42 
NOTES ON THE POPULATION OF JAVA.* 
By John Crawfurd, Esq, F. R. S. 
I served various civil offices in Java during the British 
occupation of that island from 1811 to 1817, and living thus 
for six years among a people very good natured, docile, 
accessible, and by no meamf wanting in intelligence, I en¬ 
joyed fair means of inquiry into the state of the population. 
This was confined chiefly to one locality, the city of Yugya- 
karta with its neighbourhood,f—the capital of the native 
prince who assumes the title of Sultan, and at whose Court 
I was, at the time, British agent. 
Yugyakarta contained, at the time the census was made, 
1814, a population of about 40,000 inhabitants. It lies in 
an extensive and fertile plain, 12 miles from the southern 
shore of the island, and about 15 from the basis of the 
mountain Marapi, an active volcano about 10,000 feet high. 
The town is nearly hidden from view by groves of fruit 
and ornamental trees always in verdure, a«d it is surrounded 
in every direction, for many miles, by an extensive cultivation 
chiefly of rice by irrigation, of which one crop follows ano¬ 
ther with little interruption throughout the year. 
The town of Yugyakarta is about midway between the 
eastern and western extremities of the island, and lies in South 
Latitude 7 U 40’. The average heat of the town and neigh¬ 
bourhood, little above the level of the sea, is about 83 J —but 
in ascending Marapi it gradually diminishes, until ice is found 
at the summit of the mountain. Cultivation extends even 
so fV r up, where the thermometer falls at particular times 
to 55°, and here the garden vegetables of Europe are suc¬ 
cessfully cultivated. There is little difference of season, 
except into wet and dry, the north west monsoon bringing the 
first, and the south east the last. The salubrity of the climate 
is equal, I should think, to that of any tropical one. The ex¬ 
tensive culture of rice by irrigation has certainly no injurious 
effect 1 never heard it even alleged, and, indeed, it may be 
* Drawn up at the request of the Statistical Society, and read before the 
British Association at Swansea. 
f The Dutch orthography is generally very correct for the expression of 
native words, but in this particular case barbarous. The word is written 
Djocjocarta. The word is Sanskrit and a corruption of Ayudya-karta,—that is 
" Ayudya (Oude) the country of Rimd, arranged or put in order.” The ety¬ 
mology is mythical. 
