JAVA
I SPENT three months and a half in Java, from July 18th to
October 31st, 1861, and shall briefly describe my own movements,
and my observations of the people and the natural history of the
country.
To all those who wish to understand how the Dutch now
govern Java, and how it is that they are enabled to derive a
large annual revenue from it, while the population increases, and
the inhabitants are contented, I recommend the study of Mr.
Money's excellent and interesting work, "How to Manage a Colony."
The main facts and conclusions of that work I most heartily
concur in, and I believe that the Dutch system is the very best
that can be adopted, when a European nation conquers or otherwise
acquires possession of a country inhabited by an industrious but
semi-barbarous people. In my account of Northern Celebes, I shall
show how successfully the same system has been applied to a
people in a very different state of civilization from the
Javanese; and in the meanwhile will state in the fewest words
possible what that system is.
The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole
series of native rulers, from the village chief up to princes,
who, under the name of Regents, are the heads of districts about
the size of a small English county. With each Regent is placed a
Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resident, who is considered to be
his "elder brother," and whose "orders" take the form of
"recommendations," which are, however, implicitly obeyed.
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