Facts are often accurately, and even circumstantially
narrated ; but whenever there is an opening
for the marvellous, it is sure to be indulged. In
offering examples of Javanese historical writing, I
shall endeavour not only to select such passages as
will illustrate the remarks I have now made upon
i t ; but, in making that selection, instead of indiscriminate
extracts, choose the best, with the hope
of avoiding the offence of tiring or disgusting my
readers.
One of the most singular and extraordinary
characters of Javanese, or indeed of any story, is a
person called Surapati, a native of Bali, and the
slave of a Dutch citizen of Batavia, who raised
himself from that abject condition, in spite of the
native and European governments, to sovereign
authority, and maintained it until his death. His
immediate descendants were defeated by the
Dutch, and despoiled of the territory, while the
body of the founder was taken up and treated with
ignominy. The following is the Javanese account
of this vile transaction, in which is discoverable that
strange union of the true and the marvellous,
which is so characteristic of the intellectual state of
the Javanese:
“ The commissary remained long at Pasuru-
han, making diligent search for the body of Surapati,
but it was not to be found. He was distressed
at this, and said to the inhabitants, ‘ I will reward
whoever finds for me the body of Surapati.
Those people forgot their lord, and accepted the
proffered bribe. The commissary was shown the
spot where was the chief’s grave, but it was level,
and no one could discern it was a tomb. The
body was dug for and found. It was still entire
as when alive, and shed a perfume like a flower
garden. The Hollanders bore ’it away to the
camp, and placing it in a sitting posture in a chair,
the officers took the corpse by the hand, saluting it
according to the custom of their country, and
tauntingly exclaiming, ‘ This is the hero Surapati,
the mighty warrior, the enemy of the Dutch.
After this they threw the corpse into a great fire,
and burnt it to ashes, and the ashes they took and
preserved. The commissary rejoiced in his heart
at ail this.”
In the year 1740, the Javanese joined the Chinese,
with the hope of expelling the Dutch from
the island after they had perpetrated the well-
known massacre of the Chinese at Batavia. The minister
of the Susuhuman, commanding the Javanese
army on its route to the European establishment of
Samarang on the coast, is afflicted with a dream,
of which circumstance the annalist renders the following
account: