Chapter III (2)

Having selected a proper spot for the garden, the first operation is to clear the ground of trees, shrubs, and the rank grass or reeds, the latter of which, termed _galúga_, are often found in these situations, and generally indicate a rich soil. In clearing the ground, it is the practise to collect together into heaps, and burn the trees, roots, and other rubbish found on it, the ashes of which serve to enrich the soil: when the trees are very large, the heavy labour of rooting them up is avoided, and the trunks being cut about five feet from the ground, are left in that state to rot, and in their gradual decay still further to enrich the land. As soon as the ground is thus cleared, it is levelled by three or four ploughings at short intervals, and laid out to receive the plants. A fence is planted round them, about twelve feet from their outer row, generally of the _júrak_, or palma christi, intermixed with either the _dádap_, or the silk cotton tree; and, in low situations, outside of this a ditch is dug to carry off the water. These operations commence in August or September, and by the time the ground is in perfect readiness for planting, the heavy rains are nearly over. It then only remains to select the young plants, and prepare the _dádap_ which is intended to shade them.

Of the _dádap_ tree there are three kinds; the _seráp_, _dóri_, and _wáru_: but the first is preferred on account of the greater shade it affords. It is propagated by cuttings, and in selecting them for the coffee plantations, care is had that they are taken from trees at least two or three years old, and that they be three or four feet long, of which one foot at least must be buried in the ground. After the _dádaps_ are planted, holes are dug, from a foot and a half to two feet deep, for the reception of the coffee plant, which is then removed from the seed place or nursery, and transplanted into the gardens.

In coffee gardens of four or five years old, are found quantities of young plants, that have sprung up spontaneously from the ripe berries dropping off the trees, and when these can be obtained about fourteen inches long, of a strong healthy stem, large leaves, and without branches, they are preferred to others: but as the plants thus procured are seldom found in sufficient quantities, nurseries for rearing them are formed as follows: When the berries are allowed to remain on the shrub after maturity, they become black and dry: in this state they are plucked, and sown in seed beds lightly covered with earth: as soon as two small leaves appear, the plants are taken from the bed, and transplanted, about a foot asunder, under the cover of sheds prepared for that purpose; in about eighteen months, these plants are fit for removing into the garden or plantation where they are destined to yield their fruit. In taking the young plant up, the greatest care is necessary not to injure the roots, especially the tap root, and with this view it is generally removed with as much earth attached to it as possible. This precaution has the additional advantage of not too suddenly bringing the plant in contact with a new soil.

The plantations are generally laid out in squares. The distance between each plant varies according to the fertility of the soil: in a soil not considered fertile, a distance of six feet is preserved, and in each interval is a _dádap_ tree for the purpose of affording shade; but in a rich soil, where the plant grows more luxuriantly, fewer _dádaps_ are necessary, and the plants are placed at a greater distance from each other.

On Java a certain degree of shade seems necessary to the health of the coffee-plant, especially in low situations and during its early age; and the _dádap_ is found better calculated for affording this protection than any other shrub in the country. It is a common saying, that where the _dádap_ flourishes, there also will flourish the coffee: but they are not always constant or necessary companions; for in high lands many of the most flourishing gardens are to be observed with very few _dádaps_. The coffee tree yields fruit for a period of twenty years, yet in the low lands it seldom attains a greater age than nine or ten years (during six or seven of which only it may be said to bear), and the fruit is comparatively large and tasteless.

About the end of the rainy season, such coffee plants and _dádaps_ as have not thriven are replaced by others, and the plantations cleaned: this latter operation, in gardens well kept, is generally performed three or four times in the year: but the tree is never cut or pruned, and is universally allowed to grow in all its native luxuriance. In this state, it often in favoured situations attains the height of sixteen feet, and plants of not less than eight inches broad have frequently been procured from the trunk. The general average produce of a coffee-tree is not estimated at much more than a _káti_, or a pound and a quarter English, notwithstanding some yield from twenty to thirty _kátis_.

There does not appear to be any fixed or certain season for the coffee to arrive at maturity. In the _Súnda_ districts the gathering usually commences in June or July, and it is not till April that the whole crop is delivered into store. The season, however, generally gives what is termed three crops; of which the first is but small, the second the most abundant, and the third, being what is left to ripen, may be considered rather as a gleaning. When the berries become of a dark crimson colour, they are plucked one by one, with the assistance of a light _bámbu_ ladder or stage, great care being taken not to shake off the blossoms which are still on the tree, or to pluck the unripe fruit. The women and children usually collect the crop, while the husband is elsewhere engaged in harder labour. Attached to every principal village, near which there are coffee plantations of any extent, there is a drying-house, to which the newly gathered coffee is brought: it is there placed on hurdles, about four feet from the floor, under which a slow wood fire is kept up during the night. The roof of the drying-house is opened in the mornings and evenings, to admit the air, and the berries are frequently stirred to prevent fermentation. As the heat of the sun is considered prejudicial, the roof of the house is closed during the day. This operation is repeated till the husk is quite dry. The berries dried in this way are small, and of a sea green or greyish colour, and are supposed to acquire a peculiar flavour from the smoke, although it does not appear that any particular kind of wood is used for fuel. When dried in the sun, the bean becomes of a pale bleached colour, is larger, specifically lighter, and more insipid to the taste than the former. The most common mode of freeing the bean from the husk is, to pound the berries when dry in a bag of buffalo's hide, great care being taken not to bruise the bean. A mill of simple construction is sometimes used, but is not found to answer so well. The coffee being then separated from the husk, is put into bags or baskets, and kept on raised platforms till the season of delivery, when it is carried down to the storehouse, sometimes by men, but generally on the backs of buffaloes and mares, in strings of fifteen hundred or two thousand at a time.

