1835.] Biographical sketch of CoL Mackenzie, 359 



to ah English version. The difficulty of procuring any 

 of the colonists capable of acting as interpreters was 

 cQnsiderable, from the rarity of tnese necespary 

 qualifications, and from a repugnance to travelling 

 and fatigue, arising from indolence, and from 

 habits widely dissimilar to ours. In the interior the 

 Malay language was of little use, and the. Javanese, 

 in its several dialects, had been little studied by the 

 European colonists of Java ; these few were in the service 

 of government, and there were but few on the island 

 capable of rendering a word from the Javanese into 

 Dutch. 



4. Notwithstanding these obstacles, and the dis- 

 couraging prospect held out by those who had the best 

 pretensions, from long residence, to know the native 

 character, and their literary attainments, it is satisfac- 

 tory to observe, that the conclusion of this journey 

 produced an accession of knowledge and of lights that 

 had been by no means hoped for, even by the most 

 sanguine. 



5. The colonists were found willing to assist and 

 produce their stores, and the natives were soon recon- 

 ciled, even the class whose interests might be presumed 

 to traverse, if not oppose these inquiries. The regents 

 and their dependants were, though at first shy, ultimate- 

 ly cordial in assisting the objects of investigation; and 

 on the eve of leaving the eastern districts, and to the 

 last moment of stay at Batavia, (18th July, 1813) ma- 

 terials, MSS. and memoirs, in copy or original, with 

 letters in reply to the questions circulated, were trans- 

 mitted from the most distant parts. In fact, as in My- 

 sore, and other parts of India, the same causes had the 

 same effects. Inquiries before little known, and at first 

 held in suspicion, were found to have no other object 

 than a laudable research into history, laws, customs, and 

 literature^ to assist the rulers to protect the subjects and 



