Full text of "Java, Sumatra, and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies;"

JAVA, SUMATRA, AND THE

OTHER ISLANDS OF THE
DUTCH EAST INDIES

JAVA, SUMATRA, AND
THE OTHER ISLANDS of
the DUTCH EAST INDIES

<By A. CABATON

TRANSLATED AND WITH A
PREFACE BY BERNARD MIALL

WITH A MAP AND 47 ILLUSTRATIONS

** ^ ***

' 5* , x

T. FISHER UNWIN

LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE

LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20

191 1

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGB

HISTORICAL SKETCH . . . . i

I. The lost continent of the Pacific. The significance of coral.
The old theory of the Asiatic irruption. The new theory of
the Polynesian migration. Both anthropology and philology
unreliable. Probable origin of the Malays. Traces of their
passage in India. Two languages. The Hindu or Buddhist
invasion. Adjih Saka. The nomadic legend. Its probable
interpretation. Buddhist missions. Immigration in bulk.
Javanese chronicles. Lack of political cohesion. Was the
Javanese civilisation a high one ? Monuments. The Hindu
dynasties. The Arab missionaries. Demak. The Arab
warrior priests, and the fall of the Hindu Empire. II.
Arrival of the Europeans. The Portuguese, Dutch, French,
and English. III. Sir Stamford Raffles and English rule.
Recent developments. Education and future prospects.

CHAPTER II
GENERALITIES . . . . . . 25

I. The importance, area, and population of the Dutch East
Indies. II. Administrative divisions of the Dutch East Indies,
and the best method of studying them. III. European, and, in
particular, Dutch intervention, in the East Indies. IV. Physical
characteristics of the Archipelago. V. The races which inhabit
it. VI. The principal languages spoken ; and which must
be learned by the European settling in the Indies.

CHAPTER III

JAVA AND MADURA : PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY . . 45

I. Their shape. II. Their geological constitution and oro-
graphical aspect. III. Streams and rivers of Java and Madura ;

viii CONTENTS

PAGE

their qualities as alluvial agents, and their insufficiency as water-
ways ; their influence upon the coast-line and the harbours.
IV. The climate: its stability. V. The Javanese flora. VI.
The Javanese fauna.

CHAPTER IV

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF JAVA . . -57

I. The seventeen Residencies. The western Residencies :
Bantam, Batavia, Cheribon, the Preangers. II. The central
Residencies: Pekalongan, Samarang, Banjumas, Kedu. III.
Kedu and Boro-Budur. IV. The Vorstenlanden or Princi-
palities, Surakarta and Djokjakarta. V. Rembang, Madiun.
VI. The Residencies of the East : Surabaja, Kediri, Pasuruan,
Besuki, and Madura.

CHAPTER V

THE NATIVES OF JAVA . . . . . 101

VII. The love of pleasure, and the means of satisfying it : betel-
nut, tobacco, opium, and hemp ; cock-fighting and gambling.

VIII. Failings with which Europeans reproach the Javanese,
nearly all of which have some ihistoric excuse.

CHAPTER VI

THE JAVANESE MIND . .136

I. The religious question in Java is involved in the historic
evolution of the masses. The religion of Java is a sincere
Islamism, modified by the survivals of earlier cults ; tolerant
and kindly, like the character of the nation. II. How the
Dutch Indies escaped Christianity. III. The problem of
education; in Java ; its various phases since the Dutch occu-
pation. IV. The awakening of the Javanese people and their
leaders; their claims.

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER VII

PAGK

THE ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT . . . 154

I. The Oriental foreign element in Java and Madura : the
Japanese, Arabs, and Chinese. The Japanese are the latest
arrivals, and the least numerous, but also the best treated. II.
The Arabs : the religious and economic danger represented by
the Arab element in the Dutch Indies. III. The Chinese : their
numbers, their activity, their wealth. Why they are considered
detrimental to the political and economic power of the rulers,
and the morality and prosperity of the native. IV. The various
solutions of the problem. Their injustice, or insufficiency, or
the impossibility of applying them. The only remedy is to
educate the Javanese so that they may take their place as
loyal collaborators and agents of the administration and the
European industries.

CHAPTER VIII

EUROPEANS IN JAVA ..... 167

I. The three aspects of the European element in the Dutch
Indies : army, colonisation, bureaucracy. The army. II. The
colonists : foreigners, and why so few settle in Java. The
French colony. III. The Dutch colony. Its relation with the
State and the natives : despite the vast area of the plantations,
there are few private freeholds ; the planter is the tenant of the
State or of the natives ; sometimes of both together. IV. His
life ; his house, furniture, and costume ; his food, servants, and
amusements. V. The instability of European families in Java ;
why they do not settle there without thought of return. VI.
The half-breeds.

CHAPTER IX

THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA .... 189

I. The important position of the European officials in Java.
Their restricted numbers are due to the form of government
which obtains in the Dutch East Indies : the Dutch govern the
natives through their own chiefs. II. Relations between the
native and European administrations. III. The hierarchy,
privileges, and importance of the European officials. IV.
Complaints against the officials made by colonists and natives.

x CONTENTS

CHAPTER X

PAGE

THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA ..... 204

I. The various phases of the economic history of Java under
Dutch rule. II. The Van den Bosch or "forced cultivation"
system. III. The help given by the State to free labour. The
Botanical Institute at Buitenzorg. IV. Native property in land.
V. Native crops : rice, coco-palms, areca- and betel-nuts. VI.
Bamboo ; bamboo huts.

CHAPTER XI
AGRICULTURE : VARIOUS CROPS . . . .219

I. Coffee. II. Sugar-cane. III. Tobacco. IV. Tea. V.
Quinine. VI. Indigo. VII. Lesser crops : pepper, cinnamon,
cotton, &c.

CHAPTER XII
FORESTS AND MINES. INDUSTRY. COMMERCE . . 240

I. The forests of djati and of "natural woods." II. The mines
of Java; the mining system; petroleum. III. Salt. IV.
Industries : their character ; the industrial future of Java. V.
Institutions of credit and thrift. VI. Internal trade and the
means of transport and communication : roads, railways,
rivers ; steamer services between the various islands of the
Archipelago. The merchant marine of the Archipelago. VII.
Post and telegraphs. VIII. Weights and measures. The
monetary system. IX. The export trade ; customs ; transport.

CHAPTER XIII

THE OUTER POSSESSIONS (BUITENBEZITTINGEN). SUMATRA
AND THE ARCHIPELAGO OF Riouw LINGGA . . 257

I. The various divisions of the "Outer Possessions," and the
importance of Sumatra. II. The dimensions, physical aspect,
and coast-line of Sumatra. III. The rivers and the sea-coast of
Sumatra. IV. The climate, flora, and fauna. V. The native
races : their origin, beliefs, and manners. VI. The principal
languages ; the most useful language for the visitor to or
inhabitant of Sumatra.

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER XIV

PAGE

THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF SUMATRA
AND THE ARCHIPELAGO OF Riouw LINGGA . . 283

I. The Dutch have been hampered by certain European Powers
and certain of the races of Sumatra in their endeavour to
establish the power of Holland in Sumatra. II. The present
administrative divisions of Sumatra. The principal towns and
their future. III. Economic value of Sumatra: the wealth of
its natural resources. IV. How far the natives have exploited
the natural resources. V. How far the Europeans have done
so : the mines. VI. Coffee and tobacco ; spices. VII. The
means of communication with Sumatra : railways, packet-
boats. The means of communication must be greatly enlarged
before the island can be pacified and its wealth developed.

CHAPTER XV

BORNEO ....... 307

I. Dimensions of Borneo : how divided among the Powers.

II. Orography and hydrography. III. Climate, flora, and
fauna. IV. The inhabitants : their manners and their civili-
sation. V. The establishment of Dutch supremacy in Borneo.
VI. Administrative divisions and principal towns. VII. The
economic situation ; what it may one day become.

CHAPTER XVI

CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES .... 323

I. The situation and aspect of Celebes. II. The physical
geography of the island ; its climate, fauna, and flora. III. The
inhabitants : Bugis, Macassars, Alfours, Toradjas. IV. The
establishment of the Dutch in Celebes. V. Administrative
divisions : i. Residency of Celebes and dependencies ; 2.
Residency of Menado. VI. The economic outlook and the
future of Celebes.

CHAPTER XVII
THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA . . . 339

I. Physical geography of the Moluccas. II. Their inhabitants.
III. The Dutch in the Moluccas. IV. Administrative divisions ;
(a) the Residency of Ternate and dependencies ; (6) The
Residency of Amboin. V. The Residency of the West of
New Guinea. VI. The economic future of the Moluccas.

xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVIII

PAGE

TIMOR AND ITS DEPENDENCIES BALI AND LOMBOK . 353

I. The physical aspect of Timor and the character of its
inhabitants. II. The dependencies of Timor : Flores, Solor,
Alor, Sawu, Sumba. III. Administrative divisions of Timor
and its dependencies. IV. Bali : the island and its people. V.
Lombok : the island and its people. VI. The establishment of
the Dutch power in Bali and Lombok ; the administrative
divisions, and the future of the Residency.

CONCLUSION ...... 368

INDEX ....... 372

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BROMO AND THE SEA OF SAND .... Frontispiece

PAGE

A WAYSIDE FOUNTAIN, JAVA ..... 20

AVENUE OF BANYANS, BUITENZORG . . . .38

TEMPLE OF BORO BUDUR ..... 48

TIGER-BAITING, JAVA ...... 56

THE KALI MAS, SURABAJA ..... 64

GRIMM'S RESTAURANT, SURABAJA . . . .68

THE OLD SIMPANG CLUB, SURABAJA . . . .68

NATIVE BOATS, WILLEMSKERKE, SURABAJA . -72

CHINESE KAMPONG, SURABAJA ..... 72

ARAB MOSQUE, SURABAJA ..... 78

CHINESE TEMPLE, SURABAJA . . . . .78

A TENGGRI VILLAGE, TOSARI ..... 82

THE HILL STATION, TOSARI . . . . .94

THE SANATORIUM, TOSARI . . . . . 94

A JAVANESE BRIDEGROOM . . . . .no

A JAVANESE BRIDE . . . . . .no

A GAMELAN, OR NATIVE ORCHESTRA . . . .127

A " WAYANG " : JAVANESE PLAYERS .... 132

A BATIK FACTORY . . . . . .132

AN ARAB TRADER, SURABAJA . . . . .156

AN ARAB TRADER'S WIFE . . . . .158

A SUNDANESE PEDDLER SELLING " BATAVIA GOODS " . 158

A CHINESE MERCHANT AND FAMILY . . . .162

xiii

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

CHINESE NEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL . . . .166

NATIVE POLICEMEN ...... 166

CHINESE KAMPONG, BATAVIA . . . . .170

BACK OF THE CHINESE KAMPONG, BATAVIA . . .170

SUGAR-CANE, JAVA . . . . . .174

RICE AND COFFEE LANDS, JAVA .... 174

COFFEE PLANTATION, JAVA . . . . .180

MAKING A GARDEN IN THE VIRGIN FOREST, JAVA . . 180

NATIVE IRRIGATION WHEELS ..... 220

NATIVE ENGINEERING: A BAMBOO CANTILEVER BRIDGE . 220
A JAVANESE TEA PLANTATION ..... 232

MALAYS OF MENANGKABAU, KOTA GEDANG . . . 268

DWELLING-HOUSE AND RICE GRANARY, BATIPU, SUMATRA . 270
ACHINESE BOYS ....... 276

NATIVE LOOM, ACHEEN ...... 276

A MALAY DWELLING-HOUSE, KOTA GEDANG, SUMATRA . 288
A KANARI KAMPONG, SOLOK, SUMATRA. . . . 296

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL'S HOUSE, BORNEO . . . 308

A ROPE FERRY, BORNEO ..... 308

DYAKS AT KUTJUNG, SARAWAK . . . . -314

SUMATRESE GlRLS AT WORK ..... 324

MARKET AT CELEBES ...... 324

"WAYANG" ACTORS, SINGARADJA, BALI . . . 360

NOTE

THE official Dutch orthography, with one or two slight
modifications, has been preserved throughout the book.
The Dutch oe has been represented by u ; the exact sound
inclines to that of the German ii ; dj and ij should be pro-
nounced dchy, tchy, but with a very slight insistence on the
y ; nj is like the Spanish n, or the ni in onion ; g is always
hard. In the atlases those names commencing with tj
which are most familiar to the traveller are spelt commen-
cing with ch; but for the sake of uniformity the translator
has, hardly without exception, kept to the correct spelling,
only substituting u for the Dutch oe.

In addition to the works cited in the footnotes, the author's
principal sources of reference have been : the Encyclopcedie
van N ederlansch-lndie . . . Samengesteld door P. A. Van der
Lith, A. J. Spaan, F. Fokkens, J. F. Snelleman (Leyden,
1896-1905, 4 vols., large 8vo) ; a vast compilation of everything
relating to the Dutch Indies, of which the Dutch are justly
proud ; the masterly work by P. T. Veth, Java, geographisch,
ethnologisch, historisch, 2nd edition, by J. F. Snelleman and
J. F. Niermeyer (Leyden, 1896-1907, 4 vols., 8vo) ; the
sincere and picturesque study by the deputy H. van Kol, Uit
onze kolonicn. Uitvoerig reisverhaal (Leyden, 1903, large 8vo),
and a lucid, methodical work by the same author on Dutch
and European colonial systems, the Regeerings Almanak voor
Nederlandsch-Indic 1909 (Batavia, Landsdrukkerij, 2 vols. 8vo),
and the Kolonial verslag van 1908. Zitting 1908-9 (The
Hague) gedrukt ver Algemeenc Landsdrukkerij, 1909, folio.
In the maps, AjSr, Batang, Kali, Kroeeng, Soengai, Sungai
= river. Teloek, Dano = lake. Noesa, Poeloe (Nusa, Pulu)
= island. Oedjoeng, udjung = point. Tandjong = cape.

XVI

NOTE

Boer, Bur, Boekit, Bukit, Dolok, Goenoeng, Gunung, Tor,
Glei = mountain.

The best atlas of the Dutch Indies is that by J. W.
Steemfoort and J. J. Ten Siethoff : Atlas der N ederlandsche
bezittingen in Oost-Indie (The Hague, Smulders) ; but the
Atlas van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie , by W. Van Gelder
(Groningen, Wolters), a convenient and classical publication,
issued at a moderate price, will answer all practical purposes.

The translator has to thank Mrs. George Watson for the
use of a number of photographs ; and the publisher's thanks
are due to M. Cabaton for the use of a series of photographs
issued by the Dutch Colonial Institute.

JAVA

CHAPTER I

HISTORICAL SKETCH
By the Translator

I. The lost continent of the Pacific. The significance of coral.
The old theory of the Asiatic irruption. The new theory of
the Polynesian migration. Both anthropology and philology
unreliable. Probable origin of the Malays. Traces of their pas-
sage in India. Two languages. The Hindu or Buddhist inva-
sion. Adjih Saka. The nomadic legend. Its probable inter-
pretation. Buddhist missions. Immigration in bulk. Javanese
chronicles. Lack of political cohesion. Was the Javanese
civilisation a high one ? Monuments. The Hindu dynasties.
The Arab missionaries. Demak. The Arab warrior priests,
and the fall of the Hindu Empire. II. Arrival of the Euro-
peans, The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English.
III. Sir Stamford Raffles and English rule. Recent develop-
ments, Education and future prospects,

A GLANCE at the map of the Pacific will show us that
the innumerable small islands lying between the Malay
Archipelago, Australia, and America, fall roughly into five
or six groups : in other words, they are the peaks of as
many vast ranges of submarine mountains. Each of these
groups represents such an archipelago of small moun-
tainous islets as would take the place, let us say, of Java
and Sumatra, were a stupendous volcanic catastrophe
or a gradual subsidence to sink them some thousands of

2 i

2 JAVA

feet below the surface of the sea. It is therefore reason-
able to suppose that they represent a sunken continent,
which was traversed by many mountain ranges; or if
not a continent, several islands of gigantic area.

That the islands of the Pacific were not thrown up as
they now stand, and are not now rising, is proved by the
existence, round nearly all of them, of coral reefs ; while
in many cases the peak has disappeared altogether, leaving
only an atoll, or a vast circular reef of coral. Moreover,
there are long lines of such reefs enclosing large areas of
shallow sea. The coral polyp cannot live below a
very moderate depth of water, and builds with extreme
slowness : conclusively proving these islands to be the
summits of large bodies of land, which have been
slowly sinking during a period of incalculable duration.

A few years ago the theory was generally accepted that
the whole of Polynesia, the Malay Archipelago, and
Madagascar, were populated by a Mongolian irruption
from Asia, which passed from the Peninsula to Java before
the Straits existed, and, finally becoming a maritime nation,
spread east and west over the entire Pacific and Indian
Oceans. This theory was accepted in spite of the very
obvious differences between the best type of Maori and
the ordinary Malay ; between the coast and the inland
Malay ; between the black Polynesian and the fair-
skinned Polynesian ; and the distinct cleavage of
languages. The presence of negroid or Negrito peoples
was explained by an immigration from India, and
perhaps from Africa also.

Lately the opposite theory has been favoured : that
the sunken Pacific continent was the home of a Pacific
race, perhaps of considerable civilisation, which emi-
grated northward and westward as the continent sank>
while also retiring to the mountains, which finally
became islands. It is also suggested that various races
of South-Eastern Asia which show affinity with the
Malays had the same origin. 1

1 Anthropologists are apt to lose sight of the fact that all problems
of ethnology cannot be settled by measurements of the skull.

HISTORICAL SKETCH 3

Were either the Polynesian or the Mongolian theory
true, we should expect to find a homogeneous race and
language from New Zealand to Madagascar. Setting
aside such minor problems as certain fair-haired races
who may represent remnants of some Celtic movement,
or of the migration of Arabs with a Gothic strain, and
black races who may be aborigines of Australia, Africa,
or Hindustan, the unprejudiced observer is inclined to
see two principal races : a true Polynesian race, of
which the finest and most highly specialised type is the
Maori, and a true Malay or Mongolian race. The
Polynesian languages have little in common with
Sanscrit : the Malay tongue has much in common with
it. There are Malays speaking the Malay tongue upon
the Malay Peninsula, the natural highway from Asia.
The true Polynesian is peculiar to the Pacific ; and
the Polynesian language has as many dialects as the
Polynesian skin has shades of brown. Moreover, the
Malays, although bold navigators, have not pervaded
the whole of Polynesia, and their vessels, houses, and

Round-headedness and long-headedness, wherever two races mingle,
are presumably Mendelian characteristics, one of which is domi-
nant, so that in the process of natural selection we may reasonably
expect to see one type of skull predominate, or pass from one race
to another, which would preserve, in an unmixed state, the opposite
type of skull.

Philologists, again, do not always remember that while a con-
quering and civilising race may either stamp out or adopt the
tongue of its inferiors, or produce a hybrid language as the result,
it is also true that when a highly organised and simplified language
with a rich practical vocabulary comes into even casual contact
with a lower, and in some senses a more complex tongue, devoid of
generalisations and of qualifying terms, there is likely to be an
absorption of the more highly organised tongue which need not be
accompanied by any racial admixture, or more than a slight racial
contact. The reader must remember that theories are changing
every year, and that the specialist in one science contradicts the
specialist in another. The present writer, in attempting to give
some account of the peoples of Indonesia, can but endeavour to
keep the middle line and to avoid improbable extremes, while
adducing certain facts in support of the theory of dual origin.

4 JAVA

art in general show more Chinese and Arabian than
Polynesian influence. This suggests a recent arrival ;
while the varieties of the Polynesian suggest long
specialised evolution.

There is no race in Asia resembling the Polynesian
of the south : whereas there are races in South-Eastern
Asia having affinities with the mixed Indonesians and
Malays.

The inhabitants of Java were called Rasaksa by the
first Hindu invaders. In many parts of India, on the
borders of the forests, the natives to this day believe in
and fear a demon known as the RakshaJ They describe
it as having eyes set obliquely in the head ; it is ugly,
broad, bulky, mis-shapen, and has terrible teeth. It
haunts only the forest and the tops of hills, and is given
to decoying children or solitary women. It also has a
terrible cry : an important point, of which more anon.

A race of Mongols or Huns was for a long period kept
out of China only by the Great Wall. This would seem
to show that they for some reason desired to migrate,
to extend their nomadic empire ; probably because the
plains of Asia were overpopulated, for a nomadic people
requires a large country for its support.

Now the Malays themselves had a legend that they
came from the East, crossing to Java and Sumatra when
the Straits were solid land. Any great migration across
India or the slopes of the Himalayas would have
driven the then inhabitants of the concealing forests

1 See, for particulars of this very significant superstition as found
among the eastern hills of India, " Old Deccan Days, or Hindoo
Fairy Legends," collected by Mary Frere. Her mention of this
superstition as existing in Scinde (where the demon is known not as a
Raksha, but as a Djinn) seems to lend support to the legend as related
by Raffles, to the effect that the invading nomads came from the
neighbourhood of the Red Sea (Persian Gulf ?). Their route would
then lead them through Baluchistan to Scinde, whence they would
presumably have crossed India by keeping to the hills and forests.
Even did they come from Central Asia (as seems most probable)
they may well have entered India via Persia, Baluchistan, and
Scinde.

HISTORICAL SKETCH 5

to seek safety in flight. But now let us consider the
tail-end of such a migration, when the normal population
would have returned to their homes. Dangerous, furtive
savages would continue, perhaps for years, to slink
through the Himalayan passes, cross India by means
of the hills and forests, and so make their way south-
ward. They might well, being a people of the plains,
employ a mustering call or shriek in the forests, or
employ a ritual marching-cry. They would not en-
courage stray children or women. They disappeared
untold centuries ago ; they are not met with, now, as
human passengers through the woods. What could
the Hindu make of them, when once they had passed,
but slant-eyed demons who shrieked in the woods ?

Again, the nomads of Central Asia were horsemen.
This we know from the writings of classic and early
mediaeval writers. But they could not ride their horses
through the Himalayas or the forests. The hordes
which invaded Europe Tartars, Huns, and Vandals-
were chiefly or entirely a pastoral people. Only their
custom of driving with them the herds of cattle upon
which they lived could give them the mobility which
rendered raiding possible. That there were agricultural
nomads in Central Asia, who sowed and reaped and
migrated yearly, we know from the Vedic writings : the
Aryans who settled India were such.

Bearing all these facts in mind, let us now go forward
to the commencement of the historical era in the Malay
Archipelago.

According to Raffles, the tradition concerning the race
whom the first Hindus found established in Java was as
follows : they were nomadic, travelling in hordes, but
they lived by agriculture and migrated afoot. Only the
elder of the tribe, who was its chief and high-priest, was
carried with his family in a litter or borne upon an
elephant. The year's crop being gathered, the fresh
migration was directed by an omen the flight of a bird.
Apparently the sun and moon were worshipped ; but a
certain amount of general animism appears to have pre-

6 JAVA

vailed. At times of augury or sacrifice, or to express
homage to the chief while travelling, or to frighten away
wild beasts, the young men set up loud shouts and
screams ; " as do the Dayas of Borneo to this day on like
occasions." * These people were known as Rasaksa.

These Rasaksa, or Malays, have remained almost
unmixed in Sumatra, except upon the coast, where there
has been a considerable interfusion of Chinese and also
of Arab blood. The civilisation of the Sumatrese is
largely Arab with traces of Chinese influence ; their
religion was brought by the Arabs. In Java there has
been a very considerable interfusion of Hindu blood,
which is betrayed by the darker tint of the Javanese
natives and by their finer features. Animists, or sun-
worshippers, in prehistoric times, they were rapidly con-
verted to Buddhism, which in time merged into the
Shivaite cult ; and until the Mahomedan conquest of
Madjapahit their civilisation was of the Hindu feudal
type.

Of the outlying islands some are still Hindu ; others
are largely animistic. The religion of the Polynesians
may be roughly described as a mixture of fetishism, idol-
worship, animism, taboo, and in some cases, apparently,
ritualistic or sacramental cannibalism.

We must remember that this early legend may have
been "telescoped" by the Hindu or Javanese historians,
who may have inserted echoes of the Vedic hymns.
But regarding it as authentic, and bearing in mind all
the preceding facts, and in especial the partly Asiatic
character of the Malay ships and houses and the limits
of Malay colonisation, is not the conclusion almost
irresistible that a tribe of Mongolian nomads, driven
from Central Asia by fiercer or more mobile enemies,
or by some unknown catastrophe, such as a disease, a

1 Raffles states that the princes of the eastern part of Java used to
favour a dance performed by men with tangled hair, clad in leaves,
who shouted and leaped and shook the angklung, a rude instrument
which is mentioned in the early legend : these dancers represented
the supposed aborigines.

HISTORICAL SKETCH 7

blight, a cattle pest, or by a prophecy or a superstition,
found their way across or around the Himalayas, through
the forests and the uplands of India, down the Burmese
border, finally reaching the Malay Archipelago, and
perhaps the regions to the east thereof ? Whether they
remained there, as appears probable, until they learned
navigation from the settled inhabitants of the country, 1
or whether they were able to march into Java by land,
is not a matter of great importance ; but the fact that
the Peninsula contains a large Malay population inferior
in civilisation to the Malays of the Indies seems to favour
the theory of a temporary halt. Then, it seems, they
spread through the Archipelago, sometimes exterminating
but more often absorbing the aborigines, or driving them
to the mountains ; finally colonising the borders of
Polynesia and superimposing themselves upon that
ancient oceanic race, whose peculiar conditions had
perhaps caused a relapse from a higher and more ancient
continental civilisation, while they had prevented any
physical degeneration. We may regard the true coast
Malay as the Asiatic nomad with Chinese and Arabian
blood in his veins, and the various peoples of mixed
Malay blood who are known as Indonesians as a hybrid
between the Mongolian and Polynesian elements, though
here and there the Malays or Indonesians may have
mingled with the black races of African or Indian origin.

Proceeding now from tradition to the chronicles, we
find ourselves in a maze of contradictions, inconsisten-
cies, miraculous anecdotes, and legends, compiled in all
probability (since the adventurers who settled Java are
not likely to have brought court records with them) from
the boastful oral traditions and narratives of warriors,
priests, and female elders of the palace. From these
chronicles it is not possible to judge which princes may
be supposed to have reigned in Java and which were
actually Indian rulers.

It is apparently agreed, however, that the first Hindu

1 These may have been Chinese or black aborigines from India ;
probably both were present, the Chinese as maritime settlers.

8 JAVA

to send or to bring an expedition to Java was Adi Saka,
or Adjih Saka. His advent, or expedition, is by some
attributed to the year 75 A.D. While he may have been
merely a nameless ruler (Adi) or a prince who afterwards
took his name from Atjeh (Achin), it is not altogether
improbable that we have here a mention of the great
Buddhist ruler Asoka, King of Behar, who in 244 B.C.
commenced that wonderful Buddhist propaganda which
established Buddhism in India and gave it a settled
hierarchy. His policy, which resembled that of the
Jesuits in that road-making and preaching, well-sinking
and education went hand in hand, resulted in a vast
missionary organisation which is known to have spread
as far as Ceylon. His son carried on his work. The
great Buddhist ruler of the first century of our era was
Kunishka, whose name cannot by any corruption have
come to resemble Adi Saka. 1

When we remember that Saka means the founder of
an era, therefore a prince, and also Buddha himself, it is
evident that the first chapter of Javanese history does not
carry us very far.

Some chroniclers attribute the introduction of Budd-
hism, or rather of Brahminism, to one Tritestra, a priest ;
others regard him as identical with Adi Saka. His
descendants are supposed to have ruled Java.

It seems certain that further Buddhist invasions took
place in the fifth and seventh centuries. There are men-
tions of rulers coming from abroad and of expeditions
of as many as twenty thousand priests, warriors, and
craftsmen. For centuries, we may suppose, Java was
regarded as an Eldorado where any refractory vassal or
adventurous refugee or superfluous prince might win a
kingdom ; standing in relation to India as Brazil did to
Portugal.

Powerful states must have arisen early in the history
of Java, as is attested by the remains of gigantic temples,

1 The constant mention of Asoka as the great patron of Buddhism
may have led remote chroniclers to believe that he was alive
centuries after his death. Adi Saka is perhaps Adi Asoka.

HISTORICAL SKETCH 9

primitive in respect of construction, but superb in decora-
tion and finish. Whether these wonderful monuments
are proof of a very cultured state of society is doubtful.
There was more movement in Asia a thousand years ago
than now ; craftsmen of all countries may have been
attracted to the new, fertile, wealthy land, which was full
of royal courts and powerful feudal chiefs. Of the con-
dition of their employers we know little. Hindu art,
however, touched its zenith in Java, though, as we have
seen, the architecture was primitive in plan, having
usually an earthen core.

It is difficult to judge how soon Java became, even
nominally, a single kingdom. We are told, however,
that in the year 1157 the kingdom of the second Aji
Saka was divided into four kingdoms, which then
became incorporated into the empire of Pajajaran, which
was afterwards known as the empire of Madjapahit.
This lasted from 1376 or 1396 to 1476, when it fell before
the assault of the Mahomedans. The empire being a
feudal State, there still remained Hindu kingdoms, most
of which were rapidly broken up or converted. The
first Mahomedan State of Demak became the empire of
Mataram. Gradually the States were absorbed by the
Dutch, with the exception of the empire, which was
divided into the two Principalities which are still extant.
But the feudal framework of society has remained and
is to-day employed as the means of government and
administration.

The fall of Madjapahit is a long and intricate romance
too long for insertion here. It was attacked by the
recently formed Mahomedan States of the seaboard,
which were largely the result of Arab missionary effort.
Java was converted to Islam almost as readily as to
Buddhism, the truth being that the Javanese is at heart
an animist. He utters the invocation " There is no God
but God and Mahomed is His prophet," but he does so
facing a stone altar which stands beneath a tree : the
primitive village altar of India. To-day, despite Islam,
that stone is the abode of the patron spirit of the village.

10 JAVA

Every field, every garden, every hill and valley has its
emanation, its spirit, capable of good or evil, to be
offended or propitiated ; every disease its demon. Some
of the greater spirits, who are dignified by names, hold
almost the position of demigods, such as Rata Loro
Kedul, the princess of the Indian Ocean. Not only the
genius loci is to be feared, but every seeming inanimate
object has its indwelling spirit. The better-class Malays
and the Javanese nobles are often reasonably orthodox ;
but the teaching of Islam has never disturbed the funda-
mental beliefs of the people. As in parts of Italy, the old
pagan beliefs remain ; but Islam has not absorbed the
indigenous gods as the Catholic Church has done. It
was probably a revulsion against feudal tyranny, a
weariness of the caste system, the jealousy of a superior
race, and a human desire for loot that led to the sudden
conversion of the Javanese arrd the extensive substitution
of the Malay civilisation, partly Arab, partly Chinese,
partly native or Indonesian, for the rigid rule of the
Brahministic hierarchy. Led by the genuinely fanatical
Arabs and the jealous Malays of the coast, the converts
formed a force which the less primitive Hindus were
unable to oppose.

An effort to convert the princes of Sunda to Islam was
made by the Arab traders and priests about 1250 A.D. It
was unsuccessful. Before this date a brother of a prince
of Pajajaram returned from India as a convert, accom-
panied by an Arab, and attempted to proselytise his
brother. A few years later an attempt was made to
convert the Rajah of Madjapahit, the Rajah of Cherman
putting forward his daughter as an inducement. The
death of the princess and her suite by an epidemic
disease set a term to this propaganda ; but the progress
of Islam in India and among the Malays of the coast,
who were in constant contact with Arab traders and
residents, was rapidly increasing.

History states that the Rajah of Madjapahit was de-
feated by his own son ; his son by a Chinese wife, whom
he gave to a vassal to please a later wife. Vassal and

HISTORICAL SKETCH 11

son were converted to Islam, and in the course of years
tin- son was given a fief, which he erected into the State
of Demak, by his father, against whom he finally headed
a powerful federation of Mahomedan leaders, his
grievance being the treatment which his mother had
received. He was opposed by his half-brother, the
emperor's commander, but eventually captured the city.
During his adolescence the empire absorbed nearly all
the islands now known as the Outer Possessions.

The destruction of the great city was followed by the
dispersal of all the craftsmen of Madjapahit, including
the famous workers in steel. Many of them settled
throughout the islands ; one result being the general
adoption of the krees. Many bodies of Hindu wor-
shippers fled, refusing to change their religion, which is
still extant in certain parts of Java and the isles.

II.

Spices came from the unknown, gorgeous East : un-
trodden, since the downfall of the Bactrian States, by
any Europeans but the Polos. Gold also and precious
jewels, silks, carpets, ivories and embroideries, and
many another precious merchandise beckoned the
adventurers Eastward. Partly to obtain such goods at
first hand, so saving the enormous cost of transport by
sea, caravan, and once more by water, of the dues of
many ports, and the profits of many middlemen, and
partly to make territorial conquest and to spread the
Christian faith, the Portuguese, at the end of the fifteenth
century, when the power of feudalism was broken and
Portugal was full of landless, masterless, or ambitious
men, began to search for the kingdom of Cathay.

Columbus, bearing a letter to the Khan of Tartary,
had sailed in 1492 under the Spanish flag in search of
Asia westward ; discovering the West Indies. Five
years later Vasco de Gama set out from Lisbon, rounded
the Cape of Good Hope, and reached the city of Calicut
in India. The "Moors," or Arab traders of the west,

12 JAVA

were hostile to his enterprise ; but the Zemindar of
Calicut gave him a letter to the King of Portugal, asking
for "gold, silver, and scarlet/' and offering in return
cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones.
The safe return of da Gama stimulated the greed of the
Portuguese. The king commissioned his admirals to
acquire territory and to spread the Christian faith.

The second expedition, of thirteen ships, set out in the
winter of 1499. Cabral, the leader, losing his bearings,
discovered the coast of Brazil, but eventually arrived at
Calicut, founding factories there and at Cochin.

In 1502 Pope Alexander VI. proclaimed the King of
Portugal lord of the lands and seas and commerce of
Africa, Persia, and India. In that year da Gama made
his second voyage, his fleet numbering twenty vessels.
Next year Alfonso de Albuquerque the only Portuguese
to leave a savoury reputation in the East commanded
one of three fleets. In 1505 Almeida set sail with no
less than fifteen thousand troops. 1 In 1509 Albu-
querque succeeded him as second Viceroy of India.
Failing to reduce Calicut, which Vasco da Gama had
bombarded in 1502, he fell upon Goa.

Henceforth the admirals had sought to trade only with
India. Now, in 1510, Albuquerque visited Sumatra.
Capturing Malacca in the following year, he sent envoys
to all parts of the Archipelago, announcing his desire to
trade. To Java and the Moluccas he sent one Antonio
de Abrew, who formally took possession of Amboin,
opened up the Molucca trade, and on returning called
at many Javanese ports.

Albuquerque, after a voyage to Arabia, returned to
Goa, only to die there in 1515. He had won the friend-
ship of many Hindu princes, and was so just a ruler
and a friend that his tomb was long venerated both
by Hindus and Mahomedans.

1 Most of these fleets touched at Bahia, on the Brazilian coast ;
the Brazilian trade was in fact developed by the Indian fleets,
while the possibility of refitting and provisioning in Brazil and
Madagascar greatly facilitated the Indian trade.

HISTORICAL SKETCH 13

The King of Malacca, who had been expelled by the
Portuguese, was cruising vengefully, with piratical in-
tentions, in the Straits of Singapore, so that vessels sailing
to the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) were forced to go by
way of the Straits of Baban.

In 1522 one de Lerne was sent to Bantam, which was
still a Hindu kingdom, to establish commercial relations.
The king was then being pressed by the Mahomedans,
and inclined to make terms with the Portuguese. He
promised a site for a factory, freedom of trade, and an
annual payment of one thousand bags of pepper, if the
Portuguese would build a fort to defend the port. In
due course, permission having been obtained from the
King of Portugal, Francisco de Sa arrived to build
the desired fort ; only to find that the exiled and
Mahomedan King of Malacca had just seized the
city, and was master of the State. For the time being
all hope of settlement on Javanese soil was abandoned.

The cruelties of Albuquerque's successors caused the
princes of Western India to revolt, in concert with the
King of Achin. They were severely defeated ; nor was
the King of Achin more successful when in 1578 he
besieged Malacca ; the tiny Portuguese garrison inflicting
upon him a loss of ten thousand men. In 1615 and in
1628 the Achinese again attacked Malacca, again to be
repulsed.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century the Indian
trade had assumed immense proportions, and Lisbon
was the richest port of Europe. Portugal was empress
of the seas. As many as 250 vessels would leave Goa in
a single convoy.

Hitherto the Portuguese had made no extensive terri-
torial conquests, but had seized and garrisoned many
cities, had built many factories, and had acquired a few
strips of land. A few of the smaller islands were actually
or nominally Portuguese, and commercial treaties were
concluded with many friendly States. The number, size,
and armament of their vessels enabled them to beat off
pirates and to drive many of the Malay and Arab traders

14 JAVA

from the narrow seas ; thus their monopoly was absolute,
as far as Europe was concerned, from Japan to Arabia,
and from India to Madagascar ; while the Atlantic
coasts of Africa and Brazil were largely in their hands.

In 1580, however, Dom Sebastiao was killed in battle,
and Philip II. of Spain was not long in annexing
Portugal.

Spain needed all her money and all her men to
further her European policy. For a time, however, the
trade from Lisbon held its own, and even increased ;
but it was ill-defended, so that the Dutch and English
quickly became formidable rivals.

While Lisbon had been the emporium of the Eastern
trade, the Dutch ports had become the chief distributing
centres. Both Holland and England were eager to
break the monopoly ; but for more than seventy years
the Portuguese kept the secret of the Cape route.

As early as 1496 the four Cabots had attempted the
north-west passage ; their voyage ending in the discovery,
not of India, but of Virginia. In 1553 Willoughby
attempted the north-east passage, but was frozen in and
died. Chancellor, his lieutenant, found his way into
the White Sea, and, marching south to Moscow, laid the
foundations of the Russian Company, which was formed
to carry on the overland trade with Persia and India.
Other explorers vainly attempted the Arctic routes. At
length Drake, in 1573, on his voyage round the world,
put in at Ternate, one of the Moluccas, whose king
agreed to supply England with all the cloves which his
island yielded. In 1579 Stephens, an Oxford graduate
and a Jesuit, landed in India ; his letters home caused
a great sensation among the City merchants. In 1583
three English traders sailed to India as private adven-
turers. One, after being imprisoned by the Portuguese,
entered the service of the Great Mogul ; another, after
travelling through Burmah, Pegu, Siam, Ceylon, and the
Malay Peninsula, returned to England ; one settled at
Goa as a trader. In 1599 the Dutch, who had at last
appeared on the scene, and had already gained a footing

HISTORICAL SKETCH 15

in spite of the Portuguese monopoly, raised the price of
pepper from 33. to 8s. per Ib. The English now knew
the way to the East, and promptly formed the English
East India Company, in order to obtain the spices of
the East directly. This Company, absorbing all its rivals,
endured until 1823.

The first voyage was undertaken in 1602 ; relations
were established with the King of Achin, the Moluccas,
and Bantam, where a factory was erected. Further
voyages resulted in extended relations, and the Company
prospered rapidly ; but in 1623, as a result of the mas-
sacre of Amboin, when the British settlement was
destroyed by the Dutch, who had taken the island from
the Portuguese in 1605, it withdrew from most of its
East Indian posts, and quickly became absorbed in
operations on the mainland of India. Compensation
for this infamous massacre was exacted by Cromwell
some thirty years later.

To return to the Dutch : the secret route to the
Indies being at last discovered, Cornelius Houtman had
rounded the Cape in 1595. The Portuguese were still
endeavouring to reduce Bantam ; Houtman agreed to
assist them provided that he might erect a factory when
the port was captured.

The Portuguese fleets and ports being ill-defended by
Spain, the Dutch became not merely successful com-
petitors, but seized the Portuguese possessions in the
East, as they did on the coast of Brazil. Trading com-
panies began to spring up in the Netherlands ; in 1602
the Dutch East Indies Company was formed, which
absorbed all its rivals, as did the English Company.
Within a few years the Dutch were established on every
hand : in India, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas,
and elsewhere.

Reviewing the century's progress, we find that at the
outset the Company obtained only sites of factories and
forts. There were still emperors of Java; the house of
Demak gave place to the empire of Mataram, whose
capital, Kartasura, was near the site of the modern

16 JAVA

Surakarta. In 1610 the first Dutch Governor-General
was appointed. Finding the Dutch position in Bantam
indifferent, he removed in 1618 to Djakatra. In 1621
the new settlement was called Batavia, and became the
capital of the Company's government. The choice of
site was disastrous : at one time a million Dutch soldiers
and officials perished of fever within twenty years ; a
fact hardly surprising, since the town was built in the
European fashion upon the pestilential swamps of the
coast.

Then followed the interminable war between Holland
and England, which ended only in 1688. By 1683 the
English had withdrawn from Bantam. Peace once
concluded, they became deeply engaged in India. The
Portuguese had almost vanished from the East ; except
in India the Dutch were supreme. In 1705 they
obtained the Preangers by treaty ; in 1745 they gained
possession of the northern seaboard; and in 1755 the
empire of Mataram was divided into the states of Djok-
jakarta and Surakarta.

The history of the Dutch Company is unsavoury. It
was an armed instrument for extracting wealth ; that it
might have a freer hand even soldiers and minor officials
were confined, as far as possible, to Batavia. It de-
manded fixed quantities of produce or money from the
native rulers ; but at first it left the dirty work of collect-
ing such produce to the rulers themselves, asking no
inconvenient questions. Afterwards it took hand in the
work itself to a limited extent. Even in the days of the
Crown administration this system was again put in force ;
an iniquity (much as it finally profited the native race)
exposed by Douwes Dekker in his novel Max Havelaar,
the work of an official who had lived his life as a Dutch
official in Java.

Cruelty and lack of conscience was the first of the
Company's mistakes. The second mistake was that it
based its expectations, not upon the general wealth and
development of the country, but simply upon the mono-
poly in spices. Both monopoly and supremacy were

HISTORICAL SKETCH 17

broken by Clive in 1758, when he inflicted upon the
Dutch the ignominious defeat of Chinsurah.

When the Franco-English War of 1781 broke out the
Company was already failing. In that same year
Thomas Stamford Raffles was born at sea, off the coast
of Jamaica. In these two events lay the seed of a new
order of things.

In 1780 the States, by a majority of one, had decided
to adopt the policy of "armed neutrality"; in other
words, to side with France and Russia as against Eng-
land. War broke out at once, although the Stadtholder
and the Court were opposed to the popular party. Peace
was concluded in 1783, but the Dutch were forced to
admit the English to free trade throughout the Indies.

In 1795 the Stadtholder fled to England before the
forces of the French Revolution, and the Batavian
Republic came into being ; to be followed, in 1806, by
the Bonaparte monarchy. In 1810 the honest Louis,
unable to protect his people against his brother, retired,
and Holland became part of France.

Already England had absorbed many of the Dutch
possessions in the East ; but Java still remained in the
grip of the terrible Daendels. In 1811, however, the
French flag was run up at Batavia. In the same year
the British flag replaced it, after a decisive battle at
Weltevreden, delivered by Auchtermuty at the head of
seven thousand troops. The remnant of the colonial
army, led by the French General Jumelle, escaped to
Samarang, where it capitulated on September i8th.
Raffles was Lieutenant-Governor of the new British
colony, being subject to Lord Minto, the Company's
Governor in India.

III.

Raffles was admitted to the India House, as an extra
clerk, at the age of fourteen. Ten years later, thanks to
his unremitting industry, his supple intelligence, and
the friendship of the secretary to the Company, he was

18 JAVA

appointed assistant secretary to the Governor of Penang,
his salary being increased from 100 to ^1,500. He
married, before sailing, the widow of a Company surgeon,
learned Malay upon the voyage, and upon landing was
already a fair scholar.

A man of supreme capacity and flexibility, who had
never mingled in society, was untouched by convention
or tradition, and was therefore able to reap the full
advantage of his unusual good sense ; an ardent patriot,
a keen man of business, and a far-seeing statesman ; he
must, under ordinary conditions, have eaten his heart out
among dull and incompetent colleagues and lamentable
seniors. The fact that Lord Minto was Governor-
General, while that erratic genius John Leyden held a
post of influence, enabled him to do lasting and im-
perial work, though the tentacles of mediocrity dragged
him down in the end.

It is impossible here to consider his work for England ;
we must consider his career in respect of Java only:
Java, which he always maintained should be retained by
England as a jewel in her crown of empire. It is enough
to say that after doing most valuable work in spite of
dull or timid superiors and disloyal colleagues, he was
appointed by Lord Minto to be Agent with the Malay
States and Lieutenant-Governor of Java.

Daendels, a pitiless Jacobin, sent out to Java to re-
organise the colonial forces, had utterly exhausted the
resources of the country. His legacy to England con-
sisted of a military road built at the cost of countless
lives, and a bankrupt and terrorised people.

Raffles was actuated by the feeling that it was the plain
duty of England to give this people a just, humane, and
suitable government ; to restore it to wealth ; and finally,
to make it a source of imperial strength and profit. He
considered that retirement on the part of his country
would be a betrayal, a cruel desertion.

He immediately gained the confidence and gratitude of
the Dutch population. The Sultan and Susuhunan were
restive, seeing an opportunity of revolt : Raffles handled

HISTORICAL SKETCH 19

them with consummate skill, promising both protection.
Minto had already abolished torture : Raffles revolution-
ised the entire legal system. The original system of
village or communal government was revived ; the island
was ruled through its natural hierarchy, the native aris-
tocracy, advised by European colleagues. The country
was redivided. The old forced deliveries of crops, by
which the Company had lived, were abolished.

Raffles then proceeded to reform the land tenure. The
Dutch had forced the natives to deliver all their crops,
had bought them for a song, and resold what the
natives actually required for subsistence at iniquitously
high prices. Daendels had salaried the receiving officials,
who had previously lived by percentage and peculation,
but had left the system untouched.

After a long and exhaustive tour of inquiry, and
innumerable interviews with natives of every rank,
Raffles decided to let the land to the natives upon long
leases, abolishing forced deliveries. At the outset the
village headman let the land ; but this arrangement was
provisional, the tenant at last holding his land by lease
directly from the Government. The rent was paid in
kind, but was fixed ; it was collected, under supervision,
by the chief, or headman. This revolution destroyed the
evils of the feudal system ; the former regents were
granted pensions and estates in compensation, and in
return for administrative duties.

Within two years of the introduction of the new
system the land rental yielded nearly half the revenue of
Java. Unfortunately the enforced use of paper money
resulted in an exchange rate of twelve to thirteen. This
condition of affairs was largely due to Daendels. To
remedy or at least to alleviate this depreciation Raffles
decided to sell a portion of the public domain : a measure
for which he was savagely criticised, but which none the
less did much to increase the exploitation of the soil.
As a result of jealousy and the hasty charges of a former
friend, Raffles was requested in 1815 to withdraw from
his position in Java ; a piece of injustice which was felt

20 JAVA

the more bitterly because his work had not as yet been
given time to justify itself by results. It was stated, as a
complaint, that at the end of four years of administration
his budget showed a deficit. That is true ; but it is also
true that in spite of the fact that these were years of
revolution and reconstruction the deficit was less than it
had been for more than twelve years ; moreover, it was
less each year, and had the rate of decrease continued
constant (but it would undoubtedly have improved) two
years longer would have shown a surplus, after which the
island would have been not merely self-supporting but
an asset of imperial wealth.

Already it had been decided that Java was to be re-
turned to Holland. Raffles was appointed Resident in
Bencoolen, Sumatra ; but almost at the moment of his
retirement a curious conspiracy was unmasked at the
court of the Susuhunan. This monarch, at whose court
was a guard of sepoys, had attended their Hindu services,
and had given them, for purposes of worship, some
antique Hindu idols preserved in the palace. The
sepoys thereupon sought to persuade themselves and him
that he was a descendent of Ra, destined by the gods to
restore the Hindu empire. Had he declared himself his
people would probably have followed, and a terrible
upheaval might have convulsed the islands. Raffles
quickly subdued the rising, without severity and without
a display of force.

Java was actually taken over by the Government of
Holland in 1818. The Dutch had the wisdom to
recognise the excellence of Raffles' work, and continued
to govern according to the system he had created.

Of the return to the bad old methods known as the
" system of forced cultures " there is only one good word
to say. It resulted in the reclamation of yet more virgin
soil ; so that the effect of this system, together with the
reforms instituted by Raffles, was an increase in the
population from 4,500,000 to 30,000,000 in less than a
century.

The last serious hostilities in Java broke out in 1825,

HISTORICAL SKETCH 21

when Dipo Negoro claimed the entire island. The
rebellion was subdued at the cost of five years of warfare
and the loss of fifteen thousand men. When at length the
island was pacified the hold of the Dutch was firmer than
ever. There were further attempts at revolt, when the
Mahomedan priests sought to persuade the people that
Dipo Negoro had returned, or was still alive. The most
serious attempt was in 1849, when the exile was in
Macassar. He died in 1855, and the last rebellion was
in 1888. These revolts have resulted in the entire loss
of local independence. In 1848 sweeping reforms were
introduced by the Grondwet, or Fundamental Law ; and
during the last sixty years the Government has grown
more and more paternal, humane, and enlightened, until
it is now an example to other nations. The increasing
immigration of private colonists has had an excellent
effect, and has fulfilled the colony's natural destiny.

Hostilities still continue in Sumatra, in the jungles of
Achin, but only on a small scale, as all the towns are in
the hands of the Dutch. This Achinese War has been
well-nigh interminable, and the cost in lives and money
has been deplorable. The pacification of the country is
at last at hand.

The chief problem of the present day is that of native
education. Until recently a knowledge of Dutch or of
Occidental learning was denied to the Javanese, lest they
should consider themselves the equals or superiors of
their masters. We may suppose the Dutch to have taken
warning by the results of education in other parts of the
East.

But the Javanese (the Malay is a poor scholar) is eager
for Western learning ; yet not so much for its own sake
as for what he hopes it will give him : power, con-
sideration, social promotion, a career, and ultimately,
perhaps, national self-government as a federated colony.
He has seen the Japanese change from a secluded feudal
people to a civilised power in the space of forty years,
and forgets that even in their seclusion (which was a
comparatively recent matter) they were, as they had been

22 JAVA

for centuries, a powerful and highly civilised nation under
a stable government.

Java has always been a congeries of little states ; some-
times temporarily federated, sometimes hostile ; unaf-
fected by caste, but aristocratic by principle. It is, and
will always be, a land of agricultural wealth. Owing
to the docile nature of the people, the prevalence of
agriculture, and the aristocratic framework of society,
there is no need in Java for an enormous bureaucracy.
Yet that, one may suppose, is what its youth would
expect if educated in the rash yet timid manner usual in
the East. In India university graduates, instructed
rather than educated, crammed with traditional facts,
but unable to handle new ones, or to co-ordinate or
deduct, are forced to work at the loom for a living.
What work could be found for the Javanese youth if
similarly trained ? The number of Dutch officials is
already small, and cannot be decreased with profit to rulers
or to ruled. There is no room and no occasion for any
large degree of further self-government ; and at present the
Javanese, not being fanatical Mahomedans, and having
no system of caste, trust and respect the Europeans.
The problem of general education has accordingly hung
fire ; although the sons or successors of regents have for
some time received adequate instruction of a suitable
type.

It is to be hoped that the situation will find a natural
solution. The Javanese will probably perceive that his
future lies in the exploitation of the soil. If he desires
to live as the Europeans do, to meet them on reasonably
equal terms, and to assume identical interests, he has but
to cultivate the land as do the planters, or to enter upon
the upper walks of commerce, where a special education
might enable him to oust the Chinaman.

The Javanese as things are has to learn three tongues
the High and the Low Javanese, and Malay; literary Malay
may make a fourth. If he learn Dutch as well, a limit
is set at once to what else he can learn in a curriculum
of ordinary duration. Agriculture he must study, with

HISTORICAL SKETCH 23

its underlying sciences. If, as is probable, his education
finally assumes this form, he will hardly be able to learn
alien philosophies and political theories which are only
likely to be harmful to an ordinary Oriental, unless he be
of exceptional intelligence and have leisure to travel in
the West. A practical scientific training, moreover,
seldom fails to teach the recipient that system of
method, that power of co-ordination and constructive
thought, which are usually so dismally lacking in the
modernised Oriental.

The East Indies stand to-day, like Brazil, on the edge
of a new era. They form a land of plenty, but their full
development is a matter of the future. In that future the
natives, if only because of the rate at which they increase,
must play an ever-increasing part ; the Malay more
especially as sailor, fisherman, plantation-hand, labourer ;
the Javanese as planter, cultivator, and artisan. At
present the native aristocracy, who used to rule as feudal
chiefs, and now rule for and with the Dutch, are paid
heavy salaries and own large estates. As all their
descendants cannot become regents or bureaucrats, it is
obviously in their interest to learn the management of
estates, with all that is thereby entailed. As the Outer
Possessions become more fully developed and settled
there may be a limited official scope for the youth of
Java ; but only, as a general thing, where the local rulers
are inefficient. A time must come when the soil of the
Indies will present itself to the native, as to the colonist,
as the natural source of wealth ; and in Sumatra the coal
measures point to the probability of future industrial
development. It is to be hoped that in course of time
the professions of agriculture and industry will afford
the upper-class native competence and an honourable
calling. If there are prejudices to be overcome, it is to
be hoped that a wise education will naturally break them
down. The nationalist cry is only dangerous when it is
a demand that a helpless and ignorant people shall be
handed over to a horde of semi- Westernised lawyers,
agitators, bureaucrats, and contractors. It is to be

24 JAVA

hoped that the Indies have once and for all passed the
period of spoliation ; and there is every indication that
the wise and paternal rule of the Dutch, and the lack of
enormous urban populations, will for ever be a safeguard
against the poisonous growth of a spurious nationalism.
But we cannot be surprised if the Dutch, with India and
Egypt before their eyes, prefer to proceed with the utmost
caution.

BERNARD! MIALL.

CHAPTER II
GENERALITIES

The importance, area, and population of the Dutch East Indies.
II. Administrative divisions of the Dutch East Indies, and the
best method of studying them. III. European, and, in parti-
cular, Dutch intervention, in the East Indies. IV. Physical
characteristics of the Archipelago. V. The races which inhabit
them. VI. The principal languages spoken ; and which must
be learned by the European settling in the Indies.

THE Dutch East Indies are well worth knowing ; they
are favoured by nature above most other lands ; their
present rulers afford a rare example of a political
intelligence which is equally tenacious and sagacious,
and their system of administration is full of valuable
lessons for the other Colonial Powers of Europe.

The kingdom of Holland, or the Netherlands, has an
area of 12,700 square miles, and a population of about
5,000,000. Her Asiatic possessions, which lie between
95 and 141 east longitude, and 6 north and 11 south
latitude, are known as the Dutch East Indies (Neder-
landsch-Oost-Indie in Dutch, or simply N ederlandsch-
Indie Dutch India). These vast colonies are washed
on the east by the great Pacific Ocean ; on the north
by the China Sea ; on the south and west by the Indian
Ocean. 1

1 The groups of islands, great or small, which lie between the
south-eastern extremity of Asia and the north-western portion of
Australia, and of which the Dutch East Indies form a part, are

26 JAVA

These possessions, known sometimes as the Indian
or Malayan Archipelago, but more commonly as the
East Indies, comprise an approximate area of 698,000
square miles ; or fifty-eight times the area of Holland,
and nearly three and a half times that of France. Their
population is estimated at 37,402,500 inhabitants, or
seven times that of Holland. 1

These figures have no absolute value, however carefully
they may have been determined. The very immensity
of the colonial domain, the scattered positions of its
various members, obstacles of a geographical nature, and
the hostility of certain indigenous tribes in some of the
islands, have necessarily resulted in the incomplete or
superficial exploration of many regions. Particularly is
this the case with the great island of Borneo, of which
the Dutch portion alone has an estimated area of 212,600
square miles, or seventeen times that of Holland. A
more detailed and more scientific examination of the
country during the last twenty years has revealed it in
quite a new light. The area of Sumatra, which is nearly
as large as Borneo, and far more intimately known, is
still estimated by some travellers at 179,880 square miles,
and by others at 167,470.

We must not look for rigorous exactitude in the figures
relating to the population ; once more, such figures have
only an approximate value. We can imagine the diffi-
culty, the impossibility even, of effecting a methodical
census of these enormous tracts of land, which are but

usually known in Holland as the Indian Archipelago ; in England,
as the Malay Archipelago. In Germany also they are known as the
Malay Archipelago (Malayische Archipel) ; or, following the example
of Bastian, as Indonesia, the " Isles of India." In France they are
known as the Asiatic Archipelago (Archipel Asiatique), and Elisee
Reclus has introduced the graceful title of Insulinde, employed for
the first time in the romance Max Havelaar, by Multatuli (E. Douwes
Dekker), the famous Dutch author. See Blink, Nederlandsch Oost-
en West-Indie, p. 19.

1 30,098,000 for Java and Madura and 7,304,500 for the other
Dutch possessions. See Regeerings Almanak voor Nederlandsch
Indie, 1909, pp. 4-5 ; census of Dec. 31, 1905.

GENERALITIES 27

imperfectly known, and are often inhabited by peoples
whose submission to Holland is purely official. The
chief pitfall in such cases is the tendency to deduce the
number of inhabitants from the area of the territory ; an
error which the former explorers were, as a rule, only too
ready to commit. Later, by a sort of reaction, the density
of the population was estimated at a figure far below the
reality. The census, in short, is accurate only in the
case of Java ; the first island of the Archipelago to achieve
civilisation, as it remains the most civilised to-day, as well
as the richest and the most densely peopled. In Java,
moreover, the Dutch domination is accepted without
protest. Java, with its neighbour Madura, has an area
of 50,600 square miles, and a population of 30,098,000 ;
that is, it Contains four-fifths of the total population of
the Dutch East Indies.

II.

On account of the various inequalities between the
different portions of their colonial empire inequalities
of area, population, and value, both intellectual and
economic, as well as inequalities of civilisation the
Dutch have divided their East Indian possessions, from
the administrative point of view, into two large depart-
ments. The first includes Java and Madura ; the second
the Outer Possessions, as they are called (Buitenbezit-
tingeri), with Sumatra, Borneo, and the other islands ;
a division far superior to Java in the matter of area,
but inferior in population and also in natural wealth,
which is often considerable, but as yet is hardly known
or badly exploited.

In a book whose object is not only to describe the
Dutch Indies from the physical and political point of
view, but also to prove their economic importance, it
will therefore be best, at the cost of a few repetitions, to
study each of these two departments separately, lest we
arrive at erroneous generalities.

28 JAVA

III.

The conquest of so great an empire, and its continued
possession for a space of nearly four centuries, is a proof
of the admirable racial qualities of the Dutch ; qualities
which owe something, perhaps, to good fortune. When,
in the sixteenth century, they came into contact with
Europe, the populations of the East Indies had already
been subjected to the influence of two great civilisations :
that of the Hindus and that of the Arabs.

The Hindus, about the first century of the Christian
era, being doubtless driven from their country by reli-
gious persecution, brought to Java and Sumatra their arts,
their beliefs, and their social organisation : all greatly
superior to those which they found in the islands. They
founded several powerful States : Menangkabau and
Palembang in Sumatra, and Madjapahit in Java. First
Brahmanism, and between the fifth and the sixth century
Buddhism, flourished with a vigour which is still attested
by the wonderful ruins of Prambanan and Boro-Budur.
Towards the thirteenth century (but this date is still
uncertain) these faiths were replaced by Islam ; brought
first of all by Arab and Persian merchants to the eastern
coast of Sumatra, and thereafter overrunning the whole
Malay Peninsula and the entire Malayan Archipelago,
either by means of pacific proselytism or through the
warlike fervour of the early Mahomedan states. To this
day five-sixths of the population of the Dutch East
Indies profess the faith of Islam, in name if not always
in fact.

In the sixteenth century the Europeans, known hitherto
only in the shape of the Venetians, to whom the Arabs
and Persians transmitted the precious spices which were
grown in the Indian Archipelago, came at last as a con-
quering power. First of all came the Portuguese, who,
in 1511, took possession of Malacca, whence they pro-
ceeded to Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes ; and then
to the Moluccas, upon which they imposed their suze-
rainty, with an eye especially to monopolising their

BROMO AND THK SKA <>! SAM).

Frontispiece.

GENERALITIES 29

Ir.ulc. The Spaniards hud ;i footing in the Philippines
from 1520 onwards. In 1580 the union under Philip II.
of the crowns of Spain and Portugal resulted in the
possession by Spain of all the Portuguese colonies in
India and the Indies.

The first act of Philip, once master of Lisbon, was to
forbid that port to the Dutch, his sometime subjects,
who had revolted in 1572. The Dutch, the " waggoners
of the sea," at this period depended absolutely upon
Lisbon, whence they carried the spices of the Indies to
all parts of Europe. Stifled in their growing commercial
power, they were condemned by this very fact either to
disappear from the seas or to go themselves in search of
the wealth of the Indies. But the two Iberian nations,
who alone possessed the secret of the route, 1 guarded it ^
with jealous care. The extremest penalties, even that of
death, were decreed against those who should betray the
secret. The Dutch resolved to solve it despite all
obstacles. Two expeditions, which sought the Indies
by way of the Antarctic Ocean, came to a disastrous
end, which, in after years, was apotheosised in poetry ;
but at length Cornelius Houtman of Gonda, who was
trading secretly in Lisbon, succeeded while there in
obtaining valuable information. Thrown into prison as
the penalty, he succeeded in sending to Amsterdam the
news of his discovery and his hopes, and of the heavy
ransom which alone could set him free. The Dutch
merchants immediately clubbed together to deliver him,
and, in possession of his secret, founded, with him and
his brother, a commercial undertaking known as the
Company of Distant Countries (Compagnie van verve) ;
a title as vague and as splendid as their hopes. An
expedition left the Texel in 1595, consisting of four
vessels and 250 well-armed men, including Jan Molenaer

1 Portugal discovered the route by rounding the Cape of Good
Hope ; Spain by threading the Straits of Magellan. The charts
showing the route were given each voyage to the captain of the
vessel, and were taken from him upon his return, and had to be kept
secret from every eye but his.

30 JAVA

and C. and F. Houtman. It recruited off Madagascar, 1
and in 1596 landed first in Sumatra, and then at Bantan 2
the Bantam of the ancient Dutch and Portuguese traders.
From that time forward expeditions from Holland
succeeded one another in the Indian Ocean, with a
tenacity equal to their boldness ; and Batavia, which
was formerly known as Jakatra or Djakatra, was founded
in 1619. Shortly afterwards Holland took advantage of
the insufficient defence on the part of Spain of the former
Portuguese colonies, and of the violent rupture between
the two countries in 1660, by appropriating the Portu-
guese possessions which were no longer properly
defended ; and this in the West Indies and South
America as well as in the Malay Peninsula and the
Archipelago. Her progress was arrested only by the
competition of England, a far more powerful rival.
During the whole of the eighteenth century England
was disputing these vast possessions with Holland ; first
in India, then in the Malay Peninsula and the Indian
Archipelago. For a time Holland was almost completely
dispossessed by her, when the Batavian Republic, later
the Kingdom of Holland of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte,
was willy-nilly compelled by Napoleon the First to take
a hand in his politics.s

1 F. Houtman compiled the first known Malagasy vocabulary.

2 Houtman was not opposed by the Portuguese ; they rather
welcomed him as an ally, being then at war with the king of
Bantam. In return for their services the Dutch obtained permission
to build a factory, which they eventually had to abandon, as their
arrogance and brutality provoked the natives, and in the ensuing hos-
tilities they shot down a large number of the latter. Raffles was under
the impression that Houtman had been employed by the Portuguese
in the East Indian trade. On the way to Bantam the Dutch
anchored off Madeira, where the prince wished to pay his respects :
but they fell into a panic upon observing the size of his escort,
and massacred nearly all. Raffles remarks that even thus early
the Dutch exhibited the mixture of haughty superiority and extra-
ordinary timidity and suspicion which characterised all their
subsequent proceedings. [TRANS.]

3 Concerning this period, see O. Collet, L'ile de Java sous la
domination franfaise (Paris, 1909, large 8vo).

GENERALITIES 31

The treaties of 1814 and 1815 re-established the House
of Nassau on the Dutch throne, and compelled England
to restore the Indies. England even renounced her
pretensions to Banka in return for the cession of Cochin
and its dependencies on the Malabar coast. An under-
standing was then arrived at between the two nations,
India and the Malay Peninsula being completely sur-
rendered to England, and the Indies to jthe Dutch, who
in 1824, according to the treaties of London, abandoned
their remaining settlements in India and the Malacca
Peninsula, including the island of Singapore, while
England abandoned all claims to Sumatra and Billiton. 1

In order to become absolute mistress in her sphere of
empire, Holland even endeavoured, but without success,
to obtain, by sale or exchange, that portion of Timor
which was still in the hands of the Portuguese. She
did not succeed ; but the treaty of 1859 did at least very
precisely delimit the frontier between the Dutch and
Portuguese portions of the island.

To-day, in the eyes of Europe, Holland is the undis-
puted mistress of the Indian Archipelago, excepting only
the Portuguese portion of Timor and the north-western
portion of the great island of Borneo, where the formerly
independent Sultanates of Brunei and of Sarawak (the
latter founded by the English adventurer famous as Rajah
Brooke), and the British North Borneo Company, still
occupy wide territories. 2

IV.

Unity of possession seemed almost a logical conse-
quence of the remarkable geological and physical unity
of all the portions of this great empire.

1 An island between Banka and Borneo, called also Bilitong, or
Blitung.

2 These two Sultanates are to-day under the protection of the
English Crown, which recognised the services of James Brooke
in the cause of colonial expansion by creating him a baronet. A
volume of great interest is "The Private Letters of Sir James Brooke,
Rajah of Sarawak, narrating the events of his life, from 1838 to the
present time," edited by J. C. Templer, London, 1853, 3 vols. 8vo.

32 JAVA

Despite the disparate sizes of the various islands, and
the vast dimensions of some, the Dutch East Indies,
from Sumatra to New Guinea, are all of the same
geological structure. From east to west is a rampart
of volcanoes, far-flung in the arc of a gigantic circle,
which crosses the shallow waters of many straits. The
various islands are based upon the north on the same
submarine tableland, above which lies an enclosed,
peaceful sea ; while the outward shores are separated
from the nearest land by vast abysses of ocean ; even
from those countries which seem, as do the Philippines,
to be closely akin to the islands of the Archipelago. The
islands of Sumatra and Java, sloping almost directly from
their heights into the profound depths of the southern
sea, show to the north a lower seaboard, a coast-line
more idented, cut into many bays ; but the volcanic soil,
brought down by rivers and drifted by the coastwise
currents, is slowly filling the harbours and adding to the
area of the land.

Nearly all the rivers of importance, moreover, flow
into that inner sea, by which Sumatra, Java, Borneo,
Celebes, and their innumerable satellites, are united
rather than divided.

The rainy seasons and the climate are almost the
same in all the islands of the Archipelago ; there are,
of course, inevitable modifications, but the climate is
tropical without excessive variation, and in general may
be called equable. The flora and fauna, despite their
wealth and astonishing variety, have in all parts a simi-
larity, and at the same time a peculiarity of their own,
which does not permit of their attribution to any of the
neighbouring countries. Situated between India and
Australia, the Malay Archipelago forms a harmonious
transition between these two countries. To the west its
magnificent fauna and flora possess distinct character-
istics which yet recall India ; to the east they prophesy
Australia, by forms no less varied, often equally strange,
and always richer and more abundant.

GENERALITIES 33

In the matter of the races which inhabit the East
Indies, we find a variety of types apparently as great as
the variety of the flora and fauna a variety which has
often confounded the ethnologists, and has given rise to
many theories. We shall confine ourselves to recalling,
in its broader aspects, the theory which appears to us
to correspond most closely to the actual facts. We find,
in the Indian or Malay Archipelago, of which the Dutch
East Indies form a part, four great ethnical groups, of very
unequal intellectual capacity and numerical value. These
four groups are the Malays, the Indonesians, the Negritos,
and the Papuans. The Malays and the Indonesians, by
far the more numerous, form the basis of the population
of the Dutch East Indies. It is believed that there are
Negritos in the archipelago of Rhio and Lingga ; but
even were they not to be found in the Dutch possessions
we ought not to pass them by, since they do exist in the
Malay Peninsula, and also in the Philippines, which
islands the Dutch East Indies resemble at so many
points.

The Papuans (from the Malay puwa-puwa, " who have
crinkled hair ") are found in New Guinea, and also, to
a limited extent, on the islands of Waigeu, Salvatti,
and Aru ; while groups related to the Papuans inhabit
the islands of Burn, Ceram, Kei, and Tenimber, 1 and
are possibly descended from Papuan slaves. Natives
of Papuan origin are also to be found in the Moluccas,
Timor, and Flores. It has been suggested that the
Kalangs of Java a race in customs comparable to the
gipsies of Europe might be of Negrito origin ; but the
suggestion is of no value.

The principal ethnic groups of the Dutch Indies,
which do not differ very greatly from one another,
consist of the Malays and the Indonesians. The term
Indonesian denotes the comparatively pure races which

1 Or the Tenimber Islands, or Timor Laut : a group of sixty-six
little islands in the Molucca Archipelago.

34 JAVA

inhabit the interior of the large islands, such as the
Dyaks of Borneo, the Bataks of Sumatra, and the Alfurs
or Alfours of Celebes and the Moluccas. Unlike the
Polynesians, who are tall and brachycephalic, the Indo-
nesians are seldom above 5 ft. 2 in. in height, and are
mesocephalic or dolichocephalic. Both races are yellow-
skinned : their hair is straight or slightly curling ; only the
form of the nose, lips, &c., is slightly different.

The Malays, on the contrary, although slightly taller
than the Indonesians (the average height being 5 ft. 3-4 in.),
and brachycephalic, resemble the latter very closely, but
the Malays are a mixed race and in consequence present
a much greater variety of types than the Indonesians.
If, as is believed, the Malays by which we mean the
Malays proper (of Menangkabau, the Malay Peninsula,
and the coasts of many islands), as well as the Javanese,
the Madurese, and the Sundanese are born of the
mingling of Indonesian with Hindu, Arab, Chinese,
Burman, Negrito, and Papuan elements, then the Indo-
nesians should be the type of pure Malays the Proto-
malays, in a word ; and this theory appears to be very
close to the truth. In Java the Indonesians are deeply
crossed with Chinese blood ; the Hindu element is easily
recognisable in Bali, Sumatra, and certain portions of
Java ; and the Arab element is dominant among the
Malays of Padang and in Atjeh. In the north of the
Archipelago the influence of Negrito x blood is visible,
although the signs of Papuan blood are found only in
the south-east.

The appearance of the inhabitant of the Dutch East
Indies varies according to the ethnic group to which he
belongs and his social position. The farmer, merchant,
fisherman, artisan, and pirate are not likely to possess the
same exterior, the same bearing.

Speaking generally, the Malay or the Indonesian is

1 See T. Deniker, Les races et les peuples de la terre (Paris,
1900, 8vo), p. 554 et seq. See also the article on Rassen (" Races ")
in the EncycL v. Ned. Indie, which contains an excellent exposition
and bibliography of the question of the races of the Dutch Indies.

GENERALITIES 36

shorter than the European ; he is nearly always thin,
but well-built and respectably muscular, with the chest
well developed ; the joints, hands, and feet are small,
giving an impression of strength and suppleness. His
skin, of a colour varying from a light ruddy brown to an
olive yellow, is usually smooth and hairless ; his head is
flat and wide, the cheek-bones are salient, and the nose of
the " pudding " or " pug " variety ; the eyes are slightly
oblique, and the large, thick-lipped mouth is ill-concealed
by a thin moustache. The hair is very black, and harsh
to the touch. All these characteristics, together with a
mask of all but impenetrable impassivity, constitute a
physiognomy which the unaccustomed European finds
disquieting rather than attractive, and of which the
finished type is found in the true Malay. It has a certain
touch of savagery, of strangeness a quality which is
lacking or attenuated in the Javanese, whose more slender
physique attains at times a positive degree of graceful
elegance and reveals in every movement their gentler
breeding. The Madurese, Sundanese, and Bugis, of
more mingled race and more powerful physique, are
more like the Malays.

All these various races have a keen intelligence,
capable of improvement, retaining the traces of a high
civilisation ; and under their reticent aspect they are
almost always polite and well-disposed towards the
stranger.

Although they have never risen to the conception of a
great political union, or even the idea of an immense
federation of the States of the Indian Archipelago a
state of affairs which would assuredly, in view of the
large and warlike populations of many of these States,
have closed the Archipelago to Europeans yet the
memory of their past, and their refined susceptibilities,
have often rendered the management of certain of these
peoples by the Dutch a matter of considerable difficulty.

The most submissive were always the Javanese ; the
Malays, prouder and more energetic, submit to the yoke
with more impatience, and in certain districts (for

36 JAVA

example, Atjeh, or Achin, in Sumatra) they are still
desperately struggling to avoid it.

The pride of the Malay seems to derive wholly from
his character and beliefs. He is violent and vindictive ;
as eager to feel and avenge an injury to his self-respect
as is the Japanese, who, according to a recent theory,
is a relative of the Malay; 1 and his loyalty is reputed
uncertain. Moreover, he is a Mussulman, with so ardent
and so ancient a faith that throughout the Indian Archi-
pelago Malay and Mahomedan are synonymous terms.
He is conscious of a bitter pride in belonging to a
religious community which is, in another fashion, as
mighty as the political power under whose domination
he lives. A farmer in many places, but more often a
sailor, he is famous for his knowledge of the seas of the
Archipelago. A trader, and on occasion a pirate, the
Malay owes his reputation of extraordinary courage and
audacity to his long history of fierce conflicts, and owing
to his recklessness and lack of scruples the importance of
his position is out of all proportion to his numerical
strength.

Extremely courageous, the Malays are also better
workers than the Javanese ; but, like the Chinese, whose
commercial talent they share, though in a less degree,
they will often squander the savings of a year on
cock-fighting, gambling, women, opium, and haschish. 2

1 See chapter ii. of L'Empire japonais et sa vie economique, by
J. Dautremer (Librairie Orientale et Americaine : E. Guilmoto).

2 Our author makes no mention of hemp, attributing the state of
amok to opium. This, as is well known, is incorrect ; a long period
of abstinence from opium causes a peculiar form of poisoning,
accompanied by excruciating pains and an unendurable nervous
distress of the kind known as " massive " i.e., felt in every nerve
of the body, and especially in the pneumogastric system a system
of nerves of which we are, as a rule, unconscious. This abominable
torture is, however, unaccompanied by any delirium or illusions;
nor are such caused by opium, despite the vulgar belief, the
mind being, as a rule, unusually calm and clear. Indian hemp,
or cannabis indica, or the preparation which is used for smoking,
is a very different drug. Besides its characteristic reaction upon
the nervous system after excess, it produces profuse visions and

GENERALITIES 37

Hemp (haschish), or opium, is smoked by the majority
of the natives of the Dutch East Indies, and by the
Malays in particular. The smoking of Indian hc-inp in
particular renders the Inibitnc subject to crises of
maniacal fury, known by the term amok. This peculiar
access of fury is preceded by the most violent depression ;
it attacks the smoker suddenly, when he rushes through
the streets, armed with his krees, slashing and killing all
whom he meets.

The vice of "running amok/' which seems to have
existed from a quite indeterminate period in the Malayan
Peninsula and Archipelago, became so prevalent after
the European occupation that the Dutch in the Indies
and the English in Malacca finally passed sentence of
death upon all natives captured in this condition. The
singular diminution of cases of amok which followed
leads one to believe that many acts of political or private
vengeance were performed under the disguise of this
peculiar form of mania.

VI.

The question of language in the East Indies is almost
as complex as the question of races. On account of
the multiplicity of tongues, augmented still further by
the insular character of the Dutch colonial possessions,
which has resulted in the birth of a considerable number
of dialects ; we must not prematurely classify them in a
genealogical system, or attempt to declare precisely the
degree of natural relationship which connects them.
Although the time has hardly come for this, the labours
of the Dutch linguists have at least enabled us to state
that the languages of the East Indies belong to the great

illusions. Readers of the biographies of Omar Khayyam will
remember that it was employed by Hassan, the schoolfellow of
the poet, to give the novices of his extraordinary sect a foretaste of
the Paradise to which their absolute obedience would admit them
upon death. The followers of this remarkable religious and
political murderer became known as assassins, the term being
derived from the name Hassan ; hence the word haschish. [TRANS.]

38 JAVA

Malayo-Polynesian family, or at all events with rare
exceptions.

By general agreement they are divided into certain
large groups which comprise a series of sub-divisions in
the form of dialects.

(a) Group of the Languages of Sumatra. This com-
prises Achinese (Atjeesch, the tongue of Atjeh), Gayo,
Batak and its dialects (Mandailing, Toba, Dairi, Karo,
&c.), Retjang, Lampong, Simalour, Nias, Mentawei,
Engano, and especially the most important of all, Malay
and its dialects (the Malay of Minangkabau, or Menang-
kabau, of Riouw Lingga, Middle Malay, and Mamak).

(b) Group of the Languages of Java. This group in-
cludes Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, and their dialects.

(c) Group of the Languages of Celebes and the neigh-
bouring islands. This group contains many idioms,
often confined to a limited district : Sangirese, the
languages of Minahasa (Tompahewa, Tondano, Tumbulu,
Tonsawang, Tonsea) ; Bolang, Mongodow, Ponosakan,
Holontalo, Mandarese and Kajeli Tomini, Pagouat,
Luinan, Kaidipan, Bonol, Tontoli, Malasa, Tara, Barei ;
the various Toradjas dialects, Boutonese, Laiwu ;
Tobungku, Tomsit or Tomini, Banggaja or Peling ; and
finally Macassar and Bugi, which are far more important
than the others.

In order to convey any true idea of the astonishing
linguistic variety of the East Indies, we must not fail to
mention, in connection with the small islands of the
Sunda group, Balinese, Sarsak-Balinese, and Sarsak,
spoken on Bali and Lombok ; Sumbawarese and
Bimanese, spoken in Sumbawa ; Endele and Liou,
the Mangerese dialects, Paga and Solarais, spoken in
Flores ; Kupang, spoken in Timor, and Sumbanese in
Sumba. In the Moluccas Galelarese, Tarnatese, and
various other dialects are spoken ; and in New Guinea,
Nafor, or Mafor and Jotofese, or the dialect of Jotafa, &C. 1

1 For further details see H. Blink, Nederlandsch Oost-en West-
Indie (vol. i. p. 276 et seq.). K. F. Holle has drawn up a linguistic
chart of the Dutch Indies, reproduced in the work cited, vol. i. p. 278.

GENERALITIES

Before this incredible wealth of tongues, which
facilitated their conquest of the Dutch East Indies i
far as up to the time of their arrival it had prevented the
unification of the different peoples, but which also
rendered their organisation more laborious, the Dutch
felt the need of an official, administrative language, which
should give their great empire at least a semblance of
unity. From the time of their arrival they endeavoured
to eradicate the Portuguese language, which had already
spread through the Archipelago ; but they soon saw the
futility of trying to impose Dutch. After a few unfruit-
ful efforts they renounced the idea ; while during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they acted upon
quite a contrary principle, taking the greatest pains to
prevent the natives from learning their language, with
the idea that by such a course they would increase the
prestige of the European, the ruler ; perhaps also with a
view to shrouding in mystery the relative weakness of
the Netherlands, in the face of English competition.
Malay thus became the official language of the country.

At first sight it would seem that this dignity should rather
fall to the Javanese language, which is spoken by more
than twenty-four million persons ; while Malay is the
mother-tongue of some four millions only. Javanese,
however, is far from easy to tackle ; its grammar and
syntax are complicated ; it contains modes of speech
which vary as one addresses an inferior, an equal, or a
superior ; with the result that Javanese has never over-
passed the limits of Java, nor has it even succeeded in
displacing Sundanese or Madurese ; while Bugi and
Macassar, despite the commercial activity of the people
who speak them, have never crossed the limits of their
original sphere. The Malay language owes its election,
on the other hand, to its extreme diffusion a result due
to its own qualities and that of the Malay race.

It is not only the language of the various Malay groups
established in Malacca, Perak, and Singapore, and
throughout the whole Peninsula ; it is also understood
in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Flores, Timor, and

40 JAVA

the Moluccas, and in all the southern portion of the
Philippines ; by millions of persons, in short, all of whom
belong to rich countries with an extensive trade.

In French Indo-China Malay is spoken by one
hundred thousand Malays and Shans ; it is the com-
mercial language of the Chinese established in the com-
mercial city of Cholu, and the Hindu merchants who
are to be found in almost every part of the extreme
Orient. 1

The widespread use of this language, in comparison
with the relatively limited number of Malays, is due to
the simplicity, the suppleness, and the harmonious pro-
nunciation of the Malay tongue. It has a great facility of
assimilation, so that wherever it has been adopted it has
acquired terms borrowed from the dialects which it has
replaced. In this manner the conditions of its history
have enriched it by a large number of terms from
Sanskrit, Hindustani, Arabian, Persian, Tamil, Chinese,
Portuguese, Dutch, and English, without speaking of its
debts to the tongue of the Indian Archipelago, Javanese,
Sundanese, Madurese, &c.

We may discriminate between two kinds of Malay.
One is the literary language, which is written in Arabic
characters ; a refined, subtle language, full of fine shades ;
a ceremonious, dignified language, as difficult to learn
as any other Asiatic tongue. The other is the "low
Malay," " vulgar Malay," or laag-maleisch, as it is known
in the Indies ; a language sufficing those who are dealing
with ordinary matters, enabling them to travel every-
where without an interpreter, and to converse intelligibly

1 The Chinese in the various ports of the China Sea, coming from
provinces where different dialects are spoken, or who, having left
their country in childhood, have forgotten their mother-tongue, all
use Malay in speaking among themselves. In Hongkong a news-
paper in Malay has even been started for their benefit : the Pembrita
Tjung Wa (Chinese information) intended to give them news of
China, and also the translations of official decrees, &c., which are
likely to interest them. In Java the Malay journals for Chinese
readers are very numerous, and are read chiefly by merchants and
traders.

GENERALITIES 41

with tlu- natives: this may be acquired in a few months.
It goes without saying that this language, which is more
or less artificial, has only a remote resemblance to the
language which is spoken among themselves by Malays
of good education. The former is to the latter what
French of the " savvy-voo " order is to the French of
the Academic. But any one who wishes to acquire
prestige among the natives or the notables cannot afford
to dispense with correct Malay, or the knowledge of the
slightly modified Arabian character in which it is written,
although Europeans are gradually more and more
inclined to transcribe the Malay literature in Latin
characters, as are the authors of the numerous books in
Malay which are always appearing in the Indies on all
kinds of subjects.

Malay is the language of the Chinese merchants, who
hold the whole retail trade of Java in their hands. The
prospectuses and announcements of all kinds of the
commercial firms and navigation companies are issued
in Malay. European products (perfumery, pharma-
ceutical specialities, &c.) must always be provided with
a prospectus in Malay if they are to find a place on the
market.

As the Dutch on their arrival found that the Malay
language had been established throughout the Indian
Ocean for centuries they imposed it as the official
language upon their European officials as well as upon
the natives. At the present time all examinations
imposed upon colonial officials of European blood
demand a knowledge of Malay as an obligatory subject,
as well as a second native language, which is left to the
choice of the candidate. The reports of the central
authority and of the native chiefs are couched in
Malay ; the language is taught in all the schools of the
colony, and in order to avoid the greater difficulties of
Javanese, many of the Javanese notables carry on their
personal and mutual correspondence in Malay. Finally,
thanks to the missionaries who preach in Malay, its
diffusion is as rapid in Menado as in the Moluccas.

42 JAVA

In our days, since the victories of Japan and the Young
Turkish revolution, the entire Far East seems awakening
to a new life. It is demanding the right to come out of
the shadows ; and the native elite, which has been formed
by European culture, is making its voice heard in the
Dutch East Indies. It demands, above all, two things :
that it shall be granted facilities for learning the language
of its masters, the better to assimilate their civilisation ;
and that a more prominent place shall be given to the
Javanese language, on account of its numerical import-
ance. The Government has accordingly inscribed
Dutch upon the programme of its principal schools
for natives ; but as the knowledge of the language is
rather a means for the wholly nationalistic claims of
the natives, rather than an end in itself, it is hardly prob-
able that it will ever become the official language of
the Duch East Indies. If, on the other hand, having
regard to the importance of Java, a knowledge of Javanese
on the part of the European officials were eventually con-
sidered almost as necessary as that of Malay, the diffi-
culties which it presents to the non-Javanese would long
continue to prevent it from supplanting Malay.

At the present time Dutch is spoken in the East
Indies only by the colonists, among themselves and in
their homes. Useful as the knowledge of Dutch may
be, the traveller may perfectly well replace it by a
knowledge of English, or preferably of French, which
is in common use in good society. But in respect of
the native element, or even of the foreigners Arabs,
Japanese, Chinese the traveller cannot afford to dis-
pense with a knowledge of Malay if he wishes to settle
in the Indies, or merely to derive all possible profit
from a journey undertaken simply for pleasure and
instruction.

The duration and the relatively pacific history of the
Dutch domination in the Indies is due very largely to
their talent for organisation. Having entered the Archi-
pelago with one aim only, and that a practical and com-
mercial aim, they did not allow themselves to be seduced

GENERALITIES n

into the Imperialism of the Spaniards or the Portuguese,
and never exhibited any desire to impose their own
faith and mentality, to say nothing of an extreme sub-
jection as well, upon the peoples of the Archipelago.
They were too wise to arouse the fanaticism of the
Malays and Javanese by an imprudent proselytism ; nor
did they make the mistake of remaining indifferent in
face of the religious ideas of less civilised peoples. All
the native faiths were protected by them with absolute
justice, unless they were absolutely inimical to their
power. For a long period they kept a very keen eye
upon the preaching of the Gospels in the Indies, in
order to control the excessive and irritating zeal of
certain missionaries, and avoid any religious upheaval ;
even to-day the latter are allowed persuasion as their
only weapon, and the authorities preserve a wholly politic
neutrality in religious questions.

Again, they have made no attempt to cover the whole
of their immense possessions by the network of a facti-
tious administrative uniformity.

They have felt, in the midst of these many populations,
with all their diversity, the impossibility of such an
undertaking, and have, with very good sense, made use
of the political institutions of the natives, whenever such
were not too obviously hostile to their effectual domi-
nation. Moreover, side by side with territories adminis-
tered by themselves, they have retained a number of
other territories having at their head a sultan or a rajah ;
these they left on their chairs of state, and beside the
representative symbol of authority, who calms the national
susceptibilities of the natives, they have set a European
official, whose duty it is to watch over the nominal
sovereign, and on occasion prompt his actions.

Their purely economic ambition has not always, it is
true, saved them from certain regrettable actions of
cupidity, or tactless oppression ; the methodical devas-
tation of the spice-trees on the Banda Islands (1621),
and the semi-extirpation of its inhabitants, in order to

aintain the high market value of spices by restraining

44 JAVA

their production, were actions hardly calculated to
endear them to the natives ; and in the nineteenth
century the system of forced labour, having for some
years enriched Holland at the expense of her colonies,
came near to bringing total ruin upon the latter, and
alienating the loyalty of the natives.

It is none the less true that the Netherlands, endowed
with these magnificent possessions, where the climate is
equable and labour abundant, have, by means of an able
and prudent administration which has lasted more than
three centuries, increased the wealth of their colonies
tenfold, without either decimating or bastardising the
native races.

Admirably situated between the Indian Ocean and the
China Sea, a point of union between the East and the
Far East ; blessed with a subsoil rich in petroleum, coal,
silver, gold, and tin ; with a soil fruitful in rice, sugar,
coffee, tea, quinine, and indigo ; with well-equipped
ports ; with 3,180 miles of railways and tramways (a
figure that will shortly touch 3,490) ; with a trade which,
in 1906, amounted, in respect of imports, to ^23,655,699
and in respect of exports to -25,910,803, the Dutch East
Indies are to-day not merely one of the finest colonial
possessions which Europe possesses in Asia, but seem
destined to play a great part in the economical and
political struggle for supremacy in Asia to which Europe
and the East have been parties since the eighteenth
century.

CHAPTER III
JAVA AND MADURA : PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

I. Their shape. II. Their geological constitution and orographical
aspect. III. Streams and rivers of Java and Madura; their
qualities as alluvial agents, and their insufficiency as water-
ways ; their influence upon the coast-line and the harbours.
IV. The climate : its stability. V. The Javanese flora. VI.
The Javanese fauna.

JAVA and its annex, Madura, are in the form of a long
quadrilateral, the area being 50,440 square miles, of
which the axis is, in its eastern part, slightly inclined
towards the north. By its situation in the centre of the
Indian Ocean, which places even Sumatra and Borneo,
two very much larger islands, in a certain position of
dependence ; by the richness of its soil, the abundance
and variety of its flora and fauna, the activity, intelligence
and civilisation of its inhabitants, and the beauty of its
landscapes, Java remains the pearl of the Orient.
Although in the matter of dimensions it holds only
the fourth place, on the other hand it contains
three-fourths of the population, and is responsible
for four-fifths of the entire production of the Archi-
pelago.

Java has often been compared to its equatorial
counterpart, Cuba, whose area, shape, and orientation
are perceptibly like her own ; but Java, by itself, is more
thickly populated and more wealthy than Cuba and all
Central America together.

46 JAVA

II.

The long and methodical explorations of which Java
has been the object for a space of several centuries have
made it one of the best-known countries in the world.
But although described by Valentyn, Marsden, Raffles,
and Horsfield, the determination of its geological forma-
tion in a really scientific fashion was commenced only in
1820, or thereabouts, under the auspices of the Company
of the Indies, and thanks to the zeal of numerous scientists
such as Horner, Schwaner, and Macklot. In 1840 a new
period opened, which is dominated by the celebrated
name of Franz Junghuhn, who for many years was
incessantly travelling through Borneo, Sumatra, and in
particular Java, almost all of whose volcanoes he climbed
in succession. He even died in Java, leaving behind him
the memory of a life-work admirably performed, and the
most valuable observations as to the geological structure
of the East Indies. Finally, in 1880, with the advent of
the first mining engineers, whose aim was severely prac-
tical, a series of fresh observations was commenced,
which were at first confined more especially to Banka,
Borneo, and Sumatra, but soon spread to Java, and
finally furnished an exact description of the latter island.
The most eminent name of this period is that of R. D. M.
Verbeek, whose important geographical and topographical
works are well known.

Java belongs to the great Malayan curve, which starts
from Burmah, runs down the Peninsula, traversing
Sumatra and Java, and finally turns to the north-east,
piercing Santal Island and Timor, and reaching New
Guinea through Ceram. Tertiary formations play a
great part in the geological constitution of Java, despite
the belief that formerly obtained ; and the same is true
of Borneo and Sumatra. More ancient formations are
found in Java, in the shape of cretacean strata, but no
fossils are found, excepting in Borneo, which antedate
the tertiary period.

The volcanoes which are still so characteristic of the

JAVA AND MADURA 47

Archipelago, and of Java in particular, belong to the
quaternary period. They seem to have manifested an
alarming activity since the dawn of the historical era
an activity which some retain only too fully for the
security of the neighbouring inhabitants. Already more
than 90 are known in Sumatra ; in Java there are more
than 140. In these two islands the degree of volcanic
activity is greater than anywhere else on the face of the
earth ; while the other islands of the Sound, and, to a
less degree, Celebes and the Moluccas, are all well pro-
vided with volcanoes ; indeed many of them, and
amongst others Banda, in the Moluccas, are merely the
fragments of ancient craters.

Java, whose southern coast-line rises almost perpen-
dicularly from the tremendous depths of the Indian
Ocean, sinks in far gentler slopes towards the inner seas,
where a submarine tableland, which lies at no great
depth, unites it with Borneo.

The coast of Java is rich in bays and inlets ; but
the shelter which they afford is naturally safer on the
northern shore, which is lined by a girdle of islands
the Thousand Isles (Duizend-Eilanden), the Karimond-
jawas, the Solombos, and so forth ; which are like so
many vast bouquets of flowers and foliage cast down
upon the threshold of this magnificent country.

The entire backbone of the long island, so graceful
in shape as compared with Borneo, or even with Sumatra,
is formed by the chain of its volcanoes. Volcano upon
volcano, from west to east, they stretch from end to end
of Java. They stand in sequence rather than in a series ;
there are groups of three, or it may be four together,
enclosing between their flanks narrow and verdurous
valleys ; or they rise in isolation, leaving between two
summits plains of fifty or sixty miles' breadth, which are
commonly of incomparable fertility. There are lakes
among them here and there, but these are rare as com-
pared with those of Sumatra.

The most famous of these volcanoes are in the eastern
portion of the island ; the Salak, not far from Buitenzorg

48 JAVA

which is visited by numbers of tourists ; its neighbour
the Gedei (or the Great), some 9,700 feet high, whose
summit is crowned with hot vapours and its flanks with
magnificent vegetation. This volcano may be seen from
Sukabumi, and is connected with Pangerango, whose
wooded flanks are topped by a wide terrace nearly eight
miles in circumference. The traveller who does not fear
the quite endurable fatigue of the ascent may behold,
from this terrace, one of the most beautiful panoramas in
the world : on all hands are the fertile plains and valleys
of Java, full of a wonderful cultivation and sloping gently
northwards down to the Javan sea, while to the west and
south they fall to the Indian Ocean. Then follows
Patuha, whose deep-seated activity is continually betrayed
by audible rumblings ; Papandajan, or the Forge, the
seat of continual uproar and eruptions of jets of steam ;
Gunung Guntur (Mount Thunder), whose grey, bare
mass, rising from an ocean of verdure, seems to reveal
its deadly temper ; and Galunggung, whose eruptions are
still more disastrous, although its aspect is less forbidding.

After the last-named volcano the series breaks up into
a country of plateaux of inconsiderable height, until
the high plain of Bandung is reached, around which
are grouped Burangrang, Tangkuban Prahu, and Tam-
pomas. Distant and remote, in an isolation increased by
the majesty of its wooded slopes and its ever-smoking
crater, rises Slamat, which stands, as it were, a sentinel
between the volcanic groups of the west and the centre of
the island. Among the latter are Rogo Djambangan,
Prahu, the magnificent Sindoro, Sumbing, and Merapi,
which rise in the neighbourhood of the tableland of
Dieng, from which the spurs of Prahu rise. To the east
of Merapi is Gunung Sewu, or Duizendgebergte (the
Thousand Mountains) whose valleys are so fresh and
fertile that their ideal beauty is famous throughout the
island.

To the south of Surabaja the series of the eastern
volcanoes begins with Gunung Kelut, or the Broom ;
then comes Kawi, then Ardjuna, of the many crests ; then

JAVA AND MADURA 49

Tengger, and Semaru, the highest peak in Java (12,300
feet). In this region was established of old the famous
I ndo- Javanese kingdom of Madjapahit, which succumbed,
at the end of the fifteenth century, or early in the six-
teenth, to the armed proselytism of Islam ; but the
vanquished faith held out for years on the volcanic slopes
to which its last professors fled, and left behind it not
only the ruins of many remarkable Hindu temples on the
Dieng tableland, but a long-enduring memory in the
mind of the people.

The volcanoes, which have greatly contributed to the
physical integrity of Java, by emitting, in the shape of
lava, cinders, and the alluvial ooze of the many rivers,
the material of the many islands of which it must once
have consisted, have no less added to its beauty. Their
majestic outlines, their mighty flanks, clad with the
densest foliage, or, more rarely, rising stark and bare,
crowned with clouds of burning vapour, seamed with
a thousand streams and geysers, all multiply the vivid
charm of the plains and valleys, rich in the bright
vegetation of the coffee plantations or the spreading
rice-fields. Moreover, the volcanoes, on account of their
thermal springs, their mountain stations, and the sana-
toria built upon their lower slopes, and, above all, on
account of the extraordinary fertilising power of their
ejecta, are still one of the leading elements of the
material prosperity of Java. It is at the foot of the
most famous volcanoes that the most flourishing crops
are found.

It is true that they are also at times a terrible cause
of ruin and devastation. Although Salah has not been
in active eruption since 1699, Papandajan, whose voice
is still heard at a distance, broke out into an eruption
in 1772 which swallowed up whole villages ; and
Gunung Guntur, or Mount Thunder, has on several
occasions destroyed more coffee plantations than it has
fertilised. It is recorded that in 1843, during a slight
eruption, the sun was hidden for half the day, while
ten million tons of dust were thrown 10,000 feet into

50 JAVA

the air; while Galunggung, in 1824, covered with a tide
of boiling mud more than 114 villages, and thousands
of natives; while Lamongan and Raoun, on the shores of
the Straits of Bali, to cite only the more notable vol-
canoes, have shown themselves equally formidable.
Such eruptions as those mentioned not only destroy
villages, natives, and crops, but also make the land a
desert for many years ; for beasts of prey howl amidst
the ruins, and when the forests have reconquered the
spurs of the volcano they take up their abode in them,
thus greatly adding to the difficulties of re-establishing
civilisation. The Gedei is subject to alternate earth-
quakes and eruptions, and the former, the result of its
subterranean upheavals, are perhaps more terrible than
the latter. The last, in 1879, destroyed Sindanglaja, the
sanatorium, and the neighbouring villages.

The mountain system of Madura is only a subordi-
nate continuation of that of Java. Although the island
is generally hilly, the highest summits, such as Tam-
buhu, do not exceed 1,200 or 1,300 feet.

III.

The hydrography of Java arises from the volcanic
character of its orography ; water is abundant, but the
streams are torrential, and their courses are determined
by the enormous median mass of the mountains.

Those to the south, being more closely confined
between the volcanoes and the coast, which dips
abruptly into a deeper ocean, are too short and too
rapid to be easily navigable. But those of the north
wind across the wide plains, which slope more gently to
the coast, and empty themselves into the enclosed waters
of the Archipelago, which, calmer and shallower than
the Indian Ocean, are slowly completing the work of
the volcanoes, which, having created Java by the junc-
tion of many islands, tend incessantly yet further to
increase its area. The detritus carried by the rivers to
their bars or deltas, together with the overflow of lavas

JAVA AND MADURA 61

and ashes, and the reefs of coral which emerge at every
eruption, increase the area of the island imperceptibly
but continuously, diminishing the bays, transforming the
islands into peninsulas, but silting up the mouths of the
rivers and the best harbours on the coast.

These rivers, which in Javanese bear the name of kali,
and in Sundanese that of tji or tchyi, had to be greatly
improved by dredging, embanking, &c., before they
were of any use for navigation. Naturally enough, this
work was commenced in the neighbourhood of Batavia,
where the Dutch had first established themselves ; and
the many narrow water-ways of the province and city
of Batavia were the first to be rendered navigable. But
we must look to the eastern portion of the island to find
a river really worthy of the name : the Kali Solo, brim-
ming with the waters which descend from Merapi and
Merbahu, and navigable by boats of considerable size
over its entire length of 310 miles. Its magnificent
estuary would be accessible to large ocean-going vessels
were it not obstructed by gigantic sand-banks.

The same drawback affects the other large water-way
of the northern slope of Java, the Kali Brantas, which
debouches to the south of the Strait of Madura. It is
wide, with an abundant flow of water, but so impeded
by mud and sand that no large vessels can make use
of it.

The rivers of the southern slope would be even less
navigable than those of the north, had not the Dutch
undertaken works of canalisation to such effect that
the wide estuary of the Tji (or Kali) Tanduwi, or Tanduj,
is open even to steamboats. But will it permit of their
entry much longer ? Scarcely, without human interven-
tion ; for it is filling, day by day, with its alluvial wealth,
the large gulf known as Segara Anakan, the Sea of Chil-
dren or Kindzee ; and little by little its muddy deposits
are annexing the island of Kembangan, once far from
the coast, but now connected with the mainland.

The shores of Java suffer from the same trouble ; full
of wide bays or inlets, especially on the northern side,

52 JAVA

the double action of volcano and river is daily tending
to fill their depths ; in the course of time they disappear,
while new bays and inlets are formed by the annexation
of coastwise islands by the incessant outward movement
of the shoals. Hence the shores of Java are only too
often bordered by long stretches of muddy shoals
lagoons whose treacherous islands, covered with rank
foliage, are noisome with swamp miasma, and the breed-
ing-ground of deadly fevers.

IV.

The climate or, we might say, the climates of Java,
for it varies according to the height and aspect of what-
ever part of the island we consider is like all tropical
climates. It is at once moist and hot ; for Java lies in
the zone of the trade winds, the belt of alternate mon-
soons. One, the " good monsoon," or the dry season,
lasts from June to September ; the other, the " bad mon-
soon," or the rainy season, lasts from December to
March. The best t ; me for the traveller to land in Java
is the month of April or May.

The chief peculiarity of the climate of the Indies, and
of Java in especial, is the equability of the temperature
all the year round. In Batavia the thermometer marks
an average of 79-5 from June to October, or the period
known as the hot season, but during the cold season,
or in January and February, it very rarely falls below

77*4. *

It is far less damp in Java than in Sumatra ; but it is

damper in the western than in the eastern portion of the
island, whence the vegetation in the former is infinitely

1 In Batavia the highest average temperature is recorded in
September 79-45 and October 79-66. The average for the whole
year is 78'8. The absolute maximum recorded was reached on
the 6th of November, 1877, at one o'clock in the afternoon 96-1;
the absolute minimum on the gth of August, 1877, at six in the
evening 66. (Observations made between 1866 and 1900, cited
by Blink, Ned. Oast-en West-Indie, vol. i. pp. 127, 132.)

JAVA AND MADURA 63

more luxurious than in the latter. As the islands of the
Archipelago approach Australia their climate becomes
always drier and their vegetation less exuberant than in
the neighbourhood of the peninsula and India.

The range of temperatures, already small in Batavia
and the western plains, becomes still smaller in the
interior, and is noticeable only on the heights, where
the rains are of almost daily occurrence and the thunder-
storms of tremendous violence and extraordinary fre-
quency. There, or at least in certain localities, the
thermometer rarely rises above 8o'6 in the daytime,
while at night it ranges between 57*2 and 6o'8 a
climate which puts life into those depressed by the
anaemia of Batavia and the large towns of the coast, and
which, helped out by the beauty of the surrounding
landscape and a little, perhaps, by comparison, is
qualified as delicious. Such a climate is found in Suka-
bumi, Bandung, and Garut in the west, and in Malang
in the east. It is this climate which has led the Dutch
Government to establish a number of sanatoria at Suka-
bumi, Sindanglaja, and Tegal-laga, near Bandung, in the
Preangers ; at Pelantungan, in the neighbourhood of
Samarang ; at Tosari and Puspa, in the residency of
Pasuruan. These establishments, the like of which are
sadly lacking in French Indo-China, allow the colonists
and officials suffering from dysentery, liver complaints,
fevers, &c., to recruit themselves. One of them, that of
Tosari, is the only spot on the island which is absolutely
free from malaria.

The splendour of the Javanese vegetation has been
celebrated for centuries and in many strains. Thanks to
the situation of the island beneath the Equator, which
ensures the privilege of perpetual summer and unfailing
rains ; thanks to its high mountains, which break the
winds, condense the clouds into moisture, and, having
fertilised the soil with their lavas, refresh it with life-

54 JAVA

giving waters, the flora of Java is as rich as it is varied.
It may be seen under many aspects, accordingly as one
explores the shores, the plains, the first slopes of the
mountains, or their heights. Along the coast grows the
dwarf-palm, or Nipa fruticans (Wurmb.), whose leaves
(atap) serve to thatch the huts of the natives ; the beautiful
Maripa palm (Attalea maripa Mart.), the cycadeus, and
the pandanus. In the plains and the foothills of the
ranges, side by side with the carefully cultivated food-
crops, which the labour of man obtains from or imposes
on the soil, and of which there are many not native to
the Indies : side by side with the fields of rice, the planta-
tions of coffee, quinine, cinnamon, cotton, sugar-cane,
pepper, tobacco, vanilla, and tea, grow the pisang, or
banana-tree, the coco-palm, the aren or sugar-palm, 1
the fan-palm, the lontar, or Borassus flabelliformis L., a
cousin of the date-palm, and the rattan (Malay, rotari),
or climbing palm ; in short, all the family of palms
wonderful not so much by reason of the number of
their varieties, which barely exceeds three hundred, as
on account of their grace and the charm which they add
to the landscape, and, above all, the many ways in which
they are of service to the natives. The most useful are
the sago-palm (the Malay Pohon sagu = Metroxylon sagus
Roxb.), with its nourishing pith, the sugar-palm, and the
toddy-palm, 2 known by the name of their precious gifts.
Besides the palms we must mention the bamboo, a plant
so necessary that we cannot imagine the life of the
inhabitant of the Far East without the constant assist-
ance of the bamboo, which is put to a hundred uses ;
and the great figs, or banyans, of which one variety the
Ficus benjaminea L. (Malay, beringin, beraksa ; Javanese,
waringin) puts forth such a multitude of hanging roots
from its trunk and branches that one individual tree will

1 The Javanese name for the Arenga saccharifera Lab., the sap of
which produces the aren sugar, so appreciated by the Javanese.

* Palm wine and palm sugar are furnished by the following
species : Arenga saccharifera, Borassus flabelliformis, Cocos nudfera,
Nipa fruticans, &c.

JAVA AND MADURA 55

constitute a whole grove by itself, so large is the space
which it covers and shelters ; the Altingia excclsa, which
produces the resin known as liquid amber (in Malay,
getiih ras(imuhi) which is used in medicine, and grows
sometimes to a height of 160 feet ; enormous tree-ferns ;
myriads of lianas, so long, strong, and supple that the
natives often throw them across rivers or ravines to
serve as bridges, while the trees caught in their embrace
quickly die of strangulation.

On the slopes of the mountains, at a greater altitude
and in a lower temperature, the traveller will be surprised
to see, in juxtaposition with the wonderful products of
the tropical flora, a large number of trees which are
known to our temperate climate. The king of the
Javanese forest, the Tectona grandis L., the djati, jati, or
teak, whose close and almost impenetrable grain makes
it of the greatest value in shipbuilding, may be seen
growing next to the oak, the maple, the lime, the ilex,
the chestnut, and the pine. Above the height of 6,500 feet
these are replaced by thickets which grow sparser and
greyer as the belt of heat without moisture is reached,
but after the rainy season one may find on the flanks of
the volcano the violets and buttercups of the West. But
one also finds venomous plants unknown to Europe ;
among others the ant jar, or Antiaris toxicaria, of Sesche-
nault, and the famous upas, whose mortal effects have
been celebrated by the poets. Even in the briefest
sketch of the flora of Java one must mention the graceful
nepenthes and the gay begonias, which have long since
been acclimatised under English skies.

The fauna of Java is even richer than those of Sumatra
and Borneo, with the easily appreciated difference that it
is less formidable to man. Java can boast neither of the
elephant, nor the tapir, nor the orang-outang, but it still
contains a certain number of rhinoceros, black and
spotted leopards, and especially in the centre of the

56 JAVA

island there are tigers, whose ravages are still consider-
able. Lightning and the tigers are the two greatest
terrors of the Javanese ; he speaks of them only with
fearful respect ; their victims amount to hundreds each
year : yet the natives abstain from any systematic cam-
paign against the tigers, despite the terror which they
inspire, because the destruction of the tigers results, in
their experience, in the advent of herds of wild pigs,
which ruin the crops. The great wild bull, or banteng
(Bos sondiacus, M. and Schleg.), is still found in Java ;
there are no less than four varieties of pig, immense
herds of deer and of antelopes, and the wonderful East
Indian fawn, the dwarf deer, or mouse deer, the most
graceful little creature on the face of the earth. Among
the domestic animals we must mention the buffalo, or
kerbau, the bullock (sapi), the pig (babi), the goat
(kambing), which is found in the most miserable kam-
pongs (villages), the sheep, the dog, and the cat.

The birds of Java, many of which are clad in the most
brilliant plumage, do not number more than 270 species,
of which forty are peculiar to the island. Ducks, and the
wild cock, peacocks, pigeons, and pheasants abound, not
to speak of the kingfishers, parakeets, ant-eaters, and
birds of paradise. The peacock is the object of a certain
amount of aversion, because the natives believe that a
troop of peacocks reveals the approach of the tiger,
whom they follow in his hunting. 1

The dugong and the cachalot are often seen along the
coast ; crocodiles also are common, and the rich vegeta-
tion of Java conceals a great variety of snakes, many of
which are far more dangerous to man than the dreaded
tiger.

The aquatic fauna, whether marine or otherwise, is
extremely rich, and for the native is an important source
of food and prosperity, as we shall see when we come to
study the native's life.

1 It is supposed by the Javanese that the peacock eats the
intestinal worms of the tiger's victims.

CHAPTER IV
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF JAVA

I. The seventeen Residencies. The western Residencies : Bantam,
Batavia, Cheribon, the Preangers. II. The central Residencies :
Pekalongan, Samarang, Banjumas, Kedu. III. Kedu and Boro-
Budur. IV. The Vorstenlanden, or Principalities, Surakarta and
Djokjakarta. V. Rembang, Madiun. VI. The Residencies of
the East : Surabaja, Kediri, Pasuruan, Besuki, and Madura.

THE immense area of Java and Madura was, until 1900,
divided into twenty-two Residencies or Provinces, which
have since been reduced to seventeen ; partly as a
measure of centralisation, but still more as a matter of
administrative economy. Two of these, in the centre of
Java, have retained an apparent independence ; one
under a Susuhunan* and the other under a Sultan.
These are known as the Vorstenlanden, or Principalities :
Surakarta and Djokjakarta.

The first Residency in Java, starting from the western
extremity of the island, is that of Bantam ; which,
after having been the most flourishing of all, is
to-day perhaps the poorest. Bantam, the capital of
the old Sultanate of Bantam, was indeed the centre
of the Dutch power until the foundation of Batavia,
being better situated, at the crossing of the mari-
time highways, and having a better protected road-

1 Or, being abridged, sunan. A title which, in ancient Javanese,
more or less precisely signifies "his Holiness"; it used to be given
only to princes who united in their hands both the spiritual and the
temporal powers.

58 JAVA ,

stead. Bantam, for nearly fifty years, was the great
European port ; to-day it is only a poor native town,
living by a small trade in fruits and agricultural pro-
ducts with Batavia, and, on the other side of the strait,
with its Sumatrese neighbours of the Lampong country.
Of the strangers who visit the city many, if they are
Malays or Mahomedan Chinese, go there out of venera-
tion for the ruins of the ancient mosque, and the tombs
of the Imams ; while the Europeans bestow a glance on
the ruins of the seventeenth-century factories, or the
memorials of the first pioneers of European civilisation,
who sleep in a cemetery as green as a garden. For a few
years Anjer succeeded Bantam as the centre of the Dutch
trade and life ; in 1883 it was devastated by the so-called
tidal wave which followed the eruption of Krakatoa, and
was unable to recover. Even the seat of the Residency
was moved to Tjilegon, and the supremacy of Bantam
passed to the neighbouring province.

This was only reasonable; for the Residency of Bantam
contains only 850,000 inhabitants, while that of Batavia
counts nearly 2j millions. Batavia and the city seems
to be gradually absorbing the province is still, despite
the efforts of Surabaja and Samarang, the capital of
Java, of the whole Dutch East Indies, the essentially
European city. It owes less to its climate, which, owing
to the low altitude, is only too often stiflingly hot, or
to the beauty of its landscapes, which must be sought at
Buitenzorg, some twenty miles inland, and which are
inferior to those of the Preangers, than to the plexus
of human lives which it has somehow gathered about it ;
the picturesqueness of its old quarters ; the gay splendour
of the new city, and its background of more than a
century of European civilisation.

Batavia is no upstart ; it has its aristocratic quarters,
its old traditions, which date back to the year 1619, when
the Dutch built the city upon the site of the native
Djakatra. To-day it spreads out for a distance of twelve
miles ; and if its extent seems out of proportion to its
population, which in 1909 was 138,000, we must not

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS at

forget that Batavia, besides the old city, contains the new
city with its wealthy quarter of VVeltevreden (Well Con-
tent), and also Tandjong Priok, which is the shipping
quarter of Batavia. To be logical, we ought really to
include Meester Cornells (33,990 inhabitants, of whom
1,700 are Europeans), Buitenzorg (Sans-souci, 33,400
inhabitants), the seat of the Government, Tanggerang
(4,454 inhabitants), and even Bekasi, with its bustling
Chinese bazaars and charming country villas. The
centre of this complex organism is old Batavia, built
upon the right bank of the Tji Liwong : showing, at the
entrance of the channel, the four bastions of the citadel,
which is situated upon a small island. Nature has over-
come these defences more easily than man ; for, following
upon a series of volcanic eruptions, the canals of Batavia
were choked with ashes, while the alluvial deposits of the
river slowly separated the city from the sea, until to-day
they are parted by a distance of nearly two miles. The
stagnation of the water in the canals, and the proximity
of a coast-line which was always in process of formation
and always half a swamp, continued to make old Batavia
so unhealthy that the colonists decided to abandon their
houses: those eighteenth-century red- brick gabled houses
which were like a corner of Holland amidst the exotic
foliage ; tourists still visit the quarter to admire them, but
they are occupied now only as offices, or by Chinese or
natives, whose kampongs are huddled together in the most
picturesque but evil-smelling medley, amidst the old
decaying houses ; close to the mangroves of the shifting
shore-line, a constant breeding-place of dangerous fevers.

The Dutch, in their greater wisdom, have removed
their port to Tandjong Priok, some six and a quarter
miles beyond the old city, and their dwelling-houses to
Weltevreden, which is a mile or two south of the old
Batavia, standing upon a slight eminence which preserves
it from the marshy miasmata, and allows the residents
occasionally to enjoy the sea-breeze.

Tandjong Priok is situated on the great bay of Batavia,
which lies between Cape Untung Djawa and Krawang

60 JAVA

Point. The harbour is accessible to vessels of the
highest tonnage. The roadstead has a length of twenty-
four miles and a width of eight ; the harbour proper is
at the mouth of the Tji Liwong. The outer harbour
is enclosed between two gigantic jetties of hewn stone,
25 feet in width at the top : it is 2,000 yards wide, and
the opening has a width of 136 feet. The inner basin,
which is surrounded by quays for trading-vessels, has a
length of 1,210 yards, a width of 190 yards, and a depth of
25 feet.

The quay itself, which is 8 ft. 2 in. above low water,
extends for a distance of 1,100 yards. The harbour
contains a dry dock, graving and careening slips, a coaling
station, building slips ; all the equipment, in short, of
a modern port. A good road, a canal, and a railway
unite it with Batavia. The cost of the harbour was
26J million florins about ^3,000,000 ; and it is the site
of a considerable trade in coffee, sugar, indigo, quinine,
and copra, which it exports, receiving in return an
enormous quantity of manufactured articles, particularly
from Holland, England, and Germany.

Tandjong Priok represents the wealth and activity
of Batavia. Weltevreden, the new city, is the symbol
of its luxury, with its vast, sumptuous avenues, its
magnificent gardens, which give the whole quarter the
aspect of a wonderful park, with a sprinkling of houses
whose simple, almost rustic architecture, adds yet another
charm to all this natural beauty. One scarcely notices
them at first on passing through the splendid avenues,
so well are they concealed by the exuberant tropical
vegetation.

The centre of the city is Koningsplein, an immense
rectangular space twice as large as the Champ de Mars
in Paris. Here towards nine o'clock each evening the
Dutch ladies and a few handsome half-castes take the
air ; sometimes on foot, but more often driving ; wear-
ing their most fashionable frocks, but nearly always bare-
headed ; a custom by which beauty gains if European
etiquette suffers. This graceful fashion, thanks to the

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 61

influence of snobbery, shows signs of disappearing. The
four sides of the Koningsplein are bordered by the
wealthier private houses, standing behind groups of trees ;
here, too, is the huge and somewhat heavy palace of the
Governor-General, and the archaeological and ethno-
graphical museum of the Society of Arts and Sciences
of Batavia, which was founded in 1778, and whose
publications J are a mine of precious information con-
cerning the East Indies.

The Koningsplein is connected by Willemslaan to the
Waterlooplein, which seems small in comparison with
the former, although it would still seem immense in
Europe ; but it is as green and enchanting as the larger
place, although somewhat unfortunately marred by a
rather miserable monument in memory of Waterloo, a
statue of Jan Coen, the founder of Batavia in 1619, and
an iron pyramid to the memory of the brave General
Michiels : none of which can be regarded as an artistic
success. The Waterlooplein is overlooked by the palace
of the Colonial Office (Colonial Services) and the grace-
ful Catholic cathedral.

The sight of the entire city, outspread in the midst of
its wonderful gardens, has none of that utilitarian ugli-
ness with which the agglomeration of second-rate build-
ings and an over-driven existence deface our modern
European cities. In the remote background, at a
respectful distance, and hidden by their enclosures of
cabbage and coco-palms, are the kampongs of the natives,
which are drawn like a motley girdle round stately
Weltevreden, which pushes its villas in brick and wood
on the one hand along the canal which runs from that
quarter to old Batavia, while on the other hand the
villas reach as far as the overgrown village of Meester
Cornelis (33,900 inhabitants), an entertaining mixture of
European bungalows, the houses of wealthy Chinese,
and dirty native quarters, swarming with life and colour.

One cannot speak of Batavia without the immediate

1 Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wdenschappen : Vcrhandc-
lingen, Tijdschrift, Notultn.

62 JAVA

thought of Buitenzorg, which prides itself upon being
the motive centre, the brain almost, of Batavia. It
stands twenty miles from the capital, on a site which is
infinitely more healthy and more beautiful ; a leafy hill
of 870 feet in height, which overlooks the valley of the
Tji Liwong and the Tji Dani, while beyond it are incom-
parable views of Gedei and Salak, the two great volcanoes.
Buitenzorg, known in Javanese as Bogor, boasts of a
botanical garden unique in the world ; to speak precisely
it is rather a botanical institute, as the most perfectly
equipped laboratories are combined with the most
wonderful collection of tropical plants that any -naturalist
could dream of, enclosed in a frame to delight the heart
of a painter or poet. In this peculiarly moist, warm
climate for at Buitenzorg it rains every day from two
to seven in the afternoon the vegetation shows an
extraordinary development and variety. More than ten
thousand species of plants are here assembled : coco-
palms, cabbage-palms, palms of all varieties, eucalyptus and
the red jasmine, all intermingled with a grace and vigour
peculiar to the place, for on this favoured soil they attain
an unexampled development, particularly as to height.
The Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg has evaded both
the deliberate disorder of a virgin forest, in which the
tangled exuberance of vegetation produces a disconcert-
ing impression of discomfort, and the too strictly formal
order of the classical botanical garden ; Art has helped
Nature with a loving tact, and the rarest species grow in
a happy liberty, blending in the most harmonious
manner with one another and with the distant back-
ground of a perfect landscape. 1

A visit to the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg is as great
a pleasure to the mere traveller as to the scientist, although
perhaps for different reasons ; but the gardens are not
the only attraction which the Europeans of Java find in

1 There is an excellent Notice sur I'etat actuel de I'Institut by its
one-time Director, Dr. Treub, in s' Lands Plantentuin, Bulletin de
I'Institut botanique de Buitenzorg, No. i. (Buitenzorg, printed at
the Institute, 1898, 8vo.)

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 63

this charming town. It is at Buitenzori;, in a palace
surrounded with flowers, lawns, and groups of trees,
such as might be the envy of any royal residence in
Europe, that the Governor-General of the Dutch East
Indies resides, the representative of the executive power
in the colony. Since 1774 the Governors have been
used to seek a refreshing air and a little repose in this
well-named hill-station Buitenzorg, the Care-free, Sans-
Sonci ; there they built a country villa, and finally
appreciated the place so well that they transported
thither the entire Secretariat-General ; and since then
the eyes of all the officials in Java have been turned
towards Buitenzorg, the source of all executive orders,
and also of promotion. The Europeans of the Archi-
pelago, whether merchants or planters, learned in their
turn of the reviving effects of Buitenzorg ; and while the
Government established a hospital there for those con-
valescent from beri-beri, they flocked there every year for
a stay of several months, so that in spite of its entirely
official character the town is full of visitors coming and
going.

Puwokarta, and Krawang, the old Cravaon of the
Portuguese, formerly itself the capital of a suppressed
Residency of the same name (connected by rail with
Meester Cornelis and Batavia, but without gaining much
thereby), are the only two district capitals worth mention-
ing in the province of Batavia.

The Residency or province of Cheribon or Tjiribon
contains some large villages and markets, but no city
worthy of remark by reason either of its population or
activity, excepting the capital of the same name. The
city of Cheribon (23,450 inhabitants) on the Tji-Ribon,
or river of crayfish, to which it owes its name, is a
picturesque old town, in which the European, Chinese,
Arab, and Javanese quarters strike each its characteristic
note. It might, on this muddy, indefinite sea-coast,
have become a port of some importance, had not the
coral reefs rendered its roadstead unsafe. It is, how-
ever, a place of pilgrimage for many fervent Arab,

64 JAVA

Malay, or Javanese Mahomedans, who go thither to
venerate the tomb of the Susuhunan Gunang Djati,
the founder of Cheribon, and one of the great propa-
gandists of Islam in Java. His remote descendants
live not far from this holy but somewhat Dilapidated
object, in a kraton (palace) full of a rather tawdry
luxury, subsisting on a very comfortable pension paid
them by the Dutch Government.

The Residency of the Preangers, which is to the south
of Bantam, Batavia, and Cheribon, and with them consti-
tutes the eastern division of Java, surpasses them all in
extent, population, and natural beauty. It contains no
less than 8,178 square miles, and 2,435,500 inhabitants,
of whom some 4,000 are Europeans. There are few
large towns excepting Bandung, the capital, but a host
of kampongs : great overgrown villages, built amid the
most luxuriant vegetation, on the most incomparable
sites. Enthusiastic travellers, struck by the marvellous
light and the fresh green of the Javanese foliage, have
called the fortunate island a terrestrial paradise. If it be
so, then the Preangers should be the paradise of this
paradise. Here too a fact not to be disdained are
the finest plantations of coffee, tea, quinine, and sugar-
cane to be found in the East Indies. If only this
province did not face the Indian Ocean, which forms
the whole of its southern boundary, it is probable that
the productive value of the Preangers would be doubled ;
but the depth of the water makes the construction of
harbours or artificial roadsteads impossible.

Bandung, which since 1864 has been the capital of
the province, is a very pleasant town, nestling amidst
its trees, at a height of 2,300 feet above the sea. It
grows, so to speak, while one watches it, but without
losing any of its beauty. In 1893 it contained only
23,800 inhabitants ; to-day there are 47,470, of whom
2,200 are Europeans.

Garut and Sukabumi, connected with Bandung by the
railway, are, from the European point of view, simply
sanatoria, installed in the midst of Javanese native life,

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 65

in a delightful climate. Sukabumi (Place of Delights)
has over 15,000 inhabitants, but only 588 are Europeans,
exclusive of the convalescents whom the State sends up
year by year to the establishment built for that end.
The Dutch Government has installed two other sanatoria
in the Residency of Preanger : one at Tegal-laga, near
Bandung, and one at Sindanglaja.

Formerly many East Indian officials, having retired
upon their pensions, came to end their lives under the
trees of Sukabumi ; to-day they return more willingly
to die in their native country.

Garut, at a height of 2,300 feet, more sparsely peopled
than Sukabumi, is almost as attractive, by reason of its
climate and its individual charm. Formerly a holy city,
forbidden to Europeans, it is now more and more
frequented by foreigners.

II.

Central Java comprises the Residencies of Pekalongan,
Samarang, Banjumas, Kedu, Djokjakarta and Surakarta,
Rembang, and Madiun. The first two Residencies are
situated on the Java Sea, and absorb the commercial
products of the other four on their way to the outer
world.

The province of Pekalongan, despite its three small
ports Brebes, Tegal, and Pemalang (20,920 inhabitants)
contains only one important town : the capital, Peka-
longan (41,720 inhabitants), which is built upon both
banks of the River Pekalongan. The houses of the
European quarter are built on the left bank, along an
avenue of magnificent canary-trees and tamarinds. This
quarter, which is well away from the native and Chinese
quarters, boasts of the inevitable " plein," place, or
promenade, with its administrative offices, the Residency,
and the Protestant Church ; and not far off is the
customary aloun-aloun, 1 with the mosque and the

1 The aloun-aloun is the public place, the centre of official
native life, just as the "plein" is the centre of European life. It

66 JAVA

Regent's palace. The Chinese, even more than the
Arabs, hold in their hands the greater part of the
retail trade of the neighbourhood, and indeed of the
whole coast ; at Tegal they even profess to have
been established since the tenth century.

The Residency of Samarang far surpasses that of Peka-
longan by the number of its towns and their activity and
density of population. Kudus, Salatiga, Kendal, Japara,
and Pati all contain from ten thousand to thirty thousand
inhabitants. Samarang, the capital (96,660 inhabitants,
of whom 5,126 are Europeans), is one of the three
great commercial centres of the island, ranking with
Batavia and Surabaja. The city has developed rapidly
since the proclamation of free labour, and has become
one of the great depots of the products of the country :
coffee, tobacco, indigo, sugar, and rice.

Another cause of prosperity has been the construction
of railways running from the coast to the Principalities,
or Vorstenlanden, of Djokjakarta and Surakarta, which
has enabled Samarang to attract nearly all the trade of
Central Java. The improvement of the port has made it
more accessible, although it does not make up for the
absence of a safe and capacious roadstead, which would
be worth a large fortune to the city. The city itself is
built on the two banks and at the mouth of the insignifi-
cant river of the same name ; its only interest lies in the
continual movements of the lighters towards the ships,
and the magnificent sunshine which never fails the East
Indian landscape. The old city, built, by a natural and
pathetic fallacy, in the Dutch manner its two-story
houses crowded together in the narrow streets, without
the ventilation of large gardens is so insupportably hot
that all who have been able to desert it have done so ;
it is used now only for stores and warehouses, and, in
the more habitable quarters, for barracks and orphan
asylums. The Europeans have taken refuge on the road

is almost always a great grassy square or oblong, planted with
enormous banyans, which trees are greatly venerated by the
Hindus and the Javanese.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 67

to Bondjong and Pontjol (two quarters of the new city),
which staiul ;i little higher th;in the surrounding plain.
There they have built their white villas, shaded by tall
trees. A magnificent avenue of tamarind-trees connects
Bondjong with the aloun-aloun, the central public square
of every native town, where the Government offices, the
Residency, the town hall, indeed all the official buildings,
are grouped about its green expanse. More interesting
still to the traveller is the Chinese quarter, which is built
upon the Samarang River, a little way above the city, and
is almost as picturesque as it is dirty ; or the houses of
the Javanese kampong, scattered among the coco-palms,
or along the roads, or on the banks of the canal, accord-
ing to the occupations of the inhabitants. At a quarter
of an hour's distance, to the south of Samarang, and on
the first slopes of the mountain, is the suburb of Tjandi,
which is rich in the ruins of Hindu temples, to which
the natives still bring their humble offerings of flowers
and fruits. Not far from here the Europeans are begin-
ning to build, as it is cooler than in Samarang itself.
Well provided with roads, canals, railways, steam tram-
ways, and steamship lines, active and enterprising,
Samarang is wealthy rather than attractive.

Its opulent aspect is a contrast to the semi-poverty
of its neighbour Demak, formerly the capital of a
powerful State, and not long ago the capital of a Resi-
dency which is now simply a district of the Residency
of Samarang. Situated in a cool and luxuriant valley,
Demak has to-day only 5,250 inhabitants ; despite the
line of steam trams which connects it with Samarang
and Joana, 1 it vegetates miserably. Yet here, in the
fifteenth or sixteenth century, was founded a dynasty
of Musulman princes, fervent propagandists of Islam,
whose turbulent proselytism made them for a time the
moral rulers of Central Java. One of them a very holy
but also a very ambitious man Raden Patah, built, it

1 Or rather Djoewana. Joana is an English spelling, often used
by preference, as in the expression Samarang- Joana-Stoomtram =
Samarang and Joana Steam Tramway.

68 JAVA

is said, the city mosque, which is celebrated throughout
Java, and was completed in 1468. In 1845 ^ nac * to be
rebuilt ; but care was taken to preserve in the new
structure some sculptured columns, venerable relics of
the old. From Demak issued, in the latter half of the
fifteenth century, the religious and political movement
which banded together the petty Musulman princes of
the north coast of Java for the purpose of annihilating
the great Indo-Javanese kingdom of Madjapahit. At
their head, justly enough, was Raden Patah, son or
grandson, so it was said, of the Sultan of Madjapahit,
who wished at one blow to avenge an injury done to
his mother and to secure the triumph of Islam. He
succeeded : the Arab supplanted the Hindu civilisa-
tion throughout the island ; but two centuries later the
Dutch laid hands upon the warlike petty princes and
their territory. Further decimated in 1848 by a terrible
famine, Demak lingers rather than lives.

Kudus, better advised, has preserved, with a religious
respect, the minaret of its ancient mosque, and the
famous tomb of its eminently holy founder, the Pan-
geran Kudus. 1 But it has not allowed its material
interests to suffer ; it has left the ancient city to the
memories of its historic past, and has built beside it a
new city, which is completely modern, although purely
in the native style. The wooden dwellings are neater,
cleaner, and more graceful than in any other part of
the island ; their facades, delicately carved, are famous
through all Java. It is to this charming town that the
inhabitants of Kudus, energetic brokers and carriers of
produce, return after scouring the country from one
end to another, sometimes for years together, in order
to take their well-earned rest and enjoy the fruits of
their labour.

Salatiga contains an almost equally industrious popu-
lation, and enjoys a delightful climate, which has led
to the erection of a sanatorium.

Ambarawa, in a steep, marshy valley of the volcano
1 Pangeran = Lord or Prince.

'-^^3^~

GRIMM'S RESTAURANT, SURABAJA.

THE OLD ^IMI'AXC, CI.rH, Sl'KAl 1 . \J\.

To face p. 68.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 00

Merbabu, is merely a fortress, originally intended to
bridle the Sultans of Surakarta and Djokjakarta, and
to prevent their making raids upon the Dutch posses-
sions on the coast. It is, above all, an example of
Dutch tenacity, its utility to-day being practically nil.
Commenced about 1837, it was built of human lives,
for the builders had to fight three enemies : the marsh
fever ; the treacherous, muddy water, which would sud-
denly sweep away work and workers ; and finally an
eruption of Merbabu, which in July, 1867, when the
work was apparently completed, cracked or destroyed
the whole structure. Worse still : at the end of nume-
rous periods of forced labour, to which the unhappy
inhabitants of the country had been compelled, a terrible
famine broke out, as the peasants had been unable to
sow and to cultivate their rice-fields. Ambarawa, created
by the will of the metropolis, according to the plans of
the metropolis, in obedience also to its remote brutality,
was one of the last great moral mistakes of the Dutch.
It would always have been quite insufficient to stand
against good artillery ; and although it instilled a salu-
tary terror in the hearts of the neighbouring populations,
it also left them with a dangerous sense of unforgiving
resentment.

The Residency of Banjumas, to the south of that of
Samarang, is important on account of its situation rather
than its economic importance. It is of value in that it
helps to divide the formerly formidable Principalities from
the turbulent Residency of the Preangers. Banjumas,
its capital, in spite of its rather high-flown name (Golden
Water), is a second-rate village of 5,795 inhabitants.
The principal towns of the district are : Purwokerto
(13,768 inhabitants), Probolinggo (13,237), and Band-
jernagara (5,875), which are scarcely more lively.

The only exception is Tjilatjap, the great commercial
and military port of the south. Tjilatjap is built in
modern fashion, and is laid out in a very symmetrical
manner, with huge, shady avenues almost too huge,
in fact, for the city scarcely seems likely to realise the

70 JAVA

hopes that were conceived of it, and this for two reasons :
both the climate and the nature of the soil, which are
closely connected, are unfavourable. It is built upon
a dried-up swamp, beside a muddy coast which bristles
with coral ; it is extremely unhealthy during the western
monsoon, being then invaded by the poisonous exhala-
tions of the shore ; the south-western monsoon, which
brings the sea-breeze, renders it somewhat more healthy.

The malaria endemic in Tjilatjap has the peculiarity
that its worst effects are felt only after leaving the place ;
it undermines the constitution of the resident, but he is
hardly aware of his condition. It is, nevertheless, so
deadly a complaint that Tjilatjap has been called "the
European cemetery/' and the Government has been
forced to withdraw its garrisons.

The roadstead, which is very extensive, and capable of
floating large vessels at low tide, is protected by a natural
breakwater of coral ; but the entrance is difficult, bristling
with reefs, and is gradually becoming obstructed by the
alluvium of the Tjilatjap, the estuary of which it faces.
The muddy waters of the river are already slowly filling
the great Gulf of Segara Anakan, or the Sea of the
Children, and their deposits of slime and ooze have
connected the island of Kambangan with the mainland.
It is to be feared that in the end they will close the bar
rather than increase its efficiency. Although at the very
gates of the fertile province of the Preangers, and by
nature fitted to be the port and market for the produce
of the south-east of Java and a portion of the centre,
Tjilatjap will never rival in growth the ports of Samarang
and Surabaja, because it is upon the Indian Ocean,
which has no commercial future as regards the Archi-
pelago.

III.

The Residency of Kedu, bounded by Samarang on the
north and the Principality of Djokjakarta on the east,
retains the charm of a great past and an indestructible
natural beauty. Situated in the region of the great

ADMINISTRATIVE DT VISIONS 71

volcanoes, backed by the majestic slopes of Sumbing,
Simloro, Mcrh;ibu, and Merapi, which enclose it by a
crescent-shaped range, it is full of fertile valleys of en-
chanting beauty. Its capital, Magelang (28,240 inhabit-
ants, comprising 723 Europeans and 2,746 Chinese), is
in the midst of a magnificently fruitful plain, which has
been fertilised by the debris of the volcanoes. With its
abundance of clear, running water, and the brilliant fresh
foliage of its rice-fields, its plantations of coffee and
sugar-cane, it gives the impression of a Garden of
Eden, and the delightful climate adds to the illusion.

Purworedjo (14,205 inhabitants), the capital of the
sometime province of Bagelen, has almost the charm of
Magelang, which is now its administrative superior. It
is easy to understand that where life is so easy and so
pleasant the natives give but little thought to other
things, and care little about enriching themselves, and
still less about enriching their masters by the unceasing
cultivation of coffee, sugar-cane, and tea, or by joylessly
labouring in the few manufactories or workshops which
have been erected by the uncontrollable energy of
Europe. Nevertheless, this Garden of Eden has known
a superior standard of life, has been the seat of a
higher and more stable civilisation than the neigh-
bouring provinces, and retains the vestiges of an art
that strikes us even to-day with astonishment and
admiration.

Nine miles from Magelang is the Tjandi Boro-Budur,
the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas a gigantic stupa,*
built not upon a hill but around it, the hill forming the
core of the stupa, and being enclosed by a series of
sculptured terraces or balconies, which end in a central
terrace surmounted by a gigantic dagoba. 2 There are
no less than nine stories or stages of galleries built
around the huge core of earth ; the six lower galleries
are square, with re-entrant angles, and the three upper

1 Sanscrit. A sacred tumulus to indicate the site of some episode
in the life of Buddha, or enclosing some of his ashes or relics.
a A variety or modification of the stupa.

72 JAVA

galleries are circular, and are surmounted by seventy-
two open dagobas containing statues of Buddha. From
the first gallery upwards the sustaining wall is covered
with bas-reliefs illustrating various episodes in the life
of Buddha ; gargoyles, as fantastic as any on our Gothic
cathedrals, decorate each angle ; delicate schemes of
decoration flowers, birds, animals break the monotony
of the gutters and run along the cornices. The summit
of the monument, consisting of the three circular terraces
and the seventy-two dagobas, is surmounted by the
central dagoba, which also contains a statue of Buddha,
and in which some bronze statuettes and coins were dis-
covered many years ago. Each side of the structure
measures no less than 177 yards (531 feet) in length at
the base, and the carvings, if set end to end, would
measure 3,850 yards, or considerably over two miles, in
length. Built presumably in the eighth or ninth century,
by Javanese working under the inspiration of Hindu
architects, it must once, according to the legend, have
sheltered in its terminal cupola a pinch of the revered
ashes of the Buddha. It is built without the aid of lime
or mortar, the stones being jointed by means of tenons
and mortices and dovetails which bind them solidly
together. The material is volcanic lava, whose greyish
tint enhances the imposing and melancholy effect of this
enormous and complex structure a melancholy hardly
enlivened by the most fantastic virtuosity of the chisel.
It stands facing Merapi, in a wide plain of slender
coco-palms, the horizon closed by a scattered range
of extinct volcanoes.

Only the ruins of Angkor Wat, in French Indo-China,
can rival Boro Budur in grandeur. Hindu by inspira-
tion, like the latter, they surpass it in point of size, and
are perhaps superior in grace, justness of proportion, and
delicacy of ornamentation.

The Dutch Government, at the repeated instance of
such scholars as the late Dr. J. L. A. Brandes, and of
the archasologists, amongst whom we must mention
Dr. I. Groneman, the founder of the Archaeological

NATIVE BOATS, WILLEMSKERKE, SURABAJA.

CHINESE KAMPONG, SURABAJA.

To face p.jt.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 73

Society of Djokjakarta, 1 who has done so much to
draw attention to the Hindo-Javanese antiquities of the
region, has at last begun to concern itself in the fate
of the ruins.

The high officials and native princes who used without
scruple to carry off statues and bas-reliefs for the decora-
tion of their gardens or palaces, and the peasants who,
with an unconscious vandalism which was at least more
comprehensible, used to carry off the stones to be used for
the most vulgar or trivial purposes, have been requested
to stop their depredations. The work of consolidation has
been put in hand, and a quite adequate pasan-grahan 2
has been constructed at the foot of the monument, so
that not archaeologists and artists only, but tourists from
all parts of the world, to whom India proper is to-day
a little commonplace, are now able to pay their respects
to the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas without heroic
efforts.

One may search the western portion of Java for the
vestiges of a monument that shall even distantly remind
one of Boro Budur. Here dwelt formerly, and here
is to-day, the centre of Javanese civilisation. Sixteen

1 Archceologische Vereeniging le Djokjakarta. Dr. Groneman has
published a guide to the ruins of Boro Budur under the title of
De Tjandi Baraboedoer op Midden-Java (Samarang, 1902, large 8vo)
and many monographs on the ruins of Java.

* Pasangrahan, or better, pasanggrahan, a Javanese word signify-
ing " hostelry." Analogous to the dahk bungalow of India, and the
sola of Indo-China, but better equipped than the latter, the pasang-
grahan is a kind of inn or hotel for the use of officials on circuit,
but which extends its hospitality to travellers as well. It is estab-
lished at the cost of the Dutch Government, and kept up by a
village headman (tjamaf) or a European soldier retired from the
army of the Indies. The large pasangrahans, in addition to several
chambers, provide provisions which are placed at the disposal of
the traveller, according to an established tariff. Others provide
primitive beds for the night, and the means of preparing the
traveller's own provisions ; or, if he needs no more, the eggs and
rice procured in the village. The tjamat also procures horses, for
the saddle or for draught, and also guides and coolies, all according
to an official tariff.

74 JAVA

miles from Boro Budur, in the princely capital of Djokja-
karta, and to an even greater degree in Surakarta, arose
the great empire of Mataram, of which the whole race
preserves a glorious and reverent memory.

IV.

The Vorstenlanden, or Principalities, bounded to the
north by the Residency of Samarang, to the east by that
of Madiun, to the west by Kedu, and to the south by the
Indian Ocean, constitute the masterpiece of the Dutch
colonial policy, and a striking proof of the skilful
eclecticism with which the Dutch admit any form of
government, provided they retain the reality of power.

The Vorstenlanden, or " Princely Lands," represent only
one-fifteenth of the area of Java ; they are nominally inde-
pendent, and are ruled by two princes : the Susuhunan
of Surakarta and the Sultan of Djokjakarta.

Until the last century they were entirely in the hands
of the Susuhunan, who, being threatened by a revolt of
the Chinese installed in his empire, called in the Dutch
to assist him. They came promptly, helped to crush the
Chinese, were handsomely paid, and remained so high in
the esteem of the Emperor Hamangku that he submitted
to their arbitration in his conflict with one of his brothers
who was desirous of usurping his crown.

The Dutch, who perhaps were not wholly innocent of
complicity with the pretender, pronounced a verdict of a
very satisfactory nature, especially in view of their future
intentions. The Empire was divided into two States :
one, which comprised about two-thirds of the territory,
remained under the rule of the Susuhunan, Surakarta
being the capital ; the other, with the title of Sultan and
the capital of Djokjakarta, fell to the lot of his uncle. In
principle the Sultan remained the vassal of the Susu-
hunan ; every year he rendered homage, with imposing
ceremony, at Ngawen near Djokjakarta, removing his
sandals and kneeling before his overlord.

It was so much in the interests of the Dutch to cause

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 75

division between the two princes, that they could not
.-illow this ceremony to be celebrated indefinitely ; for the
J.iv.mese assembled in great numbers, and it afforded an
opportunity for conspiracy or alliance. It was not diffi-
cult to persuade the Sultan that it was humiliating to be
obliged to admit himself the inferior of the Susuhunan.
One year, accordingly, when the time for the interview
came round, the Sultan presented himself at Ngawen
wearing a Dutch uniform. In virtue of a principle as
stringent as the principle of homage which in Java
forbids the kneeling posture to whosoever has the honour
of bearing the insignia of European military rank the
Sultan remained seated before the Susuhunan, who left
full of rage and confusion.

The two princes were at variance for a time, but each
considered himself independent of the other, which was
what the Dutch had desired. The latter adopted a still
better means of paralysing the enmity which both the
Sultan and the Susuhunan bore them ; both at Surakarta
and at Djokjakarta a prince is installed in the court of
the sovereign ; both are vassals, yet independent ; they
are entertained at the expense of the sovereign ; but,
apart from the formula of a vague homage, and their
enforced presence at certain court ceremonies, they are
as free in their wide domains as are their pretended
masters. Their kratonsf or palaces, stand beside those of
the sovereigns ; each has, even in a greater degree than
the latter, the right to maintain a private army on the
European model, though this is, of course, under the
control of the Dutch Government. These two princes,
who in Surakarta bear the titles of Pangeran Adipati
Mangku Negoro, and at Djokjakarta those of Pangeran
Adipati Paku Alam, owe their power to Holland, and
hitherto have been absolutely loyal and full of feudal
feeling.

As a matter of fact all four, the Susuhunan included,
although he is traditionally by far the most powerful of
all, are in the hands of the Dutch Government, despite
1 Kraton, or karaton, dwelling of a ratu, or prince.

76 JAVA

their sumptuous appearance of independence. At Sura-
karta, as at Djokjakarta, the magnificent palace of the real
master, the Resident, stands facing the royal kraton ; and
a small fort, armed with artillery, situated not far away,
stands as a reminder of the Resident's actual power.
None of the four princes can ascend the throne without
the consent of the Resident, who often appoints him
according to the choice of his predecessor, always respect-
ing as far as possible the national traditions and sus-
ceptibilities. The Resident, installed in the kraton,
governs openly during the interregnum, which lasts from
the death of one sovereign until the appointment of his
successor. He may refuse any candidate whom he
believes would make a bad ruler, and replace him
by another chosen by himself ; and it is he who appoints
and pays the Prime Minister, or patih, who must every
morning give him an exact account of all that goes on
in the kraton, must be loyal to him even more than to
the sovereign must, at need, act against the latter ; it is
the Resident also who appoints all civil officials and
officers, so that the army, the police, and the law are
under his hand ; and he alone may strike money. The
Susuhunan and the Sultan retain the right of appointing
the administrators of their domains and certain other
employes. In all things they must take the advice of
their " elder brother," the Resident, who in virtue of this
title is regarded as their senior ; all of whose " counsels"
must be heard with deference, even should these phan-
tom sovereigns conceive the inadmissible idea of neglect-
ing to carry them out. Where the Resident and the
Susuhunan appear together before the people, they are
seated upon the same dai's, upon similar thrones, the
Resident holding the place of honour on the right.

The Susuhunan, like the three other princes, may not
receive a visit or a letter from the outer world without
the permission of the Resident ; he may not leave his
palace to go the least distance, even to take the air,
without the same permission ; even in the most inacces-
sible quarter of the kraton he is under the " protection,"

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 77

and more especially the surveillance, of a handful of
white soldiers ; and the monopoly of all the most valu-
able products of his State coffee, teak, salt, the produce
of his mines, and the trade in the nest of the sea-swallow
have been ceded to the Dutch Government ; he is held
by treaties, by his surroundings, and by that unanswerable
rival, the purse.

In return, the princes receive from the Dutch Govern-
ment handsome pensions, in proportion to their political
importance ; in the case of the Susuhunan this pension
amounts to some ^70,000 per annum. The Government
maintains at their courts the over-scrupulous etiquette,
the pompous titles, and the traditional ceremonies to
which the whole Javanese people are so greatly attached ;
it also maintains the payongs (parasols), which are the
emblems of their high rank. It is true that in all inter-
views with the princes the Resident is himself provided
with a payong as large as that of the Susuhunan. He
treats them, or should treat them outwardly in all things
with the greatest deference. The nations are apparently
subject only to their own laws, their own judges, and
their own sovereign ; and although they are conscious,
over all, of the hand of the foreigner, they have been
accustomed for centuries to a passive submission to
their despots, so that their national susceptibilities are
safeguarded, and they remain obedient. The princes
having around them all the outworn pageantry of their
courts, full harems, and abundance of money to expend
on luxuries and puerile caprices, are also well satisfied ;
moreover, they are chosen and educated with a view to
ensuring their content.

Thanks to the ability and diplomacy displayed, the
" Princely Lands," which still remain, for every Javanese,
the real heart of Java, 1 have given the Dutch no anxiety

1 " Here the heart of Java used to beat ; and nowhere have Java-
nese life, costume, and tradition persisted as in these States, where
the ancient Hindu architects built their splendid temples, which
even to-day are objects of respect and admiration to all who have a
feeling for art and beauty. Here we still find the flower of the

78 JAVA

since the great Javanese war (1825-1830), and are as
subject to Dutch authority as is the rest of the island.

The Principality of Surakarta, consisting of the plain
watered by the Solo and the Kali * Denking and the
Kali Pepei, its tributaries, lies between the volcanoes
Merapi and Lawu, which bound it to east and west ; it
has a surface of 2,393 square miles, or rather more than
a fifth of that of Holland. The total population is
1,512,773 inhabitants.

The soil is fertile, and covered with plantations of
coffee, sugar, quinine, pepper, kapok or native cotton,
vanilla, &c. Surakarta, which the Javanese call Solo, and
which was formerly known as Kartasura (the city built
by heroes) is scattered over a site some fourteen miles
in circumference, and consists of a host of wretched-
looking little houses ; but they are lost in a perfect forest
of coco-palms, fig-trees, tamarinds, and so forth, from
which emerges only the mass of the kratons, the Dutch
fortress, and the Resident's palace. Vast avenues of
waringins, symbols of eternity and power, unite these
various buildings.

Surakarta contains 109,808 inhabitants, of whom 1,512
are Europeans and 6,532 Chinese. The Europeans
include a Resident and an Assistant Resident ; the
former being entrusted with all important political
affairs, while the latter is more especially qualified to
administrate the monopolies granted to Holland, and
to watch over the rights of Europeans and Chinese.

The European houses and the Protestant church are
gathered around the magnificent Residency, in the
shadow of the fortress constructed in 1799 and restored
at the time of the war. All the Europeans in the prin-
cipality planters, officers, or officials are under the
obligation of presenting themselves at the Residency
once a year, in order to celebrate the Dutch national

Javanese nobility ; and here both language and religion have most
faithfully preserved their original form." (H. H. van Kol, Soemkarta,
Indische Gids., 1904, ii.)

1 Kali, in Malay and in Javanese, means river.

* 9

I El I

ARAB MOSQUE, SURABAJA.

v HINESE TI-MIM.I-:. srKAHAJA.

To face p. 78.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 79

festival, under the penalty of a fine of about one
hundred florins ; for the Dutch Government is anxious
to show the natives, who once succeeded in proving
their capacity as an enemy to be reckoned with, the
perfect discipline and cohesion of its white subjects.

The Chinese quarter of the city is the busiest com-
mercially ; it is full of bazaars, and all kinds of indus-
tries peculiar to Oriental life. The kampongs of Javanese
of the lower classes are scattered here and there along
narrow paths which open on the great avenues, or even
along the sides of the avenues themselves ; their houses
are of wood and bamboo, thatched with palm-leaves.
They ply various trades, but especially those of the
goldsmith and the saddler, their saddlery being especially
famous. The women weave and batik 1 sarongs, which
have a great reputation throughout the island, on
account of their original designs and their tasteful
colours.

There are two kratons of unequal importance in
Surakarta : that of the independent prince, the Pan-
geran Adipati Mangku-Negoro, is perhaps the more
luxurious because better ordered, and arranged more in
the European manner. It is also rendered" more con-
spicuous by the presence of a little army of eight or
nine hundred men, whom the prince has the right to
maintain within the city. But the kraton of the Susu-
hunan is sacred in the eyes of the Javanese. It is
separated from the Residency only by the great aloun-
aloun ; and in its vast enclosure, the walls of which
are pierced by four gates, above each of which rises a
high watch-tower, it contains, like all the palaces of
Asiatic rulers, a royal city in the heart of the capital.
The kraton of Surakarta, which consists of a series of
courtyards, lanes, and promenades, flanked by numerous
buildings, is a perfect hive of people, containing no less
than ten thousand inhabitants, the majority of whom are
women, since not only has the Susuhunan his harem in
his private apartments, but he may never be served or
1 The batik process is described farther on.

80 JAVA

approached except by women. Everything that the
sovereign can require, every necessity of life and of
pleasure, is assembled within the kraton, and the
spiritual element is represented by a great mosque with
a gilded cupola, and the kauman, or priest's quarters,
near which are the buildings reserved for the personal
use of the Susuhunan, who in many parts of Java is
regarded as the representative of God, and is practically
worshipped in that capacity. The officers of the court
have their special quarter in the kraton, as have
several bodies of craftsmen : workers in gold and silver,
carvers of wood, makers of furniture, masons, armourers,
saddlers, and the makers of marionettes employed in the
shadow theatre, or wayang, or of musical instruments
for the gamelan, or the prince's orchestra.

The portion of the kraton inhabited by the Susuhunan
is situated at the back of the inner court, which is over-
looked by a tall minaret of four stories. As in all palaces
of the Far East, one enters first the hall of audience, the
pringitan, an immense chamber open on three sides, and
on the fourth communicating with the royal apartments.
The ceilings, the sculptured woodwork, and the slender
columns are decorated or incrusted with rare woods or
precious materials, which vary with the wealth of the
sovereign ; the effect at Surakarta being both sumptuous
and graceful. A covered canopied throne is placed at
the back of the apartment. Here, on the birthday of
the Susuhunan, or on that of the Queen of Holland, or
on the date of certain religious solemnities, are received
ambassadors, distinguished strangers, and the Resident
himself. These official receptions, to which no natives
are admitted but those of high rank, who kneel in a
posture of adoration before their sovereign, who in their
eyes is clothed in a double sanctity, both temporal and
spiritual, are not held more often than five or six times
a year. The Susuhunan shows himself to his subjects
even less frequently : seldom more than four times a
year. On these occasions he is always accompanied by
his " elder brother," the Resident, who wields the actual

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS Hi

power. Decked out like an idol in wonderful jewels,
and followed by a many-coloured retinue of women,
warriors, and umazons, he proceeds with pomp to the
siti-inggil, a kind of platform erected near the entry, but
within the walls of the kraton, surmounted by a kind of
throne, on which the two powers take their seats beneath
a canopy. Without the gates, the people massed in the
aloun-aloun prostrate themselves in worship, their faces
in the dust, happy in the sight of what for them is the
supreme incarnation of all the powers of the earth. The
Susuhunan receives also the homage of his nobles, who
drag themselves on hands and knees to the foot of the
throne. Then the entire staff of the kraton passes before
him in review, including his guard of honour ; and then
a distribution of food is made among the crowd, the
food being carried in enormous baskets, the least of
them, like all that concerns his sacred person, being
sheltered by a huge payong, or parasol, of gold. Finally
sweetmeats and betel-nut are offered to his entourage; he
then returns, with no less solemnity, to bury himself
in his harem, amidst his three thousand wives, to waste,
in a grotesque luxury, his strength, his intelligence, his
will, and the ^200,000 of revenue which are still his to
spend each year.

Close to the royal kraton and that of the sovereign's
quasi-rival, the Mangku Negoro, the princes of the
royal family and the high dignitaries of the court have
built their dalems, or palaces, similar, though smaller in
size and less luxurious, to the kraton of the Susuhunan.
The prime minister or Grand Vizir, often a near kinsman
of the sovereign, but a faithful ally of the Dutch, who
alone appoint him to this important post of supervision,
endeavours, like the Mangku Negoro, to interpret his
more progressive ideas by the more practical, modern,
and European arrangement of his dwelling.

Klaten (8,209 inhabitants), Bojolali (6,125), and
Sragen (7,963), are the only large villages which have
as yet sprung up in the Principality of Surakarta.
From the historian's point of view, their glory is

82 JAVA

departed ; yet to-day they are waking to a new life
under the stimulus of their economic wealth. Klaten
in particular is becoming the centre of a renascence of
the Javanese people, under the impulse communicated
by an elite which has been created by European educa-
tion, and which desires the improvement of the race, a
desire devoid of any hostility towards the Dutch Govern-
ment ; its aim a more intelligent, just, and appropriate
employment of the intelligence and the soil of Java.

The second Principality, the Sultanate of Djokjakarta,
is only thirty-six miles from Surakarta, with which it is
connected by a railway. Situated in a plain at the foot
of Merapi, Djokjakarta, which contains 79,567 inhabit-
ants, of whom 1,477 are Europeans and 5,266 Chinese,
and covers a space some three and three-quarter miles
long by two and a half miles wide, is unhappily at the
mercy of the neighbouring volcano ; whenever the latter
enters upon a term of repose there are terrible earth-
quakes, one of which, in 1867, destroyed the entire city
and killed many of the inhabitants. Djokjakarta is built
on the same plan as that of its sister city Surakarta, but
is ruled by a Sultan instead of a Susuhanan, which
implies a certain degree of inferiority. The Residency,
which is extremely luxurious, is built in a semi-
European, semi-Asiatic style ; it is protected by a fort-
ress, in which five hundred European soldiers watch
events ; the European dwellings, which in general are
as comfortable as they are ornamental, are scattered
about the neighbourhood ; the Chinese kampong con-
tains the bazaars and workshops of cabinet-makers of
renowned skill ; while the natives live in little houses
among the palms, beside the majestic avenues of warin-
gins. The kraton of the independent prince, the Paku
Alam, is smaller than that of the Sultan, which is situ-
ated at one end of the aloun-aloun, the Residency being
at the other end. The royal kraton, which is as large
and as ineffectually fortified as that of the Susuhunan,
contains the same labyrinth of lanes, courts, and innu-
merable buildings ; it contains a population even more

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 83

numerous, amounting to fifteen thousand souls, although
the revenues of the Sultan are not as large as those of the
Susuhunan. The harem, the private apartments, the
little pleasure-houses built in the interior of the kraton,
the wealth of carving and incrustation in the hall of
audience, and the pomp displayed at important cere-
monies are the object of a kind of puerile emulation
between the two sovereigns.

Djokjakarta has the advantage over Surakarta of possess-
ing, on a hill not far from the city, the venerated necro-
polis in which sleep four hundred princes of the house of
Mataram : a turbulent, courageous, and luxurious race ;
and it is on the Sultan's territory that the finest Indo-
Javanese ruins are found, excepting only those of Boro-
Budur.

One of these monuments, the Tjandi Mendut, or
Mundut, long buried in the sand and ashes vomited by
Merapi, is only one and a quarter miles from Boro-Budur,
and is, like the latter, a Buddhist temple.

It is a structure of octagonal form, crowned by a
cupola in the form of a hollow pyramid, over 60 feet
in height. Built, like Boro-Budur, of blocks of dressed
lava, Tjandi Mendut still preserves the general outlines of
the original structure and contains three colossal statues
of Buddha and a number of bas-reliefs, carvings, and
arabesques, examples of an assured and delicate art.

The ruins of Prambanan, on the road from Djokjakarta
to Surakarta, are superior to those of Tjandi Mendut in
mass, in the boldness of their architecture and the beauty
of certain of the carvings. These ruins are situated in a
wide plain overlooked by Merapi, which had so thoroughly
covered them with its ashes, which supported a dense
vegetation, that they were discovered only by chance in
1797 ; no serious attempt at excavation was undertaken
until 1885. To-day there is a question of their restora-
tion a question which is provoking terrible controver-
sies between architects, archaeologists, and Orientalists,
and a keen anxiety among artists of all professions. The
restoration of Tjandi Mendut has already been attempted

84 JAVA

(in 1897) by the architect Van de Kamer : with a degree
of success which is variously appreciated, being highly
praised by some and as warmly condemned by others.

Despite their regrettable state of decay, the ruins of
Prambanan still allow one to appreciate the grandiose
proportions of the Tjandi Low Djanggrang (the Temple
of the Virgin in the shape of Durga, the spouse of Shiva)
of which they are to-day the sole remains.

On a vast square terrace are erected six great sanc-
tuaries of polygonal form, whose platforms, cornices, and
porches are decorated with bas-reliefs and sculptures
equal to those of Boro-Budur : the central sanctuary was
consecrated to Shiva, that on the north to Vishnu, and
that on the south to Brahmah, as the three statues of the
gods within the sanctuaries testify to-day. The sanctuary
of Shiva is flanked by lateral chapels, of which the two
most curious, dedicated to Durga and Ganesha, still
contain their effigies. The great central terrace which
supports the six temples is surrounded by three succes-
sive series of small temples, disposed in a square forma-
tion ; the number of the small temples being forty-four in
the inner rank, fifty-two in the next, and sixty in the
third and outermost rank. But while the large sanc-
tuaries, more solidly built upon the central terrace, are
still preserved as regards their main features, the little
temples are almost without exception mere masses of
sculptured stones, broken cornices, and shattered cupolas,
their ruin being the work of the threefold action of
Merapi, the vegetation, and the utilitarian sacrilege of
natives.

The ruins of Tjandi Sewu (the Thousand Temples),
which are not far away, are not, like those of Prambanan,
of a plainly Brahministic and Shivaistic type. The
central sanctuary used to contain a statue of Buddha,
which must, it is thought, have been removed in 1806.
For the rest, it is the largest structure among all the
Indo-Javanese monuments whose ruins have as yet
been discovered. As far as one can judge from its
lamentable state of decay, it must have consisted of 240

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 85

small temples, disposed in four ranks about a central
square containing a large central temple, of which the
cupola was shattered by the earthquake caused by Merapi
in 1867, which also blocked the entrance.

To judge by their numbers, the powers of conception
which they reveal, the boldness of execution, and the
perfect art of their decorations, all these monuments
prove that here there formerly existed a great and
flourishing empire ; extremely populous, to judge by the
swarms of artisans and labourers who must have been
employed in the construction of these gigantic buildings ;
rich and secure, since it was able without anxiety to
undertake such lengthy works of peace ; deeply religious
and of a high degree of civilisation, since it glorified its
gods in monuments whose mere remains compel the
admiration of all after centuries have elapsed. 1

The Residency of Rembang is bounded on the north
by the Java Sea, yet it has not a single large port which
might provide it with the commercial stimulus by which
its neighbours benefit Samarang and Surabaja. The
capital, Rembang, however, although some few miles
from the sea, has a dry and sandy beach, which is
infinitely more healthy than the beaches of most of the
north-coast ports of Java. With its thirteen thousand
inhabitants it is an agreeable city, which drives an
active trade in head-kerchiefs and sarongs woven and
batik' d in the province, carefully worked mattings, and,
above all, in trasi, trubuk, and krupuk, those famous
condiments of prawns and pounded and fermented fish
with which the natives season their rice, and which

1 Among the temples of the plain of Prambanan and besides the
group of Loro Djanggrang we have yet to mention Tjandi Plaosan
and Tjandi Sari, two very remarkable Buddhist temples. The
beautiful specimen of Indo-Javanese architecture which housed the
East Indian Section at the Exposition of 1900 was a very successful
copy of Tjandi Sari.

86 JAVA

some of the European colonists appreciate as eagerly
as the natives. The greater portion of the trade
of Rembang is in the hands of a colony of Chinese,
which numbers over two thousand members. Tuban,
although merely a district capital, is far more active
and populous than Rembang. It has, moreover, a
very different history, a still-existing witness of which
is its ancient palace, one of the oldest in Java, and the
venerated tomb which it shelters that of the Susuhunan
Bonang, one of the first and most ardent propagandists
of Islam in Java.

Whether attracted by this sanctuary or by an active
market, there is a colony of 511 Arabs in Tuban, whose
population is 24,500. It is the town in which the Arabs
of the province chiefly congregate ; but they are com-
pletely outnumbered by their competitors, the Chinese,
who number 3,440. The bathing station of Bekti, or
Bukti, which is a very short distance from the town,
enjoys a certain reputation. Bodjonegoro and Blora
(containing respectively 12,560 and 11,990 inhabitants),
both district capitals, are pretty towns, regularly laid out
and engaged in various commerce ; Blora in particular
looks extremely charming in the midst of its teak planta-
tions, which are the finest in all Java.

The Residency of Madiun, which has only a small
seaboard on the Indian Ocean, between the Principality
of Surakarta, the Residency of Rembang, and that of
Kediri, has a particularly torrid climate. The capital,
Madiun, contains 22,819 inhabitants, of whom 922 are
Europeans and 1,827 Chinese. It is on the River Solo,
in the great basin of Solo or Bengawan. Without a
direct outlet, it dispatches through Rembang and Tuban
the entire produce of this highly cultivated region.
Ngawi (8,533 inhabitants), formerly a strategic position
of value, which played a considerable part in the
Javanese War, Magetan (12,768), and Ponogoro, are only
local markets, well frequented by the natives. Magetan,
at the foot of Lawu, is 1,200 feet above the sea, which
renders it more healthy than the surrounding country.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 87

It possesses two sugar-mills. The capital of the
ming district, Patjitan (6,gi r inhabitants), is within
sight of the sea, without having direct access to it ; it
overlooks a wide bay giving safe anchorage, but is
separated from it by a belt of muddy swamp, which is
to-day transformed into a belt of paddy-fields, or sawahs.

VI.

The eastern portion of Java comprises the Residencies
of Surabaja, Kediri, Pasuruan, Besuki, and Madura.

The Residency of Surabaja, in particular, is one of the
wealthiest and most densely peopled of all Java ; it is
the superior of Samarang and the rival of Batavia. The
capital, Surabaja, which was formerly the capital of all
the Dutch settlements in the East Indies, has been
forced to cede that title to Batavia, which is less popu-
lous, unless we include Meester Cornells, and a less
cheerful and active city. Surabaja is the commercial
centre par excellence; of its 150,000 inhabitants 8,000 are
Europeans, nearly 15,000 are Chinese, and some 2,800
are Arabs. At least four-fifths of the whole think of
nothing but business, of buying and selling, the natives
themselves having been drawn into the active commercial
life of the port. Commerce is the chief occupation ; the
agreeables of life, which are by no means lacking, are
only one of the results of this commercial activity, not
the end of it. Oppressive though the climate may be,
in Surabaja men work incessantly, without relaxation,
and no city in the island gives a more vivid impression,
an impression that is powerful in spite of its apparent
vulgarity, of hard and fruitful labour. Hence the
animation which one seeks in vain in old Batavia,
where trade and fortune have the air of being dealt
with in a more somnolent manner.

Surabaja is situated at the mouth of the vast alluvial
basin of the Solo, and is actually built on the alluvial
deposits of the river and its affluents, which are gaining
slowly on the sea. But there is little reason to fear that

88 JAVA

the prosperity of the port may suffer ; for the port itself
is at the mouth of the Kali Mas, or River of Gold, so
called from the yellow colour of its water ; and the Strait
of Madura, which at this point, on account of its
narrowness, has received the Dutch title of Trechter, or
the Funnel, is sufficiently wide and sheltered from the
winds to remain for many years to come the best and
safest anchorage in Java.

Surabaja possesses a naval arsenal of the first class,
with a gun foundry, naval ship-building yards, and docks,
including a dry dock. Hundreds of Javanese artisans
work under the supervision of European engineers and
foremen in the Artillerie Constructie Winkel, one of the
largest establishments in Java.

The Dutch Government had intended to surround
Surabaja with a costly system of fortifications ; but
before they were finished the city, in the full tide of its
growth, had burst through this too scanty garment ; and
it is extremely unlikely that an attempt which so
miscarried will ever be revived.

The city is throwing out its new quarters, which are
like so many towns with their own peculiar character-
istics, along the two banks of the Kalis Mas, which are
connected by the Red Bridge. Old Surabaja and old
Batavia, with their stone houses with gables and cornices,
their canals and their long main streets, where the houses
stand closely ranked, remind one of the ancient cities of
Holland.

In Surabaja, however, the Europeans have not
abandoned the ancient city. Perhaps the luxurious
villas, with their wide gardens, which are grouped about
the Residency at Simpang, do not seem so much healthier
than the old, sumptuous, gloomy buildings ; at all events,
they migrate unwillingly.

The Red Bridge connects the European with the
Chinese quarter. The unexpected cleanness and comfort
of the latter witness to the wealth of the Celestials, and
give one an idea of the important part which they play in
the business world of Surabaja. The Arab quarter,

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 89

infinitely less clean, and consisting of a jumble of sordid
houses, shows that the Arabs have been forced in matters
of commercial significance to yield the palm to the
Europeans and Chinese.

Nearly all the elements of the Archipelago being
represented in Surabaja, the native kampongs are many ;
they have sprung up along the roads, or along the banks
of the canals. There is the Malay kampong, the
Sundanese kampong, the Javanese kampong, the
Madurese kampong ; and corporations or guilds will
often result in a body of men living apart from the
men of their own race, so that the kampong of the potters
is distinct from that of the saddlers or the blacksmiths.
This agglomeration of the most dissimilar types and
races appears entirely natural in this energetic, bustling
city, whose destiny has always seemed to be to domi-
nate; and indeed the famous Indo-Javanese empire of
Madjapahit, which was for a time supreme over the
whole of Java, and which succumbed only in the six-
teenth century under the blows of Islam, 1 had its rise
at Modjokerto, some thirty miles from Surabaja.

Surabaja enjoys the glory of her bygone memories,
the wealth and activity of the present, and a future which
will keep pace and increase in importance with the more
prominent part which the Archipelago will necessarily
be called upon to play in the economic and political
history of the Far East ; but she is lacking in two things,
and it will probably be long before she obtains them :
they are, namely, pure water and pure air. Madura,
which lies facing Surabaja, and shelters the roadstead
from the full violence of the winds, deprives the city of
their cooling influence. The temperature of Surabaja
is one of the most implacably torrid in Java. Drinkable
water is more than scarce ; the only water which well-
to-do Europeans will drink is the Purut water, which
arrives daily by train, in large iron tanks, from Pasuruan.

