INTRODUCTION.
The entire title of this article, in the Pilgrims of Purchas, is, "A Discourse of Java, and of the first English Factory there, with divers Indian, English, and Dutch Occurrences; written by Mr Edmund Scot, containing a History of Things done from the 11th February, 1602, till the 6th October, 1605, abbreviated."
[Footnote 119: Purch. Pilgr. I. 164. Astl. I. 284.]
It is to be observed, that February, 1602, according to the old way of reckoning time in England, was of the year 1603 as we now reckon, for which reason we have changed the date so far in the title of the section. Mr Edmund Scot, the author of this account of Java, was one of the factors left there by Sir James Lancaster. He became latterly head factor at that place, and returned from thence to England with Captain Henry Middleton, leaving Mr Gabriel Towerson to take charge of the trade in his room; doubtless the same unhappy person who fell a sacrifice, seventeen years afterwards, to the avarice, cruelty, and injustice of the Dutch. This article may be considered as a supplement to the voyage of Sir James Lancaster, and is chiefly adopted as giving an account of the first factory established by the English in the East Indies. Being in some parts rather tediously minute upon matters of trifling interest, some freedom has been used in abbreviating its redundancies. The following character is given of it by the editor of Astley's collection.--E.
"The whole narrative is very instructive and entertaining, except some instances of barbarity, and affords more light into the affairs of the English and Dutch, as well as respecting the manners and customs of the Javanese and other inhabitants of Bantam, than if the author had dressed up a more formal relation, in the usual way of travellers: From the minute particulars respecting the Javanese and Chinese, contained in the last sections, the reader will be able to collect a far better notion of the genius of these people, than from the description of the country inserted in the first; and in these will be found the bickerings between the Dutch and English, which laid the foundations of these quarrels and animosities which were afterwards carried to such extreme length, and which gave a fatal blow to the English trade in the East Indies."--Astl.
SECTION 1. Description of Java, with the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants, both Javanese and Chinese.
Java Major is an island in the East Indies, the middle of which is in long. 104° E. and in lat. 9° S.[120] It is 146 leagues long from east to west, and about 90 leagues broad from south to north.[121] The middle of the island is for the most part mountainous, yet no where so steep as to prevent the people from travelling to their tops either a-foot or on horseback. Some inhabitants dwell on the hills nearest the sea; but in the middle of the land, so far as I could learn, there were no inhabitants; but wild beasts of several sorts, some of which come to the valleys near the sea, and devour many people. Towards the sea the land for the most part is low and marshy, whereon stand their towns of principal trade, being mostly on the north and north-east sides of the island, as Chiringin, Bantam, Jackatra, and Jortan or Greesey. These low lands are very unwholesome, and breed many diseases, especially among the strangers who resort thither, and yield no merchandise worth speaking of, except pepper, which has been long brought from all parts of the island to Bantam, as the chief mart or trading town of the country. Pepper used formerly to be brought here from several other countries for sale, which is not the case now, as the Dutch trade to every place where it can be procured, and buy it up.
[Footnote 120: The longitude of the middle of Java may be assumed at 110° E. from Greenwich, and its central latitude 7° 15' S. The western extremity is in long. 105° 20' and the eastern in 114° 48' both E. The extreme north-west point is in lat. 6°, the most southeastern in 8° 45', both S. It is hard to guess what Mr Scot chose as his first meridian, giving an error of excess or difference of 30° from the true position; as the meridian of Ferro would only add about 18 degrees.--E.]
[Footnote 121: The difference of longitude in the preceding note gives 189 leagues, being 43 more than in the text, whereas its greatest breadth does not exceed 28 leagues, not a third part of what is assigned in the text.--E.]