154 J A FA. [chap. vii. 



sold to Government at a fixed price, began in 1832. 

 Just before this, in 1826, the population by census was 

 5,500,000, while at the beginning of the century it was 

 estimated at 3,500,000. In 1850, when the cultivation 

 system had been in operation eighteen years, the popula- 

 tion by census was over 9,500,000, or an increase of 73 

 per cent, in twenty-four years. At the last census, in 

 1865, it amounted to 14,168,416, an increase of very nearly 

 50 per cent, in fifteen years — a rate which would double 

 the population in about twenty-six years. As Java (with 

 Madura) contains about 38,500 geographical square miles, 

 this will give an average of 368 persons to the square 

 mile, just double that of the populous and fertile Bengal 

 Presidency as given in Thornton's Gazetteer of India, and 

 fully one-third more than that of Great Britain and Ireland 

 at the last Census. If, as I believe, this vast population 

 is on the whole contented and happy, the Dutch Govern- 

 ment should consider well, before abruptly changing a 

 system which has led to such great results. 



Taking it as a whole, and surveying it from every 

 point of view, Java is probably the very finest and most 

 interesting tropical island in the world. It is not first 

 in size, but it is more than 600 miles long, and from 

 60 to 120 miles wide, and in area is nearly equal to 

 England ; and it is undoubtedly the most fertile, the most 

 productive, and the most populous island within the 



