98 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



2. Dutch Policy, and its effects on the Native Populations. 



The army, and the policy pursued towards the natives, 

 are the two mainstays of the Dutch power in these remote 

 regions. Tlie army, purely of colonial origin, and amount- 

 ing to about 30,000 men, of whom more than 14,000 

 are Europeans, is administered by the Indian Council of 

 six members. About two-fifths of all the forces are 

 stationed in Java, the heart of Netherlands India. They 

 consist both of Dutch and Malays, drilled and officered 

 by Europeans, who are very often mercenaries. The fleet 

 numbers twenty-five vessels, and these combined forces 

 have gradually overcome all resistance as far as they 

 could reach ; so that the Dutch authority is firmly 

 established, especially in Java, where one or two nomin- 

 ally independent sultans are mere tools in the hands of 

 the authorities in Batavia. 



The Dutch Government has a monopoly of salt, 

 opium, and coffee, so that native planters are obliged 

 to dispose of their coffee to the State on fixed terms. 

 By this system a large revenue is obtained. Slaves 

 are no longer employed on the plantations, slavery 

 having been abolished some few years ago. But the 

 natives are bound to a sort of statute labour, besides their 

 obligation to serve their own sultans in the same way. 

 Many of the hardships inherent to this " heerendienst " 

 have been mitigated, but it still remains substantially 

 true that the Dutch colonies are farmed for the benefit 

 of the mother country. The natives feel the yoke, but 

 endure it patiently— partly through obsequiousness to 

 their sultans, who are so many Dutch puppets, partly 

 through their own natural temperament. The Malays 

 have, no doubt, some good qualities, but at the bottom of 



