POSSESSIONS IN THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. ]'29 
awl Madura amounts, according* to the most recent census, to more 
than nine millions of persons. * * 
The pages which follow will serve to give a clear idea, a summary 
expose, of the institutions in vigour in Netherlands India: they will 
he accompanied by the indication of the principal results obtained by 
the new system of cultures. 
The islands of Java and Madura are divided at present into 22 pro¬ 
vinces or prefectures, known under the names of Residencies. 
[See Dr. Bleeker’s Contributions to the Statistics of the Popula¬ 
tion of Java p. 75 ante, where the names of the Residencies are giv¬ 
en ,witli the latest census, that for 1845, shewing a population of 
9,542,045 ; being an increase on that for 1838, given by M. Tem- 
minck, of 1,438,965.] 
We find that the census for 1824 was only 6,368,090 souls; that 
of 1832 amounted to 7,323,982 ; in 1834 we find 7,511,106; and in 
1837 the number was 7,981,284 souls. No more recent census 
than that oi 1838 (8,103,080 souls) has yet been made. [See the 
table of that of 1845, ante p. 75, shewing the population of each 
Residency, and the numbers of each Race.] 
Phe population of the town of Batavia, in 1832, was nearly 
* t a i • .. . . - _ 
118,000, and is divided as follows : 
Europeans,... 2,800 
Chinese,. 25,000 
Natives,.. 80,000 
Moors and Arabs,. 1,000 
Slaves,.,.;. 9,500 
Batavia, the ancient Jakatra, upon the banks of the large river of 
Tjiliwung, has always been and continues to be the capital of all the 
possessions of the state. I would not have made special mention of 
it in this work, considering the many good descriptions, published in 
many languages, of tills town and its envirous, if I had not to rectify 
the error committed by some French authors, who attribute to Go¬ 
vernor-General Daendels the ruin and tiie abandonment of this town. 
The tact is, that this abandonment had already commenced before his 
time, three fourths of the Europeans having quitted the walls of the 
town, to fix themselves in the suburbs, which daily increased and thus 
formed a new town. A part of the officials and of the garrison were 
however obliged to remain in the old town, because the citadel, situ¬ 
ated on the south shore of the sea, was the seat of the central admi¬ 
nistration. It was there that the place appropriated for meetings of 
the Council of the Indies was always found, as well as many offices 