In the _Súnda_ districts there have been, for many years past, three principal depôts for receiving the coffee from the cultivators; viz. at _Buitenzorg_, _Chikàn_, and _Karang-sámbang_. From _Buitenzorg_ it is either sent direct to Batavia by land in carts, or by the way of _Linkong_, whence it is forwarded in boats by the river _Chi-dáni_. From _Chikàn_ the coffee is sent in boats down the river _Chi-táram_, and thence along the sea-coast to Batavia. From _Karang-sámbang_ it is sent down the river _Chi-mánok_ to _Indra-máyu_, where it is received into extensive warehouses, and whence it is now generally exported for the European market.

Under this system, the _Súnda_ districts were estimated to afford an annual produce of one hundred thousand _píkuls_ of one hundred and thirty-three pounds and a quarter each, and it was calculated that the young plantations in the eastern districts, when they should come into bearing, would produce an equal quantity; but in this latter quarter, many of the gardens had been fixed on ill-judged spots, and the inhabitants were averse to the new and additional burden which this cultivation imposed upon their labour. Had the system, therefore, even been persevered in, and enforced by a despotic authority, it is questionable, whether the quantity anticipated in the above estimate, or even one half of it, would have been obtained from the eastern districts. The _Súndas_ living in an inland and mountainous country, and having been long accustomed to the hardship of the coffee culture, are less sensible of its pressure than the rest of their countrymen: time and habit have reconciled them to what was at first revolting, and what must always be considered as unjust; their modes of life, their arts, their domestic economy, and other social habits, have all adapted themselves to a species of labour, which was at first forced upon them; and a state of servitude, which the philosopher would lament as a degradation, is scarcely felt to be a grievance by them. Instances, however, are not wanting, in which the usual measure of exaction having been surpassed, they have been awakened to a sense of their wretchedness. A government of colonial monopolists, eager only for profit, and heedless of the sources from which it was derived, sometimes subjected its native subjects to distresses and privations, the recital of which would shock the ear of humanity. Suffice it to say, that the coffee culture in the _Súnda_ districts has sometimes been so severely exacted, that together with the other constant and heavy demands made by the European authority on the labour of the country, they deprived the unfortunate peasants of the time necessary to rear food for their support. Many have thus perished by famine, while others have fled to the crags of the mountains, where raising a scanty subsistence in patches of _gánga_, or oftener dependent for it upon the roots of the forest, they congratulated themselves on their escape from the reach of their oppressors. Many of these people, with their descendants, remain in these haunts to the present time: in their annual migrations from hill to hill, they frequently pass over the richest lands, which still remain uncultivated and invite their return; but they prefer their wild independence and precarious subsistence, to the horrors of being again subjected to forced services and forced deliveries at inadequate rates.

It is difficult to say what was the recompense received by the cultivator previous to the year 1808. The complicated system of accounts which then prevailed, seemed only calculated to blind the government, and to allow the European commissary to derive an income of from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars (25,000_l._ per annum), at the expence of the authorities by whom he was employed, and the natives whom he oppressed. This, in common with most of the establishments on the island, underwent a revision in the time of Marshal Daendels; and it was then directed, that the cultivators should receive on delivery at the storehouses, three rix-dollars copper for each mountain _píkul_ of two hundred and twenty-five pounds Dutch, being little more than one dollar per hundred weight, or one half-penny per pound. This same coffee was sometimes sold at Batavia, within fifty miles of the spot where it was raised, at twenty Spanish dollars the hundred weight, and has seldom been known to bring in the European market less than eleven pence the pound. This, however, was deemed a liberal payment by the Dutch, though in some cases it had been transported over sixty miles of an almost impassable country, where two men are required to carry a hundred-weight of coffee, on their shoulders, at an expence of labour which one would suppose at least equal to this remuneration.

Under the administration of the British government, the free cultivation of coffee, in common with that of all other articles, was permitted to the inhabitants of Bantam, _Chéribon_, and all the eastern districts; and at the time when the island was again ceded to the Dutch, arrangements were in progress for extending the same provision throughout the _Súnda_ districts, under a conviction, that the quantity produced would not be less under a system of free cultivation and free trade, than under a system in which it was found necessary, as one of the first acts of European authority, to compel the native princes to direct "the total annihilation of the coffee culture within their dominions," and to secure by treaty with them the destruction and confiscation of all coffee found in the hands of the natives[46]. A considerable portion of the peasantry, as already observed, have long been accustomed to the cultivation, and it is owing to their skill and experience, as much as to any direct superintendence or interference of the European officers (who generally derive their information from the native chiefs, and have little more to do, than occasionally to ride through the garden with a pompous suite, keep the accounts, and examine the coffee as it is received), that the coffee has so long been furnished for the European market; the experience obtained in the eastern districts, during the last three years, proves at least that coercive measures are unnecessary. There are many parts of Java, particularly the _Príang'en_ regencies, where the soil is peculiarly and eminently adapted to the cultivation; and although it is difficult yet awhile to fix the exact rate at which the coffee might be produced under a free system, it may be calculated to be raised for exportation at about forty shillings per hundred weight.

Of the quality of the Javan coffee, in comparison with that of other countries, it may be observed, that during the last years, it has invariably maintained its price in the European market in competition with that of Bourbon, and rather exceeded it, both of them being higher than the produce of the West Indies. During the last years of the British administration on Java, and after the opening of the European market again afforded a demand, about eleven millions of young coffee shrubs were planted out in new gardens.

Pepper, which at one time formed the principal export from Java, has for some time ceased to be cultivated to any considerable extent. It was principally raised in Bantam, and the dependencies of that province in the southern part of Sumatra; and in the flourishing state of the monopoly, these districts furnished the Dutch with the chief supply for the European market.

But the system by which it was procured was too oppressive and unprincipled in its nature, and too impolitic in its provisions, to admit of long duration. It was calculated to destroy the energies of the country, and with them, the source from whence the fruits of this monopoly proceeded. In the year 1811, accordingly, neither Bantam nor its dependencies furnished the European government with one pound of this article.

That pepper may be produced on Java, and supplied at a rate equally moderate with that at which other productions requiring similar care are furnished, cannot admit of a doubt, and this reasonable price may be estimated at about six or seven Spanish dollars (thirty to thirty-five shillings) the píkul. The plant grows luxuriantly in most soils, and when once reared requires infinitely less care and labour than coffee. The cultivation of it on Sumatra and Prince of Wales' Island having been so accurately and minutely described by Mr. Marsden and Dr. Hunter, it would be unnecessary here to detail the system followed on Java, as it is in most points the same. The only peculiarity regarding it which may deserve notice is, that on this island the plant is allowed to grow to a much greater size, entwining itself round the cotton trees, frequently to the height of fifty and sixty feet.

Indigo, called _tom_ by the Javans, and by the _Súndas tárum_, is general, and raised in most parts of the island. The indigo prepared by the natives is of an indifferent quality, and in a semifluid state, and contains much quick-lime; but that prepared by Europeans is of very superior quality.

An inferior variety, denominated _tom-ménir_, having smaller seeds, and being of quicker growth, is usually planted as a second crop in _sáwahs_, on which one rice crop has been raised. In these situations, the plant rises to the height of about three feet and a half. It is then cut, and the cuttings are repeated three, or even four times, till the ground is again required for the annual rice crop. But the superior plant, when cultivated on _tégal_ lands, and on a naturally rich soil, not impoverished by a previous heavy crop, rises in height above five feet, and grows with the greatest luxuriance. The plants intended for seeds are raised in favoured spots on the ridges of the rice fields in the neighbourhood of the villages, and the seed of one district is frequently exchanged for that of another. That of the rich mountainous districts being esteemed of best quality, is occasionally introduced into the low lands, and is thought necessary to prevent that degeneration, which would be the consequence of cultivating for a long time the same plant upon the same soil. In the province of _Matárem_, where indigo is most extensively cultivated, it is sold in the market in bundles, as low as eight-pence the píkul weight; but in the vicinity of _Semárang_, and in districts where it is not produced in great abundance, it bears an advance upon this price of fifty per cent.

The climate, soil, and state of society on Java, seem to offer peculiar advantages to the extensive cultivation of this plant; and under the direction of skilful manufacturers, the dye stuff might form a most valuable and important export for the European market. The periodical draughts and inundations, which confine the cultivation and manufacture in the Bengal provinces to a few months in the year, are unknown in Java, where the plant might, in favoured situations, be cultivated nearly throughout the whole year, and where at least it would be secure of a prolonged period of that kind of weather, necessary for the cutting. The soil is superior, and a command of water affords facilities seldom to be met with elsewhere; while, from the tenure on which the cultivators hold their land, and the state of society among them, advances on account of the ensuing crop, which in Bengal form so ruinous a part of an indigo concern, are here unnecessary, and would be uncalled for.

The dye (_níla_ blue) is prepared by the natives in a liquid state, by infusing the leaves with a quantity of lime: in this state it forms by far the principal dye of the country. Besides the quantity of it consumed within the island, it is sometimes exported to neighbouring countries by native traders, and sold at the rate of from a dollar and a half to three dollars the _píkul_, according as the plant may be in abundance or otherwise.

