These observations apply principally to the inhabitants of villages, at some distance from the seats of the princes or regents, and the contagion of the larger capitals, and more particularly to the people of the Súnda districts. Those of higher rank, those employed about court, or in administering to the pleasures or luxuries of the great, those collected into the capitals or engaged in the public service, are frequently profligate and corrupt, exhibiting many of the vices of civilization without its refinement, and the ignorance and deficiencies of a rude state without its simplicity. The people in the neighbourhood of Batavia are the worst in the Island, and the long intercourse with strangers has been almost equally fatal to the morals of the lower part of Bantam. The population collected at the native capitals is naturally influenced, to a certain extent, by the vices of the court; but the further they are removed from European influence and foreign intercourse, the better are their morals and the happier are the people.
In attempting to exhibit some of the more striking features of the Javan character, it becomes necessary to distinguish between the privileged classes of society and the mass of the people. Long continued oppression may have injured the character of the latter, and obliterated some of its brighter traits; but to the former, the constant exercise of absolute dominion has done a more serious injury, by removing every salutary restraint on the passions, and encouraging the growth of rank and odious vices. In the peasantry we observe all that is simple, natural, and ingenuous: in the higher orders we sometimes discover violence, deceit, and gross sensuality.
Where not corrupted by indulgence on the one hand, or stupified by oppression on the other, the Javans appear to be a generous and warm-hearted people. In their domestic relations they are kind, affectionate, gentle, and contented; in their public, they are obedient, honest, and faithful. In their intercourse with society, they display, in a high degree, the virtues of honesty, plain dealing, and candour. Their ingenuousness is such, that as the first Dutch authorities have acknowledged, prisoners brought to the bar on criminal charges, if really guilty, nine times out of ten confess, without disguise or equivocation, the full extent and exact circumstances of their offences, and communicate, when required, more information on the matter at issue than all the rest of the evidence. Although this may, in some degree, be the result of the former use of torture, it cannot be wholly so.
Though not much addicted to excess, and of rather a slow temperament, they are in general liberal and expensive, according to their means, seldom hoarding their wealth, or betraying a penurious disposition. Fond of show and pomp, they lay out all their money, as soon as it is acquired, in the purchase of articles of dress, horses, splendid trappings, &c.: but they possess a quality which is not always joined with a love of splendour, either in nations or individuals; they are cleanly in their persons, and pay the greatest attention to neatness, as well as to glare and finery.
Hospitality is universal among them; it is enjoined by their most ancient institutions, and practised with readiness and zeal. The Javans are exceedingly sensible to praise or shame[74], and ambitious of power and distinction; but their national oppressions or agricultural habits have rendered them somewhat indifferent to military glory, and deprived them of a great portion of their ancient warlike energy. They are more remarkable for passive fortitude than active courage, and endure privations with patience, rather than make exertions with spirit and enterprize.
Though living under a government where justice was seldom administered with purity or impartiality, and where, of course, we might expect to see the hand of private violence stretched out to punish private wrong, or a general spirit of retaliation and insidious cruelty prevailing, the Javans are, in a great degree, strangers to unrelenting hatred and blood-thirsty revenge. Almost the only passion that can urge them to deeds of vengeance or assassination, is jealousy. The wound given to a husband's honour by seducing his wife, is seldom healed, the crime seldom forgiven; and what is remarkable, the very people who break the marriage tie on the slightest caprice, or the most vague pretence, are yet uncommonly watchful over it while it remains entire. They are little liable to those fits and starts of anger, or those sudden explosions of fury, which appear among northern nations. To this remark have been brought forward as exceptions, those acts of vengeance, proceeding from an irresistible phrenzy, called mucks, where the unhappy sufferer aims at indiscriminate destruction, till he himself is killed like a wild beast, whom it is impossible to take alive. It is a mistake, however, to attribute these acts of desperation to the Javans.
That such have occurred on Java, even during the British administration, is true, but not among the Javans: they have happened exclusively in the large towns of Batavia, Semárang, and Surabáya, and have been confined almost entirely to the class of slaves. This phrenzy, as a crime against society, seems, if not to have originated under the Dutch, certainly at least to have been increased during their administration, by the great severity of their punishments. For the slightest fault, a slave was punished with a severity which he dreaded as much as death; and with torture in all its horrid forms before his eyes, he often preferred to rush on death and vengeance.
Atrocious crimes are extremely rare, and have been principally owing to misgovernment when they have occurred. In answer to what has been asserted concerning robberies, assassinations, and thefts, it may be stated, that during the residence of the English, an entire confidence was reposed in the people, and that confidence was never found misplaced. The English never used bars or bolts to their houses, never travelled with arms, and no instance occurred of their being ill used. The Dutch, on the contrary, placed no confidence: all their windows were barred, and all their doors locked, to keep out the treacherous natives (as they called them), and they never moved five miles abroad without pistols and swords. What could be expected by a government that derived a principal part of its revenue by the encouragement of vice, by the farms of gaming, cock-fighting, and opium shops? After the two former were abolished by the English, and the local government had done all in its power to discourage the latter, a visible amelioration took place in the morals of the lower ranks.
Hordes of banditti, formidable for their numbers and audacity, formerly infested some parts of the country, particularly the provinces of Bantam and Chéribon; but since they have been dispersed by the strong hand of government, the roads of Java may be travelled in as much security as those of England.
Much has been said of the indolence of the Javans, by those who deprived them of all motives for industry. I shall not again repeat what I have formerly on several occasions stated on this subject, but shall only enter a broad denial of the charge. They are as industrious and laborious as any people could be expected to be, in their circumstances of insecurity and oppression, or as any people would be required to be, with their advantages of soil and climate. If they do not labour during the whole day, it is because such persevering toil is unnecessary, or would bring them no additional enjoyments. The best refutation of the charge of indolence is to be found in the extent of their cultivation, the well dressed appearance of their rice fields, and the abundant supplies of their harvests. They generally rise by daylight: at half-past six they go out to the rice fields, where they employ their buffaloes till ten, when they return home, bathe, and refresh themselves with a meal. During the violent heat of the noon they remain under the shade of their houses or village trees, making baskets, mending their implements of husbandry, or engaged in other necessary avocations, and at about four return to the sáwahs to labour them, without buffaloes or other cattle. At six they return to their homes, sup, and spend the remainder of their time till the hour of rest (which is generally between eight and nine) in little parties for amusement or conversation, when the whole village becomes a scene of quiet content and pleasure. The same round of toil and relaxation is observed during the season for garden culture, dry field labour, or other employments.