342 SEQUEL OF JAVANESE HISTORY, with the kingdom of Bantam, then the principal emporium of the east for pepper, in those times the staple of European commerce. In i61^ they removed to Jacatra, obtaining per- mission from the prince of that place to settle there. Here they conducted their trade peaceably for five or six years, but at last broke with the prince who had afforded them protection, subdued his countiy, and built Batavia in the year of Salivana 156 1, (A- D. 1619,) on the ruins of his capital. It was in this year that the Sultan of Mataram, incensed at the piratical conduct of the Dutch at Japara which they had de- stroyed, and their violence and usurpations at Jaca- tra, sent on the invitation of the Pangeran of the latter place, a numerous force levied from almost every province of Java to expel them from the country. The result of this expedition, probably the most numerous and powerful which Java had ever seen, consisting of troops accustomed to conquer, and acting under the orders of a victorious monarch, will give us a just impression of the military cha- racter of the Javanese. They were defeated by a handful of Europeans, — after three assaults were unable to capture an ill constructed and half finished redoubt, and, losing the best part of their numbers chiefly by famine and sickness, at last retired dis- comfited and disgraced. Upon this occasion they arrested the progress of the conquests of the kings of Mataram, and so far
