that the

Constitutional ^ -,

~ Colonies are absolute masters

Deadlocks ., . . , , _

in their own household. In

1880 the Council passed the Bill for pay-
ment of Members.

Simultaneously with the agitation for
greater political powers, and for the same
reason namely, the influx of population
the eternal land question entered upon
a new phase in all the colonies. Not all

.,
Employment

of the many thousands of immigrants
could be employed in gold-mining, and
many of the diggers were unsuccessful.
Few matters caused the authorities of
those days more anxiety than the task of

finding employment for the
new ^ The iyate

-mpanies which, both in
Victoria and New South
Wales, had undertaken the construction of
railways proved in every case unable to
complete their task. The Governments of
the two colonies took over the undertak-
ings. But every extension of the railways
into more fertile districts increased the
demand for land and strengthened the
antagonism between the small settler, who
required a freehold, and the pastoral lessee.
The interests "of the two classes were at that
time irreconcilable ; but obviously it was
to the interest of the country to encourage
the small settler, even at the expense
of the squatter. Unfortunately, heated
passions w r ere aroused, and the leaders of
neither side foresaw that the difficulties
would solve themselves by the mere
increase of population. Consequently, a
measure was passed in 1861 by Sir John
Robertson which showed too plainly an
animus against the squatters.

1079

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

The result was a class warfare which
distracted New South Wales for more than
twenty years. The principle of the mea-
sure which was copied, with modifica-
tions, by every other colony was the per-
mission to any man of full age to enter
upon and mark out or, as it was called,
"select" an area ultimately fixed at 640

. acres of Crown lands, whether

EncoTra d theSC W6rG vacant r in the

ncourage OCCU p a ^j on o f a squatter, and,

Dlackmail , A . -, , f

by residence and the payment
of $5 per acre, by annual instalments of
twenty-five cents, to become its owner.
While this measure was a measure of justice
when the agricultural districts near the coast
were occupied as sheep-runs, it worked
great hardship in the more remote dis-
tricts, which at that time, in the absence
of means of transport, were unsuitable
to agriculture. A class of blackmailers
grew up, who travelled the country
" selecting " a few picked spots of a run
e.g., the paddocks containing water
picking out the eyes like a cockatoo, as
it was called whose only object was
to be bought out by the squatter. The
squatters, in self-defence, were forced to
purchase all the strategic portions of their
run, and by thus " peacocking " it they
prevented settlement.

Another device of self -protection was
the employment of " friendly " selectors,
who would be supplied by the squatter
with funds to make the necessary " im-
provements," and at the end of his term
of residence would sell to the station.
Selections of this sort were called " Dum-
mies," and such a proceeding was made a
misdemeanour. Yet, so powerless are laws
when they make offences of what the
community regard as legitimate methods
of self-defence, that though " dummying "
has been notoriously practised on almost
every large station in New South Wales,
only one person has been convicted of the
offence, and he by his own confession. The
Recurrence difficulties of the situation were
of Land increased by the selector being
Difficulties allowed to brin g action for tres-
pass in respect of his holding
before it was fenced. The selector alleged
that the squatter drove his sheep on to his
holding ; the squatter, in his turn, said that
they were driven there by the selector, who
wanted to make out of a lawsuit the money
which he would never get out of his land.

By 1884 the situation had become
intolerable. The climatic conditions and

1080

the potentialities of the different portions
of the colony had become better known,
and the railways had been driven far
into the interior. It was seen that while
640 acres were an excessive holding in the
rich agricultural districts of the seaboard,
they were wholly insufficient to provide
a living in the pastoral districts. The
colony was consequently divided into
three districts eastern, central, and
western which were placed under the
charge of local boards, and a special
tribunal was appointed to settle disputes.
The pastoralists in the eastern and central
divisions were given a fifteen-years tenure
of half their runs, while the other half was
thrown open to selection. New tenures
were introduced in the form of long
leaseholds, under varying conditions, and
conditional purchases of the freehold were
forbidden in the western district. This
measure was amended in 1895 and 1897,
when the old feud between selector and
squatter may be said to have died out.
The wool industry is still the mainstay
of Australia, but pastoralists have learnt
the , value of agriculture, and experience
r .. , has proved that even the un-

JLrVllS Of T1 1 1 J r ,1

, . likely lands of the western
L/arge Land -, . J , , ,

... district can be made to grow

Holdings r,^^ 1^1 i &

wheat profitably. The demand
for land, however, in the richer districts of
each colony, which were naturally the first
to be held in freehold by the early settlers,
is still beyond the supply, and every
Government has had to consider measures
for breaking up the excessive estates held
by private owners whose wealth makes
them indifferent to using them most profit-
ably.

The other states avoided the principal
evils of the New South Wales Land Act by
throwing open only specified areas for
free selection, or providing that only
surveyed lands should be open to this
form of acquisition. No other state,
however, has the same variety or extent
of good lands as New South Wales.

The fiscal question divided parties in
all the Australian states within a few years
of the grant of responsible government.
The cause was again the number of new
immigrants and the necessity of finding
employment for men who were tired of
gold-digging. Professor Rabbeno has
observed 'that the movement towards
Protection is synchronous with the absoi p-
tion of the more fertile public lands by
private owners. This was certainly the

THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR TROUBLE OF 1890

The most memorable of Australia's industrial crises was the Labour and Shipping Strike at Melbourne in 1890.
The illustrations represent: 1. Troopers escorting non-union men to the Melbourne gas-works. 2. Pickets trying
to stop men from going to Gas Company's office for employment. 3. Mounted infantry arriving at Spencer Street
Station from the country to preserve order. 4. Mass meeting of strikers in Flinders Park, Melbourne, on August 31.

1081

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

case in Victoria, where the good agricul-
tural land is comparatively a small area,
the freehold of which had passed into the
hands of a few very wealthy men. At first
employment was found on public works,
which were constructed out of
egmning Government loans and the pro-

PoHc Ceeds f the Sale f P ublk lands<

Victoria entered the London

money market first and sold her lands
earlier than the other colonies. She was
thus the first to be compelled to adopt a
protective policy. New South Wales lived
longer on loan money and sold more acres
of land. She had also a low tariff, which
was only incidentally protective.

The relative progress of the two states
was for a long time the classic example
used by Free Traders and Protectionists
alike, although they did not quote the same
figures, to prove the superiority of a Free
Trade policy. Now, however, that since
1900 New South Wales has come under the
protective tariff of the Commonwealth, her
progress has been so much more rapid
that it is evident that her apparent superi-
ority over Victoria in the early days was
due to natural causes, and not to her
fiscal policy. The controversy has ceased
to be a live issue in Australia since the
Commonwealth definitely adopted a pro-
tective tariff, which has been approved by
the people in two General Elections, and

has, on the public admission of Free
Traders, " come to stay." One result has
been to stimulate immigration by the
establishment of new industries. Every
year sees the establishment of branches
of European or foreign factories to supply
the goods which, previous to the tariff,
were imported.

All State aid to religion was withdrawn
in New South Wales immediately upon
responsible government. In the other
colonies it never existed. In every colony
education is compulsory. Religious teach-
ing is given in New South Wales upon the
Irish national system. In Victoria it does
not form part of the curriculum. A right
of entry is given to the clergy of any
denomination during school hours to give
religious instruction to the pupils of his
persuasion ; but this is rarely availed of
except by the Church of England. Second-
ary and technical schools exist in all the
capitals and in some of the large towns.
The State gives bursaries, which take a
cmld from the State school,
Condi Lons through the intermediate, to

Education the universit Y' The system of
teaching, and the curriculum of
the State schools, is antiquated, and could
be much improved. From motives of eco-
nomy, the pupil teacher system is encour-
aged, and its evils are apparent. The
Roman Catholics have established separate

King, Sydney

A RED-LETTER DAY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES
Federal Procession of February 1, 1901, passing Sydney Post Office, where an illuminated map of Australia was exhibited,

1063

THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF AUSTRALIA

schools, and their alleged desire to the outcome of an unsuccessful strike,
get State assistance, either directly or which, beginning with the refusal of a

by the system of payment by results,
has led to strong sectarian divisions,
which have always to be reckoned with
in an election, though they are not much
spoken of.

From 1877 to 1890 large sums were
spent by all the states in assisting im-
migration. Employment was found for
the newcomers on
railways and other
public works, which
were constructed
out of moneys bor-
rowed in London.
The period was one
of immense pros-
perity, and large
sums of English
money were inves-
ted, on deposit at
call, or for short
periods, with the
Colonial banks, at
rates of interest
from 5 per cent, to
7 per cent., which
were lent again by
the banks on mort-
gage for fixed
terms to squatters
who required
money for im-
provements or for
the purchase of
their runs for pro-
t e c t i o n against
selectors. So long
as loan moneys
were plentiful, there was no danger in
this process ; but when borrowing was

SIR HENRY PARKES

Formerly Premier of New South Wales and the father ot
Australian Federation, which was consummated Jan. 1, 1901.

reduced and there came a cycle of established parties.

shipowner to reinstate aji officer, spread
sympathetically throughout the ranks of
organised labour.

It was met and defeated by an equally
extensive organisation of employers.
Beaten, defeated in the strike, the labourers
sought their revenge in politics. It
must, however, be admitted, looking back

over a period

of sixteen years,
that the work of
the party has been
inadequate, by
comparison with
the excessive hopes
of its members and
the undignified
alarm of its oppo-
nents. The Labour
Party, indeed, was
never a party of
revolution, and is,
indeed, opposed at
the elections by the
Socialists. Its in-
fluence certainly
quickened the pas-
sage of a measure
establishing old age
pensions of 2,\
dollars a week to
every person over
sixty-five (1899) ;
and Women's Suf-
frage (1901) also
owes much to its
support. But for
the most part it
has advocated measures which found place
in the programme of one or other of the

London Stereoscopic Co.

bad seasons, the banking resources of
the colony were unequal to the strain,

The chief merit of the Labour Party lies
not so much in what it has accomplished

and a crisis occurred in 1892, from the as in the spirit of greater earnestness and
effects of which Australia is only now sincerity which it has introduced in

recovering.

Simultaneously with this shock to the
credit of Australia, a portent appeared in
the political horizon which was at first
sight no less terrifying to foreign capi-
talists. Australia had always been demo-
cratic she had introduced the ballot,
triennial Parliaments, and Universal
Suffrage but it was not till 1892
that a distinctive " Labour Party " ap-
peared in the New South Wales Parlia-
ment. This political organisation was

Australian politics. Among the measures
which owe much to its support is the
Industrial Arbitration Act (1901), which
provides a tribunal which is empowered to
deal with all matters affecting the condi-
tion of any industry, whenever a dispute
arises between employer and employed.
This court can declare a minimum wage,
and, under certain circumstances, direct
that preference be given to unionists ; an
order affecting the particular dispute may
be made a common rule of the whole trade,

1083

MELBOURNE EXHIBITION, WHERE THE FIRST FEDERAL PARLIAMENT MET, ON MAY 9, 1901

It was first intended to hold the ceremony in the Melbourne Parliament building, but owing to space and other
reasons the Exhibition Buildings were finally selected. The landing of the Heir Apparent on the soil of federated
Australia was the occasion of a memorable outburst of united welcome from the six colonies, all petty colonial
jealousies being 'forgotten. Receptions at Parliament House and -the opening of the first Federal Parliament followed.

among whom Mr. James Service (Victoria)
and Sir Samuel Griffith (Queensland)
were the chief. New South Wales, under
the guidance of its great statesman, Sir
Henry Parkes, refused to join the move-
ment, on the ground that the powerlessness
of the council to enforce its decrees would
have one of two results either only
trival matters would be brought before it,
or it would come into conflict with the
states. In either case the council would
excite prejudice against the more complete
union which was always before Sir Henry's
eyes. In 1891 Sir H. Parkes, in the face
of great obstacles caused by the anta-
gonism of the Victorian Ministers, who
resented his holding aloof from the Federal
Council, assembled the representatives of
all the colonies, including New Zealand,
to Sydney, and obtained their agreement
to present proposals for federation to their
several Parliaments. The main principles
of the proposed union were
, discussed by the assembled
of Federal Ministers in Qpen deba te, and

upon the resolutions so arrived
at a measure was drafted by Sir Samuel
Griffith and Mr. A. Ingles Clark (Tasmania)
which has remained the substance of the
present constitution. Various untoward
circumstances prevented this measure
being discussed in the New South Wales

in order to prevent any employer obtaining
an advantage by methods which the court
may have declared unfair. This measure,
which depends largely for its success upon
sympathetic administration, has, since
1904, been administered by a ministry of
. . professed enemies who have

I0ft not, however, ventured to repeal

Dis teT or amend {i ~ and [t has been
clipped of much of its usefulness

by the judicial decisions of a court, some
members of which have not hesitated to
forget their judicial position and denounce
its principles and methods. The Act has,
however, been thoroughly successful in
putting down sweating, and, even in its
crippled condition, has prevented strikes.
By one of its clauses, to strike or lock out
before invoking the jurisdiction of a court
is made a misdemeanour. It has not been
found in New South Wales that the work-
men refuse to obey the order of the court.

In 1885, at the request of all the colonies
but New South Wales, the Imperial
Parliament passed an Act establishing a
Federal Council consisting of delegates
from the several colonies who were em-
powered to legislate on certain matters of
common interest, and also had a limited
authority in respect of internal affairs.

This council, which met annually,
never fulfilled the hopes of its founders,

1084

THE MODERN DEVELOPMENT OF AUSTRALIA

Parliament, and the other colonies waited
upon New South Wales. Sir H. Parkes
went out of office, and the Ministries which
followed were opposed to union. But
the popular interest in the movement
had been kept alive through the unflagging
exertions of Sir Edmund Barton, and Sir
Henry Parkes announced his intention
(1894) of moving in the matter in Parlia-
ment. Mr. Reid, the leader of the Pro-
vincialists, was then in office. He cleverly
anticipated Sir Henry's attack by adopting
a suggestion which had been made by
Sir John Quick that a constituent conven-
tion should be elected to frame a draft
constitution. Sir Henry Parkes was not
elected to the Parliament of 1895, and
Mr. Reid was in no hurry to hasten the
federal movement.

The Convention, which consisted of ten
representatives elected from
each state, met in Adelaide in

Federation

Finally

Secured

Convention
in Favour of

-, . April, 1807, and was adjourned

' to Sydney, and again to Mel-
bourne, where its labours were finally com-
pleted in May, 1898. The measure, thus
passed, had to be adopted by a plebiscite
in every state. The Provincialist Parlia-

ment of New South Wales endeavoured to
secure its rejection by requiring that if
there were not 80,000 affirmative votes, the
measure should be considered lost. As the
total number of anticipated
voters was between 170.000 to
200,000, it was thought that this
device which was a flagrant
breach of the agreement made by New
South Wales and the other states that the
question should be decided by a majority
would finally stifle the movement towards
union. However, in spite of the bitter
opposition of Mr. Reid and the Free Trade
party, a majority of votes were cast for
the Bill, though the number was 5,000 short
of the required minimum. Some trifling
alterations were then made in the text
of the draft Bill, and in 1899 it was again
submitted to the popular vote. On this
occasion the majority exceeded the statu-
tory minimum, and New South Wales
fell into line with the other states, to the
deep resentment of the provincial Free
Traders. The Commonwealth thus formed
was proclaimed on January I, 1900, and
the history of the several states has from
that date merely a local interest.

King, Sydney

BIRTH OF THE AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH: THE SWEARING-IN CEREMONY

Standing beside what are now priceless memorials to the Australian people, the table and the inkstand used by Queen
Victoria when she signed the Commonwealth Act, Lord Hopetoun, the fir^t Governor-General of the Commonwealth,
swore : " I, John Adrian Louis, Earl of Hopetoun, do swear I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lady Queen
Victoria in the office of Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, and that I will do right to all manner of
people after the laws and usages of this Commonwealth without fear or favour, affection, or regard. So help me Goc '

1085

1086

AUSTRALIA IN OUR OWN TIME

BY THE HON. BERNHARD R. WISE

XJOT only is the island continent of
* ^ Australia equal in size, and as varied
in climate, as Europe without Siberia, or
as the United States without Alaska,
but the wide distances are already de-
veloping different types in the several
states. Nevertheless, beneath this diver-
sity there is an underlying unity.

In no country in the world is there less
admixture of races. Australia is com-
pletely British. Of the total population
taken at the census of 1912 4,530,739
only 166,958 were born outside the
British Empire ; 4,363,781 were born
within the Commonwealth. Contrast this
with Canada and her million Frenchmen,
or with South Africa, where the English are
outnumbered by the Dutch. This homo-
geneity of race, together with its geo-
graphical situation, give Australia its
great importance as a unit of the empire.
By its position it commands

the - trade r Ute between

America and Asia, and is the

f e . -,

frontier of the empire on its

most vulnerable side the Far East where,
under its improved military system, it could
land a fully-equipped military unit within
thirty days of the outbreak of disturbance.

Australia's place in the line of the
empire's defence must depend, inevitably,
upon the temper of her people. The first
or second or third generation of native-
born Australians may be, as they are now,
British in every instinct ; but account
must always be taken, in considering the
future, of the disintegrating influences of
time and distance. As Australians out-
grow the somewhat depressing idea of
dependency they are taking to the newer
and more stimulating idea of Nationalism.

In this mood, and having this ideal,
they aim first, as being their immediate
duty, to develop Australia. They would
have an Australian navy. Already
thanks to the exertions of the Labour

Party they are forming a citizen army,
based on universal service. They frame
their tariffs solely in order to develop
Australian industries, to maintain the
Australian market for Australian work-
men. The Australian holds that in thus
strengthening Australia he helps the
empire.

It is often said that Australia neglects
her responsibilities by discouraging the
growth of population. It is true that
an occasional and irresponsible working-
-, class speaker may, at times,

exhort his fellows to " keep the

Idea* g d . thing f r themselves " i

but it is not true that there is
any general tendency among Australians
either to check population or to discourage
immigration. Critics should remember the
immensity of the continent, and that its
physical characteristics have prevented
the spread of settlement. There were
three stages of settlement in Australia
first, of the fertile lands between the
mountains and the sea ; secondly, of
the uplands ; thirdly, of the great plains
beyond. Each new stage was rendered
possible only by a long experience. The
western plains, on which the best wheat
now grows, were thought for many years
to be unsuitable for settlement ; and
two generations elapsed before it was
discovered that salt-bush was food for
sheep. Even now the immense distance
of the interior from the seaboard practi-
cally blocks it from settlers, so that the
full capacity of Australia will never be
known until the Commonwealth com-
pletes two transcontinental railways
from east to west, and from north to south.
Accordingly, if we would estimate
Australia in respect of increase of popula-
tion we should bear in mind the slow and
gradual shifting of agriculture from the
coast towards the west. More than half,
or 56 per cent., of Australia is still empty,

1087

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

and in the larger states, such as South
Australia and West Australia, the pro-
portion of permanent to temporary occu-
pation is very small. Taking Australia
as a whole, the average population to the
square mile is only 1*52. Victoria, being
the smallest, is the most densely populated
state ; but she had in 1912 only a popu-
- . lation of 15-14 to the square

!f Te mile ' The Charge ^ insi

Australia of her unduly small

.Population , . , j

birth-rate is not yet proved.
Not that the rate has fallen off in
comparison with the years from 1850-
1880 ; but even in 1905 it was at the rate
of 24' 43 per thousand, which does not
compare unfavourably with other countries
of a similar standard of civilisation.
Probably the apparent decline is due to
the earlier rates being abnormal, owing
to the rapid influx of young emigrants.

Until 1887 all the colonies assisted
immigrants. The large influx of new-
comers, and the construction of public
works out of loan money, led to great
speculations in land, with English money
deposited at call. In consequence, first
the building societies (1889-1891), and
secondly the banks, with few exceptions,
stopped payment. Public works were
stopped and private expenditure cur-
tailed. The distress led to labour troubles,
which were no sooner ended than Aus-
tralia entered upon the worst and most
protracted drought ever known. In 1900,
for the first time since the bank failures,
there was an excess of arrivals over
departures, and with the return of good
seasons efforts are being made by all the
states to encourage settlement and im-
migration.

And, indeed, there is no country which
holds out better prospects to the immi-
grant. The climate is as various as that
of Europe, but it has no extremes of heat
or cold. It ranges for the most part from
sub-tropical to temperate ; from the land

of the mango and grenadilla

in the far north ' throu g h the
s sugar-cane regions on the

eastern coast, to the potato
fields of Victoria, and the snow of the
Australian Alps. There is no industry
connected with the land in older countries
which cannot be carried on profitably in
Australia. Whatever an immigrant has
done in other lands he may do in some
part of Australia. Nor need he be
frightened by the bogey of drought.

1088

Experience is teaching that drought can
be fought by the storage of water and
ensilage. The destructiveness of drought
in the past has been mainly due to over-
stocking and the recklessness engendered
by good seasons. Further, drought chiefly
affects the interior and the coastal regions.
It is true that the population of Aus-
tralia is too much concentrated in the
capital cities. Of the 4,530,739 people
numbered in the 1912 census, 1,660,181
lived in the capitals. The causes of this
abnormal concentration are, first, the
centralised administration of the several
states, which grew out of a military
command, and not, as in the United
States, out of a town-meeting ; secondly,
the economic condition of the country.
The primary industries are still the
principal industries of all the states,
and their products are exported. The
sea-borne trade of Australia is out of all
proportion to the average of other
countries, so that it is inevitable that the
population should crowd into the cities
when the bulk of the people live by
exports and imports. As manufacturing
A competes with the extractive

Australian industrieSj the proportion be-

Con U d S ions fen town and country popu-
lation will become more
reasonable. It must also be remembered
that it was the policy of every State
Government to draw all trade to the
capital city.

It has been aptly remarked that,
" strictly speaking, Australian states never
resembled distinct states. Trade, geo-
graphy, England, and ' the crimson thread
of kinship ' made them one from the first."
Obviously, too, the barriers of inter-
colonial trade, of six distinct tariffs, and
the need for defence against foreign
aggression, were strong motive towards
union. But they were not sufficiently
powerful to overcome state jealousies.
It was left to Sir Henry Parkes, by the
battle cry, " Australia for the Australians, 1 '
finally to rouse the people to a sense of
their responsibilities. This cry, like Sir
Edmond Barton's " A continent for a
nation, and a nation for a continent," was
idealistic without being visionary, and in
inculcating respect for a larger self, made
men think more kindly of their past lives
and of the great future which lay before
them. The provincialists showed that
they felt instinctively that they were
fighting the new spirit of nationalism

AUSTRALIA IN OUR OWN TIME

by the title of Colonists' Defence League,
which they gave their organisation.
Colonial dependency was, indeed, dying
in the last ditch, and a new idea of
empire, almost unnoticed at the time, was
springing into life.

The opposition was naturally greatest
in New South Wales, as being the oldest
colony, and was increased by the attitude
of the Free Trade Party, who, placing
their fiscal dogma before all else, refused
to join the union except on the impossible
terms that the smaller colonies which,
unlike New South Wales, had long used
up their revenue from waste lands
should abolish their tariff. In the mean-
time a convention of ten delegates from
each state had prepared a Constitution
for submission to a referendum. The
Bill was approved by a majority in every
state after the difficulties, already de-
scribed, which it met in New South
Wales. But at the elections for the
following year, New South Wales returned
only three Federalists out of sixteen
members, and had henceforward, under
the influence of its Press and politicians,

maintained a consistently anti-
Opposition federal attitude> This inter .

to Scheme of j ea lousy, which is un-

Federation -

fortunately lelt more or less in
other states, though nowhere to the same
degree as in New South Wales, determined
the form of the Constitution. In the choice
between the American and the Canadian
forms, the American was necessarily
adopted to meet the susceptibilities of
the different states. Consequently, the
Commonwealth has only those powers
which are expressly conferred upon it by
the Constitution, while all the reserve
powers remain with the states.

This leads to curious conflicts. The
Commonwealth is empowered to deal
with immigration ; but it cannot take a
step to settle immigrants on the lands,
because these are under the sole control
of the states. The Commonwealth also
deals with such matters of general interest
as : (i) laws relating to customs and
excise ; (2) trade and commerce ;
(3) banking ; (4) quarantine ; (5) in-
dustrial disputes extending beyond the
limits of one state ; (6) navigation and
shipping, and other subjects of legisla-
tion, making forty-nine in all. A High
Court has been established, consisting of
five judges, to serve as a much-needed
Court of Appeal from the State Courts,

and to interpret and protect the Con-
stitution. Any law passed by a State
Parliament, in conflict with a federal
law or with a constitution, is to that
extent void ; but in other respects the
states retain full power of legislation.
The Federal Parliament has two Houses.
The franchise in each state for either
~ House is that for the Lower

rTT r Hou * e of the state. The Federal
ot federal c ^ , , j i_ ,i_

Parliament ^ enate 1S elated by the state
voting as one constituency ;
is small, sexennial, and has six members
from each state. The Federal House of
Representatives is triennial, is twice the
size of the Senate, and contains repre-
sentatives from each state proportionately
to its population. The original ten or
twelve topics of common interest are
expanded into forty-nine, and include
relations with Pacific islands, laws as to
special races if not aborigines of federat-
ing states and laws to prevent strikes.
Inter-state duties and preferences are
abrogated. Provision is made for accept-
ing and governing surrendered and ac-
quired territory, and for carving new
states out of old states with the consent
of the latter. Appeal to the judicial
committee of the Privy Council is main-
tained, but modified.

The financial clauses of the Constitution
are the least satisfactory, and are, for the
moment, causing great friction. The
problem before the framers of the Con-
stitution was to ensure inter-state free
trade which involved a common tariff
under the control of the Commonwealth
with the financial requirements of each
state.

It was evident that the customs receipts
from a federal tariff would amount to
much more than the federal expenditure.
At the same time, each state would find
itself deprived of the customs duties,
which formed a large, but unequal pro-
portion of their revenues. The logical
Jealous solution would have been for

f V"! y the Commonwealth to take over

Powers^ sufficient of the State debts
that the interest on these should

absorb the surplus. But the provincialists
feared that such a power would give the
Commonwealth a handle to check future
borrowing by the states, and the Constitu-
tion finally empowered the Commonwealth
only to take over the debts of the states
incurred previously to 1900. The Common-
wealth Government has offered to propose

1089

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

&n amendment to the Constitution which
would enable the states to be relieved
of the debts incurred subsequently to 1900 ;
but this proposal to " rob " them of their
" debts " has been indignantly rejected.

Deprived of this method of disposing of

the federal surplus, and compelled to

satisfy the demands of provincialists, that

the states should have some

Mate and security that they would

R e receive their portions, the

framers of the Constitution, at
the suggestion of the late Sir Edward
Braddon, adopted a clause providing that
the Commonwealth should return to each
state at least three-quarters of the receipts
from customs and excise duties. The
operation of this clause was limited to ten
years.

The expenditure of the Commonwealth
is mainly in respect of the services which
have been taken over by the Common-
wealth from the states e.g., the post
office and telegraphs, defence and, in the
immediate future, quarantine. This is
called in Federal Budgets " transferred
expenditure " The " other expenditure"
as it is called is the expenditure by the
Commonwealth for purely Commonwealth
purposes e.g., the cost of Parliament.

It is obvious that, being relieved of
such large items of expenditure as defence,
postal services, the collection of customs
and excise, and at the same time entitled
to receive back from the Commonwealth
not less than three-fourths of the proceeds
of customs and excise, the states have
been, since 1900, in a position to effect
great economies.

Friction between the states and the
Commonwealth need cause no alarm as
to the future. Every federation has
experienced the same difficulty, and
Provincialism dies of its own pettiness.
In Sydney, for instance, the Ministry of
the day in 1907, threatened to change
the site of the observatory, and thus
Provin ial Destroy tne va lue of seventy
Point nC y ear s' astronomical observa-
ofVicw tions, rather than allow it to
pass to the Commonwealth
under the clause of the Constitution which
empowers them to take over the Astro-
nomical and Meteorological departments
of the state. The internal opposition to
other federations has been far more
formidable. There was the same dis-
content in the early days of the United
States, which found expression in the now

IOQO

half-forgotten rising known to history as
the " Whisky Rebellion " ; and contem-
porary observers have related of Canada
that during the first ten years of the
Dominion not 30 per cent, of Canadians
would have voted for its continuance
had any opportunity been offered to them
of expressing an opinion.

It was the same in the case of the
Scottish union with Great Britain, which
Lockhart, a contemporary, declared to
be " a base betrayal and mean giving up
of the sovereignty, independence, liberty,
laws, interest, and honour of Scotland,"
and with regard to which he was as
thoroughly convinced as any New South
Wales Provincialist that "if Scotland
had only stood out she would have
made her own terms," so satisfied was
he that England would not have lost
" a good thing." " Had the Scots," he
says, "stood their ground, I have good
reason to affirm that the English
would have allowed a much greater
number of representatives. The English
saw too plainly the advantage that would
accrue to England by a union
is ory o f t j ie twQ kingdoms upon his

ItsclT S scheme, and would never have
stuck at any terms to obtain it."

It is not at present easy to forecast
the political future of Australia. Much
depends upon the calibre of Federal
members, in which each successive Parlia-
ment shows a decline. The salary of a
member is too small for a livelihood, and
too much for subsistence. Attendance in
Parliament involves the abandonment
of all business which cannot be carried
on in the capital. For this the present
salary $3,000 gives no compensation;
so that there is a growing tendency for
Parliament to be composed of rich, old
men, and those to whom the salary is
the principal attraction. It would have
been better if the proposal made at the
Convention had been carried, fixing the
salary at $5,000, a year.

Assuming, however, that Parliament
maintains its prestige relatively to the
State Parliaments, the probability is that
there will be a considerable strengthening
and extension of Federal power. The
history of America shows that the influence
of a central authority increases inevitably
and insensibly ; and in Australia this tend-
ency will be much increased by the in-
fluence of the Labour Party, who, curiously
enough, bitterly opposed the establishment

RESIDENCE OF GOVERNOR

fet

HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

GENERAL VIEW FROM THE POST-OFFICE BUILDINGS

NEW LAW COURTS

GOVERNMENT OFFICES

Photos: Edwards and E. N. A.

PRESENT-DAY PICTURES OF MELBOURNE

109!

OFFICES OF THE AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH IN LONDON

Lair

of Federation. The levelling up of the
conditions of industry in the various
states is a principal object of the party ;
but this involves the equalisation of the
conditions in each state. It would be
unfair, for example, if the Industrial
Arbitration Court in Sydney were to
establish a minimum wage in New South
F a Wales which was not paid

by trade competitors in other

amendment 01 the Consti-
tution may be looked for which, in
some form or another, will give the
Federal Parliament control over all in-
dustrial relations within the Common-
wealth.

It was said by a Federal speaker during
the Federal campaign, that Federation
would not cost the people of New South
Wales half - a - dollar per head just
the cost of registering a dog ! In fact,
it has not exceeded thirty-six cents per
head. Yet the enemies of Federation
denounce its extravagance, and declare
that its cost is enormous. Each party
is looking at a different side of the shield.
The expenditure of Federation is, as has
been explained, partly on the " transferred
services " and partly on matters which are

1092

purely Federal, which are called " other
expenditure." The total expenditure of
the Commonwealth is large on account of
the cost of running and keeping up the
transferred departments ; but Parliament
is penurious in dealing with Federal
services.

The spirit which carried to success the
Federal movement " Australia for the
Australians " soon found expression in
legislation.

Two features strike the English observer
of Australian politics first, the reliance
on the State ; secondly, the apparent
recklessness of the legislation. The
former is explicable by the history of
Australia, and the second is largely the
result of a misunderstanding. In order
to understand the legis-
lation in detail, some
general observations are
necessary.

Few contrasts in history are more
striking than the differences between the
development of the two British democra-
cies which margin the Pacific that of
Australia and that of the United States.
Localism and individualism are the breath
of life in the policy of the United States.
Australia from the first has regarded the

Australia
and America
Contrasted

AUSTRALIA IN OUR OWN TIME

citizen rather than the individual, and
has known no dread of Government action.
The differences between the two coun-
tries is in their origin. The United States
sprang from the town meeting ; Australia,
from the first, was centralised. The Govern-
ment was an earthly providence from
the beginning dispensing food, control-
ling industries, and fixing the rate of
wages. Nor did the influx of free settlers
materially change the situation, because
these spread themselves too quickly over
the vast area of waste land to acquire
that sentiment of localism which became
instinctive in the concentrated settle-
ments of New England. There came, in-
deed, to be a strong provincial jealousy
between the several colonies which has
even defied Federation. But this was
never incompatible with a very wide
exercise of the functions of government
within each colony. In no part of the
world has the doctrine of " Laisser faire"
fewer adherents. The " administrative
nihilism " (to use Professor Huxley's
phrase) which would confine the action
of a Government to preserving order
would have seemed treason to

of the ' thC bUSy Settlers ' Wh de P ended

upon the Government to over-
come the natural obstacles
to settlement and provide those con-
veniences of civilisation which, in such a
country, individuals would be powerless
to obtain unaided.

Thus, in Australia, the Governments of
the several states construct and own rail-
ways, tramways, and ferry-boats. They
do their own printing, and make clothes
for the police and military. They main-
tain agricultural farms, own and let out
bulls and stallions, supply seed-wheat,
sell frozen meat and dairy produce, ex-
port wines, and maintain cellars for its
storage abroad, provide hospitals and
parks, subsidise agricultural shows and
other forms of popular amusement, run
mining batteries and grant aid to prospec-
tors, send commercial agents to foreign
countries, undertake the storage and ship-
ment of meat and butter for export, and
generally endeavour in every way to im-
prove the means of communication and
transport, and to aid in the development of
the resources of the country. The Govern-
ment, indeed, is expected to take the
risk of testing new processes of production,
and a Government department is always
at hand to supply any citizen, without

charge, with the latest results of agricul-
tural or industrial experiments in other
countries. In no country does a settler
on the land find more ready or abundant
assistance from the organised power of
the State.

This tendency to rely upon the Govern-
ment has been strengthened by the
collectivism of the Labour

Labour Part Y> who hold the . faith that

p a laws can regulate industries,

and that the mere removal of
social inequalities does little good unless
the weaker are protected by law against
the tyranny of the strong. To the
Australian Labour Party, " private enter-
prise," " freedom of contract," " the
law of supply and demand," and the other
shibboleths of individual economics, are
merely other expressions for " individual
anarchy." Yet Australians are not lack-
ing in enterprise. They take certain
things from the Government as a matter
of right on the northern rivers of New
South Wales the settlers have from the
Government boats in which to save their
own lives and property in time of flood
but they are certainly not remiss in the
pursuit of their individual interests. At
the worst there is a certain lack of public
spirit and an unwillingness to give j>er-
sonal service to the state. This, however,
is characteristic of any country whose
leisured class has no traditional respon-
sibility, and where the greater part of
the community is occupied in the absorb-
ing conquest of new lands. It was not
until 1906 that New South Wales was given
even a meagre form of local self-govern-
ment.

Australians thus have swallowed all
economic formulae, and, Socialists without
a creed, are pressing into their service
every social instrument and agency. The
contrast with the United States is startling.
Indeed, the motto of the Labour Party
might be "To make Australia everything
America is not " so stren-
Fight agamst uousl is it str i v ing to protect

w e 7th Australia against the rule of

wealth, and to practise the
lessons which have been taught by the
recent disclosures of social anarchy in the
United States.

In considering the charge brought
against Australian legislators of being
reckless, it must also be remembered that
Australia is the Cinderella of modern
nations, whom Democracy has just claimed

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

for her own. It is a land of political faith
and ideals, where the dreams of the study
are soon translated into laws. Every
adult has a vote ; nowhere is there
more unity of purpose, or freedom from
distracting cares. Thus, whatever Demo-
cracy can accomplish will be accomplished
in Australia, for good or ill ; and its

TU ^ qualities are soon determined

The Coming in such & ^^ ground of

DemTc P racy P liticS ' At P reS6nt ' a11 ^ O6S
well. Material prosperity, the

buoyancy of youth, the novelty of political
power, combine to dissipate misgivings;
and the day of disillusionment if it
should ever come is still far distant.
But, as yet, other countries hardly
understand ; and even in England there
is jealousy and some suspicion of the bold,
new ways. The capitalist class is timid,
and others are doubtful. But no Act
has yet been passed which in any way
threatens property or which disregards
the larger interests of the Empire.

The Labour Party, indeed, is neither
Anarchist nor Socialist. Socialists, indeed,
run candidates against nominees of the
caucus. It is composed of level-headed
men, representatives of trade-unions and
the more intelligent labourers. Its
members are, however, not confined to
the" artisan or labouring class, but are
recruited from the majority of farmers
and by a number of the younger profes-
sional men and clerks. It is supported
because it is the only party with clear
principles which have never been aban-
doned; and its leaders command the
respect of all classes of the community.
The Australian Labour Party is, indeed,
on most essential points, opposed to the
principles of the same party in England.
The Australian labour men think so well
of their country, and are so convinced
that a country which is worth living in
is worth fighting for, that they are pressing
for universal military service. And in-
A . f stead of being indifferent to

Labour the Em P ire > the Y are ea er to
Part strengthen it, because they

know by experience that, on
the whole, British rule makes for justice
and freedom. But the apologia for
Australian legislation should now come
to detail.

The chief misapprehension exists upon
the question of a " White " Australia. One
of the first Acts of the Commonwealth
Parliament, to whom the control of

1094

immigration is given by the Constitution,
was a measure which was intended to
exclude the coloured races from Australia.
The ideal of a " White " Australia is
held with passionate conviction by the
vast majority of the Australian-born, who
believe it to be a duty which they owe to
civilisation to preserve Australia for the
white races. The Parliament desired to
enact the direct exclusion of coloured
aliens ; but the Colonial Office would per-
mit this result to be effected only in-
directly, by the use of a language test
i.e., the writing from dictation of fifty
words in any European language. This
provision exists in the law of Natal, where
it is used for the same purpose, and
Canada has an Act of equal stringency.
The Australian Act also prohibited the
importation of labour under contracts
made abroad, partly in order to protect
the intending emigrant from being
trapped into improvident contracts, from
ignorance of Australian conditions, and
partly to prevent the importation of
" strike-breakers " in the event of a
labour dispute. This law has been wickedly
misrepresented by the provin-
Laws to c iaii stS5 w ho detest the Com-
monwealth, and others who are
interested in diverting the
stream of immigration to other places
than Australia. Harrowing tales have
been told and believed of " Six Hatters "
who have been prevented from landing
in Australia by the greedy desire of the
Labour Party to avoid competition.
Without exception, all these tales are false.
No single white man or woman has ever
been prevented from landing in Australia
since the law has been passed. Its pro-
visions have been applied only to the
objects for which they were intended viz.,
the exclusion of coloured alien labourers ;
and during the tenure of office of the
Labour Party permission was freely
granted to any respectable coloured
merchant, student, or traveller, who
obtained a passport from his Government,
to enter and travel in Australia. In
1905 the text of the section dealing
with contract labour was altered so as to
remove the possibility of any honest mis-
apprehension, by expressing in clear terms
the kind of contracts which were aimed at.
It was inevitable, by the Constitution of
the Commonwealth, that a sufficient
revenue must be raised through the
Customs House at least to equal the

1. General view of Brisbane. 2. Government House, Sydney. 3. General view of Sydney.

BRISBANE AND SYDNEY IN OUR OWN TIME

Photos Edwards and E. N. A.

1095

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

proceeds of the tariffs of the federating
states. Two of these, Victoria and South
Australia, had already protective tariffs.
It was obvious that the Federal Tariff
could not destroy industries already pro-
tected. There was, however, a strong
Free Trade feeling in New South Wales
existing chiefly, it must be admitted,
among those classes who Were protected
by items in the so-called Free Trade
Tariff of that colony, that a compromise
tariff was passed after two years' struggle.
In effect, this Was a low protective tariff.
It was not, however, high enough to pre-
vent importers' rings from dropping the
prices of imported articles to cut-rates,
which would stifle any infant industry.
This Was particularly noticeable in the
case of agricultural machinery, and at the
next General Elec-
tion an overwhelm-
ing majority was cast
in favour of a higher
tariff.

The new tariff con-
tained concessions in
favour of Great
Britain, although, of
course, it had been
framed mainly in the
interests of Australia,
because experience
proved that there
Would be no immi-
gration unless the
immigrants could
find industries to
work at. Even the RIGHT HON. ANDREW FISHER,

low tariff of the first

Parliament caused some half-dozen large
English and American firms to produce in
Australia the goods which Were formerly
imported, and thus provide new em-
ployment for Australian workmen. In
those industries, however, which cannot
yet be established in Australia the
new tariff gave to Great Britain, a
preference of from 5 to 10 per cent.
Altogether the subsidy to Great Britain
was officially estimated to be at least
$6,250,000.

Two measures must be mentioned as
completing the tariff policy of the
Commonwealth. The first was designed
to prevent the importation of " dumped "
goods, and of goods which are made
by trusts the principle being to pro-
hibit the import of competing goods
which are not made uncler similar con-

1096

Premier Australian Commonwealth, 1910

ditions as to wages, etc., as in Australia.
The Minister for Customs has power to
seize any goods at the Custom House
suspected of infringing this law, and the
burden of proving the contrary is thrown
on the importer. The Commonwealth
Was recently engaged in a contest with
an American agricultural implement
trust, alleged to be an offshoot of the
Standard Oil Company, with reference
to the importation of harvesting machines,
which Were dropped 50 per cent, in price
immediately upon the introduction, of the
tariff.

The second measure connected with
the tariff policy is designed to prevent
the benefit of protection going wholly
to the manufacturers, and to require a
just division of the profits. On proof
that any protected
manufacturer is
making exceptional
profits by means of
a monopoly created
in his favour by
the tariff, an
excise duty may
be imposed upon
his products, of
such amount as
will prevent the
tariff from unduly
raising prices. Such
a person would be
required, in the first
instance, to work
his factory according
to highest industrial
standards.

It is premature to judge of the effect of
laws which have been so short a time in
operation ; but it may be questioned
whether these are not too complicated to
prove effective. Nevertheless, they are
a notable attempt to escape from the
possible evils of a protective system.

It should be mentioned that tribunals
exist in all the states for the purpose of
determining rates of wages and other
industrial conditions. The process in New
South Wales is for an Industrial Court,
presided over by a judge of the Supreme
Court, who is assisted by elected represen-
tatives of employers and employed. The
essential feature of the Act is that it deals
only with organised labour, whether this
be a trade union or an industrial union
specially organised under the Act. Thus,
only a union can bring a complaint before

AUSTRALIA IN OUR OWN TIME

a Court, and the collective funds of the
union are a security for obedience to an
award. The Act has worked with great
success, although, unfortunately, it has
become a battle sign of political partisan-
ship. Passed by the Progressive Party,
it has incurred the bitter hostility of the
party calling itself Liberal, whose repre-
sentatives during the last three years have
put every obstacle in the way of its
successful working, and are now proposing
to substitute for it the Victoria system
of Wages Boards.

During its first five years' currency,
the Act stopped sweating in the cloth-
ing trade, and every important trade,
in all about no, is working under it.
During the whole of this period there
were no industrial disturbances, and no
strike, until the ill-organised union of
wharf labourers went on strike in the year
1907. For, as the author of the Act has
repeatedly said, " it could not always
prevent strikes, any more than diplomacy
could always prevent war." There has
been no instance of a union disobeying
the award of a Court, and after an award
has been made, no employer
" has come before the Court to

complain of its working. The
Act was modelled upon that
which has been so successful in the
Dominion of New Zealand. The Wages
Board serves the purpose in Victoria of
an Industrial Court. Its weakness is
its inability effectively to enforce the
penalties against individual workmen.
Also, there is a want of harmony between
the several awards. The wages of one
trade may be fixed without regard to
any dependent industry. For each trade
has its own Board, consisting of an equal
number of employers and employed
presided over by an elected chairman, or,
in default of an election, appointed by
the Government. The Boards can take
evidence, and make awards ; but, not
being permanent bodies, they have no
power to enforce penalties, and there is
reason to believe that the evasion of
awards is frequent. To remedy these
weaknesses, Victoria has now established
an Industrial Court, to serve as a court
of appeal from the Boards, and to enforce
penalties. Such a Court is inevitably
compelled to assume gradually the
powers of the Industrial Court which New
South Wales has now abandoned. For,
it is impossible to deal with an appeal

from the Wages Board of any trade with-
out, in effect, regulating all the industrial
conditions of the trade in question, and
incidentally affecting others. The success or
failure of any Wages Board has been found
by experience to depend entirely on the
good sense and capacity of its chairman.
Passing now from politics and legislation,

~ something may be said about

Conditions Australian Hfe and its charac .

teristics. The first thought
of the incomer from the Old
World, when once he has left the cities
behind him, is that of limitless space.
Boundless space, unlimited opportunities
for human enterprise, with Nature waiting
to be tamed by man's industry and
ingenuity, to give a rich recompense in
return that is the first impression given
by the hinterland of the cities.

This is not an impression of the eye
only, but is strengthened a hundredfold by
knowledge acquired concerning the mineral
and agricultural wealth of Australia, and
one soon learns that Australia can produce
wheat crops of thirty bushels an acre, far
surpassing the scanty yield of the Mani-
toban prairies, almost before he has left the
first city with which he makes acquaint-
ance. In that city, among the men
whom he is sure to meet, he also will
recognise the influence of life in boundless
space. Inhabitants of a continent whose
riches have so far been but slightly tapped,
peculiarly blessed with climates of many
varieties, from the tropical heat of Northern
Queensland and of the northern part of
South Australia, which is a geographical
contradiction in terms, to the usually tem-
perate but never frigid air of New South
Wales and of Victoria, their hopes, their
ambitions, and their confidence in them-
selves and in Australia, are as generous
and as exhilarating as the air itself. Hence
come two peculiarities, the first likely to
puzzle and the second calculated in some
measure to repel a new arrival. The first
_ . is a courage in matters of busi-

" . ness and in setting forth upon
Enterprise S rand undertakings apt to dis-
concert a man nurtured in
less elastic surroundings. This is due not
so much to the fact that the possibility
of failure never presents itself to an
Australian mind, or to a well-grounded
belief that ultimate failure is out of the
question. No real man can fail always
in a country so bounteously endowed, and
temporary failure does not depress a man

1097

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

when he knows that he can, and most

likely will, rise to the surface again soon.

The courage of the Australian is elastic ;

his hopeful spirit will brook no denial.

From this comes an arrogance of manner

and tone which are, at first acquaintance,

rather disconcerting to the English mind,

and the English mind is rather too apt to

counter it by a certain air of

superciliousness. Such, at any

i P R 1<>n d rate ' is the Australian impres-
sion generally ; but it is a wrong
impression, having, like most fallacies, a
historical origin. In the past, far too many
ne'er-do-wells of gentle birth were sent to
Australia, nominally to seek their fortunes
in a new land, really in order that their
degradation might continue out of sight
and out of hearing of their relatives.
They were incompetent and really supercili-
ous. The Australian of to-day is, there-
fore, naturally prone to suspect the fresh
arrival from England of both these faults,
and to meet him more than half-way by
boastful proclamation of his own capacity.

What, apart from work, can sociable
and vigorous men do in Australia ? What
is the manner of life, what are the social
opportunities in the rural districts and in
the cities ?, These are questions to which
the answers are both general and parti-
cular. The great cities especially Sydney
and Melbourne are at least as well
furnished with the comforts of life and
with the means of communciation as any
in the world. Better than most, in this last
respect, for the State undertakes the busi-
ness and does it well. The hotels, judged
from a cosmopolitan point of view, are
fair ; the clubs are as good as any clubs
can be, and much more hospitable than
those of any other country. There are
first-class theatrical and musical enter-
tainments, and French restaurants nearly
equal to any out of Paris.

Society receives the visitor with a frank
readiness, to which the Old World to say
. nothing of the American world

the Home is a com P lete stranger ; and it
.% is a society of keen wits work-

ot oport . , -V r

ing in the brains of eager men,
and of lively, attractive, and sensible
women. Does a globe-trotter desire to
see cricket or to play it ? He can see the
very best to be seen on the face of the
globe, and, if he be anywhere near its
standard, he will be a welcome recruit.
Nowhere will he see better horseracing,
and should the newcomer be a yachts -
1098

man he will nowhere find better sailing
than on the enclosed waters of Sydney's
beautiful harbour. Hunting, in the Eng-
lish sense, can hardly be said to amount
to much, but riding over the soft " bush "
tracks is a glorious exercise, and a drive
across country an exhilarating revelation
to an Englishman.

What shall be said of life in the " back-
blocks " ? That of the small and inde-
pendent farmers, the " cockies," as they
are called, is lonely to a degree. A typical
story, which necessarily suffers by con-
densation, is told of two of these. A rides
across, ten miles perhaps, to B, his nearest
neighbour, and remarks : " Say, my horse
is ill. What did you give yours when he
was ? " B (without looking up from his
work) : " Kerosene." A (next morning) :
" Say, I gave my horse kerosene, and he
died." B (still engrossed in his work) :
" So did mine."

Boundary riders on the big stations
have a dull life, too, seldom seeing another
human being, except their fellow- workers,
at breakfast-time. But for those who can
enjoy a wholesome open-air life there are

many compensations. Stock
Charms of must be attended to> the more

& important parts being done by
the pastoralist and his sons,
but there is a fair amount of shooting for
keen sportsmen ; while joint picnics and
dances, in the company of other pas-
toralists, serve to make the time pass
pleasantly enough.

In a land where distance daunts no
one, visits to the towns are fairly frequent,
and girls will come from the back-blocks
who prove themselves as refined in thought,
as cultivated in mind, as easy and grace-
ful in carriage as any that the Old World
produces. Remember, too, when you see
those lissom figures gliding smoothly to
strains of dance music at a Government
House ball, that they can sit a horse to
perfection, and that those slender hands
can do hard and useful work, and have
probably made the fashionable and be-
coming dresses they are wearing.

" Advance, Australia ! " is a true watch-
word, for Australia has advanced, is
advancing, and will advance, not merely
in the confident eyes of her sons and
daughters, but in deed and in truth. As
Mr. Frank Bullen noted in his travels,
" Australia is by far the richest of the
Colonies, as Canada is the most astute."
BERNHARD R. WISE

Pexton

YASS- CANBERRA, SITE OF THE NEW CAPITAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH

LATER EVENTS IN AUSTRALIA

THE fortunes and reverses of political
parties in the Commonwealth Parlia-
ment have attracted considerable attention
in Australia in recent years, and the relation
of the Commonwealth to the States has
afforded opportunities for a liberal amount
of discussion. But no serious change in
the Constitution seems to be desired, and
none has been affected. With the firm
and acceptable establishment of the
Commonwealth, the sense of Imperial
responsibility has deepened, and activity
in military and naval defence is a con-
spicuous feature in modern Australian
policy.

By the Australian Defence Acts of 1909
and 1910 military training was made
compulsory for all male citizens between
the ages of 12 and 26 in cadet corps from
12 to 18, and as citizen soldiers from 20 to
26. In 1913 the peace effective was
80,000 of all ranks, and the war establish-
ment 127,000 ; and the estimated ex-
penditure on the Army for 1912-13 was
$15,445,000. Eighteen British officers, with
Major-General G. M. Kirkpatrick, C.B., as
Inspector-General of Military Forces, were
serving in the Commonwealth in 1913.

The Australian Naval Defence Scheme

makes the Commonwealth responsible for
the construction and maintenance of a
number of ships of war which form an
Australian squadron of the Royal Navy.
In time of peace this squadron is under the
command of a Commonwealth officer, and
in time of war it is an integral part of the
Eastern Fleet of the Royal Navy. These
ships of the Royal Australian Navy are
known as " H.M.A.S.", and in 1913 they
numbered I battle cruiser, 4 light cruisers,
3 destroyers, 2 torpedo-boats, and 2
gun-boats. Rear- Admiral George Edwin
Patey, M.V.O., was in that year placed in
command of the Australian Fleet, when
the naval force passed from Imperial to
Commonwealth authority. The advance
in naval expenditure was the main cause
of the increase of no less than $7,000,000
in the Defence Estimates in the Common-
wealth Budget for 1913.

With the outbreak of the Great War,
Australia rallied to the Empire. The
total of men enrolled was nearly half a
million, and the soldiers of the Common-
wealth covered themselves with glory.
The fleet took possession of the German
possessions in the Pacific and did effect-
ive work against commerce raiders.

1099

GREAT DATES IN THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA

l6oi

Alleged Discovery by the Portuguese

1865

Entire cessation of transportation to

1606

Discovery by the Dutch

Australia decided upon

1627

Coast surveys by Dutch navigators

1866

Royal Society of New South Wales

1642

Tasman's voyages in Australian

founded

waters

1867

Exploration of South Australia by Cadell

1665

The Dutch apply name of New Holland

1869

Duke of Edinburgh visits Australia

to Western Australia

1871

Protest by Australian colonies regarding

1686

William Dampier lands in Australia

home interference in fiscal arrange-

1763-6

Explorations of Willis and Cartaret

ments

1770

Captain Cook lands at Botany Bay,

1882

Morrison walks from Gulf of Carpentaria

and names .the country New South

to Melbourne

Wales

1883

Melbourne and Sydney united by direct

1788

Phillip founds penal colony at Sydney

railway. British New Guinea founded

1793

First church erected in Australia. First

by Queensland

free emigrant ship arrives at Sydney

1884

Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania

1798

Bass and Flinders discover Bass's

agree to the principle of federation,

Straits

which is opposed by New South Wales

1801-5

Grant and Flinders survey coasts

1885

Exclusion of Chinese from Victoria.

1804

Colonel Collins tries to found settlement

First despatch of Australian troops (to

in Victoria, but leaves for Van Diemen's

the Soudan)

Land or Tasmania

1887

Chinese Restriction Bill passed in New

1808

Governor Bligh deposed

South Wales

1809
1813-

Governor Macquarie appointed
Interior exploration by Wentworth,

1888

Australian protest against Chinese
immigration

Lawson, and other travellers

1890

Melbourne Conference of State Premiers

1829

Province of Western Australia formed

adopts federation motion. Great

1828 =

Exploration of South Australia by Sturt

strikes begin

1891

Earl of Kintore, Governor of South

1831-6

Expeditions of Sir T. Mitchell into East

Australia, travels overland to Port

Australia

Darwin. Federal Council meets in

1834

Province of South Australia formed

Hobart, and Federal Constitution

1835

Edward Henty settles in Portland Bay,

adopted

Victoria

893

Australian Bank crash. Australian

1836-7

South Australia made into a colony.

Federation Conference

Eyre crosses from Adelaide to King

1896

The Horn scientific expedition to interior

George's Sound

1897

Great heat and drought. Common-

1837-9

Founding of Melbourne. Captain

wealth Bill passed in Victoria

Grey's explorations in North -West

1899

Australian Naval Conference at Mel-

Australia

bourne

"839

Discovery of Gold at Bathurst. Trans-

1900

Federal delegates received by Queen

portation suspended. The colony of

Victoria at Windsor, and Constitution

Victoria receives its name

Act receives Royal Assent. Old Age

1840

Exploration of Eastern Australia by

Pension Bill passed in Victoria

Strzelecki, and of Western Australia

1901

Federation formally accomplished, with

by Eyre;

Lord Hopetoun Governor-General

1842

Industrial depression. Sydney in-

(January i), and first Parliament

corporated as a city. First Constitu-

meets (May 21). Visit of Duke and

tion Act passed

Duchess of York to open Parliament.

1843

Western Australia explored by Landor

Old Age Pensions in New South

and Lefroy

Wales

SSL

Exploration of interior by Sturt
Gregory and Mueller explore northern

1902

Lord Hopetoun resigns and is succeeded
by Lord Tennyson. Drought in

portion

Australia. Commonwealth Tariff Bill

1849

Agitation against revival of trans-

passed

portation

1903

Lord Northcote succeeds Lord Tennyson

1850

Province of Victoria created

as Governor-General. High Court

1851

Gold rushes after discovery of gold by

established. Election of second

Hargr eaves

Parliament, where strength of Labour

1853

Transportation stopped except in

Party increased

Western Australia

1904

Labour Arbitration Bill becomes law

859 Province of Queensland created

1905

New Cabinet formed with Mr. Deakin as

1860 ; Landells's expedition into interior

Prime Minister

1861 | Burke and Wills cross the continent and

1906 i Importation of opium prohibited

perish in the return journey

1907

New Customs Tariff, giving preferential

1861-2! The continent crossed from sea to sea

treatment to British goods.

by the expeditions of Stuart, McKinley

1910

Compulsory military training for all

and Landsborough

male citizens.

IIOO

IMPORTANCE OF THE PACIFIC

THE ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE
OF THE GREAT WORLD -OCEAN

BEFORE MAGELLAN'S VOYAGES

IN considering the importance of the
great world-ocean from the standpoint
of universal history, nothing at the present
day more forcibly arrests our attention
than the phenomenon of the manifold
relations which, through the intermediary
of its various parts, are established
between the inhabitants of different con-
tinents.

From north to south, from east to west,
the paths in which the political, intellectual,
and commercial life of humanity rolls
majestically onward stretch in a dense
network from continent to continent.
What an immense expanse is presented
here as compared with the ancient sphere
jof civilisation, or even with that of the
days before Columbus, confined as this
was to the countries around the Medi-
terranean and the seas which encircle
Europe !

The Pacific Ocean has played a

noticeable part in the course of human

history. Of the three-quarters

of the earth's surface which is

Pacific C covered by the ocean ' it forms
very nearly half. In conformity

with its vast extent and its other natural
and geographical features we find that the
history of the Pacific Ocean bears the
mark of grandeur, while, at the same time,
owing to its distribution over such an
enormous area, this history is lacking in
intensity.

Professor Ratzel has aptly described
the shape of the Pacific Ocean by calling
attention to its widely-sundered margins,
a distance of three or four times the length
of the Atlantic separating its Asiatic
from its American shores. Its wide open-
ing on the south is occupied by Australia
and Oceania, whereby the Pacific acquires
its most peculiar features namely, the
presence of a third island continent in
the Southern Hemisphere, and the richest
island formation to be found anywhere
on the earth. Both the narrowing in of

the ocean toward the north, and the bridge
of islands in the south, besides imparting
a special character to its shape and surface,
also form, in a primary degree, the paths
along which the history of the Pacific
pursues its course.

So far as our experience goes backward,
we cannot discover that Bering Strait

Value of has ever b een of greater im-
Beri portance historically than any

Strait other Arctic channel bordered
by two inhabited shores. Leav-
ing out of consideration the long but
still time-limited occupation of Alaska
by the Russians, Bering Sea has as a
means of commercial intercourse never
attained more than an insignificant im-
portance.

Thus, in spite of its convenience, the
beautiful bridge is left unused, because the
masses for whose crossing it might serve are
wanting. On the other hand, as we pass
southward toward temperate and tropical
climes and more habitable coasts, the,
dividing expanse of water widens out in
measureless breadth, and the opposite
shore recedes farther and farther alike
from the material and the ideal horizon.

Nor is the conformation of the coast
of the two great continents bordering the
Pacific everywhere of such a kind as to
attract their populations to the sea. This
especially applies to America. From its
farthest north to its southern extremity
that continent throughout its whole
. length is traversed close to the

Coaster Pacinc coast b y a s * ee P and
America ru && ec * mountain chain, form-
ing an almost insurmountable
barrier between the coast and the interior,
interrupted by only a few rivers in the
northern continent but entirely unbroken
in the southern portion. The Pacific side,
in fact, represents the backward side of
America from the historical standpoint ;
the front of the continent is turned toward
the Atlantic.

IIOI

A Section alon& 20 South L at.

1102

THE PACIFIC BEFORE MAGELLAN'S VOYAGES

The western shore of the Pacific Ocean
has a much more favourable aspect.
Numerous large and powerful streams
hasten toward it from the interior of Asia,
thus intimately connecting the latter with
the ocean. The surface of contact is
still further increased by the series of
island groups which, like a band, fringe
the eastern shore of Asia and provide the
first halting-place to its inland population
on venturing forth upon the sea. Thus,
while on the one side these island groups
invite the inland dwellers out to sea, on
the other they intercept the migrating
populations on their outward course and
retain them for prolonged periods.

According to the view of Darwin,
which deserves the fullest consideration,
the islands of Polynesia were not populated
until a few centuries before their discovery
by Europeans ; on the other hand, the
traditional, mythical history of Japan
traces back the existence of the population
of that country to periods so immeasurably
remote as to surpass the boldest flights
of our imagination. Now, though the
millions of years to which the son of the
distant empire proudly ventures
p ge to look back may not be able
p , c to stand the test of modern
1 criticism, there is nevertheless
usually a small grain of truth buried
among the chaff of national vanity. At
any rate this contradiction furnishes a
kind of scale or measure for estimating the
age of the history of the Pacific Ocean.

Historians have as yet failed to answer
the question as to when Man first came
to occupy the coasts of the Pacific. In
all probability this important event oc-
curred in prehistoric ages. It is equally
impossible to determine what race of men,
still less what particular people, first arose
on the coasts of this ocean. From palaeonto-
logical reasons there is some ground for
assuming that America was originally
peopled by immigration from without ; such
an immigration would most easily take place
from Northern Asia, owing to the close
proximity of that part of the Old World,
and its effect would be the spreading of
the Mongol type of population over
America.

Whatever views may be entertained as
to the usual division of the races of
mankind, whether we recognise three or
five or even more separate races, no one
will any longer deny that the answer
given to the question as to the origin of

the human race is inclining more and more
to the view of a primary unity of type
from which an apparent plurality of type
has arisen by differentiation. In this
fashion, from a Mongoloid ancestral type
common to the old Asiatic and the new
American branches, the red American
race may have been developed ; while
Development * *nnant f the Same P^
of National mitlv jr tyf 6 may under the
Types specific influences of Asia, have

produced the Mongol race.
In a similar manner we may ascribe to
the Indian Ocean the formation of the
Malay race, although the Pacific Ocean
also may have had a share in this, at least
so far as the peculiar racial variety of the
Polynesians is concerned. Finally, both
oceans conjointly conveyed to the Aus-
tralian continent, which was originally
peopled by a Negroid race, immigrants of
Malay and Polynesian descent, from the
intermixture of which with the primitive
inhabitants we get a new, sharply demar-
cated type that of the Australian race.
The latter next continues to spread
eastward over a portion of the island
world of the Pacific Ocean, or Melanesia.

Whether the Mongoloid type of the
north -temperate or the Negroid type of
the equatorial zone was the first to make
its appearance on the shores of the Pacific
Ocean must be left undecided. We know,
at any rate, that in prehistoric times the
margins of the Pacific, as well as its
immeasurable island world, were still
peopled by four distinct races, yellow,
red, brown and black. Only the white
race is absent. Through indefinite periods
the destinies of these four principal types
of the human race pursue their course
side by side without definitely crossing
or influencing each other. Each of them
more or less pursues a separate, independ-
ent course of development within the
limits of its own domain, because mutual
contact is prevented by the immense
expanse of the separating tracts
Segregation of ^ ater Their entrance, too,

into the sphere of historic
apprehension is marked by the
widest differences. While the densely
crowded populations of the Pacific coasts
of Asia, pushing and being pushed onward
in a continuous stream, have early arrived
at a high state of culture and are therefore
among the first to acquire historic import-
ance, the isolated continent of America
forms a world by itself, which for a long time

110,3

of the
Four Races

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

appears wrapped in darkness and presents
problems no less difficult to the historian
than to the anthropologist. Even the
key for the comprehension of undoubtedly
historic characters has been irrecoverably
lost. Hence America forms a very late
addition, and one very difficult of com-
prehension, in the scheme of universal
history. This remark applies still more
forcibly to Australia, which, though less
isolated, is still less favourable to human
development, owing to its physical and
climatic peculiarities. In spite of the
fact that the sea renders them close
neighbours to the progressive Malays, the
Australian aborigines are content with
playing a passive, merely receptive part.

Quite apart from anthropological and
ethnographical reasons, we are more and
more led to adopt the view according
to which the gradual occupation of the
island world of the Pacific Ocean by the
human race could have proceeded originally
only from the west. Thus, the sea first
made its civilising influence felt in a
direction from west to east. In subsequent
times, however, after the white race, with
o . its remarkable capacity for
from* West* ex P ansion > nad gained the
to E t ascendency in America, this
condition of things was
changed. Those peculiarities of the
Pacific Ocean which favour navigation in
an opposite direction from that men-
tioned above were now brought into action,
so that, since then the influence of the
Pacific as a promoter of civilisation has
proceeded in a direction from east to
west.

As regards the time when the gradual
settlement of the Pacific island world had
its beginning, Friedrich Miiller assumes it
to date back to about the year 1000 B.C.
According to the views of later anthro-
pologists this colonisation was not com-
pleted until a few centuries before the
discovery of Polynesia by the white races,
by whom the inhabitants of these islands
were regarded as a race sharply distinct
from the Malays. There is a sharp line
of demarcation between the dark-skinned,
frizzly or woolly-haired Melanesian and
the lighter-coloured, yellowish- brown, sleek
or curly-haired Polynesian or Micronesian.
The only feature common to all is that, in
spite of many intellectual endowments,
they for the most part remained a people
in a state of nature, who probably never
dreamed of regarding themselves as one

XIO4

people, or conceived the notion of forming
a state. The almost interminable sub-
division and insular isolation of their
separate racial divisions, the wholly tropical
situation of their homes, in which the
presence of the coco-palm, the bread-
fruit tree, and an abundance of fish and
shellfish entirely relieved them from the
Wh th necessity of labouring for a
e living, a climate which makes
mtle or no demand for houses
or clothing all these conditions
coUld not do otherwise than generate a
certain ease of living and absence of care
which are impediments to the develop-
ment of a higher civilisation, in the sense
in which we conceive it in the case of
a firmly-settled continental people. In
spite of this, the Polynesians, though they
knew nothing of iron, and were only slightly
acquainted with other metals, display a
remarkable ability, combined with artistic
skill, in the manufacture of different imple-
ments, which capacity reaches its culmin-
ating point in the shipbuilding art. To this
advanced condition of their seamanship we
must finally trace back the expansion of
the race over the whole immense breadth
of the ocean.

It is, in fact, in the form of these in-
voluntary migrations of its inhabitants that
the Pacific Ocean plays so important a
part in this remote domain of the history
of mankind. In opposition to the view
which traces back the Polynesian race to
the island world of South-Eastern Asia,
William Ellis asserts with conviction that
America was the point of departure of the
population of the Pacific island world. He
denies that it is possible for the Poly-
nesians to have originated from the west,
since the prevailing winds and currents
tend in this direction, and, apart from
this, because common ethnographic fea-
tures between the Polynesians and the
aboriginal inhabitants of America are by
no means wanting. Now it is true that
Theories w i tnm a small area winds and
Caused" curren ts often exercise a con-
siderable influence ; on the wide
the Winds f ., -r^ r s-\

expanse of the Pacific Ocean,

however, they have long since ceased
permanently to determine the distribution
of mankind. On the contrary, we have
actually a series of observations extending
over several hundreds of years which lead
to the conclusion that extended migrations,
whether voluntary or otherwise, have on
a large scale taken place in a direction

THE PACIFIC BEFORE MAGELLAN'S VOYAGES

contrary to that of the prevailing winds
and currents. At the same time we must
constantly bear in mind that sudden
unexpected storms are at least as efficacious
in driving the most expert sailor out of
his course as the constant regular currents
of air and water which the skill of the
navigator is capable of conquering. Im-
portant to the ethnologist as

Storms that ,-> - 1-1-

D , . . is this phenomenon which in
* the course of thousands of
years has extended a dense
network from land to land it is equally
so to the history of Polynesia, which is
entirely taken up by the mutual relations
of different groups and the fusion of races
which has resulted therefrom. In the
majority of cases, probably, these unpre-
meditated voyages were the precursors of
planned-out migrations, which, on the one
hand, led to the permanent settlement
of new islands, and on the other were
followed by the establishment of colonies
in districts long previously occupied.
This series of later migrations and colonisa-
tions forms, as Ratzel justly points out,
the sole fact which indicates the stage of
civilisation reached by the Stone Age. On
this account it cannot be easily under-
stood, since it is impossible to compare
it with other achievements of a similar
character. The area which was thus
brought within the sphere of colonisation
many times exceeds the empire of Alex-
ander the Great or of the Roman Emperors.
In the sphere of territorial domination it
represents the greatest achievement before
the discovery of America.

Intimately connected with the abundant
intercourse of which the Pacific has
been the scene from times immemorial
stands the fact that nowhere has it sup-
plied time or space for the development
of an independent civilisation. Neither
the immense island of New Guinea, with
its thinly scattered, idle population, nor
the still more remote New Zealand, has
been capable of becoming the
centre ot a new civilisation, to

nOt ^ f the . <****
innumerable smaller islands.

Only a few isolated elements within the
domain of civilisation have under spe-
cially favourable circumstances been able
to undergo an independent development.
Apart from this the Pacific Ocean presents
merely variations of one and the same
fundamental theme. In this the absence
of a real political formation or state .

lade endcnt
Civilisations

structure is constantly repeated ; it was
only in the Hawaiian Islands that, at the
time of their discovery by Europeans,
three states existed, which afterward,
under the native king Kamehameha,
united into a single state. In all other cases
the community or society, even when under
monarchical sway, was limited to a single
island, and hence remained quite insignifi-
cant in extent and influence. In all
the larger islands, such as New Guinea
and New Zealand, we fail to find even the
slightest trace of a centralised political
organisation.

Hence there can scarcely be a question
of a real history of Oceania before its
discovery. Nevertheless we ought not
on that account to speak of the Polynesians
as a people without a history; for tradi-
tion plays no small part in their social
life. They have also an idea of chronology,
in which the Creation forms the basis
or starting-point ; in the absence of
written signs they make use of notched
sticks, the so-called " history-rods," as
aids for remembering names and periods
of time. As one might expect, these tra-
Histo ditions sometimes go back to a

. very remote past. At Nuka-
from Island , J . ., Vv A ,

f hiwa, in the Marquesas Archi-

Legends . . , ? ,,

pelago, eighty-eight genera-
tions are said to have been established,
which would mean a period of about
twenty-five hundred years ; at Baratongo
the more modest number of thirty genera-
tions is claimed ; and the Maoris of New
Zealand limit themselves to twenty. On
the other hand the Hawaiian king Kame-
hameha claimed a descent in direct line
from a series of sixty-six generations of
ancestors. Of course no real historical
value can be attached to legends of this
kind ; but they nevertheless give evidence
of a strongly-rooted feeling of autoch-
thonous descent, which must have ori-
ginated in a fairly long period of residence
on the soil, and accordingly have been
preceded by a certain degree of civilisa-
tion. Apart from this, according to gener-
ally accepted views, the civilisation of
Polynesia had, at the time of its discovery,
sunk to a very low level as compared with
the development it had reached in earlier
times.

To the question whether the conditions
of national life in the Pacific were affected
by influences emanating from the eastern
shores of the American continent, it
is difficult to give a decisive answer either

1105

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

in the negative or in the affirmative.
In the dissemination of the Mongoloid race
over the continents of the Northern Hemi-
sphere, America, according to the preva-
lent view, seems to have played the part
of receiver that is, the

anTthe'south movement took P lace in a
Sea Islands

direction from Asia to
America ; while the view of
a reflux current in the opposite direction
can with difficulty be accepted. On the
other hand, some of the island groups of
the Pacific display so much analogy
with the North-west of America in their
flora and fauna, as well as in the ethno-
logical characters of their population,
that the idea of a casual connection
between the two regions easily suggests
itself ; while, on the contrary, there is no
lack of theories according to which the
Polynesian population of the Pacific
must be traced back to North America,
or of others which, instead of a single
former movement in one direction, assume
several movements in either direction,
and which, in Ratzel's words, " would
substitute for the artificial theory of a
former single migration and of a simple
descent, the idea of a diffusion and
stratification of the different races, inter
se." However, no such influence on the
part of America is discernible in historic
times, and hence, from our standpoint,
we are justified in regarding America as
the passively receptive, not as the actively
radiating or disseminating element.

We have already pointed out the ob-
stacles which stand in the way of the
existence of any mutual relations between

the west coast of America and the Pacific
Ocean. Native American civilisation
adopted a decidedly continental course,
a.nd did not take at all kindly to the sea,
even in places where as in that great
Mediterranean Sea of America, the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea the natural
conditions were most favourable to a
seafaring life.

A comprehensive historical glance at the
immense border regions of the Pacific
Ocean enables us to recognise the
beginning of a period in which its his-
torical formative influence has for its
basis, as it were, the human race itself
a period which may be described as the
typically continental period. Both the
border regions and the island areas are
now occupied. All the energies of their
inhabitants, however, are centred upon
their own internal organisation and de-
velopment, and there is an almost com-
plete absence of mutual relations ; even
the knowledge of their existence in the
Rela se case ^ widely-separated areas

vanishes completely from the
into r J J T-,

. .. memory ol man. Ihus we

Isolation , J . , . ... , .. r

see now the civilised nations ol

Eastern Asia -gradually succumb politi-
cally, socially, and intellectually to a
rigid paralysing formalism ; how the
States of America, soon discarding the
sea, consume and speedily exhaust their
energies in the struggle with a somewhat
chary Nature ; how finally they and the
natural populations of Polynesia and
Australia lose touch with the rest of man-
kind and relapse into the condition of
isolated, degenerating units.

THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN MODERN TIMES

"""THE first impulse to the enormous
* expansion of the white race through
navigation undoubtedly originated from the
Mediterranean. The prosperity which its
seafaring nations derived from the profit-
able commerce of the East impelled the
western Europeans of the Atlantic coast
to emulate their example and
to seek unknown sea roads to

* he Fa . r Ea ^ t; l r A W ? S OIlly

by such roads that that region

was accessible to Europeans. The idea of
an overland route across the gigantic
continent of Asia seems to have been
allowed to drop ; that it was not feasible
had been amply demonstrated by many

1106

fruitless attempts dating from the time
of Alexander the Great down to that of
Frederic Barbarossa and Saint Louis.
Moreover, Asia was still, at irregular
intervals, pouring forth its devastating
hordes toward the West, as in the Great
Mongol invasion which as recently as the
beginning of the eighteenth century was
still surging in Eastern Europe.

Of course, a small continent like
Europe, with its comparatively small
populations, could not cope by land
with the enormous populations of Asia.
Hence, since a road to the East had to
be found somehow or other, it could be
found only by sea.

THE PACIFIC IN MODERN TIMES

The history of geographical discoveries
does not fall within the scope of this
work ; it will therefore suffice to mention
that the immediate object in the search
for a direct sea-route from Western
Europe to India was the rediscovery of
the two countries Cathay and Zipangu,
which had vanished from the intellectual
horizon, but were thought to be, as it
were, neighbours of India, their existence
having been proved by Marco Polo. The
later and wider aims were merely the
gradual outcome of the enormous and
quite unexpected extent of the original
discoveries. In the natural order of
things the first attempts, undertaken
chiefly by the Portuguese, were made in
an easterly direction ; their most important
result was the circumnavigation of the
Cape of Good Hope,
accomplished in 1486 by
Bartolomeo Diaz. About
the same time, however,
the conception of the
spherical shape of the
earth, which was rapidly
gaining ground, led to
similar enterprises being
undertaken in a westerly
direction also.

It was in the pursuit of
such attempts that Chris-
topher Columbus dis-
covered the Bahamas and
Antilles for Spain in 1492,
and that John Cabot dis-
covered the North Ameri-
can continent for England
in 1497. Both discoverers
imagined themselves to
have really found what they had sought
the east coast of Asia, a belief in which
they persisted to the end of their lives.
Nor did Pedro Alvarez Cabral, who in
1500, while attempting to reach India by
an eastern route, was driven by a western
drift current to the coast of Brazil, recognise
the importance of his discovery. He, in
fact, believed he had found only an island
of no special attraction, and, altering his
course, made haste to return with all
speed to the coast of Africa.
For shortly before (1497-
1498), Vasco da Gama had
succeeded, by rounding the
Cape of Good Hope, in reaching India,
being the first European navigator who
had done so, and in forming there con-
nections of the utmost advantage to his

VASCO DA GAMA

A Great

native country, Portugal. Inspired by
this success, so important in a practical
sense, the Portuguese now turned their
attention exclusively to the route dis-
covered by Vasco da Gama.
On the other hand, the
Spaniards, who on their side
pursued further the road first
mapped out by Columbus, soon became
convinced that the countries discovered
in the west could not be part of Asia.
Driven by a passionate longing for the
gold which had been found during the
early explorations, they followed the
westward-pointing track of the yellow
metal, and soon obtained from the
natives of Central America the knowledge
of the existence of that " other sea " on
the coasts of which gold was to be found
in superabundance.

In the search for the
precious metal, Nunez de
Balboa crossed the Cordil-
leras of the Isthmus of
Panama, and was the first
European who from their
heights set eyes on the
Pacific Ocean, which he
did on September 25th,
1513. He applied to it
the name of the " South
Sea," and took possession
of its coasts in the name
of the King of Spain.
This event forms an im-
portant landmark in his-
tory. Henceforth the
newly discovered conti-
nental area was recognised
as a portion of a large and
independent continent. Further, the exist-
ence of the greatest ocean of the earth
was made known and turned to advantage.
The still existing civilised states of the
New World were annihilated and extin-
guished almost at one blow, and the
development of the human populations of
the Western Hemisphere was thus turned
into an entirely new channel. Finally,
this discovery also led to a fundamental
change in the political structure of the
civilised states of the Western Hemi-
sphere. The discovery of the Pacific Ocean
by Europeans had a double immediate
effect. First, it led to a definite general
knowledge of the true shape and size ol
the earth a knowledge which has had
immense results in the domains oi
civilisation, commerce, and politics.

