Since These Lines Were Written, His Noble Spirit Has Passed Away.
But Though, By Those Who Knew Him Not, He
May be sneered at as an
enthusiastic adventurer, abused as a hard-hearted despot, the universal
testimony of everyone who
Came in contact with him in his adopted
country, whether European, Malay, or Dyak, will be, that Rajah Brooke
was a great, a wise, and a good ruler; a true and faithful friend -
a man to be admired for his talents, respected for his honesty and
courage, and loved for his genuine hospitality, his kindness of
disposition, and his tenderness of heart.
CHAPTER VII.
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. Along
with each Assistant Resident is a Controller, a kind of inspector
of all the lower native rulers, who periodically visits every
village in the district, examines the proceedings of the native
courts, hears complaints against the head-men or other native
chiefs, and superintends the Government plantations. This brings
us to the "culture system," which is the source of all the wealth
the Dutch derive from Java, and is the subject of much abuse in
this country because it is the reverse of "free trade." To
understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first
to sketch the common results of free European trade with
uncivilized peoples.
Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are
supplied, are disinclined to work for superfluities without some
strong incitement. With such a people the introduction of any new
or systematic cultivation is almost impossible, except by the
despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been accustomed to obey,
as children obey their parents.
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