The Chinese, in all matters of inheritance and minor affairs, are governed by their own laws, administered by their own chiefs, a captain and several lieutenants being appointed by government for each society of them. They are distinct from the natives, and are in a high degree more intelligent, more laborious, and more luxurious. They are the life and soul of the commerce of the country. In the native provinces they are still farmers of the revenue, having formerly been so throughout the island.
Although still numerous, they are considered to have much decreased since the civil war in 1742, during which not only a large proportion of the Chinese population was massacred by the Dutch in the town of Batavia, but a decree of extermination was proclaimed against them throughout the island.
The natives of the Coromandel and Malabar coast, who reside on Java, are usually termed Moors. They appear to be the remnant of a once extensive class of settlers; but their numbers have considerably decreased, since the establishment of the Dutch monopoly, and the absolute extinction of the native trade with India, which we have reason to believe was once very extensive. Trading vessels, in considerable numbers, still continue to proceed from the Coromandel coast to Sumatra, Penang, and Malacca, but they no longer frequent Java.
Búgis and Maláyus are established in all the maritime capitals of Java. They have their own quarter of the town allotted to them, in the same manner as the Chinese, and are subject to the immediate authority of their respective captains.
Among the Arabs are many merchants, but the majority are priests. Their principal resort is Grésik, the spot where Mahomedanism was first extensively planted on Java. They are seldom of genuine Arab birth, but mostly a mixed race, between the Arabs and the natives of the islands.
There is another class of inhabitants, either foreigners themselves, or the immediate descendants of foreigners, whose peculiar situation and considerable numbers entitle them to some notice in the general sketch of the population: I mean the class of slaves. The native Javans are never reduced to this condition; or if they should happen to be seized and sold by pirates, a satisfactory proof of their origin would be sufficient to procure their enfranchisement. The slave merchants have therefore been under the necessity of resorting to the neighbouring islands for a supply, and the greatest number have been procured from Báli and Celebes. The total amount may be estimated at about thirty thousand. According to the returns obtained in 1814, it appeared that the following were the numbers in the principal divisions of the island.
| At Batavia and its environs | 18,972 |
| In the Semárang division | 4,488 |
| In the Surabáya division | 3,682 |
| Total | 27,142 |
These slaves are the property of the Europeans and Chinese alone: the native chiefs never require the services of slaves, or engage in the traffic of slavery. The Mahomedan laws, which regulate their civil condition, and permit this abomination in all its extent, are modified by the milder prejudices and more humane temper of the country. The Dutch, who, like us, valued themselves on their political liberty, are here the great promoters of civil servitude, and carried with them into their eastern empire, the Roman law regarding slavery in all its extent and rigour. But although they adopted principles that admitted of the most cruel and wanton treatment of slaves, I would not be understood to say, that they carried these principles into common practice. The contrary was almost universally the case, and the condition of slaves on Java, where they were employed principally in domestic offices, formed a complete contrast to the state of those employed in the West India plantations. It is remarked by Montesquieu, that "in despotic countries, the condition of a slave is hardly more burdensome than that of a subject," and such has been the case in Java. The grounds on which the Dutch justified the practice of making slaves, was not that they could not command the services of the natives with a sway sufficiently absolute, and that they were compelled to seek, beyond the limits of the island, for unfortunate agents to perform what the natives shewed a reluctance to undertake, but that they found the class of foreigners more adroit and docile than the Javans in the conduct of household affairs, and that having reduced them to the state of property, they remained in the family for life, and saved the trouble of a new training.
Upon the conquest of the island by the British in 1811, the condition of this class of its subjects excited the attention of government; and though we could not, consistently with those rights of property which were admitted by the laws that we professed to administer, emancipate them at once from servitude, we enacted regulations, as far as we were authorized, to ameliorate their present lot, and lead to their ultimate freedom. Steps were immediately taken to check further importation, and as soon as it was known that the horrid traffic in slaves was declared a felony by the British parliament, it was not permitted for an instant to disgrace a region to which the British authority extended. The folly and perfect uselessness of slavery on Java has been often pointed out by Dutch commissioners and Dutch authors[42].
Having thus attempted a brief description of the different classes of the Asiatic population of the island, I shall proceed to a short detail of the habitations, dress, food, and domestic economy of the natives; but, in order to enable the reader to understand some of the terms in the tables, and likewise in the subsequent observations, it may not be improper simply to state the names and titles expressive of the different gradations of rank, leaving a more particular account of the power and authority with which they are connected to another opportunity. The sovereign, who is either called Susuhúnan, Susúnan, or Sultan, is the fountain of honour and the source of all distinction. His family are called Pang'érans, his queen Rátu, the heir apparent Pangéran adipáti, and the prime minister Ráden adipáti. Governors of provinces, called by the Dutch Regents, are styled by the natives Bopátis, Tumúngungs, or Ang'abéis; and are ranked among the chief nobility of the country. All the inferior chiefs, including those termed Rádens, Mántris, Demángs, Lúras, and others, except the heads of villages, termed Kúwus, Búkuls, Patíng'gis, &c., who are elected by the common people out of their own number for the performance of specific duties, may be considered as petite noblesse.