It is impossible to form any idea of the rate at which this species of dye can reasonably be manufactured for the European market, from the prices paid by the Dutch, both because the article was one of those classed by them under the head of forced deliveries, and because the regents, who were entrusted with its exclusive management, not fully understanding the process of making it, conducted it always in a very expensive way, and were frequently exposed to entire failures.

The cotton of the country, distinguished by the name of _kápas jáwa_, is a variety of the gossypium herbaceum; but it is inferior to that generally cultivated on the Indian continent, which is also found on Java, and called by the Javans _kápas múri_. The plant of the former differs from the latter, in having a smaller stem, and in yielding a material, both of coarser fibre and in less quantity. There is a third variety, with a subarborescent stem, called _kápas táhon_, which is very scarce. Trials remain to be made, to determine how far the culture of the Indian cotton might be extended, so as to supersede the Javan cotton. The inferior kind, which forms the principal, and indeed with the mass of the people the only material for clothing, is cultivated in almost every part of the island. The soil, however, is not considered as universally favourable to its growth: many of the low lands, consisting of a clay, which bursts in the dry season, are unfit for it; and on several of the more fertile districts, where the plant itself flourishes, little cotton is obtained from it: the declivities of the hills, in which the mountain rice is raised, yield in general the best and most abundant supply. At present, scarcely a sufficient quantity is produced on the island to employ the female part of the inhabitants; and one district often depends upon another for the principal part of what it uses. The cotton of _Bányumás_ is exported to _Bágalen_, to _Tégal_, and the western parts of _Matárem_, where it is manufactured; the environs of _Wong'go_, _Adi-langú_, and other places towards the southern hills, supply both the capitals in the interior; _Kediri_, _Pranárága_, and the vicinity, likewise furnish considerable quantities for other parts of the island. In the _Súnda_ districts, the principal supply is received from the east and west _Jámpang_. The culture of cotton, and the manufacture of yarn, are in some degree promoted by an ancient custom, which imposes on every householder or village a certain contingent of cotton yarn for the sovereign, or for the person who holds the land on his account: this custom is called _panyúmpleng_. The chiefs on Java, and particularly on _Báli_, frequently wear a skein of cotton yarn entwined round the handle of the kris; a custom which sufficiently indicates the respect paid to this species of cultivation.

The Javan cotton is a hardy plant, which grows to about the height of a foot and a half. It is generally planted on the _sáwahs_ after the reaping of the rice crop, and yields the cotton in less than three months. The Indian cotton grows to a larger size, and produces a material of an infinitely superior quality; but it is more delicate in its nature, must be watched with greater care, and requires a month longer to attain to maturity. Cotton cultivated on _tégal_, or dry land, is considered as generally better than that raised as a second crop on _sáwah_; and this mode of cultivation has been adduced as the cause of the superiority ascribed to the cotton of _Bâli_, and other more eastern islands.

Tobacco,[47] termed by the natives _tombáku_, or _sáta_, is an article of very general cultivation, but is only extensively raised for exportation in the central districts of _Kedú_ and _Bányumás_: as it requires a soil of the richest mould, but at the same time not subject to inundations, these districts hold out peculiar advantages to the tobacco-planter, not to be found on the low lands. For internal consumption, small quantities are raised in convenient spots every where; but the most eastern districts and _Madúra_ are principally supplied from _Púgar_. Bantam receives its supply from _Bányumás_, by means of native traders from _Pakalúngan_ visiting that port in small craft. The produce of _Kedú_ is conveyed by men to _Semárang_, the great port of exportation.

In _Kedu_ it forms, after rice, by far the most important article of cultivation; and, in consequence of the fitness of the soil, the plant grows to the height of from eight to ten feet, on lands not previously dressed or manured, with a luxuriance seldom witnessed in India. Cultivated here alternately with rice, only one crop of either is obtained within the year; but after the harvest of the rice, or the gathering of the tobacco-leaves, the land is allowed to remain fallow, till the season again arrives for preparing it to receive the other. The young plant is not raised within the district, but procured from the high lands in the vicinity; principally from the district of _Káli-béber_, on the slope of the mountain _Díeng_ or _Práhu_, where it is raised and sold by the hundred to the cultivators of the adjoining districts. The transplantation takes place in the month of June, and the plant is at its full growth in October.

Wheat has been introduced by the Europeans, and cultivated with success to the extent required by the European population. It thrives in many parts of the interior of the country: it is sown in May, and reaped in October; and, where the cultivation has been left to the Javans, the grain has been sold at the rate of about seven rupees the _píkul_.

Potatoes have been cultivated during the last forty years, in elevated situations, near all the principal European establishments, and are reckoned of a quality superior to those ordinarily procured in Bengal or China. Few of the natives, however, have as yet adopted them as a common article of food. Besides potatoes, most of the common culinary vegetables of Europe are raised in the gardens of the Europeans and Chinese. It must be confessed, however, that they degenerate, if perpetuated on the soil without change; and that their abundance and quality depends, in a great measure, on the supplies of fresh seed imported from Europe, the Cape, or other quarters.

