[53] "Batavians! be amazed! hear with wonder what I have to communicate. Our fleets are destroyed, our trade languishes, our navigation is going to ruin—we purchase with immense treasures, timber and other materials for ship-building from the northern powers, and on Java we leave warlike and mercantile squadrons standing with their roots in the ground. Yes, the forests of Java have timber enough to build a respectable navy in a short time, besides as many merchant ships as we require. Hemp would grow as well as in Bengal, and as labour is as cheap in Java, we may consequently presume that it would require little trouble to establish manufactures of canvas and cordage there in a short time. But, at any rate, Java already produces at a very low price cayar and gamuti cordage, which answers very well for cables, hawsers, and rigging. To build ships at Java for the mother country, it is only necessary to send out skilful and complete master-builders with a few ship carpenters; for common workmen are to be had on Java in numbers, and at a very low rate, as a good Java carpenter may be hired at five stivers a day. The principal objection that could be made is, that the shores of Java being very flat and level, are not well adapted for building, and still less for launching ships of heavy burthens, but this difficulty may be easily overcome: on the islands before Batavia, and particularly Brunt and Cooke's Island, wharfs, or even docks, may be constructed at little expence. The same may be observed of one of the islands off Japára and at Grésik, besides many other places in the eastern division, in the harbour which is formed by the island of Madúra, and which is sheltered from every wind.
"The resident of Rembáng, and sometimes of Jawána, are almost the only Europeans who build ships, for it is too difficult and dangerous for others to undertake it, under the arbitrary government at present existing in Java, under which nothing can flourish or succeed. But the Chinese, who are favoured in every thing, are well aware how to turn this also to their own advantage, and to build a great number of vessels all along the coast, from fifteen to two hundred tons burthen, for which they get the timber almost for nothing, by means of renting the forest villages. It is easy to imagine, how these avaricious bloodsuckers use the forests, and manage to get all they can out of them. In spite of all this, however, the forests of Java grow as fast as they are cut, and would be inexhaustible under good care and management.
"At Bombay, Surat, and Demaun, and other places along the coast of Malabar, at Bengal, and at Pegu, the English build many large and fine ships, which last a length of time, especially those of Bombay and Malabar built, although I believe the wood produced there, however good, is not equal to the teak of Java."
CHAPTER V.
Commerce—Advantageous Situation of Java for Commercial Intercourse—Importance of Batavia in particular—Native Trade—Roads and Inland Carriage—Markets—Influence of the Chinese—Coasting Trade—Exports and Imports—Trade with the Archipelago—China—Kamtschatka—Western India—Europe, &c.—Dutch Commercial Regulations—State of the Eastern Islands—Advantages which they possess—Causes of the Depression of the Nations and Tribes which inhabit them—Japan Trade.
From the importance which the Dutch, in the days of their greatness, attached to their East-India commerce, of which Batavia was the emporium, and the importance which this commerce conferred upon them, from the desire excited in the other nations to obtain a share in its advantages, and the crimes committed to maintain its undivided monopoly, some idea may be formed of its magnitude and value. When the French troops, in the summer of 1672, under Louis XIV. had overrun the territory of Holland, with the rapidity and irresistible force of the sea after bursting the dykes, the Republic formed the magnanimous resolution of transporting its wealth, its enterprise, and its subjects to another hemisphere, rather than submit to the terms of the conqueror, and fixed upon Batavia, already the seat of its eastern commerce, as the capital of its new empire. They could have found shipping in their own ports for the transport of fifty thousand families; their country was inundated with the ocean, or in possession of the invader; their power and political importance consisted in their fleets and colonies; and having been accustomed to maintain their naval superiority by the fruits of their eastern trade, and to buy the corn of Europe with the spices of the Moluccas, they would have felt less from a removal of their seat of empire from the north of Europe to the south of Asia, than any people who ever contemplated a similar change; while, at the same time, the very project of such an extraordinary emigration, and the means they had of carrying it into effect, give us the highest ideas of the independent spirit inspired by their free government, and of their commercial prosperity, derived, in a great degree, from their eastern establishments and connexions.
The same advantages which the Europeans derived from the navigation of the Mediterranean, the inhabitants of the Malayan Archipelago enjoyed in a higher degree; and it cannot be doubted, that among islands lying in smooth and unruffled seas, inviting the sail or oar of the most timid and inexperienced mariner, an intercourse subsisted at a very early period. To this intercourse, and to the fertility of the soil of Java, which soon rendered it an agricultural country, must be attributed the high degree of civilization and of advancement in the arts, which, from the monuments of its progress which still exist, there is every reason to believe it once attained. In short, to adopt the expressions of Dr. Adam Smith, when speaking of a very different country[54], Java, "on account of the natural fertility of its soil, of the great extent of its sea-coast in proportion to the whole of the country, and of the number of its navigable rivers, affording the conveniency of water carriage to some of its most inland parts, is conveniently fitted by nature to be the seat of foreign commerce, of manufactures for sale to the neighbouring countries, and of all the improvements which these can occasion."
But though there can be little doubt that Java very early emerged from barbarism, and rose to great commercial prosperity, to determine the precise time at which these events took place is perhaps impossible; and to approach the solution of the question would involve an inquiry that will be better reserved till we come to treat of its languages, institutions, and antiquities. If, in the consideration of these topics, it should be made to appear, that, in very remote ages, these regions were civilized from Western India, and that an extensive Hindu empire once existed on Java, it will be reasonable to infer a commercial intercourse still earlier than the communication of laws and improvement.
In the remarkable account of the rich commodities conveyed to ancient Tyre, it would appear that there were many articles the peculiar produce of the Malayan States; and in that given by Strabo of the importations into Egypt, cloves, which we know to be the exclusive produce of the Moluccas, are expressly mentioned. The same taste for the fine kinds of spices, and the same desire to obtain them, which prompted European nations successively to make themselves masters of these islands, must in all probability have operated, in a very remote period, on the merchants of Hindustan, and even of countries lying farther to the westward, who had already found their way into the gold regions; and if the hypothesis, which places Mount Ophir on Sumatra or the peninsula of Malacca, cannot be maintained, it will at any rate be admitted, that previously to the discovery of America, no country was known more rich in gold than the Malayan Islands, and that, on that account, they were peculiarly attractive to foreigners, who could not be supplied from any other quarter.