ICohom, and the Ki’ao. All these carry on a rude agriculture, and are of inoffensive
manners. In all our maps, a large lake, called by the same name as the mountain, is
laid down ; but Mr. Lowe, after diligent inquiry, could hear nothing of it, and came
to the conclusion that no such lake exists.
EISA, called Kiser in the Dutch maps, is a small island off the east end of
Timur, and distant from it 18 miles. I t is no more than 16 miles in circumference,
hut well inhabited; its population, in 1838, having been computed at 8000. One-
third of the inhabitants are Christians of the Dutch Lutheran Church, and the rest
idolaters. The people are peaceable and industrious, raising yams and batatas, and
rearing poultry and hogs. Their language is peculiar, but intermixed with words of
the languages of Timur, and of Malay and Javanese. They are of the Malayan race.
KLING. The name given by the Malays and Javanese to the Telinga nation of
southern India, and which appears to be a corruption or abbreviation of the genuine
name of the country of this people, Kalinga. Being the only Indian nation familiarly
known to the nations of the Archipelago, the word is used by them as a general term
for all the people of Hindustan, and for the country itself. The trade and intercourse
of the Telingas with the Archipelago is of great but unascertained antiquity, and still
goes on. Many Telingas have, from time to time, settled more particularly in the
western parts of the Archipelago, as in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and their
mixed descendants are tolerably numerous. In Singapore, for example, the Telingas
form about one-tenth of the population, and in Penang they are even more numerous.
I t was this people that, in all probability, introduced the Hindu religion into Java
and the other islands, and they seem also to have contributed materially to the spread
of Mahommedanism, the majority of the settlers being at present of this persuasion.
In the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese found them carrying on trade at
Malacca, and Barbosa, who calls them Chetijs, describes them as “ wealthy merchants
of Coromandel, who traded in large ships.” See History.
KLOBAT. The name of a mountain with an active volcano, 6,800 feet high,
situated on the northern peninsula of Celebes, in north latitude 1° 32'. It is the
highest of the volcanic mountains of Celebes, and consequently not much more than
one-half the height of the highest of Java, Bali, and Lomboc.
KLONGKONG. One of the nine states into which the island of Bali is at present
divided, and forming a portion of its southern side, between the principalities of
Karang-asam, Giyanjar, and Bleleng. In 1842 its population was estimated at
50,000. See Bali.
KLUT. The name of a mountain of Java, in the province of Kadiri, 7,500 feet
high. Its name is taken from that of a wooden bell suspended to the neck of the
buffalo, and to the form of which it is supposed to bear some resemblance. At the
foot of the K lut are the remains of a Hindu temple, built of cubical blocks of trachite,
highly sculptured, and still 18 feet high. I t is known by the name of Chandi Panataran,
or the temple of Panataran, taken from that of a neighbouring village.
KOEN (JOHN PETERSON), the fourth of the Dutch Goverpor-Generals of
India, was born on the 8th of January, 1587, at Havre, in North Holland, the son of
parents in easy circumstances. His education was wholly commercial, and to finish
it, he was sent to Rome, where he served for several years in a large commercial
establishment. On his return to Holland, in 1607, he entered the service of the East
India Company, at the age of 20, and proceeded to India, where, having served for
four years, he returned to Holland in 1611. Next year he went back to India, and
was appointed chief of the Factory of Bantam, from which station he was promoted
to that of Director-General of Trade, the next post in rank to that of Governor-
General. At the early age of thirty-one he was made Governor-General.
Hitherto, the seat of government had been at Amboyna, in the Spice Islands, this
locality, on account of the paramount value of the spice trade, being considered at the
time the most appropriate and convenient. Koen’s prescience soon discovered to him
that a seat of government more central, and in a country of superior resources to the
Moluccas, was indispensable for the consolidation of the Dutch power, and he naturally
fixed on Java, and that portion of it which appeared accessible to him. The first site
chosen was the mouth of the river Tangeran, three leagues west of Batavia, and within
the same wide bay. This, however, belonged to the prince of Jacatra, who persistently
refused to cede the necessary territory. The strong-minded Koen, nothing daunted,
determined at once on fixing the future capital at Jacatra itself, where the Dutch had
had a factory since 1611, and w'ith this view he transferred the principal part of the
commercial and military establishments from Bantam,-sureounded the factoiy of
Jaratra with a rampart, and virtually founded the city of Batavia, m 1618 and 1619.
