INTERNAL HISTORY OF JAVA. 25 



Hinduism, tliat is, a mixture of Buddliism and Brali- 

 minism, had been the prevailing religion. At that 

 time an attempt was made to convert the reigning 

 prince to Mohammedanism. This proved unsuccess- 

 ful; but so soon afterward did this new religion 

 gain a foothold, and so rapidly did it spread, that in 

 1475, at the overthrow of the great empire of Maja- 

 pahit, who ruled over the whole of Java and the east- 

 ern parts of Sumatra, a Mohammedan prince took the 

 throne. Up to this time the people in the western 

 part of Java, as far east as Cheribon (about Long. 

 109°), spoke a language called Sundanese, and only 

 the people in the remaining eastern part of the 

 island spoke Javanese; but in 1811 nine-tenths of 

 the whole population of Java spoke Javanese, and 

 the Sundanese was already confined to the moun- 

 tainous parts of the south and west, and to a small 

 colony near Bantam. 



Soon after founding Batavia, the Dutch made an 

 alliance offensive and defensive ^vith the chief prince, 

 who resided near Surakarta. Various chiefs rebelled 

 from time to time against his authority, and the 

 Dutch, in return for the assistance they rendered 

 lum, obtained the site of the present city of Samar- 

 ang; and in this way they continued to increase 

 their area until 1749, when the prince then reigning 

 signed an official deed " to abdicate for himself and 

 for his heirs the sovereignty of the country, confer- 

 ring the same on the Dutch East India Company, and 

 leaving them to dispose of it, in future, to any per- 

 son they might think competent to govern it for the 

 benefit of the company and of Java." Seven years 



