CHETTO, CHATO, or JATO. The name of certain extensive but rude temples,
situated on the eastern acclivity of the mountain Lawu, in Java, about the centre of
tne inland, and in the country of the proper Javanese nation. The buildings which
are at the height of 4220 feet above the level of the sea, consist of eight ascending
terraces, paved with hewn trachite, and communicating with each other by flights of
steps of the same material. On the terraces are the remains of temples and monstrous
images, having just sufficient resemblance to those of the Hindus to show that
they were dedicated to their religion. Unlike most of the other monuments of Java
ey are m a rude and grotesque style, evincing the absence in their construction of
loreign guidance. An inscription in Javanese numerals gives the year of their
building, and this is 1361 of the Hindu era of Saka, corresponding to 1439 of Christ
which was about 40 years only before the final subversion of the Hindu religion in
Java. I had myself described these temples, the only ones of the kind in Java,
except those of Suku, on the opposite side of the same mountain, many years ago, but
they were visited in 1838, and a far better account given of them by M. Junghun a
tv. 7 lnd^str-v’ enterprise, and ability the geography indebted than to any one living, of Java is more
CHINA. This word, which in the Malayan languages, in conformity to its
practice in all such cases, is an adjective, is pronounced as an Italian would pronounce
1Ë hen the country is alluded to, the Sanscrit word nagri, or the native one
banua, are required. I t is difficult to determine from what source the natives of thé
Archipelago have derived a word now so familiar to them. They may have received
it irom the Persian and Arabian merchants who passed through the Archipelago on
their way to China, as early as the ninth and tenth centuries, or it may be the
Malayan pronunciation of the word Tsin, the ancient name of China, north of the
ïang-che-kiang, received directly from the Chinese themselves.
That an early intercourse existed between China and the islands of the Asiatic
Archipelago is certain, but there is, at the same time, no ground for ascribing a verv
remote antiquity to it. In the ancient language, literature, and monuments of Java
the only country of the Archipelago boasting of an ancient civilisation, there is
certainly no allusion whatever to China or the Chinese. There is, however other
evidence, which attests an intercourse of many centuries. Ancient Chinese coins have
beqn discovered in various parts of the Archipelago ; and as these, with the exception
ot those oi Java, are known to have been the only coined money of the Archipelago
before the arrival of Europeans, they are sufficient to prove the existence of the
intercourse. Thus, several such coins were dug up in 1827, from the ruins of the
ancient Malay settlement of Singapore, said to have been founded in 1160 and
destroyed by the Javanese in 1252 of Christ. These coins have been deposited in
\ e,7^useum ? °y al Asiatic Society, aud bear the names of emperors whose
deaths correspond with the years of our time, 967, 1067, and 1085. Besides this
evidence, which carries us back to the tenth century, Chinese porcelain, of antique
forms—no longer manufactured—has either been dug up, or found preserved as heir-
looms. 1 he wild aborigines of Borneo, for example, preserve many of the latter
description ; and it is hardly necessary to add, that the natives of the Archipelago
are ignorant of the manufacture of porcelain, but that it now forms, and at all ascertained
times has formed, a main object of the export trade of the Chinese. In 1844
a singular discovery of pottery, glazed porcelain vases, was made in Java, amidst thé
inCn AA/nî lq,mty in, a “ ountain towards the eastern end of the island, at an elevation
oi 9000 feet above the level of the sea, which could hardly be other than Chinese.
