Fugitive dreams: an anthology of Dutch Colonial literature PDF
Preview Fugitive dreams: an anthology of Dutch Colonial literature
Fugitive Dreams : An Anthology of Dutch title: Colonial Literature Library of the Indies author: Beekman, E. M. publisher: University of Massachusetts Press isbn10 | asin: 0870235753 print isbn13: 9780870235757 ebook isbn13: 9780585186870 language: English Indonesian prose literature (Dutch)-- Translations into English, Dutch--Indonesia- subject -History--Sources, Indonesia--History-- Sources. publication date: 1988 lcc: PT5923.F8 1988eb ddc: 839.3/1808 Indonesian prose literature (Dutch)-- Translations into English, Dutch--Indonesia- subject: -History--Sources, Indonesia--History-- Sources. Page iii Fugitive Dreams An Anthology of Dutch Colonial Literature Edited, translated, with introductions and notes by E. M. Beekman The University of Massachusetts Press Amherst 1988 Page iv Preparation and publication of this work were supported by the Translation Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Foundation for the Promotion of the Translation of Dutch Literary Works, the Prince Bernhard Fund, and the Dutch Ministry of Welfare, Health, and Culture (Ministerie van Welzijn, Volksgezondheid en Cultuur), Department for International Affairs, The Netherlands, to which acknowledgment is gratefully made. Preface, introductions, translations, and notes copyright (c) 1988 by The University of Massachusetts Press Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved Set in Linotron Sabon at G & S Typesetters, Inc. Printed by Cushing-Malloy and bound by John Dekker & Sons Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fugitive dreams. (Library of the Indies) 1. Dutch prose literature-Indonesia-Translations into English. 2. English prose literature-Translations from Dutch. 3. Dutch-Indonesia-History-Sources. 4. Indonesia-History-Sources. I. Beekman, E. M., 1939- . II. Series. 5923.F8 1988 839.3'1808 87-19031 PT 0-87023-575-3 (alk. paper) ISBN British Library Cataloguing in Publication data are available Some portions of this book have appeared in different and abbreviated versions: "Kartini: Letters from a Javanese Feminist, 1899-1902," Massachusetts Review 25, no. 4 (1984); "Against the Grain: A Dutch Soldier in Sumatra," Translation (Columbia University) 24 (Spring 1985); "Bas Veth: A Colonial Muckraker,'' Indonesia (Cornell University) 42 (October 1986). Page v For Joost My temoeshoelawak sobat Page vii Contents Preface to the Series ix Foreword xv Willem Bontekoe 3 Francois[François] Valentijn 55 Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn 96 Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk 130 Bas Veth 163 Alexander Cohen 184 Kartini 235 Willem Walraven 284 Acknowledgments 323 Page ix Preface to the Series This volume is one of a series of literary works written by the Dutch about their lives in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies, now the Republic of Indonesia. This realm of 13,670 islands is roughly one quarter the size of the continental United States. It consists of the four Greater Sunda Islands-Sumatra, larger than California; Java, about the size of New York State; Borneo, about the size of France (presently called Kalimantan); and Celebes, about the size of North Dakota (now called Sulawesi). East from Java is a string of smaller islands called the Lesser Sunda Islands, which includes Bali, Lombok, Sumba, Sumbawa, Flores, and Timor. Further east from the Lesser Sunda Islands lies New Guinea, now called Irian Barat, which is the second largest island in the world. Between New Guinea and Celebes there is a host of smaller islands, often known as the Moluccas, that includes a group once celebrated as the Spice Islands. One of the most volcanic regions in the world, the Malay archipelago is tropical in climate and has a diverse population. Some 250 languages are spoken in Indonesia, and it is remarkable that a population of such widely differing cultural and ethnic backgrounds adopted the Malay language as its lingua franca from about the fifteenth century, although that language was spoken at first only in parts of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula (now Malaysia). Though the smallest of the Greater Sunda Islands, Java has always been the most densely populated, with about two-thirds of all Indonesians living there. In many ways a history of Indonesia is, first and foremost, the history of Java. But in some ways Java's prominence is misleading, because it belies the great diversity of this island realm. For instance, the destination of the Page x first Europeans who sailed to Southeast Asia was not Java but the Moluccas. It was that "odiferous pistil" (as Motley called the clove), as well as nutmeg and mace, that drew the Portuguese to a group of small islands in the Ceram and Banda Seas in the early part of the sixteenth century. Pepper was another profitable commodity, and attempts to obtain it brought the Portuguese into conflict with Atjeh, an Islamic sultanate in northern Sumatra, and with Javanese traders who, along with merchants from India, had been the traditional middlemen of the spice trade. The precedent of European intervention had been set and was to continue for nearly four centuries. Although subsequent history is complicated in its causes and effects, one may propose certain generalities. The Malay realm was essentially a littoral one. Even in Java, the interior was sparsely populated and virtually unknown to the foreign intruders coming from China, India, and Europe. Whoever ruled the seas controlled the archipelago, and for the next three centuries the key needed to unlock the riches of Indonesia was mastery of the Indian Ocean. The nations who thus succeeded were, in turn, Portugal, Holland, and England, and one can trace the shifting of power in the prominence and decline of their major cities in the Orient. Goa, Portugal's stronghold in India, gave way to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, while Batavia was overshadowed by Singapore by the end of the nineteenth century. Although all three were relatively small nations, they were maritime giants. Their success was partly due to the internecine warfare between the countless city-states, principalities, and native autocrats. The Dutch were masters at playing one against the other. Religion was a major factor in the fortunes of Indonesia. The Portuguese expansion was in part a result of Portugal's crusade against Islam, which was quite as ferocious and intransigent as the holy war of the Mohammedans. Islam may be considered a unifying force in the archipelago; it cut across all levels of society and provided a
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