Having now given an account of the different kinds of produce raised within the island, and the arts of husbandry practised by the natives, I shall conclude this short sketch of Javan agriculture by an account of the tenure of landed property, the rights of the proprietor and tenant, the proportion of the produce paid for rent, the division of farms among the inhabitants of villages, and the causes that have obstructed or promoted agricultural improvements.

The relative situation, rank, and privileges of the village farmer and the native chief in Java, correspond in most instances, with those of the Ryot and Zemindar of Bengal; but the more frequent and more immediate interference of the sovereign, in the former case, with any tendency to established usage or prescriptive claim, has left no room for that difference of opinion, concerning proprietary right, which exercised the ingenuity of the highest authorities in the latter. In Bengal, before the introduction of the permanent revenue settlement, there were usages, institutions, and established modes of proceeding with regard to landed estates, that rendered it doubtful in which of the three parties more immediately interested, the proprietary right should finally and lawfully be settled. The claim of the Ryot to retain the land which he cultivated, so long as he paid the stipulated contribution, seemed to raise his character above that of an ordinary tenant removeable at pleasure, or at the conclusion of a stipulated term. The situation of the Zemindar, as the actual receiver of the rents, standing between the sovereign and the cultivator, although merely for the purpose of paying them over with certain deductions to the sovereign, and his frequently transmitting the office with its emoluments to his children, although held only during pleasure, gave his character some affinity to that of an European landholder. And lastly, the sovereign himself, who ultimately received the rents, and regulated them at his pleasure, and removed both Zemindar and Ryot, in case of negligence or disobedience, was arrayed with the most essential attributes of proprietary right, or at least exercised a power that could render any opposite claims nugatory. Thus the Ryot, the Zemindar, and the Sovereign, had each his pretensions to the character of landholder. After much cautious inquiry and deliberate discussion on the part of our Indian government, the claims of the Zemindars, rather perhaps from considerations of policy than a clear conviction of their superior right, were preferred. In Java, however, except in the cases of a few alienated lands and in the _Súnda_ districts, of which more will be said hereafter, no such pretensions are heard of, as those which were advocated on the part of the Zemindars of western India; although inquiries to ascertain the equitable and legitimate rights of all classes of the people, were known to be in progress, and a plan was declared to be in contemplation for their permanent adjustment. From every inquiry that was instituted under the British government, and every fact that was presented to the view of its officers, it appeared that, in the greatest part of the island, in the eastern and middle districts, and in short in those provinces where rent to any considerable amount was attainable, there existed no proprietary right between that of the sovereign and that of the cultivator, that the government was the only landholder.

There are lands, indeed, which contribute nothing to the state, some on which the cultivator pays no rent whatever, and others of which the rent remains in the hands of his immediate superior; but the manner in which individuals acquire, and the tenure by which they hold such lands, form illustrations and proofs of the proprietary right of the sovereign. As his resources arise almost entirely from the share of produce which he exacts, and as he considers himself invested with an absolute dominion over that share, he burthens certain villages or estates with the salaries of particular officers, allots others for the support of his relatives or favourites, or grants them for the benefit of particular charitable or religious institutions; in the same manner as, before the Consolidation Act in this country, the interest of particular loans were fixed upon the produce of specific imposts. Here the alienation shews the original right: the sovereign renounces the demand to which he was entitled; he makes no claim upon the farmer for a share of the crop himself, but orders it to be paid over to those whom he thus appoints in his place, so far as the gift extends. With the exception of the _Súnda_ districts, as already stated, and a comparatively inconsiderable portion of land thus alienated on different conditions, the proprietary right to the soil in Java vests universally in the government, whether exercised by native princes or by colonial authority, and that permanent and hereditary interest in it so necessary to its improvement, those individual rights of property which are created by the laws and protected by the government, are unknown. With these exceptions, neither law nor usage authorizes the oldest occupant of land in Java to consider the ground which he has reclaimed from waste, or the farm on which he has exerted all his industry, as his own, by such a tenure as will enable him, and his successors for ever, to reap the fruits of his labour. He can have gained no title, even to a definite term of occupancy, but from the capricious servant of a capricious despot, who himself is not legally bound by his engagement, and whose successor is not even morally bound by it.

As a matter of convenience, the same cultivator may continue to occupy the same portion of land for life, and his children, after his decease, may inherit the ground which he cultivated, paying the dues to which he was liable. The head of a village, whether called _Búkul_, _Peting'gi_, or _Lúrah_, may be continued in the collection of the village rents for life, and may be succeeded in office by his heirs; the superior officer, or _Demáng_, with whom he accounts, may likewise hold his situation for a long period, and transmit it to his family; but none of them can stand in the possession against the will of their immediate superior, or of the sovereign, by any claim of law or custom.

