d
formed a vigorous and thriving settlement at Bantam. In the beginning
of the seventeenth century, the English, making a first and feeble
attempt at eastern commerce, to the south of India, formed a factory
at Bantam. But the Dutch, indignant at even the shadow of rivalry,
broke down alike the decaying influence of the Portuguese and the
rising influence of the English, planned a new and stately Eastern
Capital, which, in the spirit of the Hollander, they planted in the
most swampy part of the island; and, surrounded with ditches, in the
closest resemblance to Holland, led a pestilential existence in the
fatness of fens passable only through canals. Batavia was built, the
proverbial place of filth and opulence. The Dutch gradually became
masters of this fine island; divided it into seventeen provinces, and
occupying the commercial coast, left the southern to the divided and
helpless authority of the two native princes, the Sultan and the
Susuhunan.

The French revolutionary war naturally involved the Dutch in the
general conquest of the Netherlands. The rash republicanism of the
factions which had expelled the stadtholder, was speedily punished by
the plunderings and corruptions of their new allies, and the insolent
and atrocious annexation of Holland to the French empire was followed
by the additional calamity of a war with England, which stripped her
of all her colonies. An English expedition sailed for Java, stormed
its defences, and took possession of Batavia and the Dutch possessions
on the island in 1811. An English government was established, Sir
Stamford Raffles was placed at its head, and Java with its infinite
natural resources and incomparable position, promised to become one of
the most important of the Indian colonies of England.

But at the peace of Paris, in 1815, the British policy, which was
directed to the conciliation of the Dutch, and the erection of Holland
into a barrier against France, induced the restoration of Java. This
act of liberality met with strong remonstrance; and a memorial from
the British Resident placed in the fullest point of view the probable
value and actual advantages of retaining Java. But the policy was
already determined on. It is said that, on the Resident's return to
England, he found his original memoir in some of the depositories of
strangled remonstrances, with its seals unbroken. The reason however,
may have been, that the restoration was _un fait accompli_.

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