OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 419 be expected, in the courage of the Chinese inhabit- ants. Their principal soldiery, were natives of Japan, who, as usual, distinguished themselves by their forward courage. Such is a brief narrative of the two famous sieges of Batavia. The greatest and most powerful of the princes of Javanese history ^ends, in the zenith of his power, and in two successive years, armies of more than one hundred thousand men each against a half-finished fortress, defended by an insignificant body of perhaps undisciplined Europeans, and he is triumphantly defeated. From the year 16*29 to the year 1675 may be looked upon as the most flourishing period of the Dutch history of Java, as well as of their settle- ments elsewhere. Their transactions, during this period, were chiefly mercantile ; but, at the con- clusion of it, they became involved in the politics of Java ; so that the epoch of their political great- ness, of their own commercial ruin, of the humi- liation of the natives, and the destruction of ge« neral commerce, may justly be considered as co- eval. The Dutch, in the year 1675, took part with the Sultan of Matarara against his rebellious sub- jects, and were fully committed in the expences^ intrigues, and crimes which characterized the con- test, which ended in the year 1681 by the death of the rebel, Truna Jaya. Treaties were concluded