To these two disadvantages we must add the presence
of a vast crowd of human beings, the majority of whom
1 In 1518, according to M. G. P. Rouffaer.

90 JAVA

entertain the most absolute contempt for the laws of
hygiene. Mosquitoes are a permanent plague in Surabaja,
and only too often cholera bears them company. The
kampongs of the natives are its favourite lurking-place, but
the gay and aristocratic quarter of Simpang, which is
doubtless too near the native city, is by no means safe
from its visits. This is why people as a general thing
avoid Surabaja, or only pass through it, stopping or
settling there only under the imperious necessity of
making or increasing their fortunes.

The various districts of the Residency of Surabaja all
share to a greater or less extent in its prosperity and
commercial activity. Djombang and Lamongan, the
capitals of two of these districts, contain less than fifteen
thousand inhabitants. Sidoardjo, which contains only
10,770, is known chiefly for the hot mud craters in the
neighbouring hills ; but Modjokerto and Grisei are of
very different dimensions ; Modjokerto, containing 97,624
inhabitants, and the scanty ruins of Madjapahit, is a
worthy attendant upon Surabaja ; Grisei is a fallen
queen, supplanted by the latter.

A long time ago Grisei was, it is true, the chief port of
the east of Java, and the principal centre of commerce ;
to-day it is no more than a fair port of call for coasting
vessels. Formerly it was a kind of holy city, whence
Islam extended its domination over Java ; where some
pious and ambitious Mahomedans, probably from the
outer world, founded a dynasty of priestly kings, whose
moral power was still so great when the Dutch first
settled in Java that the latter at first regarded them as the
representatives of a Musulman papacy. 1

Of the Sunans of Giri no trace is left save the venerated
tomb, on the hill overlooking Grisei, of their founder,
Maulana Malik Ibrahim, and one relic still more extra-
ordinary, the writing-reed, or stylus, of the pious ascetic,
which, having served him to write the Koran, was trans-
formed into a magic krees. This krees one day, in the

1 Soesoehoenans or Soehnans. (See Veth, Java, Ind. ed., vol. i.,
p. 236.)

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 01

struggle between the Hindus and Musulmans, when the
victorious people of Madjapahit were pursuing the latter
through Giri, flung itself, at the prayer of the Sunan,
against the Hindus, and effected a massacre, unaided and
unheld. When it had swept the Hindus from the city
it returned of its own motion, and received the name
of Kjai Kalam-munjcng the Plain-Dealing Calamus.

Despite the decreasing importance of Grisei, a colony
of nearly twelve hundred Arabs lingers there. It must be
remembered that the bygone greatness of Grisei was due
to men of their race and faith.

The province or Residency of Kediri, to the south
of Surabaja, and washed by the Indian Ocean, is of a
more distinctly agricultural character than its neighbour ;
its towns are smaller and less wideawake, and are sur-
rounded by huge plantations of coffee, fields of sugar-
cane, and bright green paddy-fields.

Kediri, the capital, has none the less a fair population :
40,200, and of these 3,760 are Chinese, whose presence
guarantees an active industrial and commercial move-
ment. Kediri, indeed, is the temporary recipient of all
the products of the surrounding region, which afterwards
proceed to Surabaja by rail, or by the innumerable
prahus which descend the Brantas. Kediri has also its
workers in gold and silver, its coppersmiths, carpenters,
potters, leather-workers, mat-makers, whose work has a
considerable reputation ; the city is divided into two parts
by the River Brantas, which is crossed by a fine modern
bridge. On the left bank is the Residency, imposing
as always, in the midst of a park-like garden ; here also
is an old fort, and the finest of the European houses.
On the right bank is the Regency, the native and Chinese
kampongs, the old European quarter, and the only remark-
able monument in Kediri : the ancient tomb of the family
of the Regents of Kediri, known as the Astana Gedong.

At a distance of three miles, on the flanks of a hill
called Gunung Klotok, are artificial grottos, Selo mang-
ling, containing statuettes of Buddha, to which natives
and Chinese carry offerings of fruit and flowers.

92 JAVA

The other district capitals, Ngandjuk, Tulungagung,
Trenggalek, and Blitar, have less life and character
among them all than Kediri ; but they are set in a gay
landscape, so densely cultivated that the whole world
seems a garden. Blitar has hardly yet recovered from
the eruption of Kloot, which in 1875 covered it with a
wave of boiling mud, which buried houses, plantations,
and human beings.

The Residency of Pasuruan, which is in matters
agricultural as wealthy as that of Kediri, is better pro-
vided with outlets. It is washed both by the Indian
Ocean and the Strait of Madura, is closely connected
by rail with the great market of Surabaja, and is also
enabled to export its produce directly through its capital
Pasuruan. At one time it seemed that the latter might
rival or even be victorious over Surabaja. Its admirable
anchorage was already frequented in the sixteenth
century, and in the eighteenth century Pasuruan was the
capital of the kingdom of Surapati. The Dutch reduced
it to a more modest political position, but as lately as
1860 it was still one of the four great commercial cities of
Java. The construction of the railway from Malang to
Surabaja struck it a mortal blow, as it diverted all the
produce of the extreme east of Java towards its rival.
Although a slight revival has been noticed of late,
Pasuruan even now has only some twenty-eight thousand
inhabitants ; the fine houses built by the Europeans have
been abandoned for a song to the Chinese, for which
reason the Chinese quarter in this city has an appearance
of wealth and comfort which one looks for elsewhere in
vain. The Javanese and Madurese kampongs, near the
great Pasuruan fish-ponds, are extremely picturesque.
The Residency, the Protestant and Catholic churches,
and a mosque with a minaret, have finally given quite a
modern aspect to a somewhat sleepy and unprogressive
town, while they also mark the mixture of races and
beliefs.

Pasuruan is chiefly occupied in exporting coffee, sugar,
and fish, the latter to Madura. A little way outside the

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 93

town is the factory where the pure waters of Purut
(Poeroet) are bottled, and a Government laboratory
where experiments are conducted referring to the
culture of sugar-cane.

Bangil, a district capital in this Residency, with 17,866
inhabitants, of whom 856 are Chinese and 844 Arabs, is
far more active ; Lumadjang (16,128 inhabitants), and
Kraksaan (3,667), situated in two other districts, serve
as temporary points of concentration for all the agricul-
tural products of a most wonderfully fertile district.

But the pearls of this province, which is itself one of
the jewels of Java, are Probolinggo and Malang, one
on the north end the other at its eastern extremity.

Probolinggo, or Banger, as the natives call it, from
the name of the river at whose mouth it is built, is on
the Strait of Madura. It contains 14,560 inhabitants, of
whom 2,590 are Chinese and 351 Arabs, while the
Europeans hitherto have not exceeded 588 in number.
In 1895 it possessed only 8,705 inhabitants. It has thus
nearly doubled its inhabitants in fifteen years. It is well
and regularly built, pierced by wide streets running at
right angles, which are shaded by groups of evergreen
trees : tamarinds, banyans, and others : and the general
aspect is extremely attractive, the town being clean
and cheerful. The harbour consists of a great oblong
basin, on the quays of which are erected the warehouses
where the final handling of coffee, sugar, and tobacco
takes place ; and there the vessels lie moored. At the
entrance to the harbour is a long mole surmounted by a
lighthouse.

Probolinggo is also the centre of a genuine intellectual
movement, being one of those cities which are playing
a prominent part in the Javanese renascence. It pos-
sesses also a college for the sons of chiefs, and a Normal
College for native teachers, who represent the Govern-
ment's sole effort in the province of education. The
number of students is necessarily increasing ; so that
although Probolinggo is no longer, as in 1900, the
capital city of a province, being reduced to the status of

94 JAVA

district capital, it still has all the attractions of a small
capital.

Malang is far better developed. A second-rate, over-
grown village ten years ago, it now surpasses Pasuruan,
the official residence, in commercial activity, and will,
to all appearances, continue to do so for many years to
come. It also surpasses it in charm. It is situated at
the base of the Tengger range, in a magnificent plain, the
horizon of which is enclosed by what are perhaps the
finest volcanoes in Java : Bromo, Ardjurno, and farther
to the south-east the majestic Semeru, while at the back
is Kawi. Thanks to an altitude of 1,460 feet above sea-
level, Malang enjoys an agreeable climate, the tem-
perature not exceeding 80 in the day, while at night it
may fall to 61. Although not absolutely free from the
paludian fevers which infest all Java, rising from her
low-lying plains and her swampy girdle of sawahs,
Malang knows them only in an attenuated form, and
is a salutary refuge for those suffering from anaemia
or exhausted by the torrid sunshine of the Indies. All
green and white, in the midst of a valley which cultiva-
tion has turned into a garden, Malang affords at the
end of every street the splendid panorama of the
mountains. The aloun-aloun, waringins and mango and
breadfruit-trees growing along its borders or scattered
in groups in the open, is surrounded by the Assistant
Residency, the Regency, the mosque, the necessary
public buildings, the church, and all the signs of or-
ganised and official life ; the native and Chinese kampongs
hang upon the outskirts of this aristocratic quarter,
making the suburbs of the town, so that the eye enjoys
them while the sense of smell escapes offence.

The prosperity of Malang dates from the cultivation
of the entire district, which is one of the most fertile in
Java. In 1808 it contained about thirty thousand inhabi-
tants ; to-day there are half a million, most of whom are
occupied in planting and harvesting coffee and sugar-
cane, and to these we must add, at the period of harvest,
a floating population of nearly a hundred thousand

THK HILL STATION, TOSARI.

THE SANATORIUM, Tos\kl.

To face p. 94.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 95

workers who flock from all parts of the island to earn
the handsome wage of two and a half florins a day-
equivalent to four shillings and two pence, or an
American dollar. The city itself, which was a poor
village only twenty years ago, to-day possesses 29,540
inhabitants, which number includes a colony of 1,353
Europeans, which is much larger than the colony
in Pasuruan, one of 3,537 Chinese, and one of 342
Arabs. During the harvest season the activity is intense ;
on all sides one meets with nothing but loads of coffee
or sugar-cane ; in September a complete train of this
latter product leaves the railway station every ten minutes,
to feed the sugar factories and refineries of the island.

Malang, in spite of its wealth and its beauty, is sur-
passed in attractiveness by Tosari. Without being
even a district capital, this beautifully situated village is
a hygienic paradise for all the sick or convalescent of
Java. Nearly 600 feet above the level of the sea, in the
mountains of Tengger, built on a foundation of dry,
sandy ashes, Tosari is the most invaluable sanatorium
in the whole of Java, Indeed we may say, despite the
merits of Sindanglaja and Garut, that it is the only
sanatorium that really deserves the name ; since it is
the only one, in the general opinion, at which one is
absolutely safe from fevers; cholera, dysentery, and
beri-beri have never been known there ; and in default
of Europe it is the objective of all the convalescents
and consumptives of Java. It is unsuitable only for
rheumatic, cardiac, and nervous patients. The tempera-
ture never rises above 79, and the average is 62*6 :
the nights are so cool as to procure one the luxury
a delightful one in the tropics of being able to
sleep between the bedclothes instead of on the top
of them. The flora, the Alpine character of the land-
scape, the torrential rivers, and the bracing sweetness
of the air give one the impression of being transported
suddenly into Switzerland ; and the Tenggris villages
which cover the slopes near the sanatorium give a
touch of the unreal and the picturesque.

96 JAVA

The Tenggris and their goats, which wander all day
long, with tinkling bells, in the forests of chemaras 1
those tropical pines which are three times the height
of ours take shelter for the night in villages of rustic
wooden huts with roofs of thatch, which are defended
by strong palisades of interlaced bamboos ; the only
thing they have forgotten to borrow from the Swiss is
cleanliness. But they are loyal, active, good workers, 2
hospitable, and unusually moral ; they are stronger,
browner, and shorter than the Javanese of the plains.
They number some five or six thousand, and are scat-
tered among some fifty villages. They marry only
among themselves, and are firmly attached to their
ancient faith : the worship of Shiva, greatly corrupted
by animistic practices. Each year they celebrate a
slamettan, or sacrificial repast, ascending for that purpose
the Dasar, on the flanks of Bromo or Brahma, to whom
they make oblation of rice and fruits, in place of the
human sacrifices which, it is said, were formerly offered.
All this district has remained strongly impregnated with
Hindu beliefs, which flourished with a vigour that is
still attested by the curious ruins of Singosari, at a
distance of some six or seven miles from Malung, and
those of Tumpang, which are about fourteen miles from
the same city.s

The Tjandi Singosari, or "Temple of the Garden of
the Lion," is a graceful structure in three stories, of
which the highest, which rests upon a square terrace,
has suffered the worst damage. The interior sanctuary,
with its finely carved outer walls, is now empty ; but it
probably contained an image of some deity of the

1 The chemara, or tjemara, is a tree of the Casuarinae family.
One species, the Casuarina Junghuhniana Miq., is found most com-
monly on the summits of the volcanoes of Eastern Java.

8 The Tenggris are now in certain localities cultivating the
ordinary potato with considerable success.

3 The Tenggris, or Wong Tengger, literally mountaineers, high-
landers, form, according to Mr. G. P. Rouffaer, the only actually
surviving trace of the civilisation of Madjapahit in its latter period.
(See Tenggereezen, in the Encycl. v. Ned-Indie.}

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 97

Brahministic pantheon ; probably one of Shiva. Not
far away, in the shade of a crescent-shaped grove of
coco-palms, are two statues some 8 or 9 feet high, of
Shiva and Ganesha, erect upon their altars.

The ruins of Tumpang, in a still more pronounced
condition of dilapidation, rise from the midst of a magni-
ficent grove of bamboos, areca-palms, and banana-trees.
The form of the temple is that of a pyramid built in three
stages, with terraces accessible by flights of steps. The
stairs leading to the first terrace are guarded by rakshasas*
and a motive of animals, men, and plants, carved with
admirable art and patience, runs along the outer friezes.
The force of the vegetation, even more than the forgetful-
ness of man, has been responsible for the destruction of
this rare work of art. Palm-trees and lianas have dis-
jointed the stones with the slow, irresistible pressure of
their roots ; the delicate chiselling is corroded by moss
and lichen. If the Government does not take means to
preserve them as it has done at Boro-Budur, the ruins
will in time disappear under the victorious assault of the
vegetable world.

The province of Bezuki, or Besuki, holds a modest place
as compared with Surabaja and Pasuruan. The city
which has given the province its name, and of which it is
the capital, is hardly more than a district centre ; it is
merely a great village of five thousand inhabitants, not far
from the sea, but untouched by the commercial current of
East Java. It has been supplanted by Bondjowoso, which
apparently owes its good fortune solely to its position on
the railway. Built in a valley of the great plain of
Panarukan, near the Sampejan or Panarukan River, it
has only some 8,700 inhabitants, but it contains a few
important sugar and tobacco houses.

Djember and Situbondo, both district centres, are
developing very slowly, despite their plantations of
coffee, tobacco, and sugar-cane. Djember has now
only 7,790 inhabitants, and Situbondo, which in 1895

1 Among the Hindus, a kind of demon ; here, guardians of the
temples, of grotesque and terrible aspect. See Introductory Chapter.

JAVA

contained 10,690, has now no more than 6,150. Its
traffic has been taken by the port of Panarukan, which
was the first station of Alfonso d'Albuquerque in the six-
teenth century, and at that time was one of the great
markets of Java ; to-day it merely exists, as it has few
outlets, all the important trade of the East having left it
for Surabaja, Probolinggo, or Pasuruan. The only town
of any importance in the province (and that is important
only by comparison with the rest) is Banjuwangi, which is
built upon the narrowest part of the Strait of Bali. This
port used at one time to be frequented by a great number
of sailing vessels. Although the town has greatly suffered
inasmuch as it was finally decided that the railway which
serves Java from east to west should not pass through it,
it has derived some compensation from the fact that it is a
point of call for the steamers which run between Sura-
baja and the smaller of the Sunda Islands ; and it is
also the point of junction of the international cable line
between Australia and Batavia. The city, whose title
signifies " Perfumed Waters," hardly merits it as far as
the dirty native kampongs are concerned ; but the old
Residency, occupied now by an Assistant Resident, and
the European quarter on the Sukaradja hill, enjoy a
magnificent view of the Strait of Bali and the surround-
ing country. The population to-day is 18,732, of whom
256 are Europeans, 569 Chinese, and 543 Arabs.

The last of the seventeen Residencies of modern Java
is constituted by its neighbour, the island of Madura,
in which the Dutch Government substituted its own
authority, without warfare or serious difficulties, for that
of the native princes, or Panembahan, between the years
of 1883 (when it took over Sumenep) and 1885 (when
Bangkalan was taken over).

The capital of Madura, Pamekasan, is a small town of
only 8,440 inhabitants : but although small, it is clean,
pretty, and is rapidly improving. The Residency is
luxurious and its gardens delightful ; the Regency, in-
stalled in the huge old kraton, retains a princely charm
which flatters the feelings of the natives. A tramway

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 99

connects Pamekasan with Bangkalan, Sampang, and
Sumenep.

Suincnep, in the east of the island, is a district capital,
and the seat of an Assistant Resident and a Regent. It
was formerly the seat of the Government of Panembahan.
It is the largest town in Madura, with its 17,930 inhabi-
tants ; but it appears to have seen its best days, as in 1900
the population numbered 20,020. The Madurese, who are
robust, hard workers, and very frugal, are continually
flowing into Java, where the spread of cultivation in the
eastern provinces assures them of well-paid labour. From
Surabaja to Malang, and as far as Panarukan, one meets
them working for and highly appreciated by the foreign
element, whether Chinese or European. Sumenep,
whose dwellings are scattered over a very large area,
contains nothing worthy of remark, save the house of
the Assistant Resident : a modern building which the
people persist in calling a kraton ; and the unusually
fine memorial monument which the last Panembahan
of Madura has built in honour of his family. The native
industries are actively pursued, and articles used in fishery
and navigation constitute a comparatively lucrative trade.
Along the shores of the bay, at the edge of the rice-fields,
are the villages of the salt-workers, who live by producing
salt for the State.

Sampang, another district centre, contains 8,924 in-
habitants, living in bamboo houses, and eking out an
existence by local trade. Bangkalan, in the west of
the island, is the remaining district capital, with a popu-
lation of 14,318. It has a fairly good harbour, and owes
its present importance to Surabaja, as it formerly owed it
to Grisei. It exports to the great commercial capital
the best products of Madura : animals destined for the
butcher, fruits, swallows' nests, vegetable down, bark for
tanning, and certain articles carved or chiselled by
Madurese artisans ; it receives in return rice, and
European manufactures.

To sum up : Java retains, throughout all her adminis-
trative divisions, the aspect of a country pre-eminently

100 JAVA

agricultural. Her overpeopled territory contains only
three large cities (in the European sense of the word) ;
two ancient native capitals ; many pleasant, overgrown
villages which are spoken of as cities ; and innumerable
dessas, or hamlets, which are lost among the countless
plantations, and whose inhabitants live close to the soil
to which they look for all things.

CHAPTER V
THE NATIVES OF JAVA

I. Distribution of the native element in Java : the Sundanese and
Madurese compared with the Javanese. II. The Javanese.
III. The Javanese house and village. IV. The family and
marriage. V. Daily occupations ; agricultural labour, hunting,
and fishing. VI. The batik industry : Javanese clothing.
VII. The love of pleasure, and the means of satisfying it :
betel-nut, tobacco, opium and hemp ; cock-fighting and
gambling. VIII. Failings with which Europeans reproach the
Javanese ; nearly all of which have some historic excuse.

OF the 30,098,000 inhabitants which people Java and
Madura, 29,715,900 are natives, 293,190 Chinese, 19,148
Arabs, 2,840 Oriental foreigners, and 64,917 Europeans,
or men of European descent.

These natives are not all Javanese. The ports contain
some 300,000 Malayan immigrants ; in Batavia the
Malays are especially numerous, and even outnumber the
Javanese. The Sundanese, whose numbers vary between
two and a half and three millions, are found in the
western part of the island, but seldom cross a line drawn
from the mouth of the Tji Tanduwi, in the Gulf of
Cheribon. Their headquarters are the Residency of
Preanger, but they overflow thence into the province of
Batavia, the district of Krawang, and the southern portion
of Cheribon.

The Madurese, who slightly outnumber the Sundanese,
inhabit Madura, and form almost the entire population
of Probolinggo and Besuki ; they are also numerous in
Pasuruan. The Javanese occupy all the middle of the

101

102 JAVA

island, from Cheribon to Surabaja, including Pasuruan,
where they come into contact with the Madurese.

We can hardly mention the Kalangs beside these three
large groups. They form a mere handful, and they used
to live a wandering life, drifting all over the island, until
one of the last Sultans of Mataram, in the eighteenth
century, tied them down to fixed localities, or reserva-
tions, known as " Kalangans." The Kalangs are found
throughout all Middle Java, but especially in the Vorsten-
landen of Djokjakarta and Surakarta, where they live
apart in villages of their own. Although their origin
remains in obscurity, it has been the subject of the most
fantastic legends, born of the imagination of the Java-
nese, who sometimes represent them as born of the
union of a princess and her own son, and sometimes
as descended from a man and a dog, whose tomb may
still be seen in the village of Praguman (in the Resi-
dency of Samarang). Everywhere to-day these gipsies
of the Far East have settled down to a sedentary life,
and have become merchants, coppersmiths, makers of
rattan cord, coopers, &c. This latter trade they carry
on to the profit of the prince, as compulsory labour. At
Surakarta they are most usually wood-cutters, cabinet-
makers, and carpenters.

They adhere to certain characteristic usages in the
event of a wedding or a funeral ; in which the dog
appears to play a limited part, presumably totemic ; a
fact which has given rise to the absurd accounts of
their origin. Although certain ethnologists are inclined
to proclaim their affinity with the Negritos of the Philip-
pines, and although the populace even now pretend
that they are often fitted with a caudal appendage, 1 and
practise intercourse with their children, the Kalangs are
in reality hardly to be distinguished from the Javanese,

1 A similar belief is held by a number of Asiatic peoples. The
Annamites, for instance, are persuaded that certain mois or savages
of Indo-China are provided with tails. Respecting Tailed Men,
see G. E. Gerini, " Researches on Ptolemy's Geography of Eastern
India " (London, 1909), p. 687, No. 5, and Index.

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 103

whose language and dress they have adopted ; they are
iiL'iirly all circumcised Mahomedans, and frequent mar-
riage is gradually absorbing them into the Javanese race.

As a matter of fact, the Javanese, Sundanese, and
Madurese appear to have formed one single race origin-
ally, and to have evolved in slightly different directions,
under different historical and climatic conditions.

The Sundanese, the most sturdy of the three races,
have the appearance, the virtues, and the faults of high-
landers. Taller, stronger, and more energetic than the
Javanese, living in huts supported on piles, and addicted
specially to agricultural labour, they belong to a civilisa-
tion distinctly inferior to that of the Javanese. They are
conscious of the fact, and are proud or servile according
to the circumstances. In the cities, such as Batavia and
Krawang, they tend to assimilate the Javanese civilisa-
tion ; but in their mountains, where they live by agricul-
ture or the chase, they have the name of being honest,
loyal, subject to tradition, and of a deeply religious habit
of mind ; although their Islamism, being modified by
the memories and the rituals of bygone cults, is of a
doubtfully orthodox type. But outwardly they have been
far less influenced than the Javanese by the Hindu and
Arab civilisations ; their rude language is far poorer in
Sanscrit terms than the Javanese tongue, and in Persian
or Arabic words than Malay. In the valley of the Tji
Udjung there is even a small group of Sundanese who
profess a kind of animism, barely touched by vague
Buddhistic beliefs.

While the Sundanese are tending towards absorption
by the Javanese, the Madurese are successfully retaining
their rugged and forceful characteristics. The Dutch
regard them as among their best, though not perhaps
their more tractable colonists. The native of Madura,
sometimes a merchant, more often an agricultural
labourer, is headstrong, vindictive, over-ready to draw
his krees * to avenge the slightest insult, little amenable

1 At one time it became necessary to forbid the Madurese to carry
arms, on account of their hastiness in using them.

104 JAVA

to advice, and always impatient of the yoke. On the
other hand, he is laborious, frugal, and has more
foresight than the other natives of the Archipelago ;
and with these virtues goes the spice of parsimony and
surliness which commonly accompanies them. He
allows no one to infringe his rights, nor to subject
him to any accusation which seems to him unjustified ;
he has a horror of enforced labour, yet he acquits him-
self more fully than any one in Java of his debts toward
the Government in kind, money, and the corvee. His
loyalty is well tried, if not demonstrative ; but he is
grateful to his European masters for having introduced
a reign of security, so that he can till his field in peace.
He has the name of being a good Mahomedan.

II.

The Javanese, of the three races, is the slightest in
build, the most graceful, the most cultivated and sociable.
The Javanese represents two factors which take prece-
dence of all the elements of the island life : the factor
of numbers and that of a more refined civilisation.
Although his mentality has been enfeebled by long
centuries of servitude and chronic poverty under greedy
and despotic Governments, conditions from which it is
barely beginning to recover, the Javanese possesses
the memory of a glorious past, which results in a feeling
of pride untouched by the shadow of sedition. He has
also retained a really open mind, a remarkable faculty of
assimilation, and the complex and exquisite politeness of
a man of ancient race, who may have lost his preroga-
tives, yet retains his air of being good company. He
renders every man his due, while he himself is ready to
feel deeply wounded if any one subjects him to uncalled-
for rudeness.

III.

Agriculturists by destiny, and passionate lovers of
their soil, the majority of the Javanese live in villages or

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 105

kampongs, 1 which, considered as social and administra-
tive units, are also called dessa. These villages may
contain from thirty to five hundred inhabitants. In the
towns the Javanese, like all other natives, as well as the
Chinese and Arabs, flock together and live to themselves,
thus forming a special quarter, which in turn is often
subdivided into many sections by the various bodies of
trade craftsmen, who foregather and live together. The
Javanese kampong nearly always has the appearance of a
beautiful grove of coco and other palms, which shelter
the slightly-built wooden huts, which indeed are hidden
from view at a short distance. In the midst of the
well-kept and slightly formal plantations which surround
it on every side, the kampong has the look of a
piece of woodland ; slightly thinned, but picturesque
in its very irregularities. Some are still surrounded
by a palisade of interlaced bamboos, which marks the
limits of the village, and constitutes an outer defence ; but
the majority to-day are open, and the houses are sur-
rounded by hedges of bamboos, or sometimes of coffee-
trees, which serve the purpose of effectually dividing the
enclosures, while the outer sides of the hedges, being
continuous, enclose the entire village. The Sundanese,
in their mountain hamlets, still build their houses on
piles ; but the Javanese are content to build them upon
beaten earth, which is slightly raised, and serves as the
floor of the house when the latter is completed. When
this precaution is omitted the soil remains damp, sticky,
and extremely insanitary. The Javanese custom of beat-
ing the soil is attributed to Hindu influence, as this style
of construction is usual in India. The langgars, however,
or domestic oratories, are commonly built on piles.

We must not expect from the Javanese dwelling any
great variety or elegance of form. In the tropics, and
especially in countries where the natives live largely out

1 Kampong signifies both " quarter " and " village " ; it is a collec-
tion of dwellings. Dessa includes the inhabitants, their dwellings
and the political community which they represent. Dessa is the
Sanscrit desa = place, region, country.

106 JAVA

of doors, and often move from place to place, the house
is not a matter of great importance. It has no chimney ;
the smoke escapes as it can. There are practically no
windows, or none as we understand the term ; light
enters the house usually by the door, or through the
loosely-wattled walls of bamboo, except where the inter-
stices are filled with leaves ; so that even at noon the
native hut is dark, and the smoke takes one by the throat.
The Javanese endure the smoke with exemplary patience,
regarding it as the best defence against the superabun-
dant mosquitoes. With this object, indeed, a small fire is
always kept burning in the Javanese hut ; and on cold
nights the natives sleep on their mats beside the fire.
The Javanese house never contains an upper story ;
occasionally, but only in the houses of the more pros-
perous natives, there may be a small granary for maize,
situated between the ceiling and the ridge-pole of the
roof. Built of teak, " wild-wood," the wood of the coco-
palm (glugu), or bamboo, according to the locality, and
roofed with shingles, alang-alang, 1 or nipah-thatch, the
light and simple dwellings of the natives have nothing to
fear from the earthquakes, which in this volcanic region
are so frequent. In the case of prosperous householders
the dwelling usually consists of three distinct structures,
each with a roof whose ridge-pole turns upward at the
extremities ; and the three buildings are often connected
by means of corridors.

The first structure is the pandopo (pendopo, pendoppo),
in which guests are received, meetings held, and feasts
are given. The central part is the prlngitan ; there guests
who are stopping the night or making a stay are accom-
modated, and there on certain occasions the wayang will
give its performances ; the third structure is the omah,
reserved for the members of the family ; this is the actual

1 Alang-alang (Javanese), or lalang (Malay), the Imperata arun-
dinacea Cyrill.

a Nipa fruticans Wurmb. (Palms). The term atap is given to the
alang-alang as well as to the leaves of the nipah when these materials
are used for roofing purposes.

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 107

dwelling-house. To the left, as a rule, of the pringitan, in
an annex covered by the same roof, is the kitchen, the
bath-room, and a small apartment used for grinding
rice. Behind this building is the byre for the buffalo and
the cows, and further still in the rear the horses are
stabled. To the right of the pringitan is the big granary
for the rice, the door of which is above the level of the
ground ; behind it, and farther away, is the langgar
(oratory) where the Koran is taught to the children, and
to which the women are admitted from time to time in
order to offer up their prayers.

Among the peasants the house consists of two parts
only : the pandopo, which serves the purpose of the
pringitan ; the omah, where the family lives, and which
serves also as the kitchen, and a storehouse for the imple-
ments of field labour. In these two primitive types of
habitation the Javanese, whose love of specialisation
knows no limits, profess to distinguish four architectural
types, in which there are certain differences of ornamen-
tation, dimensions, and material ; and these four types
may themselves be sub-divided into eight or ten varieties,
all having individual names ; it is, in short, a case of a
great deal of sublety for a very slight difference.

Compared with the house, the furniture is rudimentary.
There are wooden bed-frames, mats of every form, colour,
and value, the uses of which are innumerable ; vessels of
various kinds in baked clay and in copper; kitchen utensils,
articles for table use, tea-service and tray, sirih sets, 1
cushions, screens, coffers to hold clothing, lamps of
earthenware and metal, including, in the houses of chiefs,
the modern hanging type ; porcelains, baskets, panniers of
woven bamboo, fishing and hunting gear, agricultural
implements, &c. The numbers of objects, the quantity
of metal employed, and the fineness of the work are,
as everywhere, proportioned to the wealth of the
owner.

1 These contain all that is required for the preparation of the betel-
nut for chewing. Such sets are made in gold, silver, copper, or
simply in plaited cane or reeds. In Malay betel is called sink.

108 JAVA

Thus built and furnished, and fronting on a few flower-
beds, square plots of kitchen herbs and vegetables,
surrounded by fruit-trees, mangoes, coco-palms, bananas,
and separated from the road and from its neighbours by
a thick hedge, most often of bamboos, the Javanese
dwelling-house has a cheerful, primitive aspect, and a
certain air of being only a temporary shelter.

A group of several alleys of such houses constitutes a
village, in the centre of which is the aloun-aloun, a small
open stretch of turf, where the market is held. The
house of the chief or headman of the kampong generally
overlooks the market-place. A drum which serves to
mark the hours informs the villagers of the flight of
time, or warns them in case of alarm. There they live
in peace under the order of a chief elected by themselves :
the only political right which has been left for them to
exercise. 1 He governs them according to the principles
of a law admitted by all : the adat, which is a mass of
old customs and racial traditions. This law, which must
not be confounded with Mahomedan religious law, is often
opposed to it, and only gives way to it in matters purely
theological or questions of ritual. The adat, or custom,
and the cheriat, or religious law, and the suzerainty of the
Dutch, exercised through the intermediary of the native
aristocracy, are the three ruling forces in the social and
political life of Java.

In the event of conflict among themselves the natives
are judged, under the supervision of an European judge,
by a native judge, whose duty it is to explain and apply
the law of custom, or adat. It goes without saying that
in cases where the law of custom would violate the
humanitarian principles of the Europeans, the Dutch
official would intervene in order to soften it somewhat,
and a sentence is never pronounced without his approval.
As a matter of fact it is always he who delivers the final

1 The election must be ratified by the Dutch Resident, who at
need rejects persons of infirm health, smokers of opium (hemp ?),
notorious misers, and in general those who are mentally or morally
or physically deficient

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 109

judgment, although through the medium of the native
or clnVfs.

In the event of litigation between natives and Euro-
d in cases in which the European has committed
the offence, the latter is subject only to the Dutch police
and the Dutch law, but the latter takes into account the
manner in which the defendant has violated the law of
adat.

It is a curious thing that the natives of this country,
despite the wave of Buddhism once swept over it, and
notwithstanding their usually gentle character, are un-
feeling where animals are concerned ; excepting as regard
the buffalo, the indispensable companion of their labours,
and the game-cock, the instrument of pleasure and of
gain.

IV.

The family in Java is very firmly united. A keen
affection binds the Javanese to his own. Extremely
prolific to judge by the alarming increase of the popu-
lation, the most prolific father in the world the number
of his children does not decrease the strength of his
affection. Long accustomed to a happy-go-lucky ex-
istence, and to poverty, the increase of his family gives
him none of the bitter anxiety of our modern proletariat.
It costs so little to live in Java that the children will
always have enough to eat; and,as in India, fecundity
and sterility are regarded as the especial marks of God's
approval or displeasure. Sons and daughters alike, the
Javanese father treats his children with the greatest
tenderness ; caressing them often, protecting them from
harm; and in return the children manifest the greatest
deference to their parents, and where needful support
them and see to all their needs, so that the law has no
need to intervene. Such behaviour is prompted both by
the adat and their own hearts. Although the religious
law permits polygamy, the Javanese leaves the practice to
the wealthy and eminent ; regents, vizirs (patih), or even

110 JAVA

district chiefs or headmen (wedonos) ; but even these, in
imitation of the Europeans, are tending to limit them-
selves to monogamy, at least officially. Thus poverty on
the one hand and snobbery on the other, despite the
influence of Hinduism and the Musiilman law, are
uniting to restore the women of Java to the place which
is due to them, and which will make for the better progress
of the race. The adat, in this particular, has exercised
an excellent influence ; the moral and material situation
of woman among the Malayo-Polynesians has always
been a high one, the matriarchate, with all its conse-
quences, having for a long period been the basis of Malay
society, and among the Negri Sambilan of the Peninsula
it is still practised.

This is why, in spite of Islam, the Javanese woman
goes abroad unveiled, shares the interests of her husband,
has her place at festivals, and speaks freely at home. Both
wife and husband, moreover, so continually work side by
side that this community of labour strengthens the position
of the Javanese woman, although this does not equal that
of her European sisters.

The Javanese marry early, and celibacy is as unknown
as it is inconvenient. Where the daughter is of nubile
age say twelve or fourteen and the boy about sixteen,
the parents begin to confer with a view to discussing their
union. It is only after the parents have agreed that the
two young people are allowed to see one another. Then,
although the bridegroom's consent is necessary, that of
the daughter is not indispensable. It is true that the
affection of the parents nearly always modifies the rigour
of the law upon this point. A pledge of betrothal, con-
sisting of jewels and food, is then offered by the boy's
parents to the girl's, who also receive, a few days later, the
" price of purchase " of the bride, or the tumbassan, com-
posed of silver, household utensils, or furniture, cloth and
other stuffs for clothing, rice and game, the quantities
varying with the rank of the betrothed couple. To these
is added a special present for the parents. On the day
when these presents are received the parents of the two

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 111

young people are expected to send to all their relatives,
friends, and superiors one might almost say to every
inhabitant of the village a small present of food and an
invitation to attend the family gathering, which will last
for one or for several days, spent alternately in the houses
of the boy's and the girl's parents. A marriage in Java,
as among all races whose manners are still simple, cannot
take place without repeated banquets, which nearly ruin
the young couple and their parents, but which leave
them, at least, the consolation of regaling themselves
as generously at the very next marriage of a member of
the community.

The night preceding the wedding must be passed in
vigil by the future spouses, or some great unhappiness
will overtake them. On the following day the wedding
is celebrated in the mosque according to the customary
ritual of Islam. The bridegroom, in resplendent cloth-
ing, his face rouged, surrounded by all his relatives and
friends, preceded by strident music, proceeds to the
mosque, while the girl, who is confined to the house, is
represented at the mosque by her wali, or tutor. Then,
having re-entered his own house, the young bridegroom
exchanges his court dress for another costume, which is
often as rich, but less solemn in effect, and proceeds with
due ceremony with all his attendants to the wife's home,
where she awaits him, decked in her finest raiment,
rouged and painted, the upper part of the body and the
arms bare, and well rubbed with boreh. 1

To symbolise her complete submission to her husband,
she washes his feet, and is then led by him, in procession,
to the home of her new relations, where a well-covered
table awaits the invited guests. On the following day
another feast is held at the house of the bride's parents ;
on the third day the young people have the right to with-
draw and settle down in their own house, if they have
one ; sometimes, despite the gorgeous clothing and the

1 A mixture of saffron and poppy oil, which is employed in Java
to stain the upper part of the body yellow, that portion being left
bare on certain solemn occasions.

112 JAVA

sumptuous feasts, they are too poor to possess a home
of their own, in which case they settle down with the
wife's parents until they have found the means of pro-
curing a separate house.

As Java is nothing else than a vast plantation of rice,
coffee, sugar-cane, tea, quinine, indigo, &c., the Javanese
native leads a purely agricultural existence. He devotes
himself especially to the cultivation of rice ; for while
other crops yield him a little profit and his masters a
very large one, it is the rice-crop alone that nourishes
him. Rice is his staple, indispensable food ; and it is
a common saying that if, upon rising from the most
copious banquet, the Javanese has had his accustomed
allowance of rice, he will declare that he has not eaten.

The cultivation of rice, be it said, is no easy task.
In transplanting rice the native works all day knee-
deep in slippery mud, which is rich in noxious gases,
and the home of the deadly mosquito ; while at the
period of harvest he is forced to work for days
together in a stooping position, as the ears are cut off
by hand, instead of being reaped with a scythe, as
corn is harvested in England.

The industries arising from the chief crops of Java
the preparation of tobacco, tea, indigo, and coffee,
and the manufacture of sugar, which have made great
strides since the extension of the system of free labour
employ considerable numbers of natives. They are
docile and skilful, but one can hardly say that they
are always energetic.

The Javanese, according to general testimony, is not
a born worker. He can live on a handful of rice and
a little fruit, which diet he can obtain without effort,
almost by the mere fertility of the soil. As his desires
are practically limited to the bare means of sub-
sistence, he would prefer to limit his labour. He would
rather diminish his requirements and at the same time

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 113

his exertions than to labour with a view to creating
new necessities and to gratify them. This philosophy,
however it may disarm the psychologist, is, we must
admit, extremely irritating to the colonist, and in
absolute contradiction to the feverish activity of the
West. Perhaps we should attribute the very real
apathy of the Javanese, as of many other Asiatics,
to the fact that he has laboured incessantly for
centuries, but never for himself. He is, therefore,
not indifferent to the soil, to which indeed he is
passionately attached, but he is weary of fruitless
labour. When he is able clearly to understand the
evils to which his lack of foresight may expose him,
and is convinced of the possibility of enjoying the
fruits of his own labour, there is a probability that
he will bring to that daily labour the enthusiasm of
which he so often gives proof in matters of his own
intellectual development.

Besides cultivating his rice-field and his little orchard,
the Javanese habitually increases his store of food and
of money by fishing and hunting. Hunting, however,
plays a much smaller part in his life than fishing,
provided that he lives near the coast or some large
river. There are several reasons for this ; hunting is
nearly always harder work, and more uncertain than
fishing ; moreover, the dense cultivation of the soil
in Java has made game less plentiful than it used to
be; and the laws of Islam forbid the consumption of
the flesh of certain animals.

The hunting of the larger wild animals has diminished
because many of them have become rare, and because,
for instance, the natives have noticed that where the
tigers and other large cats are hunted too vigorously,
the plantations are overrun by herbivorous animals, but
by pigs in especial, to the great detriment of the crops.
Finally, some of the native princes, and even some of
the regents, reserve for themselves the trophies of
tiger or leopard hunting, in order to keep them in
their menageries, or to preserve them for the wild-

114 JAVA

beast fights with which they still, though less often
than of old, enliven their principal feasts or receptions.

The larger animals are hunted most of all in the
Preangers, where they are most plentiful and most
dangerous. The natives try to take them alive in
heavy traps, the principle of which is very much that
of a rat-trap ; in this way some of the finest tigers
find their way to the special quarters in the palaces
of the Sultan of Djokjakarta or the Susuhunan of
Surakarta, where they are kept in reserve for some
future festival ; but the greater number are drowned
in their traps, which are carried to the nearest river,
in order that the beasts may be killed without damage
to their skins. Tigers are also taken by many other
means.

For every tiger killed the hunter receives a Govern-
ment bounty ; and the skin, deprived of its teeth,
claws, and whiskers, which the native regards as a
very powerful fetish, and one for which he will pay
a considerable price, is also sold on the spot for a
very fair price. Some skins are sent to Europe ; but
the greater number remain in the Archipelago, where
they are employed in the making of rugs and saddlery
and for decorative purposes; unfortunately the process
by which they are tanned is usually so unsuccessful
that, under the influence of insects and the damp, such
articles quickly lose their lustre and their value.

Although there are no wild elephants in Java, there
are herds of rhinoceros, which gradually decrease as
the uncultivated tracts of the island are reclaimed.
The Javanese kill them all the more willingly because
the hide of a rhinoceros will often fetch more than
200 florins (over 16) on the spot. The natives eat
the flesh, and the horns are sold at a high price to
the Chinese, who believe them to possess remarkable
medicinal and restorative qualities. The Javanese them-
selves believe that a little disc of rhinoceros horn
applied to a serpent's bite will neutralise the venom ;
the hide serves to make whips and switches ; while

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 115

the Chinese sometimes carve the horns, mount them
on a base, and send them to Europe. The Javanese,
in order to avoid injuring the hide, always prefer to
snare the rhinoceros rather than shoot it.

The wild pig abounds in Java. The principal species
are, the widjung, or " coffee-pig " (Sus vittatus), whose
flesh is excellent eating, and the gonteng of the moun-
tains, called wraha in the plains, or " callous swine "
(Sws vcrrucosus), which is far less highly appre-
ciated. In order to protect their crops, and on
account of its ferocity, the Javanese hunt the pig
relentlessly ; they do not, however, gain much by the
sport, as their religion forbids them to eat the flesh
of swine, which is accordingly left to the Chinese.
In some of the mountain regions, however, this law
is less strictly observed, and the dried flesh, cut into
thin slices, and sold under the name of dendeng* finds
plenty of consumers who do not boggle over its
origin. The great wild buffalo, or banteng (Bos son-
daicus), which is shot and eaten on the spot, is a
profitable quarry, as its hide, horns, and hooves are
employed in the manufacture of a large number of
articles for every-day use or for exportation.

Deer (rusa) are almost as plentiful as wild pigs, and
are hunted even more eagerly. The dried venison, or
dendeng, is a staple article of commerce in the Archi-
pelago ; the horns and hide are utilised in various
industries. The young antlers, still covered with a
mossy skin, are also bought at a fair price by the
Chinese, who regard their fortifying virtues to be even
superior to those of the rhinoceros horn. The dried
tendons are also secured for the tables of the wealthy,
and are even exported to China ; they are used in the
manufacture of a succulent sweetmeat.

Stag-hunting, whether undertaken with the rifle or
with hounds, is a passion which the Europeans share
with the natives. The result is a gradual but percep-

1 All dried meat, whether seasoned with spices or not, is called
dcndcng in Java.

116 JAVA

tible decrease in the numbers of the deer, which one
no longer sees, as the great naturalist Junghuhn saw
them on the lyen in 1860, in herds to the number of
many thousands. The roe deer, which are very abundant,
are valued especially for their flesh.

Among the cetaceans the sea-cow or dugong, duyong
(Halicore Dujong), is eaten with enjoyment by the
natives, 1 who also hunt the cachalot (ikan lodari),
principally for its teeth, which are made into krees-
handles. Both these mammalia are more common in
the Outer Possessions than about Java.

Many Javanese birds are greatly prized, either for
their plumage or for their flesh. The peacock is eaten,
as is the wildfowl, the duck, the plover, the wood-
cock (which at certain periods is very abundant in
the western part of the island, and is taken alive), the
dlimangan or tre, a quail, which is sometimes trained
to fight, and also doves and pigeons, which are greatly
esteemed both for their flesh and their song, and are
found in almost every Javanese dwelling, where their
soothing voices break the midday silence.

Certain pigeons, parakeets, cockatoos, kingfishers,
doves, sri-gunting (Edolius fortificatus), and birds of
paradise are caught by the net or by liming, instead
of being shot, as their plumage is the object of an
important export trade with China and Europe.

As for snakes, the Javanese eat their flesh, but have
hitherto made little use of their skins. Now, however,
a demand is springing up in Europe for the latter,
which are used in the fabrication of purses, card-cases,
pocket-books, &c.

All things being considered, however, the native gains
more by his fisheries than by hunting. Fish literally
swarm in the Javanese seas and rivers, and of the
hundreds of species caught there are very few that are
not of use for edible or other purposes.

The king of the fresh-water fish is the gurami (Ospho-

1 Syn. Dugong, perampuwan laut (in Malay, sea-woman, mer-
maid).

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 117

menus olftix), which is reserved for the tables of
chiefs or the wealthy, and is reared for the market in
special fish-ponds or tanks. A gum mi of 20 to 30
pounds' weight is always a welcome present in the
Dutch Indies. Natives, Europeans, and Chinese all
appreciate it equally ; but Europeans prefer to eat it
while quite young, and weighing only 3 pounds,
or less. It reminds one of a perch, and belongs to
the same family, but has a more distinct flavour.
Among the anabas we must mention the betek, or
climbing perch, which is able, thanks to a peculiar
cellular structure, to leave the water for short periods
of time, when it climbs up the roots of the trees
growing in the marshes, and there obtains a plentiful
harvest of insects. Then there is the gabus, an article
of the greatest importance throughout all Java, where
it is consumed more especially as ikan kring that is,
in the dried state while the Dutch prefer to eat it
newly caught ; the bayong, which is rather less fat
than the gabas, and which seldom attains a weight
of more than 4^ pounds. It is very abundant and is
also eaten in the dried state. Many varieties of carp
are carefully reared in enormous fish-ponds for sale
to the Dutch and the Chinese; one species, the
tambra, is reared especially for the Chinese and the
natives. There are also various species of eels and
conger ; marsh lampreys, which are reared for the
tables of the Europeans ; numbers of mud-fish (silures)
which seem to issue from the earth when the rice-
fields are inundated, so plentiful are they, and which
the natives obtain for next to nothing, even in the
markets. These fish are all nourishing and of an
excellent flavour.

The sea-fisheries are naturally undertaken by the sea-
board populations. The most valued of all the salt-
water fish, though not the most abundant, is the kakap ;
next comes the roto, which is far less readily caught.
There are various kinds of mackerel, including the tunny,
which is eaten either fresh or preserved ; still more

118 JAVA

numerous varieties of the herring, the best of which is
the bandeng; and finally the trubuk, the Indian or long-
tailed shad, which is caught chiefly off the eastern coast
of Sumatra, but which is also found on the Javanese
coast ; the salted roe of which is a condiment highly
valued, even by some Europeans.

The necessity of overcoming the monotony of per-
petual rice and facilitating its digestion, and the natives'
custom of eating a certain amount of their meat and
most of their fish in a smoked, dried, or salted condition,
explains the common use in Java, as in nearly all
countries of the Far East, of those animal and vegetable
condiments whose ingredients and odour are nearly
always so violently repugnant to the European.

The condiments most usually employed in Java among
the better class of natives are : ikan gerek, a paste made
of various small fishes, kneaded up with salt, " Spanish
pepper," * and various spices, which is packed in baskets,
in which it gradually becomes of a firmer consistency ;
trassi t or terasi, a paste of prawns, shrimps, or small
fishes, brayed together with salt and spices ; ebbi, or
dried prawns and river crayfish, which are exported as
far as China. To these complementary aliments the
Javanese are fond of adding the salted eggs of the duck,
hen, or turtle (telor asin), and the shad's roe, or trubuk.
As for trepang, or beche de mer 2 (the holothure, or sea-
cucumber), which crawls in enormous numbers along
the sea-bottoms of Java, the natives eagerly carry on this
fishery, but as a means of making money, for they do not

1 Dutch : Spaansche peper. This is the Capsicum annuum L., or
annual pepper, better known in France as Indian pepper, or long
pepper.

3 Or beech-de-mer,from the Portuguese bicho-de-mar, "sea- worm,"
or sea-slug ; the zee-komkommer, or sea-cucumber of the Dutch.
The price per picul (a weight of 133 Ib.) varies from 2 florins 50 to
170 florins, according to the locality and the quality. In China, the
great market for this merchandise, the price runs from 50 to 275
florins, and the picul contains from 1,000 to 2,000 sea-slugs. The
Dutch Indies produce and export to China about 700 tons per
annum.

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 119

eat them any more than do the Europeans. Boiled,
s.ilted, and then dried or smoked, they are exported to
China, where they fetch a high price. Thousands of the
seaboard Javanese live by the trepang fishery alone.

The shell of the turtle (Chclonia imbricata) is almost
entirely exported to Europe and to China ; but the shell
of the common tortoise (tutrugu) is often sent to Sura-
baja, where it is made into combs, boxes, spoons, &c.

To the abundant natural resources of his island the
Javanese may add the industry of stock-raising. It is
true that his lack of care and foresight has limited the
numbers of his flocks and herds and has failed to improve
the breeds of his domestic animals.

The most useful beast of all from the native's point of
view is the kerbau (Malay), or kebo (Javanese) ; the buffalo,
so powerful yet so gentle, which drags the heaviest bur-
dens with a sure foot over the miry roads or the stony
mountain trails; the buffalo, which shares his labours;
the buffalo whose meat, if a little musky, is excellent
whether fresh or salted. The native prefers the buffalo
above all the domestic animals ; the bullock (sapi, or
lembu), less vigorous but more active, is still better as a
draught animal on a good road, and its meat is far
sweeter ; the cow is regarded purely as a reproductive
animal, as the Javanese dislikes milk and its various
products ; the goat and the sheep are kept more for the
sake of their meat than for any any other purpose ; and
pigs are fed only for sale to the Chinese.

The horse (kuda in Malay, dyaran or kapal in Javanese)
is a favourite animal, but is not methodically bred or
cared for, and has consequently degenerated. Formerly
it was used solely as a saddle- or pack-horse. The
Europeans have taught the Javanese the art of breaking
it to go in harness and to draw burdens, but in order to
preserve the species have forbidden them to kill it for the
sake of its flesh. The horses of Preanger, which have an
obvious Arab strain, are the tallest in the island and
are well proportioned, but otherwise cannot be highly
praised. Those of Kedu, which have been improved by

120 JAVA

the care of the Susuhunans, are their rivals in height
and are still better proportioned ; but the ordinary
Javanese horse of the sawahs (rice-fields) or the moun-
tains is small and ugly, but sure-footed and enduring.
It is certain that if the Javanese native would refrain
from working his horse too young, and would feed it in
a rational manner, he would be able to improve the race
and derive from it incalculable benefits.

VI.

Just as the Javanese, despite his love of the soil, prefers
to cultivate only so much of it as will satisfy his daily
needs, so his industry also is limited to his requirements.
Each village has its blacksmith, its carpenter, and very
often its potter and silversmith. The trade guilds in the
towns may contain a certain number of workers in each
trade, but they will be careful to produce only enough to
supply the usual demand, and will work only according
to tradition. It is no lack of taste nor of ability that
keeps them to these beaten tracks ; their chiselled and
sculptured gold and silver work is often excellent, and
the women who work at the looms are real artists. The
two industries which are peculiar to the Javanese, and in
which their originality is most plainly shown, are the
manufacture of the kreesf the value of which depends

1 The kriss, or krees, is the characteristic arm of the Malay races.
It must not be confounded with the other forms of sword or dagger
used in the Archipelago. There are more than a hundred kinds of
krees, each bearing a different name according to the shape of the
blade, guard, and scabbard. The blade, which is commonly 12 to
16 inches in length and always flat, is straight or serpentine in
form, and is usually damascened with pamor, a magnetic iron which
comes from Luwu (south of Celebes) : this treatment gives the
blade a moire, or watered, surface. The grip, or hilt, made of wood,
horn, ivory, or metal, assumes the most fantastic forms ; in the case
of a prince's or wealthy noble's krees it will be ornamented with
precious stones. The scabbard is of wood and covered with a
sheath of suwasa (bronze), silver, or gold. The krees is not merely
an arm, but a symbol of rank and authority as well, as the sword

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 121

upon the temper of the weapon and the material
carving of the handle-, and the ornamentation of stuiK
by the batik or battek process. The art of plaiting and
weaving and staining mats of every size and shape and
intended for all manners of purposes is also a widespread
Javanese industry ; but it is not peculiarly Javanese, being
common to most peoples of the Far East, while kreesses
and batiks J in cloth coloured through a mask or ground
of wax are exclusively Javanese industries.

To batik signifies to cover a cotton fabric with a thin
ground of wax before plunging it into a bath of dye, so
as to preserve from the latter certain parts of the stuff,
thus forming a design. This operation, repeated several
times in succession, but with a dye of different colour on
each occasion and with the stuff re-coated so as to pre-
serve different portions from the dye, finally produces a
design which is often of real artistic value. The batik-
maker and this delicate work is always done by women
is provided with a tyanting, or a little cup or funnel of
the thinnest sheet-copper, which is filled with white wax
in a melted condition. This wax she allows to trickle
very slowly through a slender tube, as fine as the point of
a pen at its lower extremity. With the aid of this little
instrument which roughly resembles the funnels used
for the sugar icing on wedding-cakes the batiqueuse
draws her design on the cotton fabric in a line of warm
and liquid wax ; the width of the line being varied by

was in Europe during the Middle Ages, and was in Japan within
living memory. It is worn in various manners, which are regulated
by etiquette. For further details see the article Wapens der
inlandsche Bevolking (Encycl. v. Ned.-Indie, vol. iv. p. 686 et seq.).

1 The Javanese word batik, " to design, trace, paint," has assumed
the technical meaning " to draw upon a cotton cloth with molten
wax." It is an ingenious process, by means of which coloured
stuffs of many colours and a remarkable variety of designs are pro-
duced. The following work, illustrated with coloured plates repre-
senting some of the finest specimens, includes all possible informa-
tion as to the batik industry in Java : G. P. Rouffaer and Dr. H. H.
Juynboll, DC batik-kunst in Nederlandsch-Indie en haar gescheidenis
(Haarlem, 1900-1905, large 4to).

122 JAVA

using a tyanting with a larger or smaller vent. When the
worker has traced the design in wax upon one face of the
cloth, she reproduces it by the same means upon the
other face, so that the stuff has no "wrong side" and
may be used with either side uppermost. The piece of
cotton with its design in wax is now plunged into a vat
containing a dye of suitable shade usually a red, blue,
or brown which dyes all portions that are not covered
by the waxen design. The wax is removed by means of
boiling water ; and before plunging the cloth into a
second vat containing dye of a different shade the
design is continued by means of a fresh application of
wax in all the necessary parts. By repeated applications
of wax and repeated immersions in various dyes it is
possible to obtain extremely complex designs, which
possess a charm all their own and are gay and har-
monious in colour. 1

The batik process entails a traditional technical edu-
cation and considerable taste on the part of the crafts-
woman. There are hundreds of accepted batik designs,
certain of which are reserved for certain articles of
clothing or even for certain persons. The Susuhunan
and the Sultan of the Vorstenlanden wear batiks of
special design that no other native would dare to wear,
at any rate in the Vorstenlanden themselves. More-
over, Surakarta and Djokjakarta boast of what we may
justifiably call schools of design and colouring, and
their batiks compel the admiration of the best foreign
connoisseurs. Samarang, although its batiks are rather
more gaudy, still maintains the high reputation of
its women artists, who elsewhere, and especially in
Batavia, are now allowing themselves to be influenced
by European taste, or rather by European commercial

1 The Dravidians of the Coromandel coast (Tamils, Telingas, &c.)
also prepare cloths of polychromatic design by the same procedure,
a very faithful and detailed description of which has been preserved
in the Letter of Pere Coeurdoux, missionary of the Company of
Jesus, to Pere du Halde, of the same Company, January 18, 1742
(Lettres idifiantes et curieuses, t. xxvi., Paris, 1743, p. 172 et seq.).

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 123

designs, which do not in the least represent the art of
Europe, and are losing their originality. One of the
causes of this decadence has been the introduction of
printed calicoes with which the European houses have
flooded the markets of Java. The natives, tempted by
their low prices, have bought them, and have immediately
set to work to imitate them, and by employing the
simplest means they produce imitations equal to the
European goods, but at a still lower price. The mer-
chants, in consequence, have gained nothing by the
transaction, but the delicate art of the batik has greatly
suffered by the introduction of this rubbish. Already
Cheribon and Indramaju have practically ceased to
produce the batiks for which they were formerly so
renowned, and which used to sell for as much as ^4 the
piece ; indeed, unless something is done to arrest the
decadence of the process, these examples of a charming
and consummate art will in fifty or sixty years' time be
found only in the kratons of the princes and the cabinets
of European collectors.

The Javanese batik their cotton stuffs on one or both
sides only for the very practical purpose of beautifying
their garments. Their costume is simple, and is the
same for both sexes, a fact which at first leaves the
foreigner subject to awkward misunderstandings. The
basis of the costume, indeed sometimes the whole
costume, is the sarong; that is, a kind of skirt falling
from the waist, or sometimes above it, to the feet. When
open in front it is called the kain pandjang. Sarongs
and skirts worn by the people are often of a deep blue
colour ; among the rich, in the east and centre of the
island, the stuff is batik 'd; in the west it is often checkered
or striped, the checks or stripes being woven in the stuff.
Checks are common among the Sundanese. To the
sarong, the man adds a sort of vest of white cotton
(kutungan) or coloured cotton print, or a kind of short
jacket of white cotton or print, with wide sleeves and
a standing collar, fastened at the throat and loose on
the hips. Native officials replace this by a cloth or cotton

124 JAVA

jacket with narrow sleeves, fastened up with buttons
ornamented with a W and a crown.

The man's long hair is done up in a chignon on the
top of the head, and hidden by a kerchief, more or less
artistically batik' d, the corners of which emerge like two
wings on either side of the nape. As a defence against
the sun or rain, the native often wears a wide hat of
bamboo fibre or plaited pandanus leaf, either plain or in
several bright colours. This hat may be more than a
yard in diameter, when it forms an excellent substitute
for an umbrella or parasol. Native dandies and officials
replace this hat, in the towns, by a peaked cap, which
is ornamented, in the case of the officials, by the W
surmounted by a crown.

The official headgear for state occasions is a kind of
fez : a truncated cone, called a kuluk, covered with trans-
parent starched muslin. In the case of princes the kuluk
is ornamented with vertical stripes of gold, and is known
as the kanigara. A krees, passed through the girdle and
carried behind the left haunch, completes the toilet of
every Javanese freeman. The krees, which the Madurese,
and still more the Malay, will draw at the first word that
he chooses to think insulting, is for the Javanese, as we
have seen, primarily an ornament.

Personages of high rank are always accompanied by
a parasol (payong), their rank being denoted by its height,
colour, and wealth of gold. Priests and Hadjis commonly
wear the Arab costume, and thereby gain no little con-
sideration ; but some Javanese wear it who have never
been to Mecca.

Women add to the sarong a wide bandage, of blue
cloth upon ordinary occasions, but in batik on feast days.
This is called the kemben, and is wound round the bust,
under the arms, so as to flatten the breasts, a full bosom
being unappreciated by the Javanese. Some women also
wear the kutang, a kind of bodice or tunic, and still more
frequently the kelambi, a kind of camisole, in dark blue
cotton, black silk, or velvet of some dark shade, which
is cut low at the neck. It falls to the knees, and the

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 125

narrow sleeves are closed with strings. An indispensable
article of the feminine toilet is the slcndang: a scarf in
batik, often ornamented with fringes ; something over
20 inches wide, in colour brown, green, or yellow, or,
among the poorer classes, a deep blue. It is sometimes
made of silk, sometimes of cotton, and serves for all
kinds of purposes. The well-dressed woman wears it
simply as an ornament ; the women of the people wear
it across one shoulder, like a bandolier, and use it for
carrying the last-born baby, the goods they have bought
or are going to sell, and so on.

The Javanese woman is always bareheaded in the
presence of the Javanese man ; but she decks her hair
with freshly plucked flowers or ornamental pins. Like
the women of all countries, she loves necklaces, rings,
and bracelets of all kinds, and heavy earrings of a peculiar
type, which stretch the lobe of the ear to a mere thread.
She shelters herself from the rain beneath an umbrella of
oiled paper.

Men and women go barefoot, including the native
soldiers of the colonial army, excepting only the
Amboinese. 1

A few exquisites wear slippers or shoes of European
model, and their use is becoming more and more general
among the more distinguished natives, although all
natives must appear barefooted at the courts of the
Susuhunan and the Sultan ; and before such native
notables as the regents, &c., all inferiors must appear
with bare feet.

VII.

Although the life of a Javanese village is never intensely
laborious it is, in a sense, a life of continuous labour ;
for the Javanese does not feel compelled to abstain from
labour entirely upon any day of the week not even on a
Friday to satisfy his religious beliefs. He works as

1 This is partly because so many of the Amboinese are Christians,
and partly because they pretend to give their services in Netherlands
India as allies, not as subjects ; as equals, not as a conquered race.

126 JAVA

long as he needs to work ; but only too often only just so
long. Neither is his labour a melancholy affair ; for the
severer agricultural tasks, such as the transplanting or
harvesting the rice, are performed in common ; all the
people of the dessa help one another, and enjoy a banquet
at the end of all. Again, all the villagers share in the
same pleasures ; no feast, marriage, or circumcision takes
place without the presence of the whole village, or at
least the majority of the inhabitants.

These holidays are numerous, precisely because the
Javanese is not fanatically fond of work. But they are
not uproarious ; the traveller is always surprised to
witness the heartfelt gaiety a gaiety without shouting
and screaming, without guffaws and shrieks of laughter
of this gentle and polished people. They are as quiet in
their gaiety or their anger as the birds of their country,
whose plumage is so beautiful, but which are almost
songless.

The people crowd through the bazaar or upon the
aloun-aloun, but with a gentle, noiseless movement ; their
inner satisfaction is only betrayed by the fact that their
clothing is more ornamental than usual and their faces
brighter.

If Korea is entitled the Empire of the Quiet Morning,
Java deserves the name of the Island of Silent Serenity.

Among the habitual pleasures of the Javanese, tobacco
(roko) and the betel-nut (sirih) have passed into the rank
of necessities, so general is the use of these two stimu-
lants, and particularly that of the latter. Betel is used by
women as much as by men, and both use it continually.
From the poorest coolie to the Susuhunan, every Javanese
is always chewing this refreshing condiment, which
blackens the teeth, however, and provokes an abundant
flow of reddened saliva. At all domestic rejoicings the sirih
is offered to all the guests ; and the accessories necessary
to betel-chewing accompany the great wherever they go.

The use of opium, which is by no means so harmless,
has, unfortunately, been becoming more and more usual
during the last twenty years. For this reason all those

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 127

who concern themselves with the welfare of the natives
are anxious that the Chinese should be forced to abandon
the growth of the poppy in order to restrain the abuse of
the drug. 1

Dice, cards, quail- and cock-fights, 2 and tops with num-
bered sides, on the stoppage of which bets are laid, are
still favourite means of amusement with the Javanese
native, who will sometimes, in the excitement of play,
ruin himself within a few hours. We must not be
surprised to find such amusements severely proscribed
by the better classes of the natives, who are to-day so
anxious to bring about a popular renascence ; but it will
certainly be no easy task to wean the people from such
amusements, as the native of almost every quarter of the
Far East has a regrettable passion for games of chance.

On the other hand, the Javanese of the people, more on
account of his natural sobriety than out of religious
scruple, is not addicted to fermented and alcoholic
drinks ; he leaves them to the mighty and to the princes
of his race, who, despite the precepts of the Koran, are
not reluctant to imitate the European in this particular.

Performances on the gamelani and the representations
of the wayang are the favourite amusements of the
people, and on special occasions their chiefs and princes
entertain them by means of their own troupes.

1 Concerning opium and its use in the Dutch Indies, see E.
Metzger, Das Opium in Indonesien (Rev. Col. intern. 1887, II.,
P J 75) > ]- L. Zegers, Het opium-vraagsluk in Nederlandsch Oost-
Indie (Nimeguen, 1890).

1 Officially prohibited in certain Residencies, they none the less
continue in secret.

3 The full gamelan appears to be a development of the xylophone.
As we gather from M. Caboton's description, the basis of the gamelan
is the ordinary xylophone ; in the full gamelan the note is produced
by one of a series of blades, tubes, gongs, or basins. The illustration
facing p. 127 shows a series of " xylophones " of different materials ;
some having wooden notes, some slips of metal, some a series of tubes
bedded in cushions, and some a series of bronze vessels not unlike
square tureens. The word gamelan means sometimes a single "xylo-
phone," sometimes a whole orchestra of "xylophones" of various
materials, including gongs, suspended tubes, a viol, &c. [TRANS.]

128 JAVA

The gamelan is a complete orchestra composed of an
oblong plank of wood, supported on four legs, and
with raised edges. Across this plank, and resting upon
little cushions, are fixed a series of blades or slips of vary-
ing lengths ; one set will be of wood, another of copper,
others of bronze ; some will have affixed to them vertical
tubes of bamboo, which serve as resonators. Each blade
or slip gives out, when struck, a note consecutive to that
produced by its neighbour. The gamelan may also in-
clude a series of bronze basins, some wide and shallow,
others deep and narrow ; or these may be replaced by
suspended gongs. A viol with two strings and a bow,
known as the rebab, is used to play the air when the
gamelan accompanies the voice. All the instruments of
the gamelan, which are struck by hammers of different
materials, according to the tonality desired, and accord-
ing to a very abstruse technique, produce a shrill and
somewhat melancholy music, which is at first surprising
to a foreign ear, but which is by no means without a
charm of its own. 1

At domestic gatherings in the villages the natives have
usually to content themselves with the rebab (or viol), the
flute, or with drums of various size, shape, and tone ; but
when a chief entertains those under his administration at a
wayang show, accompanied by the gamelan, the Javanese
native passes a delightful evening ; but the entertain-
ment, to be precise, often lasts far into the night.

1 Other instruments which may be included in the gamelan are :
angklung, or " sonorous tubular gongs, suspended in a framework,"
bonang, " a peal of bells," tjelempung, " a psalterion," ketuk, kenong,
" bells " ; saron, " a series of metallic tongues or blades " ; demung,
" the same, but deeper in tone " ; gong, " a thick bamboo tube which
is struck to obtain the bass note " ; kempul, " a little gong " ; kendang,
" a drum, the two heads of which are of unequal diameters. 3 ' Land,
Notes sur la musique de lile de Java, says that this music " is a
subject well worth the serious interest of the musician." See also
E. Dulaurier, Musique Javanaise. Notice sur un gamelan ou collection
d' instruments de musique javanaise, rapportee de Vile de Java a Paris,
en 1845, in the Revue de I' Orient, de I'Algerie et des Colonies, ijth year
(Paris and Algiers, 1859).

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 129

The wayang is a puppet-show, a theatre of marionettes.
The puppets are perfectly flat, with movable arms ; their
faces and limbs are fantastically deformed in order, say
the Javanese, to evade the Musulman law, which forbids
the reproduction of the human body. They are some-
times made of buffalo hide, sometimes of wood, brightly
painted and gilded, and often luxuriously dressed ; they
are manipulated behind a screen upon which the light of
a copper lantern throws their shadows. The women
watch the drama from in front of the screen, the men
from behind it, according to the position of the marion-
ettes themselves.

There are three kinds of wayang, which are not very
clearly distinguished ; and a different tonality of the
gamelan is appropriate to each. An actor recites the
poem or drama which the marionettes perform, interrupting
it considerably by long personal improvisations. In the
best representations the subject is always borrowed from
the Hindu epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana,
with the alterations and distortions for which the Javanese
mind has been responsible during the centuries which
have passed since the extinction of the Hindu faith ; or
from the heroic and legendary history of Java before the
foundation of the Empire of Madjapahit that is, before
the ninth century A.D. ; or sometimes, but more rarely,
from the history of the aforesaid Empire. This choice
shows how deeply the Hindu domination has im-
pressed the Javanese mind. The part played by Islam in
this dramatic literature is inconsiderable, and is usually
limited to the confiscation of the miracles performed by
the demi-gods of India to the profit of Allah ; and
occasionally, especially during the last twelve years, the
dalan, or reciter, improvises, between two lines of some
traditional poem, some malicious reflection upon his
European masters.

When the wayang is not available, the Javanese turns
cheerfully to the topeng dalang, in which masked actors
play in pantomime a drama which the dalan recites
in a loud voice ; or sometimes the actors themselves

130 JAVA

speak, and give their performances in the open, sur-
rounded by a circle of auditors who hang upon their every
word. They enjoy almost as naively the dances of the
ronggengs public dancing-girls whose methods always
astonish and disappoint the uninstructed European ; for
the Javanese dance consists of a series of plastic and
mimetic poses, which require, even more than Javanese
music, a previous initiation on the part of a foreigner.
Even at the bedayas of the sovereigns of the Vorstenlanden
and a few of the regents, who preserve the implacable
traditions of the classic dance, the foreigner is usually less
pleased than astonished.

Wayangs, gamelans, dancers, and distributions of food
and of betel form the regular programme of the fetes
which the notables and the wealthy offer to the people on
occasions which are as varied as they are numerous.
The birthdays of the Queen-Mother and the Queen of
Holland, and that of the little Princess Juliana, give the
highly placed Javanese an opportunity of testifying his
loyalty and of giving pleasure to the people. Other
occasions for such festivals are : his appointment to any
post under the Government ; his marriage ; the birth of
his children ; the circumcision of his boys ; the declara-
tion of the nubility of his daughters ; the marriage of a son
or a daughter ; the filing of his teeth ; the conclusion of a
lucky business affair ; the recovery from an illness ; the
return from a journey ; the rice harvest ; the building of a
house ; in short, the Javanese has a genius for discover-
ing such occasions ; he finds them in the most trifling
details of his life, and celebrates them with enthusiasm.
On every step of the social ladder the Javanese rejoices at
the festivals of his superiors : very often at those of his
inferiors, when he wishes to honour the latter. The
result is that although there are very few actual religious
holidays, the Javanese is continually junketing ; a course
which keeps him from his work, and is often absolutely
ruinous.

Very probably nearly all these festivals are of remote
origin, some arising out of the Islamite code of manners ;

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 131

adapted indifferently, they allow one to guess at a sur-
viving basis in the ancient animistic cult of Java. They
open with prayers recited by the imaum of the village, or
in his absence by some person distinguished for his
piety ; and one may suppose that their generic name of
slamettanSy or thanksgiving feasts, sanctifies the banquet
which is the necessary accompaniment of the feast, and
often its object. Adat (custom) has fixed the number,
nature, quantity, and preparation of the sacrificial dishes,
of which the spirits enjoy the subtile and the sacrificers
the material portion. In the courts of the princes the
religious character of the sacrificial repast offered to the
spirits is accentuated by the care taken to reserve a portion
of the dishes for the priests and santris (holy men).

Generally the giver of a slamettan bears the whole cost ;
but often he cannot afford to do so, when he will arrange
with several friends to give the feast at their common
expense. Each one performs his share by bringing one
of the required courses, and the sacrificial feast becomes
something like a picnic. The gamelan and the wayang
which nearly always terminate the feast add to the joyful
impression produced by the whole.

We can understand why Javanese reformers are so
anxious to put down the constant succession of slamettans,
which empty the native's slender purse, and accustom
him to idleness and imprudence.

VIII.

The Europeans, who in all their colonies are very loth
to allow the natives any virtues, do not fail to criticise
many other points of the Javanese character.

Some reproach him roundly for his gentle manners,
which to them seem to border upon cowardice ; for his
incurable apathy and lack of foresight; for his faintly
servile and hypocritical politeness, his absurd veneration
of birth, his immoderate appetite for honours ; for the
fact that the only motive capable of awaking him out of
his lethargy is the hope of realising that secret ambition

132 JAVA

of every Javanese : to become an official and to win
the right to a payong (a State umbrella) of respectable
diameter.

Perhaps there is hardly one of these grievances which
the history of Java does not justify.

It would be surprising if the Javanese were instinctively
a coward. All his past history is full of interminable
wars, a fact which at all events denotes a certain military
aptitude ; doubtless accompanied, at the end of ages of
butchery, by a fatigued philosophy. The race which
won the military glory of the conquering empires of
Madjapahit and Mataram, and which sustained the
desperate war against the Dutch which lasted from 1825
until 1830, having at its head such leaders as Dipo
Negoro and the young and heroic Sentot, is hardly a
nation of the peace-at-any-price variety ; and its men are
not of a spirit that will fly at the least threat. Those
who know the race well know the danger of exasperating
its apparently placid nature. The Javanese has retained,
through his warlike and tumultuous past, those qualities
of a good soldier which make him an invaluable recruit
for the Dutch Colonial army. He is brave somewhat as
the ancient Greek was brave, who would rush upon the
enemy with heroic courage when he saw that victory was
possible, but who would fly without shame from an enemy
obviously too powerful. He has no uncontrollable love
of danger ; perhaps because he saw long ago that his life
was too readily sacrificed by others ; but his sense of
discipline rarely allows him to abandon a post, however
dangerous. As for his fearing " my Lord the Tiger "
as all the natives of the Far East fear him and attempting
to flatter him by soft words and courteous phrases, the
matter is easily comprehensible in a country in which the
tiger's victims are counted by hundreds year after year.
The Javanese feels himself naked and defenceless before
so formidable an enemy, and is afraid ; the European, of
a different mettle, armed with a heavy rifle, should cer-
tainly encounter the tiger with a better countenance. It
is, perhaps, hardly fair to speak of the cowardice of the

A " WAYAXG " : JAVANESE PLAYERS.

A BATIK FACTORY.

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 133

one or the courage of the other ; to do so would be to
ignore the circumstances.

The regrettable lack of foresight of the Javanese is less
deniable. The Javanese is incapable of taking care for
the morrow, of saving for the lean days, or of economising.
He will, as likely as not, spend the savings of a month or
a year in the course of a few hours ; and in order to play
at dice, or give a ceremonial banquet, he will borrow
money at the most usurious interest, and is seldom able
to resist the offers of goods on credit which the Chinese
and Arab are so generous in making him. But we must
remember that the Javanese native was exploited for
centuries by all his rulers ; that he has had to work for
them unremittingly ; that he could call nothing but his
life his own ; and we must not forget that slavery was
officially abolished only as lately as 1860. Such a record
of poverty would hardly teach the race economy, even
admitting that economy were possible. The native knew
that he could never save for his own benefit, and hence
the habit of never saving at all. But why should a man
save when he can live on a handful of rice and a few
bananas ? However, since prolonged contact with the
Dutch has revealed new sources of pleasure and new
necessities, and since the Dutch Government has been
occupying itself seriously in bettering the lot of the
native, and not merely the yield of the soil, the Javanese
is beginning to meditate upon the question of saving, if
only to enjoy himself the better on special occasions.
Reputed idle and apathetic, although he works under a
fiery sky, and often under deadly conditions, he will nowa-
days travel long distances the moment he hears of an
offer of good wages. Even from the central provinces
he will set out at the time of the rice or sugar-cane har-
vest, often travelling as far as the eastern side of the
Peninsula, on to Malang, or even to Surabaja and Sama-
rang ; in short, wherever he can earn 3 to 5 francs a day
(2s. 5d. to 43.). The few savings-banks already opened
with a view to develop the prosperity of the natives
were at first regarded with a certain amount of sus-

134 JAVA

picion, but lately the deposits have been larger each
year.

It is hardly possible as yet to expect democratic ideas
or a passionate love of independence from a race formed
first by the Hindus and their oppressive caste system,
and then by Islam with its fundamental fatalism : a race
which for twenty centuries has been governed by greedy
autocrats or disdainful masters. For this fact the Dutch
may well be thankful ; for if, in addition to their numerical
strength, the Javanese had possessed the indomitable
temper of the Achinese, no European Power could ever
have settled in the island. Gentle and patient by nature,
the Javanese have been crushed and enslaved during the
whole of their long history ; but it would be unjust to
call them servile or hypocritical or cowardly, because
they treat their masters to-day with the marks of deference
which they showed their masters of long ago ; a deference
which does not signify the servility which some profess
to behold in it, but merely a venerable tradition of polite-
ness. It is as well to note that those who complain the
most of the factitious quality of Javanese politeness would
be the first to complain were it lacking towards them-
selves. They would regard such a lack as an insult,
almost as a crime.

On the other hand, nothing amazes them so much as
the smouldering rancour which insulting words or be-
haviour will evoke in the hearts of such people, for whom
good manners and the distinction of classes are still the
foundation of the social system, and who, having done
what they conceive their duty by the Europeans in
treating them with every shade of intentional courtesy,
do not receive in return the consideration which they
consider their due.

Their avid appetite for honours and outward distinc-
tions, their hunger for umbrellas (payongs) and promotion
in the grades of official hierarchy, is explicable in the
light of their past, for they have always been accustomed
to see these signs accompanied by the reality and enjoy-
ment of power, with all its abuses. We must recognise,

THE NATIVES OF JAVA 135

moreover, that the present has been so far unable to
accomplish very much in the way of modifying the con-
ception inherited from the autocracies of the past, and
from the traditions of Hinduism and Islam. The Java-
nese issues from his lethargy and progresses in culture
and initiative only when self-interest draws him. This is
a regrettable fact : but it is also true of the majority
of Europeans, whose conceptions, from different motives,
are becoming more and more utilitarian, while purely
disinterested culture is becoming rare.

The Javanese does not even seek to improve his equip-
ment with a view to enriching himself by a praiseworthy
commercial activity, or a better application of agricul-
tural methods ; he dreams, above all, of becoming an
official, of wearing a uniform. This is again regrettable ;
but this also is a common failing elsewhere than under
the tropics. But the day may come, even in the colonies,
when, with the same native hierarchy, and at the instance
of the rulers who are now so politically careful not
to shatter the old Javanese conception, we shall see the
farmer or the self-made merchant treated by the public
authorities with the same benevolence and consideration
as the most indifferent mantri.

As long as officialism continues to offer the double
advantages of material security and a satisfied vanity, it is
unjust to reproach the Javanese with regarding it as the
sole end of his efforts. It would be absurd to blame the
Javanese for taking a plain, direct view of his immediate
interests, and to expect him, after centuries of veneration
of power and authority in its slightest emanations a
veneration encouraged by the Dutch themselves to
awaken suddenly to a radically antithetical conception of
rational liberty and individual initiative. He must first
receive or give himself a long and difficult education.

CHAPTER VI
THE JAVANESE MIND

I. The religious question in Java is involved in the historic
evolution of the masses. The religion of Java is a sincere
Islamism, modified by the survivals of earlier cults; tolerant
and kindly, like the character of the nation. II. How the
Dutch Indies escaped Christianity. III. The problem of
education in Java; its various phases since the Dutch occu-
pation. IV. The awakening of the Javanese people and
their leaders ; their claims.

IT is difficult to acquire a satisfactory conception of the
Javanese mentality unless we allow for the degree of its
religious and intellectual development, and for the influ-
ence which the Dutch have brought to bear upon both.

The Javanese, like the Sundanese and Madurese, are
all, with the exception of a negligible minority, earnest
Mahomedans. Their Islamism is sincere rather than
fervid, and is modified by the surviving traces of other
cults which corresponded to other periods of their past.

Although we cannot say with certainty whence the
Javanese originated, nor when they gained possession
of their island, it is at least practically certain that they
practised, in the first instance, a more or less crude form
of animism, doubtless very similar to that which still sur-
vives among the Dyaks, Bataks, Alfurs and other races
of the Archipelago. 1 A number of rites and usages

1 A very active Christian and Mahomedan propaganda has been
carried on for a long time among these peoples, and has succeeded,
especially among the Bataks, as the various works published of late
years by explorers and missionaries testify.

136

THE JAVANESE MINI) 137

borrowed from this ancient cult, and paralleled by
the modern animistic cults of the above peoples, p<
to this day in Javanese domestic life, in the shape of
numberless popular superstitions.

From the first century of the Christian era, according
to the most plausible conjectures, down to the thirteenth
or fourteenth century, Java and the surrounding islands
professed the Hindu or Brahministic faith; and towards
the fifth century the Buddhism of the south of India was
also introduced. This Hindu civilisation, of which the
supreme political expression was to be found in the
empires of Tumapel and Madjapahit, while its supreme
artistic expression was manifested by Prambanan and
Boro-Budur, sets its mark deeply upon the race ; even
to this day its inspiration is to be found in the social
conceptions, the history, the literature, and the theatre
of Java ; it gave the Javanese his alphabet, and his
ancient tongue, or the Kawi; 1 and his two forms of cus-
tomary idiom the kromo, or High- Javanese, employed
in addressing a superior, and the ngoko, or Low-Javanese,
employed in speaking with an inferior are both full of
Sanscrit roots.

Towards the thirteenth century probably Islamism was
first preached by Persian and Arabian merchants, in the
ports of the Far East with which they traded. It
slowly made its way into Sumatra, and then into Java.
Towards the beginning of the fifteenth century it assumed

1 Kawi the ancient Javanese language. The kawi or basa kawi
(in Sanscrit " the language of the poets ") was spoken and written in
Java until the fifteenth century, and by process of evolution has
become the modern Javanese tongue. Despite its name, the kawi
has been as much employed in prose as in poetry, for the translation
or imitation of legendary, religious, or juridical Sanscrit works.
Raffles made the language known by translating a portion of the
Brata-Yuda ; Humboldt wrote a study of it in a work, remarkable
for its period, entitled Ueber die Kawi-Sprache (Berlin, 1836-1839,
3 vols. 4to) ; but the honour of having explained the true principles
of the tongue belongs to Dr. H. Kern (Kawi-Studien, The Hague,
1871, 8vo) : a book which has been the starting-point of many learned
works on the subject.

138 JAVA

the offensive at Grisei, the first point along the coast to
see the formation of a Musulman community around a
dynasty of priests princes. Hinduism vainly offered
a desperate resistance. Between 1478 and 1521 Madja-
pahit fell ; the last Brahmins and Buddhists took refuge
in Bali and Lombok, and some in the solitudes of
Tengger; and all Java became Mahomedan as it had
previously become Brahministic and then Buddhistic :
without extreme fervour, but with conviction ; being
persuaded, like many another Asiatic nation, that the
best religion was that which was able to triumph over
the others. Java is still of the same persuasion ; and
many a Dutchman now regrets that the Dutch Govern-
ment did not formerly, in a spirit of simple policy,
impress Christianity upon the people.

II.

One might reply to this that everything shows that at
a certain period the thing was possible ; the success of
the Portuguese propaganda in the Moluccas at that period
seems to prove it. Yet the circumstances were far less
favourable in the case of Holland ; and when the Dutch
finally had the leisure to undertake such a task they
would probably have found it no longer practicable.

