98 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
2. Dutch Policy, and its effects on the Native Populations. 
The army, and the policy pursued towards the natives, 
are the two mainstays of the Dutch power in these remote 
regions. The army, purely of colonial origin, and amount¬ 
ing to about 30,000 men, of whom more than 14,000 
are Europeans, is administered by the Indian Council of 
six members. About two-fifths of all the forces are 
stationed in Java, the heart of Netherlands India. They 
consist both of Dutch and Malays, drilled and officered 
by Europeans, who are very often mercenaries. The fleet 
numbers twenty-five vessels, and these combined forces 
have gradually overcome all resistance as far as they 
could reach; so that the Dutch authority is firmly 
established, especially in Java, where one or two nomin¬ 
ally independent sultans are mere tools in the hands of 
the authorities in Batavia. 
The Dutch Government has a monopoly of salt, 
opium, and coffee, so that native planters are obliged 
to dispose of their coffee to the State on fixed terms. 
By this system a large revenue is obtained. Slaves 
are no longer employed on the plantations, slavery 
having been abolished some few years ago. But the 
natives are bound to a sort of statute labour, besides their 
obligation to serve their own sultans in the same way. 
Many of the hardships inherent to this “ heerendienst ” 
have been mitigated, but it still remains substantially 
true that the Dutch colonies are farmed for the benefit 
of the mother country. The natives feel the yoke, but 
endure it patiently—partly through obsequiousness to 
their sultans, who are so many Dutch puppets, partly 
through their own natural temperament. The Malays 
have, no doubt, some good qualities, but at the bottom of 
