POSSESSIONS OP TIlE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 221 
IB 1 
mobility to render themselves popular often lend a hand to the la¬ 
bours of the fields. 
In the meantime the Metropolis enjoys the fruits of this agricultu¬ 
ral industry. It is really the most fertile source of trade, it furnishes 
considerable development to the navigation and strongly influences 
the well being of all the working classes. The coasting trade in 
the Archipelago, this important branch of public prosperity in the 
possessions of the State, and which the Government ought to encour¬ 
age by all the means at her disposal, has received a no less remark¬ 
able expansion since 1830; witness the increasing export which takes 
place in the different parts of her dominions. The Javanese nation 
finds also there a guarantee for the maintenance of its well being, 
and it advances insensibly towards a degree of civilization which it 
could never have reached under the influence of its old rulers. ■ The 
Javanese, formerly so careless, commences to awaken from his apathy; 
millions of hands devote themselves to agriculture, the native being 
persuaded that this is the source of the prosperity which he enjoys un¬ 
der a mild., just and protecting Government. The Javanese van- 
quised and disarmed but freed from despotism have submitted them¬ 
selves to the Netherlands, more in consequence of good treatment, of 
equity and of justice, than from the terror which its power inspires; 
they have ceased to be objects of fear, and they now peaceably labour 
their fields. 
Holland already enjoys in her finances the fruits of the wise mea¬ 
sures adopted by the govevernment which rules her old and more 
recent possessions. From the Metropolis of the Archipelago, orga¬ 
nized on a respectable footing*, she extends her power successively to 
the other islands covered by her flag. The great and beautiful Su¬ 
matra feels already (as we shall see in the sequal of this work) the sa¬ 
lutary effects of the system followed in Java. Celebes furnishes abun¬ 
dant products, and the civilization of the native population modifies 
itself in proportion as our power extends over them. 
By persevering thus in the ways of wisdom, equity and philanthro- 
phy the Government will see its trade progressively increase, its naviga¬ 
tion extend, and its profits augment; and its dominions in India may 
one day efficaciously assist the metropolis in Europe in the event of a 
financial crisis. The *resuits at which we have arrived would permit 
us for the future to dispense in our colonies with slaves, seeing that 
in Java more than six millions of cultivators work on account of the 
Government which has now realized and put in practice the only 
means of stopping completely the shameful slave trade, which the 
