While the British were in possession of Java, there is reason to believe that the population of the Island was rapidly increasing; that of the provinces immediately under the European authority was certainly augmented by the return of numerous families from emigration: but previously to that period, no such authentic registers were kept as might enable us to ascertain with precision the variations in the number of the inhabitants during the Dutch government. Nothing can more completely shew the vague and defective information formerly attainable on this subject, than the loose and contradictory statements published by those who took most pains to be well informed, and who felt it their duty to collect all the light that could be attained. In some accounts which have met the public eye, the population of Java is placed on a level with that of the most powerful European states, and assumed as high as thirty millions, while in others, where one would expect more accuracy[39], it is rated at only a million. The most respectable authorities[40] state the population about a century ago at three millions; but the slightest reflection will convince us, that such an estimate must have proceeded upon data merely conjectural, for from our knowledge of the Dutch maxims of administration we may safely say, that until very lately, they never thought it an object to prosecute statistic enquiries, and that if ever they had done so, under the old system, they could have obtained no results deserving of confidence or credit. About the year 1750, a certain number of families were assigned by the stipulations of a treaty to one of the native princes[41]; and on his death, about thirty years afterwards, when an account was taken of this population, it appeared that the number of families had nearly doubled. But this increase cannot be taken as the average increase of the Island, for at this period the native provinces received a considerable accession to their numbers, in consequence of the emigrations from the Dutch territories. If any inference can be drawn from this and other corresponding circumstances, it would seem, that notwithstanding the drains on the existing race, and the preventive checks to an increase, which were experienced during the latter years of the Dutch administration, the island was actually more populous in 1811, when it was surrendered to the British, than in 1750, when at the termination of a destructive war, the Dutch acquired the greatest portion of it from the natives.