The Mode of Government. 105 



CHAPTER Vn. 



JAVA. 



I SPENT three months and a half in Java, from July 1 8 to 

 October 31, 1861, and shall briefly describe my own move- 

 ments, and my observations on the people and the natural 

 history of the country. To all those who wish to under- 

 stand how the Dutch now govern Java, and how it is that 

 they are enabled to derive a large annual revenue from it, 

 while the population increases, and the inhabitants are con- 

 tented, I recommend the study of Mr. Money's excellent and 

 interesting work, "Plow to Manage a Colony." The main 

 facts and conclusions of that work I most heartily concur in, 

 and I believe that the Dutch system is the very best that 

 can be adopted, when a European nation conquers or other- 

 wise acquires possession of a country inhabited by an indus- 

 trious but semi-barbarous people. In my account of Northern 

 Celebes, I shall show how successfully the same system has 

 been applied to a people in a very different state of civiliza- 

 tion from the Javanese, and in the mean while will state in 

 the fewest words possible what that system is. 



The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain 

 the whole series of native rulers, from the village chief up 

 to princes, who, under the name of Regents, are the heads 

 of districts about the size of a small English county. With 

 each Regent is placed a Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resi- 

 dent, who is considered to be his " elder brother," and whose 

 " orders " take the form of " recommedations," which are how- 

 ever implicitly obeyed. Along with each Assistant Resident 

 is a Controller, a kind of inspector of all the lower native 

 rulers, who periodically visits every village in the district, 

 examines the proceedings of the native courts, hears com- 

 plaints against the head-men or other native chiefs, and su- 

 perintends the Government plantations. This brings us to 

 the " culture system," which is the source of all the wealth 



