Pietersen Koen, they changed their plans, and,
instead of retiring from the island, proceeded to lay the foundations of
an extensive settlement at Jakatra.

In the following year (1621) the name of Batavia was given to the
settlement, and from this period onwards the Dutch continually increased
their influence in the island, until in 1749 a deed containing a formal
abdication of the sovereignty of the country was secured from the dying
_susunan_ (or Mohammedan emperor). In this the unfortunate prince
"abdicates for himself and his heirs the sovereignty of the country,
conferring the same on the Dutch East India Company, and leaving it to
them to dispose of in future, to any person they might think competent
to govern it for the benefit of the company and of Java."[3] It is by
virtue of this deed that the Dutch East India Company, and subsequently
the Dutch Colonial Government, became practically landlord of the whole
island. Since the Government assumed possession of the soil they have
gradually bought up the previously existing rights of the native
princes, and in return have guaranteed them certain revenues, which have
now become in most cases mere official salaries. Among the rights which
the Government secured, by thus becoming landlord of the island, was
that of receiving one-fifth part both of the produce and of the labour
of the Javan peasants. This fact--that the mass of the Javan natives
owed, as it were, feudal services to the Government--explains the
comparative ease with which, nearly a century later, the culture system
was introduced.

[Footnote 3: Raffles' "History."]

The English settlement at Bantam was withdrawn in 1683, and no effort
was made to interfere with the Dutch until the year 1811, when, owing to
the conquests of Napoleon in Europe, the island had become a mere French
province. In that year a British force reduced Java and its
dependencies. During the short period of British occupation (1811-1816)
extensive reforms were introduced by Sir Stamford Raffles, the
lieutenant-governor. These reforms had for their object the improvement
of the condition of the mass of Javan natives, and the liberation of the
industries of the island from the restrictions placed upon them by the
monopolist policy of the Dutch. Whatever may be the verdict of history
as to the practical value of these proposals, the attempt to carry them
out has at least left behind such a tradition of British justice as to
caus