1107

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Secondly it led up directly to the in-
credibly rapid conquest of the Pacific
coasts by Spain. The lamentable help-
lessness with which the densely popu-
lated and civilised native states of
Central and South America fell to pieces
before the onslaught of a few hundreds
of European adventurers, like the Aztec
Empire of Mexico before the small
band of Cortes, and the Empire of the
Incas in Peru before Pizarro, remains
one of the most remarkable phe-
nomena in history. The discovery of an
unexplored ocean separated from the
Atlantic by the whole ^^^.^^^ ^ ^ ,.^_
length of the Amer-
ican continent led to
a series of zealous
endeavours to find
the connection be-
tween these two
great masses of
water. It was of
importance to the
Spaniards, first of
all, who had been
anticipated by the
Portuguese in reach-
ing India by the
eastern route, not to
be misled by the
obstacle which had
unexpectedly barred
their course to the
west. It was soon
recognised that Cen-
tral America, which
had been the first
portion of the con-
tinent they had
become

with, possessed no
strait connecting the
two oceans ; hence the problem for solu-
tion was to find one elsewhere. In the
hope of discovering such a passage farther
south, voyages of exploration were made
along the eastern coast of Brazil, and in
1515 Diaz de Solis advanced as far as the
mouth of the La Plata, where, however,
he met his death.

In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan, a Por-

three months Magellan reached the Lad-
rones, and, later on, the Philippine
Islands ; and though he was not fated to
enjoy the triumph of a successful return,
he at all events is incontestably entitled
to the distinction of being the first navi-
gator and the first European who traversed
the Pacific along its entire breadth.
Magellan's companions continued the
voyage after the death of their leader, and
reached the Moluccas. Here, on the island
of Tidor, they fell in with Portuguese who
had previously arrived there by the oppo-
site route, and who were not a little aston-

^_ ^^^ ished to see white men

arriving from the
east. Here, then, two
advance columns,
which had set out
from opposite direc-
tions, for the first
time joined hands.
It was here that the
great girdle of know-
ledge which had been
laid round the earth
was made complete,
and thus European
energy and intelli-
gence achieved in the
course of some de-
cades a result which
the aboriginal inhabi-
tants of the Pacific
Ocean had never
attained for as many
thousands of years.
Within a short time
the whole Pacific and
the Pacific coasts of
were dis-
covered. California

reached

before the middle of the sixteenth century,
and as early as 1527 a regular navigation
route was established between the coasts
of Mexico and the far distant Moluccas.

In the meantime the Portuguese also
had advanced farther eastward from the
Indian Ocean. This advance, however,
was of a quite different character from
the conquest of America by the Spaniards.

FIRST EUROPEAN TO SEE THE PACIFIC
, The Spanish explorer, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, saw the A

acquainted Pacific Ocean on September 25, 1513, after crossing the America
Isthmus of Panama. He called it the South Sea, and
took possession of its coasts for his native country, Spain.

was reacned even

tuguese in the Spanish service, succeeded The Portuguese did not make their
in discovering the strait called after his appearance in India as " conquistadores "
name, between the South American con-
tinent and Tierra del Fuego. Through
this strait he entered the Pacific Ocean,
in which he at once vigorously pursued

his course.
1108

After a voyage of more than

in fact, to do so would have scarcely been
possible when we take into account the
much more ancient and advanced civilisa-
tion of that country, its well-established
political system, and the greater density

NUNEZ DE BALBOA FIGHTING HIS WAY TO THE CORDILLERAS

1109

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

and numbers of its population. They
accordingly did not indulge the ambition of
subjecting the newly-discovered terri-
tories and adding them as provinces to
their own small and remote kingdom, but
contented themselves with establishing
trading-stations on the coasts and with
acquiring and fortifying for the protection

Polic * t ^ ie ^ atter severa l points on

*k y the coast, as well as maintain-
ing in constant readiness a
B capable fleet of warships. In
other respects the sphere of Portuguese
colonisation falls chiefly within .the region
of the Indian Ocean. The latter, however,
served, after all, merely as a first step
towards its greater neighbour, inasmuch
as the Portuguese extended their explora-
tions from the Indian Ocean more and
more towards the East as far as the
coasts of China, where they founded
settlements, and to Japan, which they
reached by accident in 1543.

For exactly one hundred years Japan
was opened up to the outer world, a
period forming but a small fraction in the
history of the island empire, but one
which was fraught with important conse-
quences in the grouping arid position of
the European sea Powers. About the
middle of the sixteenth century Japan
began eagerly and zealously to open its
gates to Western civilisation and the teach-
ing of Christianity ; for three generations,
however, it was the unwilling spectator
of a jealous rivalry between the Portuguese
and the Dutch, who had arrived in the
country in the year 1600 a contest ren-
dered the more discreditable by the un-
scrupulous choice of the weapons with
which it was carried on. This state of
things the Japanese finally decided to
terminate by what seemed to them the
only possible solution namely, by simply
shutting their door in the face of the unruly
strangers. By this step, which, indeed,
is quite at variance with the character of
The Closed * ts P e P^ e ' J a P an f r more than
Door of*** two centur i es disappears com-
j a pletely from history, and ceases

to exercise any influence
whatever on the development of affairs on
and upon the Pacific Ocean.

It is a remarkable phenomenon that the
immense increase in power and wealth
which the era of geographical discovery
brought to Europeans fell much less
to the share of the real discoverers than
to others. The discoveries made between

1110

1486 and the middle of the sixteenth
century, with the sole exception of those
of the two Cabots, were placed entirely
to the political account of Spain and
Portugal. Both these kingdoms suddenly
came into possession of immense terri-
tories from which they drew undreamed-of
wealth and treasure. The populations of
these territories at least of those in
America became the pliant and feeble
tools of their conquerors.

The real fruits of geographical dis^
covery were to fall into the hands
of those who had participated in the com-
petition, not with precipitate haste and
with the sole object of enriching them-
selves suddenly and without effort, but
with far-seeing deliberation and with silent
but untiring efforts the Dutch and the
English. The Dutch, a small people, sub-
ject to the powerful monarchy of Spain,
had boldly risen against their political
and religious oppressors, and, in spite of
the enormous disproportion between their
own resources and those of the suzerain
Power, and chiefly on account of their
excellence in seamanship, had carried out
D . a successful resistance. They in

" * .... part transferred the seat of
Competition * ,, T ,.

with Spain war across tne Indian Ocean,
established themselves' in the
Spanish-Portuguese possessions, destroyed
Portuguese influence in important locali-
ties, as they had done since 1600 in Japan,
and gradually succeeded in getting the
trade of India almost entirely into their
own hands. But the activity of the English
assumed still grander proportions.

At the time of the discovery of America,
England had lost all her Continental
dominions with the exception of Calais,
and found herself restricted to her island
possessions. Even her dominion over
Ireland had at that time almost slipped
from her grasp, and Scotland formed an
independent kingdom. England possessed
no territories outside of Europe, and she
had fallen from her high rank as a great
European Power, while outside of Europe
her influence was virtually nil. It was
at this time that the discoveries of the
sea route to India and of America first
turned the attention of this healthy and
energetic people towards lands far distant ;
and the prudent sovereigns of the then
reigning House of Tudor kept the eyes of
their subjects fixed in this direction.

The inborn love of this island nation for
maritime adventure then, as if by magic,

MAGELLAN'S SHIPS PASSING THROUGH THE STRAITS THAT NOW BEAR HIS NAME

From the painting by J. Eraser, by permission of Mr. A. H. E. Wood.

suddenly blossomed forth in luxuriant
growth and drove its people with irre-
sistible force across the sea. It was not,
however, merely for the quest of gold, as
had been the case with Spain, that
England entered upon the career of terri-

r torial exploration and colonisa-

JLngland Ti ,1 T i

E th ' nor ' Portuguese,

with the object of making the

Vyompeiition ~ , , . . . *-*

profitable trade in spices a
monopoly in their own hands, but with a
nobler, more far-seeing purpose in which
the overthrow of the newly-found native
populations and civilisations formed no
part.

Thus, from the moment when the
existence of the Pacific Ocean was ascer-
tained, it engaged the attention of the
English. They quietly allowed the
Spaniards and Portuguese to push forward
their discoveries and conquests in the
East and West Indies without, for the
time being, entering into competition
with them. On the other hand, they con-
centrated their efforts upon finding a
route into the Pacific Ocean unknown
to the Spaniards and Portuguese, but
available for themselves, establishing

themselves in this route, and in this way
spreading and developing their rule in,
as it were, the opposite direction.

The efforts of the English found a
visible expression in the search for the
North-west Passage', which was pursued
with an iron persistency, and has proved
of the utmost importance in history.
That the newly-discovered continent in
the north was bounded by the sea, like
that in the south, appeared beyond
question.

Accordingly, it was thought that
there must exist a northern route
leading from the Atlantic into the Pacific
Ocean. Such a passage being situated
nearer to England than any other, the
problem was. to find it. Though the
T . attempts made in this direction

. did not at once lead to the
North-west . j i, j j

p expected result nor, indeed,

did they produce any result of
practical value later on they were never-
theless accompanied by effects of extra-
ordinary significance. They acquired
importance not only in a geographical
sense, by leading to a true comprehension
of the nature of the earth, but also in

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

a political direction ; for as a result of
numerous enterprises the northern part
of the American continent passed into
the possession of England, which made
much better use of it than the Spaniards
had done of its central and southern
portions.

The first reports of the success of
Columbus had, as early as ^-

1497, instigated John Cabot,
a Genoese in the English
service, as well as his son
Sebastian, to undertake a
voyage by which even at
that time they hoped to
reach the land of Cathay,
or China, and the Spice
Islands by the shortest
route that is, by a north-
west passage. In the course
of this voyage, however,
they discovered the north-
ern coast of the North
American continent, and
took possession of it in the
name of England. In a

THOMAS CAVENDISH

fitted out, at their own cost, whole fleets
which, according to circumstances, en-
gaged in commerce or made voyages of
exploration, or, on their own responsi-
bility, sailed in quest of warlike adventures,
which in many instances had a strong
savour of piracy.

At the beginning of this new period an
|^^ expedition left England

mainly for purposes of
exploration, but with an
object diametrically the
opposite of the voyages
which had been set on foot
at the beginning of the
century for the discovery
of the North-west Passage ;
for it was now proposed to
discover the nearest route
to China in an easterly
direction and along the,
north coasts of Europe,
or, in other words, to find
a north-east passage, which,
it was hoped by the English
commercial world of that

second voyage, undertaken English navigator who spoiled the Span- time, would lead to a fresh
in 1498, they enlarged the iards and sailed round the world in i^-ss development of their trade,

discoveries of their first expedition, and
the story was long current of a third
voyage made by Sebastian Cabot alone in
1498. The actual search for the much-
longed-for Northwest Pas-
Voyages sage was not begun until later,
f * he though some maintain that in

1517, the younger Cabot dis-
covered Hudson Bay, and very probably
penetrated into Davis Strait and within
the Arctic Circle.

The first attempt towards the solution
of the problem was, however, soon for-
gotten in the beginning of the Reforma-
tion, which absorbed the entire attention of
the English people. It was not until after
the death, in 1547, f the Royal theologian,
Henry VIII., that the transoceanic move-
ment was once more revived, and attracted
a much more general and lively interest
than on the first occasion. Its special
feature lay in the fact that the movement
proceeded not so much from the State
as from individuals and corporations,
and that, although it was favoured and
supported by the Government, it was
neither initiated nor directed thereby;
indeed, up to the time of Henry VIII.
(1509-47) a Royal Navy had not even
existed. A few wealthy and influential and
private individuals and merchant guilds

then in a very depressed condition. On
May loth, 1553, Sir Hugh Willoughby
sailed from London with this object ; but
neither his expedition nor those of later
English navigators were successful in
this sphere of exploration, in which they
had to yield the palm to the more fortunate
Dutch and Russians.

Hence English explorers once more
turned their attention to the North-west
Passage. Frobisher's voyage of discovery
in 1576 was followed by a large number
of others, such as those of Davis, Hudson,
Bylot, Baffin, and others. Although from
TK W natural causes these expedi-
of En Hsh tions did not obtain the desired

object, they nevertheless

Ji/xplorers , r X A

proved of infinite importance

in considerably advancing the colonisation
of North America, of which the beginnings
had been attempted by Humphrey Gilbert
and Sir Walter Raleigh in 1583 and 1584.
This was not a colonisation after the
fashion of Spanish conquistadores or
Portuguese spice-merchants, but a slow,
gradual, tranquil, and thoughtful immi-
gration of industrious, energetic Northern
Europeans, who did not go with the sole
aim of rapidly gaining treasures, but in
order to find a livelihood founded on
enduring and arduous labour ; who,

THE PACIFIC IN MODERN TIMES

while wresting the virgin soil from its
native hunting population and bringing
it under cultivation, became intimately
attached to it, and thus laid the firm
foundation of a political system, which
grew with surprising rapidity and was
full of the hardiest energy. Simultaneously
with the bold explorers of North America
r a number of naval heroes left

AgtinTthe En land in search of adven-
Spaniards tures, whose main object,

however, was to inflict the
greatest possible damage on the Spaniards,
who were detested on account of political
and religious antagonism, and thereby also
to enrich themselves. Besides such names
as Hawkins, Raleigh, and Cavendish, that
of Francis Drake shines forth with
special lustre. Drake combined the hero
with the explorer. So great was his
boldness that he was no longer satisfied
with attacking the Atlantic possessions of
Spain ; indeed, the West India islands
and the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico
had been already so much harassed by
the English corsairs that the Spaniards
in these possessions now kept a good
look-out. On the coasts of Chili and
Peru, on the other hand, they considered
themselves perfectly secure and unassail-
able. Relying on their sense of security
and consequent unguardedness, Drake,
who was morally and materially supported
by the Queen, at the end of 1577 left
England with five ships, well equipped by
himself, sailed through the Straits of
Magellan, and, without encountering any
resistance, began a private war against
the Spaniards in the Pacific Ocean. He
was entirely successful, and set out on
his homeward voyage richly laden with
spoil. He tried to turn the voyage to
account by searching for the North- West
Passage from the Pacific Ocean that is,
in the reverse direction. However, after
sailing along the West Coast of America
up to the forty-eighth degree of north

latitude without finding a sign

6 of the desired passage, he de-

ofDtke ided on the voyage across

the ocean, and returned to
England, after having touched at the
Moluccas and sailed around the Cape of
Good Hope.

Drake's circumnavigation of the world,
which had more or less the character
of a warlike expedition, marks the first
conscious and deliberate step on the part
of England towards a policy of universal

En land's

ng * n s

expansion and the sovereignty of the seas,
a policy the surprising results of which
not only produced a great change in the
distribution of power in Europe, but also
subsequently, and in a manner entirely
unpremeditated, brought into the fore-
ground a new and important factor in
international life America.

In this way, moreover, was laid the
foundation of the predominance of the
white race over the whole globe. For
the Pacific Ocean and its place in history
generally, Drake's voyage had a special
significance ; for by it, at one stroke, as it
were, that ocean became the centre of
public interest and the scene of the
struggle for the sovereignty of the seas.
Here was displayed for the first time in
a striking manner the internal hollowness
and weakness of the apparently gigantic
strength of Spanish dominion ; for, as
seems only natural, numerous other
piratical enterprises, not only English,
but also Dutch, followed in Drake's
successful track, and all of them, with
more or less impunity, managed to harass
and plunder the Spanish possessions and
Spanish ships in the Pacific
Ocean. True, the maritime
war between England and
Spain was not finally decided
in European waters until 1588 (the de-
struction of the Armada), but we may
safely assert that the issue was prepared
by the events which took place in the
Pacific Ocean, and that it was here that
England found the key to her maritime
supremacy.

About the year 1600 the third continent
washed by the Pacific Ocean Australia
also began to rise from the mist which
had hitherto enveloped it. Its discovery,
however, at first attracted but little notice,
and had no immediate practical results.
This was due to several causes : the
natural features of the country were not
very inviting, the climate was not favour-
able, and its n'ative population was scanty
and in a low grade of development. There
was further a dearth of all desirable
productions, and the coasts of the conti-
nent were difficult of access owing to the
presence of barrier reefs. Meanwhile,
Britain had lost her American colonies,
which now enter upon the stage of history
as an independent political entity under
the name of the United States of America ;
and besides this she was under the neces-
sity of maintaining the deportation of

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

criminals, who had formerly been sent to
the American continent. She was thus
obliged, in the year 1788, nearly two
hundred years after its discovery, to take
possession of the Australian continent in
earnest.

This enforced settlement had, however,
to yield to one of a voluntary character
as soon as the real value of the formerly
despised country became known. Immi-
grants, after a time, poured into the
country and furnished ample proof that
in Australia Britain had obtained an
acquisition of extraordinary value.
Owing to the fact that the new immigrants
were almost exclusively of British nation-

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

The first Englishman to sail the waters ot the
Pacific. His momentous work and the example he set
laid the foundations of Great Britain's colonial empire.

ality, the continent acquired a homo-
geneous population, and Britain a colony
which kept up very close ties with the
mother country. Especially were those
elements wanting which had driven the
Americans into a political indeed, almost
national opposition to Britain. Accord-
ingly the population of Australia had made
this youngest of continents into a second
antipodean edition of " Old England," a
daughterland which furthers the policy
of " Rule, Britannia " on the Pacific Ocean
with no less pride than her great prototype
at home. In the colonisation of Australia
its native aboriginal population is even of
less import than the Indians of North

1114

Britain'

America ; politically it is of no account
whatever, its scanty remnants having'
been forced back into the inhospitable
interior parts of the continent. The
acquisition of the Pacific Ocean by
England, which was begun since
Cook's discoveries, has not

??^ f a * * h , e Australian
continent, but has been ex-
tended to numerous parts of Melanesia,
Micronesia, and Polynesia. It is a
remarkable fact that in their numerous
voyages from the Mexican harbours to
the Moluccas and Philippines, and, since
1565, in the opposite direction also, the
Spaniards discovered so very few of the
innumerable island groups which stud
the intervening seas. Even the few of the
archipelagoes they did discover the Mar-
shall, Bonin, Solomon, and Paumotu
Islands, and others were not considered
by them worth acquisition or colonisation ;
only the Mariana, Caroline, and Pelew
groups were in course of time taken pos-
session of or laid claim to in order to
serve as points of support for their colonies
in the Philippines. The Portuguese and
Dutch took still less interest in the acquisi-
tion of territory in the Pacific ; they left
that ocean entirely out of the sphere of
their commercial policy, and, in fact,
formed no settlements in it at all. Thus it
came about that during the voyages of the
English and French in the latter third of
the eighteenth century those of Cook,
Bougainville, La Perouse, D'Entrecasteaux,
and others numerous island groups were
discovered which were not yet occupied
by Europeans, and were therefore owner-
less or unclaimed territory. Of course, the
crews of the ships composing these expe-
ditions were not sufficiently numerous to
spare any of their men for the permanent
occupation of these islands ; but they
were soon followed by compatriots in the
shape of adventurers, explorers, merchants,
and missionaries.

Rapidly the islands of the South Sea,
about whose inhabitants, products, and
climate the most favourable reports were

wt-i ** spread abroad, became centres
Wnit& Men r

. . oi attraction ior immigrants.

Sea Islands
s

manner the wnite race >

represented chiefly by English-
men and Frenchmen, later also by North
Americans and Germans, spread over the
Island world of the Pacific Ocean. The
English especially, who had just obtained
a footing on the Australian continent, were

THE FIRST ENGLISH SHIP IN THE PACIFIC: DRAKE'S "GOLDEN HIND" AT CALLAO

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

in the vanguard of this movement. Be-
sides settling in Tasmania and New Zea-
land, they also established themselves in
Polynesia and Melanesia, and in the course
of the present century have succeeded in
acquiring a considerable portion of the
Pacific island area. The French, too, have
secured for themselves a considerable
The Powers port ion, more especially in the
in the Polynesian groups, as well as

South Seas ^ ew Caledonia. Later on, the
North Americans also entered
into the competition, and since 1885 the
German Empire, by the adoption of a
vigorous colonial policy, has also acquired
possessions in Melanesia and Micronesia.

Nor must we omit to mention here
another European Power which, although it
did not participate in the division of the
Pacific island area, nevertheless, by a
vigorous advance towards the ocean, early
entered upon a path by which it gradually
developed into one of the most powerful
and determinant factors in modern history
namely, Russia. Recognising that its
strength existed in its continental charac-
ter, the mighty Slav Empire by degrees
withdrew from the ocean ; it sold Alaska
and the Aleutian islands to America, and
exchanged the Kuriles for the pseudo-
island of Saghalin ; but, on the other
hand, it cleverly managed to extend its
zone of contact with the ocean by a series
of brilliant moves, vitally important to its
own interests, towards the south. In the
twentieth century that movement brought
her into direct conflict with Japan, result-
ing in a set-back to the encroachments of
the European Power, which still lacks
effective command of a warm- water port.
If and when she becomes secure mistress
of such a position, her power on the Pacific
will take a new aspect.

The occupation of the whole expanse of
the Pacific by the white race requires,
like the advance of Russia to the shores
of that ocean, to be regarded from a

tll . higher vantage-ground. It is,

Ultimate^ ^ fa( ^ more than a political

Wo"w Races event U is a f act f . the U f m st
importance in universal his-
tory, an energetic step forward on the
road which seems to have for its final goal
the reunification of the divided human
race, an issue not to be controlled by
and scarcely patent to human conscious-
ness, but one which is regarded by many
as inevitable. Nowhere on the earth has
this levelling influence of the white race

1116

operated more energetically than in
Oceania, but of course always at the
expense of the aboriginal population.

In general, the Polynesians showed
themselves very accessible to " white "
influences ; they approached the white
immigrants sympathetically, and adopted
with ease their manners and customs and
their modes of life and thought ; but in
the acquisition of these foreign elements
their own original structure became under-
mined. Wherever the influx of white
elements is strong enough, mixed races are
produced with greater rapidity, and in
these the white influence is always the
determinative factor. Thus in New Zealand
the pure native Maoris are fast approaching
extinction ; and the Sandwich Islands are
nothing more than an appendage of the
North American Union. On the other
hand, where this influx is not sufficient to
produce a rapid anthropological trans-
formation, the native element is injured
by a mere superficial contact with Western
culture or by what we may rather
call its shady side. Men who as naked
savages have led a true amphibious life,

Effect kalf on l anc *' h a ^ on sea ' die

U on the ^ prematurely when turned
Natives * nto crv ili se d Christians. The
white race, though it forms the
determinant factor, does not, however,
stand alone in this filling up of the gaps of
defunct Pacific populations. Side by side
with it the yellow race is engaged in a
similar task. Of course, the motives
from which the Chinese set out in this
process are fundamentally different from
those of Europeans and North Americans,
and consequently their effect, too, is
widely different ; nevertheless, to a certain
extent at least, the latter has a similar
tendency in both cases.

It is neither love of adventure, lust for
gain, nor political or scientific interests
which drive the Chinaman to seek a home
in foreign countries, but mainly the
difficulty of obtaining a living in his own
over-populated empire. According to
natural laws the efflux of this surplus
population takes place in the direction of
least resistance ; but since Japan, till
very recently, was closed to foreigners,
while both divisions of India were them-
selves suffering from over-population, and
the large islands of the Indian Ocean
were very soon satiated with Chinese, the
stream of Chinese emigration overflowed
to Australia, America, and the island

DRAKE'S FIRST SIGHT OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN

The

Yellow
Invasion

between

world which stretches between these two
continents. These latter, owing to the
great disproportion between their extent
and population, seemed specially adapted
for receiving it.

Nevertheless, even there, the " yellow "
invasion has not met with a very welcome
reception. Nor is this a matter
for surprise. First, we have to
deal with the apparently un-
bridgeable gulf which exists
the white and yellow races.
Neither the white man nor the Chinaman
considers himself as the one and absolute
superior of the other in the way, that
is, that both look on themselves in relation
to all other native races ; but they
recognise and fear each other as for-
midable rivals, without being able owing
to a total difference in mental outlook
to find some common ground of agree-
ment. Fear without respect is the
character of their mutual relations, com-
bined with a repugnance reaching almost
to disgust of the one nature toward the
other, which prevents any direct inter-
mixture of the two races, and consequently

removes the most effectual means toward
the levelling of racial differences. In
addition to this the Chinaman is a dan-
gerous industrial opponent to the white
man, whom he excels as an indefatigable,
unpretentious, and at the same time in-
telligent workman, thereby lowering the
value of white labour and depreciating
wages.

Accordingly the policy of Australia
and America is directed toward the
prevention of Chinese immigration by
all possible means, as much from the
subjective standpoint of justifiable
self-defence as from an inborn instinct.
We must not, however, shut our eyes
^ ^ e ^ ac ^ ^ a t ^ e Chinaman
might put forward the same
claims on his side if he had
the power. It is therefore with
the white race a simple question of self-
help in the hard struggle for existence.
When we consider the profound differences
of the forces brought into play in the
contact of the spheres of expansion of the
yellow and white races upon the Pacific
Ocean, a final solution of this difficult

1117

S'd

of the
JL.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

problem must appear still very remote.
On the other hand, it becomes more and
more evident that the part which the
island world shut in by the Pacific Ocean
has played in the shaping of the history
of the world is not yet concluded, but,
on the contrary, is destined to produce even
greater effects in the future. The island
s f groups of Polynesia, Micro-

Chinese nes i a > an< ^ Melanesia, in which
new half-caste populations are
Emigration , . ,, . ,

being developed trom the inter-
mixture of white men and Polynesians,
seem adapted for intercepting such part
of the Chinese stream of emigration as is
not mainly directed to the gold-fields of
Australia and North America ; and it is
probable that, owing to the extensive
subdivision which of necessity goes on
in these localities, this portion may become
absorbed in the other racial elements.

The eastern margin of the Pacific
the American continent seems specially
designed for co-operating in this gradual
work of unification. This view will probably
meet with as little favour in the United
States as will the suggestion that our
country, still exuberant in its youthful
strength, can expect to exercise its
influence for ever. It looks, in fact, as
if America were the continent which,
after being for a long time inhabited by a
single race, is suddenly about to collect
all races upon its soil. We have no more
striking proof of the force of oceanic
influence and the historical importance of
navigation. The mutual relations of the
different races of America toward each
other are very variable. The Indians of
Central and South America, who led a
settled, agricultural, and according to
their light civilised kind of life in states
of their cwn formation, were naturally
unable to withdraw themselves from the
influences of the white man to the same
extent as the nomad hunting populations
of North America and the wild tribes of the
Natives South. The civilised Indians
- a * suffered the consequences of
Am rica subjection, and hence furnished
rich material for the formation
of mixed races. The hunting and primitive
races, on the other hand, avoided all con-
tact with the white man except in a hostile
sense ; they have accordingly suffered
annihilation in the unequal combat, and
have had to leave their settlements in the
hands of those who have supplanted them.
The whites, in their turn, especially in

1118

the tropical zone, have shown themselves
neither willing nor able to bear the
heavy burden of bodily labour on their
own shoulders, and have therefore fastened
it upon those of the subjected races.
Where the latter were not present in suffi-
cient abundance, or where their physical
strength was not equal to the perform-
ance of the hard task demanded of them,
other means of obtaining the necessary
relief were resorted to. The institution of
negro slavery in America forms one of
the saddest chapters in the otherwise
brilliant history of the white race ; and
though the nineteenth century may rest
with the consciousness of having removed
this shameful institution from the New
World, and of having thus at least
partially atoned for the sins of its
fathers, this does not furnish any justifi-
cation for letting pride at this act of
civilisation banish our feeling of shame
for the old moral wrong.

As things are to-day, America forms the
centre whither stream the surplus popu-
lations of all the continents. It cannot
resist this tide of immigration, inas-
~ .. , much as there is still plenty of

v/rticiDlc r , , // T

- . space tor its reception. In

Nations *^ s crucible," says Friedrich
Ratzel, " all the different races
of mankind will become intermingled ;
there will, of course, be cases of retro-
gression or ' throwing back ' in this process,
but bastard races, when they are prepon-
derant, have a considerable advantage over
pure races." At the time of its discovery
by Europeans, America was inhabited by
a single race about whose numbers we have
no information ; but they certainly can-
not have been very great. The densely
populated Indian States of Central and
South America formed mere oases within
unpopulated deserts. At the present day,
of its 100,000,000 inhabitants, 60,000,000
belong to the white race, 10,000,000
to the black, 9,000,000 to the red, 200,000
to the yellow, and some 20,000,000 to
different mixed races. In this calculation
are comprised the negro half-castes, to
whom the pure negroes, however, are as
one to four. Since this considerably in-
creases the total of the mixed races, we
may assume that about a fourth of the
total population of America consists
of mixed races. Now, every pure race can
furnish the material for the formation of
a mixed race, while the reverse is im-
possible ; farther, every mixed race, in

THE PACIFIC IN MODERN TIMES

the gradual crumbling away of neighbour-
ing races, grows at their expense by ab-
sorbing the fragments. From these con-
siderations it would appear that America
is likely, in the near future, to be the scene
of a great and general fusion of races.

While the eastern margin of the Pacific
basin appears in a state of active fer-
mentation pregnant with events, its
western margin also is being aroused into
fresh activity. We have already remarked
on the appearance on the Pacific coasts
of Asia of the greatest continental Power
in the world ; we have seen how Australia
has become an excellent point of support
to the greatest naval Power ; we are daily
watching the interesting efforts at coloni-
sation made by France, by the United
States, and by the German Empire. It
is therefore of special importance to
consider the peculiar attitude assumed
by the ancient civilised
nations, the hereditary
possessors of Eastern Asia,
toward the successful invasion
of the Pacific by the white
race, which has now become
a matter of history. In J apan,
about the middle of the
nineteenth century, a com-
plete revolution was effected
with surprising suddenness.
Since that time the Japanese
or at least the influential
classes among them have
been seized with a veritable
passion for adopting all the
institutions and customs of
the white nations, even to
the extent of imitating their
external appearance in dress,
tions are different in China

Coming
Conflict
of Races

DE BOUGAINVILLE

Who commanded the first French
expedition round the world.

The condi-
There, in

spite of the multiplication of points of
contact, we meet as yet with little com-
prehension of, and response to, European
methods. On the contrary, it opposes to
the invasion of the white race the mechan-
ical obstacles of its immense superiority
in number and density of population ;
and, more than this, it meets this invasion
by an expansion on its own

of Yellow Side ' Whlch ' m S P itC f ltS

Races apparently pacific character,

forms, for the very reason of
its being unavoidable, an extremely
menacing factor. The waves of Chinese
emigration radiate in all directions, but
farthest to the side of least resistance
that is, acro.ss the Pacific Ocean. Here

will of necessity be performed the first
act of the inevitable struggle between
the white and yellow races a struggle
viewed with much dread and fraught with
much danger from the standpoint of
ethnological history. Thus, if
we cast a final backward glance
over the Pacific, it appears at
first as an element of separa-
tion and differentiation, assigning local
limits to the various divisions or branches
of the human race and providing them
with the opportunity of accentuating and
perpetuating peculiarities of type. Since
this task has been completed, the ocean
slowly and gradually, reversing its purpose,
is destroying its own work, and tends
in an opposite direction as an element
of union, thus presenting us with a
true image of the eternal circulating
stream of Nature. The same glance
reveals to us yellow, red,
brown, and black races
settling upon the coasts and
islands of the ocean, stretch-
ing their limbs and extending
themselves, supplanting or
tolerating one another ; soon,
however, arriving at a certain
pause from which only the
yellow races emerge, owing
to their great numbers and
multiplying powers, while the
rest degenerate in every
direction.

At the present day we see
only two important elements
as natural antagonists upon
the shores of the Pacific, each
prepared and ready for the
fray : they are the ancient indigenous yellow
race and the newly arrived white race.
Both are ably and well represented : the
yellow by the Japanese and Chinese,
the white by the English and North
American.

In the recent war the West declined to
recognise the struggle as the beginning of a
battle for supremacy between the white
and the yellow races ; on the contrary, it
showed its readiness to admit Japan into
the comity of nations, rejecting the theory
of inherent antagonism. If the time
should come when the yellow and the
white rise up against each other in a
death grapple, Europe will repent of her
standing aloof in the Russo-Japanese
War. Whether she was wise in acting on
the higher hope, time alone can show.

1119

Kirghiz Steppe

THE MIDDLE EAST DIVISION OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Following our progress westward we proceed now to the history of the Asiatic countries on the north of the
Indian Ocean. These include India and Ceylon and the great peninsula which is best described as Further
India : Burma, Siam, Annam, and contiguous countries. The Indian Ocean itself and the lands which border on
India to the north and west Tibet, Turkestan, Afghanistan and Baluchistan also come within this division.

1120

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

THIRD GRAND DIVISION

THE MIDDLE EAST

II2I

THIRD GRAND DIVISION

THE MIDDLE EAST

The regions included under the heading of the Middle
East embrace the Indian Ocean, with so much of the
Asiatic Continent as lies east of the Caspian Sea and the
Persian Gulf, excepting what has already been treated
under the heading of the Far East.

In this region, interest attaches primarily to the great
Indian peninsula, which, like China, has a recorded history
reaching back for nearly five thousand years, but, also like
China, remained to Europeans a land of myth and marvel,
hidden behind a curtain, of which a corner was raised at
rare intervals, until the sixteenth century of our era.

Eastward of India proper lies the great double peninsula
of Further India or Indo-China, half Indian and half
Chinese in its associations. North lies the mysterious
hidden land of Tibet, and beyond that with Siberia on its
northern and China on its eastern boundary the vast
Central Asian territory which bears the general name of
Turkestan, the home of nomad hordes that, from time
to time, have conquered and devastated half Europe as well
as all Asia.

Finally, our division includes Afghanistan and Balu-
chistan, lands whose history is in part bound up with the
Nearer East and the Empire of Persia, but whose most
intimate connection is with Turkestan and India.

PLAN

THE INTEREST & IMPORTANCE OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Angus Hamilton

INDIA

Sir William Lee- Warner, Professor Emil Schmidt.
and Arthur D. Innes, M.A.

CEYLON
Professor Emil Schmidt and Arthur D. Innes, M.A.

FURTHER INDIA

J. G. D. Campbell, M.A.. Arthur D. Innes, M.A.,
and other writers

THE INDIAN OCEAN

Professor Karl Weule

CENTRAL ASIA
Francis H. SKrine, Dr. H. Schurtz and other writers

For full contents and page numbers see Index

122

LANDS & PEOPLES

OF THE MIDDLE EAST

THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE

OF THE ttlDDLE EAST

BY ANGUS HAMILTON

A LTHOUGH the boundaries of the
* Middle East are well known, for the
purposes of this history they may be
regarded as including (a) Central Asia :
Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan, and
Tibet ; (b) Further India : Siam, Annam,
Burma, Tonquin, Cochin China, and Cam-
bodia ; (c) India, with the little independent
states of Nepal and Bhutan, and the
island of Ceylon. Within this region the
physiography of Asia nowhere shows to
such advantage as in the elevated uplands,
where a central tableland, at once the
loftiest and most extensive in the world,
is buttressed by stupendous orological
development. Covering some 3,000,000
square miles, the central tableland is
intersected by high ranges which enclose
a number of plateaus, while it is also
marked in the Gobi Desert and in the
Lob Nor basin by extensive depressions.
Towering above these uplands, which
reach in the Tibetan plateau a height of
from 14,000 feet to 15,000 feet, in the
Pamir plateau 9,000 feet to 12,000 feet,
and in the Iranian plateau 6,000 feet
above sea-level, are the lofty crests of the
Himalayas, Tian-shan, Kun Lun, Altai
and Mustagh Ata.

Radiating from the Great Pamir, as
the pivot of several converging systems,
are the Hindu Kush and the Mustagh Ata
or Kara Koram Mountains from the
south-west and south-east, the Kun Lun
from the east and the Tian-shan from the
north-east. The Pamir plateau covers

some 30,000 square miles and in its
southern limits connects the Mustagh Ata
with the Hindu Kush by a ridge which
serves as the water parting between the
basins of the Upper Oxus and the Indus.
To the north it acts as the water divide
between the Zarafshan and the Syr-daria.
The Tibetan tableland is no less intimately
identified with the orography of the
Middle East, but, lying between the
Himalayas and the Kun Lun Mountains,
it is the least accessible portion of this
highland region.

The dominating feature of the mountain
system of Mid- Asia is found in the gigantic
mass which, in the shape of the Hindu
Kush, Kara Koram, and Himalayas, forms
the true water parti, 13 Iwi ween the inland
and seaward drainage of the Middle East.
Divided into a western, central, and
eastern section, the mountains constitute
themselves the southern scarp of the
central tableland and extend some 2,000
miles in one uninterrupted curve, from
the eastern extremity of Assam to the low
hills which lie to the north of Bokhara,
varying in width throughout from 100
to 500 miles. The eastern section of the
great divide contributes the Nepal high-
lands as well as Sikkim and Bhutan to
the general rise of the Indian frontier,
and maintains a mean elevation of 16,000
feet.

These three purely frontier territories,
Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan, of which
Sikkim long since has been incorporated

1123

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

with the dominions of India, nestle high
up on the southern slopes of the inner
range of the Himalayas. As may be
imagined they are wholly mountainous.
Their primitive and rugged character,
too, is quite uninfluenced by Indian
civilisation. Nepal, the largest, is a mere
strip, some 500 miles in length and 160

miles broad, descending from
States of the the hdghts of the Himalayas

* to the Indian plain in five

contracting terraces. At the
same time the Nepal highlands are crowned
by the highest elevations on the face of the
globe. A right-angle 'ridge, 12,000 feet
in height, separates Nepal from Sikkim,
while the most easterly of the three, as
also the most exposed, is Bhutan. Four
hundred miles in extent and extremely
elevated, it is at once the bleakest and the
most beautiful part of the Himalaya
region. *

Throughout the line of the Himalaya
system the serried continuity of the
various parallel chains and ridges com-
posing it is broken occasionally by some
signal peak of marvellous altitude. The
extreme westerly sections of the Hindu
Rush do not disclose this irruptive
grandeur in any great degree, and it is not
until the Tirieh Mir, near the Nuksan Pass,
now fixed at 25,000 feet, is reached that
a really formidable height presents itself.
Tengri Khan, the central point of the
Tian-shan, however, records an identical
elevation. Unlike the Hindu Rush, the
Rara Roram chain offers quite a selection
of lofty peaks ; but then the mean
elevation of the Mustagh Ata, by which
name the eastern extension of the Hindu
Rush is more precisely described, is rarely
less than 18,000 feet. The highest points
occur close within the angles formed by
the convergence of the Hindu Rush and
the Mustagh Ata, and between the Gilgit
valley and the Rara Roram Pass. In
connection with the former, Sven Hedin
. . t fixed the highest point on
Peaks of the Musta S h Ata itself at
Central Asia ?5,ooo feet while in the latter
there are the Dapsang, 28,000
feet, and Peak R 2 , 28,278 feet. In the
Himalayas proper there is even a greater
wealth of distinctive elevation, and no
less than forty peaks are known to exceed
24,000 feet.

If the mountain systems of the northern
part of the Middle East appear to belong
to a single family, no such idiosyncrasy

1124

may be said to distinguish its rivers, and,
whether the area concerned is the steppe
of Eastern and Western Turkestan, the
Iranian plateau, the elevated tablelands
of the Himalayas, or the Great Plain and
Deccan plateau of the Indian peninsula,
there is very little reciprocity between the
respective systems of drainage. In con-
nection with the former the Tarim River
constitutes Lob Nor the basin of Chinese
Turkestan by draining the northern
watershed of the Tian-shan, Mustagh, and
Run Lun mountains, much as the Aral
Sea receives through the Amu-daria and
the Syr-daria the drainage of Russian
and Afghan Turkestan.* At the same
time, while the flow from the northern
slopes of the Pamir plateau, the Hindu
Rush and the Paropamisus goes to the
Aral, the southern slopes of the Hindu
Rush drain to the Arabian Sea through
the Indus river, in the drainage system
of which North-eastern Afghanistan is
embodied.

Afghanistan boasts a three-fold system
of drainage. Although the areas already
mentioned drain to the Aral and to the
T G Indus, a much larger proportion

Watersheds f the cou . ntr y> at least 2OO,OOO
square miles in extent, drains

ot Asia . >. .-, . . T- i

into the Seistan Lake, in

the main through the Helmund river.
Unlike Afghanistan, Baluchistan possesses
no particular system, inland or seawards,
and in many respects is as waterless as
the Sahara. East of the Hindu Rush, at
its meeting with the Mustagh, the presence
of the water parting is manifested by the
southern flow that is here given to the
drainage of the watershed. From this
point the main conduit southwards to the
Arabian Sea is the Indus ; further east
the Ganges carries the drainage of the
Himalayas, and the Brahmaputra that of
the Tibetan highlands and their more
remote hinterland, to the Bay of Bengal.
From the base of the Himalayan slopes
a triangular peninsula projects southwards
to Cape Comorin, possessing, between the
delta of the Ganges-Brahmaputra on the
east, and the delta of the Indus on the
west, a length of 1,900 miles on each face.
Breaking away from the foot of the
mountains is the Great Plain of India,
with an extreme elevation of 1,000 feet
and an area of 500,000 square miles, but
draining entirely to the Indus and the
Ganges. South of this plain there rises
the Deccan tableland, with a general level

THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF THE MIDDLE EAST

of about 2,000 feet and of a vast dimension.
There is much that is distinctive about
these two features of the Indian peninsula.
The deltaic area is conspicuous for its
richness and size, while the plateau is no
less remarkable from the manner in which
it preserves a continuity of character
undisturbed by the encroachments of
various containing hills. But the Ghats,
which enclose the Deccan on the eastern
and western sides, and the Nilgiris, which
fulfil a similar purpose at its southern
extremity, do not complete the mountain
system of Southern India.

Beyond the Nilgiris the orographic
formation of the peninsula is carried on by
the Palni Hills, while the highest elevations
that are to be found south of the Hima-
layas exist in the Anamalai Hills, 9,700
feet. Occupying the apex of the Indian
triangle, by means of Adam's Bridge,
these hills link together the Indian and
Cingalese mountain systems. The most
remarkable feature of the Southern upland,
however, is the pronounced individualism
which characterises its fluvial drainage.
Unlike the central tableland in the north,
which drains seawards only

throu S h the three rivers > Indus '
Ganges, and Brahmaputra, the

Deccan is scored by no less than
fifty separate systems. In spite of this,
the central tableland dismisses to the
Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal
respectively a greater volume of water
in any one of its three streams than the
Deccan discharges to any source through-
out its entire system. In this connection,
too, it should be borne in mind that the
Indian peninsula drains always to the
sea, an inland to the Aral Sea and Lob
Nor as well as a seaward flow, describing
the systems of Mid-Asia.

Although Eastern Assam has been
indicated as the termination of the main
water divide of the northern part of the
Middle East, there is such an appreciable
watershed connection between the Hima-
layas and Further India that the oro-
graphic influence of the mainland can be
said to have penetrated the Indo-Chinese
peninsula for some considerable distance.
In a strictly scientific sense it has yet to
be shown whether Further India possesses
an independent highland system. If there
is any doubt about the precise connection
between the ranges of the Indo-Chinese and
those of the Tibetan mass, there is no
doubt that the rivers of Northern India

of IHver

c '

and Indo-China, as well as the Yangtse
and Hoang-ho of China Proper, find their
origin in the Tibetan plateau.

In a region as vast as the Middle East,
there is necessarily much diversity in the
systems of natural economy that apply
to it. Extremes are touched in so many
directions, and under such a variety of
-.. subjects, that comparison

is liable to beget confusion

Influences in ,, , , .

the Re ion rather than to add to our
general knowledge of this
division of the Asiatic continent. None the
less, the salient features of the Middle East
present an attractive study and in many
places disclose considerable unsuspected
uniformity throughout vast areas. An
example of this is to be noticed in the
similarity of the climatic influences which
affect the Aral basin on the one hand, and
the Pamir, Tibetan, and Tian-shan uplands
in another direction. Although the
former is only slightly raised above sea-
level, and the altitude of the latter varies
between 12,000 feet and 18,600 feet, the
climatic conditions of either area preserve
the same fierce heat, identical periods of
protracted drought, and the same intense
cold.

India and Further India naturally
respond to a different set of circumstances
in the composition of their climates.
India particularly is held at a disadvan-
tage, since, although retaining the pheno-
mena which produce a brisk climate, the
benefit of possession is destroyed by the
conflicting physical conditions of the
peninsula. While the effects of tropical
latitude, therefore, are tempered by the
elevation of the Deccan tableland, great
heat prevails everywhere because through
their extreme altitude the Himalaya
highlands intercept the cooling currents
from the northern tablelands and, reflect-
ing the solar rays, intensify the fiery blasts
which proceed from the furnaces of the
Indian deserts. In spite of an all-per-
Heat and ^ acu ng heat, there is an even

distribution of humidity over
India* 11 *ke ent ^ re peninsula. Arising

from the Indian Ocean during
the incidence of the monsoon, neither the
Deccan plateau nor its circumambient
ranges are high enough to arrest the pass-
age of the rainclouds, which, spreading
farther and farther inland, ultimately
precipitate their contents against the
southern slopes of the main continental
divide.

1125

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Save in the extreme north, on the up-
lands of the Burmo-Chinese frontier,
Further India is subject wholly to tropical
conditions, exaggerated rather than im-
proved by the oceanic environment of
the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Unendowed
with sufficiently modifying elevation, an
excess of moisture is accompanied by
enervating heat, while the
absence of a cold-weather
AroundIndia season > resembling that which
bestows such a boon upon
India, renders the climate of Indo-China
peculiarly trying. Examination of the
climatic conditions of the Middle East
would not be complete without a brief
glance at the countries affected by the
Iranian plateau. Although extremes of
temperature distinguish both Afghani-
stan and Baluchistan, by reason of the
proximity of the Arabian Sea there is
much greater humidity in Baluchistan
than in Afghanistan. At the same time,
while the heat of Afghanistan is more
intense than that which prevails in many
parts of Bengal, no district of Asia is
hotter than certain parts of Baluchistan.
Yet, so long as terrific heat is unaccom-
panied by moisture, the prevailing con-
ditions of climate are usually salubrious,
although the heat of Baluchistan is aggra-
vated by devastating sand storms. In
this connection it is only in the lowland
districts between the Oxus and the northern
slope of the Hindu Rush that fevers are
endemic in this part of the Middle East.

The orological traverse formed by the
three systems, Hindu Rush, Mustagh,
and the Himalayas, establishes not only
the water parting of this section of the
Asiatic continent, but the line of demarca-
tion between the northern and southern
flora, fauna and ornithology. Although
the bleakness of the Asiatic highlands and
their accompanying expanses of barren
plain precludes a plentiful arboreal growth
from distinguishing the heart of the Middle
East, the region is by no means
in Hi h l unproductive. The extreme
AM* altitudes are necessarily desti-

Altitudes ., 11

tute ; the valleys are stony
and the mountain sides denuded of vege-
tation, but plateaux of 12,000 ft. are
covered with rank grasses, while the
secondary elevations are marked by an
extensive distribution of mountain ash,
poplar, pine, and larch. It is impossible to
observe a definite line between tropical
and non-tropical flora in Central Asiatic

1126

The Tropical

highland areas since, owing to the vagaries
of the climate of the Middle East, sub-
tropical Life occasionally breaks out in the
so-called temperate zones.

It is not until the mountain systems
of the north have been exchanged for the
sweltering plains of the Indian peninsula
or the deltaic valleys of Indo-China, that
a genuinely distinctive element appears in
Mid-Asian vegetation. Although signal
success attends in the almost tropical areas
of the Great Plain of India, the cultivation
of cereals, vegetables, and plants, that are
characteristic of a cooler region, the
main interests centre in the growing of
crops of a distinctly tropical complexion
rice, tea, coffee, jute, indigo, cinchona,
betel, poppy, oilseeds, in addition to a
variety of aromatic products, eliciting
indiscriminately the attentions of the
ryots. No less notable is the change to be
found in the trees and palms which, as
indigenous to the Indian peninsula, and
ignoring the species common to temperate
as well as torrid zones, include ebony,
teak, sandal-wood, mango, banyan, date,
palmyra, and bamboo. Unlike the Indian

peninsula, less than half of
which actuall Ues within

the trop.cs Indo-Chma or
Further India is entirely
tropical, a fact which an exuberant vegeta-
tion quickly makes patent. Vanilla, sugar-
cane, cloves, pepper, sago, ginger, cinna-
mon, cotton, rice, tobacco, tea and coffee,
besides products everywhere interchange-
able, flourish in the cultivated lands ;
while in the primeval forests eagle-
wood, teak, gum, gutta-percha, cardamum,
coco-nut, and bamboo abound.

As comprehensive in its flora as it is
in the character of its mountain systems
and in the nature of its rivers, plains, and
climate, it is only in its fauna, and or-
nithology that the Middle East allocates
to itself a number of specific types.
Prominent among the species of the central
uplands and along the line of the water
parting there are in wild state the yak in
Tibet ; the ass, the camel, and the dromedary
in Eastern Turkestan. Further to the south
there are the elephant, lion, tiger, leopard,
rhinoceros and crocodile in India and
Indo-China ; the lion, tiger, leopard and
wolf in Afghanistan and Baluchistan.
Common to the entire area are the usual
domestic animals buffalo, horse, ox,
sheep, and dog ; while, in addition, the
dromedary, camel, elephant, the water

THE INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE OF THE MIDDLE EAST

buffalo, the ass, and the yak have been
reduced to the service of man.

Although the Middle East itself is not
concerned with all the philological and
racial distinctions of Asia, a very confused
ethnic distribution does fall within its
narrow limits. Roughly divided between
Mongolo -Tatars and Aryan - Caucasic
peoples by the line of the water parting,
the first fusion of the two races took place
within the western limits of the Aralo-
Caspian and Lob Nor basins, when an
intimacy arose between the Turki, who
frequented the unarable steppes of Eastern
and Western Turkestan, and the Tajik,
who tilled the western cultivable zone,
which so modified the Mongolic features of
the Turki that the race now resembles the
Aryan Tajik in everything but speech.
In the east and south of Lob Nor, con-
tinuing along the northern slopes of the
watershed, a more Mongolic caste pre-
vailed, which now betrays itself in Bhutan
and on the Tibetan plateau ; while in
Further India it is represented by the
assortment of Tibeto-Burman, Tai, and
Chinese-Annamitic tribes that now occupy
the northern and north-
eastern frontiers of the
peninsula. Although the
presence of the mountains
prevented a Mongolic descent upon the
plains of India from the east from taking
place, frequent Mongolic irruptions broke
over the west, the residue of which has
added so much to the ethnographic per-
plexities of the Middle East. In this
direction the line of mountains was
pierced by two passages, the Kabul
Valley on the north-west, and Makran
on the west, with the result that Mongolo-
Tatar stock predominates in Northern
Afghanistan. In Afghan-Turkestan the
Hazaras, although now a Persian -speaking
people, are marked out by their physiog-
nomy as of Mongolic ancestry ; while the
Kizzil Bashis of Kabul are Persian-
speaking, and the Ghilzais Pushtu-speak-
ing, Turki tribes. In addition, there are
the Usbegs and the Turkomans, equally
possessing Turki descent. In Baluchistan,
too, the Brahuis, an aboriginal and numer-
ous race occupying the eastern high-
lands, whose identity was long mysterious,
are now believed to spring from Mongolic
or Dravidian progenitors.

Excluding the Baluchistan highlands,
Afghan-Turkestan represents the extreme
limit of Mongolic movement towards

The Races
of the
Middle East

India. South of the Hindu Kush, an Aryan
element prevails in the tribes forming the
population in Afghanistan and Baluchi-
stan, as well as towards Persia and the
northern plains of India. It is, however,
in no way surprising that Aryan stock
should underlie the ethnography of the
southern areas of the Middle East, since the
earliest habitat of this great

f th S racial division were the

\ _, valleys and mountains of the

Middle JLast f^. J v j T-> j.-

Oxus watershed. Retiring

before the pressure of the Mongols, the
Aryan peoples crossed over the main divide
of Asia into the Peninsula. Although the
last to arrive from the north-west, they
did not penetrate much beyond the
northern plains, remaining principally
within the region covered by the basins
of the Indus and Ganges. Elsewhere,
indeed, were other races the Dravidian
in the Deccan and Ceylon, and the
Kolarian about the central ranges, the
latter being either the absolute aborigines
or the first arrivals in the country.
These latter branches of the human
family represent, in point of fact, the
only distinctive stock that India has
produced, the Tibeto-Burman, Chinese-
Annamitic, and other Mongoloid reduc-
tions along the Himalaya system, the
Assam highlands and the Indo-China
frontier being even more alien to India
thin the Aryan tribes themselves.

While the Kolarians belonged to the
lowest grade of human culture, and
were wholly unresponsive, the Dravidians
were susceptible to the elevating in-
fluences of the Aryans, who .ultimately
applied to their own purpose the Dravidian
alphabet. To-day, moreover, the Dravi-
dian and Aryan peoples of India are
unified in a common system of caste that
extended throughout Southern Asia, the
ethics and principles of which were devised
originally by the Aryan leaders as a pre-
caution against their numerical inferiority
in the face of the more numer-
ous indigenous element. To
t ^ ie * our original degrees of
caste at first proclaimed an
infinite variety has been added until the
institution, which in its earliest conception
referred to colour, now possesses hardly
any relation to its original form.

Following their invasion of India, the
Aryans passed into Persia, where they
imposed their own forms upon the Semitic
structure of civilisation already there.

1127

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Much as the Aryan language developed
into Sanscrit in India, so in Persia it gave
birth to Pehlevi, in which the Zend A vesta
of the Zoroastrians is written. In Balu-
chistan, the Baluchis, as opposed to the
Brahuis, are Aryan ; and, north of
Baluchistan, extending from the axis of
the mountain system in an indefinite
westerly direction across Afghanistan and
Persia, are areas in which the Aryan races
exercise, if not unchallenged, at least
uninterrupted, sway. Many subdivisions
of the Aryan family exist in
Afghanistan under the guise of

Of the *ri r* i 1 J 1* "1

A . . Afghans, Galchas, and Tajiks.

Of these the Afghans, or Pathans
as they are called in India, are the most
important. Claiming to be Ben-i-Israel,
and insisting on descent from the tribes
who were carried into captivity by
Nebuchadnezzar, they are a Pushtu-speak-
ing people, possessing, with all Pathans,
the bond of a common speech, although
they do not admit other Pushtu people
to be Afghan. Further east, along the
crests of the watershed, an Aryan popula-
tion occupies Nepal, while there are
Caucasic-Aryan indications among the
tribes in Southern Siam and Cambodia.

Although the races of the Middle East
may be classified broadly under one or
other of the four branches, Caucasic-Aryan
Mongolo-Tatar, Dravidian, and Kolarian,
each group is divisible into several sub-
sections. In many cases, too, these sub-
sections, while physiologically in harmony,
have developed complete linguistic inde-
pendence. In this way, and considering
each division as a complete racial unit, the
Caucasic-Aryan peoples are affiliated with
six stock tongues : (i) Kartveli ; (2)
Cherkess ; (3) Chechenz ; (4) Lesghian ;
(5) Aryan ; (6) Semitic the first four of
which appertain solely to the Caucasus re-
gion ; while the Mongolo-Tatar races are
identified with eight : (i) Tibeto-Burman ;
(2) Khasi ; (3) Mon ; (4) Tai ; (5) Chi-

nese-Annamitic ; (6) Koreo-
oHhe UageS Japanese ; (7) Ural-Altaic ; (8)
^t'AAi v t Malayan. The affinities with
8t Dravidian and Kolarian are
more doubtful ; but it is held by those most
competent to judge that, owing to con-
stant fusion of the species, there is now
only a slight philological disparity between
many Dravidian and Aryan dialects.

The existence of so much linguistic
difference among races now forming the
branches of a single racial family should

112$

not be astonishing when the divergent
characters of the original tribes are borne
in mind, nor is it remarkable that the
Aryan peoples should produce greater
evidence of common linguistic origin than
the Mongolic or even the Caucasic races.
Less subject to conditions which necessarily
imposed changes upon speech than the
nomadic northerners or the more poly-
glot communities from the Caucasus, the
Aryans rapidly evolved a state of civilisa-
tion in which language, manners, customs
and race type were identical, and through
which Aryan domination over Southern
Asia was established long before Mongolic
peoples began to play havoc with the
Middle East. It was, of course, by reason
of this ascendancy that the Aryan language
became a mother tongue to so large a
part of primitive mankind. In many
ways, therefore, the rise of these areas to
their present importance dates back to
the earliest age. Ever the cradle of the
human race, they have aroused in turn
the attentions of brown, yellow, and fair
peoples, while their possession has stimu-
lated the ambitions alike of the Moslem,
_ Christian, and Hindu. The

further consideration of the

Factors Middle East conc ems the

commercial and political
aspect of the region more than its general
structure. At present the rights of three
Powers Russia in Central Asia, France
and Great Britain in Further India, and
Great Britain in India as throughout the
areas lying to the south of the main water
divide prevail in the several sections
appropriated to them. France in Further
India, however, is committed to a policy
which aims at the annexation of the
whole of Indo-China, while Russia is no
less intent upon the absorption of Chinese
Turkestan. The complexion which the
Middle East will wear for the future
promises to be of unusual interest, for
the realisation of their aims by Russia and
France foreshadows a considerable altera-
tion in the locus standi of Great Britain.
Moreover, it should not be forgotten that
trade, no less than prestige, would be
affected by any modification of the tradi-
tional powers which Great Britain has so
long exercised there, since, if Russia and
France were confirmed in a paramountcy
over Chinese Turkestan and Further India,
the transfer would probably presage our
exclusion from the markets of the region.
ANGUS HAMILTON

THE SUPREME LAND OF MARVELS

BEAUTIES OF NATURE AND
TRIUMPHS OF ART IN INDIA

AN ANCIENT HINDU TEMPLE AT HULWUD IN GUJERAT

THE GREAT MOSQUE ERECTED BY SHAH AHMED AT AHMEDABAD

1129

ENTRANCE TO THE GREAT CAVE OF ELEPHANTA, NEAR BOMBAY

THE GREAT HINDU TRIAD IN THE CAVE TEMPLE OF ELEPHANTA

THE FAR-FAMED ROCK TEMPLE OF ELEPHANTA

1130

TEMPLE ON THE ISLAND OF SALSETTE INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF INDRA

THE GREAT EXCAVATED TEMPLE OF ELLORA

THE CAVE TEMPLES AT ELLORA AND SALSETTE

H3I

HINDU TEMPLES AT BINDRABUND KASHMIR TEMPLE OVER 2.000 YEARS OLD

A FAMOUS HINDU TEMPLE AT BENARES ON THE GANGES

NOTABLE EXAMPLES OF HINDU ARCHITECTURE

1132

it jjijf~~,

iiult 1

iifiii

TOMBS OF THE KINGS OF GOLCONDA

. I

THE MAUSOLEUM OF ZUFDIR JUNGE AT DELHI

THE TOMB OF IBRAHIM PADSHAH AT BEJAPORE

TYPES OF MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA

H33

MOSQUE OF A SLAVE OF SHAH AHMED MOSQUE OF SHAH AHMED'S WIFE

THE JUMMA MOSQUE, WITH HINDU PORCH IN CENTRE OF THE SOUTHERN COLONNADE

THE MOSQUES AND TQMBS OF AHMEDABAD

"34

THE TOMB OF HYDER ALI AT SERINGAPATAM

SULTAN MAHMUD SHAH'S TOMB AT BEJAPORE

THE TOMB OF AKBAR, INDIA'S GREATEST EMPEROR, AT SECUNDRA

TOMBS OF THREE GREAT INDIAN RULERS

1135

THE MOSOUE AT FATTEPUR SIKRI, NEAR AGRA, BUILT BY AKBAR

THE MOSQUE OF AURANGZIB AT BENARES

THE JUMMA MUSJID, OR GREAT MOSQUE, AT AGRA

THREE OF INDIA'S MOST FAMOUS MOSQUES

THE KUTUB MINAR AT DELHI

THE FAKIR'S ROCK ON THE GANGES

AURUNGABAD SEEN FROM THE RUINS OF AURANGZIB'S PALACE

SOME PALATIAL MONUMENTS OF THE PAST

"37

LOG-PIER BRIDGE; WITH HOUSES. NEAR SRINAGAR, KASHMIR

WOODEN BRIDGE AT BHURKOTE IN THE HIMALAYAS

ROPE BRIDGE AT SRINAGAR, THE CAPITAL OF KASHMIR

TYPES OF NATIVE BRIDGES IN NORTHERN INDIA

1138

FISHING BOATS IN THE MONSOON NORTH OF BOMBAY HARBOUR

PILGRIMS ON THE GHAT. OR LANDING-PLACE, AT HARDWAR ON THE GANGES

BY SEA-SHORE AND RIVER IN INDIA

"39

GANGOOTRI, THE SACRED SOURCE OF THE GANGES

THE SACRED SOURCE OF THE RIVER JUMNA IN THE HIMALAYAS

SOURCES OF INDIA'S TWO GREAT SACRED RIVERS

1140

VIEW IN THE BORE GHAT, NEAR BOMBAY

VIEW FROM TOP OF THE BORE GHAT, NEAR BOMBAY

THE SPLENDID MOUNTAIN SCENERY OF THE EASTERN GHATS

1141

VIEW IN THE KOA-NULLAH

THE FALLS OF DHUAH KOONDE

BETWEEN NATAN AND TAKA CA MUNDA IN THE SRINAGAR MOUNTAINS

THE MOUNTAINS AND GORGES OF KASHMIR

1142

1. Jag Deo and Warrangur, in the Barramahal. 2. Ryacotta in the Barramahal. 3. Daulutabad, the

ancient Deo Gurh.

HILL FORTS IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL INDIA

"43

THE SUPREME LAND OF MARVELS

BY SIR WILLIAM LEE - WARNER,
DR. E. SCHttlDT AND A. D. INNES

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

""THERE is no tract of the earth's surface

* whose story appeals to the imagination

so vividly, so intensely, as that of India.

India is the supreme land of marvels, of

mystery, of the supernatural ; of miracles

which appeal to us not as the figments

of superstitious ignorance, but as mani-

Th L d test at ions of the incomprehen-

. sible. A land vast, unknown,

ol Myth and ,, i, M ,,^ui^ ,,vu~,.~ u~ i,.

Mystery

unknowable, where the keenest

of Western minds, after a
lifetime of endeavour, profess that they
know no more of the inner being of the
people than they did at the beginning. A
land full of the grotesque, yet whose
grotesqueness has a terrific quality
fantastic, yet solemn. A land of countless
revolutions, where yet there seems to brood,
changeless, eternal, the spirit of an imme-
morial past.

Utterly remote from the ideas and the
civilisation of the conquering races of the
West, India is, nevertheless, the first
recorded home of a vast migratory wave
of that same Aryan stock from which, in
later ages, those conquering races sprang.
Rome and Athens were yet in the womb of
a far-off future, Troy and Mycenae were
unborn, the great Sheikh Abraham had
not founded his race, when the fair Aryan
folk were sweeping over the plains of
Hindustan. Before David sang, or Homer,
their ballads were commemorating the

deeds of their national heroes ; in the
Land of the Five Rivers mothers were
telling their children tales which sprang
from the same sources as Grecian mytho-
logy, Celtic folk-lore, and Teutonic legend.
The ancient language of the conquerors
was the eldest branch of that primal stock
which in other regions and ages developed
distinctive perfections in the utterance of
Plato, of Virgil, or of Shakespeare.

But through the ages those Eastern
Aryans were severed from their Western
kinsfolk ; they worked out their own
development apart. Once, East and West
clashed when Alexander pierced the bar-
rier, and led his victorious army into the
Punjab ; but the contact was brief. Again
the veil fell. The centuries rolled on,
Imperial Rome rose and crumbled, a
second Rome achieved and held a spiritual
domination which was already tottering,
ere Europe traced out the untrodden high-
way of the ocean, and the veil
was raised. In the interval a
period of some eighteen hun-
dred years all that Europe
knew of India was derived from hearsay
among the peoples of Western Asia, and the
reports of an occasional enterprising tra-
veller ; fabulous tales, for the most part,
of splendour indescribable and wealth
incalculable ; tales which were the magnet
that drew Columbus along the ocean path

Lifting
of the
Veil

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

that led to an unknown continent instead
of to the Indies he sought ; and took
Vasco da Gama by another way round
Africa to the very shores of India. Yet all
but two and a half centuries were still to
pass before the Europeans were to be
anything more than traders, with groups
of offices and warehouses here and there
on the fringe of the great
peninsula. For almost simul-
taneous with the coming of the
Europeans was the coming of
the Mughals, or Moguls, who established
over all the northern portion, or Hindustan,
an empire perhaps the most gorgeous the
world has known, which was presently
extended over the southern portion, or
Deccan. It was the disintegration of that
great empire which gave the British an
opportunity of establishing a territorial
dominion in two provinces; which, once
founded, they were soon compelled, in self-
defence, to expand into a general ascend-
ancy, and then a practically universal
supremacy. The rule of the British in India
has been a unique experiment, without
precedent or parallel in the world's history.
Thus, before the sixteenth century of the
Christian era India had dwelt apart, like
China, as far as Europe was concerned,
untouched by her influence, save for one
brief moment ; and with a civilisation of
her own, already advanced and highly
organised before any appreciable culture
began to leave its records in Europe. In
those early centuries an Aryan race
acquired a complete domination over all
the primitive peoples of the lowlands, and
an ascendancy even in most of the highland
regions which could not be effectively con-
quered. The previous occupants were not
wiped out, but survived here and there
in separation almost complete even to the
present day for the most part as sub-
jects, but also intermixing largely with the
newcomers. Over the whole great area a
common religion and a common
** social organisation prevailed,

r ,f y *! i . though with immense local
n modifications ; and these led to
a hereditary and permanent differentiation
between those social groups or castes which,
comparatively at least, preserved their
purity of blood the sacerdotal and mili-
tary castes, the Brahmans and Rajputs
and the rest. Everywhere all the castes
were to be found, though Brahmans in
one district and Rajputs in another might
be numerically preponderant.

1146

But this system did not involve the
development of an organic Indian state,
or of Brahman states, or Rajput states.
Instead, it produced an aggregate of
kingdoms with ever varying boundaries
and without individual sense of nationality ,
the masses of the population passing under
the lordship of alternate conquerors with-
out other interest in the change of rulers
than depended on the accident of their
personal characters. But throughout all,
the Rajput retained his prestige and the
Brahman his spiritual ascendancy.

The old religious conceptions became
degraded, absorbing into themselves the
baser superstitions of the primitive inhabi-
tants. Hence, for some centuries the new
moral scheme of Buddhism became domi-
nant ; but this in turn became corrupted
and degraded, and lost its hold utterly.
Hinduism revived, but for the most part
in a baser form than of old ; filled, as
concerned the common people, with gross
and often hideous superstitions.

Upon this India broke, about the year
1000 A.D., the storm of Mohammedan in-
vasion. Islam had gripped both the Iranian
Aryans and Semites beyond
_ * the mountains, and the Mon-

f s am . golian Turkomans of Central

Asia ; Turkish and Pathan or
Afghan conquerors swept over the northern
plains ; Moslem empires and kingdoms were
established, and planted new empires and
kingdoms in the Deccan also. Rajput
princes struggled to maintain a precarious
independence often lost and often more
or less recovered ; but the Mohammedan
aliens, always a minority, dominated the
peninsula as a whole, as a ruling race. Yet
still the old principle prevailed. There
was bitter race antagonism between the
Moslem and the infidel, the Hindu and the
foreigner ; but no national organisation, no
Indian State, no countries having political
unity, presenting an object for patriotic
sentiment. Though an empire might
extend its temporary sway over a vast area,
it never attained an organic homogeneity.

A conqueror from beyond the moun-
tains, the so-called Mogul Babar, founded
the Mogul dominion just when Europe
was in the first throes of the Reformation.
His grandson, Akbar, made the empire a
mighty reality, and adopted within it a
policy more enlightened than any of his
European contemporaries could compass.
While the Spanish Inquisition was at the
height of its power, Akbar, virtual head

INDIA, THE SUPREME LAND OF MARVELS

of Eastern Mohammedanism, was ruling
on principles of universal toleration, and
treating Mussulmans and Hindus with com-
plete impartiality. His son and grandson
neither altogether maintained nor entirely
deserted that policy ; but a Mohammedan
supremacy was definitely re-established.
Their successor, Aurangzib, was a fanatical
Mohammedan, and in his day the old
hatred between the rival faiths was fully
restored. The possibility of educating
Moslems and Hindus into one nationality
was lost for ever. With his death, the
break up of the Mogul Empire was already
assured. Hindu Powers were already
coming into being who would soon grasp
at dominion, and the great provincial
governors were on the verge of turning
themselves into virtually independent
sovereigns.

Before forty years had passed the
French and British mercantile settlements
were vicing with each other to obtain
ascendancy at native courts. Fifteen
years saw the decisive end of that contest,
and the British, almost by an accident,
masters of Bengal. India was no more
one than the Teutonic or the
Latin nations of Europe are one.
The Sikh, the Mahratta, and the
Bengali are as far apart as the
Portuguese, the Italian, and the French-
man. The Mohammedan, indeed, was not
and is not more akin to the Hindu than
the Spaniard is to the German. But to
both Hindu and Mohammedan the Euro-
pean is alien, as the Turk is alien alike to
the Spaniard and the German, who, for
the purposes of resisting Turkish domina-
tion, would feel themselves akin. In India,
more than nine-tenths of the population
are either Hindus of one kind or another,
or else Mohammedans. There are com-
puted to be about four Hindus to every
Mohammedan, and rather more Moham-
medans than the whole number of subjects
of British race in the entire British Empire
outside of India. Yet for more than a
hundred years the alien ascendancy has
been acknowledged, and for fifty it has
been unchallenged. That it has been
welcome is as questionable as that it has
brought incalculable benefits to the
masses in India is indisputable. The
ruling race has felt the responsibility of
dominion ; it has accepted the white man's
burden. The schoolboy said of a certain
famous headmaster his natural enemy
" He is a beast, but he is a just beast. "

Natural
Conditions
of India

It would take a very hostile critic to
refuse that measure of praise to the British
dominion in India.

Few countries in the world contain
within well-defined boundaries a greater
diversity of geographical, anthropological,
and ethnographical conditions than those
displayed by the Indian peninsula. India
is indeed a world in miniature ;
those natural conditions which
modify the progress of civilisa-
tion are varied in the extreme,
and the civilisation of the inhabitants of
this country is characterised by diver-
gences which are the inevitable result of
conformation to so varied an environment.
The points of contrast are intensified
by their mutual proximity ; broad alluvial
plains are followed by the highest moun-
tains in the world, burning tropical heat
by the everlasting frost of the snow-
clad peaks, the extremity of drought by
the greatest rainfall in the world, tropical
luxuriance by appalling desolation. Side
by side with savages living entirely on
the products of the chase, and by agri-
culture of the most primitive character,
we find Brahmans devoted to the con-
templation of the deepest problems of
human existence. Black Dravidians,
yellow-skinned Mongols, brown Asiatic
Aryans, Hindu or Afghan, representatives
of the white European races all are parts
of the population of India. Her history
is a history of the struggles for predomi-
nance between these different peoples and
races.

Nearer India owes its name to the river
upon its north-west frontier, the " rush-
ing " Sindhu of the Aryans, a name which
was extended to include all the territory
beyond the river by the old civilisations
of Europe when they first came into
contact with this distant land. India is
the central of the great peninsulas which
project southward from the continent of
Asia. The southern portion of the country
, lies within the tropic zone,

* ia while its northern regions ad-

Geographical vance into the temperate zone
beyond latitude 35. Its fron-
tier position has separated it from im-
mediate communication with the steppes
and deserts upon the boundaries of Asia
proper except upon the north, the north-
east and north-west ; its coasts, running
south-west and south-east, are bounded by
broad seas impassable to peoples in the
lower stages of civilisation. Upon the

1147

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

extreme south the island of Ceylon lies
so close to the mainland that the inter-
vening straits are rather a means of
communication than an osbtacle to inter-
course.

The area of India is nearly equivalent

to that of Western Europe, if a line of

division be drawn passing through the

eastern frontiers of Norway,

1 Denmark, Germany and Aus-

Population ^ ria In respect O f population,

it considerably surpasses the
district thus defined (293,000,000 as
compared with 240,000,000) ; while its
population is more than double that of
East Europe (125,000,000).

The configuration of the country in
horizontal section is simple ; its long
coasts are broken by but few capes or
gulfs, and these are of little importance.
The largest gulf is that of Cambay,
or Khambat, which was of high importance
at an early period as a commercial centre.
Good harbours, such as Bombay and Goa,
are comparatively few in number. Upon
the west coast, landing is a difficult opera-
tion, as the Western Ghats descend abruptly
to the sea ; while on the east, the coast,
though flat, is lashed by formidable seas
during the monsoon season. Lagoons have
been formed only in the south of the
peninsula on each side of its extremity.
These facilitate communication along the
coast even during the unfavourable mon-
soon season. On the north-east and north-
west of the coast line, the Indus, the
Ganges, and the Brahmaputra, which
bring down large quantities of sediment,
have pushed out formidable deltas into
the sea, communication through which
is impeded by the constant changes in the
course of the various mouths and the
heavy deposits of silt. One arm of the
Ganges alone has attained to political
and commercial importance during the
last 150 years. The Indian frontier with
respect to the rest of Asia is defined with

Confi ur n ^ GSS S^P^^ty tnan the
coast line. The configuration
ation ol the r , _ ? j

f, oi the country, considered in

L/ouiury . . . J '

vertical sections, is more com-
plicated. Here we meet with three great
districts characterised by sharply con-
trasting features, the great mountain
range on the north of India, the lowlands
in the north of the peninsula, and the
tableland in the south.

The northern frontier of India, which
divides the country from the tablelands

1148

of Central Asia, is formed by the highest
mountain range in the world, the " home
of snows," the Himalayas. Bounded on
the east and on the west by the openings
made respectively by the Brahmaputra
and the Indus, this range has a length of
1,500 miles, with a nearly uniform breadth
of 137 miles ; its area is almost equivalent
to that of Germany. Its importance for
India consists in the climatic protection it
affords against the influence of the water-
less districts of Asia, in the large rainfall
which it collects, in the supply which it
affords to the great fertilising streams of
Northern India, and in the protection it
gives to the country against the invasions
of the restless inhabitants of the steppes.
Not only does the range contain the
highest peaks in the world, but it is as a
whole almost impassable for large bodies
of men. Never has there been an invasion
of India from Tibet across the Himalayas
by great armies or large bodies of people.
The mad attempt of the Sultan Mohammed
ibn-Tughlak to attack China by land
ended with the total destruction of the
army of Hindustan in the mountain snow-

Thc Great fields ( J 337)- The few passes
M which exist can be traversed

Barrier 1 * nly at rare intervals and bv
small bodies ; the merchant and

the missionary make their way across
them. From a remote period a certain
number of Mongol immigrants have very
gradually trickled into Northern India
by this route Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal
by which also Buddhism made its way to
the north.

Mountain systems join the Himalaya
at each end, completely excluding India
from the rest of Asia. On the north-west
we have the mountains dividing India
from Afghanistan and Biluchistan, which
run from north to south, decreasing in
height as they advance southward, and
broken by several important passes.
These long, narrow valleys have provided
the route for all those foreign invaders,
Aryans, Greeks, Scythians, Afghans,
Mongols, Persians, who from earliest times
have acted as modifying forces upon the
historical development of the Indian
populations.

On the eastern side, the Himalaya range
is joined by a number of high, steep
mountain chains running north and south,
divided by deep valleys, through which
the rivers of the Irawadi, Salwen, Mekong,
Yangtse Kiang, flow southward, a barrier

INDIA, THE SUPREME LAND OF MARVELS

of extraordinary strength preventing any
communication eastward. The most
westerly member of this mountain system
sends one of its spurs south-east to the
Bay of Bengal, the Patkai Mountains,
5,666 feet in height. Thus, upon the east,
India is also shut off by a mountain wall
surrounding the low-lying plains of the
lower Brahmaputra in the shape of a
horseshoe. This wall is passable only upon
the south, and by this route has un-
doubtedly entered that infusion of Hindu-
Chinese blood which is plainly recognisable
to the anthropologist in the mixed races
of Assam, Lower Bengal and Orissa.

The second great region of India is
composed of two great river systems,
those of the Indus and of the Ganges-
Brahmaputra. The Indus turns at right-
angles to the mountain range, taking the
shortest route to the sea, which it reaches
in a rapid descent a fact of no less im-
portance for the nature and the inhabi-
tants of its valley than the fact that the
long channels of the Ganges and the
Brahmaputra run parallel to the mountain
range. While the Indus passes the spurs
India's ^ *^ e Himalaya, and is fed by
Great* tributaries from these sources,
a sufficient supply of moisture
is available for the cultivation
of the ground. The earth then showers
her gifts upon mankind with such lavish
bounty that the Punjab, the district of the
Five Rivers, even in the grey dawn of
history, was the goal of the ambitions of
the nomad tribes inhabiting the dry
steppes of Afghanistan and Central Asia.

On the other hand, in the valley of the
lower Indus the arable land is restricted
to a narrow belt on each bank of the
stream, which here runs so rapidly that
navigation is almost impossible ; while it
brings down such heavy deposits of silt
that its delta is continually changing,
and the arms of the delta, and the sea
in their neighbourhood, are with difficulty
accessible on account of the outlying
banks of sediment. Eastwards from this
arable country, upon the Indus, stretches
the Great Desert, across which communica-
tion is almost impossible. It extends
southwards to the sea, and northwards
almost to the foot of the Himalayas, at
which point alone a narrow strip of land
makes communication between the two
river systems possible. Hence it was at
this spot that peoples advancing into
India from the west came into collision

with the inhabitants already settled in the
valley of the Ganges. This district has
repeatedly been the scene of those de-
cisive battles which predetermined the
history of India for long periods.

The eastern, which is the larger portion
of the plains of North India, is far more
favourably situated than the western.
_ The Ganges and Brahmaputra

G e run parallel to the mountains,

VaTlc" though they are so far apart
from the Himalayas, from the
heights of the Deccan on the south, and
from the frontier mountain range about
Burma, that on each side a wide declivity
is available for copious irrigation by
artificial means. The whole river valley
is alluvial land ; but a distinction must be
made between the earlier and the later
deposits. The line of demarcation between
these begins at the Ganges delta. Up to
that point the land falls away so rapidly
from the west that the soil is dry and
fruitful. Everywhere irrigation can be
provided in sufficient measure to satisfy
the most zealous cultivator of the soil,
which also receives new deposits of rich
manure from the silt-laden waters of the
rivers. Navigable streams cross this
district, which is more suitable than any
other in India for the development of
important towns. The characteristics of
the eastern portion of the river valley
are wholly different ; in the delta of the
Ganges, and in the whole of Assam, the
deposits of silt have been so recently
made, and the ground in consequence lies
so low, that drainage works are impossible.
The country is almost everywhere in a
swampy condition, and the malaria of the
district is dangerous to human occupants.

