In the absence of authentic documents, which would have enabled us to resolve many interesting questions regarding the population, such as the number of children to a marriage, the ordinary length of life, the proportion of children that die in infancy and at the other stages of life, the ratio between the births and deaths, and the consequent rate of increase, the effect of polygamy and multiplied divorces, the comparative healthiness of the towns and the villages, and several others,--I shall state a few observations on some of these heads, and a few facts tending to shew, that under a better system of government, or by the removal of a few of the checks that previously existed, Java might, in a short time, be expected to be better peopled. The soil is in general extremely fertile, and can be brought to yield its produce with little labour. Many of the best spots still remain uncultivated, and several districts are almost desert and neglected, which might be the seats of a crowded and happy peasantry. In many places, the land does not require to be cleared, as in America, from the overgrown vegetation of primeval forests, but offers its services to the husbandman, almost free from every obstruction to his immediate labours. The agricultural life in which the mass of the people are engaged, is on Java, as in every other country, the most favourable to health. It not only favours the longevity of the existing race, but conduces to its more rapid renewal, by leading to early marriages and a numerous progeny. The term of life is not much shorter than in the best climates of Europe. A very considerable number of persons of both sexes attain the advanced age of seventy or eighty, and some even live to one hundred and upwards; nearly the same proportion survive forty and fifty, as in other genial climates.