154 
RECENT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES ON THE 
nions once entertained. But to tire labour of both these writers the 
compass was wanting which alone can give us a true idea of the con¬ 
dition of Bali. Crawfurd was only at B’liliug, and had never seen 
the places where w T e are assured that pure Buddhism exists. He did 
not penetrate into the interior, while we know 7 from the accounts of 
a Mahoraedan, Abdullah* (Tijdsclmft voor N. I. 7th. year 2nd. part 
p. 160,) and of other travellers, that in the interior, temples and 
images of gods exist, whose presence, Crawfurd, following what he 
had seen, denied. We want, besides, the writings of the Balinese, 
of which Crawfurd and Raffles only give some titles, and that with¬ 
out the requisite carefulness. The titles are, as W. Von Humboldt 
shews, Sanscrit. We want a carefully prepared account of arts and 
trades, of the state of cultivation, in short, of all that marks the con¬ 
dition of a nation. 
W. Von Humboldt has spread much light over Bali. This pro¬ 
found philologist has out of the above named not always clear springs 
alone, drawn with astonishing erudition and ingenuity, principally 
through the resemblance of the languages of the Archipelago to the 
Sanscrit, a number of conclusions, and made very probable conjec¬ 
tures, which must be tried on the spot, to enable us to receive them 
as sure truths. 
It is therefore the task of the advancers of science in these parts, 
to undertake those researches which, from his great distance and the 
poverty of materials, the great Von Humboldt could only defectively 
engage in. Not only must the phenomena of the present time be 
exhibited, not only must all possible light be collected on the past 
time from the mouths of the civilized inhabitants, but above all it is 
necessary that all Kawi and other manuscripts which can be heard 
of should be collected, because these are of the utmost importance 
for the illustration of the social and religious condition not alone of 
Bali itself, but also of the still more important ancient Java. 
As I have said above, Raffles and Crawfurd have enumerated a ve- 
* Wc have made a translation of this curious and in many respects in¬ 
structive Malayan history of Bali which will appear in this Journal.—E d, 
J, I. A. 