Ih e name of the place in which the vases were found, some of them broken and some
entire, is Argapura, a word partly Javanese and partly Sanscrit, and importing
mountain palace, or city. * > r e,
Such testimony is, unquestionably, far more satisfactory than anything that can be
gleaned from the literary records of the Chinese, which, however, are not wholly silent
on the subject of the intercourse between China and the islands of the Archipelago
In 1815, there were given to me by a highly intelligent Creole Chinese of Java, whosé
family had been for several generations settled in the island, a volume printed at
Bekin, in the reign of the Emperor Kanghi, which contained some curious notices on
the question. This work, now in the library of the British Museum, attributes the
first intercourse with a country, supposed to be Java, to an era corresponding with
the year of Christ, 421. After a long interval, it states that it was renewed in the
year 9b4 ; a period, it will be observed, corresponding with the date of the earliest
coins already alluded to, and, respecting such coins, it makes the following curious
CHINA 95 CHINA
and instructive remark. “ In this traffic they use the money of China, but of a
coinage older than the present times, and the coin bears a value double what it does
m China.” The work refers to the unsuccessful expedition which Kublai Khan the
son of the celebrated Jengis, fitted out against some islands, which De Guignes
supposes to be Borneo, but which the Chinese of Java consider to have been this lastnamed
island, and which indeed, according to their interpretation, is expressly
named. According to De Guignes, this expedition was undertaken in 1292. The
last notice which the work gives of an intercourse with the Malayan islands refers to
the sixteenth year of the reign of the third prince of the native dynasty, the Ming
which superseded the Moguls, and, which in its turn, was superseded by the Manchoos'
This brings us down to the year 1420, only 89 years before the arrival of Europeans
in the Archipelago. I t states that in the fifth year of the reign of the same prince,
the country alluded to, and supposed with reason to be Java, being divided between
wo princes, the prince of the western invaded and conquered the eastern territorv
Ihe year referred to corresponds with 1409 of Christ; and Mr. Marsden infers that
tfle transaction thus alluded to is the conquest by the Mahommedans of the Hindu
kingdom of Majapahit, which is probable, but if it really does, there is a chronological
error on the part of the Chinese writer of near 70 years; for the event in question
took place m 1478. In truth, Chinese accounts of foreign countries are but of slender
value, owing to the national vanity of the people which attaches no importance to
a ythmg that is not Chinese, and to the imperfect means which the pictorial
lielanvf,iUnagg ?th,°e ir idfe nCt! if™icea®ti?o na fafo mrdast toefr eoxfp mreesrsei ncgo nthjeec tnuarme.es of persons and places often
th<^ f f iL tH!iT0piU,SUeSe first.made their appearance in the waters of the Archipelago,
thev do at nef , carry“ ? ° n trade with its emporia much in the same way as
i - y d ° S the Resent day. Alboquerque, when he took Malacca, found their junks
I f Malacca W H ■? Barbosas. statement, which evidently refers to the condition
of Malacca before its conquest, is so detailed and authentic as to be well worth
quoting. There assemble,” says he, “ at the above city many other merchants
Moor and Gentile strangers, m order to traffic with the ships of China which have
two masts. These ships bring hither great quantities of silk in hanks (raw silk)
“ any vesfels Porcelain damasked silks, brocades, and satins of various colours
They bring also coioured silk, much iron, saltpetre, fine silver, many pearls W
for tW tK g 311(1 mcense' 0n the other hand, they take in return
for these things—pepper, incense, cloths of Cambay, grained cloth (panni di grano)
cohT vand prT r,ed’ coral> man7 cloths of Pulicat of painted (printed)
Camhav ’ ^¡cksilver amfiam, (opium), and other merchandise, with drugs of
Cambay among which there is one which we know not, but which they call nauchm,
(puchuk), and another, which they call cachou (Cutch terra-japonica) -f7 ? °U
It deserves, however, to be noticed, that while there is abundant evidence of th«
trade and shipping of the Chinese, there is none whatever of theffi settlement in £
underP th f0Mn?aev Speclfies Tthe Afferent nations who were settled in Malacca
Coromoull n 7 government,-Javanese, Siamese, Peguans, natives of Bengal
settlers Bar?*11™ ’ a„nd Persia 1 but he makes no mention of the Chinese as
I s f e S u 8 acoount ° f tbe persons and manners of the Chinese is taken from
the Chinese and their arts which include« t f i ^ & V?ry graphic account of
the ropes. Thero are 1 T °ul& The sails are of matting. and ■!*>
China, notwithstanding, which the C h ffiL rtoT n m T S th<3 ;flandft and Ports of
saltpetre, and the like.”-^BarboSa in I ^ ^ ^ thither ir°n,
not sXcientlVtivilirod^affoiA ^ governmente of the Archipelago were
country, and the Chin«, to settle in the
only from the arrival of “ China with a view to settlement, dates
circumstances connected with the^mfdv establishment of their power. Some
rca with the condition of China itself such as the increase of