Navigation is difficult, as also is com-
munication by land, for the ground is not
sufficiently firm to permit the laying
down of roads. Hence the civilisation of
this part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra
valley was in a comparatively backward
, condition before the rise of the

^'" English power in India ; Aryan

and Mussulman influences
Ganges Delta made t h eipse lves felt com-
paratively late, and it is only during the
last one hundred and fifty years that
the greater intellectual power and energy
of Europeans has brought prosperity to
the delta of the Ganges.

In the southern part of India the table-
land known as the " South Land," the
Deccan of the Aryans of North India,

1149

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

rises in isolation. It forms a great
elevated highland with steep walls, which
fall sheer into the Arabian Sea at the
Western Ghats ; on the eastern side the
plateau is somewhat lower and lies at
some distance from the Bay of Bengal,
from which it retires gradually as it
advances southward. In this district

between the highlands and the
oMhe* sea r * se m( hvidual isolated

plateaus and numerous single

l/cccan r , , , . , . , , .

peaks, by which the plains are
diversified. The tableland attains its
greatest height on the west coast with the
mountains of Anamalai, 8,977 feet high,
and of Nilgiri, 8,477 ^ ee t high* falling
gradually away to the eastward. Hence,
most of the rivers of the Deccan run
eastward for example, the Son, Maha-
nadi, Godavari, Kistna, Kaveri, Tangha-
badra ; two streams only, the Narbada
and the Tapti, have worn out deep gorges
in their westward career. These, together
with the mountain ranges of the Vindhya
and Satpura running parallel to them, di-
vide the highlands into the great southern
section, or Deccan, and the northern,
or Central India ; which for a long time
proved an obstacle to the advance of the
Aryans, more by reason of its malarial
swamps and its jungle vegetation than
because of its mountainous nature. All
the above-mentioned streams are un-
important as means of navigation and
communication, on account of the variable
water supply and the rapids and waterfalls
by which they are broken when they
reach the precipitous edge of the high-
land. The line of the Narbada, or Ner-
budda, carried across the peninsula, is
commonly held to be the boundary between
Hindustan and the Deccan.

Friedrich Ratzel has laid great emphasis
upon the importance of geographical
position to natural history ; the position of
India has exercised a most decisive influence

. . upon the whole course of

Importance 01 development of the natura l

Posmo a n Products of the country

and also of its population.
The position of this central peninsula
of Southern Asia, situated as it is with
reference to the enormous dry, waterless
districts of the desert and the steppes on
the one hand, and on the other hand to the
tropical sea with its moisture-laden atmos-
phere, determines the amount of the
rainfall and its distribution, and therefore
also the fertility of different parts of the

1150

land, which again influences the popula-
tion. In the spring and summer the great
deserts and steppes of Central Asia are
scorched by the sun, which then attains
its greatest altitude ; the barometrical
pressure is low and the currents of air
with their burden of moisture from the
tropic Indian seas travel in a north-
easterly direction across India, a devia-
tion due to the revolution of the earth.
In the southern portion of the country
these clouds then meet the steep wall of
the Western Ghats and deliver a large
proportion of their moisture, breaking in
violent thunderstorms upon the mountain
wall, to return again to the sea in rushing
torrents and streams.

The air currents, however, after crossing
the watershed of the Ghats, become drier,
and provide but a scanty rainfall for the
eastern district where the highlands slope
away. Not until they reach the giant
wall of the Himalaya do they drop all
the moisture which they have retained.
For this reason the mountains of
Assam can boast the heaviest rainfall
upon the earth ; the rainfall of Cherra
. Punji in the Hsia Mountains of

eavies ^ Assam amounts to 444 inches
T^W Vli during the summer and 520

Ihe World v r J_T_ v i r j_i_

inches lor the whole 01 the year.
On the other hand, during the winter
months a high barometrical maximum pre-
vails over Central Asia, while South Africa
and the Indian Ocean, which are then
scorched by the sun, show a low average
barometrical pressure. The currents take
a backward movement, and blow from the
great dry continent as the north-east mon-
soon, bringing to India but little moisture,
and that at uncertain intervals. Conse-
quently the wide districts to the east of the
Ghats as far as the Himalaya Mountains
suffer greatly from droughts, and, should
the rains of the east monsoon fail, are
confronted with terrible famines.

The fertility of the country depends
upon the amount of natural or artificial
irrigation which it receives. Vegetation,
apart from human agency, flourishes most
luxuriantly on the Malabar coast. Beyond
the range of the Western Ghats different
conditions prevail. A forest country is
first met with, where the deciduous nature
of the trees is a protection against the
excessive drought of the dry season.
Vegetation then conforms to the character
of the steppes in general, and agriculture is
restricted to the immediate neighbourhood

INDIA, THE SUPREME LAND OF MARVELS

of springs cr tanks, to the river banks,
or to the river deltas. The steep wall of
the Western Ghats ends upon the north
with the river Tapti, so that at this point
the moisture-laden currents penetrate
more deeply into the country. The re-
moter heights of Central India produce a
heavier rainfall ; though the forests are
more extensive in that district, the
prevalence of malaria is an obstacle to
human occupation. The great plains in
the north of India receive a diminishing
rainfall in proportion as they are removed
from the delta of the Ganges on the west ;
compensation is, however, afforded by
the works of artificial irrigation which
distribute the streams falling from the
Himalaya, and, in some degree, those
which rise on the north wall of the Deccan.
The delta of the Ganges and the lower
ground in the valley of the Brahmaputra
suffer from an excess of rainfall and ground
moisture.

The cultivation of the country, especially
as regards the growth of cereals, is
primarily conditioned by the existing
facilities for irrigation. Where copious
, supplies of water are to be had,

* , rice is the staple product of
agriculture, as it is on the whole

of the Malabar coast, on the
deltas of the Deccan rivers, of the Indus
and the Ganges, and in Assam. Under
proper irrigation, land containing less
moisture will produce a heavy yield of
wheat, as is the case in the Punjab, the
British North-west Provinces, Oudh, the
Central Provinces, and certain favoured
parts of the presidency of Bombay. Where
irrigation is difficult, several kinds of
cereals and other subsidiary products
flourish. Where the land is too dry for
these plants, as is the case in large districts
of the southern Deccan, stock breeding
enables mankind to make a living at the
expense of some hardship ; the caste of
the shepherds (Kurumbas), which is now
scattered and decayed, played an im-
portant part at an early period.

The population of India is distributed
according to the fertility of the soil. The
mineral wealth of the country is com-
paratively small. Coal is by no means
common and has only recently been worked
upon any large scale ; iron ore is widely
distributed, but was used by the natives
only to a very small extent, and the import-
ance of this industry has been practically
extinguished by the competition of the

great European undertakings. The riches
of India in precious metals and stones
have been considerably exaggerated; the
real wealth of the country does not lie
within the soil, but grows upon it. Conse-
quently the population is almost entirely
of a peasant character ; the last census,
after the opening of the twentieth cen-

Distribution iUT ?> S ^ OVfed ^ 2 >35 towns
f I d - . properly so-called among
Population 717,549 settlements ; of this
number, 1,401 had less than
1,000 inhabitants, 407 had between 10,000
and 20,000, and 227 had a population above
20,000. Only twenty-nine towns had more
than 100,000 inhabitants in 1911, and only
four Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, andHai-
darabad more than 300,000. In England,
53 per cent, of the population live in 182
towns of more than 20,000 inhabitants,
whereas in India this holds good only of
4*84 per cent., distributed in 227 towns of
20,000 inhabitants. The collective popu-
lation of the country 303,017,320 inhabi-
tants upon 1,560,080 square miles, ex-
cluding Burma gives an average of 194
inhabitants to the square mile. In indi-
vidual districts of some size this average
varies between 24 and 1,395 ; it is larger
in British India than in the native states,
a fact apparently due to European influ-
ence upon the country and still more to the
circumstance that England has occupied
all those states where the soil is more than
usually fertile.

A systematic ethnographical examina-
tion of the population of India is an ex-
tremely difficult task ; no universal lines of
division can be drawn including all the
most important phenomena of divergent
nationality. The differences, moreover, by
no means run in parallel lines. The most
important points to be noted are physical
characteristics, language, religion, and
social peculiarities, together with the
characteristic signs of national feeling
which these differences imply. The many
changes in Indian history pre-suppose the
impossibilitv of any physical
uniformity" throughout the
population. Apart from the
infusions of Portuguese, Dutch,
and English blood during the last four
centuries, foreign representatives of the
white or yellow races have frequently
invaded the country through the north-
west passes. However, as far as the
Mongol princes are concerned, almost every
trace of their existence has disappeared

Itr0duchoft

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

from the ethnological characteristics of
the modern Indian. The white races have,
however, exercised a permanent modifying
influence, and their descendants form one
of the main racial elements of the country.
From a remote period vigorous commercial
relations were maintained on the west coast
with the western continents, which have
left their traces upon the phy-
O e T 1S . sical characteristics of the coast
a Indit* dwellers ; the Semitic type of
countenance common among
the Mohammedans of the Malabar coast is
derived from the Arabs. Fugitive Jews
have repeatedly entered the country in
bodies, such as the Jews of Cochin (now
1,300 in number), who, according to their
traditions, left their country after the
destruction of their great sanctuary by
Titus (70 A.D.) ; another instance is the
Jewish colony in Bombay, which was
expelled from its former settlements by
Mohammedan fanaticism. Similarly, a large
number of fire worshippers fled from Persia
in the year 1717 before the zeal of the
Mohammedans, and the coast of Bombay
is now inhabted by 90,000 Parsees
who remain true to the religion of
Zarathustra. In many cases their Semitic
cast of features recalls the representations
of the kings in ancient Nineveh, whereas
others remind us of the modern representa-
tives of the white races in the Armenian
highlands.

The east coast has been peopled rather
by Indian migrations directed especially
towards the opposite coast of Burma than
by immigration from abroad. A strong
infusion of Mongolian blood has, however,
entered from the north and north-east.
The southern slopes of the Himalaya to
the east of Dardistan are peopled by a
mixed race of Mongol Indians apparently
formed by the slow infusion of Mongols
from Tibet over the extremely difficult
mountain passes. A similar population is
to be found in Assam and in many of the
Thc tribes inhabiting East Bengal

Mon ol an< ^ Ori ssa ; though here the
Elnf Mongol element probably en-
tered the country by the easier
route through Burma rather than by cross-
ing the extremely difficult mountain ranges
which run in parallel lines to the east of
Assam.

All these infusions of foreign blood,
however, excluding the mixed Indo-
Mongolian population, form a very small
and almost unappreciabie element in the

1152

racial composition of the country. The two
main component elements are the repre-
sentatives of a white race, which entered
the country from the north-west at a
comparatively early period, more than four
or five thousand years ago, and a dark
race, which may be considered as directly
descended from the original population.
This race is recognisable by the dark colour-
ing of the hair, eyes, and skin ; it is of
universal distribution, and is often intensi-
fied into the deepest shades of dark brown ;
a further characteristic point, reminding
us of the black negro races of Africa, is the
moderate size of the skull and the short,
broad nose. The race, however, is differ-
entiated from the negro type by the shorter
and more upright stature, and especially
by the hair, which, though black, is but
moderately crisp, and while often found in
curls or waves, is never of a woolly nature.
The representative types of this race
usually attain a stature which is con-
siderably less than the average height of
the Teutonic stock. Races living under
very unfavourable conditions, with an
insufficiency of nourishment, such as

The Dwarf man y * *^ e dwellers in the

e w * r mountains and jungles, and the

Indi slave castes, are so far below

this average stature that they

may be considered as dwarf tribes, though

it is impossible to make this characteristic

a line of demarcation between them and

the other dark races of India.

The white races in India are distinguished
from the dark especially by their com-
plexion, which in pure-blooded types is no
deeper than that of the Europeans about
the Mediterranean. Their average stature
is considerably higher, while their features
are smaller, and their noses, with higher
bridges, are more prominent than in the
case of the black races.

An examination of the geographical
distribution of the different Indian races
will begin with what are, comparatively
speaking, pure representatives of the fair
races of the north-west, immediately ad-
joining the population of Afghanistan and
Biluchistan, which has been more or less
modified by infusions of Semitic blood.
Such influence is less prominent in Kash-
mir, in the hill country, and in the
Punjab, as far as the upper course
of the Ganges ; on the other hand,
further eastward, in the centre, and especi-
ally in the lower course of the Ganges, a
deeper complexion may be observed in

INDIA, THE SUPREME LAND OF MARVELS

many of the subordinate grades of caste
and settlement. Further east again, in
Assam, the characteristics of the fair race
disappear by degrees, and are but moder-
ately pronounced among the higher castes ;
the chief element of the population is
formed by the fusion of the black and
yellow races.

Of similar composition are the numerous
small mountain tribes of the Himalaya as
far as Dardistan. Southward the fusion
of black and yellow come to an end
about the frontiers of Orissa ; at this
point the characteristics of the fair race
are again strongly marked in the higher
Brahman castes. In Central India is
found a belt of almost purely dark-com-
plexioned population ; further south again,
in the Deccan and the plains upon its
frontier, the black races are greatly pre-
ponderant, though in individual castes
varying infusions of white blood may be
observed. On the west coast, on the
other hand, besides the small colonies of
foreigners Jews and Parsees closely
united bodies of white inhabitants are to
be found concentrated among the dark pop-
ulation. Individual branches

of the Brahman caste the
Konkanath, Nambutiri, and

Purity
of Caste

Haiga Brahmans zealously
preserve the purity of their caste and race ;
a warrior caste of the Nair and the caste
of the Temple Maidens are distinguished
from the surrounding population by their
fairer complexions.

Indian languages display the utmost
variety. Philology has distinguished three
typical forms of language the isolating,
the agglutinative, and the inflectional.
These three types are represented in India,
and, in general, coincide with the three
racial types there represented the mixed
Mongolian and dark-skinned races (Hindu-
Chinese), the unmixed dark races (the
Dravidians) and the white race (the
Aryans). If a straight line be drawn from
Goa in a north-westerly direction to the
beginning of the Ganges delta, the agglu-
tinative languages will lie chiefly to the
south-east of this line, the district of the
inflectional languages extending on the
north-west into the Ganges delta and the
valley of the Brahmaputra, while the iso-
lating languages are found at the edge
of the southern slopes of the Himalayas
and the mountains of Southern Assam.

The boundary between the Aryan and
Dravidian languages is not to be con-

ceived as a sharp line of demarcation ; the
Dravidian languages are sporadically found
within the district of the Aryan tongues.
The early disruption of the Dravidian
peoples has naturally brought about
great differences of grammatical form,
and many dialects have borrowed numbers
of foreign words from neighbouring lan-
The guages. These isolated Dra-

. e vidian tribes invariably live

anguages ^^ ^^ ^ ^ j ane of

of India . ... ,. . , r , ,,

civilisation ; they include the

Khonds, in the mountain districts of Orissa,
Ganjam and Cuttack; the Gonds, a tribe
which has been broken into several isolated
linguistic units, between the Narbada
and Godavari ; the Oraon in Chota Nagpur ;
and finally the most northerly representa-
tive of this division, the Mai Paharia,
established upon the lower Ganges in
the mountains of Rajmahal, whose lan-
guage, though greatly differing from
the other Dravidian tongues, must none
the less be included within the Dra-
vidian family. Whether the Brahui, who
inhabit the district from the lower
Indus to Biluchistan, should be added to
the Dravidian family is an unsettled
question. Assuming that they are mem-
bers of this family, the strong differences
between their language and that of re-
lated tribes may easily be explained as the
effect of the different migrations which had
passed over their country. Philologically
their language resembles in such respects
the Dravidian languages of South India.

The Kolarians, about 3,000,000 in
number, in the Presidencies of Bengal,
Madras, and the Central Provinces, are
an ethnological puzzle ; they have been
broken into isolated communities, and
their language, which was undoubtedly
widely distributed at an early period, has
been broken up and confined by the
advance of the Aryan and Dravidian
languages. Their language is to be distin-
A Tribe guished from the Dravidian
that Puzzles ton ues though physically
ScVentists **>*? closely resemble the Dra-
vidian type by an entirely
different vocabulary, and by an embryonic
inflectional system. As yet, however, very
little is known of them, and further re-
search will no doubt modify the views now
held upon their philological position and
dialectical division. It has been said, but
by no means proved, that they are phi-
lologically related to certain tribes of
Further India.

H53

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

The construction of a scheme to illustrate
the distribution of the different religions
is by no means facilitated by the fact
that sharp distinction between them is
often impossible. The simple concep-
tion of a divine being, inherited and
obstinately retained from the earliest
periods of tribal development, is in every
case ^ e P r ^ m ^ ve underlying
even m

the most advanced religious sys-
tems. While the Hindus assert
their faith now in Vishnu, now in Siva,
at the same time none are found to deny
the existence of demons, upon whom
the religious fears and veneration of
lower tribes are entirely concentrated ; and
these powers have also been recognised
within the Hindu heaven. Consequently,
statistics of the adherents of the various
religions are extremely unreliable ; their
variations as compared with the known
populations of different nationalities fre-
quently show the lines of religious demar-
cation to be extremely vague and unstable.
For the lowest of these faiths, the demon
worship, the census of 1890 gives a per-
centage of 2*64 of the whole population
of British India, and of 5*20 for the other
parts of the country.

The greater proportion of the in-
habitants of India (72 J per cent.) are
worshippers of one or other of the great
divinities of the Hindus. Where this
average is not attained we find that
Hinduism has had to struggle with
Mohammedanism, and also with demon
worship, or other special forms of religion.
Such cases are shown in this table, giving
the percentage of adherents of the two
religions.

Province

Hindus

Mohammedans

Punjab

37'i

557

Kashmir . .

27-2

70-5

Assam

547

27-0

Bengal . .

63-4

32-8

The whole number of the followers of
Mohammed has been estimated at
243,000,000 ; and of this total 66,000,000
that is, over a quarter (27*1 per cent.),
belong to India. This belie! is represented
in every part of India ; the tolerance
displayed by the Mohammedans toward
the caste system gives them the advantage
of being able to maintain commercial
relations with every branch of society in
the country, though naturally to a larger
extent in the older Mohammedan towns.

1154

Consequently, the North-west Provinces
and states, where Islam entered the
country, are most thickly populated with
Mohammedans or Mussulmans. In the
south, the numbers of the Mohammedans
diminish considerably. The faith is
practically unknown to the tribes of
the Central Provinces, and a very small
percentage is found in Mysore and
Haidarabad.

Buddhism, at one time so widespread
in India, has now degenerated into Hindu-
polytheism in the mountainous countries
of the north the Himalaya and Kashmir
valleys ; and on the north-east the
frontiers of Tibet and Burma. Few
adherents survive of the northern branch
of this religion, and in Kashmir alone
they scarcely amount to one per cent, of
the whole population. The Jain religion,
which is related to Buddhism, is better
represented in certain provinces, though
nowhere has it retained a higher average
than five per cent, of the whole popula-
tion.

Of other religions we may mention that
of the Sikhs, which is almost exclusively
confined to the Punjab (3,100,000, nearly
one per cent, of the whole population).
They form a Hindu sect, which has rejected
various restrictive principles such as that
of caste, and has developed rites peculiar
to itself. Other religions which have
entered India from abroad are very
weakly represented ; such are the Parsees,
on the west coast of India, with Bombay
as their centre, and with 100,000 adherents
that is, 0*03 per cent. ; the Jews, early
colonists in Bombay and Cochin, together
with scattered Jews of various origin
throughout India, numbering 17,200 souls
(0*006 per cent.), and the Christians with
3,876,000 (0*8 per cent.). Of these last
3,449,600, that is, 89 per cent., are con-
verted natives, while 80,000, that is, 2
per cent., are half-breed Indians, and
168,000, that is, 4-3 per cent.,
are Europeans. More than
half of these Europeans are
soldiers with their relatives.
The caste system has exercised so
deep an influence, is so characteristic
a phenomenon of Indian social life,
and is, moreover, an institution of
such infinite diversity in its details that
its true nature can be understood
only in connection with its historical
development as a part of the national
history.

THE PEERLESS GEM OF MOHAMMEDAN ARCHITECTURE: THE TAJ MAHAL AT AGRA

THE SACRED CITY OF THE HINDUS: BENARES ON THE GANGES

ANCIENT INDIA

THE ARYAN INVASION AND THE CONQUEST
OF THE NATIVE RACES

TTHE history of India is a drama in
1 three great acts. The first of these
is occupied by the struggles of two races
for predominance ; the second, by the
c Druggies of two religions ; and the third,
by the conflict for the economic exploita-
tion of the country. In the first period,
Aryans are opposed to Dravidians. The
result of their struggle is a development
of a mixed race of people whose political,
social, and religious institutions are to be
explained partly as the result of fusion,
and partly as due to the predominant in-
fluence of one or the other element. The
mixed people which was thus developed
supported the Hindu religion arid theory
of existence. The Semitic, Turanian,
and Mongol tribes who entered the country
from the north-west brought the Moham-
medan faith with them ; the struggle of
these two religions forms the second period.
In the third act Europeans appear upon
the scene, and the economic struggle for
the wealth of the country ends with the
total collapse both of Mohammedan and
Hindu independence, victory remaining
with the side that possessed superior
intellectual power, clearer foresight, and
greater strength. From the prehistoric
period to the end of the first
thousand years after Christ
forms the period of native
Aryan - Dravidian develop-
ment, the period of ancient India. For
about 700 years the struggle of Hinduism
with the foreign religion continued, and
forms the " mediaeval" period; while the
"modern" period covers little more than
the last 150 years, in which, however, the
whole people has undergone far more
fundamental changes than any that all
previous centuries have brought to pass.

We have first of all to consider the two
races whose struggle composed the first

The Great
Drama

of India

Traces of
Early Indian
Development

period of Indian history, together with the
mutual influence which they exercise
upon each other.

The original inhabitants of India have
left us neither written nor traditional
records of their existence during the pre-
historic period. Traces of human agency
during this period have, however, been
discovered in India. As in Europe, dis-
coveries of stone implements, of lance
and arrow heads, of knives, razors, ham-
mers, made of jasper, agate,
and chalcedony flint proper
not occurring in India show
that an earlier age of human
development preceded the time when
metals were employed. Whether this
period goes back to the Tertiary Age,
as many investigators suppose, is still a
doubtful question.

The most ancient tombs contain no
examples of metal work ; those, however,
that are found in sepulchres of later date
display high technical skill, and enable
us to infer a considerable advance of
civilisation in general, such objects being
revealed as iron arrow-heads, knives,
lamps, tripods, stirrups. In many cases
women or men were beheaded at the
funeral of a dignitary and buried with
him. Rarely has any definite tradition of
the person buried in the grave been pre-
served. The earliest literature, Dravidian
and Sanscrit alike, has not a word to say
upon the subject of these graves.

On the other hand, the poems of the
Aryans, who were making their victorious
invasion of India at the dawn of history
proper, provide us with much information
upon the life of the original inhabitants,
who are naturally described from a hostile
point of view. They are contemptuously
known as " slaves," " low class," " people
talking an unintelligible jargon." They

H55

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

are described as being of black complexion,
their figures small and ugly, in spite of
their heavy ornaments of gold and precious
stones, their noses broad, and their eyes
small. They were indeed a complete
contrast to the Aryans, who must have
been particularly impressed with these
points of difference in the enemy, as their
own stature was tall and proud,
Records of their complex i on f a i r> their
Invading noses ^^ formed With

beautiful noses" is the title
which they give to the images modelled in
their own likeness. The enemy are said to
have been driven back into the mountains,
whence they made reprisals, attacking
the herds and the property of their op-
pressors as " robbers " without harm to
themselves. Magical arts were attributed
to them, including the power of drying up
the streams and rivers which bring fer-
tility and verdure to the plains. Mysterious
also is the power of the gods to whom
they prayed ; hence these were soon con-
sidered as demons, or " Yakshu," who
disturbed the fire of the Aryan sacrifices,
and for whom no sacred flame was ever
kindled.

This description of the original inhabi-
tants in the old Aryan poems entirely
corresponds with the appearance of the
mountain and jungle tribes of the present
day, and also with that of the lowest
castes of the population in modern India.
Like their savage ancestors, the tribes of
the present day carry on their existence
under conditions of the greatest difficulty,
and their general civilisation is as low as
their environment is rough. In many
cases their sole agricultural implement is
a stick with the point hardened in the fire,
with which they grub up the scanty roots
and bulbs of the jungle ; at a somewhat
higher stage of development, agriculture
is carried on by burning down a portion
of the forest every year and planting in
the fructifying ashes the seeds of the
.. native cereals or tubrous plants,
Primi ivc a scantv harvest which ripens
Conditions rapidly The tribe then sets

Ing out upon its wanderings to
choose a new piece of forest for its
next harvest. A few goats or sheep and
the small pariah dog alone accompany
it ; from the climbing plants or the bark
of the trees nets are woven, the waters
of the tanks or pools are poisoned with
leaves or fruits, and the tribe thereby
obtains a meal of fish. The arrows of the
1156

savage wanderers lay low the forest game
which fall into their traps and snares ;
wild honey provides them with the sweets
of their meal. They roast their food at a
fire which is kindled by the rotary friction
of two sticks ; comparatively few of the
forest tribes have learned the art of
pottery. A roof of leaves or an over-
hanging rock is their shelter, an apron of
grass or leaves or of tree-bark is their
clothing, the scantiness of which serves to
emphasise the weight of the ornaments
with which they load every possible part
of their bodies.

Though the poverty of the life of these
tribes may arouse our sympathy, yet
their character demands our hearty
respect. All who have come into contact
with them and learned their habits, praise
their independent spirit, their fearless
bravery, their truth, honour, and fidelity.
They are true to their plighted word,
true to their wives and to their race.
Th? arrow of an absent chief, given by
his wife as a means of recommendation
into the hands of an English ambassador,
secured for this emissary security and
- .. f ., hospitality among all the

A* the members of this wild tribe,

Modern Tribes even in the remotest dis-
tricts. Family life has
often developed upon other lines than
among modern civilised peoples ; but
however much the form of marriage
may have changed, man and wife yet
remain true to one another within
the limits of that family life which
custom has consecrated, and woe to him
who would break faith or attempt to
seduce another's wife. Both patriarchal
and matriarchal organisations occur ; that
is to say, either the father or the mother
may be considered as the centre of the
family and tribe. In the latter case,
relationships are reckoned through the
female line. Under the patriarchal
system monogamy prevails, and marriage
continues until dissolved by the death of
one or other of the parties. A man
acquires his wife by purchase or capture,
though the latter is only conventional in
form. Only in rare cases does the man
take a second or several wives. In many
cases it certainly happens that upon the
completion of a marriage the husband's
brothers become ipso facto husbands of
his wife as in Kurg among the Todas
and the Kurumbas. To be distinguished
from this kind of polyandry, where the

THE LIVING REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PRIMITIVE PEOPLES OF INDIA

The types of nati
over whom the ii
Yenadies. 3. Bedur

"57

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

man always remains head of the family, is
the primeval custom, still prevalent
among certain castes on the Malabar
coast, which allows the wife to choose
her own husband, to dismiss him at
pleasure, and to take another without
thereby incurring any stigma. Marriages
which can thus be dissolved are entirely
legitimate, as also are the

children of them - The man >
nowever > remains a stranger
to the wife's family, and the
children reckon their descent from
the mother. Consequently, in these
cases descent is reckoned through the
female line, whereas in the patriarchal
system descent in the male line is the
fundamental principle of those larger
social organisms, the hordes, consisting
of several families, which again may
develop into a tribe at a later period. In
the latter case, the head of a tribe is
sometimes a hereditary chieftain, and at
other times is chosen by the heads of
families. He is the representative of the
tribe and directs its general policy. The
tribe forms an exceedingly close corpora-
tion in its dealings with the outer world ;
attacks made by strangers often lead to
blood feuds, and peaceful intercourse and
barter of goods is conducted, as among
the Vedda in Ceylon, by the so-called
silent trade.

The mountain and jungle tribes are
obliged to carry on a hard struggle for
existence. The climate alternates between
seasons of burning heat and terrible
rain storms, and a tribe driven jnto the
jungle or on to the thirsty plains of the
steppes obtains but scanty nourishment ;
often enough, even those tribes which
enjoy more favourable conditions of life
are hard pressed by the extremities of
famine. In the jungle the tiger and the
poisonous snake lie in wait for them ;
their scanty crops are destroyed by wild
animals, elephants, pigs, and porcupines ;
leprosy, malaria, cholera, and
fj i other diseases make thei r w ay
Tribes 8 to the remotest settlements,
and Death plies his scythe
with ruthless power. Encompassed as
he is by hostile powers, how could the
savage conceive of the supreme Beings
which guide human destinies as being
friendly to man? Evil demons pursue him
from his birth to his grave, thirsting for
his blood. Everywhere they lie in wait
for him, in earth, in water, and in air ;
1158

in the rocks, in the darkness of the forests,
upon the dry steppes ; at night they rush
through the darkness to destroy whom-
soever they may meet. They thirst for
blood and can therefore be temporarily
appeased by bloody sacrifices of fowls,
goats, or even of men ; their anger can also
be averted by those magic arts which the
Shaman priests employ against them in
their frenzied dances. Can we be sur-
prised that such men were considered
as demons, as Yakshu, as Rakshasa, by
the Aryans, whose bright and heavenly
gods were their stay and counsel ?

The most ancient Aryan poems do not,
however, display to us these miserable
savages as the only opponents of the
invaders ; we gain information upon other
tribes in higher stages of civilisation.
Together with the unsettled and nomadic
Kikata settled tribes also existed, the
Nishada, who lived under a regular social
organisation, and were even envied and
hated by the Aryans for their wealth. The
gods, and especially Indra, the destroyer of
cities Purandara, are constantly praised
for overthrowing hundreds of cities of
the Black Dasyu ; these latter
indeed are said to have possessed
not only fortifications to pro-
tect them against the enemy,
winter retreats," autumn rain
castles on their mountains,
where they might take refuge from
inundations in the plains or from dangerous
miasmas. The tribes of the Naga, who
worshipped snakes, were to be destroyed
on account of their wealth and valuable
possessions. Their capital, in which their
prince, Wasuki, rules, is said to abound in
treasures and fair women ; the prince
possesses a talisman which can even bring
the dead to life. " The treasure chambers
in the rocky ground are full of cattle,
horses, and good things ; the warders,
the Pani, are faithful watchmen."

At the same time, these tribes are
represented as cunning traders, ever ready
to take advantage, and bringing to the
Aryans for barter the products of Nature's
bounty or of their own skill in handicrafts.
The trade indeed is welcome, but hateful
are the traders, the " hateful misers," the
men " without faith, without honour,
without victims," and Indra is called upon
to stamp down the greedy merchants with
his feet. Upon the further advance of
the Aryans we learn that there were
important native kingdoms in the country

War Gods
of Indian
Peoples

but also "
and cloud

ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYAN INVASION

and that the conquerors entered into
friendly relations with these. When the
conquerors made their way into the
central district between the Jumna and
the Ganges, they appointed the King of
Nishadi, a vassal of the kingdom of
Ayodhya, to guard the sacred district of
the confluence of these two streams ; at a
later date Aryan Brahman missionaries
came upon the flourishing Pandya kingdom
in the south of the peninsula.

The old Aryan songs and myths provide
no further information upon the civilisa-
tion of the more advanced native tribes ;
the language, however, of the dark races
who belong to the Dravidian family
enables us to draw many further conclu-
sions as to the civilisation to which they
had attained.

This language is certainly modified by
Aryan elements (Sanscrit), but the non-
Aryan portion of its vocabulary provides
an accurate picture of the pre-Aryan
civilisation of those races. According to
Bishop R. Caldwell, who lived among the
black population and devoted more than
a generation to the study of their language,
the original vocabulary of
the Dravidian races enables

us to conc ! ude that before
they came into contact with

the Aryans they possessed kings who lived
in permanent dwellings and ruled over
small districts. They had bards who sang
songs at their feasts, and it also appears
that they were in possession of an alphabet,
and that they were accustomed to write
upon palm leaves with a stylus. A bundle
of these leaves formed a book.

There were no idols, no hereditary
priesthood, and the primitive Dravidians
appear to have been entirely unacquainted
with the ideas of Heaven or Hell, of sin,
or of the soul ; they believed, however,
in the existence of gods, which they named
ko (king), an absolutely non- Aryan word.
Temples were erected in their honour,
known as ko-il (house of god) ; no con-
clusions as to the nature of their divine
service can be drawn from their language.
The Dravidians of that period possessed
laws, but no judges ; doubtful cases were
decided by precedent. Marriage was a
permanent institution among them. The
most important metals were known to
them with the exception of tin, lead, and
zinc, as also were the greater planets,
with the exception of Mercury and Saturn.
They could count up to a hundred, and in

some cases to a thousand ; higher numbers
such as the Aryan lakh (100,000) orcrore
(10,000,000). were unknown to them.

Medicine was practised among them,
though medical science or doctors were
unknown. Hamlets and villages existed,
but no large towns . Boats , great and small ,
and even decked ships able to keep the
E - sea, were employed ; these,

n ar y . A . however, did not cross the

LJravidian ., ,.

Life ocean, consequently, foreign

countries, with the exception
of Ceylon, were unknown to them, and
their language appears not to recognise the
difference between continent and island.
Agriculture was a professional occupation,
while war was their chief delight, their
arms being bows and arrows, swords and
shields. Manufactures were highly
developed, especially the arts of spinning,
weaving, and dyeing; and their pottery
had been highly perfected, as is indeed
plain from the examples found in the
graves. Little was known of the higher
arts and sciences ; no word exists to
signify sculpture or architecture, astro-
nomy or astrology, philosophy or
grammar. Indeed, their vocabulary is
singularly lacking in words which imply
intellectual pursuits ; their only word for
spirit is " diaphragm " or " the inside " ;
there certainly exists a Dravidian word
for " think," but no special words for
thought, judgment, consciousness, or will.
As against this last sentence, however,
we must not forget that the overpowering
influence of the Brahmans and their
highly developed terminology for abstract
mental operations may very well have
superseded many native expressions.
Comparative philology does not provide
wholly conclusive results, even in religious
matters; and a comparison of those ele-
ments common to the early Vedda and to
all Dravidian races, even to those at a high
stage of civilisation, plainly shows that
the fundamental beliefs and religious

conceptions of the jungle
Limit* ions tribes were not confined to

th Se WG haVC mentioned >
but were the common pro-
perty of Dravidian religious thought and
practice from the very outset. What-
ever view may be taken of the pre-
historic period in India, the fact remains
that the dark-complexioned inhabitants
of the country, of whom the Dravidians
were by far the strongest element, formed
the original population of India.

"59

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

In the year 1833, Franz Bopp, observing
the close connection of Sanscrit, the lan-
guage of the Brahmans, with most of the
ancient and modern languages of Europe,
was able to establish the affinity of these
languages beyond all dispute. He pointed
out that Sanscrit was closely related not
only to the old Persian (Zend), but also

to almost all the other lang-
ReUtionship mges Qf Europe> the omy

exceptions being the Basque
and certain isolated groups of
Ural-Altaic languages in the north and
east of Europe. How was this similarity
to be explained ? Peoples thus connected
by the tie of language might easily be
conceived as connected by the tie of blood
that is, as Descended from a common
ancestral tribe. The Grimms and others
lent their support to the theory that this
primitive people had lived in Asia, a
supposition which became almost an
article of faith. The ancestral tribe there
settled was said to have been gradually
broken up, the component parts migrating
in different directions, for the most part
westward, even as the solar system is
conceived to have been formed by the
separation of the planets and their
satellites from the primal nebula. At a
later period the influence of the Darwinian
theory made the genealogical table
illustrating these descents somewhat more
complex. The idea, however, that Asia
has been the common cradle of these
Indo-Germanic or Aryan families of
peoples continued to maintain its ground.
In more recent times philological and
anthropological evidence has led investi-
gators to place the common origin of all
these peoples in one or another part of
Europe, but there is no real consensus of
judgment on the point.

We may, indeed, doubt the intrinsic
probability of the fact that any single
district of the enormous steppe country
extending from Central Asia to the North

... Sea could have been the

Where th, ^^ Qf go j & ^^

t P* Natural boun"
daries are unknown upon
the steppes, and the peoples inhabiting
them spread outward without let or
hindrance. The nomads inhabiting those
districts prefer to follow the natural
changes of season, climate, and conse-
quently of vegetation, wandering abroad
at their will and pleasure. The language
of the Yakuts in the north-east of Siberia

1160

is closely connected with that of the
Ottomans in the extreme south-west
of that great continent.

It is waste of time to inquire at what
point the first immigrants entered the
steppe district. It is highly probable that
as soon as a tribe had secured a footing
there, it did not confine its movements to
a small district, but, finding no barriers to
oppose its passage, rapidly extended its
settlements over a wide area uniform in
development, though sporadic in distribu-
tion. Not until then did isolation of posi-
tion, difference of environment, and
foreign influence, begin to produce diver-
gences in physical characteristics, lan-
guage and customs. Thus in different
provinces similar peoples, occupying
widely distributed settlements, developed
into individual tribes more or less strongly
differentiated. In 1872 Johannes Schmidt
conceived the development of the Indo-
Germanic languages in the following
manner : "I should like to replace the
genealogical tree by a diagram of waves
expanding in concentric circles at a dis-
tance from a central point, the rings
becoming weaker in pro-
portion to the distance to
which they spread from
the central point." With
some such theory the facts as known
to us most nearly coincide, in so far as
the peoples and the languages in close
local connection show stronger mutual
affinity than those at a remoter distance.

The westerly development of the wave
circles after radiation from the central
point does not concern us here, and we
need follow only the history of the most
eastern, or Indo-Iranian group. Our in-
vestigation into the date, locality, and
the mode of life of this original circle
depends upon information derived from
comparative philology, and from the tra-
ditions and the earliest literature of the
peoples which have proceeded from this
centre. Such an investigation will show
that the two peoples of the Iranians and
Indians, between whom all outward con-
nection has now disappeared, broke away
from their common centre only a few
thousand years before the outset of his-
torical chronology. The comparatively late
date of this separation is proved not only
by the close simila ity of the old Iranian
language Zend) to the language of the
earliest Indian hymns, but also by the
wide similarities existing in manners and

How Languages
Spread from
one Centre

MAP OF INDIA

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

from Manners

customs, especially those concerned with
religion, language, mythology, and wor-
ship. Both peoples are called by the
same proud name of Aryans, the noble, or
the lofty ; in both peoples the arrival of
the youth at man's estate was marked by
the custom of girding him with a string.
Both religions contain the same names for
the deities worshipped

Mitra, Indra, Siva, Yama,
Asura However> the deep

gulf dividing the two peoples
is apparent in the different manner in
which these beliefs have developed ; the
gods worshipped by the Indian branch as
the chief deities have sunk to low estate
and lost their sanctity among the Iranians ;
the bright, shining, glorious, all-helping
Indra of the old Indian faith and the great
god Siva became in the Persian pantheon
evil-minded gods or hostile demons, as
does Asura in India. The figures of the
gods have remained unchanged, and only
the faces have been altered, while to the
highest deities the same sacrificial drink,
the soma, is still offered.

The traditions and the language of the
two peoples point to a former common
settlement in the north, and there is good
reason for accepting the generally received
theory which considers their early home
as situated in the land watered by the
Oxus and the Jaxartes. The civilisation of
this early settlement can be inferred in its
general features from the vocabulary in
use by its descendants. As might be
expected in a country of steppes, the chief
food, supply depended upon cattle breeding.
The wealth of the population consisted in
herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, and in
the keeping of these flocks the dog was
the faithful companion of man. The horse
was also bred, but only for traction, not
for riding purposes. War chariots drawn
by horses played an important part in the
struggles of the Aryans upon their immi-
gration to India. The possession of
waggons enables us to con-

dude that the Ind - Iranians

Fi k

were not exclusively a shepherd

people. The fact that they
were able to build houses of wood,
and that their animals were driven into
permanent courtyards, justifies the con-
clusion that they were to some extent
a settled race. The cultivation of cereal
plants, barley, wheat, and millet was
common throughout the Indo-Germanic
family in primitive times. Most probably,

1162

when the Aryans entered the fertile dis-
trict of the Five Rivers they had already
acquired the knowledge and practice of
regular irrigation from experience on the
banks of the Oxus and Jaxartes. Cattle
breeding provided their chief sustenance of
milk and flesh, as also their clothing of
wool and skins. Of metals, copper and
bronze were known, while irdh is rarely
mentioned. Horn was used more often
than bronze for the arrowheads, which the
Aryans smeared with poison. Besides the
bow and arrow their offensive weapons
included the club, the axe, the sword, and
the spear.

There must have been a considerable
amount of peaceful intercourse. Straight
roads existed traversed by wagons drawn
by horses, while rafts and rowing boats
passed over the rivers ; commerce by
barter was established, and hospitality
readily granted to the stranger who came
in peace. Generally speaking, the morality
of the Indo- Iranians reached a high
pitch of perfection. Family life was pure ;
the relations of the members of the race
among themselves were regulated by estab-
_ lished custom, which insisted

,JJ d ! h ?* & upon truthfulness and good

Moram faith ; in theif dealin s with

foes the race were high-
spirited, bold, and warlike. The father was
the head of the family, but the wife also
was highly respected and honoured. At the
head of the tribe or community, the chief
was placed not only to conduct the tem-
poral affairs of his tribe, but also to
represent the tribe before the powers of
heaven. There was no special priestly
class, but the whole people was inspired
with a profound religious feeling.

We have no knowledge of those causes
which induced the Indian Aryans to
migrate from their original settlements.
Increase of the population above the
number that the land could permanently
support ; the hostile attacks of other
steppe tribes, either of remote Indo-
Germanic peoples from the west or of
nomadic Mongolian tribes from the east
and north ; those internal dissensions
which ultimately led to the definite
separation of the Iranian and Indian
branches ; possibly also the reports of the
fabulous fertility of a great land on the
south any or all of these causes may have
led to a great national movement. For
this, of course, no accurate date can be
given ; modern experts are inclined to

ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYAN INVASION

place it about the middle of the third
millennium B.C., or considerably earlier.

The route followed by the migrating
people led southward. Here, indeed, they
were confronted by a high mountain wall
the Hindu-Rush and the Pamirs ; but
these districts could easily be traversed by
a hardy, mountain-bred shepherd people,
who would be able to drive their flocks
over these chains and to reach the plains
beyond, the fertility of which must have
seemed an attractive paradise to a people
of the steppes, hard pressed by the stern
necessities of existence.

It is by no means improbable that the
Indian Aryans may have entered the
country both by the Pamirs and the Hindu -
Rush. At a point further eastward they
could without difficulty have crossed by
Chitral or Gilgit to the Indus and the lovely
district of Rashmir, as well as to the
upper Punjab. The western road over
the Hindu-Rush led them into the Rabul
district of Northern Afghanistan. Here
the earliest of their extant sacred hymns
seem to have been composed ; here also the
last links between the Iranian and Indian
Gatewa s Drancnes of the Aryans may
have been severed. From the

frontiers of the Afghan high-
Immigration , , , , 1 J r 1 1 1

land the spectator could behold
the fruitful plains of the Five River Land,
and an advance to the plains through the
natural passes of the mountain wall was
easy. It was, no doubt, by this route that
the main branch of the race reached its
new home ; not, however, in one great
column, but in detachments, tribe follow-
ing tribe at long intervals. Powerful
was the impression made upon those who
crossed the mountain range reaching to
the heavens, and long did the recollec-
tion of those snow-clad peaks remain
among the people ; they alone were
considered worthy to support the throne
of the gods on high. Magnificent also
were the results of the migration when
the Aryans arrived in the Punjab, that
district watered, with what was to them
an inconceivable abundance, by streams
swollen with rain and melting snow a
guarantee of inexhaustible fertility. The
poets sang the praises of these rivers with
high enthusiasm.

Not without a struggle did this fair land
fall into the hands of the immigrants ;
the dark-skinned inhabitants whom they
found in possession did not tamely sur-
render. The Vedas, the Sagas of that

period, ring with the din of battle and the
cry of victory ; the great gods of the
Aryan heaven are called upon to strike
down the wicked Dasyu, and are praised
with cheerful thanks for overthrowing
hundreds of the cities of the despised and
miserable slaves, the Dasa. Serious friction
occasionally occurred between different
H tribes of the same race when

Historical newcomers demanded their

share of the conquered terri-
Import n -, A ,

tory. The Aryan masses pressed

successively further eastward. We can
trace their advance from their resting-
place on the heights of the Afghan frontier
to the Jumna, the most western of the
Ganges streams, across Five River Land.
This river is often named in the later
Vedas, but the Ganges not more than once
or twice. Such an upheaval of the different
tribes, and so great a rivalry for the
possession of the fertile soil, must neces-
sarily have led to collisions. Many tribes
and their kings are mentioned by name,
especially the federation of the " Five
Peoples " in the north of the Punjab,
the Yalu and Turvasa, the Druhyu and
Anu, together with the Puru, who were
situated farthest inland on the banks of
the main stream, and headed the con-
federacy, which originally included the
two first-named tribes, and afterwards
the third and fourth. Beyond the bound-
aries of these five confederate peoples who
inhabited Arya Varta, or Aryan land
proper, the Tritsu, a branch of the power-
ful ambitious warrior tribe of the Bharata,
advanced eastward, and bloody conflicts
arose between them and the western
peoples of the Punjab. The allied tribes
were driven back, were confined hence-
forward to Five River Land, and gradually
lost their common interests and the con-
sciousness of their kinship with those of
the Aryans who extended further east-
ward. Most of them disappear from our
view ; only the Puru (Ring Porus) held

out 'for a long time on the

Echoes from ln ^ In the general civili-

'f. ,. sation of those Aryans who

migrated into the land of the
Five Rivers, that progress may everywhere
be observed which is connected with a
higher development of agriculture and
results in greater prosperity, greater
security, and greater expansion in other
directions. The Aryans now no longer
lived a nomadic life on the boundary
steppes, but were settled in permanent

1163

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

habitations upon arable territory, with
well-defined boundaries.
v Cattle breeding continued to be vigor-
ously pursued ; the ox was the unit of
value, not only for the purposes of trade,
but also for estimating the rank of in-
dividuals. The title of a tribal chief was
even then " Possessor of Cows," and

battle is still called " desire for
itlement CQWS m ^ dther fresh Qr

Nomldism in the form of butter-milk,
cream, butter, and curds, was
still the staple article of food ; the flesh
of domestic animals was rarely eaten ; and
hunting was carried on chiefly as a sport,
or for protection against wild beasts ;
while fish as an article of food was still
despised. A flesh diet was replaced by
the use of corn, chiefly of barley, to a less
extent of wheat, while rice is not yet
mentioned. The plough and sickle were
more important implements than of yore.
Corn was threshed, pounded in the hand
mill by the women, and made into bread,
cakes, or porridge.

The house was now a permanent
habitation, and built on a new and
stronger plan. A roof of vegetable fibres,
tree bark, or straw kept out the rain ;
in the centre of the main room blazed the
hearth, round which seats were arranged
probably of earth, as at present ; these
were covered with animal skins and served
as sleeping-places. Earthenware pots,
brazen caldrons, and hand mills for the
corn were the most important kitchen
utensils. Close to the house stood the
fenced yard where the herds were penned,
and in which the threshing-floor was laid
out. The house was the special care of the
woman. Here she cooked food for the
whole family, spun the wool for thread,
and wove artistic fabrics ; here she made
beautifully adorned cloaks of the skins of
the animals killed ; here under her care
grew up the daughters and small boys.
The man's business lay outside in the

_ field, on the pasture and the

Conditions cQm ^^ ^ hunting Qr ^

dy r r - * was * is p* r v ply

the handicrafts which were
now increasing in number and rising to a
higher level of skill ; the waggon builder
made strong vehicles ; the smith blew
up his fire with a fan made of birds'
feathers, and wrought not only bronze,
but also the iron which the original
inhabitants probably brought to him in
its raw condition, after smelting it out of
1164

the ore (the native Indian form of pocket
bellows does not seem to have been in
use among the Aryans) ; the goldsmith
produced bright decorations, artistic plates,
bracelets, and rings to be worn in the ears,
round the neck, and upon the wrists and
ankles of the women.

The relations of man and wife were
regulated by sound moral principles. To
bring forth sons, worthy members of a
tribe and an honour to the parents, was the
highest ambition and the greatest pride of
the father and mother. Respected, and
on an equality with her husband, the
woman was mistress of the house, though
the man as being the stronger was the
natural head, protector, and leader of the
family. The man wooed the maiden on
whom his choice had fallen through friends
and relations ; if his suit was approved
by the girl's parents, the marriage took
place before the hearth of the house in
which the maiden had lived hitherto under
the protection of her parents. The bride-
groom took the girl's hand and led her
three times round the hearth ; the newly-
married pair were then conveyed to their
new home in a chariot drawn by
white steers, the former cere-
mony was repeated, and a
meal in common concluded the
festival. Polygamy was exceedingly rare,
while polyandry was utterly unknown to
the ancient Aryans. If a death took place
in a house, the body was buried or burnt-
interment in both forms is mentioned in
the early Vedas widows never followed
their dead husbands to death, either
voluntarily or as a matter of social
custom.

The houses stood in groups, forming
separate hamlets or villages. Some of
these places were fortified against hostile
attacks by walls of earth or stone (place
names ending in pur meaning " fortified ").
Men and animals were often obliged to
flee into fortified settlements, which were
usually uninhabited, before the outbreak
of floods or hostile incursions. A group of
villages formed a larger community, while
several of these latter became a district.
The district belonging to one tribe formed
a corporate whole, each of these groups
having its own special chief, while at the
head of the whole stood the king (Raj an,
the " reigning."). The title was hereditary,
or the king might be elected, but in either
case a new king must be recognised in the
general assembly of all men capable of

Early

Marriage

Customs

ANCIENT INDIA-THE ARYAN INVASION

bearing arms. In the samiti were discussed
all those matters which affected the whole
tribe, especially questions of war and
peace. The inhabitants of the district
or the village met together in special halls,
which served not only for purposes of
discussion and judgment, but also for con-
versation, and for social amusements, such
as dice playing. As the race was thus
organised for the purposes of peace, so also
the army, composed of all men capable of
bearing arms, was made up of divisions
corresponding to the family, village, and
district group, each under its own leader.
Famous warriors fought in their own war
chariots harnessed with two horses and
driven by a charioteer, while the main
body of the people fought on foot.

The king was the leader in war ; he was
also the representative of his people before
the gods ; in the name of the people he
asked for help or offered praise and
sacrifice. He was allowed in certain cases
to be represented by a Purohita, who
conducted the sacrifice, while anyone who
possessed high poetical gifts and a dignified
appearance might permanently occupy
this position. Other nobles,
of the ' P rm ces of districts, etc., might
Kin thi appoint Purohitas, whose in-
fluence was increased in pro-
portion as formal prayer took the place of
extempore petitions, and worship became
stereotyped by the growth of special uses
and a fixed ceremonial. Here we have in
embryo the separate classes of king and
priesthood, an opposition which was to
exercise the most far-reaching influence
upon the further development of the Aryan
people.

The Aryan people brought from their
primal home one precious possession a
deep, religious feeling, a thankful rever-
ence for the high powers presiding over
Nature, who afforded them a secure and
peaceful existence by assuring the con-
tinued welfare of the flocks and of the
crops planted by man. The good and
kindly gods were those who sent to man
the fertilising rain and sunshine, bringing
growth and produce, and to them, as to
high and kindly friends, man offered his
faithful prayers and pious vows. To them
he prayed that his flocks might thrive, and
that he might be victorious in battle, that
he might be given sons and have long life ;
they, the bright, the all-knowing, and the
pure, were the protectors of morality and
the wardens of the house, of the district,

and of the whole tribe. Certain gods belong-
ing to primeval times appeared in the
Pantheon of the Aryans who conquered
the Five River district, bright figures wor-
shipped in common by the Iranians and the
Indian Aryans. But among these latter
they grow pale and lose their firm outlines,
like the misty figures of dim remembrance ;
they become many - sided,

Pantheon
of the
Aryans

secret, uncanny, diabolical, and
other gods of more definite
character come into promi-
nence. Three gods are of special importance
Indra, Surya, and Agni. Together they
.form the early Indian Trinity (Trimurti).
In the hymns which have come down to
us, Indra is most frequently mentioned ;
he was the atmospherical god, especially
favourable to the Aryans, who gave the
rain and the harvest, and governed the
winter and the thunderstorm. We can
easily understand how the god of the
atmosphere became the chief Aryan divin-
ity ; as the Aryans learnt upon Indian
soil to observe the regular recurrence of
atmospherical phenomena, especially that
of the monsoon winds and the thunder-
storms upon which their prosperity de-
pended, the deeper and stronger became
their gratitude and reverence to this god.
It is Indra who sends down the water of
the heaven, who divides the clouds with
the lightning flash before which blow the
roaring winds, the Maruts, especially the
fierce Rudra, the hurricane, which rushes
immediately before the thunder clouds.

The second of the three chief gods is
Surya, the bright sun god, giving light,
warmth, and life, an object of high venera-
tion. Ushas, the morning dawn, opens
for him the doors through which he passes
to traverse the heavens in his chariot
with its seven red horses. After these two
gods the third of importance is Agni, the
fire born from sticks when rubbed together ;
this god lights and warms the hearth of
the house, drives away all things evil and
impure, and watches over the
morality of the household. As
the sacrificial flame upon the
altars, he is the means of com-
munication between mankind and the
other gods ; in his destructive character
he devastates the settlements of the
enemy and the hiding-places of their
demons in the depths of the forest.

The worship of these gods is character-
ised by a feeling of lofty independence. Not
only does man receive gifts from them, but

1165

The

Chief
Gods

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

he also gives them what they need. They,
indeed, prepare for themselves the draught
of immortality, the Amrita ; but they

hunger for sacrifices and
Minor Gods cannot do without them>

Especially do the gods love
Mythology ^ hon / y . sweet dr 6 aught of

Soma drink. Almost presumptuous ap-
pears to us the prayer in which Indra is
invited to partake of the Soma offering :

" Ready is the summer draught, O Indra,
for thee ; may it fill thee with strength !
drink the excellent draught which cheers the
soul and conveys immortality ! hither, O
Indra, to drink with joy of the juice which
has been pressed for thee ; intoxicate thyself,
O hero, for the slaughter of thy foes ! sit
thou upon my seat ! here, O good one, is
juice expressed ; drink thyself full, for to
thee, dread lord, do we make offering."

Though Indra is here invited in person,
yet the personifications of early Indian
mythology were much less definite than
those of the Greeks. Imagination and
expression vary between the terms of
human existence and the abstract con-
ceptions of the natural powers of fire,
thunder, sunshine, etc. Consequently the
god as such is somewhat vague and in-
tangible in the mythology of the old
Aryans of India ; the characteristics of
one deity are confused with those of
another, and the different attributes of

any one god often reappear as separate
personifications .

A large number of the hymns to the gods
have been preserved to us (1,017 in all) ;
these form the earliest body of evidence
upon Indian life, thought, and feeling.
The earliest of these songs were un-
doubtedly sung by the Aryans upon their
migrations. At first the unpremeditated
outpourings of a pious heart, they
gradually became formal prayers ; thus
these hymns were preserved in families of
bards and faithfully handed down from
generation to generation until at a much
later period they were reduced to writing.
In many of the Vedas belonging to the
earliest period we find a deep longing
for truth, a struggle for the solution of
the deepest mysteries of existence in
short, a speculative spirit of that nature
which marks a later stage of Brahman
development ; other songs, however, are
pure and simple prayers for
victory, children, and long
life, while others, again,
contain promises of sacrifice
and praise if the help of the gods should
be granted. The general collection of all
these hymns was made at a considerably
later period, subsequently to the occupa-
tion of the Ganges territory, and not
before the seventh century before our era.

How Aryan
Hymns have
been Preserved

SCENE IN THE PUNJAB, OR "LAND OF THE FIVE RIVERS"

The Punjab was the first part of India to come under Aryan civilisation, and the Sutlej, one of the five rivers,
is seen in the middle distance of the picture, which also shows the "Persian wheel," used for irrigating fields,
being turned by a couple of bullocks, the driver seated at the end of a beam supported over a horizontal wheel.

1166

THE ARYAN EXPANSION

AND THE GROWTH OF BRAHMANISM
BRAHMANISA IN THE NORTH

TTHE most important events at the con-
clusion of the Vedic age took place on
the frontier line between the Indus and the
Ganges. Here was developed the opposi-
tion between the warrior and priestly
classes which was afterwards to lead to
important results. At the head of the
allied tribes in the Punjab stands the
proud King Visivamitra, who combines
the functions of king and priest in his
own person and invokes the help of the
gods for his people. Among his adver-
saries, however, the King Sudas no longer
commits the duties of prayer and sacrifice
to his own priests, but to a special class,
the white-clothed, long-haired priests of
the Vasishlha family, and their prayers
are more effectual than those of the priest-
king. This event is typical of the second
stage of early Indian development, which
ends in the complete victory of the priests

over the warrior class and the

f *h establishment of a rigid hier-

* . archy. The date of this social

change coincides with that of
the expansion and establishment of the
Aryans in the Ganges territory.

The sacred books are of less value for the
external history of this period than are
the songs of the Rig- Veda for the preceding
age ; nevertheless, many of them, such as
the Brahmanas, conlain important evi-
dence concerning individual tribes, their
settlements and history. A large body
of historical evidence is, however, contained
in the second great epic poems of this
period, the Mahabharata and the Rama-
yana ; the riotous imagination of the
composers has given a strong poetical
colouring to the whole, and the lack of
definite purpose which is apparent in their
construction makes careful and minute
criticism imperative.

The Mahabharata in its present state
is the longest poem of any people or age.

It contains 110,000 double lines, and each
one of its eighteen books is enough to
fill a large volume. The historical basis
of the great poem of the Bharata rests
upon early tradition. The enthusiasm
inspired by heroic deeds found its vent in
poetical composition, and the praise of
heroes was passed from mouth to mouth.
This epic poem in embryo may be earlier
than the first thousand years B.C. : but
wnen . tnat period of turmoil
th an( ^ confusion was followed by

* an age of more peaceful de-
woria i .-i . f

velopment, the memories of

these exploits grew fainter in the minds of
successive generations. The old songs and
ballads were collected and worked into
one great epos ; many of the events and
figures are the additions of later poets,
such as the story of the Five Pandu
brothers, while the whole poem is marked
by the brilliant overflow of a luxuriant
imagination and by ruthless compression
of the historical facts ; the histories of
nations become the victories or defeats
of individual heroes ; long years of struggle
with warlike tribes are reduced to one
lengthy battle. To this quasi-historical
part of the Mahabharata were added at a
later time a series of lays more extensive
than the original poem and written from
the Brahman point of view. If the non-
epic elements be removed from the poem
the following story remains.

At the point where the two streams of
the Jumna and the Ganges leave the
mountains and flow through the plains,
the powerful Bharata tribe of the Kuru
had established themselves upon their
eastern and western banks ; even to-dajr
the district on the right bank of the Jumna
is known as the Kuru-kshetra, the sacred
Kuru land. This royal tribe divided
into two branches. Of the two sons
of King Santanu, the elder, Dhritarashtra,

1167

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

was born blind, and the royal power was
therefore conferrsd upon his younger
brother Pandu. To the latter five sons were
born, and to the former a hundred ; and
the struggles of these two groups of cousins
fo;med the substratum of the epic.

All these brothers were admirably

instructed in knightly pursuits by the

w Brahman Drona, " in the

use of the bow and club, of

the battleaxe and the throw-
was in Flower . , ,. ,
ing spear, of the sword and

dagger, in the chase of the horse and
elephant, in conflicts from chariots or
on foot, man to man or in combination/'
In the elder line, Duryodhana, the eldest
of the one hundred brothers, was especially
distinguished for his skill in the use
of the club ; Bhima, the second son of
Pandu, was famous for his superhuman
strength. The third son of Pandu, the
beautiful long-haired Arjuna, excelled
with all arms, but especially in the
use of the bow and arrow. In one of
the tournaments which concluded the
education of the princes he outstripped all
competitors ; after a contest with many
other princes, he won the hand of the
beautiful Krishna, the daughter of Drupad,
King of Pantshala. By his victory she
also became the wife of the other four
brothers, a polyandric marriage which is
represented by the Brahman poet as the
result of a misunderstanding with the
mother of the Pandu brothers.

Duryodhana, who had meanwhile been
crowned king, dreading the military
power of his cousins and of the Pantshala,
with whom they had allied themselves
by marriage, divided his kingdom with the
eldest of the Pandu brothers, Prince
Yudhishthira. At the moment of his
coronation Yudhishthira played a game of
dice with the enemies of his house, the
Kaurawas, at which he lost not only his
crown, but also the freedom of himself
and his brothers, and the wife whom they
_ possessed in common. But by

hng the decision of the blind old
Kin "do prince Dhritarashtra, the forfeit
was commuted for a banishment
of thirteen years. The Pandu brothers,
with their wife, spent this period in solitude,
need and misery in the forests, and then
demanded their share of the kingdom.
To this proposition the Kaurawas declined
to agree, and both parties secured the
support of numerous powerful allies.
The Kaurawas were joined by Kama

JI6S

(another Siegfried or Achilles), who dis-
tinguished himself in these battles by his
splendid bravery and military prowess ;
the Pandawas enjoyed the advantage of
the cunning advice of the Yadawa prince,
Krishna, who placed his services as
charioteer at the disposal of Arjuna. A
fearful battle ensued of eighteen days'
duration, in which, after marvellous deeds
of heroism, all the warriors were slain with
the exception of the five Pandu brothers.
From this time onward the whole of the
kingdom was in their power, and Yudhish-
thira ruled for a long period after the
manner of an ideal Brahman prince.
Thereafter they retired from all earthly
splendour and became ascetics with no
temporal needs, wandering from one holy
shrine to another, until at length they
entered the heaven of the gods opposite
the holy Mountain of Meru.

However large an element of the
Mahabharata may be purely poetical,
none the less the poem enables us to
localise with some accuracy a number of
the tribes which were actively or passively
involved in the struggle of the two royal
houses, and the overthrow of the warrior
class to which that struggle led.

F t" C th Of the warrior class the chief
G* C S * *E ' e re P resentati ves are the Kuru,
c who are represented as settled
on the upper course of the Jumna and
Ganges, Hastinapura being their capital
town ; they were also in occupation of
the sacred Kuru land to the west of the
Jumna as far as the point where the
Saraswati disappears in the sands of the
desert. The poem places the Pandu and
their capital of Indraprastha the modern
Delhi on the Jumna in the central Doab
(i.e., the land lying between two con-
verging rivers, above their confluence), the
central district between the Jumna and
the Ganges. In the lower Doab is settled
a federation of five tribes, the Pantshala.
Opposite these on the western bank of
the Jumna dwell the Surasena, while to
the east beyond the Ganges are the
Kosala, with the capital town of Gogra,
who extended their power after the
destruction of the Kuru and Pandu, their
later capital of Ayodhya becoming a
focus of Brahman civilisation. Below the
confluence of the Jumna and Ganges,
the sacred Prayaga, where at an earlier
period Allahabad had become a centre
for pilgrimages, the northern bank of the
main stream was occupied by the Bhai

ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYAN EXPANSION

tribe of the Matsya, while to the south-
east of these, in the district of the modern
Benares, lived the Kasi ; on the southern
bank the native tribe of the Nishada
formed a defence against the Aryan tribes
in the north. East and north of the
Ganges, together with the Kosala, were
also settled the mountain tribes of the
Kirata, who were in alliance with the
Kuru, while further to the south were the
Pundra Banga and Anga, the Mithila,
the Wideha and Magadha.

The action of the great epic poem is
laid within the district of these various
tribes. Several centuries must have
elapsed since the battle of King Sudas,
during which the Aryans had formed
states in the fruitful central district, the
Madhyadesa, and had extended to that
tributary of the Ganges now known as
the Garuti. In the earlier period of
Indian antiquity, the chief historical
events take place in the country between
the Ganges and its great western tributary
the Jumna ; whereas at a later period
pure Brahman civilisation is developed in
the kingdoms formed further to the east
namely, north of the Ganges in Wideha
(capital town Mithila, the
modern Muzaffarpur), and upon
the southern bank of the great
* river, in Magadha and Wihara
(the modern Behar ; capital town Patali-
putra, the modern Patna). During this
period at any rate the eastern frontier of
these states was also the eastward limit
of Aryan occupation. That national move-
ment ceased at the point where the first
arms of the great delta of the Ganges
diverge from the southern bank of the
river behind the mountains of Rajmahal ;
the almost impenetrable malarial swamp
districts which then composed the whole
delta remained for a long period in the
undisputed possession of the wild jungle
tribes and noxious and poisonous animals.
However, the last offshoots of the stream
of Aryan immigration turned southward
to the fertile districts of Orissa from
Magadha at the period when Brahmanism
had reached its culminating point. Here
the north-eastern arms of the Mahanadi
delta mark the extreme limit of the
territory then in Aryan occupation, which
consequently extended to the sea upon
the east.

At a yet earlier period the Aryans had
reached the Western or Arabian Sea.
Immediately after the occupation of

the Punjab, the waves of the migration
passed down the Indus valley, and the
Aryans became acquainted with the dis-
tricts at the mouth of the river, to which
also they gave its name (Sindhu). Their
settlements in that district did not,
however, become a point of departure
for transmarine migration. The coast was
ill-suited for the navigators of
of Least* ^ period, and a far more
R sist* S favourable spot was found
further to the south-west in the
Gulf of Cambay ; settlements were made
here at a period considerably subsequent to
the arrival at the mouth of the Indus. The
Great Desert and the unhealthy swamps
which intervene between this gulf and the
Indus district prevented any advance in
that direction ; moreover an easier route
was discovered by the tribes advancing
from the Punjab to the Ganges district
along the narrow frontier between the two
territories. Consequently, new arrivals
found the land already occupied by
settlers who had taken this route, and
bloody conflicts may have been of repeated
occurrence. Driven on by tribes advanc-
ing in their rear, hemmed in before by
earlier settlers, they found a favourable
opening of escape in the strip of fertile
territory which extended southward be-
tween the desert and the north-western
slopes of the Central Indian highlands,
the Aravalli Hills. This path could not
fail to bring them to the Gulf of Cambay r
which here runs far inland; and, on its
western shores, the rich districts of Gujerat
and those at the mouth of the Narbada
and the Tapti lay spread before them.
This was the most southerly point on the
western side of India at which the Aryans
made any permanent settlement.

Hence, during this period Aryan India
included the whole of the north-western
plains extending in a south-westerly
direction as far as Gujerat, and eastward
as far as the Ganges delta, its extreme
south-easterly point being the
delta of Orissa. The highlands
of Central India formed a sharp
line of demarcation between
the Aryan and Dravidian races. The
district was, however, not entirely secluded
from Aryan influence, which at the outset
of that period had begun to put out
feelers across the frontier line. The Aryans
had already become acquainted with the
sea, which was for them rather a means
than a hindrance to communication ; the

1169

Extent
of Aryan
India

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

fact is proved by the similes occurring in
the old battle songs, wherein the hard-
pressed warrior is compared to a sailor
upon a ship staggering under a heavy
storm upon the open sea. The Aryan
colonisation of Ceylon took place before
the power of the warrior class had been
broken and the social organism stamped
with the impress of Brahman-
ism. On comparing this period
with that during which the
Aryans advanced into the
Punjab, we find a fundamental change
in the conditions of Aryan life as they
are displayed in all these struggles and
settlements. Nomadic life under the
patriarchal system is replaced by feudal
principalities surrounded with all the
splendour of chivalry. Changes in other
conditions of life had necessarily effected
a fundamental transformation in the
political and social condition of the people.
A more settled life, and the advance of
agriculture at the expense of cattle breed-
ing, led to a more comprehensive sub-
division of labour ; though, when occasion
demanded, the peasant left the plough-
share for the sword, yet it was no doubt at
an early period that that warrior nobility
arose which made war its business and
profession. The leadership of the tribe
as the latter flourished and increased
became rather a professional post ; in
place of the tribal elder appears the king
in possession of full royal powers and
standing high above and apart from his
people. The position of both king and
noble must have advanced to more
brilliant development in the greater area
of the Ganges territory. In the Maha-
bharata the battles and the names con-
nected with them are no doubt in large
part the result of poetical invention ;
but the description of the civilisation then
existent cannot be wholly imaginary, and
the royal courts with their knightly
organisation, however romantic in appear-
ance and akin to the insti-
tutions of mediaeval Europe,

may be considered as definite
Priesthood historical facts> NQ greater

change can be imagined than that
apparent in the latter condition of those
peoples whose history we have traced
throughout this proud and warlike period.
Gone is the energy of youth ; gone, too,
the sparkling joys of life and .struggle ;
the green verdure of the Aryan spring has
faded, the people has grown old. The

1 170

nobility has yielded the pride of place to
the priesthood, whose ordinances shackle
all movement toward freedom and inde-
pendence. The new power appears in
the garb of the deepest poverty, but its
spiritual influence is all the more profound ;
the ambition of the priests was not to be
kings, but to rule kings.

The origins of this great social change
go back to a remote period. Even during
that period when the Aryan power was
confined to the Punjab, the seeds of
opposition between the temporal and
spiritual powers are found in existence ;
in the great battle in which King Sudas
conquered the confederacy of the Punjab,
the opposition becomes prominent for the
first time. At an earlier period it was
the natural duty of the tribal chieftain to
stand as mediator between his people and
their gods. But it was not every powerful
prince or general who possessed the gift
of the inspired poets and musician, and
many kings therefore entrusted this sacred
public duty to their Purohita. His repu-
tation was increased by his power of
clothing lofty thoughts in inspiring form,
and the position passed from father to

Order of S n to & et ^ er Wl ^h. t ^ ie more

stirring hymns which were orally

Hereditary transmitted> Thus p r i es tly

families arose of high reputa-
tion whose efforts were naturally entirely
directed to secure the permanence of
their position ; the most certain means
to this end was the creation of a compli-
cated ritual for prayer and sacrifice which
could be performed only by a priesthood
with a special training. The scene of
sacrifice was prepared with great attention
to minutiae, the altars were specially
adorned on every opportunity, and the
different sacrifices were offered with
scrupulous respect to ceremonial detail :
there were priests who recited only the
prayers' from the Rig- Veda, others who
sang hymns from the Samaveda ; a high-
priest stood at the head of the whole
organisation.

Consequently the character of prayer,
sacrifice, and indeed the whole body of
theology underwent a fundamental trans-
formation. Originally the victim had
been the pure offering of a thankful heart,
while prayer had been the fervent yet
humble expression of those desires which
man in his weakness laid before the
almighty powers of heaven. Gradually,
however, the idea of sacrifice had been

Siva, the Destroyer, the second of
the Hindu deities

Ganesha, the god of success, invoked on
every necessity of daily life

Agni, the guardian deity of

the south-east part of the

earth

Surya, the sun god, one of the
gods of the early Indian Trinity

Indra, the king of heaven and one of
the ten guardian deities of the earth

Lakshmi, the goddess of pros-
perity, wife of Vishnu

Vishnu, one of the three principal
Hindu deities

Saraswati, goddess of learning,
Vishnu's second wife

THE CHIEF BRAHMAN AND HINDU DIVINITIES

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

modified by the theory that human
offerings to the gods were not only wel-
come but also necessary and indispensable
to those powers. In the sacred writings
of a later date passages repeatedly occur,
stating that the gods are growing weak
because the pious priests have been
hindered by evil spirits from making the
necessary sacrifices. Indeed, it

was onl V b y means f the

** *r"tti* gods, who,
had formerly been subject to
death like men, had acquired immortality.
" The Gods lived in the fear of death, the
strong Ender, and therefore they under-
went severe penance and made many
offerings until they became immortal."

Hence was developed the further idea
that by means of sacrifice man could gain
a certain power over the gods themselves
and thereby extort gifts and services from
them ; and ultimately the sacrifice was
conceived to be a thing of immense
magical power before which all the other
gods- must bow. The all-compelling
power of the sacrifice was in the hands of
the priests, the Brahmans, and became
the firm foundation of their increasing
predominance. An Indian proverb says :
" The universe depends upon the gods,
the gods upon the Mantra (the formula of
sacrifice), the Mantra upon the Brahmans,
and therefore the Brahmans are our gods."
Tradition is silent upon the details of
the process by which the dominant power
passed from the hands of the nobility to
the priesthood. It was to the interests
of the priests to obliterate historical facts
as rapidly and completely as possible
from popular memory, and to inculcate

the belief that the high position of the
Brahmans had been theirs from the outset.
The history of the period has been thus
designedly obscured, and only at rare
intervals is some feeble light thrown upon
it. The epos of the fall of the great race
of the Bharata shows us how the power
of the nobility was worn away in bitter
struggles ; many priestly figures, such as
Drona and his son Aswatthaman, take up
arms and join in the destruction of the
'nobility.

A fact throwing special light upon the
acerbity of the contest between the two
struggling powers is the appearance in
the poem of the mythical figure of Rama,
who was considered an incarnation of
Vishnu at a later period, a Brahman by
birth, and armed with the axe. The
balance of fortune did not, however,
invariably incline in favour of the Brah-
mans, as is plain from the many maxims
in their ritual and philosophical writings
conceived in a very humble tone : " None
is greater than the Kshatriya (the warrior),
wherefore the Brahman also makes sacri-
fices together with the royal

th Gods offerin S s to the Kshatriya." The
, * I issue of the struggle began to
prove doubtful from the Brah-
man point of view, and then fore the myth
claimed the personal interference of the
powerful god Vishnu, who usually became
incarnate in times of greatest need, and
therefore descends for this reason to the
aid of his special favourites, the Brahmans.
After an infinite series of bloody conflicts,
he gains for them a brilliant victory ;
thrice seven times did Parasurama purify
the earth of the Kshatriya.

THE BRAHMAN SYSTEM AT WORK

XJOTWITHSTANDING their military
1 ^ capacity and their personal strength,
the nobles had been defeated, and the
priests, armed with the mysterious magical
power of the sacrifice, had gained a spiritual
dominion over the people. This power the
priesthood at once proceeded to secure per-
manently and irrevocably by arrogating to
\hemselves the monopoly of all religious
and philosophical thought, by the strict
and detailed regulation of public and
private life in its every particular, by
forcing the mind, the feelings, and the will
of every individual into fixed grooves
prescribed by ihe priests. The legal books,

1172

the earliest of which belong to the course
of literature of the old Vedic schools,
explain the high ideal which the Brahmans
proposed to themselves as the true
realisation of national life ; an ideal, how-
ever, which was hardly ever attained in
its reality, or at the most only within
the narrow areas of individual petty
states.

The position of the priests is defined
with the greatest precision and detail in
the Dharmasastra of Manawa, a work
afterward ascribed to Manu. In order
to make this work yet more authoritative,
its composers assigned to the personality

ANCIENT INDIA-THE ARYAN EXPANSION

The Four
Divisions
of Society

of its author an age almost amounting to
immortality (30,000,000 years) and divine
origin ; attempting to identify him with
the first ancestor of the Aryans, the
mythical Manu. In reality it was not
until shortly before the middle of the first
millennium B.C. that the Brahman code
had developed so large a quantity of
precepts defined with such exactitude ;
in its present form the work of Manu seems
to be the result of later re-editing, and to
date from the period between the first
century B.C. and the fifth century A.D.
Buddhist precepts are plainly apparent
in it, and many prohibitions of the earlier
and later periods are brought together in
spite of their discrepancy, as, for instance,
the slaughter of animals and the eating of
flesh, side by side with the religious avoid-
ance of animal
food. Buddhist
terms of expres-
sion are also
found, such as
the mention of
female anchor-
ites, "an apostate
sect," which are
evidence in fa-
vour of a later
date. The book
consists of a col-
lection of pro-
verbial sayings
which were in-
tended to fix the
customary law,

as established by of the Brahman divinities upon their foreheads, and the type of face

"Rt-aVimQnc ls ra ther Aryan than Dravidian ; but the ornaments and umbrella

[lb > are not, as Fergusson and Burgess suppose, signs of low caste.

for a district of

Northern India of limited area. The work

contains 2,685 double lines divided into

twelve books ; of these books, five are

concerned with the rights and duties of

the Brahmans, whereas only two books

are devoted to the warrior caste and

only one to all the other castes put
together. Manu expressly pro-
claims the existence of four
castes only : " The Brahmans,
Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas form

the classes in a second state of existence ;

the Sudra is in the first state of existence

and forms the fourth class ; a fifth does not

exist." In this division the first point of

note is the cont-ast between those in a first

and those in a second state of existence,

the " twice-born," a contrast which co-
incides with the racial contrast between

TYPES OF THE ANCIENT BRAHMANS
These figures from frescoes of the second century H.C. are taken from
the cave X at Ajanta (after James Burgess). They bear the Nama

A Book
of Ancient
Proverbs

the Aryans and the original inhabitants ;
within the Aryan group a principle of
tripartition is again apparent, which, in
modern language, amounts to the separate
existence of a learned, a military, and a
productive class.

Manu here speaks of only four divisions
of society ; elsewhere he recognises the
existence of other caste sub-
divisions : the castes of the
physicians, astrologers, handi-
craftsmen, oil manufacturers,
leather workers, musical performers, etc.,
are subdivisions of the fourth class.
Properly speaking, however, the origin of
these castes is, according to Manu, different
from that of the main groups ; these
latter are of primeval origin, created
together with the world and an im-
portant factor
by the purpose
of the Creator.
A famous hymn
of the Rig- Veda,
which is a later
interpolation, de-
scribes the origin
of the castes :
''The sacrifice
Purusha, those
who were born
at the very first
(the first men),
they offered it
upon sacrificial
grass ; to it the
gods made offer-
ing, the Sadhyas
and the Rishis.
When they di-
vided Purusha, into how many pieces
was he cleft ? What did his mouth
become, and what his arms, what his legs
and his feet ? His mouth became the
Brahman, the Rajanya came forth from
his arm, the Vaisya from his thighs, the
Sudra from his feet. The world was
born from his soul, the sun from his eyes,
Indra and Agni from his mouth, Wayu
from his breath. From his navel came
forth air, from his head the heaven, from
his feet the earth, from his ear the districts
of the world. In this manner did the
gods create the world."

