[Illustration: MOUNT SALAK, FROM THE HÔTEL BELLE VUE, AT BUITENZORG.
_Frontispiece._
(_See page_ 134.)]
A VISIT TO JAVA
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
THE FOUNDING OF SINGAPORE
W. BASIL WORSFOLD.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON,
Publishers in Ordinary to her Majesty the Queen.
1893.
(_All rights reserved._)
PREFACE.
In writing these pages I have had before me a double purpose. First, to
present to the general reader an account of what seemed to me to be a
singularly interesting country, and one which, while being comparatively
little known, has yet certain direct claims upon the attention of
Englishmen. Secondly, to provide a book which, without being a guide
book, would at the same time give information practically useful to the
English and Australian traveller.
In sending this book to the press I have to acknowledge the courtesy of
the editors of the _Field_ and of _Land and Water_. To the former I am
indebted for permission to make use of an unusually interesting
quotation from Mr. Charles Ledger's letter to the _Field_ on the subject
of cinchona introduction, and also to include a short article of my own
on "Horse-racing in Java" in Chapter XII. The latter has kindly allowed
me to reproduce an account of my visit to the Buitenzorg Gardens,
published in _Land and Water_.
My general indebtedness to standard works, such as Raffles' "Java," and
Mr. Wallace's "Malay Archipelago," and also to those gentlemen who, like
Dr. Treub, most kindly placed their information at my disposal in Java,
is, I hope, sufficiently expressed in the text.
Professor Rhys Davids has very kindly read over the proof sheets of the
chapter on the Hindu Temples; and I take this opportunity of
acknowledging my sense of his courtesy in so doing, and my indebtedness
to him for several valuable suggestions.
The spelling of the Javanese names and words has been a matter of some
difficulty. The principle I have finally adopted is this. While adopting
the Dutch spelling for the names of places and in descriptions of the
natives, and thus preserving the forms which the traveller will find in
railway time tables and in the Dutch accounts of the island, I have
returned to the English spelling in narrative passages, and in those
chapters where the reader is brought into contact with previous English
works. But I have found it impossible to avoid occasional
inconsistencies. In my account of the literature of the island I have
kept to the Dutch titles of Javanese works as closely as possible; but I
have modified the transliteration in accordance with the usages of
English oriental scholars.
W. B. W.
1, Pump Court, Temple, E.C., November, 1892.
[Illustration: A JAVANESE ACTRESS.]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT UP TO THE PRESENT DAY.
Hindus--Mohammedans--Portuguese--English--Dutch--
Legal basis of Dutch possession--British
occupation--Return of Dutch--Culture system--
Eruption of Mount Krakatoa 1
CHAPTER II.
TRAVELLING AND HOTELS.
Area--Climate--Permission to travel--Chief objects of
interest--Means of locomotion--Language--Hotels 17
CHAPTER III.
THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIVES.
Dutch possessions in the East--Government--Army and
navy--Administration--Development of natives--Raden
Saleh--Native dress--Cooking and houses--Rice
cultivation--Amusements--Marriage ceremony 38
CHAPTER IV.
BATAVIA.
Tanjong Priok--_Sadoes_--Batavia--Business
quarter--Telephoning--Chinese Campong--Weltevreden--
Waterloo Plain--Peter Elberfeld's house--Raffles
and Singapore 62
CHAPTER V.
THE HINDU TEMPLES.
The temple remains generally--The connection between
Buddha and Brahma--The Boro-Boedoer--Loro-Jonggrang 86
ANNEX: The Routes to the Temples 100
CHAPTER VI.
BUITENZORG.
Batavian heat--To Buitenzorg by rail--Buitenzorg--
Kotta Batoe--Buffalo--Sawah land--Sketching a
Javan cottage 103
CHAPTER VII.
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS.
History of the Buitenzorg gardens--Teysmann--
Scheffer--Three separate branches--Horticultural
garden--Mountain garden--Botanical garden--
Dr. Treub--Lady Raffles' monument--Pandanus with
aërial roots--Cyrtostachys renda--Stelecho-karpus--
Urostigma--Brazilian palms--Laboratories and
offices--Number of men employed--Scientific strangers 117
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM BUITENZORG TO TJI WANGI.
View of Mount Salak--Railway travelling in Java--
Soekaboemi--No coolies--A long walk--Making
a _pikulan_--Forest path--Tji Wangi at last 134
CHAPTER IX.
