the introduction of the Mahomedan system, and the encroachments of despotic sovereigns, all the lands on the island were considered as the property of those who cultivated them; but that, as the value of the most fertile spots became more apparent, while the labour which had been originally expended in clearing them, and constituted the title to their original occupancy, was gradually forgotten, the government found inducements and facilities to increase its demands, and thus became possessed of the rights of some by violence, while it rendered those of all unworthy of being preserved. The land tenures of the _Súnda_ districts, according to this hypothesis, are only wrecks of the general system, which have been protected against encroachment, because they did not so powerfully invite rapacity. Whatever truth there may be in this opinion, the fact is undoubted, that in the mountainous and less fertile districts of Java, and in the island of _Báli_, where the Mahomedan sway has not yet extended, individual proprietary right in the soil is fully established, while in that portion of Java where the Mahomedan rule has been most felt, and where proprietary right amounts to the greatest value, it vests almost exclusively in the sovereign. The situation, however, of the cultivator in the Sunda districts, who is a proprietor, is not much more eligible than that of the tenant of the government: he may, it is true, alienate or transfer his lands, but while he retains them, he is liable to imposts almost as great as they can bear; and when he transfers them, he can therefore expect little for surrendering to another the privilege of reaping from his own soil, what is only the average recompense of labour expended on the estate of another. The Revenue Instructions, therefore, bearing date the 11th February 1814, and transmitted from the local government to the officers intrusted with the charge of the several provinces subject to its authority, lay down the following general position: "The nature of the landed tenure throughout the island is now thoroughly understood. Generally speaking, no proprietary right in the soil is vested in any between the actual cultivator and the sovereign; the intermediate classes, who may have at any time enjoyed the revenues of villages or districts, being deemed merely the executive officers of government, who received these revenues from the gift of their lord, and who depended on his will alone for their tenure. Of this actual proprietary right there can be no doubt that the investiture rested solely in the sovereign; but it is equally certain, that the first clearers of the land entitled themselves, as a just reward, to such a real property in the ground they thus in a manner created, that while a due tribute of a certain share of its produce was granted to the sovereign power for the protection it extended, the government, in return, was equally bound not to disturb them or their heirs in its possession.