Little of the revenue collected from the occupants is transmitted to the government treasury; the greatest part of that which is raised, and which, in other countries, would come into the hands of government, for subsequent distribution among its servants and the support of its various establishments, is intercepted in its progress by those to whom the sovereign immediately assigns it. The officers of police, of justice, of the prince's household, and, in short, public servants of all classes, from the prime minister down to the lowest menial, are paid with appropriations of the rent of land.

To this general principle of Javan law and usage, that the government is the only landholder, there are exceptions, as I mentioned before, in some districts of the island. These are chiefly in the districts inhabited by the _Súndas_, who occupy the mountainous and woody country in the western division of the island. Among them, private property in the soil is generally established; the cultivator can transmit his possession to his children: among them, it can be subdivided, without any interference on the part of a superior; the possessor can sell his interest in it to others, and transfer it by gift or covenant. He pays to his chief a certain proportion of the produce, in the same manner as the other inhabitants of Java; because, in a country without trade or manufactures, labour or produce is the only shape in which he can contribute to support the necessary establishments of the community. So long as he advances this tribute, which is one-tenth or one-fifth of the gross produce, he has an independent right to the occupancy of his land, and the enjoyment of the remainder. The reason why the landed tenure of these districts differs, in so important a particular, from that of the most extensive and valuable part of the island, may perhaps be explained from their nature, without resorting to any original difference in the laws of property, or the maxims of government. Where the population is small in proportion to the extent of soil, and much land remains unoccupied, the best only will become the subject of demand and appropriation. The latter alone is valuable, because it yields great returns for little labour, and therefore offers inducements to engage in its cultivation, in spite of many artificial disadvantages: it alone can afford a desirable surplus, after maintaining the hands that call for its fertility, and consequently tempts power to reserve unalienated the right to this surplus. On the other hand, when waste ground is to be reclaimed, when forests or jungle are to be cleared, or when a sterile and ungrateful spot is to be cultivated, the government have less interest in reserving the surplus, and must offer superior inducements of immunity, permanency, or exemption, to lead to cultivation. On this principle, the tenure of land in the _Súnda_ districts, and on some parts of the coast, may be accounted for. It may be concluded, that many of these lands were reclaimed from waste by the present occupiers or their immediate predecessors, and their rights to possess them, which is similar to that which the discoverer of an unappropriated field, forest, or mine would have, by nature, to as many of their products as he could realize by his labours, has not been crushed or interfered with by the sovereign; a forbearance, probably, more to be attributed to motives of prudence than to the restraint of law. Nearly coincident with this conclusion is the supposition which assumes, that before the introduction of the Mahomedan system, and the encroachments of despotic sovereigns, all the lands on the island were considered as the property of those who cultivated them; but that, as the value of the most fertile spots became more apparent, while the labour which had been originally expended in clearing them, and constituted the title to their original occupancy, was gradually forgotten, the government found inducements and facilities to increase its demands, and thus became possessed of the rights of some by violence, while it rendered those of all unworthy of being preserved. The land tenures of the _Súnda_ districts, according to this hypothesis, are only wrecks of the general system, which have been protected against encroachment, because they did not so powerfully invite rapacity. Whatever truth there may be in this opinion, the fact is undoubted, that in the mountainous and less fertile districts of Java, and in the island of _Báli_, where the Mahomedan sway has not yet extended, individual proprietary right in the soil is fully established, while in that portion of Java where the Mahomedan rule has been most felt, and where proprietary right amounts to the greatest value, it vests almost exclusively in the sovereign.

