Even If
Not Exaggerated, The Facts Stated Are Not Nearly So Bad As Those
Of The Oppression By Free-Trade Indigo-Planters, And Torturing By
Native Tax-Gatherers Under British Rule In India, With Which The
Readers Of English Newspapers Were Familiar A Few Years Ago.
Such
oppression, however, is not fairly to be imputed in either case
to the particular form of government, but
Is rather due to the
infirmity of human nature, and to the impossibility of at once
destroying all trace of ages of despotism on the one side, and of
slavish obedience to their chiefs on the other.
It must be remembered, that the complete establishment of the
Dutch power in Java is much more recent than that of our rule in
India, and that there have been several changes of government,
and in the mode of raising revenue. The inhabitants have been so
recently under the rule of their native princes, that it is not
easy at once to destroy the excessive reverence they feel for
their old masters, or to diminish the oppressive exactions which
the latter have always been accustomed to make. There is,
however, one grand test of the prosperity, and even of the
happiness, of a community, which we can apply here - the rate of
increase of the population.
It is universally admitted that when a country increases rapidly
in population, the people cannot be very greatly oppressed or
very badly governed. The present system of raising a revenue by
the cultivation of coffee and sugar, sold to Government at a
fixed price, began in 1832. Just before this, in 1826, the
population by census was 5,500,000, while at the beginning of the
century it was estimated at 3,500,000. In 1850, when the
cultivation system had been in operation eighteen years, the
population by census was over 9,500,000, or an increase of 73 per
cent in twenty-four years. At the last census, in 1865, it
amounted to 14,168,416, an increase of very nearly 50 per cent in
fifteen years - a rate which would double the population in about
twenty-six years. As Java (with Madura) contains about 38,500
geographical square miles, this will give an average of 368
persons to the square mile, just double that of the populous and
fertile Bengal Presidency as given in Thornton's Gazetteer of
India, and fully one-third more than that of Great Britain and
Ireland at the last Census. If, as I believe, this vast
population is on the whole contented and happy, the Dutch
Government should consider well before abruptly changing a system
which has led to such great results.
Taking it as a whole, and surveying it front every point of view,
Java is probably the very finest and most interesting tropical
island in the world. It is not first in size, but it is more than
600 miles long, and from 60 to 120 miles wide, and in area is
nearly equal to England; and it is undoubtedly the most fertile,
the most productive, and the most populous island within the
tropics. Its whole surface is magnificently varied with mountain
and forest scenery. It possesses thirty-eight volcanic mountains,
several of which rise to ten or twelve thousand feet high. Some
of these are in constant activity, and one or other of them
displays almost every phenomenon produced by the action of
subterranean fires, except regular lava streams, which never
occur in Java. The abundant moisture and tropical heat of the
climate causes these mountains to be clothed with luxuriant
vegetation, often to their very summits, while forests and
plantations cover their lower slopes. The animal productions,
especially the birds and insects, are beautiful and varied, and
present many peculiar forms found nowhere else upon the globe.
The soil throughout the island is exceedingly fertile, and all
the productions of the tropics, together with many of the
temperate zones, can be easily cultivated. Java too possesses a
civilization, a history and antiquities of its own, of great
interest. The Brahminical religion flourished in it from an epoch
of unknown antiquity until about the year 1478, when that of
Mahomet superseded it. The former religion was accompanied by a
civilization which has not been equalled by the conquerors; for,
scattered through the country, especially in the eastern part of
it, are found buried in lofty forests, temples, tombs, and
statues of great beauty and grandeur; and the remains of
extensive cities, where the tiger, the rhinoceros, and the wild
bull now roam undisturbed. A modern civilization of another type
is now spreading over the land. Good roads run through the
country from end to end; European and native rulers work
harmoniously together; and life and property are as well secured
as in the best governed states of Europe. I believe, therefore,
that Java may fairly claim to be the finest tropical island in
the world, and equally interesting to the tourist seeking after
new and beautiful scenes; to the naturalist who desires to
examine the variety and beauty of tropical nature; or to the
moralist and the politician who want to solve the problem of how
man may be best governed under new and varied conditions.
The Dutch mail steamer brought me from Ternate to Sourabaya, the
chief town and port in the eastern part of Java, and after a
fortnight spent in packing up and sending off my last
collections, I started on a short journey into the interior.
Travelling in Java is very luxurious but very expensive, the only
way being to hire or borrow a carriage, and then pay half a crown
a mile for post-horses, which are changed at regular posts every
six miles, and will carry you at the rate of ten miles an hour
from one end of the island to the other. Bullock carts or coolies
are required to carry all extra baggage. As this kind of
travelling world not suit my means, I determined on making only a
short journey to the district at the foot of Mount Arjuna, where
I was told there were extensive forests, and where I hoped to be
able to make some good collections.
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