1835.] Biographical sketch of Col. Mackenzie. 35T 



tors of Ceylon, Surat, and Hoogly in Bengal, and of tli« 

 Spice Islands, &c. &c. 



4. In the same deposits are a complete series of the 

 despatches and letters of the government of Batavia to 

 Europe, consisting of many volumes, which undoubted- 

 ly contain many interesting facts and documents regard- 

 ing the policy and history of these once opulent esta- 

 blishments. As these volumes are in the Bibliothe- 

 que, and it is doubtful whether they are included in the 

 report of the committee of archives, they are particular- 

 ly adverted to here. It was a peculiar trait of the Dutch 

 government that complete memoirs, or memoires, were 

 usually given in by the governors-general, and those of the 

 dependencies, to their successors on being relieved ; and 

 as the whole of them were furnished with very complete 

 indexes, reference was ready and easy to any particular 

 subject or fact before the archives were thrown into con- 

 fusion and many lost on their removal from the Castle 

 of Batavia in 1808, and afterwards from the events at- 

 tending the reduction of Java. To restore them to 

 some order would be desirable to the future historian 

 of oriental commerce and possessions, if not in a politi- 

 cal point of view, to the British supreme government of 

 India. 



IV. HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. 



Of the history and antiquities of the island of Java 

 considerable materials have been obtained by Lieute- 

 nant-Colonel Mackenzie's immediate exertions. Lit- 

 tle, indeed, had been done in Java by Europeans in re- 

 gard to such inquiries since the time that Valentyn pub- 

 lished his useful but voluminous work on the Dutch 

 East India Company's settlements, in six folio volumes, 

 in 1724 ; and although a Society of Sciences had been 

 established a few years previous to ours in 1 780, but 

 little progress had been made in developing the histo- 



