1832.] 
ISLAND OP JAVA. 
273 
He represents their state and condition as by no means enviable. 
Sunk into the lowest stage of apathy, they seemed to be utterly 
incapable of any great exertions. " Their princes are prisoners 
to a handful of Dutchmen, and the landholders are slaves to the 
princes." The ambassador and suite endeavoured to pay a visit 
to the King of Bantam, but v^^ere prevented by a Dutch officer, 
Vi^ho commanded the fort in which he resided. 
In seventeen hundred and ninety-seven the Americans began 
to frequent the market of Batavia, and it was principally through 
them that the trade was carried on till the conquest of the island 
by the British, except during the short interval of the peace of 
Amiens. From that time until eighteen hundred and fourteen, 
during the existence of the odious " orders in council," and the 
retaliating decrees of Milan and Berlin, the American trade was 
carried on with Batavia to the greatest extent. Our adventurers 
then purchased the Java coffee at a very low rate, and by a cir- 
cuitous route carried it into the French ports, where they found a 
ready market for it at an advance of one hundred per cent. 
After Louis Bonaparte ascended the throne of Holland, in 
eighteen hundred and six, he appointed Lieutenant-general Daen- 
dels, whom he had previously loaded with well-deserved honours, 
Governor-general of Batavia, who held that important office until 
Java was taken by the British, in eighteen hundred and eleven. 
During the administration of Daendels, whose liberal and en- 
lightened policy did much for the moral regeneration of Batavia, 
justice was distributed with a milder and more impartial hand ; 
and if slavery was not abolished, through respect for private 
property, the condition of that unfortunate class was greatly ame- 
liorated. If commercial prosperity was not restored, the health 
of the city was greatly improved, to the salvation of thousands of 
human lives. That prisonhouse of contagion and pestilence, 
which had been locked up for nearly two centuries, was now 
thrown open to a free circulation of air ; and all such nuisances 
removed, as were the obvious causes of disease. But more of 
this in another chapter. 
In the year eighteen hundred and eleven, Holland was united to 
France, and the French flag was hoisted at Batavia ; and on the 
eleventh of September, in the same year, the British government 
was declared supreme in the Island of Java, by a proclamation 
s 
