In manners the Javans are easy and courteous, and respectful even to timidity; they have a great sense of propriety, and are never rude or abrupt. In their deportment they are pliant and graceful, the people of condition carrying with them a considerable air of fashion, and receiving the gaze of the curious without being at all disconcerted. In their delivery they are in general very circumspect and even slow, though not deficient in animation when necessary.
Here, as on Sumatra, there are certain mountainous districts, in which the people are subject to those large wens in the throat, termed in Europe goitres. The cause is generally ascribed by the natives to the quality of the water; but there seems good ground for concluding, that it is rather to be traced to the atmosphere. In proof of this it may be mentioned, that there is a village near the foot of the Teng'gar mountains, in the eastern part of the island, where every family is afflicted by this malady, while in another village, situated at a greater elevation, and through which the stream descends which serves for the use of both, there exists no such deformity. These wens are considered hereditary in some families, and seem thus independent of situation. A branch of the family of the present Adipáti of Bándung is subject to them, and it is remarkable that they prevail chiefly among the women in that family. They neither produce positive suffering nor occasion early death, and may be considered rather as deformities than diseases. It is never attempted to remove them.
The population of Java is very unequally distributed, whether we consider the fertility or the extent of the districts over which it is spread. The great mass of it lies in the eastern and native districts, as will be perceived from the annexed tables.
The table No. I., is compiled from materials collected by a committee appointed on the first establishment of the British government, to enquire and report on the state of the country. It will be found to illustrate, in some degree, the proportionate numbers of the different ranks and classes of society in the island. Beyond this, however, it cannot be depended upon, as the returns of which it is an abstract were made at a period when the Dutch system of administration provisionally remained in force; and every new enquiry into the state of the country being at that time considered by the people as a prelude to some new tax or oppression, it became an object with them to conceal the full extent of the population: accordingly it was found to differ essentially in amount from the results of information subsequently obtained on the introduction of the detailed land-revenue settlement, when an agreement with each individual cultivator becoming necessary to the security of his possession, he seldom failed to satisfy the necessary enquiries. The table No. II., here exhibited, at least as far as regards the European provinces, may therefore be considered as faithful a view of the population of the country as could be expected, and as such, notwithstanding the inaccuracies to which all such accounts are liable, it is presented with some confidence to the public.
It was formed in the following manner. A detailed account of the peasantry of each village was first taken, containing the name of each male inhabitant, with other particulars, and from the aggregate of these village lists a general statement was constructed of the inhabitants of each subdivision and district. An abstract was again drawn up from these provincial accounts, exhibiting the state of each residency in which the districts were respectively included, and the totals of these last, collected into one tabular view, constitute the present abstract. The labour of this detailed survey was considerable, for as each individual cultivator was to receive a lease corresponding with the register taken, it was necessary that the land he rented should be carefully measured and assessed[36].
| DIVISIONS. | Total Population. | Males. | Females. | NATIVES. | CHINESE, &c. | Square statute Miles. | Estimated Population to a square Mile. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Natives. | Males. | Females. | Total Chinese, &c. | Males. | Females. | ||||||
| JAVA European Provinces. | |||||||||||
| Bantam | 231,604 | 106,100 | 125,504 | 230,976 | 111,988 | 118,988 | 628 | 352 | 276 | 3,428 | 67½ |
| Batavia and its Environs | 332,015 | 180,768 | 151,247 | 279,621 | 151,064 | 128,557 | 52,394 | 29,704 | 22,690 | 2,411 | 169⅓ |
| Buitenzorg | 76,312 | 38,926 | 37,386 | 73,679 | 37,334 | 36,345 | 2,633 | 1,591 | 1,042 | ||
| Priángen Regencies | 243,628 | 120,649 | 122,979 | 243,268 | 120,289 | 122,979 | 180 | 86 | 94 | 10,002 | 24⅓ |
| Chéribon | 216,001 | 105,451 | 110,550 | 213,658 | 99,837 | 113,821 | 2,343 | 1,193 | 1,150 | 1,334 | 162 |
| Tégal | 178,415 | 81,539 | 96,876 | 175,446 | 80,208 | 95,238 | 2,004 | 915 | 1,089 | 1,297 | 137⅓ |
| Pakalúng'an | 115,442 | 53,187 | 62,255 | 113,396 | 52,007 | 61,389 | 2,046 | 1,180 | 866 | 607 | 190⅙ |
