To this general principle of Javan law and usage, that the government is the only landholder, there are exceptions, as I mentioned before, in some districts of the island. These are chiefly in the districts inhabited by the _Súndas_, who occupy the mountainous and woody country in the western division of the island. Among them, private property in the soil is generally established; the cultivator can transmit his possession to his children: among them, it can be subdivided, without any interference on the part of a superior; the possessor can sell his interest in it to others, and transfer it by gift or covenant. He pays to his chief a certain proportion of the produce, in the same manner as the other inhabitants of Java; because, in a country without trade or manufactures, labour or produce is the only shape in which he can contribute to support the necessary establishments of the community. So long as he advances this tribute, which is one-tenth or one-fifth of the gross produce, he has an independent right to the occupancy of his land, and the enjoyment of the remainder. The reason why the landed tenure of these districts differs, in so important a particular, from that of the most extensive and valuable part of the island, may perhaps be explained from their nature, without resorting to any original difference in the laws of property, or the maxims of government. Where the population is small in proportion to the extent of soil, and much land remains unoccupied, the best only will become the subject of demand and appropriation. The latter alone is valuable, because it yields great returns for little labour, and therefore offers inducements to engage in its cultivation, in spite of many artificial disadvantages: it alone can afford a desirable surplus, after maintaining the hands that call for its fertility, and consequently tempts power to reserve unalienated the right to this surplus. On the other hand, when waste ground is to be reclaimed, when forests or jungle are to be cleared, or when a sterile and ungrateful spot is to be cultivated, the government have less interest in reserving the surplus, and must offer superior inducements of immunity, permanency, or exemption, to lead to cultivation. On this principle, the tenure of land in the _Súnda_ districts, and on some parts of the coast, may be accounted for. It may be concluded, that many of these lands were reclaimed from waste by the present occupiers or their immediate predecessors, and their rights to possess them, which is similar to that which the discoverer of an unappropriated field, forest, or mine would have, by nature, to as many of their products as he could realize by his labours, has not been crushed or interfered with by the sovereign; a forbearance, probably, more to be attributed to motives of prudence than to the restraint of law. Nearly coincident with this conclusion is the supposition which assumes, that before