THE CULTURE SYSTEM.
Financial system previous to the British occupation--
Raffles' changes--Return of the Dutch--Financial
policy--Van den Bosch Governor-general--Introduction
of the culture system--Its application to sugar--To
other industries--Financial results of the system--
Its abandonment--Reasons of this--Present condition
of trade in Java--Financial outlook 147
CHAPTER X.
ON A COFFEE PLANTATION.
The Tji Wangi bungalow--Coffee plantations--
Cinchona--Native labour--A wayang--Country-bred
ponies--Bob and the ducks--Loneliness of a
planter's life 169
CHAPTER XI.
ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE.
Mr. Wallace and the Malay Archipelago--Animals--
Birds--General characteristics of plants--European
flora in mountains--Darwin's explanation--Fruits--
History of cinchona introduction--Mr. Ledger's
story--Indiarubber 186
CHAPTER XII.
SOCIAL LIFE.
Dutch society in the East--Batavian etiquette--
English residents--Clubs--Harmonie--Concordia--
Lawn-tennis--Planters--Horse-racing 207
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HINDU JAVANESE LITERATURE.
The Hindu Javanese literature concerned with the
past--Javanese alphabet--Extent of Javanese works--
Kavi dialect--Krama and Ngoko--The Mahabharata and
the Ramayana in Kavi--Native Kavi works--The Arjuna
Vivaya--The Bharata Yuddha--Episode of Salya and
Satiavati--Ethical poems--The Paniti Sastra--
Localization of Hindu mythology in Java 223
CHAPTER XIV.
WORKS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN PERIOD.
Uncertainty about the history of the Hindu kingdoms
given by the chronicles--Character of the _babad_,
or chronicle--Its historical value--Brumund's treatment
of the babads--Account of the babad "Mangku Nagara"--
Prose works--The Niti Praja--The Surya Ngalam--
Romances--The Johar Manikam--Dramatic works--The
Panjis--Wayang plays--Arabic works and influence--The
theatre--The wayang 241
CHAPTER XV.
SINGAPORE.
Batavia and Singapore--Raffles' arrival in the East--
Determines to oppose the Dutch supremacy in the
Archipelago--Occupation of Java--Is knighted--Returns
from England--Foundation of Singapore--Uncertainty
whether the settlement would be maintained--His
death--Description of Singapore--Epilogue 263
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
MOUNT SALAK, FROM THE HÔTEL BELLE VUE, AT
BUITENZORG Frontispiece
A JAVANESE ACTRESS vi
MOHAMMEDAN ARMOUR xii
A PORTUGUESE HOUSE, BATAVIA _To face_ 6
CHINESE BARBER 37
PALACE OF A NATIVE PRINCE _To face_ 43
WOMAN COOKING RICE. KOMPOR " 51
A BULLOCK CART " 54
A SAWAH PLOUGH 61
THE KING'S PLAIN, BATAVIA _To face_ 67
BRIDGE LEADING TO THE PAZER BAROE, BATAVIA " 70
THE WATERLOO PLAIN, BATAVIA " 78
SKETCH MAP OF JAVA " 89
SECTION AND GROUND PLAN OF THE BORO-BOEDOER
TEMPLE " 94
A JAVANESE COTTAGE " 114
NATIVES SQUATTING 116
A HAPPY CELESTIAL 133
A PRODUCE MILL _To face_ 156
ROSAMALA TREES " 170
WOMEN BARKING CINCHONA 176
A DALANG _To face_ 179
COFFEE BERRIES 185
A WAYANG FIGURE 262
THE ESPLANADE, SINGAPORE _To face_ 264
THE CAVANAGH BRIDGE, SINGAPORE " 282
[Illustration: MOHAMMEDAN ARMOUR.]
CHAPTER I.
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT UP TO THE PRESENT DAY.
Hindus--Mohammedans--Portuguese--English--Dutch--
Legal basis of Dutch possession--British occupation--
Return of Dutch--Culture system--Eruption of Mount
Krakatoa.
