different states, is a subject new to the historian, and not uninteresting to the philosopher.
If we admit the natural inference, that the population of the Islands originally emigrated from the continent, and, at the same time, the probability, that the country lying between Siam and China, is the immediate source from whence such emigration originally proceeded, the history of the Eastern Islands may, with reference to that of Java in particular, in which a powerful Hindu government was without doubt early established, be divided into five distinct periods.
The first division would include the period commencing with the earliest accounts of the population, down to the first establishment of a foreign colony in Java, of which the written annals of the country make mention. The date of this is pretty accurately ascertained, and may be fixed at about the commencement of the sixth century of the Javanese era, or A. D. 600; at which time only the period of authentic history can be considered to commence.
The origin of all nations is buried in obscurity; and, unless we may succeed in obtaining new lights from Siam or China, we shall have but little to guide us, during the early part of this division, beyond conjecture, and such general inferences as may be drawn from a similarity in person, language and usages, still found to prevail among the less civilized tribes. According to the division of Sir William Jones, the original population of the islands were doubtless of the Tartar race, and probably from the same stock as the Siamese. The Javans date the commencement of their era from the arrival of Adi Saka, the minister of Prabu Joyo Boyo, sovereign of Hastina, and the fifth in descent from Arjuno the favourite of Krisna, and the leading hero of the B'rata Yud'ha. This epoch corresponds with that of the introduction of a new faith into China, and the further peninsula, by Saka, Shaka, or Sakia, as he is differently termed, and with the chronology of the Hindus, as explained by Sir William Jones, in which Saka is supposed to have reigned seventy-nine years subsequent to the commencement of the Christian era. But whether Saka himself, or only some of his followers, assuming this name, found their way to Java, may be questionable; and it is not impossible that the Javanese may have subsequently adopted the era, on a more extended intercourse with the further peninsula. A connection would at any rate appear to have existed between Java and Siam; as this Adi Saka is not only represented to have founded the present era of Java, but to have introduced the original letters of the Javanese alphabet, by a modification of the letters used in Western India, and in Siam. It does not appear that either he or his followers established themselves in any authority; and we can trace but little with certainty during the following five centuries. Some
NO. XV. Pam. VOL. VIII. G
