CHERIBON.

Chéribon fell under the European influence in the year 1666, and has now been subject to it one hundred and fifty years. It was among the first cessions made to the Dutch by the princes of Matárem.

This province had, like Bantam, been in a state of continued insurrection for many years preceding the arrival of the English. The importance of the town of Chéribon has considerably declined, partly in consequence of these commotions, and partly of epidemic fevers which prevailed some years ago.

The extensive and fertile province of Chéribon did not, under the administration of the Dutch Company, yield those profits which were expected from its great natural resources; especially of indigo, coffee, and teak timber. The Sultans of Chéribon, descended from one of the founders of the Mahomedan religion on Java, and on that account objects of religious veneration among the more orthodox Mahomedans, were always left in the entire management of the native administration. The coffee and other produce exacted from the people, was delivered by the Sultan, and paid for to him. Under this system, the residents of Chéribon enjoyed an annual income of from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars (£23,000), while the Sultans were every year more and more impoverished. At length an insurrection broke out in 1800, the ostensible reason of which was the unjust removal of Sultan Kanóman, who had been banished by the Dutch to Amboina, and the real cause probably the great oppression of the common inhabitants, occasioned by the distress of the Sultans, and the indiscriminate admission of too many Chinese in the interior of the country. The reinstallation of Sultan Kanóman, in 1808, by Marshal Daendals, did not appease the minds of the people; and the unwillingness or inability of that prince to restore the public tranquillity, led to an entirely new organization of the country.

When the island was conquered by the British troops, the rebel, Bágus Rángen, still maintained himself in the eastern parts of Kráwang, in perfect defiance of the power of government, sternly rejecting the offers of pardon and oblivion which were on that occasion offered to him, and eluding or defeating all attempts to destroy or ensnare him. Such was the veneration in which this man was regarded by the people of these districts, and such the dread in which he was held by the native chiefs (through whose means alone his apprehension was to be accomplished), that he remained in perfect quiet and security, maintained a correspondence with the disaffected throughout the province, secured his regular supplies of ammunition and provisions from all parts, and even from the town of Chéribon, and tranquilly prepared for the ensuing rainy season, to appear again in arms and ravage the country.

In a few months after the establishment of a British resident in the district, the person of Bágus Rángen was secured, and the country reduced to a perfect state of tranquillity, in which it remained during the whole period of the British administration.

The following extracts from the report of the gentleman[279] intrusted with the introduction of the land revenue system into Chéribon, may serve to illustrate the state of this province:​—

"There is, perhaps, with the exception of the environs of Batavia and Bantam, no part of the island of Java which has so severely felt the bad effects of mismanagement as the district of Chéribon. These effects are visible in the character of the people, who, even among the Javans, are remarkable for a careless indifference to the pursuit of gain, for indolence, for want of energy, and for a credulity and ignorance, rendering them perpetually a prey to delusion. Within the last forty years, in particular, a series of mismanagement and oppression is said to have wrought a most unfavourable change in the character of the people, to have destroyed the habits of industry, and consequently to have changed even the aspect of the country, so that it is no longer to be recognized as the fruitful district which it is once represented to have been. Within the last seven years, famine, mortality, and civil commotion, have contributed to aggravate the evils of mismanagement, and in one or other form have desolated some of the finest parts of the district.

"The history of the civil commotions alluded to afford a striking illustration of the character of the inhabitants. It certainly gives no countenance to the representation of those observers who ascribe to the Javans in general a character of the most invincible apathy, stupidity, and indolence, as if these qualities had been irrevocably engrafted upon their very natures. A better knowledge of their real character enables us to draw very different inferences, and to ascribe to them a much larger share of sensibility, than could from reasoning be expected to result from the apparently overwhelming causes which contribute to degrade their faculties and blunt their energies and exertions.

"It is an instructive fact, highly worthy of remark, that the successive commotions and insurrections which have for many years disturbed the peace of Chéribon, have uniformly had their origin in the Javan districts, where the rights of private property in the soil were almost entirely overlooked, that they have only occasionally extended from the Javan to the Súnda districts, and have never reached the Priang'en lands, where property in the soil is fully acknowledged and respected.

"The taxes which fell upon agriculture were so various, and at the same time assumed such a variety of shapes, that it is impracticable to state in a word the actual portion which by law or custom fell to the share of the sovereign.

"The most material, however, are comprehended in the following catalogue, to which are added, others falling equally upon agricultural industry, though not constituting a direct source of revenue to government:

"1. The contingent, called in the language of the country, gántang. This is usually estimated at fifteen parts in one hundred of the rice crop; but it was, in truth, arbitrarily assessed, according to a rough conjecture of the capability of the country. In such of the Priang'en lands as continued to be directly administered by their own native chiefs, the amount paid to the latter was determined with some accuracy to be one tenth of the gross produce, embracing, as in the first case, the rice crop only.

"2. A poll tax, or rather a tax on families, called by the natives of this part of the country, pagalántang. Part was levied on account of government, and part on account of the chiefs.