Symbolically, the Brahmans were formed
from the same member of the body as
the great gods of early India, Indra, ?.nd
Ani namely, from the mouth which
speaks " sanctity and truth " ; the military

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Were formed from the arms, whence they
received their " power and strength."
The thigh bones Were the means of mechan-
ical progress, the lowly toil of life ; from
these, therefore, were the Vaisya formed
who go behind the plough and gain
material " riches and possessions " by
their industry. From the feet, however,
^ which ever tread in the dust of

Th * orl earth, is formed the lowly
Divisions Sudra, who, from the very be-
ginning, is " destined to service
and obedience." Thus, according to Manu,
by means of the sacrificial power of the
gods and of the sacred primeval Brahmans,
were formed the four great classes of
human society.

The Brahmans have another theory to
account for the subdivisions within the
Sudra class, which Was explained as mixed
castes proceeding from the alliance of
members of different castes. It is im-
portant to notice that position within
these mixed castes is dependent upon the
higher or lower caste to which the man or
the Woman belonged at the time of pro-
creation. Alliances of men of higher
castes, and even of the Brahmans them-
selves, with low-caste women, are legally
permissible ; the children, however, of
such a marriage do not take the father's
caste, but sink to the lowest castes.
Wholly different is the punishment of
breaking caste incurred when a Woman
has children by a man of lower caste than
herself ; not only is she expelled from her
own caste with ignominy and disgrace,
but the higher the caste to which she
belonged by birth, the lower is the social
depth to which she and her children sink ;
indeed, the lowest of all castes, that of the
Tshandala, is considered by the Brahmans
to have been formed by the alliance of
Brahman women with Sudra men. On
the other hand, the children begotten by
a Brahman of a Sudra Woman belong to
the higher gradations of the Sudra group,

Penalties of J^ 6 *? father in n W ^
Inter-caste loses f . ^s ^ n permanent
Marriage P osltlon - Such is the teach-
ing of the Brahmans as
laid down in the book of Manu upon
the origin of mixed castes. The investi-
gator, however, who leaves the Sanscrit
writings, examines Indian society for
himself, and judges the facts before him
without prejudice, cannot resist the im-
pression that this theory upon the origin
of mixed castes is as impossible as that of
1174

the creation of the four main castes from
the sacrifice. The only mixed caste in
the proper sense of the words is that of the
temple Women, and their children ; among
these, daughters become temple Women,
sons temple musicians, or inferior temple
servants, etc. But in all other cases
where there is no very great difference of
caste betw r een the parents, the child takes
the lower caste and a new mixed caste
never arises. However, in the very rare
cases in which a woman of extremely high
caste has a child by a man of very low
caste, abortion is invariably procured, or
the mother commits suicide. The Brah-
man doctrine upon the origin of the lowest
castes is an intentional perversion of the
facts.

One of the most skilful investigators of
the caste system, W. R. Cornish, says
that the whole chapter of Manu upon
mixed castes is so childishly conceived
and displays so much class prejudice and
intolerance, so appalling a punishment
awaiting the Brahman woman who should
err, while at the same time the Brahman
is allowed so much freedom of communica-
tion with other castes without injury to
his position, that the intentions
of the author become forthwith
obvious. These intentions Were
to maintain purity of blood
in the higher castes, and especially in
that of the Brahmans, by appointing
the heaviest of all punishments upon any
woman who should prove unfaithful to
her caste. It was not thus that the lower
social groups of which we have spoken
originated ; they are earlier than the laws
of Manu. The legislator, however, em-
ployed the fear inspired by the prospect
of sinking to their degraded position as a
powerful instrument whereby he might
attain his objects, 'the preservation of
racial purity among the Brahmans.

The truth is that castes have arisen from
different origins. Differences of race and
racial prejudice form a first line of cleavage.
Noteworthy in this connection is the old
Aryan name for caste, warn-a that is,
colour. The white and the black, the
Aryan and the original inhabitant, the
" best," the " first " (because the most
successful and powerful) in contrast with
the low and the common, the Dasyu
these oppositions form the first sharp line
of demarcation. At their first meeting the
latter class were naturally not allowed the
privilege of conforming to the institutions

Reasons
for Caste
Restrictions

The figures grouped on this page are representative of the Brahmans of to-day, the first being that of a
Brahman priest, or "pundit," and the next a fakir, or devotee, while the young Brahman in the centre displays
the mysterious caste marks and is wearing the sacred thread. The lower figures represent, on the left, a
Hindu jogi, or mendicant, posing in the attitude of one of the gods, and the last is another Brahman type.

BRAHMAN TYPES OF THE PRESENT TIME

"75

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

of Aryan society; extermination was
the sole method of dealing with them.
At a later period, however, as the con-
querors became more prosperous and
settled, it was found advantageous to
employ prisoners or subject races as serfs
for the purpose of menial duties. The
original inhabitants of the country were
thus adopted into the Aryan
* se society, and in that social order

the first deep line of cleavage
was made. Other differences
then developed within the Aryan popula-
tion. It was only natural that the man who
displayed a special bravery in battle should
be more highly honoured and receive a
larger share of booty, of territory, and of
slaves to cultivate that territory. Thus, in
course of time, a warrior nobility was
formed, the Kshatriya, who rose to power
as we have seen in the struggles of the
Mahabharata. We have already seen
the manner in which a further social
division was brought about by the forma-
tion of a hereditary priesthood, the
Brahmana. In proportion, however, as
these two classes became exclusive here-
ditary castes, so did they rise above the
great mass of the people, the farmers, the
shepherds, and the handicraftsmen whose
occupations were now considered as pro-
fessions lacking in dignity. The Ksha-
triya proudly called themselves Raj ana,
Rajwansi, the Royal, or the Rajputs, the
men of royal race, and thought themselves
high above the common people.

Thus the great castes appointed by
Manu had been formed. Further differ-
ences arose within these. Only the Brah-
mans and warriors were able for any
length of time to prevent the rise of sub-
divisions within their own groups, Their
narrow and well-defined profession, and
also, among the Brahmans at any rate,
their jealously preserved racial purity,
protected them from disruption, But in
the two remaining groups, the Vaisya and
the Sudra, who had now
entered the social organism
of the Aryans, a different set
of circumstances prevailed ; the
development of larger political bodies
resulted in subdivision within these classes.
As existence grew more secure and
prosperity increased, the necessities of
life increased proportionately. In the
simple times of the primeval Aryan
period, every tribe was able to satisfy
such demands for skilled labour as might

1176

Subdivision
of the
Castes

arise within it ; in the more complex
organisation of society within the Ganges
states such simplicity was no longer
possible. Undertakings demanding tech-
nical skill called forth by the claims of a
higher civilisation necessarily brought
about the subdivision of labour and the
creation of technical professions ; manual
labour in its several branches became
hereditary among individual families of
the lower castes, as other professions had
become hereditary among the Brahmans
and Kshatriyas.

It is possible that similar caste divisions
corresponding to the various professions
may have existed among the original
inhabitants of the country before they
came into contact with the Aryans. The
natives were by no means, in every case,
uncivilised savages ; some of their tribes
were superior in technical skill to the
Aryans themselves, and bartered the
products of their higher knowledge with
the Aryans through merchants. The
existence of caste divisions among them
at an earlier period is supported by the
enumeration in the code of Manu of the
manufacturing castes in the lower divisions
of the Sudra astrologers, oil

~ musical performers,

Occupation T . . . * , , , , ,1

it is inconceivable that the

Brahmans, when formulating the rules of
Indian society, should have troubled to
arrange these numerous subdivisions of
the many castes of the Sudra, the more so
as they were accustomed to avoid any
possible connection with this unclean
stratum of society ; far more probable is
it that those differences of caste within
the Sudra which coincide with professions
existed before the Aryan period.

The political relations of the Aryans to
the non-Aryan natives also contributed
to the development of the Aryan caste
system. The deadly hatred of the black,
snub-nosed people which inspires the
hymns of the Rig- Veda was laid to rest ;
during the struggles between the several
Aryan princes and states political neces-
sities often led to acquaintances, alliance,
and friendship, even to racial fusion with
the native tribes. In the Mahabharata
we find a Nishada prince appointed
guardian of the important river ford at
Prayaga ; we find Dravidian races fighting
side by side as the equal allies of pure
Aryan tribes, while the names of certain
personalities famous in the great epos,

ANCIENT INDIA-TKE ARYAN EXPANSION

together with peculiarities of character
and custom, are evidence for the close
connection between the distinguished
Aryan warrior and the native inhabitant.
Krishna. " the Black," is the name given
to the Yadawa prince who appears as the
firm ally and friend of Pandawas.

The attempt has been made to explain
this name by the hypothesis that his
tribe had entered India earlier than the
other Aryans, and had therefore been
more deeply burned by the sun ; to this,
however, it may be replied that the com-
plexion of a tribe may be deepened rather
by fusion with a black race than by
exposure to the sun. In character also
Krishna appears unlike the Aryans ; he
is full of treachery and deceit, gives
deceitful counsel, and justifies ignoble deeds
by equivocation methods wholly foreign
to the knightly character of the Aryan
warrior. The Pantshala princess is also
entitled Krishna, "the Black"; the fact
that she lived in true Dravidian style with
the five Aryan princes in a polyandric
marriage shows the close relations existing
between the Aryans and the native peoples.

Similar relations are also apparent in
the history of the colonisation of Ceylon ;
Pro ress the Aryan ancestor Vijayas had

married a Dravidian Kalinga
of Race . 11- -,

Fusion princess, and his grandson,
together with many of his
companions, took native women to wife
without any exhibition of racial prejudice.
Thus, since the time of the Aryan immigra-
tion, an important change had taken place
in the relations of the two races The
rapidity with which the racial fusion was
carried out is apparent at the present time
in the physical contrast between the
peoples of the North-west and the Ganges
territory ; in the Punjab, in Kashmir, and
to some extent in Rajputana, hardly a
trace of the black population is to be found,
a result of the deadly animosity with which
the war of conquest was prosecuted ;
further to the east the mixed races re-
appear, and the evidence of darker com-
plexion, broader features and noses,
increases proportionately from this point.
Such a fusion, and particularly the incor-
poration of whole races of the native
inhabitants within the Aryan society,
must obviously have increased the sub-
divisions within the castes.

The Brahmans, who took the utmost
precaution to preserve their caste purity,
were least affected by the entrance of

fore : gn racial elements ; at any rate,
in Northern India their caste, even at the
present day, has changed but little from
the Aryan type. In Orissa, however, and
to a greater extent further southwards,
even this exclusive sect considered it
expedient on different occasions to admit
individuals or even whole tribes of the
black race within their caste,
if ^ could thereby attain
of Warriors any external advantage ; thus
at the present day in the
Deccan many more dark than fair
Brahmans are to be met.

In the warrior caste, purity of blood
was thought of less vital importance ;
among this caste there even existed c
legal form of marriage, the " Rakshasa ''
marriage, which provided that the bride
should be taken by force from a hostile,
often dark-complexioned, tribe. The
nobles thus being by no means averse from
marriage with the natives, the common
people naturally had the less inducement
to preserve the purity of their Aryan blood.
At the same time, however, such con-
nections often led to disruption within the
caste; the orthodox members refused to
recognise the mixed families as pure
Kshatriya or Vaisya, avoided communi-
cation with them, and by this process a
group which had been originally uniform
was gradually broken into an increasing
number of disconnected castes. The in-
fusion of foreign blood thus acquired
seems to have modified by slow degrees
the larger part of the Kshatriya and
practically the whole of the Vaisya.
Thus we have an intelligible explanation
of the fact that only in comparatively
few districts, as for instance, Rajputana,
could particular castes retrace their origin
with any clearness to the old Aryan
warrior nobility, their proud title of
Kshatriya resting in many cases upon
fictitious genealogies. At the present day
there is absolutely no caste of the Vaisya

which can prove its connection
Modification ^ the ^ Vaigya Qf the

Purit ' Aryan Ganges states. The

modern caste system of India
is broken up into many hundreds or thou-
sands of separate groups. However, in
early Brahman times the four main
divisions of society appointed by the legal
codes had an actual existence. Of these
the Sudra led lives that can scarcely be
qualified as human. Considered as once-
born, a great gulf was fixed between them

1177

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

and those who had advanced to a higher
state by virtue of a second birth. To
them was forbidden the use of .the sacred
band with which the youth of the three
higher castes were girded as a sign of
manhood upon their coming of age (two
threads of wool which passed over the
left shoulder and the right hip). It was a
^ mortal crime for any of the

Peasant u PP er classes to teach a Sudra
anything of the sacred pro-

verbs or prayers. A great
gulf divided the Sudra from the Vaisya.
Upon this latter the two high castes
of the priests and the warriors looked
disdainfully. The Vaisya was, however,
a twice-born, wore the 'sacred band, and
the knowledge of the Vedas was not
forbidden to him. It was the common
and monotonous nature of his calling that
degraded him in comparison with the
higher caste. He was not allowed to
devote himself to the proud service of arms,
or to deep spiritual and religious questions
and interests. His lot was to till the soil
throughout his life, and upon that level
he remained. He was the peasant, the
shepherd, the lower-class citizen in the
flourishing towns, the manufacturer, the
merchant, the money-changer. He often
attained to high prosperity, but could
never pass the barrier which the stern laws
of caste had set against his further progress.
Higher than the Vaisya stood the
warrior, the Kshatriya, in the social
organism of the Brahmans. The splendour
of his profession and of his influence was
but the shadow of that which it had been
during the first centuries of the settle-
ment upon the Ganges. Moreover, in the
more peaceful times which succeeded the
period of establishment within that dis-
trict, the profession of the warrior nobles
decayed considerably. The more, how-
ever, his real importance decreased, the
more anxious were the Brahmans that he
should make a brilliant figure before the
D f mass of the people, in order

Warrior that he mi g ht thus become a
Q . valuable ally to themselves for

the attainment of their own
purposes. Thus the nobility continued to
enjoy a predominant and honourable posi-
tion. Their freedom was great compared
with that of other castes, and large posses-
sions in landed property secured to them
the enjoyments of life, as well as respect and
consideration. If the Kshatriya exhausted
all the pleasures of his high position and

1178

was overcome by weariness of the world,
he was allowed to join the company of
hermits and to devote the remainder of his
life to inward contemplation.

The Brahmans belonged to the same
group of twice-born, and wore the same
sacred band as the other high castes, but
had succeeded none the less in securing for
themselves a position that was infinitely
the highest in the country. The tremend-
ous principle that they were beings en-
dowed with a special and divine wisdom,
and differing in kind from all other men,
that they possessed divine power and
corresponding privileges, is pushed in
their legal books to its uttermost extreme.

The outward appearance of the Brahman
in no way represented the power of his
caste, in which respect he is to be con-
trasted with the Kshatriya. Modesty,
indeed poverty, characterised his appear-
ance and his mode of life. Lucrative pro-
fessions, which were in his eyes derogatory,
were closed to him. On the other hand, it
was the duty of every Brahman to found
a family, and his great ambition was to
beget sons, who should revere his memory
after his death, and provide prayer and
Priests sacrifice for his spirit. Conse-

thaTscom quently, the material posses-
W 1th sions of the Brahmans became

more and more divided. More-
over, the whole Brahman theory of exist-
ence was opposed to the temporal point of
view. Not only physical existence, but
also material possessions were considered
by him as so many obstacles in the way
to felicity which his soul would tread when,
after purification, it became reunited with
the universal element.

Hence in the eyes of the Brahman the
mendicant profession was in no way
derogatory, since the whole world already
belonged to him. Begging, on the con-
trary, seemed to him the loftiest of all
professions, as it implied the least amount
of hindrance in the prosecution of his high
tasks. It is true that voluntary offerings,
even when the Brahman power was at its
height, by no means invariably sufficed to
maintain the caste, many members of
which were obliged for this reason to adopt
one of the lucrative professions. Many
gifts were made to them as payment for
relief from spiritual duties, for religious
instruction, prayer, sacrifice, and judicial
pronouncements. If the income from
these sources proved insufficient, the
Brahman was allowed to plough the fields

ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYAN EXPANSION

or to tend the herds. He might
also learn the arts of war and
practise them, or carry on com-
mercial business, though money-
lending upon interest, the sale of
intoxicating liquors, or of milk and
butter, the products of the sacred
cow, were forbidden to him. It
was as impossible for a Brahman to
get his living by the practice of the
lower arts of music and song, or
by unclean occupations, as by the
practice of leather working, or any
other degrading trade.

The life of a Brahman as a whole
included several grades, that of the
neophyte, the patriarch, the hermit,
and the ascetic. Upon his coming
of age the youth of this caste was
girded with the sacred band and
received into the community of
the twice-born. His education was
passed under the supervision of a
spiritual teacher, the Guru, whom
he was to reverence more highly
than his own father. " If a Brah-
man pupil should blame his teacher,

Underwood & Underwood, London

SACRED COWS OF THE BRAHMANS
These mild-eyed beasts are deferentially allowed to do as they please,

even though With justice, he Will while the bullocks are used as draught animals. A Hindu would not
3-ain ac an ace chrmlrl V>> think of striking a Brahman cow to make her move it would be a horrid
' impiety, punishable by the gods with all sorts of personal misfortune.

betray him falsely, as a dog ;
should he take his property without

property

leave, he will be born as a small worm,
and should he refuse him service, as
an insect." Under the Guru the young
Brahman learned during the long course
of his education the sacred

f he* books ' a11 the P ra y ers ' onCerin g s >
Brahman anc ^ ceremon i a l connected there-
with, and all the laws govern-
ing Brahman society. Then came the stage
of family life, a burden laid upon him as
a member of the earth to maintain the
prosperity of his tribe and caste by
begetting sons. This task accomplished,
the rest of his life was to be devoted to the
highest and most beautiful task, the work
of redemption and purification of the soul
from earthly elements. The Brahman,
often accompanied by his wife, leaves his
home and becomes a hermit in the forest.
There he lives only upon such fruits or
roots as his surroundings afford, or upon
the scanty gifts of pious devotees, being
entirely occupied with the fulfilment of
religious precepts and with deep intro-
spective speculation upon the evils of
existence and the means of purification.

The highest task of the Brahman's
existence is pure and untroubled thought,

far removed from all worldly interests,
upon the deepest questions which can
occupy the human mind. Brahmans of
similar interests often united for pious
practices ; spiritual orders were formed,
with rulers to regulate their behaviour,
and with the common object of entirely
forgetting the world around them and
devoting themselves to introspection.
Others were not content with such in-
tellectual submergence in the divine,
and also sought to suppress and to destroy
the earthly element, the flesh, while they
still lived. The most ingenious tortures
and penances were devised, and the
universal ordinances of Manu did not
leave this subject untouched : " The
penitent is to roll upon the ground, to
stand upon tip-toe all day, or to stand up
and sit down alternately with-
out cessation. During the hot

DevrteeT" SeaSOn he is tO sit Under the
burning rays of the sun between

four fires : in time of rain he shall expose
himself naked to the downpour, and wear
wet clothes during the cold season. By
increasing severity of his penance, he is
gradually to wear away the temporal
element. And when he is sick unto death,

1179

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

lie is to rise and walk directly north-east
with air and water for his sole nourish-
ment, until his mortal powers give way
and his soul is united with Brahma.'

The Brahman philosophy has been
reduced to writing in the Upanishads, the
" mystical teaching of that which lies
concealed beneath the surface." These
also are considered as sacred
Ie * ching writings, but are the exclusive

of Brahman . f , -, , -,

p . possession of the highest castes,

sop y whereas the Vedas were open
to the people. Their teaching is spiritual
pantheism ; the cosmos is one being, a
world-soul, Atman or Brahman. The
teaching of the Upanishads is explained
in detail in the philosophic system of
the Vedanta.

The world- soul in its original form, and
in its ultimate condition, the " self," is
impersonal, without consciousness, in
absolute tranquillity, infinite, without
beginning or end, and existing by and for
itself. As soon, however, as the desire
for activity arises within it, it becomes the
personal creator Brahma ; this , it is
which creates the world perceptible to
the senses. Everything in the world,
the heaven and the foundations of the
earth, fire and water, air and earth, suns,
plants and all living beings, animals,
men and gods are the emanation of that
all-pervading spirit, the Brahman, con-
ceived as personally operative. When
this latter desires to become creative,
its objective appearance in the world
implies the production of spirit apper-
ception, thought and will and of bodily
form, which varies in the case of different
living beings, consisting of a material
body, which disappears upon death, and
a more immaterial form in which the soul
remains upon the departure of the body ;
this latter survives until the soul which
it clothes is again absorbed into the im-
personal and unconscious Brahman. Dur-
ing the period of earthly existence the

. universal being by objectify-
edempta j itsdf abandons that state

o?ExUtence of absolute passivity which is
its highest form ; it sinks, that
is, from the highest stage of perfection.
Hence is derived the suffering inseparable
from earthly existence, and return to the
ideal condition of passivity enjoyed by
the world soul is the great longing of
every creature.

The path of redemption is by no means
easy. By the iron laws of causation, the

1180

operation of the world-soul becomes a
curse permanently imposed upon every
physical being. Every act, bad or good,
leads to some new act, to further separa-
tion from the highest existence, and hence
to further unhappiness. Every death is
followed by a new birth, the soul entering
a higher or a lower plane of existence
according to the merits of its previous life,
becoming a god, a Brahman or a Sudra,
a four-footed animal, an insect or a worm.
The more practical doctrine for popular
consumption also inserted promises of

Eurifactory fires and the punishments of
ell, which were painted by Indian
imagination in the liveliest possible
colours. The chain of transmigrations
which the soul may thus undergo is of
endless duration, including millions of new
births. None the less, a definite goal is
set before it, and the reunion or absorption
of the personal soul into the absolute
passivity and unconsciousness of the
primal Brahman is a definite possibility.
The way leading to this end is the way of
knowledge, the way of understanding,
which can be attained only by absolute
self-absorption. This panthe-
istic teaching of the Brahmans
emphasises the width of the
distinction between the purely
spiritual nature of the original Brahman
and that of the existing world. Several
philosophical systems and schools six of
which have found general recognition
have attempted to solve the great problem
by different methods. Of these, two are
of especial importance for the further de-
velopment of Indian thought, the Samkhya
philosophy and the already mentioned
Vedanta philosophy, the end or perfection
of the Vedas. The former considers the
external world as having an objective reality
under certain aspects, a reality derived from
the creative power of the world-soul ; whereas
to the Vedanta philosophy material existence
is purely illusory, and has no value as such.
According to this latter, as soon as the
Brahman acquires consciousness and person-
ality, it also assumes an imaginary physical
form. In its most refined form it appears as
the chief divine personality, Iswara. But
all such forms are necessarily subject to the
conditions of activity, of goodness, and of
imperturbability or darkness, so that this
highest god appears as a trinity. He is the
personally active creator, Brahma ; the all-
helping, ever operative Vishnu, or the Rudra
Siva, the agent of dissolution and destruction

Brahman
Systems

ANCIENT INDIA-THE ARYAN EXPANSION

At the same time, however, these and
all the other gods, together with mankind
and the whole of the material world, are
merely a dream, an idea of the world-soul
which is itself the sole existing reality.

It was not easy to appreciate all the
difficulties which beset every Indian philo-
sophical system, much less to pass judgment
Conflict u P n the results. The text of
of Brahman sacred Vedas, the basis of all
Authority * knowledge, was with the utmost
difficulty harmonised with the
philosophy. The interpreter was obliged to
take refuge in comments and explanations
which are refinements of hair-splitting and
miracles of ingenuity. Commentators were
invariably anxious to surpass one another in
learning and erudition, in readiness and
brilliancy of exposition. The methodic and
the formal finally strangled the material
content of the system, and Indian philosophy
was thus degraded into a scholasticism with
every characteristic of that current in the
thought of mediaeval Europe.

The teaching of Brahman philosophy was
fully calculated to satisfy the introspective
spirit of the Brahman weary of life and tor-
mented by doubt. To him, bound fast in
the chains of asceticism, this teaching ap-
peared as truth of the highest and most
indisputable order. To the great mass of the
people, however, such teaching was unintelli-
gible, and would in any case have proved
unsatisfactory. The worker for his daily
bread demands other spiritual food than the
philosophic thinker. A popular divinity must
be almighty and at the same time intelligible
to mankind. . If the Brahmans did not wish to
lose their influence upon the people, a danger
threatened by the appearance of Buddhism
with its powerful spiritual influence, they were
forced to offer to the people gods more defi-
nitely comprehensible to the ordinary mind.

The gods of the old Vedas of the military
period had lost their splendour and power
upon the downfall of the nobility. They had
developed under other circumstances, and
were unable to conform to the new conditions
of life. But in legend and poetry other ideal

figures had arisen, the heroes of the flourish-
ing period of the Aryan domination in the
west of the Ganges valley. Mythology pro-
vided them with a genealogy, bringing them
into connection with those forms of Nature
which had ever been objects of especial
reverence the Sun and Moon dynasties. The
Indian heroic period, however, was his-
torically too near in date to the development
of Brahmanism for its figures to attain the
position of supreme gods. Other divinities
came forward from other directions. The
diminution and the importance of the old
Vedic gods was largely due to the conjunction
and partial fusion of the two races which had
originally opposed one another as deadly
foes. At that period the Aryan gods had
been primarily gods of battle and slaughter.
Circumstances now had become more peace-
ful and tranquil. As, however, under Brah-
man influence the people lost the proud
consciousness of their strength, as they also
became penetrated with the sense of the
miseries of existence, so did they become
more inclined to receive the mysterious and
repellent forms of the primeval Indian
demonology, which had formed the shadowy
spirit world of the original inhabitants.

This change in the belief of the great mass
of the people was by no means unwelcome to
the Brahmans. In the worship of these gods,
in their magic formulae and incantations, in
their objective representations, they found
a great deal which corresponded to their
own worship ; and they had, therefore, the
less scruple in forming an alliance with the
demon world of the Dravidians. Hence it
is that in the later sacred books
fT K of the Brahmans, even in the

DoctrinTs* 1 ' Atharva Veda > the latest in date
of the Vedas, numbers of alien

and evil spirits leer upon us, of which the
earlier books, the Rig- Veda especially, knew
nothing. For the Brahmans it was perfectly
easy to include these spirits within their own
pantheon, for their theory of immanence and
emanation enabled them to incorporate
within their own^system elements the most
contrary to the divine nature.

BRAHAANISM IN THE SOUTH

AS the Aryan states on the Ganges
*' flourished and extended, as life became
more highly organised, so did the Brah-
mans become ever more inclined to the
solitary life. In countries as yet un-
touched by Brahman teaching, in the
jungle deserts and beyond the boundaries
76

of foreign native spates, whole colonies of
hermits arose, living either in isolation or
under some organised constitution. Often,
indeed, they had to struggle with the
attacks of hostile races. We hear a great
deal of the evil Rakshasa, who harassed
or disturbed the pious hermits, But they

1181

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

also met with more civilised and kindlier
treatment, and men were found who
would gladly make small offerings to the
more highly educated foreigners, receiving
instruction and stimulus in exchange.

These men thus became the pioneers

of Brahmanism, and their monasticism

and influence steadily extended south-

ward. The Mahabharata de-

Fi ure*in scribes how Arjuna, during his

lg ' pilgrimage from hermitage to

Brahmanis

reac hed

the maidens' baths of Komarya at Cape
Comorin. Similarly Rama meets hermits
everywhere. The name, however, that
constantly recurs in all these reports, the
man who is ever ready to help all Aryan-
Brahman kinsmen with counsel and assist-
ance, the man who possesses the greatest
influence in the whole of the south is
Agastya. In the myths he appears as one
of the greatest sages of the primeval
period, the son of Mitra and Varuna, the
strong helper in the necessity of the old
Aryan gods when they were threatened
with conquest by the evil demons, the
Asuras. In the south, he is the incarnation
of the victorious advance of Brahman
culture. The Vindhya Mountains, hitherto
uncrossed, bend before him. He is the
sworn enemy of the evil demons, the gods
of the original inhabitants, and the
bringer of civilisation to the Dravidian
kingdoms, and consequently the Tamir
Muni, the sage of the Tamils.

The history of the south before the
Brahman period is hidden for us in dark-
ness, penetrated only here and there by
the feeblest rays of light. Native legends
consider the starting-point of the general
development of civilisation and politics
to be Korkay (the Greek Colchi) at the
mouth of the sacred River Tambraparni
in the Gulf of Manaar. This district,
sheltered upon the east by the bridge of
Adam from the inhospitable Sea of Bengal
with its dangerous cyclones, forms a
connection between the two rich
lands of India and Ceylon on

Metro olis the north and south - Korkay
was an old town even when the
Greeks first visited it and brought news
of its excellence to the West. It owes its
origin and its prosperity to the product of
that gulf, the pearls, which were highly
prized in antiquity, in which this Bay of
Colchi has proved richer than any other
part of the earth at any period of history.
The age of that old trading station is
1182

probably identical with the date of the
use of pea v ls for ornamentation among the
peoples of antiquity. The ancient ruins
of Korkay have been discovered at a
distance of sever 1 miles from the present
coast line, buried in the alluvial soil which
the Tambraparni brings down, advancing
its delta ever further into the sea, not
far from the modern harbour of Tutikorin.
The legend relates that Korkay was
founded by three brothers, who lived in
unity for a considerable period, afterward
separating and founding three kingdoms
the Pandya kingdom in the extreme south,
the Chola kingdom in tho north-east,
and the Chera kingdom in the north and
north-west.

Of these the most important was ihe
Pandya kingdom, which for a long period
held the harbour of Korkay as its capital.
The totem sign or insignia of its kings
was the Fish (carp), a fact confirming
the legend, which states that the centre
from which further civilisation was de-
veloped lay upon the sea. At a later
period the capital was placed more in the
centre of the country at Madura. When
the first Aryan-Brahman her-

An Early

mits advanced into that distant

territory, they found flourishing
and well-organised states in
existence. The later introductions of
northern civilisation were collectively attri-
buted to the name of Agastya. He arrived
at the court of King Kulasekha, was
well received, and wrote books in the
language of the country, treating of every
branch of science and culture.

Utterly different from its northern
development is the history of the expan-
sion of Aryan civilisation in the south. In
the north, it had led to a racial struggle.
The rude strength of races more power-
ful intellectually and physically had
been pitted against backward tribes,
the consequence being that the latter
had disappeared or had been reduced
to the lowest stage in the social organism ;
whereas in the south the struggle
was fought with intellectual weapons,
the higher knowledge and power of pre-
eminent individuals. Brahmanism creeps
in quietly and insinuatingly, makes con-
cessions, leaves the people in possession
of their language, increasing their vocabu-
lary with elements of the sacred Brahman
language (Sanscrit) only where it is
incapable of expressing the terms of
abstract thought and religious teaching.

THE GREAT HINDU TEMPLE OF MADURA
Showing the court of the sacred tank used for ablutions, which is an important feature of all Hindu temples.

But even then this language is so highly
respected that kings and towns consider
it an honour to bear a Sanscrit together
with their old Dravidian name, which
former are known to us only from the
later accounts of the Greeks. Moreover,
the native name Pandya, indicating the
sap of a palm-tree, one of the staple pro-
ducts of the country, so closely
resembled the Pandava of

Infl e e" Ar y an le ? end t hat the two
were considered identical ; and

the Pandya dynasty of the southern king-
dom was identified with the Aryan gods
who had sprung from the Pandu dynasty
in the north. The Brahmans even left the
people their system of writing. The original
native Vattezhat alphabet, a wholly
original creation, maintained its ground
in the three kingdoms of Southern India
until the end of the first millennium A.D.,
when it was replaced by a more modern
system which may be traced back to the
Southern Asoka inscriptions.

We may, perhaps, assume that the con-
version of the south to Brahmanism took
place between 1000 B.C. and 500 B.C.

The earliest historical mention of the
Pandya kingdom of Southern India occurs
in the Buddhist chronicles of Ceylon.
The forerunners of the Aryans under

Vijaya had already encountered a strong
kingdom in that district, to which the
north of Ceylon was probably tributary,
and it appears that the new Aryan arrivals
who took wives from that country were
obliged to send the regular tribute of pearls
and conchs to the Pandya princes. The
reports of Megasthenes at the end of the
fourth or beginning of the third century
B.C. mention the Pandya kingdom as
lying at the extreme south of the Indian
peninsula, adding a word upon its produc-
tiveness in pearls. Roman coins are
occasionally found in this southern portion
of India, and confirm Strabo's references
to the commercial relations existing
between the Romans and the Pandya
kingdom and of the embassy sent by the
latter to the Emperor Augustus. The
boundaries of this kingdom

c , coincide upon the south and
Records of south . east with the north coast

of the Gulf of Manaar and the
Palk Straits. From the north end of these
the frontier line advances in a westerly
direction to the Palni hill 3. Upon 1he
west the power of the Pandya king often
extended to the Arabian Sea ; and even at
the present day the language of the east,
Tamil, is spoken in the southernmost dis-
tricts of the Malabar coast. During the

1183

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

whole of its existence, the Pandya kingdom
was distinguished by a brave and war-
like spirit. It was continually at variance
with its southern neighbours, the Singha-
lese, and also with the Chola in the
north. Generally speaking, its civilisa-
tion was far in advance of that possessed
by any other state of Southern In^ia.
The north-eastern neighbour of
5 arly . this most southerly state was

/S mS ,K the state, of the Chola, a
- tribe of almost equal antiquity
with the Pandya. Ptolemy speaks of the
nomadic Sorai of this district, of the
wandering Chola. The chief tribe was
that of the, Kumruba, a nomadic- race of
shepherds,' and their restless life, perhaps,
explains those warlike tendencies which
brought them into continual discord with
neighbouring tribes. They were also con-,
stantly involved in hostile undertakings,
against the moire distant Ceylon. Their
capital has, often changed its position;
Comba y Trichinopoly, Tan j ore, now
occupy the sites of their earlier capitals.
In the south of the peninsula the king-
dom of the Chera, the third of the Dravidian
kingdoms, occupied the coast of Malabar
from about Calicut to Cape Comorin,
though its frontiers at different periods
extended eastward beyond the Ghats
Mysore, Coimbatore, Salem while during
other periods portions even of the dis-
trict on the Malabar coast were occupied
by the Pandya kings. On the whole,
this branch of the Dravidian States
was more peacefully inclined than its
eastern neighbours. The fertile character
of the Malabar coast favoured a more
restful course of development, and rather
inclined the inhabitants to tranquillity.
The vernacular diverged from the Tamil
as lately as one thousand years ago, and
must now be considered a special language,
though the old Tamil alphabet, the
Vattezhat, still remains in use. Upon
the north of the Chera
Southern India kingdom the Brahman civi-
lisation at an early period

ISrahmans i i n

exercised a deeper influ-
ence upon the inhabitants of the Malabar
coast than in any other part of Southern
India. While the age of chivalry was at
its height, the Aryans had advanced as far
as Gujerat on the Gulf of Cambay ; from
this point Aryan influence extended east-
ward. Between the native independent
states of the Bhils, colonists were con-

tinually advancing, and Aryan manners
were extended over the west of Central
India, reaching the land of the Mahrattas
in course of time. The triumphant coloni-
sation of the west coast, known by the
Sanscrit name of Kerala, the land of the
Chera, belongs to the later period of
Brahman predominance. In the northern
half of this district, especially in the
modern Kanara and Malabar, a federa-
tion of sixty-four cantons seems to have
existed before, the, Brahmans entered the
country.

When the Bfahrna.ns< pressed into this ;
fruitful territory in greater numbers, they-
maintained the. existing constitutional
forms while securing their own recognition
as the royal masters of the country* A
legend of Brahman origin ascribes their
arrival to trje, help. of. the Brahman god,
Vishnu, incarnate as, Rama, with 'the
battleaxe. The legend represents him,
as a son of the Brahman sage, Jamadagni.
During the 'absence of this latter, a
sacrificial calf was stolen from his cell by
the Kshatriya Prince Kartavirya, and the
son avenged his father by killing the

Kshatriya. In the feud which
How the resulted Jamadagni fell a
Brahmans , j T-

victim, and Rama swore ven-
Won Power , , -, -, j

geance upon the whole order ot

the Kshatriya, and exterminated them
" He purified the earth thrice seven several
times of the Kshatriya." The gods
rewarded him for his piety with a promise
that the country should he his as far as he
could hurl his battleaxe. The weapon
flew from Gokama to Cape Comorin.
Thus the whole of the Malabar coast was
gained and settled by the Brahmans, to
whom Parasu Rama presented the district.
At the present day the Malabar chronology
begins with that throwing of the axe and
the creation of the country, which is dated
1176 B.C. The legend was invented as a
foundation for the claims which the
Brahmans raised upon entering the
country. Their theory was that they
were the actual possessors of the land,
which they had restored to its old
masters only upon lease, and that there-
fore the warriors must reverence them
and swear to them oaths of allegiance.
Even at the present day the superior
Brahman castes on the whole of the
Malabar coast enjoy a far higher position
than those upon the east coasts of the '

peninsula.

1184

THE FOUNDING OF BUDDHIStt

AND DECLINE OF THE ANCIENT RELIGION
BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHING

AN examination of the state of India
about the sixth century B.C. shows
the prevailing conditions to have been
as follows. The Aryans had risen to a
high prosperity, their social life had
rapidly developed, states large and small
had been formed, populous towns were
adorned by the splendour of their royal
courts and by the wealth of the inhabi-
tants ; agriculture, industry, and trade
were flourishing. National feeling among
the ruling race had also undergone a
change, and in some respects a change
for the worse ; the bright spirit of youth,
the sense of power, the pride of freedom,
were things of the past. Society was
divided or cleft asunder by the institution
of caste. Any feeling of equality had given
way to the spirit of caste, which induces
the lofty to look down with contempt
upon the humble, precludes all possibility
of common action for the public good,
and therefore makes national feeling im-
possible. For every caste its every action
was accurately prescribed, while the highest
activities, those of thought, were mono

polised by the Brahmans.

The latter claimed to have

5 P run S from t he head f the
first man, and in actual prac-
tice were the head of society. But specu-
lation had undergone a fundamental
change since the period of Aryan immi-
gration. The priests continued to offer
formal prayers to the old gods in
which no one any more believed. A
deep sense of the futility of existence
penetrated every thinking mind, while
opinions were divided as to the means
which should be adopted to gain release
from existence. Schools and orders multi-
plied continually. It was as if one of the
fierce cyclones of Bengal had burst upon
the forest. The giant forms of the ancient
gods lay dead upon the ground, and from
this devastation new cults were rising,

each struggling with the other for air,
light, and space. Of these, one alone
was fated to become a mighty tree, collect-
ing almost the whole of Central and Eastern
Asia beneath its branches Buddhism.

The centres of Indo- Aryan development
slowly changed in the course of ages
from west to east. Advancing over the
north-west passes in the third millennium
B.C., the Aryans occupied the Punjab,
the Land of the Five Rivers, during the
second millennium ; about the middle
of this period may have occurred those
struggles on the frontier between the
Punjab and the Ganges district, when
King Sudas defeated the allied tribes
of the west. The end of the
period may be considered to
States mc l u de the flourishing times of
the principalities on the Jumna
and the upper Ganges, whose struggles
have provided a foundation of historical
legend for the great heroic poem of the
Bharata. Another 500 years and the
centre of gravity has again moved east-
ward to the countries which end where
the Ganges delta begins and where the
town of Benares rises. Here about this
period were formed a number of principali-
ties and free states, among them the
powerful kingdom of Magadha with the old
capital of Rajagriha, in that district of
the modern Behar which lies to the south
of the Ganges.

We should know exceedingly little of
the different petty states lying on the
northern side of the Ganges opposite
Magadha were it not for the fact that here
was the home of that religious teacher
Buddha, whose doctrine is to-day accepted
by hundreds of millions of men. Upon
the spurs of the Himalaya, on the stream
of the Rohini, the modern Kohani, had
settled the tribe of the Sakya, within
which the Kshatriya nobility still played
an important part in the continual friction

1185

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Birth

Buddha

that occurred with the neighbouring
petty states. To this class belonged the
chieftain of the tribe, Suddhodana of the
Gautama family, the father of Buddha,
who resided in the capital of the country,
Kapilavatthu in its Sanscrit form, Kapi-
lavastu. According to the Buddhist
legend, Suddhodana had married two
daughters of the neighbouring
Koyla prince, on the other
bank of the Rohini, who was
also a Kshatriya. For a long
time he remained childless, but in his forty-
fifth year the elder of his wives, Maya,
became with child. As, according to the
custom of the period and of her order, she
was journeying homeward to her father's
house, there to await her confinement, she
was surprised on the way in the grove of
Lumbini by the birth of a son, who was
named Siddhartha. This is the personal
name of Buddha, who is often known by
his family name of Gautama. All his
other titles are additional names, the
number of which is proportionate to the
reverence and admiration of his devotees.
In every case, like the titles of Redeemer,
Christ, applied to Jesus, they are merely
descriptions of his personal characteristics.
For instance, Sakya Muni means the
sage of the Sakya family ;
Bhagavat means the
reverend ; Sattha, the
teacher ; Jina, the con-
queror. Buddha also is
but one of these titles,
meaning " The Enlight-
ened."

The birth of Siddhartha
is placed with some prob-
ability between the years
560 and 557, and his
death between 480 and
477 B.C. On the seventh
day after his birth his
mother died, the child
being then carefully
tended and brought up
by his aunt, Prajapati.
According to the custom
of the time, the young
Siddhartha was married
in his nineteenth year to fr
his cousin, Wasodhara, a daughter of the
Kolya prince, and their union was blessed
after ten years by the birth of a son,
Rahula. Any other man would probably
have been contented and happy in the posi-
tion of Siddhartha. He had everything and

1186

Flight

Buddha

AN EARLY INDIAN BUDDHA

The image of the Buddha here reproduced is
a very ancient Indian sculpture in clay.

was everything which a noble Kshatriya
could desire to have or to be. But in
his twenty-ninth year a sense of dis-
satisfaction came upon him. Amid all
his external prosperity, his lofty and
serious mind could not refrain from the
contemplation ol the futility of existence.
His thoughts on the woe of the world
and the means of liberation therefrom
take in the legend a personal and objective
figure. A god appears to him first as an
old man in his second childhood, then as a
stern tyrant, again as a corrupting corpse,
and finally as a reverend hermit. It was
the birth of his son which determined
him to put into execution a long pre-
conceived resolve. He saw in the child a
new bond which would fetter him to the
world. The story of Sidd-
hartha's flight is the most
moving picture in the whole
legend of his life. Only once
was he willing to look upon that which is
the dearest thing in this world, only once
would he press his new-born son to his
heart. Quietly he glided into the bed-room
where his wife and child were resting ;
but the mother's hand lay upon her
child's head, and he could not take the
child in his arms without waking her.

Thus he left wife and
child without a word and
went out into the night
with no companion but
his charioteer, whom he
presented with all his
ornaments and ordered to
inform his family of his
resolve. He then cut his
hair short, exchanged his
rich garments for the
rags of a passing beggar,
and made his way alone
to the capital of the
Magadha kingdom, Raja-
griha, near which pious
hermits had settled in the
caves of the rock. To
these he joined himself,
hoping to learn from
them the solution of the
great riddle of existence.
But Brahman meta-
physics brought no consolation to his soul.
Neither from Alara Kalana nor from
Uddaka Ramaputta could he obtain the
object of his search the path to freedom
from the pain of existence. He left both
teachers and turned to the forests of

A FAMOUS STATUE GROUP OF BUDDHA AND HIS PUPILS

This unique representation in stone of the great Indian sage, seated amidst his pupils, is one of the most
famous religious curiosities of Siam, and is to be seen in the great pagoda of Vat Suthat at Bangkok.

Uruvela, near the modern Buddha-gaya, in
which five Brahman hermits were already
living a life of asceticism. For six years
he surpassed them all in the cruelty of his
penances until his former powerful and
beautiful frame had been worn to a
shadow. The reputation of his extra-
ordinary self-torture spread far and wide,
but he himself became the more unhappy
in proportion as others esteemed him far
advanced upon the road to salvation.

He fell in a swoon from weakness, but
on his restoration to consciousness he had
found strength to leave the path of error.
When he again began to take food like
other men he lost the belief and respect
of his five companions. They departed
and turned to the holy town of Benares to
accomplish their purification in more
sacred surroundings. The man they left
behind had now to undergo a severe
Buddha's menta ^ struggle. Buddhist
Mental* * l e g en d represents the conflict
Conflict between his intellect and his
sympathies as a battle between
bright and dark spirits who struggled in
conflict so that the world trembled and
was almost moved from its foundation.
Siddhartha was left alone, wrestling
for enlightenment by the banks of the
Nairanjara. The prospect cleared and
the mysteries of suffering and of the road

to salvation were laid open before him.
He had now become the " Buddha," the
Enlightened, who had attained knowledge
of redemption not only for himself but
for the whole world. For seven days
Buddha remained in extreme exaltation
of mind, in holy glorification under the

The First SaCFed fig trCe ' A pair f
^ benevolent men brought him

Converts to -, j r j i

Buddhism riCG CakeS and h ne y> and he
in return gave them his greatest

gift, his teaching. These two men, Tapussa
and Bhallika, were his first converts, who
took "refuge with Buddha and knowledge."
Doubt then came upon the enlightened
sage as to whether the coarse mind of the
masses was capable of realising the great
truths he taught. But the world god
Brahma urged him to preach his doctrine,
and Buddha gave way. He went to that
very forest where the five companions of
his former penance were staying and
explained the main features of his doctrine,
to them in the " Sermon of Benares."
Neither a life of pleasure nor the extirpa-
tion of all pleasure could lead to the
goal, the true way lying midway between
these extremes. In broad outline he shows
them the truth upon the question of suffer-
ing and the eight-fold road to liberation.

From this point onward the life of
Buddha is entirely occupied with the

1187

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

teaching and conversion of the people,
The persuasion of five nobles of Benares
brought about a rapid increase in his
.scanty congregation, to which fifty ad-
herents were shortly added. The reputa-
tion of the new doctrine spread far and
wide ; 1he people thronged from every
; direction and from distant settlements to

hear his teaching. Buddha
iheKapid sent Qut hig sixty dj sc jpi es as

apostles : ." Go forth, ye mendi-
Buddhism

cants, upon your way, for the

salvation of the people, for the good of the
people, for the salvation, the advantage,
and the prosperity both of gods and men."
The Enlightened One did not remain alone
after despatching his apostles. Shortly
afterward thirty rich youths accepted his
doctrine ; they were followed by one
thousand fire worshippers. The most im-
portant convert, however, was Bimbisara,
king of the great Magadha kingdom. In
him Buddhism gained a powerful patron,
and the conversions of lay brothers im-
mediately due to this success were num-
bered by tens of thousands. Even more
important converts were the two most
famous pupils of the master, Sariputta
and Mogallana.

The conversion of
King Bimbisara
marks the first step
of that policy which
was characteristic of
this religion in its
later developments
that of entering into
relations with the
ruling powers and
invoking their pro-
tection. Hencefor-
ward Buddhism rises
and falls in the several
states as their ruling
dynasties prosper or
decay. The same phe-
nomenon appears in
Ceylon, where the
Buddhist communi-
ties attained to extra-
ordinary prosperity
under powerful and
fortunate kings, while
the political disasters resulting from the
war with the Dravidians repeatedly brought
the doctrine to the point of annihilation.
Toward its patrons Buddhism invariably
displayed a considerable amount of adapt-
ability. Its first chief patron, Bjmbisara,

1188

The Rise of
Buddhist

Monasticism

MAYA AND THE CHILD BUDDHA
After an Indian drawing.

secured the introduction into the monastic
communities of the monthly penances for-
merly practised by many Brahman monks,
the strict observance of the four quarters
of the moon, the Poya days of the modern
Singhalese, and also of the Uposadha days.
When Buddha returned, during his later
wanderings, to his native town, where his
son Rahula entered the community, at
the request of the old prince he added to
the rules of the community the regulation
that no son should become a monk without
his father's consent. The fundamental
objections of Buddha to the institution of
orders of nuns were overcome only by the
influence of his foster mother, Prajapati,
who was of royal race and de-
sired to found such an order.
On the other hand, the new
doctrine thus powerfully sup-
ported gained not only popular approval
but also material help. Poverty was, as
a rule, obligatory only upon individual
monks, and from the outset the order was
always glad to receive rich presents. The
first of such foundations was that of the
Bamboo Grove, near the capital of
Magadha ; and even during the lifetime
of the master, princes
and rich men rivalled
one another in mak-
ing similar offerings.
A long list of large
gardens and parks
were even then
assigned to the order,
one of the most
famous of these being
the garden of Jeta-
wana at Sawatthi. In
Ceylon, where the his-
tory of Buddhism is
more easily followed,
the larger and more
valuable part of all
the arable land
eventually fell into
the hands of the
order.

Among the pupils
who gathered round
the person of Buddha,
one of the most
human figures is his cousin Ananda, who,
though not distinguished for intellectual
power, engages our sympathy by his loving
devotion to his master. But even in
that narrow circle which gathered round
the Enlightened One, the element of evil

THE CITY OF BENARES, WHERE BUDDHA PREACHED HIS GREAT SERMON

was to be found, even as in the apostolic
band of Jesus. Devadatta, a personality
swollen with pride and dominated by
immeasurable ambition, is, during the
time of Buddha, a type of that sectarian
spirit which resulted in the repeated
schisms of later years ; even during the
master's lifetime many believers were led
astray by him. And as at a later period
one sect invariably abuses and maligns
another, so here legend even reproaches
the ambitious disciple with attempts upon
his master's life.

For forty-five years after his " enlighten-
ment." Buddha traversed the country,
preaching his doctrine and making thou-
sands of converts ; at length a severe ill-
ness reminded him that the end of his life
was approaching. In deep anxiety his
congregation asked who was to follow
. n him as their leader. But the

oMhe master refers them to their

knowledge : "Be your own

Jrrophet -11 3 i i

illumination ; be yourselves
your refuge, have no other refuge ; for the
doctrine shall be your light, the doctrine
shall be your refuge, and have no other
refuge." By sheer will-power the sick man
was cured for the time ; but he himself
prophesied his death at the end of three
months. The last days of Buddha are
related by the legend with details so
realistic that it is probable they contain
some substratum of historical truth. He
is said to have gone to Pawa with his
favourite pupil Ananda, where, with other

monks, he received hospitality from Kunda
the smith. Tainted pork was set upon
the table at their meal, and after partaking
of this he fell ill. However, he con-
tinued his journey. But in the neigh-
bourhood of Kusinara his strength failed
him. and, lying down under two beautiful
amyris trees, he awaited death. He thanks
his faithful Ananda for all his love and
devotion, asks the monks gathered round
him three times whether any feels doubt,
and, when all have asserted their faith,
he speaks his last words, " Of
of*he a tm tk O monks, I say unto
B ddh y u ' a ^ that is must decay ;
strive for perfection and faint
not." Then his life passed into Nirvana.
" As the mortal remains of the King of
kings are treated, so shall one treat
the remains of him who has been per-
fected," so runs the saying of Ananda
when the Mailers of Kusinara questioned
him upon the form of burial. The pre-
parations lasted six days, after which the
funeral pyre was lighted with the utmost
pomp. The ashes of the great departed
were collected. Constant demands for
relics came in, with proposals to guard
them in fitting memorials ; and it was at
last arranged that the remains should be
divided into eight parts and presented
to the eight most important states in
which Buddha had lived and worked.

Later tradition relates that immediately
after the funeral the most important
monks met together in Rajagaha, under

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Transmission
of Buddhist
Doctrines

the presidency of Kasyapa, who defined
as accurately as possible the formulae
of the doctrine (the first council of Raja-
gaha). It is said that the sayings of
Buddha relating to the discipline of the
order were set forth by Upali, while the
general teaching upon the daily life of all,
including the lay adherents, was recited by
Ananda. This teaching was
then committed to memory
by 500 monks, and by them
handed down to tradition.
Exactly 200 years after the death of the
master it became necessary to call a second
council at Vesali. As a number of monks
had supported views which diverged in de-
tail from the original doctrine, a committee
met at Vesali and determined the direction
of Buddhist doctrine for the future.

The first council of historical authen-
ticity is the third, that of Patna, about
250 B.C. Dipawamsa, the earliest chronicle
of Ceylon, reports upon this as follows :
" With the object of destroying infidelity,
many of the pupils of Buddha, 60,000
sons of Jina, met together in council.
Over this assembly presided Tissa Mogalli-
putta, son of Mogalli. For the purpose
of purifying the faith and formulating
the doctrine for the future, the president,
Tissa, appointed 1,000 Arahats, choosing
the best members of the assembly, and
held a synod. The third council was
brought to an end after a space of nine
months in the monastery of Asokarama,
built by King Dhammasoka." In order
that the doctrines of the master i night
be the better transmitted to the disciples,
the council formulated his teaching in
the canonical books of the Tripitaka, " the
three baskets." This council was also
responsible for the despatch of numerous
missionaries, who introduced Buddhism
into Ceylon among other places ; from this
period begin the monastic annals of the
Singhalese, which, at a later period, were
worked into the chronicles. In these
DCS atch there is mention made of the
* . names of some of the mis-

oi ouddhist v. j_i_ j

-,. , sionaries who were then de-

s spatched, and the credibility
of the chronicles has been considerably
strengthened by the discovery of the tomb
of one of those missionaries in North India.

Granted that the council of Patna is
historically authentic, the same can by no
means be said of the two preceding councils.
It is indeed true that the council of Vesali
was held 200 years after the death of Buddha

1190

that is to say, less than fifty years before
the conversion of Ceylon ; and we may
therefore suppose that later tradition
was upon the whole well informed of the
events of that time. But the narratives
of Ceylon make it plain that that council
was not called to formulate the doctrines
of Buddhism, but was merely a gathering
of Buddhist monks from a limited area
to settle certain points of detail concerning
monastic morality. Individual monks had
put questions to the meeting, for instance,
whether it were lawful to eat solid food
only at midday, or also in the afternoon
until the sun had cast a shadow two ells in
length ; whether it was lawful to keep salt
in buffalo horns ; whether it was lawful to
sit upon a chair covered with a plain cloth.
We can readily understand that such
a gathering of monks may have grown
to be considered a council, remembering

A GEM OF BUDDHIST ART

This wonderful carved gateway at Bhilsa dates back to
at least 250 years before the Christian era and is con-
sidered one of the finest specimens of Buddhist art.
It is here reproduced from Fergusson's " History of
Indian Architecture," by permission of Mr. John Murray.

ANCIENT INDIA-FOUNDING OF BUDDHISM

the Buddhist method of empha-
sising important facts by the
multiplication of them. Thus,
according to later legends, there
was not one Buddha only but as
many as twenty- four before him ;
the Buddha of the present age
had not visited Ceylon once, but
three times, and so on. Hence
the canonical teaching required
not one, but several formula-
tions, and it was not enough to
magnify the synod of Vesali into
a council ; it was necessary to
presuppose another council held
immediately after the death of
Buddha that of Rajagaha. This
council, indeed, is mentioned only
in appendices, which were appa-
rently added to the canonical
writings at a much later date.

As the history of the Buddha
doctrine previous to Asoka is thus
uncertain, we are justified in ask-
ing what amount of historical
truth is contained in the legends
upon the personality of its
founder.

made to deny the personal
existence of Buddha ; and this
has been justified by the

A BUDDHIST TOPE, OR

Underwood & Underwood, London

SACRED PLACE

There are many of these huge mounds in India, but their precise use is a
matter of conjecture. They are flat on the top and surrounded with a wide
platform at the foot, while elaborate gateways and enclosing walls encircle
1 he attempt nas been the whole. One of the gateways is shown in detail on the opposite page.

Did

Buddha
Live?

view

allegorical

meaning of the chief names in the personal
history of Gautama. Suddhodana, his
father's name, means "The man
whose food is pure"; Maya
means illusion ; Kapilavastu
means the town of Kapila,
the founder of the Sankhya philosophy ;
Siddhartha means " He who has fulfilled
his task." Such scepticism is, however,
far too sweeping. In March, 1895, in
the Terai of Nepal, near the village
of Nigliwa, in the neighbourhood of
Gorakhpur, about ten miles distant from
the ruins of a memorial mound, an
inscription of King Piyadasi, the " Pious,"
was discovered upon a pillar. This inscrip-
tion states that Asoka, in the fifteenth
year of his reign, had set up for the second
time the memorial of the Konagamana
Buddha, the mythical predecessor of the
historical Buddha, and in the twenty-
first year of his reign had himself
visited the spot and there performed
his devotions. The Chinese Hiuen Tsang
(Yen Tsung), who visited the shrines of
the Buddhists about 636 A.D., mentions
the memorial and the inscription on the
pillar. Moreover, on December ist, 1896,

a pillar was examined near the village of
Padeira, thirteen miles from Nigliwa. This
pillar had also been seen by Hiuen Tsang.
It rose nine feet above the ground, was
covered with inscriptions made by pil-
grims, while upon the three feet of it
below the level of the ground was found
an inscription written in very ancient
characters in the " Brahmi " formerly
and erroneously known as the Maurya or
Asoka alphabet, dating at least from
the year 800 A.D.

The purport of the inscription was that

Priyadarsin, after a reign of twenty years,

here makes his prayer in person, expressly

designates the spot a birthplace of Buddha,

and makes the fact known by the erection

of a stone pillar. At the same time, he

remits the taxes due from the

71! T^r villa S e of Liimmini (the modern

s Rumin-dei), and makes pre-

Personnhty ^ t(> ^ fc^^

Finally, William Caxton Peppe, while
making excavations in January, 1898, on
his property at Piprawa, in the Terai
that is to say, in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of Kapilavastu, opened an
ancient memorial, and discovered a finely-
worked sandstone chest covered by a
giant slab, which, together with other

1191

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Bones of
Buddha

objects, contained bone fragments in an
urn, and bore the following inscription :
" This resting-place for the remains of the
exalted Buddha is the pious offering of
the Sakyas, the brother with his sisters,
children, and wives." There is no reason
whatever for casting doubt upon the
authenticity of the inscription, and there-
fore we may consider that this
latter discovery the objects are
now in the museum of Calcutta,
while the bone fragments were
given to the King of Siam included
the actual remnants of Buddha him-
self that is to say, one of the eight
parts into which the carefully preserved
remnants of the Enlightened One were
divided, which was handed over to the
Sakyas of Kapilavastu after the death of
Buddha and the cremation of his corpse.
It is but a few years since methodical
investigation into the field of Indian
epigraphy was begun, and researches in
this direction will no doubt speedily bring
yet more valuable information to light.

For the rest of the life of Buddha we
are forced to depend upon the internal
probability of the legendary stories. Of
these, the main features are far too simple
and natural to have been evolved by the
riotous imagination of later times. Espe-
cially is this true of the stories of his
birth from a noble family, his education,
his early marriage, his sympathy with the
general sense of the futility of life, his
retirement from the world, the penances
which he underwent, his renunciation of
Brahmanism, and his death. His person-
ality is undoubtedly to be conceived in
strict accordance with tradition, for to
that personality the new doctrine undoubt-
edly owed a great deal of its success.
Especially credible is that part of the
legend which tells us of his dignified bear-
ing, of his high intellectual endowments, of
his penetrating glance, the firmness of his
convictions, his oratorical power, his gentle-
r ness, kindness, and liberality,

f T* * and the attractiveness of his
ftl "character. When Ananda in-
formed his master of the fact
that the Mailer Roya was an influential
man whose conversion would be highly
advantageous to their party, " He poured
such a flow of love upon the Mailer that
he could not but follow the teacher as the
calf follows the cow."

The benevolence of Buddha's character
more than anything else drew the hearts

1192

of mankind towards him. He had, no
doubt, a carefully thought-out metaphysical
system of his own ; he made many rules
to govern the life of his apostles, which
were either borrowed from Brahman orders
or were innovations of his own, but it was
not to these that he owed his success. The
great difference between him and the
Brahmans was the deep, warm love which
he bore for his neighbours. In his system
under its later form, which still continues
in Ceylon, we see only the lifeless labours
of his successors. In Buddha himself
lived and worked the originality of a high
and lofty mind, coupled with the benevo-
lent power of purity and warmth of heart.
The influence of these characteristics con-
tinued for at least a century after his
death, as is proved by the edicts of Asoka.
Asoka was not a Buddhist when he
assumed the government of the powerful
kingdom of Magadha (269 B.C.). About
261 he was converted, though he did not
make public profession of his faith before
259. The humanitarianism of the master
finds a strong echo in the decrees dictated
by the glowing enthusiasm of his royal
convert. Asoka gives expression
"? a of his warm love for the whole
J; oy of humanity. " All men are to

L/onvert t_*u A T i_

me as my children. As 1 wish
my children welfare and prosperity in this
and the next world, so I do to men."
Many of his numerous inscriptions on rocks
or pillars are intended for the instruction
of his people upon the nature of true
religion. " What is Dhamma ? It is to
flee from the evil and do the good ; to be
loving, true, patient, and pure in life."
The king forgets none of the essential
virtues moral purity, truth, nobility of
heart, kindness in word and deed, goodness
to all, respect and obedience to parents,
love to children, tenderness to the weak,
kindness to all creatures, reverence to the

Eriests, the utmost toleration for other
liths, liberality in almsgiving, the avoid-
ance of anger, passion, and cruelty. How
changed is Buddha's teaching in the dead
conventionalism of its modern form !

One of Asoka's edicts, perhaps the last,
gives us some indication of the date
when Buddha's doctrines first became
stereotyped. This is the inscription of
Bairat, or Bhabra, discovered in 1840
and assigned by Edmund Hardy to the
year 249 B.C. Here the later teaching
first makes itself heard, and in this in-
scription occur only the later expressions

ANCIENT INDIA BUDDHISM AND JAINISM

concerning Buddha, his doctrine and the
community of his believers, together with
the phrase, " Everything that has been
said by the exalted Buddha is well said."
Here alone is there any reference to the
articles of a legal code. The decree of
Bhabra was issued after the council of
Patna by which it was influenced, and
in this council Buddhist teaching was
definitely formulated. The theory is

further supported by the despatch of
many missionaries shortly after the con-
clusion of the council. A probable cause
of this step was the reformulation of the
doctrine. Thanks to this mission, and
especially to that of Mahinda, the son
of Asoka himself, to Ceylon, where the
doctrine had remained unchanged in all
essentials, later Buddhism and its history
are fairly plain to us.

THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM
AND THE CONTEMPORARY RELIGION OF JAINISM

DUDDHISM after Asoka, like the doc-
*-* trines of the Brahmans, is founded
upon a metaphysical basis. The funda-
mental principle of every Buddhist doctrine
is Bodhi (knowledge). The connotation,
however, of this term is in no way pro-
found or comprehensive. The Buddhist
philosophy, unlike the Brahman, does not
seek to probe the reason of all existence,
but while recognising that all life is
suffering, and that every act of suffering
involves fresh suffering, it confines itself
to the discovery of release from suffering.
The fundamental pessimism thus charac-
teristic of Buddhism is the natural
product of the age. The doctrine, how-
ever, is content with the fact of suffering
as it is. It does not seek to advance to
the conception of a supreme being, or
even to the thought of an original world-
soul in a state of passivity. It does not
seek to explain suffering, as did the
Brahmans, by supposing a descent on the
part of the supreme being to the lower
levels of action. Questions of this kind
are beyond the sphere of that
knowledge which it desires.
Hence there is for Buddhism
no supreme divinity. Gods
certainly exist, but, far from being able to
help men, they suffer as men suffer.
Thus for Buddha there are no thanks to
be paid to God, no prayers or requests,
and consequently no mediator between
God and man, no priest, no sacrifice, no
worship. The fact of a divine existence
has been banished from the philosophy of
this religion. The problem of life none
the less remains to its adherents. What is
the individual life ? What is the process of
its continuance by reincarnation ? How
can the suffering of life come to an end ?
At this point Buddhist philosophy
diverges from the Brahman system,

The Great
Problem
of Life

and
Death

which posited an actual existence for the
individual soul. According to Buddhism,
there is no being which passes into another
upon death. Personal existence is brought
about by the conjuncture of a number of
different elements which in themselves,
and separately, have no personality or
soul. These five elements of life are
matter, feeling, imagination, will, and
consciousness. The union of these is life,
the division of them death. Upon death,
one thing alone survives, the moral conse-
quence, the final account of the good
and the bad that has been done during
life, the Kamma, an element of impulse
driving the other elements to re-
unite after death and form another
life. Like the beam of the scales,
according to the nature of the
final reckoning the reunited elements rise
and fall to the formation of higher or
lower beings. Thus, not to be born again
implies the extinction of that yearning
for existence. The Kamma being the
consequence of actions performed in life,
it can be destroyed only if during life
man avoids all temptation to action ;
that is, renounces all desire.

At this point knowledge comes by her
own. Only he who has this perfect insight
into the true connection of life and suffer-
ing can reach this height. Ignorance at
the other end of the scale leads to con-
tinued action, to reincarnation and further
suffering. Thus the most important point
is, according to the Buddhist formula,
the knowledge of the " four sacred truths/'
These embrace all that Buddha meant by
knowledge. They are most concisely
stated in the sermon of Benares :

" This, ye monks, is the sacred truth of
suffering ; birth is suffering, age is suffering,
sickness is suffering, death is suffering ; to
be joined to one them doest not love is

"93

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

suffering, to be divided from thy love is
suffering, to fail of thy desire is suffering ;
in short, the fivefold bonds that unite us to
earth those of the five elements are
suffering ; it is a yearning for existence
which leads from new birth to new birth,
which finds its desire in different directions,
the desire for pleasure, the desire for exist-
ence, the desire for power. This, ye monks,

is the sacred truth concerning
The the release from suffering ; this
Buddhist desire must be extirpated by the
Creed entire destruction of inclination,

which must be avoided, put
away, left behind, and driven out. This, ye
monks, is the sacred truth concerning the way
to release from suffering ; it is this sacred
eight-fold path of right belief, right resolve,
right speech, right action, right life, right
desire, right thought, and right self-
absorption."

He who seeks relief in " Enlighten-
ment " must first of all be convinced of
the truth about suffering, and must abhor
all temporal attractions. Typical for him
must be the horror which seized Buddha
upon his flight from the world at the
appearance of the old and broken man,
of the man with a deadly disease, and of
the putrefying corpse. This feeling the
Buddhist must carefully cherish. He
must cultivate the habit of introspection
by contemplation of the thirty-two
elements in the human body which arouse
disgust, and by meditation on death and
corruption, for by these means only will
he be brought to that frame of mind for
which temporal affairs have no attraction.
He alone who retires from the world
that is to say, the monk can become a
perfect Buddhist.

Buddhist monasticism is in immediate
connection with the Brahman monastic
system. As in the latter case a band of
learners gathers round a famous hermit,
so also in the former. The yellow garment,
the shaven head, the alms pot, are borrow-
ings from an earlier period ; as also are
the days of strict retirement during the
S stem of P* 13568 f t* 16 moon > together
Buddhist* W ^ ^ e s l emn penances and
.. . the cessation from activity dur-

Monasticism . ., ., , f .->

ing the three months of the
rainy season. However, from the very
first the organisation of the order was as
weak and loosely connected as that of
Brahman monasticism. Here, too, the
master left his pupils to their own re-
sources, a process which might prove
successful provided that some clear mind
or powerful intellect could be found to

1194

command universal respect. This, how-
ever, was by no means invariably the
case, and the looseness with which the
order was organised resulted not only in
schism, the chronic weakness of Budd-
hism, but also in its ultimate defeat upon
the revival of Indian Brahmanism.

A necessary preliminary to the con-
stitution of a monastic order was the
existence of non-monastic friends of the
Buddhist teaching the Upasakas. Any
form of human activity was in some way
a contradiction of the command to leave
the Kamma in complete passivity The
laity could thus never become Buddhists
in the full sense of the term, and belonged
only to the second class of the order ;
the community properly so called con-
sisted only of mendicant monks, who
depended for a living upon the benevo-
lence of others, and who considered their
name of beggar, or Bhikshu, as a lauda-
tory title. In the course of time certain
rules of conduct were formulated for this
class and stereotyped according to the
usual Buddhist method ; they are charac-
terised by a spirit wholly alien to the
strong humanitarianism which
pervades the teaching of
Monks Buddha himself. Ten chief
commands were binding upon
the monk. It was unlawful to kill any
living thing " either worm or ant " ;
nothing should be taken except what was
given " not even a blade of grass " ;
falsehood was forbidden and the use of
intoxicating liquors ; family ties were to be
renounced as " a hateful thing " ; food was
not to be taken at the wrong time or at
night ; wreaths or scents were not to be
used, and the monk was to sleep upon a mat
spread upon the ground ; dancing, music,
singing or theatrical performances were
to be avoided, and gold and silver were
not to be used.

Ths order was open to any who desired
to enter it. Disqualifications were in-
fectious diseases, such as leprosy, etc.,
slavery, official posts, the lack of parental
consent. The would-be monk must be
more than twelve years old ; he was
obliged to pass a novitiate and receive
full instruction upon the doctrine and
morality under a monk in full orders ;
ordination could not be undergone before
the twentieth year. The discipline im-
posed upon the monk the " Middle way,"
as Buddha had already taught in the
sermon of Benares ; that is to say, his

ANCIENT INDIA-BUDDHISM AND JAINISM

life was not to be a course of mortifica-
tion, but everything was to be excluded
which passed the satisfaction of the
simplest needs, or could in any way lead
to strengthen the ties binding the monk
to the world.

The habitation was not to be placed
too near villages or towns, ihe noise of
which might disturb contemplation,
though at the same time it was to be
near enough to enable the mendicants to
gain what they required. It was but
rarely that a monk dwelt alone in a
" Pansala " ; in most cases several monks
lived together. During the flourishing
period of the order great monasteries

sions of Buddha's commands. In these
assemblies new monks were ordained and
business questions discussed. During
the three months of the rainy season the
monk was not to wander about, but to
remain quietly in one place, either in his
monastery or with some prosperous patron.
Gautama consented with much
Monastic unw ^ nn g ness to the founda-
Orders ^ on ^ a ^ ema ^ e order, con-
sidering that it involved great
dangers to his doctrine. The supervision
of the nuns and the ordinances binding
upon them were much stricter than in
the case of the monks, who exercised a
certain authority over the nuns. The

THE SPLENDID JAIN TEMPLE OF SHET HUTTISING AT AHMEDABAD
Dedicated to Dhurmanath, one of the deified mortals whom the Jains reverence as rulers of the world.

often sheltered a considerable number of
Bhikkhus within their walls. The cloth-
ing the upper garment of yellow was
to be entirely simple, and food was to be
received in the alms dish from those who
i ( wer e benevolent enough to give

of the to the be ^ ar - The first half of

Mo ks * ne ^ a y was ^ be occu pi e( i

in the task of mendicancy,

and for the rest of the time the monk
was to devote himself to introspection
and pious exercises. Twice during the
month, at the full and the new moon,
the monks living within any one district
collected for their solemn confession ;
the articles of confession were then read
aloud, and an opportunity was thus given
to individuals to confess their transgres-

inscriptions of Asoka make mention of
many nuns, and under his government
the female order was transferred to Ceylon
by his daughter Samghamitta. However,
it attained to no great importance, either
in Ceylon or in India. According to the
Singhalese chronicles, it seems to have en-
tirely disappeared from the island as early
as the end of the first millennium A.D.

An attempt to estimate accurately
the importance of Buddhism with refer-
ence to Indian civilisation must begin by
answering these two questions : Has this
doctrine satisfied the religious require-
ments of the people ? What has been the
influence of its moral teaching ? The
Buddhist doctrine of liberation could
bring complete satisfaction only to a few

H95

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

The Gods

Underwood & Underwood, London

THE JAIN TEMPLE OF MEMNATH ON MOUNT ABU
Built entirely of carved marble, this is an edifice of unrivalled beauty.

dominant minds. It is a doctrine of cold
and unsympathetic nature, inasmuch as
it offers no recompense for the infinite
suffering of which the true Buddhist must
feel the sway. It offeis no supreme being
which can sympathise with and relieve
the miseries of human existence ; it can
promise no state of beatitude where
man will be recompensed for his suffer-
ings upon earth ; it can promise only
mere annihilation and nonentity. The
doctrine was of too abstract a character
to satisfy the great mass of the people,
who desire gods made in the image of
man, and yearn for some supreme object
of adoration which is at least compre-
hensible to mankind. The immediate con-
sequence of these desires was the trans-
formation and elaboration of the legend
concernm g Buddha's life. It
was not enough to attribute
Buddhas to B u oMha supreme wisdom,
almighty power, and thousands
of miracles ; his personality was also
multiplied. When the true doctrines
have fallen into decay, and mankind has
become evil, there appears at long intervals
a new Buddha to resume the teaching of the
same doctrines of salvation. The Buddha
Siddhartha is said 1o have been preceded
by as many as twenty-four Buddhas,
1196

the last of which was Kasyapa ;
and five thousand years after the
passing of Buddha into Nirvana
a new Buddha, Maitreya, will
arise. Of these personalities
legends innumerable exist. The
worshipper demands to see them
in concrete form, and hence every
Buddhist temple and palace is
adorned with their likenesses and
portraits, and especially/ with
reproductions of Gautama. This
desire for some tangible object of
veneration appeared immediately
upon the death of the master.
A general demand arose for some
sacred relic of the deceased, and
his earthly remains were collected
from the ashes of the funeral pyre
and divided. In course of time the
demand for relics increased in pro-
portion to the distribution of the
doctrine, and in every country of
Buddhist faith there arose many
thousands of shrines containing
relics, stupas, or Dagobas, the goal
of millions of pious pilgrims.

These relics were, however,
purely symbolical. Buddha himself had
entered the Nirvana Nothingness ; the
people, however, demanded living gods,
and Buddha himself had not denied the
existence of these. The people, as a whole,
were not so penetrated with the sense of
the great suffering of existence as were
the philosophical monks, although they

suffered more than these from
the petty cares of lifCj and their

daily occurrence. Their old
gods were called in to help in
this department. The Buddhist mechanic-
ally repeats his formula of refuge ; but in
practice that refuge is made with the
Aryan, Brahman, and Dravidian gods,
including the sacred fig-tree and the Naga
snake, the sun and the stars, the evil
demons of the Dravidian faith, and the
bright forms of Vishnu or Siva. All of
these deities, together with Gautama, find
a place in the broad creed of the Buddhist
devotee, and during a solemn procession
their grotesque images are carried side by
side with the benevolent features of the
Enlightened. In reality the earthly fate
of the Buddhist is still guided by those old
gods whom the master thought to set aside
as of secondary importance. They are,
no doubt, mere mechanical additions to
the Buddhist faith in the southern

VIEW OF THE TEMPLES AND MOSQUES OF SASSUR, NEAR POONA, IN THE DECCAN

A HINDU CUSTOM NOW SUPPRESSED: PREPARATIONS FOR A "SUTTEE"

ANCIENT INDIA BUDDHISM AND JAINISM

districts of Buddhism, as, lor instance, in
Southern India about the year 1000 A.D.,
and in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam at the
present day ; on the other hand, in
northern Buddhism in Tibet and Mon-
golia the doctrine with which they have
been incorporated has been so entirely
transformed by their influence
I! *. f that the original system of

\ * ng Gautama is scarcely recog-
Buddhism T_, ^, ,,. T J , i-

msable. I he ethical teaching

of Buddhism is not based upon divine
authority, but upon individual egoism ;
moral duties or virtues as such are non-
existent, utilitarianism being the guiding
principle. This principle, indeed, inspires
the commands respecting personal be-
haviour, self-restraint, the government
of the senses, self-sufficiency, vigilance.
Indeed, every command explaining a
man's duty to his neighbour, such as
the exaggerated care against the taking
even of animal life, or the exhortations
to sympathy, kindness, and benevolence,

The Grand
Error of
Buddhism

wood & Underwood, London

spring not from the ground of the heart,
but from the purely selfish desire to
advance by their fulfilment toward the
ultimate goal of liberation. The moral
teaching of Buddha, as regards the
manner in which it makes kindness and
love binding upon all men, is high above
the ethical system of the Brahmans and
far below the purity and nobility of
Christianity. Especially is it lacking in
moral force. How, indeed, could a religion
provide a strong and energetic ethical
system when its chief duties consisted in
the entire avoidance of action
and its highest aim in total
extinction Nirvana. The in-
dolence of the system has been
stamped upon the whole Buddhist world ;
stricken with fear at the thought of
suffering, its strength lies rather in
endurance and passivity than in action.
In a people enervated by such beliefs it is
impossible to expect any powerful bond
of union, any feeling for the greatness of
race or state, any sense of
patriotism. We do not forget
what the princes did for their
people, but at the same time this
could be only a drop in the ocean ;
they cared for the poor and the
sick, planted fruit trees on the
roads, constructed great works of
irrigation, were liberal, especially
toward the monastic orders. But
this very liberality was a cause of
further weakness ; the best and
the richest districts fell into the
hands of the orders, and many
strong arms were thereby con-
demned to inactivity. Meanwhile
the people became impoverished,
and bore their sad existence with
resignation or indifference.

The caste system Buddha no
more attempted to set aside than
the gods ; in his view both of these
were necessary institutions as
existing from the creation of the
world. The great difference be-
tween his teaching and that of the
Brahmans consists in the fact that
he meant his precepts of humani-
tarianism to be binding upon all
the castes. His followers were to
be kind and benevolent even to the

A LITANY IN STONE : INTERIOR OF A JAIN TEMPLE

In Western Hindustan Mount Abu rises 6,000 feet abruptly from the 11 c

desert, and on its top, in the llth and 12th centuries, the Jains built lOW-DOm bUdra, and Were not

the exquisitely carved marble temple of Vimala Sah, of which this

is an interior view. The marble must have been quarried 300 miles

away. The temple is dedicated to a prophet, Parsvanatha,

whose image is repeated again and again in the carvings of the

temple ; indeed, this curious structure is a sort of litany in stone.

KirMpn pirpn tn arrant fnnrl from
Bidden CVCI accept

him. At ; the Same time a Caste
x v 4. j

feeling Was deeply rooted in

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Buddha and the whole of his order ;
though we often hear of the reception of
distinguished members of the higher and
the highest castes by the master during
his lifetime, instances of such treatment
of the Sudra Buddhists do not occur.
Even at the present day the collective
Buddhist sects of Ceylon are recruited
_ solely from the highest castes.

