140 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES IN MALAYSIA AND ASIA, 



The Arabs and Chinese are made to reside in certain parts of 

 every town where they are sufficiently numerous. They are under 

 a captain of their own countrymen who is responsible to the 

 government for their good behaviour. They are confined to 

 certain provinces, outside of which they are not allowed to travel 

 without a special permit An ex-Ilesident told me that he 

 had never once given this permission during all the time of his 

 administration. The Chinese and Arabs are under many 

 restrictions, but the former may be said to have all the business of 

 the country in their hands. No native prince or rajah can vie 

 with the splendours of the establishments of certain Chinese 

 merchants of Batavia, Surabaya and Saraarang. 



Altogether the dense population of Java and its various 

 nationalities are as contented and prosperous as any in the world. 

 The Dutch have done wonders for the island. Splendid roads 

 and various other advantages of cultivation make it a garden of 

 utility and beauty, far in advance of every island in the Archi- 

 pelago. Having seen the most of them, I know none that can 

 be in any way compared with it. 



Languages. — There are principally three languages in Java 

 besides, on the coast, a certain amount of Malay, which, as Mr. 

 Crawfurd said years ago, is truly the Italian of the East. The 

 native languages are those of Sunda, Java proper and Madura. 

 The Sundanese is spoken by the inhabitants of the mountainous 

 districts of Java west and south- west of Tegal ; the Jawa or 

 Javan belongs to the centre of the island and is met with east of 

 Cheribon ; the Madurese belongs to that island, and the people 

 who have emigrated therefrom. These languages with that of 

 Bali, Lam pong (Sumatra) and Malay, are all dialects of one 

 tongue of whit h the mots are said to be invariably Sanskrit. The 

 Javanese possess further a rlassie language or language of litera- 

 ture distinct from the ordinary language of the country. There 

 is a somewhat extensive literature connected with it. It has an 

 alphabet from which the alphabet in use is derived. It is written 

 from left to right and is the same in Madura and Bali. In Java 