In the centre of that region of countless islands termed not inaptly the
"Summer of the World," midmost of the Sunda group of which Sumatra lies
to the west, and Flores to the east, with the fury of the tropical sun
tempered by a physical formation which especially exposes it to the
cooling influence of the ocean, lies the island of Java. Rich in
historic remains of a bygone Hindu supremacy, when the mild countenance
of Buddha gazed upon obedient multitudes, in memorials of Mohammedan,
Portuguese, and Dutch seafaring enterprises, it is a country singularly
alluring to the student and antiquarian. Nor is its present life less
interesting. Densely populated by a simple and refined native race, who
live for the most part in the midst of mountain glories and tropical
verdure, itself the best example of a rival and successful system of
colonization, modern Java is no mere tourist's country, but one which
possesses, and always has possessed, special attractions for the man of
science and the political student.
From an immense mass of native tradition the main outlines of the
history of the island can be disentangled with sufficient certainty.
Javanese tradition universally speaks of a personage called Saka,
variously termed warrior, priest, and god, to whom is attributed the
introduction of the arts of civilization, and whose advent marks the
opening year of the native chronology. The first year of Saka
corresponds to the seventy-eighth of the Christian era. There can be no
doubt as to the region from which this extraneous civilization came.
Native tradition and the vast religious monuments of the eastern and
central districts alike point to an Indian colonization and supremacy;
for the temples of Java bear the stamp of a culture and of an artistic
and architectural genius superior to that possessed by a race, the sole
record of whose national existence is contained in the meagre tradition
of an immigration from the western lands about the Red Sea.
Sir Stamford Raffles, in his exhaustive history of Java, gives the names
and dates of the Hindu monarchs, with an account of their conquests and
administrations. But the native chronicles require to be carefully
sifted, and to be supported by the record of the antiquarian remains,
which supply an unfailing basis for, at any rate, the main outlines of
the period. The oldest inscriptions are found on the west side of
Buitenzorg, on river stones, and at Bekasi, on the east side of Batavia;
they are written in Sanskrit characters of the oldest period, and, by
comparison with the inscriptions of British India, indicate the
existence of Hindu civilization in Java during the fourth and fifth
centuries after Christ. The oldest _dated_ inscription in Java (and in
the Archipelago) is one bearing date 654 of Saka (A.D. 732). This is now
in the museum at Batavia. It contains twelve verses in the Sanskrit
tongue, and is about four feet in length by two in width, and about ten
inches in depth.
The magnificent temple of Boro-Boedoer, of which Mr. Wallace[1] says,
"The amount of human labour and skill expended on the Great Pyramid of
Egypt sinks into insignificance when compared with that required to
complete this sculptured hill temple in the interior of Java," and which
will be separately described with the other religious monuments, was
probably erected in the eighth or ninth century. It marks the highest
point in the Hindu supremacy, and the time when the influence of
Buddhism was supreme. At any rate, we have the witness of Fa Hian, a
Chinese traveller, who visited the island in the fifteenth century, to
the effect that at this later period "the Brahmins were still very
numerous, but the law of Buddha was no longer respected."
[Footnote 1: "Malay Archipelago."]
The earliest European visitors tell us nothing of the two Hindu
kingdoms, Pajajaran and Majapahit, so celebrated in the chronicles. They
speak only of Sunda and its port Bantam; and they mention a certain
prince, Fateléhan, as completing the Mohammedan conquest in 1524.
Raffles, however, following the chronicles, focusses the overthrow of
the Hindu supremacy in the capture of the city of Majapahit in 1478 A.D.
In spite of the traditions which speak of a long period of fighting, it
is probable that the conversion of the Javanese to the new religion was
gradual and peaceable, being in the main the result of commerce. The
temples, the head-quarters of the old religion, show no traces of
violence. They were destroyed, says Dr. Leemans,[2] simply by
"carelessness, disuse, and nature," not by a sanguinary war. Long before
the Prince Fateléhan conquered the western kingdom of Sunda in 1524,
Arab merchants had spread the principles of Islamism among the Javanese.
It was just at the time of the establishment of the Mohammedan power
that the first Europeans made their way to the island. Portuguese
writers say that their people, after the conquest of Malacca in 1511,
entered into relations with the inhabitants of Bantam, through Samian, a
prince of Sunda, who had formerly lived at Malacca. Lemé, a Portuguese
sent by Albuquerque, Captain of Malacca, made a treaty with this Samian,
and obtained permission to build a fortress at Bantam on condition that
the prince and his subjects were protected from the Moors. In the
realization of this object, an expedition was sent by the Portuguese
king under command of Francesco de Sa; but before it reached the prince
Bantam had been taken by treason, and the Mohammedan power established
under Fateléhan. Henceforward the native rulers were Mohammedans, and
the list of these sovereigns given by Raffles extends from A.D. 1477 to
A.D. 1815.
