lished nearly a century ago a map of the island, when little more of it had been examined than the provinces on the coast, and the districts in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital; and yet copies of this imperfect work, with a very few additions, contained the only sketch on which we could place any reliance. Upon the introduction of a new system of internal management, by abolishing the feudal services, and establishing a permanent property in the soil, a new survey of the country became necessary, and by this a more precise and accurate measurement was obtained. Some parts of the present plan of the island have been laid down with the minuteness of a county survey, or of the sketch of a landed estate; the line of mountains, the course of rivers, the situation of towns, the extent of provinces, are all distinctly marked; and the neatness of execution which distinguishes the work is equal to its geographical accuracy. The length of the island is upwards of 660 statute miles, and its breadth varies from 135 to 140. The part of it subject to European authority, comprised latterly in fifteen residences, is by far the greatest: the remainder, called the native provinces, is governed by two independent princes, one of whom is styled the Emperor by Europeans. It is traversed throughout its whole extent in a longitudinal direction by an uninterrupted series of lofty mountains, presenting every where the boldest outline and most magnificent prospects, receding from or approaching the coast, varying in their altitude from five to eleven thousand feet, affording all the varieties of climate under a tropical sun, giving source to numerous, though not large rivers, and evincing by their conical shapes their volcanic origin. This last character indeed is perceptible in many of them from other peculiarities, independently of their form and mineralogical structure. The remains of former volcanic violence in most of them are still visible; and though the craters of several of them are completely extinct, some continue at intervals to emit smoke, and others have of late years exhibited great eruptions. The mineralogical character of Java thus differs entirely from that of the neighbouring islands of Sumatra and Borneo towards the west and north, which are of granite formation, but it is continued in the extensive range of islands towards the east as far as the Moluccas, and appears in all its dreadful magnificence in the immense regions of the Philippines, which are covered with lava, scoriæ, and ashes, with the wrecks of the animal and vegetable kingdom, and are at short intervals visited by the accompanying terrors of the earthquake.

In order to give some idea of the tremendous violence with which the operations of the volcano are sometimes distinguished in this part of the Indian Archipelago, and at the same time to afford a proof of the mineralogical composition of that series of

islands of which Java forms the western limit, we might advert to the extraordinary appearances which accompanied the eruption of the Tomboro Mountain in the island of Sumbawa, in April, 1815, an authentic account of which was originally procured by Governor Raffles, and has since been published, we believe, in most of the philosophical journals. The most terrible convulsions of Ætna and Vesuvius dwindle into nothing when compared with this wide-spread and alarming phenomenon.

"It extended perceptible evidences of its violence over the whole of the Molucca Islands, over Java, a considerable portion of Celebes, Sumatra, and Borneo, to a circumference of a thousand miles from its centre, by tremulous motions and the report of explosions; while, within the range of its more immediate activity, embracing a space of more than three hundred miles around, it produced the most astonishing effects, and excited the most alarming apprehensions. On Java, at the distance of three hundred miles, it seemed to be awfully present: the sky was overcast at noon-day with clouds of ashes; the sun was involved in an atmosphere whose 'palpable' density he was unable to penetrate; showers of ashes covered the houses, the streets, and the fields, to the depth of several inches; and, amid this darkness, explosions were heard at intervals like the report of artillery, or the noise of distant thunder. So fully did the resemblance of the noises to the report of cannon impress the minds of some officers, that, from the apprehension of pirates on the coast, vessels were dispatched to afford relief; while troops were sent by others into the interior, from a belief that some post was attacked by the natives."

The scene of desolation on the island where the eruption took place was dreadful.

"From the most particular inquiries I could make (says an officer sent thither to afford relief to the surviving inhabitants), there were certainly not fewer than twelve thousand individuals in Tomboro and Picketé at the time of the eruption, of whom only five or six remain. The trees and herbage of every description along the whole of the north and west coasts of the peninsula have been completely destroyed."

The mineralogical constitution of Java is unfavourable to metals. Gold and silver have indeed been detected in small quantities; but neither these, nor any others, exist in such abundance as to tempt speculation, or to reward research. The real mines of the country are on its surface, and consist in the fertility of a soil prodigal in the most varied and highly-prized vegetable products. Neither are diamonds, gems, nor any kinds of precious stones, included in the native wealth of the island, though the means of purchasing these, and whatever else it wants, can be obtained in profusion from what it possesses. Under a burning sun, where the seasons are only varied by wet and dry, the breathless calm and the hurricane, the untroubled sky or the fury of the elements, and in a country some parts of which are covered with neglected

forests or undrained marshes, and a great portion of which towards the north coast lies very low, it might naturally be anticipated that the climate would not be very healthy. Our author, however, has given a more flattering account of its salubrity than any we have hitherto received; and attempts to support his statement by facts, while he endeavours to reconcile apparent contradictions by not very satisfactory explanations. In truth, the whole of his representations concerning Java, though in the main correct, have evidently received a bias from his amiable respect for the people whom he governed, and from his grateful recollections of a country where he first tasted the sweets of official power. The climate of Java, is therefore, with him, nearly the best climate in the world. His fancy passes over swamps and marshes, stagnant pools, and crowded hospitals, and settles among the waving woods, the perpetual verdure, the never-failing streams, and the pure atmosphere, of the interior and mountainous districts; thence he sees the inexhaustible resources of the country, and describes the vision of a golden age, amid the secluded villages and artless peasantry by which he is surrounded. He can no more see a flaw or defect in this "queen of the eastern seas" than a lover can in his mistress, or a young author in his first production. The Dutch oppressions, and the Dutch monopoly, are with him the only pestilence in Java.

