. out a fleet of four' ships, the"command of which was entrusted.ter Captain
Lancaster, :who sailed from'.London in 1602, first.to Acheen (^Aehé). on'-Sumatra,
where he procured part óf his cargo, and entered into a treaty with
the king, of which a copy is'yet in existence. ■ From Acheen he" went to
Bantam, and settled* a factory there, which was the first possession of the
English. in the East Indies.. Captain Lancaster brought home abetter from
the king o# Bantam to Queen Elizabeth in 1602, which ■'is still in the State
Paper Office.
Establishment • In *l6l 0, thé .first Dutch governor-general, Bolt, arri-vèdat Bantam,
Bata*!*. and finding the situation of his countrymen in that-province'not favourable
.to:; thg:,establishment, of a permanent settlement, removed to; Jakatrtt.
'On the 4th*'of‘March,--1Ö21, the name of Batavia' wSEi^.CQnferredfupbn
the new establishment of the D u t c h Jdkatra, which.from .that. period
became the capital of their East-Indian empire; -"
In 1683, the'English, who had hitherto maintained. a ,suppess|pl rivalry
with the Dutch, withdrew their establishment from Bantam.
Conquest of ' In the 'year 1811, Holland having become a province-of France, the French
Ja ra b y th eB ri- ’ ' • M ..............r • : - *.1 - ' •
tishForces. flag was hoisted at Batavia; and on the 11th September-, in1 tbensanm yèaf,
- “ The men are expert navigators, in which they claim; priprhy-of all .others although,
•y.many give the;honourf to the Chinese, insisting that 4hey-pr§eeded,the Javans .$ BuV it is
: 1 “ certain -that the. Javans have sailed to th^ Cape.o£Go«jd,IJooe^and have had'tfjpfclfourse With
“ the island of Madagascar on the off side, .where there are many people of a brown, colour,
“ and a mixed Javan rat^, who descend from ;tbhm.” , ;
There .her^fgH^ys, the refutation of a ridiculpufe jstory told_by Nicolas Coutij^th&jVenetiaD,
about a tree that produced a rod of gold in its pith, at which sómè well informed ‘Javans, of
whom Couti inquired,’laughed very heartily, - •
i “ .Marcp Jtqlo .mentions the greater and the lesser Java. We arep^opinion^thgt tJie.Java of
■“ .which we are treating is fhé lesser, and that the island of Sumatra is the greater Java; .for he
<‘<;«ays that the greater Java is-two.thousand mQ.es in circumference, and that-Jhe north star is
i\ not visible,;and,that it has eight kingdoms, ’1'aleh, Sasma, Camara, Dragojdo, Lambn, Fara-
“ far, from.winch it is.veryclear;;tbat be means Sumatra, for it h ^ ;n ^ lj^ th |^ r^Q s ip 4i3 which
he assigps its;, ,The .north pole is not visible*, as this island lies under the „equipoctial line,
i“ . which is. AQt.thp. case with any of _$je islands situated to the northward, on allMjf.which the north
’ “ star is lean: and it is stüï moré.’evident frorp the names of the kingdoms, for there parrot
„<< be a doubt that Camara is the same as Camatra (the 9 .being soft likes). Dragojuo (which is
• << pronounced Dragujang) or Andreguir, and Lambri, still retain their names on that island.”
the. British government was. declared, supreme ,’ou Java,', by a proclamation óf
that date signed, by..the. ;,Earl ofrMinto,> Governor-General rof Bengal. On
afbe .same month,- a; capitulation .wasientered;into, by which all
the d.cpfendenpies fell into {the hands of Great Britain.
*' ;P.9 the ;13th fl 814, a convention was entered jinto. by Viscount
Casfclereagb, on the part of his Britannic Majesty; restoring to the Dutch th'e
,possessions in the-Eastern Islands; and on,the 1 9th
4ugju^,,yl81fi, the Netherlands was again hoisted at Batavia. wi;
,- Without adverting to the Kpjitical.importance, to; Great. Britain of t%|
conquest pfj Java, . pr tp; the .great - commercial advantages which,, both coun-.
tn.es mighL^^ntually have derived; from its remaining in our hands, I shall
n^er.elynotipevthat the.losser of, it was.no immediate.or positive evil to the
P.Plph*, ^gr^many .years prior to: . the?. British expedition,” Holland had
dpslged ]iftie,-orKn.q advantage .from the nominal.sovereignty which; she.con,
*9 exercisejföver its internal affairs. .,-All, trade and iutercaucse between
Java 'and Europe was interrupted. and nearly, destroyed-;' it; added
commercial wealthor the naval means, of the mother country:
tjip "cpgtijQul of the.latter oyer the agents.she employed had'prpportionally. diminished
? .she continued to send out ^pvefriprs,i counsellors, .and^commisr
|ipuer,s,, .but ^he gained from thein inquiries little information on the causes
an^ 110 aid from their exertions in improving her resources,;
Pf r^ ar^ në fbe , approach pf ruin.- Ih e colony became; a. burden on the
mother coup try instead of assisting her, and the. Company which had so long
governedf-|^ being itself ruined, threw thejQad.,of r(s;flehts ,and obligations
on the rest, of.^be nation.
It might have been, some consolation for the loss of immediate profit, or
the contraction of immediate debt, to knoy, that such unfavourable cir-
eunastances were merely temporary; that they arose ;out of a state of political
.relations which affected^internal- improvement, -and. that the resources
o f the -colony were progressively increasing, and would become available
when peace or political changes should alloy'- trade to flow in. its former
d 2 channels.