When the Dutch East India Company commenced, at
the beginning of the seventeenth century, to eject the
Portuguese from the Archipelago, it was composed of
men in whom the religious sense was still powerful :
men whose very nationality had issued from religious
conflict. It could not remain indifferent to the question of
conversion, which was still ostensibly one of the objects
of its colonial policy. However, instead of attempting
to evangelise Java, it applied itself simply to converting
the converts of the Portuguese in the Moluccas from
Catholicism to Protestantism. Could the Company have
done more at that moment, considering the scanty means
at its disposal and the enormous area of Java, where it
could only obtain foothold little by little, while struggling

THE JAVANESE MIND 139

ist the sullen jealousy of the Chinese and the quickly
;i\v;ikcncd hostility of the Mahomedan princes of Java ?
It is very doubtful. It is probable that the Dutch suc-
ceeded in obtaining so complete a foothold in Java only
because they put forward no imperialistic policy, no
religious designs, but were apparently actuated simply
by a utilitarian and commercial object. This wise
neutrality, which was imposed by the circumstances,
and led to such extraordinary success, became the rule
of the Company, so necessary was it to avoid injury
to the susceptibilities of the natives, did the Dutch wish,
in the first place, to appear their friends and allies,
and afterwards, although their rulers, preferable to all
other Europeans.

The Dutch were no more able to renounce their policy
in 1816, when they recovered the Indies from the English.
In order to counterbalance the happy memories of such
an administrator as Sir Stamford Raffles, without adopt-
ing his policy, they were obliged to surpass it or to sink
it into oblivion by the excellence of their own methods ;
so that any religious interference at such a time would
have been disastrous.

Moreover, in the political system adopted by the
Dutch, which was that of governing Java through its
chiefs, by means of its own institutions, while they
themselves, in spite of their unremitting control, re-
mained in a remote and mysterious twilight which
increased their prestige, the separation of the religions
and languages of the Europeans and the Javanese became
an essential article of their programme.

The Javanese accordingly were not disturbed in their
beliefs. When, in the latter half of the eighteenth
century, Holland discovered that the intrigues of the
Mahomedan Turks and Arabs were likely to cause dis-
turbances in Java, and that her Christian subjects in
Amboin were closer to her and perhaps more loyal
than the Mahomedan Javanese, and that the pride of
Islam was raising a barrier between herself and the
natives a barrier which at that period was no more

140 JAVA

desired by Holland than by the natives themselves
it was already too late to change her religious policy.

Both Christian pastors and Catholic priests, the latter
being as it were regretfully tolerated in restricted numbers
from the beginning of the nineteenth century, were
subjected to all kinds of formalities, especially at the
outset, before they could obtain permission to make a
stay in the Dutch East Indies; were subsidised meagrely
or not at all, and were honoured by none of those signs
of outward consideration which so greatly impress the
natives of the Far East, so that they were necessarily
unable to make headway against the absolute indifference
of the Javanese.

Was the opinion of the Protestant Raffles correct
(which has often been corroborated by various Dutch
administrators), that the dry, cold spirituality of Pro-
testantism repelled the natives, who would have been
converted with far greater ease by the pomp and sym-
bolism of Catholicism ? If so, how could Holland,
whose very existence as a nation sprang from her revolt
against Catholicism in Europe, install that very sect in
Java ? Moreover, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth
century it appeared to the Dutch, whether rightly or
wrongly, that it was far more dangerous to allow the
Javanese to become spiritually subject to Rome than to
allow them to remain subject to Constantinople.

In 1906 the Reformed Church in Netherlands India
numbered 38 ministers and 25 assistants, and the Roman
Catholic Church numbered 35 cures and 22 priests; none
of either sect received any payment from the public
funds. There were also about 205 missionaries at work
throughout the Indies. The number of Christians in
Java and Madura was not more than 26,000 ; in the
Outer Possessions there were 434,000. Compared with
the total population, these figures appear quite hope-
less.

None the less, the priests of the two cults play a very
appreciable part, giving the Government valuable help in
educating the natives, in imparting ideas of hygiene and

THE JAVANESE MIND 141

morality, and in bringing them to a higher pitch of
civilisation, especially in the Outer Possessions.

Moreover, we must not forget the number of learned
Dutchmen highly distinguished ethnologists, linguists,
and historians who have gone out to the Indies in the
quality of missionaries.

Although the Javanese remains a Mahomedan with a
certain pride in belonging to a great international com-
munity, he is none the less a Mahomedan with a minimum
of fervour and orthodoxy. He regards all Arabs with
great respect, as in his eyes they are all more or less
remotely descended from the Prophet, and especially
venerates the Hadjis ; but he is not easily persuaded by
them to abandon his ancient Hindu or animistic prac-
tices, such as offerings to Buddhist shrines ; and although
he observes the rite of circumcision, he refuses to fast
and abstain from work on Friday. As a rule, he is
ignorant of his religion ; seldom goes to the mosque,
and rarely says the five prayers. The people abstain
from fermented liquors because they are naturally sober ;
but certain regents, and the Sultan and Susuhunan, do
not regard the drinking of wine as an offence, in spite
of the eminent religious position of the latter. The
number of Javanese who accomplish the pilgrimage to
Mecca, which is expected of every pious Mahomedan, is
negligible (less than five thousand annually), although it
has doubled in ten years ; and many undertake it only
to call oblivion down upon an evil past, or to add to a
fortune, perhaps dubiously acquired, a certain amount
of social consideration ; or from ambition ; or to join
to other advantages a vague atmosphere of sanctity.
Again, the Javanese does not observe Ramadhan, or
the month of fasting, with very noticeable strictness,
leaving that duty to the priests and a few santris. Of
the three great yearly festivals of Islam Maulid, 'Idu
'l-fitr, and 'Idu 'I Qorbdn, which he knows as garebeg
mulud, garebeg puasa, and garebeg besar the Javanese
makes very little of the first, which solemnises the Nativity
of Mahomet ; or of the second, or the feast upon the

142 JAVA

cessation of the fast ; while he pays hardly more atten-
tion to the third, the garebeg besar, the great festival,
or day of sacrifice, which takes place on the tenth day
of the twelfth month, and should be preceded by a fast
on the ninth day. On this occasion the pious Musul-
man must give alms, and must attend the mosque for
prayer in common with his co-religionists. Even in
the Vorstenlanden, which are centres of comparative
religious fervour, these two festivals are most indiffe-
rently observed. The garebeg puasa is the most religiously
solemnised. It falls upon the first day of the month
of Sawal, bringing Ramadhan to a close. Whether the
festival is badly observed or well, every one is delighted
that the fast is ended ; people bathe, wash their hair, put
on new clothes, and set out to wish happiness to their
friends and relations. Europeans have formed the habit
of exchanging good wishes with the natives on the day
of this festival, and some even believe that it represents
the Javanese " new year." The Dutch Government has
raised the garebeg puasa to the status of an official
holiday.

In all provincial or district capitals the regent, on the
day of the garebeg puasa, having received the respects of
his subordinate orficials, and having accompanied them
to the mosque, proceeds to the house or palace of the
Resident or Assistant, who awaits him, at ten o'clock,
in full uniform. The regent announces that the feast
is terminated, expresses his good wishes and those of
his companions, and returns to his own dwelling. The
Resident, in turn, proceeds to pay a similar visit to the
regent ; this is an occasion of pomp and ceremony, and
after the Resident has in suitable phrases expressed his
felicitations and those of the Government there is a
thunder of cannon, a general exchange of congratula-
tions, and popular games commence upon the aloun-
aloun. At Djokjakarta and Surakarta, at the courts of
the Sultan and Susuhunan, the festival is considerably
more brilliant than elsewhere.

From the Laodicean temperament of the Javanese, and

THE JAVANESE MIND 143

\\\^ profound politeness, arises his perfect tolerance in
religious matters, and his utter lack of fanaticism ; but
we must not conclude that he is indifferent. He is a
good Musulman because he believes and wishes himself
to be one ; it is probable that even persecution would
fail to make him abandon Islam, were such treatment
ever to be adopted ; for when once the quiet, reserved,
apathetic Javanese, stung by too keen an injury to his
self-esteem, has engaged in a conflict with Holland, his
most formidable revolts have always had the appearance
of outbreaks of religious fanaticism. It was so with
Pieter Erberfeld, 1 whose name, after the lapse of two
hundred years, is still upheld to execration upon the
ruined walls of old Batavia ; and also with another
rebel of quite another complexion Dipo Negoro, the

1 The son of a German resident in Batavia and of a native woman,
Pieter Erberfeld, who became a Musulman, appears to have been
wealthy and influential. Thanks to the distribution of amulets made
of little copper discs, he succeeded in surrounding himself with
numerous partisans they numbered nearly seventeen thousand
among whom a Javanese, Kartadrya by name, was particularly devoted
to him. He had formed the project of expelling all Europeans from
Java, and of making himself the ruler of Batavia, with the title of
Tuan Gusti, or August Lord, while Kartadrya was to be com-
mandant of the districts. It is said that a native woman betrayed
the plot, which was dated for the ist of January, 1722. A number
of conspirators were put to death, and Erberfeld was atrociously
tortured, while his house was rased to the ground, and it was
decreed that the site should never be built upon again. To this day,
in old Batavia, not far from the church, one may see a blank wall
on the top of which is a skull transfixed with a rod of iron. Below
is the following inscription :

OYTEN VERFOEYELYKE TO PERPETUATE

GEDACHTENISSE TEGENDEN THE ACCURSED MEMORY

GESTRAFTEN LAND VERAA= OF THE CONDEMNED TRAITOR

DER PIETER ERBERVELD PIETER ERBERFELD,

SAL NIEMANT VERMOOGEN SHALL NO ONE RAISE

TE DEESER PLAATSE TE ON THIS SPOT

BOUWEN TIMMEREN MET= HOUSE, BUILDING, OR STRUCTURE

SELEN OFF PLANTEN NU NOR PLANT [ANY GROWING THING]

OFTE TEN EEWIGEN DAAGE NOW AND FOREVERMORE.

BATAVIA DEN 14 APRIL A 1722. BATAVIA THE 14 APRIL ANNO 1722.

144 JAVA

instigator of the great Javanese War, whose disappointed
ambition and outraged dignity ended in a mystical
exaltation, which was indubitably sincere, and in an
appeal to all the centre of Java, calling upon the people
to arm themselves for the prosecution of a holy war.
Such also was the form assumed by the last exasperated
risings among the famine-stricken people of Bantam.

III.

The problem of native education is even more complex,
from the Dutch point of view, than the question of
religion. It is not, however, a problem of very long
standing : as lately as 1796 the Dutch Indian Company
which was governing, or rather exploiting, the Dutch
Indies, appeared to have no suspicion that such a
problem could ever present itself. It confined itself to
drawing from the soil the utmost that the soil could
yield, concerning itself neither with the political institu-
tions nor the social conceptions of its so-called subjects,
lest the one or the other should stand in the way of its
adroit extraction of the resources of the country. It is not
certain that it could have done more, considering the
means at its disposal ; certainly it appears never to have
dreamed of approaching the subject.

The short but fertile French domination, followed by
the rule of England, had of necessity to take action in
other directions ; the question of native education
was not touched upon, save in a purely indirect
fashion.

Although when the Dutch, in 1816, resumed posses-
sion of the Indies, the indifference with which the natives,
with whom they had so little concerned themselves, had
passed into the hands of other masters, without a regret
for their old rulers, should have been a cruel but salutary
lesson, the manner in which they resolved henceforth
to enter into contact with their subjects was not, perhaps,
as fruitful as it might have been, although at the outset it
might have seemed the only wise method.

THE JAVANESE MIND 145

Their policy was then, and for forty years to follow,
that of respecting the natives and their institutions. Lest
the Mahomedan susceptibilities of the Javanese should
be awakened, the Dutch impeded, deliberately but
sincerely, the efforts of the only class of people who were
at that moment anxious to enlighten and develop the
native mind : namely, the missionaries, Catholic and
Protestant. In spite of the blunders which these latter
committed having first selected Latin, and afterwards
Malay, as the medium of their education and evangelism
they would certainly, although their ambition of con-
version might well have failed, have developed the
mentality of the natives, if only by a step.

But the Dutch continued to leave the mass of the
people prostrate in ignorance and servitude, under the
direction of their own chiefs, although the intellectual
insufficiency and regrettable immorality of the latter
became always more and more obvious.

The famous Marshal Daendels, at the time of the
French domination, had very wisely decreed, in 1808,
that all the regents of the north-eastern coast of Java
should at their own expense create thus leaving the
Treasury unwrung schools provided with able teachers,
for the purpose of educating the natives according to
their adat and their belief.

This decree, repealed by the Dutch, remained a dead
letter. In 1849 there were still only two regent's schools ;
these two being due to two regents who were full of
initiative those of Japara and Pasuruan. In 1851 there
were five, but so pitiful that they were hardly worth the
trouble of maintenance.

They were, for the most part, " Koran schools," of an
indefinite type, which a holy man a panghitlu or
santri,* attended in a more or less regular fashion, giving

1 Panghulu (Malay: Dutch transcription pengoeloe, or panghodoe) t
the dean of a mosque ; santri (Javanese), a student in theology, a
theologian ; a pious man who studies the Musulman religion.
Religious establishments in which theological instruction is given
are in Java called pesantren ; the quarters inhabited by santris are

146 JAVA

the scholars a certain amount of religious instruction,
reading to them, and making them learn by heart certain
passages of the Koran. They might not infrequently
increase the fanaticism of some of their pupils ; they
could aid in the development of none.

Good issued from the greatest evil ; from the infamous
system of compulsory crops (Cultuurstelsel), conceived
by Van den Bosch ; the most immoral and gigantic
spoliation to which an upright, generous, kindly people
could ever have lent itself in its blind utilitarianism ; a
system from which Java is barely recovering to-day.
This system, which was apparently a capital thing for
Holland, since it enabled her, between 1850 and 1870,
deliberately to extract from her colony nearly two thou-
sand millions of net profits, was realised by means of
unjust deeds, legal exactions, and at the cost of human
life, and it finally forced the ruling country to take two
matters into consideration. One of these was the
notorious incompetence of the regents, who directed the
affairs of the system in their own provinces and shared
the benefits : an incompetence which, together with
their cupidity, was likely to drive the native to extremes,
by aggravating the system by additional and useless acts
of injustice. The second was the necessity of choosing
among the natives innumerable subordinate employees,
which this colossal system of exploitation required for its
regular working, and as a check, as far as might be,
against fraud. There thus arose the necessity of edu-
cating the natives employed from top to bottom of the
scale ; always with a strictly utilitarian aim.

This idea outlived the method of compulsory cultures,
being taken over unchanged by the Liberal party which
abolished the latter. But this time it was adhered to
with the more respectable object of preparing natives of
high birth to become worthy of being actually associated
with the power of Holland, and to make the mass of the

known as pondok (root fondouq = iravdoxelov) ; the hall in which
classes are held is called langgar in Java, and in the Sundanese
country, iadjug.

THE JAVANESE MINI) 147

people capable of obtaining the best from themselves as
well as from their soil. The law of 1854 was not voted
without furious recriminations and desperate political
struggles, and it was only in 1872 that it was put into
execution. It is only fair to say that Holland all that
was most noble and enlightened in the country the Van
Hoevells and Van den Puttes immediately entered the
most vehement protests against the immorality of the
system of compulsory culture, and that the whole country
attacked it without waiting for revolt or disaster in the
colony, simply as the result of a determined appeal to its
conscience. Moreover, from 1872 onwards, we shall find
that Holland has been full of a general and maternal
solicitude for the Dutch Indies ; the fact is that her
administrators have gradually learned the native tongues,
and at last come into contact with them. Other
functionaries, who have often been especially com-
missioned by the home authorities, have made a careful
study, on the spot, of the native manners, beliefs, abilities,
and ambitions ; many misunderstandings have been cleared
away, and after a long period of ignorance concerning her
subjects, Holland is endeavouring to atone for the past.

It is essential, however, that the movement in favour
of a system of serious education should obtain the im-
mediate and ungrudging support of all its European
advocates, especially those in the colonies.

At the outset there were many who, in their lethargic
egoism, protested against the idea of educating the
natives ; saying that it was impossible to do so, or that
they themselves did not wish for education, or that were
they educated they would gain nothing by it ; they had
lived for centuries without instruction, so that any
attempt at further development, so far from bringing them
enlightenment, would merely fill their feeble minds with
discontent and chaos.

IV.

Two facts appear at length to be definitely established.
The Javanese, who is extremely precocious, has also an

148 JAVA

open, adaptable type of mind, which has great powers
of assimilation. Left to himself, he learns all the sub-
tleties of his own very complex language, and also those
of the Malay tongue ; he has a remarkable knowledge of
the names and properties of the plants and trees of his
country ; his faculty of locating himself, of being aware
of the points of the compass, even in the dark, is gene-
rally known ; and all that appertains to design, geography,
or topography he absorbs with the utmost eagerness.
In school, thanks to his precocity, it often happens that
he outstrips European children of his own age ; and in
some cases he is able to maintain this superiority for
years.

Latterly, in short, whenever certain privileged indi-
viduals have obtained a full European education, we
have seen that they make a very good showing, and
have sometimes proved themselves of considerable
value. It is therefore impossible to argue that the
Javanese cannot be educated ; x a fact which is now so
generally understood that no one, save a few narrow-
minded autocrats, dares to continue to oppose the
movement.

The native's passion for learning is perhaps even more
firmly established than his aptitudes ; young and old, all
are ambitious to learn. When the first Normal Teachers'
School was opened in Java, the cadets of the aristocracy
rushed to enter it almost as precipitately as the people ;
perhaps because they saw in it, as did the people, a fresh
possibility of becoming functionaries ; but also because

1 It would be easy to name the son or grandson of this or that
regent as speaking and writing not only his own language, but
Malay, Dutch, French, &c., as well, and capable of passing very
brilliantly in the higher examinations in Holland. A certain doctor
in medicine might be named, also a fluent speaker of many lan-
guages, who is noted in the universities of Europe both for his
acquired knowledge and his untiring intelligence. Dr. L. Serrurier,
in the Catal. de la sect. Indes Neerlandaises a I' expos, col.
d Amsterdam (Leyden, 1883), cl. xi., has a short biography of a
Javanese painter, Raden Saleh Sarief Bastaman (1814-1880), who
enjoyed a certain celebrity. One might easily lengthen such a list.

THE JAVANESE MIND 149

they desired to learn, to raise themselves another step ;
and it was difficult to make them understand that the
school was not for them. On the other hand, when the
provincial schools especially intended for them were
opened, every peasant who was in comfortable circum-
stances commenced to intrigue in the hope of entering
his sons. The " schools for the sons of chiefs " in
Bandung, Probolinggo, and Magelang in Java, and in
Tondino in Minahasa, for the Outer Possessions, were
very soon complained of as insufficient both in numbers
and in the scope of their curriculum. The ambition of
every regent's son was to share in the education which
the Europeans were receiving in their own separate
schools ; to learn Dutch and the principal elements of
Western culture.

It will be readily understood that in former years this
enthusiasm for learning was neither so general nor so
precise in its aim. From the year 1820 all the regents
were bitterly complaining that they had been despoiled
of their powers and the number of their prerogatives ;
that they were playing a wholly illusory part in the Java
whose masters they had formerly been. Few would
admit that their lives, devoted to the pursuit of pleasure
and cupidity, together with their ignorance and their
unjustifiable exactions, would scarcely have permitted
them to have led a more active existence ; still less did
they admit the necessity of revising their education in
order to make themselves fit for such a life. Only a few,
like the regents of Japara and Pasuruan, and, later on,
those of Demak and Karang An jar, declared that the
Javanese nobility could only retain its rank by submitting
to the forces of evolution, and that the Dutch Govern-
ment ought to assist it.

Many saw in the opening of these " schools for the
sons of chiefs " either a futility or a snare by which the
Europeans hoped to destroy their ancient customs, and
turn the sons against the traditions of the fathers. For a
time there were vacancies in the Bandung school, and
the five regents of Bantam, a province greatly attached

150 JAVA

to Islam and adat y refused to send their sons there ; but
a Dutch official finally persuaded one of them to allow
his son, who was a very gifted boy, to enter in spite of
the objurgations of the others, and their gloomy pro-
phecies. The tact with which the boy was educated,
the extent to which he profited, together with the inborn
taste of the Javanese for intellectual culture, triumphed
over the old suspicion, and the four other regents imme-
diately sent their sons to the school, which thenceforth
had as great a vogue as the others.

Prolonged contact with Europeans, and the Russo-
Japanese War, which affected the Javanese merely as the
friends of Japan, which means little enough, but which
gave them, in common with other Asiatic peoples, the
unexpected and pleasing surprise of seeing that the
yellow man was capable of making use of European
arms, and with them of defeating a European nation,
could only increase this thirst for development from the
top to the bottom of the social scale, while giving a more
definite knowledge of the form which that development
should take.

It is impossible any longer to refuse the natives of the
East Indies the education which in Europe is compul-
sory, since they have shown themselves capable of pro-
fiting by it, and demand it. It would be puerile to raise
the objection that they must be content with the neutrality
which has been theirs for the last ten centuries ; Europe
herself has advanced only by a process of continual
evolution ; and since enlightenment and power proceed
from Europe the Javanese demand that they shall receive
their share. At all times attached to the soil, to the
memory of their ancestors, and to their adat, but
having, as they consider, exhausted the resources of their
own civilisation, they demand the opportunity of renew-
ing their strength by means of Western civilisation, so
that they may extract from it all that will not obscure the
originality of their own. 1

1 One may obtain some idea of the highly intellectual and per-
fectly loyal aspirations of the young Javanese aristocracy by ex-

THE JAVANESE MIND 151

They affirm that their loyalty will be in no sense dimin-
ished, whatever the pessimistic may believe. They are
faithful subjects of the Queen, they know all they owe to
Holland, and that they could not for a long time to come
dispense with the Dutch and rule themselves ; but the
upper classes which have hitherto been nominally asso-
ciated with the exercise of power might not unreasonably
hope to regain a certain degree of actual and effective
power, by which not only they, but the whole social
body, would benefit ; and the people, which is gradually
developing a consciousness of self, perceives the possi-
bility of improving its condition, both morally and mate-
rially, by a rational self-development.

The Javanese aristocracy are far from crying, "Java for
the Javanese ! " because, at the present moment, such a
cry would be a piece of fatuous vanity. What they do
cry is, " Give us light ! " light under the maternal aegis
of Holland, so that they may once more become worthy
of their past, and of a still better future.

Hence the cry for a multiplication of the primary
schools, where the natives could learn not only their
own language and Malay, but, towards the end of their
studies, the elements of Dutch as well ; where, above all,
they would gain a certain practical knowledge of hygiene,
agriculture, surveying, and accounts, and where they
would receive salutary advice on the subjects of thrift
and foresight, so that by yielding them more their
native soil should become yet more dear to them, while
some might be induced to enter upon commercial
pursuits, which they have ignored only too long.

The more wealthy and intelligent, the sons of petty
officials, or cadets of good family, might pursue their
studies in the professional schools of agriculture and
commerce, and would provide the administration with a
solid framework of subordinate employees, and with the

amining the programme of a native league, the Budi Utomo, and the
minutes of two congresses held by this league in October, 1908 and
1909, which I have given in the Revue du Monde Alusulman, vol. vii.,
April, 1909, pp. 414-427 ; vol. ix., Dec., 1909, No. 12, pp. 612-620.

152 JAVA

nucleus of a class of native landowners educated along
modern lines.

Others would pass through the Native College of
Medicine at Weltevreden, which is attended by the
sons of the priyayi and the younger sons of regents. 1

The better equipped of these Dokters-Djawa, whose
ardent though loyalist patriotism has already been re-
marked, would obtain scholarships or exhibitions which
would allow them to perfect their training in the schools
of Holland, which in their eyes are the source of all true
knowledge.

The sons and heirs of regents and high officials are
asking not for schools especially created for them, but
for the right to enter the elementary schools (lagere
scholeri), then the secondary schools (burger scholen,
hitherto reserved for Europeans only), in the hope
that afterwards, if they prove themselves competent,
they may attend the universities of Holland, and there
pass the same examinations as their Dutch fellow-students,
with a view to entering upon the same careers.

This attractive programme, democratic in its liberality,

1 School tot opleiding van Inlandschen Arisen, or, vulgarly, the
Dokters-Djawa School. It trains the Dokters-Djawa, or native
physicians, who are of great service. At the outset they receive
a salary of 50 florins per month, and hold the rank of assistant
wedono of the first class (district under-chief). The curriculum in
the School of Native Medicine includes the following subjects :
Dutch, physics, chemistry, botany, materia medica, therapeutics,
pathology, bacteriology, and minor surgery. A polyclinic has been
recently added to the school. The lectures, &c., are in Dutch and
Malay. The course lasts three years in the case of pupils of the
preparatory department, and six years in the case of the medical
section, properly so called. The school is capable of accommodating
two hundred students. The Weltevreden Hospital possesses as an
annex a school for midwives (School tot opleiding van Inlandsche
vroedvrouweri), intended to educate native women in European
ideas of practical obstetrics, hygiene, and the rearing of children.
They receive no fixed salary upon leaving the school, but may
claim payment for their work. Priyayi (Dutch spelling, prijaji),
employee, official, and, by extension, any one who holds a place or
rank, or is a person to be considered. But the word has especially
the meaning, in the wider sense, of "gentleman."

THE JAVANESE MIND 153

yet securing for members of the aristocracy the pre-
rogatives which they have always been granted, would
unhappily prove enormously expensive. It testifies to
the native's touching and candid confidence in the
modern deity, who finds none to deny him among the
peoples of the Far East : the deity of progress, incar-
nated in the civilisation of the Western world.

All that Holland has already performed in the way of
educating the natives guarantees the goodwill of the
administration in this matter, and her resolution to
complete her task.

In 1849 the budget of public education for the natives
amounted to 25,000 florins, for one normal school and a
few provincial schools. In 1906 it amounted to 2,318,358
florins for five normal schools (three in Java and two in
the Outer Possessions), with 31 masters and 300 pupils,
and 323 elementary schools with 74,984 pupils in Java
and Madura alone, which were subsidised by the Govern-
ment, and 446 private schools with 50,344 pupils. The
result does not appear very considerable if we compare it
with the density of the population and the money
expended ; but what colonial Power can boast of
having done as much ? Certainly not England in
India, nor France in Indo-China,

Will the Dutch Government be able to go much
further, and, with the help given by the private schools,
succeed in satisfying all the demands for further schools
which are pouring in on every hand ? It is very certain
that it will have to proceed more deliberately than the
native aristocracy desires ; the heavy expenses of public
education, added to the cost of the Achinese War for the
last three years, is causing a slight deficit in its budget ;
but it does not appear that this deficit will be increased.
For the rest the movement is well afoot ; everywhere the
richer natives, often in conjunction with the wealthy
Chinese, are offering to come to the help of the authori-
ties in order that they may obtain their desire ; and
unless progress is the most illusory of chimerae, Java is
on the way to acquiring mental and moral characteristics
which are worthy of attracting attention.

CHAPTER VII
THE ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT

I. The Oriental foreign element in Java and Madura : the
Japanese, Arabs, and Chinese. The Japanese are the latest
arrivals, and the least numerous, but also the best treated.
II. The Arabs : the religious and economic danger represented
by the Arab element in the Dutch Indies. III. The Chinese :
their numbers, their activity, their wealth. Why they are con-
sidered detrimental to the political and economic power of
the rulers, and the morality and prosperity of the native. IV.
The various solutions of the problem ; their injustice, or in-
sufficiency, or the impossibility of applying them. The only
remedy is to educate the Javanese so that they may take their
place as devoted collaborators and agents of the administration
and the European industries.

BESIDES the 29,715,908 Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese,
and Malays, and the 64,917 Europeans who inhabit
Java and Madura, the two islands together contain a
further population of about 320,000 Orientals.

These may be divided into 295,193 Chinese, 19,148
Arabs, 2,842 Japanese, Armenians, Persians, &c.

The Japanese, who do not exceed 1,800, although the
latest comers and by far the least numerous, are none
the less the best treated.

Since the possession of Formosa, taken from the
Chinese, and the happy issue of the Russo-Japanese War
have given them a preponderant position in the Far
East, we see them going forth on every hand, bringing
with their national pride their curious intelligence,
alternately adaptable and arrogant, their activity and

164

ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 155

powers of assimilation, which allow them to appear, in
the eyes of the rest of Asia, as having won the victories
of Western civilisation. They have the double advan-
tage of being of the same racial strain, yet of appearing
to be as " strong " as Europeans ; so that in the Dutch
Indies, where this gives them a dangerous superiority
over the other yellow races, they have obtained the
favourable treatment reserved for Europeans.

This fact contributes not a little to increase their
prestige still further in the eyes of the natives ; already
native papers abound, on the fourth page, in Japanese
advertisements, wherein physicians, apothecaries, and
shopkeepers of all kinds offer the Javanese, in terms
adapted to their mental make-up, the last effort of Western
science, or its most finished products. They are trying
to oust the Chinese from the market ; and their initial
move, although not as yet formidable, in view of their
scanty numbers, at all events manifests their perfect
competency for that purpose. So far it would be almost
as absurd to exaggerate their nascent influence as to
ignore it.

Although the Japanese, legitimately proud as they are,
and perhaps a little carried away by their late success,
are seeking to make friends of the people of the Archi-
pelago, of whom a more or less plausible theory makes
them the distant cousins, it does not appear so far as
though the native masses are particularly impressed.
The aristocracy alone recognises their significance ; but
has been more than once repulsed and wounded by the
intractable pride with which the Japanese have long
been reproached, and which makes it less easy to do
business with them than with the adaptable and obliging
Chinese ; and the example of their relentless seizure of
Korea has given many pause to think.

II.

With the Arabs, on the other hand, the Javanese has
powerful religious affinities, and the habit of long-estab-

156 JAVA

lished intercourse. From the earliest times, moreover,
the small Arab community has exercised a living in-
fluence upon the life of the island, and on several
occasions has caused the Dutch Government some
anxiety, though perhaps without very good reason.

As a rule, Europeans make two complaints against
the Arabs. Firstly, they accuse them of pan-Islamic
tendencies ; they fear that they will awaken, as soon as
they can, in the name of a community of faith, the fire
of fanaticism in the lethargic, tolerant mind of the
Javanese, and will direct it against the Dutch ; secondly
they complain that their bad faith in matters com-
mercial, and their usurious habits of business, are under-
mining the economic prosperity of the Europeans in
Java, and are even more harmful to the natives.

These two grievances appear to correspond with the two
categories of Arabs who inhabit the Dutch Indies. On
the one hand are the Hadjis and santris who visit Java
in order to watch over its orthodoxy, and to reanimate
the faith of the natives, and the few influential heads of
Arab communities in the large towns, who are more or
less the spiritual directors of such communities ; on the
other hand are the traders and travelling merchants.

The Javanese retains a certain traditional respect for
the Arab, who was formerly his religious sponsor : he
regards the Arab as of the noblest race of all, because he
is descended more or less remotely from Mahomed, and
because he is a Musulman.

For the rest, it is indubitable that among the Arabs of
the East Indies are some of a rebellious type of ortho-
doxy : often smitten with the ambitious dream of pan-
Islamism, by which the Musulman of the East who has
been subjected to the intellectual hegemony of the West
attempts as far as may be to console his pride. It hurts
them to see the Indies, where formerly they were
morally predominant, still in the hands of the infidels ;
but this vague and secretive state of mind rarely betrays
itself by overt acts ; only in a few individuals does it find
open expression. Nearly all the Arabs maintain an

AX ARAB TRAUKR, SURAHAJA.

To face p. 156.

ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT

attitude of extreme propriety with regard to the Dutch
authorities. The best, who are also the most highly
placed, by reason of their enlightened views of religion
and of justice : the others because they know themselves
weak in the presence of a well-organised power. With
the exception of a few petty and unfortunate intrigues
on the part of subordinate Turkish agents, all the
religious disturbances of the last thirty years have been
the work not of Arabs but of Javanese or Malays, who
have returned from Mecca, having there been transformed
into fanatics by the retrograde beliefs and impossible
hopes upon which the colony of Djawas still nourish
themselves. The Dutch have had far more trouble with
the Javanese and Malay pupils of the Arabs, who have
been influenced by the dangerous and fanatical atmo-
sphere of Mecca. 1

There is more to criticise in the commercial habits of
the Arabs. Their name in the Far East, as in France
in the eighteenth century, is synonymous with usury
and deceit. As regards their dealings with the Euro-
peans, their economic competition with whom is com-
plicated by a sullen political hostility, they are accused,
with only too good reason, of failing to meet their
engagements ; of abusing sleeping partners and vendors
by a comedy of probity, which they sometimes prolong
for years, and then, just as they have negotiated a heavy

1 " As early as the eighteenth century there were groups of East
Indian Mahomedans of considerable importance in Mecca, which
had already been established there for some time ; they were the
nucleus of the colony of the 'Djawas,' or Musulmans of Malay
race, which is to-day so numerous, and which comprises natives
from all parts of the Indian Archipelago." Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje,
La Politique du gouvernement des Indes N eerlandaises a I'egard de
Hadjis (trans, into French by T. J. Bezemer in the Rev. du Monde
musul., vol. viii., Nos. 7-8, p. 401). In Mekka, a work by the same
author, in the last chapters of vol. ii., is a curious study of the colony
of the " Djawas." The Rev. de I'hist. des relig., 1908, has also pub-
lished an article by Dr. Snouck Hurgronje entitled I' Arabic et
les Indes N eerlandaises, which is the opening lesson in his course
on Arabic at Leyden University.

158 JAVA

loan, or a large purchase on credit, of taking flight like
common swindlers. As regards the Javanese, who
started by regarding them with favour on account of
their community of belief, they are accused of shameless
usury, and of urging the Javanese, credulous and impru-
dent children as they are, to ruinous purchases on credit.

The only remedy, supposing these grievances to be
well founded, is for the European to take such precau-
tions in doubtful transactions with the Arab that the
latter, who is naturally a good man of business, is quickly
made to feel that his only chance of trade in the Indies
lies in honest dealing ; this is a lesson which, if neces-
sary, must be taught him against his will. Suspicion
on the part of the customer is always the beginning
of honesty on the part of the vendor.

Similarly, the best means of delivering the heedless
and extravagant Javanese from the yoke of the Arab in
matters commercial is to enlighten him as to his real
interests ; to educate him in business matters, in order
to teach him to look after himself. A man is never
better defended than by himself.

III.

The Chinese question is more complicated, because
the Chinese possess three important advantages:
numbers, wealth, and ability. In every important city
they form a thickly peopled colony : there are 28,150 in
Batavia, 13,636 in Samarang, 16,843 in Surabaja, 5,266
in Djokjakarta, and 6,532 in Surakarta ; one finds them
wherever there is money to be made; and their presence
anywhere is enough to denote some known or possible
source of gain. 1 The Dutch say they collect like vultures

1 " These strangers (the Japanese and the Chinese) are as the
Jews, and even worse ; they go never into any poor or barren land,
but live always and traffic in those countries where milk runs and
honey, where they may derive profit" (Gabaril de S. Antonio.
Successes del reyne de Camboxa (Valladolid, 1604), fol. 78. The
period of which he speaks dates from 1580 to 1600).

ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 159

about their prey. The Chinamen, so one always hears,
arrives emaciated, naked, with an empty stomach, and
without a sou ; but, once in Java, by force of work,
adaptability, sobriety, and activity always alert, in the
space of two years his purse and his stomach fill out, so
that he is able to leave the master tailor, shoemaker,
shopkeeper, or manufacturer with whom he first took
service. He begins to work for his own profit. Very
often a pedlar or packman, were it only to gain a better
knowledge of the country, and to go adventuring after
that continually looked-for occasion, the chance of a
certain fortune, he sets out, indefatigable, with a com-
plaisance that nothing can rebuff, so that when he
returns from his tour, with his money-bags fuller, and
the richer by a profound experience, he is ripe for
larger enterprises, and he knows where to find them.

Thus patiently the Chinaman becomes one of the
great owners of the island, whose luxury exacerbates the
envy of the Europeans ; a drain upon the public fortune
which must not be overlooked. The value of Chinese
property in Java is estimated at .16,000,000.

A buyer and a seller of all kinds of merchandise ; a
manufacturer who will buy and renovate abandoned
workshops ; a farmer of State monopolies, which he
nearly always obtains through always having ready
money, and having obtained, oppresses the people with-
out remorse in order to regain his money and his profit ;
a lender of small sums by the week and a large banker ;
always smiling and supple, whatever be his fortune,
where he smells a profit ; pitiless to his creditors, whose
debts he will impudently increase with the utmost
effrontery, and on whom he will cheerfully bring com-
plete ruin ; such is the Chinaman. He has, in short, all
the intelligence and all the crude immorality of what
men agree in calling "a man of business/'

The Europeans in the Indies, as formerly in Indo-
China and other Asiatic countries, complain furiously of
the Chinaman ; and their angry protests are not always
without foundation. They reproach him with creating

160 JAVA

a dishonest competition, and with ruining the Javanese.
The competition between Celestial and European is no
new thing in the Dutch Indies, When the Dutch, the
victors over the Portuguese, wished to extend their rule
to Java, they had far more trouble with the hostile
Chinese merchants, who had been in the island for
centuries, than with the open revolt of the Musulman
princes. It is only fair to say that they often made the
Chinese pay in the cruellest fashion ; for the struggle
was desperate between 1737 and 1741, and many Chinese
were put to death.

The scission of the ancient kingdom of Mataram into
the two Principalities of Djokjakarta and Surakarta
took place in the second half of the eighteenth century,
simply to punish and thenceforth to prevent the secret
assistance which the Susuhunan had lent to a horde of
Chinese who had offered to rid him of the Dutch. The
Chinese, despite their number, were massacred without
pity, and the Susuhunan, although it was not obvious
at the time, paid with the half of his territory for his
tacit connivance in the intrigue.

Slowly deprived by the Dutch of their political pre-
dominance, the wily Asiatics took their stand anew
upon the economic battle-ground ; the Europeans to-
day complain that they ruin the market by offering
goods similar to theirs at a far lower price, thanks to
the incredible conditions under which their newly-
landed countrymen are forced to work, and because
they themselves can live on nothing. Thus at one
stroke they exploit their own countrymen, the Euro-
peans, and the Javanese, whom they persuade into
making unreasonable purchases of articles whose value
is as inferior as their price is low. The argument is just
a little specious ; it is true that the Chinese, who by
reason of his Asiatic birth and his tastes lives under
conditions which are infinitely less costly than those of
the European, can sell at an infinitely lower price, even
without the outrageous exploitation of his own poorer
compatriots ; this is an advantage of race which he will

ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 161

always retain. But if the Chinaman were not there, can
we be certain that the native would enjoy any other
advantage than that of paying the European very dearly
for articles that might be excellent, but beyond his
means ? The European is suffering from the hard law
of economic competition ; if he wishes to triumph, he
must play other cards than the expulsion of the Chinese,
who have by now become one of the indispensable
factors of the prosperity of the Indies. 1

What would become of the European and the Dutch
Government without the presence of the Chinaman in
Java ? A hard worker, meditative, mindful of his respon-
sibility, he is the linch-pin of all great public or private
enterprises ; to the native the necessary intermediary,
the obscure but necessary cog-wheel, the middleman,
the go-between, whom the European would not and the
Javanese could not as yet replace. One finds him every-
where ; one needs him everywhere ; one must therefore
accept him, while limiting, as far as possible, the bad
effects of his role.

One thing is undeniable : that although the Chinaman
may penetrate to the heart of the remotest kampongs,

1 The chief reasonable objection to the Chinese is that they are
apt to remove large sums of money from the country ; though in
the case of business concerns descending from father to son this
is not the case. But even where it is the case we must remember
that the Chinaman's fortune is only his wages for distribution ; it
does not matter to the Javanese whether a Chinaman or a railway
brings his goods. After all, the Chinaman is an element of national
prosperity ; for of the money he receives much goes to his
employees, who use it to purchase food from the Javanese ; he also
imports and exports goods. The Dutchman almost invariably
retires with his fortune to Europe ; the Chinaman does not always
take his fortune out of the country. In any case that fortune is the
wages for transactions that bring money to Java. Thus the objec-
tion to him is that of a jealous rival ; he is less of a drain on the
country than the European. To impose death duties and to teach
the native thrift and self-control would make the Chinaman still
more harmless as regards Java ; while the Europeans should seek
to develop those branches of commerce in which the Chinaman
cannot compete with them. [TRANS.]

162 JAVA

there to introduce the goods, the tastes, and the needs
of more civilised races, he is often accompanied by ruin.
For the man he has to deal with as customer is the most
irresponsible and prodigal of clients, utterly incapable
of weighing the consequences of his acts, desiring every-
thing, just as does a child, without stopping to consider
whether he will ever have the means of payment. The
Chinaman demoralises him by his insistent and insinu-
ating offers, makes him buy beyond his needs, and
allows him to buy upon credit, which is nearly always
the best form of legal theft when one has the poor to
deal with. He furnishes the deadly even more willingly
than the useful ; he will rather sell opium * than cloth ;
he will lend at outrageous rates of interest ; will take all
the native's possessions in payment of a trifle ; deceives
him in the smallest accounts ; and having first appeared
as the most obsequious of servitors, he reveals himself
as the most pitiless of masters. For this evil, although
it is proven, there are no remedies excepting one, the
efficiency of which some Europeans distrust as much
as they distrust the Chinese : to educate the Javanese
until he can defend himself against his own puerile
covetousness, and against the temptations of the Chinese,
so that he may gradually collaborate with the European
in supplanting them. Such a task would be long and
far from easy, yet undoubtedly possible. Ten years ago
the train running between Batavia and Surabaja took
two whole days for the journey ; the passengers slept at
Maos, as they were assured that the train could not
proceed by night ; the thoughtlessness, irresponsibility,
and idleness of the native drivers and stokers making
it out of the question to trust them for a night journey.
For some time now they must have reformed themselves
in these particulars, for the train pursues its way by
night as well as by day. Such cases are seen every-
where, and indeed it is probable that the Javanese,

1 The Sundanese, thanks to the Chinese, have begun to consume
a deplorable a t amount of opium, although fifty years ago they
scarcely knew of its use.

*' y , 1

>??ii.

i-sifw^'

^. aX iKfl^l^^Hta jff ^ .' . i u'"^^ ' .* '^-.i>v-J

ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 1G3

having hitherto played an absolutely subordinate part
in all important undertakings, may nevertheless one day
be able, if only they are given an appropriate educa-
tion, to assist the Europeans in ousting the Chinaman.
It is a desirable consummation.

IV.

In the meantime the harshness of the Chinese influ-
ence might be mitigated by progressively abolishing the
process of farming out monopolies, taxes, &c., the
recovery of which is so oppressive, and often so unjust,
that the State contracts for them in order to be rid of
the business. Even the most case-hardened of Euro-
peans sicken at the business, so that it passes almost
entirely into the hands of the Chinese, who often
squeeze double the legal tax from the poverty-stricken
natives. The opium monopoly has already been almost
entirely wrested from the Chinese by means of a scheme
of excise based upon that employed in Indo-China,
greatly to the benefit of the native's intelligence and his
savings. The native is being gradually weaned from
this dangerous drug, while the Chinese vendor used to
force its consumption by every possible means. 1 It is
equally urgent that the monopoly of lending upon
pledges should be withdrawn from the Chinese, as
they abuse it in order to despoil the natives, although
the system was originally intended to help them. This
is nearly all that can be done at present.

It seems hardly possible, either morally or materially,
to deport the Chinese, and a matter of great difficulty
to confine them, according to the methods of another
age, to a few ports. To be frank, it is necessary to
reckon with the enormous State which stands behind
them, and also with the economic power which they

1 See W. P. Groeneveldt, Rapport over het opium monopolie in
Fransch Indo-China in verband met de vraag in hoever beheer in regie
van dat middel voor Nederlandsch-Indic wenschelijk is (Batavia, 1890,
large 8vo).

164 JAVA

represent, as was proved by the decree of 1837, pro-
hibiting further Chinese immigration into the Indies,
which had to be repealed. On the other hand, since
their complete political docility is assured by their or-
ganisation into communities, which are subject to the
commands of a " major," " captain," or " lieutenant,"
appointed by the Dutch authorities, would not the
simplest plan of dealing with them be to " Javanise "
those who are in the island, and to limit further immi-
gration, especially of women ? For the Chinese woman
is the chief danger; she creates a home abroad for the
immigrant ; a home foreign, if not hostile, to the Indies.
Impenetrable though the Chinaman seems to be in his
inner self, he is really extraordinary in the ease with
which he adapts himself to his surroundings. When
fortune smiles upon him he seems at once to be at home,
and if he is not wealthy enough to have his wife sent
over from China he will take a wife in Java, or at least
a concubine, who is of the utmost value to; him in his
business, on account of her profound knowledge of his
world. Again, the concubine is often extremely useful
to him in his schemes for obtaining land ; for example,
she will lend her name to the purchase of a plot of land,
supposing it to belong to a territory which is now for-
bidden him, and which becomes a portion of the real
estate which he and his compatriots have gradually
accumulated, either when the State was alienating its
territory, in the eighteenth century, or when private
individuals have sold their own holdings, which were
bought at the same period. Attached to Java by reason
of their affection for the soil, and the families they have
reared in the island, there are very few chances of their
returning to China ; in the majority of cases the China-
man's Javanese wife and children alone are sufficient to
retain him in the island. Although some, after amassing
a fortune, abandon their temporary families and return
to China, and although some of those who temporarily
settle in the Indies, having brought their families with
them, come with the sole end of amassing money, there

ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 165

;u v also many who will settle for good, and their children
will be only half Chinese, while their grandchildren will
be Javanese, with a superiority in the matter of educa-
tion and business traditions which will greatly facilitate
their progress. These latter only should be favoured.

It is worth remarking that in many localities the
Chinese, allied by ties of blood with the native Malays
and Javanese, ask nothing better than a community
of interest with these latter. They even issue some
Chino-Javanese newspapers in which their demands are
published, and which help the Javanese to fight the good
fight in order to force their way into the European
schools and obtain their share of Western culture. For
the Chinaman, so obstinately conservative in his own
country, elsewhere demands, although his object is
purely utilitarian, the knowledge which will the better
enable him to struggle against his economic competi-
tors. 1 It would indeed be strange, however vigorous
their personality, if in the long run a fixed population of
some 150,000 Chinamen, married to native women,
could not be absorbed by a population of more than
29,000,000.

As for the means of restraining the immigration of
the Chinese without notorious harshness, it would seem
that a system of taxes, comparable to that already in
successful operation in the United States, should be
sufficient in Java, if the taxes were adequate.

Besides an annual poll-tax, a comparatively high
entrance duty, and a tax upon revenue and industry,
the Dutch Government should demand of the new-comer
the possession of a trade, a surety, and savings enough
to prevent his immediately becoming a burden on the
colony or fattening himself entirely at its expense. But
measures of this sort, if half-hearted, lose their pro-

1 Numbers of the Chinese established in the East Indies speak
Dutch, and often English. It seems that there is talk of publishing
a newspaper in the Dutch language, subsidised by the Chinese,
which will uphold their interests. At the present time the Malay
press in Java is almost entirely in their hands.

166 JAVA

hibitive character ; they must either be re-enforced or
renounced.

The great drawback to the employment of such
measures is that the inequality of such treatment, com-
pared with favourable treatment of the Japanese, would be
rather too flagrant. Since the Japanese have been treated
with consideration, the Chinese insistently demand similar
consideration, and they can only be denied by sheer right
of sovereignty. Despairing of obtaining equal treatment
by straightforward means, some have hit upon a ruse
which is natural enough, but little likely to conciliate the
sympathies of the colonists ; they proceed to Formosa, in
order that they may, after being settled there for some
little time, become naturalised Japanese, and then, with
all the privileges enjoyed by the latter, deliberately settle
down in Java. It is probable that such as these, who
will soon be of three nationalities, will hardly be in the
most formidable category of Chinamen in respect of the
natives.

It is true that the competition between Chinese and
Japanese will probably lead, without much delay, to the
elimination of these too newly-branded Japanese.

Nevertheless, in an age when the employment of
violent measures against a whole category of individuals
is always futile or dangerous, we must repeat that the
best means of defence against the preponderant influence
of the Chinese in Java is to teach the Javanese, who are
teachable in the extreme, to beware of them, and to
replace them as quickly as possible in practically every
employment into which they have insinuated themselves. 1

1 Concerning the Chinese question in the Dutch Indies, see the
following works : G. A. Romer, Chineezenvrees in Indie, cited from
Vragen des Tijds (Haarlem, 1897, 8vo) ; W. de Veer, Chineezen onder
Hollandsche vlag (Amsterdam, 1908, 8vo).

THE CHINESE NEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL.

NATIVE I'OLICKMI \.
(The forked poles are for holding down natives in a state of musk.)

To face p. 166.

CHAPTER VIII
EUROPEANS IN JAVA

I. The three aspects of the European element in the Dutch
Indies : army, colonisation, bureaucracy. The army. II. The
colonists : foreigners, and why so few settle in Java. The
French colony. III. The Dutch colony. Its relations with
the State and the natives ; despite the vast area of the planta-
tions, there are few private freeholds ; the planter is the tenant
of the State or of the natives ; sometimes of both together.
IV. His life : his house, furniture, and costume ; his food,
servants, and amusements. V. The instability of European
families in Java ; why they do not settle there without thought
of return. VI. The half-breeds.

THE Europeans and those of mingled European blood
form a population of 80,910 in the Dutch East Indies :
of these 64,917 are in Java and Madura. These figures
do not include Europeans serving in the army, whose
numbers are 10,732, not including a reserve of 2,200
officers and men.

This colonial army (leger), which attains the total war
strength of 33,682, is an organism in no way connected
with the national army of Holland. It always contains
a proportion of one-third of Europeans to two-thirds of
natives, excepting in the case of crack regiments, where
this proportion is reversed. In the native companies the
officers and a large number of the non-commissioned
officers are Europeans ; in the artillery the gunners are
always Europeans, while the drivers, &c., are natives.

The army is recruited in Europe and in the Indies,
by voluntary enlistment. The officers are drawn almost

167

168

JAVA

entirely from the Dutch army, and have usually passed
through the military colleges of Kampen and Breda.
Besides an initial kit, the sub-lieutenant receives a lodging,
or an allowance for the same, and a minimum pay of 170
florins a month, which increases, according to the rank
obtained, to a maximum of 2,000 florins for a lieutenant-
general of troops. At the end of forty years of service
twenty in practice, the years passed in the Indies
counting double, like the French " campaigns " he
obtains a retiring pension which varies from 1,200 to
9,000 florins per annum.

The non-commissioned officers and privates are paid
according to their country of origin and the arm with
which they serve. The daily pay varies from o fl. 33 to
o fl. 44 for the European, and from o fl. 21 to o fl. 25 for
the native. To this is added uniform, 1 food, lodging for
men and families, and supplementary rations proportioned
to the needs of each. Here we have not the least original
point of the colonial army : each soldier has the right
to lodge with himself in the barracks his wife or con-
cubine and their children ; he may even, under certain
circumstances, take them with him on campaign ; these
measures, against which morality occasionally fulminates,
are designed to attach the soldier to his hard calling,
which is not merely a temporary affair as with the mass
of soldiers in Europe, while granting the advantages of a
family or a very modest harem. Their most obvious
result is to turn the barracks, however neatly they are
kept, into a squealing nursery, and to enrich the colony
with half-breeds of all shades and races.

The majority of the white soldiers are Dutch. To
these we must add a small contingent of deserters and
adventurers : German, English, Belgian, Swiss, and a few
French.

Among the natives the most valued are the Amboinese,
for their fidelity and intelligence ; and the Javanese, for
their disciplined obedience.

* Only the European and Amboinese soldiers wear boots or
shoes. The florin is one-twelfth of the pound sterling.

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 169

The officers of the Dutch colonial army have the name
of being remarkable trainers of men ; full of initiative
and technical knowledge ; and as there are always dis-
turbances here and there in so large an empire, they have
scarcely the leisure to lose either of these qualities.

II.

Outside the army, the Europeans are divided into
colonists and officials. The Indies have been open to
neither for any great length of time. The Commercial
Company or East Indian Company, which obtained a
monopoly of the trade of the Indies and retained it until
1796, when its liquidation was announced as the result of
a bankruptcy amounting to more than .10,000,000, dealt
with the Indies for purely commercial ends. We may
say that it came to figure as a sovereign power against its
will ; as it was obliged to reduce by force of arms the
native states which refused the only thing for which the
Company sued, namely, a certain quantity of the products
of the country : spices, cotton thread, vanilla and cinna-
mon, for which it paid little or nothing, according to
circumstances, and sold at very high prices in a market
whose rates the Company itself established, thanks to
the absence of competition. By such means it earned
enormous profits. It was in nowise inclined to squander
them upon Imperialistic expeditions, which is the reason
why it conquered, almost in self-defence, its immense
possessions, according to the degree in which they might
maintain or increase its profits.

Neither had it any ambition to share its possessions
with the Dutch nation ; at the best it shared them
jealously with its shareholders. It did not intend that
any Dutchman should set foot in the Indies, excepting
a few agents and employees, carefully recruited, with an
eye to their capacities or their unscrupulous loyalty to
the Company. It wished to behave as suited it, and to
take everything for itself. For the people of Holland,
accordingly, Java remained a strange and distant land,

170 JAVA

very beautiful and wealthy, but a forbidden land, by
which one could benefit only indirectly.

The Company attained its climacteric between 1654
and 1678, when John Maetsuyher was Governor. Imme-
diately afterwards the decline set in : slow, but irre-
mediable, in spite of the efforts of the six Chambers and
the famous Council which was the soul of this mercantile
oligarchy. In spite of the jealous care that was tal ;n to
reduce to three or four species the spices which were
grown for the Company in certain islands, which were
narrowly watched in order to guard the monopoly, the
European market finally contrived to supply itself from
America and Africa ; the establishment of the English in
India was also to bring ruin upon the Company by a still
more formidable competition, which still further lowered
prices ; and this ruin was finally consummated by the
unlicensed luxury of the Company's agents, who, in spite
of various sumptuary decrees, insisted upon appearing
everywhere with the pomp of Asiatic potentates, and,
when the coffers were empty, of procuring money by
oppressing the natives, who rose against them ; whence
a series of costly expeditions. 1

The war with England caused the rotten pear to fall.
In 1798 the Crown of Holland displaced the Company,
and proceeded to draw the greater part of the wealth
of the Indies. The Crown, it appeared, had no idea of
repairing the errors of the Company ; it was equally
careless of the needs of the natives ; it distrusted all
Dutchmen who were not in its service ; it had the same
utilitarian and egoistical conception of exploiting the

1 Concerning the privileged Company of Commerce in the East
Indies see De Geoctroijeerde N ederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie,
by Baron G. G. d'Imhoff ; Considerations sur Vital present de la
Compagnie Hollandoise des Indes Orientates, relalivemenl a sa navi-
gation, a son commerce, el a son gouvernement ; el sur les moyens de
remedier aux causes de sa decadence (La Haye, P. de Hondt, 1763,
4to) ; J. P. I. du Bois, Vie des Gouverneurs generaux ; A. Chambalu,
Die Hollandisch-Ostindische Gesellschaft (1602-1798) kein Voebild fur
unsere Kolonisationsgesellschaflen (Cologne, 1891, 410) ; Dr. S. van
Brakel, De Hollandsche handels-compagnieen der zeventiende eeuw.
Hun ontstaan. Hun inrichting (The Hague, 1908, large 8vo).

CHINKSK KAMPOXd, BATAVIA.

THE HACK OF THK CHINESK KAMI'ONC, I1ATVYI A.

To face P. 170.

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 171

Indies. Nevertheless, it was obliged to proclaim the
freedom of colonial trade, and many a bold spirit slipped
in through the sullenly opened door.

The government of the great Marshal Daendels, the
" Napoleon of the Indies" (1808-1811), and the period of
the English occupation under Sir Stamford Raffles and
Lord Minto (1811-1816) were, despite all their troubles,
as successful as they were beneficial to Java itself.
Daendels and Raffles, pressed by necessity, were forced
to alienate the last remnants of State territory, which thus
passed into private hands, opening a vast field to private
initiative.

The scission with Belgium, the war which followed in
Holland, the enormous deficit which it left in the Dutch
exchequer, and the system of forced labour designed to
fill it, unhappily paralysed this first renewal of life. In
1850, however, when the system of compulsory labour was
condemned by public opinion, colonists reappeared in
the Indies, to replace forced by free labour ; and in 1860,
when slavery had been officially suppressed, and in 1873,
the State having resolutely assumed its essential duty of
protecting and educating the natives, Europeans were
encouraged, and hastened to establish themselves as
colonists. The distrust of the Government, hardly
recovered from so many warnings, and always suspicious
of covetousness in others, was at last pacified ; to-day,
thanks to her climate and her inexhaustible agricultural
resources, Java ranks high among the countries of Asia
as the home of many Europeans.

Nearly all the Europeans in Java are Dutch. Holland,
a country of merchants and sailors, and one of the
wealthiest in Europe, in proportion to the numerical
weakness of her population, has had no need to borrow,
as it were, from other nations, either colonists, merchants,
manufacturers, or money.

The Dutch own the most desirable of all colonies,
having regard to their national characteristics ; which
explains why they are to be found in Java in far greater
numbers than the English in India or the French in

172 JAVA

Indo-China. The European non-Dutch element (not
counting European soldiers) consisted in Java and
Madura, in the year 1907, of 800 Germans, whom one
finds under all skies and in all latitudes, about 180
English, 274 Belgians, 146 French, and a few Italians.

Java, for reasons already given and for others, such as
its over-population by the natives, whence labour is very
cheap, and the absence of mines of gold or silver capable
of enriching the prospector by a sudden stroke of luck,
has no attractions for poor Europeans. They could not
perform manual work on account of the climate ; and
there are no gratuitous concessions of land. The French
in Holland are mostly hairdressers or tailors ; presently,
no doubt, the number of modistes will increase, as the
Dutch are now inclined to abandon the fashion of going
bareheaded in the evenings, as did the Spaniards in the
Philippines, and as the women of South America do.
A few Frenchmen go to Java as planters, cultivating
sugar-cane or coffee on land rented on a long lease from
the State, with the help of considerable capital. Such a
course is the only means of making money in Java, as it
is in India and Indo-China. There should be room, how-
ever, for merchants and for young electrical engineers,
as many factories have need of the latter, and Holland
does not herself produce them.

The stranger, of whatever nationality, or even the
Dutchman newly landed in the Indies, is required within
three days of his arrival to present himself to the
authorities in order to establish his identity by means
of his passport, and to declare whence he comes, where
he is going, and his purpose ; and this must be done
under penalty of a five-florin fine for each day of delay,
and expulsion if he shows himself evidently unwilling to
comply with their formalities. 1 This supervision, if at

1 On the pier of the Messageries Maritimes, which runs the service
between Singapore and Batavia, the following notice is displayed :

"ADMISSION OF FOREIGNERS TO THE DUTCH INDIES.
" Every person without exception not a resident in the Dutch
Indies, is required to present himself to the chief local authority

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 175

first si^ht a trifle strict, is perfectly comprehensible ;
surrounded with powerful neighbours, and having to
maintain order throughout a great empire with the least
possible display of force, Holland prefers prevention
rather than reprimand, and would rather examine her
guests at the outset than be forced to expel them from
the island if they turn out badly. Once the new-comer
is accepted, the Government is extremely cordial in its
relations with him, and no one receives a warmer
welcome than the Dutch planter in Java.

III.

The colonist in Java, where the soil contains little
subterranean wealth, is essentially an agriculturist ; and
the numerous factories which are building in every
part of the island are only for the preparation of the
true treasures of the land : coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco,
quinine, &c.

The plantation, which is often over 250 acres in extent,
may pass into the colonist's hands in three different
manners. He may have bought one of those great
private tracts which the Company in its decline, and
Daendels and Raffles in the early years of the nineteenth
century, sold at the instance of a pressing need of
money. Some of these estates fell into the hands of
Europeans, some into the hands of the Chinese. 1 Some

of the place where he or she finally leaves the vessel in which the
voyage has been accomplished within three days of his or her arrival,
in order to prove his or her identity, and to declare whence he
or she has come, and with what object he or she has arrived in
the Dutch Indies.

" A fine of /5 (five florins) per day of delay is incurred in case
this call is not made within the prescribed period of three days,
but the total amount of such fine cannot exceed /ioo (100 florins)."

The same notice is displayed in the public offices of Tandjong
Priok and on the tramways of Batavia. The introduction of native
"servants" or boys coming from abroad is prohibited, or at least
causes all kinds of difficulty.

1 These territories, which are no longer capable of extension,
cover an area of some 2,500,000 acres.

174 JAVA

are immense tracts of untilled land, very difficult to
break up for agriculture, owing to the lack of sufficient
labourers ; some are highly and completely cultivated,
containing one or more villages, which pay rent or dues,
and with regard to the owner are situated somewhat as
a vassal with regard to his sovereign. On such an estate
the owner may plant his sugar-cane, tobacco, or coffee,
and build his factory and his house, provided that he
does not seriously infringe the rights of any of the
natives, who are under the protection of the State. But
however large such an estate may be, the colonist does
not often retain it in his own hands. When he has the
chance of acquiring one of these private properties he
very commonly divides it : for how can he tell whether
his son will be content to live in Java after him,
and continue his work, supposing that he has a family ?
In climates where the violent action of nature seems
for ever renewing the aspect of physical objects, he does
not experience any unreasonable desire of permanency ;
and if he owns land he rarely retains in freehold
more than the plot on which his house or factory is
built.

As a general thing the planter rents his land from the
State. The State is the principal owner in the island ;
but has reserved an enormous private domain for its own
exploitation, or for that of the natives with the permission
of the State. The State gives the planter the land he
requires as leasehold tenant (erfpachter), often for a term
of seventy-five years the duration, and more, of a life,
and the time required to make a fortune for a moderate
annual rent ; but in a district where labourers are rare.
The native, supervised by the State, which will not allow
him to be despoiled, can sell the planter only a very
small portion of his own property ; or may let, for twelve
years or longer, a slightly smaller portion, on which the
planter will build his factory in order to have it near the
village, so that he may obtain plenty of inexpensive
labour. It may thus often happen that the colonist is at
once the tenant of the State in respect of his plantation,

SUGAR-CANE, JAVA.

KICK AND COKFM LANDS JAVA,

To face p. 17.1.

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 175

and the tenant of the native in respect of the site of his
factory or godowns.

As for his dwelling-house, he tries to build it on land
that is really his own ; a desire easy to comprehend, and
not very difficult or costly to realise.

IV.

The chief luxury of the colonial dwelling in Java, as
in Indo-China, and nearly all countries of the Far East,
is its setting, which nature gives for nothing. In the
midst of a vegetation of magnificent trees and inter-
twining creepers (lianas), the planter's house is equally
simple and spacious. As it is intended principally to
form a shelter from the sun, and to admit as much fresh
air as possible, one might almost say that it chiefly con-
sists of a roof set upon four corner-posts ; the floor,
which is raised above the ground, in spite of the absence
of cellars, in order to keep it comparatively free from
animals and insects, 1 is covered with cement, bricks, or
slabs of sandstone ; or, in the wealthier houses, is flagged
with marble. It is reached by an outside landing of two
or more steps, which is beautified by various plants and
flowers. As a rule the house has no upper floor, as such
an arrangement gives the inmates the benefit of lofty

1 Various species of lizard : the geckos, or tokke (Malay toke, tekek),
whose singular cry (tokke I tokke /) astonishes the new-comer ; the
hemi-dactyls or margouillats, little geckos which run across the
ceilings, which in Java are commonly known as tytyaks : these little
reptiles keep the houses free of spiders, mosquitoes, and the softer
insects. They are powerless, however, against the termites, vul-
garly known as " white ants " (rayap, ani-ani), which ravage every-
thing : timber, woodwork of all kinds, books, and clothing. One
has also to beware of the attacks of ants (semut), spiders (laba-laba,
kdd monggok) ; centipedes (Jav. klabang, Mai. lilipan, lipan\ myria-
pods whose bite is venomous ; cockroaches (Upas, ijoro] ; " flying
ants," termites in the winged or perfect phase (larongs), which leave
their retreats in the evening and fill the air with prodigious swarms,
and at sunrise strew the earth with their bodies ; and other
creatures. Before putting on one's boot or shoe it is always
advisable to examine the interior.

176 JAVA

as well as spacious rooms ; although in Batavia and
Surabaja, under the influence of European customs,
some very fine houses are now being built with upper
stories.

The colonial house nearly always consists of a large
central chamber or hall, which also serves as a dining-
room when many guests are received. An inner gallery,
running right and left, opens on the bedrooms ; some-
times on an office or study for the master of the house,
and a boudoir or workroom, or both in one, for the
mistress. In front of this inner gallery is a large outer
gallery or verandah, supported by pillars, which is open
to all the winds, and is furnished with rocking-chairs,
furniture devoid of upholstery, ornaments and bibelots,
vases, flowers, arranged in the best possible taste. This
large verandah serves as a drawing-room or reception-
room ; and parallel to this, at the back of the house, is
another verandah, where the family live and take their
meals on ordinary occasions. This back verandah corre-
sponds to the chambre de menage of the French, the
stubc of the Germans, the dining-room of the English,
the "parlour" of the Americans.

In some wealthy houses this back verandah is replaced
or supplemented by a pendoppo, a room open on all
sides ; covered with a separate roof, but built against
the back of the main building. Formerly timber and
bamboo were the materials chiefly employed in house-
building ; to-day stone is more common, or concrete
(beton), or even sheet or corrugated iron.

The roof is covered with tiles, or shingles cut to the
shape of slates ; the ceilings of hardwood or djati (teak),
or sometimes of white bamboo matting ; but never of
stucco or plaster ; are decorated more or less, according
to the fortune of the house-owner ; the walls are carefully
whitened or painted ; on the floor the carpet is replaced,
with great advantage, by clean, flexible matting. The
kitchens, stables, coach-house, larders (or gudangs), and
the bathroom (without a bath, but containing a piscina,
and a large vessel of water which is poured over the

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 177

head, and refreshes one better than anything), are in
separate buildings, standing apart from the house.

Furniture is necessarily simple. Upholstered furniture
is banished, as it is the certain refuge and prey of the
swarming insect-life ; draperies are reduced to the
minimum, since as little air must be intercepted as is
possible ; the bedrooms are provided with a bedstead
of wood or iron, which is usually provided with a
wire spring-mattress, no other being impervious to
insects. The bed or upper mattress is of kapok ; x there
are curtains of transparent muslin, and always a mos-
quito-bar of the same stuff ; there is also the classic
round bolster of American cloth the " Dutch wife "
which is placed between the legs, in order to diminish
the perspiration ; there is finally a sheet, but no
coverings, except in high altitudes.

The furniture of the dining-room and the salon is
either of rattan, bamboo, or hardwood, either worked
or bent. The large bay-windows, the transparent
curtains, and the light, flexible mattings of split bamboo
or palm-leaf, are the most prominent features of the
colonial house, which is the best possible refuge from
the tropical heat ; a refuge whereby the anaemic system
derives a little comfort, while the eyes are rested by a
harmonious blending of Oriental and European taste.

Everything required to furnish and decorate the house,
all necessary clothing, and all, in short, that a European
could possibly feel the need of in Java, may be bought
in the island at a moderate cost, which prevents the
necessity of taking them out from Holland, at the risk
of their proving unsuitable, and possibly at great incon-
venience. At Batavia one can buy all that is needed
for a family containing two children all the necessary
furniture, excepting glass, crockery, lamps, &c., for about
60. A complete installation costs ^100 to 120.

It is unhappily the case that from year to year the

1 A silky, lustrous down which forms around the seed of the
kapok, or false cotton, or cotton-wool tree (Eriodendron an-
fractuosum D.C.)

178 JAVA

colonial house, especially in the cities, is tending to
resemble more and more closely, as regards the exterior,
the ordinary Dutch dwelling-house, to the great dis-
advantage of the simplicity of colonial life ; it is also
gradually losing its rustic simplicity. Planters and
officials are marrying, far more frequently than of old,
young women who possess, if not considerable wealth,
at least considerable social position and refined tastes.
They expect to find in the Indies everything that they
would consider as forming a comfortable and enviable
household at home. This explains why the older houses
in Batavia and notably in Surabaja, that city of pro-
gress and modernity are being heightened by another
story, the effect of which is not always happy. In such
houses the inner gallery serves only as a passage ; the
back verandah is furnished with teak furniture french-
polished in the modern style : little tables, bibelots, and
gold-worked embroidered fabric is often more in the
way than in good taste. Glass doors are slowly being
replaced by light curtains ; and the light matting is dis-
appearing from the marble or imitation marble floor of the
salon, which is covered by a drugget, like those to be seen
in the morning-room of the provincial middle classes.

Some families, and not the least important, resist this
nonsensical vanity, and the perfect simplicity of their
interiors is relieved only by the reflections from a few
fine Japanese or Chinese porcelains, or the soft glow of
gracefully draped sarongs; and perhaps, on a massive
teak sideboard, the mysterious smile of some precious
Indo-Javanese statuette.

The Dutchman, who is almost as great a stickler for
etiquette and formalities as the Englishman the moment
he officially represents his country, and has nothing in
common with the democratic ease of the French colonist
in Indo-China, has succeeded in attaining, as far as
every-day life is concerned, a modus vivendi full of
cordial good-fellowship and agreeable liberty, which has
enabled him, in spite of the climate, to live long and
happily in Java.

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 179

He profits as far as possible, in matters of clothing
and food, by the instinct and experience of the native.

In the East Indian home the man is always clothed in
pyjama x trousers and a tunic of white cotton, his
feet being bare in heel-less slippers ; the woman is
becomingly clad in the Javanese sarong, of a fine,
thin cotton, held at the waist by a red girdle ; a wide
embroidered camisole (kabaja), and microscopic slippers
which complete this summary toilet. From the aesthetic
point of view the effect is rather disastrous ; the sarong,
which closely moulds the round, slight figure of the
little women of Java, takes regrettable liberties with the
robust build and the often considerable height of
the women of Holland : but the costume is relatively
so cool that it allows the mistress of the house to go
about her household duties without feeling the heat of
the climate unduly. Formerly the women used to wear
the native costume in the streets, and when visiting
relations or intimate friends, and while shopping; to-day
they wear it only at home ; and young girls and new-
comers often refuse to adopt it, replacing it by a loose
peignoir trimmed with lace. Sarong and peignoir dis-
appear in the evening, when visitors are received ; when
folk walk or drive on the Koningsplein at Batavia,
or sally forth to take ices at the celebrated Grimm's of
Surabaja : they make way for the most fashionable
European toilettes ; for the torments of a more or less
learned coquetry, which must certainly cause many a
sigh in those who submit to them after the familiar
sarong or the loose peignoir. Formerly the smartest of
women used to go bare-headed in the morning and
evening ; the plumed, feathered, complicated hat of
Europe is now making its appearance, and before long
amateurs of the latest fashions will be able to contem-

1 Pyjamas in Java signifies simply loose trousers held up by a
running-string at the waist. In Indo-China the term moresque is
employed to denote a sleeping- or resting-suit consisting of wide
trousers and a full tunic with ample sleeves, made of plain or
printed cotton.

180 JAVA

plate them in all their extravagant absurdity in Batavia
or Saigon as well as in London, Paris, or The Hague.

In their ordinary diet, however, the Dutch are still
following the example of the natives ; and to this fact
they owe a very great deal of the success with which
they resist the climate. Early in the morning the
Dutchman usually partakes, at the family table, of an
excellent cup of coffee, very strong, with boiling milk
added ; at nine comes a cold breakfast, with tea, and
various native condiments which stimulate the appetite ;
at one he sits down before the chief meal of the day,
the rijsttafel (rice table), so called from the principal
dish, an enormous mountain of steamed rice, accom-
panied by morsels of buffalo-beef, butcher's beef, game,
fish, krupuk* dendeng, 2 duck's eggs cooked, salted, and
pickled ; mashed potatoes, scraps of fowl's liver
swimming in coconut butter and seasoned with pimento;
yellowish-green sauces, strongly spiced, and various
peppers : in a word, a meal of so many different
elements and often of such unexpected appearance that
the newly-landed European is at first repelled ; but the
colonial mixes with his rice all or any of these
ingredients, which excite his jaded palate, and thanks
to them is nourished principally upon the rice, whose
monotony would sicken him if he were to eat it alone.
The midday meal is generally crowned by a dessert of
the finest fruits of the Indies ; bananas, mangoes,
mangustams and shaddocks, which are sold everywhere
at low prices. The dourian, greatly prized by the
natives, is never admitted to European tables on account
of its fetid odour ; but any one who is not too disgusted
by it will eat the fruit in private and at a moderate
distance from inhabited places, in order not to annoy
people by the horrible stench. 3 At four o'clock tea is
taken, with pastry or a few hors d'ceuvres ; at eight, a

1 Squares of buffalo derma fried in oil.

a Strips of meat dried in the sun and fried in oil ; biltong (Boer).
3 The famous Raffles had quite a particular detestation for the
dourian, according to the Malay writer, Abdullah ben Abdelkader.

COFFEE PLANTATION, JAVA, WITH BUNGALOW AND FACTORY

MAKl\(i A (iAKDKN IN I HI VIKdIX 1-okl-sT, JAVA.

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 181

final cold collation, of which few eat very plentifully,
owing to the repeated snacks and meals taken during
the day.

The ordinary drink at table is water or tea ; at the
beginning of a meal the men take a strong dose of pahit
(a bitters), which is as bad as port in its effects on the
liver, and is apt to produce dysentery, which the daily
use of rice prevents or alleviates.

When the Dutch colonist entertains which he does
with the most sumptuous hospitality the dishes and
wines are European ; the wines of the best vintages, and
the dishes perfectly prepared.

The Dutch colonist is not obliged, like the French
colonist in Indo-China, to find a Chinese cook ; * for the
Javanese woman, who is gentle, intelligent, attentive, and
assimilative, very quickly learns to act as a cook, a
chamber-maid, or first-class washerwoman, as she is by
nature the most affectionate and attentive of wet-nurses
or babus (ayahs). In a house containing one or two
children, where the parents receive and maintain a
certain social position, seven servants are required :
butler, cook, cook's help, chamber-maids, coachman,
groom, gardener, " boy-panka," 2 babus (ayahs), &c. In
the larger cities they are paid at the rate of 12 to 15
florins per month, and expected to find their own food.s

1 In Java the Chinese dislike taking service with Europeans : a
Chinese cook or boy cannot be obtained for less than 15 to 25
florins per month.

a Punkah coolie ; the punkah or panka being a great rectangular
fan suspended from the ceiling, which is swung from without by
means of a cord. This device, known to the Arabs in the tenth
century, and probably earlier, is now being replaced here and there
by electric fans and ventilators of all kinds.

3 These servants cannot, as a rule, do anything beyond their own
special duties. Thus besides the mandur (major-domo), the kokki
(cook), the babu (chamber-maid, nursemaid), and the djait (tailor),
there is the djongos (boy, valet de chambre) who is indispensable, the
knsir (coachman), the tukang kuda (groom), the tukang lampu (lamp-
boy), the tukang kebon (gardener), the tukang minotu (washing-man),
&c. The mandur has no particular duties, but is regarded as
attached to the service of his master..

182 JAVA

Very faithful and much attached to their employers,
and especially to be trusted with young children and all
that concerns them, they naturally do not possess all the
virtues. The colonist, who rings for his boy to hand
him an article just out of his reach, or to pick up his
handkerchief, will readily accuse him of laziness ; for-
getting that the torrid climate, which makes him so
apathetic, has its effect upon the native also; that his
own indolence, his habit (quickly acquired) of acting like
a little potentate, the dimensions of his spacious dwelling,
the refinements and luxuries of his life in a country as
yet poorly organised from that point of view, all mean a
heavy burden upon his servants, and call for a positive
genius for organisation on the part of the mistress of the
house. One is obliged, however, to admit a lack of thrift
on the part of the Javanese " boy " who, like his brothers
in Indo-China, always commences the day by begging
" Madame " to make him " a little advance." It is the
proper thing to grant this request, while stipulating that
he shall repay these sums at the rate of 2 or 3 florins per
month. This he does most scrupulously, but as he is
always obtaining fresh loans he is almost always in debt,
however wisely one advises him. Very sensible of good
treatment, the Javanese is keenly wounded by a coarse
insult or by bad treatment. Too weak to rebel openly,
he is capable of revenging himself secretly in a very
dangerous manner ; for the dysentery and the intestinal
disease which only removal from Java will cure, appears
often to be the work of a vindictive servant. 1

But such matters as this are the exception ; an excep-
tion nearly always the result of unpardonable demands
on the part of the master. The colonists complain a
great deal of their domestics, because they only too often
expect from them, in return for a minimum of considera-

1 As to Dutch habits in Java (the house, its choice situation,
arrangement, and furnishing ; every-day customs ; servants ; hygienic
precautions ; food ; domestic economy, &c.), see the book by Mme.
J. M. T. Catenius-Van der Meiden, Ons huis in Indie (Our House in
the Indies). Samarang, 1908, 8vo.

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 183

tion and justice on their own part, twenty times the zeal
and obedience that one would ever dare to hope for in a
European servant. "As for the virtues one demands in a
servant/' says Figaro to Almaviva, " does your Excellency
know many masters who would be worthy to act as
valets ? " More than one Javanese mandur might make
the same retort to his blanda (Dutch) lord and master.

The Dutch planter is not only hospitable in which
the French planter resembles him ; his hospitality is
notable for a rare cordiality, delicacy, and generosity.
To ensure the welfare and the happiness of his guest
is a sacred duty as well as a pleasure.

His hospitality was famous for its ostentation some
twenty-five or thirty years ago, when the Dutch were few
in Java. Their coffee and sugar were then unrivalled on
the European market ; in ten or fifteen years they used
to amass fortunes of many millions of florins, and
delighted in sharing their prosperity with all those sur-
rounding them : by means of sumptuous feasts, and a
house open to all comers.

Those golden years have passed or are passing ; and
the Dutch in Java often lament the fact, concluding that
they are far poorer now, that the colony is no longer
bringing them in any considerable degree of wealth.
The truth of the matter is very different. What is
happening in all Europe is happening in Java : there is
more money than ever in circulation, but it is divided
amongst a much greater number of owners. There is
more general wealth, but fewer large private fortunes.

Although the coffees of Java meet with a very severe
competition with those of Brazil, the Malay Peninsula,
&c. ; and although the manufacture of beet sugar has
caused the price of cane sugar to fall from 16 to yj
florins per picul, while the establishment of a greater
number of colonists, who compete one with another, has
diminished the profits of each, the extensive development
of agriculture and the industries which arise therefrom has
resulted in a great increase of wealth all the island over.

Formerly the Dutch entertained sumptuously, but with

184

JAVA

simplicity and cordiality ; the mistress of the house was
able to entertain all the more in that she used not, in the
semi-intimacy of such receptions, to put away her com-
fortable sarong-kabaya ; to-day there is more ceremony,
and also more boredom ; since there is an inevitable
tendency abroad to remain at home, and not to
torment oneself in the tropical heat with the corset or
frock-coat in order to exchange a few stale remarks with
people who are semi-strangers. As people are forced to
spend less, they are less inclined to make sacrifices to the
mundane existence save within calculated limits of time
and expense ; for which reason social life is more
lethargic, and less showy than of old.

This does not mean that the social life of the East
Indies is parsimonious or gloomy ; it is far from being
that. One might rather, indeed, reproach the Javanese
Dutch for their prodigality, as one might the majority
of colonists, and their tendency to accept salaries, profits,
or dividends, as the easily won profits of an intangible
capital : so that after leading a full and careless life they
are often scarcely richer than when they commenced, or
at least far poorer than they hoped ; but they no longer
receive except on certain days and at fixed hours ; one ball
a year is given instead of two ; and individual entertain-
ments are rapidly giving way to collective entertainments,
which are more impersonal and more banal, given by
the societies or clubs to which every one of position
belongs. In every city there are clubs and associations
of every kind ; lecture societies, musical and choral
societies, ladies' clubs, tennis clubs, and rinking clubs ;
and the Europeans not only patronise the theatre
(comedy and light opera being the favourites) but also
give amateur dramatic performances themselves. The
Locomotif of Samarang, the Sourabaiasch Handelsblad,
and the Java-Bode of Batavia always contain in a
prominent position reports of successful and crowded
performances of some lyrical or comedy company from
Europe.

The colonists, in short, amuse themselves, or try to do

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 185

so, as well as they can, in order to vary the inevitable
monotony of life in an overpowering climate, and
because such distractions are regarded, from the hygienic
point of view, as the best preventive of neurasthenia and
the unavoidable moral depression borne of a torrid
atmosphere.

Putting aside the rigours of the climate, and the
division of the large fortunes of a former time into
smaller, the real charm of life in Java is lessened, as
in so many colonies, by a lack of stability, a social
impermanence, which was far less obvious forty years
ago. Formerly there were fewer colonists, but they lived
and died often without a thought of returning to their
native country. A definite decision upon this point gave
existence a greater serenity ; the organisation of life
seemed more stable, more secure. To-day there are
colonists in plenty ; but although the climate of Java is
far more supportable than that of India or Indo-China.
both planters and officials dwell in Java only in a
transitory fashion, while waiting for the pension or the
fortune which will allow them to return to Europe.

In the long run they become a little weary of the full,
easy existence ; perhaps a little purposeless ; although
they regret it bitterly as soon as they return to the con-
ventional, parsimonious, over-strenuous life of Europe.
They submit, with increasing reluctance, to the necessity
of parting with their children while the latter are still
quite young, so that they may be educated in the mother-
country, and grow up to be useful men and good Dutch-
men. Later on they fear for these children the maladies
inevitable to the climate ; maladies which they them-
selves have not escaped ; the more so because their off-
spring have rarely the stamina of their parents. For
although it is quite true that Java is a country in which
the European can acclimatise himself, and can live very
comfortably, he cannot reproduce his race there any
better than in other tropical countries.

186

JAVA

Despite many arguments for and against the possibility,
the union between Holland and Java seems destined to
remain sterile, or to produce none but children unable
to resist the climate, who often die during the first few
years after birth. At first sight the remedy seemed to
consist in going to Europe in search of a fine, courageous,
vigorous specimen of womanhood to continue or give
fresh life to one's line ; the thing is easy to-day, for
marriage in the colonies is nowadays getting to be
regarded, even for girls of the best middle-class families,
as a good settlement in life, and a species of heroism
more tempting than dangerous.

So once again fine children are seen in plenty ; but
the mother, who has known all the luxuries of life in her
native country, is so overcome by home-sickness when
the time comes to send her beloved little flock overseas
that it is not uncommon for the whole family to return.
There is thus a constant going and coming between the
mother-country and the colony ; the latter consumes the
energies of the former, and the former consumes the
money which those energies earn as payment.

Is there danger here for Holland or for Java ? Less,
perhaps, than appears, if the new-comers will only benefit
by the experience and the efforts of those who are
leaving.

VI.

Lastly, there is perhaps one efficient remedy ; a very
radical remedy, it is true, but one well known to the
pioneers of the Dutch power in Java : I mean the cross-
ing of races. The question, I need hardly say, has
arisen in Java as in all colonies ; and although half-
breeds are more numerous in Java than in British India,
and are not the object of the same biting contempt as in
English society a contempt which elsewhere tends to
become modified when fortune comes to hide the ming-
ling of races it would be an exaggeration to say that
they are looked upon with favour. Holland looks upon
them sourly, and the little cliques of the "fashionable

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 187

Dutch world " make a practice, where colonists from
Java return to their native land, of investigating their
pedigrees, in order to assure themselves that no brown
blood contaminates their veins.

The half-breeds are accused in Java, as everywhere, of
having more of the assimilative faculty than of actual
intelligence, and also of having inherited the vices of
both races. It would nearly always be more just, in
making this latter complaint, to say that they nearly
always combine the vices of two individuals ; for this
mingling of blood is too often the result of a brutal
temperament which refuses to be guided by anything
except its own desires ; and the production of such half-
breeds is a kind of devolution, an evolution in a down-
ward direction, such as that which occurs when a
wealthy and sensual Oriental marries the first European
girl he meets.