"3. Market duties or tolls. These were literally levied on every article vended in the markets, embracing as well the whole produce of their agriculture, as that of their petty arts and manufactures.

"4. A tax on the slaughter of buffaloes, necessarily affecting the price of food, and discouraging the rearing of an animal indispensable to a successful prosecution of the labours of agriculture.

"5. The charge of lodging and feeding travellers, and transporting troops, baggage, and stores of all descriptions. This is termed in the native language, súguh, or the rites of hospitality.

"6. The obligation to construct and repair bridges, roads, and public buildings, throughout the country.

"7. The obligation to cultivate and deliver, at inadequate rates, certain foreign productions, which the actual condition of the country, the habits of the people, and still less their interests, could never have prompted them to undertake, if permitted freely to pursue their own interest. Coffee was the chief of these products.

"8. In speaking of the taxes which fall upon the husbandman and the land, the Zakat must not be forgotten. This is nominally a tithe, or tenth. The payment is indeed optional, but from religious motives seldom withheld. Every tenth sheaf of the rice crop is allotted to religious purposes, but every man measures its size according to his own piety. Its amount was of course very variable, but almost always materially smaller, and generally indeed not half the size, of the ordinary sheaf. This practice gives rise to a well known distinction between the ordinary sheaf and that allotted for the clergy, when the grain is brought to market."

The table annexed was framed on the introduction of the detailed system; but it not being practicable, on account of the extent of the province, for the European officer to visit every part of the district, many of the particulars are stated upon estimate; particularly the quantity of cultivated land and amount of produce, which, it is to be apprehended, are rather over-rated. The return, however, of the population may be considered more accurate.

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE CULTIVATION AND POPULATION OF CHERIBON, 1815.
DI​­VI​­SIONS.SAWAH.VAL​­UE OF SAWAH.To​­tal Sawah in Cul​­ti​­va​­tion.To​­tal Val​­ue of Sawah.TE​­GAL.VAL​­UE OF TE​­GAL.To​­tal Quan​­ti​­ty of Te​­gal.To​­tal Val​­ue of Te​­gal.To​­tal Sawah and Te​­gal in Cul​­ti​­va​­tion.To​­tal Val​­ue of the Crop.
First Sort.Sec​­ond Sort.Third Sort.First Sort.Sec​­ond Sort.Third Sort.First Sort.Sec​­ond Sort.Third Sort.First Sort.Sec​­ond Sort.Third Sort.
Ju​­ngs.Ju​­ngs.Ju​­ngs.Ru​­pees.Ru​­pees.Ru​­pees.Ju​­ngs.Ru​­pees.Ju​­ngs.Ju​­ngs.Ju​­ngs.Ru​­pees.Ru​­pees.Ru​­pees.Ju​­ngs.Ru​­pees.Ju​­ngs.Ru​­pees.
Bengawan82011192587875658952913801245273151078681970036767743954605319503
Cheribon7831913188345255447032717161042171994101543501511365691829110786
Chiamis23135224658188155834347451144408977041951179477955269
Chikaso18240987319435327684660714659881113830737413874041604106216
Lingajati43131542946012252422288411759414049344253042758227612610339130294479
Gebang70140567747911216302887784898420271640145647309782652082
Losari386003207133202461233057937591971395762534014
Kuningan91247901971819765427681140722521534112441820835619452149791705
Telaga1011953381083315643180666354454212264814818243459367236565130881108
Sindangkasi29436145931440289262452111168488819302152916126321176551437102544
Raja Galu289377591309213021131534125892667985274985274135797941
Panjalu2484265266367541418137523598399212983992129877444897
Forest Districts1565008311664640072443201487101039​—​—​—​—​—39​—391488101079
Total27704074101112960353263835343471686711567765019723045481161161232362555144838194311291627
Ma​­les.Fe​­ma​­les.At​­tach​­ed to the Cul​­ti​­va​­tion of the Soil.Em​­ploy​­ed in oth​­er Av​­o​­ca​­tion.To​­tal Num​­ber of Buf​­fa​­loes.To​­tal Num​­ber of Hor​­ses.To​­tal Num​­ber of Plo​­ughs.JA​­VANS.CHI​­NESE
To­tal Ja​­vans.Ma​­les.Fe​­ma​­les.Class of Cul​­ti​­va​­tors.Em​­ploy​­ed in oth​­er Av​­o​­ca​­tion.To​­tal Num​­ber of Buf​­fa​­loes.To​­tal Num​­ber of Hor​­ses.To​­tal Num​­ber of Plo​­ughs.To­tal Chi​­nese.Ma​­les.Fe​­ma​­les.Class of Cul​­ti​­va​­tors.Em​­ploy​­ed in oth​­er Av​­o​­ca​­tion.To​­tal Num​­ber of Buf​­fa​­loes.To​­tal Num​­ber of Hor​­ses.To​­tal Num​­ber of Plo​­ughs.
To​­tal Pop​­u​­la​­tion 2160011054211105501322158388948866662317356213658998371138211321068165942846648917318234310922341093114132012448