SEQUEL OF JAVANESE HISTORT. 839 the Mahomedan religion had assumed the ascen- dancy in the island. The immediate successors of the first apostles of Islam still ruled the country, though it would appear that many of the inha- bitants continued to follow their ancient wor- ship.-^ It was not a moment propitious to the in- troduction of a new power, or the introduction of a new religion. The Portuguese were, besides, ful- ly occupied on the continent of India, and the western portions of the Archipelago, and were at
- The Portuguese, on their first arrival, are said to have
treated with a Hindu sovereign in the western end of the island. In the voyage of Olivt-r Noort round the world, he touched in I6OI at the eastern end of Java. The narrative, according to Purchas, has the following strange passage, which does not occur in the narrative in the " Collection of voyages which contributed to the formation of an East Indian Com- pany." — " On the twentie-eight they came to Jortan, and heard of Holland ships at Bantam. Heere they bought mac« and provision. Jortan hath a thousand houses all of timber. The king was absent at Passaruan, five years before he had be- sieged Balamboa, and destroyed the king with all his kindred. He is also king of Sorbay, a citie not far distant, all which four cities are Mahometan, and very rigid in that stvinish su' perstition. The Pagodes and idols argue permission of Elh- nicke and ancienter Indian rights.'^ — Pilgrims, Book 11. p. 77' The Dutch voyagers may have been deceiveo by the number of ancient temples of Hindu worship, which must have existed at a period little more than a century after the subversion of Hinduism.
