Upwards of thirty years, therefore, had elapsed from the conquest of Malacca, and
sixteen from their first reaching China, before they had made the discovery. Yet it is
very plainly indicated by Marco Polo, and on the arrival of the Portuguese m Malacca,
Japanese junks seem to have frequented it. The Japanese are not, indeed, named
by De Barros, as among the strangers that resorted to this port, but they are so m the
Commentaries of Alboquerque, written by his son, who thus describes them under t e
name of Coré “ The Gorós (according to the information which Alfonso Alboquerque
received when he conquered Malacca) stated that their country was a continent, but
by the common voice, it is an island, from which there come, yearly, to Malacca, two
or three ships. The merchandise which they bring are raw and wrought silks,
brocades, porcelain, a large quantity of wheat, copper, alum, and much gold in ingots
(ladrillos), marked by their king's stamp. It is not known whether these ingots be
the money of the country, or whether the stamp be attached to indicate that their
exportation is prohibited, for the Gorés are men of little speech, and will render an
account of their country to no one. The gold is from an island near them, called
Perioeo, which abounds with it. The country of these Gorés they themselves call
Lequea. They are a fair people. Their garment is like a baladréis without a hood.
They carry long swords of the form of the cimeters of the Turks, but a little narrower
in the blade, and daggers of two palms long. They are bold men, to be feared on
land. At the ports they come to, they do not unload their whole cargoes at once,
but by little and little. They speak the truth, and desire that it be spoken to them;
and if any merchant of Malacca departs from his word, they forthwith arrest him.
They strive to have their ships despatched in a short time, and do not dwell in
foreign lands, for they are not men that love to go beyond their own. They leave
their own country in the month of January for Malacca, and return to it in August
and September.”—-Commentarios do Grande Alfonso D’Alboquerque collegido por seu
filho das cartas que elle escrivia al muito poderoso Rey Don Manuel 0 pnmiero deste
nome. Cap. IT, p. 353. Lisboa: 1576. „
Of the origin or meaning of the word Goré, as applied to the Japanese, I can offer
no conjecture, but it was probably the name, from whatever source derived, which
the Malays gave them; but that of Liquea, which the Javanese themselves gave to
their country, is probably derived from the Li-u-ki-u or Looehoo Islands, the nearest
portion of the Japanese empire to the Asiatic Archipelago. The articles which composed
the cargos which the Japanese brought to Malacca, their stamped gold pieces
which still exist, and the wheat which no other country to the east ot the Archipelago
and communicating easily with it produces, seem clearly enough to identity
the Gorés with the Japanese. The Spanish historians of the Philippines also inform
us that previous to the discovery and conquest of these islands they were frequented
by the Japanese for the purposes of trade. But the intercourse of this people with
the Archipelago was, probably, inconsiderable, until the establishment of Portuguese
and Spanish influence in Japan, and from that time, for the best part of a century, it
went on with considerable activity. Japanese junks visited Manilla, Jacatra, and
Bantam, and the people themselves migrated and settled m various parts of the
Archipelago, as do now the Chinese, and they were employed, as the Chinese never
were, as soldiers at the European establishments. The island of Luzon, m the Philippines,
seems to have been the chief place- to which they resorted, and here their
numbers appear to have been so considerable that they rose twice in insurrection
against the Spanish'government. Then came in 1637 the decree of the Japanese
government which, for now above two centuries, has nearly isolated Japan from the
rest of the world. Its trade and migration ceased at once, and there is now not a vestige
to show that the Japanese ever existed in the Archipelago. The Spaniards, indeed,
allege that one of the wild races of Luzon, the Ifugaos, are the mixed descendants of
the Japanese ; but this is a mere hypothesis for which there seems no good foundation.
The whole external intercourse of the Japanese empire, with a computed population
of 25 000 000 is limited to that of the Dutch of Batavia, and of the Chinese of the
province of Chekiang. The trade of the first is now restricted to a single ship, not
allowed to export any other staple commodities than camphor and copper, while the
expmt and S p o r t cargos are not to exceed the sum of about 80 OOOt in value The trade
of the Chinese is much more valuable, for their junks amount to from 10 to 12, while
their imports and exports, less restricted as to commodities, may each amount to the
value of about 250,000Z. At length, in 1854, through the enterprise of the Americans,
intercourse with the nations of Europe and America has been so far relaxed, as to
allow their ships to wood, water, and refresh, with an express prohibition, however, of
carrying on trade.
