sin THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES. 71 
total ignorance of its value, to tlie Dutch*. The 
presence of Mr. Raffles in England created an inte- 
rest in the subject, as far as his personal influence 
extended. To diffuse this interest more generally, 
and to make the country sensible of the loss sus- 
tained, by the relinquishment of so flourishing a 
colony to a foreign and a rival power, he deter- 
mined to write his History of Java, which he 
completed Muth his usual quickness. A few sheets 
were rapidly written off every morning for the 
printer, and corrected at night on his return from 
his dinner engagements. It was commenced in the 
month of October, 1816, and published (in two 
volumes quarto) in May, .181 7” 
Sir Stamford himself, in his Preface, alludes to 
an intimate friend whom he thought better qualified 
for such a work; and as he pays a tribute, not 
more eloquent than sincere, to a distinguished 
Scotchman, the celebrated Dr. Leyden, who had 
accompanied the expedition to Batavia, and died 
immediately on the landing of the troops, we need 
offer no apology for quoting that passage. “ Most 
sincerely and deeply do I regret that this book did 
not fall into hands more able to do it justice. There 
* On the 13th of Angust, 1814, a convention was entered 
into by Viscount Castlereagh at Vienna, on the part of his 
Britannic Majesty, restoring to the Dutch the whole of their 
former possessions in the Eastern Islands; and on the 19th 
August, 1816, the flag of the Netherlands was again hoisted 
at Batavia. 
