The excuse offered by the colonists for the origin and continuance of slavery on Java is, that on the first establishment of the Dutch in the Eastern Islands, there did not exist, as in Western India, a class of people calculated for domestic service; that they had, in consequence, to create a class of domestic servants, in doing which they adopted the plan of rearing children in their families from other countries, in preference to those in their immediate neighbourhood, who, from their connexions and the habits of their relatives, could never be depended upon. Whether necessity dictated this system in the earlier periods of the Dutch establishment, or not, is at least doubtful; but it is certain that this necessity no longer exists, nor is there the shadow of an excuse for continuing on Java this odious traffic and condition. The Javans, during the residence of the British on Java, have been found perfectly trustworthy, faithful, and industrious; and the demand was alone wanting in this, as in most cases, to create a sufficient supply of competent domestics. The continuance of the traffic for one day longer serves but to lower the European in the eyes of the native, who, gratified with the measures adopted by the British government in its suppression, stands himself pure of the foul sin. To the credit of the Javan character, and the honour of the individual, it should be known, that when the proclamation of the British government was published, requiring the registration of all slaves, and declaring that such as were not registered by a certain day should be entitled to their emancipation, the Panámbahan of Súmenap, who had inherited in his family domestic slaves to the number of not less than fifty, proudly said, "Then I will not register my slaves—they shall be free: hitherto they have been kept such, because it was the custom, and the Dutch liked to be attended by slaves when they visited the palace; but as that is not the case with the British, they shall cease to be slaves: for long have I felt shame, and my blood has run cold, when I have reflected on what I once saw at Batavia and Semárang, where human beings were exposed for public sale, placed on a table, and examined like sheep and oxen."
The short administration of the British government on Java has fortunately given rise to another class of domestic servants. The numerous officers of the army, and others whose funds did not admit, or whose temporary residence did not require a permanent establishment of servants, for the most part usually took Javans into their service; and though these might in the first instance, not be so well acquainted with European habits, as slaves who had been brought up from their infancy in Dutch families, yet they gradually improved, and were, in the end, for the most part very generally preferred. Let not, therefore, necessity be again urged as a plea for continuing the traffic.
The measures actually adopted by the British government may be summed up in a few words. The importation was, in the first instance, restricted within a limited age, and the duty on importation doubled. An annual registry of all slaves above a certain age was taken, and slaves not registered within a certain time declared free. A fee of one Spanish dollar was demanded for the registry of each slave, the amount of which constituted a fund for the relief of widows and orphans. On the promulgation of the act of the British legislature, declaring the further traffic in slaves to be felony, that act, with all its provisions, was at once made a colonial law. Masters were precluded from sending their slaves to be confined in jail at their pleasure, as had hitherto been the case, and all committals were required to be made through the magistrates, in the same manner as in the case of other offenders.
These general regulations, with the more rigid enforcement of the prohibition of further importations, and of such parts of the code of regulations for ameliorating the condition of the slaves as had become obsolete, were all to which the local government felt itself competent; but it gave its sanction to an institution set on foot by the English, and joined in by many of the Dutch inhabitants, which took for its basis the principles of the African Institution, and directed its immediate care to a provision for the numerous slaves restored to liberty.
[43] Called by the Maláyus kain pánjang or kain lepás.
[44] Exposé Statistique du Tonquin, &c. vol. i. p. 126.
[45] Chapter IV. Manufactures.
CHAPTER III.
Importance of Agriculture to Java—Soil—State of the Peasantry—Price of Rice—Subsistence of the Peasantry—Dwelling—Agricultural Stock—Implements of Farming—Seasons—Different Kinds of Land—Rice Cultivation—Maize, &c.—Sugar—Coffee—Pepper—Indigo—Cotton—Tobacco—Tenure of Landed Property.