THE DUTCH IN JAVA.
BY SIR DAVID WEDDERBURN.
The magnificent archipelago which Holland claims as her Indian empire, and which a Dutch author has described as "a girdle of emeralds strung along the equator," deserves to attract greater attention than it has hitherto done in Europe, more especially in England. It is indeed difficult to obtain books treating of Netherlands India in any language except Dutch, and although Sir Stamford Raflies's work on Java is now somewhat out of date, it is still by far the best available source of information for Englishmen desirous of knowing something about this island, the brightest "emerald of the equator." The work entitled "How to Manage a Colony," by Mr. Money, contains much that is interesting and important about the system of government in Netherlands India, but considerable changes have taken place since Mr. Money visited Java, and his description of the Dutch colonial system is rather that of an advocate than of an impartial critic. He contrasts Dutch rule in Java with British rule in Hindostan, and appears determined to prove that in all essential respects the latter should take an example from the former. On the other hand, such stories as "Felix Batel, ou la Hollande en Java," and "Max Havelaar," which has been translated into English, are (in the form of a novel or a biography) severe indictments against the entire political system of the Hollanders in the East. How far the publication of such books may have assisted in bringing about the reforms recently introduced into Dutch colonial policy it is not easy to say; it is probable that"Max Havelaar," which attracted great attention in the Netherlands, produced considerable benefit in opening the eyes of the public to the evils liable to be fostered under a system of monopoly and secrecy. The story has a distinct appearance of truth and reality, but it is evidently written by one smarting under a sense of personal injury, and little disposed to do justice to those authorities by whom he conceives himself to have been very unjustly treated. The Comte de Beauvoir's account of his travels in Java was the subject of review in a leading Dutch newspaper while I was in that country, and was somewhat severely criticised as exaggerated and misleading. When allowance has been made for youthful enthusiasm in the author, and for his inexperience as a traveller, it seems to me that M. de Beauvoir's descriptions of Java, its scenery and its people, are remarkably graphic and true to nature, although the language may be sometimes a little highflown. Besides Mr. A. R. Wallace's "Malay Archipelago," one or two treatises on the antiquities of Java, and a few colonial bluebooks of the Dutch States-General, no other literary sources of information are available to a foreigner in Batavia. On the other hand, nothing can exceed the friendly courtesy with which information upon any subject is communicated to an inquiring stranger by the Dutch officials and other European residents. Nearly all these gentlemen speak English or French, or both languages, with perfect facility, so that a knowledge of Dutch is almost unnecessary to a visitor, except in order to read the journals. The dialects of Netherlands India are numerous, those spoken in the west, centre, and east of the island of Java being respectively Sundanese, Javanese, and Madurese; but the common mode of communication between Europeans and natives is the Malay language, which plays here the same part as Hindustani throughout the British empire in continental India. Java and Hindostan present many striking contrasts in scenery, in institutions, in manners and customs, these contrasts being due mainly to the great difference in their physical conditions. The glorious fertility of Sunda, with its forest-clad volcanoes, its rushing rivers, and broad green valleys, could certainly not be produced on the arid plains of the famine-stricken Deccan by any amount of energy and wisdom on the part of the government. In order to make a fair comparison between British and Dutch rule in Asia we must pass over from continental India to the island of Ceylon, which in climate, scenery, and products is merely Java on a smaller scale. Java lies
