2. Ancient history of Java; containing its fabulous history, in two quarto volumes, in Dutch: this appears to be compiled from the ancient mythological poems and voyangs, or dramas, of Java, and communicated by the liberality of a Dutch gentleman, by whose desire they were translated.

3. A dictionary of the Javanese language in Dutch, communicated by its author, still living at Sa

marang.

4. Several other abridged memoirs and historical materials relating to Java; descriptions and reports relating to Batavia, and to the island in general and its climate, with memoirs on commercial and political subjects.

5. Copy ofa grammar of the ancient Tamil Grant' ham character written in India, with copies of some ancient inscriptions transcribed from the original' in the library of the Literary Society of Batavia; and a variety of memoirs illustrative of the statistics and geography of Java, composed at Colonel MACKENZIE's request.

6. Extracts and copies of some memoirs and abridgements addressed to the Honourable the Lieut.Governor, Mr. RAFFLES, who liberally communicated them; they are in answer to queries and suggestions recommended to particular persons more conversant in the customs and history of the country, by Colonel MACKenzie.

Ancient Inscriptions, Coins, and Sculptures, in every country, assist materially in developing the ancient his

Attempts are making to form a Javanese and English Dictionary from this, but for want of assistants the work is delayed; Colonel MACKENZIE has brought a Javanese with him, who assists to render it, by means of the Malay, into the English language.

tory and origin of nations, of institutions, and of the arts and sciences. In India the pursuit has been so successful that it could scarcely be omitted in Java.

Inscriptions.-Setting modern inscriptions out of the question, about twenty inscriptions or sassanams in ancient characters have been discovered in Java only, one of which had been noticed, and that slightly, by European authors (the Batu Tulis).* Fac-similes have been taken of them, and copies are intended to be communicated to the Society at Calcutta, and to any others desirous of the communication. Three different characters are used in them, all yet undeciphered. One alone in the Déva-nagari character was found on the visit to Prambana.

Ancient Coins.-A small collection has been made, à few are Chinese and Japanese, most of them of a kind hitherto unnoticed by any European collector, perforated in the centre by a square opening, and bearing a variety of figures resembling those of the voyangs, or Javanese plays. None of these coins are to be found even in the collection of the Batavian Society; they are usually dug up with other vestiges of antiquities near places that have been destroyed by volcanic eruptions. It is singular, that a few coins of the same Chinese kind were found some years ago in a distant part of the Mysore country; and one also among the ancient coins recently discovered at Mahabalipuram near Madras, a circumstance that points at early commercial communication between the oriental islands and continents with India.

Ancient Sculptures and Images are frequently met in Java, some indicating the existence of Hindú mythology at a certain period; most of them relate to the Budd'hist and Jaina doctrines; some few specimens of the small copper images dug up were obtained, and drawings have

been taken of all the remains of architecture and sculpture that were discovered in the tract of this tour. Several of these drawings relate to the interesting remains of Prambana, said to be a very early and the most ancient capital of the dominion, arts, and literature of Java. A particular memoir of its present state was communicated to the Society of Batavia, and has been published in the seventh volume of their Transactions, but without the drawings of curious sculptures, as no engraver was to be found at Batavia.

Colonel MACKENZIE has thus attempted to convey a hasty, but, he trusts, correct idea of some of the objects that have occupied much of his time in Java; for, besides those observations in a military and political view that might be expected from his professional situation on the late expedition, it was also necessary to pay attention to the inquiries and objects of the commission on tenures and lands, &c. in Java, to which he was appointed in January 1812, when on the journey to the eastward.

In conclusion, he apprehends that ample materials are collected to give a pretty clear view of the present state of Java, to which if the materials now considerably increased can assist in adding any illustration of the ancient history and the geography of that island, it will be gratifying to him if his exertions can in the least degree have contributed to stir up a spirit of inquiry that may be usefully applied to fill up the outlines he has ventured to trace.

Fort William, 10th of November, 1813.

B.

Extract of a general Letter from England in the public Department, dated Feb. 9, 1810, to the Government of Fort St. George.

2. In our despatch of the 11th January, 1809, written

in the regular course of reply to letters from you in this department, we were prevented by the pressure of other affairs from entering into the consideration of the subject which occupied your letter of the 14th March, 1807, namely, the services of Lieutenant-Colonel COLIN MACKENZIE in the survey of Mysore, and certain provinces adjacent to it.

3. Having now reviewed with attention the whole of that subject, as it is detailed in the letter just mentioned, and the papers which accompanied it, and in the various documents which are referred to in your subsequent advices of the 29th February, 21st, 24th, and 26th October, 1808, we feel it to be due to Lieut.-Colonel MACKENZIE; and it is a great pleasure to us to bestow our unqualified and warm commendation upon his long-continued, indefatigable, and zealous exertions in the arduous pursuits in which he was employed, and upon the works which those exertions have produced. He has not confined his labours to the leading object of his original appointment, and in itself a very difficult one, the obtaining of an accurate geographical knowledge of the extensive territories which came under the dominion or protection of the company, in consequence of the fall of TIPU SULTAN in 1799, but has carried his researches into two other very important branches, the statistics and the history of those countries; and in all of them he has succeeded to an extent which could not have been contemplated at the commencement of his undertaking.

4. The actual survey, upon geometrical principles, of a region containing above 40,000 square miles, generally of an extremely difficult surface, full of hills and

In addition to this the ceded districts have since been completed on the same plan, containing about 30,000 square miles, with maps, &c. without any consideration for Colonel MACKENZIE'S direction of that work, and sent home to England in January 1816.

wildernesses, presenting few facilities or accommodations for such a work, and never before explored by European science, in a climate very insalubrious, is itself no common performance; and the minute divisions and details of places of every description given in the memoirs of the survey, with the masterly execution, upon a large scale, of the general map, and its striking discrimination. of different objects, rarely equalled by any thing of the same nature that has come under our observation,-form, altogether an achievement of extraordinary merit, adding most materially to the stores of Indian geography, and of information useful for military, financial, and commercial purposes. For such purposes, we shall wish the many materials furnished by Lieutenant-Colonel MACKENZIE to be used by our government; and a set of his memoirs ought, with that view, to be lodged in some of the public departments, particularly that of the revenue board, together with the sections of his map which he purposes to form into an atlas. But desirous as we are that the public at large should have the gratification, and himself the credit, which would result from a general knowledge of his work, we entertain considerable doubts of the propriety of publishing it at this time, and would wish no measure to that end to be taken without our farther consideration and authority; therefore no copy of his map, or of the division of it, further than for the public offices just mentioned, ought to be permitted to be taken.

5. On a full review of these labours, and of others which were not so immediately within the scope of

• Colonel MACKENZIE does not intend such a publication without some prospect of encouragement to so extensive a work; but materials have been since added that will nearly complete the peninsula. He conceives, however, that the publication of the work would be ultimately economical to the East India Company, exclusive of its advantage to the public and to science.