able curiosity,*and an anxious desire for knowledge»
Tlie influence of this character was most remarkably
displayed in the family of Jdimanggolo, chief
of the province of Samarang, a man, for vigour of
understanding, for sagacity and intelligence, far
superior to all his countrymen. This respectable
chieftain bestowed the most unwearied attention
upon the education of his whole family. His
wife, born a princess, whom, according to the cus-
* This curiosity is, to be sure, apt now and then to take
an idle and ridiculous direction ; as when Sir James Lancaster,
Elizabeth’s ambassador, was requested by the king of
A chin to sing one of the Psalms of David, at his audience of
leave. “ And when the general took his leave, the king
said unto h im ,lt Have you the Psalms of David extant among
you?” The general answered, “ Yea, and we sing them daily.”
Then, said the king, “ I and the rest of the nobles about me
will sing a psalm to God for your prosperity —and so they
did very solemnly. And after it was ended the king said,
<c I would have you sing another psalm, although in your own
language ; so there being in the company some twelve of us,
we sung another psalm ; and after the psalm ended, the general
took his leave of the king, the king showing him much
kindness at his departure, desiring God to bless us in our
journey, and to guide us safely to our own country, saying,
“ I f hereafter your ship return to this port, you shall find as
good usage as you have done.”— Purchas, Vol. I. Book ii.
p. 160. In all likelihood, the good Mussulmans, on the above
occasion, chaunted a chapter of the Alcoran, mistaken by
the ambassador for a psalm of David.
'tom of the country, he espoused while yet a girl,
he educated, to make him a rational and equal
companion, and both she and his three daughters
made proficiency in Arabic literature, and were
skilled in that of their own country. Two of his
sons, upon whom he had bestowed all the education
that Java could aflord, were sent by him to
an English seminary in Calcutta, under the protection
of the late lamented Earl of Minto, where
they made surprising progress. The eldest, Ra-
den Saleh, a youth about sixteen, read and wrote
the English language with facility and propriety,
and, with the help of a fine ear, acquired so accurate
a pronunciation, that his language could not
easily be discerned from that of a well-educated
English youth. That this was not a mere mechanical
acquirement, was satisfactorily proved by the
good sense and acuteness of his observations j and
it must be acknowledged, that, upon the whole, he
afforded a most flattering and interesting example
of what a liberal education might effect upon the
character of the inhabitants of the Indian islands.
An account of the moral and social qualities of
the Indian islanders may be conveniently arranged
under the three heads of their virtues, their weaknesses,
and their vices, and the whole maybe summed
up I y an estimate of their character in their domestic
social, and political relations. To begin with their
VOL« I*