INDONESIA. 69 



fortune * some years ago, and the adjacent Sultanate of Brunei, together with the 

 Portuguese section of Timor, are the only regions in Indonesia which are not 

 regarded as officially dependent on the Netherlands. Nevertheless in the vast 

 archipelago there still remain some unreduced tribes, and even nations, such as that 

 of Atjeh, in the north of Sumatra. 



Since Grermany has in her turn become a colonial power, she has acquired or 

 claimed territories on the African continent even more extensive than Indonesia. 

 But their economic value may be estimated at zero compared with the Dutch East 

 Indies, which many far-seeing politicians already regard as a not very remote 

 inheritance of the German Empire. Possibly in anticipation of this future 

 acquisition, the German Government has occupied a large part of New Guinea 

 and neighbouring archipelagoes, with the view of extending eastwards this vast 

 insular domain. 



Progress or Exploration. 



The already extensive historical and geographical literature relating to 

 Indonesia is being constantly increased by new works. Explorers, either acting 

 independently or grouped in learned societies, are ceaselessly at work, investigating 

 the material and moral conditions in the Malay world. Amongst the documents 

 already published some are of the highest scientific value, for the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago is one of those regions which most abound in interesting facts bearing on 

 physical phenomena, the distribution of animal and vegetable species, human 

 migrations, the evolution of mankind, and other problems connected with political 

 and social economy. 



But what this encyclopedic labour still lacks is the co-operation of the natives 

 themselves. For the most part savage hunters, or toiling under hard taskmasters, 

 they have but few representatives in the republic of letters, and those who do take 

 part in the current of contemporary studies are not sufficiently unbiassed to judge 

 of things as they really are. 



Thanks to the facilities of locomotion and free intercourse, the time has 

 passed when privileged companies and Governments, jealous of their commercial 

 monopolies, prevented geographers from publishing the charts and other results of 

 their surveys. In the sixteenth century the Dutch and Spaniards made it a 

 capital offence for any writer to publish the logs of their navigators. Copies of 

 charts and maps acquired at great expense were entrusted by the Netherlands 

 Government to their skippers, to be returned to the Admiralty archives after each 

 voyage, the punishment of the lash, branding, or banishment being reserved for 

 the traitors who disclosed them to strangers. Even in dangerous waters, where 

 the perils of the deep were exaggerated by legendary reports, pilots were refused 

 to ships in distress. 



But all this has changed, and at present certain parts of Indonesia are better 



* Sir James Brooke, better known as Rajah Brooke, who purchased this territory from the Sultan of 

 Brunei in 1841. 



