His reinstation of the Balavian Literari/ Society. 41 



proposod by this Society, embraced whatever could tend to im- 

 prove the agriculture, the commerce, or the general welfare of the 

 settlement. It also entertained and encouraged the solution of 

 every question relating to the natural history, the antiquities, and 

 the inhabitants of Java. In the year succeeding that of its foun- 

 dation, the first volume of its " Transactions" was published at 

 Batavia; and five volumes more, the whole containing much 

 curious and interesting information respecting Java and the neigh- 

 bouring i>.lands,* appeared in the course of the next thirteen 

 years, the sixth being published in 179*2. P'rom this period, how- 

 ever, the Society languished, and became comparatively inactive. 

 An attempt was made, in the year 1800, to renew its vigour, by 

 some judicious alterations in its constitution and statutes, but with 

 little success; the seventh volume of the Transactions, for which 

 some materials were prepared, could not be completed, and the 

 only additional comniunirations the Society received, were those 

 of Dr. Ilorsfield, an American naturalist, who had commenced his 

 inquiries respecting the natural history of the island. 



Such was the condition of the Batavian Literary Society, when 

 Mr. Raffles assumed the government of Java. The utility of re- 

 instating an association of this description, under all the circum- 

 stances of the settlement, at this eventful period, was immediately 

 perceived by him. W'ith his accustomed promptitude he accord- 

 ingly revived the dormant energies of the members, became him- 

 self ihe President of the Society, encouraged and procured the 

 contribution of papers to its Transactions, and, at the Anniversary- 

 meetings, animated the members to renewed exertions, by lumi- 

 nous Discourses, in which he reviewed the past labours of the 

 Society, and pointed out the objects still demanding their atten- 

 tion. In 1813, Lord Minto was requested to become the Patron 



* Tlie Zoological reader will recollect that it wa^ in the second volume of 

 the Batavian Transactions, that Von Wurmb described the animal from 

 Borneo, he believed to be the true Orang Outang, but which Geoffrey after- 

 wards pronounced to be a distinct species of Ape, to which the name of Pongo, 

 given by Buffon to a supposititious animal, was subsequently restricted by 

 Cuvier. The late Dr. C. Abel, however, as we shall have occasion to notice 

 lifreaftcr, has slated the animal described by Von Wurmb to be identical with 

 the Orang Outang recently captured in Sumatra. 