Buddhism is also open to the
further reproach of having

done nothing to raise the social
position of woman. The founder showed
the greatest reluctance, and was induced
only by a strong pressure from without,
to admit the woman within his com-
munity, and even then she was not
placed upon an equality with the man.
Generally speaking, the only consolation
he had to give to the woman in her
subordinate position was that she must
bear her burden, because it was appointed
by the order of things, in the same way
as the burden of a Sudra or of a worm.

Severe but true is Bishop Copleston's
criticism of Buddhism that it lowers
mankind by the very assertion of man's
supremacy.

Buddhism, though the most successful,
was not the only religious system which
rose during that period of intellectual
movement. Contemporary with Gautama
was that personality to whom the now
existing sect of the Jains refers the origin
of its religion ; his name was Nataputta,
though he was known by his adherents
as Mahavira Wardhamana, the revered
Jina or world-conqueror. He, too, had
his origin in that centre of intellectual
movement on the lower Ganges, and his
life and teaching are marked by many
points of resemblance to his more im-
portant contemporary. Like Buddha, he
was the son, born in 599 B.C., of a distin-
guished Kshatriya, by name Siddhartha,
who was apparently governor of the out-
lying town of Kandapura, of Vesali, where
T . the feudal aristocracy was as

Fodder of Predominant as among the
Jainism Sakya. On his mother s side
he was related to King Bim-
bisara of Magadha, and, like Gautama, he
found in this king a patron of his doctrine ;
indeed, these two religious systems owe
their prosperity primarily to the existence
of that great kingdom and its ruler.
Until his twenty-eighth year Nataputta
lived with his parents ; then, however,
like Gautama, he joined the Brahman

1198

ascetics and lived for twelve years under
their rules, surpassing all but one of these
in the severest penances as a naked ascetic.
Thus he arrived at supreme knowledge or
Kewala, and so acquired for his soul
freedom from its earthly trammels. The
last thirty years of his life (until 527)
were devoted to the dissemination of his
teaching and to the organisation of the
community he founded.

His honorary title of Jina has been
taken by the sect which he founded, the
Jains. They believe in a great number
of prophets of their faith anterior to Nata-
putta, and pay special reverence to this
last of these, Parsva, or Parsvanatha.
Herein they are correct, in so far as the
latter personality is more than mythical.
He was indeed the royal founder of
Jainism (776 ?), while his successor,
Mahavira, was younger by many genera-
tions, and can be considered only as a
reformer. As early as the time of Gau-
tama, the religious confraternity founded
by Parsva, and known as the Nigantha, was
a formally established sect, and, according
to the Buddhist chronicles, threw numer-
n . ous difficulties in the way of

Tau htT the risin & Buddhism. The
th * U j ains y numerous points of corre-
spondence between Buddhism
and Jainism are sufficiently explained by
the fact that both systems originated in
Brahman teaching and practice. The
formation of the Jain canon dates from
the fifth century A.D., during which period
the " holy " scriptures were established
at the Council of Valabhi, under the
presidency of Devarddhiganin. But this
council has been put as early as 154 ; and
according to one authority the writings
from which the canon has been formed
are as early as the first, and perhaps the
second or third centuries B.C.

The Jains, like the Buddhists, accept
the Brahman theory of the misery of
existence and the necessity for liberation.
Where, however, the Buddhist philosophy
diverges from the Brahman, they follow
the older creed. According to their
system, the soul has a real and self-
contained existence ; during life it is
fettered to the base elements of the
material body, which it leaves upon death.
The soul is then enclosed in a form of
ethereal lightness until the Karma the
ethical resultant of the actions performed
in life obliges it to become reincarnate
and to resume the burden of suffering.

ANCIENT INDIA BUDDHISM AND JAINISM

Buddhist philosophy culminates in the
release from this necessity of reincarnation
that is to say, in nonentity whereas
the Jains assumed the existence of an
elaborate system of higher and highest
beings which claim veneration from man-
kind. In the different regions occupied
by these divine personalities, the Jina, or
all-conquerors, take the highest place.
They alone, released from death and from
new birth, live in eternal and absolute
purity. They are the souls, freed from
all earthly trammels, of the great prophets,
who are far more numerous in this religion

Underwood & Underwood, London

True faith consists in belief in the Jina
and in the whole system of higher beings ;
true insight is provided by the philo-
sophical system of the Jains. According
to this system, both the world and the
soul have an eternal objective existence.
The misfortune of the soul consists in its
connection with the body, and when its
desire for action is extinguished it becomes
free. The precepts of pure virtue coincide
almost entirely with those of the Buddhist
teaching.

The five fundamental precepts of the
Jain monks are the same as the first four of
the Brahmans, and run as follows :
Thou shalt not kill any living being ;
thou shalt not lie ; thou shalt not take
what has not been given to thee ; thou
shalt refrain from intercourse with
worldly relations. The fifth precept
includes within itself the remaining
precepts of the Buddhist monks : thou
shalt renounce all earthly possessions,
and chiefly shalt call nothing thine own.
While insisting upon the importance
of these commandments, the Jain
teaching also recognises the value of
asceticism in its severest form as an
aid to liberation. About the year 80
A.D. this point led to the schism
between the two main sects of this
religion, which, however, agree upon
fundamental principles the Digam-
bara, " those who are clothed with
the vault of heaven" that is, the
naked and the Svetambara, " those
clothed in white."

Centres and objects of worship are
numerous, as might be expected from
the high importance attached to the
divine beings. All Jain temples are
placed by preference upon lofty moun-
tains, such as Mount Abu, Mount

in fniorof f>+r>
in LrUerat, CtC.

THE RICHEST TEMPLE IN CALCUTTA
This Jain temple is one of the most magnificent in all India.
It was built by a rich merchant, who lives in a palatial house
near the temple. The chief material used is white marble, ingS are adorned With rich decoration,
and every square foot of the surface is set with jewels.

than in Buddhism. Time is divided into
three parts present, past, and future ;
and in each of these divisions twenty-four
Jinas appear at long intervals to bring
knowledge to the world of those lofty
truths leading to salvation. The twenty-
third Jina of the present earthly period
was Parsvanatha, and the twenty-fourth
Mahavira. All of these Jinas, alike by
their precept and example, have shown
to the world the path to liberation,
which consists in purity of faith, in
true insight, and in virtue undenled.

senting the different Jinas with their
tokens the ox, the ape, the fish, etc.

Everywhere the Jains enjoy the reputa-
tion of honourable and capable men ;
their reliability and commercial industry
has enabled them to acquire prosperity
and often great wealth. Their benevolence
is not without a somewhat comic side, as
in some of the hospitals for animals which
they have founded, and in their custom
of wearing a respirator and carrying a
small broom to avoid killing even insects
involuntarily.

1199

1200

PROFESSOR

EMIL
SCHMIDT

INDIA FROM ALEXANDER TO THE
MOHAMMEDAN CONQUESTS

RECORDS OF THE ANCIENT DYNASTIES

pROM the earliest times the inexhaust-
ible natural riches of the great plains
of the Ganges have been a source of pros-
perity and of misfortune to India. In
every age this district has proved a strong
attraction to foreign peoples.

The great Aryan immigration was the
first movement of the kind of which we
hear, but by no means the last. Legends
speak of the invasion of Assyrian rulers,
of Ninus and Semiramis ; and though
these may be purely mythical figures,
yet those legends undoubtedly rest upon
some historical foundation. Diodorus
quotes the name of an Indian king,
Stabrobates, " the lord of draught
animals." It is true that this name
appears rather Iranian than Indian. How-
ever, upon Assyrian monuments as, for
example, the obelisk of Salmanassar II.,
belonging to the year 842 B.C. are
representations of the Indian elephant
and the rhinoceros, which were led before
the victorious king, together with his
prisoners. At a later period the Persian
Cyrus is said to have undertaken a fruitless
campaign to India, and upon his defeat to
have retired to the same desert of Gedrosia
through which Alexander retreated with
his Macedonians. There is no
doubt that Darius subdued

Persian
& Assyrian
Invaders

the races north of the Kabul
River and west of the Indus,
and explored the course of this latter
stream about 510 B.C. Those tribes
formed a special satrapy of Persia, and
their contingents are said by Herodotus
to have fought under Xerxes against the
Greeks.

The Indian expedition of Alexander the
Great is the earliest established chrono-
logical fact in the history of India. In
the year 327 B.C. he started from Sogdiana
and Bactria with about 100,000 warriors.
Advancing along the Kabul River he was
repeatedly obliged to wage desperate

conflicts with the bold mountain races
and to destroy many of their fortified
posts, but he arrived in the spring of the
following year at the Indus frontier of
the rich district of the Punjab.

The peoples there settled had changed
but little since the time when their
brothers had marched eastward into the
Ganges district, had there founded states,
and had struggled with the rising power
of Brahmanism, with which they had
eventually compromised. At that time
the population was divided into a number
of smaller tribes, the warrior caste holding
the predominant position. Here Alex-
ander met with a wholly unexpected resist-
ance. Plutarch says of the Indians that
the bravest and most warlike of them
were the " mercenaries, who marched
from one town to another defending each
position to the last, and inflicting great
M loss upon Alexander." So in-

* *A? A tense was the animosity of the
tolndiV" ' con q ueror to this caste that,
after promising unmolested
retirement to the Kshatriya defenders of a
town, he laid an ambush for them and
destroyed them during their retreat.
And " no less was the vexation caused
him by the Indian philosophers, who
reviled the kings who joined him and
stirred up the free populations ; for this
cause he hanged many of them."

Though the old bravery remained, the
old tribal feuds had by no means died
out, and Alexander was greatly helped by
the strained relations subsisting between
the Gandhara and their eastern neighbours,
the Puru, the most important race in the
Punjab. The Gandhara king, Taxiles,
joined with other chiefs in doing homage
to the invader, and supported Alexander's
army with his own troops. In the spring
of 326 the Greeks crossed the Indus near
the modern Attok, and, after receiving the
homage of the people, marched against

1201

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

the Puru prince, Porus. This monarch
awaited the Greek advance on the eastern
bank of the Hydaspes. The Kshatriya
fought with the courage of despair, and
the greater portion of the Puru warriors
were left upon the field of battle. The
aged and heroic prince upon his war
elephant retreated only when he found
his army destroyed, his two
check to ^ song s i am? and himself seriously
Alexande s WQUnded Not omy did the

Macedonians leave him his
kingdom, but they added to it a number
of conquered districts.

After a rest of thirty days Alexander
advanced upon a fresh campaign ; he
had received trustworthy information
concerning the peoples of the fruitful
Ganges district, their populous towns
and splendid capitals. However, his
army failed him at the Hyphasis in the
year 325, and the world- conqueror had
come to the end of his victorious career.
In boats and rafts he sailed down stream
to the mouth of the Indus, and there
divided his army into two parts. One of
these returned to Persia by sea under
Nearchus, while he himself was forced to
retreat through the waterless desert of
Gedrosia, under a burning August sun,
and saved but a few remnants of the other
half. Shortly afterward Alexander suc-
cumbed to his fatigues, his excesses, and
the effects of the climate, in the year 323.
Alexander's Indian campaign had been
of short duration, but the irresistible nature
of his onset was equalled only by the
importance of its consequences to the
country ; from the various tribes who
had resisted the foreigners was formed
the powerful Magadha kingdom. Among
those who had been brought over to
Alexander's side by the hope of personal
advantage was an adventurer known as
Chandragupta. A Sudra by birth from
his mother Mura, a low-caste woman, the
royal family succeeding the Nanda was

known as the Maurya dyn-

ast Y his position upon the
Invason l wer Ganges had become un-

tenable for him by reason of
his intrigues. The confusion caused by
the advance of Alexander into the Punjab
seemed to him a favourable occasion for
the realisation of his ambitions, and he
contrived to maintain connection with
both of the two parties.

After the retreat and death of Alexander
dissensions broke out among the Greek

1202

party remaining in the country ; Porus
was murdered by a Greek leader, Eudemus,
and the Diadochi the rivals in the suc-
cession to Alexander began a series of
quarrels over the division of the empire.
Chandragupta then placed himself at the
head of the Indian movement, secured
predominance in the Punjab in 316 B.C.,
and in the following year gained possession
of the Magadha kingdom, which, under his
rule, extended, in 296 B.C., from the mouth
of the Indus to the mouth of the Ganges.
Seleucus Nicator found Magadha so
powerful in 303 that he considered it
prudent to secure the alliance of his
eastern neighbour by giving him his
daughter in marriage and renouncing
his claim to Eastern Gedrosia, Aracho-
sia, and Paropamisus. The excellent
terms upon which these two princes
lived is evidenced by their mutual des-
patch of ambassadors to the courts of
Babylon and Pataliputra.

The first detailed description composed
by an eye-witness of India and its people
is that for which we have to thank the
Greek Megasthenes. Only a few frag-
ments remain to us of his work
p. 7"* ; k entitled " Indica " ; but even
\ * . from these we may learn many
a important details of the con-
ditions of life in the Magadha kingdom.
From a Greek point of view the description
is highly prepossessing. Megasthenes
praises the population for their honesty,
uprightness, strength, moderation, and
peaceful inclinations, though they are
ready to repel invaders by force of arms.
The prosperity of the state rested upon
agriculture ; this occupation was con-
sidered so sacred that it was not to be
interrupted even in time of war, and the
farmer could peacefully till his land while
bloody battles were proceeding in the
immediate neighbourhood. The kingdom
was defended by a numerous well-organised,
and highly-trained warrior class one of
the seven classes, or castes, of the people,
between which so sharp a line of demarca-
tion existed that they could not even eat
together. The land was common property,
and one-fourth of the produce was paid
to the State to meet government expenses.
The Buddhist ascetics were then con-
sidered a subdivision of the Brahmans.

The grandson of Chandragupta, the
son and successor of Bindusara, Asoka
(269 to 232 B.C.), was the most powerful
ruler of ancient India ; his kingdom

SCENE IN MODERN PATNA: THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE GREAT MAGADHA KINGDOM

The city of Patna was founded over 2,000 years ago, and was the capital of the ancient Magadha kingdom. Its
most famous king was Asoka, the grandson of its founder, the convert of Buddha and the great protagonist of Buddhism.

extended over the greater half of the
peninsula, and his influence far beyond
these limits. After thousands of years no
king has received such deep veneration as
this Magadha ruler, whose name even
to-day is deeply honoured from the shores
of the Black Sea to the furthest islands
of Eastern Asia, and from the shores of
the polar ice to the equator. It

is *? to the fatness of his
political power that he owes
8 his fame, but to the gospel of
human love, which he substituted for the
teaching of Gautama.

The Magadha kingdom, with its capital
of Pataliputra, or Patna, founded by
Chandragupta in 315 B.C., was not des-
tined to exist long ; its most brilliant
period is the reign of Asoka, the grandson
of its founder, under whom it extended
over all North and Central India, and the
Northern Deccan. Less than a century
after the accession of the great king, and
137 years after the founding of the
Maurya dynasty, the last ruler, the
tenth of the dynasty, was overthrown by
his general, Brihadratha. The succeeding
dynasty of the Shunga lasted only 112
years 178 to 66 B.C. ; the kingdom of the
Kanwa, who succeeded, gradually dim-
inished as the Scythians gained in power.
The natural conditions of the Asiatic
Highlands impose a nomadic life upon the

inhabitants. Mongolian, Turco-Tartar,
and Scythian peoples were continually
struggling for the possession of the grass
steppes and pasture lands after the
immigration of the Aryans. Race collided
with race, and, like a wave driven before
the stormy blast, confusion reached the
uttermost limits of the country. An
unusually strong upheaval of this nature
had disturbed these nomadic tribes in the
second century B.C.

The Mongolian tribe of the Hiung Nu
progenitors of the Huns living east of the
Oxus district in the steppes between Khiva
and Khotan, had attacked the Tibetan Yue
Tshi, who are, no doubt, to be identified
with the Scythian Issedones upon their
western frontier. This tribe they had
defeated and forced to emigrate.
The conquered nation then
advanced upon the Graeco-Bac-
trian kingdom, founded about
250 B.C. by Diodotus, a kingdom which had
now advanced beyond the Indus into
the Punjab. Before the onslaught of
these invaders the predominance of the
Greeks in Bactria Proper came to an end
shortly after the year 140 B.C. A Scythian
offshoot, the Sakae, under the leadership
of the king Maues in 100 B.C. and Azes
in 70 B.C., turned toward the Indus, and,
following the course of this river southward
to Sindh, ultimately arrived at Gujerat.

1203

Struggle
for the
Steppes

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Scythians

Embrace

Buddhism

Another tribe, the Kushana, followed the
Kabul River into the Punjab under the
prince Kozulo Kadphises. Here they
destroyed the last remnants of the Greek
supremacy in the year 25 B.C., and the
following king, Huemo Kadphises, ex-
tended his power over the larger part of
North- West India.

The most important ruler of this dynasty
was the next king, Kanishka,
whose kingdom extended from
Yarkand and Khokand to
Gujerat, and from Afghan-
istan as far as the Jumna. From his
anointing, on March I5th, 78 A.D., dates the
Saka Chronology. Nahapana is some-
times regarded as the founder of this
kingdom. Upon their advance into India
the Scythian hordes came into contact
with Buddhism, and enthusiastically em-
braced this new religion. Like Asoka,
Kanishka called a special council at
Kashmir to reformulate the doctrine of
Buddha. Supplementary explanations
were then added to the three Pitakas of
the Council of Patna. From this council
it appears that even at that time the old
doctrines of Buddhism had not been
preserved in their original purity in
Northern India, but had undergone con-
siderable changes under the influence of
Brahman and Dravidian ideas. At the
same time, it is probable that the deities
introduced by the Scythians were not
entirely without influence upon the con-
clusions drawn up by the council of the
mighty Scythian ruler.

The kingdom founded by Kadphises,
like that of Chandragupta, reached its
most flourishing period under the second
successor of the founder, while its im-
portance begins to decrease after the
third century A.D., when other dynasties
and states became more prominent.
However, the history of India during the
first millennium A.D. appears to the
modern inquirer like a great mosaic
picture, in which only individual
or small related groups of stones
are now recognisable. Coins,
casual reports from travellers,
especially Chinese, and inscriptions show
us movement and counter movement,
rise and decay among states both small
and great, but in no case is it possible to
reconstruct the history in detail. In
many cases, we have only the most scanty
sources of information, a few isolated
names and events, while other states

1204

History
Seen in
Patches

certainly existed and have left behind not
a trace of their career.

The famous Maurya dynasty began to
decay shortly after the time of Asoka,
but the old splendour reappeared for a
moment under the dynasty founded by
Gupta in 290 A.D. This king, who had
formerly been a vassal of Magadha, made
himself independent, and under his grand-
son Chandragupta I. and his immediate
successors the prosperity of the kingdom
advanced so rapidly that it included all
the territory between Nepal and the
Narbada, between Cutch and the Ganger
delta. During the sixth century, however.
the prosperity of the realm was shattered
by the attack of the " White Huns " in
515. These invaders were utterly defeated
about 530 near Kahror by Yasodharma.
a vassal of the Gupta kingdom. He him-
self assumed the supremacy and further
extended the boundaries of the kingdom,
though its history from this point is
known to us only by a number of royal
titles.

A kingdom of larger extent further to

the south was also formed during the

struggle with the White Huns,

' * who had left their habitations

b the

on the Oxus aftr the

White Huns

A.D. and had invaded India.

In the struggle against their king, Mihira-
kula, Yasodharma had been anticipated
by another vassal of the Gupta kingdom,
Sanapati Bhatarka, in 495. This prince
was the founder of the Valabhi dynasty
and kingdom, which attained a high
measure of prosperity under his sixth
successor, Dhruwasena. It included
Gujerat, extending to the Narbada. The
rulers at one time showed special favour
to Buddhism, and at another transferred
their preference to the Brahmans or to
the Jains, who still count many adherents
in the old Valabhi district. The canons
of this latter doctrine were definitely
formulated at the Council of Valabhi.

To the second half of the first millen-
nium A.D. belongs the development of an
important Hindu kingdom in the Deccan,
that of the Chalukya. This race is con
sidered to have come from Northern
India, and the founder of the dynasty,
Jayasimha I., established himself about
500 A.D. in the Deccan at the expense of
the Dravidian Pallavas. The new Hindu
kingdom rapidly increased in size and
power, and in the following millennium
embraced the greater portion of the Deccan.

ANCIENT INDIA-FROM ALEXANDER TO THE MOHAMMEDANS

In the year 630 it was divided into an
eastern and a western kingdom. The
Chalukya prince, Vishnuwardhana, ob-
tained the kingdom on the east coast,
which included the coast line between
the mouths of the Krishna and Godaveri.
For a long period he was at war with the
Chola on the south, and eventually
succumbed to their attacks in 1060. The
western Chalukya constituted a flourishing
kingdom until the year 747, and were
then conquered and reduced to great
weakness by the Rashtrakuta. After a
long period of depression, Tailapa Deva,
the son of Vikramaditya IV., conquered
the Rashtrakuta of Malkhed, and also
Malava and the Chola, in 973, and became
the founder of the later Chalukya dynasty,
whose kingdom dis-
appears towards the ;
end of the twelfth
century, when it was
divided among a
number of branch
dynasties.

This period of
political change and
complete racial fusion
had gradually obliter-
ated the points of
contrast existing
between the original
races and peoples.
The unity of the
Indian people, Hin-
duism as it is in
modern times, had
been slowly formed
from this former
ethnical dualism. Its
character is marked
by two special peculiarities, religious belief
and social institutions or castes.

During the time of Asoka we find great
points of difference existing within the
sphere of religious belief. The Brahman
doctrine of the nature of the world and
the Deity was a purely esoteric
system of belief, the other
castes, and particularly the great
k mass of the Sudra, believing in
the power of demons. Within the Brah-
man school of thought a third faith had
arisen Buddhism. This had been at
first tolerated by the Brahmans, as they
had failed to recognise the points of
opposition to their system which its
teaching involved. It has largely to thank
Asoka for the vigour of its advance. It

Extent of
Buddhist
Dominion

MONUMENT OF AN ANCIENT KING
This temple, on the hill of Takt-i-Suliman, near Srinagar,
is believed by the Brahmans to have been erected by
Jaloka, the son of Asoka, who reigned about 220 B.C.

was preached throughout India by the
royal missionaries, and was introduced into
Ceylon immediately after the Council of
Patna. It also penetrated far beyond
the boundaries of its Indian birthplace.
During the first century of our era it
reached China, where it was recognised as
the State religion during the fourth cen-
tury. In 372 it was intro-
duced from China into Korea,
reaching, in the fourth and fifth
centuries, Cochin China, Ava,
Formosa, Mongolia, and Japan during
the sixth century. At an even earlier
period that form of it established in the
Pali canon had passed from Ceylon to
Burma in 450, and afterward became the
dominant faith of Siam in 638 ; it was
brought to Java from
I the Indian continent
in the sixth or seventh
century. We have a
striking example of
the powerful influence
which its teaching of
liberation and its
humanitarianism ex-
ercised even upon
uncivilised nations in
the case of the Scy-
thian Kanishka. At
the Council of
Kashmir the doc-
trines formulated at
Patna were re-
asserted.

But even at that
time in the North of
India a schismatic
movement had begun,
due to the introduc-
tion of a barren system of dialectic, and
also to the perversion of the doctrine and
worship by the Dravidian belief in demons.
At a later period the belief underwent so
great a transformation among the Tartar
and Mongolian peoples that the northern
Buddhism of the present day is merely
a frightful caricature of the pure Buddhist
doctrine. The soul, to which Gautama
had denied an objective existence, was
reintroduced as an element of belief.
The souls of the future Buddhas, the
Bodhisattwas, especially those of the
Manjusri and the Avalokitesvara, were
accorded divine veneration, becoming
personifications of the mystical religious
knowledge and of the spirit of the Budd-
hist churches ; while almighty power was

1205

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

typified in a third divinity, Vajradhara.
Thus the heaven of this Buddhist sect
was provided with a trinity, and to this
were attributed the most abhorrent
characteristics of the lower gods ; and
Shamanist customs and incantations, to-
gether with bloody sacrifices, were intro-
duced into the worship. This incorporation
of Indian Dravidian ideas and

, , m ? customs with Buddhism
of Religious chiefly the work of the

monk Asanga, who lived at
Peshawar, in the Punjab, during the sixth
century A.D. The resulting doctrine,
called by the northern Buddhists the
Great Chariot, to distinguish it from that
which they contemptuously termed the
Little Chariot the earlier Buddhism
together with the conception that the
spirit of the Churches became incarnate
in one temporal head, eventually led to
the development of Lamaism in the
countries to the north of India.

Next to the Asoka inscriptions the
most important sources of information
upon Indian Buddhism are the accounts
of the Chinese Buddhists who made pil-
grimages to the sacred shrines of their
religion, especially the reports of Fa Hien
(400-414) and of Hiuen Tsang (629-645).
From Fa Hien we learn that in the whole
of Nearer India the two doctrines, the
Great Chariot, or Mahayana and the Little
Chariot, or Hinayana, existed side by side,
though at the same time the Brahman
teaching counted numerous adherents. At

the time of Hiuen Tsang, Kashmir was
entirely given up to northern Buddhism,
while the Little Chariot was predominant
in Western and Southern India ; in the
Ganges district Buddhism suffered greatly
from the competition of Brahmanism.
Hiuen Tsang was present at the Council of
Kanauj , where the doctrines of the northern
sect were formulated. Buddha's birth-
place was at that time in ruins, but his
religion was even then firmly established
in those countries in which he had him-
self been personally active. In the rest
of India the old doctrine was still highly
flourishing, and only in Kalinga had it been
driven back by the rise of Brahmanism
throughout that district.

Shortly after the pilgrimage of Hiuen
Tsang serious misfortunes came upon the
Buddhists. These are most probably to
be explained by persecutions, which were
at most purely local ; Indian Buddhism
collapsed more from internal weakness
and diversity of growth than from the
open hostility of other religions. Soon
after the conclusion of the first millennium
A.D. about 1200 it had ceased to exist
almost throughout India. The princes of
Kashmir and Orissa supported it for a
time ; but about 1340 its last stronghold,
Kashmir, also fell, and when the first
Mohammedan kingdom of India was
founded, nearly the whole population, with
the exception of some few adherents in
Bengal and Orissa, together with the
Jains, acknowledged the gods of Hinduism.

THE STORY OF LATER HINDUISM

""THOSE long-continued political disturb-
* ances which we have described proved
unfavourable to the strengthening of reli-
gious conviction. Among the Brahmans a
period of deep metaphysical speculation
had been succeeded by a period of repose,
while the lowest gods and the rudest
forms of worship had been gradually ac-
cepted by the people at large. It was not
until the eighth century that the reaction
began. Tradition names Kumarila, who
lived in the first half of that century, as at
once the deadly enemy of the Buddhists
and the reviver of the Brahman religion.
But the first great reformer so called was
probably Sankara Acharya. He was born
in the Deccan in 788, was chiefly active
in Northern India, and died in the Hima-
layas in 820. He revived the Vedanta phil-
osophy and created the new popular Hindu
1206

religion. The esoteric portion of his doc-
trine acknowledges one unique supreme
god, the Brahma Para Brahma, the creator
and governor of the world, who is to be
worshipped by mystical introspection ;
the elements of religious thought extant
in the people as a whole he united and
inspired in the figure of Siva. The great
p apostle of the worship of

Hndu ' Vi shnu, on the other hand, was
RcH tons Ramanuj a, who lived in the first
half of the twelfth century. His
doctrines were preached by Kabir (1380-
1420) in Bengal, and Chaitanya (born
1485) in Orissa. From the time of those
reformers onward, Siva and Vishnu have
been the corner-stones in the system of
Hindu worship. In the popular religion
Brahma retires into the background.
The fundamental element in the philo-

ANCIENT 1NDIA-FROM ALEXANDER TO THE MOHAMMEDANS

A God of

Many

sophical conception of Vishnu is imma-
nence, so that this kindly helping god
becomes properly the god of incarnations,
of Avatars. His being permeates all
things, and hence he may appear in most
different forms. Whenever gods or men are
reduced to the extremities of need, Vishnu
brings them help in one or another of his
manifestations. Legend num-
bers many of these incarnations,
in all twenty-two, but the
tts generally accepted number is
ten. In the first three the god appears as the
fish, the tortoise, the boar ; in the fourth,
as the male lion ; and in the later incarna-
tions in human form, first as a dwarf ; after-
ward, in the sixth, seventh, and eighth as
Parasurama, as Ramatshandra, and as
Krishna that is, in forms taken from the
heroic legends of Indian antiquity. Of
these incarnations
Krishna has become
the most popular, the
people recognising a
national characteris-
tic in the amusing
tricks assigned to
Krishna by the
legend. The represen-
tation of Buddha as
the ninth incarnation
of Vishnu no doubt
belongs to a period
when an attempt was
made to unite Bud-

person of Siva, the god of destruction.
As Rudra he personifies the destructive
forces of nature ; as Mahakala, the dis-
solving power of time ; as Bahirava, he
is the destroyer, or destruction as such ;
and as Bhuteswara, adorned with a gar-
land of snakes and death's-heads, he is the
supreme deity of all the demons of the
Dravidian belief. Thus Siva is rather a
Dravidian Vishnu than an Aryan creation ;
as, indeed, is manifested by the distribu-
tion of their several worships, the devotees
of Siva being more numerous in the south
and those of Vishnu in the north.

Thus in the northern districts of the
Madras presidency the worshippers of
Vishnu preponderate by a number vary-
ing from ten to one to four to one ; while
in the central districts of the presidency
the number of adherents of each faith is
almost equal. In the
south, the worshippers
of Siva surpass those
of Vishnu by a num-
ber varying from four
to one to sixty-seven
to one. In the loftier
conception of Siva,
Brahman thought
becomes more promi-
nent ; from death
springs up fresh life,
from destruction the
new and more beauti-
ful is restored. Thus
" destroyer "

dhism with the Hindu BRAHMA WITH HIS CONSORT SARASWATI the

religion. A later In Indian mythology, after a god was personified, he was becomes a benefa'ctor,

given a consort. Saraswati is the goddess of learning. , ,-, . 01

Sada, biva, Sankara,
he personifies the reproduc

theory also considers
Buddha under this incarnation as an agent
who tempts the wicked to scorn the Vedas
and the laws of caste in order to secure
their eventual destruction, and so to free the
world of them. Finally, the last incarna-
tion of Vishnu belongs to the future ; at
the end of the present age the god will
appear as Kalki and found a new kingdom
of purity.

In the conception of Siva, Brahman
ideas of " darkness " meet the demon
beliefs of the Dravidians. It is among the
mountain tribes of the Himalaya that the
figure of Siva, the " mountain spirit,"
originates, borrowed from Kiraata, a
divinity given over to sensual pleasures,
drinking, and dancing, and followed by a
train of lower spirits. The fundamental
conception of the Dravidian races of
divinity as evil in nature is commingled
with the Brahman ideas of darkness in the

Sambhu

tive forces of Nature, and as such is
worshipped under the name Mahadeva,
the great god ; Isvara, the chief lord.
No image is of more frequent occurrence
in India than his symbol. Yet more
definitely Brahman is the idea of the power
of the sacrifice and of asceticism, and in
this connection Siva appears in the form
of the " Great Penitent," Mahayogin. Per-
sonification has not extended
so far among the Hindu deities
as it did among those of Greece
and Rome; consequently, the
Hindu pantheon is not composed of
one great family of grandparents, fathers
mothers and children. Brahma and
Vishnu had no son, and only two sons
exist loosely connected with Siva known
as Subrahmanya, or Skand'a, the god of
war, and Ganesa, the god of cunning

1207

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

ORIGINAL TYPE OF THE CAR OF JUGGERNAUT
An ancient stone temple, built in imitation of the original type

female side of his existence plays
a more important part, owing to
the fact that the god himself
occupies a position of greater ac-
tivity, and has absorbed a larger
proportion of Dravidian deities who
were essentially feminine. Each of
the chief forms, under which Siva
appears, has been intensified by the
addition of a wife.

To the narrow circle of the
supreme gods is added a number of
superior beings, partly drawn from
prehistoric legend, such, for in-
stance, as the sacred singers of the
Vedas, the Rishis, the Pandu
brothers of the Bharata battles, and
others drawn from the numerous
band of lower deities worshipped by
individual tribes. The Hindu
heaven is spacious enough to con-
tain any deity of the smallest im-
portance or mystery, and includes
stones and mountains, rivers and
tanks, weeds and trees, useful and
dangerous animals, spirits of the
deceased, individual demons, and
every variety of atmospherical
phenomenon.

The wide differences in fact, the
oppositions which characterise the
manifestations of the divine ele-
ment are reflected in the worship ;
the lowest fetish worship exists
side by side with the veneration of

of the Car of Juggernaut, which, in many different forms, the purer and higher DOWerS of
has so long figured and still figures in Hindu processions. heayen> Hinduism is particularly

distinguished from all monotheistic reli-
gion by the fact that its votaries do not
constitute a Church, or, indeed, possess
a universally accepted creed. A Hindu
may worship Vishnu or Siva in one
or other of their different forms, as also
Ganesa, or one of the many Saktis ;
his choice depends entirely on the
forms of prayer and incantation which
he has received from his spiritual tutor
and adviser, the Guru. These formulae
vary in the case of individual gods,

and success, who is invoked upon every
necessity of daily life, and whose de-
formed, stumpy figure with the elephant's
head is everywhere to be found.

Consorts are assigned to all the more
important deities ; yet the conception of
wifehood has in this case been over-
shadowed by the personal attributes of
the deity, might or power. According
to Brahman philosophy, as soon as a
supreme being becomes personal, his
attributes coalesce into male and female

to our conceptions, is the more operative
of the two. In the case of the less active

divisions, the latter of which, contrary and any god can be transformed into

the patron deity of the Hindu who
bears upon his forehead the sign of this
gods, Brahma and Vishnu, this opposi- special god. Under these circumstances
tion is by no means so prominent. The common worship is impossible. Worship,
consort of Brahma, Saraswati, is the like faith, is purely personal, and is corn-
goddess of learning and knowledge ; posed of formulae and spells of magic
while Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, is the power, of purificatory rites and sacrifices
goddess of supreme good and beauty, which the worshipper offers to the gods
However, in the worship of Siva the or induces his priest to offer for him.

X208

CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF GANESA AT BENARES
The image of Ganesa. the God of Success, who has the head of an elephant, may be seen in one of the vessels.

Worship of this kind, therefore, demands
no great space or building where the
congregation may meet together before
their god ; the sanctuary proper is never
more than a small shrine or an unim-
portant chapel with the symbol or image
of the god. The temples, which have
increased to enormous size, especially in
Southern India, owe their dimensions to
the addition of subordinate rooms such
as pilgrim halls, side galleries, or tanks
surrounded by steps.

Divine worship is carried on under
three main different forms. Vishnu, of
all the supreme gods, is most like man
in shape. Consequently, his statue is
tended like a human being by priests
specially appointed for the purpose. The
worship of his image may be compared
to the playing of a small child with its
doll, and the offerings made to him are
those things which delight the Hindu

IDOLS IN A TEMPLE OF JUGGERNAUT

heart rice, coraco, pastry, and flowers
or decorations of pearls and precious
stones. Siva, on the other hand, the
lofty and often terrible god, dwells at
heights unattainable by humanity. It
is exceptional for his temple to contain
a statue. However, worship is rendered
everywhere to his symbol, the lingam,
which is bathed in holy water, smeared
with butter or covered with flowers.
The worship of the third group of gods,
Dravidian in origin, necessitates a bloody
sacrifice. Goats are slaughtered before the
altars, and the images and temple floor
are sprinkled with the blood of the ani-
mal. Poorer people offer a cock to these,
or to other lower divinities. The human
sacrifices prevalent at an earlier period
are now practically abolished, though
survivals in a milder form occur even at
the present day.

To these forms of daily worship, prayer
and sacrifice, must be added the religious
festivals which occur upon the days
dedicated to numerous individual gods.
Scarce a people or a religion can be found
which celebrates so many pious festivals
as the Hindus. Specially meritorious is
a pilgrimage carried out under circum-
stances of unusual difficulty to the
source of some holy stream such as the
Ganges or the Narbada or to one of
the great sanctuaries of Siva or Vishnu.
As Brahmanism had already sowed the

I2OQ

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

seed which was to develop into Hinduism
and its religion, so upon the social side
the Brahman caste regulations provided
a practical basis for organisation. The
caste system has been promoted by many
influences and checked by many others.
Even Buddhism showed a tendency to
equalise and level the sharp barriers
existing between the castes.

nd Cast* When at a later ? eriod Moham -
S^tem* medanism was introduced, its
adherents declined to recognise
caste, and many Hindu sects in imitation
laid down the social equality of all men
as a fundamental principle.

On the other side influences existed
which furthered the persistence and multi-
plication of the castes. During antiquity
the incorporation of members of foreign
races must have produced subdivisions
within the several castes ; newcomers
would be regarded with some contempt
by the older members, and differences of
this nature grew in course of time to
absolute division. Within the warrior
caste this process was constantly repeated ;
and in the same way deep schisms often
arose within the Brahman caste, especially
in the south. It was a common occurrence
for a caste or some part of it to claim and
acquire a higher position by means of
falsified genealogies or other evidence,
though without obtaining absolute recog-
nition. Local separation of the members
of one and the same caste naturally
results in a multiplication of castes. The
divided parts mistrust one another,
especially on the point of purity of descent,
and ultimately the sense of their common
unity is lost, and that which had been
one caste becomes two. Caste divisions
of this nature are especially common
among nomadic shepherd tribes or trading
and agricultural castes, which are driven
from time to time by outbreaks of famine
to change their dwelling-place and to
divide their forces ; divisions may also be
. brought about by war and the

of ct" shiftin S of Political boundaries.
Divisions ^ man W ^ ^ iaS arr ived at
high prosperity often attempts,
and with success, to break away from his
caste brothers, and to assume the name
and the special customs of a higher caste.
Religious divisions are also a frequent
cause of caste disruption.

One of the commonest causes of caste
increase is change of profession, which
often results in a change of circumstances

1210

or social conditions. Under European
supremacy it is a phenomenon of daily
occurrence that the Hindu who enters the
service of a white man thinks himself
. better than his former caste brothers,
and new castes of coachmen, water-
bringers, grass-cutters are constantly aris-
ing in this way. At the present time
separation of profession is the main char-
acteristic of the caste system, profession
being invariably hereditary. This custom
tends to preserve the purity of blood ; no
one who belongs to one caste may marry
with the member of another caste. Among
the higher castes mere contact defiles, or
the breath of a low-born man even at a
considerable distance. Eating with a
member of another caste is absolutely
forbidden. Stern precepts thus regulate
individual behaviour. Castes have their
own presidents and inspectors, appoint
pecuniary fines or expulsion as punish-
ment for grievous offences, and also
watch over the welfare of the whole, by
maintaining the rate of wages and the
hours of labour, by organising strikes
upon occasion, and by supporting the
Position P oor and mam taining widows
o^WonTen and or P nans - Almost as great
an obstacle to national develop-
ment as caste influence has been
the low position held by the woman.
Among the Aryans and also among the
lower native tribes the woman was
respected and honoured. During the epic
period she was the central point of interest
in the brilliant tournaments of the
Kshatriya, and was the equal companion
of man for the poets of the succeeding
age, whereas now she is but a miserable
creature, an oppressed and hard-worked
slave.

Here, too, Brahman influence is to be
traced in the repression of the woman.
The Brahmans considered that the safest
means of securing racial purity, the
fundamental precept of their social organi-
sation, was to limit the freedom of the
woman to the closest possible regulations.
The only task left to her was to present
her husband with descendants of pure
blood, and to this task everything that
may raise the esteem in which woman is
held was ruthlessly sacrificed. Contempt
and stern compulsion accompany her
from birth to death. Should a son be
born to a Hindu the festival conch-shell
is blown, and the friends bring congratula-
tions and cheerful offerings ; but when

ANCIENT INDIA-FROM ALEXANDER TO THE MOHAMMEDANS

the child is a girl, the father looks upon
the ground in embarrassment, while his
friends offer him condolences instead of
congratulations. Special festivals are
arranged only in honour of boys, and never
of girls. After the birth of a son the
mother remains unclean for three weeks,
but for four weeks after the birth of a
daughter. The boy is instructed by his
spiritual tutor in accordance with his
father's position ; the girl receives no
instruction at all. Whatever she learns
she learns from her mother, who knows
nothing more than a few texts and prayers
for the possession of a faithful husband,
and a few curses against polygamy and
infidelity.

At the age of seven to nine years old the
girl is married to a boy of from twelve
to fourteen years of age, or even to an
old widower, without any attempt being
made to consult her inclination ; often
she meets her husband at the ceremony for
the first time. After the ceremony is
concluded she remains for the moment in
her parents' house, to be transferred to
her husband upon the first signs of puberty.
Practice ^ otners f thirteen and four-
of Child teen y ears f a e are by no
Marria e means exceptional in India.
How unfavourable an influence
must be exercised by early marriages of this
kind upon the physical and intellectual wel-
fare of the nation is sufficiently obvious.
Upon her marriage a girl begins a miserable
life of slavery within the prison of the
woman's apartments ; she must cover
her face before every male member of the
family, she may not speak to her husband
for days together, she may not call him
by name or eat with him ; her existence
is passed in deadly monotony. Before
the period of the English supremacy the
woman's ideal was to be cremated with
her dead husband. These suttees are now
a thing of the past, but the lot of the
widow is almost worse than death by fire.
The death of her husband is ascribed to
her ill deeds committed in a former state
of existence, and her remaining days are
weighted down by hatred, severe penance,
mortification, and the burden of the
heaviest tasks.

Such is the lot of woman in those strata
of society which profess to fulfil the
ideal of Hindu existence. In reality, these
severities are often tempered by mild-
ness and affection. Among the poorer
Hindus of the lower castes the wife is

obliged to share the task of procuring
sustenance for the family, and thus rise;
to be the equal of the man, and gains
self-respect by the consciousness of being
of some use in the world, though at the
same time even in this class of society the
wife is considered an inferior being.

In the subordination of civil society as
Brahman arran g ed by themselves, the
Claims to Branman s retained learning
Learning anc * sc i ence as their preroga-
tive, and were themselves under
the special protection of the goddess of
learning, Saraswati, the chief wife of
Brahma.

The Brahmans have left their special
mark upon the whole religious, scientific,
and artistic literature of India by the
creation of a learned language, Sanscrit.
The earliest hymns of the Vedas, dating
perhaps from the third millennium B.C.,
are written in an ancient but highly-
developed language ; from this the popular
tongue gradually diverged as in course of
time it was broken into different dialects.
The priests considered it of high import-
ance that the language in which they
spoke to the gods should be higher and
more perfect than the vulgar tongue.
As they gradually rose above the common
people to power and influence they trans-
formed the language of religious thought
and worship by a strictly logical and
scientific procedure into the Samskrita,
the " perfect language," as distinguished
from the vulgar tongue or " original "
language, the Prakrita. They can pride
themselves upon including in their number
the greatest grammarian of all time,
Panini, who flourished apparently about
the middle of the fourth century B.C.
The contrast between the esoteric lore of
the Brahmans and the more popular
teaching of Buddha is expressed in the
fact that Buddha and his disciples
preached to the people in their own tongue
in every country, which they visited. It
was not until Buddhaghosha
(410-430) had transcribed the
,**"? ges commentaries of the great Bud-

dhist Mahinda into the sacred
books that this language, the Pali, became
the sacred tongue of southern Buddhism.
Brahman influence is also apparent in the
formation of the southern branch in so
far as this latter chose Sanscrit and not
Pali for the purposes of religious writing.
The most important part of Brahman
literature is concerned with religious

I2II

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

questions. The Vedas are the foun-
dation of all later religious and philo-
sophical developments. Of the four
collections of the Vedas, the Rig Veda
belongs to a remote period of antiquity,
parts of it undoubtedly dating from the
third millennium B.C., while two later
collections, the Sama and Yajur Vedas,
belong to the period when the
:l aci l ritual had been formulated. The
Vedas are collections of hymns
and texts which the priest
had to repeat during the performance of
sacrifice. There were three orders of
priests, and each of the three collections
which we have mentioned was for the use
of a particular order. To the Hohis, or
highest of the three orders, belonged the
Rig Veda, which they were required to
recite in a loud voice. Next to them
came the Udgahi priests ; they used the
Sama Vedas, which they sang in chorus.
The Yajur Vedas were for the use of the
Adhwaryu priests, who were allowed only
to mutter in a low voice. The fourth
Veda, the Athar, contains magical formulae
against sickness and the attacks of
enemies, together with extracts from the
Rig Veda. The Brahmanas also belong
to pre-Buddhist times ; these are prose
compositions containing a substratum of
historical truth interwoven with legendary
narratives, and consist primarily of a
description of the ritual employed in the
great sacrifices as performed by the
different priests. The Upanishads are
works of a different character, and contain
the results of Brahman philosophical
speculation, together with religious and
philosophical teaching upon the nature of
the world and the world-soul from a mono-
theistic point of view. They are marked
by a profundity of speculation and rich-
ness of thought which are evidence of the
serious prosecution of the truth for its
own sake. Wholly different are the Tantras,
Hind which belong to a much later

RcH k>us P er id ; these are a collection
e igious Q jjjygtjcaj religious precepts,

prayers, and magic formulae for
the service of Siva in his more esoteric
character and female personification.

Though these writings were composed at
a later date than those previously men-
tioned, they are none the less considerably
older than the extant version of the
eighteen Puranas, with their eighteen
appendices, amounting in all to about
400,000 double lines, and dealing with

1212

the legends of Vishnu. These were
also included by the Brahmans among
the "Scriptures of Antiquity," though
their age cannot certainly be deter-
mined In their present form they are
a later edition, but their fundamental
elements exist in part in the Maha-
bharata.

Together with religious writings the
Sanscrit literature includes all other
departments of Brahman thought. The
historical is their weakest side. In this
respect the Brahmans are in strong con-
trast to the Mohammedans, who were
ever ready to write the histories oi their
age and their rulers; and also to the
Buddhists, in whose chronicles all impor-
tant events affecting the monasteries were
transmitted to later generations. These
chronicles have entirely disappeared in
the general ruin of Buddhist monasteries
in India ; in Kashmir alone, where
Buddhism maintained its ground to a late
date, the historical sense has not entirely
vanished with the monasteries. The
book of the kings there written, the
Rajatarangini, carries on the history of
this district into the post-Buddhist period.
In Ceylon, where Buddhism
over y m remams ^he dominant religion.
, the chronicles have been con-
tinued from the earliest period
to the dissolution of the Singhalese king-
dom and the British occupation.

Brahman thought was unequal to the
task of scientific investigation into natural
causes ; in this department inquiry was
checked by the conception of a divine
element, which penetrated the vegetable
and animal worlds, and was even immanent
in the stone. At the same time the duty
of sacrifice gave them a certain knowledge
of the parts of the body and their surgical
treatment ; indeed, this was a good school
for empirical surgery, in which native
practitioners acquired a high degree of
skill. Even such difficult operations as
those for cataract, stone, reconstruction of
the nose, removal of the foetus, were
successfully and skilfuly performed; and
the medical treatises of the Brahmans make
mention of no less than 127 different
surgical instruments. At a later date,
when the Arabs became acquainted with
Indian surgery they gave full recognition
to their superior knowledge. The treat-
ment of internal disease rested upon purely
empirical methods ; a large collection of
specific remedies existed, and the chemists

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HINDU ARCHITECTURE

Hindu architecture became monumental after stone had been introduced as a material by Greek influence. It found
its highest expression in religious buildings. In the earliest period, temples were hewn out of the living rock and
left open. Then came an era of primitive shrines, such as the smaller picture on the right The later ages rose
to an oppressive wealth of decoration of which the pyramid tower at the top of the page is typicai. The temples grew
o immense size, tower being added to tower, while courts and ablution tanks were added For the use of worshippers.

? 8 J2I

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

employed in the preparation of medicines
had acquired scientific knowledge of a
number of important chemical bodies.

Astronomy was a science in closest con-
nection with the priestly calling ; indeed,
the primeval religion of the Aryans had
consisted in prayers to those powers which
were manifested in heavenly phenomena,

in the movements of the sun,
Astronomy the planets5 and the fixe( i stars .

Thus even in the earlier Vedas

the solar year is calculated with
a high degree of accuracy, the year con-
sisting of twelve months of thirty days,
an intercalary month being added to
every fifth year. Religious sacrifices and
festivals were also performed on dates
previously fixed by means of astronomical
calculation. Still, in the period of Alex-
ander the Great astronomy as an exact
science was at a comparatively low leve^
and much help was given by foreigners
who had made further advances in these
studies. Towards the middle of the first
century A.D., however, the science made
a great advance, though it relapsed during
the period of the formation of the great
Mohammedan states. Only by individual
princes for example, those of Jaipur
has astronomy been studied in modern
tijies with any degree of interest. Side by
side with this science stands that of mathe-
matics, for which the Brahmans showed
high capacity. They developed independ-
ently the decimal system of notation, and
the Arabs undoubtedly learnt very much
from the mathematical studies of the
Brahmans. The study of algebra reached
its highest point in the person of Aryabhata
born in 476 A. D.

The sacred hymns of the Indians are

admirable compositions ; of no less im-

portance are the epic poems composed

under Brahman influence, the Mahabharata

and Ramayana. Epic materials have also

been incorporated with the Brahmanas.

The development of the fable

with characters from the animal

world by the Indians is well

known. One of the earliest col-

lections of this nature, the Panchatantra,

probably goes back to the second century

B.C., and is, at any rate, earlier than the

sixth century B.C., when it was translated

into Persian ; in another form this collec-

tion enjoys greater popularity as the Hito-

padesa. The Indian fable has made its

way over the whole world, and ^Esop's

fables, together with the story of Reynard

1214

the Fox, are but an echo of Indian poetry.
Of dramatic works the Indians have
about sixty pieces of ancient date, al-
most all of which are comedies rather
than tragedies.

Painting and sculpture hardly rose
above the level of decorative art ; the
breath of pure beauty observable in
the representations of Buddha is due
to Greek influence. Both arts were
subordinated to architecture, and are
characterised by the fantastical conjunc-
tion of human and animal forms, the multi-
plication of individual members of the
body, by exaggeration of movement, a
total lack of proportion, the desire to fill
up space, and an ignorance of the laws of
perspective.

Architecture produced more successful
results and became monumental after
stone had been introduced as a material
by Greek influence. For more than a
thousand years this art was confined to the
erection of religious buildings ; palaces of
any size or splendour do not appear until
the rise of the Mohammedan kingdoms.
Hinduism in religion and worship has left
its stamp upon architectural

style ' there being no con re "
f' the sanctuary proper
is but a narrow space to con-
tain the statue or the symbol of the god.
But round about the sanctuary, for the
convenience of the pilgrims who arrived to
make their offerings and to perform their
pious vows, were erected long corridors,
great pillared halls, and large tanks
approached by flights of steps for ab-
lution.

In this way temples which enjoyed a
high reputation and were visited by tens of
thousands of pilgrims during the year often
grew to enormous size. Especially is this
true of the Dravidian temples, which are
distinguished by their size and massiveness
and by their towered gates with richly
adorned pyramidal roofs rising in terraces.
The buildings of the Chalukya kingdom are
characterised by delicacy of decoration,
and those of the Jains by an oppressive
wealth of ornament. To the earlier
Buddhist period belong the huge temples,
hewn out of the natural rock and left open,
of Karli, Adjanta, Ellora, and other places.
Noticeable in Buddhist architecture are
the numerous buildings containing relics
of enormous size, which are especially
common in Ceylon. The famous mosques
belong to the later Mohammedan period,

THE AOHAAAEDAN SUPREAACY

IN INDIA

THE DYNASTIES BEFORE THE MOGUL EMPIRE

LJISTORIANS are accustomed to detail
* the events of the Mohammedan
period of India according to the succession
of dynasties. This long period, however,
upon a more careful examination of its
content, falls into two main divisions
which end and begin respectively with the
year 1526. The first of these periods is
characterised by continual ferment and
confusion. Hindus and Mohammedans
are in a state of uninterrupted and fierce
struggle, kingdoms are founded and over-
thrown, dynasties rise and fall. During
the second period, however, a
greater stability prevails ; the
opposition between the two
peoples gradually disappears,
and for more than three hundred years
India is dominated by seventeen monarchs
of one and the same dynasty, that of the
Moguls in unbroken succession.

During the first period the supremacy
passed through the hands of these dynas-

ties :

Dynasty
House of Ghazni
House of Ghor . .
The Slave Dynasty
House of Khilji . .
House of Tughlak
The Seiads . .
Bahlul Lodhi . .

Years of Reign
1001-1186
1186-1206
1206-1290
1290-1321
1321-1412
1416-1451
1451 1526

The first of these dynasties was confined
to the Punjab ; that of the Ghors extended
the Mohammedan supremacy over the
whole lowland district of Northern India ;
the Slave rulers advanced to the Vindhya
Mountains, and the second of the Khilji
rulers governed the whole of India almost
to the southern point. The Mohammedan
power in India then reached its first
period of greatest prosperity. Then began
the downfall ; the Tughlak rulers lost the

Deccan and Bengal, and under the two
last dynasties the frontiers of the kingdom
often extended but a few miles beyond
the walls of the capital at Delhi.

This period of five hundred years was
a time of severe oppression for the
Hindus, a time of cruel murder and bitter
struggle. As the lightning flash announces
the oncoming storm, so also a warning
movement preceded that convulsion which
burst upon the unhappy land, the impulse
to which was given by India herself.
In the year 979 A.D., Jaipal, the Prince
of Lahore, in the Punjab, considered that
the growing power df his western neigh-
bour, Nasir ed-din Sabuktegin, lord of
Ghazni, threatened danger to himself. He
sought to reduce this prince by means of
an incursion into Afghanistan ; this effort
resulted in a friendly settlement. When,
however, Jaipal, supported by the princes
of Delhi, Ajmir, and Kanauj, resumed the
offensive in 988 he was utterly defeated at
Lamgan. Turco-Afghan hordes marched
through his country murdering and plun-
dering ; Sabuktegin established himself
at the confluence of the Kabul and the
Indus, and thus got possession of the
obvious base for an invasion of
' India. He was succeeded by
Agamst hig son i sma ji } W h 0) however,

r was dethroned in 998 by his
brother, the famous Mahmud of Ghazni.

Mahmud (998-1030), also known as Bhut
Shikan, or the Iconoclast, was the most
important ruler of the Ghazni dynasty.
From his Tartar father he had inherited
tenacity and military prowess, while his
mother, a Persian woman, had given him
a feeling for higher civilisation. He was
a clever, energetic, and enterprising man,
and also a zealous patron of science and

1215

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

art. Magnificent mosques and palaces
arose within his capital ; famous poets
and scholars were the adornment of his
brilliant court among them Firdusi, the
chronologist el-Beruni and the universal
historian Abu Ali el-Hussein, known as
ibn-Sina or Avicenna. He founded and
richly endowed a university in Ghazni ;
education "was also supported
Wari-fr ^Y a niuseum of natural history.
l r " or ' Splendid foundations were

and King , , , . j r

created by him to provide for
men of high intellectual gifts. Although
military operations almost constantly kept
him away from his country, no internal
disturbance took place during the thirty-
three years of his reign.

As a matter of fact, Mahmud had no
comprehensive political insight. His Indian
operations were by no means undertaken
with the object of conquering the
magnificent country and furthering the
development of its material resources, but

neighbours. Then he turned his face to
India. In the year 1001 Jaipal was
defeated for the second time and ended
his life upon the funeral pyre, the Western
Punjab, with Lahore, falling into the hands
of the conqueror. This, Mahmud's first
Indian campaign, was succeeded by sixteen
furious raids upon Kashmir, Multan, the
Ganges, and even the southern point of
the peninsula of Gujerat ; especially rich
was the booty gained by the plunder of
the temples of Nagarcot, Tanesar, Somnath
and Mattra; yet the boundaries of the
Ghazni kingdom extended no further
than the Western Punjab. Its extension
upon the west and north was far greater,
for Mahmud found time in the intervals of
these campaigns to conquer the countries
of Ghor, or W T est Afghanistan,
Transoxania and Persia. When
Mahmud died in 1030 at the
age of sixty-three he left a
powerful kingdom behind him. His

were mere raids and forays for the purpose fourteen successors, however, were unable

to preserve it unimpaired ; the quarrels
of pretenders to the throne, internal
revolts, and the attacks of enemies upon
the west and north (the Seljuks) resulted
in eventual disruption. In 1150 Ghazni
fell into the hands of the princes of
Ghor ; its numerous
and magnificent
buildings were
utterly devastated,
and only the tombs
of Mahmud and of
two other princes
remained intact. The
last two members of
the Ghazni house,
Moizz ed - dowlet
Khusru Shah, 1152-
1160, and Khusru
Malik, 1160 - 1186,
maintained an un-
certain sovereignty
in Lahore until this
last remnant of the
o nee p o we rf u J
Ghazni kingdom was
swept away by the
princes of Ghor.

Since the date of
its subjugation by
Mahmud (1010),
Western Afghanistan
had played a sub-

of capturing gold, jewels, and slaves. The
Mohammedan world is inclined to con-
sider Mahmud of Ghazni one of the
greatest rulers of all time, and his co-
religionists and contemporaries regard his
military achievements as unequalled by
those of any ruler ;
but this belief is
founded not so much
upon his military
achievements as
upon the religious
fanaticism which
overthrew the idols
of hostile peoples
and destroyed the
temples of the un-
believers. In this
respect also they
overestimate their
hero and his inten-
tions ; the devasta-
tion of the Indian
temples was under-
taken by Mahmud
chiefly with the
object of plundering
the enormous trea-
sures which had been
gathered there in the
course of centuries.

The first years of GATE LOOTED BY MAHMUD OF GHAZNI

the new ruler Were O ne of the famous sandalwood gates of the Hindu

OCCUDied bv Strug- temple at Somnath which were carried off by Mahmud ordinate part I but 111
r -,-, i of Ghazni in 1024, but which, in 1842, were brought /An-

-,-, i o azn n , u wc, n , were roug

gles with his smaller from Afghanistan to Delhi by Lord Eiienborough
1216

when Ghiyas

SCENE IN THE ANCIENT CITY OF LAHORE

The old city of Lahore was the capital of the Western Punjab. The period of its highest splendour was in the
reign of Akbar, about the end of the sixteenth century. Its carpets, its silks and woollen fabrics, have long been noted.

t'd-din Mohammed ibn-Sam ascended the
throne, the power of Ghor rapidly increased.
The new ruler appointed his brother, Moizz
ed-din Ghori, as co-regent, an unusual
proceeding in a Mohammedan state, and
upon the death of Ghiyas (December loth,
1203), the regent became sole ruler.

In 1186 the Ghaznavid monarch,
Khusru Malik, was attacked, conquered,
imprisoned, and ultimately murdered
along with his sons in 1192. With their
death, the dynasty of the Ghazni princes
became extinct, and the Western Punjab,
with its capital of Lahore, was added to
the kingdom of Moizz ed-din. The ac-
quisition of these territories advanced
the boundaries of Ghor to the immediate
neighbourhood of the Rajput states ;
in particular, the kingdom reached the
frontiers of Ajmir, which was governed by
Pithora Rai. This state became the
object of the next operations of Moizz
ed-din. A battle was fought at Thanes-
vara within the narrow space between the

desert and the mountains, and
Expansion of he streams of the

nmcdan Sarasvati and the Jumna
Tarain, in which the Afghan
cavalry was utterly defeated by the Indian
warrior castes (1191). In the next year,
however, Moizz ed-din conquered Ajmir
and the Hindu states attached to that
kingdom. Pithora Rai was captured in
flight and slain. Shortly afterward Ajmir
fell into the hands of the conqueror, who
displayed even greater cruelty than

Mahmud of Ghazni, and massacred the
inhabitants or sold them into slavery.

He then advanced upon Delhi. This
town, after its capture by his field-marshal,
Kutb ed-din, in 1193, remained hencefor-
ward the chief centre of the Mohammedan
power in Hindostan. In 1194 Moizz ed-
din defeated the prince Jei Chendra, of
Benares and Kanauj,thus ex-
. tending his frontiers to the
Kn dom in bordersof Behar. In the follow-
ing years he was occupied
with his brother in Merv, Kharizm, and
Herat, until the death of the latter left
him the sole ruler of the great kingdom.
In the meantime, Kutb ed-din and the
second in command, the Khilji chieftain,
Mohammed ibn-Bachtyar, had subdued
Behar (1194) and Upper Bengal (1195),
Gwalior (1196), Gujerat and Oudh. The
dynasty of Ghor then attained the
zenith of its power. A defeat suffered
by Moizz ed-din in the course of an under-
taking against Kharizm in 1204 broke
up the western part of the empire as far
as the Punjab*. The sultan, indeed,
succeeded in suppressing the revolts of his
governors in those provinces ; but he
himself fell a victim on the Indus in 1206
to the dagger of an assassin.

Moizz ed-din Ghori left no male descen-
dants, and had made no arrangements
for the succession, the immediate conse-
quence being great disorder. One of his
nephews, Ghiyas ed-din Mahmud, was,
indeed, set up as heir to the throne, but

Z2I7

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

four of his governors in the chief provinces
made themselves practically independent.
In India the experienced general and
governor, Kutb ed-din Ibak, immediately
grasped the reins of government (June
26th), while civil war continued for nine
years (1206-1215) in the other provinces
of the empire, until their incorporation

with Kharizm. When Kutb

declared himself independent,
* Hindustan in its narrower

sense, the district watered by
the Ganges and Jumna which had hitherto
been merely a province of the kingdoms
of Ghazni and Ghor, became independent
also. The new ruler had originally been
a Turkish slave of Moizz ed-din. From
a subordinate position he had gradually
risen to become commander-in-chief and
governor, a career that was typical of
the rise of many rulers in succeeding
times. Though many of these ascended
the throne by hereditary right, yet the
whole of this line of rulers has received
the common name of the Slave Dynasty
(1206-1290).

Kutb had enjoyed his power for only
four years when an accident at polo
caused his death at Lahore in 1210. His
character has been thus well described
by a Mohammedan historian : " The
kingdom was full of the honourable and
cleansed from the rebellious ; his benevo-
lence was as unceasing as his bloodshed."
His religious zeal is evidenced at the present
day by the splendid mosques and the
proud minaret in Old Delhi, which still
bears his name, Kutub Minar. His son,
Aram Shah, was a weak-minded prince,
and in the very year of his accession
(1210) was defeated and apparently mur-
dered by the revolted Shams ed-din
Altamsh, who also had been a Turkish
slave, and had found favour with Kutb,
who had given him his daughter, Malikah
Jihan, in marriage, and entrusted him with
the governorship of Budaun. Altamsh

did not immediately get the

p eri whole country into his power ;

aid War a brother-in-law of Kutb had

made himself independent in
Sindh, Multan, Bhakor, and Sivistan.
The Punjab also revolted from him, and
in Behar and Bengal in 1219 the governor,
Hasan ed-din, of the family of the Khilji,
laid claim to the territory. Before Altamsh
was able to turn upon him, the invading
armies of Genghis Khan burst upon Western
Hindustan.

1218

This conqueror had- utterly devastated
the kingdom of Kharizm, and when the
fugitive monarch, Jelal ed-din Mank-
burni, sought shelter in the Punjab, he
was pursued by Genghis Khan, who
devastated the provinces of Multan, La-
hore, Peshawar and Malikpur (1221-
1222). The fugitive prince of Kharizm
had begged Altamsh for assistance ; the
latter, however, was careful not to irritate
the Mongol bands, and remained inactive
in Delhi until at length the thunder
clouds rolled away as rapidly as they had
come. Thereupon Altamsh subjugated
Bengal and Behar in 1225. In 1228 he
got the Punjab and Sindh into his power,
and also subdued the kingdom of Malwa
in the south after a long struggle (1226-
1232). Those Hindu states which had
not appeared against him in open hostility
were treated mildly and made dependent
upon the kingdom under certain conditions.
On the death of Altamsh (1236), his king-
dom extended from the Indus to the
Brahmaputra, and from the Himalaya
to the Vindhya Mountains. His govern-
ment was well organised, a spirit of vigor-
ous intellectualism prevailed

in his court, and the ruins of
of the Slave Ra p ithira> Qr Q M Delhi> are

evidence not only of the
wealth, but also of the artistic taste
of this highly-gifted monarch. A time
of disturbance followed. In the next
eleven years no less than five descen-
dants of Altamsh sat upon the throne
of Delhi. All the Slave princes were
threatened by danger on three sides from
the Hindus, who were the more reluctant
to submit to a foreign yoke in proportion
to the pressure laid upon them by the
fanatical Mohammedans ; from the
generals and governors who were attracted
by the success which had attended the
rise of the first Slave princes ; and
from the Mongols, whose devastating
campaigns were continually and rapidly
repeated after the first advance of Genghis
Khan.

The immediate successor of Altamsh was
his second son, Feroz Shah Rukn ed-din,
whose government (1236) came to an end
after seven months in a palace revolution.
His place was taken by his sister, Raziyah
Begum, a woman admirably fitted for
supreme power, and the only Mohammedan
queen who reigned upon the throne of
Hindustan (1236-1239). Her powerful and
masculine intellect, her strength and sense

INDIA BEFORE THE MOGUL EMPIRE

of justice, her spirit and courage, enabled
her to fulfil the heavy responsibilities of her
position ; and she did not shrink from
riding into battle upon her war elephant in
male clothing. However, as says the his-
torian, Mohammed Kasim Hindushah
Firishtah (about 1600), her only fault
was that she was a woman. Her love for
an Abyssinian slave made her unpopular
among the people, and a series of revolts
began, which ended in her downfall. The
country was further disturbed both ty
internal dissensions and by Mongol inva-
sions during the short reigns of the two
following rulers (Bahram Shah and Mastud,
1240-1246).

Protection from these dangers was
not forthcoming until the reign of the
serious and upright Nasir ed-din Mahmud
Shah (1246-1266), the sixth son of Altamsh,
who left almost the entire business
of government to his brother-in-law and
father-in-law, the Grand Vizir or Wazir,
Ghiyas ed-din Balban. The Mongols were
defeated in 1247. They had meanwhile
overthrown the Abbassid kingdom of
Bagdad. Hulagu confined his power to
Persia, and expressed his
friendly intentions by sending
an embassy to the court of
Delhi. The spirit of those
times and the character of the all-powerful
wazir can be inferred from the fact that on
the entrance of that embassy the city
gate of Delhi was decorated with the
corpses of Hindu rebels. Of these there
was indeed no lack. Hardly had a revolt
been suppressed in one quarter when new
disturbances broke out elsewhere, and it
became necessary to crush the Hindus with
measures of the sternest repression in the
Jumna Doab, in Bandelkand, in Mewar,
Malwa, Utsh, Karrak, and Manikpur suc-
cessively.

On February i8th, 1266, Mahmud
died, and was succeeded by the wazir
Ghiyas ed-din Balban, who had previously
been the virtual ruler of the empire. He,
too, had begun his career as a Turcoman
slave. He inflicted severe punishment
upon the bands of rebels in the north-east
and upon the Hindus of Mewat, Behar, and
Bengal, and is said to have slaughtered
100,000 men during his conquest of the
Raj puts of Mewar . Among military opera-
tions against foreign enemie>, we must
mention an incursion of the Mongols into
the Punjab. They were defeated in two
battles by the sultan's son, Mohammed

Khan, who was, however, himself slain.
Balban was especially distinguished for his
fanaticism ; and if Delhi under his rule
gained a reputation as a centre of art and
science, this is due not so much to the ruler
as to the disturbances of the period, when
every intellectually gifted man fled to the
place of greatest security. The capital thus
A Centre Decame a refuge for numbers
of Scien e ^ deposed princes and high
A ^ dignitaries, and for a long time

ana Art . .

streets and squares were named
after countries from which those rulers had
been expelled. Balban died at the age of
eighty in 1287. He was succeeded by his
grandson, Moizz ed-din Kei Kobad, a
youth of eighteen, who had inherited his
father's sternness and cruelty without his
strength. He plunged into a life of dis-
sipation and soon became a tool in the
hands of his wazir, Nizam ed-din. In
1290 he regained his freedom of action
by poisoning the wazir, but shortly after-
ward was himself murdered in his palace
by the new wazir, Jelal ed-din.

Even under the rule of Balban a
transformat on had been taking place.
This monarch had abandoned the guiding
principle of his predecessors of placing
upstarts from among the slaves in the
most important offices, and had given
them to men of distinguished families
of Afghan or Turco-Tartar origin. Of
these families one of the most important
had long been that of the Khilji, which
had been settled partly in the district at
the sources of the Amu Daria during the
tenth century, while other branches had
advanced to Afghanistan. There, while
retaining their Turkish dialect, they had
embraced Mohammedanism, and gradually
adopted the Turkish civilisation.

Their tribal chieftain, Jelal ed-din
Khilji, was seventy years of age when the
above-mentioned palace revolution gave
him the supreme power in Delhi in the year
1290. His dynastic title was Feroz Shah
II. To secure his position he put

* A?k* out of the wa Y the son of Kei
of Afghan Kobad> by name Gayomanh.

In other respects, however,
he was a man of mild character well
disposed to all men, moderate to weakness,
even against his foes, a friend to the
learned classes and the priests. He was
soon forced to turn his attention to the
Mongols. These he successfully overthrew
in person in the Punjab (1292), while his
nephew, Ala ed-din Mohammed, whom he

1219

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

had appointed governor of the Doab,
between the Jumna and the Ganges, sup-
pressed a revolt in Bimdelkand and Malwa
(1293). Ala ed-din then advanced, on his
own responsibility, in 1294, with 6,000
horse, upon a mad raid through the path-
less mountains and forests of the Vindhya
Mountains, 700 miles southward. On the
way he plundered the temple of

Treachery Somnath But the greatest
tK&t won

a Throne watched fortress o f Devagiri,
which he captured by treachery. Before
the southern princes were able to collect
their troops, he had returned to his own
province by another road. Under the
pretext of asking pardon from his uncle
for his independent action, he enticed
the aged Feroz Shah into his own pro-
vince, and there had him assassinated
(July I9th, 1295).

This deed is entirely characteristic of
Ala ed-din Mohammed Shah I., who
seized the government in 1296, after
expelling his cousin, Ibrahim Shah I.,
the lawful successor. Cruel, false, and
treacherous, with a ruthless tenacity
which made him secure of his object in
every undertaking, he was an entire
contrast to his benevolent uncle. To his
subjects he was invariably a terror,
although he won general popularity by his
splendid court, his liberality, and good
order. Conspiracies and revolts of rela-
tions, wazirs and Hindus continued
throughout the twenty years of his rule,
but were always suppressed with fearful
severity. The kingdom was also dis-
turbed by three Mongol invasions. The
first of these was vigorously repulsed in
1297, while the other two (1298 and 1303)
created but a small impression, and were
the last of their kind for a long period.
It was not until 1310 that Mohammed
Shah was able to realise the desires he had
formed, on his incursion to Devagiri, of
extending his power upon the south.
The history of the Deccan
during the first Mohammedan
century of North India is occu-
pied by struggles between the
Rajputs and Dravidians, and by the foun-
dation and disappearance of Aryan-
Dravidian kingdoms in the Central Deccan,
such as the Southern Mahratta kingdom,
that of the Eastern Chalukya in Kalinga,
and that of the Western Chalukya in the
Northern Konkan. To these must be
added from the thirteenth century the

1220

Rise and
Fall of
Kingdoms

kingdoms of Ganpati and Bellala ; further
to the south that of Mysore, and the earlier
kingdom of the Pandya, Chola, and Chera.

Mohammed Shah I. entrusted the con-
quest of the Deccan to his favourite,
Malik Kasur, a former Hindu slave, who
had renounced his religion, embraced
Mohammedanism, and risen to the highest
offices in the kingdom. He overran the
Mahratta country in a rapid series of
victories ; the capital of the Bellala,
Dvarasamudra, was captured and plun-
dered (1311) ; the kingdoms of Chola and
Pandya were subjugated ; and in two
years the whole of India, as far as Cape
Comorin, was subject to the rule of Delhi.
The conquered princes became tributary
vassals, though only when they revolted or
declined to pay tribute were they deposed
and their territory incorporated with the
empire.

This brilliant success in no way dimin-
ished the number of revolts which were
called into existence by the universal un-
popularity of the sultan and his favourite.
Mohammed Shah contracted the vice of
drunkenness, and after suffering from
dropsy, died on December igth,

__! n ? 1316, perhaps from poison given
Rulers ' him by Kasur. The latter was,
however, overthrown in the
same year. After the eldest son, Shihab
ed-din~ or Omar Shah, had reigned for a
short period, Mubarek Shah, the third son
of Ala ed-din, ascended the throne on
March 2ist, 1317, and immediately secured
his position by blinding his brother.
Some statesmanlike regulations aroused
general hopes of a good reign, but shortly
afterward the young and voluptuous sultan
left all State business to a Hindu renegade
from the despised Parvari caste, by name
Nasir ed-din Khusru Khan. On March
24th, 1321, the sultan, with all the members
of his family, was murdered by his emir,
who became sultan of Delhi, under the
title of Khusru Shah. Unpopular as he
had been while grand wazir, the animosity
against him was raised to the highest point
by the shameless outrages upon Hindu
and Mohammedan religious feeling whirl i
he committed in giving the wives of thr
murdered sultan to his favourites in
marriage, setting up images of the Hindu
gods in the mosques, and so forth. Fail-
ing a legitimate heir to the throne, a
revolt was headed by the Mohammedan
governor of the Punjab, Ghiyis ed-din
Tughlak ; he attacked and slew the

One of the splendid tombs of antiquity. The domed structure is the tomb proper, and the round tower in
front is one of several such towers that stood around it. The monument stands about a mile from modern Delhi.

A general view of a scene of desolation and of the shadow of departed glory. The old capital of the
Mogul Emperors stands in a barren plain, snakes and other reptiles finding harbour in the crevices of the rums.

RUINS OF ANCIENT DELHI. THE CAPITAL OF THE MOGUL EMPERORS

1221

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

The Rule
of the Son of
a Slave

Mohammed's time that process of disrup-
tion began which made terribly rapid
progress under the following dynasties.

Ghiyas ed-din Tughlak, the son of a
Turcoman slave belonging to the sultan
Balban, and of a Hindu mother, had risen
by his own merits to the position of a
governor in the Punjab, and showed him-
self no less capable during the short period
of his sultanate (1321-1325). He directed
his attention to the improvement of the
country, to the security of the western
frontier, to the recovery of those parts of
the kingdom which had fallen away, and
to the suppression of a rebellion at Tirhat.
Upon his return from Tirhat he and hi<-
eldest son were killed by the collapse of a
pavilion erected for a festival, a catas-
trophe which had perhaps been brought
about by his second son, Fakhr
ed-din Junah Khan, who suc-
ceeded him in the government
as Mohammed Tughlak (1325-
1351). His government was marked by the
infinite misery which he brought upon
the country. He was a man of high
intellectual capacity and had enjoyed an
excellent education, was learned as few
were, a distinguished author and a
patron of learning ; at the same time
he carefully observed all the precepts of

h i s religion,
was liberal
to extrava-
gance, and
founded hos-
pitals, alms-
houses, and
other benevo-
lent institu-
tions. But all
these good
qualities were
entirely over-
shadowed by
the madness
which charac-

THE TOMB OF MOHAMMED TUGHLAK

The ruler whose remains lie in the mausoleum shown above was the ever y political
grandson of a slave. He was "one of the most accomplished princes action. His
furious tyrants who have ever adorned or disgraced humanity."

e c c e n L i i-

city approached the point of insanity. He
led a huge army against the Mongols
with the object of inducing them to
buy his retreat for an enormous sum,
before swords had been so much as drawn
on either side (1327). One hundred thou-
sand men were sent to China, across the
Tibetan passes of the Himalayas, which

unpopular ruler at Delhi, after a reign of
little more than four months.

The supremacy of the Khilji had seen
only three generations ; and of this period
of thirty years two-thirds belong to the
reign of Mohammed Shah I. Under his
strong government the king-
dom had undergone a great
Hindu and transformation . The heredi-

Mohammedan , /. .-.

tary enemies of the country,

the Mongols, had been driven back for a
long period, and, after their conversion
to Mohammedanism, had retired to the
Asiatic highlands. Many of those who had
remained behind embraced Mohammedan-
ism and took service in the army, though
in 1311 they were all put to death in con-
sequence of a conspiracy. The Khilji
showed themselves largely tolerant in
religious questions, and the frequent
revolts of the Hindus were inspired
rather by race-hatred than by religious
oppression. Gradually the points of
difference between the peoples began to
disappear. The Mohammedans adopted
many Hindu customs, and the latter also
began to conform to those of the ruling
race, as is proved by the case of the Hindu
favourites, whose influence was constantly
an important factor in the Indian history of
that period. From this gradual fusion
arose the com-
mercial dialect
of the country,
Hindustani, or
Urdu, the lan-
guage of the
camp. The
different ele-
ments com-
posing the
vocabulary of
this dialect
indicate the
extent of the
racial fusion
which then
took place.