| Semárang | 327,610 | 165,009 | 162,601 | 305,910 | 154,161 | 151,749 | 1,700 | 848 | 852 | 1,166 | 281 |
| Kedú | 197,310 | 97,744 | 99,566 | 196,171 | 97,167 | 99,004 | 1,139 | 577 | 562 | 826 | 238¾ |
| Grobógan and Jípang | 66,522 | 31,693 | 34,829 | 66,109 | 31,423 | 34,686 | 403 | 223 | 180 | 1,219 | 54⅓ |
| Japára and Jawána | 103,290 | 55,124 | 48,166 | 101,000 | 54,000 | 47,000 | 2,290 | 1,124 | 1,166 | 1,025 | 100⅔ |
| Rémbang | 158,530 | 75,204 | 83,326 | 154,639 | 73,373 | 81,266 | 3,891 | 1,831 | 2,060 | 1,400 | 113 |
| Grésik | 115,442 | 58,981 | 56,461 | 115,078 | 58,807 | 56,271 | 364 | 174 | 190 | 778 | 148 |
| Surabáya | 154,512 | 77,260 | 77,252 | 152,025 | 76,038 | 75,987 | 2,047 | 1,010 | 1,037 | 1,218 | 126¾ |
| Pasúruan | 108,812 | 54,177 | 54,635 | 107,752 | 53,665 | 54,087 | 1,070 | 522 | 548 | 1,952 | 58⅛ |
| Probolíng'go | 104,359 | 50,503 | 53,856 | 102,927 | 49,797 | 53,130 | 1,430 | 706 | 724 | 2,854 | 36½ |
| Banyuwángi | 8,873 | 4,463 | 4,410 | 8,554 | 4,297 | 4,257 | 319 | 166 | 153 | 1,274 | 7 |
| Native Provinces. | |||||||||||
| Súra-kérta | 972,727 | 471,505 | 501,222 | 970,292 | 470,220 | 500,072 | 2,435 | 1,285 | 1,150 | 11,313 | 147½ |
| Yúgya-kérta[37] | 685,207 | 332,241 | 352,966 | 683,005 | 331,141 | 351,864 | 2,202 | 1,201 | 1,001 | ||
| MADURA. | |||||||||||
| Bankálang and Pamakásan | 95,235 | 47,466 | 47,769 | 90,848 | 45,194 | 45,654 | 4,395 | 2,280 | 2,115 | 892 | 106¾ |
| Súmenap | 123,424 | 60,190 | 63,234 | 114,896 | 55,826 | 59,070 | 8,528 | 4,364 | 4,164 | 728[38] | 146 |
| Grand Total | 4,615,270 | 2,268,180 | 2,347,090 | 4,499,250 | 2,207,836 | 2,291,414 | 94,441 | 51,332 | 43,109 | 45,794 | Average Population rather exceeding 100 to a square mile |
| Mem.—The Population of the principal European capitals included in the above, is estimatedas follows:— | |||||||||||
| Batavia and its immediate Suburbs | 60,000 | ||||||||||
| Semárang | 20,000 | ||||||||||
| Surabáya | 25,000 | ||||||||||
| The population of Súra-kérta, the principal Native capital, is estimated at 105,000. | |||||||||||
| That of Yúgya-kérta at somewhat less. | |||||||||||
By the last table, it appears that in some districts the population is in the ratio of two hundred and eighty-one to a square mile, while in others it is not more than twenty-four and three quarters: in the districts of Banyuwángí it is even as low as seven. The soil in the eastern districts is generally considered superior to that in the western, and this circumstance, added to the superior facilities which they afford to commerce, may serve to account for their original selection as the chief seat of the native government, and consequently for their denser population at an early period.
This disproportion was also promoted by the policy of the Dutch Company. The Dutch first established themselves in the western division, and having no confidence in the natives, endeavoured to drive them from the vicinity of Batavia, with the view of establishing round their metropolis an extensive and desert barrier. The forced services and forced deliveries, which extended wherever Dutch influence could be felt, and of which more will be said hereafter, contributed to impoverish, and thereby to depopulate the country. The drain also of the surrounding districts, to supply the place of the multitudes who perished by the unhealthy climate of Batavia, must have been enormous; and if to these we add the checks to population, which were created over Bantam, the Priáng'en Regencies, and Chéribon, in the pepper and coffee cultivation, of the nature of which an account will be given when treating of the agriculture of the country, we need go no further to account for the existing disproportion. It was only about sixty years ago that the Dutch government first obtained a decided influence in the eastern districts, and from that moment, the provinces subjected to its authority ceased to improve, and extensive emigrations took place into the dominions of the native princes. Such were the effects of this desolating system, that the population of the province of Banyuwángi, which in 1750 is said to have amounted to upwards of eighty thousand souls, was in 1811 reduced to eight thousand.
The Priáng'en Regencies, from their inland situation and mountainous character, may probably have at all times been less closely peopled than other parts of the island, and their insufficient population would furnish no proofs of the oppressions of government, did we not observe extensive tracts, nay whole districts, exhibiting the traces of former cultivation, now lying waste and overgrown with long rank grass. Chéribon and Bantam have shared the same fate. These provinces, according to authentic accounts, were at the period of the first establishment of the European government, among the richest and most populous of the island. In 1811 they were found in a state of extreme poverty, affording little or no revenue, and distracted by all the aggravated miseries of continued insurrections.