But it has often happened, in the Dutch Indies as
elsewhere, that men of high intelligence and calm reason-
ing powers, having come to a full knowledge of the
refined and gentle races among which they lived, have
entered into closer relations with them by a marriage of
which the sons have done the greatest honour to both
peoples who were thus reincarnated in them. To the
great name of the ethnologist Wilken, Holland could
to-day add several which have helped to make her
better known to the outer world ; names of men whose
subtle penetration and high intelligence perhaps owe
more than is supposed to a Javanese or Malay mother
or grandmother.

The greatest danger to be feared from the crossings of
races is that the individual may add to his parent's vices
a bad education, or none at all. The father, who very
often wishes to break with the mother, and has no idea
of encumbering himself with a child, may wish to be
rid of both together, without inquiring what becomes of
them ; they relapse into poverty that evil counsellor
and worse schoolmistress ; and being thus abandoned to
the native race, they often bring to it nothing but

188 JAVA

a hatred of the injustice which they have suffered
from.

The Dutch State has so well understood that herein
lies a source of weakness and a loss of moral authority
on the part of the whites that no sooner is a half-
breed child recognised by his father than it counts him,
with true liberalism, as a pure-blooded Dutchman, and
enregisters and educates him as such, letting no difference
appear between him and his more fortunate brothers;
and it then seeks to marry him to the daughter of a
colonist, or an official, so as to give back to the white
race what has been taken from it, and to fortify it by the
admixture of a new stock.

The only great danger that may arise from ethnic
cross-breeds lies in the fact that miscegenation is apt to
result in marriages founded not on too great an in-
equality, but on too great a mental difference between
the two parties. Again, the continual marriage of
Dutchmen with natives would sever one of the strongest
bonds which ties the European to his native land ;
would create a race of half-breeds so numerous that
they would prefer to live apart, and after having deprived
Holland of her boldest sons would finally deprive her
of her colony. 1 At the present moment this solution
would hardly appear desirable either for Java or for
Holland, or any other colonial power ; and the moral
and equitable practice of mixed marriages is therefore
not likely to prove more than a very ineffectual remedy
for a low birth-rate, or for the excessive mortality which
afflicts the European family under the tropics.

1 This is exactly what occurred in Brazil. Some of the great
feudal nobles, after their power was broken, together with many
landless gentlemen and officers, and thousands of men-at-arms,
took women of fierce and warlike tribes of Indians. Natural
selection, based on colour-preference, has, in the case of the aristo-
cracy, produced a virile and energetic white race. [TRANS.]

CHAPTER IX
THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA

I. The important position of the European officials in Java. Their
restricted numbers are due to the form of government which
obtains in the Dutch East Indies : the Dutch govern the native
through his own chiefs. II. Relations between the native and
European administrations. III. The hierarchy, privileges, and
importance of the European official. IV. Complaints against
the officials made by colonists and natives.

IF the colonists, the producers of wealth, are one of the
essential factors of the prosperity of the Dutch Indies,
the officials who ensure the material order without which
wealth could not be created are, one might say, the
regulators of wealth ; regulators in many ways and in
variable degrees, but whose number is more limited than
one can well conceive if compared with the total of the
colonial bureaucracy of France, or even with that of
England ; rather less than four hundred of them suffi-
cing to govern these immense possessions.

This result is both the work of circumstances and of
the political genius of Holland. When the Dutch came
to the Indies, they were too weak to conquer, maintain,
and overthrow by force of arms, and were desirous
above all of practical results, to be obtained at the least
possible expense. So soon as they had established their
commercial domination, and obtained from the chiefs,
whether by or against their will, a determined royalty or
tribute in the produce of the country, to the exclusion of
all other Europeans, they were already satisfied, without

189

190 JAVA

troubling themselves as to the manner in which these
chiefs governed the natives. By miracles of concrete
prudence and delicate diplomacy they succeeded in
building up, in all parts of the world, a gigantic empire
of which they could barely, in case of revolt, have
occupied by force the twentieth part. Their system
of non-interference in the government of the natives
appeared to safeguard them for ever against any such
attempt. By the logic of events, as soon as the enor-
mous colonial empire of the Netherlands was brought
back by the conquests of other rivals, among others the
English, to proportions more normal in their very
splendour, their domination over the Archipelago, which
had been entirely commercial and indirect, began to
grow more of a political and effective control. In Java
particularly, where the Company had established its
warehouses and its offices, the authority of its employees
became more sensible and less discreet ; to the policy of
their nation they added their own, which consisted in
gaining a hold upon the native in order to bring greater
pressure to bear upon him. But the better officials
began to foresee that the Javanese, shorn by his
chiefs for the benefit of the European, whom he hardly
knew, and for their own as well, and governed with a
despotism and a greed that were often revolting, would
finally reject the double burden. Truly enough, when the
Company failed rebellion broke loose upon every hand.

The Crown, in replacing the Company, governed pru-
dently enough at the outset ; remaining, as the Company
had remained, behind the chiefs and the established
usages ; but well aware that these chiefs, if they were
not very closely supervised, would compromise its power.

This insensible and stealthy transformation of the
Government into an actual protectorate was above all
the work of Daendels and of Raffles. Until their time
the native chiefs and princes had very vaguely been
the partners, and some the very independent friends
of the Dutch ; but under them they became honoured
officials, yet subordinate to the power of Europe.

THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 191

Daendels, sword in hand, undertook to chastise those
who resisted, and to reduce the two most powerful
princes, those of Surakarta and Djokjakarta, to a strict
ilage. The various regents, the inheritors of appan-
ages, titles, wealth, prerogatives, and secular abuses, who,
their royalties in kind or money once paid to Holland,
considered themselves fully as independent as these two
sovereigns, learned from the " Dutch Napoleon " that
they held their positions not by heredity, but by royal
appointment ; that they were only imposing officials, and
therefore removable if they administered badly. This
fundamental principle of birth once being granted, Daen-
dels forced them to agree that henceforth they should be
always appointed by Holland, but with regard to the
rights of birth, and also the rights of merit, which
latter might outweigh the former ; that they should all
take the oath of fidelity to the King at the hands of his
representative, the Governor-General, and that they
must administer the land according to the royal instruc-
tions, and the advice of the Resident, or European
official, who would be placed beside each of them as the
means of control. Daendels also endeavoured to soften
the crudity of an innovation so disastrous to the dignity
of the chiefs by covering them with honours ; by regu-
lating very minutely (by the decree of 1808) their hono-
rific prerogatives, and questions of precedence ; and by
pretending, with a masterly moderation, that he wished
to make them the associates of his power. In the very
year when he struck this terrible blow, he united the
greater part of Java in a huge conference, at which he
discussed with them the needs of the country.

Raffles, for England, continued the policy of Daendels ;
he strengthened the measures against the princes of the
Vorstenlanden, which were always disturbed, and at every
turn he allowed to be seen his fixed intention of depriving
the regents of all political power, and of allowing them
to retain, together with their show of prestige, only the
control of the local police, under strict European super-
vision. If they were incompetent or unworthy, he had

192 JAVA

no other means to ensure the security of Europeans, a
little justice for the natives, and peace throughout the
Indies. To the firmness of which he had already given
proof he added a scrupulous respect for the questions
of precedence so dear to the Javanese. The native chiefs
did not dare to manifest their discontent.

But they were nevertheless terribly chagrined by so
complete a downfall ; when the Dutch resumed possession
of their colonies in 1818 there was so much discontent
abroad that the Dutch Government, which had firmly
decided to benefit by the coup d'etat which had been
effected under the French and English domination, and
was also greatly enlightened as to the moral and political
value of the regents, was inclined to reproach them
personally for having abandoned the cause of Holland
during the last twenty years with such absolute content ;
yet it wished to pacify them. In 1820 their position was
definitely determined by law : they remained officials,
appointed, paid, and at need dismissed by the King, and
were obliged to take the advice and follow the counsels
of the Dutch Residents ; but they remained the highest
personages in the native world, and the intermediaries
through whom Holland communicated with that world ;
moreover, they were granted titles and large pensions in
order to repair their prestige.

This policy had good results, for in 1825, at the time of
the war with Java, which held in suspense the fate of the
Dutch domination, the regents did not stir in aid of the
Dipo Negoro.

Moreover, the Dutch Government, in order to accustom
the regents to their new position, had acted with a
deliberation born of reflection, and a prudent spirit of
conciliation, which it has always found successful ; being
less anxious to decree a sudden and absurd uniformity
than to obtain it in the long run. The regents were first
appointed in the more submissive provinces ; and the
Government in almost every case took such care to
respect the principles of high birth and heredity that
it did not really seem that there had been any break

THtt ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 193

with the past. Only a few individual cases betrayed the
revolution accomplished. Then came the turn of other
provinces ; the regents of the Preangers, who were
uv.ilthy, influential, and very independent, were subjected
to the general rule only after the year 1870, and with their
own consent, which was obtained by skilful negotiations.

The pensions also followed the fluctuations of a skilful
and entirely opportunist policy. They were large at the
outset ; then considerably smaller. They were larger in
the case of those from whom the Government had much
to fear or to hope ; small in the case of regents who
were not men of action. The regents of the Preangers
received at the outset some ,3,600 a year, or 3,600 florins
per month ; a sum which, added to a handsome bonus
during the period of forced cultivation, often meant an
assured revenue of ^8,000 to .10,000 a year, which was
enough to console them for a good many things.
During the second generation the pensions were reduced ;
to-day the regents do not draw more than 1,000 or 1,200
florins per month, or about ^1,000 to ^1,200 per annum,
and the bonus is reduced to 320 or ^400. Only one
regent is still drawing ^3,600 ; the regent of Tjiand-
jur, 1 who is a proud and intelligent individual of
great influence.

Enviable distinctions have also been established among
the regents by means of various titles which have been
conferred upon them, and which vary with their merits.
The most modest regents are Raden Tumenggung ; next
in rank comes the title of Raden Adipati ; finally
Pangeran or Prince a title which the Dutch have only
conferred once in twenty years, for exceptional services,
and which carries with it a very great prestige. At the
outset the regents, from the heights of their hereditary
titles, affected a certain disdain for this innovation, but
to-day they are highly prized. 2

1 Or Tandyur.

8 A list of the numerous native titles and their meaning will be
found in L. W. C. Van den Berg's De inlandsche rang en en titels op
Java en Madocra, 2nd ed. (The Hague, 1902, large 8vo).

194 JAVA

Finally, having bridled the regents with the bridles of
money and vanity, the Dutch still hold them by fear.
The son of a regent, if he be incapable or evilly disposed,
is deliberately removed from the succession, and may be
replaced either by a brother or a close relation, which
flatters the wholly aristocratic prejudices of Javanese,
or and this upsets them not a little by a petty noble or
a plebeian, who has won his spurs during his career, has
proved himself, and by merit alone is sometimes raised
from the rank of mantri to that of regent. The mantri
is more feared than any ; and the appointment of one
seems so scandalous to the regents that the dread of it
incites them to prove themselves possessed of a certain
amount of administrative zeal.

II.

To-day all Java is ruled by a double system of adminis-
tration European and native the two being juxtaposed,
or one might say superimposed. Every province or Resi-
dency has, at its head, a regent, who governs alone in
the eyes of the natives, with whom he alone has direct
relations, according to their religious or political customs
their adat. This regent cuts a great figure ; he holds
a kind of court, boasts of a golden parasol, and presides
at assemblies ; but beside him is always the European
Resident, whose part should be solely that of counsellor,
and who, by an ingenious fiction, unobtrusively holds
the actual power.

The Resident is, in short, the " elder brother " of the
regent, which allows him to enjoy the same outward
consideration, always to take the right hand of the regent
at all ceremonies, and, on account of the hierarchic order
of the Javanese family, to give his counsel the force of
an order in cases of disagreement with the "younger
brother." Wherever the Dutch policy is fully applied
the Resident treats the regent with brotherly regard, and
endeavours to compensate him for any suppression of
his individual wishes by means of honorific advantages.

THK ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 195

The- province can do nothing without the Resident, who
> to speak, the veiled monarch, whose activity over-
flows into every department: politics, justice, agriculture,
education, &c., are all equally his business ; but everything
rried out through the agency of the regent.

Subject to the Resident in the various divisions of the
province are Assistant Residents, who work in conjunction
with the other regents. The latter should by rights take
precedence over the Assistant Residents, but in reality the
latter play the same part and assume the same position
as the Residents, and in his province each Assistant has
the same extensive powers as the Resident, and need not
refer to the latter.

Below the Residencies and Assistant Residencies in
importance are the districts ; each district capital con-
taining a native wedono, or a sort of prefect, who is under
the supervision of a Dutch " comptroller." The various
portions of the district are governed by assistant wedonos
of the first or second class, who are under the eye of
probationary comptrollers. Every native chief, of what-
ever degree, is aided in his task by a mantri ; a pro-
bationary native official, who generally conies of the
nobility, and is often the younger son of a regent, and is
in this manner broken in to the conduct of business and
serves an apprenticeship to his career. The mantri lives
in the house of the chief, must obey his orders implicitly,
and is usually destined to some special service irrigation,
coffee, opium, the police, teaching, &c.

At the base of the system is the lura (Dutch spelling
loerah), the mayor or chief or headman of the kampong
or dessa ; the only official who is elected by those under
his administration. His appointment, however, can be
annulled by the European comptroller if he is incapable,
an opium-smoker, or subject to any serious infirmity
which is likely to diminish his reputation or his activity.

At the summit of the pyramid is the Governor-General
of the Dutch East Indies, who is appointed by the
Sovereign, and is himself almost a king in his own
domain, so great are his discretionary powers. He is

196 JAVA

obliged to apply the law voted by the Dutch Chambers
affecting the colony, as well as royal decrees, but he may
at need amend, complete, or hold them back by the
promulgation of orders. He is commander-in-chief of
the army and the naval forces ; supreme comptroller, in
the last resort, of every branch of the administration ; he
declares war or makes peace with native princes ; has the
rights of pardon and amnesty ; appoints candidates to
all civil or military employments, whether European or
native ; signs foreigners' permits or passports, or decrees
of expulsion from the island ; and for the last forty
years has undertaken to protect, develop, and slowly to
emancipate the native masses. This omnipotent per-
sonage, who unites in his own person the executive and
(in certain cases) the legislative power, is limited in the
exercise of his powers only by the Council of the Indies,
except that the Sovereign has the power to call upon him
to retire, and the Chambers can impeach him if his rule
appear unsatisfactory.

The Council of the Indies (Raad van Nederlandsch-
Indie), composed of a vice-president and four members,
is, after the Governor-General, and in conjunction with
him, the highest expression of the European power in
the colony. Although in certain cases prescribed by the
law the Governor is obliged to follow the advice of the
Council, the latter has in general only a consultative
power ; the Governor, who is solely responsible to the
Sovereign and the Chambers, may dispense with its advice.

The Governor-General has under his authority five
directors, or ministers in a small way, entrusted respec-
tively with the departments of Justice, Finances, Public
Works, the Marine, and the Army. The meeting of these
directors in Council assists him to deal with the various
affairs in each department. It often happens that one
of these directors is united by close family ties to the
Governor-General, which sometimes gives rise to com-
plaints of nepotism ; but the selections are nearly
always so happy as to be justified by the merits of the
director selected. Beneath the Governor and his Secre-

THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 197

tari.'it-General, on whom their future depends, are the
active officials of the system : the Residents, Assistant
Residents, with their secretary-comptrollers and pro-
bationary comptrollers, an official whose equivalent we
should seek in vain elsewhere the "adviser" or coun-
sellor for native affairs (Adviseur voor Inlandsche Zakeri)*
and philological and archaeological officials, of whom we
shall speak further on.

After its long period of sometimes necessary inertia,
the Dutch Government began to realise that three-fourths
of the revolts which broke out among the natives had
their source less in regrettable examples of injustice than
in instances of tactlessness and indifference on the part
of Europeans who were absolutely ignorant of the beliefs,
traditions, and legitimate susceptibilities of the natives.
The most costly and bloody of these misunderstandings
was the rebellion of Dipo Negoro, who, it seems, was
unendurably exasperated by the insulting behaviour of an
incompetent Resident, whence followed the Javanese War.

The State also began to realise the value of a know-
ledge of native idioms to its officials, and became aware
of the gratuitous labours of those who had studied
them ; such as the long research of Kern, in Sanscrit
and the comparative philology of the languages of the
Indian Archipelago ; of Roorda van Eysinga, Grashuis,
]. Pijnappel, Von Dewal, H. Neubronner van der Tunk
in Malay ; of Cornets de Groot, J. F. C. Gericke,
Roorda, Vreede, Poensen, in Javanese ; of Matthes in
Macassar and Bugi ; and of many more. In 1878,
accordingly, it appointed officials to study the languages
of the Dutch East Indian Archipelago, 2 selected from
among the doctors in the philosophy and letters of the
East Indian Archipelago,3 who had obtained their degrees

1 There is also a counsellor for Arab affairs (Adviseur voor
Arabische Zakcn). To-day the honorary holder of the post is an
Arab, Seyyid Ousman bin Abdullah bin Akiel bin Yakya Alawi.

Ambtcnarcn voor dc broefening dcr Indische talen.

3 Doctoren in dc iaal-cn lettcrkunde van den Oost-Indischen
archipel.

198 JAVA

at the University of Leyden. It assigned to each, with
an honorific title and excellent pay from ^300 to -1,000
a year with an annual increase of ^48 for beginners a
definite section of the territory of the East Indies, with
instructions to gain a perfect knowledge of its language,
institutions, manners and customs ; to compile a dic-
tionary of the language, write its history and make known
its beliefs and aspirations. They were given seven years
of profound and peaceful study (but could obtain an
extension of time) in which to produce a work from
which all would benefit. 1 To this foundation, so admirable
in its intelligent utilitarianism, we owe a large number of
manuals or scientific works, which have made the vast
Netherlands Indies a country known to its governors as
few are known. The general scope and the reputation of
this work has crossed the bounds of the colony, and has
given Dutch philologists, archaeologists, and historians a
high rank in the world of scholarship. It would have
given them a very different rank had they written in
an idiom better known than Dutch. Their ardent
patriotism has led them always to use their mother-
tongue. Honourable as the motive is, one can but
regret their decision in the interests of universal science.
It is also to be regretted that other countries are ignorant
of this enterprise, and of the scholars who place the
highest and most disinterested culture at the service of
the most direct and practical utilitarianism.

The adviser combines with the technical knowledge of
the official philologist a political role which gives a still
higher value to his knowledge : knowing the native
mind through and through, it is his advice that is
requested in all reforms of real importance, in order
that the obstacles which might be encountered may be
foreseen. He is the moral bond between the aristocratic
native, whose aspirations he knows by intuition or

1 Among these official linguists and archaeologists the much-
lamented Dr. J. L. A. Brandes (1857-1905), whose remarkable and
uninterrupted work did the greatest credit to the scheme, deserves
especial mention.

THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 199

divination better than any one, and the European Power,
which wishes to understand them, nearly always realises
them as far as possible, and at least endeavours to avoid
any conflict.

When the official selected is able to play his part to
the full, he is able, in spite of his purely consultative
attitude, to render the very greatest services to the two
parties. When the adviser is a scholar as universally
recognised as Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, to-day Professor
of Arabic in the University of Leyden, with his funda-
mental knowledge of Islam and its various aspects
throughout the Archipelago, we can understand what
weight his advice must have with the Dutch Government
concerning the difficult handling of the Mahomedan
masses. 1

It is very regrettable that we Frenchmen, who are
always having misunderstandings with the natives of
our colonies, have no scholars of real repute to use
their knowledge for the benefit of present realities, nor
an administration sufficiently liberal to admit that the
lucid and disinterested ideas of these supposed theorists
might be capable of furnishing the basis of a wise and
conciliatory policy.

III.

Holland asks much of her European officials, and also
gives them much ; and enables them to cut a worthy
figure beside their luxury-loving "younger brothers,"
the native officials.

The Governor-General draws a salary of over .14,000,
with certain allowances for the expense of public
appearances, &c., a palace at Weltevreden and another
at Buitenzorg. At Tjipanas, on one of the spurs of
Gedei, at a height of 5,700 feet, in an ideal climate,
where the thermometer falls in the morning to 50 and
rarely exceeds 71 even at midday, he has a country

1 Dr. G. A. T. Hagen, an official philologist, has replaced Dr.
Snouck Hurgronje as "adviser."

200 JAVA

pleasure-house in a great English park, in which the
most magnificent vegetation of the tropics are mingled
with the trees of the north : pines, cypress, chestnuts,
oaks. His household retinue, although simplified on
account of his own personal simplicity of taste, is
semi-royal as regards the etiquette which obtains.

The members of the Council of the Indies draw
over 3,000 ; the Residents from .1,000 to 1,800,
according to rank ; Assistant Residents from 720 to
^1,000 ; and comptrollers from ^360 to 480. All are
provided with houses, which in the case of the
Residents and Assistant Residents are often princely
dwellings. The pensions of these officials, after twenty-
five years of service, amount to half their salaries. We
must remember, however, that these officials have to
furnish the interior of their houses, and that in a
luxurious fashion ; they must keep up a considerable
household, so that it is hardly possible for them to
economise : lastly, they can obtain leave only once in
ten years, and while it lasts can only draw one-third of
their pay.

Such advantages as the service possesses are as a
rule thoroughly deserved, having regard to the serious
preparation which these officials undergo, and the
scrupulous system of selection of which they are the
outcome.

From the day when Holland resolved to organise her
colonial empire in place of exploiting it, as she had
previously done, she endeavoured to employ the most
carefully trained and most irreproachable class of agents.

In 1864, that a class of officials might be available
who should be fully worthy of their mission, a Royal
Preparatory College was founded at Leyden, having
at its head the most eminent directors. Fully persuaded
that uniformity in training is almost invariably a certain
if unconscious means of retrogression, the Government
did not make it compulsory for candidates to pass
through the College; it was enough that they could
meet the demands of an annual competitive examina-

THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 201

tion. The Municipal Institute of Delft competed so
successfully with the Royal College that the State shortly
abandoned the somewhat onerous and, to its thinking,
equally useless luxury of a special Colonial College.

The Institute of Delft was too practical and common-
place for some, and suffered in its turn from the
competition of the University of Leyden. It has now
disappeared, and it is the Faculty of Philosophy of the
said University alone that now and henceforth in-
structs the student in Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Persian,
Javanese, Malay, Madurese, the Old Javanese or Kawi,
and the various dialects of the isles of Sunda ; the
comparative grammars of the languages of the islands
of the Archipelago ; also ethnography, geography,
Colonial history, and the laws, religion, and civilisation
of the Mahomedans, which subjects are all essential
to any one wishing to reach the true mentality of these
races. Nothing, as we see, has been forgotten that is
likely to make of the student a true scholar, and a
man as well fitted as possible to his future task. The
professors, who are ex-administrators, ex-missionaries,
or retired official scholars, who have passed their lives
in the Indian Archipelago, combine a consummate
practical experience with an often remarkable degree of
pure scholarship. The knowledge of native tongues
and institutions is a point the more firmly insisted
upon because of the Government's conviction that
without a knowledge of his language there can never
be a real understanding between the native and the
European.

Every year the Colonial Minister ascertains the
number of places vacant in the Indies ; and every year
there is a competitive examination known as the Grand
Examination of Officials (Groot-ambtevaars-examen),
which is held simultaneously in The Hague and in
Batavia. No agent of the Government in the Indian
Archipelago, excepting the Governor-General, the
President of the High Court, and two or three others,
whose nomination is left to the royal initiative, can

202 JAVA

evade this examination, which ensures in all a serious
weight of scholarship and knowledge.

Those who do well in the examinations are placed
at the disposal of the Colonial Minister, who, having
provided them with the expenses of the voyage, places
them at the disposal of the Governor-General, who
appoints them, according to requirements, to obscure
corners of the Archipelago, in order to judge of their
quality. There at once they are face to face with
innumerable duties and responsibilities, for the comp-
troller, as well as the Resident, although within narrower
limits, is responsible for everything : justice, police,
agriculture, public works, the protection of natives, the
requirements of the colonists in the matter of labour
and irrigation all depends on him and his decisions ;
he is at once a public official, an administrator, and a
general inspector ; he brings to all a convinced, serious
enthusiasm, a slow and tenacious activity, and a con-
tinuous application which sometimes takes the form of
a somewhat irritating and oppressive authoritativeness.
No one has a finer sense of his duties than the Dutch
official, nor performs them, as a rule, more scrupu-
lously.

IV.

Yet this ideal official gives rise to more than one
protest. The colonists reproach him with his attitude
on the native question : complaining that under the
pretext of protecting the natives, whose existence has
only been a matter of interest to the State during the
last forty years, he assumes an attitude towards them,
the planters, which is only too often that of a sus-
picious busybody, as though he saw in them the
born enemies and the spoliators of the Javanese. The
native aristocracy, on the other hand, complain that in
his uncontrollable activity he has encroached upon the
limited powers of local administration which were left
to them by the decree of 1820, and that he does as

THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 203

little as he can to encourage the Javanese to obtain
an education, lest he should be forced to allow them
greater initiative, and, as a consequence, gradually to
make way for them. They complain that at heart he
thinks more of domesticating than of uplifting them.
One undeniable fact is that the administrative staffs,
the dimensions of which were enormously enlarged at
the time when Van den Bosch introduced his system,
have never since been reduced to the normal, as each
official has been unwilling to sacrifice his place, and
has been quite ready to create new duties rather than
abandon his ancient rights. Now the necessity of
educating the natives, together with the Achinese War,
has so enlarged the budget during the last three years
that its equilibrium has at last been lost. Many thought-
ful people, without being extreme " indigenophiles," are
of opinion that it would be both politic and financially
sound gradually to reduce the European staff for the
benefit of the younger generation which seems so
anxious to be placed in a position of responsibility,
and to obtain responsible tasks of any kind to fulfil.
The finances of the colony would gain by such a
step ; the natives would regain a little of that spirit of
initiative which is often denied them, and yet is dis-
couraged the moment it appears, for fear of further
claims. By reducing the Residencies from twenty to
seventeen since 1900, the Government appears to have
taken this view of matters, and to have entered upon
this policy with determination.

CHAPTER X
THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA

I. The various phases of the economic history of Java under
Dutch rule. II. The Van den Bosch or "forced cultivation"
system. III. The help given by the State to free labour.
The Botanical Institute at Buitenzorg. IV. Native property
in land. V. Native crops : rice, coco-palms, areca- and betel-
nuts. VI. Bamboo ; bamboo hats.

THE economic history of Java covers many fluctuating
phases corresponding to the fluctuating policies of
Holland.

From the beginning of Dutch trade with the East
to the failure of the Company of Commerce (1796)
the Dutch practised a policy of economic realisation
and administrative abstention. They busied themselves
in obtaining the exclusive monopoly of certain mer-
chandise whose production was strictly limited, and in
drawing royalties in kind calculated as much on the
profit they counted upon making as upon the facility
of extracting it from the soil ; and that was their whole
policy.

The means of cultivation, the improvements which
might be introduced, the method of collecting the
royalties the fate of the native, in short appeared to
interest them least of all.

With the advent of the Government of the Crown
matters changed ; at the outset, we must admit, for
economic rather than for moral reasons.

Holland, in slowly substituting her rule for that of

THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 205

the native chiefs, intended to inherit after them, and
often with them to profit by the abuses by which they
lived : taxes of every kind and forced labour or corvecs :
and replaced them as the chief owner of the soil.

Anxious, however, not to excite revolts by inoppor-
tune exactions, the Dutch Government endeavoured to
regularise her demands in a stable fashion, and in one
as far as possible equitable.

Matters were pressing, for the price of the spices which
Holland had hitherto drawn from the Indies had been
lowered by competition, and her revenue had been greatly
decreased accordingly. As for rice, she had little more to
hope from it, either in Java or in other parts of the Archi-
pelago, as its selling price was low and its transport costly.

The total evaluation of the wealth of Java demanded
a considerable time, especially where a reflective people
like the Dutch was concerned. Consequently it was
not they who realised the desirable innovation ; this
was reserved for the English and for Raffles, who,
following the model of the English colonies, replaced
the payment of royalties in kind, which were always
variable, by the payment of a land tax based upon
the value of the soil, of which half, two-thirds or a
fifth was payable in kind, according to the aforesaid
value. The natives lent themselves to this innovation
without difficulty. If this tax had not only too often
been trebled by the exactions of the native chiefs, it
would doubtless have seemed reasonable enough to
the natives. In 1818, when Holland recovered the
Dutch Indies, she retained the land tax, but ensured a
better distribution of it by an attempt at a survey
which was completed in 1874. In 1827 she decided
that when the land tax should exceed 10 florins a
third only should be paid in kind, and the remaining
two-thirds in gold or silver.

Daendels had had the welfare of Java at heart long
before Raffles, and in his mind it was inseparable from
the welfare of the natives. He, however, thought of the
soil before the inhabitants, and gave his attention to the

206 JAVA

matter of corvees, less to reduce them than to systematise
them, and employ them in a direction which should be
utilitarian and profitable for all. Persuaded that the
absence of communications was one of the causes of the
economic stagnation of Java, the " Iron Marshal " forced
the natives, many of whom succumbed, to construct the
magnificent road which runs from Anjer, the western
point of the island, to Bunjuwangi, its eastern extremity.
In less than two years he succeeded in constructing eight
hundred miles of a magnificent high-road with a double
causeway : one for wagons and cattle, the other for riders
and lighter vehicles ; a road which is still the admiration
of all foreigners, and which, in the end, has been copied
throughout the island. This road, which was of the
highest economic and strategic importance, was built by
the most despotic methods, each dessa being forced to
construct, within a determined period, a certain portion
of the road. If its task was not completed by the day
prescribed, the chiefs of the village, who were held
responsible, were hung by Daendels' order. One can
imagine the cost of that road in human lives and in every
kind of iniquity. This pitiless genius, who was persuaded
that the colonies should be a source of revenue to the
mother-country, that their welfare must result from the
increased value of the soil, and that the Javanese, in
their smiling apathy, would never attempt to plant or
to earn beyond their daily needs unless compelled to
do so, nor cultivate more remunerative crops than rice,
inaugurated the system of "forced crops," or com-
pulsory cultivation, by decreeing that every Javanese
village about which the soil was favourable to coffee
should cultivate a regulation quantity one thousand
trees per family. Two-fifths of the crop was to enter
the warehouses of the Government, under penalty of
a heavy fine, equivalent to its value ; the three-fifths
remaining belonged to the cultivators, who sold them to
the Government at a price established according to the
market values, and of course always far inferior to the
real value. The rule of Daendels was not long enough

THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 207

to allow him to complete his experiences of agriculture.
The first harvests fell into the hands of the Government
only on the coast, where it was possible to supervise them ;
but there, too, the coffee was of indifferent quality. In
the interior, owing to the lack of transport, or on account
of smuggling, it was sold at ridiculous prices. The
natives profited by the English domination by returning
to the cultivation of rice, which at least would always
assure them of a living.

The Dutch, upon their return to Java, resumed the
" landrente " and corvees instead of the high-handed
proceedings of Daendels, and until 1824 managed to
draw a sufficient revenue. But at this time, while the
European administrative system which they had been
slowly installing in the island was a great burden on the
budget, the free labour of the scantily encouraged colonists
had not conduced to a flow of capital from Holland.
Deficits and loans commenced. In 1833 the colony was
in debt, and the coffers of Holland were absolutely empty
at the end of the war of secession with Belgium. General
Count Van den Bosch presented himself, with an offer to
relieve the budget and fill the coffers. He was given
a free hand, and installed in the East Indies the
"system of forced cultures" (Cultuurstelsel, or op hoog
gezag ingevocrde kulturen), which at one moment was the
glory of his name, and afterwards became his disgrace.
His utilitarian genius, a trifle more bureaucratic than that
of Daendels, was almost equal to that of the latter ; he had
the same lucidity and the same unconscious immorality
of opinion. As Governor-General from 1830 to 1834,
and from 1834 to 1839 as Colonial Minister, Van den
Bosch disposed of the fate of the Dutch East Indies, and
in spite of the highest intentions, his system was really
one of regulated tribute-taking.

II.

To force the native to cultivate something more than
rice, Van den Bosch took from each, under the pretext

208 JAVA

of replacing the "landrente," a fifth part of his land.
The native owed a variable number of days of com-
pulsory labour, or corvee, to the State. Sometimes the
authorities went so far as to demand the maximum of
sixty days per person, which he was forced to devote
to cultivating "rich" crops for the benefit of the Govern-
ment : sugar, coffee, pepper, indigo, tea, tobacco ; and
these crops he had to cultivate on the land which had
been taken from him. The State thus benefited twice
over, and without expending much energy, for it leased
its lands and those subject to the corvee to contractors
who undertook to feed the workers and pay the adminis-
tration a fixed price in advance for the crop.

If the contractor did not lose by this arrangement, one
can imagine what the State made by it, especially as it
decided, in order to draw a double profit, not to substitute
compulsory crops for the " landrente," but to levy both
together. A veritable rain of gold fell upon Holland
from the Indies. Every year the budget showed a credit
balance of 30,000,000 florins (^2,500,000), which went to
swell the coffers of Holland, filling the deficit left by the
Belgian War, and helping to pay for important public
works, and to constitute a reserve fund. The share-
holders spoke of nothing but of their saviour, Van den
Bosch. In twelve years nearly 2,000,000,000 florins
(.166,000,000) was extracted from the colony by the
most scandalous system of spoliation.

The natives did not rebel, for their adat, with their
petty princelets, had accustomed them to all kinds of
extortions, and Van den Bosch had the art of winning
over the chiefs to this legal spoliation, interesting them
in it by means of a large bonus on the crops of those
under their administration. The latter suffered cruelly.
Although they had been promised that the land tax should
be repealed, they were forced to pay it after all ; although
a fifth of their land had been taken from them, they
gradually saw the rest taken also as soon as it was made
fit for cultivation. For their paddy-fields they were left
only tracts of land so far from their villages that the

THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 209

continual corvies left them barely the time to sow the
crop. The contractors fed them not at all, or badly;
they were obliged to sell their buffalo, and to go into
debt, and they were always struggling to cultivate those
remunerative crops which for them meant nothing but
poverty and ruin. But already authoritative voices, even
in Holland, were raised in their favour. The Liberal
Party, having at its head men of action such as Fransen
van de Putte, writers like Veth and Van den Lith, loudly
expressed its indignation that a moral and supposedly
civilised people should, in the nineteenth century, con-
demn another to compulsory labour, and steal its lands
and its money, without even using the latter to ameliorate
its lot or to educate it. An ex-official, who had spent
his life in the East Indies, Multatuli (Eduard Douwes
Dekker), in his Max Havelaar, had eloquently pleaded
the cause of the natives with the people of Holland. The
book made a great sensation in. Holland, and even in
Europe. The struggle was greatly embittered, for the
shareholders fought for their dividends, and the State to
balance its budget ; but the conscience of the people,
already awakened, was stunned by a new disaster. Van
den Bosch, in order to prevent all chance of rebellion,
had wished to crown his work by building a system of
fortifications at Ambarawa, and around Samarang and
Surabaja. The corvees impressed for that purpose in 1849
prevented the natives from attending to their rice-fields,
and in the east of the island a terrible famine occurred :
the latest of many since the organisation of the system of
compulsory crops. Nearly half a million natives died.
Pastor Van Hoevell, who had lived in the Indies, placed
the matter once again before Parliament and the people,
bringing to his task the most moving eloquence. The
system was condemned. It was slowly disorganised, and
the policy of enriching the island by means of free
labour (vrije-arbeid) replaced it. Gradually the com-
pulsory crops disappeared ; the last, namely sugar, being
abolished in 1890, when the Government maintained the
coffee crop only for a limited period and with a promise to

210 JAVA

extinguish the policy completely within a certain fixed
time.

These reforms, which were due to the Liberal Party,
were crowned by the agrarian law (agrarische wet) of
1870, by which the State guaranteed to the natives the
right of property in the soil which they themselves had
cleared or cultivated ; and leased all lands which
remained uncultivated for a term of seventy-five years
to individual tenants. The corvees (heerendiensteri) were
reduced to twenty and thirty-two days, according to the
provinces, and were to be imposed solely for works of
public utility ; and by the payment of an annual royalty
of i florin per head a native could remain undisturbed.

The system of Van den Bosch was extremely oppres-
sive and despoiled the natives. It has deprived Java of
enormous sums of money and of precious lives. By con-
demning the population for more than fourteen years to
hard labour, which was also for them unjust and fruitless
labour, it led to their intellectual retrogression ; it was
therefore, from the ethical standpoint, absolutely un-
pardonable. Yet we cannot forget that by this realistic
sacrifice of a whole generation it transformed the island
into one of the richest and most fruitful of agricultural
countries. It resulted, especially in the eastern provinces,
where the soil is particularly fertile, in the cultivation
of crops which were infinitely more profitable than rice,
which are to-day the source of welfare and comfort ; and
the increased value of land throughout the island has
enabled the latter to feed a population which to-day
amounts to more than 29,000,000 inhabitants ; while in
1813 the population numbered only 6,000,000. Once
more the truth of the famous adage is exemplified : " Woe
to them that make revolutions : happy are they who
inherit after them I "

The extension of free labour, and the support of Dutch
capital, have brought remarkable prosperity to Java since
1850 ; and the State, upon abandoning the principles
of Van den Bosch, was moved by a spirit of salutary
reaction, and turned to the natives with a genuine

TIIK PRODUCTS OF JAVA 211

solicitude, so that first the soil and then the native popu-
lation attained their true value, to the greater profit and
honour of both colony and mother-country.

III.

Since then the State has demonstrated its ardent desire
to assist both colonists and natives in the intensive
agricultural development which is making the fortune of
Java. The Botanical Institute of Buitenzorg ('s Lands
Plantentuin te Buitenzorg) is not the least happy of its
efforts. This establishment, which has no rival in the
world, is not merely a marvellous assemblage of all the
products of the flora of the Archipelago ; its object is
practical as well as scientific. Beauty is only its outward
form; truth and utility are its inner purpose. It com-
prises the Botanical Garden proper of 145 acres at
Buitenzorg itself, and as annexes the experimental gardens
at Tjikeumeu, of 180 acres ; the mountain gardens of
Tjibodas, which have a much larger area ; and finally the
virgin forest of Tjibodas, of 700 acres. At each of
these establishments are laboratories, museums, libraries,
herbaria, and collections, directed by scientists of the
highest rank, from the founder of the Institute, Professor
Reinwardt, of Amsterdam, to the last director, the emi-
nent Dr. Treub. In the experimental gardens attempts
at the acclimatisation of foreign plants and trees of
agricultural value are carried on uninterruptedly ; the
degree of resistance which they offer under determined
conditions is studied ; experiments are made in the cross-
ing and improvement of the flora of the country ; in
short, the practical value and uses of the whole flora are
investigated. In the laboratories, on the other hand, are
studied vegetable parasites, noxious insects, chemical
manures, &c. all that is capable of destroying or enrich-
ing that flora. The services which these laboratories
have rendered in investigating the maladies peculiar to
sugar-cane, tobacco, and coffee have been so great that
private individuals have built such laboratories at their

212 JAVA

own expense in many parts of Java, for the better guidance
of their own plantations.

This Botanical Institute, so noted for its purely scientific
labours as well as for its practical advice, costs the East
Indies 342,400 florins a year, or ^29,360, while the
budget of agriculture alone amounts to 7,200,000 florins
(.600,000), which sum is employed in the introduction
of new crops or the improvement of those already
existing in Java. 1

The rebuilding of the Agricultural College for natives
(Landbouw school) at Buitenzorg, which was destroyed
by fire in 1902, and which was attended by many sons of
chiefs, future administrators of great agricultural estates,
will also, by increasing the yield of the soil, and therefore
the welfare of the natives, have the most desirable
influence upon the improvement of the masses attached
to the soil.

IV.

The system of native property in Java and Madura,
on account of their vast extent, could hardly have been a
uniform system. In the west and in the east the owner-
ship of land is pre-eminently hereditary and individual,
with the reservation that the owners, in relation to the
State, which has succeeded to their princes, can regard
themselves only as the tenants for life, who cannot be
ejected or molested as long as they fulfil their obligations.
In the centre of Java individual and communal pro-
perty co-exist side by side ; the native possessing as
his individual property the plot on which his house is
built, and receiving from the chief of the village, every
three, four, or five years, the field which is to furnish his
subsistence and that of his family. The system of
collective ownership has the defect that it lends itself to
injustice in the distribution of the soil, as the chief can
always favour his own relations ; moreover, the native
feels no great enthusiasm for the land when he knows

1 Concerning the Botanical Gardens of Buitenzorg see the
note on p. 62.

THE puonrrrs OF JAVA 213

that in a vrar or two it will pass into other hands.
the Dutch Government has taken care to
limit the portion of land which the native can alienate, in
order to save him from being completely despoiled,
whether by Europeans or the Chinese.

Rice is still the most important of all crops in Java and
Madura. Of the 7,460,000 acres cultivated by the natives,
5,438,000 acres are under rice.

The rice lands are of two kinds : the wet rice-fields,
or sawahs, which are by far the more productive, and the
dry fields, or tegals, which are found where running
water and rains are rare. 1

The sawahs consist of level plots surrounded by little
dykes or banks, which allow the water to be run in or off
at will. If the land is sloping, that defect is remedied
by disposing the fields in a succession of terraces, the
water trickling from one to the other ; and by carrying
such a series of terraces upwards rice may be grown
as high as 3,500 feet.

The natives usually work in the sawahs at the beginning
of the rainy season, when they are flooded. Having
repaired the water-channels and tested the solidity of the
dykes, they sow the rice in the soft mud ; either in the
entire ear, according to the traditional native method,
or by sowing the grain by hand ; a method which results
in a smaller waste of rice and a better harvest.

After the sowing the soil is flooded by day and allowed
to drain at night for a period of eight or ten days. At
the end of a month or six weeks, according to the soil,
the spikes will already have reached a certain height.

1 The Hindus have left the Javanese as an inheritance a
remarkable system of irrigation, which has been still further
perfected by Dutch engineers. Of this the natives make excellent
use. See J. E. de Meyier, " Irrigation in Java," in the Transactions
of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. liv., part 6 (New
York, 1908, 8vo). See also Bernard, Amenagement des eaux a Java,
irrigation dcs rizicre (Paris, 1903, 4to).

214 JAVA

They are then taken from the limited space in which they
were confined and replanted in the sawahs in groups
of two or three stems together, each group being stuck in
the muddy soil at a distance of half an inch to an inch
from its neighbours.

The sawahs require neither fattening nor manuring.
In some districts the rice is not even thinned out or
replanted, but the rice is sown in the sawahs themselves,
which in this case must be very soft. As this process
results in the loss of a great deal of grain, it is becoming
less usual.

After the operation of replanting, the soil is successively
flooded and drained every two or three days, care being
taken that it is dry by the time of the harvest ; and at the
moment of flowering all noxious weeds must be removed
and the crop protected against the depredations of birds
and beasts. It is usual to replant in November or
December, or at latest in January ; the crop is gathered at
the end of the fourth or fifth month, according to the
species of rice and the altitude. The natives have a
curious aversion to a June harvest ; they pretend that rice
gathered in that month will inevitably be the prey of
some calamity, or of birds, insects, disease, &c.

The tegals, or dry rice-fields, are first of all tilled with a
plough, or patjol (a sort of Javanese spade), so as to make
it thoroughly loose. It is then smoothed and cleared,
and holes are made in the surface at a distance of seven
or eight inches from one another. In these the rice is
deposited and left to germinate, which it does with
variable success. This method, employed on land newly
reclaimed, gives a far smaller yield than the sawahs, as
might be supposed. The rice employed is usually the
mountain paddy, padi gaga (padi ladang, padi hoeman,
padi tigal) or Oriza Montana Lour.

Where there is water in abundance the rice may be
planted at any time of the year. Replanting and harvest-
ing are effected stem by stem ; the first with the feet
in the mud, and the back bent under the burning sun.
The harvest is gathered standing, as the stem is cut at a

THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 215

of 2 feet 8 inches from the ground. Both opera-
tions. ire performed collectively, the whole village working
in each rice-field successively, with a genuine holiday
spirit. These are times impatiently anticipated by the
whole dcssa, and are terminated by rejoicings. In vain
have the Europeans tried to teach the Javanese to mow
or reap his rice ; he obstinately insists upon cutting it ear
by ear, according to tradition, with his little curved knife,
which he handles with rare dexterity, but like a man not
pressed for time. He refuses even to adopt the sickle
used in Sumatra.

The rice, stacked in little bundles and dried on the spot,
is then placed in a trough, where a stamp or pestle
separates the grain from the straw, the latter being
employed in the manufacture of fine plaits for hats of a
good class. The grain is husked in primitive mills, com-
posed of a large mortar, in which disks of iron, stone, or
wood are kept moving by buffalo traction or water power.
Although the cultivation of rice demands only a
limited amount of labour, the harvest is often disputed
by birds, wild boar, insects, and disease ; a particular
enemy being a certain caterpillar, which issues from the
egg when the field is dry, and gnaws the stem ; or
the walang sangit (Leptocorisa acuta Thumb.), which pre-
vents the grain from forming, and ruins whole fields.
The mentck (= evil spirit), a sort of rust or mildew
which sears the blades, and afterwards attacks the roots,
does almost as much damage. But the depredations of
the tikus (mice) are worst of all.

Formerly, after the first rice harvest, the native used to
attempt to obtain a second or even a third crop from the
same soil, which quickly exhausted it. As a result
of the advice, and even the prohibitions of the Govern-
ment, they have now abandoned this practice. Now,
when the rice crop is gathered, they usually sow potatoes
in the sawahs, or artichokes, which spring up in two or
three months. In the Preangers and in Bantam, thanks
to the permanent abundance of running water, the
sawahs are converted into fish-ponds. The fish reared

216 JAVA

or fattened in these ponds are excellent eating at the
end of two or three months, and bring in a good profit.

The normal production of rice in Java is 10 to 12
piculs per acre, the picul amounting to some 135 Ibs.
The rice-crop has continually improved ; in 1895 Java
produced only 36,702 tons ; in 1907 the crop amounted
to 38,864 tons. In 1900, an especially fertile year, the
harvest was one of 39,887 tons. Yet this great quantity
of rice is still insufficient for Java, and large quantities
are annually imported from Saigon and Singapore.

Maize (djagong) is also grown by the natives around
their houses, but in a far less degree than rice. Its culti-
vation has been increasing in Madura.

Another culture the coco-nut and the palm which
bears it (kalapd) which the native until quite recently
produced only in proportion to his personal needs, is now
very general throughout Java, and is the subject of a
great export trade. The coco-palm grows more especi-
ally in the centre of Java, in the Residency of Kedu,
where it attains a most vigorous growth, but does not
require manuring, nor any particular care, as it does in
Ceylon.

There is a very important local trade in the entire nuts,
as both the natives and the planters appreciate the
refreshing and agreeable juice of the fresh nut as a
beverage. They are also employed in cookery. Again,
the coco-palm is an oleaginous plant of the first rank.
The oil extracted from the kernel, which is previously
broken into two or three pieces and dried, when it is
known as copra, is employed in the manufacture of soap,
candles, &c. ; it also yields an excellent vegetable fat
(vegetaline, vegetable butter, vegetable suet, Palmine, &c.),
which is employed in making biscuits, cakes, and pastry,
and is more and more rapidly replacing dairy butter in
the industrial production of such articles, and in the
private kitchen.

The fresh kernel, grated and dried, is used in the
preparation of dishes, pastries, cakes, &c., in Holland,
Austria, Germany, England, and the United States. The

THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 217

residue left after the extraction of oil, or copra oil-'

excellent food for cattle, and is also used as a
manure.

The fibrous envelope of the coco-nut furnishes, after
steeping, the familiar coco-nut fibre, which is used for
rope-making, in cheap brooms and scrubbing-brushes,
for caulking the seams of ships, and in coco-nut fibre
matting, &c.

The exports from this source, which consist chiefly of
copra, commenced in 1859, and in 1900 had attained a
value for the whole of the Dutch Indies of ^420,000.
Java was responsible for about one-half of this amount,
which was principally exported from Tjilatjap, Surabaja,
and Batavia to Holland, France, and Singapore. This is
one of the most important articles of trade between
France and the Dutch colonies.

The areca-nut and the betel-nut are grown for local
use, in order to provide sirih, which the natives are
always chewing.

VI.

Another plant, which, although its cultivation demands
no care, has always provided the natives with their prin-
cipal building materials, the greater part of their furniture,
and their kitchen utensils, is the bamboo. This has
also given birth to a hat-making industry, the chief
centres of which are Bantam and the Tangarang district,
whose products have a wide sale in France and the
United States. Created by the Chinese of Manilla, this
industry now occupies sixty thousand natives. The
bamboo hat, which is as flexible as the Manilla hat, has,
however, the serious defect of turning yellow on ex-
posure to the air, and it cannot be washed. In its
manufacture the men cut into thin ribbons the outer
skin of a certain bamboo ; the women and children of
the village plait in two working days a hat which sells
for about 4d. Prices naturally vary with the fineness of
the plait, and the European agents who buy the hats on

218 JAVA

the spot, with the help of Malay and Chinese assistants,
distinguish as many as ten qualities. The purchases of
the French and American houses have nearly doubled
the prices, especially of those of exceptional quality,
which sell in France to-day at from i to i 43. These
require two months of continual work. Before they are
sold the brims of the hats are hemmed, and they are steeped
in bisulphite of soda in order to bleach them, and dried
in the sun. At one time peroxide of hydrogen was
employed, but the use of bisulphite of soda was resumed,
as certain Protectionist countries would not accept hats
as being in the unfinished state if they happened to be
of a startling whiteness.

Any hats stained by the bisulphite are dyed by the
Chinese and sold to the natives ; or they are sold by the
manufacturers as sun-helmets, after having been placed
in a metal mould and covered with white cloth.

The perfect examples are sold to Europe and America,
in zinc-lined cases containing from 1,200 to 2,100, accord-
ing to the quality. In 1900 the total exports amounted
to four millions of hats, and one single house in Tan-
gerang despatched more than thirty thousand a week. 1

The French house, L. Platon, which has its head-
quarters at Kali-Besar (Batavia), and agents at Bordeaux,
also exports a great quantity of these hats. The abun-
dance of the bamboo, the ability of the natives, and
the cheapness and quality of labour, assure a great future
to this industry.

1 See De Rivet's book, L Industrie du chapeau en Equateur et au
Perou (Librairie Orientale et Americaine, Paris, E. Guilmoto).

CHAPTER XI
AGRICULTURE : VARIOUS CROPS

I. Coffee. II. Sugar-cane. III. Tobacco. IV. Tea. V. Quinine,
VI. Indigo. VII. Lesser crops : pepper, cinnamon, cotton, &c.

AMONG the more remunerative crops not indigenous to
Java, by far the most important is coffee.

In 1699 Henricus Zwaardecroon imported some slips
or cuttings of coffee-trees from Malabar into Java. In
1706 the first crop made its appearance upon the
markets of Holland, when it was welcomed to such
effect that, although throughout the eighteenth century
all efforts to extend the production of coffee through the
centre and the east of Java were unsuccessful, yet coffee
was one of the first crops to be declared compulsory by
Van den Bosch.

Coffee did then spread all over Java. It is the last
crop which the State has retained partially in its own
hands ; but its intervention in this department of agri-
culture has no longer the harmful character of a mono-
poly. The poor results obtained by the system have led
to its entire abandonment in the provinces of Bantam,
and the districts of Japara and Rembang, and have led to
its being restricted in many others. In 1900 there were
still 288,000 families cultivating 66,000,000 trees, of
which 15,246,000 were not yet bearing, for the Govern-
ment of Holland ; but the latter pays them for the
harvest far more generously than of old.

The free plantations contained 181,000,000 trees, of

219

220 JAVA

which about 16,000,000 were not yet bearing ; and
the total area covered by the State and the free planta-
tions was about 300,000 acres, which has since steadily
increased, for 50 per cent, of the fallow land conceded
upon very long lease is planted with coffee, and the
State does its utmost to encourage the native to grow it
on his own property, by furnishing him with seed and
cuttings of Liberia coffee. The Javanese, who are un-
accustomed to crops that require prolonged care, and
are very badly off for tools, confine themselves to gather-
ing the crop, and removing the coffee from the shell by
shaking it in baskets. It is then delivered, at a regulation
price, to Europeans who complete the preparation of the
berry, and then, for a small commission, despatch it to
the Government warehouses.

Coffee grows well in Java at all altitudes up to 4,000 feet ;
but does best between the limits of 1,400 and 2,800 feet.

The principal varieties cultivated in Java are the Coffea
arabica and the Coffea liberica, the latter being the better
adapted to resist the attacks of the terrible Hemileia
vastatrix ; the Coffea maragogypa is also grown on a
smaller scale, and attempts are being made to acclimatise
the Coffea stenophylla from Central Africa. In view of the
important part which the cultivation of coffee plays in
the colony, the laboratories of Buitenzorg and the
experimental gardens are busily increasing their research
work with a view to attacking the parasites of the
precious shrub, and to introducing the more productive
and resistant varieties. The planters themselves have
even founded a station at Buitenzorg which deals
entirely with coffee, and they do not, as a rule, undertake
the planting of coffee until they have undergone a
serious course of study at the Agricultural College of
Wageningen in Holland, where the department of
tropical agriculture and arboriculture, together with the
courses in Malay and the ethnology of the Archipelago,
afford them a very excellent training for the purpose. 1

1 The Higher Royal College of Agriculture, Horticulture and
Forestry of Wageningen (Rijks hoogerc Land-, Tuin- en Boshbouw-

NATIVE IRRIGATION' WHEELS.
(Rattan wheels, wattle paddles, bamboo buckets, wooden pipes.)

NATIVE ENGINEERING: A HAMIioo CANTILEVER UKIIM.I-.

To face p. 2*0.

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 221

Liberia coffee is grown more especially on the pla;
all varieties grow best on soils which contain an ex<
neither of clay nor of sand, are not too heavy, and are
well mixed with humus.

Land for a new plantation is broken up at the
beginning of the dry season. The trees if it be forest
land may be felled or burned ; in the latter case the
heat of their burning increases the fertility of the soil.
Even when a whole forest is cut down, care is taken to
leave rows of trees as windbreaks, which protect the
young shrubs from the prevailing winds. 1

The land must then be thoroughly freed from harmful
weeds, sometimes by ploughing, more often by the
patjol, and sometimes by hand or with a curved knife
(arit) ; when the land is sloping the trees are planted in
terraces. It is especially necessary to eradicate the alang-
alang (Imperata anuidinacea Cyr.), and to burn it, roots
and all. Otherwise, even if buried in heaps at the end
of the furrows, it will spring up and resume its possession
of the soil in a few days.

The next step is to dig a series of pits some 2 feet
deep and 2 feet wide, which are left open to the air for
two months, and then rilled with manure, except in the
case of virgin land, which does not require it, or where
it would be a matter of too great difficulty to procure it.
On land thus prepared, provided the roots are not
impeded by stones or too hard a soil, the young shrubs
will grow with great vigour. They may advantageously
be sheltered by a screen of trees, a special variety being
employed for this purpose : the dadaps (Erythrine, Hypa-
phoms subumbrans) ; or the Albizzia stipulata, or

school te wageningen) educates agronomic engineers and forestry
officers. It possesses a department for the training of those who
intend to emigrate to the East Indies, whether in the service of the
State, or that of private employers, or who wish to be able to
become competent managers of plantations. See the Programma
der Lessen voor 1909-1910 (Wageningen, published by van F. E.
Haak, 1909, 8vo).

1 For a study of coffee-planting see Sao Paolo du Bresil, by
L. Casabona (Librairie Orientale et Americaine, E. Guilmoto).

222 JAVA

Albizzia molucrana, which gives an admirable shade, but
is very fragile ; or the Deguelia microphylla, which is
inclined to grow to an excessive height. The dadap is
the best of these trees. The number of these tree-shelters
varies with the kind of tree employed and the altitude of
the plantation ; the higher it is the less need is there of
shade.

From January to April, and earlier on higher ground,
the seeds or berries are sown ; the seed-coffee being first
well washed with a mixture of water and ashes, which
removes any adherent viscous matter. This operation is
performed in a sort of sheltered nursery ; at the end of
the rainy season, in December, when the young seedlings
thus obtained will be more than 12 inches in height,
they are removed, with the roots well covered with earth,
to the new plantation, there to be replanted. On some
plantations the planters simply make use of the seedlings
which spring up among the shrubs from fallen coffee-
berries. All that remains to be done after the planting is
to weed very carefully among the shrubs, and on low-
lying lands to lift the soil carefully with the patjol once
or twice a year until the fourth year. Care must also
be taken to prevent the shrub from shooting up too
rapidly.

Two or three years after planting the shrub begins to
bear fruit ; but no harvest is gathered until the fifth or
sixth year, and the crop is most abundant only towards
the fifteenth year. It may live forty, fifty, or sixty years
longer, but its yield gradually decreases. It flowers at
the commencement of the rainy season ; seven or eight
months later the fruit is ripe. It is of a bright red colour,
which makes the plantations a very beautiful sight.

On all the important estates the coffee is to-day pre-
pared by the modern process, which retains the aroma of
the berry while giving it a good polish. The berries are
freed from the husk or pod directly after the harvest, by
means of revolving cylinders, which are turned by steam
or water-power. The berries are then carefully washed,
dried in steam drying-machines, and then freed from the

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 223

or inner husk or envelope, and winnowed to remove
the broken husks.

The East Indies, next to Brazil, produce the best
coffee and the largest quantity. They furnish one-fifth
of the world's consumption, and the value of the harvest
often amounts to .2,500,000.

Coffee-planting is not what it was formerly a certain
source of wealth. Competition in all parts of the world I
and in the Indies themselves has resulted in a lowering of
prices, and has diminished the profits by dividing them
between a larger number of planters.

Coffee, moreover, is subject to a series of pests and
maladies. One of these pests, the Hemileia vtystatrix, has
practically annihilated the coffee-plantations of Ceylon.
This is an orange-coloured mould, which appears on the
under side of the leaves, causing them to fall, and which
blackens and kills both fruit and branches. In many
cases it has destroyed large plantations in a few months.
Hitherto the innumerable remedies attempted have been
almost useless ; the best appears to be to smoke the tree
thoroughly in order to increase its resistance to the
plague.

To this plague we must add " the black blight," which
blackens stems and leaves ; the djamur upas, a poisonous
agaric or fungus which kills the young twigs in the
course of a few days ; a microscopic insect which pro-
duces a disease known in Holland as aaltjesziekte, which
destroys the roots, as do also two beetles, or rather their
larvae ; the kuwuk, or larva of the Exopholus hypoleuca,
and the uret, or larva of the Lachnostera ancylonicha ; and
finally the larva of an insect, known as the koffieborer
or "coffee-piercer" as its name denotes : the Hylotrichus
quadrupes.

On account of all these enemies to production, the
cultivation of coffee is somewhat on the decrease in Java.

In 1895 the compulsory crops amounted to 318,829

1 And the years of excessive over-production in Brazil, when one
year's crop in San Paolo greatly exceeded the world's annual con-
sumption, thus glutting the markets. [TRANS.]

224 JAVA

piculs (about 19,000 tons), and the yield of the free
plantations 378,100 piculs (about 23,000 tons). In 1906
the figures were 168,343 piculs (10,000 tons), and 318,185
piculs (19,500 tons) ; in 1907 (a particularly bad year)
the State crop was 30,702 piculs (about 1,903 tons), and
the "free" crop 195,116 piculs (12,000 tons). In 1899,
on the other hand, which was an excellent year for coffee,
the several yields were 198,708 piculs (13,000 tons), and
552,040 piculs (34,000 tons). Nearly all the Java coffees
are exported to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, whence they
are distributed to the rest of Europe.

France, Austria, North America, and Singapore are
the best buyers of Javanese coffee. 1 Of the recent total
of 15,520 tons, of which 4,538 belonged to the State,
while 10,928 tons were " free," France received 588 tons,
Austria 536, America 4,061, and Singapore 2,214.

II.

If, as is believed, sugar-cane was imported into the
East Indies, it was at some fairly remote period, since it
had been already acclimatised for four centuries when
the Europeans landed. However, the cultivation of
sugar-cane became systematic only in 1830, when it was
promoted by Van den Bosch. His system, however, was
not as successful as one might have expected. The
Government practically forced private persons to make
sugar under somewhat onerous conditions from the com-
pulsory crops of cane ; this sugar it sold. Owing to a
lack of technical knowledge and an insufficient rate of
remuneration, the Government was unable to find con-
tractors who would undertake the industrial preparation
of sugar in its place, and principally for its benefit, and
was forced to fall back upon a few subordinate officials
and Chinese ; so that its monoply was far less profitable
than was anticipated, precisely on account of its strin-
gency. The sugar industry underwent no general exten-

1 Concerning coffee and other products, see Les grandes cultures
dans I'tlc de Java (Leyden, Brill, 1909, fol.).

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 225

sion until 1877, when the State abandoned its monopoly
to a great extent ; in 1880 it abolished it altogether.
From th.it date free labour, supported by the home
capitalists, began to cover the Dutch Indies with planta-
tions of cane, the area under cane to-day exceeding
200,000 acres. The majority of these plantations are in
the north of Java.

Two unforeseen events occurred. The development
in Europe of the beet-sugar industry and the disease
known as sereh, produced by a parasite, caused a crisis in
the sugar industry during the latter part of the nineteenth
century. The beet-sugar industry caused the picul of
sugar to fall from 16 florins to yj ; the disease devoured
entire plantations. The colonists faced this double danger
with much energy ; two experimental stations were
established in Java J for the purpose of determining the
species of cane best adapted to resist disease and those
richest in sugar, and of deciding what chemical fertilisers
might increase these two qualities ; as a result the planters
were able to produce more sugar from a ton of cane, to
lower their prices, and to survive competition.

The species cultivated in Java are numerous. As the
result of experiments with the Madagascar cane, and
varieties from Borneo, Mauritius, and the Fijis, the black
or red-brown cane of Cheribon is now commonly used ;
and also the white cane, which the natives prefer because
it grows more profusely. Both are cultivated more
particularly in the sawahs, and more rarely on dry lands,
for the drainage and irrigation of cane requires a great
deal of care. The cane is usually grown from shoots,
which are planted in well-tilled land ; although since
1887 attempts have been made to raise the cane from
seed, in order to avoid weakening the adult cane from
which the shoots are taken, and so decreasing its power
of resisting disease. These experiments appear to have
been attended with perfect success when the seed of

1 These two establishments have lately been incorporated into
one, named Het proefstation voor de Java-Suikerindustrie, which is
situated in Samarang. See Regeerings Almanak, 1909, vol. ii. p. 541.

226 JAVA

the yellow cane of Hawa'i has been used. Usually the
land is ploughed in March or April ; the cane is planted
in July, and before planting the soil must be thoroughly
watered. Both before and after planting it is indispen-
sable, if a good harvest be desired, to fatten the soil with
sulphite of ammonia and oil-cake preferably the residue
of caraway seed. At the end of ten or fourteen months
in the plains, or eighteen on the uplands, the cane will
have reached maturity. The cane is harvested from June
to October, and the process of sugar-making commences
at once ; which means that the hands employed have to
work, in shifts, day and night for three months. If the
planter delays when once the cane is ripe the sap loses
both quantity and quality. The cane may be cut or up-
rooted ; but the precaution is first taken of cutting off
the heads of the plants, in order that they may serve for
a new plantation.

The cane is crushed in the neighbouring factory ; the
dry leaves and debris serving as fuel for the engine which
works the crushing-mill. A bouw, or field of 1*73 acres,
yields an average of 5 tons of cane, but will sometimes pro-
duce twice as much. Crushed between rollers which are
rotated by steam-power, the cane yields from 65 to 70 per
cent, of its weight in sap ; in an especially well-equipped
factory the proportion may be as high as 80 per cent.

The sap first flows through a filter, and is then purified
by saturating it with lime. 1 It is further purified by
filtering under pressure, and then boiled in a vacuum.
The sugar thus obtained is dried in centrifugal separators,
which fling off the molasses or crude treacle. It is then
whitened by means of a fine spray of water or dry steam ;

1 Milk of lime is mixed with the sap to neutralise the acids in the
juice ; clay, finings, and sulphurous acid may also be used to remove
impurities. These coagulate, and either sink or rise to the surface.
The clarified juice is run through filters bag filters of felt, or char-
coal, or capillary filters ; pressure is usually employed to hasten the
operation. In vacua the sugar boils at about 150 Fahr. ; a greater
heat discolours the product. When minute crystals commence to
form in the vacuum, pure fresh syrup is admitted, and the resulting
cake is treated in the centrifugal separators. [TRANS.]

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 227

then, after being dried by artificial heat or sunlight, it is
p.u-ked in baskets. The molasses is treated in centrifugal
separators to save the sugar still contained in it, or is
distilled for the purpose of making arack, or native rum. 1

As a rule, the maximum yield of the bouw, or field of
173 acres, is 115 to 160 piculs of sugar; or from 4 to
5*6 tons per acre. Such a result can only be obtained by
means of a perfected modern equipment, which is very
costly. The planters of Java, however, have not hesitated
to install such plant. At the same time such machinery
is not within the reach of all, so that it is not surprising
that the number of factories decreases as their total out-
put increases.

Thus in 1895 there were 195 sugar factories in Java,
yielding 9,454,441 piculs (586,175 tons) ; in 1901 there
were 185, yielding 13,091,000 piculs (811,666 tons); in
1907 there were 177, yielding 18,138,304 piculs (1,124,570
tons metric).

In the year 1907-1908 the Dutch East Indies exported
a total of 1,195,334 tons of sugar, of which 335,521 went
to British India, while America and Hong-Kong absorbed
171,470 and 161,510 tons respectively. The East Indies
hold the first place among sugar-producing countries ;
Java by itself comes immediately after Cuba. 2

In addition to the European sugar industry there is
also a native industry. The natives cultivate the white
cane, which gives a poor yield, but requires little attention.
Native sugar, which is of course an inferior product, is
known as gula Jawa. Certain factories in Surabaja have
made the experiment of refining the native sugars in order
to produce from it a white sugar. With the sap of the
sugar or toddy palm, the Arcnga saccharifera, the natives

1 The sap of the sugar-cane undergoes very rapid fermentation
once it is expelled from the cane. [TRANS.]

2 The Syndicate General of the sugar manufacturers of the Dutch
East Indies has for fourteen years published an Annual which gives
full details of their industry, and a chart showing the positions of
their factories. The Annual is entitled, Jaarboek voor Suikerfabrik-
antcn op Java, 1909-10 (Amsterdam, J. H. de Bussy, 1909, 8vo).

228 JAVA

still prepare little flat or conical cubes of brown sugar,
which has a nutty flavour, and is sold very cheaply ; and
they prepare from the fermented sap of the same palm
the alcoholic liquor known as tuwak, the abuse of which
makes the Madurese native a somewhat uncertain char-
acter. This tree also yields a vegetable fibre (duk, idjuk),
which is used for making cordage and cheap carpets.
They extract a rather poor sugar from the Nipa fruticans,
which grows in the marshes, and whose leaves, under the
name of atap, they use to thatch their houses.

III.

If tobacco is not unquestionably native in the East
Indies and the many varieties of the tobacco plant
found there seem to prove that it is it has at least
become a general necessity to the native population, who
smoke it rolled in a piece of maize-leaf, 1 chew it, or mix
it with sirih. In Java and in the greater part of the
Archipelago, and in Sumatra notably, there are, roughly
speaking, two kinds of tobacco grown and two methods
of cultivation. The quality of the two kinds is very
different, but the cultivation of either is rapidly spread-
ing. One kind is the subject of the native trade ; the
other is exported to Europe and America.

Native tobacco is grown most extensively in Kedu,
Bagelein, Pasuruan, Pekalongan, Rembang, and the
Preangers. It is grown in rotation with rice in the drier
districts ; it is not treated with any great care, either
before or after it is plucked ; consequently the leaf is
small and the aroma displeasing to the European palate.
It is dispatched into all parts of the island, and some is
exported to Singapore, whence it is exported once more
to such parts of the Archipelago as grow no tobacco :
Amboin, Borneo, &c.

Tobacco of the European quality is prepared by the
natives, according to the methods and under the active
supervision of Europeans. It is grown more especially

1 As do the Brazilians, this being their form of the cigarette. [TR.]

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 229

in the centre of Java, in the Vorstculamlcn and the
rn portion of the island. It is grown from the sea-
shore up to ;i height of over 6,000 feet among the moun-
taius ; the best and the most easy to handle is found in
those low-lying lands which are least saturated with
moisture. Such lands, which from time to time are well
watered by the rains, are the best of all. The first
essential, in growing good tobacco, is the choice of
sound seed belonging to a good variety. Formerly the
kinds apparently indigenous to Java were planted, but
the leaves were too small for the European trade ; the
Dutch variety, with larger leaves, rapidly degenerated ;
the Manilla variety, which in new surroundings acquired
a totally different perfume and flavour, retained its
flexibility, and has been largely used, though less largely
than the Deli (Sumatra) tobacco. To obtain the best
seed the planters surround a few fine plants with hedges,
watch carefully over the ripening of the pods, which are
dried in the sun, and when the capsules open the released
seeds are hermetically sealed in bottles.

They are sown at once, mixed with wood ashes, in
frames with adjustable tops, so that the heat and light
may be regulated. The period of germination requires
careful supervision ; at the outset the frames must be
watered twice a day, and the sun must not shine upon
them save in the morning ; but gradually a daily water-
ing suffices, and they are sheltered from the sun only at
midday.

In forty or fifty days the seedlings are sufficiently
grown to be replanted in the open air ; but each seedling
is sheltered from the sun by means of a little rice-straw,
or a large leaf turned backwards on its stem, and the
watering is continued. At the end of a fortnight they
are uncovered, and the soil around the plants is lifted
and aired by means of the patjol. When they are some
12 inches high the lower leaves are removed, and the
steins are twice earthed up. Having attained their full
development, the buds are nipped to prevent flowering.
This is a delicate operation ; if too much of the stalk be

230 JAVA

removed the leaves become thick and heavy ; if too little,
the lower leaves are starved. After this pruning process
the tobacco is left to ripen for two weeks longer. If a
few showers fall about this period, so much the better, as
the rain removes the oil from the leaves and renders them
more inflammable.

At the end of from sixty-five to eighty-six days the
tobacco is ripe, the leaves begin to droop, and they are
promptly gathered, being plucked one by one, threaded
on strings, and tied into bundles which are sent to the
drying-chambers.

A quicker method consists in cutting the plant down
at the level of the soil and hanging it in the drying-
chamber in that condition ; but as the lower leaves are
of greater value than the rest these should be carefully
plucked by hand. In the great bamboo drying-rooms
the tobacco is left hanging from laths and kept from
the light for thirty or forty days ; the leaves are then
arranged in bundles of forty to fifty, according to their
length, colour, and thickness, and are then taken to the
fermentation sheds. In these sheds, which are nearly
always of stone, roofed with galvanised iron, the tobacco
undergoes the last stages of its preparation : fermenta-
tion, sorting, and compression into bales. Fermentation
is induced by placing the tobacco in piles upon a plank
of wood. As the fermentation is very lively at the outset,
these piles contain only 5 Ib. or 10 Ib. of tobacco to begin
with ; but towards the end of the process they amount to
60 Ib. or 80 Ib.. A thermometer protected by a sheath of
bamboo is often inserted in the fermenting heap, in order
to indicate the exact temperature, so that fermentation
may be checked at the right moment ; for it is possible
for the leaves to grow so hot in a single day as to burst
into flames. When the temperature of the fermenting
heap is the same as that of the air in the fermenting
chamber the process of fermentation is over, and the
piles are demolished, the leaves re-sorted, arid made up
into bales of 165 Ib. to 220 Ib., which are sewn up in mat-
ting and exported, chiefly to Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 231

All these processes, demanding the most precise and
minute attention, require the supervision of Europeans,
so long as the Javanese themselves remain insensible to
the large profits which they themselves might draw from
the improvement of their own methods. 1

In 1895, 9,807 tons of tobacco were exported from
Java to Europe. The increase in production has since
then been constant ; in 1907, a particularly good year, it
amounted to 37,892 tons.

With the development of the native tobacco trade
and the increasing production of tobacco in Sumatra,
and also in certain parts of Borneo, the exports have
reached the total figure of 69,489 tons, the value being
approximately 2,645,835 for Java, and 3,250,000 for
Sumatra.

IV.

Tea constitutes a smaller but very appreciable source
of revenue for the East Indies, which are among the
great tea-producing countries. The tea-plant does best
at a height of 1,500 to 1,800 feet, but may be grown at
all altitudes from 480 to 3,200 feet, provided the soil is
clayey, rich in organic matter, and well drained. Until
1890 only Chinese tea was planted in Java ; to-day it is
being everywhere replaced by Assam tea, and other hybrid
varieties which partake both of the Assam and the
Chinese varieties. Assam tea, while much hardier than
Chinese, is also more profusely leaved. The Preangers,
Batavia, Kedu, and Pekalongan are the best tea-growing
provinces in Java ; the Preangers alone furnishing more
than all the rest put together.

The tea-plant is reproduced by seed. The seed, having
been gathered at maturity, when the capsule opens to
allow the seed to escape, is sown in beds and trans-
planted, or in the open and in situ, at a depth of an inch
and a quarter or two inches. If the seeds are fresh they
should germinate in a ratio of two in three ; otherwise

1 See O. J. A. Collet, Lc tabac, sa culture et son exploitation dans les
regions tropicales. Le tabac a Sumatra (Brussels, 1903, large 8vo).

232 JAVA

only a quarter to a tenth will come up. Some planters
take the precaution of allowing the seeds to germinate in
a layer of mould, planting them only when they have
begun to germinate.

As the soil must lie lightly about the shrubs, the planta-
tion must be dug over two or three times a year, and
weeded once a month. In the third or fourth year
trenches are dug between the shrubs, measuring some
10 feet long by 12 inches wide by 6 deep, in order to air
the roots. The young shrubs must also be plentifully
smoked. The crop may be gathered in the third or
fourth year. The first yield is always scanty, but the
succeeding crops are more and more plentiful, and well-
tended shrubs produce almost indefinitely. They are
closely pruned once a year to prevent them from flower-
ing ; although at high altitudes a pruning every second
or third year is sufficient. The same shrub will yield
yellow tea, black tea, and a number of different qualities
of tea ; the two leaves at the tip of each twig furnish
Orange Pekoe, the finest of all, whether green or black
the colour depends upon the after-treatment ; the lower
leaves make their appearance as Souchong ; the lowest of
all are sold as Congo. 1

Green tea is obtained by drying the newly-plucked
leaves at once upon heated iron plates ; so as to prevent
the fermentation and oxidisation which turn the leaf black.
To obtain black tea the leaves are first scattered and ex-
posed to the air, when they shrivel and curl up ; they are
then rolled and bruised several times in roller-machines,
for ten or twelve minutes each time ; they are then placed
in flat bamboo baskets or trays, to ferment and oxidise by
contact with the air, and finally go to the drying-machine. 2

1 Concerning tea, see H. Neuville, Technologic du the. Composition
chimique de la feuille. Recolte et manipulation. Precedes europeens.
Precedes asiatiques (Paris, 1905, large 8vo).

a The usual form of drying-machine consists of a series of metal
drawers with perforated bottoms, which slide into an iron frame or
chest. Hot air is drawn or driven up or down through the whole.
[TRANS.]

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 233

Tea-planting has been in a state of continual expansion
in the Dutch Indies since 1865, when the State renounced
its monopoly. In 1907 the crop amounted to 11,494 tons.

The trade in quinine is as vigorous and valuable as
that in tea. This precious tree, according to Junghuhn,
was introduced in 1854, from Callao, by the botanist,
Justus Karl Hasskarl, after a long and perilous voyage.
The forty-eight trees which were still in a healthy condi-
tion when Java was reached were immediately replanted
in the garden of Tjibodas, at a height of nearly 5,000
feet above sea-level, by the famous botanist-gardener,
Teysmann.

The experiment was so completely successful that the
cultivation of the cinchona-tree was rapidly taken up
throughout the Preangers, and then in the centre of Java.
After a great many experiments the Buitenzorg laboratory
discovered that the species Calysaya, imported from
South America in 1865, thanks to the tenacity of the
merchant Ledger, was far richer in quinine than any
other variety. Since then Cinchona ledgeriana has been
planted everywhere, and a certain number of Officinalis
and Succirubra imported from Ceylon ; a limited number,
because these two species are valued more especially for
the bark, as sold and compounded by the pharmacist ;
and the demand for this bark being limited, the planters
have only planted it in proportion to the commercial
demand. It is becoming more and more usual to graft
Ledgeriana with Succirubra, without which precaution it
grows more slowly and offers less resistance to disease.
The cinchona, indeed, is subject to many complaints ;
sometimes a fungus will rot the roots, and nothing
remains but to burn the trees attacked and disinfect
the soil wherein they grew ; sometimes a blight or rust
attacks the branches, which must be lopped and burned ;
sometimes a more dangerous pest, the Helopaltis Bradii,
pierces the leaves and the young branches, sucks the sap

234 JAVA

and kills the shrub ; and so far no one has found any
better remedy than to burn the insect and its victim.

The cinchona is generally reproduced by seed, and
is grown in a nursery and transplated as soon as the
young tree is about 3 feet high. It requires much
the same treatment as coffee. From the time the trees
are four years old a small crop may be obtained by
pruning the tree, which process may be repeated until
maturity. From the sixth or eighth year the plantation
yields a good harvest, which may be obtained in four
ways : by uprooting the tree ; by cutting it down to the
level of the soil ; by removing longitudinal strips of bark,
as is done in the case of the cork-tree, so that the bark
can grow again ; by removing the bark with a plane
or shaving-iron down to the cambium only, only re-
moving the second half when the first has regrown. The
tree is never peeled with a steel knife, which would spoil
and discolour the bark, but with a knife of horn or bamboo.

The bark is then dried in the sun, or by artificial heat
in special appliances. It is then sorted and put up into
bales ; an operation which requires great care, as the
qualities intended for the manufacture of quinine must
not be mixed with those intended for pharmaceutical
preparations extracts and tinctures of cinchona and
cinchona wine. In ten years the production of cinchona
has almost trebled ; in 1907 it amounted to 8,985
tons. 1

Cinchona is grown upon ninety-three leasehold planta-
tions, seven Government estates, and five private freehold
plantations. Javanese cinchona has lately profited by the
failure of the Cingalese article. The bark is sent to
Amsterdam, and thence distributed throughout Europe,
or sometimes directly to England, which buys a great
quantity.

1 In virtue of a convention with the Government the Bandung
factory is entrusted, from December 31, 1904, to transform into sul-
phate of quinine, destined to be sold in the Batavia market, a portion
of the cinchona bark gathered in the official plantations of the
Preangers.

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 235

The manufacture of the sulphate of quinine, which has
developed with great rapidity, has its centre at Bandung,
where the Bandocngsche Kinincfabrick is situated. The
manufacturers are not only attempting, by acquiring
the bark from all the Javanese plantations, to keep the
greater part of the European trade in their own hands,
but also to compete with the trade of the Far East :
of China, Japan, the Philippines, the English and French
Asiatic colonies and possessions, and even of Australia. 1

As soon as a consignment of cinchona arrives the
Kininefabriek extracts quinine from three samples of the
bark. One sample is required to determine the richness
of the bark in quinine, one is sent to the planter, and
one put by for reference. The Company does not buy
cinchona at its own risk; it simply undertakes to manipu-
late it for the planters and to find a market for the result-
ing products. At the end of the year the profits are
divided proportionately between the planters, with the
exception of a certain sum to cover the Company's
expenses and yield it a net profit.

Equipped for a capacity of some 3 cwt. of sulphate of
quinine daily, the Bandung Company has been enlarging
its factory and laying down plant for producing other
salts of quinine, such as chlorohydrate, bromo-
hydrate, &c. 2

1 The State grows cinchona on its own account in the Residency
of the Preangers. The results of this industry the Gouvernements-
kinaondernemingvfere published quarterly in the Javasche Courant.
Upon addressing their request to the Director of Agriculture,
botanists, scientific institutions, and foreign Governments, through
the medium of their diplomatic representatives, obtain free of cost
small quantities of bark or cuttings of cinchona.

3 Concerning quinine and its introduction to the Dutch Indies, see
C. R. Markham, " Travels in Peru and India while superintending
the collection of Cinchona plants and seeds in South America and
their introduction into India" (London, 1862, 8vo). K. W. van
Gorkom, Die China cultur auf Java (Leipzig, 1879, 8vo) ; and the
same writer's Kinologische Schdsen (Amsterdam, 1892, 8vo). E.
Prud'homme, Le quinquina. Culture, preparation, commerce (Paris,
1902, large 8vo).

236 JAVA

VI.

Indigo is one of the products of which the State
renounced its monopoly, partially in 1854 and wholly
in 1865 ; not without loss, for at that time the indigo
industry was one of the most profitable and most widely
developed in the Dutch Indies. Introduced perhaps
by the Hindus, and certainly first prepared by them, as
its name would seem to indicate (in Malay, Javanese,
Sundanese, and Macassar nila = the Sanscrit nila, or
"deep blue"), the indigo trade was already flourishing
when the Portuguese and the Dutch first arrived. The
natives were using it largely in dyeing, or batiking, their
cloths ; even to-day they cultivate more than 50,000 acres.

The cultivation and preparation of indigo was one of
the industries which Van den Bosch was most anxious
to develop, and one from which the natives appear to
have suffered most severely. To-day, in addition to the
native industry, which is carried on more especially to
supply local needs, European planters have devoted some
50,000 acres to the cultivation of indigo, this area being
distributed throughout the provinces of Batavia, Peka-
longan, Kediri, Surakarta, and Djokjakarta. The indigo
of Djokjakarta, and particularly that of Surakarta, where
the land is let on lease by the East Indian Government,
is by far the most valued in Europe, and makes three-
quarters of the total yield.

The species of indigo cultivated in Java for the
European market are the Guatemala r and the Natal 2
varieties. The indigo plant, whose reddish, oblong leaves
yield the colouring matter, grows best in the sawahs and
on irrigable soil, in alternation with rice, or sometimes
with sugar-cane. When the soil has been ploughed and

1 Indigofera tinctoria L., /. pseudotinctoria, I. oligosperma D.C. :
in Javanese, torn Presi, or Persian indigo.

2 Indigofera leptostachya D.C. Javanese torn Natal. Another kind
of indigo produced in Java, whence the kind known in Malay as
tarum kembang probably derives, is furnished by Indigofera anil L.
Its Javanese name is tjantik.

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 237

manured the seeds are sown in frames, and the young
plants are transplanted as soon as they are of suitable
si/.c. In five or six months the plant is fully developed ;
its perfect maturity is announced by the flowering season.
The bush is then earthed-up, and a first harvest gathered ;
three months after a second crop of leaves is ready for
removal, and this second harvest is far superior to the
first. It is sometimes followed by a third and fourth, if
the bush be rich in leaves.

The leafy stalks, tied into bundles, are placed in tanks
for the process of fermentation, which should last from
four to six hours. A long experience is necessary before
the watcher can divine when the fermentation has reached
the correct stage.

The greenish-yellow water which is drawn off from
the fermentation tanks flows into the threshing tanks,
in which the indigo becomes precipitated. It is sub-
jected to a process of clarification which lasts for two
or three hours ; it is then filtered, an operation requiring
five or six hours ; then the paste, or sludge, of indigo
is mixed with a definite quantity of water, and is boiled
with the greatest precautions against burning. A second
filtration leaves the product in such a state that it may
be pressed to expel the residue of water. It then only
remains to cut it into tablets, which should be left
twenty-five days to dry. They are then polished, to
remove any suspicion of mould and to give them a
beautiful brilliant purple colour.

