increase of the manufacture. [63] Mr. Hogendorp makes the following observations on the coffee and pepper of Java:--"In comparing the produce of the West Indian islands, according to their proportionate extent, population, and expenses of cultivation, I have frequently left off in the middle of my calculations; but I am sure that Java, on a very moderate calculation, can without difficulty yield fifty millions of pounds of coffee annually. "For a long period, the planting of coffee was confined to the Batavian high and _Priáng'en_ lands, and to _Chéribon_, on the principles of that short-sighted and self-destroying policy and spirit of monopoly, by which the company and the government of Batavia have ever been characterized. It is only of late years that it has been permitted to extend and revive the cultivation in the eastern districts. But the Commissioners, in May 1796, ordered that the cultivation should be abolished; and in the month of September in the same year, this order was countermanded, and the planting of coffee ordered to be promoted in the most rigorous manner possible. But what is to be expected from a country, where the natives are so treated, so oppressed? To-day the Javan is ordered to plant his garden with coffee trees: he does so, and although well aware how little he will get for the fruit, he sees them grow up with pleasure, considering their produce as a tribute which he must pay to his master for enjoyment of protection; but now, when they are about to bear fruit, he is ordered to root them out: he does so, and four months afterwards he is again ordered to plant others! Can a more infamous tyranny be imagined? Can it be credited, that any government should act so madly, so inconsistently? And yet this is the plain and real truth. But how can stupid ignorance, which by the vilest means, by base meanness, mercenary marriages, and every kind of low trick, rises into power and importance, and then becomes by wealth luxurious, and by flattery intoxicated, act otherwise? And will you, Batavians, continue to trust in such hands as these, your valuable possessions and interests in India?