o the
attack of a tiger, the native is invariably the victim. This assertion
is confirmed by many examples. Dr. Selberg conjectures various reasons
for this eccentricity or epicurism, whichever it may be termed, on the
part of the tiger, and amongst other hypotheses, suggests that the
animal may be partial to the hogoo of the Javans, who anoint their
yellow carcases with cocoa-nut oil. The Javans themselves explain it
differently, and maintain that the souls of Europeans pass, after death,
into the bodies of tigers--a bitter satire upon those whose mission it
was to civilise and improve, and who, but too often, have preferred to
persecute and deprave. Such a superstition demonstrates more than whole
volumes of history, after what manner the first acquaintance was made
between this artless, peaceful people, and their European conquerors.
The early administration of the Dutch in Java was marked by many acts of
cruelty. "Their leading traits," says Raffles, "were a haughty
assumption of superiority, for the purpose of over-awing the credulous
simplicity of the natives, and a most extraordinary timidity, which led
them to suspect treachery and danger in quarters where they were least
to be apprehended." Thus we find them, in the sixteenth century,
murdering the Prince of Madura, his wives, children, and followers,
merely because, when he came to visit them on board their ships, with
friendly intentions and by previous agreement, his numerous retinue
inspired them with alarm. The massacre of the Chinese in the streets of
Batavia, in the year 1731, when nine thousand were slain in cold blood
in the course of one morning, is another crime on record against the
Dutch. Step by step, their path marked with blood, the people who had at
first thankfully received permission to establish a single factory,
obtained possession of the whole island. On its southern side there are
still two nominally independent princes, in reality vassals of the
Dutch, and existing but at their good pleasure. The present character of
the Dutch administration is mild; the slaves, especially, now few and
decreasing in number, are humanely treated, and in fact are better off
than the lower orders of the free Javans, being employed as household
servants, whilst the natives drag out a painful and laborious existence
in the rice and coffee-fields. But, however good the intentions of the
Dutch government, however meritorious the endeavours of certain
governors-g