The indigo market for Java is at Samarang ; the
European entrepots are at Rotterdam and Amsterdam ;
but a considerable quantity of the indigo bought by
France which is, with Germany and Russia, one of
the best customers for this product goes directly to
Havre and Marseilles.

The discovery of artificial indigo has, of course, been
a blow to the industry, which, in Java at least, is relying
more and more upon the Far Eastern market, and
especially upon Japan. But after reaching the value of
330,000 or more in 1898 (the yield being 1,094 tons),

238 JAVA

its total production has fallen to 289 tons in 1906 and
144 tons in 1907. The industry seems on the road to
extinction ; a matter to be regretted, since agricultural
labour is more healthy and usually furnishes products
of superior quality, if more expensive, than industrial
labour. 1

VII.

Among the smaller agricultural industries of Java, we
must not omit to mention pepper and the valuable spices
which long ago were an inexhaustible treasury for the
Dutch. To-day Java produces some 3,863 piculs of
prepared pepper (about 238 tons) and 625 piculs (38 tons)
of mace. Cinnamon is no longer produced for exporta-
tion ; cotton and kapok are not sufficient for local
necessities, although the latter has been produced in
unusual quantities during the last few years. Cocoa, on
the other hand, has done extremely well ; its cultivation
has spread rapidly in Samarang, Pasuruan, Besuki, Peka-
longan, and Surakarta ; in 1907 the yield amounted to
1,380 tons, having almost doubled in ten years. 2 The
cocoa-palm was imported from America.

The cultivation of the opium poppy is forbidden in the
Dutch Indies, the State, as in French Indo-China, having
reserved for itself the lucrative and immoral monopoly of
this dangerous drug, in order to meet the necessities
of the natives, and also to draw a large revenue from
the noxious habit of opium-eating and smoking.

The sale of opium in the hands of the Chinese, to
whom it is leased, has been productive of such abuses
that the Dutch Government has inaugurated the system
of regie, upon the model of that employed in French
Indo-China ; and this system, first installed in Madura,

1 Concerning indigo, see Dr. G. von Georgievics, Der Indigo vom
praktischen und theoretischern Standpunkt dargestellt (Leipzig- Vienna,

1892, 8vo).

2 Concerning cocoa, see A. Fauchere's Culture pratique du cacaoycr
et preparation du cacao (Paris, 1906, large 8vo).

AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 239

Surabaja, Pasuruan, Probolinggo, and Besuki, where it
has given good results, has been gradually extended. In
1901 the State built in Batavia a factory (Fabrick der
Opimnrcgic) large enough to furnish all Java with
opium.

CHAPTER XII
FORESTS AND MINES. INDUSTRY. COMMERCE.

I. The forests of djati and of " natural woods." II. The mines of
Java ; the mining system ; petroleum. III. Salt. IV. Indus-
tries : their character ; the industrial future of Java. V.
Institutions of credit and thrift. VI. Internal trade and the
means of transport and communication : roads, railways,
rivers; steamer services between the various islands of the
Archipelago. The merchant marine of the Archipelago.
VII. Post and telegraphs. VIII. Weights and measures. The
monetary system. IX. The export trade ; customs, transport.

JAVA, and indeed the whole Archipelago, possesses a
remarkable wealth of native vegetation. The bamboo,
the areca-nut, the rattan-palm, the coco-palm, the
banana, the breadfruit-tree, and a host of other palms,
multiply with a fierce and vigorous growth. The native
has had little ado in finding among them nearly all the
necessities of his daily life. The forests properly so-
called, which are wonderfully rich in species, have for a
long time been neglected ; whence a deforestation in
some parts so unreasonable that the Dutch Government
has finally moved in the matter. It discovered, in the
latter half of the nineteenth century, that certain forests,
containing most valuable products, deserved a better fate
than unchecked destruction. In 1869 the first Afforesta-
tion Act was passed ; since then it has been fittingly
improved and enlarged ; but so far the Government has
not contemplated the extension of its prohibitions beyond
Java and Madura. The State concerns itself very little,

240

FORESTS AND MINES 241

even in the latter, with the " forests of natural woods"
lik-nilly wild woods (wildhoutbosschen) and gives nearly
all its attention to the preservation of the precious teak
forests (djutibosscheri), of which it reserves the monopoly.
CVrt.iin of these forests have been leased to private
undertakings, which are strictly supervised ; others are
administered by the Residents.

Teak, in the Dutch East Indies, is the wood principally
used for ship-building and all kinds of permanent struc-
tures. The odour of its natural oil keeps off the terrible
termite, and even the teredo has the greatest trouble in
piercing it. There are many varieties of teak, of various
colours and qualities : thorny teak, flowering teak, oily
teak, limestone teak, and above all the gimbal (gembel)
teak, which is brown and greasy to the touch, and is
preferred before all others for ship-building.

Cultivated teak is valued far above the wild or natural
timber. In 1907 the area of the teak-forests of Java and
Madura was 1,665,000 acres ; this area the Government
is doing its utmost to increase, planting teak wherever
there is a waste or fallow piece of land, along the
wayside, &c.

At regular intervals the Government proceeds, at the
seats of the Residencies, to lease its teak forests in sections
of 250 to 990 acres ; occasionally, but rarely, as much as
9,880 acres is leased. After a forest inspector has esti-
mated the quantity of timber to be felled each year, the
section is leased, for a term varying from two to ten
years, for an annual royalty of 13 to 20 florins per cubic
metre (about i to i i2s. per cubic yard). The prin-
cipal leaseholders are the Chinese, but two of the Dutch
companies, the Javasche Boschexploitatie Maatschappij
and the Nederlandsch Indische Houtaankap Maatschappij
are large and important enterprises.

In 1907 the Dutch Government derived from its forests
(the sale of "wild woods" being included) a net profit
of nearly .200,000.

Ebony in great demand in France and China and
sandal- or santal-wood, for which the best customer is

242 JAVA

Germany ; eagle wood and laka wood (Mynistica iners ?),
which is exported chiefly to Singapore, and iron-wood,
are the most valuable of the woods found in the "wild
woods/' the supervision and extension of which will one
day assure the Dutch Indies of a large yearly revenue. 1

II.

The State monopolies include not only the forests, but
to a certain extent the mines and the production of salt.

Legislation concerning the mineral wealth of the Indies
is of quite recent date, although certain mines were
exploited long before the advent of Europeans. It was
only in 1895 that a mining law was promulgated in
Holland ; but this law, we must admit, was sufficiently
autocratic. The State arrogates by law the possession of
the entire subsoil of the Indies ; the landowner who
discovers a mine upon his property cannot become the
owner, but only the concessionaire. He cannot prospect
without permission, still less work the mine upon his
own initiative.

A permit for research or prospecting is given for three
years. This may be prolonged by a maximum period of
two years ; never more. Work must be commenced the
first year, and the first applicant obtains the preference.
The mining concession, which may be renewed in-
definitely every seventy-five years, is only granted if the
mineral sought for lies actually within the limits of the
ground for which the permit is issued, and if its
exploitation is technically practicable.

The State imposes a fixed tax of 50 cents (equal
to icd.) per hectare, or rather less than 2d. per acre,
and 4 per cent, on the gross yield of the mine. The
prospector's permit is subject to an annual tax of 5 cents
per hectare a little less than a halfpenny per acre.

The products of prospecting may be disposed of
without restriction up to a maximum which varies

1 See Serre's Sexploitation de forets de teck et autres bois a Java
in L Agriculture de pays chauds, 1906, pp. 422-430.

FORESTS AND MINES 243

ding to the mineral in question. Above this the
ilty of 4 per cent, upon the gross yield becomes
ible.

Having the capital of Holland behind it, and being
by no means anxious to establish powerful foreign
companies within its empire, the Government of the
Dutch East Indies grants prospectors' permits only to
Dutchmen and to foreigners who have been domiciled
for a certain period in Holland or the Dutch East
Indies. The majority of the members of the board of
every mining company must be Dutchmen or domiciled
in the Indies. The concessionaire, if he does not reside
in the Indies, must have a duly accredited representative,
and the company must give proof of a sufficient financial
capacity.

Java, from the miner's point of view, is infinitely
poorer than Sumatra and Borneo, and the Riouw
Archipelago ; it produces only petroleum, a little iodide
of copper, and manganese. The yield of petroleum
which is found in Samarang, Rembang, and Surabaja
amounted to 27,697,340 gallons in 1907 ; of iodide of
copper some 28 tons were produced in Samarang ; and
of manganese, which is confined to Djokjakarta, 4*5 tons
were produced. 1

Javanese petroleum is in the hands of a score of
companies, the most important being the Industrial
Petroleum Company of Dordrecht (Dortsche Petroleum-
Industries-Maatschappij), which has a working capital
of 12,000,000 florins.

The capitalists of Holland are taking a great interest
in the development of the petroleum industry in the
Dutch Indies ; they have invested very large sums in
order to fight more efficaciously against the competition
of America and Russia. It is indubitable that the
petroleum fields of Java constitute an enormous source
of wealth, and that they are gradually capturing the

1 See J. G. Bousquet's Les richesses minerales des Indes orientates
neerlandaises in the Memoires et contpte rendu des trav. de la Societe
des Ingen. civil, de France (Paris, 1907, 8vo ; pp. 436 et seq.).

244 JAVA

markets of the Far East, of India, Indo-China, China,
Japan, and the Philippines.

III.

The preparation of salt, obtained from the saline
springs which abound all over Java there are 151 in
the Regency of the Preangers alone or from sea-water,
is monopolised by the Government. Certain springs,
such as those of Tji Ampel in the district of Krawang,
yield a brine which is estimated to contain nearly 3 per
cent, of salt. The natives, who are exclusively employed
in the preparation of salt, often evaporate the saline water
in great iron cauldrons, or kuwalis ; sometimes, as in the
district of Kradenan in Samarang, they first of all con-
centrate it in oblong tanks or wells, 7 or 8 feet
wide, a trifle over 3 feet deep, and 30 feet long.
These two methods of preparation may be undertaken
by the natives upon payment of an annual royalty in
proportion to the amount produced.

In Madura the Government undertakes on its own
behalf the manufacture of salt by European methods
from sea-water, which is allowed, at high tide, to flow
into a system of little locks or sluices, to enter a series of
salt-pans, and deposit its salt by evaporation.

In 1907 the State sold 1,390,738 piculs of salt, produced
in Java and Madura, for 9,622,033 florins, or .801,836.

IV.

The industries of the Dutch East Indies, with the
exception of native specialities of purely local interest
pottery, coppersmith's work, basket-making, the forging
of kreeses, the designing of batik sarongs, handkerchiefs,
&c. are still little more than a dependency of agricul-
ture. The factories now built, or being built, in Java
serve almost exclusively for the preparation of natural
products : rice, coffee, sugar, tea, tobacco, quinine,
indigo, &c. A few saw-mills and printing-works, soap,

FOHKSTS AM) MINKS 245

,md mineral-water factories can only he regarded
as interesting experiments ; their scop' yet too

limited to allow us to predict a brilliant future for
Javanese industries.

The silk industry has hitherto yielded appreciable
results only in the hands of the Chinese.

The climate of Java is warm enough for the mulberry,
but too damp ; the tree does not grow quickly. Silk-
worms, under the influence of the constant heat, spin all
the year round and lose their stamina ; while in Japan
they cease to spin in the winter.

It has been hoped that by means of hybridisation a
bombyx might be obtained which would resist the climate J
but hitherto all the silk obtained by European makers
has cost more than it has sold for, and there are now
only three silkworm-breeding establishments in Java : the
most important, that of Pangkalan (in Batavia), which is
combined with a winding-factory, is the only one which
has yielded its owner profits. It is the property of a
Chinaman, who exports his raw silk to Hongkong and
even to Lyons. 1

There are two factors, however, which seem to ensure
the future of Javanese industry. One is the abundance of
cheap labour : the daily wage of the field-labourer,
excepting at exceptional times or for tending to ex-
ceptional crops, does not exceed 9d. or lod. ; and
although the Javanese is not muscular he is sober, skilful,
docile, and capable of doing excellent work.

Secondly, although Java possessess no coal-mines,
Borneo and Sumatra are rich in coal measures. These
two factors are important elements of success.

The capitalists of Holland turn naturally to the East
Indies, and have powerfully contributed to the develop-
ment of agricultural products in the colonies. They have

1 Sec P. Serre's La Sericulture et I'industrie sericigene a Java, in
L Agriculture des pays Chauds, 1906, pp. 347-349.

246 JAVA

it within their power to develop the production of manu-
factured articles.

For a long period they did not care to run the risks of
investment in manufacturing enterprises, on account of
the exacting State monopolies, which stood in the way
of all private enterprise. In 1828 the Bank of Java
(Javasche Bank) began to place its reserves at the disposal
of Dutch merchants in the Indies. In 1837 the Govern-
ment began to introduce, or rather to allow, the free
labour of the natives ; and the Indo-Dutch Banking
Company (Nederlandsch-Indische Escompto-Maatschap-
pij) opened large credit accounts for the benefit of private
agricultural enterprises. In 1862 these accounts had in-
creased to such an extent that the money market in Java
was badly strained ; in 1863 the mother-country found it
necessary to come to the rescue, and realised that it was
to her interest to do so. The Indo-Dutch Bank of Com-
merce (Nederlandsch-Indische Handels Bank) of Amster-
dam, the Bank of Rotterdam, and the Rotterdam Inter-
national Society of Commerce and Credit (Interna-
tionale Crediet en Handelsvereeniging " Rotterdam ")
opened branches in Batavia, but were anticipated by the
English " Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China."

The Indo-Dutch Bank of Commerce was the only one
to prosper, which in 1881 founded in Amsterdam the
Colonial Bank (Koloniale Bank).

In 1878 the " Amsterdam " Society of Commerce
(Handelsvereeniging "Amsterdam") entered upon a com-
mercial career, and also advanced money to finance
agricultural undertakings.

In 1884 the crisis brought about by the tremendous
fall in the price of sugar ruined nearly all these institu-
tions. The Indo-Dutch Commercial Bank saved itself
only by reconstruction under a new name, reappearing
as the Indo-Dutch Agricultural Society (Nederlandsch-
Indische Landbouw Maatschappij). The crisis was soon
over, and the banks developed as the island prospered,
with whose fortunes their own were bound up. To-day
the following institutions give a solid support to the enter-

INDUSTRY COMMERCE

S which arc incessantly springing up throughout the
Dutch Indies: the I). ink of Java, the Dutch Society of
Commerce, the Indo-Dutch Discount Society, the Inclo-
Dutch Agricultural Society, the Indo-Dutch Bank of
Commerce, the International Society of Credit and
Commerce, the " Amsterdam " Commercial Society, the
Colonial Bank, the Principalities Agricultural Company
(Cnltiiiir-Maatschappij dcr Vorstenlanden), the Indo-Dutch
Bank and Credit Society, the Indo-Dutch Mortgage Bank
(Nederlandsch-Indische Hypothcekbank) of Batavia, and
the Javanese Mortgage Bank (Javasche Hypotheekbank)
of Amsterdam, which has its branch establishment in
Surabaja. 1

It is perhaps a pity that there are no similar institutions
to come to the aid of the native industries and native
agricultural enterprises, which are both as yet in a
rudimentary stage. Lacking sufficient technical know-
ledge, without traditions, nor an education which might
impel them to engage in commerce or manufactures, the
Javanese masses are devoid of the funds necessary to
equip any enterprise in a modern and remunerative
manner.

For centuries the Javanese has been confined to his
piece of land ; forbidden all ambition ; deprived of the
fruit of his labour, which he has yielded, the more surely
to ruin himself, to the Chinaman or Arab ; and the
native chiefs have been even more absolute in their cruel
indifference than the Dutch Government itself.

To-day Holland wishes to uplift the native ; to render
him henceforth more capable of adding to and sharing in
the prosperity of Java ; later on, no doubt, to help him to
direct his own destinies. But the native has neither fore-
sight nor an inclination to save ; and he dislikes the
anxieties of commerce, in which he feels that he is still

1 See N. P. Van den Berg, Coup a' ceil sur les institutions de com-
merce et de credit aux hides Neerlandaises, in Expos, univ. intern, de
1900 a Paris. Guide a travers la section des Indes Neerlandaises
(The Hague, 1900, 8vo, p. 54 et seg.), and the article by the same
author, Crediet inslellingen in the Encycl. v. Ned. Indie.

248 JAVA

too much the novice. Agricultural enterprises might
succeed in the hands of chiefs who are possessed of
capital ; but they are too often completely idle, and
utterly inept in everything but the pursuit of trashy plea-
sures. The masses possess nothing ; so that the great
necessity on all sides is education, and under certain
circumstances, credit ; for European trade has expanded
as it has solely by means of credit.

The year 1897 saw ^ e foundation in the Residency of
Banjumas of a credit establishment for natives : the
" Poerwokertosche Hulp-, Spaar-en Landbouwcrediet-bank"
This bank has already been of very great service, and
native trade in the region of Poerwokerto has greatly
developed, which leads one to hope that the bank will
soon open branches, or that rival establishments will be
founded in all parts of Java.

The propaganda instituted among the Javanese with
the object of inducing them to put by little hoards in
the savings-bank, is also bearing fruit. Each year there
is a slight increase in the number of accounts and the
total of the sums saved. That this increase is not
greater is due, not only to the Javanese lack of pru-
dence, whether native or acquired, and the suspicious
traditionalism of the Javanese, but to his actual poverty.
To be able to save he must first have enough to eat;
such is not always his condition, even upon the fertile
soil of Java.

VI.

The transport of articles of commerce, both in Java
and out of it, is facilitated by excellent means of com-
munication, both by land and by sea.

Thanks to Daendels, who gave the first impulse to
road-making, and built the best possible type of road for
the country, the .island is traversed from east to west by
a magnificent double highway, which brought fresh life
to the north of the island. Since the time of Daendels
roads have been built almost everywhere, with more or
less success, the work of supervision having for a long

INI)I T STKY -COVTMERCK

lime been left to the native chiefs, while the work

'lined by n -. The introduction of

free labour had an excellent result upon road-making,
as upon everything else. It was obviously to the interest
of the planters that the roads leading from their plan-
tations or factories should be kept in good condition,
since they depended upon them for the transport of their
products ; the result was that they expended pains upon
them by which every one benefited.

The foundation of a department of bridges and high-
ways in Java has been of great benefit to the country.
The engineers have built solid bridges across the
bdiuljirs, or torrential watercourses, replacing the frail
bamboo girders which were constructed by the natives,
and were periodically carried away, thus leaving portions
of the island absolutely isolated, sometimes for months
at a time.

But the roads, except in the more inaccessible places,
where they are in the worst repair, and also the sole
means of communication, do not now play the prepon-
derating part in the commercial life of Java. Less and
less frequently are they furrowed by the heavy glindings
(native transport wagons). Both the white man and the
brown have turned, with equal enthusiasm, from the
road to the railway ; a fact which proves that the brown
man is perfectly accessible to the victories of progress.
For a long time the State, actuated by a narrow, dis-
trustful, and egotistical jealousy of its domination in
Java, refused to allow the construction of railways.

In 1863, however, it granted permission to Messrs.
Poolman, Fraser and Kol to construct and exploit a line
of railroad running from Samarang, through Surakarta
and Djokjakarta, to Ambarawa. In 1868 the same
company received permission to build a line from
Batavia to Buitenzorg. What with various unforeseen
contingencies and impediments, some of which were not
easily overcome, and delay in the actual work of con-
struction, these two lines were not finally opened to the
public until 1872.

250 JAVA

Their success was complete, in respect both of the
services rendered to the planters and natives and the
profits realised by the builders.

Since then the State of Holland has constructed rail-
ways (Spoorwegen) both in Java and Madura. To-day the
two islands contain some 1,320 miles of railroad, earning
.923,600 in net profits. The railway now traverses the
great island from end to end ; starting from Batavia,
whence it throws toward the west two small branch
lines to Anjer and Labun respectively, it there turns
southward, serving Buitenzorg and Sukabumi ; turns
sharply to the north, reaches Padalarang, and sends out
a second branch to Batavia, encircling the whole pro-
vince of that name. The main line then turns south-
ward once more to Bandung, crosses the Preangers, the
Residency of Banjumas, the two Principalities of Djok-
jakarta and Surakarta (Solo), meets the old Samarang
railway, runs westward to Surabaja, and then encircles
the western portion of the island to end at Banju-
wangi and Situbondo. This magnificent system is com-
pleted by a steam tramway system (Stoomtramwegeri)
which runs along the north coast of Java, covering a
length or 1,550 miles and bringing in a revenue of
.800,000.

Transport in the centre of Java profits little by the
narrow watercourses by which the surface of the land
is furrowed, owing to the torrential nature of these
streams, and the wealth of their alluvial deposits. Few
of them can be ascended by anything larger that the
native prahou, and even so the ascent is extremely
slow. Only the Tjiliwong of Batavia, the Tjitarum, the
Tjimanuk, the Tjitanduwi, the Seraju, and the Solo and
Brantas Rivers are navigable for larger vessels, and only
for a small proportion of their courses. All such work
as the cutting of canals and the cutting or dredging of
channels has been so quickly rendered useless by the
constant deposit of silt or mud that further attempts
to improve these rivers were long ago discouraged.

To turn to the sea, however, we find that there is a

INDUSTRY COM MERGE 251

active movement between the various ports of Java,
and between Java and the rest of the Archipelago. The
Royal Packet-Boat Company (Koninklijke Packetvaart
^chappij), which is subsidised by the State, obtains
much of this traffic. In 1907 this company owned
51 packet-boats, carrying 407,965 passengers. An Eng-
lish company, with its headquarters at Singapore, serves
the ports of Java, of the eastern coast of Sumatra, and
the western coast of Borneo, and competes, to a certain
extent, with the former company. The Royal Packet-
Boat Company carries, besides its passengers, the salt
produced by the State, and coal from Ombilin for
Government use.

In 1907 the movements of the mercantile marine in
the Dutch East Indies, exclusive of the Royal Packet-
Boat Company, were represented by the following
figures : 190 steamers, 145 European sailing-vessels, and
2,327 native sailing-vessels ; in all 2,795 vessels, with a
capacity of some 567,000 cubic yards, or some 430,000
tons displacement. For Java and Madura the figures
were 1,640 vessels and 335,000 cubic yards capacity.

VII.

Transactions with the interior of Java, the Outer
Possessions, and the rest of the world are facilitated
by an excellent system of posts, telegraphs, and tele-
phones.

On the 3ist of December, 1907, the number of post-
offices in the Dutch Indies was 291 ; there were 176
telegraph offices in the cities and 367 in the railway-
stations, and there were 58 public telephone offices.
There were 5,600 miles of telegraph lines, 8,740 miles
of wires, and 3,250 miles of submarine cables.

VIII.

The adoption by Holland of the metric system of
weights and measures, and her introduction of that

252 JAVA

system into the Dutch East Indies, has greatly facilitated
the conduct of trade.

The Dutch monetary system, on the other hand,
which is quite peculiar to Holland, is troublesome to
the foreigner. The pound sterling is accepted every-
where, but the importation of Asiatic coinage into the
Dutch Indies is strictly prohibited ; so that the first care
of the merchant or the tourist, upon landing at Tand-
jong Priok, is to obtain a supply of Dutch currency
from a money-changer or a bank that is, if he has not
already done so before beginning the voyage. The
monetary standard is the piece of 10 florins, weighing
6"j2 grammes, the purity being '9, and the value that
of 6-048 grammes of pure gold. The standard of silver
money is the florin or gulden, weighing 10 grammes,
containing '945 of pure silver, or 9-45 grammes. Its
value varies from 20*16 pence to I9'968 pence ; approxi-
mately twelve are equivalent to the pound sterling
English. The silver coins are : the gulden or florin,
divided into 100 cents ; the rijksdaalder, or rix-dollar,
worth 2j florins, or the value of an American dollar ;
the half florin, the quarter florin (kwartje), and the
tenth of a florin (dubbeltje).

The principal golden coin is the piece of 10 florins,
worth 1 6s. 8d.

The smaller coins are : the 5-cent piece, in nickel
(worth one penny), the 2j-cent piece in bronze (worth
a halfpenny), and the i-cent and J-cent pieces, also
in bronze.

IX.

The transportation of the products of the Indies to
Europe and vice versa is effected, for the majority of
private exporters and importers, by means of the Rotter-
damsche Lloyd line of steamers, and the Dutch Navi-
gation Company (Sloomvaartmaatschappij Nederland).
These lines also carry for the Government by annual
contract.

The tariffs and customs duties have been profoundly

INDUSTRY COMMERCE 253

modified since the fall of the system of compulsory
crops, and since the declaration of Singapore as a free
port.

In 1872 the narrow protectionist system which prac-
tically forbade foreigners admittance to the Indies, to the
great detriment of prosperity of the islands, was abolished,
and the flags of all nations were admitted on equal terms
to the open ports. The enormous development of
Singapore has since then led Holland to adopt a policy
progressing towards free trade ; abolishing or diminish-
ing the heavy anchorage and pilot dues, and creating a
series of free ports, in which exports and imports alike
are subject to the provisions of commercial treaties
between Holland and the interested Powers. 1

The total value of the imports received by the Dutch
Indies in 1907, including those destined for the Govern-
ment as well as for private merchants, and inclusive also
of gold and merchandise, was .20,605,892 ; Java and
Madura alone absorbing imports to the value of
^12,726,722. The value of the exports amounted to
.30,379,095, of which amount Java and Madura accounted
for 17,636,249.

The chief imports are rice, such edibles as butter,
cheese, flour, pork, &c., metals, machinery, woven stuffs,
and manufactured articles generally. The principal

1 Article 130 of the Regeeringsreglement (Fundamental Law of the
Dutch Indies) : " Every vessel belonging to a nation friendly to the
kingdom of Holland is admitted to the ports of the Dutch Indies
open to general trade, provided that it observes the general and
local regulations. To the other ports only native vessels, and those
which are authorised to take part in the coasting trade under the
Dutch flag are admitted."

The ports open to foreign trade are called vrijhavens (free ports),
and in such ports the Dutch Government imposes no restrictions
or duties upon the entry and exit of ships or merchandise. The
only official free port is Riouw, but in practice the ports of
Bengkalis and Sabang (both in Sumatra) are treated as free
ports. The Inlandsche havens (native ports) are the ports of the
native princes and peoples whose islands are not directly governed
by Holland, although they levy the customs duties. The entry
fo these ports is free to all vessels.

254 JAVA

products exported are coffee, sugar, tobacco, tea, quinine,
cinchona, indigo, copra, and various oils and pelts.

The French, despite their interests in the Far East,
and the neighbourhood of Indo-China, play a very
small part in the carrying trade of the Dutch Indies.

On the other hand, the figures relating to Great Britain
(in 1907) amounted to 563 vessels and 3,554 tons ;
Germany comes next with 318 vessels and 1,231 tons ;
Holland with 169 vessels and 1,244 t ns > but France
comes after Norway, with 26 vessels only and 84 tons of
merchandise ; the lowest figures. In the same year the
exports from France to the Dutch Indies fell from
.166,660 to .108,500, and the exports from Saigon from
.508,380 to 308,300 ; the sole cause of this decline
being the commercial apathy of the French. These
sums are indeed miserable beside the 2,833,330 worth
of English exports and the 4,083,330 worth from
Singapore.

Passenger traffic from Europe to the Indies is effected,
with all the comfort and ease imaginable, by large steam-
ship companies owned by the principal European
countries. The departures of the steamers are so
arranged among the companies that approximately
speaking a steamer passes any given point once in every
three days. The most important lines are the Rotter-
dam Lloyd and the Nederland of Amsterdam (Stoom-
vaartmaatshoppij Nederland). Every other Saturday a
boat owned by one of these lines leaves Europe with
the mails. The Rotterdam Lloyd steamers touch at
Southampton, Lisbon, Tangier, Gibraltar, Marseilles,
Egypt, Ceylon, and vice versa, and connect with vessels
running to the various ports of the Archipelago. The
price of the single passage, not including wine or beer,
from Rotterdam to Padang, Batavia, Samarang, or
Surabaja, is 71 ics. first class and 41 155. second
class. From Marseilles the fares are 67 2s. and

INDUSTRY COMMERCE 255

3878. No charge is made for children under I!
and children under twelve pay half the full fare.

Every adult first- or second-class passenger has the
right to take with him, free of payment, a cubic metre of
luggage about 34 cubic feet and a deck chair. Extra
luggage must be paid for at the rate of i IDS. per cubic
metre. The cabin trunk or portmanteaus to be kept in
the cabin must not exceed nf inches in depth ; and no
nailed cases are allowed in the cabins. Ordinary luggage,
with legible labels bearing the name of the owner and
his destination, is placed in the hold, where it is accessible
on certain days, excepting Sunday.

The Nederland carries passengers at the same charges
and under the same conditions ; but it sails from Amster-
dam, stops at Southampton, Lisbon, Tangier, Algiers,
Genoa, Port Said, Suez, Perim, Aden, Colombo, Sabang,
Deli-Penang, Asahan, Singapore, Batavia, Samarang, and
Surabaja.

The North German Lloyd line sails once a fortnight
from Bremen and Hamburg alternately. It touches at
Rotterdam, Antwerp, Southampton, Gibraltar, Algiers,
Genoa, Naples, Port Said, Suez, Aden, Colombo, Penang,
and Singapore. At Singapore passengers tranship on board
the steamers of the Koninklijke Paketvaartmaatschappij
for Batavia, Samarang, and Surabaja. The price of the
single passage from Bremen, Hamburg, Rotterdam,
Antwerp, or Southampton, exclusive of wine or beer, is
66 first class and .44 second ; from Gibraltar, Algiers,
Genoa, or Naples the first-class fare is 6\ I2S. and the
second-class fare 41 i6s. Each passenger may take 441 Ib.
of luggage free, the excess dues being about IDS. per cwt.

The Messageries Maritimes run a fortnightly service
from Marseilles, corresponding with the mails for
Batavia. Passengers for Samarang and Surabaja are
furnished by the agents of the company at Batavia with
railway tickets for either of these cities.

The ports touched at are Port Said, Djibonti, Aden,
Colombo, and Singapore (where the Batavia steamer is
joined). The passage-money to Batavia, Samarang, or

256 JAVA

Surabaja, wine included, is 6j first class, ^46 45. second
class, and .24 45. third class.

First- and second-class passengers are allowed 330 Ib.
(150 kilos) of luggage free of charge ; passengers paying
for the exclusive use of a first-class cabin may take 551 Ib.
(250 kilos) of luggage free. 1 The excess charge is i
per 220 Ib. (per 100 kilos). Cabin trunks must not be
more than 15! inches deep or wide, nor 31^ inches long.

The abundant comfort and the comparatively low
terms afforded by the Messageries Maritimes brings that
company passengers of all nationalities.

Not only are merchants, financiers, and engineers flock-
ing to Java ; but for the last fifteen years there has been
quite an influx of tourists of all nationalities, who have
come to admire the " pearl of the Archipelago," which is
also the fowl that lays the golden eggs ; and more
especially to continue, from Benares to Angkor Wat, and
from Angkor to Batavia, the pilgrimage of admiration
that even ungrateful humanity is forced to admit the due
of the Hindu genius.

1 The traveller should take with him as little as possible in the way
of unnecessary clothes and boxes ; he can easily obtain all he needs
in Batavia, or the other large towns of Java, and at very reasonable
prices ; especially in the case of tropical suits of white cloth or linen,
which are cheaper and better than those to be obtained at home.
Besides the necessary linen, pyjamas, cholera-belts, &c., the traveller
should buy for the journey a couple of blue reefer suits, a light
lounge suit for the afternoons, and a dinner-jacket. Two suits of
khaki will be useful. To these he should add a sun-helmet, a travel-
ling cap, a soft felt or tweed hat, an overcoat, two pairs of boots or
shoes, slippers, and stylograph, a photographic outfit, an umbrella
and a parasol, a dressing-case, a cabin trunk, a collapsible pigskin
bag, a strong linen or jute hold-all or kit-bag, a trunk for the hold,
and a cane deck-chair (which he can buy at Marseilles). He will
then possess the indispensable minimum. A woman will require, in
addition to certain of the above articles, a few summer frocks, plenty
of peignoirs, tea-gowns, and hats, all very light, and a good warm
cloak for the evening. Some women prefer a sun-helmet with
gauze veil rather than a hat. The above are merely general indica-
tions ; the traveller can add to this minimum according to his purse
and his individual tastes.

CHAPTER XIII

THE OUTER POSSESSIONS (BUITENBEZITTINGEN).
SUMATRA AND THE ARCHIPELAGO OF RIOUW
LINGGA.

I. The various divisions of the " Outer Possessions," land the im-
portance of Sumatra. II. The dimensions, physical aspect,
and coast-line of Sumatra. III. The rivers and the sea-coast
of Sumatra. IV. The climate, flora, and fauna. V. The
native races ; their origin, beliefs, and manners. VI. The
principal languages : the most useful language for the visitor to
or inhabitant of Sumatra.

THE "Outer Possessions" of the Dutch East Indies
comprise : (i) all the larger of the Sunda Islands, except-
ing Java and Madura that is, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes,
and their immediate neighbours ; (2) all the lesser
of the Sunda Islands Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores,
Sumba, Alor, Timor, Rotti, Kei, Aru, &c. ; (3) the
Moluccas and the Dutch portion of New Guinea. Very
much larger than Java and Madura collectively, often
individually larger, and often as rich in natural pro-
ducts, they are inferior in the number of their inhabi-
tants and in their civilisation.

From the administrative point of view the Buiten-
bczittingen have been divided into seventeen Residencies
or Governments, established without much regard to
ethnological facts, but rather according to their economic
value, their political situation with regard to the central
Dutch power. Sumatra contains three of these Resi-
dencies : nine if we count the Riouw Lingga Archipelago,

1 8 257

258 JAVA

the Banka islands, and Billiton or Blitung. Dutch
Borneo, vast as it is, contains but two ; Celebes and its
dependencies two ; the Moluccas two ; Timor, the Flores,
Sumba and Rotti one ; Bali and Lombok one.

Sumatra is by far the most important of these Outer
Possessions. Scarcely smaller than Borneo, some four
times the size of Java, from which it is separated by the
Straits of Sunda, it has an area of 180,380 square miles
if we include its dependencies, or 167,480 square miles if
taken alone ; in short, its area, comparable to that of
Spain, is thirteen times that of the Netherlands. Its
population, on the other hand, is only 3,189,027 ; an
absurd figure when compared to the dense population of
Java, or with the wide expanse of Sumatra itself, which
might easily contain and support some seventy-five
million human beings.

We have here the reason why Sumatra, whose soil and
subsoil hold their own easily with those of Java in the
matter of mineral and agricultural wealth, is only now
commencing to attract the attention of the Dutch. Java
is a country of magnificent realisation : Sumatra has
only a great future. More advantageously placed than
Java, on the threshold of the ocean highway from the
West to the Far East, a close neighbour of the Malay
Peninsula and of India, it seems to guard the entry to
the China Sea, to Indo-China, China, and Japan.

This advantageous position, and a more complete
knowledge of its natural resources, are to-day leading the
Dutch Government to develop Sumatra with tenacious
energy, in spite of the courage, independence, or fanaticism
of populations which render the national organisation of
the country a far more difficult task than the organisation
of thirty millions of Javanese has been.

II.

Just as Java has often been compared, in respect of its
shape and orientation, to Cuba, so Sumatra has been
compared with the great French colony of Madagascar.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 259

The extent and configuration of the two islands, each
of which presents one almost rectilinear coast bordering
on profound oceanic depths, while the other coast, much
indented, slopes gently to a shallower sea; each of
which is traversed by a backbone of mountain ranges,
running in parallel chains from one extremity of the
island to the other ; the relative insalubrity of the coastal
regions as contrasted with the hot but very healthy
climate of the plateaux and valleys of the interior ; all
these facts contribute to a very real resemblance.

It would be more fitting, however, to compare Sumatra
to Java, especially in respect of its geological, orographical,
and hydrographical constitution ; Java in many ways
being but an attenuated continuation of Sumatra.

Sumatra, like Java and Borneo, is largely formed of
strata of the tertiary period, although it also contains
two schistous formations, one of which is anterior to
the carboniferous period. The tertiary series is more
complete than in Java ; the numerous volcanoes, so
characteristic of the whole Archipelago, are due to the
quaternary period.

In Sumatra, which is still only partially explored, there
have already been discovered ninety volcanoes, of which
twelve are now active ; they are, counting from north to
south : Sinabung, Sibajak, Pusuk Bukit, Sorik Berapi,
Pasaman, Singgalang, Merapi, Talang, Korintji, Kaba,
Dempo, and Krakatau. These volcanoes are scattered
amidst the series of mountainous groups which, under the
name of the Barisan Mountains (Bukit Barisari) run the
whole length of the island ; closely approaching the
western coast, and attaining their widest development in
the southern portion of Sumatra. Whether naked or
covered with verdure, majestically graceful or breached
and shattered by their own eruptions, grouped in twos
and threes, enclosing narrow valleys, or isolated and over-
looking some fertile plain which they enrich and devastate
alternately, surrounded by threatening vapours, or bearing
in their craters a great circular lake of water, these
volcanoes are the creative, the regulating, and often the

260 JAVA

perturbing factors of the orographic and hydrographic
history of Sumatra. Their average height runs from
9,000 to nearly 12,000 feet.

The first volcanic height of the Bukit Barisan en-
countered by the traveller whose direction is westward
from the north-eastern corner of the island, is Sinabung ;
then the range splits up into parallel chains, which sur-
round the vast lacrustine lake called the Sea or Lake of
Toba, whose area is about 785 square miles, and its
depth from 1,300 to 1,470 feet. A number of Batak
villages are established upon its banks ; they live by
fishing and hunting rather than by agriculture or industry.

Then we come to Mount Malintang ; then to Mount
Pasaman or Ophir; 1 isolated and majestic, but uncertain
and irascible in temper. Then, to the south of the
beautiful Masang River, we reach Manindju, whose
amputated summit bears the lake of the same name,
whose slightly sulphurous waters flow into the Indian
Ocean. Then follows Singalang ; then Merapi, on whose
summit, so the Islamites pretend, the ark of Noah rested
after the Deluge. This region, cut up into innumerable
valleys which run between the spurs of the mountains,
contains another lake of considerable size, though its
area is only one-eleventh of that of the Lake of Toba :
the Sea of Singkarah. Further south still the chain
continues past Talang and Korintji, or Indrapura (the
dwelling of Indra, or of the gods, in the eyes of the
natives), always in eruption, its base surrounded by a
system of lakes, all smaller than the Seas of Toba and
Singkarah. As we approach the southern extremity of
the island the volcanoes, although less majestic, redouble
their activity ; here is Kaba, pointed like a sugar-loaf ;
Dempo, hailed by the Malays as the cradle of their race ;

1 So named because the old Portuguese navigators thought they
had rediscovered the Ophir whence King Solomon drew the gold
employed in building the Temple. Ophir has also been located in
the east of Malacca, whence the name of Mount Ophir, sometimes
given to Gunung Ledang, which contains considerable quantities of
gold. Its actual location is in the Zambesi district.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGO A

R;i<lj;i ri's;ir, and Krakatau or Rakata. The rumbling
voice of Dempo keeps the inhabitants of all the n
bouring valleys for ever on the alert, with bated breath ;
;md for three years, from 1875 to 1878, Kaba sent forth
rivers of lava. But Krakatau, upon its little inhabited
island, after three months of low rumblings, and ex-
plosions of smoke and flame, which provided the many
tourists who, in May, 1883, came thither from Batavia,
with a striking and somewhat alarming spectacle, was
the centre of an eruption famous in the history of
volcanoes. This eruption reached its apogee on the 27th
of August. For more than a month it vomited torrents of
rocks and ashes, the latter reaching a height of seventeen
miles and covering a stretch of nearly a thousand miles ;
obscuring the sun, and falling in a cloud of cinders upon
the Keeling Islands (Cocos Islands), in the Indian Ocean.
It seemed as though the amazing convulsions of this
unfortunate island would shatter the very foundations of
the globe. At Batavia, from the 26th to the 2Qth of August,
the horizon remained obscured, and all Java was shaken by
an extraordinary tidal wave, by subterranean shocks, and
the sound as of a distant cannonade. Anjer and Tjaringin
on the Javanese side of the Straits of Sunda, Benawang
and Telok Betong on the Sumatra side, were utterly
erased by a gigantic wave, 120 feet in height ; not a trace
was left of house, or crop, or human being. More than
forty thousand persons were swept away and drowned ;
only the keeper of the lighthouse, which was 130 feet in
height, was saved ; the wave merely extinguishing his light.
But over an area of fourteen square miles, all living crea-
tures were burned to death ; and the two hundred inhabi-
tants of the island of Sibesi disappeared beneath the waves.
The shores of the Straits of Sunda were completely
altered in their configuration ; the entire southern portion
of the island of Krakatau had disappeared, to be replaced
by a gulf nearly 1,000 feet deep ; but the mass of
stones and cinders which were blown away had actually
formed new islets and new patches of land, and had
doubled the size of the Deserted Isle (Verlaten).

262 JAVA

The explosion of Krakatau was heard in the Philip-
pines, and in Japan, and was followed by a rain of
cinders ; over all the southern portion of Indo-China
as far as Lao, it sounded like the dull and incessant
discharge of countless artillery ; it was heard, though less
loudly, as far as Europe ; in America, along the Pacific
coast, it caused submarine tremblings and movements of
the sea that for a moment seemed to threaten to ravage
the coast ; and its tidal wave reached Madagascar, where
masses of cinders and huge fragments of pumice were
carried by the ocean currents.

To-day the terrible volcano, as well as the island,
is reclad in a magnificent mantle of foliage, and has
resumed its benignant aspect. 1

III.

The rivers of Sumatra, together with the volcanoes,
are the creative elements of the island. The great eastern
plain is formed almost wholly of their alluvial deposits,
and is slowly but surely being augmented by their con-
tinuous action. Richer in alluvial matter than the rivers
of Java, on account of the enormous rainfall of Sumatra,
these rivers have otherwise the same characteristics as
those of the smaller island. On the steep western flank
of the island, shut in between the coast and the mountain
chains which border it, they are short, torrential, and
rarely navigable. One of the most important is the
Singkel, formed by the confluence of the Simpang Kanan
(the right-hand Simpang) and the Simpang Kiri (the left-
hand Simpang).

The rivers of the eastern watershed flow across the great
alluvial plain, leisurely draining the mountains of their
waters ; their course is often majestic, but impeded by

1 See C. Dietrich, edited by Prince Roland Bonaparte : Les pre-
mieres nouvelles concernant I eruption du Krakatau en 1883 dans les
insulindes (Paris, 1883, large 8vo) ; R. O. M. Verbeek, Krakatau
(Batavia, 1886, large 8vo).

SUMATRA AND UIOCIW IJNGGA 263

silt; and they finally reach the sea through numerous
muddy channels.

Of these rivers the chief is the Asahan, which dr
the enormous Lake of Toba ; this, for a portion of its
length, is navigable by steamers. Next is the Indrapura,
which waters the lowlands of Padang, and finishes its
individual course by dividing into several branches, of
which three are the Sungi (river) Sindang, the Sungi
Lunang, and the Sungi Tapan. Other rivers are the
Rokan, which flows into the narrow Malacca Straits, after
a journey of more than 120 miles, through a muddy
estuary ; the Siak, formed by the confluence of the
Tapung Kanan (the right-hand Tapan) with the Tapung
Kiri (the left-hand Tapan), which flows into the Brouwer
Strait ; the Kampar, the Indragtri, which issues from the
highlands of Padang, traverses the Sea or Lake of Sing-
karah, under the name of the Ombilin, waters the coal
country, and finally debouches opposite the Lingga
Archipelago, in the great Gulf of Amphitrite ; the
Djambi, springing from Indrapura, and swelled by the
Batang 1 Hari and the Tambesi, is the most beautiful
and the largest of all. Opposite Djambi it has a width
of 1,300 feet, and at low water a depth of about 16 feet ;
but the least increase of tide or current doubles its depth.
Steamers of considerable tonnage can lie 600 or 700
yards inland ; and native vessels (prahous or praus) some
900 yards.

The batang (or river) of Palembang, the Musi, is the
only river to bear comparison with the Djambi. Below
Palembang it splits up into a number of channels, which
spread out amidst a vast, unhealthy swamp, covering an
area of some 4,600 miles. These subsidiary channels
slowly deposit their suspended wealth of mud among the
mangroves, thus gradually creating new land. Native
tradition states that Palembang, to-day 55 miles inland,
was once a seaport ; but through the centuries the
alluvial ooze of the river has pushed the shore far out into

1 Batang means " river " in Sumatra ; the Malay kali and the
Sundanese tji have the same meaning.

264 JAVA

sea. The principal branch of the Musi, the Susang,
which flows into the Banka narrows, is accessible during
the rains to vessels of considerable tonnage, and to vessels
of moderate draught the whole year round.

The changeable nature of the coast hereabouts makes
landing always an uncertain, and often an unhealthy
business. The indentations of the shore are imper-
manent, and the muddy barriers of the Sumatra coast
makes it no easy matter to establish practicable ports or
landings. We can foresee that in the west, and more
rapidly in the east, the immense mother-island will slowly
gather to her shores the chaplet of rocks and shoals and
islands which guard them from north to south. These
islands, which are parallel to the western coast, to which
they serve as a kind of outer barrier, have a total area of
5,760 square miles, and a population estimated at nearly
300,000. Starting from the north these islands are
Simalur, Banjak, Nias, Batu, the Mentawei Archipelago,
and Engano.

On the eastern coast the islands are even more
numerous, and present more variety of size and group-
ing. Some are low and of alluvial origin ; the islands of
Rupat, Padang, and Bengkalis, are already connected
with the mainland by muddy causeways ; others are of
granitic formation, more of a volcanic character, and set
further out at sea, such as the archipelagos of Riouw
and of Lingga. Yet of these even Banka and Billiton
show signs of future absorption by alluvial deposits.

IV.

The climate of Sumatra, like that of Java, belongs to
the zone of alternate monsoons : the south-east mon-
soon, dry and hot, which lasts from May to September,
and the north-west monsoon, which lasts from November
to March, and which brings the heavy rains. The pre-
vailing temperature is as high in the sister island, and
always very equable, but the atmosphere is extremely
humid.

SUMATRA AND RIOIJW LINGGA 265

The storms are most violent and most regular at
Padang ; they break especially in March and April, and
always in the afternoon, between 2 and 6 p.m. 1
are also frequent at Palembang, especially from October
to December.

The flora of Sumatra resembles that of India in the
north of the island, and that of Java in the south ; but it
remains, in its wealth and variety, quite distinct from either.
The vegetable growths are larger and more undisciplined
than those of Java. There are flowers of the dimensions
of the huge Rafflesiaf and also immense jungles of alang-
alang (Impcrata arundinacca Cyr.) and of glaga (Saccha-
rum spontaneum L.) ; herbaceous plants some 3 or 4
feet high, which stifle the trees, kill seeds and growing
crops, and serve only as the haunt of wild beasts. These
jungles descend as low as 800 feet above sea-level, while
in Java they grow no lower than 3,000 feet. Here, from
the economic point of view, is a serious obstacle to the
development of Java. On the other hand, in addition to
the usual series of palms, Sumatra possesses a greater
variety of forest timber than other islands of the
Archipelago, and produces gums and resins of great
commercial value. Camphor, rubber, pepper, cinna-
mon, areca-nut, benzoin, and lacquer are found in
abundance.

The wild beasts of Sumatra are plainly differentiated
from those of Java. In the centre especially, and on the
north-western coast, the elephant is native ; and the
rhinoceros, tiger, panther, tapir, and a few orang-outang
are found.

The population of Sumatra, although so inferior in
numbers, has nothing of the ethnographical simplicity,

1 The largest flower known, discovered by the naturalist, Joseph
Arnold, in 1818, and named after Sir Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-
Governor of Java during the English occupation. He was the author
of the remarkable History of Java (London, 1817, 2 vols.,4to). The
blossom of Rafflesia Patma Bl. measures 20 to 24 inches in diameter ;
that of R. Arnoldi R. attains to a diameter of 36 to 40 inches
Native names : krubut, ambun-ambun : tjendawan matahari.

266 JAVA

verging upon unity, which we find in that of Java. It
is obvious from the first that there are very perceptible
points of difference between the peoples of the coast and
the peoples of the interior ; which is easily explained, as
the seaboard populations have for centuries come into
contact with all kinds of foreigners, while those of the
interior are only beginning to be known. The seaboard
populations on the east coast of Sumatra, in the Lampong
districts of Palembang and Djambi, were at an early date
modified in respect of their physical type and their
customs by the establishment of Hindu-Javanese
colonies. The Achinese and Malays are distributed
in considerable numbers in the north and north-west,
where they originally settled for purposes of trade,
and almost everywhere on these coasts Chinese, Klings,
or Klingalese, Bengalis, and Arabs, have at some time
settled, whence have resulted peoples of mixed race, far
more open to the general life of the East than the tribes
of the interior. These latter, who have not come into
contact with foreigners, who are ignorant of the arts of
learning and commerce, or of European civilisation, or
indeed of any high civilisation, have in the past been
slightly influenced by the Hindus, and in certain
districts have not altogether escaped the influence of
Islam. They have necessarily remained at a lower intel-
lectual level than the coast populations ; their condition,
social, economic, and moral, is still extremely rudi-
mentary. Yet on the coasts and in the interior the
population of Sumatra seems to have a common Malayo-
Polynesian origin ; but diversities of climate and habitat,
together with different economic and historical condi-
tions, have evolved from this common parentage races
very different in aspect and in language, despite their
real and close relationship. The more important of
these races are the Lampongs, the Redjongs, the Lebongs,
the Gay os, the Malays, the Bataks, and the Achinese; the two
most characteristic being perhaps (for different reasons)
the Malays and the Bataks.

The Lampongs inhabit the districts of the same name

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 267

at the southern extremity of Sumatra, on the Straits of
Suiula, facing the country of the Sundaiu-sc, witl
they are in constant touch. Their alphabet proves that
they were formerly under the influence of the Hindus,
and attained a fairly high degree of civilisation. They
live, poorly enough, by agriculture, and in the towns,
to a certain extent by exchange. Their language seems
to be related in many ways to the Sundanese, to Batak,
and to Malay. The Lampongs are almost converted to
Islam, but they preserve their adat, which is often in
contradiction to the prescriptions of that religion. The
Musulman faith is treated with greater respect in the
coast towns, where marriages are celebrated in the Arab
fashion, than in the interior. Marriage is an institution
which in Sumatra affects the most varied forms, and
therefore affords a good example of the struggle of the
atavistic concept against the fashions imported by the
foreigner. It is always exogamic; but while the common
people regard it as a patriarchal institution, with wife-
purchase (often ruinous), the woman becoming the
absolute property of her husband, the wealthy and the
notables preserve the matriarchal institution, as at
Menangkabau, where possession of land and of children
is the attribute of the mother.

Marriage is greatly honoured among the Lampongs,
seduction and its results being considered as a disgrace
to the whole village. It is general among the Lampongs
for both sexes to file the teeth.

The Lebongs live upon the upper reaches of the
Ketuan, in a province bearing their name, and blessed
with a very healthy climate. The special dialect of the
Lebongs is strongly mixed with Malay, which language
they speak in addition to their own.

Their houses, raised on piles, which are carved and
decorated in white and red, have walls of bark, and flat
roofs of split bamboo. Islamism has begun to make
its way among them, without greatly modifying their
old animistic superstitions. They are a gentle and
hospitable people.

268 JAVA

The Redjangs, of a much fiercer temper, live in
Redjang, on the upper course of the Musi ; in them
Marsden mistakenly saw the type of the primitive
Malay. Their writing of Indian origin has often been
regarded as the actually unknown script which must
have been employed by the Malays before Islam brought
them the Arabic characters. Formerly animists, living
in a country wherein Hindoo ruins are still discovered,
and now converted to Islam, the Redjangs practise an
Islamism full of relics of the past. For example, at
regular intervals they bear offerings of rice and fruits
to the crater of Kaba, which they venerate. They
cultivate tobacco and coffee, and work the best gold-
and silver-mines in Sumatra.

The Korintjis, who inhabit the country surrounding
Indrapura, and are reinforced by the Malays of
Menangkabau, form a smaller group than the Redjangs ;
but they are even more warlike than the latter,
and far more difficult to handle. The majority are
Musulmans by name, but animists in fact.

The Orang-Ulu and the Orang-Lubu of Mount Ophir
are savages ; near relatives of the Batiks ; peaceable
and extremely poor.

The Malays of the seaboard and the Malays of
Menangkabau r represent the pure Malay element in
Java. The Malays of the seaboard closely resemble
those of Malacca and of Riouw-Lingga ; they live
chiefly in the country of Palembang, the centre of the
trading highways of the island.

The Malays of Menangkabau (Dutch, Menangkabau
Maleiers) regard themselves as the primitive Malays.
It is more probable that they are a detached branch of
the Malays of the coast, which has been isolated for
ages in the interior of the country, and has developed
in perfect independence. The kingdom of Menang-
kabau, says the native legend, arose upon the ruins of

1 A kingdom now extinct. It was situated between the kingdom
of Palembang and the Siak River on the east ; between the kingdom
of Mendjuto and the Singkel River on the west.

MALAYS ()! MENANGKABAU. KOTA (iKI)ANC.

To face p. 268.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 269

the Hindu empire of Adityavarman, and its name,
" Victory of the Buffalo," symbolised the supremacy
of Sumatra and the Malays over Java, which they are
supposed for a time to have conquered. Early con-
verted to Islam while preserving their own adat, the
Malays of Menangkabau regard themselves as the best
Mahomedans in the Archipelago.

Marriage with them is always exogamic, and has
retained the matriarchal form. The husband cultivates
the soil for the wife, who owns it as she owns her
children ; the property of the father passes to the
children of his sister, not to those of his wife or
brother.

It is true that contemporary observers represent the
Malay of Menangkabau as possessing but little conjugal
fidelity ; as anything but a sentimental father ; as
defiant, a born intriguer, avaricious, harsh to his inferiors,
servile to his superiors, inhospitable and hostile to
the foreigner ; a babbler, indifferent to cleanliness, an
intemperate drinker and eater, and a desperate smoker
and betel-chewer. There is light, however, in this
gloomy picture. It must be admitted that the Malay
of Menangkabau is industrious, full of endurance,
an excellent workman, an experienced trader, and an
excellent farmer. He has not, like the Javanese, a
burning desire to educate himself or to improve his
position ; yet when he does decide to study he does
so with the most zealous tenacity. He has a keen
artistic sense and skilful fingers, and executes charming
work in glass, filigree, and copper, and is a fine
sculptor in wood and sometimes in precious metals.
The women share in these gifts, for the ka'ins, the cloth
of gold of Ugam, the rich stuffs of Si Lungkang and
Simgei Pagou, are greatly valued. They also undertake
the milling of sugar-cane and make pottery, but the
men only work in the mines, are carpenters and cabinet-
makers, build praus, and work in copper and wood.

The Malays of Menangkabau are all Mahomedans,
but they are scarcely more zealous than the Javanese :

270 JAVA

yet on occasion their distrustful minds will bring a
dangerous enthusiasm to bear upon the question of
religion. It was among them that the famous Padris 1
arose : a sect of reformers, who, in 1820 or thereabouts,
in the hope of leading their compatriots back to a
stricter observance of the ritual of their faith, rebelled
against the Sultan of Menangkabau, who was at the
same time priest and king. The latter, despairing of
victory, appealed for assistance to the Dutch, who after
a sanguinary war of nine years' duration exterminated
the Padris, but subdued Menangkabau.

From the social point of view the Malays of Menang-
kabau are organised into sukus, or clans, the chosen chief
of which, who is selected from a privileged family, is
always assisted by a council composed of the adult males
of the clan. Several sukus form a district, which has for
its council the chiefs of the sukus composing it. The
district, according to the number of the kotas, or villages,
is known as a " district of 20 or 30 kolas."

The Bataks are the Malays of the western branch, who
inhabit the Residency of Tapanuli in the south of Atjeh, a
large part of the eastern coast of Sumatra, and portions of
the neighbouring islands which are external to the Dutch
empire properly so called. According to the differences
in their dialects, the Bataks are divided into three principal
groups : the Tobas of Siboga, Baros, and Sorkam ; the
Mandailings of the west coast of Sumatra ; and the Dairis
of the north and north-west of Baros and the centre of
Singkel. To these groups others are related : the Timor-
Bataks, the Raja-Bataks, and the Pakpak Bataks of the
Sea of Toba : the Karo-Bataks and the Dusun-Bataks of
the high plains and the east coast of Sumatra.

Any real knowledge of the Bataks dates from 1867-

1 From the Portuguese padre, in the religious sense of father.
Passed into the Malay tongue as padri, this word has come to mean
priest or ecclesiastic. The leaders of the Padris' rebellion, who
were all members of the Islamite clergy, were at first the sole
bearers of this title ; but later on it enlarged its meaning, and
signified the adepts of the sect as a whole.

DWELLING-HOUSE AND KICK GRANARY, HATII'U, SUMATRA.

To i. ice p. 270.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 271

1883 ; x they had :it first a terrible reputation for can-
nibalism, clue principally to the reports of ancient Arab

ilers; they accused them of eating their
relations so soon as the latter were no longer of service
to them ; in order to give them a pious sepulture in their
stomachs. At the season when lemons (the indispensable
accompaniment of such a festival) were ripe, the aged
victim would climb a tree ; the family would dance
around below, singing "Where the fruit is ripe it falls
from the tree " ; until the victim allowed himself to fall,
when he was knocked on the head, cut up, and consumed
according to custom. 2 The Bataks were also accused of
eating their prisoners of war, men of the people who

1 See M. Joustra, Litter atuuroverzicht der Bataklanden (Leyden,
1907, 8vo). A Batak Institute was founded in Leyden in 1909 for
the purpose of co-ordinating and encouraging the study of the
Batak peoples.

a It is usually considered that the victim of anthropophagy must
be unwilling. We may take this unwillingness for granted in the
case of shipwrecked strangers, prisoners of war, and missionaries
not of the stuff of martyrs ; but in such cases as the above (which
if not true of the Bataks is true of many cannibals) it is more than
probable that the moribund would object to any other end. Indeed,
it is not difficult to understand that the rite might have originated
not with the eaters, but with the eaten. It is conceivable that a
savage who had lived a full and warlike life would regard with
abhorrence the dispersal of his remains by decay, which in an
early stage of animism would by some be regarded as annihila-
tion. Consumption by the family, on the other hand, might well be
accompanied by a conception of immortality. The old, helpless
man, with the joys of life failing him, would find a certain attraction
in the idea that his body would become part of the strong brown
bodies around him. He might even have a dim conception that he
would be partly conscious in each of his sepultures : an idea by no
means far-fetched, but borne out by the fact that the old were eaten
to partake of their wisdom, and fallen warriors to partake of their
strength. Chance shipwrecked mariners were doubtless disposed
of with the thrifty idea of saving any virtues they might possess.
In Africa, if a crocodile eats a man, the crocodile is afterwards
regarded as the deceased ; if the deceased were ill-tempered the
crocodile is greatly feared. Cannibalism may become degraded
and hypocritical, but must not in itself be regarded as a proof of
low civilisation. [TUANS.]

272 JAVA

committed adultery with the wife of a chief, foreigners
and strangers suspected of hostile intentions, &c. The
Bataks, who to-day are Christians or Islamites, deny these
practices with indignation, or refer them to a period very
remote ; and it seems established, by the study of selected
cases, that the Bataks were not actually cannibals, but
that they practised ritual killing and the symbolic
consumption of the victim's flesh.

Out of 500,000 Bataks about 125,000 are Mahomedans,
although the propaganda of Islam followed rather than
preceded that of Christianity. They number 80,000
Christians ; the remainder are animistic pagans, whose
beliefs are modified by very vague memories of
Hinduism. These latter are susceptible to Christian
influences : a fact which has greatly facilitated the
access and the domination of the Dutch. Their char-
acter is peaceable and easy : they are farmers and breeders
of cattle, and terminate the labour of the rice-fields by
collective banquets, at whicji many buffalo are con-
sumed, with kids and even pigs for the Christians.
Whatever religious label the Batak assumes, he is a
superstitious person rather than a believer ; the Islamism
of the Bataks, wherever it is professed, is limited to
circumcision, which rite is also practised by the pagan
Karo- Bataks ; abstention from strong drink, and from
the flesh of the pig ; the veneration of Hadjis and santris,
and the erection in almost every village of a very
countrified-looking mosque. In everything else the
village adat comes first. The practice of filing the
teeth is general : marriage affects the partriarchal or
the matriarchal form according to the village in question
or the rank of those concerned.

The houses of the Bataks are of a neat rustic type,
their graceful roofs recalling those of the Bahnars of
French Indo-China, as does their great communal house,
where they receive friendly strangers and keep their most
valued possessions, which are generally of a fetishistic
nature.

A few manuscripts upon wood or palm-leaves, traced

SUMATRA AND IUOFW LINCKJA 273

in an alpliahet of Hindu origin, prove that the B;

knew a civilisation more advanced than that tln-y
enjoy to-day. 1

The Gayos, thanks to the masterly study by Dr.
Snouck Hurgronje, professor at the University of
Leyden, are better known than the Bataks. The
country of the Gayos is situated on the western coast
of Sumatra, between the Straits of Malacca and the
Indian Ocean, but does not at any point touch the sea;
it is isolated by a long belt of Achinese territory which
with the Alas and Tannang provinces completely sur-
rounds it, except upon the south-eastern frontier. In
spite of some differences of type and dialect, which vary
with their habitat, the Gayos present a real chrono-
graphical unity, and a rudimentary civilisation slightly
superior to that of the Bahnars and the Stiengs of French
Indo-China, and on about the same level as that of the
Chams of the same country.

The principal event of the religious life of the Gayos,
who are all Islamites, is the rite of circumcision, which is
practised by an accredited operator towards the eighth
or tenth year. They also celebrate the mulud, or festival
of the Nativity of Mahomet. In the large villages the
fast of Ramadhan is better observed than in Java. Even
the opium-smokers abstain for a few days. In the
smaller villages the feast which closes the fast is the
principal affair.

The Gayo contrives to mingle the family adat with the
influence of the Koran. Both sexes file the teeth.
Marriage is patriarchal compared with the marriage of
the Malays of Menangkabau. The woman can only leave
her village for the pilgrimage to Mecca, which a woman
scarcely ever makes ; the family is perpetuated through
the males, and in default of a son the Gayo will often
adopt his son-in-law, or a stranger, who is nearly always
an Achinese, a Malay, more rarely an Arab, a Malabarese

1 The Bataks have special languages for women, thieves, and
sorcerers, and a " language of leaves " : the latter for the use of
fiances.

274 JAVA

or a Chinese ; but he is always adopted upon the con-
dition that he becomes a Musulman. The funerals are
according to the Musulman rite, excepting certain super-
stitious practices, such as removing the corpse by a
special opening, instead of by the habitual stairs or
ladder.

The Gayos enforce the excellently moral custom of
causing all the boys and young men to sleep in the
common house up to the time of their marriage. Like
all the Indonesians, they have retained a superstitious
belief in good and evil spirits, and seek to conciliate
them by means of oblations and prayers which are
repudiated by the orthodox Mahomedan.

The Gayos accompany all their festivals with kunduris,
or banquets, to which a religious colour is given by the
recitation before meat of passages from the Koran, and
the presence of men of piety ; so that these banquets
remind one strongly of the slamettans of Java. 1

The Achinese inhabit the kingdom of Acheen in the
north of Sumatra (582,175 inhabitants, of whom 761 are
Europeans, 875 Chinese, 1,261 Oriental foreigners, and
101 Arabs), which they reckon as bounded on the east by
Tamiang and the west by Baros. 2 The territory, which
will soon go the way of that of the Sultans of Menang-
kabau, comprises a stretch of country in the north which
the Achinese regard as Acheen or Atjeh proper, and
which the Dutch have called Great Atjeh (Groot Atjeh).
This portion is shaped precisely like a fan, the mouth of
the river Atjeh marking the point of the fan, where the
impurities of the rice-fields collect. It comprises, to the
left, the Twenty-five Mukims ; 3 to the right are the
Twenty-six Mukims ; the Twenty-two Mukims occupy-

1 See C. Snouck Hurgronje, Het Gajolund en zijne bewohnen
(Batavia 1903, 8vo illustr.).

2 Other names of Acheen are : Atjeh, Acheh, Atcheh, Achin,
Acheen, Achem, &c.

3 The mukim (Dutch form moekim ; an Arab word) is a territorial
subdivision under the authority of an imaum, and corresponds more
or less to the English parish.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 275

ing the wide belt of borderland. These three confr
tions have received the name of the "Three Angl
Atjeh," and the chiefs who preside over them are the
" Heads of Atjeh."

The Achinese also have been the object of a lengthy
study by Professor Hurgronje, whose profound under-
standing of Islam and the Islamitish Insulindian nations
has enabled him to write a work containing most impor-
tant information, whose conclusions have more than
once been a guide to Holland in her interminable
struggle with the Achinese. 1

The Achinese claim to be of Hindu origin. It is
eminently probable that they were converted to Islam by
the Hindus, and that their race has received additions of
Dravidian, Malay, Bugis, Arab, and even Egyptian
origin. The kingdom of Acheen boasts of its foundation
in the thirteenth century by a Sultan descended in the
direct line, as are almost all the Malay princes, from
Iskander or Alexander the Great. It is certain that at the
beginning of the seventeenth century the Sultan ruled
over half Sumatra and the small neighbouring islands ;
that he had permanent relations with Turkey and China,
Egypt and Japan ; but in the eighteenth century the
kingdom declined. We can understand that with such
memories as these, and a somewhat bellicose tempera-
ment, the Achinese, although now deprived of nine-
tenths of their ancient territory, have but unwillingly
accepted the Dutch rule, against which they have been
desperately struggling since 1883, even though all the
towns and important strategic points of their country
Sigli, Edi, Kota Radja, Oleh-Leh and Sabang, are occupied
by the Dutch soldiery.

The Achinese, accordingly as they live in the moun-
tains under the name of Orang-tunong, or in the plain
under the name of Orang-baroh, exhibit characteristic
differences. The former are the more warlike and are
frequently fanatical ; they hate the foreigner, are incor-

1 Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Achehnese (Leyden, 1906,
2 vols. 4to).

276 JAVA

rigible brigands, and think nothing of robbery or murder ;
the people of the plain, of a more peaceable nature, and
accustomed to international relations, have in an exag-
gerated degree, it is said, the usual faults of the Malays :
treacherous flattery, servility, intemperance, the abuse of
opium and of strong liquors.

Among the Achinese, as among nearly all the
Mahomedan Sumatrese, we find the coexistence of the
power of the adat and of the religious law.

The woman is married very young, at eight or ten
years of age, the boy being from sixteen to twenty. The
marriage is arranged by go-betweens, and is of the
patriarchal type, the woman receiving a betrothal present
as well as her parents. The ceremony is celebrated
after the Arab fashion, in spite of various additions which
have no relation to Islam. The husband works for a
certain period with his parents-in-law, in order to com-
pensate them for the loss he is causing them ; the
marriage contract also stipulates that the husband cannot
separate the wife from her parents without her consent.

A nuptial gift to the wife, after the consummation of
the marriage, is obligatory ; according to the wealth of
the husband it may be of gold and silver, and consist of
a necklace or a bracelet.

It should be noted that the chief of the kampong has
the right to oppose any marriage that may appear to him
contrary to the peace or security of the tribe ; it is he
who fixes the most favourable day and hour for the
wedding.

The maiden of good family marries only among her
equals ; never a foreigner, unless an Arab, a, Malabarese,
or a Komitji, wealthy and well versed in sacred things.
Other applicants can only obtain the descendants of
slaves. The Achinese are Musulmans, often fanatical
towards foreigners, but nearly always lukewarm in the
practice of their religion. They do not, of course, omit
circumcision, but their women are not veiled, any more
than are the women of Gayos, Bataks, or the Malays.
They celebrate the mulud, which is perhaps their

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 277

greatest festival ; and also the closing feast of Ramadhan,
but very few strictly observe the prescribed fast. Many
content themselves with fasting three times a month at
the beginning, in the middle, and at the end and very
few abstain from smoking tobacco during the period of
penitence. To the Achinese, as to the Gayos, the Malays,
and the Javanese, the religious festivals are excellent
occasions for banquets, which are known in Acheen
as kanduris. They are opened by a prayer, or the
recitation of passages from the Koran ; and consist of
dishes of a determined quantity and quality. The most
solemn of these kanduris is that of the mulud ; but the
Achinese hold banquets upon all excusable occasions.
Recovery from illness, or falling sick ; sending a son to
school ; returning from a voyage ; the success of a
stroke of business ; the threat of an enemy ; a bad
dream ; all such trifling events may be so celebrated.

The islands which cluster about Sumatra are peopled
by various races, according to their geographical position.
The northern islands in particular have been peopled
by emigrants from Menangkabau and Acheen ; but Bang-
kan remains deserted, because it is supposed to be the
refuge of evil spirits.

The Niassais, inhabitants of the Nias Islands, are
Malayo-Polynesian by race, and number some 240,000.
They live sociably in villages ; they are gay, and hospitable
of aspect, but their moral standard cannot be called high.
They are born thieves, hypocritical, cowardly, and cruel,
and are constantly waging war between village and village,
between family and family, and carrying on interminable
vendettas.

Farmers and fishermen, they live on rice, maize, sago,
and coco-nuts, to which they add, at their banquets,
fowls and pork and large quantities of palm wine. They
are inordinately fond of dress and ornament ; the cere-
monial costume of a chief is often worth ^240 to ^320,
and that of his wife nearly half as much. They do not
dice, neither do they smoke opium.

Good craftsmen, they weave, dye, and colour stuffs and

278 JAVA

matting, work in copper, make arms, and build fairly
presentable houses, which are, however, exceedingly
filthy inside. The interior of the house is often decorated
with the tusks of boars, or even with human skulls.
Their women, who are well built, are greatly sought
by the Malays.

The religion of the Niassais is a rudimentary animism,
fearful above all of evil spirits, or badjus, and of Nadaya
their chief. These spirits are propitiated through the
priests and priestesses, who form a special but not a
privileged class.

Extremely superstitious, the Niassais fear and maltreat
albino children, although the latter are very numerous ;
twins they kill, and the funerals of chiefs are often accom-
panied by human sacrifices. Each house has its house-
hold god, in the shape of a puppet carved in wood ; in
this the souls of the ancestors of the household are incar-
nate, and it also protects the hearth. The Niassais never
move without taking their idols with them ; they also
honour the phallus carved in wood, and the village has its
protecting deity, with his wife. These, which are also of
wood, are placed at the entrance to the village so that
they may watch over its safety.

Although the family is so poorly constituted among the
Niassais, adultery and seduction are punished by death.

The Niassais are now beginning to emigrate to
Sumatra, in order to make money as carpenters, masons,
labourers, &c.

The islands of the volcanic archipelago of Mentawei are
inhabited by a population of about twelve thousand
persons, who in many points resemble, according to
Rosenberg, who spent six months among them, the
natives of the Marquesas Islands of Hawaii, a fine-
looking, gentle race, their code of morality is very
inflexible ; they know nothing of divorce, and punish
adultery by death. Men and women have the whole
body tattooed in childhood ; they deck the head and the
ears with flowers in the Polynesian fashion. Their reli-
gion consists chiefly in a fear of the evil spirits that

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 279

people the universe, and also the souls of the dead ; hut
they do not offer them sacrifices of any notable value.
They have neither temples nor figures of the gods ; they
make their rare oblations in a special corner of the forest.
Certain meals are forbidden to the women. They live by
hunting and fishing, and, to a certain extent, by agriculture.

The group of islands which the Portuguese called the
Engano, or Deceitful Islands (engano signifying "de-
ception," " illusion "), consists of one principal island,
Keifu Kaikukka or Eloppo, and six small islands, all of
which are surrounded by dangerous reefs. This little
archipelago is of no economic importance, and is only
occasionally visited by the Dutch officials. The inhabi-
tants, who are tall and of a bronze-coloured complexion,
are accustomed to go naked, hence the name of Pulu
Telandjung, meaning " Island of the Naked," which the
Malays have given their group of islands. They practise
a primitive animism. Their numbers are steadily de-
creasing : they were 3,000 in 1862, and only 692 in 1893 ;
to-day there are scarcely 600. The Engano Islands are
under the administration of the Resident of Bencoolen.

The islands of the east coast of Sumatra are much
larger and of much greater geographical and economic
importance than those of the west coast. They include
the archipelago of Riouw Lingga, with the small islands
lying between Borneo and that archipelago, of which
they really form outlying fragments. Further to the
south of Sumatra are the two large islands of Bank and
Billiton.

The archipelago of Riouw Lingga, to the south of the
Malay Peninsula, is a granitic prolongation of the latter :
although the alluvial deposits of the rivers of Sumatra are
tending to unite it with the mainland. Although its total
area is greatly superior to that of Singapore, its population
in 1909 amounted only to 112,216, of whom 221 were
Europeans and 18,491 Chinese.

The archipelago of Riouw Lingga is composed of two
groups of islands : the archipelago of Riouw and Lingga,
properly so-called, and the Pulu Tudjuh islands.

280 JAVA

The archipelago of Riouw Lingga consists of some
hundreds of little islands, which have been divided into
five subsidiary groups : the Karimon, Batam, Bintang,
Lingga, and Singkep groups. All these islands are
granitic and covered with undulating hills, of which the
highest, the peak of Lingga, rises only 4,400 feet above sea-
level. The island of Lingga also contains the largest
alluvial plain in the archipelago.

Singkep, mountainous to the north-west, is full of
swamps about the centre.

The rivers on islands so limited in size, are necessarily
insignificant. The climate of the archipelago is almost
everywhere excellent, the heat being tempered by the
abundant rains, by the ocean currents, and the surround-
ing sea. Almost the entire archipelago is covered with a
luxuriant vegetation ; teak, trees secreting various gums
and resins, palms of many varieties, anana and banana-
trees, sugar-cane, all grow readily and without attention.

The fauna, as varied as the flora, and able to hold its
own with that of Java or Sumatra, has one appreciable
virtue : it contains no dangerous carnivorae.

The natives, known as the Orang Benua, who are poor
and peaceable, are of Malay origin ; their race being a
mixture of pure Malays, Bugis, and Chinese.

The landscape of the archipelago, with its bold con-
tours, its luxurious vegetation, and the play of the sunlight
upon the all-encompassing sea, is the admiration of all
travellers privileged to behold it.

The Pulu Tudjuh group, which includes more than
three hundred islands, large and small, lies to the south of
the China Sea, between the Malay Peninsula and Borneo.
It has been divided into seven sub-groups, the Anambas
counting as two ; the Natunas as three ; the Ilanung or
Lanung (isles of the pirates or Lanons, in Dutch the
Zeerovers-Eilanderi) as one, and the Tambelans as one.

The Natuna Isles number fifty-five at least, and are
mostly of granite formation. The largest, Bunguran,
contains a thousand inhabitants : Orang Lant, Malays,
and Chinese, who live by their fisheries, and their coco-

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 281

p;ilms. The others contain only fourteen hundred souls
altogether, who are still more poverty-stricken than the
folk of Bunguran.

The ninety-six little islands, wooded and mountainous,
which form the Anamba group, are peopled by some
four thousand inhabitants : Mahomedan Malays or pagan
Orang Laut. They cultivate the sago-palm and the coco-
nut ; they fish, build praus, and export a little building
timber to Singapore.

The forty rocky islands of Tambelan support about
a thousand inhabitants between them. These are
nearly all Malays, who live by fishing, the culture of the
coco-palm, and the sale of swallows' nests.

Banka, or Bangka, and Billiton are far their superior in
area and in economic value, and each forms a separate
administrative division.

Banka, a granite outcrop detached from the Malay
Peninsula, is situated off the east coast of Sumatra, from
which it is separated by the Strait of Banka. A moun-
tainous island, with an area of 4,460 square miles. The
highest point, Mount Maras, is only some 2,000 feet
in height. The island slopes towards the east to a sandy
seaboard ; on the west is a shore of swamps.

Its rivers are numerous and abundant, though short.
The two largest are the Sungei Selan, which is 18 miles
in length, and the Djerin, on the west, whose outlet is
more than 1,000 yards in width.

The climate of Banka, like that of Billiton, is extremely
hot, but is tempered by the proximity of the sea. It is
also very variable, reaching 100 Fahr. in the shade on
the plains, while in the higher altitudes it may fall as
low as 39 or 41 during the night.

Banka is verdant with a vegetation resembling that of
the Malay Peninsula ; its fauna, which partakes of that of
Sumatra and that of the Peninsula, includes no carnivora
excepting the little brown Malay bear (Ursus malayanus
Raffl.) ; but serpents and crocodiles are by no means
unknown.

Its inhabitants, to the number of 115,190, of whom

282 JAVA

43,720 are Chinese, 317 Europeans, and 261 Arabs, are
we are speaking of the natives descendants of the
Malays of Palembang. They live in a semi-savage con-
dition, by their groves of coco-palms, areca-nut trees,
areng-palms, bananas, and their potatoes ; and to some
extent by fishing and the chase. Poor and ignorant, they
hold aloof from the foreigners who visit their island
to exploit the abundant mineral wealth beneath its surface,
and who set them the example not only of a healthy
activity, but also, in most cases and this is true especially
of the Chinese miners that of a host of repulsive vices.

Billiton, or Blitung, to the south-west of Banka, has
an area of 1,860 square miles, and a population of 36,860,
of whom 2,520 are Chinese, 136 Europeans, and 16 Arabs.

In its physical aspect and geological constitution it
resembles Banka. Its highest point, the hill known as
Tadjam, is only some 1,600 feet above sea-level. It is
watered by a number of short streams ; at the mouth of one
of these, the Tjarutjup, in the east of Billiton, is built the
chief town and capital of the island, Tandjong Pandang.

As in Banka, the natives do not work in the mines.
They cultivate a few fields and the more valuable kinds
of palms ; they also weave mats and make vessels, &c.,
of pewter. They export a little copra, also baskets,
rattan, gums, and resins, wood for furniture, and tortoise-
shell.

VI.

The languages and dialects of Sumatra are as numerous
as the races of its inhabitants, despite the visible relation-
ship of both. The principal languages are the Malay
of Menangkabau, Batak, Achinese, Lampong, Redjang,
Lebong, &c. Malay, the usual language of the whole of
the east coast, excepting the two extremities of the coast,
of the archipelago of Riouw Lingga, of Banka, Billiton,
and the greater part of the west coast, is also understood
and spoken by all the other peoples of Sumatra ; it serves
as the language of trade and inter-tribal communication
in all parts of the island.

CHAPTER XIV

THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF
SUMATRA AND THE ARCHIPELAGO OF RIOUW LINGGA

I. The Dutch have been hampered by certain European Powers
and certain of the races of Sumatra in their endeavour to
establish the power of Holland in Sumatra. II. The present
administrative divisions of Sumatra. The principal towns and
their future. III. Economic value of Sumatra : the wealth of
its natural resources. IV. How far the natives have exploited
the natural resources. V. How far the Europeans have done
so : the mines. VI. Coffee and tobacco ; spices. VII. The
means of communication with Sumatra : railways, packet-boats.
The means of communication must be greatly enlarged before
the island can be pacified and its wealth developed.

SUMATRA, 1 it seems, has only been known to the
Europeans since the sixteenth century ; long after the
Hindus, and later on the Arabs, had brought their beliefs
and their civilisations. The imprint of the Hindus remains
especially visible in the east and south of the island ; and
that of the Arabs in the north and along the eastern
coast. Ludovico di Varthema, 2 the first of the Europeans,
is said to have discovered the coast of Sumatra in 1505.
He was followed by the Portuguese in 1509, and in 1599
by the Dutch, who landed on the coast of Achin. Here
Cornelius Houtman, one of those who " discovered " for

1 Other names of Sumatra : Malayu, Java Minor, Al-Ramni,
Samara, Sumadra, Shamudra, Shamuthera, Soumatra, Andelas, Pulo
Pertja, Liman, &c.

3 See Les voyages de Ludovico di Varthema ou le Viateur dc hi plus
grandepartie de Wrient. Published by Ch. Scheffer (Paris, 1890, 8vo.).

284 JAVA

Holland the route to the Indies, was killed by the
Achinese (1599), who began, over the body of the repre-
sentative of the power of Holland in the East, their
interminable struggle against that Power. Having
gradually won a footing upon various points of the
Sumatrese coast, and having expelled their predecessors,
the Portuguese, the Dutch were compelled throughout
the whole of the eighteenth century to struggle against
the rivalry of England. Only in 1814 did England
renounce her claim to Banka in return for the cession of
Cochin and its dependencies on the Malabar coast ; and in
1824, by the Treaty of London (confirmed and amplified
in 1871) she abandoned all claims to Billiton and the
whole of Sumatra, in return for all the remaining Dutch
possessions on the Indian coast and the Malayan
Peninsula, together with the island of Singapore.

Her European rivals being thus disposed of, Holland
set herself the arduous task of rendering her domination
actual instead of nominal, as it was at the beginning of
the nineteenth century. The size and configuration of
the island, and the independent spirit of its peoples, have
made the task a matter of interminable patience in which
diplomacy has more than once been forced to fall back
upon the force of arms.

The country of the Lampongs, formerly under the
suzerainty of the Sultans of Bantam (Bantan, Banten),
was in 1808 annexed by Daendels, after an expedition
against Bantam itself. Since then, with the exception of
a formidable rebellion in 1850, the country has been
quiet. The territories of the Redjangs and the Lebongs,
who were recognised vassals of Holland, shortly after-
wards made a show of hostility, and murdered some
European agents, with the result that they were incor-
porated as part of the Dutch domain in 1858.

The wealthier and more desirable eastern coast was
acquired with far greater difficulty. At the beginning of
its power the East Indian Company sought by various
means to gain a modest footing in order that it might
extend its trade ; then, profiting by the constant quarrels

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 285

of all the reigning princes, and by offering its aid first to
one and then to another, it gradually contrived to subject
them, or, if need were, to suppress them altogether.
Wherever it was possible without endangering their
domination to maintain the ancient institutions of the
country they established them by law. The shadow of a
Sultan, generously pensioned, but without any initiation,
has in more than one case proved to be a diplomatic
instrument of authority over these obscure and fanatical
races. Thus the Sultans of Djambi and Deli were
retained upon their thrones.

The powerful kingdom of Palembang was one of the
first which the Dutch sought to enter, on account of its
enormous production of pepper. In 1617 the East
Indian Company obtained access to the Sultan ; and in
1620 the foundation of a modest settlement enabled it
to drain the country of pepper for the benefit of Batavia.
In 1654 violent hostilities broke out against the Dutch,
who were forced to leave the country : they returned in
force and captured Palembang. In 1659 the Sultan was
forced to grant them the monopoly of pepper, and per-
mission to build a fort upon the Musi. In 1819 another
rebellion again ended in the expulsion of the Dutch.
One of the principal causes of this misunderstanding
was the fact that the two rival Powers were disputing for
the possession of Banka and Billiton and their rich tin-
mines, of which the Sultan of Palembang was the pre-
tended sovereign ; but in reality the prince of the islands
in question had in 1668 placed himself under the pro-
tection of the Dutch East Indian Company, which fact
enabled the Dutch Government to establish itself on the
two islands. An expedition led by De Kock in 1821
against Palembang subdued the latter. In 1825 the city
attempted to rebel, and was again taken ; in 1849 a
Resident was installed there. In 1864 it was judged ripe
for European government ; and save for a rebellion
fomented by fanatical Mahomedans in 1881, the city and
the whole country are perfectly tranquil, and to-day
seem contented with their lot.