[Footnote 2: "Bôrô-Boedoer Temples," by Dr. C. Leemans, à Leide
1874.]
[Illustration: A PORTUGUESE HOUSE, BATAVIA. _Page_ 6.]
The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch and English after some
considerable interval. The first Dutch fleet, under the command of
Admiral Houtman, sailed for Bantam in the year 1595. The prince, who was
then at war with the Portuguese, allowed them to establish a factory
there, and thus the first Dutch settlement in the East Indies was
formed. Not long after, the English East India Company (immediately
after their incorporation by Queen Elizabeth in 1601) despatched a force
under Captain Lancaster. He succeeded in establishing friendly relations
with the prince, who sent a letter to the English queen, which is still
extant among the state records. This is noticeable as being the first
settlement of the East India Company; and as showing that Hindustan,
which now means India for most people, was not the original "India" of
the company. In the subsequent quarrels between the natives and the
Dutch, the English assisted the former so successfully that at one time
the Dutch had to enter into a convention with the native chiefs and the
English commander, by which they agreed to surrender their fort at
Jakatra and evacuate the island. On the conclusion of peace, however,
between the Dutch and English in Europe, and on the arrival of
reinforcements under Jan Pietersen Koen, they changed their plans, and,
instead of retiring from the island, proceeded to lay the foundations of
an extensive settlement at Jakatra.
In the following year (1621) the name of Batavia was given to the
settlement, and from this period onwards the Dutch continually increased
their influence in the island, until in 1749 a deed containing a formal
abdication of the sovereignty of the country was secured from the dying
_susunan_ (or Mohammedan emperor). In this the unfortunate prince
"abdicates for himself and his heirs the sovereignty of the country,
conferring the same on the Dutch East India Company, and leaving it to
them to dispose of in future, to any person they might think competent
to govern it for the benefit of the company and of Java."[3] It is by
virtue of this deed that the Dutch East India Company, and subsequently
the Dutch Colonial Government, became practically landlord of the whole
island. Since the Government assumed possession of the soil they have
gradually bought up the previously existing rights of the native
princes, and in return have guaranteed them certain revenues, which have
now become in most cases mere official salaries. Among the rights which
the Government secured, by thus becoming landlord of the island, was
that of receiving one-fifth part both of the produce and of the labour
of the Javan peasants. This fact--that the mass of the Javan natives
owed, as it were, feudal services to the Government--explains the
comparative ease with which, nearly a century later, the culture system
was introduced.
[Footnote 3: Raffles' "History."]
The English settlement at Bantam was withdrawn in 1683, and no effort
was made to interfere with the Dutch until the year 1811, when, owing to
the conquests of Napoleon in Europe, the island had become a mere French
province. In that year a British force reduced Java and its
dependencies. During the short period of British occupation (1811-1816)
extensive reforms were introduced by Sir Stamford Raffles, the
lieutenant-governor. These reforms had for their object the improvement
of the condition of the mass of Javan natives, and the liberation of the
industries of the island from the restrictions placed upon them by the
monopolist policy of the Dutch. Whatever may be the verdict of history
as to the practical value of these proposals, the attempt to carry them
out has at least left behind such a tradition of British justice as to
cause a feeling of profound respect towards the English to be almost
universally entertained in the island to this day.
In the settlement effected by the Treaty of London, in 1814, the British
Government retained the Cape and Ceylon among the Dutch possessions
acquired by conquest in the Napoleonic wars, but Java and its
dependencies were restored to their former masters. A right of
protectorate, however, over the neighbouring island of Sumatra belonged
to the British crown until the year 1872, when it was surrendered in
return for equivalent rights on the Gold Coast of Africa. This
concession has proved a veritable _damnosa hereditas_ to the Government
of Netherlands India. The attempt to enforce the newly acquired rights
over the Sumatrans resulted in the outbreak of the Atchinese war in
1873, an event which has involved the island of Java in serious
financial difficulties, and imperilled the prestige of Holland in the
East.
