246 Voyage of the Novara. 



lative to their princes and chiefs, are favourable to the condi- 

 tion of forced labour, in which they have been confirmed by 

 their Dutch conquerors, thus rendering it less perceptible and 

 intolerable. It is patent to all that since the introduction in 

 1830 by General Van den Bosch of the Culture system, or 

 system of compulsory labour, the internal state of the colony 

 has enormously benefited,* and the revenues of the Govern- 

 ment increased in a most extraordinary degree. In fact, what 

 is known as the Batig Stal, or balance of the colonial admin- 

 istration for the past year (1859), gave a total of 41,000,000 

 guilders (£3,416,000). But the pecuniary profits which the 

 State Treasury wrings from the labour of its subjects are, un- 

 fortunately (as was amply proved in the South American 

 colonies during the days of Spanish ascendency), not always 

 a correct standard of the prosperity of a country or of the 

 felicity of its inhabitants. 



In company of Dr. Vrij the geologist of our Expedition 

 ascended from Lembang the volcano of Tangkuban Prahu, 

 whence, following an excellent route of travel drawn up by 



* In 1859 the most important of the colonial products, grown for account of the 

 Government, presented the following quantities : — 



Coffee piculs 727,000 (of 125 lbs. -each) 



Sugar „ 901,000. 



Indigo 558,800 lbs. 



Cassia 256,000 „ 



Cochineal (a failure in the crops owing to incessant rains) ... 6,700 „ 



Tea 2,057,400 „ 



Pepper 45,000 „ 



The duties on imports and exports for that year in the islands of Java and Ma- 

 dura alone amounted to 7,440,579 guilders, or £620,048. 



N.B. The picul of 125 lbs.= 136 lbs. 10 ounces avoirdupois. 



