36 
GUNONG KARANG. 
at a great elevation, several started to obtain it, and he who suc- 
ceeded evidently triumphed in his fortune. Neither was my presence 
necessary to excite them to this benevolent activity. Not being able, 
from the advance of the day, to reach the top of the mountain, I 
despatched several natives to collect specimens of rocks from it ; 
and on their return, I was surprised to see them laden with pieces 
of rock, bundles of plants, and joints of bamboo full of water col- 
lected from hollows at the top of the mountain. This they seemed 
to consider as holy, advising me to wash myself with it as a secu- 
rity against danger. But I should exhaust the patience of my reader 
were I to mention but a small proportion of the numerous proofs 
I personally experienced of the innate principles of benevolence 
that enter into the moral character of the Javanese. Not only in 
the excursion of which I am now giving the narrative, but during 
the whole period of my first and second visit in Java, they repeat- 
edly occurred to me. That their intellectual is equal to their moral 
excellence, may be inferred from the specimens of their poetry 
which have lately been given to the world. * Yet these are the 
people who have been pursued as beasts of prey, and of whom 
upwards of four hundred have been barbarously and uselessly slaugh- 
tered f since the island of Java has been given up by the English. 
Thank God, I did not hear that any of my countrymen had ever 
oppressed them, but often heard, and often saw, that the Javanese 
looked upon the English rather as benefactors than as masters, 
and it was notorious that the name of Raffles was almost idolized 
by them. 
The natives whom I saw in the mountain had limbs of more elegant 
shape, and greater symmetry of form, than those of the plains ; and 
also appeared more active in their habits. 
* See the extensive and valuable work on Java, by Sir Thomas Raffles, 
f See Quarterly Review for Ailgust, 1817. I may here remark, that I frequently heard 
of the massacre in Java, of which a statement is given in that publication, during my con- 
tinuance on that island, and that its horrors have been rather extenuated than aggravated, 
by its narrator. 