, , _ ir r ... ,, . fu . syllable, is the name of a Javanese district,
JAPAN, with the accent; o r)and p^ovince 0f Surabaya. This is an inland country,
now forming part of the Within it is the district of Wirasaba, in which was
“ den? Hindu Javanese capital of Majapait, destroyed by the Mahom-
TAp I rT “ T h em m e o f a province of Java, comprehending Jnwana, situated in
J APARA. th e name m a p n contains 63 square miles of teak forest, and
the country of e 1 its p o p u l a t i o n was computed at 216,096, but this
i t s fisheries m-e valuable ^ ^ 92j000 head of oxen and buffalos, and
had increased to 421,4 mileg it follows that the rate of population 111issisils« liSi««AHi d“S to the square, mue is remarkable however, that this population, by the census
of 1850, was only 341,140, or had declined by better than 80,000, supposing both
enumerations to have been made with equal care.
JAYA although only an island of the second magnitude among those of the
adiecti ve asanoun When the country is r e f e r r e d to, it is preceded by some word
signifying “ land ” and when it is the people, their language, or anything else, by
Words having these meanings, as Siti-Jawa, the land of Java; Wong-Juva, people of
T v a or J a Z e s e I t is however to be observed that the “ land of Java *» co=
hending the whole island, although sometimes thus UEed ‘ „ T ’/ p fot ttie most
sense id which it is employed by the natives themselves, who confine it, foi the most
part, to that portion of the island inhabited by the proper Javanese nation, m contradistinction
to that inhabited by the Sundas and which the JavanesecaU Rteumhm,
the “ place or country” of the Sundas. This mode of naming a country, it will be
seen is analogous to that which in many cases prevails m European languages, asm
the examples—England and Englishman, Inghilterra, and Inglese, with many others.^
The word Jawa has no other meaning in the Javanese language than those now
attributed to it. The only word, changing one labial for ^ ot^ U frequent Practice),
that is essentially the same with it, is the preposition, Jaba, outside, or without,
and to connect it with this would require a large stretch of ^
A legendary tradition of the Javanese themselves d e r i v e s Java from Juwawdt the
native name of a millet, Panicum Italicum, which, according to them was the first
food of the original inhabitants. An E u r o p e a n etymology, equally absurd and
extravagant, derives Java from the Sanscrit name for barley, jau but unluckily for
this conjecture, the com in question is unknown to. the inhabitants, and whatis still
worse, never could have been known as a native product, since it will not grow
the island, unless in a few elevated spots where no one attempts to grow it
The Arabs call the island Jawi, and although this be the form of the woid m the
polite Javanese, the term is far more likely to be a corruption of that people themselves.
It is however, although taken obviously from the word Jawa, applied by
them to the whole Archipelago, its language, and inhabitants. The Chinese call the
island Haoa-oua, and Jou-wa, which is as near the true word as could be expected
from their intractable language. By their o w n . a c c o u n t , however, it would seem
that anciently they had given it the name of Che-po, or Chapo, which is probably
only another corruption of the true word. Java was unknown even by name to the
civilised nations of ancient Europe, and even to those of the middle ages. It is
first named by Marco Polo, who, in his junk voyage from China to the Persian GulL
passed through the northern part of the Archipelago about the close of the 13th
century. He gives the name, due allowance made for errors of transciiption, with
sufficient correctness, as Giaua or Java, but his information being mere hearsay is m
other respects erroneous. Thus, mistaking probably the products of its commerce
for its indigenous productions, he enumerates among the latter cloves and nutmegs,
and gold in quantity “ exceeding all calculation and belief, although producing none
o f
No sooner had the Portuguese reached India by the route of the Cape of Good
Hope than the name became familiar enough to Europeans. Thus, according to the
Italian orthography of Ramusio, it is called by Ludovico Barthema and Edoardo
Barbosa, Giava The first of these travellers visited the island and remained 14 days
in it, but his account is obviously false or worthless, for he describes parents as