Of the wisdom and benevolence which determined the late EARL OF MINTO to place two members of the Dutch nation at the Board of the British Council in Java, it is unnecessary to speak. The measure was in the same spirit which uniformly actuated that enlightened and virtuous statesman, my revered patron and ever lamented friend. The selection of the two gentlemen whom I have mentioned, was no less advantageous. To their countrymen it was peculiarly so, and I am happy to have this opportunity of publicly expressing my acknowledgments to them for the good counsel, firm support, and unwearied exertions, by which they were distinguished while members of the Board. ORTHOGRAPHY. The principles of Orthography, recommended by Sir WILLIAM JONES, and adopted by the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, have been adopted in this work, with some slight modifications. The consonants preserve the same sounds generally as the same letters in the English alphabet: the vowels are used as in Italian. To avoid confusion, the emphatic syllables are alone accented, and the inherent vowel _a_ has invariably been adopted. FOOTNOTES: [1] Dr. J. C. LEYDEN, the bard of Tiviotdale, who accompanied the expedition to Batavia in 1811, and expired in my arms a few days after the landing of the troops. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. In reprinting the History of Java in its present form, the Editor feels it necessary to say a few words. Though the first edition of this work has been honored with extraordinary success, and has long been exhausted, so that copies have become rare, yet Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES always considered it as a hasty production, requiring great alteration and improvement; and if it had pleased God to prolong his course of usefulness in this world, he would have bestowed upon it those corrections and additions which he thought it required. The present Editor has only ventured to add a few short notes which she found prepared by Sir STAMFORD, and to omit, according to his intention, the larger part of the comparative vocabularies, retaining only a hundred words in each language. The additional plates were prepared some years ago, for a second quarto edition: they are now published, with those belonging to the first edition, in a separate quarto volume, detached entirely from the present work. For the drawings from which the engravings of the antiquities are made, Sir STAMFORD was indebted to Lieut.-Colonel BAKER, of the East India Company's service; and the present Editor is happy to have this opportunity of acknowledging the obligation, as well as her thanks, for many kind intentions to aid her in reprinting this history.