My acknowledgments are due to the Right Honourable Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart., the venerable President of the Royal Society, for his kindness and encouragement; and particularly so to Mr. CHARLES WILKINS, Librarian to the East-India Company, as well as to Mr. WILLIAM MARSDEN, for many suggestions, of which I regret that I have not been enabled to avail myself so much as I could wish, in consequence of the haste with which the work has been got up. I am also indebted to Mr. THOMAS MURDOCH, not only for access to his valuable library, but for illustrations from Portuguese authors, which the reader will find in the Introduction and Appendix. For all that relates to the Natural History of Java, I am indebted to the communications of Dr. THOMAS HORSFIELD. Though sufficient for my purpose, it forms but a scanty portion of the result of his long and diligent researches on this subject. Of this, however, I am happy to say, that the Public will shortly be able to judge for themselves. In sketching the state of the Dutch East-India Company, and the measures adopted by the Dutch government respecting Java, subsequently to the year 1780, I have availed myself of much very valuable information communicated to me by Mr. H. W. MUNTINGHE, President of the Supreme Court of Justice at Batavia; and as, in the course of this work, I have often been obliged to condemn the principles and conduct of the Dutch colonists, I am anxious to acknowledge the distinguished merit of this excellent magistrate, and that of Mr. J. C. CRANSSEN, President of the Bench of Schepenen, both selected by the late EARL OF MINTO to be members of the British Council in Java. The English came to Java as friends. Holland had ceased to be an independent nation, and for the time there could be but two parties, the one English, the other French. The emissaries of the late ruler of France had perverted the minds of the majority: many were doubtful on which side they should rally. At this critical juncture these two gentlemen declared for England and the ancient order of things; and to the influence of their decision and conduct is to be ascribed, not only the cordiality and good understanding which soon prevailed between the English and Dutch, but in a great measure also that general tranquillity of the country, without which the re-transfer of it to the rule of its former masters might have been impracticable.