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BY THE LATE
SIR THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES, F.R.S.
FORMERLY LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THAT ISLAND AND ITSDEPENDENCIES, AND PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY OFARTS AND SCIENCES AT BATAVIA.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
MDCCCXXX.
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON.[Vol I Pg iii]
SIR,
The gracious permission which I have receivedto dedicate these volumes to your Royal Highness,affords me an opportunity of interestingyour Royal Highness in favour of the amiableand ingenuous people whose country they describe.The high respect they entertain forBritish valour and justice, and the lively gratitudethey retain for the generous system ofBritish Legislation, will, I am sure, give them astrong claim upon your Royal Highness's goodopinion.[Vol I Pg iv]
To uphold the weak, to put down lawlessforce, to lighten the chain of the slave, to sustainthe honour of the British arms and Britishgood faith; to promote the arts, sciences, andliterature, to establish humane institutions, areduties of government which have been mostconspicuously performed during your RoyalHighness's regency. For a period of nearlyfive years, in which I have had the honour, asa servant of the East India Company, to presideover a mild and simple people, it has beenmy pride and my ambition to make known tothem the justice and benevolence of my Prince,whose intentions towards them I could onlyfulfil by acting up to the principles of the Authoritywhich I represented, and by doing everything in my power to make them happy.
To those who judge that the right to expresstheir sentiments requires no more than sincerity,or that their praise is of a value to overbalancethe disrespect of offering it, I shall leave theusual language of dedications. Conscious thatthe assurances of respect and of loyal attach[Vol I Pg v]mentcan never be offered to your Royal Highnessby the humblest British subject, withoutmeeting a gracious reception,
I have the honour to be,
With profound veneration and respect,
SIR,
YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS'S
Most faithful and most dutiful servant,
THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES.
London, June 1, 1817.
[Vol I Pg vi]
As it is possible that, in the many severe stricturespassed, in the course of this work, upon the DutchAdministration in Java, some of the observationsmay, for want of a careful restriction in the wordsemployed, appear to extend to the Dutch nation andcharacter generally, I think it proper explicitly todeclare, that such observations are intended exclusivelyto apply to the Colonial Government and itsOfficers. The or