From this time may be dated the foundation of the Dutch empire in t ^ -Archipelago,
which, most probably, would never have come into existence had the «®t of govern
ment continued in the remote Moluccas, or been established according to the
recommendation of the home authorities, in the barren island of Banca.
¿ “ “ surrendered the government in 1625, and once more returned to Holland,
but, after a residence in Europe of four years, was again On
the only example in the Dutch annals of a second nomination to
his return to India, he had to defend his conquest, not only against the kings
Jaratra and Bantam, but against the Susunan of Mataram, by far the: most powerful
prince of Java, and lord of the most fertile and populous potions of it. In 1628 and
1629, this prince laid siege to Batavia, and in each year, with a hoStsuppM^tohave
amounted to a hundred thousand men. He was repeatedly defeated by a t a d M o f
Dutch with a few Chinese auxiliaries, and assuredly the superiority of European
courage discipline, and power of combination over semi-barbarous Asiatic hordes, was
n e v e r more consp¿uous than in these contests. It was while the last of these siegcs
was in progress, and on the 20th of September, 1629, that the active and labonou
life of Koen was brought to a close, by a sudden stroke of apoplexy, m the forty
BeKoe/was, without doubt, a man of great ability, full of resource, and secret^ skfifiR,
and bold in the execution of his projects. His countrymen d e s c r i b e h im as a m a n of
great integrity, and a lover of justice; but the patent parts of his administration
attest that he was unscrupulous, even beyond the measure of other adventurers of th
17th century. One striking example given by his biographers sufficiently shows what
were his notions of justice. In the suite of his wife was the illegitimate daughter of
a councillor of the Indies, a girl of thirteen, who was detected in a, love intrigue with,
a young Dutchman. The lover offered reparation by marriage, but the inexorable
Koen directed the parties to be tried by a law of his own making, and by judges ol
his own nomination. They were condemned, the youth to be put to death, and the
voung woman to be severely whipped in public; and the Governor-General confirmed
both sentences, and had them carried into execution. This was not justice, but
barbarian ruffianism. In the Spice Islands he nearly exterminated the inhabitants of
the Banda Islands, expatriating the remainder, and replacing the population by slaves.
The expulsion of the English from Bantam, and the future Batavia, is quite justifiable,
for it was the mere result of superior power and superior adroitness m intrigue, üad
they themselves been successful, without a doubt they would have treated him and his
countrymen in the same manner. His countrymen exonerate him from the tortures
and massacre of Amboyna, in which ten Englishmen and as many of their followers
lost their lives, because he had surrendered the Indian government a month before
the massacre. This, however, is an untenable defence, for the local officers who
perpetrated the massacre were of his own nomination, the system which they were
carrying out, the eradication of all competition in the spice-trade, was his own, and on
his return to power he never disavowed their act. ,
Koen was, undoubtedly, the greatest man that Dutch India has produced, and may
be said to occupy in the Dutch annals the same place that Alboquerque does in the
Portuguese and Clive in the English. He is the real founder of the Dutch empire in
India, and although but a mere civilian, he was enabled, by the native strength of his
character, to effect what those men had done, clothed with military reputation. His
countrymen, however, are either insensible to his merits or negligent to reward them,
for down to the present day, no monument has ever been erected to his memory.
KOMODO, or COMODO, a small island lying off the western end of Floris, and
in the strait which divides this island from Sumbawa. I t is surrounded by many
islets, has a steep rocky coast, and an almost unfathomable sea. Like feumbawa and
Floris, Komodo is of volcanic formation, but beyond these few facts nothing more is
known of it.
KOMRING. This is the name of a country and people within the territory of
Palembang, at the north-eastern end of Sumatra. The language of the country is
said to be peculiar and written in a national alphabet. The people are represented
as industrious, independent in their manners, and pagans, believing m the transmigration
of souls. Within their territory is a fine lake, which they call Ranau, a
word, however, which seems only a modification of danau, the common name for a
lake in Malay, or, perhaps, of ranu, water, in Javanese.