These observations apply principally to the inhabitants of villages, at some distance from the seats of the princes or regents, and the contagion of the larger capitals, and more particularly to the people of the _Súnda_ districts. Those of higher rank, those employed about court, or in administering to the pleasures or luxuries of the great, those collected into the capitals or engaged in the public service, are frequently profligate and corrupt, exhibiting many of the vices of civilization without its refinement, and the ignorance and deficiencies of a rude state without its simplicity. The people in the neighbourhood of Batavia are the worst in the Island, and the long intercourse with strangers has been almost equally fatal to the morals of the lower part of Bantam. The population collected at the native capitals is naturally influenced, to a certain extent, by the vices of the court; but the further they are removed from European influence and foreign intercourse, the better are their morals and the happier are the people. In attempting to exhibit some of the more striking features of the Javan character, it becomes necessary to distinguish between the privileged classes of society and the mass of the people. Long continued oppression may have injured the character of the latter, and obliterated some of its brighter traits; but to the former, the constant exercise of absolute dominion has done a more serious injury, by removing every salutary restraint on the passions, and encouraging the growth of rank and odious vices. In the peasantry we observe all that is simple, natural, and ingenuous: in the higher orders we sometimes discover violence, deceit, and gross sensuality. Where not corrupted by indulgence on the one hand, or stupified by oppression on the other, the Javans appear to be a generous and warm-hearted people. In their domestic relations they are kind, affectionate, gentle, and contented; in their public, they are obedient, honest, and faithful. In their intercourse with society, they display, in a high degree, the virtues of honesty, plain dealing, and candour. Their ingenuousness is such, that as the first Dutch authorities have acknowledged, prisoners brought to the bar on criminal charges, if really guilty, nine times out of ten confess, without disguise or equivocation, the full extent and exact circumstances of their offences, and communicate, when required, more information on the matter at issue than all the rest of the evidence. Although this may, in some degree, be the result of the former use of torture, it cannot be wholly so.