Under Mo-
hammed Shah
I., the king-
dom had attained its greatest extent
abroad. A decree issued in Delhi was
valid as far as the southernmost point
of India, and only a few Rajput princes
continued to maintain their independence.
The acquisitions, however, which had been
made thus rapidly were never united by
any firm bond of union, and even during

1222

and

INDIA BEFORE THE MOGULS

were utterly impassable for an army on volted provinces ended with the acquire-

this scale ; they perished almost to the ment of only a nominal supremacy. The

last man in ice and snow (1337). A country was, however, largely benefited

third army was sent to Persia, but dis- by his domestic policy, and he enabled the

banded before operations began, and the kingdom to recover its prosperity by a

soldiers dispersed plundering over their sensible and upright system of taxation,

own country. by the honesty of his judicial administra-

In 1339 a decree was suddenly issued to tion, by his regulations for military ser-
^he effect that all the in- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ vice, for which pur-

the monarch's pleasure I ; I another in rapid succes-

man-hunting parties were I s ion after the death of

organised throughout I Feroz. The period from

whole provinces ; his own ' ' 1388 to 1394 was one of

subjects were the quarry, TIMUR, THE MOGUL INVADER incessant civil war ; ulti-
and they were killed like The Mongol prince and general whose warriors matelv the once power-
beasts. The taxes were invaded !ndia andca P tured D ' lhi in "98. fu] ki ^ gdom was r duced
raised to an impossible extent and extorted to a few districts in the immediate neigh-
with such cruelty that large masses of the bourhood of Delhi. At this juncture the
peasants fled to the forests and formed Mongols made an invasion in larger
robber bands. The natural result was numbers and with greater ferocity than
that revolts broke out in every direction they had ever previously attempted,
against this mad ruler, and that the They were no longer the undisciplined
provinces strove their utmost to secure hordes of Genghis Khan, but the well-
their independence. The empire, which drilled bands of Timur. While the last
had embraced almost the whole of India of the Tughlak princes, Mahmud Shah II.,

upon the accession of Mohammed ibn
Tughlak, was diminished, at the time of
his death in the fever swamps of Sindh,
by the loss of Bengal, the coasts of

A Dynasty

Becomes

Extinct

found a safe refuge in Gujerat,
the grey-haired conqueror
advanced to Delhi, which
opened its gates to him upon a

Miseries

of a

Mad Reign

Coromandel, Devagiri, Gujerat, Sindh, and promise of protection (December i8th,
all the southern provinces ; of twenty-three 1398). But one of those " misunderstand-
pro vinces scarce half were left to him. ings " which often occurred during the
Mohammed ibn Tughlak, says Mountstuart campaigns of Timur resulted in a fearful
Elphinstone, " left behind him massacre of the population. The con-
the reputation of one of the queror, laden with booty, returned to
most accomplished princes Samarkand in 1399, and Mahmud Tughlak
and furious tyrants who have then reappeared from his hiding-place,
ever adorned or disgraced humanity." With his death, which closed an inglorious
The damage which Mohammed had reign over an empire which was almost
inflicted upon the empire could not be non-existent (February, 1412), the dynasty
repaired even by the upright government of Tughlak became extinct,
of his successor, Feroz Shah III., who was After the Afghan Daulat Khan Lodi
born about 1300 and reigned from 1351 to had ruled for a short period (1413-1414),
1388. His attempts to recover the re- Khizr Khan, who had formerly been a

1223

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

governor and then a revolted emir of
Multan, seized what was left of Hindustan.
His own province speedily revolted, and
his attempts to recover the Punjab before
his death in 1421 proved fruitless, as did
those of his three descendants, Mubarek
Shah II., who ruled till January 28th,
1435, Mohammed Shah IV., until 1445, and
Alim Shah ; their dominion was
emnant p rac ^ically confined to the town
fa of Delhi. These rulers Shiites,

reputed to be of the house
of Ali are collectively known as the
dynasty of the Seiads (1414-1451). Under
Alim Shah the boundaries of the empire
were distant about an English mile from
the capital, and at no time did they extend
further than a distance of twelve miles.

In the year 1451 Bahlul Lodi, who ruled
over the Punjab in Lahore, took possession
of the town of Delhi. He died in 1488, but
his son Nizam Iskander, who died in 1517,
succeeded in extending the boundaries of
the kingdom westward beyond Lahore and
eastward beyond Benares. However, under
the grandson of Bahlul, Ibrahim (1517-
1526), a proud and tyrannical ruler, serious
revolts broke out. The eastern districts
were entirely separated from the kingdom,
and his governors in the Punjab rose
against him and called in his powerful
neighbour Babar from Kabul to their
assistance. These shocks put an end to
the feeble rule of the Lodi princes, and a
new period of brilliant prosperity then
began for Hindustan.

Mohammed ibn Tughlak had undergone
the mortification of seeing the southern
province with its capital of Daulatabad
secede during his lifetime, in spite of the
partiality he had shown for it. The Viceroy
of the district, Hasan Gangu, a Shiite
Afghan, declared himself independent in
1347, transferred the capital to Kulbarga
on the west of Haidarabad, and became the
founder of the Bahmani dynasty. His
frontiers extended from Berar to Kistna,
and from the Sea of Bengal to that of
Arabia ; to this empire were
added Konkan, Khandesh,
and Gujeratbyhis great-grand-
son, Ala ed-din Ahmed Shah
II. (1435-1457). The Bahmani dynasty
attained its greatest power at the outset
of the reign of Mahmud Shah II. (1482-
1518), who ruled over the whole of the
Deccan north of Mysore. This rapid rise
was followed by an equally rapid fall ; by
the revolts of the provincial governors, the

1224

Secession
of a
Province

north was broken into five minor Moham-
medan states between 1484 and 1512, while
in the south the kingdom of Bijanagar
rapidly rose to high prosperity.

Of these revolted governors the first was
Fatteh Ullah Imad Shah, of Berar, a con-
verted Hindu of Bijanagar ; his empire,
which was founded in 1484, continued
until 1568, when it was absorbed by
Akbar. In rapid succession followed the
governors, Adil Shah of Bijapur, whose
empire lasted from 1489 to 1686, and
Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar, from 1490 to
1595. Two years later the governor, Barid
Shah, of Bedar, made himself independent,
his dynasty lasting until 1609, as did
finally in 1512 Kutb Shah of Golconda,
his dynasty lasting until 1687. None of
these petty Mohammedan states were
able to secure predominance, and after a
varying period of prosperity all were re-
absorbed into that Delhi kingd6m from
which they had originated.

In this rivalry of the Mohammedan
Deccan states the greatest success was
attained by a Hindu state in the south,
the kingdom of Bijanagar, which was
founded in 1326 by two fugitives from the
low caste tribe of the shepherds,
though it was unable to attain
any considerable importance
in view of the overwhelming
strength of its Mohammedan neighbours
on the north. The first dynasty of Bija-
nagar became extinct in 1479 > the second,
a side branch of Narasinha, founded about
1450, rapidly rose to prosperity. The
Chola had long since lost their former
importance, and the power of the Pandya
was then broken. At the end of the
fifteenth century Bijanagar was indis-
putably the predominant Hindu power
in the south of the peninsula ; the petty
Hindu states from Kattak, or Cuttack, to
Travancore were dependent upon this
kingdom. At the beginning of the six-
teenth century it was in possession of the
whole of the east coast.

The importance of this great Hindu
state and of its artistic rulers is evidenced
by the magnificent ruins which are now
buried in the jungles of Bellary. Bijanagar
was under no apprehension of attack from
the Mohammedan states in the north,
which held one another in check until the
middle of the sixteenth century ; when,
however, they joined in common action
against the Hindu state, the latter inevit-
ably collapsed.

Short Life

of a

Hindu State

MOHAM-
MEDAN
INDIA-II

PROFESSOR

EMIL
SCHMIDT

THE MOGUL EMPIRE

IN THE HEIGHT OF ITS POWER AND GLORY

HTHE series of the so-called Mogul or
Mongol emperors begins with one of
the most brilliant and attractive figures in
the whole of Asiatic history, the sultan
Mohammed Babar, who earned the
title of " the Lion." In fact, his
race was Turk rather than Mongol. He
was the son of Omar four generations
removed from Timur in direct descent
one of the small princes in the magnifi-
cent mountain country of Ferghana in
the upper Oxus district, his mother being
a Mongolian woman. On the death of his
father in 1493 he found himself surrounded
by danger on every side. In 1494 he took
up the reins of government in person, and
the following ten years of his life are full
of battles and dangers, bold exploits and
severe defeats, brilliant successes and
heavy losses ; now he was on the throne
of a great kingdom, and again an almost
abandoned fugitive in the
ir inaccessible gorges of his
nat i ye mountains ; his adven-
tures during that period would
themselves suffice to make up the most
eventful life that man could possibly
desire. At the end of 1504 he was obliged
to yield before the superior power of the
Uzbegs, and, giving up all hope of territory
from that side of the Hindu Rush, he fled
across the mountains to Afghanistan.
Two months later (1505) he had taken
Kabul, which remained henceforward in
his possession, but even then his life was
a constant series of desperate efforts and
remarkable changes of fortune. At the
same time his personality is most human,
and for that reason most attractive ;
he was a man of pure and deep feeling,
his love for his mother and his relations
was as remarkable as his kindness to his
conquered foes. The depth and the
warmth of these sympathies he has ex-
pressed with every elaboration of style
in Turkish and Persian songs, and his
memoirs, written in East Turkish, reflect

an extraordinary character and certainly
form one of the most remarkable works
in the literary history of any nation.

The defeats which Babar had suffered in
Transoxania and Bactria induced him
to turn his gaze to India ; he was able to
claim the Punjab as the heir of Timur,
and the invitation of Daulat Khan, the
. rebel Lodi governor in Lahore,

Invades ^ aVG ^ m ^ Ot ^ a P retext anc ^ a
motive for attacking the neigh-
bouring kingdom in 1524. He
found no difficulty in overcoming such
resistance as was offered in the Punjab.
He was especially superior to his opponents
in artillery, and crossed the Sutlej at the
end of 1525. At Panipat, between the
Sutlej and the Jumna, ten miles north
of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi took up a position
on April 2ist, 1526, with a force whose
numbers are reported as 100,000 soldiers
and 1,000 war elephants to oppose the
25,000 warriors of Babar, and lost both
his throne and his life. Delhi and Agra,
which had been the residence of the
Hindustan Afghans from 1503 to 1504,
immediately fell into the hands of the
conqueror, who divided the rich imperial
treasures among his warriors, including the
famous diamond, the Kohinoor, "the
mountain of light." This jewel, which
had previously been taken from the Khilji
Mohammed Shah, now fell to the lot of
Humayun, the son of Babar ; after many
vicissitudes, it ultimately became the
glory -of the British Crown
G jewels. The victory of Panipat

* / ea gave Babar possession of North
ory India to the north-east of
Delhi and also the small strip of land
along the Jumna as far as Agra.

Shortly before the end of 1526 he was
also master of the district south of the
Jumna as far as Gwalior. He was now
opposed by the Hindus. The princes ol
Rajputana, led by Rana Sanka, marched
against him with a powerful army to a

1225

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

point seven miles west oi Agra. A battle
was fought at Fattehpur Sikri, or Kanwa,
on March i6th, 1527, where the Rajputs
were utterly defeated ; Mewar fell into the
hands of the conqueror, who immediately
proceeded to reorganise the administration
of his new acquisitions. How
the Rajputs could fight with
the courage of despair, Babar
was to learn in the follow-
ing year when he besieged
one of the princes who had
escaped from the battle of
Sikri, in his fortress of
Chanderi. As his troops were
storming the walls on the
second day the enemies set
fire to the town with their
wives and children after the
manner of the old Kshatriyas,
and then rushed upon the
foe with drawn swords ; the
bodyguard of the prince
killed one another, each man
struggling for the first blow.

his high ambition, his warmth of heart,
and his unchanging fidelity. Babar had
intended Humayun to become ruler of
the kingdom, and had destined the gover-
norship of Kabul and Kandahar for his
second son, Kamran. Humayun con-
sidered that his brother
would be more closely united
to himself if he also received
the governorship of the
Punjab. But by thus re-
nouncing his native territory
he also lost command of the
stout warrior Afghan tribes,
thereby considerably weaken-
ing his military power in
India ; and this, moreover,
at a time when enemies rose
against him on every side,
after the disappearance of
the powerful figure of Babar.
His first duty was to crush
the revolts raised by the
generals of the last Afghan

THE EMPEROR BABAR
Who reigned from 1525 to 1530

In 1529 rulers, and then to punish Bahadur Shah,

Mahmud Lodi, a brother of Ibrahim, was the Raja of Gujerat, for his intrigues,
expelled from Oudh, the southern part of Bahadur was expelled by the emperor in

Behar on the right
bank of the Ganges
was captured, and the
Raja Nasir ed-din
Nasrat Shah of Bengal
was forced to lay
down his arms.

In three years
Babar had conquered
in a series of brilliant
victories the whole of
the plains of Northern
India as far as
Bengal. Now, how-
ever, his health, which
had been undermined
by the extraordinary
privations of his life,
began to fail. On
December 26, , 1530,
Babar the Lion died
before he had reached
the age of fifty ; his last
words to his son and

heir, Humayun, Were This great Mogul emperor was a man of strong

BABAR REVIEWING HIS TROOPS

person ; hardly, how-
ever, had he returned
to his capital to deal
with an outbreak in
Bengal, when the
troops he had left in
Gujerat were driven
out and he was even
obliged to renounce
his claims to Malwa.

Meanwhile, upon the
east, in Bengal, a
heavy storm was
threatening the Mogul
power. Ferid Khan, a
Mohammedan of high
talent, who apparently
belonged to the Afghan
royal family of the
Suri, had assumed the
leadership of all the
enemies of the Mogul
rule, and was speedily
able to secure the
possession of Bihar.

Do not kill your character ' wide tolerance and wa sympathy. fj umayun was forced

brothers, but watch over them tenderly."
Babar was succeeded by his son, Nasir
ed-din Mohammed Humayun, who was
born in 1507 ; he, however, had not in-
herited either his father's iron will or his
pertinacity, much less his firm principles,

1226

to besiege the strong fortress of Chunar.
an operation which detained him for many
months at Benares ; meanwhile, Bengal
was conquered by his cunning opponent,
who had in the meantime adopted the
title of Sher, or " Lion," Shah. He then

INDIA THE MOGUL EMPIRE

defeated the descendant of Timur in two
battles in 1539 and 1540 ; after these
misfortunes Humayun was obliged to
abandon his kingdom and take refuge
with his brother Kamran at Lahore.

Here, however, his position was equally
unstable. Kamran was
terror-stricken at the un-
expected success of Sher
Shah, with whom he con-
cluded peace, the price
being the cession of the
Punjab, while the deposed
emperor was forced to spend
a period of disappointment,
terrible privation, and con-
stant flight in Rajputana ;
on October I4th, 1542, his
son Akbar was born to him
the desert of Thar at

the time of his greatest
need. In 1543 he turned to
Kandahar. Sher Shah, who
had been master of the
whole Ganges district since

Disturbances broke out in every quarter,
and the way was opened for the return of
Humayun. He defeated two armies in
Sirhind, and returned to Delhi as king in
the summer of 1555 ; but, almost exactly
six months after his re-entry, he died in
January, 1556, from an
injury caused by a fall.

The young Abul-fath Jelal
ed-din Akbar, who ascended
the throne of Hindustan on
February 23rd, 1556, had
been entrusted by his father
to the care of the faithftil
Turcoman Bairam Khan,
whose bold action had in the
meantime inflicted a total
defeat upon the armies of the
Lodis, under Hemu, on
November 5th, 1556, in a
second battle of Panipat, and
had advanced beyond Delhi
THE EMPEROR HUMAYUN an d Agra. State administra-

t j on wag f or f our y ears carried

Who reigned from 1530 to 1556.

his decisive on also by Bairam, who made himself un-
victories over Humayun, now turned his
attention to the improvement of domestic
organisation, and did his best to foster
the progress of agriculture, to provide for
public peace and security, to improve com-
munication by making long roads, and to
reorganise the

bureau-
c r a c y , the
taxation
system, and
the adminis-
tration of jus-
tice. He met
with a violent
death on May
22nd, 1545,
during the
siege of a hos-
tile fortress.

His succes
s o r , S e 1 im
Shah,
tempted to
continue his
father's ad-
m i n istration ;
his short reign

(1545-1553) was largely occupied with the
suppression of different revolts. Under
the government of his incompetent or
vicious successors, Feroz (1553), Moham-
med (1553), Ibrahim (1554) and Secander
(1555), the empire rapidly fell to pieces.

THE TOMB OF HUMAYUN AT DELHI

Humayun was the son of the great emperor Babar, and the father
of Akbar ; he possessed none of the great qualities of these rulers, and
his reign was interrupted by a usurpation while he was a fugitive.

Mecca.

popular by his jealousy for the prestige
of his title of Khan Babu, or royal father.
However, during a hunting expedition
Akbar suddenly returned to the capital,
and in 1560 issued a decree to the effect
that he would henceforward take all State

business under
his own con-
trol. Bairam
i n surprise
attempted a
revolt, but,
lacking ad-
herents, was
obliged to
submit to the
young em-
peror, who re-
c e i v e d him
with all
honour. In
the same year
Bairam was
murdered by
one of his
enemies when
on the point of
making a pil-
grimage to Mecca. Akbar was then
obliged to confront the task of uniting
into one powerful kingdom the whole ol
Hindustan, which had been devasted by
centuries of war and was broken into
hundreds of petty principalities. Before

1227

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

his time every conqueror had been the whether Hindu or Dravidian, he was a
ruler of a foreign land, whence he had man obviously marked out to weld the
drawn support and strength ; Akbar at the conflicting elements of his kingdom into
age of eighteen was obliged to rely jupon a strong and prosperous whole.

In all seriousness he devoted himself

himself alone. The character of Babar
had been inherited by his grandson ; Akbar
possessed his grandfather's intellectual
powers, his iron will, and his great heart
with all its kindness and benevolence.

TOMB OF ONE OF HUMAYUN'S* MINISTERS AT DELHI

Humayun's Minister, Tardi Beg Khan, was Governor of Delhi when it was taken by
the army of the Lodis, during the minority of Akbar, Humayun's son and successor.
He was beheaded, and is said to be buried in this tomb, although this is questioned.

The son of a fugitive emperor, born in
the desert, brought up in nominal confine-
ment, he had known the bitter side of life
from his youth up. Fortune had given
him a powerful frame, which he trained
to support the extremities of exertion.
Physical exercise was with him a passion ;
he was devoted to the chase, and especi-
ally to the fierce excitement of catching the
wild horse or elephant or slaying the
dangerous tiger. On one occasion, when
it was necessary to persuade the Raja of
Jodpur to abandon his intention of forcing
the widow of his deceased son to mount
the funeral pyre, Akbar rode 220 miles
in two days. In battle he displayed the
utmost bravery. He led his troops in
G person during the dangerous

rea e s ^^ Q ^ a cam p a jg nj leaving

Em eror to his g enerals the lighter task
of finishing the war. In every
victory he displayed humanity to the
conquered, and decisively opposed any
exhibition of cruelty. Free from all those
prejudices which separate society and
create dissension, tolerant to men of other
beliefs, impartial to men of other races,

1228

to the work of peace. Moderate in all
pleasures, needing but little sleep, and
accustomed to divide his time with the
utmost accuracy, he found leisure to devote
himself to science
and art after tlu-
completion of his
State duties. The
famous personages
and scholars who
adorned his capital
were at the same
time his friends ;
every Thursday even-
ing a circle of these
was collected for
intellectual conversa-
tion and philosophi-
cal discussion. His
closest friends were
two highly talented
brothers, Shekh Feizi
and Abul Fazl, the
sons of a learned
free - thinker. The
elder of these was a
famous scholar in
Hindu literature ; with his help, and
under his direction, Akbar had the most
important of the Sanscrit works translated
into Persian. Fazl, on the other hand,
who was an especially close friend of Akbar,
was a general, a statesman, and an
. organiser, and to his activity

R . Akbar's kingdom largely owed
Maecenas the son '^arity of its internal
organisation. For a long
period in. India, central authority of
any description had been unknown, and
the years of Humayun's exile had proved
unfavourable to the introduction of
a stricter system among the Moguls.
Under Akbar, also, many generals, after
he had reduced a revolted province to
order, attempted to keep back the taxes
payable to Delhi and to claim the district
for themselves, as in Oudh, Malwa, and
Bengal. Some were overthrown with a
strong hand, others the emperor was able
to bring over to himself by clemency. His
own brother, Mohammed Hakim, who
attempted to occupy the Punjab in 1566,
was expelled from the country. Akbar
won over the Rajput princes by a display

INDIA THE MOGUL EMPIRE

of kindness and concession. He himself
married the two princesses of Ambur and
Marwar; and his eldest son, Selim or
Jehangir, had a princess of Ambur to
wife. The princes of those petty states
who were treated by the powerful Emperor
as equals gladly forgot that their ruler
was an alien both by his creed and his
descent, and considered it an
honour to occupy high positions
in Akbar's army. Of these one
only,, the Prince of Chitor,
maintained an attitude of hostility. His
capital was besieged by Akbar in 1567,
and the bold commander was shot by the
emperor himself upon the walls. After
the old Rajput custom, the garrison first
killed their wives and children, and then
themselves ; but the prince, who had fled,
still declined to submit. At a later period,
during Akbar's lifetime, the son of this
expelled monarch succeeded in founding
a new state in Udipur, whose rulers still
pride themselves upon the fact that their
genealogy remains unstained by any trace
of connection with the emperors of Delhi.
The remnants of the last Mohammedan
dynasty offered a yet more vigorous
resistance to Akbar
than the Rajputs had
done. In 1559 these
"Afghans" were ex-
pelled from Oudh and
from Mai wa. InGujerat
various pretenders to
the throne were quarrel-
ling among themselves.
One of these called in
Akbar to his help.
Akbar adopted a
strong policy and ex-
pelled the combatants
collectively, reconstitu-
ting the country as a
province in the years
1572-1573. In 1581
fresh disturbances
broke out, and an
indecisive struggle was
continued for a long
period, until peace was
at last secured by the death of Mozaffar
III. Habib in 1593. Similarly, much time
elapsed before Bengal was definitely con-
quered. With the exception of the son of
Suleiman Khan Kararani, Daud Shah,
who had surrendered in 1576, neither
the Mogul generals nor the Afghans were
definitely pacified until 1592. Orissa also

fell into the power of the ruler of Delhi.
In Sindh . military adventurers, stragglers
left from the Afghan supremacy, also con-
tinued their intrigues ; they were subdued
in 1592, and pacified by the gift of high
positions within the empire. A short
campaign against Prince Yusuf of
Kashmir, belonging to the Chak dynasty,
led, in 1586-1587, to the incorporation of
that province, which now became a
favourite summer residence of the Mogul
emperors. A harder struggle was fought
with the Yusufzai tribes of the almost
inaccessible Kafiristan. Even at the
present day the configuration of their
district has enabled them tp maintain
E . their independence. ' The last

Akbar's* conc l uest m tne extreme west
Em ire was Kandahar, which had been
already occupied by Humayun,
but had been retaken by the Persians in
the first years of Akbar's reign. The
emperor recovered this district in 1593-

1594-

Thus the kingdom of Akbar extended
from Afghanistan to Orissa, and from the
Himalaya to the Narbada. Beyond this
latter boundary the confusion was no less

THE TOMB

SHER SHAH AT SASSERAM

Ferid Khan, a Mohammedan of high talent, deposed Humayun, the son and successor
of Babar, and, under the name of Sher Shah, reigned until his own death in 1545.

than it had previously been in the north.
Akbar was called in by one of the dis-
putants, and his army quickly got posses-
sion of Berar, with its capital, Ellichpur.
An unexpected resistance was, however,
encountered before Ahmednagar, the cen-
tral point of the Mohammedan states of
the Deccan. A woman of unusually strong

1229

IN THE ROYAL CITY

These different views of the ruins of the palaces of Fattepur Sikri at Agra represent buildings dating from
1556-1605, and are thus monuments of the days of Akbar, perhaps the greatest emperor who ever held sway in India.

1230

INDIA THE MOGUL EMPIRE

character, by name Chand Bibi, who was
regent for her great-nephew Bahadur
Nizam Shah during his minority, united
several of the disputing princes before the
approaching danger. When besieged in
her capital, she succeeded in inspiring her
adherents with so fierce a spirit of resistance
that the Moguls were glad, in 1596, to
conclude peace on the condition that the
claims of Chand Bibi to Berar should
be given up. Fresh disturbances led
to a renewed invasion of the Moguls.
After an indecisive battle, Akbar himself,
in 1599, took command of his troops, but
Ahmednagar resisted until Chand Bibi
was murdered by her own troops in 1600.
Akbar now set up a
nominal ruler, Mor-
teda II., whose
dynasty came to an
end in 1637 under
Shah Jehan.

The last years of
Akbar's life were
troubled by severe
domestic misfortunes
and by his sorrow at
the death of his
friend, Abul Fazl.
The Prince Selim,
or Jehangir, who had
been appointed his
successor, was ad-
dicted to the plea-
sures of drink and
opium, and was of a
passionate temper
and a deadly enemy
of his father's chief

powers were broken. After a long illness
his condition rapidly grew worse, and on
October 15, 1605, died Akbar, the greatest
ruler who ever sat upon the throne of
India.

Under the rule of every Mohammedan
conqueror who had invaded India from
the north-west, the land had suffered by
reason of the twofold antagonisms of
religion and race. The Hindus, who formed
the majority of the population, were
considered of no account ; they repaid
with their hatred the pride and scorn with
which they were treated, and prosperity
for India was obviously impossible under
such rulers. History has justly honoured
Akbar with the title
of " The Great/' but
the honour is due
less to his military
successes, great as
they were, than to
the insight with
which he furthered
the internal welfare
of the country and
to the manner in
which he softened
the antagonisms of
religion and race by
gradually obliterating
the most salient
differences.

At the time of his
accession Akbar was
a good Mohamme-
dan, and in 1576 he
projected a pilgrim-
age to Mecca to the

counsellor, Fazl. ... IN IA '?. G ? E A TES 7 A1 AT i VE EMPEROR grave of the Prophet.

AIT. i_ j A i The strength and wisdom of Akbar, his measures of reform, x, ., r .

Akbar had appointed his equal treatment of all races and creeds, and the nobility Shortly alter"
his SOn as Viceroy of his character amply justify his title of "The Great." however, the

of Ajmir ; that, however, proved insufficient
to satisfy his ambition. He aimed at the
possession of the Imperial throne, took
possession of the State treasury, assumed
the title of King, and occupied Oudh and
Behar. Akbar, however, treated him
kindly, and Selim made a show of sub-
mission, but revenged himself by a
cowardly stroke. He incited one of the
petty princes in Bandelkand to murder
Abul Fazl by treachery in 1602. This
calamity was followed by the loss of
Danial, the third prince, who succumbed
to an attack of dropsy on April 8, 1605,
a disease which had already carried off
his elder brother Murad in 1599. By these
heavy blows of adversity the emperor's

change of philosophical ideas at his even-
ing gatherings was stimulated by the
presence not only of the Mohammedan
mollah, but also of the learned Brahman
priest, and even the Roman missionary.
No one of these religions appeared to him
as absolutely true. Under their influence,
and in the conversation of his confidential
friends that conception of the jealous God
which Mohammed had borrowed from
Moses was transformed to the idea of a
Supreme Being watching over all men with
equal love ; while the doctrine of the God
incarnate became in him a pure belief, high
above all material conceptions, to the
effect that the Deity can be apprehended
not through any revelation in human

1231

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

shape, but only by the exercise of reason
and understanding ; that He is to be
served not by all kinds of ceremonies
and empty forms, but by moral purity of
life. If weak humanity desires material
symbols of the Supreme Being, then the
loftiest to be found are the
Religious sun ^ the constellations, or the
fire. Akbar's conception of
God left no place for ritual
precepts, for prophets or priests. To
support his dignity, however, in the
eyes of the people, he issued decrees
announcing that the king was the head
of the Church, his for-
mula of confession
being as follows :
" There is no God but
God, and Akbar is his
Caliph." At the same
time, he never em-
ployed force to impose
his religious views upon
dissentients. These
views, indeed, were
too abstract and pro-
found for popular con-
sumption, and were
unintelligible except to
a small circle of philo-
sophical adherents.
Toleration was a funda-
mental principle in his
character, and he was
never anxious to con-
vert the members of
other religions. Every
Mussulman was
allowed the free exercise
of his religious prin-
ciples ; but, on the
other hand, such prin-
ciples were binding

tax upon unbelievers, a source of deep
dissatisfaction among the Hindus, and
the dues levied upon pilgrims during their
journeys, were entirely remitted. Their
religious practice was interfered with only
in cases where the pronouncements of
the priests were totally opposed to the
principles of humanity as, for instance,
in cases of trial by ordeal, child marriage,
compulsory death upon the funeral pyre,
and the enforced celibacy of widows. The
civil rights of Mohammedans and Hindus
in no way differed, and every position in
the state, high or low, was open to mem-
bers of either religion.
In the domestic
administration of his
great kingdom Akbar
displayed the greatest
foresight and energy.
Former rulers had been
accustomed to collect
the taxes by methods
inconceivably disas-
trous. The revenues of
important districts had
been appropriated to
individual generals, who
were allowed to extort
the utmost possible
amount from the in-
habitants, and for this
purpose large masses of
troops were perma-
nently kept on foot.
The Imperial taxes
properly so-called were
collected by an army of
officials who were
accessible to influence
of every kind, and
appropriated no small
portion of the receipts

JEHANGIR, THE SON OF AKBAR

Upon 110 One else. Thus Mohammed Selim, the son whom Akbar appointed as they passed through
j , his successor, and who reigned as Jehangir, or " the ,, . / r -, c , C i ,

he was opposed to those world's Conqueror," undid much of his father's their hands. Sher Shah

many forms Of COmpul- work and P roved a most unworthy successor.

which Mohammedanism lays

sion wmcn ivionammeaanism lays upon
public and private life. Akbar did nothing
to further the study of the language of the
Koran, and showed no preference for
Arabic names such as Mohammed, or
Ahmed. The formula of greeting, " Peace
be with you," was replaced by the sentence,
" God is great."

Thus to a certain extent Akbar cur-
tailed the privileges of his native religion.
At the same time he removed many of the
disabilities which burdened the Hindus
and their religious practices. The poll-

1232

had been the only ruler
to introduce a more equitable system of
taxation, and the regulations made during
his short reign were swept away in the con-
fusion of the following years. In its main
details Akbar's system was a further deve-
lopment and extension of that
Reform Qf Sher Shah< He wag fortunate

f . in finding in the Hindu Todar
* Mai a man of stainless probity
and admirable capacity for organisation,
who did more than anyone else to renovate
the administration and especially the taxa-
tion system. Todar Mai was the first official

INDIA THE MOGUL EMPIRE

to the Court of the
India between 1615

to make a complete and exact census of the
whole territory north of the Narbada. A
survey was taken of all arable land, an
accurate estimate made of the products,
and taxation was calculated from these
data, the amount being established at
one-third of the average produce for the
previous ten years. Undue severity was
thus avoided as far as
possible, and in times of
famine or failure of the crops
taxes were remitted and
advances made of gold or
corn. Sher Shah had, indeed,
appointed only one- fourth of
the yearly produce as the
unit of 'taxation. Akbar's
regulations, however, proved
more advantageous both for
the State and for the agri-
cultural population, as specu-
lation was prevented by a
strict system of bookkeeping
and by the possibility of
appeal to higher officials ;
while the fixity of the regulations enabled
one-half of the revenue officials to be dis-
pensed with. All officials, officers and
soldiers included, received a fixed and
liberal salary, and were no longer obliged
to depend upon incomes drawn legally or
illegally from subsidiary sources. *

Trade and commerce were promoted,
a strong impulse in this
direction being given by the
introduction of a uniform
currency. The hundreds of
different currencies which
had hitherto been in circula-
tion were called in, and an
Imperial coinage was struck
in the mints of every
province. The empire was
divided into fifteen provinces
three of which were in the
Deccan and these were
governed under Imperial
direction by governors, who
were invested with civil and
military powers. The admini-
stration of justice as far as
the Mohammedans were concerned, lay in
the hands of a supreme judge, Mir-i-adl,
whose decision was final. He was assisted
by a Kasi, who undertook preliminary
investigations and produced the legal
codes bearing upon the case. The Hindus
were judged by Brahmans with a legal
training. The organisation of the army was,

SHAH JEHAN I.
Who reigned from 1627 to 1668

comparatively speaking, less vigorous and
consistent. On the whole, however, the
internal organisation of the state, which
was laid down to the smallest detail in the
ordinances of Akbar, marked a great step
in advance, and proved a blessing to
the country, which enjoyed a prosperity
hitherto unexampled.

When Akbar died, he had
appointed as his successor his
son, Nur-ed-din Mohammed
Selim, who took the Imperial
title of Jehangir that is,
World Conqueror. In pre-
vious years he had often been
a sore anxiety to his father,
chiefly by reason of his
drunkenness and furious
temper, which provoked him
to acts of cruelty and fre-
quently broke out during his
reign. When his chief
general, Mahabat Khan, had
mperor*of married his daughter without
18> previously announcing his
intention, he had the newly-wed couple
flogged with thorns, and deprived the
general of the dowry and of his private
possessions. After the revolt of his son
Khusru, he had 700 of his adherents
impaled along the road before the gates
of Lahore, while his son was conducted in
chains upon an elephant through this
avenue.

Sir Thomas Roe made some
stay at the Indian court
from 1615 to 1618 as the
ambassador of King James I.,
and has given us an account
of the brilliancy of the court
life, of the Emperor's love for
splendour and display, of his
kindness to Europeans,
numbers of whom came to
his court, of his tolerance to
other religions and especially
to Christianity. Two pearls
in his crown were considered
by -him as representing the
heads of Christ and Mary,
and two of his nephews were
allowed to embrace Christianity. The same
ambassador, however, also relates accounts
of banquets that lasted through the night,
of which drunkenness was the invariable
result, the orgies being led by the Emperor
himself. At the same time the Emperor
attempted to play the part of a stern
Mohammedan ; when during the day one

1233

RUINS OF OLD AGRA WITH THE TAJ MAHAL IN THE DISTANCE

of the initiated allowed a thoughtless
reference to one of these orgies to escape
him, the Emperor asked seriously who had
been guilty of such an offence against the
law, and inflicted so severe a bastinado
upon those who had been his guests at the
forbidden entertainment that one of them
died. Of the general condition of the

empire, Roe gives a description

k which compares unfavourably

j ss a >r with the state of affairs under

Akbar. He praises the financial
arrangements, but characterises the ad-
ministration as loose, the officials as
tyrannical and corrupt, and mentions the
decay of militarism in the army, the
backbone of which was now the Rajput
and Afghan contingents. "The time will,
come," he wrote, " when all in these
kingdoms will be in great combustion."
However, the reign of Jehangir passed
without any great collapse ; Akbar's insti-
tutions had been too firmly 'rooted to fall
by the maladministration of one govern-
ment only.

Jehangir had been already, in 1586,
married at an early age to a daughter
of Rai Singh of Amber ; a Persian woman,
however, by name Nur Jehan, " The
Light of the World," gained complete in-
fluence over him. Her grandfather had
occupied an important position in Tehe-
ran ; her father, however, was so im-
poverished that the future Empress upon
her birth was exposed in the street, where
a rich merchant found her, adopted her,
and called in her own mother as foster

1234

nurse.

Nur Jehan received a good educa-
tion, and by her wit and beauty she won
the heart Of Jehangir, then Crown Prince,
whose attentions became so pressing that
upon Akbar's advice a young Persian was
given her hand together with an estate in
Bengal. Hardly had Jehangir been a
year upon the throne when he made pro-
posals to the husband, which the latter
answered* by killing the emissaries who
brought them and was himself cut to pieces
in consequence. In 1611 Nur Jehan gave
way, and henceforward her influence over
the Emperor was complete. As long
as her excellent father, who had been
made wazir of the empire, was alive,
she exerted that influence for good ;
Jehangir restrained his drunkenness, and
ceased those inhumanities which had
stained the imperial title in previous years.
A war with Udipur was rapidly brought
to an end in 1614 by the second prince,
Shihab ed-din Mohammed Khurram, or
Shah Jehan ; his bold action also brought
the war against the Mohammedan Deccan,
which had opened unfavour-
ably, to a successful conclusion.

Co Tort The Em P eror hated his eldest
son, Khusru, who died in im-
prisonment in 1622 ; but the second was
both his favourite and that of the Empress,
who gave him her niece in marriage ; he
was publicly appointed successor to the
throne. Nur Jehan, however, had con-
sulted no one's pleasure but her own after
her father's death, and she now gave her
favour to the youngest of the princes, who

INDIA THE MOGUL EMPIRE

was closely connected with herself by his
marriage with her daughter.

When his father fell seriously ill,
Shah Jehan, who had been placed in the
background, marched upon Delhi, but
was obliged to retreat to Telingana and
Bengal, where he was defeated by Mahabat
Khan. The latter then suddenly incurred
the displeasure of the Empress, and with
a view of anticipating any act of hostility
on her part, he seized the person.s both of
the Emperor and the Empress. They
succeeded in escaping from imprisonment
and in concluding a compact with Mahabat
which provided that he should once more
take the field against Shah Jehan ; but
the general was afraid of the later ven-
geance of Nur Jehan and deserted to the
prince. There was no
further collision
between the two parties;
the Emperor died in
1627, while upon a
journey from Kashmir
to Lahore. Nur Jehan
was treated with respect
by the successor to the
throne ; she survived
her husband by nine-
teen years, which she
spent in dignified seclu-
sion, winning universal
affection by her bene-
volence.

Shah Jehan I., after
the slaying of his
brother Shahriyar, who
had formed an alliance
with two sons of Danial,
and the suppression of
a revolt in Bandelkand,
put an end to the short
rule of his nephew
Dawarbakhsh, the son
of Khusru, and found
himself in undisputed
possession of the throne
in 1628 : under his rule

the far side of the Narbada. Though he is
described as reserved and exclusive before
his accession, he afterwards appeared
kindly, courteous, and paternally benevo-
lent to his subjects, and succeeded in
winning over those Mohammedans whom
Akbar had formerly affronted, without
losing the good-will of the Hindus.

The best evidences for the brilliance of
this period are the numberless private
and public buildings which arose under the
government, not only in the two capitals
of Delhi and Agra, but also in all other
important centres in the kingdom, even in
places which are now abandoned. Under
Shah Jehan, Delhi was as entirely
transformed as Rome under Nero or Paris
under Napoleon III. The palaces of his
period, with their recep-
tion rooms, their marble
pillared halls, their
courts and private
rooms, together with
the mosques and mauso-
leums, marked the
zenith of Mohammedan
art in India. Of these
monuments the most
famous is the mauso-
leum called the Taj
Mahal, "Crown of the
Harem," the grave of
Nur Mahal, "Light of
the Harem," a favourite
consort of the Emperor.
Opposite the imperial
fortress of Agar rises
this building, one of the
most delicate construc-
tions in the world, its
outline clear and simple
as crystal, built in
marble of wonderfully
delicate colouring, with
decorations which bear
the mark of a fine and
restrained taste. Sym-
bolical of court life and

NUR MAHAL, "LIGHT OF THE HAREM

~ The Taj Mahal, the richest mausoleum in all 'the sp l e ndour Was the fam-
the Mogul Empire at- wor i d was built by the Emperor Jehan in memory of - l

tained the zenith of its his wife, Nur Mahal, who is here represented in an OUS peaCOCk throne, a

wealth and ^ prospenly. ^avin, from DapperV- Asia," P uEi 1S hed 1 n 1 e 72 . decoration for the
The Emperor displayed great perspicacity
in the choice of capable officials, exercised
a strong personal supervision over the
administration, introduced many improve-
ments, and in the course of twenty years

extended the system of territorial occu-
pation and taxation which had been
created by Todar Mai to the districts on

imperial chair, made of diamonds,
emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and other
jewels, which represented in its form and
colours a peacock's tail fully extended.
The traveller Jean Baptiste Tavermer
(1605-1689), a jeweller by profession,
estimates the collective value of the
precious stones employed in this ornament

1235

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

A Period
of High

at $802,500,000. Though such works of
architecture and artistic skill must have
cost enormous sums, and though many
lives were sacrificed in the numerous wars
of Shah Jehan, the people enjoyed high
prosperity under his rule ; and the
Emperor, surpassing in this respect the
Medicean Lorenzo " the Magnificent,"
left a vast quantity of State
treasures behind him at his
death. Those disturbances
which had broken out in the
Deccan in 1629 were speedily suppressed
by the Emperor, who forced the State
of Ahmednagar to conclude a peace
favourable to Delhi. After a fresh out-
break four years later this . province
was incorporated with the Delhi kingdom
in 1637, an d Abdallah of Golconda, an
ally of Ahmednagar, was forced to pay
tribute. Affairs beyond the Afghan
frontier ran a less favourable course.
The Uzbegs, who had penetrated into
Kabul, were at first driven back from
Balkh ; in 1637, Kandahar, which had
been occupied by the Persians, was also
reconquered. When, however, the Uzbegs
renewed their advance in 1618, the
Emperor's third son, Mohammed Muhi
ed-din Aurangzib, was forced to retreat
during the winter of 1647 over the Hindu
Kush, and lost the greater part of his
army in consequence ; Kandahar was
reconquered by the Persians in 1648,
and remained in their possession, Shah
Jehan definitely renouncing the idea of
reconquest in 1653. In the year 1655
fresh compli- mamsm&a^KBaB8&mm^nBm
cations broke
out in the
Deccan. Au-
rangzib, who
had been sent
there as gov-
ernor, made a
t r e a c h erous
incursion into
Golconda ; the
capital was
stormed, plun-
dered, and
burnt, and in
1656 Abdal-
lah was forced
to conclude
peace undei
conditions of
great severity.
Bijapur was

1236

CAVALRY SOLDIER OF THE MOGUL EMPIRE

then surprised on some trivial pretext. But
before the subjugation of this district could
be carried out, Aurangzib received news of
his father's sudden illness, and was obliged,
in 1657, to conclude a treaty with Moham-
med of Bijapur, on conditions favourable
to the latter, in order that he might march
northward with his army.

Shah Jehan had been prostrated by
uraemia. Four of the Emperor's sons, who
were equally brave but different in position
and character, immediately appeared as
rival claimants for the throne. Dara Shu-
koh, born in 1613, was a man of Akbar's
type, talented, liberal, well disposed to
the Hindus, and friendly to Europeans
and Christians. His manner, however,
was against him ; he was passionate, often
insolent, had no personal following, and
was especially unpopular among the
Mohammedans. The second prince, Shoja,
was a drunkard, and was hated by the
Mohammedans for his leanings to the
Shiite doctrine. On the other hand,
Aurangzib was a fanatical Mohammedan,
Rivals beloved for his affability, with

for*the a ^ a ^ ^ ^ or y fr m ms recent
,. exploits, but ambitious and

treacherous. The fourth prince.
Murad Baksh was of a noble disposition,
but was intellectually of no account, and
was marked by a leaning to sensuality.
Aurangzib, who was at the head of a
well-tried army, allowed his two elder
brothers to destroy one another, while he
gained over the short-sighted Murad by
exaggerated praise and flattery, and by
H& promises of
I the succes-
| sion. With the
help of Murad
he then de-
feated Dara,
who had
emerged vic-
torious from
the struggle
with Shoja,
and invited
the unsuspi-
cious man.
under a pre-
text of cele-
brating his
victory, to a
feast. On the
next morning
Murad awoke
from his

IND1A-THE MOGUL EMPIRE

debauch to find himself a prisoner in the
citadel of Delhi, but was afterwards
transferred to the State prison of Gwalior.
Meanwhile Shah Jehan I. had recovered
and again assumed the government. As,
however, he favoured his eldest son,
Aurangzib made him prisoner in 1658,
and kept him under honourable restraint
in the citadel of Agra until
his death in 1666. Shortly
afterwards Aurangzib suc-
ceeded in seizing the person
of his eldest brother ; and in
1659 Dara was condemned to
death on a pretended charge
of apostasy from the Moham-
medan faith. Murad met
the same fate in 1661,
as a result of an attempt to
escape from his imprison-
ment. Shoja fled to Bengal,
and perished in 1660 in the
malarial district of Arakan,
while his sons were kept pri-
soners until their death in
Gwalior. Thus no rival
except Aurangzib remained
to the successor of Shah
Jehan among his brothers or relations.

Aurangzib, or Alamgir I. (1658-1707)
had inherited none of the great talents of
Babar and Akbar, neither their statesman-
like foresight nor their humanitarian dis-
position, and still less that religious
tolerance which had made the people pros-
perous and the state powerful. Those
P j. . famous monarchs had been

igious crea tive minds, capable of find-

lg OI ing the right measures to deal
* with every difficulty; whereas
Aurangzib was a narrow-minded monarch
who displayed his good qualities invariably
at the wrong time and in the wrong place.
His actions were dictated, not by love for
his subjects, but by ambition, mistrust,
.and religious fanaticism. No one was ever
better able to conceal his true feelings ;
no means were too contemptible or too
arbitrary which could enable him to reach
the goal of his ambition. His effort was
to promote the one true faith of the
Sunnah, and his ambition was to be the
type of a true Mohammedan monarch.
To his co-religionists he displayed a
leniency which was a direct invitation to
mismanagement, intrigue, and disobedi-
ence, while his hand was heavy upon the
hated Hindus who formed the majority of
his subjects. He was well read, especially

AURANGZIB

The third of four brothers, he
obtained the throne by treachery
in 1658. His oppression hastened
the disruption of the empire.

in the Koran, and his private life was
marked by moderation and simplicity;
his public appearances were characterised
by an excess of splendour and by painful
observance of every religious duty.

At the beginning of his reign the
Emperor seemed inclined to model his
behaviour upon the religious tolerance of
his ancestor Akbar, and mar-
ried his son Mohammed
Muazzem to the daughter of
a Hindu prince: But after
a short interval his fanatical
hostility to the alien religion
made itself felt, and discord
between the Emperor and his
subjects was the natural
result. The tax upon all
saleable articles, which was
only 2\ per cent, for the
Mohammedans, was doubled
by Aurangzib in the case of
the Hindus ; the hated poll-
tax, which Akbar had abol-
ished, was again imposed upon
the Hindus, and while prefer-
ence was shown to the
Mohammedans, a double
burden was laid upon the Hindus, who
were also excluded from the administration
and the army. In 1679 Aurangzib pulled
down the three most sacred temples of the
Hindus in Multan, Mattra, and Benares,
and erected a mosque upon the site of
the temple of Krishna. In Rajputana
alone the Brahman sanctuaries which
were devastated by his fanaticism might
be counted by hundreds ; the priests were
killed, and the temple treasures trans-
ferred to Delhi.

The Satnami, a purist Hindu sect on
the left bank of the Sutlej, were the first
to revolt against such oppression a move-
ment that was repressed only with diffi-
culty. Their example was followed by
the Rajput tribes, and the struggle
was carried on with varying success and
with such bitter cruelty that
from that date the Rajputs

have displayed a deadly hatred
Oppression tQ ^ ^ ruler Q \ Ddhi>

Aurangzib's own son, Mohammed Akbar,
the fourth prince, enraged at the inhu-
manity of the imperial orders given him,
joined the side of the oppressed, but was
forced to flee ; he first turned to the
Mahrattas, who were at war with his
father, and afterwards retired to Persia,
where he died a few years later, in 1706.

1237

THE DISRUPTION OF THE EMPIRE

AURANGZIB had successfully led the
army of Shah Jehan against the
Mohammedan states in the Deccan, and
had inflicted severe losses upon Golconda
and Bijapur ; but independent rulers were
still powerful in that- district. In the
meantime a third state founded upon the
basis of national religion had grown from
insignificance to a power more formid-
able and coherent than any of the
surrounding states This was the Mahratta
people, a powerful tribe inhabiting the
district of Maharashtra and the country
to the south ; from this centre
1S * ' capable men had for many years

Power mi & rated to tne neighbouring
Mohammedan principalities ,
especially to Bijapur, where they had
occupied important positions in the
administration and in the army.

The head of one of these immigrant
families, Shaj Bhonsla, had distinguished
himself as a cavalry commander, and had
been rewarded by the Mohammedan
Sultan of Bijapur with the military fief
of Puna, and later with a more important
district in the modern Mysore. From
his marriage with a woman of noble birth
sprang the founder of the Mahratta power,
Sivaji. National and religious sentiment
inspired him with deep hatred for Moham-
medanism. During his father's absence
in the southern parts of his fief the son,
with the help of the troops under his
command and other Mahratta allies,
seized a number of the strongest fortresses,
confiscated the taxes, and plundered the
lands of his lord far beyond the boundaries
of his own district ; his father was then
suspected of complicity and imprisoned
by the Sultan of Bijapur. Sivaji entered
into negotiations with the powerful
Emperor of Delhi, Shah Jehan, and the
tear of this mighty monarch procured the
release of his father ; the son then dis-
played even greater insolence to Bijapur.
Ultimately an army was sent against him
under Afzal Khan ; Sivaji induced the
hostile commander to agree to a friendly
meeting before the fort of Pratapgad,
where he murdered him ; the army was

1238

taken by surprise and massacred in large
part. Ultimately he secured the cession
of additional territory and the right of
maintaining a standing army of 50,000
infantry and 7,000 cavalry.

These events had taken place shortly
before the accession of Aurangzib. The
upstart now directed his attacks
against the empire itself. His marauding
bands advanced into the neighbourhood
of Surat in 1662, and an imperial army
retreated before him with disgraceful
cowardice. A new expedition succeeded
in inducing Sivaji to appear in person at
the court of the powerful emperor,
Aurangzib received the Hindu with almost
contemptuous coldness, and proposed to
confine him forcibly in Delhi. However,
the cunning Mahratta and his son made
good their escape, hidden in two provision-
hampers. In the year 1674 Sivaji declared
himself independent, assumed the title of
Maharaja, and proceeded to strike a
coinage in his own name. Had Aurangzib
been a far-seeing ruler, he could not have
failed to recognise a dangerous enemy in
this rising Hindu state on the

The Mogul

Dominion

Threatened

south- west, and would have
entered into an alliance with

the Mohammedan states in the
Deccan. But he hoped to secure sole
supremacy over all the Mohammedans in
India, and even furthered the action of
the new Hindu prince when he extorted
from Bijapur one-fourth of its yearly
revenue as payment for freedom from his
plundering raids a tax known as the
Chaut, which was later, under the name
of the " Mahratta tribute," to be a
source of sore vexation to the Delhi
kingdom.

The far-seeing opponent of the two
Mohammedan powers availed himself of
his favourable position to develop, as far
as possible, the internal organisation of his
Hindu state. Society was organised on
the pattern supplied by the old traditions ;
the Brahmans, whose intellectual training
and higher education had been developed
through long generations, were the born
counsellors of the nation ; the chief

INDIA DISRUPTION OF THE EMPIRE

official posts were occupied by members
of noble Brahrr.an tamiiics, who saw that
the administration was properly conducted.
The warriors, claiming a doubtful descent
from the old Kshatriya immigrants,
formed the professional officers and the
well-drilled and regularly-paid army. The
agricultural class, or Kunbis, not only
devoted their energies to production, but
also formed the guerilla reserve of the
standing army. All remaining handi-
craftsmen or merchants formed collectively
the fourth class, or Shankardachi.

The state thus organised had a small
standing army of cavalry armed with
lances which, when necessity arose, could
be rapidly increased to a powerful lorce by
calling out the militia, and could as
rapidly be reduced to its former dimen-
sions. The Mahratta army was a highly
mobile force, and consequently far
superior to the. slow-moving troops of the
Mogul Emperor ; when these latter appeared
in overwhelming strength, they found
only peaceful peasants tilling their fields ;
the moment the enemy divided his forces
he was immediately attacked unawares.
Mobile Plundering raids and the
Mahratta tribute imposed upon

Mahratta - , , . *, , r .

Arm neighbouring states brought in

a large yearly revenue ; the
booty taken in war was in part divided
among the soldiers and the militia, but the
larger part was distributed among the small
and almost impregnable mountain fort-
resses which guarded the State chest and
military treasuries. Thus Sivaji had at his
command a strong army ever ready for
action and self-supporting, while the
expensive and incapable troops of his
opponent devoured the riches of the em-
pire ; the Mahrattas had no ] ack of
recruits to swell their ranks, while the
Mogul army had great difficulty in main-
taining its strength, though enlistment
proceeded far and wide. Such was the
opponent that Aurangzib thought he
could play off against the sultans of the
Deccan ; in reality the Mahratta power,
joining now one and now another of these
opponents, inflicted injury upon both and
aggrandised itself at their expense.

In the year 1672, Sivaji surprised an
imperial army, and inflicted so severe a
defeat that for a long time the Mogul
troops were forced to confine themselves
to the defence of their headquarters in
Aurangabad. Revolts in the north and
the north-west of the empire had made it

impossible to unite all the imperial forces
for action upon the south. A favourable
opportunity seemed, however, to have
arisen in 1680, when Sivaji died and was
succeeded by his son Sambaji, who was
nearly his equal in energy. This was the
date of the secession of Prince Akbar.
The Emperor, who was by nature sus-
Overthrow P ici ous, now declined to trust
of the an ybody, and placed himself

Mohammedans at the head of his southern
army with the object of
crushing his Mohammedan opponents, Ali
of Bijapur and Abul Hasan of Golconda,
intending afterwards to overthrow the
Mahrattas. In 1683 he marched to the
Deccan ; in 1686 Bijapur was taken, and
Golconda fell the next year. The last
independent Mohammedan states in the
Deccan thus disappeared.

In 1689 Sambaji and his son, who was
six years of age, were captured by Aurang-
zib ; the father was killed after the most
cruel tortures, and the child kept in
strict confinement. This action, however,
aroused the obstinate Mahratta race to
yet more irresistible efforts. Aurangzib
was utterly defeated at Berampur, and
his youngest son, Mohammed Kambaksh,
with his commander-in-chief, Zulfikar,
suffered such heavy losses on the east
coast that the prince was forced to
withdraw and unite his troops with his
father's. Other imperial armies were
repeatedly beaten or forced to surrender.
The very forces of Nature seemed to be
conspiring with the enemy ; a sudden
inundation of the River Bhima cost
Aurangzib the whole of his baggage and
12,000 cavalry. The Mogul emperor
gathered all his forces for a final effort ;
strong citadels were captured and Mah-
ratta troops scattered. But fresh for-
tresses were occupied, and the Mahrattas
dispersed only to reunite at some other
centre. Ultimately, the queen regent,
Tara Bai, the widow of Raja Ram, the
_ brother of Sambaji, had re-

fiu course to desperate measures,

Power and devastated the whole
country in order to deprive the

enemy of his supplies. At this moment
the bodily powers of the old emperor
gave way, and in 1707 Aurangzib, or
Alamgir I., died in a fainting fit.

On the death of Aurangzib the finances
of Delhi were in utter confusion ; the
greater proportion of the revenue existed
only on paper, and had been diminished

1239

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

by embezzlement, by revolts, and by the she pleased. His son, Ahmed Shah (1748-
generally impoverished condition of the 1754), was taken prisoner and blinded with
nation, while the expenditure had risen
enormously during the long-continued
The Hindu population, who were

The

war.

considered as subjects of the second class
only, were inspired with deeper hatred
for the Mohammedan dynasty,
strong foundations of the
State had been shaken; a state
of ferment existed at home,
the south was threatened by
the Mahratta power which
Aurangzib's blind policy had
aggrandised, and the states
on the north-west beheld these
anxieties with delight. More-
over, the dynasty upon the
peacock throne of Delhi had
degenerated ; the power of the
house of Timur had spent it-
self in a short succession of
brilliant rulers, and the em-
perors of succeeding years

his mother ; he died in 1774. Even shorter
was the rule of his aged successor, Aziz
ed-din Alamgir, who was murdered by his
grand wazir in 1759.

Such, during the first half-century after
Aurangzib's death, were the " wielders
of the sceptre " in Hindustan,
with the exception of a few
unsuccessful candidates for
the throne, such as Azin Shah
(1707), Kambakhsh (1707-
1708), Nekusiyar (1719-1723),
and Ibrahim (1720). The
royal power was in the hands
of ambitious Ministers, of
harem favourites, of flatterers,
and of parasites who pan-
dered to the excesses and
debauches of the rulers. Shah
Alam Bahadur suffered
greatly from dependence upon
"ulfikar, one of Aurangzib's

SHAH ALAM

were but miserable shadows He reigned from 1707 to 1712, bravest generals during his

of their great predecessors.

In the next twelve years
no fewer than eight rulers succeeded one
another on the throne. The first, Muazzem
Shah Alam Bahadur Shah I. (1707-1712)
displayed much tolerance, but his strength
was unequal to the task of restoring the
broken organisation. His vicious suc-
cessor, Moizz ed-din Jihandar Shah (1712-
1713), was an utterly insignificant figure.

He was succeeded

by Farokhsir, 1713-
1719, a weak -
ling who surrounded
himself with foolish
counsellors, and
vainly attempted to
curb the growing
power of the nobles
by clumsy intrigues ;
he was murdered in
the palace. Two
children were then
placed in succession
upon the throne ;
both succumbed to

MOSQUE OF SHAH ALAM AT AHMEDABAD

to 6 ether* WaTS m ^ e DeCCan, an( ^

Jehandar Shah was but a
tool in the hands of this man ; after .the
latter's accession, during a revolt of
Zulfikar, he was handed over to the
rebels, who killed both him and his
betrayer. The next four rulers were
elevated to the throne by the " king
makers," two brothers who gave them-
selves out to be descendants of the Pro-
________________ phet ; these were

the Seiads, Hussein
AH and Abdullah,
who murdered Far-
okhsir, made two
children emperors,
and were finally sup-
pressed a year after
the accession of Mo-
hammed Shah.
Hussein Ali fell under
the dagger of an
emissary of the Em-
peror,while Abdullah
was defeated with

consumption, Raft ed-darajat after three
months, and Ran ed-daula Shah Tehan,
in an even shorter time. The rule of
Roshen-akhtar Mohammed Shah (1719-
1748) was of somewhat longer duration.
He, however, was a voluptuary who cared

his army ; his rank
saved him from death, but he was kept in
life-long imprisonment. Henceforward the
business of State was conducted by
women and parasites. Ahmed Shah and
Alamgir II. were pure nonentities compared
with their ambitious, faithless, and despotic

only lor his own pleasure, and handed over commander-in-chief and Minister, Ghazi
the imperial seal to his chief wife to use as ed-din. grandson of AsafJ ah of Haidarabad.

1240

INDIA DISRUPTION OF THE EMPIRE

Such were the hands that steered the organised themselves as a federation ol

ship of State, which was now tossed by districts united by religious and political

wild waves amid dangerous reefs and ties.

began to strain in all its joints. The It was only to be expected that the denial

degenerate bureaucracy had but one of the authority of the Vedas should please

desire to turn the weakness of the the Hindus as little as the refusal to

Government to their own c' d vantage ; accept the Koran pleased the Moham-

taxation became extortion and robbery, medans. One of the Sikh gurus, or spiritual

while bribery and corruption took the leaders, Arjun, was accused

place of justice. Princes and vassals, ^ c aikli under Jehangir of being impli-

generals and wazirs tore away provinces
from the empire, while warlike Hindu

Warriors

cated in a revolt ; he was thrown
into prison in 1616 and so cruelly

tribes threw off the Mohammedan yoke, tortured that he died. From this moment

Thus the Bhartpur Jats in Rajputana the character of the religious movement

gained their independence, and the princi- entirely changed. Hur Govind, the son of

pality of Jaipur seceded. The Jaipur Arjun, thirsting for revenge, issued new

rulers Jey Singh II. in particular were proclamations and gave a new character

distinguished for their devotion to astro- to the sect in 1638 ; the disciples of peace

nomy. Jaipur itself was built as a capital
in 1728, the splendid town of Ambur

now became warriors of fanatical fierceness.
The movement would perhaps have died

having been previously abandoned at out if the fanatical Aurangzib had not
the order of the above-named Jey Singh, executed the guru Tegh Bahadur in 1675.
In Oudh "-

the Shiite
Persian Sadat founded
the kingdom of Lucknow,
while a converted Brah-
man, Murshid Kuli Khan,
formed a kingdom of
Bengal, Orissa, and
Behar. Malwa fell into
the hands of the Mah-
rattas, and in the south
Asaf Jah seized the whole

Hatred of the Moham-
medans immediately
flamed up afresh. Govind
II., the son of the
murdered man, declared
himself the son of God
sent by his Father to
drive and extirpate evil
from the world ; warrior
and Sikh were henceforth
to be equivalent terms.

province of the Hindu- FAROKHSIR AND MOHAMMED SHAH " Ye shall no longer be

Stan DeCCan. Both of these rulers were weaklings, and called Sikh (disciples),

T^ ,1 ,.0^ ... allowed the decay of the empire to pro- , o i /i- \

TO the many difficulties ceed apace, Farokhsir reigning from 1713 but Singh (lions).

and troubles of the em- to * ad Mohammed from 1719 to 1748. Govind maintained his
pire was added the outbreak of fanatical ground with varying success against

Aurangzib, who was then occupied with the
Mahrattas in the south. Shah Alam
Bahadur attempted to win over the Sikhs

religious wars. In the extreme north-
west of India, in the Punjab, Nanak
(1469-1538), who had been under the
influence of Kabir, preached, about 1500,
a new doctrine of general peace and

by conciliation ; in 1708, however, Govind
was murdered by a Mohammedan Afghan,

brotherly love. He made an attempt to and the anger of the Sikhs was boundless,

obliterate the differences between Brah- Pillaging and murdering with appalling

manism and Mohammedanism by repre- cruelty all who declined to accept their

senting all the points of divergence as faith, they advanced upon Delhi, but

matters of no importance, and were utterly- defeated by Bahadur, and

"* emphasising the immanence of forced to retire to inaccessible hiding-

the Divine Being as the one places. The emperor, however, died sud-

material point. It was a pure re- denly at Lahore in 1712, perhaps from

form, dissociated as far as possible from any poison. The sect grew powerful during

sensualism of theory or practice. All men the disturbances which then broke out,

were equal before God according to this and, under Farokhsir, reoccupied a large

theory, which did not recognise divisions
of caste. The adherents of Nanak, whose

art of the Punjab. Led by their chief,
andah, they again advanced in 1716,

numbers were at first but small, called marking every step in their advance by
themselves Sikhs that is, disciples or ruthless devastations ; Lahore was cap-
scholars. During the next 150 years they tured, the governor defeated, and an

1241

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

of Sikh
Power

imperial army driven back. Fortune then
declared against them ; they were re-
peatedly beaten by the imperial troops
and driven back with Bandah into one of
the northern fortresses, where they were
starved out and killed. Bandah escaped,
owing to the devotion of a Hindu convert,
who personated his leader, and succeeded
in duping his captors for some
time. But of the once formid-
able sect there remained only
a few scattered bands, who
gained a scanty livelihood in the inacces-
sible mountain valleys of the Punjab. At
this period a foreign Power swept over
Hindustan like a scourge from heaven.
Nadir Shah, the son of a Turcoman, though
born in Persia, had begun his career as
leader of a band of freebooters, and had
seized the throne of the Safavi dynasty
on March 20, 1736. The lack of ceremony
with which the Persian Ambassador was
treated in Delhi gave him an excuse for
invading Hindustan in 1738. After con-
quering the Mogul army, which had been
reinforced by the troops of Sadat, Wazir of
Oudh, and of Asaf Jah, Nizam of Haidara-
bad, he marched into the capital in 1739.
Strict discipline was preserved among the
troops. A report suddenly spread among
the Hindus that the Persian king was
dead ; the inhabitants then threw them-
selves upon the soldiers, who had dis-
persed throughout the town, and slaugh-
tered 700. Nadir Shah attempted to
restore order, but was himself attacked,
and then commanded a general massacre
of the inhabitants. From sunrise to sun-
set the town was given over to pillage, fire,
and murder, 30,000 victims falling before
the Persian thirst for vengeance. All the
treasures and jewels of the royal treasury,
including the peacock throne, the pride of
Delhi, were carried off, the bullion belong-
ing to the empire, to the higher officials,
and to private individuals was confiscated,
and heavy war indemnities were laid upon

the governors of the provinces.
Massa The sum tota j of the . booty

PUla e wn i cn Nadir carried off from
Hindustan has been estimated
at $250,000,000. Eight years later Nadir
Shah was murdered, on June 20, 1747 ; his
kingdom immediately fell into a state of
disruption. In Afghanistan the power was
seized by Ahmed Khan Abdali, who styled
himself Shah Durani, adopting as his own
the name of his tribe ; he was strongly
attracted by the rich booty which Nadir

1242

had carried off from Hindustan. In six
marauding raids between the years 1747
and 1761 he devastated the unhappy land
and its capital. The massacre of Mattra,
the sacred town of Krishna, which took
place during the third invasion of Ahmed
Shah, was a terrible repetition of Nadir's
massacre at Delhi; during a festival of
the inhabitants a detachment of Ahmed's
army attacked the throng of harmless
pilgrims in the defenceless town and
slaughtered them by thousands.

In less than a century after the death
of Shah Jehan the once powerful Mogul
Empire had sunk to the lowest point ol
misery and weakness ; it would un-
doubtedly have disappeared altogether
had not the British become predominant
in India. Meanwhile, important events
had taken place in the south during the
first half of the eighteenth century.
Saho, the grandson of the Mahratta prince
Sivaji, was released shortly after the death
of Aurangzib ; he was and in this respect
he became a pattern for the treatment
of young Indian heirs to the throne
wholly estranged from the national
rut. T-J interests of the Mahrattas. He

t/DD 1 1GC 11 i i

had grown up in a harem under

the influences of the Mohamme-
danism with which he had been
surrounded, and his thoughts and feelings
were rather Mohammedan than Hindu ;
his first act as king was to make a pilgrim-
age to the grave of his father's murderer.
Previous to the accession of Saho, the
Mahratta government had been in gooc 1
hands. When Samba ji had been captured
and killed, his young son, who was also a
prisoner, had been declared king ; mean-
while, the government had been carried on
by the brother of Sambaji, Raja Ram,
and after his death by his no less capable
widow, the kingdom suffering no deteriora-
tion, notwithstanding the imprisonment
of the monarch. When, however, Saho
took up the power in person a change
occurred for the worst. Enervated in body
and mind, he left all State business to the
care of his prudent Minister, Balaji
Wiswanath, officially known as the
Peshwa ; and it was to the efforts of this
man that he owed the establishment of his
position with reference to the Mogul
kingdom, though he would himself have
been well content to become a vassal of
Delhi. The chief work of the Peshwa
was to reduce to order the whole organisa-
tion of the Mahratta state with its peculiai

INDIA DISRUPTION OF THE EMPIRE

military basis. During the reigns of
Hussein Ali and Abdullah he marched
upon Delhi and procured not only the
recognition of the sovereignty of the
Mahratta princes but also the formal
right of levying upon the whole of the
Deccan the Mahratta tax, one-fourth of
the whole state revenue. Thus, under
Saho, the power practically fell into the
hands of the Peshwa ; and when his post
became recognised as hereditary, the new
Brahman Mahratta dynasty of the Peshwas
grew up side by side with, and rapidly
overshadowed, the dynasty of Sivaji.

Baji Rao (1720-1740), the son of Balaji
Wiswanath, who united the intellect of
a Brahman with the energy of a warrior,
raised the Mahratta kingdom to its highest
point. He was forced by the prince and
his adherents to establish the power of
the constitution upon a territorial basis.
But he saw that the strength of his people
consisted primarily in their military
organisation ; his country would be more
powerful if its sphere of interest was
marked by no fixed boundaries, and if it
could gradually extend its claims to the
_, Mahratta tribute over the

^fMaTr'att* whole of the fallen M S ul
influence * Empire, an d even further. In
matters of domestic policy, the
Peshwa conducted State business entirely
upon his own responsibility, without con-
sulting the prince, who had become a
merely nominal ruler. A refusal to pay
the Mahratta tribute, and the murder of
the Mahratta general, Pilaji Gaekwar,
gave Baji Rao the opportunity of sub-
jugating Gujerat. In 1723 he captured
the province of Malwa, and in the negotia-
tions with Delhi he secured not only all
the country south of the Chambal, but
also gained the cession of the three most
sacred towns of the Hindus, Mattra,
Allahabad, and Benares. When the Mo-
gul Emperor raised objections, Baji Rao
advanced to the walls of Delhi in 1737 ;
at the beginning of 1738 he forced Asaf
Jah of Haidarabad, the plenipotentiary
of the Grand Mogul, to cede all the
country south of the Chambal. But
before the agreement could be confirmed
by Mohammed Shah, the devastating
invasion of Nadir Shah burst upon the
country, and even the Mahrattas shrank
back in dismay. It was not until after the
death of Baji Rao, in 1740, that his suc-
cessor, Balaji, the third Peshwa, secured
the formal completion by Delhi in 1743 of

the contract proposed in 1738. About
the same period (1741-1743) the Mahrattas
repeatedly advanced north - eastward
against Bengal, the last of these move-
ments being under the leadership of
Raghuji Bhonsla ; from this district
they extorted the Mahratta tax and the
cession of Kattak, a part of Orissa, in 1743.
Zenith of Called in *>y Delhi to bring help
Mahratta a amst tne revolted Rohillas
P<Twer ' m Rohilkand, they completed
the subjugation of this tribe,
and were rewarded with new concessions
as to tribute ; after the third invasion
of the Afghan Ahmed Shah, they pene-
trated to the north-west corner of India,
captured Lahore, and drove the scanty
Afghan garrison out of the Punjab. They
had now reached the zenith of their power;
wherever the Mogul kingdom had exercised
dominion during the period of its pros-
perity, the Mahrattas now interposed upon
all possible occasions ; though not the
recognised dominant power, they exacted
their tribute almost everywhere.

They met their match, however, in
Ahmed Shah. The Mahratta general,
Sindhia, was defeated, and two-thirds of
his troops slain, while the army of the
general, Holkar, who succeeded him, was
shattered. Thereupon, a new and greater
army advanced against the Afghans, under
the cousin of the Peshwa. The decisive
battle was fought on January 6th, 1761,
at Panipat ; the Mahrattas were utterly
defeated, 200,000 falling in the battle or
in flight, including the general, a son of
the Peshwa, and a number of important
leaders.

The Peshwa survived this disaster but
a short time. The Mahrattas were obliged
to withdraw from Hindustan, and never
again did the Peshwas recover their former
importance ; the Mahratta kingdom was
now transformed into a loosely united
confederacy. The later successes of this
people were gained by individual and
almost independent Mahratta
n V* i Ponces with the help of Euro-
T a ! P ean officers and soldiers. The

its 1/lfectS r , . f n ' rt -L- J i

policy of Baji Rao had exactly
suited the nature of the Mahratta state ;
the position of the Prince had sunk to
unimportance, and the Peshwa had been
raised to the highest point. At the same
time, however, individual commanders had
tended to become more and more inde-
pendent. The principle of rewarding the
chief general with the Mahratta tax levied

1243

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

from a rich province, and thus enabling
him to keep on foot a considerable body
of troops, proved utterly destructive of
the unity of the state ; these commanders
ultimately became provincial lords sup-
ported by the troops under their command.
The independence thus acquired was also
favoured by internal dissensions within
the nominally ruling family
and by political discord with
Haidarabad, Delhi, Oudh, and
Bengal. Under the third Peshwa,
Balaji (1740-1761), this process of
disruption had made rapid strides, and
the landed nobility, which had hitherto
been purposely kept in the background,
now reasserted itself to the detriment
of the body politic. The king's power
had decreased so much under the influence
of the Peshwa, that his influence was
gradually confined to the provinces of
Satara and Kholapur ; so also the actual
power of the Peshwa ultimately coincided
with the province of Puna. For the
first time under Baji Rao appear various
Mahratta princes whose ancestors had
previously held for the most part
wholly subordinate positions ; they now
formed a confederacy, at the head of
which the Peshwa was barely tolerated.
About 1738 Raghuji Bhonsla, who had led
the invasions of Bengal and Orissa, was
recognised as the rival of the Peshwa, and
attained almost complete independence in
the province of Nagpur, which nearly corre-
sponds to the modern Central Provinces,
until his death in 1755. The general
Sindhia, who, though of good family, had
once filled a menial position under Baji
Rao, and Rao Holkar, who was originally
a shepherd, became lords of the two
principalities of Indur and Gwalior,
formed from the newly won province of
Malwa. On the north-west the Gaekwar
became chief of the province of Baroda.
Thus, the once powerful Mahratta king-
dom had been broken into five great
and several smaller principalities
f P a ' ng un( ^ er *h e purely nominal
supremacy of the Peshwa. On

Mogul province of the Deccan, to gain
which Aurangzib had sacrificed the welfare
of his kingdom, gradually rose to an inde-
pendent state of considerable importance.
In the year 1713, Chin Kilikh Khan,
better known by his earlier title of Asaf
Jah, the son of a Turcoman general in the
Mogul army, in which he had himself been

1244

an officer, was sent to the Deccan as
governor (Nizam ul mulk), but was
speedily recalled by the jealous Seiads.
He then turned to his former province,
and defeated two armies which were sent
out against him, and this success was
speedily followed by the deaths of Hussein
and Abdullah. Recalled to Delhi as grand
wazir by Farokhsir, he found the imperial
court and the whole body politic in a
hopeless condition of degeneracy, and he
immediately resigned. Asaf Jah was dis-
missed by Farokhsir, with every mark of
consideration and respect ; but he was
preceded by mounted messengers to
Mobariz, who had taken his place as
governor in the Deccan, with orders to
depose the viceroy upon his return.
This intrigue failed utterly. Mobariz was
defeated in 1724, and Asaf Jah sent his
head to Delhi with congratulations on
the rapid suppression of the " revolt."
To preserve some show of dependence,
the Nizam repeatedly sent presents to
the capital, but in reality his independence
was complete. He was able to maintain
his position against the Mahrattas ; the
chaut could not be refused,

Kingdom

of the

Nizan

but he lightened the burden

of this tribute by despatching
his own officials to collect it,
and transmit it personally to the Mahrattas.
While the Mogul kingdom was hurrying
ever more rapidly to its fall, this province
rose to considerable importance and
prosperity under Asaf Jah. When the
Mahrattas made their advance, Mohammed
Shah appointed the capable Nizam as
dictator in 1737 ; the weakness of the
empire, however, was so grea,t that even
Asaf Jah was unable to bring help either
against the Mahrattas or against Nadir
Shah. In 1741 he returned to his own
country. On his death in 1748, he left
behind to his dynasty a flourishing kingdom
of the size of Spain.

In the east, the Carnatic that is to say,
the lowland beneath the precipices of the
Ghats formed one of the states under the
supremacy of the Nizam, and was governed
by the Nawab of Arcot. The smaller
principality of Tanjore to the south of
Arcot was governed by a descendant of
Sivaji, and to the north-west of this
district Mysore began to develop as an
independent state. To these must be
added a number of petty principalities, for
the most part feudal holdings or independen f
creations of adventurous Naiks or generals.

PRIAJCES & PEOPLE

MODER7M IAIDIA

A RAJAH ON HIS STATE ELEPHANT

1245

A PRINCE OF THE PUNJAB

A YOUNG HILL RAJA

THE RAJA HINDU RAO. A MAHRATTA PRINCE OF DELHI

1246

DANCING WOMAN OF KASHMIR MOHAMMEDAN WOMAN OF DELHI

A NAUTCH DANCE IN THE PALACE OF A NATIVE PRINCE

1247

ZEMINDAR, OR FARMER, AND A PATHAN

JEMADAR, OR HEAD SERVANT

SERVANTS WITH DOGS AND HAWKS, BELONGING TO THE KING OF OUDH

1248

HINDU FAKIR, OR HOLY MAN

MOHAMMEDAN AT HIS PRAYERS

A GROUP OF THE EDUCATED BRAHMAN CLASS

1249

THE BEGINNING OF BRITISH INFLUENCE IN INDIA

In 1599 Queen Elizabeth sent Sir John Mildenhall to the Great Mogul, the renowned Akbar, with
an application for trading- privileges for an English company to which she wished to grant a
charter ; the commissioner was successful, and in 1600 a company was incorporated under the
style of "The Governor and Company o* Merchants of London trading to the East Indies."

1250

ttODERN INDIA

THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH DOMINION
BY ARTHUR D. INNES

of her maritime struggle with England ;
the united Netherlands, in revolt against
her dominion, were emerging to take their
own place as a sea-going, trading, and
colonising power of the first rank. If the
English, like the Spaniards, gave their
main attention to the New World, still,
English and Dutch alike resolved to take

Spanish tlleir share in ex P loitm g the
re-opened East. On the last

da y of the last y ear of the six -

teenth century the British East
India Company received its charter from
Elizabeth. Within two years the Dutch
East India Company was incorporated.
When Albuquerque died, the Mogul
dynasty had not yet come into existence ;
Akbar was still reigning when the merchant
adventurers of England and Holland
began to take the lion's share in the trade
which had been a Portuguese monopoly.

For Portugal and Spain, the oceanic
commerce was, so to speak, in the pocket
of the Crown. It was regulated and
governed with a single eye to the filling
of the royal treasury. For Dutch and
English it was a speculation of private
adventurers, from whom the Government
was satisfied to receive payment in return
for privileges granted. The Spanish
system throttled personal enterprise ; the
English system fostered it. But personal
enterprise could not have thought of
coping with the power of the Mogul
Empire in its most magnificent period.
By a tacit accommodation the Dutch com-
pany turned mainly to the Spice Islands,
and the English increasingly towards
India ; but the English sought settle-
ments on the Indian liltoral frankly as
traders with no ulterior political designs.

In 1613 the English were allowed to
set up their first trading station or factory,

HTHE Persian smote Delhi ; the Afghan
* shattered the Mahratta hosts on the
field where, two hundred years before, young
Akbar's generals had won Hindustan for
the Moguls. But the dominion of India
was destined neither for Persian nor for
Afghan. Not through the mountain passes,
as of old, but by the new highway of the
ocean the new invader came by the
waters that linked together the East and
West, which the land-barriers held asunder.
Between the invasion of Nadir Shah and
the last great raid of the Durani a new
conquering Power had suddenly revealed
itself on the east ; a power mightier than
Mogul or Mahratta, Afghan or Turcoman.
In spite of the early invasion of India by
Alexander the Great, continuous inter-
course between India and Europe was
never established until Vasco da Gama,
in 1497-8, showed the Westerns a new
road to reach the semi-mythical lands of
the East, by sailing round the Cape of
Good Hope. The Portuguese led the way,
and maintained their lead for a century.
In the Indian seas they contested the
supremacy of the Arabs. Under the great
Albuquerque they secured a footing
bases of naval operations at Ormuz, on
the Persian Gulf, and at Goa, on the west
coast of the Indian peninsula. Between
1515 the year of Albuquer-
que's death and 1580 the
year in which Philip II. of
Spain annexed the Portuguese
crown Portuguese fleets were supreme in
the Indian seas, and though Portugal had
not taken possession of territories, she had
established numerous trading and naval
stations. She absorbed tha European
trade of the East. Then she was herself
absorbed by Spain for a time. But Spain
was already engaged in the early stages

The First
Europeans
in India

1251

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

under the protection of the native Govern-
ment, at Surat, in what is now the Bombay
Presidency. Seven years later they were
permitted to establish themselves, in very
tentative sort, in Bengal. In
ng ? 1532 the Portuguese, between

** \Trl-/-*fV *1*-/--1 4-Vfc/!\ *-l4-1TT/^0 4-Vl *Vt*k TT7OO

Stations

whom and the natives there was

no love lost, had a collision
with the Empire and were wiped out.
The English, partly owing to the successful
services rendered by an English, surgeon
at the Imperial court and also at the vice-
regal court in Bengal, were granted a
settlement at Hugh, on the mouth of the
Ganges, and extensive trade privileges.
In 1639 a southern potentate, not yet a
subjec. of the Moguls, granted them
similar rights on the Coromandel coast,
where their factory of Fort St. George
developed into Madras. The nucleus of
each of the three future presidencies was
thus established. A few years later
Bombay superseded Surat. It had re-
mained hitherto in the hands of the
Portuguese. In the middle of the seven-
teenth century Portugal broke free from
Spain ; Charles II., immediately after
the restoration, married a Portuguese

princess. Bombay was ceded as part of
her dower, and was transferred by the
Crown to the East India Company. The
whole transaction was aimed against
Spain and Holland, English commercial
rivalry with Holland being at its height,
while both the dead Lord Protector and
the living Charles Stuart favoured alliance
with France.

