POISON TREE OF JAVA. 3 



bj a difft^rent hand^ in such a form, as by their 

 plausibilify and appearaiice of truth, to be gene- 

 rally creditel. 



It is in no small degree siirprizing that so 

 palpable a falsehood sbould have been asscrted 

 with so mucli boldness and have rernained so 

 long without refiitution — or that a subject of a 

 nature so curioiis and so easily investigated, re- 

 lating to its principal Colony, sbould not have 

 been enquired into and corrected by the natural- 

 ists of the Molher Country, 



To a person in any degree acquainted wIth 

 the Geography of the ïsland^ vi^ith the manners 

 of the Princes of Java^ and their reiation to the 

 Dutch Government at that period/ or with its 

 internal history during the last 50 years^ the 

 first glance at the account of Foersch must 

 have e\inced its falsity and misrepreseutation. 

 Long after it had been promulgated, and puh- 

 lished in the diiferent Public Journals in most 

 of the languages of Europe^ a statement ot facts^ 

 amounting to a refutation of this account, was 

 published in one of the volumes of the Trans- 

 actions of the Batavian Society, or in one of its 

 prefatory addresses. But not having the work 

 at hand, I cannot with certainty refcr to it, nor 

 shall I enter into a rcgular examiuation and ie- 



