which have been overcome by the support of the native population, and
notwithstanding financial, political, and domestic troubles is due, I
believe, solely to the many admirable qualities which Sir James Brooke
possessed, and especially to his having convinced the native population,
by every action of his life, that he ruled them, not for his own
advantage, but for their good.
Since these lines were written, his noble spirit has passed away.
But though, by those who knew him not, he may be sneered at as an
enthusiastic adventurer, abused as a hard-hearted despot, the universal
testimony of everyone who came in contact with him in his adopted
country, whether European, Malay, or Dyak, will be, that Rajah Brooke
was a great, a wise, and a good ruler; a true and faithful friend--a man
to be admired for his talents, respected for his honesty and courage,
and loved for his genuine hospitality, his kindness of disposition, and
his tenderness of heart.
CHAPTER VII. JAVA.
I SPENT three months and a half in Java, from July 18th to October 31st,
1861, and shall briefly describe my own movements, and my observations
of the people and the natural history of the country. To all those who
wish to understand how the Dutch now govern Java, and how it is that
they are enabled to derive a large annual revenue from it, while the
population increases, and the inhabitants are contented, I recommend the
study of Mr. Money's excellent and interesting work, "How to Manage a
Colony." The main facts and conclusions of that work I most heartily
concur in, and I believe that the Dutch system is the very best that
can be adopted, when a European nation conquers or otherwise acquires
possession of a country inhabited by an industrious but semi-barbarous
people. In my account of Northern Celebes, I shall show how successfully
the same system has been applied to a people in a very different state
of civilization from the Javanese; and in the meanwhile will state in
the fewest words possible what that system is.
The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole series
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