68 
MEMOIR OF 
were restored, and parcelled out in nearly equal 
proportions. 
The terms on which these arrangements stood, 
suffered no material alteration until the year 1808 , 
when the ambitious views of Bonaparte had begun 
to be more fuUy developed ; and the annexation of 
Holland to France, placed at his disposal all the 
valuable and extensive possessions of the Dutch in 
the Eastern Seas ; — ^possessions as important to 
Holland, as those on the continent of India are to 
Great Britain. France then looked to Java as the 
point from w'hence her operations might be most 
successfully directed, not only against the political 
ascendancy of England in the East, but likewise 
against her commercial interests both abroad and 
at home. Accordingly, with a view to promote the 
designs of Napoleon, the Dutch governor of Java, 
Marshal Daendels, officially declared, that the clauses 
of the existing treaties, by which the native princes 
held their territories in fee from the Dutch, were 
void ; and that, in futme, he should consider them 
as independent princes, having no other relation to 
the European government, thim such as must of 
necessity exist between a weaker and stronger state 
in the immediate neighbourhood of each other. 
This declaration was tantamoimt either to voluntary 
submission on the part of the weaker, or imme- 
diate hostilities should they venture to resist. Some 
indications of opposition having appeared. Marshal 
