1832.] 
ISLAND OF JAVA, 
269 
edge his supremacy. Thus the whole island was now under his 
dominion, to which he soon after united the Island of Madura. 
In the meantime, while the victorious monarch was pursuing 
this career of success, a new and more insidious enemy had ob- 
tained a footing on the island. The Dutch, after having driven 
the Portuguese from Ceylon, and other places where they had 
settled, availed themselves of the divisions and convulsions by 
which the empire of Java was distracted, and established them- 
selves at Bantam, with whose prince the Portuguese were then 
at war. Admiral Houghton, who commanded the Dutch fleet, 
offered his assistance to the king, and obtained, in return, per- 
mission to estabhsh a factory, which was erected in sixteen hun- 
dred and two, being the first Dutch settlement in the east. They 
subsequently subdued, by force of arms, the neighbouring province 
of Jacatra ; and having a powerful force at their command, they 
determined to build a city, which should become the capital of 
their Asiatic possessions, and the centre of their political and 
commercial transactions. They fixed upon their newly-con- 
quered province of Jacatra, on the north side of the island, about 
ninety miles from the Strait of Sunda, where they founded a city 
in sixteen hundred and nineteen, which they called Batavia, from 
the ancient appellation of their own country, and soon rendered 
it a great and flourishing station.* 
* The Javans at Jacatra say that the Dutch played off a foul stratagem on them. 
In order to ascertain the strength and resources of the place, the captain of a 
Dutch ship landed with his officers,, disguised with turbans, &c., and after making 
their observations, entered upon trade, oflfering astonishing liberal terms, and making 
many presents. Intimacy was soon established with the prince, who granted them 
leave to bring their vessel up the river, where she was privately scuttled and sunk, 
a pretence for further delay. They then asked for a small piece of ground, on 
which to erect a shed to store the sails and other property, until they could raise the 
sunken vessel. This was also granted. They then raised a mud wall around the 
piece of ground, so that no one might see what they were about, all the while 
courting the friendship of the prince, of whom the captain requested as much land 
as could be covered with a bufFaloe's hide, on which he might build a small pondok ; 
this being complied with, he cut the hide into strips, and claimed all the land he 
could enclose with them. To this, also, the prince, after some hesitation, consented. 
The captain then went on with his buildings, engaging that he would pay all ex- 
penses. When all was ready, the mud wall was removed, batteries were unex- 
pectedly displayed, and, under their protection, the Dutch refused to pay a dollar. 
War was the consequence, and the Dutch, after slaughtering thousands of the 
natives, remained masters of the field. Having thus secured a foothold at Jacatra, 
