40 ij^ o/ Sir Stamford Raffles. 



quickly suppressed, and having thus successfully terminated the 

 war, he was at liberty to investigate the internal resources of the 

 island. This investigation he accordingly entered upon ; and he 

 also carefully examined the disposition and character of the in- 

 habitants, with a view equally to (he advancement of his country's 

 interests, and the moral improvement of the natives and colonists. 

 One of the principal means he devised for the preliminary arrange- 

 ment of these and similar measures, was the reinstation of a literary 

 institution at Batavia, which had for some years been in a dormant 

 state. This subject requires particular notice. 



The first institution that was established by European colonists 

 in any of their Oriental settlements, for the purpose of obtaining 

 and communicating useful information on the surrounding objects 

 of inquiry, or of pursuing those branches of science or of literature 

 •which might appear best calculated to promote the welfare of 

 their colonies, was the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences. 

 This association was founded on the 24th of April, in the year 

 1778, through the exertions of M, Radermacher, a zealous pro- 

 moter of useful knowledge at Batavia, and son-in-law to the Dutch 

 Governor-General M. De Klerk.* The objects of research first 



* The history of the learned societies formed in the European settlements 

 in India, presents one of the many instances of an example set by fo- 

 reigners, being followed and improved to an indefinite extent by our own 

 countrymen. The first association for the improvement of natural knowledge 

 founded in Europe itself, was the Florentine Academia del Cimento; the 

 second was the Royal Society of London. So also in the East, the Batavian 

 Society as above stated, was the first institution established for the promotion 

 of inquiries into the history and learning of Asia; but the second was the 

 Asiatic Society of Calcutta, founded six years afterwards by Sir William 

 Jones. The seryices which the Asiatic Society has rendered to oriental 

 literature, are too well known and appreciated to need remark in this place. 

 Within the present century, similar institutions have been formed at the prin- 

 cipal British residencies in Hindustan ; as at Bombay, the Literary Society 

 of which settlement has published three interesting volumes of transactions; 

 at Madras; and in Ceylon. Even the distant southerly regions of New Holland 

 have the " Philosophical Society of Australasia," founded in 1822 by Sir 

 Thomas Brisbane, and the *' Agricultural Society of Van Dieman's Land." 

 These associations, in conjunction with the more recently established Asiatic 

 Societies of Paris and Great Britain, furnish such vast means of investigation 

 in Asia, as will probably change the face of Eastern learning altogether. 