In Eastern waters, however, neither
Spain nor Portugal counted materially
any longer, and the conflict of interests
tended more and more to restrict England
and Holland to separate spheres. On
the other hand, the relations between
Charles II. and Louis XIV. were favourable
to the development of French enterprise
within the British area ; and the French
Minister Colbert grasped the idea of French
colonial and maritime expansion. His
F .. K policy gave France a navy

JV K which, until the battle of

Interests La H g Ue > in l6 9 2 > showed
promise of challenging English
and Dutch supremacy on the seas ; and
it created a French East India Company
which, during the same period, estab-
lished itself as firmly as the English at

THE FIRST SMALL BEGINNING OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA

In Ittia the English were allowed to set up their first trading station or factory at Surat in what is now the
Bombay Presidency. In the picture of the station reproduced above, the figures 1 indicate the church, 2, the
residence and 3, the warehouse. The illustration is taken from the "Voyages" of Mandelslo, published in 1727,

1252

Empire
Builder

FORT ST. GEORGE, WHICH DEVELOPED INTO THE CITY OF MADRAS

In 1639 a southern potentate, not yet a subject of the Moguls, granted the English trading rights on the Coromandel
coast, where their factory of Fort St. George was built in 1641, and afterwards developei

points not far distant from the chief
English stations. It was in 1690 that
Hugli was superseded by the new factory
and fort called Fort William, which
became a portion of Calcutta.

In spite of the wars between France and
England which was merged in Great
Britain in 1707 during the reigns of
William III. and Anne, the French and
English companies confined themselves
to commercial rivalries ; and during the
half-century between 1690 and 1740 it
became increasingly probable that there
would some day be a struggle a outrance
to decide whether French or British
should hold the field and expel the com-
petitor. What did not present itself to the
minds either of directors or politicians in
England or France was that the commercial
struggle would develop into a contest for
political ascendancy on Indian territory.

In fact, so long as the power of the

Mogul was or seemed to be a reality,

political ascendancy was an unattainable

Eur can dream. A shrewd observer

here and there might perceive

Ascendanc that the colossus was brittle,
r and that what Babar had done
with an army of 12,000 men might be done
again by a European general. After the
death of Aurangzib, it required less
acuteness to perceive that the fabric
of the empire was breaking up into a
congeries of states, having no homo-
geneity, which could be dealt with piece-
meal to which the maxim divide et

developed into Madras.

impera might be applied. But, again,
the condition of such a programme for
ambitious Europeans was that there
should be no European rival, and, as
between European rivals, the determining
. _ . factor would be maritime
superiority. The man who did
perceive these things, and
deliberately constructed a
policy of which they were the foundation,
was not an Englishman, but a Frenchman.
Unfortunately for him, the fundamental
facts were not realised in France. The ends
he had in view were disapproved ; the
means to obtain them were ignored. The
eyes of the French Government were turned
to the European continent. It never
realised that trans-oceanic ascendancy
depends on maritime supremacy ; it never
realised that political ascendancy in India
was a rational aim for practical politicians.
Dupleix toiled and planned ; the
British did not toil and plan. But all
that Dupleix could do was of no avail
when British' squadrons controlled Indian
waters and his victories in India were
cancelled by British successes in North
America. His rivals appreciated and
adopted the methods which his ingenuity
devised ; he taught them to forge the
weapons which were to give them the
prize he had sought to win himself. But
in 1740 the most audacious prophet
would hardly have predicted the change
in the situation which was to develop
during the succeeding twenty years.

1253

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

For in 1740 nearly the whole of India
still professed allegiance to the Mogul.
Nadir Shah had indeed smitten, but after
smiting had retired. The Mogul's dominions
were in the hands of satraps, but these
had huge armies at their command. A
British and a French company
* i !r* f traders had some half-dozen
C n Jest moderatel y fortified stations
apiece at remote points of the
vast peninsula, with a few hundred white
soldiers scattered among them. Neither
Britain nor France had any idea of turning
her energies to conquests in India. In
1760 the British were masters of Bengal
and Bihar, .masters of the Carnatic,
dominant at Haidara-
bad ; the French were
on the verge of losing
their last foothold at
Pondichery; the great
Mahratta Power was
on the verge of its huge
disaster at Panipat.

How that change
came about we shall
presently trace. Why
it was possible we can
point out at once.
French and British
strove in the first in-
stance for mastery over
each other, not over
natives ; their strife in
India was merged in a
strife all over the
world, in which victory
was determined pri-
marily by naval pre-
ponderance. The
British, dominating the
French, acquired terri-

DUPLEIX, THE FRENCH GOVERNOR

that she would be at war with the
sister country of France also.

The French governor in India, Francois
Dupleix, promoted in 1741 from Chander-
nagore to Pondichery, hoped, with the
expected declaration of war, to find his
opportunity, in spite of pacific instruc-
tions from home. With the help of a
capable naval commander stationed at
the Mauritius, and the goodwill of the
Indian potentate most nearly concerned
the Nawab of Arcot, or the Carnatic he
would wipe out the English from Southern
India. Once freed from European rivalry,
diplomacy and tact should procure for
the representatives of France an in-
valuable influence at
the native courts. Tact
and diplomacy would
be supplemented, not,
indeed, by huge armies,
but by small forces so
disciplined, organised,
and led that they
would be more than
a match for ten times
their number of the
undisciplined levies at
the disposal of the
native princes. The
white soldiery would
no doubt be a mere
handful ; but Dupleix
relied on training Indian
soldiers under European
discipline with Euro-
pean commanders to
a European standard
of efficiency.

The British at Madras
also had it in their minds
that a war between
Great Britain and

rr\A7^r nnr h\7 Francois Dupleix, the French Governor in India,
puwci, JIUL uy was a soldier statesman whose policy would have

challenging and over- changed the whole course of Indian history if his France might be turned

throwing native States, home government had supported him in his designs. t() account Qn Indian

but by supporting the successful soil ; but Dupleix, the diplomatist,
claimants to native thrones in the south, was beforehand with them. When

war was actually declared in 1744,
Anwar-ud-din, the Nawab of the Carnatic,
. warned them that no hostilities
would be permitted. Two years
had almost elapsed when La
Bourdonnais arrived with a
squadron to help Dupleix. Anwar-ud-din
declined to interfere ; the French
attacked and captured Madras. Dupleix
repudiated the terms of ransom, arranged
with La Bourdonnais, under which Madras

and by helping to overthrow in Bengal
a dynasty which was the object of a
great native conspiracy. It was not even
needful to divide and then conquer ; the
division was there, ready made. If the
British found a leader with the requisite
initiative, audacity, and foresight, conquest
was almost inevitable.

In 1740 Great Britain, technically at
peace with France, had entered upon a war
with the second Bourbon Power, Spain.
Sooner or later, it was tolerably certain

Develops
his Plans

had surrendered. La Bourdonnais, insulted

1254

INDIA-THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH DOMINION

and mortified, withdrew, and was almost
immediately recalled. Until 1782, French
ships ceased to be a factor in the situa-
tion.

Dupleix kept his grip on Madras. This
did not accord with the views of Anwar-
ud-din, who intended to take possession
himself. Dupleix defied the Nawab's
summons to surrender the town ; the
Nawab sent 10,000 men to enforce his
demand. Dupleix's experiment was put
to the test. The garrison, some 500 men,
sallied forth, and scattered the 10,000
in ignominious rout. Reinforcements,
numbering under 1,000, of whom three-
fourths were sepoys (sipahis), natives
drilled and officered by Europeans, re-

doubtless have had an exceedingly
different result, but it was not renewed.
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had ended
the war between France and England.
The peace did not deprive Dupleix of his
A Peace P resti S e ' a valuable asset ; but
that was ^ robbed him of the tangible
no Peace prize he had won ' Madras,
under the treaty, was restored
to the British, in exchange for Louisburg,
on the St. Lawrence, which had been
taken from the French during 1he war.

France and England might be at peace,
but French and British in India were
minded to carry their conflict to a decisive
conclusion. They found their opportunity
in the chaos of the native governments.

Mlli^f't

PONDICHERY, THE HEADQUARTERS OF FRENCH POWER IN INDIA
This view of the Governor's Palace at Pondichery is taken from Laplace's " Voyage Autour du Monde, "published in 1835.

peated the success. Dupleix's military
theory was converted into a demonstrated
truth. Dupleix himself at once became a
recognised power.

A hundred miles southward, however,

at Fort St. David, the British, under

Stringer Lawrence, maintained a stubborn

resistance. In 1748, a British

squadron appeared and be-

, sieged Pondichery for seven
4 Br..,sh 6

it was compelled to retire, baffled by the
approach of the monsoons, the gales which
made it impossible for a fleet to keep the
sea. The siege only served to raise French
prestige. Its renewal next year would

A double dynastic contest was on the
tapis. Anwar-ud-din had been made
Nawab, or Lieut-Governor of the Carnatic,
by the superior Nizam, or Viceroy of the
Deccan, only so lately as 1740. Chanda
Sahib, representative of the popular
family which had held the nawabship
before Anwar-ud-din, was ransomed from
captivity with Mahrattas by Dupleix.
Being free, Chanda Sahib claimed the
nawabship, with the support of Dupleix.
But the old Nizam himself also died in
1748. A son, Nadir Jang, seized the
throne ; a grandson, Muzaffar Jang,
claimed it. The two claimants, supported
by Dupleix, made common cause against

1255

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

the two de facto rulers. The latter natu-
rally appealed for British support; so
that French and British carried on their
struggle in the character of auxiliaries
or allies of the native dynastic com-
petitors.

Dupleix was prompt ; the British were
slow. In 1749, it seemed as if the French

. were assured of victory all along
J, . the line. Anwar-ud-din was

'* killed; his son, Mohammed
& Ali, who claimed to succeed
him, was shut up in Trichinopoli by
Chanda Sahib. Nadir Jang, the victim
of a conspiracy, was assassinated, and
Muzaffar Jang was acclaimed Nizam.
The two French candidates appeared
practically to have won. The fall of
Muzaffar Jang in a skirmish made no
difference, since another French nominee,
Salabat Jang, took his place. Virtually
the French general, Bussy, was Nizam.

Now, however, the tide turned. A
vigorous governor, Saunders, arrived at
Madras, who promptly sent all the
apparently available assistance to
Mohammed Ali at Trichinopoli, and then
accepted the immense risk of denuding
Madras of practically every fighting man
in order 1o effect a diversion. The scheme

Olive's
First Great
Success

THE ROCK AND FORTRESS OF TRICHINOPOLI
Here Mohammed Ali, son of Anwar-ud-din, was held by Chanda Sahib in 1749.

was Robert Clive's, and to him its execu-
tion was entrusted. Saunders staked all
on his confidence in the genius of a young
man of five and twenty who had shown
distinguished courage as a volunteer,
but had held no sort of command. Clive's
plan was to seize the Nawab's capital at
Arcot, and so compel Chanda Sahib to

1256

detach a large portion of the force at
Trichinopoli, to prevent the organisation
of hostile forces in the northern district.
The plan proved a triumphant success.
Clive's force consisted of 200 British and
300 sepoys, with eight officers, of whom
only two had been in action. The little
force appeared suddenly before Arcot.
The garrison, seized with panic, fled.
Clive took possession, and laboured
strenuously to make the fortifications
defensible. Also, in a night attack, he
inflicted heavy losses on the ex-garrison,
which had reassembled and encamped in
the neighbourhood. The news alarmed
Chanda Sahib ; in a short time 10,000
of his troops were investing Arcot. For
seven weeks the little garrison maintained
a desperate resistance ; then the besiegers
resolved on a* grand assault in force.
By desperate fighting, the assault was
repulsed. The besiegers began to retire.
Clive sallied from Arcot, fell upon them,
and shattered them. The
amazing exploit fired the
imagination of the natives.
Bands of Mahratta and other
soldiery, which had hitherto held aloof,
rallied to the standard of so brilliant
a leader. Before the midsummer of 1752,
Mohammed Ali was re-
lieved, and Chanda Sahib's
force was in its turn
besieged and finally com-
pelled to surrender.

So long as Dupleix re-
1 mained in India, it could
I not be said that there was
no hope of a French re-
covery. But his proceed-
ings, which had involved
enormous outlay, found no
favour with the French
Government. In 1754 he
was recalled, and replaced
by a governor whose out-
look was exclusively com-
mercial. His ablest coad-
jutor, Bussy, remained,
indeed, at Haidarabad ;
but the prestige had passed
from the French to the British, the natives
looked upon the latter as the successful
Power, and it was certain that if a fresh
conflict should arise the French would be
beaten unless the Home Government gave
them a real and energetic support which
was not promised by its treatment of
the recalled governor, Dupleix.

INDIA-THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH DOMINION

Failure

of Dupleix's

Successor

The conflict was renewed. In 1756 Great
Britain and France again went to war. In
a very short time British ships were again
controlling the Indian waters ; no strong
reinforcement had a chance of reaching
the French. Bussy was occupied in main-
taining his position at Haidarabad. Cir-
cumstances to which we shall presently
advert took Clive to Bengal.
The struggle was carried
on in the Carnatic by the
French under the leadership
of Lally, who arrived to conduct
operations. But his instructions ex-
pressly forbade him to play Dupleix's
game of intriguing with the country
Powers. An able soldier, he did not
understand the natives, whom he
enraged by ignoring religious and social
ideas which were sacrosanct in their
eyes ; his own officers were frequently
on the verge of mutiny. He had no
resources to fall back on ; the district
known as the Northern Sarkars was
ceded to the French by the Nizam, but
was seized by a British force despatched
by Clive from Bengal. His military
operations were twice disconcerted,
and a victory was snatched from
him by the appearance of a British
squadron. He summoned Bussy from
Haidarabad to his aid ; the Nizam
transferred his alliance to the British.
On January 2ist, 1760, the decisive

During the last phase of the Anglo-
French rivalry in the Carnatic which
we date from the recall of Dupleix in 1754
Robert Clive was laying the foundations
of actual territorial dominion in Bengal,
where hitherto the French and British
traders had abstained from hostilities.

i ,,f f , , -iirT j i -.--> viivc was a. i;iei. m me service ui uiic jc-cisi, luuiu. v,ui

battle Was fought at Wandewash, Eyre opportunity enabled him to display his genius for
COO te Commanding the British. The administration. He is the father of British dominio

engagement was between European troops

almost equally matched in numbers ; large

native contingents which were present con-
fined themselves to the role of admiring

spectators. Coote's victory was complete.

For another twelve months the French

struggled on, till their only foothold was

in Pondichery itself. Then, a year after

Wandewash, Pondichery, too, was obliged

to surrender. When the Peace of Paris

was signed in 1763, nothing was left to
France in India but trading
stations dismantled of fortifi-
cations, and held upon terms
which precluded the main-
tenance of any effective drilled forces.

The British were established in the

peninsula without possibility of a

European competitor so long as they

could maintain control of the seas at

least, until such time as a European

Power should be able to extend its

borders across Central Asia.

Release of
French Hold
Upon India

LORD CLIVE, FOUNDER OF BRITISH INDIA
Clive was a clerk in the service of the East India Company, and

"us for arms and
ominion in India.

Under the dominion of an able Nawab,
Ali Vardi Khan, Bengal and Bihar, in
1740, formed another of the great practi-
cally independent satrapies of the empire.
In 1756 Ali Vardi Khan died. His
successor was a vicious, bloodthirsty,
and half-crazy youth named Suraj ud
Daulah. In mere self-defence, the in-
competent British Governor at Fort
William (Calcutta) was just engaged in
strengthening his very inefficient fortifica-
tions. Suraj ud Daulah took offence
and ordered the British to desist. When
they protested, he marched an army on
Calcutta. The Governor and most of the
British fled. Those who remained at
their post were seized, men and women,
and packed for the night into a cellar
with no ventilation but a small grating.
When the door was opened in the morning,
of the 147 captives, only 23 were still
living. Such was the tragedy of the
notorious Black Hole of Calcutta.

1257

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

News of the declaration of war between duly signed, Clive announced to Suraj ud

France and England had not arrived Daulah that he was coming to the capital,

at Madras when the authorities learned Murshidabad, with his army, to demand

the ghastly story of Calcutta. This was reparation and security in respect of British

the intelligence which greeted Clive on grievances. He followed up his despatch
his return, to India after an absence in
England. British warships were at Madras

by advancing with his whole force some
3,000 men, of whom two- thirds were

under Admiral Watson. It was resolved sepoys. The Nawab marched against him,

forthwith to send an expedition with 50,000 men, including fifty French.

' v * n s to Bengal to bring the Nawab But Mir Jaffar was pledged to desert with

o*Pl *sse to book, under the joint com- half of them, though no one knew whether

mand of Clive, as general, and he would keep his promise when the time

Watson as admiral. In December the

force entered the Hugli ; in January it

came. Nevertheless, Clive risked the

. , engagement at Plassey. The Nawab' s

was in possession of Fort William. The army was scattered like chaff ; Suraj ud
Nawab's garrison collapsed before it.
Suraj ud Daulah gathered an army ;

Clive sallied from Fort William and

Daulah fled to Murshidabad, and, while
attempting to escape in disguise, was
caught and murdered by Mir Jaffar's son.

scattered it. The Nawab toppled from The victor of Plassey made Mir Jaffar

the heights of arrogance to the depths

of fright. But while his tone

to the English changed, he

tried surreptitiously to invoke

the aid of the French. Then

came the news from Europe

that Great Britain and France

were at war again ; Clive

swooped on Chandarnagur ;

French intervention was

paralysed.

Still the British had a
serious problem to face. The
Nawab of Bengal had been
humiliated ; but if the ex-
peditionary force withdrew
from Bengal at this stage
in order to concentrate in
the Carnatic, where a renewal

SURAJ LTD DAULAH

Nawab ; but no one, least of all the new
Nawab himself, dreamed of
supposing that he was any-
thing but a puppet in the
hands of Clive, whose arms
were thenceforth regarded by
the natives as irresistible.

The appointment of Mir
Jaffar was formally confirmed
by the Mogul. The Com-
pany, Clive himself, and
sundry other officers received
immense rewards from the
new Nawab rewards which
might have been enormously
increased if Clive had spoken
the word. They were made
zemindars, or landlords of
vast districts, of which they

of the struggle with the *ed y of the Black Hole of Calcutta, practically enjoyed the re-

French was certain, there would be no
security for Calcutta. The problem was

venue. Mir Jaffar would now have
adopted the normal course of oppressive

simplified when it-was notified to Clive and capricious Oriental despots ; but

that certain of the Nawab's Ministers
were anxious to dethrone him, and set
up in his place the commander-in-chief,
Mir Jaffar. The conspirators invited the
co-operation of the British. The British
were willing. Terms were settled between
the contracting parties ; the principal
go-between was tricked by an Oriental
device to which Watson refused to be a
party a difficulty which Clive got over Englishman dared, in 1758, to

,. x^. j.'u^ ~ j.. .._i> ^ j. , ITT'-J. Movement j__ __ i ^-i *^ 1 .-.^-i, 'u^

Clive was his master, and Clive acted as
the protector of the people. His success
in this capacity ranks among his most
remarkable achievements.

While Clive was in Bengal controlling
the new administration, the French were
making their last effort in the Carnatic.
Despite the obviously critical
' P sition on the Ganges, the

by forging the admiral's signature. Watson
accepted the situation, and Clive always
maintained that his own action in the
circumstances was absolute!}' justified,
though this was the sole occasion in his
career in which he stooped to fraud.

despatch to the south the troops
which, under Colonel Forde, stormed
Masulipatam, and secured the Northern
Sarkars for the British instead of the
French. In 1759 the Wazir of Oudh,
along with the heir of the Mogul, thought

The treaty with the conspirators being to make conquest of Bengal, and besieged
1258

INDIA-THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH DOMINION

Patna. Clive made an extraordinary
forced march to its relief, and the invading
army melted before the mere terror of
his name. For reward, he was given his
jaghir the quit rents of the district where
Mir Jaffar had appointed the Company
as zemindar.

In the same year, 1759, the Dutch
appeared and disappeared as inter-
veners in Indian affairs. Called in by
Mir Jaffar, restive under the restraint
imposed by the British, Dutch ships
entered the Hugli. Their proceedings
were suspicious, but there was no warrant
tor locating them as hostile till they seized
some English vessels. That was enough
for Clive ; he had three ships, which
promptly engaged and overcame the
seven Dutchmen, and he occupied the
Dutch factory at Chinsurah, and dictated
terms. The Dutch admitted their own
aggression, and virtually
undertook to maintain no
troops in Bengal.

In 1760, Clive sailed
for England, a few days
after Coote's victory at
Wandewash. In 1761 the
Mahratta Power, which
was threatening to domi-
nate the peninsula, met
with its disastrous check
at Panipat, at the hands
of Ahmed Shah. A year
later, a new Power arose
in the south, where
a Mohammedan soldier,
known to history as
Haidar Ali, seized the
throne of Mysore, and rapidly organised
an aggressive military state

Thus it befell that a company of London
merchants suddenly found themselves
effective lords of the whole of the Carnatic
and of the whole of Bengal seeing that
in each of these provinces there reigned
a Nawab who had won his throne by
M . British arms and retained it
Lo/dsof in . virtue of their support-
an Em ire wn ^ e the natives accounted
them virtually masters of the
Nizam of Haidarabad also. The meagrely
paid servants of a trading concern cannot, in
the nature of things, be expected suddenly
to develop the statesmanlike qualities
necessary for organising government on a
huge scale under unprecedented conditions,
especially where unlimited opportunity
makes the temptation to exploit the new

Abuses
in Olive's
Absence

organise

SHAH ALAMGHIR
Who during the period from 1753
to 1760 was the titular " Mogul."

dominions for their own private personal
advantage all but irresistible. When the
strong restraining hand of Clive was with-
drawn, there followed in Bengal an evil
era of extortion and misrule. The prestige
of British arms, however, suffered no
eclipse under the officers whom Clive had
trained. Mir Jaffar was deposed for
failing to meet the financial
demands made on him ; a new
Nawab, Mir Casim, was set
up. Mir Casim prepared to
resistance, came into armed
conflict with the British, and had to flee
to Shujah Daulah, the Nawab or Wazir of
Oudh. Mir Jaffar was reinstated, and
was presently succeeded at his death by
his son. The Wazir again proposed to
eject the new Power from Bengal in 1764 ;
but Clive himself could not have routed
him more decisively than Hector Munro,
at the battle of Baksar or
Buxar, in October. A few
months later, Clive himself
reappeared in India, with
full powers to deal with the
maladministration which had
arisen in his absence.

Manifestly it was impos-
sible that the British should
continue to evade actual
responsibility for the govern-
ment in Bengal ; yet they
had, in the first place, no
official status, and in the
second, the organisation
which was adapted for the
mercantile management of
a " factory " was not
adapted for the political administration
of a province as large as France. Official
status Clive obtained by a treaty with
the titular Mogul, Shah Alamghir, whose
technical authority was still recognised
over most of India. The Diwani of Bengal
and Bihar was conferred on the Company,
the Diwani meaning in effect the entire
business of ' administration. Under the
same treaty the Sarkars were bestowed
on the British as from the Mogul, instead
of merely as from the Nizam, his titular
viceroy in the south ; and the Carnatic was
separated from the titular over-lordship
of the Nizam.

Meanwhile, Clive reorganised the Com-
pany's system. The authorised practice
by which the Company's servants were
permitted to carry on private trading was
abolished, but the impossibly meagre

1259

1260

INDIA-THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH DOMINION

salaries which had made private trading which would have taxed the highest ad-
ministrative ability to the uttermost. The
governing bodies at Madras and Bombay
muddled their conduct of foreign affairs,
were weak when they meant to be firm
and irritating when they meant to be
conciliatory. Consequently they failed to
secure the confidence of the Mahratta>
or of the Nizam, or of Haidar Ali, either
in their good faith or in their vigour. In
Bengal, matters improved when Warren
Hastings became Governor in 1770. But
the British Parliament was awaking to a
sense of its responsibilities. Amid the excite-
ment of Middlesex

a necessity were increased. Hitherto no
one had hesitated to accept the most sub-
stantial presents in return for services,
actual or potential ; the custom had been
developed into an engine of corruption
and extortion ; it was now peremptorily
forbidden. The army officers were an-
noyed by finding their extra pay known
as "double batta" cut off. They re-
signed en bloc. Clive accepted the re-
signations and arrested the ringleaders.

Finally, he laid down the lines of foreign
policy. There was to be no endeavour to
extend dominion
the Company
had as much on
its hands as it
could manage.
Friendly relations
were to be main
tained with th<
great Mahratta
rulers; but Oudh
on the north, and
Haidarabad in the
south, were them-
selves to be main-
tained as a check
on the Mahrattas
although, accord-
ing to all Indian
precedent, the con-
querors at Buxar
were quite entitled
to take possession
of Oudh. At the
beginning of 1767,
Clive left India
finally. In Eng-
land he became
the object of fierce
obloquy. But the

From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds

WARREN HASTINGS
This great English administrator laid India and the Empire

elections and ol
recalcitrant colon-
ists in America,
Lord North found
time to devise a
Regulating Act for
the better govern-
ment of India. As
an experiment in
constitution -
making, it was
sufficiently inade-
quate ; but it was
a clumsy move in
the right direction.
It meant that
Great Britain was
becoming aware
that in the long
run the nation, not
a company, would
be accountable for
the welfare of the
newly acquired
territories. The
experiment lasted
for eleven years

TT / ,". i ma giGdi a>uyu*u cj.uimmsira.iur laiu inuia ana trie limpire ,". , , T- i

HOUSe OI Com- under his debt. In spite of the opposition of his council, his which the British

mons, invited to policy in directin e Indian affairs was brilliantly successful. E m pj re was
condemn him, recorded instead its sense
of the great services he had rendered
to his country. Later, the man who had
won an empire for Great Britain, and had
ruled in India with a justice and a re-
straint unprecedented for a hundred years,
died by his own hand.

Clive's reforms were only partially sus-
tained by the Company's directors in
London. Neither private trading nor the
receiving of presents ceased ; the old
evils were diminished, but not destroyed ;
the men at the head of affairs were not
competent to carry out properly a task

rent in twain, and for a short time Britain's
place among the nations was at stake.
But for one man, who triumphed in spite of
the experiment, her position in India must
have been lost. But the Regulating Act
had one fortunate feature it nominated
Warren Hastings as Governor- General oi
the Company's Indian territories, though
it hampered him desperately by nominat-
ing at the same time a council with the
will and the power to thwart him at ever}
turn, and an independent judiciary, whose
legal theories were quite unintelligible to
the native population of the country.

1261;

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

To understand the course of events
during the rule of Warren Hastings, we
must begin by marking out the years in
which he held real control, and noting the
bearing on Indian affairs of occurrences
elsewhere. In 1772, Hastings became
Governor of Bengal. In 1774, North's
Regulating Act came into force. Hastings
n . f _. became Governor General, and

Task f the nCW MemberS f Council

and the new judges came to
ings India. From the end of 1774
till 1777, Hastings was overruled by an
antagonistic majority in the Council. From
1777 to 1782 Hastings was dominant.
After 1782 he was again seriously ham-
pered by opponents effectively counten-
anced by the directors at home. From
J 775 to 1782, Great Britain was engaged
in the war with the American colonies.
In 1778, France ; in 1779, Spain ; and in
1780, Holland were added to her enemies ;
and until 1782, when Rodney crushed the
French fleet in the West Indies, she was
by no means supreme on the seas. There-
fore, Hastings had to secure the British
in India in a position newly won, under
unprecedented conditions, against the
rivalry of great native Powers, entirely out
of his own resources without support from
England, under perpetual pressure from
the directors for money when he was in
need of eve~y available penny. And all
this for some years, in the face of a cabal
in his Council which had both the will and
ihe power habitually at once to thwart
his policy and to attack him personally.

Experience has taught us that when a
higher and a lower civilisation are in con-
tact, the more advanced race will act wisely
in persistently maintaining its own ethical
standards. When the great Indian experi-
ment began, it was believed that expedi-
ency might on occasion justify a policy not
openly admissible as between European
peoples, but in perfect accordance with
the Oriental rules of the game. An ex-
_ ample occurred while Hastings

upllclty was still only Governor of
Bengal. On the north-west
of Oudh lay Rohilkhand,
a district occupied mainly by a peace-
ful Hindu population, over whom,
within the last half century, an Afghan
tribe of Mohammedan hill-men, known
as the Rohillas, had established their
domination. The Oudh wazir coveted
Rohilkhand, and he had reason to believe
that the Rohillas were intriguing with

1262

the Mahrattas. He . appealed to the
British to aid him in bringing them into
subjection, to forestall a combined attack
of Rohillas and Mahrattas upon Oudh.
He backed the appeal by promise of a
very substantial reward for assistance.
The maintenance of Oudh as a buffer
between Bengal and the Mahrattas was a
principle of policy laid down by Clive.
Hastings gave the assistance ; the Com-
pany received the reward. Hastings had
omitted to make conditions as to the
conduct of the campaign ; and the
Wazir's troops behaved in the usual
Oriental fashion, in spite of the protests
of British officers. The action of Hastings
in the matter did not interfere with his
being appointed Governor- General.

Already complications were arising in
a new quarter. The recognised head of the
Mahratta confederacy was the Peshwa, a
hereditary Minister, or " Mayor of the
palace," at Puna. The Gaekwar at
Baroda, Holkar at Indur, Sindhia at
Gwalior, and the Bhonsla at Nagpur,
were the other princes of importance.
The death of the Peshwa led to a dis-
A M puted succession ; the Bombay

n . Government gave its active sup-

port to one of the candidates,
ft Ragoba or Ragonath Rao.
In 1775 it made a treaty with him, though
the power to do so was vested in the
Governor-General, not in the Governor of
Bombay. Policy, however, demanded
that Bombay should be supported from
Calcutta ; whereas the antagonistic cabal
in the Council negotiated with the Regency
which had established itself as the de facto
government at Puna. Sindhia, Holkar,
and the rest, took or changed sides as
suited them. When at last Hastings got
the upper hand at Calcutta, he renewed
the treaty with Ragoba, and prepared to
send an expedition across India to support
him. Bombay, in a hurry to show its
own vigour, tried to strike without
waiting, and met with disaster. The
effect was fortunately minimised by the
brilliant operations and rapid movements
of the Bengal expeditionary force.
Meanwhile, at Madras, successive
governors had been giving umbrage both
to the Nizam and to Haidar Ali. The
Nizam was meditating an anti-British
confederacy. When France declared war
against Great Britain in 1778, Haidar
found fresh cause of offence in the British
seizure of the French port of Mane, which

INDIA THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH DOMINION

was in Mysore territory. In 1780, the
Nizam, Haidar, and the leading Mahrattas
came to terms among themselves ; the
British seemed to have their hands full
with the Mahratta business in the Bombay
quarter. Haidar All suddenly fell on the
Carnatic, sweeping it with fire and sword.
The blunderers at Madras were quite un-
prepared, and their
forces were either cut
up or driven behind
fortifications. British
prestige was re-
covered, however, by
a brilliant diversion
in the North Mah-
ratta territory, where
the fortress of
Gwalior, supposed to
be impregnable, was
captured by a daring
surprise. The Mah-
rattas became di-
vided in mind, and
the next year found
them holding back
from the contest.

supremacy ; and Tippu would by himself
have been unable to maintain a successful
struggle. Now, however, Hastings was
again fettered by opposition at home ;
and the Madras Government made peace
with Mysore on their own account, on
terms which almost appeared to have been
dictated by a victorious foe. For the
successful phases of
the whole struggle,
the credit belongs to
Warren Hastings ; for
its unsuccessful phases
the discredit rests
with the Calcutta
cabal, and the Bom-
bay and Madras
Governments. As a
total result, while
Great Britain had
been waging a war
all over the world, in
which she acquired
nothing and lost half
a continent, Warren
Hastings had suc-
ceeded in maintain-

Before the end of HAIDAR ALI, AN ENEMY OF THE BRITISH ing her position in

I78l E\Te CootC This commander of the Mysore army had initial success India, not Only Un-
the Victor Of Wande- Against the British, but was defeated by Sir Eyre Coote. impaired, but, On the

wash, was in command in the Carnatic, whole, strengthened, even in the south
and had thrice routed the armies of and west, as well as in Bengal and Oudh.

It is in con-
nection with his
administration in
Bengal and Oudh
that Hastings has
been so f re -
quently held up
to obloquy with
what degree of
justice in the
Rohilla affair, the
reader will have
judged already.
On his assuming
the Governorship
of Bengal, it be-

THE MAHRATTA FORTRESS OF GWALIOR came the first

This Mahratta stronghold, supposed to be impregnable, was, in 1780, k us i neS S of Hast -
most Oppor- captured by the British, under General Popham, by a daring surprise.

tunely, the very

thrice
Haidar Ali. In
1782, the posi-
tion of the
British was again
made extremely
perilous by the
appearance i n
Indian seas of
the French Ad-
m i r a 1 Sufrren,
who proved him-
sel f , on the
whole, rather
more than a
match for the
English Admiral
Hughes. But,

able Haidar Ali died ; and though his
son Tippu Sahib carried on the war,

ings to organise

the collection of revenue and the ad-
ministration of justice. It was not

the other native Powers fell away from possible to adopt measures which were
him The French fleet was neutralised more than tentative. The establish-
by the peace of Versailles, and would ment of English district magistrates
arobablv in any case have been paralysed laid the basis of future organisation in
, J ,, ^,-j > :~ ;- +v,~ t ne one field; in the other, a definite

shortly, as Rodney's victory in the
West Indies had restored British Naval

working system was set up, pending a

1263

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

fresh assessment of the land from which
the revenue was drawn.

This material improvement was followed
by the arrival of the three new members
of the Council from England, who, forming
a majority, proceeded so far as possible to
reverse all the Governor-General's arrange-
ments. Of this period, the most striking

. event was the affair of Nanda

"* Kumar, or Nuncomar, a Brah-

% p afge man wno > having a grudge
of Forgery . VT . _

against Hastings, brought

sundry charges against him on evidence
which was probably forged. The Council
took Nuncomar's part ; but a native who,
in his turn, had a grudge against Nun-
comar, brought a perfectly independent
charge of forgery against him. The case
was fairly tried before the newly con-
stituted High Court. Nuncomar was
proved guilty, and was executed. It is
practically certain that Hastings had
nothing to do with the matter, but the
removal of his accuser was so exceedingly
opportune for him that the world has
generally attributed the whole business to
a conspiracy between Hastings, the Chief
Justice, and a useful native.

When the successive deaths of two of
the opposition cabal gave Hastings control,
he established that board for the exami-
nation of land tenures and for re-assess-
ment which formed a part of his scheme
of reorganisation which had recently been
reversed. Also, he initiated the system of
" subsidiary alliances " which was to be
a leading feature of the rule of Lord
Wellesley; arranging by treaty to main-
tain the army in Oudh under British con-
trol for the support of the Wazir out of
revenues to be drawn from districts ceded
by the Wazir to the Company for that
purpose. Further, he got rid of the most
unworkable feature of the Regulating Act.
The judges were independent of the
Administration, recognised no superior
authority but the Crown in England, and
claimed to exercise jurisdic-
tion over the Council and the
Governor-General. The Execu-
tive found itself paralysed. In
order to bring the Executive and Judiciary
into harmonious relations, Hastings pro-
posed to establish at Calcutta a court of
appeal from the district courts, and to
appoint the Chief Justice head of this
court, as a servant of the Company, with
extensive supervisory powers over the
system. Nothing but a compromise could

1264

The Judges
and the
Executive

possibly have removed the deadlock, and
the compromise arrived at proved effective.
This affair, like that of Nuncomar, has been
treated as if it attached some extraordi-
nary discredit to the Chief Justice, Sir
Elijah Impey ; with singularly little reason.

It remains to note the two matters
which, along with the Rohilla war and
the execution of Nuncomar, have been
used and with little more justification
for the vilification of the great Governor-
General. First was that of the Ouc 7 h
Begums. When Shujah Daulah, Wazir
of Oudh, died, the Begums, or Royal
ladies, claimed that he had left most of his
treasure to them personally. The Calcutta
Council, in opposition to Hastings, main-
tained their claim as against the succeeding
Wazir, Asaf ud Daulah. The latter, with
his treasury thus depleted, naturally found
himself unable to meet his obligations to
the British. When Hastings got the upper
hand, the Wazir declared his sincere desire
to keep the promises made, but pointed
out that the British, instead of helping
him, were deliberately making it impos-
sible. The Begums would not surrender

f . the treasure, nor could he
n!lk recover it from them without
1 British assistance. The Wazir
had the better claim, but the
British were pledged to the Begums. On
the other hand, these ladies had certainly
been fostering antagonism to the British,
who, it was argued, were thereby released
from any obligations to them. Hastings,
in dire need of money, was not difficult
to satisfy as to the proofs, and gave Asaf
ud Daulah active aid in recovering the
property a process carried out, as in the
case of the Rohilla war, in accordance with
Oriental rather than Western ideas of
permissible severity.

There remains the affair of Cheyt Singh,
Raja of Benares. In the course of various
transactions with Oudh, this province was
handed over to the British that is, the
Company, instead of the Oudh Wazir,
became the over-lord of the Raja, who was
under normal circumstances liable for a
normal tribute or rent, and for further
contribution in time of war. It was a
matter of course that such vassal princes
submitted to their over-lords precisely so
long as they thought resistance or evasion
would be dangerous. In 1778 and the
following years, under pressure of the wars
with the Mahrattas and with Haidar Ali,
Hastings made heavy demands 'for extra

THE OLD COURT HOUSE AT CALCUTTA IN THE TIME OF WARREN HASTINGS

contributions. Cheyt Singh began to evade
payment, probably under the impression
that the power of the British was tottering
and that he would be able to get free.
Hastings declared him recalcitrant in
which he was probably quite correct im-
posed a very heavy fine by way of penalty,
and came with a small escort to Benares to
enforce his demand. Benares rose in sup-
port of the Raja, and cut up the sepoys. The
district, however, was brought into subjec-
tion promptly enough, Cheyt Singh was de-
posed, and a new Raja reigned at Benares.
In 1784 North's Regulating Act was

superseded by Pitt's India Act, which intro-
duced a new system. Warren Hastings
returned to England in 1785. Personal
animosities, party exigencies, and an
honest misapprehension both of what he
had done and the conditions under which
he had done it, led to his impeachment ;
and, although seven years later he was
fully acquitted on every count, it is only
in recent years that his character has
begun to be reinstated in the eyes of thfc
public. But when he left India in 1785
at least the Province of Bengal recognised
him as the best ruler it had known.

MEMORIAL OF THE TRAGEDY OF THE "BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA"
The view illustrates the Writers' Building in Calcutta at the end of the eighteenth century and the monu-
ment, surmounted by an obelisk, which was erected to commemorate the victims of Suraj ud Daulan.

1265

Showing the spheres of
Ascendency in 1801

Provinces-as....O U DH

Princes as,.S\NDH\A

Races as... .Sikhs

Mahratta Dominion
shaded thus

RAJPUTANA

MAP SHOWING THE EXPANSION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA TO THE YEAR 1801
1266

THE EXPANSION OF BRITISH DOMINION

""THE retirement of Warren Hastings was
immediately followed by the inaugu-
ration of the new British governmental
system, which lasted, with slight modi-
fication, till 1858, a period during which
the whole of India came under British
supremacy, though large portions were
not, and still are not, under direct
British rule. It will be convenient, there-
fore, to take a survey of the position of
the various Indian Powers in 1785.

At Delhi abode the Mogul, the phantom
of an emperor. Westward of Delhi lie
Sirhind and Rajputana, peopled chiefly by
high-caste Rajputs or by Sikhs ; westward
again is the great Indus basin, comprising
Sindh and the Punjab. Throughout these
districts there existed no powerful state
until the rise of Ranjit Singh at Lahore,
when the nineteenth century began.
Eastward, the Ganges basin was in effect
divided between Oudh and Bengal, the
latter under direct British rule, the former
under practical British
control. The whole of
the eastern coastal terri-
tory, with slight excep-
tion, from Ganges mouth
to the extreme south of
the peninsula Orissa,
the Sarkars, the Carnatic
was British, though a
nominal sovereignty was
still exercised by the
Nawab of Arcot. West
of the British line comes
first the great group of
Mahratta states, domina-
ting the rest of the
peninsula, with the ex-
ception of Tippu Sahib's
sultanate of Mysore, the
Nizam's dominions, and
the small British district
of Bombay. Of the
Mahratta groups, there
were five chiefs : on the
the Nizam the Peshwa
nominal head of the whole ; in the north
at Gwalior, dominating Delhi, the Sindhia
dynasty ; between Sindhia and the Peshwa,
from west to east, the Gaekwar at Baroda,

MARQUESS WELLESLEY
Who, as Lord Mornington, rendered distin-
guished service when Governor-General, 1798-
1805, and checked the efforts of Tippu Sahib.

south west of
at Puna, the

Holkar at Indur, and the Bhonsla at
Nagpur, enclosing the Nizam on the north.
South of the Nizam and west of the
British was Mysore.

Thus the militant Powers were Mysore,
the Nizam, and the Mahratta confederacy.
Of these, the Nizam was not strong enough
to cope single-handed with either Mysore
or a Mahratta combination. The Mah-
rattas, overwhelmingly strong in com-
bination, could not rely on each other
for mutual support. Mysore had been
organised as a military state by a military
adventurer, the father of the reigning
sultan, and the hostility of its ruler to the
British was ingrained. The fourth militant
Power was the British. Not one of the ruling
dynasties had been in possession for more
than three-quarters of a century. The
boundaries of every state or province
expanded or contracted from decade to
decade. From the time when Clive left
India to the time when Mornington landed
it was the intention of
the British Government
to work on European
principles, to avoid ex-
tension of territory, and
to preserve the balance
between the native states.
But such a conception
was foreign to the native
mind. Consequently,
Cornwallis found himself,
with great reluctance,
forced to act in a man-
ner very little less aggres-
sive than Mornington,
who had no reluctance
whatever about it.

To meet such condi-
tions, a strong central
government was required
within the British terri-
tories. In times when
twelve months might
easily elapse between the sending of a
despatch from Calcutta and the receipt
of the reply it was manifestly necessary
for Calcutta to be free to act -on its
own responsibility, subject only to very
general instructions from home. It was

1267

'HISTORY OF THE WORLD

manifest also that the governing body
must not be one with divided powers
which could be paralysed by internal
disagreements. Further, the dominion
had been acquired by the East India
Company, consistently with its charter,
so that the claims and re-
Difficulty o S ponsibilities of three parties

Long-distance ffi ^ be ^j^egl^

Government on the spot, the
Sovereign at Westminster, and the Com-
pany. The adjustment was effected by
Pitt's India Act in 1784. Bengal, Bombay,
and Madras were each to have its
own Governor, Commander-in-Chief, and
Council, of two additional members, but
Bengal was supreme over the others. Its
Governor was Governor-General ; if one
member of his Council supported him he
could take his own way ; on emergency
he could act independently of his Council.
The general rule was adopted to be set
aside only in one instance before the end
of the East India Company that the
Governor - General him-
self should be a man
of European experience,
while his Council should
be Indian experts. The
responsibility accepted by
the Directors and by the
Home Government con-
sisted in their selection of
a Governor-General, in
their laying down the
general lines of policy,
with the consequent
necessity for the Indian
Government to justify
itself if it deserted the
lines laid down, and in
their exercise of patron-
age. As between Com-
pany and Parliament, a

office having been discharged in the
interval by Sir John Macpherson, an
experienced Indian official.

We shall find it convenient to defer our
account of the British Administration
and its development, and to proceed here
with the story of the relations between the
British Raj and the native Powers, down
to the Victorian period.

At the moment when Cornwallis reached
India, the aggressive Moslem fanaticism,
and the generally arrogant attitude of
Tippu Sahib elated by the peace recently
accepted by Madras caused the Puna
Mahrattas and the Nizam to
dread his activities more than

Moslem

Hostility
to British

those of the British. The astute

Madhoji Sindhia of Gwalior
had already come to the conclusion that
unless very exceptional circumstances arose
it would be wise to maintain friendly
relations with the British. His main object
was to secure a personal ascendancy
within the Mahratta confederacy and on
the north and west.
Sindhia's attitude, on the
whole, decided that of
Nagpur and Indur, while
Baroda was not aggres-
sive. Cornwallis, in
thorough accord, a priori,
with the policy of non-
intervention favoured at
home, found it unneces-
sary to do more in the
south than reorganise
military arrangements so
as to ensure that, if
necessary, he could inter-
vene with effect. Tippu,
not being anxious to unite
the Mahrattas, the Nizam,
and the British against
himself, composed his

MARQUESS CORNWALLIS

Parliamentary Board of He subdued Tippu Sahib and did good work quarrels

Control was established
changing with changes of
Ministry which had a general power
of supervising, if it thought fit, and
overruling the appointments made, the
despatches sent, and the policy laid down
by the Company. The new system
was inaugurated by the selection of a
Governor-General whose sound sense and
military capacity had been thoroughly
tested, whose integrity was unimpeachable,
and whose fearless independence was
absolutely secure. Lord Cornwallis
reached India in 1786, the functions of his
1268

as commander in India. Appointed to India
again in 1805, he died soon after his arrival.

with the two
and for some
time Cornwallis was free
to occupy himself with administrative re-
forms. Cornwallis was well aware that
Tippu was only waiting his opportunity to
attempt the overthrow of the British ;
but the circumstances which forced on
the collision were curious. When the
Nizam had made his peace with Tippu,
the Governor-General in accordance with
instructions from home invited him, in
1788, to carry out the terms of a treaty
made twenty years before, and to complete
the cession of a district known as the

CORNWALLIS RECEIVING THE SONS OF TIPPU SAHIB AS HOSTAGES OF PEACE

The result of the victories of Lord Cornwallis against Tippu Sahib was a peace by which much territory was ceded, and
Tippu's sons were handed over to the British as hostages tor the peaceful behaviour of their father, the Sultan of Mysore.

Gantur Sarkars. The Nizam replied by
inviting the British to give effect to another
clause in that treaty and aid him in the
recovery of certain other districts which
had been appropriated by Haidar Ali.
Cornwallis, while declining to commit
c himself, was unable in his

answer wholly to repudiate the
of a -, ,. , . J ^.

War obligation. Tippu concluded

that a combined attack was
imminent, and forestalled it by himself
attacking a British protectorate, Travan-
core ; and thus war began.

The Nizam and Puna professedly sup-
ported the British, to whom, however,
both intended to leave the hard work.
The campaign of 1790 was ineffective,
partly owing to the culpable neglect of
the Madras Governor. In 1791, Cornwallis
himself took the field. He captured
Bangalur, whereupon the Nizam's troops
joined him. Supplies ran short, and
Cornwallis had to fall back. Then the
Mahrattas appeared not to assist in the
campaign, but to ask for funds. The
final effect was to stultify the scheme of
the year's operations. Before the following
spring, however, the Governor- General was

able to perfect his arrangements, to bring
Tippu to bay almost at the gates of his
capital, Seringapatam, and to force him to
submission, which involved, as a necessity
of Oriental warfare, the cession, of nearly
half Mysore. Of the ceded districts,
Cornwallis retained only about one-third,
transferring the rest to his nominal
allies, the Nizam and the Mahrattas.
But those he retained were of strategical
importance. There was no other way of
materially curtailing Tippu's power of
aggression in the future ; to have left
his territories intact would have been a
direct incitement for him to seek a fresh
opportunity for attack, and for the Nizam
and the Mahrattas to transfer their alliance
to him. The're is no manner of doubt
that Cornwallis would have
avoided extending the British
territories if it had been possible,
or that both the Company
and the Government in London were
anxious not to expand, but to concentrate.
But Cornwallis saw that there was no
choice, and London ratified his judgment.
We defer the discussion of the large
administrative measures which marked his

1269

Partition
of Tippu's
Territory

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

rule. In 1793 he retired, at the moment
when the French Republic had just de-
clared war upon England a war which
was to last, with two intervals of a few
months, till 1815, affecting in no small
degree the policy of the successors of
Cornwallis and of the native
of Powers. This, however, does
Wars" not become conspicuous, as
concerns the British, during the
rule of the next Governor-General, Sir John
Shore, who, later, became Lord Teign-
mouth. Between Warren Hastings and
John Lawrence for a period, that is, of
nearly eighty years Shore was the only
Governor-General appointed with an
exclusively Indian record. He was an
official of great capacity, an excellent
counsellor, as Cornwallis knew by ex-
perience ; but usually lacking in the vigour
and decision of character which the
circumstances demanded in the ruler of
British India.

Hence, Shore's anxiety to maintain an
attitude of non-interference threatened to
bring about a serious crisis in Southern
India. With Cornwallis, the great prin-
ciple had been to keep the peace between

the southern Powers ; with Shore, it was
to avoid entanglement in their quarrels.
The Mahrattas took immediate ad-
vantage of the situation to attack
the Nizam and to wrest territory from
him.

The Nizam was aggrieved, because a
firm attitude on Shore's part would have
protected him ; he felt himself deserted,
and began to organise his troops under
the command of French officers, while
both the Mahrattas and Tippu formed the
hasty conclusion that the British power
was on the verge of collapsing. It was
fortunate for the British that the Mahratta
states and dynasties were plunged, by a
series of deaths, into a state of factions
and rivalries which effectively prevented
concerted aggression. The great Madhoji
Sindhia died ; it was some years before
BrY h ^ ie new Sindhia, Daulat Rao,
secured ascendancy ; and the
. p Cr .. same thing happened with the
new Peshwa, Baji Rao, at
Puna. The same lack of firmness shook the
prestige of the Governor-General in
Bengal itself, where there was for a
moment a real danger that the army

CAPTURE OF BANGALUR AND DEATH OF COLONEL MOORHOUSE

When Cornwallis reached India he found a state of unrest that demanded strong: action ; and he took the field against
Tippu Sahib, soon capturing Bangalur, the Mysore capital. One of the chief incidents in the assult is depicted above.

1270

THE EMBASSY OF A NATIVE RULER TO THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL

The painting by Zoffany, from which our illustration is taken, represents the progress of a great embassy from the
Wazir of Oudh to Calcutta, proceeding by way of Patna, to meet Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General, in 1788.

would seize control of the Government.
The British Raj was upheld partly by
white troops of the King's Army, partly
by sepoy regiments forming the Company's
army. There was intense jealousy between
the officers of these two branches, and also
between the Company's military officers
and their civil officers. The two military
Att d b rancnes un i te d to formulate
common demands, which

would have resulted in a
Dominion ,., j ,. T ,

military domination. It was

evident that a much stronger man than
Shore, who in effect surrendered to the
mutineers, was required to cope with the
situation, and Lord Mornington was
appointed to replace him. Nevertheless,
in one field Shore had displayed a firmness
and a personal courage which went far
to counterbalance his failures. In the
dependent State of Oudh misgovernment
was rampant. On the death of the
Nawab, a reputed son, Wazir Ali, suc-
ceeded him, with every intention of
following in his predecessor's footsteps.
But when it was ascertained that Wazir
Ali's title was bad, the British Govern-
ment refused to recognise him, and gave
its support to the late Nawab's brother
on terms recognising the British right
of control. A British force was to be
maintained by a subsidy, secured by

the Allahabad territory. Shore arranged
matters himself, remaining unprotected
at Lucknow, the Oudh capital, in the midst
of a population which seemed on the verge
of a violent outbreak ; refusing, though in
hourly risk of his life, to call up British
troops, since to do so might have pre-
cipitated a sanguinary struggle. His
coolness and courage won the day.
Saadat Ali was established on the throne
of Oudh without bloodshed. Critics of
British methods in India are apt to forget
that if in such a case Shore had abstained
from insisting on British control, the
British would in a few years' time in-
evitably have been compelled to annex
Oudh altogether.

Lord Mornington, elder brother of

Arthur Wellesley afterwards Duke of

Wellington, initiated a new era in Indian

policy. Hitherto the British

fth aim had been to maintain a

'i n ir balance of power among the
native potentates, after the
European model. But the theory of balanced
powers was altogether foreign to native
conceptions. From time immemorial India
has been a field in which rival thrones
strove for supremacy, until the Moguls
had achieved a general sovereignty, which
exercised some check over the aggressive
tendencies of individual principalities,

1271

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

For the preservation of any modicum of
general security and order, it was neces-
sary that some power should be recognised
as paramount ; and the Mogul sovereignty
had now for a long time been the merest
fiction. The balancing scheme would not
serve as a substitute. If, then, the re-
establishment of a paramount Power
was a necessity, it was clear
enough that, in the interest
of the Indian population in
general, as well as in that of
the British, the ascendancy must be
secured not to a native Power, but to the
British. For the British themselves it was
essential that no Power other than their
own should be paramount. The necessity
was accentuated by the state of affairs in
Europe, where Bonaparte was now the
leading figure. No one yet knew what
his precise designs might be. But he had
proved himself unmistakably the first
of living generals ; and though Britain

Need for
the British

Paramountcy

SIR DAVID BAIRD DISCOVERING THE BODY OF TIPPU SAHIB

had proved herself the strongest of the
naval powers, her actual supremacy on the
seas was by no means secured in 1797.

Only fifteen years before a French
admiral in Indian waters had almost
enabled Mysore to overthrow the British in
the Carnatic. Half the native Powers now
had armies organised by French officers,
and were hoping for French aid to free
them from the British incubus ; and, in
fact, Bonaparte meant the recovery of
French ascendancy in India to play its
part in his scheme of an Asiatic dominion
as a means to the subjugation of Europe.
To the French menace was added at the
moment an alarm lest the Mohammedan
ruler at Kabul, Zeman Shah, who was
supposed to be extremely powerful,
should make alliance with the zealot
Tippu in Mysore and aim at re-establisning
a great Mohammedan dominion in India.

Mornington then, who was thoroughly
conversant with Indian affairs, arrived at
Calcutta, with the inten-
tion of making the British
paramount. He had
hardly landed when proof
came that Tippu Sahib
was intriguing with the
French at Mauritius.
Mornington made imme-
diate preparation for a
duel with Tippu, in case
it should prove necessary.
For the moment, the
Mahrattas were too much
taken up with their
internal feuds to be
dangerous. The Gover-
nor-General turned at
once on the Nizam, and
pressed upon him the
immediate dismissal of
the French corps organ-
ised in Shore's time, and
the substitution of a
British contingent since
the Nizam knew that he
could hardly stand alone
with the Mahrattas on
one side of him and
Tippu on the other. The
Nizam accepted the situa-
tion.

Meanwhile, negotiations
were on foot with
Mysore. But as the
British demands involved

Tippu Sahib, the "Tiger of Mysore," tried by intrigue and arms to crush British ,

power in India, but was killed m the assault upon Seringapatam on May 4, 1799. terms Which WOUld deprive

1272

ASSAULT UPON SERINGAPATAM, WHERE TIPPU MADE HIS LAST STAND
The storming and capture of Seringapatam, the capital of Mysore, in 1799, ended the hostilities and machinations
of its Sultan, Tippu Sahib, a dangerous enemy of British supremacy in India. He was killed in the final assault.

Tippu of French assistance in any shape,
and would make him as dependent as
the Nizam on the British, Tippu would
make no agreement. He continued his
intrigues, in spite of reports of French
reverses in Egypt, where Nelson annihi-
lated the Mediterranean fleet at the
Battle of the Nile. In the early spring
of 1799, the British advance on
Mysore began. In April, Tippu
was at bay in Seringapatam ;

. -. < j r - 1

in May the. defences were
stormed, and the Sultan was killed in the
fight. Mornington restored the old Hindu
dynasty which had been dethroned forty
years before by Haidar Ali under British
protection, and with greatly reduced
territories. Of the lands of which Mysore
was shorn, a portion was offered to the
Mahrattas on terms which they rejected.
Another portion was bestowed on the
Nizam, and promptly ceded back to the
British as security for the maintenance
of the British contingent at Haidarabad.
The practical result was that more than
half of Tippu's dominion was brought
under direct British government, and the
rest under British protection.

Disputed successions in minor districts,
but notably in the Carriatic, enabled the
Governor- General to carry on the business

of establishing British supremacy by
refusing recognition to claimants who
would not accept his terms which in
effect transferred entire political and
administrative control to the British :
an arrangement displeasing to the
dynasties, but indubitably of immense
advantage to the population. Oudh was
treated in even more high-handed fashion,
the Nawab being required to dismiss most
of his own army, and greatly increase the
British contingent, ceding for their main-
tenance a belt of provinces known from
this time as the North- West Provinces
which enclosed the entire frontier of
Oudh. Wellesley the conquest of Mysore
had brought the Governor- General his
marquisate now found himself face to
face with the Mahrattas, the only Power
which really had in it the pos-
sibilities of challenging the

British for su p remac y in India -

The three chiefs who had re-
cently succeeded Daulat Rao Sindhia,
Jeswant Rao Holkar, and Baji Rao
Peshwa occupied in a struggle between
themselves for ascendancy, had made no
attack on the British. But they had been
equally resolute in refusing overtures for
subsidiary alliances which would have
brought them under Wellesley's control.

1273

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

In 1802, however, the Peshwa suffered a whom it appeared that Wellesley was
grave defeat from Holkar. Seeing his plunging into a reckless and very dangerous

course of aggression in open defiance of
instructions ; and in 1805 the great
Governor- General found himself super-
seded, while Holkar was still in arms.

Since the time of Clive there have been
two Governors-General, and only two,
whose policy was controlled by the firm

chance of supremacy vanish, he thought
it better to seek British protection, like the
Nizam, than to be wiped out by Hclkar ;
and he accepted Wellesley 's terms. Now, it
was admitted in theory that the Peshwa
was the head of the Mahrattas. If, then,
the great confederacy ac-
knowledged Baji Rao's

Mahrattas

conviction that Britain ought not to let

s !L; " 1S ^ treaty with Wellesley, they slip any legitimate opportunity for bringing

fresh territories in India under her direct
control. Yet scarcely one escaped the
necessity of adding something to the

would be formally admit-
ting British paramountcy. Baji Rao had
hardly been re-established at Puna under

the aegis of the British when he began to Company's dominion. Failure to extend
repent. Hence, in August, 1803, the dis- active protection to an ally, failure to
appointed Holkar standing aside, the atti- answer defiance by chastisement, omission
tude of Sindhia and the fourth chief, the to demand cession of territory as the re-

Bhonsla of Nagpur, forced , _^ ward of victory each

the British to a virtual de- I $wi 1 and all of these were

claration of war. Sindhia

and the Bhonsla acted in

conjunction in the north

of the Deccan. North,

in the neighbourhood of

Gwalior, Sindhia's own

main army was set in

motion, under command

of the French officers,

whose dismissal Wellesley

had failed to procure.

The campaigns were not

prolonged. In the Deccan,

Arthur Wellesley routed

Sindhia and the Bhonsla

at the bloody battle of

Assaye, in September,

losing one-third of his <<THE TIQER Qp MYSQRE ,

men. Two months later Ti PP u Sahib, the son of Haidar AH, carried on themselves of the convic-

he repeated his success hostilities against the British and, at one time, tion that denials ofaggres-

A * j , threatened to kill the East India Company. . . . ,

at Argaon; and between sive intention have been

I invariably and univer-

J sally regarded by native

j Powers as marks not of

\ moderation or magnani-

1 mity, but of weakness,

J inviting fresh defiance,

I which, in its turn, in-

I volved a heavier penalty

1 than would have sufficed

I in the first instance. The

j most pacific declarations

I have only led the way

I to annexations ; hence,

I neither the Indian poten-

I tates on the borders of

I the British dominion, nor
European critics, have
ever been able to divest

these two victories Lake shattered Sindhia's
northern army at Laswari. By the end

merely expressions of systematic hypocrisy.
In the cases of Wellesley and Dalhousie,

of the year both the chiefs submitted, there is no room for the charge of hypo
accepted the British suzerainty, dismissed crisy unless the argument that British
their French officers, and ceded extensive
districts to the British, portions of which
were transferred to the Nizam.

Holkar, however, now bethought him-
self of offering an independent resistance.

The remarkable success of his tactics

domination is best for the native popula-
tion be regarded as hypocritical. For

neither of those two expanders
Reluctant

Makers of
the

t
*'

slightest pretence that their
annexations were made with

at the outset created a panic, and almost reluctance ; they hailed opportunities.

set the whole body of the Mahrattas in Lord Hastings also accepted them with-

motion again ; but despite opening dis- out regret. But there was probably

asters, the tide turned in a few months, no other Governor-General who would

and British superiority was asserted not have preferred to be able to say

with sufficient effect tcuprevent any general at the end of his tenure of office that

rising. Nevertheless, enough had been he had added no fresh territories to the

done to alarm the home authorities, to British dominion in India.
1274

MODERN INDIA THE EXPANSION OF BRITISH DOMINION

Yet the impossibility of standing still
was immediately exemplified on Welles-
ley's departure. His place was taken by
the veteran Cornwallis, who would soon
have found, as he had found before, that
facts were too strong for theories, and
would doubtless have displayed the same
common-sense as before in dealing with
A Fcw them. But the old chief died
Years' of b . efore he had realised the situa-
Lenie tion ; Sir George Barlow held
the reins of office ad interim
till the new Governor-General should be
appointed. The theory of non-intervention
was given full play. The terms of Welles-
ley's treaty with Sindhia were modified
in favour of the latter ; Holkar was forced
to sue for peace, and got it on terms
of which he had never dreamed. The
British declined to intervene for the

the treaty of Tilsit. Nelson had broken
the French naval power at the Nile in
1798, and shattered it at Trafalgar in
1805. All that it was now capable of was
to raid British commerce from its station
at Mauritius. But a union of France and
Russia threatened an overland advance
against India. Hence negotiations with
the intervening Power of Persia, which
Wellesley had inaugurated, were renewed,
and an attempt was made to establish
friendly relations with the ruler of Afghani-
stan at Kabul, with little effective result
in either case. The matter ceased to
be urgent, as friendship cooled between
Napoleon and the Tsar.

Within India, Minto found occupation in
reducing to tolerable order the district
of Bandelkhand, on the south of the
Jumna, which the Peshwa had transferred

EARL OF MINTO MARQUESS OF DALHOUSIE MARQUESS OF HASTINGS

The first Earl of Minto was Governor-General of India during 1807-13 ; he made many frontier treaties, and success
crowned his administration. The tenth Earl and first Marquess of Dalhousie was Governor-General during 1847-56, and
added Lower Burma to British dominions. The first Marquess of Hastings was made Governor-General of Bengal and
Commander-in-Chief of India in 1813 ; his victories and diplomacy extended British dominions, and he founded Singapore.

protection of the States of Rajputana
against Mahratta aggression ; bands of
Mohammedans and Hindu mercenaries
were allowed to accumulate in Holkar's
territories under the names of Pathans
or Pindaris freebooting hordes, who rav-
aged and robbed unchecked ; Rajputana
was filled with anarchy. Before a decade
was passed, the Mahrattas were prepar-
ing to make another bid for ascendancy
as against the British.

In 1807, Barlow's acting appointment
was closed by the arrival of Lord Minto,
whose rule was signalised by the capture
of Mauritius from the French and of Java
from the Dutch, nominally the allies and
actually the subjects of Napoleon. The
moment of Minto's appearance in India
was also that of the rapprochement between
Napoleon and the Tsar which issued in

to the British in exchange for some
territory in the Deccan. But beyond this
it was becoming clear that the theory of
non-intervention was breaking down.
Hitherto the whole of the north-west
roughly, everything west of the Jumna
and the Chambal above their junction
had stood outside British interference.
Recently one of the Sikh chiefs,
Ranjit Singh, had established
his own supremacy at Lahore,
and constructed a very power-
ful military monarchy in the Punjab. He
now sought to extend his rule eastwards
over the Sikh principalities of Sirhind
between the Satlej and the Jumna. These
Cis-Satlej Sikhs appealed to British protec-
tion. Diplomatic relations were conse-
quently opened with the Punjab, whose
very astute monarch was quick to realise

1275

Rise of

Punjab
Power

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Lord

Minto's

Policy

that British friendship was much more
desirable than British hostility. He re-
signed his Cis-Satlej claims under protest,
and on a promise that within the Punjab
there should be no interference. The
loyalty of the Punjab ally, as well as that
of the Sirhind protectorate, remained
unbroken till 1845. Finally,
Holkar having died, the activi-
ties of the Pathan chief, Amir
Khan, became so exceedingly
aggressive that Minto was obliged to
threaten intervention on behalf of Nagpur,
which Amir Khan was endeavouring to
master. The threat drove the Pathan
adventurer back to Indur, and the struggle
with the Pathans and Pindaris was deferred
ior Minto's successor to carry through.

Minto's policy created ,,,_ _^__
a somewhat inexplicable
uneasiness at home, and
in 1813 he was replaced
by Lord Moira, alter-
wards Marquess of Has-
tings, a politician and
soldier of considerable
experience, who was
already nearly sixty. He
went to India looking
upon Wellesley's policy
as pernicious and dan-
gerous. Very soon he
became his great prede-
cessor's disciple. In
plain terms, he found
a vigorous anti-British
aggression afoot on every
side ; and he recognised
that the British must

RANJIT SINGH

This was the Sikh who rose to power in
Lahore. He was ignorant but able ; in 1809
either be paramount Or he made an alliance with the Earl of Minto,

cease to count. His choice "* the Brltlsh afterwards supported hlm '
between the alternatives was not in doubt.

The first move came from a new quarter.
North of the Ganges, in Oudh, lie the rich
lands known as the Terai. Beyond the
Terai are the mountains of Nepal, occupied
by the Ghurka highlanders, soldiers un-
surpassed, hardy, daring, staunch, though
small of stature and few in number. The
Ghurkas were dissatisfied with their moun-
tains, and began to lay claim to the Terai.
Hastings required them to retire, and sent
troops to occupy the districts. The Ghurkas
replied by themselves occupying them.
There was no alternative to war.

The opening campaign was more disas-
trous than usual. Neither officers nor men
had any experience of hill-fighting, which
the stout little Ghurkas understood to

1276

perfection. Only one British column,
commanded by Ochterlony, on the west
of the extended frontier, met with any
success. The rest met with repulses of
varying severity, despite the very small
forces of the Nepalese. Every antagonistic
or potentially antagonistic force in India
was on the alert at once, and preparing
either to strike at the British or to strike
into the turmoil which would be occasioned
by their overthrow. But Moira was prompt
and energetic ; the hostile Powers, lacking
organisation, did not declare themselves
at once. Time was given for Ochterlony to
turn the tide in Nepal. Skilfully led, the
British overwhelmed the valiant foe.
Territory, of course, was ceded, but the
terms were honourable to both parties,
and, on the one hand,
established a lasting
amity between the
British and the inde-
pendent Nepal State,
while, on the other, the
new territories supplied
the British with some of
the finest regiments in
their service. Moreover,
the immediate effect was
to damp completely the
ardour of the disaffected
princes.

Moira, thenceforth to
be known as Marquess of
Hastings, had by this
time thoroughly adopted
for himself Wellesley's
fundamental idea of
establishing ascendancy
by means of subsidiary
alliances that is, of
maintaining under treaty in the native
states, in return for a subsidy which
might or might not be secured by a
cession of territory, a force which should
at once protect the prince and the state
from native aggression, or from revolt,
and practically ensure British control. At

A Stron an aus pi c i us moment for him,
ong the vigorous George Canning
r . became President of the Board
of Control in London, so that
his measures were not hampered . Further,
the outrages of which the hordes of
Pathans and Pindaris were guilty with
the undoubted connivance of Indur and
Gwalior made British activity not merely
plausible but absolutely imperative.
The death of the Nagpur Bhonsla in

MODERN INDIA EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH DOMINION

1816 induced his successor to accept that
subsidiary alliance which the dead prince
had resolutely declined. But mischief
was obviously brewing among the three
greater Mahratta principalities of the
west. In 1817, the British movement,
primarily for the suppression of the
Pindaris, began. Hastings had avoided
the common mistake ; he had a huge
force organised, to take the field at several
points simultaneously. By these dis-
positions, Sindhia was paralysed for hostile
action, as was Indur. The Peshwa and
the Bhonsla each attempted to capture
. the British " Residents " and

B *?' destroy the escorts at Puna and

Peace* N a gP ur ; eacn was brilliantly
foiled. Thereafter, the con-
verging British forces were far too strong
to meet with any serious resistance. All
the Mahratta chiefs, except the Peshwa,
came to terms, as did Amir Khan himself,
by the beginning of 1818 ; the Peshwa, too,
was forced to surrender before long ;
nothing was left but the capture of some
isolated garrisons, the last of which fell in
1819. At Kirki (Puna), Sitabaldi (Nagpur),
and near Sirur, there were characteristic
engagements in which small British bodies
repulsed an apparently overwhelming
enemy. But for the most part, this war

SIKH ARMOUR AND

SIKH WARRIOR TRIBESMEN

was one in which the British forces were
palpably too powerful to be faced in the
field. Beginning as a war in the simple
interest of public order, for the suppression
of brigandage on a huge scale, it developed
into the overthrow of the Mahratta Con-
federacy, every one of whose chiefs,
except Sindhia and the Gaekwar had
attacked the British ; while conclusive
proof was forthcoming that Sindhia was
hand-in-glove with the enemy, and was
restrained only by the paralysing British
column which held him under surveillance.
It could not, then, be said that the terms
imposed were harsh. As concerned Sindhia,
the British did little more than assert the
right from which Barlow had debarred
them, of extending protection to Raj-
putana. The Bhonsla was deposed and
replaced by a minor, till whose majority
the British took over the ad-
Overthrow of ministration- Holkar accepted

a subsidiary alliance. The
Confederacy peshwa , s territorieS} on the

other hand, were annexed, and his office
abolished, while he himself was allowed to
retire to British territory on a handsome
pension ; and the small state of Sattara
was cut out of his dominion, and bestowed
on the heir of the house of Sivaji.

Hastings had been allowed to follow
out his policy ; when the work was done,
the Directors were, as usual, pained by
the great outlay it had involved, and

1277

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

alarmed at the responsibilities imposed

on the Company by the accession of

territory. In India, sundry ruling houses

had been discomposed, a marauding swarm

of brigands dispersed, some thousands of

soldiers deprived of opportunities for loot,

protection extended to a number of minor

chiefs, and an unprecedented security

The W rk Bestowed on vast populations.

f d r ^ e man who had done these

things was in effect censured

and superseded, though not in

form. Nevertheless, his successor, Lord

Amherst (1823), was a s little able as his

gredecessors to abstain from expansion,
astings had brought the whole Indian
peninsula into the compass of British
ascendancy, except for the Indus basin,
which remained independent. While
Ranjit Singh ruled at Lahore there was
no danger of troubles in that quarter.
But Amherst was assailed on a new side.
Across the great Bay of Bengal, the ruler
of Burma thought fit to throw down the
gage to the British.

In the course of the last thirty years
Burma had suffered from an illusory
belief in its own overwhelming power
and the feebleness of the British, chiefly
because the latter, while giving an asylum
to Burmese subjects, had not resented the
menaces of the monarch at Ava by force
of arms. The latter had, in the time of

Lord Hastings, gone so far as to demand
the " restoration " of Lower Bengal, as
though it had been a Burmese province.
Now, the Burmese took possession of an
island off Chittagong, which the British
claimed as their own. Amherst turned
out the Burmese force, and warned
Burma that the limit of British forbear-
ance had been reached. Burma replied
by, in effect, announcing an invasion.
Whereupon Amherst declared war.

The weary campaigns of the first
Burmese War demand brief relation. In
1824, an army was sent over sea which
occupied Rangoon. There it remained
inactive, owing to deficient supplies. In
December the Burmese were driven from
their entrenchments before Rangoon. As
the next spring advanced, the British
advanced up the Irawaddi as far as
. Prome. Then they were

Burmese st PP e(i . b Y ra ins. A second
War ' ' expedition through Arakan
was also checked by rains and
by disease. It was not till the beginning
of 1826 that the Burmese king was forced
to come to terms, paying a substantial
indemnity, and ceding the districts of
Assam, Arakan, and Tenasserim to the
great satisfaction of the inhabitants, who
had no love for their Burmese rulers.

The prolongation of the Burma War
which ought to have been carried through

THE BRITISH EXPEDITION GOING UP THE IRAWADDI TO RANGOON IN JULY, 182J.
1278

MODERN INDIA-THE EXPANSION OF BRITISH DOMINION
in six months, whereas it occupied two home was strong to prevent intervention

years again gave occasion for a small
native state in the heart of India to make
an experiment in ignoring British authority.
This was Bhartpur, whose main fortress
had successfully defied the assault of
Lord Lake in
1805, and was
supposed to
be impregnable.
Blunders and
m i sunder-
standings be-
tween Och-
terlony , the
commandant in
the north - west,
and the Gover-
no r- General,
encouraged the
reviving impres-
sion Of British LORD METCALFE AND LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK
Weakness. r> U t The first Baron Metcalfe was provisional Governor-General ofOudh miS-
\\T Vi a. n Mof^olfo India in 1835-6; his abilities lay in civil administration. Lord _

B n IVietCalte William Bentinck was Governor-General from 1828 to 1835, and government Was
Was Sent t O * s noted as having suppressed suttee, infanticide and dacoity. allowed to reach

in the internal affairs of native states.
It was the time of the Reform movement
in England, and reformers in all countries
are slow to believe that the principles
applicable under the conditions with
which they are
familiar are not
equally valid
under conditions
with which they
are unfamiliar.
Non-inter-
vention was
carried to ex-
tremes, with the
result that in
the Gwalior
State the army
acquired a dan-
gerous predomi-
and in

replace Ochterlony, he recognised the
necessity for asserting British strength.
Amherst yielded to Metcalfe's opinion,
and placed troops at his disposal. The
defiance of Bhartpur was met by an
Engineers' attack on the " impregnable "
fort which proved completely successful.
The brief excitement which had begun to
stir the native mind was promptly allayed.
The fall of Bhartpur seemed conclusive
proof of irresistible power.

It was not till after 1840 that the
British again had to resort to arms to
quell an Indian foe, or to emphasise the
reality of their ascendancy by requiring
further cessions of territory. The period
of expansion was closed by the Burmese
War, which lay altogether outside of India
itself. The next period of expansion was
inaugurated by intervention in another
state beyond the borders of India. The
period from 1826 to 1839 was occupied
A F almost entirely with organisa-

such a pitch that even the authorities
in London began to fear that annexation
might be forced upon them.

Bentinck succeeded Amherst in 1828,
and retired himself in 1835. Even his
rule was not wholly devoid of additions
to the British dominion, since the two
minor states of Kurg in the south, and
Kachar on the north-east, were
S^/em annexe d but by their own ex-
i/IndTa P ressec ^ desire. After a year,
during which the very able
Governor of the North-west Provinces,
Sir Charles Metcalfe, held the Governor-
Generalship ad interim, Lord Auckland
was sent out. Before we proceed to the
record of his tenure of office we shall
turn to examine the other aspect of the
great British experiment in India the
conduct of administration by Westerns
among Orientals.

The constitution of the Government laid
down for the British dominions in India

Y tion and reconstruction in the by the India "Act of 1784 remained in

dominions directly subject to the force, with some modifications, until 1858.

The ruler of British India was the Governor-
General in council. The only limitation
to his power lay in the two facts, that he
was removable at the will of a supreme
body in England, and that he might
be severely called to account if he trans-
gressed their instructions ; he need not
obey, but if he did not he must be prepared
to justify his disobedience. He disobeyed

1279

British, and in those wherein
the minority of a prince placed adminis-
tration temporarily in the hands of the
British. For what was done during those
years, and notably under tne rule of
Lord William Bentinck, much credit is due
to the Government. It is open to question,
however, whether Government was equally
wise in its inaction. The pressure from

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

at his own peril. His council could help
him, and might hamper him, but could
never actually thwart him. The supreme
powers in London were responsible for
appointing to the post a capable man,
and one whose views, at the outset at
least, were in harmony with their own.
That responsibility was shared between the

nation, as represented by the
Responsibility Ministerial g^ Q{ Controlj

for Indian and the directors of the East
Government j ndia Company _ the Com .

pany being the subordinate of the two.
The instructions issued to the Governor-
General, which he could disobey only at his
peril, were laid down on the initiative or
with the sanction of the Board of Control.

The Governor-General was usually, but
not always, a person whose actual know-
ledge of the East was at secondhand ;
who was, however, versed in the business
of administration, diplomacy, or war
possibly of all three ; while his advisers
on the Council were Indian experts. At
home, the tendency of directors to sub-
ordinate political to commercial considera-
tions was increasingly counteracted by
the trained politicians on the Board of
Control. The most noteworthy changes
in the system took place on the renewal
of the Company's charter in 1833, when
certain powers which had been left to
the Governors-in-Council of the minor
presidencies were transferred to the central
or supreme Government in Bengal.