286 JAVA

The Sultanate of Djambi showed itself even more anti-
foreign than Palembang ; with the result that the Dutch,
unwilling to see their compatriots who went thither to
trade assassinated, broke off all relations with the Sultan.
In 1883, however, a Sultan of Djambi requested the
Dutch to help him against the pirates. By means of
their assistance he was victorious ; but in return the
Dutch established a small garrison in his capital, and
he was obliged to grant the right of free trade and the
monopoly of salt. In 1858, these concessions being
revoked by a new Sultan, an expedition seized his
kraton, drove him away, and replaced him by one of his
uncles, who was of a more accommodating tempera-
ment. The latter recognised the suzerainty of Holland,
which appointed a " political agent " in permanent resi-
dence at his court. In 1868, 1878, and 1881 serious
difficulties arose, and ended in the more definite mastery
of the Dutch Government, which compensated the Sultan
for his decreased authority by an increased pension.
The assassination of three Europeans by two Hadjis, in
1883, several outbreaks of discontented natives, which
met with the approbation of the Sultan, in 1886, 1888,
and again in 1895, have reduced the power of the Sultan
to a vain appearance. Every three months he is obliged
to present himself before the political agent, and,
although his movements are unrestricted, they are none
the less carefully watched. All monopolies are retained
by Holland, as well as the effective exercise of power.

Holland having, in 1824, annexed the archipelago of
Riouw Lingga, in order to expel a non-Malay Sultan who
was protected by the English, the Resident of Riouw, in
1872, profited by that fact in claiming, in the name of
the Sultans whom his predecessors had replaced, the
suzerainty of the kingdom of Siak, on the east coast of
Sumatra, it being at that date in a weak and unstable
condition.

The subjection of the Sultanate of Deli, further to
the north, was a matter of more difficulty ; but in 1854
the Sultan, who had succeeded at one stroke in emanci-

SUMATRA AND RIOKW UNCJOA 287

paling himself from the princes of Sink and A
demanded aid from Holland against renewed preten-
sions on the part of the Achinese. In 1858 he became
the vassal of the Dutch Government ; in 1872 there was
a brief rebellion, and in 1876 Deli was taken over by the
government of the east coast of Sumatra, although the
Sultan is retained upon the throne.

As for the west coast, upon the withdrawal of the
Kn^lish the Dutch found themselves masters of only a
narrow belt of territory, with Bencoolen as its capital.
The wealthy interior, the Highlands of Pandarig, re-
mained closed to them, as did the mysterious kingdom
of Menangkabau, the centre of the Malay power, the
Maharajah of which boasted, in his letters, that his
authority extended from China to Turkey.

In 1821 this Maharajah, or emperor, who was also the
high priest, the supreme pontiff of his country, begged
the assistance of the Government at Batavia against
certain of his subjects, the fanatical Mahomedans known
as the Padris, of whom we have already spoken, who
wished, in the name of the Koran, to abolish the adat }
and everything in the social and political organism that
was not in conformity with Islam. They also protested
against the abuse of tobacco, opium, and alcohol, and
manifested their reforming zeal with arms in their hands.
Holland was forced to fight against the Padris for
seventeen years. Once victorious (1838), she wished to
annex the territory conquered ; no easy matter, since the
sovereign of Menangkabau was accustomed to the vene-
ration of his subjects, but not to their obedience ; and a
whole system of feudatory princes who nominally owed
him obedience took independent action and opposed the
power of Holland. Only in 1899 was the kingdom of
Menangkabau annexed to the Dutch domain and effec-
tually pacified.

In the case of the Batak territory, the influence of the
missionaries from 1883 onwards greatly facilitated the
establishment of the Dutch power.

It was the conquest of the northern portion of Sumatra

288 JAVA

the kingdom of Acheen that gave Holland the greatest
trouble. As early as 1509 the Portuguese had endea-
voured to enter into relations with the Sultan of Atjeh ;
in 1601 the Dutch in turn had obtained his permission
to establish a factory ; but in a revulsion of feeling
common enough in these savage and arrogant monarchs,
they were expelled in 1616, and the kingdom remained
hostile throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies. In 1816, under the English domination, Raffles
avenged the Europeans : he deposed the Sultan and
enforced a treaty of commerce. After the withdrawal
of England the Dutch, in 1827, again attempted to form
relations with Acheen ; in 1857, after endless trouble, they
succeeded in obtaining a commercial treaty. The aver-
sion inspired by Holland increasing with her power in
Sumatra, she decided, in 1873, to make war upon Acheen.
This was an interminable campaign : a guerilla war ; an
affair of ambuscades and surprises, in a country imper-
fectly known, interspersed with brief and ineffectual
truces or remissions : a war which has already, it is
estimated, on one side or the other, cost more than
200,000 lives, and which has certainly cost Holland
nearly .40,000,000. Although the neighbouring coun-
tries of the Gayos and the Alas were annexed
in 1904, and all the important towns and strate-
gical points of the kingdom are now in the hands of
the Dutch, the war still continues; desperate, full of
treacherous ambuscades ; a campaign in which Euro-
peans will not willingly serve. The armed forces which
are always in the field have largely contributed to the
slight deficit in the budget of the Dutch East Indies. As
a result of its obstinate resistance Acheen has lost its
native government, and is now under the authority of a
military commandant, and will so continue until com-
pletely pacified.

II.

In the still precarious conditions of the Dutch empire
in Sumatra, Holland has divided the great island into six

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 289

Governments or Residencies. The boundaries of these
divisions by no means always coincide with the old
native boundaries, their character being purely st
gical or economical, and intended to remould the native
life upon a new basis, so that it may be in close touch
with the Dutch domination.

The Residents of Sumatra, several of whom bear the
style of Governor, are noted among all the Dutch colo-
nial officials as picked men of unusual ability. They
have more authority than other Residents ; they have
greater difficulties to cope with, and their duties are
often doubled by the fact that they must act as skilful
diplomatists upon occasion ; their situation compels
them to a greater initiative, demands greater tact and
authority than are required of the majority of Javanese 1
Residents, who are a trifle spoiled by their comfortable
and conventional semi-royalty.

Sumatra contains six principal Governments or Resi-
dencies :

1. The Government of the West Coast of Sumatra
(Gouvernement Sumatra's Westkust), which itself consists
of the three following Residencies :

(a) The Highlands of Padang (Padangsche Boven-
landen), the capital being Fort de Kock, placed
under the direct authority of the Governor ;

(6) The Lowlands of Padang (Padangsche Beneden-
landen), capital Padang ;

2. The Residency of Benkulan, capital Benkulan.

3. The Residency of the Lampong districts (Lam-
pongsche Districten), capital Telong-Betong.

4. The Residency of Palembang, capital Palembang.

5. The Residency of the East Coast of Sumatra (00s/-
kust van Sumatra), capital Medan.

6. The Government of Acheen (A tjeh), capital Kota Radja.

1 As a rule the Dutch Government tests the value of its future
Residents by appointing them to difficult posts in Sumatra, Celebes,
or Bali, before calling them to the relative repose of Java.

290 JAVA

One of the characteristics of the various capital and
other towns of these Residencies is the sparsity of the
population, especially as compared with the over-popu-
lation of Java.

The Residency of the Highlands of Padang covers a
magnificent country, which is overlooked by the high
peaks of Merapi and Singgalang, and whose agricultural
wealth is surpassed only by the wealth of coal beneath
the surface. The capital, Fort de Kock (in Malay Bukit
Tinggi), stands at a height of nearly 3,000 feet. The
surroundings are most beautiful, and the climate is
equable and refreshing ; an advantage which attracts
many sufferers from beri-beri or liver complaints. The
population numbers only 2,290, of whom 258 are Euro-
peans and 345 Chinese. The position of Fort de Kock is
especially good from the strategical point of view, but
the destiny of the town is to become a centre of a new
civilisation. The establishment of a Normal College for
native teachers, and of a rack railway which connects the
town with Padang and Padang Pandjang, already witness
to the double capacity which the Dutch have assigned to
the little capital. Padang Pandjang (1,907 inhabitants,
including 207 Europeans and 340 Chinese), a district
capital, is the most rainy spot in the whole Archipelago.
Pajakumbu, or Pajakombo, which has even fewer inhabi-
tants, is superbly situated amid luxuriant plantations of
coffee ; Solok (1,443 inhabitants), Fort van der Capellen
(723 inhabitants), and Lubu Sikaping, are more important
from a military than a political or economic point of
view.

The capital of the Lowlands of Padang Padang, with
91,440 inhabitants, of whom 1,789 are Europeans, 5,136
Chinese, and 210 Arabs is, we must admit, a city of
respectable size.

Built on the Padang River, at the confluence of the
Ajer Padang Aran and the Ajer Padang Idal, and scattered
among groves of coco-palms and mango-trees, with the
smoking cone of Talang shouldering the horizon ; a
patchwork of houses, orchards, trees, and avenues, gay

SUMATRA AND RIOUW L1NGGA 291

with flower-beds in the European quarter, the city has
a rustic seductive charm ; but for all that it plies a very
important trade in all the products of the interior : coffee,
tobacco, copra, gum dammar, and rubber : and an
equally important export trade, which passes through its
port, Emmahaven. Priaman, Ajer Bangis, and Painan,
district capitals containing from 1,770 to 2,890 inhabitants,
are also engaged in trade, which is facilitated, in the case
of the two first-named, by the possession of a safe and
well-protected harbour.

The Residency of Tapanuli has for capital Padang
Sidimpuan (17,610 inhabitants, 84 being Europeans and
565 Chinese), a small but active commercial centre.
Siboga, which has been supplanted by Padang Sidimpuan,
its excellent port being insanitary, has only 3,128 in-
habitants ; Gunung Tuwa, Sipirok, Penjabungan, Kota
Nopan, Tarutung are district capitals, perhaps with a
future before them, but none of them at present has a
population exceeding a thousand. Natal, thanks to its
port on the river of the same name, carries on a trade
with Singapore, and exports salt from the Government
depot ; its population numbers 2,879. Kota Baru was a
great city under the Hindus, formerly the second trading
centre on the coast, ranking next to Padang as a market
for benzoin and camphor throughout the seventeenth
century, but its trade was killed by the Achinese occupa-
tion in the eighteenth century, and to-day it is only a
poverty-stricken village. Singhel, although once a royal
city, was also brought to decay by the Achinese
domination.

The Residency of Benkulen (Bencoolen) has its capital
at Benkulen (7,721 inhabitants), whose past was richer
than its present. The English and the Dutch in turn
wished to make it a great commercial centre, and the
capital of all their possessions on the Indian Ocean. But
the roadstead, though safe, was silting up ; the climate
was unhealthy and the town stricken with fever ; factors
which defeated the plans of Raffles and the Dutch East
Indian Company. To-day Benkulen is in decay. The

292 JAVA

district capitals, Mokko Mokko, a small port frequented
by vessels engaged in the coasting trade, Pasar Ta'is,
Manna, Bintuhan on the Bay of Sambat, and Kepahiang,
on the upper waters of the Musi, have none of them over
1,200 inhabitants. Only Kroe, with its well-sheltered
bay where the steamers of the Koninklijke Paketwaart
Maatschappij call, has a population of 1,347.

The Residency of the Lampongs is almost as sparsely
populated. The activity of all its ports on the Straits of
Sunda is limited to an insignificant coasting trade. The
capital, Telok Betong, which is built on a fairly deep
inlet or bay, boasts only of 3,759 inhabitants, of whom
62 are Europeans, 850 Chinese, and 93 Arabs. The trade
is principally in the hands of the Chinese and the Arabs.

Tandjung Karang, Gunung Sugi, Sukadana, Kalianda,
and even Kota Agung, on Emperor Bay (Keizersbaai),
which is also known by the name of Semangka, are only
insignificant collections of native kampongs, although they
are district capitals. Menggala alone, on the Waikanan,
but some distance inland, is more prosperous, boasting of
nearly nine thousand inhabitants.

The Residencies of the East Coast present a very
different picture, being full of movement and vitality.

The capital of the Residency, and formerly of the
celebrated Sultanate of Palembang, is the city of the same
name, containing 60,985 inhabitants. Among these are
572 Europeans, 7,304 Chinese, and 2,420 Arabs ; a pro-
portion that testifies to a vigorous export and import
trade. The city is exquisitely picturesque, rising gradually
from the two banks of the River Musi, at a distance of
some 55 miles from the sea. So long is its river frontage
that it takes from two to three hours to row from end to
end. Palembang is accessible to vessels of heavy tonnage.
Its houses are raised on piles ; those of the rich Arabs,
and of the Chinese especially, are built of the precious
tembesu* wood, decorated with carving and gilding, or

1 Tembesoe, tembesu, temusu. Fagrcea fragrans Roxb. (Logoniacce).
An excellent wood for building and cabinet-making, &c. (density '8),
which the Dutch call " Palembang ironwood " (Palembangsche

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 293

brightly painted, and, surrounded by small gardens, are
to be seen in their special quarters. The centre of the
great river, which is more than a thousand feet wide, is
occupied by other houses Arab, Chinese, Hindu, Malay
perched high above the water on account of the terrible
freshets, and resting on large rafts, which keep their
stations so long as they have anything left to sell, and
then work up into the interior of the country to lay in
their stock of merchandise, towing their floating houses
where they will, halting where they will.

The European quarter is set apart from the native
kampongs. A graceful mosque of stone, marble, and
teak, with three superimposed conical roofs, and a fine
octagonal minaret, overlooks this East Indian Venice
gay, dirty, swarming with life, and luminous with sunlight.

Tandjung Radja, Mura Dua, and Talang Betutu are
of no great importance ; Sekaju is more active ; Lahat,
in the midst of dense forests which are still over-full of
tigers, is a good military position ; Tebing Tinggi (1,328
inhabitants), on the Musi River and the highway from
Palembang to Benkulen, has a still greater strategical
value, on account of its moral effect upon the seditious
populations in the neighbouring districts. Tebing Tinggi
seems to be destined to acquire an importance of a very
different order, as for some years past large mining
concessions have been granted in the district.

Djambi (8,993 inhabitants, of whom 38 are Europeans,
530 Chinese, and 533 Arabs), which is built upon both
banks of the Djambi River, was formerly almost as
picturesque and flamboyant as Palembang ; to-day the
European quarter consists of ten or twelve houses on the
right bank, opposite the kraton of the Sultan, which by
their very presence annul the despotism of the latter.
Djambi used to be as intolerant as Palembang in the
matter of allowing the Chinese, Hindus, and even the
Arabs to build their houses in the town, and possesses,

Ijzerhouf). It is of a light yellow or brown colour, beautifully
veined, hard, solid, close in grain, and capable of taking an
excellent polish.

294 JAVA

like the latter city, a floating town of houseboats in its
port, Muara Kompei. Despite its trade with Singapore,
it is declining ; only a vigorous reorganisation could
give it new life.

Rengat, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Indragiri,
is a dead city.

The Government of the East Coast of Sumatra has its
seat at Medan (14,250 inhabitants, including 905 Euro-
peans, 6,397 Chinese, 43 Arabs, and 3,665 Asiatic
foreigners : Bengalis, Tamils, &c.), a town created by
the Dutch. On the site of an old native fortress on
the Deli River, in the district of the same name, they
have built up the largest centre of the Sumatran tobacco
trade, the whole of the neighbouring plain being devoted
to tobacco plantations ; but a strong garrison reminds us
that agriculture has its troubles in a seditious or rebellious
country. The European quarter is clean, well laid out,
airy, and planted with many beautiful shade-trees. Hidden
amidst the verdure are the immense buildings of the
concessionary Tobacco Company of Deli, including their
warehouses and offices and a large well-appointed asylum
for the native immigrants (Immigranten-Asyl) who come
to work upon the tobacco plantations : also a huge hos-
pital for the European employees and native labourers
of the company. The native population lives on land
belonging to the Sultan, in poor kampongs of wooden
huts and houses, huddled closely together ; but the
magnificent new kraton of the Sultan is outside Medan.
Medan has an excellent outer port Belawan the ter-
minus of the Deli-Medan Railway, at the mouth of the
River Deli which carries on a steady trade with
Singapore and Penang. Tandjung Pura (3,612 inhabi-
tants, including 938 Chinese), the capital of the Sultanate
of Langkat, plies an active trade in pepper, petroleum,
rattan, wax, gambier, and tobacco ; principally with the
interior, but it is entirely in the hands of the Chinese.

Lubuk Pakam, the departmental capital of Serdang, is
also half Chinese, by reason of the wealth of the able
Celestial traders. Tandjung Balai (3,790 inhabitants, of

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 295

whom 59 are Europeans and 1,791 Chinese), the ancient
capital of the kingdom of Asahan, and Tebing Tinggi, in
the district of Padang and Bedagei (7,014 inhabitant^
are every day gaining importance on account of their
increasing commercial activity, while Bengkalis (7,920
inhabitants, of whom 1,462 are Chinese), the former
capital of the Residency, a port advantageously situated
on an island, within touch of many tobacco plantations,
is declining. The Dutch at one time dreamed of making
it another Singapore. Its unhealthiness resulted in its
gradual decay ; a decay less miserable, however, than
that of Siak, which was formerly the seat of a sovereign.
We must also note Saribu Dolok, the district capital of
Simelungen and of the Karo country (Karolanden), but
a town of no great importance.

The military government of Acheen contains more
villages than towns, concerning which it is as yet by no
means easy to obtain exact information.

The capital of the Government of Kota Radja, contain-
ing 3,704 inhabitants (including 290 Europeans and 1,025
Chinese) is said, doubtless with exaggeration, to have
contained 25,000 in the old days. To-day it is merely
a vast barracks, with the addition of kampongs
Chinese, Javanese, &c. on a specially reserved site.
The kraton of the former Sultan, a huge fortified
rectangle, half a mile wide and nearly a mile in length,
surrounded by a deep moat, and traversed by the Krung
Daru, is occupied by the Governor, the military head-
quarters, and a small garrison ; the rest of the troops
being stationed to the south of the kraton, in the
magnificent camp at Nesu. We must not forget the
great mosque with metallic cupolas the Masdjid Radja
which was built by the Dutch Government in 1881 to
replace that destroyed during a desperate battle which
was fought before the town. A steam tramway, which
crosses a remarkable iron trestle-way, connects Kota
Radja with its port, Oleh Leh, the journey taking an
hour and a half. The tramway runs along a narrow
isthmus of sand, on both sides of which are innumerable

296 JAVA

small lagoons. Oleh Leh, or Uleieh Leueh, which was
deserted by European shipping twenty years ago, has
once more begun to be of some importance since the
Dutch occupation, though in a less degree than Sabang
(1,000 inhabitants) on the island of Pulu Weh. Not only
is the surrounding country rich in pepper, but Sabang is
the shortest route, and the necessary port of embarkation,
for the traveller by sea to Europe, North America, Singa-
pore, and the entire Far East. The Bay of Sabang,
entrance to which is nearly half a mile wide, contains an
anchorage nearly a mile in length and over half a mile
in width, while the depth runs from 13 to 18 fathoms.
It has been much improved since the flag of the Nether-
lands was planted there in 1877, and is accessible to
warships as well as merchant vessels. Both, in fact, are
using the harbour with increasing frequency, and there
seems to be a great future in store for Sabang.

The Residency of the archipelago of Riouw Lingga
contains no large towns. The capital, Tandjung Priok,
has a population of 4,088.

Muntok, the capital of the Residency of Banka, is
supposed to contain 25,000 inhabitants ; as a matter of
fact this figure is disputed.

The capital of the Assistant-Residency of Billiton,
Tandjung Pandan, has only 4,900 inhabitants ; 18 of
these are Europeans, and 1,015 Chinese.

III.

We see that the population of Sumatra is by no means
in proportion to its large area, and this from various
causes. War between the various peoples has been too
frequent to allow of great increase ; while among several
of the less civilised, such as the Bataks, the birth-rate
has been restricted. Then rational hygiene is to all
intents absolutely unknown ; while other factors are
poverty, insecurity of life, and the exhaustion of women
by premature marriage or by too heavy labour. All these
causes, it seems, might disappear or diminish were

i .%?/ rer -J^Ttf i. * '** *?
&^\t^^^v ' U -

SUMATRA AND R1OUW LIN(iCA 297

peace and comparative wealth established throughout
the island ; and the first thing to be done for the
benefit of the Sumatrese should be the economic develop-
ment of their country ; on condition that its full value
should be realised without the severity and the sacrifice
of human life which attended the development of Java
by the system of Van den Bosch ; a condition guaranteed
by the humanitarian sentiment of modern Holland, and
the obstinate and hostile humour of the Sumatrese.

A glance at the natural wealth of Sumatra, by which
the natives benefit so little, and the remarkable results
obtained everywhere when European methods and
enterprise have been at work, are enough to show what
the future of Sumatra should be.

This vast island, it seems, is even more richly endowed
by nature than is Java. Its subsoil, to judge by a neces-
sarily limited examination, is full of treasure : gold and
silver are found in remarkable quantities in the High-
lands of Padang and in the Residencies of Tapanuli
and Palembang. Tin, which forms the principal wealth
of Banka, Billiton, and Riouw, is also found in Siak ;
lead is found in the Nine Kotas and the Thirteen Kotas,
to the south of the Residency of the Highlands of
Padang ; copper exists everywhere in the neighbourhood
of the Lake of Singkarah; sulphur, naphtha, alum, and
saltpetre are plentiful in the neighbourhood of all the
volcanoes. Magnetite exists in the district of Tanah
Datur ; lignite in the Highlands of Padang, at Siboga
on the Indrapura River, and at Benkulen ; and marble
on the upper reaches of the Indragiri. Finally which
opens a wonderful future for Sumatra as a mining
country not only is the subsoil rich in auriferous and
other ores, but there are magnificent coal-measures in
the Highlands of Padang at Ombilin (Umbilen, Umbilien,
Dutch Oembilen), and at Behangen in Palembang, and
petroleum in Palembang, Siak, Deli, and Achin.

The island is no less richly endowed with vegetable
wealth. On the more thickly wooded western coast
and throughout all the centre of Sumatra there are

298 JAVA

abundant forests ; full of teak, santal, and ebony, to say
nothing of less valuable varieties of timber ; and what
is perhaps still better, all the gum-producing trees the
camphor-tree, the benzoin-tree, and countless others.
Palms are found as in Java, in all their varieties, from
the coco-nut and the areng to the sago-palm ; the latter
is in particular found throughout the whole archipelago
of Riouw Lingga. All the eastern coast of Acheen is
planted with areca-palms, and supplies part of Sumatra
and even part of Java with areca-nut for the preparation
of sirih.

Food crops and others grow at their best in Sumatra.
Rice is found almost everywhere ; coffee grows admirably
on the whole of the east coast ; less so in the Lampong
country, and passably in Palembang. Tobacco succeeds
admirably on the west coast ; pepper and the nutmeg
are grown to a certain extent everywhere ; but intensively
in Acheen, which before the chronic warfare with Holland
commenced furnished nearly two-thirds of the world's
consumption of pepper, nearly 18,000 tons having been
exported annually, especially from the ports on the west
coast. Sugar-cane grows best in the Riouw archipelago,
which is less humid than Sumatra.

The Sumatrese native has not many resources in the
department of the chase. The great wild bull is rare ;
the boar is despised ; the tapir is almost uneatable.
With the exception of a few of the larger beasts, and
innumerable herds of deer, whose flesh is widely eaten
in the dried state, and whose tendons and hooves, and
antlers, if still young and with the velvet on, are greatly
sought after by the Chinese in Java, there is little edible
game. Roedeer also abound, and birds of endless variety.

The fisheries should be more fruitful, for fish of
almost every species swarm upon the coasts of Sumatra ;
being even more plentiful than off the Javanese coast.
Sea fish or river fish mackerel, tunny, rays, sharks
caught for the sake of their fins, which are sold to the
Chinese carps, barbel, eels, and in particular the
delicious Indian shad or trubuk, of which the flesh,

SUMATRA AND RTOUW LINGGA 299

whether fresh or dried, and especially the prepared roe,
is greatly appreciated throughout the Archipc'.
There are extensive shad fisheries on both coast
Sumatra, particularly on the eastern coast. The bulk
of the product, so highly esteemed in Java, is exported
from Palembang and Djambi.

In the seas around the Riouw Lingga archipelago are
found agar-agar, 1 trepang, and also the ekor bahar, a
brilliantly black coral, shaped like a horn. The cliffs
and caves, both in Acheen and Riouw, yield the precious
nest of the sea-swallow.

IV.

What profit do the Sumatrese derive from all these
natural resources ? Simply their living ; rarely a little
comfort. They plant rice for their own needs, but
always in an insufficient quantity, thanks to sheer lack
of foresight and indifference to the morrow. In one
detail their methods of cultivation are superior to those
of the Javanese : namely, they reap the rice with a
sickle in place of cutting it one stem at a time with a
little knife. They eat a portion of the produce of their
hunting and their fisheries, and sell the rest at absurd
prices to the Chinese, who alone profit by their efforts.
With the exception of gambier 2 and pepper, and spices,

1 Agar-agar, the Malay name of an edible seaweed, Spherococcus
lichenoides. Boiled in water, it forms a jelly which is greatly
appreciated in the Far East. It is used in the composition of
swallows'-nest soup, and is also employed to make silk or paper
transparent, being applied in the form of a clear paste.

This forms a favourite and a ceremonial dish among the South
Sea Islands. In Scotland the seaweed named " dulse " is eaten
both raw and cooked ; and in Wessex the green laver is boiled,
forming an imperfect jelly, and used as a condiment with meat,
fish, &c. [TRANS.]

a Gambir or gambier, an extract obtained by evaporating in the
open air decoctions of the leaves of the Urticaria gambir Roxb., or
the Nauclea gambir Hunt. The dried deposit is exported in the
form of cubical cakes about one inch in diameter. Gambier is
used in the preparation of quids of betel. The Riouw archipelago

300 JAVA

of which long contact with Europeans and the example
of the latter has taught them the value especially the
Achinese the natives of Sumatra export practically
nothing except a certain amount of building timber,
copra, rubber, gum dammar, and hides, principally to
Singapore or Batavia ; very seldom as far as Amsterdam.
The principal trade of the island is from one side to
the other, from one port to the next, sometimes by the
primitive method of exchange. As the commerce of
the island is principally in the hands of the Chinese,
though there are a few rare Europeans who are by no
means their inferiors in rapacity and duplicity, the
profit which the irresponsible native derives from it is
practically non-existent.

The industries of Sumatra are strictly local and
regrettably primitive. The island produces nothing
that is really worth mentioning beyond some basket-
work, filigree-work, a little notably good work in copper,
and a few textile products woven in the Highlands of
Padang, in Palembang and in Djambi. The pottery,
rattan furniture, clothing, jewels, and arms manufac-
tured in the island only testify to an ability and a
civilisation of the second class.

The Europeans are now demonstrating to the natives
that they might extract both gold and a higher standard
of living from their native soil ; but hitherto the natives
have hardly derived any other benefit from the process
than the example itself.

The mines of Sumatra have for twenty years been
exploited in a manner both rational and profitable.

The tin-mines of Banka, Billiton, Singkep, and the
archipelago of Riouw, which were discovered in the

produces an enormous quantity, of which more than 7,000 tons
comes from the small island of Bintang. The trade in gambier is
as yet monopolised by the Chinese, who export it to all parts of
the Archipelago.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 301

eighteenth century, probably between 1709 and 1711,
and were leased by the Chinese from the Sultan of
I \ilembang, were worked by the Chinese without much
method, but greatly to their profit, until 1740, when
the Dutch seized upon them and made them a State
monopoly. The Chinese, who came, in proportions
roughly equal, from Amoy and Canton the latter being
much inferior both in mind and morals from being the
tenants of the mines, became miners, overseers, or coolies.

In 1907-1908 the total production of Banka tin was
11,515 tons, while about 18,000 miners or coolies were
employed. Billiton, with 73 mines and 11,128 workers,
produced 4000 tons ; excluding a small amount pro-
duced by the natives. At Singkep, in the island of
Riouw, 1,009 workers produced 307 tons. From this
tin alone the Dutch Government received a revenue
of nearly .2,000,000.

This handsome addition to the East Indian budget
is destined to preserve its equilibrium, and is certainly
well employed, but it is none the less greatly regrettable
that all this wealth contributes so little to the welfare
and improvement of the natives. The natives live
altogether apart from the mines, and are extremely
poor ; the coolies that work in the mines are drawn
from the dregs of the Chinese population, and are very
badly paid. The coolie's agent or labour contractor
receives all the expenses of importing him, including
passage money, cost of engagement, commission, and
medical examination, and the value of his wages at the
rate of i florin 20 (two shillings) per diem ; but the
coolie himself receives only a fraction less than 4d. per
diem for food, and wages at the rate of i2s. 6d. per
month. He must engage himself for at least a year :
tempted by opium, driven by the physical distress that
follows its discontinuance, and obliged to obtain all
that he needs upon credit ; clothed and fed at usurious
prices by the stores run or leased by the labour agent
himself ; burdened with debts and with vices, he can
no longer hope to escape from the mine, and only too

302 JAVA

often dies in abject poverty in sight of the natural
treasure-house that has taken his life. Although during
the last fifteen years the State has endeavoured to
diminish the more revolting features of this trade in
human cattle, there is still much to be done both in
Banka and in the other mining districts.

The production of petroleum, which is in the hands
of powerful private companies, 1 is also yielding an
enormous revenue.

In 1907 the petroleum concessions in Palembang yielded
72,010,000 gallons ; those on the east coast 30,605,000
gallons, and those in Achin 54,430,000 gallons. Sumatra,
together with Java and Borneo, places the Dutch West
Indies among the great petroleum centres of the world.

As for coal, in 1907, Behangan (Palembang) yielded
only 354 tons ; but the rich measures of Ombilin yielded
300,990 tons, and their yield has increased year by year
for many years past. The construction of a railway
in the Padang Highlands makes it possible to send the
coal from the pits of Ombilin to the port of Emmahaven,
whose fortune is being made by this trade in coal.

The mines of Redjang Lebong and Lebong Sulit, not
far from Benkulen, are yielding both silver and gold.
The first named yielded in 1903 (which was, it is true, a
good year) 5*458 tons, or more than 12,000 pounds of
silver ; the second 501 pounds.

1 The three principal companies in 1900 were : (i) The Royal
Dutch Petroleum Company, founded at The Hague in 1890, owning
wells in Langkat and Tamiang, on the east coast, and also two
great refineries, has reservoirs at Shanghai, Hongkong, Calcutta,
Bangkok, Swatow, Madras, Bombay, Kurachi, Amoy, and Fuchu ;
(2) The Mura-Emim Petroleum Company, founded at Amsterdam
in 1897 ; (3) the Sumatra-Palembang Petroleum Company, founded
at The Hague in 1897. The two latter companies operate in the
Residency of Palembang. Starting with less capital than the first,
they have had the good fortune to discover deeper wells than those
of their richer rival, which yield a greater flow of oil ; but in 1904
the Royal Dutch bought up all the concessions of the Mura-Emim
Company. The petroleum is exported via Singapore to China,
India, and Japan, and is replacing American oil.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 303

In 1907 the production of gold in Sumatra was still
greater than that of silver, amounting to 3,234 pounds'
weight, and .182,280 in value.

VI.

Agriculture, in skilled hands, should prove to be
the real gold-mine of Sumatra. In 1833 the Dutch
Government attempted to introduce the compulsory
cultivation of coffee, the only crop which the climate
seemed at that time likely to suit in that part of the
island wherein it exercised a genuine authority : namely,
on the east coast, in the Residencies of Benkulan, Padang,
and Tapanuli. Forced to abandon the system in the
flourishing and peaceful island of Java, the Government
could not expect to extend it to Sumatra, where the crops,
moreover, were neither as plentiful nor as high in quality
as those of Java. It is accordingly vanishing year by
year before the free plantations of the natives and the
estates of the European planters, and the Government is
letting its land to the latter upon long leases as in Java.

In 1907, however, the Government crop in the Padang
Highlands still amounted to 24,117 piculs (about 1,418
tons) of coffee ; in the Padang Lowlands to 615 piculs
(about 50 tons) ; and in Tapanuli to 5,333 piculs (313
tons) as against 1,587 tons produced in the same Resi-
dencies by free native labour, and 421 tons by private
initiation. On the east coast of the island the natives
produced 1,170 tons and the European planters 2,226
tons.

In the neighbourhood of Bankulan, and in Palembang
and the Lampong country, where the growth of coffee is
tending to decrease, the natives produced 267 and the
European planters 233 tons. Sumatra does not export
its coffee direct, but sells it on the markets of Java.

But coffee is not enough to bring fortune to Sumatra.
Pepper and nutmeg were experimented with; but after
a series of trials the Government abandoned the intensive
culture of these products. The plantations did not

304 JAVA

always succeed ; or there was an over-production, and
the prices fell. However, in addition to the pepper pro-
duced by Acheen and Palembang in 1907, Sumatra pro-
duced as much on the east and west coasts as in Acheen ;
namely, 380 tons of nutmeg and 56 tons of mace ; but
most of this was produced by natives.

It is tobacco that should make the fortune of Sumatra,
or at least of the large European companies in Sumatra.
Tobacco has succeeded wonderfully, as regards both
quality and quantity, on all the east coast plantations :
in Sangkat, Deli, Serdang, Tamiang, Padang, Bedagei,
Batu Baro, Asahan, and the Karo country ; but now,
owing to the formation of a powerful trust, all the plan-
tations have fallen into the hands of a powerful financial
group, 1 which employs thousands of hands Malays,
Bataks, Hindus, Chinese, and even Javanese 2 emigrants
from their own over-populated country, and has built
for their use dormitories, a vast hospital, canteens, and
steward's offices.

The production of tobacco in 1907 amounted to
23,342 tons, slightly inferior in quantity to that of Java,
but superior in quality, and representing a value of
^3,250,000. In 1906 the crop was exceptionally good,
representing a value of ^5,083,540.

Here is a very river of gold, which the natives ought
to be enabled, with the assistance of the Government, to
swell by individual enterprise, and so turn aside some
part of it to their own profit.

VII.

Such figures as these show us what Sumatra might
become from the economic point of view, especially if
the means of communication were improved ; for we

1 Hindus and Chinese are not allowed to rent or buy land in
this part of Sumatra.

9 The Javanese are not greatly valued as agricultural labourers in
Sumatra ; the climate does not suit them, nor do they grow accus-
tomed to it. They are easy to handle, but are not strong.

SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA

must admit that at present they leave much to be desired.
Along the seaboard belt roads are bad and infrequent,
although the Government is doing its best, by means of
such compulsory labour as is available, to open up as
many as possible and to maintain those that already
exist. In the interior there are practically no means of
transport whatever, excepting almost impracticable paths
or trails which the inhabitants, who as yet are far from
submission, insist upon leaving as they are, with sullen
and perhaps instinctive obstinacy. In case of rebellion
they can take refuge in the impenetrable jungle, and defy,
at least for a time, the advance of the Dutch troops.

We should seek in vain through Sumatra for the fellow
to the wonderful road from Anjer to Panarukan which
even to-day astonishes the visitor to Java ; the iron hand
of Daendels and the docile spirit of the Javanese have been
equally unknown in Sumatra. The Dutch Government,
than which no one is more conscious of the strategical
and political necessity of good roads, is slowly but surely
supplying them, with a continuity and a determination
that are necessary in dealing with the populations of
Sumatra. Within fifteen years from now, thanks to the
State, and to private enterprise, the seaboard regions at
least will be well provided with roads.

In the meantime there are already 187 miles of railway
in Sumatra, belonging partly to the State and partly to
private companies, and more are about to be built. To
these 187 miles, of which the line to Deli takes 50 and
the lines on the west coast 137, we must add 98 miles of
steam tramways, by means of which Belawan, Medan,
Deli, and Tuwa are connected with a branch running
from Medan to Timbang-Langkat and Salesseh, and
250 miles which runs along the east coast and through
the centre of Acheen. The lines from Deli are intended
especially for commercial purposes, and serve the great
tobacco plantations ; the Acheen line is more of a
strategical value. Convinced that Acheen would never
be subjected until columns of troops could be carried
swiftly from one end of the kingdom to the other, the

306 JAVA

Government has built a line connecting the principal
towns : Tandjung, Kala, Idi, Lha Seumawei, Samalanga,
Sigli, Kota Radja, and Oleh-Leh. It has thus succeeded
in pacifying the entire coast, and when once the interior
of the country is made accessible by good roads the
Achinese resistance will be vanquished.

The west coast of Sumatra is partly served by a rack
railway, which is at once of commercial and strategical
value ; it starts from Pajakombo, passes through Fort
de Kock, the key of the Bataks' country and the ancient
kingdom of Menangkabau, and at Padang Padjang
throws off a branch line towards the Singkarah region,
which serves the mines of Ombilin, and carries not only
minerals, but the coffee crops of the whole Padang
region, to Padang itself and to Emmahaven. The trade
of the interior of the country is carried on by means of
the rivers, principally by the native praus, the magnifi-
cent streams of Sumatra being too badly impeded by
alluvial deposits to allow steamers or vessels of high
tonnage upon more than a very small part of their
length. The exportation of the goods collected by the
prau traffic is carried on chiefly by means of small coast-
ing vessels, or by the Koninklijkc Paketvaart Maatschappij,
which touches at Kroe and at Sabang every fortnight ;
thus connecting Sumatra with the Archipelago and the
outer world. A line of English steamers also carries on
an active export and import trade with Singapore, this
trade being especially brisk in the case of Eastern
Sumatra.

So soon as there is a complete political understanding
between Holland and the peoples of Sumatra, and the
latter at last consent to exploit the riches of their island ;
so soon as good highways or further railways make
transport and travelling an easy matter, Sumatra will
be able to rival Java in wealth ; and its population will
rapidly increase tenfold.

CHAPTER XV

BORNEO

I. Dimensions of Borneo : how divided among the Powers. II.
Orography and hydrography. III. Climate, flora, and fauna.

IV. The inhabitants : their manners and their civilisation

V. The establishment of Dutch supremacy in Borneo. VI.
Administrative divisions and principal towns. VII. The
economic situation ; what it may one day become.

BORNEO, situated to the north of Java, between Celebes,
the Malay Peninsula, and the archipelago of Riouw
Lingga, washed by the China Sea, the Java Sea, the Sea of
Celebes and the Sea of Sulu, is the largest of all the
islands which go to make up the Dutch East Indies. Its
area is 285,220 square miles, or seven or eight times that
of Java, and half as large again as France. Its popula-
tion, however, is even smaller than that of Sumatra,
being only 1,700,000 or thereabouts (according to the
most plausible estimates). Only a portion of the island
belongs to Holland, and it is still the least known, the
least submissive, one of the least civilised, and perhaps
the least profitable, because the least exploited, of all the
Dutch colonial possessions.

Very different in outline from Java, with its long and
narrow shape, and Sumatra, with its gracefully curving
coast-lines, or Celebes, so fantastically formed of pro-
montories and winding inlets, Borneo gives the im-
pression of a vast, squat island, covered with dense
forests, seamed by great rivers, defended by a muddy

SOT

308 JAVA

littoral, backed by swamps, the home of pernicious
vapours and putrid miasmata.

The Spaniards were the first to land, in 1521. The
Dutch followed in 1598 ; perhaps considerably earlier.
They in turn were followed by the English, who, when
the Spaniards had been driven off, disputed their foot-
hold with the Dutch East Indies Company. The con-
flict endured through the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, without any notable profit on either side, for
the stubborn savagery of the uncivilised inhabitants,
the treacherous hypocrisy of their innumerable princes,
and the suspicious hostility of the Chinese rendered their
factories more precarious than profitable.

In 1892 the two rivals agreed to terms which definitely
limit the province of either. All the north, and part of
the west, or about one-third of the island, was aban-
doned by Holland, and so passed under the real or
surreptitious suzerainty of England. The Sultanate of
Brunei, formerly a useful ally of the Dutch, is still
extant, but is reduced to an insignificant fraction of its
former dimensions, while the Sultan's authority is prac-
tically illusory ; it is under the English protectorate,
and sandwiched between the two heirs to its past
splendour. To the east are the territories of the British
North Borneo Company, which in the first place were
ceded by Brunei to certain Americans, but were then
sold by the latter to the English company. To the west
is the Rajahlik of Sarawak, which was created by a
Sultan of Brunei in 1841 for the celebrated James
Brooke, and is still governed by a member of his family
under the wholly nominal suzerainty of Brunei. All
this part of Borneo fertile, well watered, with a rich
subsoil has undoubtedly profited by English rule ; it
has been methodically explored, as much for scientific
as for economic reasons ; the population has increased,
and towns have sprung up. Although England has not
succeeded, as she had hoped, in making another Singa-
pore of the island of Labuan, she possesses in Borneo
a valuable and flourishing colony.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL'S HOME, BORNEO.

A K'Ml'l- KFRKV, MORNKO.

p. 308.

BORNEO 309

Holland has retained the suzerainty of 222,850 square
miles of territory : that is, of a country seventeen times as
large as Holland herself, and a trifle larger than France,
and a population which in 1909 was estimated by con-
jecture, but without exaggeration, as amounting to
1,172,800, including 55,520 Chinese, 3,140 Arabs, and
1,382 Europeans.

II.

The geological formation of Borneo may be largely
referred to the tertiary period ; but in Borneo alone
of all the islands of the Archipelago fossils have been
found of a period anterior to the tertiary. There is
much less evidence of volcanic action in Borneo than in
the rest of the Archipelago.

The island is crossed by a series of mountainous tracts
running from the north-east to the south-west, where
they spread out into several distinct ranges. In the
centre of the island also there are some ramifications
of the main range, less notable than those of the south-
west, which run in a south-easterly direction. The
northern part of the chain contains the highest peaks
of the whole Archipelago : Kinibalu, for example, on
the territory of the British North Borneo Company, has
been given by the latest explorers a height of 13,350 feet.
Batu Tebang in the Iran Mountains is 9,800 feet high ; but
the crests of the Miiller and Schwaner ranges, which
slope towards the south, are only some 4,900 to 5,300
feet above sea-level. Satui, near Bandjermasin, at the
southern extremity of the island, is only some 4,200
feet in height.

The rivers of Borneo are numerous, with an abundant
flow, and many are navigable for many miles inland ; yet
the majority are impeded by mud-banks, trees, and a
dense alluvial ooze, which they carry seaward and
deposit at the mouth, thus pushing the coast-line further
out to sea, but making it pestiferous with fetid and
poisonous swamps.

310 JAVA

The chief rivers of the west coast are the Brunei,
flowing through British Borneo, on the estuary of which
is the capital of the same name, and the Redjang, and on
Dutch territory the Kapuas, which is considerably longer
than the others, flowing into the sea through a muddy
delta some 70 miles in width.

The rivers of the east coast, especially those draining
Dutch territory, are of still greater importance ; they are
the Serojan, the Mentaja Sampit, the Katingan and the
vast Barito, which is navigable far up its course by vessels
of considerable tonnage. At the mouth of the Barito is
Bandjersmasin, the great port of Eastern Borneo. At
a distance of 60 miles above the sea the Barito divides
into two branches, both of which are navigable, and one
of which receives the waters of another large river,
the Kapuas. The result of such a mingling of mud and
water is a variable, shifting delta, whose area is seldom
less than 770 square miles, and which, in times of flood,
when the Kapuas and the Barito overflow, will some-
times cover an area of nearly 11,000 square miles.
Further to the east is the Mahakkam, or Kubi, which
flows between low hills, and is as muddy as the Barito,
and ends in a delta as huge and as marshy as that of the
Barito.

In a country so heavily watered and so rich in valleys
there are many lakes, though these cannot be compared
in size or in depth with the Sea of Toba or the Sea of
Singkarah in Sumatra. The more important of these
lakes empty themselves into the western Kapuas, the
Serojan, and the Kutei.

III.

The climate of Borneo, which is situated on the
Equator, is naturally extremely hot, but quite supportable
owing to its insular situ )n and the sea-breeze, which
cools the whole islan . As a rule the temperature
varies between 72 and 93, although it sometimes rises
higher. It is the terrible humidity of the atmosphere

BORNEO

that makes the climate dangerous and so inferior to
that of Java or Sumatra ; a humidity due to the enor-
mous rainfall (the average annual rainfall amounts to
7875 inches), the abundant rivers, the dense forests, and
the innumerable swamps, the source of pestilence and
fever. The climate is far harder to support and far more
pernicious in the interior than on the coasts, as the sea-
breeze falls flat amid the impenetrable woods, where the
exuberant soil is always thick with masses of decom-
posing vegetation. The flora of Borneo is extremely rich
in forest trees, the forests covering almost the whole
interior save for a few jungles. Here are found all kinds
of building timber, and trees of all the varieties that
produce gums and resins ; so that if sufficient labour and
a sufficiency of good roads were available the exploitation
of the forests would not merely tend to improve the
health of the island, but would enrich it incalculably.
Although the flora of the island, which recalls that of
India, Sumatra, and Australia, accordingly as one travels
to the west, the south, or the south-east, is less prodi-
gal than that of the first two countries, and more
vigorous than that of the last, it also has its own
characteristics. One tree that is particularly character-
istic of Borneo, by its abundance and its beauty, is the
sago-palm (Metroxylon laeve Mart., M. sagas Roxb., M.
Rumphii Wild.), which grows not only in the interior,
near the rivers, but also by itself, in dense belts along
the muddy shores of the great island. The pith of the
sago-palm extracted and pressed into cakes will, with
a few days' labour, furnish over 650 Ibs. of an excellent
food : in other words, sufficient to nourish a man for a
year. Although there is little progress in Borneo, there
is evidently no possibility of dying of hunger : nature,
by furnishing man's necessities at the cost of the slightest
effort, has discouraged him, so to speak, from desiring
anything more.

The fauna of Borneo resembles that of Sumatra, except
that the tiger is rare or absent ; the elephant and the
rhinoceros are encountered principally in the north-east

312 JAVA

of the island; panthers abound, and are extensively
hunted, their skins forming part of the accoutrement of
the Dyak warriors. In Borneo, as in Java, the great
wild bull, or bariteng, is found ; there are herds of
deer, which are hunted with the spear or the bow ;
last, but not least, comes the orang-outang, or " man of
the woods," who is thought to have originated in Borneo.
Numerous crocodiles infest the shore and the mud-
banks of the rivers. The inhabitants of Borneo have
added practically nothing to the fauna, except by
domesticating the goat, the pig, the dog, and the cat
On the west coast there is an imported race of dogs
with black tongues, which are greatly esteemed as food
by the Chinese.

IV.

Of the very small population of Dutch Borneo
(1,172,680 souls) probably rather less than a million
belong to the Dyak tribes, who are the real natives of
the country. These Dyaks, scattered over a vast area,
and differentiated according to their locality, have often
been regarded as belonging to different races ; but the
contrary opinion is as prevalent to-day. A matter which
is less clear is whether the Dyaks are autochthonous in
Borneo. Not long ago, from the testimony of Arab
writers, who were fertile in curious but sometimes over-
marvellous recitals, and the reports of credulous explorers,
it was believed that the Dyaks had driven back into the
heart of the island the original sons of the soil those
savages with a caudal appendix, whom contemporary
science has failed to trace. It would be more rational to
admit the continued existence in the central forests of
a few handfuls of stunted and miserable savages, now
disappearing, armed only with the bow and the blowpipe,
black-skinned, and in every way resembling the Negritos
of the Philippines. The Dyaks who have replaced them
are visibly of the Malayo-Polynesian race, near relatives
of the Bataks of Sumatra, and also, it would seem, of the

BORNEO

Chums, Bahnars, Sticks, Radeis, and Djareis of Ft >.
Indo-China. Whether indigenous or not, they are, as
regards their physical aspect, extremely well built ; taller
and stronger than the Malays and the Javanese, with
features fairly regular, and their faces, with the-ir clear
yellowish colouring, are not displeasing, despite the
flattening of the nose and the prominence of the lips.
Their manner is cheerful and confident. The Dyak
has the reputation of being hospitable and honest, but
extremely idle, indifferent as to the truth, hasty and
quarrelsome when he considers himself affronted, and
passionately fond of his independence and the nomadic
life. But in speaking of the Dyaks we ought to dis-
tinguish between those of the coast and those of the
interior. The riverside Dyaks, who have a strong
admixture of Malay and a strain of Chinese and Bugis
blood, were formerly subjects of the Indo-Javanese
empire, as is proved by the names of their towns and
rivers, and the existence of a few inconspicuous ruins
of temples, buried under masses of vegetation and the
oblivion of generations. They have also had long and
unbroken relations with the Chinese and Arabs. Partially
Islamised, at least in name, they form a race less pure
than the other Dyaks, but more civilised and more
sedentary, and capable, together with a duplicity often
acquired by contact with foreigners, of more intelligent
and energetic application. Their masters in civilisation
are the Malays, who treat them somewhat as semi-
savages, but often form alliances with them, recuperating
their own stock from the vitality of the energetic Dyaks,
and converting them to Islam.

The Dyaks of the interior, vitiated by the stifling
atmosphere of the tropical forest, decimated by small-
pox, cholera, dysentery, and fevers, lead a nomadic,
undisciplined existence ; hostile to the foreigner who
would tempt them to profitable labour, and the enemies
of all regular and fatiguing work ; and attached, above
all, to their strange and brutal customs. Although these
customs vary from tribe to tribe, we may describe

314 JAVA

the Dyak in general as clad in a girdle or loin-cloth of
beaten bark, while the woman wears a short petticoat
and vest of the same material, or perhaps of cotton stuff.
Both sexes wear bracelets of bamboo or rattan fibre
on arms and ankles, to which the women add a collar.
Both sexes almost invariably wear their long hair twisted
into a chignon, while the head is covered with a hand-
kerchief or a length of cotton knotted turban-wise about
the head ; or in some cases the men wear a kind of cap
and the women a hat woven of rattan. Certain tribes
of the interior tattoo the whole or part of the body with
a variety of designs, according to the sex and the social
rank of the individual. On such occasions as private or
public banquets the costume is embellished with bracelets
of pewter, copper, or beadwork. All have the teeth
lacquered ; the Olo Ngadju even insert little rivets of
gold between the blackened teeth.

The Dyaks would eat little indeed if they had to exist
upon their few rice-fields, and if nature did not work for
them. As it is they are much more difficult to satisfy
in the matter of diet than the majority of semi-civilised
races, and are greatly given to large banquets, at which
they conscientiously over-eat themselves, and drink an
often immoderate quantity of palm-wine or toddy.
Their diet consists of rice, sago, various vegetables,
fruits, young shoots of bamboo or rattan, the head of
the cabbage-palm, and meat and fish, fresh, salted, or
dried. Salt is their favourite condiment. They chew
betel and smoke tobacco.

Their houses, built of wood and elevated on piles, and
often surrounded by little gardens containing sugar-cane,
betel, and pimento, are neat and clean. Sometimes the
whole village as among certain semi-civilised peoples
of Indo-China consists of one immensely long house,
divided into as many compartments as there are families.
The village nearly always possesses a communal house,
raised upon piles like the rest, very large and well built,
where public deliberations take place. Large banquets
are held there, and the bachelors and guests of the tribe

BORNEO

make use of it as their dormitory, as with the Hahnars of
Indo-China.

The ordinary appliances of life, such as furnit
cooking utensils and agricultural implements, are very
rudimentary among the Dyaks ; but they are great
lovers of music, dancing, tales and riddles, and, again
like the Bahnars, they collect metal gongs and certain
kinds of vessels which may become the homes of
protecting spirits.

In the interior they are not great hunters, but in such
hunting as they pursue their weapon is the spear or the
bow ; snares and traps are more commonly used. Their
favourite game is the deer, whose flesh they dry. They
are more energetic as fishermen, and their rivers are
plentifully stocked, while on the coast the celebrated
trubuk is often encountered in shoals. The Dyaks
cultivate a little rice and a few sweet potatoes in a very
primitive manner, and without much enthusiasm ; but
they feed principally on the products of the forest.

Marriage among the Dyaks is sometimes exogamic,
sometimes endogamic ; but although the Dyak woman
is the object of extreme respect in the tribe and in her
home, the husband alone is the head of the community ;
though when he dies the wife may succeed him, inheriting
his duties and his dignity. Marriages are conducted by
means of go-betweens, and the prospective husband must
first give his future parents-in-law a present, even if the
latter are opposed to the marriage.

The young people of the tribe are free, from puberty
onwards, to make their own choice ; but in practice they
nearly always allow themselves to be guided by their
parents.

The birth of twins, as with many peoples of the Far
East, is regarded as unlucky.

The Dyaks, who are neither Mahomedans nor
Christians, practise circumcision and a kind of baptism,
without any idea of religion attaching to either ceremony.
They sometimes expose their dead in trees, and some-
times burn them. Certain tribes of the Upper Kapuas

316 JAVA

bury them, and collect the bones in the family tomb
after the flesh has disappeared. 1 Others hollow out part
of the trunk of a growing tree, and insert the corpse in
the hollow. The bark is carefully replaced over the
opening, and the tree continues to grow and flourish,
a living tomb, in the literal sense.

The language of the Dyaks is closely related to the
other Malayo-Polynesian dialects. They have no alpha-
bet, no writing, but their psychical concepts are fairly
definite. The Dyaks of the north are animists ; for them
everything is haunted by a spirit, a soul, which has the
power of leaving the living or inanimate object (if we
may use the word inanimate in this connection), which
serves it as envelope. It is this straying of the soul
which in man causes sickness ; or death, if the fugitive
will not consent to return.

The Dyaks believe in a supreme, creative god, whose
name varies with the different tribes ; but they think far
less of him than of the evil spirits which people all space :
spirits divided into categories according to their habitat,
and to whom all moral and physical ills are attributed :
such as epidemics, death, and the failure of crops.
Priest-sorcerers (the part may be filled by a woman),
balians or basirs, propitiate them by sacrifice, and by
prayers in a special language known as basa sang yang,
l( the tongue of the spirits," which is also employed in
incantations.

The Dyaks of the south are shamanists, and equally
superstitious. The sorcerer is the chief regulator of their
lives, and often their plague, as is the bojau among the
Bahnars.

The Dyaks have earned their regrettable celebrity by
their barbarous custom of head-hunting. It is now,
thanks to the efforts of both Dutch and English,
abandoned in the river districts, but is still extant in
all its vigour in the central forests.

No Dyak can become a chief (among the tribes who
still honour the custom), and no man may take a wife,
1 The Chams have a similar custom.

BORNEO

unless he first brini* to tin- village notables om- or more
heads, collected from some neighbouring tribe aft
dangerous expedition, which may last for several -
A father, to win a favourable destiny for a child about to
be born, will offer the mother the present of a freshly
severed head. On occasions of especial importance the
whole tribe, having submitted to the essentially religious
ordeals of fasting and abstinence, and having undergone
purification and joined in funeral dances, departs in quest
of its horrible prize.

This custom, on account of which the Dyaks were
formerly accused of cannibalism, is of a definitely
ritualistic character ; its aim is to obtain the soul of the
dead man as the protector of the killer and of his village.
For this reason the heads, being thoroughly dried,
cleaned, and ornamented with flowers, are the object of
a regular cult. The Dyaks never forget, when feasting,
to offer them the tit-bits of every dish, and the customary
quids of betel-nut, in order to induce them, by such kind
attentions, to adopt their new tribe.

It will be imagined that the presence of such a race
made the establishment of the Dutch in Borneo a some-
what unprofitable and far from easy matter, and this for
many generations.

As early as 1609 the Company of the East Indies had
successfully entered into relations with the kingdom of
Sambas ; later on, with the kingdoms of Mampawa,
Sukadana, and Bandjermasin. The factories established
yielded such trifling returns that Daendels had them
abandoned in 1809 in order to concentrate the entire
forces of Holland upon the remainder of her spacious
empire, and especially upon Java. Colonisation was
resumed only in 1816, when the Government had to
contend with not only the aims of the English, but with
the open hostility of the Chinese who had settled on the
east coast of Borneo near the rich mines of Landak

318 JAVA

and Montrado, and had organised themselves into
confraternities or kongsis (tongs).

These Chinese kongsis waged a war of defence from
1853 to 1856. Their defeat gave the Dutch the territory
of Montrado ; in 1864, having reduced or won over by
pecuniary advantages the little Principalities of Western
Borneo, the Dutch had no longer anything to fear upon
the coast but the depredations of the Dyaks of the
interior.

The conquest of the south-east commenced with the
cession of the Sultanate of Bandjermasin by a series of
treaties (1817, 1823, 1826) ; but it was a long and difficult
affair ; more so than the conquest of the west coast,
owing to the warlike temper of the peoples of Kotaringin
and Kutei. In 1844 tne province was constituted,
although it was impossible to guarantee it against the
incursions of unsubjected Dyaks, the intrigues of the
Chinese, and the piracies of the Bugis and, above all, of
the Suluans. In 1859 a terrible revolt broke out at the
mines of Orange-Nassau, then but recently opened ; it
was subdued only in 1866 ; and further outbreaks were
followed by two punitive expeditions, in 1870 and 1873.
Since then the peace of Borneo has been troubled but
little or not at all.

VI.

The Dutch portion of the island is divided into two
Residencies : that of the west and that of the south and
east.

The Residency of the west of Borneo has for capital
the town of Pontianak (20,989 inhabitants, of whom 223
are Europeans, 7,085 Chinese, and 212 Arabs), situated
on the northern branch of the Kapuas, whose wide waters
glide silently between two lines of virgin foliage. Ponti-
anak, built upon mud-banks, is a true lacustrean city ; its
canals and its little bridges uniting mud-banks and
houses remind one of Venice or of Holland rather than
the Indies. All the houses, including those of the

BORNEO

European quarter, are built upon piles ; the palace of the
Governor himself is founded on arches of masonry,
through which the river flows. The houses of the
natives are of wood, roofed with atap or corrugated iron,
and are grouped together in kampongs. They have a
poverty-stricken appearance beside the Chinese quarter,
which is even more remarkable for its neatness and
cleanliness than for its activity. Its tokos are sheltered by
long verandahs, which, supported by posts of ironwood,
line the footpaths and streets. The Chinese kampong is
the centre of all the important business affairs of the
town. It is overlooked by a pretty mosque with three
superimposed roofs, which stands on a little island close
at hand. The Malay village is busy and animated, but
less well kept. The palace of the Sultan, at the edge of
a little bay, is a large building of one story, surrounded
by a high palisade of ironwood, which is backed by a
wall of stone. The name alone is palatial. The
members of the prince's family and the high dignitaries
of the court live either within the walls of the palace
enclosure, or beside the kraton. Enthusiasts declare
that the climate of Pontianak is healthy, and quite
endurable ; the lack of drinking-water is the one serious
drawback.

Pontianak is assured of an enviable economic future
by the neighbourhood of valuable mines, rather than by
the meagre industries of the Dyaks or those of the natives
of a different race. Sambas (12,096 inhabitants), the
capital of the ancient kingdom of the same name, is still
prospering, thanks to the exploitation of the neighbour-
ing gold-mines. The other district capitals are Sanggan,
Katapang, Nyabang, Kualakakap, and Sintang ; mush-
room towns of from three hundred to three thousand
inhabitants. Mampawa (3,389 inhabitants, of whom 1,360
are Chinese), on the other hand, is a progressive town
with a future before it ; not because it contains, in a so-
called palace of clay, a Panenbahan, the relic of bygone
tyrannies, but because it is the outlet of a rich agricultural
region. Tajan (1,452 inhabitants), situated on the River

320 JAVA

Kapuas at some distance above Pontianak, is another
town to profit by the proximity of mineral wealth.

The Residency of the south and east of Borneo
(Zuider-en-Oostorafdeeling van Borneo) has its capital
at Bandjermasin x (16,708 inhabitants, of whom 453
are Europeans, 2,581 Chinese, and 910 Arabs), on the
beautiful Barito River. Like Pontianak, it has all the
peculiarities and all the charm of a water-city. Built at
the confluence Jof the Barito and the Martapura, on the
little marshy islet of Titas, its houses, raised on piles, are
twice a day isolated by the tides ; the people go about in
praus, which thread the muddy canals, crossed by little
ironwood bridges, which serve as streets. Bandjer-
masin, thanks to its fortunate situation, is the centre for all
the products of the fluvial basin of the Barito : gold-dust,
coal, wax, rattan, various gums and resins, copra, pepper,
dried meat, timber for house- and ship-building, baskets,
mats, and the sea-swallows' nests which are so plentiful
in the caves of the coast, and which the Chinese buy so
eagerly.

Of the district capitals Matapura (9,298 inhabitants)
was formerly the residence of the Sultans of Bandjer-
masin; Kadangan (4,070), Muaratewei, Marabahan, and
Sampit are towns of little more, and sometimes less than
three thousand inhabitants. Tanah Grogot, Kualakapues,
and Kota-Baru are even smaller, and are all awaiting the
development of the subsoil. Amuntai, thanks to its
proximity to the gold- and diamond-mines of Nagaru, is
already a growing town.

Samarinda, in the east of the Residency, is still more
prosperous, although it contains only 4,730 inhabitants,
of whom 1,160 are Chinese. It is built on the delta of
the Mahakkam, or Kutei, which is there over 1,000 yards
in width ; it contains a European quarter, a palace, and a
shadowy Sultan, and Chinese, Malay, Bugi, Dyak, and
Bandjarese kampongs. The Bandjarese, or natives of

1 Some authors profess that Bandjermasin contains fifty thousand
inhabitants, of whom nearly forty-five thousand are natives ; that is,
Dyaks, Malays, Bugis, &c. The others are the official figures.

BORNEO 321

Bandjermasin, have outrivalled even the Chinese in the
exportation of rubber and rattan. A dirty town of small,
squat-houses with atap roofs, perched upon piles as
usual, Samarinda expects, none the less, to become a
a considerable city, as the coal-mines and petroleum-
tk'lds in the neighbouring district are now in process
of development.

VII.

Borneo has all the gifts needful to make it one of the
fairest and richest countries of the globe. Its soil rivals
that of Java and Sumatra in fertility ; crops of all kinds
yield abundantly, as may be seen in British Borneo,
where, thanks to the existence of sufficient labour, the
soil is covered with rich plantations.

In Dutch Borneo, vast as the country is, there is a
serious deficiency of labour. Head-hunting, a birth-rate
unduly low, and an enormous death-rate, due to small-
pox, dysentery, cholera, and fevers, leave the population
of idle Dyaks unchanged ; eight-tenths of the soil is
virgin ; a little tobacco and pepper is grown, but the
agricultural yield of the country is practically limited to
building timber, rubber, a little copra, and a few gums,
waxes, and resins brought down from the interior by the
praus that trade up and down the rivers. There are
practically no industries ; the Malays of the west have
to obtain from Java or Singapore the raw material for
the stuffs they weave.

The subsoil is even richer than the soil ; neither Java
nor Sumatra can compare with Borneo in the matter of
mineral wealth. In the basins of the Kapuas, the
Martapura, and the Kutei, and in some of the islands off
the coast, gold, silver, lead, copper, antimony, zinc,
bismuth, platinum, mercury, arsenic, coal, and petroleum
are found. Diamonds are found in the Nagara district.
The Sumbar district was celebrated centuries ago for the
famous Montrado mines, and the sovereigns of the Far
East used to dispute the possession of the diamonds
found in the bed of the Martapura, on account of their

322 JAVA

perfect limpidity. Although the diamonds have become
less plentiful and the gold is apparently giving out, there
are coal-measures and oil-fields, which to our utilitarian
eyes form a more solid form of wealth.

The official statistics relating to the profits of agriculture
in Borneo where its progress is almost as dilatory and
elusive as the Dyaks themselves mention only a few
piculs of mace and nutmeg ; but the statistics relating to
the mines of Borneo are highly satisfactory.

In 1907 the European concessions on the Kutei and at
Pulu Laut yielded 6,000 and 92,800 tons of coal respec-
tively ; an amount sensibly larger than in the few
previous years. Native labour in the west of Borneo
furnished 18,127 tons, instead of 2,823 as m tne preceding
year.

The petroleum obtained by the three large companies
working on the Kutei, of which one is English and two
Dutch (the Kutei Exploitation Company and the Dor-
drecht Petroleum Company), amounted in 1907 to close
on 110,000,000 gallons.

About 600 Ib. of gold, 6,600 Ib. of silver, and 700
carats of diamonds were produced in the same year.

Transport is facilitated by the fine rivers of Borneo.
The Royal Mail Steamship Company unites Borneo to
the rest of the Archipelago and the outer world. A good
road runs along the coast from Bandjermasin to Sama-
rinda on the one side and to Sambas on the other.
When Holland, having at last completed her work of
pacification in Sumatra, is able to concentrate all her
efforts upon Borneo, and succeeds in transforming the
Dyaks into a more civilised and settled population, and
perhaps in transplanting the surplus population of Java,
the island will become a most valuable possession, and
wealthy among all the islands of the Indies.

CHAPTER XVI
CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

I. The situation and aspect of Celebes. II. The physical geography
of the island ; its climate, fauna, and flora. III. The inhabi-
tants : Bugis, Macassars, Alfours, Toradjas. IV. The estab-
lishment of the Dutch in Celebes. V. Administrative divisions :
i. Residency of Celebes and dependencies ; 2. Residency of
Menado. VI. The economic outlook and the future of Celebes.

CELEBES, 1 situated to the south-east of Borneo and
separated therefrom by the Strait of Macassar, is washed
on the north by the Sea of Celebes, which divides it from
the Philippines ; on the south by the Sea of Banda and
the Sea of Flores, dividing it from the groups of islands
of the same name. In size it is the third largest island
of the Archipelago. Its area is roughly 76,360 miles,

1 The old Portuguese navigators thought Celebes (Selebes) a
group of islands a natural mistake, if we consider how the peri-
phery is cut up into numerous great promontories by deep, tortuous
gulfs, which have all the appearance of straits and so gave the
name the plural form. We find, however, both singular and plural
forms Celebe and Celebes in old narratives. Several explanations
of this name have been proposed ; for it is unknown to the natives.
Si Lubeh or Si Labih would mean " the island up above " and might
be derived from instructions as to the position of the island given
by the Malays and mistaken for a name : such mistakes are fre-
quent in geography. According to Skeat (Hobson Jobson, s.v. Celebes),
the true form of the word would be Pulau (island) Salebih in some
dialects Su-lebis or Si-Lebis, Si being there equivalent to a sort of
article ; and Lebih, Lebis might be the name of a man. The Malays
call Celebes Tanah Bugis, " the land of the Bugis."

324 JAVA

including its dependencies : that is, it is rather more
than one-third as large as France, and larger than Java,
though smaller than Sumatra. Its population, however,
amounts to 851,905 only; a very small figure compared
with the 30,000,000 of Java.

Celebes would seem to have been created by nature in
a capricious moment, such a medley of bold promon-
tories, jutting peninsulas, curving bays, and deep gulfs
does its outline present. It has been compared with the
hand of a gouty patient, a scorpion, a crocodile, and,
more modestly, with a shrimp ; in any case its coastal
development is abnormal in comparison with its area,
for it equals the coasts of Spain and France combined ;
while the northern peninsula is attached to the southern
by an isthmus barely 18 miles in width. The whole
island, some 470 miles in length, has an average width
of only some 36 to 120 miles.

Celebes, in short, is composed of four peninsulas,
connected by means of narrow tracts of land and divided
by the Bay of Boni on the south, the Bay of Tolo on the
east, and the Bay of Tomini on the south-east.

II.

Celebes is traversed from south to north by a range
of volcanic mountains ; that range which connects the
whole East Indian system with the system of Mindanao
and the Philippines, by means of a host of scattered islets
of granite, which rise from a profoundly deep sea. This
long chain pushes out a subsidiary range along the
peninsula dividing the Bays of Tomini and Boni. The
northern portion of the island is the more mountainous,
although the isolated peaks are not so high ; thus Gunung
Kalabat, at the northern extremity of the range, attains a
height of 6,560 feet only, while Lompo Batang in the
extreme south attains a height of 10,000 feet. Although
the mountains of Celebes have proved their volcanic
origin by frequent earthquakes, no active volcanoes have
been observed in either Celebes or Borneo.

MARKET AT CKLKBKS.

M MATk'l-SF (ilK'I.S AT \V()RK.

To face p. 314.

CELEBES A\n ITS DEPENDENCIES

On such narrow tracts of land tin: rivers have scarcely
room to develop ; so that although tlu-y arc sufficiently
swollen during the rainy season, they are almost without
exception extremely short. The Bahu Solo, in the
peninsula between the Gulfs of Boni and Tolo, which
has its source in Lake Tawuti, is nearly 150 miles long ;
the Sadang, in the Macassar peninsula, is 250 miles in
length ; but the Rano-i-Apo in Minehasa, the Poigar,
Malibagoei, Taludaw, and the Djenemadja are all shorter.
The whole island is strewn with lakes, the largest of
which is Tawuti ; but Lakes Tempa or Tamparang,
Posso, and Lindu are not far inferior in size. All these
are in the southern portion of Celebes ; but there is in
the northern peninsula, in the mountains of Minahasa
at a height of 2,000 feet, a little lake set in a marvellous
landscape and a waterfall famed through the whole
Archipelago. This is Lake Tondano.

The climate of Celebes, like that of Borneo, is extremely
hot, and less equable than that of Java or Sumatra. The
difference between the day and the night temperature is
often as much as 18 Fahr., though the average is less.
Moreover, the abundant rains, the thunderstorms, and
the sea-breezes, which reach the slightest eminence in a
country so completely open to the sea, render the climate
of Celebes quite endurable and at some seasons even
agreeable. The climate of Celebes has one great advan-
tage over that of Borneo : the sloping surface of the island
allows the rain to run off quickly into the sea, so that there
are hardly anywhere such marshes as those of Borneo,
which fill the atmosphere with so noxious a humidity.
For this reason Celebes, in spite of its heat, has the
name of being the healthiest of the Dutch East Indies.

The flora of Celebes, thanks to its maritime situation,
the fertility of its volcanic soil, and its position under the
Equator, is as rich and varied as any in the Indies. It is
as plentiful in the plains as on the mountains ; but its
character, which is Indian in the western portion, tends
to the Australian on the eastern slopes. Palms of all sorts,
camphor-trees, cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, tree-ferns, and

326 JAVA

countless varieties of the most extraordinary orchids are
found intermingled. The immense forests of the interior
furnish many kinds of timber. Tobacco and coffee grow
excellently ; in Celebes is found the Antiaris toxicaria
Lesch., from which upas, a terrible poison, is drawn.

The fauna of the western portion of Celebes recalls
that of Borneo and Sumatra, although the tiger and the
elephant are absent. It includes the buffalo, the wild
bull, the Celebes boar, which is particularly ferocious,
many deer, and the last species of monkey to be found
in the Archipelago. On the eastern slopes of the island
commence the marsupials which abound in New Guinea
and Australia. In the north is a special antelope, the
anuang, or "cow of the woods" (Anoa depressicornis)^
whose flesh is eaten almost daily ; and among the
domestic animals are some excellent little horses. There
are many birds of dazzling colour birds of paradise,
parrots, &c. and hosts of butterflies ; the latter form
one of the characteristics of the island. 2

III.

The inhabitants of Celebes belong to the ethnographic
and linguistic Malayo-Polynesian group. Despite their
close relationship to this group, they present very distinct
differences among themselves, as a result of geographical
and historical factors ; so that the natives of the north
and of the south have by certain explorers been regarded
as different peoples.

The Macassars, to the number of some 230,000, occupy
the western portion of the southern peninsula ; the
Bugis, twice as numerous, and supposed to be im-
migrants from the kingdom of Boni, inhabit the southern
portion and the coasts of Celebes.

The name Alfours is sometimes applied to the inhabi-

1 Malay, bandogo tutu, sapi utan ; Bugi, anuwang.

2 The best and most recent description of the island of Celebes is
that of Paul and Fritz Sarasin, Reisen in Celebes ausgeflihrt in den
Jdhren 1893-1896 und 1902-1903 (Wiesbaden, Kreidel, 1905,2 vols.).

CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 327

tants of Minahasa in tin- northern part of tin- island,
sometimes to all the semi-civilised inhabit. r
of Celebes or the Lesser Moluccas and the Sulu Isla
For the Mahomedan inhabitants of Cc-K-lx-s all " heathen
pi^-caters" are Alfours. Finally, the semi-civilised moun-
taineers of Central Celebes are known as Toradjas ;
and as this mountainous region is inhabited by people
of Macassar blood as well as by Bugis, the name of
Toradja, like that of Alfours, responds to an intellectual
rather than to an ethnographical difference.

Bugis and Macassars, despite the affinity of their
languages with Malay, are physically more like the
Javanese, except that they are better-looking than the
latter, especially in the case of the women. They are
of average height, well built, rather dark in complexion,
erect and graceful. Both are excellent sailors, as is only
natural in such a country : shut in by the sea on every
side, and embracing the great Gulfs of Macassar, Boni,
Toli, and Tomini, which themselves are again cut up
into thousands of lesser bays and inlets, creeks, and
natural harbours, so that the smallest kampong has the
look of a port or fishing-village. Fishing, the coast trade,
and even ocean commerce are their usual occupations.
The Bugis especially are famous traders, as formerly
they were formidable pirates ; they are expert navigators,
knowing every corner of the Island seas over a range of
astonishing width. They do not hesitate to make the
voyage to Borneo in their praus, and have founded many
colonies there on the southern and eastern coasts. They
monopolise the greater part of the trade of those coasts,
living in well-defended kampongs, united in a rigid
solidarity. They allow no outside interference in their
affairs, nor do they take kindly to the foreigner's ideal
of assisting them to govern themselves. Capable of
enduring great fatigue, active and laborious, and deter-
mined to preserve their individuality and their freedom,
they have the reputation of being undisciplined and
vindictive ; angered by an insult or an injustice which
they cannot directly avenge, they too readily draw the

328 JAVA

krees and run amok. A proud race, refusing to serve
the Europeans as domestic servants, they are deplorable
subordinates. The Dutch, who have often had to fight
them in order to ensure their possession of Celebes, and
who know of what their courage and love of indepen-
dence are capable, enlist them gladly for service in the
fleet, where they are, so to speak, at home among them-
selves, or at most the comrades of their close relatives,
the Malays ; but the Government has almost entirely
ceased to enlist them in the army, their stubborn tempera-
ment making them almost impossible to manage.

It is only just to add that a Dutch colonist who lived
for many years among them, and considered that he
knew them thoroughly, declared that they were extremely
loyal friends, and far less difficult to manage than has
been professed. He himself, however, could not possibly
pretend that the Bugis have any immoderate respect for
the property of others, or that they regard pilfering and
theft as other than a venial offence. In Baba and Belu
the young girls marry by preference young men who are
admitted adepts at this kind of " sport," and have there-
fore proved their dexterity of body and mind.

Formerly they were slightly tinged with Hindu in-
fluences on the coasts, but to-day they are mostly
Islamites, and have accepted Islam as fervently as they
resisted it for some centuries before its introduction.
They are not, however, patterns of orthodoxy. In many
districts they still revere the emblems of Shiva, and their
ancient animism survives in the worship, possibly totem-
istic, which they render to the crocodile and to certain
kinds of eel. The Bugis and their princes attribute
a kind of supernatural power to the royal insignia, which
in several Bugis Sultanates are of a fetishistic character.

They obey a host of petty princes, whose tyranny or
rapacity are to some extent controlled by the pride of
their subjects. The Bugis women are expert weavers,
embroiderers, and seamstresses, and can often read and
speak Malay, which is in general spoken fluently by the
men. They have, however, like the Macassars, their own

CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES

language, alphabet, and literature, whieli ;,ird with

a certain pride; but their ruling passion i-, for cock-
fighting and gambling. 1

The Toradjas of the mountains and the pagan and
semi-savage Alfours of the centre of Celebes are mentally
much inferior to the Bugis and Macassars. Wretched
enough to begin with, on account of their manner of
life, they reduce their race still further by the atrocious
custom of " head-hunting " which with them, as with the
Dyaks, is a purely ritual ceremony, being described by
adat in certain determined circumstances, such as the
death of a chief, &c. The Toradjas of Lake Posso are
not content with cutting the head, but also drink the
blood of the victim, eating a portion of his flesh and
brains. The efforts of the Dutch to suppress this custom
wherever their influence extends, and the preaching of
the Gospels and of Islam, the former being well received,
allows us to hope that this horrible custom will not
survive much longer. 2

The Alfours of the Minahasa are far more highly
civilised than the Toradjas, and even the Bugis.
Formerly, it is true, they too were head-hunters ; but
to-day they are a peaceable folk, honest, and energetic,
and nearly all are Christians. Fairly tall, good-looking,
light-complexioned, and apparently closely related to the
Polynesian-Maori race, they agree capitally with the Dutch,
dress themselves and furnish their houses as far as possible
like Europeans, and although they have so far found it
scarcely possible to learn the Dutch language they are
gradually replacing their local idiom by Malay, the official
language of the Archipelago. They inhabit the most
beautiful and most cheerful-looking country in Celebes.

1 See B. F. Matthes, Einige EigenthUmlichkeiten in den Festen und
Gewohnheiten der Makassar en und Buginesen (Leydcn, 1884, 8vo).
Besides this and many other monographs, Matthes has published
grammars, dictionaries, and anthologies of the Macassar and Bugi
(Buginesen) tongues and literatures.

a Dr. N. Adriani has made a special study of the Toradjas, and his
books are the chief authority concerning them.

330 JAVA

In the administrative department of Celebes are in-
cluded the small Sangi or Sangin Islands in the north,
which lie in the route of vessels going from Celebes to
the Philippines ; the long island called Salejer to the
south, separated from the Macassar peninsula only by a
narrow strait ; and still further south, Sumbawa, which is
a much larger island, entirely volcanic, geologically and
ethnographically belonging not to Celebes but to Bali
and Lombok. Sumbawa is remembered for the terrible
eruption of Timboro (9,000 feet) in 1815, which engulfed
whole villages and ruined the island.

IV.

The Portuguese settled in Macassar in 1625. In 1660
the Dutch drove them out and replaced them. For a
long time they were confined to this one point ; it is only
since the extension of the Dutch Colonial Empire during
the nineteenth century that the whole island has been
subjected to their rule. From the south-eastern penin-
sula they worked up the coast, making alliances with the
numerous Sultans whose dominions they reached, sup-
pressing them or winning them over according to circum-
stances, and always more ready to take the second course
with these independent seaboard peoples. In other
regions the Resident or Assistant still confines himself to
collecting a determined tribute, to prohibiting any act of
administration which might appear to be directed against
Holland, or even against Europeans in general, and to
controlling or suppressing those which seem contrary
to morality or humanity. In the interior the Dutch move
slowly and prudently, and the question is less one of
raising taxes than of accustoming the Toradjas to the
idea of the foreign master, and of a civilisation in which
no one collects heads in order to influence destiny. It is
a curious fact that in Celebes the one island in which
the Dutch Government must go slowly and softly in order
to go forward at all are the two cities which, more than
any in the Outer Possessions, recall Holland itself, both

CELEBES AND ITS J)KIK\I)FA('I KS

in the outer aspect of the houses ;md their int
arrangement. These cities are Macassar and M.-nado:
one in the north, the other in the south.

Celebes and its dependencies form two distinct ad-
ministrative units : (a) the Government of Celebes and
its dependencies, used (6) the Residency of Menado.

The little kingdoms of Banggai and Tembuku,
although geographically part of Celebes, are included in
the Residency of Ternate.

The Government of Celebes and its dependencies,
which includes all the southern portion of the island,
Salejer (Saleyer), Sumbawa, and its group, has for capital
Macassar (26,145 inhabitants, of whom 1,060 are Euro-
peans, 4,672 Chinese, and 141 Arabs). The commercial
suburb of Vlaardingen, overlooked by Fort Rotterdam,
consists of a vast, interminable street with European
warehouses and offices, Chinese tokos, and numerous
godowns and stores built in the eighteenth century in the
old Dutch style. This long, throbbing artery is over-
flowing with life and commercial activity ; men surge and
hasten along it like corpuscles in the blood. On the
plein, or public square, are the barracks, many curious old
houses, the Residency, the Club, and some fine modern
European dwellings, the note of the whole being one of
comfort and modern hygiene.

Near the port live the natives : Macassars, Bugis, and
Malays ; each in their own kampongs, but on good terms
with one another.

The port of Macassar, or Makasser, which has been a
free port since 1848, is increasing in importance daily ;
and is threatening Singapore with so serious a compe-
tition that the latter port has been trying to obtain a
monopoly of copra in particular. Macassar, in 1902,
exported 350,000 piculs. At this rate its European con-
signments of copra will soon exceed in quantity, and
especially in value, those of all British India. If we

332 JAVA

compare its trade during the period 1885-9 to that for tne
period 1897-1900 we find an increase of 80 per cent.

Its exports, besides copra, consist of rattan, oil of
cajeput, 1 and macassar oil (extracted from the seeds of
the badu). 2

The carrying trade is in the hands of the Dutch,
English, Germans, and Australians.

Maros (1,493 inhabitants), a district capital, was
formerly the capital of a kingdom, now reduced to a
rigid dependency; it still has a nominal Sultan. Bantaeng
or Bonthain (6,889 inhabitants) owes its growing import-
ance to its safe roadstead and to the magnificent crops
produced in the neighbourhood ; Sindjai (3,779 inhabi-
tants), on the eastern coast of the Macassar peninsula,
possesses similar advantages ; Takalar (1,593 inhabitants)
produces first-class sailors, who are gladly enrolled in the
Dutch fleet.

Pampanua and Palopo, on the east coast, which the
explorers P. and F. Sarasin have described as " a little
Venice in the midst of the mud," are chiefly of political
significance.

Almost everywhere the Dutch Government is seeking
to create new economic centres on which it keeps a tight
hand, which will slowly replace the ancient " courts " of
Gowa, Buton, Tanette (where a woman reigns at present),
and Wadju, which are still sullenly hostile, clinging
obstinately to the memories of their past importance.

The most important of these remains of states the

1 A volatile oil extracted by the distillation of the leaves of the Mela-
leuca cajeputi Roxb., which the Malays call the kayu putih, or white
tree, on account of the white bark which covers it. The oil is liquid,
volatile, green, transparent, with a strong and agreeable odour. To
the Chinese and Malays it is a veritable panacea : they give it for
rheumatism, gout, paralysis, epilepsy, toothache, &c. [It is used
internally in English medicine in place of eucalyptus, and is often
useful in cases of gastralgia. TRANS.]

a Or bado in Macassar (Malay kusambi, Schleichera trijuga Willd.),
a tree of the family of sapinacice. Once used by Europeans for the
hair, and still so employed by the lower classes, it is the basis of
various cosmetics, and is used unmixed in the East.

CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 333

kingdom of Gowa, heritor of part of the ancient and
well-known kingdom of Boni has often involved tin
others in its intrigues ; but an expedition in 1904, which
performed its task in a serious and delibr iiion, and

was ably led, has to-day practically pacified all U
futile revolts and the petty acts of piracy which they
covered. A few decorations, diplomatically distributed,
and which are at once an embarrassment and a glory to
their bearers, have finally ensured tranquillity even in these
nests of intrigue.

The district of Salejer, or Saleyer (54,547 inhabitants)
includes the whole of the island of that name ; it is not
only the most populous, but one of the most laborious
and prosperous districts in the whole Residency.

The Saleyerese, close relatives of the Bugis and the
Macassars, are, like them, Mahomedans, and excellent
sailors as well as experienced traders. They carry on a
large export trade in dried and salt fish, beche de mer,
copra, Macassar oil, and praus. The coco-palms, which
grow in a belt round the whole circumference of the
island, furnish the inhabitants with an inexhaustible
source of revenue.

Bima (1,569 inhabitants) is the capital of the district
including Sumbawa.

The inhabitants of Sumbawa are Mahomedans on the
coast; but in the interior they practise an animism full
of relics of Hinduism, as is proved by the name devas,
which is applied to all their divinities. They honour
these last with presents of flowers and fruits. They know
nothing of human sacrifices, but after a death they burn
or bury with the corpse a certain portion of the dead man's
fortune, which his heirs are obliged to leave him, doubt-
less to assure him of a living in the next world ; and if
he owns any livestock their throats are cut over his
grave.