The situation, however, of the cultivator in the Sunda districts, who is a proprietor, is not much more eligible than that of the tenant of the government: he may, it is true, alienate or transfer his lands, but while he retains them, he is liable to imposts almost as great as they can bear; and when he transfers them, he can therefore expect little for surrendering to another the privilege of reaping from his own soil, what is only the average recompense of labour expended on the estate of another. The Revenue Instructions, therefore, bearing date the 11th February 1814, and transmitted from the local government to the officers intrusted with the charge of the several provinces subject to its authority, lay down the following general position: "The nature of the landed tenure throughout the island is now thoroughly understood. Generally speaking, no proprietary right in the soil is vested in any between the actual cultivator and the sovereign; the intermediate classes, who may have at any time enjoyed the revenues of villages or districts, being deemed merely the executive officers of government, who received these revenues from the gift of their lord, and who depended on his will alone for their tenure. Of this actual proprietary right there can be no doubt that the investiture rested solely in the sovereign; but it is equally certain, that the first clearers of the land entitled themselves, as a just reward, to such a real property in the ground they thus in a manner created, that while a due tribute of a certain share of its produce was granted to the sovereign power for the protection it extended, the government, in return, was equally bound not to disturb them or their heirs in its possession. This disposal of the government share was thus, therefore, all that could justly depend on the will of the ruling authority; and consequently, the numerous gifts of land made in various periods by the several sovereigns, have in no way affected the rights of the actual cultivators. All that government could alienate was merely its own revenue or share of the produce. This subject has come fully under discussion, and the above result, as regarding this island, has been quite satisfactorily established." It is remarked, in a subsequent paragraph of the same instructions, "that there have been, it is known, in many parts of the country, grants from the sovereign of lands in perpetuity, which are regularly inheritable, and relative to which the original documents still exist. Of these, some have been made for religious purposes, others as rewards or provision for relatives or the higher nobility. These alienations, as far as it was justly in the power of the sovereign to make, must certainly be held sacred; but their extent should be clearly defined, that the rights of others be not compromised by them. The government share, when granted, will not be reclaimed; but the rights of the cultivator must not be affected by these grants. Such proprietors of revenue, as they may be termed, shall in short be allowed to act, with regard to the cultivators on their estates, as government acts towards those on its own lands, that is, they shall receive a fixed share of the produce, but whilst that is duly delivered, they shall neither exact more nor remove any individual from his land." It is remarked by Major Yule, the British resident, in his Report on Bantam, that there, "all property in the soil is vested exclusively in the hands of the sovereign power; but in consequence of its having been long customary to confer grants of land upon the different branches of the royal family, and other chiefs and favourites about court, a very small portion was left without some claimant or other. The _púsákas_ granted to the relations of the Sultan were considered as real property, and sometimes descended to the heirs of the family, and at others were alienated from it by private sale. To effect a transfer of this nature, the previous sanction of the Sultan was necessary, after which the party waited on the high priest, or _Mangku-bumi_, who made the necessary inquiries, and delivered the title deeds to the purchaser, in which were specified the situation, extent, boundaries, and price of the land sold. A register of sales was kept by the priests, the purchaser paying the fees; and it rarely occurred that lands sold in this manner were ever resumed by the crown, without some adequate compensation being made to the purchaser. _Púsákas_ given to chiefs for services performed, were recoverable again at pleasure, and always reverted to the crown on the demise of the chief to whom they had been granted: in all other respects, the same privileges were annexed to them as to the former. The holders of _púsáka_ lands were very seldom the occupants; they generally remained about the court, and on the approach of the rice harvest deputed agents to collect their share of the crop. They do not let their lands for specific periods. The cultivators are liable to be turned out at pleasure, and when ejected, have no claims to compensation for improvements made while in possession, such as water-courses, or plantations of fruit trees made by themselves or their parents."

"We must make a distinction," say the Dutch Commissioners appointed to investigate this subject in 1811, "between the _Príangén_ regencies, the province of _Chéribon_, and the eastern districts. Throughout the whole extent of the _Príangen_ regencies exists a pretended property on uncultivated lands, on which no person can settle without the consent of the inhabitants of that _désa_, or village. In the _sáwah_ fields, or cultivated lands, every inhabitant, from the Regent down to the lowest rank, has a share, and may act with it in what manner he pleases, either sell, let, or otherwise dispose of it, and loses that right only by leaving the village in a clandestine manner.

"In the province of _Chéribon_, according to the ancient constitution, each district and _désa_, like the _Príangen_ regencies, has its own lands; with the difference, however, that whilst those regencies are considered as belonging to villages and individuals, here the villages and lands are altogether the pretended property of the chiefs, or of the relations or favourites of the Sultans, who even might dispose of the same, with one exception, however, of that part allotted to the common people. Sometimes the Sultans themselves were owners of _désas_ and chiefs of the same; in which case the inhabitants were better treated than in the former instances. If an individual thought himself wronged by the chief, who either sold, hired out, or otherwise disposed of his lands, he took his revenge, not on that chief, but on the person who held possession of the property. To corroborate this statement it may be mentioned, that the lands in the district of _Chéribon_ were for the most part farmed out to Chinese, who increased their extortions in proportion as the chief raised his farm or rent, and thus almost deprived the common people of all their means.

"On the north-east coast of the eastern districts, no person can be called a proprietor of rice fields or other lands: the whole country belongs to government, and in this light do all the Regents consider it. The rice fields of a regency are divided among the whole of the population: in the division the chiefs have a share, according to their rank, occupations, or taxes they are paying.

"The chief enjoys his lands as long as he holds his station; the common people for a year only, when it falls to the share of another inhabitant of the _désa_, or village, that all may reap a benefit from it in turn. The ideas of the Javans concerning tenures, thus appear to be of three kinds: in the _Súnda_ division they consist in allotting to the villages of uncultivated, and to individual persons of certain portions in the cultivated or sáwah fields: in _Chéribon_, the sultans and chiefs, as well as the common people, assert pretensions to similar allotments: in the eastern districts, on the contrary, nobody pretends to the possession of land; every one is satisfied with the regulation laid down, but if a man's share is withheld, he is apt to emigrate. No person considers himself bound to servitude. The Javans, however, in the _Príang'en_ regencies, in _Chéribon_, and in the eastern districts, pretend to have an unquestionable right to all the fruit trees and _síri_ plants, at or near their _kámpung_ or _désa_."