On the acquisition of fresh territories,
those which lay in Northern or Central
India were normally joined to the Bengal
Presidency ; those on the west of the
Nizam's dominions, to Bombay ; those
on the south and east, to Madras. With
the extension of dominion, those territories
which had been in touch with the British
were usually brought under the same
system of government as the first presi-
dencies to which they were attached ;
those which lay further afield were usually
known as non-regulation pro-
ofNew 6 vinces, and were controlled
Territo on somewna t different lines,
their governors being allowed
a larger latitude. As the ascendancy was
established, a British Resident or Agent
was appointed to the court of each state,
whose functions were partly ambassadorial,
partly advisory, while his advice might on
occasion be of a peremptory character.
The ascendancy, as we have seen, was
usually supported by the maintenance of

1280

a considerable " contingent " or sepoy
force, under British officers, who further
protected the native Government against
either disturbance from within or aggres-
sion from without, while restraining it
from becoming aggressive itself.

The British power, then, was maintained
by the three Company's armies in the
three presidencies, composed not quite
exclusively of native regiments under
British officers, natives holding only non-
commissioned appointments. In the
Bengal army, these natives, it is to be
noted, were mainly high-caste Hindus,
either Brahmans or Rajputs, with a strong
admixture of Mussulmans, who adhered
to the Mogul traditions, while the Hindus
were specially sensitive about all matters
which touched their caste. The Bombay
and Madras armies, recruited from districts
where few of the population belonged to
the higher castes, were much less sensitive
facts which bore fruit in the time of the
Mutiny. Besides the Company's armies,
there were a certain number of King's
troops or white regiments of the Regular
Army serving in India in rota-
tion. The officers of the Com-
P an y' s arrrnes were the servants
of the Company; the two main
branches of the ordinary administra-
tion magisterial and revenue work
were in the hands of the Company's
civil service. But in the non-regulation
provinces the highest posts were often in
the hands of soldiers, who were also
extensively employed in what is known in
India as " political " work, a term applied
generally to the business of foreign, diplo-
matic, and quasi-diplomatic affairs.

In general, the aim of government
was not to impose upon the natives
European customs or laws, except where
Europeans were concerned, but to system-
atise the existing indigenous laws and
customs, so far as they were ascertainable,
and to apply them in accordance with
native sentiment, except where they were
palpably productive of serious evils.

Now, the great bulk of the revenue was
derived from land, and the history of the
land settlements illustrates the honest, if
not always perfectly successful, efforts of
the British Government to regulate
matters with justice. The beginning was
made in Bengal, as being the first territory
under direct British government. Here
the issue of the attempt was the " Per-
manent Settlement " of Cornwall's. The

INDIA-THE EXPANSION OF BRITISH DOMINION

measures taken by Warren Hastings had
been avowedly of a temporary character,
pending a full investigation of the system
of land tenure. Lack of experience,
coupled with Western preconceptions,
which British commissioners naturally
read into the conditions they found, led
Cornwallis somewhat astray.

The Moguls and their Nawabs had
farmed out the districts to revenue officers,
whose business it was to collect the amount
of revenue at which the district was
assessed. Primarily, these zemindars be-
came landlords, in so far as the money
they collected might be termed rent.
They were the receivers of rent from the
cultivator, and they might collect a great

provements in cultivation. On this theory,
the great object was to encourage the
zemindar to improve cultivation by giving
him security of tenure. The districts were
assessed, the amounts the zemindars
were to pay were fixed in permanence,
and their full proprietary rights were
confirmed to them and to their heirs.
By degrees, however, the true relation
of the zemindars to the soil became
apparent. In the South of India they
had never acquired the same outward
likeness of landed proprietors as in Bengal.
The investigations conducted there in
connection with the territories annexed
after the Mysore wars led to the conclu-
sion that the actual peasantry were the

DURBAR OF THE RULER OF THE MAHRATTA STATES AT PUNA

The Peshwa at Puna was the nominal head of the five Mahratta chiefs. His support of the British action against
Tippu Sahib was secured by treaty in 1790, and the ceremonial attending the ratification of the treaty is depicted above.

deal more than ever reached the Treasury.
They had no legal security of tenure or of
succession to a zemindari, but if they paid
what was expected, and behaved them-
selves, they were not likely to be dis-
possessed, and their sons were normally
appointed to succeed them. It may be
remarked that they were usually Hindus,
the Mohammedans seeking rather mili-
tary employment. Sundry of the great
zemindars had received the title of raja.
With western analogies in their minds,
the British regarded the zemindars as
landlords, proprietors of the soil, like the
landed gentry in England, with the
peasantry as their tenants, as the persons
who would reap most benefit from im-

true proprietors, or else the " village
communities," of which they were
members. Hence, the land settlement in
the south was -for the most part made on
the basis of the direct payment of the rent
or land tax by the ryot or peasant cultivator
to the Government, without intervention
of any zemindar. The peasant got his
fair rent, fixity of tenure, and right of
transfer, subject to his payment of the
Government claim. Here, however, the
Bengal error of making the assessment
permanent, was avoided. The valuation,
subject to certain modifications, was
extended over a term of years long enough
to give the cultivator security that he
would get full benefit for all improvements ;

1281

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

The

Land

Question

revenue

but after the term of years, the valuation
was to be revised.

A third form of land settlement was
necessary in the provinces of the Upper
Ganges. Here a large proportion of the
inhabitants belonged to Rajput clans.
In the old days, the chief of the clan had
often been looked upon as the proprietor
of the soil, and under the
Mogul Government these chiefs,
or talukdars, had frequently
been appointed to collect the
for their districts, like the
zemindars of Lower Bengal, as far as
government was concerned, but with a
much closer approximation to the position
of landowners of the present day. But
besides the talukdars with traditional
rights, there was much of the land which
had undoubtedly been held by peasant
cultivators and village communities. In
these regions the " Thomasonian " settle-
ment was a very careful attempt to adjust
the several claims of talukdars, ryots, and
village communities, to be regarded as the
true proprietors under Government. Some
authorities are of opinion that the ideas
then current in England led in this case
to the claims of talukdars being unduly
overridden in favour of peasant proprie-
tary to the economic advantage of the
peasant, but to the irritation not only of
the chiefs, but of the clan sentiment of
the population.

With wars perpetually on hand, it was
not till the period of expansion was closed
by the Burmese War that the Government
was able to undertake very much beyond
the ordinary business of administering the
law, collecting the revenue, and carrying
through the land settlements in Bengal
and the Deccan. The Thomasonian settle-
ment in the North- West Provinces came
later. But the period which followed in
England, the era of the great Reform Bill
and of reaction against the old Toryism
was filled with earnest efforts to improve
the condition of the peoples of
India. These efforts, largely,
though by no means exclu-
sively, connected with the rule
of Lord William Bentinck, were of two
kinds those directed to the introduc-
tion of positive improvements, and those
aiming at the suppression of evil but
traditional customs and institutions.
Among the former the two most note-
worthy were, perhaps, the development
of education among the natives by the aid

1282

Efforts

for

Reform

of the State, and the gradual creation of a
system of irrigation by canals, to cope
with the recurrence of droughts and
famines which periodically devastated the
whole peninsula.

Participating in the character of both
classes of reform was the control established
over the primitive pre-Aryan races of
certain hill-districts. Hall among the
Mers of Merwara, and Outram among the
Bhils of Kandesh, won among these
peoples who had never been brought into
real subjection either by Mohammedan or
Mahratta conquerors a personal ascend-
ancy, which gave them an extraordinary
influence, where hitherto both coercion
and conciliation had failed. In both
cases the wild folk learned to look upon
the Englishmen with an overmastering
admiration and trust which led them to an
unprecedented docility ; so that they were
taught for the first time in their history
to desire peace and order among them-
selves, to give up savageries which had
held sway from time immemorial, and to
develop themselves into a well-conducted,
if decidedly primitive, agricultural folk.
Of very much the same cha-
ersona racter were the proceedings of

with Nrf. p^ff 8 Macpherson among
the Khonds in Onssa. In this
district, the ghastly practice of offering
human sacrifices still prevailed among a
people who believed that wise men pro-
pitiate the Evil Spirit who is too strong
for the Good Spirit. Hence the Khonds
argued that if you want a good harvest
you must sacrifice human victims to the
powers of evil. Macpherson acquired
sufficient ascendancy over them to
induce them to try the experiment of
omitting the propitiatory sacrifice, and
telling the goddess to hold the British
responsible for their neglect of her
interests. The harvest was particularly
good, and the British were manifestly
none the worse. From this the Khonds
inferred that the British were more power-
ful than the goddess, and the practice of
human sacrifices ceased.

Human sacrifices were peculiar to the
primitive Dravidian districts. But among
the Hindus the practice of " suttee " (sati,
dedicated), the self-immolation of widows
on the husband's funeral pyre, was almost
universal. It had, in the course of cen-
turies, acquired a powerful religious sanc-
tion, although it was not authorised by
the Hindu scriptures; so much so that

INDIA-THE EXPANSION OF BRITISH DOMINION

Government long hesitated before ventur-
ing on a measure so antagonistic to popular
sentiment as its suppression, contenting
themselves with the Mohammedan rule
that the act of the widow must be volun-
tary in fact, as it always was in theory.
Proof of compulsion, however, was hard to
obtain, though there could be no doubt that
compulsion was habitually applied. ' Ben-
tinck, on his arrival, made up his mind that
total suppression must be risked, and, to
the general surprise, the edict was accepted
without any signs of popular excitement.
The native potentates took example from
the British, and suttee disappeared.

Brigandage on a gigantic scale was
crushed with the suppression of the
Pindaris. It remained on a smaller but
still sufficiently serious scale in the form
of dacoity. India was infested with bands

by strangulation. The natives believed
them to be under divine, or rather diabolic,
protection ; and it was only the curious
counter-superstition that the ikbal (the
luck) of the Company was stronger than
the Thug demon that gradually brought
the populace to venture on giving evi-
dence. Every conviction of a Thug weak-
ened the popular superstition in their
favour. Presently some of the Thugs
themselves began to reveal the secrets of
their organisation, and Bentinck's adminis-
tration has the credit of the suppression of
the whole gruesome system, its success
therein being mainly due to the abilities
and energy of Major Sleeman.

The repression of one more evil practice
remains to be noted. The mortality among
girl-infants was enormous. No one doubted
that it was due to infanticide, but to prove

SUTTEE, OR SACRIFICE OF A WIDOW UPON HER HUSBAND'S FUNERAL PYRE
The British Governors long hesitated to attempt the suppression of this practice, but Lord William Bentinck, Governor-
Ueneral from 1828 to 1835, issued an edict making the practice criminal, and obedience followed without resistance.

of Dakaits or Dacoits, who wrought pillage
and slaughter and vanished. It was
gradually ascertained that there was a
regular hereditary caste of Dacoits, mem-
bers of which formed the nucleus of most
of these bands, often in league or associa-
tion with eminently respectable members
of society. Such was the popular fear of
these brigands that immense difficulty
was experienced in collecting evidence
against, them. They flourished most in
the districts where Western doctrines of
evidence prevented summary methods of
punishment, and it was only by very slow
degrees that the evil was reduced materi-
ally, and finally practically stamped out.

Quite distinct from the bands of Dacoits
were the Thugs another hereditary caste
which carried out its murderous operations
against individuals, without bloodshed,

that a baby had not died a natural death
was next to impossible. The cause was
clear. The Hindu was bound by his
religion to see that his daughters got
married. Conventions had made the cost
of marrying a daughter into a crushing
expense for a poor man ; therefore a poor
man could not afford to bring up daughters
and his daughters did not grow up.
Merely to penalise a crime which could
hardly ever be proved was a hopelessly
inadequate remedy. Government set a
limit to the expenditure on weddings, and
penalised the " religious " beggars whose
attendance in swarms demanding in the
name of religion a hospitality which the
Hindu dared not refuse had created a
very substantial portion of the cost. The
result was that in a very few years the
balance of the sexes was restored.

1283

EXPEDITION TO KANDAHAR GOING THROUGH THE BOLAN PASS IN 1838
The main route to Afghanistan by Peshawar and the Khaibar Pass could not be taken owing to the refusal of
permission by Ranjit Singh, and the route by Quetta through the Bolan Pass had to be followed. The expedition was
successful in its immediate object, and placed Shah Shuja on the throne of Afghanistan in place of Dost Mohammed, but
the final result was the tragedy of the march from Kabul, a disaster unparalleled in the history of British arms in India.

1284

THE COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION

THE chapter in the history of the
British expansion in India which
opens with the governor-generalship of
Lord Auckland is very largely concerned
with regions and peoples that had hitherto
lain beyond the area wherein British
activities had mainly been exercised.

Of these countries, two the Punjab
and Simlh lie within the borders of India
proper. Beyond the Punjab is Afghani-
stan ; beyond Afghanistan, Persia ; and
beyond Persia, Russia. And we must
now examine the history of all these during
the half-century following the retirement
of Warren Hastings, with more or less
detail, according as it belongs to or bears
upon the history of India herself.

Russia was destined to take the place,
formerly held by France, of the one
European Power which might attempt to
challenge British supremacy in India.
That place was lost by France from the
day when British naval supremacy was
finally established. For Russia
aiSvai** a ^ one tne overland route
for India might conceivably become
some day practicable. In any
case, the expansion of Russia must be
Asiatic. Geographical conditions made
it sure that her boundaries would gradu-
ally shift nearer and nearer to the Indian
frontier.

But Russia was remote. In effect,
Persia and Afghanistan lay between her
and the mountain-barriers of India. It
was not till Palmerston ruled in the
Foreign Office that English statesmen began
seriously to feel in her more than in France
the Power against whose aggression Great
Britain must be on guard. Persia, how-
ever, began to feel the Russian pressure
at an early date. She felt that she must
be overwhelmed by Russia unless she
had British support. In the eyes of the
British, she stood as a buffer against
France rather than Russia. When the
Tsar was in alliance with Napoleon, in the
first decade of the nineteenth century,
Britain was ready to support Persia.
Hence, Persian treaties were inaugurated
in the time of Lord Minto. When France

oi Russia

had ceased to be dangerous, diplomatic
arrangements with Persia were in the hands
of the home authorities, and they ceased
to interest themselves in Persia. Hence,
when trouble arose between Russia and
Persia in 1826, Britain did not intervene.
Thereupon Persia, unprotected, placed
herself virtually at Russia's disposal.
Beyond that was the fact that
half . the Mohammedans in
India regarded the Shah as the
head of Islam. Persia began,
to dream of an Indian empire, to be
acquired with Russian support. What
Russia dreamed of is a matter for con-
jecture.

Persia could not approach India without
first absorbing Afghanistan. At times
Persia and Afghanistan had been under
one ruler ; but since the days of Ahmed
Shah Durani who had triumphed over
the Mahrattas at Panipat in 1761
Afghanistan had been independent under
the rule of his offspring. When Wellesley
reached India in 1798, the Kabul state
was credited with great strength and
aggressive intentions. It was rent, how-
ever, by dissensions and rivalries for the
rulership. A powerful family, the Barak-
zai brothers, became dominant, and set up
and deposed the nominal kings of the
Durani dynasty. In 1810 the then king,
Shah Shuja, was driven from the country,
and took up his abode under British
protection. After various vicissitudes,
Afghanistan was in effect parcelled out
among the Barakzai brothers, except
Herat, which remained in the hands of
one of the Durani family to whom the
Barakzais still professed alle-
J h f giance/ From 1826, one of the
state brotherhood, at Kabul, Dost
Mohammed, was the real monarch,
at first with the title of Wazir, and
later with that, familiar to British ears,
of Amir.

More than once during these years
there had been menaces of Persian aggres-
sion in the direction of Herat ; but the
Barakzais had been largely occupied by
alternate feuds and alliances with their

1285

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Indian neighbour, the Sikh ruler of the
Punjab, Maharajah Ranjit Singh of Lahore.

The reader may be reminded that the
Sikhs had come into being as a reformed
Hindu sect early in the sixteenth century.
Primarily a heterodox religious body,
their disregard of caste separated them
from the orthodox Hindus, while they
were in even worse odour with the Mussul-
mans. Hence, forming a close community,
they were not long in acquiring the charac-
teristics of a distinct race, FT ,. ^. : .. .^, : ,..,., v ,,

while the circumstance com-
pelled them to adopt a mili-
tary organisation, under a
series of leaders or prophets
called Gurus, of whom the
last, Govind Singh, was killed
in 1708. The Sikhs " dis-
ciples " all bore the name of
Singh (lion) ; in their military
capacity they were known as
the Khalsa, the " army of the
free."

Occupying mainly the
Punjab and Sirhind, between
the upper Jumna and the
Sutlej rivers, the Sikhs were
perpetually exposed to perse-
cution from the Moguls at fro
Delhi, and to the attack of Afghan in-
vaders. Yet they were not crushed.
They formed a sort of confederacy of
territorial groups known as Misls, whose
power was quite out of proportion to their
numbers, since they were in a considerable
minority among Hindus and Moham-
Ris medans. But they did not
1 ^f achieve dominion until the chief
p * otoneof the Misls, young Ranjit
Singh, just when the eighteenth
century was passing into the nineteenth,
began to get himself recognised as the
head of the whole Sikh body in the Punjab.

Among the native princes with whom the
British came into contact, Ranjit Singh
with two others, Haidar Ali and Madhoji
Sindhia stands out as of altogether ex-
ceptional ability. Under his guidance, the
Sikhs gradually dominated the entire
Punjab, in course of time mastering
Multan on the south-west ; wresting
Peshawar and Kashmir from the Barak -
zais. With the help of European officers,
he so organised the Khalsa that it became
in proportion to its numbers by far the
most powerful and best disciplined army
that any Indian monarch had controlled.
In nothing, however, did his shrewdness

1286

EARL OF AUCKLAND
The first Earl of Auckland

abul in January,

approve itself more thoroughly than in
his relations with the British. With keen
eyes he watched the progress of affairs in
India ; he was under no illusions when
Holkar seemed for a moment to have bidden
successful defiance to the victors of
Assaye and Laswari. The initial failures
of the Ghurka War set him on the alert
for possibilities ; but after that he was
fully convinced that Fate would one day
bring all India under British dominion, and
, he was steadily resolved to
do nothing which should draw
the Punjab into collision with
the British during his lifetime.
The territory of the Sindh
Amirs was formed by the dis-
tricts of the Indus basin below
the Punjab. The population
was chiefly Mohammedan ;
the state or states were not
highly organised, or aggres-
sive ; and they paid tribute
to the Durani monarchy.

About the year 1808, the
British opened diplomatic
relations, as we saw before,
with Persia, with Kabul, with
Lahore, and also with Sindh ;
1842. j n the last case, mainly for the
purpose of opening up the Indus for com-
merce. When fear of French aggression
ceased, the Government of India in turn
ceased to interest itself much in Persia or
Afghanistan. A friendly Punjab was a
secure barrier against the invasion of
Afghans or Persians which hardly
amounted to a serious menace ; and Sindh
was in no way a source of anxiety. In that
quarter, the only difficulties likely to arise
would spring from Ranjit Singh's desire
to extend his dominions, that astute
ruler being determined to acquire every-
thing which the British did not peremp-
torily forbid, as they had vetoed his pro-
posal to claim sovereignty in Sirhind ; and
further, to make a great favour of acced-
ing to their wishes, in return
for which concessions in other

The Astute

Policy of

directions

Ranjit Singh ^ J1 ^ L1W11 /^S 11 ^ ACX1J -\y De

' claimed. Sindh itself did not
come within the range of his aggressive
ambitions until after 1818, when he had
made himself master of Multan, which
had hitherto been subject to Kabul.

By 1836, commercial treaties had been
arranged with the Sindh Amirs ; Ranjit
Singh was still living, and at the height of
his power, in the Punjab ; Shah' Shuja

MODERN INDIA THE COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION

was dwelling at Ludhiana in Sirhind, a
futile pretender to the Afghan throne ;
Dost Mohammed was the de facto ruler
of Afghanistan ; and Mohammed Shah,
who had recently succeeded to the Persian
throne, was meditating vast schemes
to be carried out with Russia at his back
of which the first stage was to be the re-
conquest of Afghanistan, and the first
step the capture of Herat.

Lord Auckland had hardly arrived in
India when it became obvious that the
affairs of Afghanistan and Persia required
serious attention, a necessity due to the
fact that everyone was perfectly satisfied
that Russia was at the back of Persia in

her aggressive designs, and that
Fears of the g hah wag merd the

catspaw of the Tsar. Dost
Mohammed was anxious. He
did not like Russia ; but he did not like
the Sikhs. The new Governor- General
was politely indisposed to intervene in
favour of Kabul against Lahore, and the
Amir hoped to change his attitude by a
show of friendliness to Russia. Diplomacy
should have been able to reconcile Ranjit
Singh and Dost Mohammed, whereby the
designs of Persia would have been frus-
trated. But Auckland's advisers were
too successfully
beguiled by the
Dost's assump-
tion of friendli-
ness to Russia,
and were super-
fluously anxious
to propitiate
Ranjit. When
they found that
the shrewd Sikh
had no desire to
be presented with
Kabul, they be-
thought them-
selves of ejecting

passed, the besiegers made no impression,
Persia realised that Russia was satisfied
to egg her on without taking risks herself,
and by the autumn of 1838 the siege
broke up, and the whole movement of
aggression collapsed. The only possible
pretext for direct intervention in Afghan-
istan had vanished.

Nevertheless, Auckland and his advisers,
in defiance of all competent opinion,
Movement P resse d on with their design.

Afghans * assistance, but declined to
allow British troops to march
through his territory. Hence, the main
route by Peshawar and the Khaibar Pass
was barred. The second route, across
Sindh and Baluchistan, and by Quetta
through the Bolan Pass, was adopted,
the Khaibar being left to the Sikhs. Thus,
not Kabul but Kandahar in the south of
Afghanistan became the primary objective
of the British expedition.

The Amirs, or chiefs of the Sindh con-
federacy, and the Baluchi chiefs of Kelat,
though theoretically friendly, raised as
many obstacles as they dared, openly or
secretly, but did not venture on a display
of palpable hostility. By the end of
March, 1839, the British had gained
possession of
Kandahar, with-
out meeting
active resistance,
and Shah Shuja
was duly pro-
claimed. Some
three months
later, the army
proceeded
against Ghazni,
a very strong
fort, en route for
Kabul. One of
the gates which
had not been
properly secured,

Dost Mohammed HYDER KHAN AND DOST MOHAMMED propenysecmeu,

a-5r.fQli a l, HjderwM^n^ofGh.^ blown up,

' enabling
successfully stormed an

in favour of

in taVOUrOl bnan M ^a m med was the real ruler of Afghanistan from 1826 to 1863. "~ u TT ~ the

Shuia a measure

which could be carried out only by the place to be successfully stormed an

it elation.

at Kabul

employment of a large British force.

Now, in 1837 the scheme, though ex-
ceedingly wrong-headed, had the excuse
that Persian armies were actually moving
on Herat, and had begun the siege before
the end of the year. But Herat held out
stoutly, under the leadership of a young
English officer, Eldred Pottinger, who
had made his way thither. The months

were not prepared to face an engagement,
and the Dost himself had no alternative
but to flee precipitately across the border,
A year later, having redeemed his honour,
as a soldier by valiant conduct in a
skirmish, and feeling his cause to be
helpless, he showed his appreciation of

1287

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

British honour by voluntarily surrendering
himself, and retiring to honourable custody
in British territory.

If Shah Shuja had been restored at the
cost of comparatively little bloodshed, it
was still obvious that the acquiescence of
his subjects was only skin-deep, and that
his throne could be secured only by the
presence of the British bayonets
durrende wn ich had won it for him
. at least during the months
1 between the flight and the sur-
render of Dost Mohammed. Five thou-
sand men were left at Kabul, and smaller
garrisons at Kandahar and other points.
Macnaghten remained at the capital
with Shah Shuja, to control the govern-
ment.

When the Dost surrendered, the qui-
escence of the Afghans ^^^^^s^^^^,
did not lead Auckland
to remove his troops,
but to withdraw another I
hardly less important
factor in the quiescence j
the subsidies to native j
chiefs and tribes, which I
had tranquillised them. |
This form of economy j
was not appreciated by I
the Afghans, who were I
very soon seething with I
hostility, embittered by J
the misconduct of some I
of the troops in the I
Kabul garrison, which, I
to make matters more I
dangerous, had been j
placed in very inade-

lion. Macnaghten, absolutely paralysed
by the utter incompetence of the military
management, very soon found that annihi-
lation would be the only alternative to
acceptance of the most ignominious terms
of surrender. The conditions were, that
the British should retire, bag and baggage,
from Afghanistan, leaving hostages ; the
Afghans were to facilitate their departure.
But Akbar Khan, instead of providing the
promised facilities, began to seize stores
and to demand more hostages. Mac-
naghten made a last desperate attempt
at a personal negotiation with Akbar,
who seized and shot him dead probably
an unpremeditated denouement.

Even now, the military authorities, on
whom the control devolved, could see
nothing better than to ratify the conven-

_,_ ? tion. The garrisons,

j however, at Kandahar,
I Ghazni, and Jellalabad,
I refused to obey the orders
1 for evacuation. On Janu-
|^L J ary 6, all the British

1 subjects at Kabul some
Bk 1 JSjOOO souls, soldiers,

civilians, and camp-fol-
lowers, men, women, and
children began their dis-
astrous march, through
tempests and snow-
storms, towards Jellala-
bad all except the host-
ages. On the I4th, a
single survivor reached
the goal. None other,
save a few who had
been added to the host-

SHAH SHUJA

quately fortified canton- The Amir of Afghanistan who was restored ages, were left alive,
ments outside the city, to hls throne by the help of British arms ir ' All had fallen victims to
general who commanded

while the general who
them was painfully incompetent.

The event might easily have been
prophesied. Shah Shuja had entered
Kabul in August, 1839. I n November,
1841, a riot broke out, and one of the
British political officers, Sir Alexander
Burnes, was murdered. The troops lay
passive in the cantonments while the riot
expanded into a general rising. Messages
for reinforcements were despatched to
Kandahar and Gandamak ; but the troops
at Gandamak themselves had to fall back
on Jellalabad to cover the Khaibars, and
the winter weather soon made any advance
from Kandahar impossible.

A son of Dost Mohammed, Akbar Khan,
was recognised as the leader of the rebel-

1288

or the more

the merciless weather
merciless Afghans.

The disaster was without parallel in the
history of the British in India. It origin-
ated in an inexcusable attempt to carry
out a policy of interference which was in
itself a reversal of the princi-
ples on which even the most
aggressive of Governors -General
had acted hitherto. The policy
had been carried out with a blind disregard
for the most ordinary military precautions,
and for the sentiments of the population.
When the crisis, thus rendered inevitable,
arrived, it was faced with paralytic despair.
There were native chiefs Dost Mohammed
was one such, and Ranjit Singh, who died
in 1839, na( ^ k een another who knew

A Great

British

Disaster

THE BRITISH FORCES IN POSSESSION OF KANDAHAR IN MARCH, 1838

that these things did not arise from
essential decay in the might of the British ;
but such men were the exception. In the
native mind, British prestige had received
a blow from which it would not easily
recover.

Auckland was replaced by Ellenborough,
whose erratic self-confidence was hardly
less dangerous than the feeble dependence
of his predecessor. The redemption of
British honour lay not with the chiefs of
the Government, but with the subordi-
nates. At Jellalabad, the small British
garrison maintained a brilliant defence.

At Ghazni, on 1he other hand, the com-
mandant failed to hold his own ; but at
Kandahar, General Nott soon proved
himself master of the district. A relief
force from India, under Pollock, made its
way to Jellalabad. Nevertheless, the
orders from headquarters were that both
Kandahar and Jellalabad should be
evacuated, though the British hostages
were still in the hands of the Afghans.
Both Nott and Pollock, however, succeeded
in finding excuses for evading the order.
It was very soon realised that the recovery
of the hostages and a decisive demonstra-

OUNS ABANDONED BY DOST MOHAMMED AT URGHUNDEE IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1838

1289

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

tion of British military superiority were to threatened, if not to actual, attacks

imperative conditions precedent of retire- by the several native Powers on the

ment ; and Lord Ellenborough saved the British. The annexation of Sindh was,

face of the Government by suggesting on the contrary, deliberately engineered

that the withdrawal of both garrisons by Sir Charles Napier, who himself

should be effected via Kabul.

described it beforehand as a piece of

Summer was now well advanced. Neither rascality which would be beneficent to
Nott nor Pollock had any hesitation about Sindh and advantageous to the British,
accepting the Governor-General's sugges- It is extremely unlikely that it would
tion. Nott marched on Ghazni, and have taken place if the recent blow to
recaptured it. Pollock advanced on Kabul British prestige had not called for a
direct, routed Akbar Khan, and entered conspicuous demonstration of British
the capital on September 15. Next day vigour, still more striking than the
he was joined by Nott. Within a week, retrieval of the disaster in Afghanistan.
the hostages, alive and well, were once The Sindh Amirs were not dangerous,
more free. Resistance to the British, or aggressive. The British were entitled
under competent commanders, was palp- to some gratitude for preserving them
ably hopeless. British prestige, though from the attack of Ranjit Singh ; but
weakened, was still saved ; yet it was that debt had been repaid by their

acquiescence, however
1 reluctant, in the high-
j handed demands made
1 upon them when the
j Afghan expedition first
set out. Then, how-
ever, the course of
events in Afghanistan
produced a natural
tendency to kick
against the practical
domination which was
being exercised over
them. It was just at
the time when Nott
and Pollock were re-
asserting British power
in Afghanistan that
Napier was sent to
control the restive
princes in Sindh. Sir
manifest that the whole policy of a military Charles, then, was ready enough to seize
occupation of Afghanistan was a false one, any plausible excuse for a campaign,
and that annexation was out ol the The opportunity was given by the ambi-
question. In the course of the troubles, tions and intrigues of Ali Murad, a chief
the puppet Shah Shuja had been assassi- who desired for himself a supreme position
nated. The British Government, resolved instead of a subordinate one. In effect,
on evacuation, had the courage to restore this man frightened his brother Rustam,
Dost Mohammed himself to the throne ; one of the actual heads of the confederacy,
and it is to the credit of that shrewd and into evading a meeting with Napier,
capable chief that he proved himself fully This " contumacy " was punished by a
deserving of the confidence thus late demand for a treaty which would have

BALUCHI AMBUSH IN THE SIRI KAJOOR PASS

displayed in his loyalty.

meant in effect a surrender of indepen-

The grim blunder of the Afghan episode dence. The natives became excited, and

supplied the motive for the one act of attacked the British Residency at Haidara-

inexcusable aggression in the story of bad on the Indus. Napier thereupon

the British expansion in India. The over- marched on Haidarabad. At Miani he

throw of the French, of Suraj ud met, and completely routed, with less

Daulah, of Tippu Sahib, of the Mahrattas, than 3,000 men, a Baluchi army of 20,000.

had in every case been clearly attributable A week later, resistance was ended by

1290

SIR WILLIAM MACNAGHTEN AT THE HEAD OF THE EXPEDITION TO KABUL IN 1838

another fight at Daba. Before the actual
outbreak of hostilities, there would have
been no serious difficulty in securing as
much control of Sindh as was at all
demanded by public policy. After war
broke out, it could at least be plausibly
maintained that anything short of annexa-
tion would be attributed by every native
in India to the consciousness of weakness
on the part of the British Government.
To question the fact that Sindh itself

was all the better for the change of rule
would be absurd ; but the change itself
was effected, on this one occasion, very
much on the principles on which the
thirsty lamb in the fable was annexed
by the hungry wolf. The moralist may
note that it bore fruit, incidentally, in
the mutiny of several regiments of
sepoys, who had hitherto received pay for
service in Sindh as on a foreign station.
Sindh could in no case have either

SURRENDER OF DOST MOHAMMED TO SIR WILLIAM MACNAGHTEN BEFORE KABUL

1291

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Maull and Fox

LORD ELLENBOROUGH
Governor-General from 1841 to
1844, during the Afghan troubles.

offered a prolonged resistance to the
British, if aggressively inclined, or have
rendered effective aid in a
hostile combination. But the
Kabul affair had excited both
the Sikhs of the Punjab and
the most powerful native
army outside the Punjab. In
the Mahratta War, in the
time of Lord Hastings, the
Sindhia dynasty at Gwalior
had suffered the least. The
will to attack the British
had not been wanting, but
it had so befallen that the
disposition of the British
troops, when the Pindari War
began, had paralysed the
Sindhia of the day for hostile
action. Hence, when the
war was ended,
he alone of the
Mahratta chiefs
had been allowed
to retain practical
independence. In
1843 the succession
devolved upon an,
heir by adoption,
who was eight
years old ; and the
effective govern-
ment passed to
Tara Bai, the
youthful widow of
his predecessor. In
accordance with
precedent, the

British Govern- A son of Dost Mohammed and the leader of the Afghan rebels rally after a TOUt,
ment intervened to in 1841 ; he Sh0t Sif WUliam Macnaghten, on December 23, 18 1. ^ S indhia's do-

impose its own nominee as
regent' during the minority.
Tara Bai threw herself on
the support of the army, which
dominated the situation.

Now at this moment the
Khalsa, the Sikh army in the
Punjab, also dominated the
government in that great
district. The army of Gwalior
and that of the Punjab were
both Hindu. Concerted action
between the two might lead
to a general movement for
the establishment of a Hindu
supremacy in India. As yet
affairs in the Punjab were

AKBAR KHAN

execution. As things stood, it was im-
perative to place the powerful Gwalior
army hors de combat before
concerted action should be-
come possible. That Tara
Bai intended to bid defiance
to the British was obvious
when the regent nominated
by them was driven from the
Gwalior territory. Troops
were collected at Agra to
emphasise a demand for the
reduction of the Gwalior army
and the increase of the
British subsidiary contingent.
Tara Bai resolved to defy
the British, and her army
proceeded to occupy an
entrenched position at Maha-
rajpur, while a second force
covered Gwalior on
the south-west.

The campaign
was short and
sharp. On the
next day Sir Hugh
Gough advanced
from Agra, and
shattered the force
at Maharajpur,
after sharp hand to
hand fighting. At
Puniar, a second
column, advancing
from Jhansi, de-
feated the other
army. Native
troops could never

GENERAL POLLOCK

minion lay at the mercy of
the British. Tara Bai's army
was reduced to 9,000 men,
and a somewhat larger force
of sepoys under British
officers was subsidised. The
State was placed under the
effective control of the British
Resident, but only until the
young Sindhia should be of
age. The point of immediate
importance was secured
that Gwalior as a hostile
military power ceased to be
dangerous ; whereof the value
was very soon to become
For another fierce

He persuaded Ellenborough to Apparent.

too unsettled for such a plan permit^an advance upon Kabul, and struggle was at hand, under
to be put into immediate the C ?ity U i c s^tember t| S! t iSS' another Governor-General
1292

MODERN INDIA-THE COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION

Ellenborough's erratic and bombastic
methods created so much uneasiness that,
shortly after Maharajpur, he was replaced
by the experienced soldier and adminis-
trator, Sir Henry Hardinge.

We have remarked that the Sikh portion
of the Punjab population had long been
organised as an army of co-religionists,
known as the Khalsa. The genius of Ran jit
Singh, during his forty years' ascendancy,
had made the Sikhs masters of the whole
Punjab, and had developed the Khalsa
into a very powerful and highly organised
army. While Ranjit lived, the Khalsa
was as loyal to him as the English Army of
the Commonwealth was to Oliver Crom-
well. On his death, at the beginning of the

troops to the north-west, to meet the
emergency when it should come ; but his
necessary measures of precaution were
inevitably suspected of having an aggres-
sive intent.

By the autumn of 1845 it was patent
that the Punjab Government was in the
hands of the Khalsa, and that the Court
was powerless to control it. In December
the news came that the Sikhs were ad-
vancing in force upon the Sutlej that
they had crossed the river, and invaded
British territory, at a point some way
above the British advanced post on its
southern bank at Firozpur.

There the force of 7,000 men would be
able to hold its own, but it was isolated. If

BATTLE OF MIANI ON FEB. 17, 1843, BETWEEN NAPIER'S FORCE AND THE BALUCHIS

Afghan troubles, that army began to realise
its own potentialities of political power, the
more keenly as it found intriguers for the
succession bidding for its support. But it
was still like Cromwell's army when Crom-
well was gone ; it lacked a head and hand
to control and direct ; it was at first inert.
Its record of victories, however, disposed
it instinctively to foreign aggression ; the
disasters in Afghanistan imbued it with a
belief that it was a match for the British.
The Gwalior campaign checked its arro-
gance, but only for a time. It was increas-
ingly obvious that, unless a new Ranjit
Singh should arise, it would presently force
a struggle. Hardinge gradually brought up

this force were " contained " by a sufficient
body, the main Sikh army would advance
through Sirhind. If it did so successfully
the British might find themselves face to
face with a general Hindu rising. But,
although it had been impossible to bring
up to the north-west anything like an
overwhelming force, Hardinge and the
Commander-in-Chief, Sir Hugh Gough,
were prepared for the emergency. A week
after the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej con-
verging British columns to the number of
10,000 men had advanced and formed a
junction at Mudki. There, on December 18,
was fought the first battle, with the
advance column of the Sikhs, numbering

1293

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

probably from 20,000 to 30,000. The Sikhs
were defeated and fell back, leaving
seventeen guns ; the victors lost nearly
1,000 men.

The object now was to effect a junction
with a force from Firozpur, but the Sikhs

occupied a very r ___ __

strong en- [
trenched posi- f
tion at Firoz-
shah, on the
line of march
between Mudki
and Firozpur.
Here they were
found by Gough
and Hardinge on
the morning of
December 21.
The former
wished to attack
at once. He was
overruled by
Hardinge, who

VISCOUNT HARDINGE

VISCOUNT GOUGH AND

Viscount Gough was commander-in-Chief in India, 1843-9, and won
the battles of Mudki, Ferozshah, Sobraon and Chillianwalla. Viscount
Hardinge was Governor-General, 1844-7, and himself took the field
as second in command to Sir Hugh, afterwards Viscount Gough.

felt that failure
would mean annihilation, and elected to
await the arrival of the contingent from
Firozpur. Hence the attack was not opened
till four o'clock in the
afternoon of the shortest
day in the year. When
darkness fell, the Sikhs
still held their entrench-
ments, and there was
great risk that in the
morning they would be
reinforced. But when,
in the morning, the
assault was renewed, it
was found that the
Sikhs were already in full
retreat. Their expected
reinforcements appeared,
but followed the example
of the main body ; which
was well for the exhausted
British troops. Firozshah
was by no means the
most signal victory, but
was probably the most
critical of British battles
in India since Plassey
and Buxar. After it, the
overthrow of the Khalsa
was a certainty. The Sikhs, however,
who believed that their leaders had
betrayed them at Firozshah, were not yet
beaten, though forced back to the line of
the Sutlej . Even their power of acting on

1294

SHER SINGH

The leader of the Sikhs whom Gough defeated
in the hard-fought battle of Chillianwalla.

the offensive was not broken till they
met with a severe defeat at the hands
of Sir Harry Smith at Aliwal, a month
after Firozshah. The decisive blow was
not struck till February loth, when,
in a furious conflict at Sobraon,
where they held
the passage of
the river, the
Khalsa was com-
pletely routed,
I beyond all hope
I of rallying. The
I struggle from
1 first to last had
been desperately
contested. On
the night of
Firozshah, its
issue had even
been extremely
doubtful. But
for the Maharaj-
pur campaign,
two years earlier,
a great hostile force would have been
lying at Gwalior on the British flank.
Had it been there to strike when the Sikhs
crossed the Sutlej !

After a conflict so
provoked and so ter-
minated on Indian soil,
annexation would have
followed as a matter of
course had the victors
been any one except the
British Government. But
the Sindh affair was
unique in British annals.
Hardinge, like nearly all
his predecessors, very
much preferred maintain-
ing native governments
to absorbing territories,
and he made it his aim
now to restore a native
government in the Pun-
jab. Yet merely to retire
and leave anarchy behind
was out of the question.
The self-seeking court,
and the patriotic sirdars
or chiefs, had alike
found themselves unable
to control the Khalsa. It was a condition
of government on which the sirdars
themselves insisted that British troops
should remain to preserve order. The
result was that here again a provisional

MODERN INDIA-THE COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION

government was set up until the boy
Maharaja, Dhulip Singh, should be of
age. A Council of Regency was appointed.
Henry Lawrence was made British Resident
and virtually Dictator ; the Khalsa was
reduced to 30,000 men, the rest being
disbanded ; no fewer than 250 guns were
surrendered, including those captured in
the campaign ; there was the inevitable
indemnity, and cession of some territory.
British troops were to remain in the
Punjab for a year. At the end of the year
the sirdars once more declared that, if they
were withdrawn, the country would again
be plunged into anarchy ; and they stayed.
The indigenous notion of the meaning
of a central government is aptly summed
up in the remark of a Sikh sirdar that

General perhaps the most remarkable of
the whole series, but as yet untried and
new to his post. The double change
precipitated a new crisis.

The resignation of Mulraj, the native
governor of Multan, led to two British
officers being sent thither to take tem-
porary charge On their arrival, Mulraj 's
troops rose, and the officers were murdered.
Multan was in revolt against the consti-
tuted government, but proclaimed its de-
fiance of the British domination which
the British themselves were exercising
only temporarily and with reluctance,
as admittedly the only alternative to
anarchy. But the domination was dis-
pleasing to the Khalsa which was con-
vinced that its previous overthrow had

BATTLE OF FIROZSHAH, ONE OF THE MOST CRITICAL IN BRITISH INDIAN HISTORY

a certain district " has not paid its tribute
for three years ; it is time to send an
army." Under the vigorous but sympa-
thetic rule of Lawrence and the officers
whom he posted to the frontier districts,
a different order of ideas began to be
instilled into the native mind. Had that
wise and energetic rule been continued,
it is possible that Hardinge's aim might
have been achieved, and a strong and
public-spirited native administration have
been established. But all too soon Law-
rence's health broke down, and he was
replaced in January, 1848, by a Resident
who, though an able man, lacked the
unique genius which gave Lawrence an
influence so extraordinary ; and at the
same moment Hardinge himself was
replaced by Lord Dalhousie, a Governor-

been due not to its own military inferiority,
but to the treachery of its commanders
and to many of the sirdars who found
anarchy profitable. The British adopted
the technically correct course of requiring
the Punjab Government and troops to
restore order and avenge the murder
of the British officers who had been acting
in its service/ In the opinion of Lord
Gough the commander-in-chief, either the
Punjab Government was loyal and could
and would suppress the revolt, or it
was disloyal, and the revolt would
inevitably develop into a conflagration
which could be dealt with only by an army
of conquest. The despatch of small
columns would only precipitate the con-
flagration, and bring about immediate
disaster. The Punjab Government professed

1295

DEFEAT OF THE SIKHS AT THE BATTLE OF ALIWAL BY SIR HARRY SMITH, JANUARY 28, 1846

loyalty, but did not hasten to strike.
A young frontier officer, Herbert Edwardes,
at the head of a few loyal Pathans and by
no means loyal Sikhs, on his own respon-
sibility made a dash for Multan, and
"drove Mulraj's troops within the walls in
June. He was joined by the Government
forces under Sher Singh, and soon after
by a British column from

Operations

Lahore ; but it was matter of

Pn'ab * d ubt . whether Sher Sin S h and
his Sikhs would remain loyal.

In fact, in September, they declared in
favour of the rebels, and withdrew from
the siege ; and Sher Singh set about calling
the Khalsa to arms to 'recover the inde-
pendence of the Punjab. The British
force remained before Multan, but there
was now no prospect of its early capture.
By this time Lord Gough's preparations for
a great invasion should it prove necessary
were almost completed. The rising of the
Khalsa put the necessity beyond doubt.
The nearer districts of the Punjab were
under control ; Sher Singh concentrated
his forces beyond the River Chenab. On
its banks at Ramnagar there was a sharp
skirmish, but the Sikh position was too
strong for the passage to be forced. A
few days later, however, a column effected
the passage higher up the river, and
engaged the enemy at Sadulapur ; the
result of which was that Sher Singh fell

1296

back on a strong position at Rassul, and
Gough carried his whole force over the
Chenab.

Gough wished to await the fall of Multan
and the arrival of the British column
which would then be released ; but, under
pressure from headquarters, he presently
resolved to advance on Sher Singh.
The two armies met at Chillianwalla on
January 13, 1849. Here was fought
another of those desperate and sanguinary
battles which distinguish the campaigns
against the Sikhs a battle which was so
far a victory that the British remained
masters of the field, and the Sikhs fell
back on their entrenched position at
Rassul, which could neither be turned nor
stormed.

Meanwhile, the force before Multan had
been reinforced by a column from Bombay,
and Multan was captured. Sher Singh
_ resolved to march on Lahore,

*; . and evacuated Rassul, evading
^ Slkh Gough, who fell back, to inter-
cept his advance, on the Chenab
near Gujerat. There the British were
joined by the column from Multan, and
the decisive battle of the campaign was
fought, the Sikh army being completely
and decisively shattered.

Except Henry Lawrence, there was
probably no competent authority in India
who doubted that annexation had now

MODERN 1NDIA-THE COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION

become a sheer necessity ; since, except
Henry Lawrence, there was no one
capable of asserting the personal ascen-
dancy which might ultimately have re-
conciled the conflicting factors in the
Punjab, and have welded them into a
stable governing force. The young
Maharaja was pensioned off. The Khalsa,
conscious at last that it had been squarely
beaten in a square fight, acquiesced in the
fate it had brought upon itself ; the
sirdars sombrely bowed to the inevitable.
The Punjab became a British province,
and very soon a recruiting ground for the
staunchest native regiments, and a train-
ing field for the best British officers,
military and civil, in the service of the
Company, and ultimately of the Crown.
Last, and hardest to vanquish of the native
Powers which have challenged British
supremacy, the Sikh state was transformed
into the strongest buttress of the supre-
macy which it had challenged. To effect
the transformation, the best
brains and the best troops were
concentrated in the new pro-
vince ; which was well for the
province, but not so well for the security of
the great dependency in general, though
the injurious results did not become
evident till after the withdrawal of Dal-
housie's master-hand

Thus Dalhousie's governorship opened
with a fierce war, conducted to a trium-
phant issue, and closed by the absorption

of the Punjab under British rule, even as
Wellesley had begun by overthrowing the
Sultan of Mysore.

One other military conquest marks
Dalhousie's era a conquest for which, as
of the Punjab, it cannot be said that any
aggressiveness of the Governor-General
was responsible. It has been observed in
T a previous chapter that the

with* the i n ^ ant ^ e ignorance and inflated
Burm se mso ^ ence f the Burmese mon-
archy forced the British into
war and annexation beyond the Bay of
Bengal in the time of Lord Amherst. For
the second, but not the last time, the
same thing happened now. The Burmese
authorities habitually ignored the treaty
they had entered upon, and subjected the
British mercantile community in Rangoon
and on the coast to persecution which
threatened to drive them from the country.
Protests were disregarded ; British envoys
were deliberately insulted. An ultimatum
was at last sent to Ava at the beginning of
1852, by no means unreasonable in its
terms.

The ultimatum was ignored. An
expedition was swiftly and thoroughly
organised. A fortnight after the time
limit named in the ultimatum, Rangoon
was captured. Six months later, when
the dangerous summer season was over,
the army advanced to Prome, on the way
to Ava, and took it, as well as the town of
Pegu in the south. Dalhousie did not

BRITISH VICTORY OVER SHER SINGH AT CHILL1ANWALLA ON JANUARY 13, 1849

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

wish to extend the borders of the Indian
dominion beyond India proper. He stayed
the advance ; he made no treaty with a
Power to which treaties were waste paper.
But nine-tenths of the population hailed
the prospect of the substitution of British
rule for that of Ava having before them
as an object lesson the prosperity of the
previously ceded provinces
an d policy, in the Governor-
General ' s e Y es > forbade the res-
toration to an Oriental poten-
tate of districts in which the British flag
was flying. Accordingly, he announced by
proclamation, that the province of Pegu
was annexed to the British Dominions,
and proceeded, without further hindrance
from Ava, to establish the British Govern-
ment therein.

Dalhousie's conquests, important as
they were, were unsought. The same
thing cannot be said of his annexations by
legal process, unless we except Oudh.
He was the first Governor-General who
deliberately laid it down that if a native
state could lawfully be brought under
direct British rule, the presumption was in
favour of annexation. The principle
hitherto acted upon apart from Sindh
had been, that so long as the maintenance
of a decent and unaggressive native
government in a state was practicable,
the presumption was against annexation.
Now, since Wellesley's time, the British
had claimed that status of general suzer-
ainty which had previously been recognised
as an attribute of the Moguls. According
to Indian precedent, expressed in terms
of Western law, the throne and he rule
of a native state escheated to the suzerain
on the lapse of legitimate heirs. By
Hindu law, springing from the religious
doctrine that for the welfare of a man's
soul it was necessary that his offspring
should perform certain religious functions
when he was dead, a man who had no
heirs of his body might adopt an heir, who

... . thereby acquired all the rights

Native Rules which ordinarily passed to

SuccIssTo g D the natural heir. The Moham-
medan over-lords, however,
had declined to allow political status to
be thus passed on without qualification,
refusing to recognise an adoption to which
their assent had not been obtained, some-
times granting the assent on terms, some-
times refusing it absolutely. Hitherto,
the British had not, in practice, exercised
the right of refusing assent altogether, but

1298

it was impossible to question that they
were legally entitled to do so if they
thought fit.

Now, it was an obvious fact that order,
justice, law, and material prosperity, pre-
vailed much more under British than
under the best native administration.
Therefore, Dalhousie held that when the
law warranted him in substituting a
British for a native administration, the
change ought to be carried out in the best
interests of the people : provided always
that no special considerations existed
which, in a particular case, might out-
weigh the general principle. And as it
befell, the years of his rule provided an
exceptional series of important cases in
which the lapse of natural heirs involved
an escheat, if the suzerain should decline
to recognise an heir by adoption. By the
free exercise of a legal right, undisputed
but hitherto rarely enforced, extensive
territories might be given the benefits of
direct British rule. In judging Dalhousie's
principle, however, it should be remarked
that the rule had been formally laid down,
five-and-twenty years before, that adop-
tions were not to be recognised as a matter
_ . , of right, but only as a matter

" ousie s of grace. Dalhousie did not
r refuse to sanction adoption as
itlon a matter of course. When
the question arose in regard to Kerauli,
a small but very ancient state inRajputana,
the adoption was recognised; mainly,
indeed, on the plea that Kerauli was not
a dependent principality, but a protected
ally. But in two important instances
considerable ill-feeling was engendered by
the refusal of the privilege, in both of which
Dalhousie had a very strong technical case.
The first was that of Sattara. When Lord
Hastings annexed the Peshwa's dominions,
he had bestowed the principality of
Sattara on the heir of the house of Sivaji,
the founder of the Mahratta Power.
Twenty-one years later, it had been found
necessary to remove the Raja, whose
throne was transferred to his brother.
Repeated applications on the part of this
prince for permission to adopt an heir
had been consistently refused. When he
adopted an heir without permission, the
Governor-General was quite obviously
within his rights in refusing recognition.

Not quite so clear was the case of Jhansi,
in Bandelkhand, ceded to the British by
the Peshwa in an exchange of territory a
few years earlier. Here, inheritance by

MODERN INDIA THE COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION

adoption had already been once refused ;
but a kinsman of the deceased Raj a had been
allowed to succeed. When the throne again
fell vacant in 1853, adoption was refused,
and Jhansi was absorbed to the wrath
of the Rani, the deceased ruler's widow.
Different from these was the case of the
great Mahratta State of Nagpur. For
many years it had been badly ruled. The
Bhonsla, who died in 1853, left no son,
and had himself declined to adopt an
heir. Dalhousie had the alternatives of
selecting a successor or accepting the
lapse ; he chose the latter course. The
importance of the Nagpur affair lay in
the fact that this was one of the great semi-
independent principalities,
and its absorption by the
British could hardly fail to
be interpreted as a first step
in the policy of extending
the practice of annexation
on a technical plea to the
greater as well as to the
minor states a prospect
peculiarly alarming to
Gwalior, owing to the singu-
lar fact that no Sindhia, since
the first, had been the heir
of his predecessor's body ;
every one had been an adop-
tive son. The justice of the

Rousing
of Native
Alarm

SIR JOHN LAWRENCE

favour of annexation. But the process
had alarmed the native governing classes
throughout India, since they saw their
own ascendancy endangered, alike in the.
Hindu and the Mussulman districts.
Dalhousie was conscious of the risks,
but the Home Government,
absorbed in the Crimean War,
was oblivious of the fact that an
emergency was being created.
The organisation of the Punjab, first
under the rule of the brothers Henry and
John Lawrence and later under John
without Henry whose theories were too
independent for a chief so masterful as
Dalhousie bore splendid fruit when the
_^______ m7 , crisis arrived, in the loyalty

| both of the actual Sikh regi-
ments and of the frontier
levies of hill-men. The
benefits of British rule came
home more forcibly in that
province to the mass of the
population. The Governor-
General's progressive energy
was exercised with great ad-
vantage to the peaceful classes
throughout the British domi-
nion. Education was vigor-
ously advanced ; roads were
built ; irrigation by canals
was pressed forward ; railways

annexation cannot be dis- whose viceroyaity in India, 1863-9, were planned, though their
puted, but it
native court in India with
alarm. The series culminated with the
annexation of Oudh, one of the two great
Mohammedan principalities still in exist-
ence, the second being that of the Nizam.

vv nose viceruy ciiLy ui muid, j.ovo-.7> *-s 9

everv was the culmination of a brilliantly active Construction received
. y successful administrative career. sanction from home hardly

in time for much to be done before
Dalhousie's retirement ; the same thing
may be said of the telegraph. It is worth
noting that in both these last cases, the

From the days of Warren Hastings, the immediate effect was damaging to the

Nawabs had been consistently loyal to
the British, who had later rewarded them
with the Royal title. But whether as

British Government ; the superstitious
terrors of the population being aroused,
and the most grotesque suspicions pre-

W1L11 tllC \.\jya.l UlLi^. -UU.L. VV AJA^ HIV^JL u.o '- O 1 1 1 J

Nawabs or kings, they had traded on vailing as to the deep and dark designs

their services and misgoverned persistently,

in happy confidence that, however much

the British might threaten, they would

never take the final step of

abolishing the dynasty much

Native States as the ^ at <j onsta n tinop l e

treats the European Powers

of the Government.

But the brilliant achievements were
patent to intelligent eyes ; the alarm and
irritation, unreasonable and reasonable,
were hidden beneath the surface. When
Dalhousie retired at the beginning of
1856, worn out by his own ceaseless and

Matters, however, at length reached such a exhausting energy, he was under the firm

pass that a merely formal retention of
status by the king became the only alter-
native to his deposition and the annexa-
tion of the province. Dalhousie personally
favoured the former course, but was

conviction that a period of peace, progress,
and prosperity was secured. History
presents not a few instances of such hopes
and convictions proving the precursors
of a cataclysm ; rarely, if ever, has the

sufficiently doubtful to refer the case cataclysm been more sudden, more un-
home. The home authorities decided in expected, more startling.

1299

SIR JOHN INGLIS SIR COLIN CAMPBELL COLONEL NEILL

SIR HENRY LAWRENCE SIR JAMES OUTRAM SIR HENRY HAVELOCK

EARL CANNING

Sir Colin Campbell, the son of a Glasgow carpenter, became Lord Clyde, and was
Commander-in-chief in India and suppressed the Mutiny. Inglis succeeded Sir Henry
Lawrence in command at Lucknow, which he defended during the siege. Neill
defended Cawnpore, and was shot in the advance to relieve Lucknow, in the defence
of which Lawrence met his death. Outram defended Lucknow during the second

period of its siege, and Havelock was the hero of the first relief. During Canning's
Governor-Generalship the Mutiny occurred, and Nana Sahib was its ch'ef instigator.

NOTABLE FIGURES IN THE INDIAN MUTINY

1300

THE STORY OF THE MUTINY

BEFORE we enter upon the account of
the cataclysm itself, we shall do well
to call to mind the very peculiar condi-
tions under which the British Empire in
India had been acquired. Here was a
vast territory, the size of Europe with-
out Russia and Turkey, where the great
majority of the inhabitants had for many
centuries been Hindus by religion,
parcelled out into kingdoms which had
never been touched by the European
conception of political nationality. Over
a great part of these kingdoms Moham-
medan invaders, largely of Tartar origin,
had established military supremacies.
Finally, a Tartar Mohammedan dynasty
had acquired a formal sovereignty over
the whole peninsula. At the moment
when disintegration had set in, and the
Mogul Empire was again breaking up into
a congeries of independent states some-
times of Hindus free from the Mussulman
yoke, sometimes under Mussulman domina-
tion a European Power, utterly
a ^ en to Hindu and Mussulman
alike, almost by accident and
without premeditation made it-
self master of two great provinces, Bengal
and the Carnatic, where its dominion
was maintained chiefly by means of
sepoy armies native soldiers commanded
by the alien officers. The new Power came
into collision with one after another of the
native states ; every collision resulted
in a greater or less acquisition of territory,
till half the peninsula was under its direct
administration and the other half acknow-
ledged it as legally paramount. The
alternative to this alien domination was
chaos. The Europeans treated all sections
of the population with even-handed justice,
sternly curbing the predatory classes,
fostering material prosperity, and honestly
striving to rule sympathetically, subject
always to the necessity of maintaining its
own paramountcy, but always with a
consciousness that the mental and moral
attitudes of the Oriental and the Occi-
dental are mutually unintelligible. But
on the native mind British policy did

not produce the impression of that dis-
interestedness on which the dominant
race prided itself. Of what use were
professions that the British had no desire
to extend .their dominions, when almost
every decade found fresh provinces ab-
sorbed into British territory ? Moham-
medans and Mahrattas saw in the new
Native lords of India only their own

lust of conquest carried to a
Attitude to r i 1

. . more successful issue ; saw only

Britain . . , ... J

that their own dominion, or

hope of dominion, was rent from them
by the alien that they were subjects
where they might have been masters.
The Brahman found himself shut out from
the political career which even under
Mohammedan princes had been open to
him. The military classes had to be con-
tent with their pay as sepoys, unsupple-
mented by miscellaneous looting. The
benefits of British rule applied mostly
to the helpless masses who had no choice
but to acquiesce in any rule, good or
bad, which might be imposed upon them ;
and even to them the new rule was alien,
unintelligible, suspect, because it did not
square with their traditions.

Beyond all this, the whole number of
members of the ruling race formed but an
infinitesimal fraction of the entire popula-
tion. Even in the British provinces the
sepoys outnumbered the white soldiers by
five to one. The dependent provinces were
protected, and controlled, partly by their
own native levies, partly by more sepoy
regiments, the British " contingents."
The whole highly artificial fabric of the
alien dominion rested primarily
on 'the active loyalty, or, at
lt . lsh least, on the quiescence, of
these great masses of native
soldiery which, trained to fight by the
aliens themselves, had learnt to believe
in their own efficiency.

It is obvious, then, that there were a
number of great separate Interests to
which British rule was, or seemed to be
unfavourable. The strength of the posi-
tion lay in the fact that the separate

1301

SCENES OF THE MASSACRE AT CAWNPORE

The view at the top of the page is that of the house in which the women and children were massacred; the well
into which many of the victims were thrown is now surmounted by the memorial seen on the right The centre
picture shows the entrenchments of Sir Hugh Wheeler, and the lourth represents the interior of the building
after the massacre, the floor strewn with clothing, books, and other articles, while everything was soaked in blood.
1302

MODERN INDIA-THE STORY OF THE MUTINY

interests were mutually antagonistic. The
condition of a movement, with any chance
of success, against the British Raj was
the provision of an apparently common
aim which should unite those Interests.
No such unifying aim was producible,
and hence the British power survived the
attack.

But with so many elements of unrest
in existence, it was possible for one
interest or another to believe that it could
take advantage of a general destructive
movement, and of the general scramble
which would follow, to come by what it
considered its own provided that the
destructive movement could be made
sufficiently general. The first thing to be
done for bringing this about was to
foster the spirit of animosity against the
British, and, above all, to kindle the flame
of revolt in the sepoy army.

Now, Dalhousie's annexations had raised
the alarm of the governing classes in the
dependent states to the highest pitch.
Out of the dangerously small number of
white troops a dangerously large propor-
tion was absorbed by the most recently
conquered province in the far
north-west. Never had the
country lain so much at the

* otcnl&lcs r . i 'i-i

mercy of the sepoys. Ihere
was a new Governor-General, Lord Can-
ning, in the saddle. British officialdom
was sublimely unconscious of danger. Most
of its chiefs had learnt to depend on orders
from headquarters. Nine-tenths of the
officers of the Army were pathetically
confident in the loyalty of their own
regiments. Canning's accession to office
was almost immediately followed by a
quarrel with Persia, and an expedition
which withdrew some of the best officers,
and still further reduced the number of
white troops. It remained only to provide
the sepoys with an adequate grievance
which could be used by astute intriguers
as a lever to set them in motion.

The lever was duly provided. The
great bulk of the sepoys in Hindustan
were high-caste Hindus, more sensitive
on the subject of caste than any other.
The obligations of caste were very in-
convenient for purposes of military service
e.g., a man suffered heavy caste penal-
ties if he crossed the sea. From time
immemorial agitators had periodically
taught the sepoys to believe that the
British intended to Christianise them by
forcing them to lose caste. Now, Canning's

advisers persuaded him to issue the
General Service Enlistment Act, which
required the sepoy to enlist for service
overseas as well as in the Peninsula a
measure dictated by the demand for
troops to serve in Pegu. At a stroke, the
Hindustani sepoys, soldiers from genera-
tion to generation, saw their sons either

. debarred from their hereditary

Beginning T >

of the career or doomed to loss of

Ferae nt caste - Now, the event showed

clearly that a revolutionary
Mussulman organisation was at work
which hoped by means of a general
revolt to snatch a restoration of the
Mogul supremacy. But this faction
could not afford to let its own purposes
be known, since the Hindus generally,
and the Mahrattas in particular, would
have had no inclination to overthrow
the British Raj merely to replace it by
a Mohammedan dominion. What is
tolerably apparent is this that the
organisation existed, that it had a definite
policy, and that it sought to precipitate
a general revolution in order to give its
policy an opportunity. It meant to make
a catspaw of the Hindustani sepoy ;
whereas the disaffected Hindus had no
policy at all, and no organisation.

When the explosion came, the prema-
ture announcement of the Mogul policy
went far to check the dependent Hindu
states from throwing in their lots with the
revolution, giving the British time to
recover from the first sudden shock, and
limiting the actual area of the struggle
mainly, though not quite exclusively, to
Hindustan proper. But the Hindustani
sepoy had already committed himself
before the Mogul plot was exposed.

Still one more touch was required to
bring the sepoys up to mutiny point. It
was provided by an inexcusable depart-
mental blunder, the incident of the
greased cartridges. The troops were
armed with a new rifle, which required

greased cartridges, the ends of

which had to be bitten off
Jf . A before use. A rumour spread

that the grease employed was
the fat of oxen and swine. Swine's flesh
is unclean to the Mohammedans ; the cow
is sacred to the Hindu, who would
lose caste by tasting its flesh. Whether
true or not, there was enough evidence
in support of the rumour to give it
universal credence in the ranks. The
mischief was done, though no more of

1303

ADVANCE OF THE SIEGE TRAIN FROM FIROZPUR

the offending consignment of cartridges
were issued.

Still the outbreak was delayed, and still
the authorities in general declined to
believe that any special precautions were
necessary. The story of the cartridges
was spread abroad in January, 1857. In
February, one regiment refused to handle
the cartridges issued to it. In March
another regiment mutinied for the same
reason, and was soon after disbanded. In

April, there was another mutiny, this time
at Mirat, a great military station in the
Delhi district, where the heir of the Moguls
still held court. The mutineers were
imprisoned.

Then the storm burst probably earlier
than the agitators had intended. On
May 10, the sepoys at Mirat rose en masse,
shot their officers, killed every European
on whom they could lay hands, marched on
Delhi, and proclaimed the restoration of

TROOPS OF THE NATIVE ALLIES ON THE MARCH DURING THE MUTINY
1304

FIRST BENGAL FUSILIERS MARCHING DOWN FROM DAGSHAI IN THE PUNJAB

the Mogul Empire. From Delhi, down the
Ganges basin, through Oudh to Benares,
the flame spread. Bengal proper, from
Patna to the coast, was tolerably secure.
Bihar, the district from Benares to Patna,
at first remained quiet. Outside the district
where the Mogul and Mohammedan tradi-
tion was strongest, the troops of the
dependent princes were ready to make
common cause with the mutineers ; the
princes themselves, whether from loyalty

or from distrust of a Mogul programme,
were not. In the Punjab, by the prompt
and vigorous action of the officers, some-
times supported by white troops, the
doubtful regiments were disarmed, while
the irregular frontier levies were devoted
to their British officers, and shared with
the Sikhs themselves an intense aversion
from the Hindustani sepoys.

But between Delhi and Patna there were
only five white regiments and a few

MUTINEERS SURPRISED BY HER MAJESTY'S 9TH LANCERS

1305

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

artillerymen, distributed at Mirat, Agra,
Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Dinapur, at
each of which there were three or four times
the number of sepoys ; while at sundry
other stations there were sepoys, but no
European soldiers. During the month
following the outbreak at Mirat,
fTlT practically all those regiments,
?. except at Dinapur, had declared

against the British. The main
points of the mutineer concentration were
Delhi, Cawnpore, and Lucknow, the last
being the capital of the recently annexed
kingdom of Oudh. At Gwalior, Sindhia
found himself unable to maintain con-
trol of the troops, which set off to

Delhi, in which there were some 30,000
sepoys. At the end of the same month
the small Lucknow force of British and
loyal sepoys was shut up in the Residency,
which Henry Lawrence, with exceptional
prescience, had carefully prepared for a
defence. Lower down the Ganges, Benares
and Allahabad were already secured by
Neill and Brasyer.

At Cawnpore, as at Lucknow, the
garrisons included a large number of
women and children, and at the former
post a desperate resistance was main-
tained for a while in an almost indefensible
position. It had already fallen before the
actual siege of the Lucknow Residency

THE RE-TAKING OF DELHI BY SIR ARCHDALE WILSON ON SEPTEMBER 20, 1857

operate on their own account. Jhansi also
revolted ; and the siege of Cawnpore was
mainly the work of Nana Sahib, the
adopted son of the last Mahratta Peshwa,
Baji Rao, whom Lord Hastings had de-
throned and pensioned very handsomely
nearly forty years before. The Nana chose
to entertain a bitter grudge against the
British because, though he succeeded to
Baji Rao's great estates, the cash pension
was not also continued to him, although
it had been very expressly granted to the
ex -Peshwa for the term of his own life only.
By the middle of June a small British
force, increased by the end of the month to
over 6,000 men by troops from the Punjab,
had planted itself on the Ridge before

1306

began. The garrison, with no prospect of
holding out long, or of early relief, accepted
the terms under which Nana Sahib pro-
mised to convey them in safety down the
river to Allahabad. They were no sooner
embarked than they were massacred by
volleys from the banks, followed up by

a general slaughter of the men,
iraged except the very few who
managed to escape. The women

and children were taken back
prisoners to Cawnpore, and the bulk of
the sepoys marched to join their comrades
before Lucknow.

From this point, then, we have to
observe first the siege of Delhi with its
great native army by the small but

HODSON KILLING THE BLOODTHIRSTY SONS AND GRANDSON OF THE KING OF DELHI

increasing British force ; the siege of the
Lucknow Residency by a second great
sepoy army ; and the operations of
Havelock, who, arriving to take command
at Allahabad, was about to lead a force
of 2,000 men through the heart of the
disturbed districts to the relief of Lucknow.
With regard to the last, it may be remarked
that the mutiny very shortly spread to
Dinapur, whereby for the time communica-

tions were interrupted between Allahabad
and Bengal.

The relation between these three centres
or spheres should be noted. The crucial
point was Delhi. If the British on the
Ridge should be overwhelmed, the revolt
would certainly become universal ; if they
succeeded in capturing Delhi, the blow
would prevent that catastrophe. Lucknow,
less important in itself, detained a great

STORMING THE BATTERIES AT BADLE-SERAI ON THE HEIGHTS ROUND DELHI

1307

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

LOYAL SEPOYS

mutineer army from
marching on Delhi ; and
its fall would also be
the signal for the Oudh
clansmen, as distinct
from the sepoys, to join
the rising. If it fell
before Delhi were cap-
tured, the British on
the Ridge could hardly
escape annihilation.
How long Lucknow
would be able to hold
out would depend very
largely on the success of
Havelock's relief opera-
tions.

The loyalty of' the
Sikh princes of Sirhind
kept open the communi-
cations between the Pun-
jab and Delhi ; but John
Lawrence was for some
while too anxious as to
the condition of the new
province to allow any
quantity of troops to
move from it. Before the
middle of August, four
attacks on the Ridge were
made in force, and re-
pulsed. The British were
then strengthened by the
arrival from the Punjab of
Nicholson with a flying
column ; at the beginning
of September, the long
awaited and very much
needed siege-train arrived

1308

RIFLE DRILL

CHIEF OF THE SIKHS
Who remained staunch to the British

from Firozpur, an attempt
to intercept it having been
brilliantly frustrated. By
a series of skilful and
daring engineer operations,
the work of Baird Smith
and Alexander Taylor,
breaching batteries were
brought to bear, on the
nth, and the cannonade
went on for two days. On
the morning of the I4th,
by an act of desperate
courage, Home and Salkeld
succeeded in blowing up
the Kashmir Gate. Three
out of four assaulting
columns stormed the ram-
parts, and made their
footing good ; then by
degrees, on the ensuing
days, the British forced
their way into the city ;
on the 2ist they were
masters of the whole of
it, and held the Mogul
himself a prisoner. A por-
tion of the mutineer army
made good its retreat or
flight towards Lucknow.

During these three
months the garrison of the
Residency in the Oudh
capital had held out stub-
bornly. Nearly half the
fighting force were loyal
sepoys, many of them
Sikhs ; the non-com-
batants were nearly as
numerous as the

MUTINOUS SEPOYS WITHIN THEIR DEFENCES

MODERN INDIA THE STORY OF THE MUTINY

combatants. The skilful preparations made
the ramparts secure against assault,
provided that they could be adequately
manned ; while the great army of besiegers
did not know how to use their artillery
effectively for breaching. There was ample

store of grain. The dangers from
Days which the S arrison suffered
Lucknow were : the ' immense strain on

every member of the garrison,
owing to the fact that the enemy were in
immense force, under shelter, at many
points only a few yards from the walls,
while the defenders could take only brief
spells of rest ; and the almost overwhelm-
ing risk of breaches being effected by

reached such a point that some of the
loyal sepoys actually gave warning that,
unless relief arrived, or was certainly at
hand at the end of September, they
would not indeed surrender the place,
but would march out and make terms
for themselves.

While the British were grimly holding
grip before Delhi, and exploding the
enemy's mines at Lucknow, Havelock, with
his 2,000 men of these, too, nearly a
fourth were Sikhs was making desperate
efforts first to rescue the captives at
Cawnpore, and then to fight his way
through Oudh to Lucknow. The insurgents
sepoys, or followers of Nana Sahib

MEETING OF HAVELOCK, OUTRAM, AND COLIN CAMPBELL AT THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW

mines. The vigilance of the engineers was
such that no fewer than twenty-five mines
were countered and destroyed in sixty-
five days ; others were mis-directed or
exploded harmlessly. Only one accom-
plished its purpose, and created a breach ;
but the mutineers seem to have been so
surprised at this success that the breach
itself was once again made defensible
before they attempted to rush it.
Perhaps the greatest of all the dangers
lay in the strain on the nerves of the
defenders owing to the extreme difficulty
of obtaining from outside any news on
which reliance could be placed. Matters

faced him repeatedly, to be repeatedly
routed. On one day he fought two
separate engagements ; on another,
three. Nothing could stay the pauseless
advance till he reached Cawnpore to find
a ghastly shambles. At the last
moment, the Nana had ordered
the women and children to
be butchered in cold blood.
That appalling crime aroused such a
passion of vengeful rage as has, perhaps;
no parallel in British history.

'A few days later, Havelock crossed the
river ; but cholera was ravaging his now
greatly reduced force. Wherever the

1309

Brilliant
Advance of
Havelock

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

mutineers faced him, he smote them only
to find fresh forces barring the way.
Report came that the Gwalior army was
moving to threaten his rear. Dinapur
had mutinied. He found himself with no
choice but to fall back again across the
Oudh border to Cawnpore. The Oudh
talukdars, or chiefs, thought he had
abandoned that province, and now allowed
their retainers to Join the mutineers,
which they had not hitherto done. On
the other hand, the rising between Allaha-
bad and Dinapur was checked and sup-
pressed. Presently Sir James Outram
was advancing with fresh regiments to
join Havelock. The junction was effected
on September 15, at the moment when the
Delhi force was storming the Mogul
capital. The advance through Oudh was
renewed, the force now numbering 3,000
men. On the
23rd it was four
miles from the
Residency, with
the mutineer
army between.
On the 25th it
fought its way
in. There was
no question now
that, thus rein-
forced, the place
could hold out
till a technical
" relief " should
be effected ,
though the siege
was not yet
raised, nor any
part of its garrison able to be removed.
The revolt had started with one chance,
or two, of succeeding that either the
whole British community should have been
overpowered, or the whole native com-
munity have risen in arms, before re-
inforcements arrived from England.
Neither of these results had been achieved.
Within a large but restricted
area almost every native regi-
ment had mutinied ; but de-
tachments had remained loyal,
and the landowners had sat still and, to a
great extent, kept their clansmen sitting
still. Outside that area, in places where
there were no white regiments, sepoy
battalions had declared in favour of the
mutineers without moving to join them.
Even the Gwalior army had only threat-
ened. Four months after the proclamation

1310

Relief of
Lucknow

HAVELOCICS GRAVE AND ALAM BAGH PICKET-HOUSE

Turning
of the
Tide

of the Mogul, his own city was being
stormed. Before another fortnight the
British in the Oudh capital had been
reinforced. New troops and new com-
manders were reaching Calcutta. There
were no more fears about the Punjab,
where fresh native regiments were being
levied in secure confidence of their loyalty.

Final ^* x wee ^ s a f ter Outram and
Havelock reached Lucknow,
Sir Colin Campbell was in Oudh
leading the army which was
not to check, but to crush the revolt.
In November, Lucknow was effectively
relieved, the non-combatants were with-
drawn, and a strong force left under
Outram to hold the Alam Bagh fort.
At this moment the Gwalior army, under
an able leader named Tantia Topi, joined
in the fray, but was eventually driven back

in rout across
the Jumna.

In the first
three months of
1858, Sir Hugh
Rose advanced
from Bombay,
crushed the
insurgents in
outlying dis-
tricts, laid siege
to Jhansi, fought
a pitched battle
with Tantia
Topi, shattering
his forces com-
pletely , and
captured Jhansi
itself on April 3,
though the Rani escaped. Meanwhile
other columns converged on Oudh, inclu-
ding a contingent of Ghurkas from Nepal,
and on March I7th drove the mutineers
headlong from Lucknow.

Resistance was not over, for the Oudh
talukdars, who had hitherto abstained
from taking an active part, were
alarmed by a proclamation of Lord
Canning's, and, thinking that their fate
was already sealed, resolved to take it
fighting. Moreover, the Jhansi Rani,
Tantia Topi, and Nana Sahib, were not
disposed to submit ; the first, from a spirit
akin to that which tradition ascribes to
Boadicea ; the other two because they
knew their share in the Cawnpore mas-
sacres had placed them beyond reach of
pardon. But the crisis was passed when
Campbell effected the final relief of the

THE BRITISH RESIDENCY AT LUCKNOW AFTER THE SIEGE

The top picture shows the ruins of the Residency as drawn by a British officer after the siege ; the telegraph
apparatus was in the high tower to the left. The centre oval is a picture of the Residency from the Water Gate,
the verandah having been shot away ; the appearance of the billiard room gives an idea of the general destruction.

INTERIOR OF ALAM BAGH FORT AT LUCKNOW AFTER THE SIEGE

Lucknow Residency. The issue was placed
beyond all doubt when he drove the
mutineers from Lucknow itself, and Sir
Hugh Rose captured Jhansi. The Rani
was killed in action in June; the taluk-
dars submitted in December ; Nana Sahib
vanished ; a few months later, Tantia
Topi was caught and hanged, since nothing
could transform the hideous butchery of
Cawnpore into a legitimate operation of
war.

The Mutiny had brought home in
England the conviction that the anomaly
of governing a dependency so vast as
India through the medium of a com-
mercial company must be brought to an
end. The prophecy, passed from mouth to
mouth among the natives, as an incentive to
rebellion, that the rule of the Company was
to last a hundred years, and no more,
was fulfilled almost to the year. It had
begun with Clive's victory at Plassey ; it

was ended by the proclamation which
transferred the government to the British
Crown, in accordance with the India Act
passed by Lord Derby in August, 1858.

The spirit of compromise which per-
vades British institutions has produced
a system which is theoretically crowded
with contradictions. Nothing could well
be more indefensible on paper than the
old compromise between the Company
and the Crown in India. But the
illogicalities of the Constitution serve
their turn ; and the Honourable East
India Company served its turn, too
better, probably very much better, than
a system which would have better satisfied
a political theorist. But a stage had been
reached at which it had become cumbrous
and unworkable. Thenceforth the re-
sponsibility for the Indian Empire was
to rest undivided upon the British nation.
ARTHUR D. INNES

RUINS OF THE CLOCK TOWER GATEWAY AT LUCKNOW AFTER THE SIEGE
13*2

EDWARD VII. IN INDIA

SCENES FROM THE TOUR OF THE PRINCE OK WALES, LATER
EDWARD VII., EMPEROR OF INDIA, IN THE WINTER OF 1875-76

ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE OF WALES AT BOMBAY ON NOVEMBER 8, 1875

ENTRY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES INTO BARODA ON NOVEMBER 9, 1875

1313

THE PRINCE PRESIDING AT A GRAND CHAPTER OF THE STAR OF INDIA AT CALCUTTA

RECEPTION OF THE SURVIVORS OF THE DEFENCE OF LUCKNOW IN JANUARY, 1876

STATE ENTRY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES INTO LAHORE IN FEBRUARY, 1876

ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE OF WALES AT AGRA IN MARCH, 1876

1315

D The Book of history; a history

20 of all nations

B7 v. 3

Y.3

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