Formerly Sumbawa was divided into two kingdoms,
each of some importance. The capital of the western
kingdom, Sumbawa, was annihilated by the explosion of
Timboro. Bima, on the other hand, still exists ; its ex-

334 JAVA

cellent harbour and its admirable ponies, which the Arabs
come to buy, ensure a real future for it so soon as the
timid islanders and the suspicious, petty Sultan decide to
enter more openly into relations with the Dutch, who at
present have scarcely penetrated beyond the town and the
coast.

The Residency of Menado, in the north of Celebes, is,
perhaps, more densely populated and more wealthy than
that of " Celebes and its dependencies."

It comprises all the northern portion of the island, and
is divided into two districts : that of the Minahasa, in the
north-eastern portion of Celebes, and that of Gorontalo,
together with the Sangi or Sangir Islands. The capital,
Menado (10,344 inhabitants, of whom 576 are Europeans,
2,784 Chinese, and 300 Arabs), is built upon a site that is
perhaps unique in the world. The town is built around
a spacious and beautiful natural harbour ; close at the
back is a magnificent range of mountains. The Euro-
pean quarter consists of a few vast avenues, planted with
magnificent trees, and running from the shore towards
the mountains ; the houses, even the finest, are of wood
and thatched with atap, so that they have not the
opulent air of the stone mansions of Batavia or Surabaja,
but a cheerful freshness, which is the prevailing note
of the city. The climate of Menado is extremely
healthy, and the heat is tempered by the sea-breeze,
so that the nights are cool. Epidemics are very rare
in Menado.

The climate, material comfort, and long contact with
Europeans, have resulted in the cleanest and best kept
native kampongs in the entire Archipelago ; but the whole
of Minahasa has the aspect of a flourishing plantation.
The inhabitants of Menado are content to live by the
sale of their crops ; all retail commerce being in the hands
of the Chinese, and the wholesale export and import
trade in the hands of the Europeans. They not in-
frequently intermarry with the latter, the women of Mina-
hasa, like nearly all their race, being handsome, gentle,
and Christians of some standing, which facilitates these

CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 335

unions. These intermarriages date from a comparat
remote period, for there is a whole quarter in the town
where the descendants of European merchants, who were
formerly privileged by the Company, reside ; although
since then the majority of them have been subjected to
many further crossings.

While Macassar owes its importance to its character of
international produce market, Menado owes its good
fortune to the fact that it is the point of export for a
region admirably fertile in coffee, sugar-cane, spices,
dammar, copra, and rattan. Copra seems destined to be
the principal source of the wealth of these islands, which
are still in the dawn of their prosperity, and almost devoid
of manufactures.

In 1904 Menado exported 16,104 tons f copra, valued
at .201,300 ; about a third of this was exported to Singa-
pore, and nearly another third went to Marseilles, and
the rest of France took 3,892 tons ; the remainder was
taken by Holland, Italy, and Germany.

Menado still exports a certain amount of native gold :
1,219 lb. in 1904. In the same year the city's imports
attained a value of 241,658, and its exports a value of
446,220.

Tondano (10,592 inhabitants, of whom 35 are Euro-
peans and 266 Chinese), the capital of the district of the
same name, is situated to the north of the beautiful Lake
of Tondano, at a height of 1,960 feet above the sea.
Formerly Tondano was built upon piles on the beach of
the lake : but the Dutch, having had the greatest diffi-
culty in reducing it, judged it wise to move the town
inland. To-day Tondano, which is almost entirely
Christian, is surrounded by magnificent coffee plantations
and superb forests. It is now so completely loyal to the
Dutch rule that it was judged practicable to build there
the school for the sons of native chiefs (School voor zoncn
van Inlandsche hoofden), in which the sons of the notables
and princes of Celebes and the other Outer Possessions
may obtain a general and professional education suited
to their future role. The inhabitants of Tondano are

336 JAVA

either agriculturists or fishermen, their lake being full of
fish of all species.

Amurang (2,945 inhabitants), built in the centre of a
beautiful bay on the north-west coast of Celebes, and
provided with a roadstead which affords safe anchorage
in all winds and weathers, is extremely picturesque of
aspect amidst its clumps of coco-palms. The steamers
of the Koningklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij call at
Amurang, and since it has had less to fear from the
incursions of pirates, which were formerly its terror,
despite a fortress, now in ruins, the town has com-
menced to revive.

Gorontalo (6,352 inhabitants, of whom 145 are Euro-
peans, 666 Chinese, and 327 Arabs), situated at the
entrance to the great Gulf of Tomini, and at the con-
fluence of the Boni and Bolango Rivers, is protected by
Fort Massan and a small garrison. It is the seat of an
Assistant-Residency. Despite its indifferent anchorage
its export trade is increasing daily, its trade being
chiefly in gums, copra, dammar, rattan, wax, dye-woods,
tortoise-shell, and various sea-shells. The natives are
nearly all Christians, and thoroughly docile. Unhappily,
the population increases but slowly, on account of the
unhealthiness of the site, the town being flooded several
months in the year, whence constant outbreaks of
fever.

Paleleh, although a district capital, has only 3,300
inhabitants ; Taruna, the capital of the Sangir Islands, has
6,090, nearly all fishermen ; Donggala, at the extremity
of the long and narrow bay through which the Palu
River flows into the Macassar Straits, will be a town of
considerable importance when the isthmus, here 18
miles in width, which connects the northern and the
southern portions of Celebes at this point, is pierced
by a canal running from Palu to Parigi. When
this new route enables vessels to go from Macassar
and Boni to Menado without sailing right round the
huge island, both praus and larger vessels will flock to
Donggola.

CELEBES AND ITS DEPEND FA (IKS

VI.

Celebes has all things needful to make it one of the
most fortunate countries in the Indies : an exceptionally
fertile soil and a rich subsoil; an excellent climate, bays
and natural harbours as equally secure and numt-i
and a vigorous and intelligent race.

In 1907 the Sumalatei Mine furnished nearly 3 tons
of silver (6,615 lb.) an< ^ I t I 7 lb. f gold. At Menado
the coffee grown by Europeans amounted to 1,411 piculs
and the coffee grown by natives (" free cultures " that is,
of their own initiative) to 3,227 piculs (1,680 cwt. and
3,860 cwt, or 75 tons and 172 tons), while in the rest of
Celebes 29 piculs were grown by Europeans and 23,469
by natives (or 34 cwt. and 28,180 cwt). Moreover, this
coffee, which created a considerable trade in Macassar,
the port of exportation to Java, took the first rank in the
East Indies in point of quality, leaving the coffees of Java
and Sumatra far behind.

Menado also produced 14,242 piculs (17,090 cwt.) of
nutmegs and 1,900 piculs (2,280 cwt.) of mace, while the
rest of Celebes produced only 5,445 piculs (6,530 cwt.) of
nutmeg and 1,176 piculs (1,413 cwt.) of mace.

Besides these results, which the State has succeeded in
recording, but covered by no statistics, is the produce
of the greater part of Celebes. The smallest village in
Celebes drives an active trade in copra, rattan, waxes
and gums and resins, oils and hides, and (in the case
of the coast villages) dry fish and salt, beche de mer, and
tortoise-shell.

It is enough to recall the fact that Macassar, which
centralises a large proportion of this trade, though not
all, exported in 1907 16,030 piculs of coffee (19,230 cwt),
76,119 piculs of rattan (91,342 cwt.), 90,949 piculs of
copra (109,140 cwt.) ; 2,291 piculs of pearl-shell or mother-
of-pearl (2,739 cwt.), 15,967 piculs of hides (19,160 cwt.),
7,013 piculs of nutmegs (8,414 cwt.), and 341,393 piculs
of copra (409,670 cwt.) ; and that a rapid increase has
been visible in the exportation of all these materials.

338 JAVA

For Celebes to become a really rich and prosperous
country the first necessity is peace. The coasts are
already practically pacified ; but the country will never
be completely and finally at peace until the Toradjas
of the interior renounce their barbarous customs and
commence to cultivate the soil. The greater part of
Celebes is still virgin soil ; peace and order, once estab-
lished, would enable the natives to break it up for
cultivation, while the population, decimated by head-
hunting, would have an opportunity to recuperate itself.
Such recuperation would be an innovation, and a very
necessary one, for although there is abundance of fertile
soil there is a serious lack of labour. There are good
labourers on the coast, but their numbers are quite
insufficient.

Lastly, Celebes has insufficient means of communi-
cation. There is a good road from Macassar to Boni
and Maros in the south ; another runs northward from
Menado to Amurang and Tondano. These roads are
certainly of great value, but they are as nothing com-
pared with the area of Celebes. There remains the sea ;
but the windings of the coast make the coasting- trade
a lengthy and at some seasons a somewhat risky business.
For this reason, a canal cut through the isthmus of Palu
would be of inestimable service.

The reclamation and civilisation of Celebes will be a
stupendous task, but one that may end in magnificent
results. Holland has already applied herself vigorously
to her programme of development.

CHAPTER XVII
THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA

I. Physical geography of the Moluccas. II. Their inhabitants.
III. The Dutch in the Moluccas. IV. Administrative divisions:
(a) The Residency of Ternate and dependencies ; (b) The Resi-
dency of Amboin. V. The Residency of the West of New
Guinea. VI. The economic future of the Moluccas.

ON the west the Moluccas x are divided from Celebes by
the Sea of Celebes. Eastward a mass of islands and
islets, some of which are inhabited, connects them with
New Guinea. The Philippine Sea washes them on the
north, and the Sea of Banda on the south, while the Sea
of Seram divides them into two distinct groups, of which
the Dutch Government has made two Residencies. The
Northern Moluccas form the " Residency of Ternate and
its dependencies," and the Southern Moluccas form the
" Residency of Amboin."

The Northern Moluccas, with their dependencies, have
a total area of some 176,100 square miles, and a popu-
lation of 108,900 inhabitants. The Southern Moluccas,
with an area of 19,810 square miles, have a population
of 299,000.

1 Little is known as to the origin of the name " Moluccas." The
Portuguese called these islands the Maluco Islands, believing Maluco
to be the name of their king as well. As in Arabic the language
of Islam, which had reached the Moluccas the word for king is
melek (plural muluk), and as each island had a king, old writers
spoke of the Moluccas as " the Islands of the Kings."

340 JAVA

Both groups are essentially volcanic in character. The
volcanoes of the northern group are far more active than
those of the southern ; the magnificent Mount Ternate,
sung by the Portuguese poet Camoens, being that most
subject to eruptions. The Moluccas are the home of
continual shakings and tremblings of the earth ; the towns
and villages are often littered with debris, in the midst
of which the inhabitants are philosophically building new
houses, neither the old buildings nor the new being
particularly costly. The highest volcano in the Moluccas
is on the little island of Tidore ; its summit attains an
altitude of 5,600 feet.

In islands of such limited area and irregular outline
the rivers are naturally hardly worthy of notice. They
have neither the width nor the length nor the abundance
of the rivers of Java, Borneo, or Celebes, as, apart from
their shortness, the rains are not heavy ; yet the streams
of the Moluccas, especially those of the southern group,
are at all events numerous enough, and rich enough in
rapids, falls, and little lakes to fertilise a soil already rich
in volcanic humus, and to create landscapes of a wild and
virgin beauty.

The climate of the Moluccas is much drier than that
of Borneo ; drier even than that of Celebes. In its
freedom of perceptible moisture it recalls the climate
of Australia ; but this dry heat, tempered by the sea-
breeze, renders the islands extremely healthy.

The flora, which emphasises the peculiarity of tropical
vegetation, in that it is far richer in foliage than in
flowers, although the evidence of the hothouse often
leads the inhabitant of the temperate zones to imagine
the contrary, is, on the whole, more characteristic of
Australia than of India ; but the palm, the nutmeg, and
the clove abound.

The fauna, like the flora, is reminiscent of Australia.
The panther, the tiger, and the elephant are absent ; but
a number of marsupials occur. The glory of the fauna
resides in the multitude of birds and butterflies, decked
in the most brilliant of colours, which seem to vie

THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 341

with one another to make one forget the scarcity of
flowers.

II.

Although the total population of the Molucc; nail,

it is curiously mixed in character, owing to the isolation
of its several divisions and the reputation of wealth which
the islands have enjoyed from of old. The natives,
obviously of the Malayo- Polynesian race, and forming
a transitional phase between the Indonesians of Java,
Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes and the Papuans of New
Guinea, have received the general denomination of
Alfours, although they are not identical with the Alfours
of Celebes. To say that a tribe of the Moluccas are
Alfours is equivalent to saying that they are semi-savages.

These semi-savages present many points of difference,
accordingly as they are dwellers on the coast or in the
interior. In the Moluccas of the northern group many
Malay and Bugis emigrants have settled on the coast,
notably on Ternate and Tidore. These have inter-
married with the women of the Alfours, and have
founded a Mahomedan race of superior civilisation,
which is found throughout all the lesser Moluccas, in
Batjan and Kajoa, and on the southern coast of Halma-
hera. Beside these we must place the " Orang Serani,"
who profess a firm but much adulterated Christianity,
and assert that they are the descendants of the Portuguese,
the former masters of the country. These descendants
of the "whites " are much darker of skin than the Malays
or the Alfours; 2 but they speak a Malay dialect mixed
with Portuguese words, pride themselves on a certain
degree of civilisation, and, in order to mark their noble
descent, always wear the black clothes and insignia re-

1 Concerning the Moluccas, see K. Martin's Reisen in den Moluk-
ken, in Ambon, den Uliassern, Scran und Burn : (a) Eine Schildcning
von Land und Leuten; (b) Gcologischer Theil (Leyden, 1894-1903,
4 vols., large 8vo).

a We observe the same phenomenon in many parts of the world ;
for instance, among the Portuguese half-breeds of Cambodia, and in
the Malacca peninsula.

342 JAVA

served for chiefs. This does not prevent the majority
of them from living idle and poverty-stricken lives.

It is only in the central parts of the islands and
especially in the northern part of Halmahera that we
find the true Alfours, who have remained animists, and
whose civilisation is rudimentary. Nevertheless, their
manners and morals are said to be pure and gentle ; they
are innocent of the barbarous rite of head-hunting, of
the custom of enslavement in payment of debt (or at the
most the slavery is only temporary, being limited to a
term of ten years, and the debtor does not leave his
own village, where, considering the solidarity of communal
village life, it is not likely that his lot can be very hard).

Marriage is exogamic and patriarchal ; polygamy does
not exist ; nor may wives and daughters be sold to pay
the debts of the husband, although the latter may
become a slave to pay those of his wife.

The Alfours of Halmahera chiefly worship the spirits
of evil, whom they seek to conciliate by offerings ; and
also the souls of their ancestors, whose survival they see
in all things. They have a custom of slightly chipping
or cracking any newly bought pots or vessels, which is
probably observed in honour of their ancestors, with the
idea of giving them their share.

We find, among the Alfours, even among those of the
coast, who are converts to Islam, a singular ordeal,
which is also practised by the Bahnars of Indo-China,
in the same manner and in the same circumstances.
When an Alfour is accused of any crime or offence the
offence is usually that of having "sent a doom/' of
having meddled with fate, and thus of having killed a
fellow-villager he may obtain an acquittal if he protest
his innocence while drinking "the water of the sword''; 1

1 The Kings of Cambodia make all their officials drink "the
water of oaths " upon assuming office, and also on their birthdays.
This is consecrated water into which the king's arms have been
dipped. In theory the perjured functionary should die as the result
of the draught if he does not intend to keep his promise of fidelity
as he drinks.

THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINI \

that is, water contained in a howl in which two swords
have been crossed, a bullet having been thrown in
In the event of perjury the offender will surely d

The Alfours of the Southern Moluccas r< the

Papuans of New Guinea still more strongly than those
of the northern group. Between the Alfours of Gr-
and Amboin there are several strongly marked points of
difference.

Amboin (Ambon), owing to the fact that Europeans
and Malays have been established there for centuries
on account of its trade in spices, is notable for a much
higher standard of civilisation and comfort than that
of the other islands of the Archipelago. In the south of
the island Christianity is the prevalent religion ; but the
natives of the northern portion, who have not come
under its influence, have embraced Islam.

In Ceram the Alfours of the seaboard are mostly
Mahomedans, except those who live on that part of the
island which faces Amboin, which is inhabited by the
Orang Serani. These natives, who were converted to
Catholicism by the Portuguese, only to be hustled into
Protestantism by the Dutch, continue to mingle the two
forms of religion with a nai've and fervent eclecticism, and
are especially proud of being Christians and " sons of
whites." In the interior of the island the Alfours have
remained barbarians, and are warlike and ferocious.

They do homage to spirits both good and evil, but
especially to the latter ; and they believe in the existence
of a creative spirit, with whom they do not greatly con-
cern themselves. Their priests are of the medicine-man
type ; their religion consists in a number of superstitious
practices, very often of a restrictive kind ; it includes
innumerable " taboos," and also sacrifices and offerings
which are often entirely out of proportion to the modest
possessions of the suppliant. The political power con-
ceded to a few of the hereditary chiefs is inconsider-
able.

Marriage, which is rigorously exogamic, and in which
the woman is definitely adopted by the clan of her

344 JAVA

husband, necessitates the purchase of the wife, whose
children belong to the clan and also to the husband. A
widow should, if possible, remarry with a friend of the
deceased, but at all events within the clan. Her fate is
a happy one, compared with the general fate of other
women of the Archipelago. Not only is she greatly
respected by her husband; she is saved the heavy
physical labour which elsewhere causes barrenness and
premature old age. Although they hold quarrels, slavery,
and usury in abomination, the Alfours of central Ceram
must by no means be regarded as lambs : as witness the
existence of head-hunting and of the kakehan. The
kakehan is a secret society which groups the entire male
population of Ceram about three chiefs, whose prescrip-
tions they must blindly obey on pain of death. Its
object is the maintenance of old usages against the
influence of foreigners, and of Europeans in particular;
and its members must help and succour one another at
all times, but especially in time of war. The " cutting
of heads " as trophies is an act greatly admired by
members of the league. All affairs concerning religion
and the social organism are discussed by the members of
the league met in general assembly, the three chiefs pre-
siding. Such meetings are held in the communal house
of the league, which no woman may enter. There also
they hold their banquets, and perform the ceremonial
tattooing of warriors.

This league, as the agent of barbarism and revolt
against the power of the Dutch, is naturally most care-
fully watched by the Dutch Government. 1

In Buru, on the contrary, the Alfours are extremely
docile. Those on the coast have mixed with the Malays ;
those of the interior are said to entertain a terror and a
religious horror of the sea ; in their beautiful teak forests
and their fertile plains they live a peaceful, agricultural
life, cultivating their earth-nuts and sago-palms, and
extracting oil of cajeput. They have a high reputation
for loyalty and industry.

1 See T. J. Bezemer, Door Inderlandsch Oost-Indie, p. 600.

TIIK MOLUCCAS AND XK\V CtlM

Banka, which suffered so terribly of old from I>
brutality, still owes to Holland the mo-,t del de of

its social organisation. It retains even to this day a
group of perkcniers* the descendants, after a period
of nearly three hundred years, of those to whom the
brutal Jan Coen distributed extensive holdings
having caused or permitted the massacre of numbe;
inoffensive natives.

Their veins, at this late period, largely filled with
native blood as the result of continual " crossing," the
perkeniers form a kind of superior caste, which holds
the native in contempt, and in matters of precedence
ranks immediately below the island's few European
officials. Next to them come the Christian natives, who
were always treated as equals by the Company, and
lastly, the common people ; who, according to all
observers, are far superior in morality, industrious energy
and morality to the first two classes.

III.

The Southern Moluccas, being "spice islands" par
excellence, were one of the most fruitful conquests of
Portugal in the sixteenth century ; and one of her pos-
sessions which Holland sought by all means in her
power to wrest from the Portuguese at the end of the
seventeenth century. She succeeded, and gained a
source of wealth that appeared inexhaustible. For more
than a century the spices of the Southern Moluccas
yielded her a profit of 300 per cent.

The wealth of these islands was also the cause of some
odious and abominable actions, such as are happily not
common in her colonial history. To ensure that the
superabundance of spice-bearing trees in Banda and

1 From the Dutch perkere = " parcels, lots of land." These lots
were distributed for the first time in 1627 by Jan Coen to various
persons (perkeniers), who were required to plant them with
nutmeg-trees, cultivate them, and sell the produce to the Company
at a rate fixed by the latter.

346 JAVA

Amboin should not lower the prices, and in order to
ensure itself in a systematic manner of the monopoly,
the Company laid waste all the plantations of Banda and
a portion of those of Amboin, forbidding the natives
upon pain of death to preserve or replant them ; and the
death-penalty was declared also against any native who
should be found attempting to sell the smallest parcel of
spices to any foreign trader, who would himself be killed
if captured. Moreover, agents extirpateurs literally ex-
tirpating agents were maintained in both islands, for
the purpose of watching the plantations and of limiting
them in the desired degree. The natives, on the other
hand, were constrained to devote their time to cultivat-
ing and gathering the spices for the Company's benefit,
with the result that they had no leisure to think of their
own subsistence, and suffered from famine amidst the
wealth they were producing for others ; whence arose
natural deceptions, revolts cruelly suppressed, and the
rapid depopulation of Banda and Amboin. Fortunately
for these unhappy folk the spice trade was ruined by
foreign competition, and the Company failed. Finally
a more equitable government was established, while
Christianity brought them face to face with a less repug-
nant aspect of Western civilisation.

It is by means of Christianity that the greater part of
these quiet and amiable populations have become the most
dutiful and even (as in Amboin, for instance) the most
loyal and affectionate subjects of the Dutch Government.

Installed in Ternate in 1607, the Dutch had to proceed
with greater circumspection in the Northern than in the
Southern Moluccas, on account of the power of the
Sultan of Ternate. Moreover, the inferior fertility of
these islands could not ensure them the same enormous
profits as those derived from the southern group. In
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Sultanate of
Ternate won peculiar renown in Europe, and became
enormously wealthy, by the sale of spices and by piracy.
Holland was at first unable to benefit by the one, and
had always a prime interest in suppressing the other.

THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 347

IV.

For administrative purposes the Moluccas are now
divided into two Residencies.

The Northern Moluccas, to which we must add
Obi, and Sula, and Banggai Islands, the numerous
groups between Halmahera and Dutch New Guinea, and
the western portion of New Guinea itself, all go to form
the Residency of Ternate and its dependencies (Ternatc
en Onderhoorighederi). Its capital is Ternate, and it in-
cludes the districts of Ternate, Labuha, Sanana, Galcla,
Banggai, Sakita, Manokuari, and Fakfak.

Ternate (Tarnati), the capital of the whole Residency
and of the district of the same name, a town of 3,616
inhabitants, of whom 394 are Europeans, 721 Chinese,
and 286 Arabs, is only the shadow of what it has been.
It consists of the town proper, with its three wide
parallel streets, connected by lanes which run between
the kampongs of the Chinese, the Macassars, and the
Christian natives, who as such are regarded as freemen
and burghers (Inlandsche burgers). In these three streets
are the public buildings ; the Residency, the prison, the
school, the church, and the Government stores and
warehouses, all under the shadow of Fort Orange
(Oranje), which was built in 1717, and still contains a
small garrison.

Next to the Macassar quarter are the lands of the
Sultan, on which all the wealthy and notable natives and
the princes are required to dwell. The palace itself is
built on the top of a little hill ; it is a stone building,
very large and handsome, provided with a verandah
from which one obtains a splendid view of the sea.
A wide lawn precedes the flight of thirty-four steps
which lead up to the palace, which is a remark-
ably fine building as compared with the present
decadence of Ternate. The sovereign has his own
jetty and landing-stage, far removed from the common
herd ; but the new roadstead, which is so disposed
as to avoid the fate of the old, which became

348 JAVA

blocked with sand, and formerly stretched as far as Fort
Orange, has its entrance in front of the Residency.
Despite its past, its healthy climate, and its proximity to
Celebes and the Philippines, Ternate is visibly decaying ;
it lives entirely by a purely local trade, principally with
New Guinea. When the Americans are firmly and
permanently established in the southern Philippines it
is possible that a trade will spring up between these
islands and the Moluccas, and awaken the port to
renewed activity.

The district capitals seem to share in the somnolence
of Ternate. Labuka (7,529 inhabitants) in the island of
Batjan, despite the presence of a fort Fort Barneveldt
a Protestant church, a native school, and a poverty-
stricken Sultan, is only a handful of fishermen's kam-
pongs. The only kampong which exhibits any activity
or betrays any wealth is of course that of the Chinese. 1

Tidore (Tidori) is a Sultanate dependent on the
Residency of Ternate, which includes a number of small
islands Matara, Marei, Filonga, Gebe, the Fau and Gag
Islands, and the western portion of New Guinea as far
as longitude 141 east of Paris.

Sanana, capital of the Sula Islands, 2 between Ternate
and the Gulf of Tolo, is barely alive, despite a fine
and secure roadstead off the island of Sulabesi. Galela,
in the large but almost desert island of Halmahera or
Gilolo,3 has only 198 inhabitants, nearly all Mahomedans,
who live partly on fish, partly on rice, sago, maize, &c.

Banggai (Bangaai), containing 1,500 inhabitants, the
capital of the islands of that name, all of which are

1 Concerning the Residency of Ternate see F. S. A. de Clercq,
Bijdragen tot de kennis der residentie Ternate (Leyden, 1890, 8vo).

2 The Sula Islands consist of a group of three large and a number
of small islands belonging to the Sultanate of Ternate. The three
large islands are Taliabu, Mangoli and Sulabesi. Lifumatola is the
most notable of the smaller islands ; numbers of swallows' nests
are found there, which are gathered for the Sultan.

3 Or Djilolo, Djailolo. Gilolo is really the district of the western
coast of the northern peninsula of the island of Halmahera, but the
name has been wrongly extended to the entire island.

THE MOLUCCAS AND M \\ GUIN1

inhabited, which is no slight merit in these seas of desert

islands, and are dependent upon the Sultan of Ternate ;
Banggai, with its muddy paths, and its wrett oden

houses, is a poor village of fishermen and
A dilapidated mosque and a rajah worthy of the mosque
are not sufficient to increase its prestige. Sakita or
Tobungku, on the eastern coast of Celebes, administered
by a rajah and several chiefs, is the capital of a little
State which has for a long time been a dependency of
Ternate; Manokuari (119 inhabitants), and Fakfaks
(693 inhabitants), both district capitals of Western New
Guinea, are principally of ethnographical and political
interest ; their economic value is merely rudimentary.

The Residency of Amboin (residentie Amboina), which
embraces the Moluccas of the South and their depen-
dencies, is very much wealthier than that of Ternate and
has very different prospects. It includes the following
islands : Amboina, 1 Oma (Haruku), Honimoa (Saparua),
Nusa Laut, Buru, Manipa, Kelang, Boano, Ambelan,
Ceram, the Banda group, the Aru, Kei, and Tenimber
Islands, Sera, Bubar, Leti, Moa, Leikor, Kisar, Roma,
Damar, Wetar, &c.

Amboin (Ambon), the capital of the Residency and
of the island of Amboin, 2 contains 8,328 inhabitants,
of whom 879 are Europeans, 539 Chinese, and 277
Arabs. The town still feels the benefit of the general
prosperity which the spice plantations formerly brought

1 Amboina, the name given to the island by the Portuguese, is
undoubtedly derived through the Malay embon (embun, ambun), a
dew or mist, from the native name Nasa Yapoono, " Isle of Mists."
The Dutch have retained the form Amboina as applying to the
Residency, while they habitually use the form Ambon in speaking
of the island and its capital. In Malay the island is known as
Pulau Embun.

2 Concerning the mineral wealth of Amboin see R D. M.
Verbeek's Descriptive giologique de tile d' Ambon (Batavia, 1905,
8vo, illustr., separate plates and atlas).

350 JAVA

to all ; in some quarters the houses of the natives, and
especially those of the chiefs, are as spacious and as well
furnished and decorated as ever, and the garments of
both men and women, and their numerous trinkets of
gold and silver, are visible proofs of an easy and com-
fortable existence.

Christianity, which is very general, has given the
Amboinese a degree of civilisation greatly superior to
that of the rest of the Moluccas. The climate is very
healthy ; the town, situated between Wai Tomo and Wai
Gad j ah, is of regular formation, clean, and a delight to
the eyes. It is overlooked by the Nieuw- Victoria fort,
which is built on the shore, and which protects the
barracks and a considerable garrison ; for Amboin is
the seat of the military command of the Moluccas.
The houses and offices of the Europeans are to the
east and south of the port ; near by is a fine Residency,
the club, the church, the orphan asylum, the schools,
and the prison. The native kampongs are distributed
with less regularity, being scattered in almost all direc-
tions, although most are built fronting on the river.
Amboin has been a free port since 1854.

Saparua (2,354 inhabitants, ^ wnorn 2 99 are Europeans)
situated on one of the islands in the Banda Sea, is a busy
port protected by a small garrison, for in 1817 it was the
theatre of a desperate and bloody revolt against the
Dutch power. Since then Saparua has been completely
pacified, and appears to be particularly loyal to Holland.
Kajuli (526 inhabitants), and Tifu or Masaretei (543
inhabitants) are two district capitals on the island of
Buru. Banda-Neira (4,130 inhabitants, of whom 677
are European and 306 Arab there are only a few
Chinese), whose name wakes the memory of the Portu-
guese, and the capital of the Banda group, is built on
a site of marvellous beauty, which is often enhanced
by the curious phenomenon of the Sea of Milk, a tract
of water some miles from the shore, which at certain
seasons covers the waves with a milk-white phosphor-
esence, due to the presence of myriads of tiny organisms.

THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 361

Banda was the first of the Moluccas to have dc
with the Dutch (in 1599) ; and although it Buttered
greatly in consequence, it seems to have forgotten the
past to-day.

Wahaai or Orang (2,850 inhabitants) in the island of
Ceram or Serang is situated to the east of the Bay of
Sawai. It possesses a small redoubt and a garrison.
Tual (802 inhabitants), the capital of the Ewab or Kei
Islands, is in a state of gradual development, thanks to
the exportation, by Europeans, of building timber and
ornamental hardwoods.

It has seemed best to attach the Residency of the
South of New Guinea (Zuid - Nieuw - Guinea) to the
Moluccas. The capital is Merauke (487 inhabitants) ;
a place of no interest save to the ethnologist.

VI.

To sum up : except for spices and the plumage of
the birds, 1 which are exported solely to Europe, the
latter being in great demand on the French market in
particular, and the subject of a long-established trade,
the Moluccas have hitherto lived upon purely local
resources : fish, swallows' nests, trepang, tortoise-shell,
various kinds of hardwood, sago, &c. Is the trade of
these islands capable of expansion, and is it possible to
improve the economic conditions of these islands ?
The reply should perhaps be different, accordingly as
we consider the northern or the southern group.

The Northern Moluccas, sparsely populated and insuffi-
ciently cultivated, have no prospects worth mentioning,
except that once an active and regular trade has been
built up between Celebes and the pacified Philippines
they may serve as a point of call, and may themselves
take part in that trade. The Southern Moluccas, on
the contrary, being better organised, more densely

1 See T. Forest, senr. : Contributions ornithologiques dc la Nouvelle-
Guin&e ou Paponasie a lindustrie de la mode in the Revue des Sc
naturelles et appliquees (Paris, 1894, 8vo).

352 JAVA

populated, and favoured with a better climate and a
more fertile soil, may well enrich themselves further
by the cultivation of spices, which at several points is
now being undertaken by private individuals or com-
panies, and the still more profitable cultivation of coffee.
It is greatly to be desired that the natives should be
awakened from their indolence by the public or private
activity of the European planters.

CHAPTER XVIII
TIMOR AND ITS DEPENDENCIES BALI AND LOMBOK

I. The physical aspect of Timor and the character of its inhabi-
tants. II. The dependencies of Timor : Flores, Solor, Alor,
Sawu, Sumba. III. Administrative divisions of Timor and
its dependencies. IV. Bali : the island and its people. V.
Lombok : the island and its people. VI. The establishment
of the Dutch power in Bali and Lombok : the administrative
divisions, and the future of the Residency.

CELEBES, the Moluccas, Dutch New Guinea and Borneo
lie on the arc of a vast circle, one extremity of which,
if produced, would pass through the centre of Sumatra.
On another such arc, intersecting the former and of
greater curvature, lie Sumatra, Java, and Dutch New
Guinea ; and on that portion of the arc between Java
and New Guinea lie Timor and its dependencies, the
Flores group, Bali, and Lombok.

The Residency of Timor and its dependencies (Timor
en Onderhoorigheden) is divided into three districts :

(a) Timor consists of the Dutch portion of the island
of Timor, Alor, Sawu, Roti, and Semaru, and is divided
into six sub-districts :

i. West Timor, capital Kupang, and the islands
Semau, Kera, Kambing Dilha, Tabuin, Burung, and
Tikus; 2. Central Timor; 3. Belu; 4. Alor or Ombai,
with the Pandai or Pantar Islands ; 5. Sawu (Savu)
and the small surrounding Islands ; 6. Roti and the
adjacent islands.

24 353

354 JAVA

(6) Sumba (Tjendana in Sanscrit chandana =
"santal"), or Santal- or Sendal- or Sandal- wood Island
(Sandelhout-Eiland).

With the exception of those to the east, these islands
are commonly known as the Lesser Sunda Islands. 1

Timor, or rather the western and most important
portion of the island, has long been a bone of contention
between Portugal and Holland. Holland, desirous of
feeling herself mistress in her own house, after having
consented to the greatest sacrifices that she might obtain
the retirement of England from the Dutch Empire,
made on several occasions the most tempting offers to
the Portuguese, seeking to induce them to relinquish
the portion of Timor which they retained. She was
finally obliged to content herself with the treaty of
delimitation signed in 1899, which put an end to dis-
putes, until then incessant, as to the frontier. 2 Of a
total area of 11,230 square miles, supporting some
700,000 inhabitants, Holland obtained less than one-
half of the territory namely, 5,174 square miles and
about one-half of the inhabitants, with its dependencies,
Dutch Timor has an area of about 18,000 square miles,
and a population of 308,600 souls, of whom 249 are
Europeans, and 1,568 Chinese.

1 Sunda is a geographical name, and does not signify " sound."

2 A region concerning which all ethnographical and sociological
information was wanting, the Portuguese portion of Timor is at the
present moment the object of a searching inquiry. This has been
undertaken by order of the Governor and at the suggestion of
Senhor Osorio de Castro, President of the Civil Court of Dilli,
who has undertaken the distribution of a series of questions,
principally of a juridical or sociological nature. Senhor de Castro
has also just published a most curious and interesting book, Flores
de Coral (Dilli, 1910, 8vo), a collection of poems, the Indonesian
terms and local allusions being explained in long notes full of
novel information due to personal observation. Such activity is
an excellent symptom, and we may hope that Portuguese Timor
will soon be as well known as the Dutch portion of the island.

TIMOR AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 355

The island runs north-east by east and south-west
by west, and is traversed by a range of mountains, which
is wider on the Portuguese territory than in the western
portion of the island. The highest summit in the island
is 8,300 feet high ; the highest in the Dutch portion is
5,600 feet.

The streams of Timor are numerous and abundant ;
but during the period of the eastern monsoon that is,
from May to October they are liable to dry up almost
completely. The landscape, until then laughing and
verdant, takes on a shrivelled and yellowish aspect that
is positively painful to see. But the beneficent western
monsoon, which blows from November to April, makes
all things quicken and put on their livery of green as
by enchantment ; and the natives, who await this
renewal of vital forces in condition comparable to that
of their forests, greet it with cries of delight and honour
it by festivities.

As a result of the desiccating, almost Australian climate
of the dry monsoon, the climate and the seasons of
Timor are infinitely more definite in their changes than
those of Java, Sumatra, or Borneo, and some people
are scarcely able to endure the dry and healthy yet
excessive heat.

The fauna and flora of Timor recall Australia, resem-
bling those of India hardly at all ; the species are small,
the forms grotesque. Timor possesses no elephant, no
tiger, no wild cattle (bos sondiacus or banteng), and only
one variety of monkey ; but there are hosts of enormous
bats, some dangerous snakes, and crocodiles, which are
revered by the natives, at least in Kupang, the capital of
Dutch Timor.

The Roti archipelago, capital Baa, presents similar
physical characteristics. Little is known even to-day of
the inhabitants of Timor ; the long disputes between
Portugal and Holland permitted them, between the two
adversaries, to contrive to an almost complete inde-
pendence, which their warlike nature has enabled them
in a great measure to retain to this day. As far as we

356 JAVA

can judge they are Malayo- Polynesians, with frequent
admixtures of Papuan blood, so that in type and culture
they approximate to the Dyaks of Borneo. They are
divided into a host of tribes, which on account of certain
ethnological peculiarities, and their own statements, have
often been regarded as peoples of different origin ; but
they are now by general agreement divided into the
Timorese (Atoni Timor), who inhabit the south-west of
the island ; the Belonese (Ema Belo) of the centre and
east of Timor, and the Kupangs (Atuli Kupang), who
are settled in the ancient kingdom of Kupang and in the
island Semau (Samao, Samau, Samauw). The largest
group, that of the Belonese, claim to have come from the
Moluccas. Many are to-day Christians, at least in name,
and a certain number are Mahomedans ; but in the
interior they remain animists worshipping the Sun and
the Moon his wife, and paying homage to certain trees
and rocks, and to the souls of the dead, whom they
greatly fear. A little grove or thicket near the village
conceals the protecting god, with whom only the
sorcerer-priest dares to hold speech.

Extremely superstitious, the Timorese spend a great
deal in sacrifices to the divinities, these sacrifices includ-
ing living animals ; and they fetter their whole lives with
a host of prohibitive measures analogous to the Poly-
nesian tapu or taboo.

Nearly all the Timorese tattoo themselves and file the
teeth. Although independent to a fault, they recognise
almost everywhere the authority of a hereditary chief of
divine origin, who is regarded as immortal : he does not
die, but sleeps. His corpse is often exposed on the
branches of a tree in an open coffin ; or the wives of the
deceased chief will keep his body, during the period of
putrefaction, in a kneeling position ; and only when the
flesh has decayed and the remains are reduced to a
mummified condition are they buried, facing the Sun,
the chief's "father." With the chief are buried a
portion of his goods and his clothing : formerly the
mourners would cut the throats of several of his slaves

TIMOR AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 357

above his tomb, so that he should not ^o unattended in
the hind of dreams ; but to-day he has to content him-
self with a dog as companion and guide. After the
dead man has been covered with honours and presents,
there is no precaution which the mourners will not take
to avoid awakening the soul of the sleeper, and to prevent
his returning to his old home, there to wander about and
torment the living who inhabit it.

During the long disputes between the Dutch and the
Portuguese on the subject of Timor and the surrounding
archipelagoes, the natives were constantly encouraged by
the one party to resist the other, with the result that
European influence and European rule have but a feeble
foothold on Timor. The whole island is shared between
a host of petty rajahs, turbulent and insular, hating
strangers ; and the Christians are by no means the least
hostile. Especially is this true of the " black Christians,"
the descendants of Portuguese half-breeds, whose pride
in their noble origin and their Western creed has often
the result of making them as intractable as they are
treacherous. Yet while Portugal, should she persist, out
of a comprehensible pride in her brilliant past, in remain-
ing in Timor, has neither the necessary resources nor any
genuine desire to put her colony in order, the Dutch
have been at work for some years on their portion of
the island ; creating wealth by reclaiming the soil,
ensuring the obedience of her vassals, and suppressing
the slave-trade in all directions. Although the Dutch
portion of Timor has a less fertile soil than the northern
portion, the Dutch are slowly transforming their portion
of the island into a magnificent plantation of coffee,
tobacco, and sugar-cane.

II.

The Flores, Solor and Alor groups, all of volcanic
origin and full of smoking or extinct volcanoes, are
strung out between Timor and Sumba, with the Sea of
Flores on the one hand and the Sea of Sumba on the

358 JAVA

other. These islands also were the object of disputes
between Portugal and Holland until 1859, when they
finally fell to Holland. Their populations, analogous to
those of Timor and Sumba, but crossed on the coasts
with Malay and Bugis blood, are partly Christian, partly
Mahomedan, partly animist. Closed to all Europeans
while the Company was still in power, lest passing vessels
should take up cargoes of the wild cinnamon which
abounds there, and which might compete with the culti-
vated product of the Company, and then, like so many
shuttlecocks, tossed between Portugal and Holland a
fate which for some time delivered them from either
these groups of islands have formed a section of the East
Indies which is one of the least civilised and least known
of all.

Sumbawa, to the south of Flores and west of Timor,
and Sumba, or Sandal-wood Island, are scarcely better
known. In both these islands, however, and in the
physical aspect of their inhabitants, there are visible
traces of a Hindu occupation, although the natives have
long since fallen back into animism ; but an animism
free from the barbarous practices to be found elsewhere.

Timor, first colonised by irvaders from Ternate,
remained subject to the latter until the coming of the
Portuguese in 1520. The Dutch arrived in 1613.

III.

To-day the Dutch portion of Timor and its depen-
dencies forms a Residency whose capital is Kupang (3,773
inhabitants, including 106 Europeans, 468 Chinese, and
178 Arabs). Built facing on a fine anchorage, it would
be an extremely agreeable town were it not for the
torrid and unhealthy climate. It contains a well-built
fort and a considerable garrison, for the rajahs of Kupang,
secretly excited by the Portuguese, formerly gave the
Dutch considerable trouble, so that at one time the
Government had no less than 14,000 troops in the island.

These rajahs profess to be related to the crocodiles

BALI AND LOMBOK 359

which infest the shores of the ishinds ; and it U said that
they formerly used to strengthen their family ties by a
curious ceremony. Whenever one of them ascended
the throne his subjects used to throw themselves into the
water to do homage to the king's relatives, and the first
crocodile to emerge, and thus to admit the relationship,
received as a reward a wife, in the shape of a richly
dressed virgin, whom he promptly devoured.

To-day Kupang is occupied chiefly in exporting coffee,
sandal-wood, horses, fruits, pearl-shells, sharks' fins,
trepang, swallows' nests, and tortoise-shell.

Baa (Baa, Namuda, or Namudale), containing 1,083
inhabitants, on the island of Roti, is the capital of the
district formed by that island. It carries on a small
export trade in fish, wood, and wax.

Waingapu (11,069 inhabitants), the capital of a district
including Sumba and Sawu, which formerly prospered
largely by the slave-trade which the Dutch have sup-
pressed, exports little to-day but excellent horses and
sandal-wood, although the precious sandal-tree has dis-
appeared from the coasts, and is now found only in the
interior of the island of Sumba.

Larantuka, the capital of the district of Flores, Solor,
and Alor (4,663 inhabitants), is in continual touch with
Celebes, whence it imports all its manufactured goods ;
sending in return fish, tortoise-shell, and cinnamon, in
place of the numerous slaves which it used to furnish,
and by so doing largely depopulated itself and the
surrounding islands.

The future of the Residency of Timor depends entirely
upon its effective pacification and submission, which will
allow the Dutch to reclaim the soil. The soil of Timor
in particular is noted for its fertility even in the Indies.

IV.

With the Residency of Bali and Lombok we return to
the heart of the Indo-Javanese civilisation, and it is not
only by reason of the similitude of its geological structure

360 JAVA

and its orientation that Bali, in particular, has earned
the name of Little Java.

The two islands are almost equal in size, and their
joint area amounts to 4,050 square miles, or slightly
more according to some. Their joint population
amounts to 525,565, including 119 Europeans, 1,807
Chinese, and 143 Arabs. The last census betrays a
regrettable depopulation, similar to that which some
twelve years ago affected all the East Indies excepting
Java. In 1900, in fact, the inhabitants of Bali and
Lombok numbered 1,039,300. *

Bali, separated from Java by the narrow Strait of Bali,
is, like the larger island, essentially volcanic in character.
Its highest peaks are Tabanan (7,500 feet), the base of
which is pitted with little lakes ; Gunung Agung, or the
Peak of Bali (10,400 feet, and Batur (7,350 feet).

The coast, full of inlets, but bristling with reefs and
shoals, is unsafe and even inaccessible for a portion
of the year. Temukus is the only port which can be
entered and left at any state of the tide and at any time
of the year.

The streams, plentiful though they are, have no time,
within the limits of Bali, to attain any useful amplitude,
especially as a great part of the surface of Bali is occu-
pied by the mountains. The climate is that of eastern
Java : hot but healthy, excepting on the south coast,
where the swamps of the coast are reeking with fevers.

On this account, and because of the absolute contempt
of hygiene manifested by the inhabitants, Bali has for
years been the prey of periodical epidemics of cholera
and smallpox, which are at last diminishing, owing to
the measures taken by the Dutch Government.

1 Concerning Bali and Lombok see W. O. J. Nieuwenkamp, Bali en
Lombok, Uitvoerige geUlustreerde reisherinneringen en studies omtrent
land en volk, kunst en kunstnijverheid (Edam, 1906, 410). R. Friederich,
" An Account of the Island of Bali," in " Miscellaneous Papers re-
lating to Indo-China and the Malay Archipelago," Second series,
vol. ii., pp. 69-200 (London, 1887, 2 vols., 8vo). J. H. van Balen,
Lombok, Landen Volk (Helder, 1894, 8vo). J. J. Ten Have, Het
eiland Lombok en zijne bewoners (The Hague, 1894, 8vo).

HAM AND LOMKOK

The flora and fauna of Bali are closely related to those
of Java, and, like the hitter, are half Indian, half Australian
in character.

The island, thanks to the fertility of its soil and the
frequent rains, has the aspect of a gigantic bouquet of
verdure. There is, however, a lack or a scarcity of the
larger forest trees ; and although the teak-tree itself is
present, Bali is obliged to import timber for constructive
purposes. In compensation, the coco-palm, the origin
of the preparation known as copra, and the lontar-palm
are abundant.

The fauna is not so rich as that of Java : the rhinoceros
and banteng no longer exist, but numbers of tigers roam
the west and centre of the island ; and the forests conceal
many wild cats, and the musk-bearing chevrotain. The
domestic animals buffalo, wild cattle, horses, goats,
pigs, &c. are the same as in Java.

The chief interest of Bali is archaeological, and resides
in the character of the inhabitants and their obstinate
attachment to Hinduism after the lapse of centuries.

All efforts to convert them to Christianity or to Islam
have hitherto failed, except among the very lowest classes,
who are regarded as belonging to inferior races.

Bali, it seems, must have been visited at a very early
period by the Hindus, who settled there and remained
under the suzerainty of their compatriots at Madjapahit.
Even to-day the majority of the Balinese proudly entitle
themselves Wong Madjapahit (men of Madjapahit), in
order to distinguish themselves from the Bali-aga or
indigenous Balinese, who are dispersed over almost the
whole of the island, and have not been subjected to
Hindu influence.

After the fall of Madjapahit the element which had
been converted to Hinduism, reinforced by the refugees
from the Hindu empire, became still more arrogant and
insular. To-day the population consists of the Wong
Madjapahit, descendants of the aborigines and the Indo-
Javanese colonists who profess Hinduism ; the Bali-aga,
aborigines of a purer blood who have remained pagans,

362 JAVA

and on the coast the Balislam, natives crossed with
Javanese and Madurese and converted to Islam.

Physically, the Wong Madjapahit are the finest and
most handsome of these peoples. At once more robust
and more slenderly built than the Javanese, whom they
very closely resemble, they are also lighter in colour, and
their eyes are keener ; they have long arms and very
narrow feet.

From the social point of view we find that Hinduism
has endowed them with the oppressive caste system ; a
system which, in all that concerns people of Brahministic
descent, is pitiless in its determination to maintain the
purity of caste. But lately, if a Brahmin's daughter
took a lover of inferior caste, she was put to death, and
the lover, being sewn into a sack, was cast into the sea.
The Dutch, wherever their authority reaches, have
caused the substitution of banishment for this cruel
punishment. They also prohibited sati or suttee; but
when a prince or a Brahmin dies the family of his wife
or wives move heaven and earth to evade the law, so that
the wretched widows may enjoy the glory of burning
themselves to death upon their husband's corpse.

Despite these practices, and a proud, bellicose temper,
only too often excited to madness by the abuse of hemp
(Cannabis indica), the Balinese are tolerant : they allow
the lower classes to adopt Christianity or Islam, and the
fact that they permit Brahmins to marry women of
inferior caste without depriving the children of such a
marriage of the caste of the father, is leading to a
gradual levelling of social differences.

Externally the Balinese betray their Hinduism by
abundant prayers and fasts of purification ; by their
respect for cow-dung and the five products of the cow,
and their horror of beef and buffalo-meat. The only
meat they eat is pork. Although they are Brahminists,
and some even Buddhists, and although they erect
effigies of the gods of the Hindu pantheon in their
temples, it would be an exaggeration to speak of the
Balinese as pure Hindus. Their religion is grafted on

BALI AND LOMBOK

the animistic superstitions of the Malayo-Polynesian
race, which are constantly showing through the newer
cult, and which really form, under the Hindu ritual,
their clearest and most definite beliefs.

Of the Hindu trinity, Shiva, with his sakti (wife or
energy) Durga has become the supreme divinity of Bali :
they have effaced Vishnu, Brahma, and their wives.
Shiva, in the shape of Mahadeva, has his seat upon
Gunung Agung, the highest summit of the island.
Durga, in the capacity of a goddess whom the Hindus
call Uma, "the Gracious," dwells in the Lake of Batur,
at the foot of Mount Batur ; whence her alternative
name, Devi Danu, the Lady of the Lake ; but as Kali
and the goddess of death the Balinese represent her as
a monstrous and hideous female ; but she is chiefly
honoured as the virgin Devi Seri the goddess of agri-
culture the Cri of the Hindus ; the Ceres or Demeter
of the Greeks and Romans. Agricultural rites, moreover,
hold the most prominent place in the Balinese cult.
The representations of Devi Seri in effigies of Chinese
coins or kepengs sewn together are extremely popular.
The old Polynesian gods or rabut sedana, to whom the
Hindu gods are in reality everywhere subordinated, are
also represented in the same way. All the temples have
their special rabut sedana, not counting those reserved
for Kali. At the back of the sanctuary a little house
surmounted by from three to a dozen superimposed
roofs, which is known as the Meru Mountain, shelters a
couple of gods in kepengs ; and the statues of the Hindu
divinities, which are placed in the body of the temple,
serve as guardians or rakshasas.

With the exception of Batara Baya (the Hindu Vayu)
in whose honour some temples have been erected along
the coast, the secondary gods of the Hindu pantheon are
no longer the object of a special cult in Bali. Their
statues are often encountered, but the people who give
to all the general title of togog no longer distinguish their
several characters. They hold by the rabut sedana
guarded by Shiva, and the temples of the dead dedicated

364 JAVA

to Kali and Devi Seri the goddesses of the harvest, which
are all that remain to them of their double past. 1

Lombok, the country of the Sasaks, to the east of Bali,
from which it is separated by the Straits of Lombok, is
less known than Bali, although it has been under the
political domination of the latter since the eighteenth
century.

Lombok, volcanic and mountainous like its neighbour,
possesses in Rendjani or the Peak of Lombok (12,290
feet) one of the most lofty and magnificent summits in
all the Indies. The streams are as small as those of Bali,
but so numerous that the eastern plains, where rice and
coffee are the principal crops, are marvellously fertile.
The climate recalls that of Bali ; the fauna and flora are
more Australian than Indian.

The inhabitants of Lombok, the Sasaks, are all
Mahomedans. They are not particularly fervent, nor
have they many mosques ; their religion consists
principally in their being circumcised and refusing to eat
pork. They eat no meat but beef : unlike their neighbours
the Balinese, to whom the eating of beef would be
sacrilege. The thousands of Balinese who have estab-
lished their supremacy in Lombok and from the conquer-
ing caste treat their Sasak subjects with the most arrogant
contempt.

The Balinese Rajah of Lombok reigns over a small
portion of Bali also : namely, over the Government of
Karangasem. He delegates his powers to a viceroy
chosen from his own family.

The possessor of a capital little army, and an intelligent
but extremely despotic ruler, the old sovereign of
Lombok, who died only two years ago, was a very

1 See C. M. Pleyte, Pantheon hindou-balinois in the Exposition
universelle Internationale de 1900 a Paris. Guide a travers la section
des Indes Neerlandaises. Groupe xvii. (Colonisation], pp. 223-4. (The
Hague, 1900, 8vo.)

BALI AND LOMBOK 365

distinguished Asiatic sovereign. Thanks to a system
of severe repression order reigned throughout all his
possessions ; theft and adultery were punished by death,
and the use of opium and games of chance by the
bastinado. The Dutch Government alone was able to
qualify his autocracy, without jeopardising such results
of his policy as were of value.

VI.

Bali and Lombok were discovered in 1597, by the
brothers Houtman ; but the extremely warlike nature of
the inhabitants made their conquest a matter of great
difficulty. Only in 1743 did the Susuhunan of Surakarta
cede his rights in Bali to the Dutch ; but the island did
not recognise the sovereignty of Holland until nearly a
century later in 1841 ; and dangerous rebellion neces-
sitated lengthy military expeditions in the years 1846,
1848, and 1849. Even as lately as 1800-1894 the Dutch
had to content themselves with the direct administration
of the two Balinese provinces nearest to Java : namely,
that of Djembrana and that of Buleleng or Singaradja.
Over the other provinces Bangli, Mengwi, Badung,
Giaujar, Klunkung, Kerangasem the Dutch had only
a moral and little more than nominal influence. These
provinces were governed by an alliance of rajahs who
were absolute monarchs in their own dominions,
and ready at a moment's notice to begin hostilities in
the shape of an irregular campaign, a war of ambuscades
and surprises, exceedingly dangerous to European
troops on unknown ground, especially in a country
infested with fever and covered by dense and treacherous
vegetation.

The position of the Dutch in Lombok was no better.
The arrogant Balinese, who forbade their subject Sasaks
the right to bestride a horse upon their native island,
looked with the blackest disfavour upon the irruption of
powerful foreigners. The Dutch advanced prudently and
adroitly, profiting by the complaints of the oppressed

366 JAVA

Sasaks or the lower-caste Balinese, and at need enforcing
their representations by long and bloody campaigns.

In 1894 the military power of the princes of Lombok
was finally broken by an expedition which cost General
Michiels his life ; the rajahs submitted and are now
apparently loyal. But the princes of Bali were only
defeated, and in 1908 another expedition had to be
despatched to the latter island ; and the wives of the
rajahs, drunk with hemp or opium, have followed their
lords into the field, and have flung themselves upon the
bayonets of the Dutch soldiers rather than surrender to
the victor. One cannot be certain that such scenes will
never be repeated ; for this stubborn race, despite the
circle which is closing around it, appears to prefer death
in freedom than life in subjection.

From the administrative point of view the Residency
of Bali and Lombok forms three districts : the first has
for capital the town of Singaradja (8,727 inhabitants,
including 44 Europeans and 914 Chinese). This is the
seat of the Dutch Resident ; a huge overgrown village,
with many native kampongs and fine public buildings.
About two miles from Singaradja is Buleleng or Pabean
Buleleng, a busy port with a population of Chinese,
Arabs, Bugis, Madurese, and a few Armenians. Negara,
the capital of the second district, has a population of
6,650 only. Mataram, the capital of Lombok, formerly
a very flourishing town, with Malay, Balinese, Bugis,
Chinese, and Sasak kampongs, has to-day only three
hundred inhabitants left. The inhabitants have left the
towns, and are living on the territory of the rajahs,
although the Dutch administration is everywhere doing
its utmost to improve their lot.

The economic future of Bali and Lombok is necessarily
bound up with that of Java. The best that can happen
to either island is that it should one day be absorbed
into the economic system of the larger island. The
Balinese, who are poor sailors on account of the nature
of their coasts, but excellent labourers, carvers, smiths,
armourers, &c., have, like the people of Lombok, every-

BALI AND LOMROK

367

thing to hope from the methodical cultivation of their
unusually fertile soil ; when, instead of confining them-
selves to shipping copra and a few of their excellent
horses, they would soon be able to export coffee, sugar,
and tobacco of their own growing, and so open up a
considerable trade with the outer world.

CONCLUSION

WHAT will finally be the fate of Dutch colonisation
in the islands of the East Indies ? It seems that the
past will answer for the future. The Dutch Indies, like
all Asiatic colonies to-day, are tending towards autonomy ;
but they are, for the moment, incapable of realising it
unaided ; nor could they do so with the help of any other
nation of the Far East. They can attain independence
only in the remote future, under the protection of the
Dutch flag.

But even though the moral and intellectual qualities of
the people of the Indian Archipelago, and of the Javanese
and Malays in particular, may justify their hope of a
freer future, it is very difficult to imagine that a common
destiny could be shared by races so different, and ranking
so unequally on the scale of civilisation, without either
cohesion or unity. With all these peoples the political
sense is very rudimentary. The Malays and Javanese
were able to rise from the anarchical conception of semi-
barbarous tribes always at war to that of a host of
autocracies, brutal and conquering powers; but not
to the idea of a nationality, or even of a federation
of states united by ethnological or linguistic affinities.
This mental disability, which delivered them up to the
Europeans, renders them still incapable of gaining
freedom except at the cost of falling back into anarchy.

Thus the European theory that " the natives should be
left to arrange matters between themselves" is simply
puerile. The only way in which people "arrange"
matters in any part of the world but especially in the Far
East is, as history shows, by crushing the weak. The

368

CONCLUSION

natives of Indo-China "arranged matters " by subjecting
the Shans and the Cambodians to the brutal tyranny of
the Annamites : the people of the Indian Archipelago
"arranged matters" by means of Malay and Achinese
invasions, chronic piracy, head-hunting, ritual murders,
incessant warfare and depopulation and mental de-
generation on every side. To pretend that a European
domination, even with its regrettable blunders and
failures of justice, is not for the good of such peoples,
is to deny the past, to deny the petition of the victims in
favour of the complaint of the privileged despoiled of
their privileges.

Could any great Asiatic nation do more for the Indies
than Holland has done ? The idea is inadmissible.

Since the Russo-Japanese War certain Gallic enthusiasts
have been extolling in the Japanese the very qualities
that they most deplore in European peoples : a warlike
spirit, an ardent nationalism, a heroic and indefatigable
ambition : and have suggested that Japan will rapidly
become possessed of Indo - China, the Philippines,
the East Indies, and even China. Even did the
childlike candour of the French induce our Japanese
allies, by such indirect invitations, to install themselves
in French Indo-China, it is possible that China, America,
and Germany would scarcely encourage their ambitions,
and at need might quiet them. It would be as Utopian
forgetting the lessons of history to give all the " yellow "
races of Asia and the "brown " races of the Archipelago to
Japan in the name of vague racial affinities as it would be
to suggest that Spain should be given to the Hungarians,
because both Spaniards and Hungarians are Europeans.

What the Asiatics admire in Japan is that she has been
able to assume the civilisation of the West. But it is
permissible to believe that Europeans still retain the
complete comprehension of their own civilisation, and are
likely to initiate other nations with greater humanity. The
brutal denationalisation of Corea proves as much ; and
it is certain that no Asiatic people is anxious to furnish a
second example.

370 JAVA

The European balance of power makes it eminently
desirable that the East Indies should remain the property
of Holland rather than of England, Germany, the United
States, or France.

Again, what do they not mean to the Dutch ? The
Dutch have for three centuries lived in the Indies,
developed with the Indies ; to-day they know them
through and through, and love them as their most
precious jewel, the very source of their wealth and
greatness.

It is true that in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies, and even in the first half of the nineteenth century,
the Dutch administration was far from irreproachable ;
in which it resembles the administration of all other
colonial powers.

We must recognise, too, that Holland confined herself
to diverting to her own profit the system of abuses by
which the local tyrants had lived before her arrival. In
doing so she did what no moral and civilised nation
should do ; but others have done worse. But as com-
pensation for these undeniable errors, the Indies owe
her not less undeniable benefits, even though the origin
of those benefits was not always disinterested. The
admirable economic development of the whole of Java,
and of a great part of the whole Archipelago ; the security
of a strong and systematic organisation ; a general
humanisation of manners ; the more and more effectual
prevention of famines ; the population of Java increased
to ten times its original dimensions, and an increase of
population throughout the islands : these are solid benefits.

We cannot accuse a country of unmixed cupidity, of
a purely selfish exploitation, when the Government of
that country spends more than .1,000,000 annually on
the pensions of notables and the salaries of native
officials, and more than .280,000 annually on the
education of those very natives far more for the benefit
of agriculture than for the upkeep of repressive military
force. How many colonial powers can boast of having
done more, or even of having done as much ?

CONCLUSION 371

We see little Holland holding in subjection peoples
who .ire beginning to be aware of their numerical
strength. To gain their hearts, she has only to suppress
the absurd disdain which certain colonists feel for the
native ; those imbecile insults and annoyances to which
they would not dare to subject the meanest of their
compatriots, and which the " browns " do not like any
better than the " whites " because they have for centuries
been compelled by force to endure them.

The native aristocracy, whose power over the people
is already so great, are in all loyalty aspiring towards the
knowledge and culture of the West. It would be ex-
ceedingly dangerous to wound them by a sullen hostility
the moment they commence to produce individuals
capable of equalling Europeans and capable of assimila-
tion with them. Those who, in the Indies and elsewhere,
can see in the brilliant disciple of to-day nothing but the
possible rival of to-morrow, and in their dangerous
jealousy repulse him and refuse their loyal collaboration,
are most surely preparing the way for the eventual
emancipation which they dread. If the Indies have need
of Holland, Holland has an even greater need of her
colonies, the source of her commercial stability and her
political power.

Her character and a series of happy accidents have
allowed her to play a part disproportionate to her size.
The place which she won in Europe in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries her colonies restored to her in
the nineteenth century. In the possession of her splendid
Indian empire she feels on a level with more powerful
States ; without them she would understand the bitter-
ness of that saying of Leopold II. of Belgium: "It is
such an infirmity for a country to be small!" This
is why the Low Countries, whose courage and patriotism
have long been famous, would shed the blood of their
last soldier rather than abandon the Indies ; and for this
reason they feel each day more strongly the necessity
of securing them by a civilisation of a wholly humane
and civilising type.

INDEX

ABREW, Antonio de, 12

Acheen, 288, 289, 295

Achinese, the, 266, 274-7

Achinese War, 153, 288

Adat, 108-9, 141, 208

Adjih Saka, 8

Administration, of Java, 189-203 ;
see Resident, Regent

Administrative Divisions, 57-100

Advisers for Native Affairs, 197-8

Agriculture, 112, 113 ; coffee, 183 ;
history of, 205 ; rice, 213-16 ;
coffee, 219-24 ; sugar, 224-8 ;
tobacco, 228-31 ; tea, 231-3 ;
quinine, 233-5 '> indigo, 236-7 ;
pepper, 238 ; opium, 238 ; agri-
culture in Sumatra, 303. See
Exploitation, Land Tenure, Plan-
tations, and chapters dealing with
the lesser islands

Agricultural College, the, 212

Aji Saka, 9

Albuquerque, first Portuguese
Viceroy, 12

Alexander VI., 12

Alfours, the, 34, 327, 329, 342

Almeida, 12

Aloun-aloun, 108

Alor Islands, 357

Amboin, 12, 349-50

Amburawa, sinister history of,
68-9, 209

Amok, condition of, 36-7

Amurang, 366

Anamba Islands, 281

Angkor Wat, 72

Animism, 9-10

Anjer, destroyed by tidal wave,
261

Arabs, civilising influence of, 28,
154 ; complaints against, 155-56

Archaeological Society of Djok-
jakarta, 73

Army, Dutch Colonial, 167-9
Asoka, 4

BALI, 359-67 ; Hinduism in,

362-3 ; history, 365
Bamboo, 217
Bandjermasin, 320-1
Bandung, 64
Banjawangi, 98
Banjumas, 69
Banka, 281-2 ; tin mines of, 300-1,

345

Banks, 246-7
Bataks, 34, 270-2
Batavia, 58-61
Batik industry, 121-3
Bencoolen, 287, 289, 291
Besuki, 87, 97

Billiton, 281-2 ; tin mines, 301
Birds, 116
Blitar, 92
Borneo, area of, 26, 307 ; history,

308-9 ; geology, 309 ; rivers, 310 ;

climate, flora, fauna, 311-12 ;

history, 317-18; mines, 321
Boro-Budur, 71-3
Brahminism, 8, 138
Brantas, Kali (River), 91
Bridges, 249

Brooke, Rajah Sir James, 31
Brunei, 31
Buddhism, 8, 138
Budget, the, 208
Bugis, the, 328-9
Buitenzorg, Botanical Institute and

Government station, 62, 251

CABOTS, the, explorers, 14
Cabral, 12
Calicut, 12

Catholicism in Java, 138
Chancellor, founds the Russian
Company, 14

373

INDEX

373

Clu-ribon fTjirebon), 63

Chinese, the, 158 ; commercial
habits, 159, 161-2 ; harshness of,
163 ; as colonists, 164 ; laws
relating to, 165-6

Chinese blood, admixture of, in
Malay race, 134, 154

Christianity in Java, 140

Climate of Java, 52-3

Coco-palm and products, 216

Coffee, 183, 219-24, 303

College, Royal Preparatory, 200

Colonists, the Dutch, 168-88 ;
houses of, 175-6 ; furniture,
177-8 ; food and clothing, 178-
8 1 ; servants, 182 ; hospitality
of, 183 ; social impermanence
of, 185 ; preservation of the race,
186

Columbus, ii

Company of Distant Countries,
29

Company, Dutch East India, q.v.

Compulsory crops, 207-10

Condiments, 118

Coral reefs, meaning of, 2

Corvee, the, 207, 209-10

Costume, native, 123-5

Council of the Indies, 196, 200

Crops : rice, 213-16 ; maize, coco-
palm, 276; fibre, 217; areca,
217; bamboo, 217 ; coffee, 219-
24 ; sugar, 224-8 ; tobacco,
228-31 ; tea, 231-3 ; quinine,
2 33~5 > m Sumatra, 303

Crossing of races, 186-8

DAENDALS, Marshal, 17-18 ; his

exploitation policy, 145 ;

government of, 171, 191 ; road

built by, 206 ; 248, 284
Delft, Municipal Institute of,

20 1

Dekker, Edouard Douwes, 16
Deli, 286-7
Demak, history of, 67
Departments, Government, 196
Diamonds, 322

Dipo Negoro, rebel leader, 21
Djambi, 286, 293
Dj ember, 97
Djokjokarta, 82-3
Domestic animals, 119-20
Drake, Sir Francis, 14

Dutch, arrival of, in 1 he Iiuli.

sei/c I '< 30 ;

policy of, 138 ; resume jv

sion of Java, 192
Dutch East India Company, 138 ;

bankruptcy of, 169 ; policy of,

169-171 ; replaced by Crown,

190, 285
Dutch, language, reserved for

rulers, 42-4
Dyaks, 34, 312-17,321

EAST INDIES, origin of, 2
Education, native, 21, 144-53 ;
demand for, 150-1 ; budget of,

153

Engineering works, 248-9
Engineers, practical, 186
Europeans in Java, 167-88 ; in

the army, 167 ; other than

Dutch, 172
Exploitation of the soil, early

methods, 204-7 ; forced cultures,

207
Exports, 253

FAUNA of Java, 35-6, 115-20
Fisheries and fish, 116-18
Flores Islands, 347
Foreigners, census of, 154, 167 ;

regulations to be observed by,

172-3
Foreigners, Oriental, 155-66

GAMES, 127

Gamelan, native orchestra, 127-8

Garut, 64-5

Gayos, the, 273-4

Generalities, 25-44

Geological structure of Archi-
pelago, 32

Giri, 90-1

Gold, 297-300, 322

Gorontalo, 336

Governor-General, the, 195 ;
powers of, 194; salary, 199

Grisei, 90-1

Gunung Guntur, 49

HEMP (Cannabis indica], abuse of,

36-7
Hindus, invasion of, 4, 5, 8, 34 ;

civilising influence of, 28, 137
Hinduism in Bali, 362-3

374

INDEX

Historical sketch, 1-24

Holland, area and population, 25 ;

Asiatic possessions, 25-6
Houtman, Cornelius, discovers

route to India, 15, 28
Huns, the, 4
Hunting, 113

IMPORTS, 253

Indonesians, 33

Industries, native, 112 ; copra, 216 ;
bamboo huts, 217 ; sugar, 224-
8 ; tobacco, 228-31 ; batik- and
krees-making, 244 ; silk, 245

Islam, 28 ; introduction of, 137,
141

JAPANESE, the, 134 ; position in the
Far East, 155, 166, 369

Java, history, 1-24 ; area, 26 ;
population, 27 ; geography, 45-
53 ; see Crops, Fisheries, Fauna

Javanese, the, in early times, 4, 34,
101-35 '> their villages and agri-
cultural pursuits, 105 ; houses,
106; customs, 108 ; family, 109;
marriage, no-n ; crops, 112;
industries, 112 ; as workers, 113 ;
their fisheries, 113-18; indus-
tries, 120-5 > dress, 123-5 ; village
life, 125-6 ; amusements, 127 ;
character and manners, 131-4;
culture, 135 ; mental abilities,
136-153 ; thirst for ideas, 147-51

Javanese language, the, 38-40, 137

KALANGS, customs of the, 102

Kawi, ancient Javanese, 137

Kediri, 87, 91

Kedu, 70-1

Koningsplein, Batavia, 61

Korintji, 268

Krakatau, eruption of, 261

Krawang, 63

Kudus, 68

Kupang, 358

LABOUR, compulsory, 207-10 ; free,

210

Lampong, Residency of, 289, 292
Lampongs, the, 37-42, 267, 284
Land, old forms of tenure, re-
formed by Raffles, 19, 208, 212,
247-8

Lebongs, the, 267

Lerne, de, 13

Leyden, Dr., 18

Leyden, University of, 200-1

Lombok, 359-67

Lura (loerah), headman, 195

MACASSAR, 331

Macassars, the, 326, 330

Madiun, Residency of, 86, 98, 101

Madjapahit, empire of, 9, 49

Madura, Residency of, 45, 72

Madurese, the, 103-4

Magelang, 47

Mahomedan festivals, 141-2. See

Islam
Malang, 94

Malaria, of Tjilatjap, 46
Malay Archipelago, formation of,

1-2 ; population 26
Malay language, 38-42 ; low Malay,

Malays, probable origin of, 2-7 ;
extraneous influences, 4 ; early
legends, 4-33 ; elements of ad-
mixture, 34 ; appearance and
qualities, 35-6, 101-3 ; of Su-
matra, 266 ; of Menangkabau,
268-9, 2 7

Mantri, the, 195

Marching-cry of nomads, 5

Mataram, ancient empire of, 74

Mecca, 157

Meester Cornells, 59

Menado, 334-5

Menangkabau, Malays of, 34, 268-9

Merapi, 69, 71

Merauke, 356

Merbabu, 69, 71

Mines and minerals, 242-3 ; in
Sumatra, 297 ; in Banka, 300-1 ;
in Borneo, 321

Minto, Lord, 18

Miscegenation, advantages and
drawbacks of, 186-8

Modjokerto, 90

Moluccas, the, 339, 345-9

Money, 252

Mongols, the, 4

Muliatuli (E. Douwes Dekker), 16

NASSAU, House of, 31
Native languages, 37-42
" Native Question," the, 203

INDEX

Native races, 33-7, and under
heading* of rations islands

Negritos, 33

New (iiiinca, Residency of, 351

Niassais, tlu-. 277-8

Nomadic origin of Malays, legen-
dary and probable, 6

OFFICIALS, Colonial, 189-203 ;

examinations, 201 ; appointment,

202

Opium, abuse of, 36-7
Orang Benua, 280
Orang-Ulu, 268
Orang Luba, 268
Orientals, see Foreigners
Outer Possessions, 27, 257

PACIFIC CONTINENT, the sub-
merged, 2

Pacific Islands, 2

Padang, 287, 289, 290

Padris, the, 287

Pajajaram, empire of, 9

Palembang, 285, 289, 292 ; petro-
leum in, 302

Pamekasan, 98

Pandopo, the, 106

Pangeran Adipati Mangku Negoro,

75, 79, 81
Pangeran Adipati Paku Alam, 75,

79,81

Papua, see New Guinea
Papuans, 33

Pasangrahan, Government inn, 73
Pasuruan, 87, 92
Pekalongan, 65-6
Perkeniers, of Banka, the, 345
Petroleum, 243, 302
Philip II., annexes Portugal, 14,

Philologists, official, 197-8
Plantations and plantation life,

173 ; land tenure, 174 ; houses,

175-6 ; see Colonists
Polynesia, 2
Polos, the, 2
Pontianak, 318-19
Portugal, discovery of Indies by,

28
Portuguese, discoveries and arrival

of, 11-13

Posts and telegraphs, 251
Prambanan, 83

I'lvangers, Residency of the, 64
Principalities, the, see Vorslcn-

landen

rriiigilan, the, 106
Probolinggo, 93
Products, natural and other, 204-

Property, native system of, 212
Protection, 253
Purworedjo, 71
Puwokarta, 63

QUININE, 233-5

RACES, Native, 33-7

Raffles, Sir Stamford, 3, 17 ; Im-
perial and local policy of, 18 ;
reforms, 19, 190; policy of,
191, 291

Railways, 249-50, 305-6

Raksha, Hindu demons, 4, 97

Rasaksa, Hindu demons, also name
given to pre- Brahmin inhabi-
tants of Java, 4, 6

Redjangs, the, 208

Regents, native, 193

Rembang, 85

Residencies of Java, 57-100 ; of
Sumatra, 289

Residents, the, 194, 197

Revenue, 19

Rice, 213-16

Riouw Lingga, Archipelago of,
278-80, 296

Rivers of Java, 50-1

Roads, 249

Rubber, 300

Rulers, Native, 190 ; pensions and
salaries of, 193 ; titles, 193

Russo-Japanese War, effect of,
7> 154-5, 364

SA Francisco de, 13
Salatiga, 68
Salejer, 333
Salt, 244

Samarang, port of, 66 ; suburbs, 67
Sampang, 99
Sandal-wood Island, 358
Sarong, the, 123
Sasaks, the, 364
Schools, 149^153

Selo mangling (native Hindu
shrines), 91

376

INDEX

Serdang, 294-5

Shipping, 251-6

Shiva, worship of, 96

Sindow, 71

Sirih (betel), 107

Sitabondo, 97-8

Slamettan, or banquet, 131, 141

Slavery, suppressed, 171

Snakes, 46

Solo River, 86-7

Solor Islands, 357

State philologists, 197

Sugar, 224-8

Sukabumi, 64-5

Sultan, the, 75-^6, 82-3

Sumatra, 257; climate, 259; vol-
canoes, 259-262 ; rivers, 262 ;
climate, 265 ; flora and fauna,
265-6 ; inhabitants, 265-278 ;
languages, 282 ; history, 285-8 ;
Residencies of, 289 ; minerals,
297 ; crops, 303-4 ; railways, 305

Sumatra, East Coast, 292, 294

Sumatra, West Coast, 306

Sumba, 358

Sumbawa, 358

Sumbing, 71

Sundanese, the, 34-5, 101-3

Surabaja, 87-90

Surakarta, 78, 82

Susuhunan, the, 74-7, 80-1

TANDJONG PRIOK, port of Batavia,

59-60
Tandjong Priok, capital of Riouw

Lingga archipelago, 296
Tapanuli, 289, 291
Tea, 231-3
Teak, 240-2

Tenggris, the, 96
Ternate, 347
Tigers, 56
Timber, 240-2, 300
Timor, 31, 353 ; Holland's en-
deavour to purchase, 388-9
Tjandi Loro, 64
Tjandi Mendut, 83
Tjandi Sewu, 84
Tjilatjap, 69 ; malaria of, 70
Tobacco, 228-31
Tondano, 335
Toradjas, the, 329
Tosari, sanatorium, 95
Trade, 253-4
Trading companies, 15
Tumpang, 97

VAN DEN BOSCH, system of cul-
tivation, 207-8

Van den Lith, 209

Van Hoe' veil, 209

Van Putte, 209

Vegetation, Javanese, 53-4

Venetians, 28

Veth, 219

Volcanoes, 32, 48-50

Vorstenlanden, 57 ; railway, 66 ;
history, 74-6 ; produce, 77-85

WAR with England, 170 ; with

France, 171
Waingapu, 359
Wayang, 127-130
Wedono, 195
Weltevreden, 59-60
Willoughby, attempts North -

Eastern passage, 14
Wong Madjapahit, 361

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.

ROTTERDAM LLOYD

ROYAL MAIL LINE.

The Direct Route to Sumatra and Java

Fortnightly Passenger Service of Mail Steamers

Rotterdam and Southampton

Via LISBON, TANGIER, GIBRALTAR and MARSEILLES
to EGYPT, CEYLON, SUMATRA and JAVA, and vice versa

Modern Steamers fitted with every comfort for
Eastern Travel ; Excellent Cuisine ; Single-berth
Rooms ; Marconi's Wireless and Submarine
Signalling ; Electric Laundries, &c., &c.

Through Tickets to all Ports in
EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO and to
AUSTRALIA, STRAITS, CHINA,
JAPAN, &c., in connection with Regular
Services of the Royal Packet S.N. Co. (K.P.M.)

ROUND THE WORLD TOURS

affording passengers an opportunity of making the
trip from Padang to the magnificent Padang
Highlands by one of the most interesting railroads
in the world, and for Tours in the Island of Java
APPLY FOR DESCRIPTIVE BOOKLETS

AN IDEAL SIX PEEKS' TOUR

COLOMBO, PADANG, BATAVIA,
SINGAPORE, SABANG, COLOMBO

Commencing at any point in circle, ending at same point, in either

direction, allowing break of journey and available six weeks

Tickets issued throughout the year at 1st class, 22 10s. ; 2nd Class, 16

SHORT SEA TRIPS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. The Company issue
Tourist Tickets all Sea, or combined Sea and Rail throughout the
year, at low fares. Ask for Handbook, and Descriptive Booklet.

Principal f ROTTERDAM : RUYS & CO. (General Agents), 7 Veerhaven.

Agents.. 1 LONDON (Great Britain): ESCOMBE, McGRATH & CO., 3 East India Avenue.

and at Southampton, Glasgow, Manchester. Liverpool, Birmingham. Grimsby and Middlesbrough,

London West End Agency : SEWELL & CROWTHER. 21 Cockspur Street.
LISBON : E. George Succs.. 8 Rua Bella da Rainha. PORT SAID, SUEZ : Port Said and Suez Coal Co., Ltd.

TANGIER: Joel Lalaurie, Pl.iere. COLOMBO : Aitken. Spence & Co.

ILTAR : London Coal Company. PADANG : Scheepsagentuur.

MARSEILLES: Ruysdr Co., 5 Boulevard Dugommier. BATAVIA, SAMAKANC;, SOURABAYA, Internationale

Crccliet and Handelsvereeniging, Rotterdam.

And all Offices of ROYAL PACKET S.I. CO. (K.P.M.), THOS. COOK & SON, and Tourist Agencies.

Koninklyke Paketvaart Maatschappi)

(Royal Packet Steam Navigation Company).

Royal Mail Service, under contract with the Netherlands-
Indian Government between Singapore, Penang, and the
principal Ports of the Netherlands- India- Archipelago, the
loveliest Island scenery in the world.

Up-to-date ist and 2nd class passenger accommodation.
All steamers are fitted with electric light, several with
refrigerating plant, fans, &c.

Numerous services carried on by a fleet of

54 Modern passenger Steamers specially built for the tropics
1 6 well-equipped cargo steamers, and
4 Stern-wheelers for river service.

By means of 46 regular services, 259 ports throughout the
Netherlands-India Archipelago are connected with the outer
world.

Monthly service from Java to Australian Ports as far as
Melbourne, and vice versa.

Connection at Singapore with the mail steamers of the
principal Steamship Companies.

For further particulars and time-table please apply to the
Company's Head Office at Amsterdam, or to the Chief
Agency at Batavia. Also at the Company's Agencies.

NEDERLAND ROYAL
MAIL LINE

(Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland).

This Company maintains Regular Fortnightly Mail Services from

AMSTERDAM and SOUTHAMPTON

Lisbon, Tangicrs, Algiers, and Genoa to

EGYPT COLOMBO SABANG

SINGAPORE BATAVIA SAMARANG

SOURABAYA.

Connecting in SINGAPORE with Steamers for

SAIGON BANGKOK MANILA

CHINA and JAPAN

Transshipment at BATAVIA for ports in Australasia.

Through tickets also issued to all ports in the Netherlands Indian Archipelago.

The steamers are first-class in every respect ; fitted with
Marconi Wireless Equipment, also submarine signals, and
are recognised amongst the best-equipped liners sailing
to the East. The comfortable passenger accommodation
affords spacious cabins and many single berth rooms.
The company's service and cuisine are unsurpassed.

The new twin-screw steamer Primes Juliana (8,300 tons) which was launched in
1910 by Queen Wilhelmina, took her first sailing in October, 1910, and has proved
a phenomenal success, being highly popular with travellers to the East. Another
large twin-screw steamer will be launched in 1911, and the fleet will be strengthened
by other equally fine vessels adapted for the better class traffic between Europe and
the Dutch East Indies.

Delightful and Cheap Mediterranean
Trips between Southampton and Genoa.

Round the World (via Java) Tours.

For Full Particulars, Handbooks, and Fares, apply to the Head Offices of the
Company, PRINS HENDRIKKADE, 159-160, Amsterdam ; or in London to

H. V. ELKINS, General Passenger Agent,
60 Haymarket, London, S.W.

Cable & Telegrams : Telephone :

"STATEROOMS, LONDON." GERRARD No. 2007.

THE SOUTH AMERICAN SERIES

Vol. I. CHILE.

By G. F. SCOTT ELLIOT, M.A., F.R.G.S., Author of "A Naturalist in
Mid-Africa." With an Introduction by MARTIN HUME, a Map
and 39 Illustrations.

" An exhaustive and interesting account, not only of the turbulent history of this country,
but of the present conditions and seeming prospects, . . . and the characters of the Chileno
and English and German colonists there." Westminster Gazette.

Vol. II. PERU.

By C. REGINALD ENOCK, F.R.G.S., Author of " The Andes and the
Amazon." With an Introduction by MARTIN HUME, a Map and
72 Illustrations.

" An important work. . . . The writer possesses a quick eye and a keen intelligence ; is many-
sided in his interests, and on certain subjects speaks as an expert. The volume deals fully with
the development of the country. . . . Illustrated by a large number of excellent photographs."
The Times.

Vol. HI. MEXICO.

By C. REGINALD ENOCK, F.R.G.S. With an Introduction by MARTIN
HUME, a Map and 64 full-page Illustrations.

" Mr. Knock unites to a terse and vivid literary style the commercial instinct and trained
observation of a shrewd man of affairs." A berdeen Free Press.

" Mr. Enock transmutes the hard material of ancient chronicles into gleaming romance ;
he describes scenery with a poet's skill. Full of charm he makes his pages, alluring as a
fairy tale, an epic stirring and virile." Manchester City News.

Vol. IV. ARGENTINA.

By W. A. HIRST. With an Introduction by MARTIN HUME, a Map
and 64 Illustrations.

" The best and most comprehensive of recent works on the greatest and most progressive of
the Republics of South America." Manchester Guardian.

"A very interesting and trustworthy survey of the present conditions and prospects of the
country." Times.

Vol. V.-BRAZIL.

By PIERRE DENIS. With a Map and 36 Illustrations.

" It is a mine of information, arranged with all the lucidity of a Frenchman ; and in one case,
in the long chapter devoted to the valorisation of coffee, the treatment deserves to be called
masterly." Globe.

Vol. VI. URUGUAY.

By W. H. KOEBEL. With a Map and 55 Illustrations.

- "An expert's diagnosis of the present condition of Uruguay. ... A document of the deepest
i nterest. 1 ' Evening Standard.

Other volumes in preparation.

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