The natives of the Coromandel and Malabar coast, who reside on Java, are usually termed Moors. They appear to be the remnant of a once extensive class of settlers; but their numbers have considerably decreased, since the establishment of the Dutch monopoly, and the absolute extinction of the native trade with India, which we have reason to believe was once very extensive. Trading vessels, in considerable numbers, still continue to proceed from the Coromandel coast to Sumatra, Penang, and Malacca, but they no longer frequent Java.
_Búgis_ and _Maláyus_ are established in all the maritime capitals of Java. They have their own quarter of the town allotted to them, in the same manner as the Chinese, and are subject to the immediate authority of their respective captains.
Among the Arabs are many merchants, but the majority are priests. Their principal resort is _Grésik_, the spot where Mahomedanism was first extensively planted on Java. They are seldom of genuine Arab birth, but mostly a mixed race, between the Arabs and the natives of the islands.
There is another class of inhabitants, either foreigners themselves, or the immediate descendants of foreigners, whose peculiar situation and considerable numbers entitle them to some notice in the general sketch of the population: I mean the class of slaves. The native Javans are never reduced to this condition; or if they should happen to be seized and sold by pirates, a satisfactory proof of their origin would be sufficient to procure their enfranchisement. The slave merchants have therefore been under the necessity of resorting to the neighbouring islands for a supply, and the greatest number have been procured from _Báli_ and Celebes. The total amount may be estimated at about thirty thousand. According to the returns obtained in 1814, it appeared that the following were the numbers in the principal divisions of the island.
At Batavia and its environs 18,972 In the Semárang division 4,488 In the Surabáya division 3,682 ------- Total 27,142 -------
These slaves are the property of the Europeans and Chinese alone: the native chiefs never require the services of slaves, or engage in the traffic of slavery. The Mahomedan laws, which regulate their civil condition, and permit this abomination in all its extent, are modified by the milder prejudices and more humane temper of the country. The Dutch, who, like us, valued themselves on their political liberty, are here the great promoters of civil servitude, and carried with them into their eastern empire, the Roman law regarding slavery in all its extent and rigour. But although they adopted principles that admitted of the most cruel and wanton treatment of slaves, I would not be understood to say, that they carried these principles into common practice. The contrary was almost universally the case, and the condition of slaves on Java, where they were employed principally in domestic offices, formed a complete contrast to the state of those employed in the West India plantations. It is remarked by Montesquieu, that "in despotic countries, the condition of a slave is hardly more burdensome than that of a subject," and such has been the case in Java. The grounds on which the Dutch justified the practice of making slaves, was not that they could not command the services of the natives with a sway sufficiently absolute, and that they were compelled to seek, beyond the limits of the island, for unfortunate agents to perform what the natives shewed a reluctance to undertake, but that they found the class of foreigners more adroit and docile than the Javans in the conduct of household affairs, and that having reduced them to the state of property, they remained in the family for life, and saved the trouble of a new training.