A great part of the special interest which attaches to Java is derived
from the fact that it has been the scene of an interesting financial
experiment. The history of the introduction of the culture system, and
of its gradual abandonment in recent years, is so interesting as to
require a separate chapter to itself, and it is only necessary to
mention here just so much as is essential for the purposes of a
historical sketch. The author of the proposal was General Van den Bosch,
who became Governor-General in 1830. The system continued in full
operation until the year 1871, when the Home Government passed an Act
providing for the gradual abandonment of the Government sugar
plantations. By the year 1890 sugar, by far the most important of the
Javan industries, was practically freed from Government interference. At
the present time it is in debate whether or not the coffee industry
should be similarly treated.
This short historical sketch would be incomplete without some mention of
an appalling and unique event in the history of the island. On the 27th
of August, 1883, the green-clad island of Krakatoa, which rises for some
three thousand feet out of the waters which separate Sumatra from
Java--the Straits of Sunda--was the scene of a most terrific volcanic
discharge. Whole towns were destroyed in both islands; but even more
striking than the loss of human life and property is the fact, now
satisfactorily established, that the discharge of ashes was so great as
to cause a series of extraordinarily brilliant sunsets all over the
world, while the force of the tidal wave was such as to affect the level
of the water in the river Thames. In travelling from Batavia to
Singapore, I was fortunate enough to meet with an officer in the employ
of the Netherlands India Steamship Company, who was able to give me an
actual narrative of his personal experience of this wonderful eruption.
Mr. S---- was at that time second engineer on the steamship
_Governor-General Lowden_, belonging to the same company. I cannot do
better than close this chapter with his narrative.
"We were anchored off Telokbetong, in Sumatra, when the chief officer
and myself observed a dark line out at sea which bore the appearance of
a tidal wave. While we were remarking this, the captain (who was just
then taking his bath) rushed on to the bridge, and telegraphed to the
engine-room to steam slow ahead up to the anchors. I was engaged in
carrying out this order when the wave came up to the ship. First she
dropped; then heaved up and down for some five minutes. There were three
waves. When I came on deck again, the long pier, which had been crowded
with Europeans who had come out of the town (they had experienced a
shock of earthquake during the night),--this pier, the houses and
offices, had disappeared, in fact, the whole town was gone. A Government
steamboat lying at anchor (with steam up) in the bay was landed high on
the tops of the palm trees in company with some native boats. That was
the first intimation we received that Krakatoa was in eruption, and from
that time, eight o'clock, onwards through the day the rumbling thunders
never ceased, while the darkness increased to a thick impenetrable
covering of smoky vapour. Shortly after this we got under way, and
proceeded until the darkness made it impossible to go on further. It was
while we were thus enveloped in darkness that the stones and cinders
discharged by the mountain began to fall upon the ship. In a short time
the canvas awning and the deck were covered with ashes and stones, to
the depth of two feet, and all our available men were employed in
removing the falling mass, which would otherwise have sunk the ship. We
had a large number of natives on board, and a hundred and sixty European
soldiers. The latter worked with the energy of despair at their task of
clearing the deck, in spite of the twofold danger of being burnt and
stunned by the hot falling stones. While we were engraved in this
struggle, and enveloped in the sheer blackness of a veritable hell, a
new and terrible danger came upon us. This was the approach of the tidal
wave caused by the final eruption, which occurred about 12.30 to 1 p.m.
The wave reached us at 2 p.m. or thereabouts, and made the ship tumble
like a sea-saw. Sometimes she was almost straight on end, at other times
she heaved over almost on her beam-ends. We were anchored and steaming
up to our anchors as before, and as before we managed to escape
destruction. All the passengers and the crew gave themselves up for
lost, but there was no panic, and the captain handled the ship
splendidly throughout. He received a gold medal from the Government in
recognition of his indomitable courage in saving the ship and
passengers. Well, you can fancy what it was like when I tell you that
the captain was lashed with three ropes alongside the engine-room
companion, while I was lashed down below to work the engines. The men
were dashed from one side of the engine-room to the other.
"When we reached Angier we found no trace--neither a splinter of wood
nor a fraction of stone--of the buildings of that once flourishing
seaport. At Batavia the water was so dense from the floating lava (the
deposit reached fifteen feet in depth) that we made our way to the shore
on planks. Telokbetong was closed for three or four months, and on our
return to Achin we could not land our passengers. At Batavia the tidal
wave had penetrated almost to the town, where in the lower portion the
houses were flooded by the Kali Bezar (great river). Business was
suspended except by a few determined spirits who worked on by gaslight,
so great was the alarm at the darkness and thunderous noises."