away by the _Maláyus_, the _Búgis_, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Arabs, they for the most part contented themselves with enjoying the advantages of a trade, in which they incurred no chance of loss; and thus, though their own country yielded neither gold nor jewels, they are said to have been plentifully supplied with these and other valuable articles on their own shores, in exchange for the produce of their tranquil industry and their fertile soil. This kind of traffic was almost entirely annihilated, or at least very much diverted from its ancient course, by the restrictive system of Dutch colonial policy. Some branches of it were, it must be allowed, partially encouraged by the influx of European capital and the demand for particular articles which bear a high price in the European market; but this was an inadequate compensation for the loss of that commerce, which may be said to be as much the growth of the country as any of its indigenous plants. In order to show to what insignificance it was reduced under Dutch oppression, and what tendency it has to improve under a better system, it is only necessary to compare its state during the latter years of the Dutch government, before the blockade, and afterwards during the short interval of British administration. For the first of these purposes, I have drawn, in the introduction to this work, a short sketch of the condition of the Dutch East India Company, for a considerable period previous to our arrival; and I now proceed to give some account of the external and internal trade of Java, as it existed at the time when we restored it to its former masters. The extent of this commerce, since the establishment of the British government, and since a greater freedom of trade has been allowed, may, for a want of a better criterion, be estimated from the amount of tonnage employed since the beginning of the year 1812, at which period the operations of the military expedition had ceased, and the transports were discharged. In the year 1812, the number of square-rigged vessels which entered the port of Batavia amounted to 239, and their aggregate tonnage to 48,290 tons, and in the same year the native craft amounted to 455 vessels, or 7,472 tons, or together 55,762 tons. The quantity cleared out during the same year was 44,613 tons of shipping, and 7,762 of native craft, making together 52,375. In the year 1813, the number of square-rigged vessels was 288, and the tonnage 51,092, the native craft amounting to 796 vessels, or 13,214 tons, or together 64,306 tons. In 1814, three hundred and twenty-one ships, or 63,564 tons, cleared out with 568 native vessels, or 9,154 tons, shewing the total tonnage of Batavia during this year to have amounted to 72,718 tons.