There is no doubt that the higher grounds, where the thermometer indicates a moderate temperature, are extremely healthy; but, according to his own involuntary admission, the districts along the north coasts, where alone the ports of the island are situated, and where of course the most considerable part of the colonial and trading population must reside, are very much the contrary. Even the official returns of the state of our troops during the British administration, which he thinks favourable to his positions, indicate an extent of disease and mortality from which we might almost be led to infer the perpetual influence of an endemic. From the 1st of November, 1813, to the same month in the following year, out of 7,470 troops there were 504 deaths, making a proportion of 1 to 14; while the average number of sick was 862, or as 1 to 8. The casualties in the 78th regiment during the year 1811-12 was as 1 to 3o; and, though this was an extreme case, the principal cause of this mortality was connected with climate and situation. Considering this waste of human life in the Dutch possessions, and considering the great dangers to which Europeans are exposed immediately upon landing in a climate to which they have not been accustomed, it need not excite surprise that some Belgic officers lately objected to a colonial commission as a sentence of transportation; and if the Dutch are to retain their eastern em

pire, we are afraid they must again resort to the services of their old Zielvercoopers,* or kidnappers, for recruiting their Javanese army. In admitting the unhealthiness of the city of Batavia and its neighbourhood, Governor Raffles concurs with all the preceding authorities, and he apparently does so with the more willingness, as he can lay this mortality to the charge of the Dutch monopolists, who, by confining the European population in so fatal a spot for their own sordid purposes, occasioned such an expense of human life. Raynal mentions that there perished in the hospitals of this "storehouse of disease" above 87,000 sailors and soldiers between the years 1714 and 1776; but some tables found by the British authorities among the Dutch records, and published in this work, make the mortality among the general population far to exceed this proportion: by one of these tables the amount of deaths between the years 1730 and 1752 is made to exceed 1,100,000, or about 50,000 annually, which is an incredible number, when compared with what we know of the population of the city in the same period, and which is besides inconsistent with the other table given on the same authority, even admitting all the explanations that can be offered to reconcile the discrepancy.

After giving an account of the chief animal and vegetable productions of Java, which, as well as that of its mineralogical structure, our author professedly extracts from the papers of Dr. Horsfield (an American, we believe, who, after residing seven years on the island, has announced a publication_embracing all the branches of its natural history), he proceeds to some speculations on the origin of the natives, their relation to other tribes in eastern India and the Indian Archipelago, the causes of the difference that is observed between them, and their comparative progress in the arts of civilized life; describing the physical appearance and manners of the Javans, detailing the amount of the population, as obtained from authentic sources, and the causes that tend to promote or retard its increase. this chapter he states likewise the numbers, and describes the condition, of the different races, who have voluntarily, or by compulsion, become inhabitants of Java.

In

The number of slaves in Java, who are the property of Europeans and Chinese alone (the native chiefs having never required the services of slaves, or engaged in the traffic of slavery), amounted, by a return made to government in 1814, to 27,142.

It is with infinite satisfaction that we seize this opportunity of recording with due praise the zeal and activity manifested by the government of Java in carrying into complete execution the abo

Literally soul-traders.

dition laws, and taking steps to ameliorate the state of slavery, as far as could be done consistently with acknowledged rights. Immediately on the conquest all further importation was prohibited; and, after the traffic was declared a felony by the British parlia ment, it was no longer permitted to disgrace a region where British authority was felt. The Dutch, with the practice of slavery, had carried along with them the Roman code for its regulation: the slave, therefore, was incapable of acquiring property, or even the protection of his person, under these masters. The milder system, which was introduced by the British, declared that slaves were no longer to be treated as property, but as objects possessing personal rights, and bound only to unlimited service; -that they should never be transferred from one master to another without their own consent, given before witnesses and a notary;-that no personal chastisement should be inflicted till they had attained a certain age, and only then to a certain degree;that all personal wrongs done to a slave by his master, or by others, should be estimated like personal injuries in other cases; -that the murder of a slave should be punished by the same law as that of a free man;-that a slave should have the right to acquire property independently of his masters ;--that after the term of seven years' servitude he should have the right, with property so acquired, to redeem his freedom, upon offering a proper equivalent for his personal services, subject to the approval of the magistrate. These conditions were not objected to on the part of the colonists, because, though their former laws permitted severity, their practice was in general mild. Their slaves were used principally as domestic servants, and were cruelly torn from their native land to be so employed, from a belief that the natives of the island were too intractable to be taught, or too fickle to remain in service so long as to repay the trouble of their training. The British, during their stay, showed them by example how unfounded was this prejudice.

"The continuance of this traffic for one day longer," says Governor Raffles, "would serve but to lower the European in the eyes of the native, who, gratified with the measures adopted by the British government in its suppression, stands himself pure of the foul sin. To the credit of the Javan character, and the honour of the individual, it should be known that when the proclamation of the British government was published, requiring the registration of all slaves (for here there was no hesitation about a registry act), and declaring that such as were not registered by a certain day should be entitled to their emancipation, the Panambahan of Sumenap, who had inherited in his family domestic slaves to the number of not less than fifty, proudly said, Then I will not register my slaves-they shall be free: hitherto they have been kept such, because it was the custom, and the Dutch liked to be attended by slaves when they visited my palace; but as that is