"There is not," says Mr. Knops, another of the Dutch Commissioners, "a single Javan, who supposes that the soil is the property of the Regent, but they all seem to be sensible that it belongs to government, usually called the sovereign among them; considering the Regent as a subject like themselves, who holds his district and authority from the sovereign. His idea of property is modified by the three kinds of subjects to which it is applied: rice fields, _gâgas_, and fruit trees. A Javan has no rice fields he can call his own; those of which he had the use last year will be exchanged next year for others. They circulate (as in the regency of _Semárang_) from one person to another, and if any one were excluded, he would infallibly emigrate. It is different with the _gágas_, or lands where dry rice is cultivated: the cultivator who clears such lands from trees or brushwood, and reclaims them from a wilderness, considers himself as proprietor of the same, and expects to reap its fruits without diminution or deduction. With regard to fruit trees, the Javan cultivator claims those he has planted as his legal property, without any imposts: if a chief were to trespass against this right, the village would soon be deserted. The Javan, however, has not, in my opinion, any real idea of property even in his fruit trees, but usage passes with him for a law. All dispositions made by the chief, not contrary to custom or the _ádat_, are considered as legal, and likewise all that would contribute to ease the people, by lessening or reducing the capitation tax, the contingent, the feudal services, in short all the charges imposed upon them. A different system would be contrary to custom. Whatever favours the people is legal, whatever oppresses them is an infraction of the custom."

The tenure of land in the native provinces is the same generally as in the eastern districts. Thus stands the question with regard to the proprietary right to the soil in Java; but it is of more consequence in an agricultural point of view, and consequently more to my present purpose, to inquire how that right is generally exercised, than in whom it resides. Though the cultivator had no legal title to his lands, there might still be such a prevalent usage in favour of his perpetual occupancy, as would secure him in the enjoyment of his possession, and enable him to reap the fruits of his industry equally with the protection of his positive law.

But unfortunately for the prosperity of the people, this was far from being generally the case. The cultivator had little security for continued occupancy, but the power, on his part, of enduring unlimited oppression without removing from under it, or the interest of his immediate superior in retaining a useful slave; and as he could not expect to reap in safety the fruits of his industry, beyond the bare supply of his necessities, he carried that industry no farther than his necessities demanded. The sovereign knew little about the state of his tenantry or the conduct of his agents, and viewed the former only as instruments to create the resources, which the latter were employed to collect or administer. All his care was to procure as much from the produce of the soil and industry of his subjects as possible, and the complaints of the people, who suffered under the exactions of these chiefs, were intercepted on their way to the throne, and perhaps would have been disregarded had they reached it. The sovereign delegates his authority over a province of greater or less extent, to a high officer called _Adipáti_, _Tumúng'gung_, or _Ang'ebái_, who is himself paid by the rent of certain portions of land, and is responsible for the revenues of the districts over which he is appointed. He, in his turn, elects an officer, called _Demáng_ or _Mántridésa_, to administer the subdivisions or districts of the province, to appoint the chiefs, and to collect the rents of several villages. The village chief, _Búkul_, _Lúrah_, or whatever designation he bears in the different parts of the island, thus appointed by his immediate superior, is placed in the administration of the village, required to collect the government share of the crop from the cultivator, and to account for it to the _Demáng_. In some provinces, the village elects its own chief, called _Petíng'gi_, who exercises similar functions with the _Búkul_ appointed by government, as will be afterwards more particularly observed in the account of the native administration. As all the officers of government, of whatever rank, are paid their salaries in the produce of the land, the _Búkuls_ and the _Demángs_ become responsible for the share of the appropriations of villages to this account, as much as if it went into the government treasury. They are themselves paid by the reservation of a certain share of what they collect, and of course are always ready to please their employers, and to increase their own emoluments, by enforcing every practicable exaction. Every officer has unlimited power over those below him, and is himself subject to the capricious will of the sovereign or his minister. When the Regent makes any new or exorbitant demand upon those whom he immediately superintends, they must exact it with an increased degree of rigor over the chiefs of villages, who are thus, in their turn, forced to press upon the cultivator, with the accumulated weight of various gradations of despotism.

The _Búkul_, or the _Petíng'gi_ is the immediate head of the village, and however much his authority is modified in particular districts, has always extensive powers. To the cultivators, he appears in the character of the real landholder, as they have no occasion to look beyond him to the superior, by whom he is controlled. He distributes the lands to the different cultivators on such shares, and in such conditions, as he pleases, or as custom warrants, assesses the rents they have to pay, allots them their village duties, measures the produce of their fields, and receives the government proportion. He sometimes himself cultivates a small portion of land, and in so far is regarded only as a tenant, like the rest of the villagers. He is accountable for all the collections he realizes, with the reservation of a fifth part for his trouble, which share must be viewed merely as the emoluments of office, and not as the rent of the landlord, or the profits of a farmer. He sometimes holds his situation immediately of the sovereign, or by the election of the cultivators; but more generally from the intermediate agent of government, whom I have mentioned above, to whom he is accountable for his receipts. By his superior he may be removed at pleasure; although the local knowledge and accumulated means, which are the consequence of the possession of office, generally insure its duration to his person for a considerable period, or as long as his superior himself retains his power.