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Notes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

1. Warnford-Lock CG (1907) Mining in Malaya for Gold and Tin. London: Crowther and Goodman, pp. 31–32.

2. Said E (1978) Orientalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

3. Anderson B (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Press.

4. Richards T (1993) The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and Fantasy of the Empire. London: Verso Press.

5. Kabbani R (1988) Imperial Fictions: Europe’s Myths of the Orient. London: Pandora-Harper Collins.

6. McClure J (1994) Late Imperial Romance. London: Verso Press.

7. Chaudhuri KN (1990) Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

8. Bartlett R (1993) The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization, and Cultural Change, 950–1350. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

9. Pigafetta A (1975) Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Navigation. London: The Folio Society.

10. de Bry JT and de Bry JI (1601) Icones Sive Expressae Et Artifitiosae Delineationes Quarundam Mapparum, Locorum Maritimorum, Insularum, Urbium, & Popularum: Quibus & Horundem Vitae, Naturae, Morum, Habituumque Descriptio Adiuncta est: Veluti Haec Omnia, In India Navigatione Versus Orientem Sucepta, diligenter Obseruata, Adeoque Tribus Hisce Indiae Orientalis Descriptae libris inserta funt. Frankfurt.

11. Anthony G (1992) New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery, Cambridge: Belknap Press for Harvard University Press, p. 128.

12. de Bry and de Bry (1601: Vol. I, p.d.3, Plate XIV).

13. The section on Banten begins with plate XV: Qvae Ratio Conditiove Portvvm Et Navivum Stationis ad ciuitatem Bantam, which features a map that is detailed and points out the shoals and rocks that blocked the entry to the port-city at that time. From the outset, de Bry identifies Banten as a Muslim polity and this is clear in the two subsequent plates, plate XVIII: Solemnitas Nvptialis Bantam and plate XIX: Qvo Ritv Habitvve Dvces Sev Capitanei Per Viam publiceincedant, which feature images of a local wedding as well as a detailed depiction of the ruler of Banten. The ruler is shown walking beneath a parasol and he wears a turban on his head – a common motif at the time that signified the Muslim faith of the subject in question. The political system in Banten is depicted in some of the plates that follow, notably plate XX: Milites In Bantam, plate XXV: Qvo Ritv Bantani Concilia Militaria Agant and plate XXVI: Rusticorvm, Qvi Pridemivxta Civitatem Bantam. The first offers a description of the armed forces of Banten, and a brief description of the soldiery there. The second offers a glimpse of a political council, where the Sultan presides over his court. Interestingly, the text that accompanies the illustration notes that also present at this political assembly were Malays (from the Malay Peninsula), Arabs and Turks (Malayos, Turca, Arabes).

14. The theme of ethnic pluralism is captured in the plates that feature the various communities that were present in Banten, such as plate XXI: Extraneorvm Mercatorvm In Bantam, plate XXII: Mercantorvm Extraneorvm In Bantam, plate XXIII: Mercantorvm Ex China In Bantam and plate XXIV: Chinensivm In Bantam Svperstitio Et Idolatria. In the account of Chinese merchants of Banten, the author notes that life for the Chinese community in Banten was freer than elsewhere, and that Chinese women were able to engage in commerce in the public domain. The extent to which these communities had been able to integrate and settle in Banten is emphasised further in plate XXIV, which features the image of Chinese inhabitants praying at a local Chinese temple, engaged in what de Bry described as ‘superstition and idolatry’ (Svperstitio Et Idolatria).

15. Nieuhof J (1704) Voyages and Travels into Brasil, and the East-Indies: Containing, An Exact Description of the Dutch Brasil and divers Parts of the East-Indies; Their Provinces, Cities, Living Creatures, and Products: The Manners, Customs, Habits, and Religion of the Inhabitants: With A most particular Account of all the remarkable Passages that happened during the Author’s stay of Nine Years in Brasil; And also, A most Ample Description of the most famous City of Batavia, in the East-Indies. London: Awnsham and John Churchill.

16. Nieuhof (1704: 215).

17. Nieuhof (1704: 215).

18. Nieuhof (1704: 216).

19. Nieuhof (1704: 213). Malacca fell to the Portuguese in 1511.

20. Nieuhof (1704: 307).

21. Nieuhof (1704: 310).

22. Nieuhof (1704: Plate: ‘A Meftice (mestizo) Woman’, facing page 251).

23. The word ‘Mardiker’ comes from the Malay word ‘Merdeka’ and referred to ‘freemen’ who were often of mixed ethnic background. They were also called ‘Topazers’ for they were identified with the Topaz stone. Nieuhof (1704: 316).

24. The plates are inserted into the text between pages 314–315 and 316–317.

25. The civilising role of the Dutch in Batavia is a theme that Nieuhof returns to again and again. When writing about the schools that the Dutch had built in the city, he noted that all the books in Batavia had been brought all the way from Holland (p. 310) and that the Dutch had also opened a new printing press in the city.

26. Nieuhof (1704: 306–307, 310).

27. The ‘Ambon massacre’ was later brought to light with the publication of the (1624) tract A true Relation of the Unjust, Cruel and Barbarous Proceedings against the English at Amboyna, in the East Indies, by the Netherlandish Governor and the Council There. Milton (1999) wrote of the account thus: ‘An account of the proceedings in Ambonya was published in a 1624 pamphlet entitled A True Relation of the Unjust, Cruel and Barbarous Proceedings Against the English at Ambonya. With no detail of the tortures left to the imagination, this grisly account became a bestseller in England and ran into dozens of editions, with reprints being made even years after the event. Such was its effect on the English public that many clamoured for war against the Dutch. Even in Holland the account caused a stir and the States General professed itself horrified by its details’ (Milton G (1999) Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of History. London: Hodder and Stoughton, pp. 324–325).

28. In his work Nieuhof (1704: 310) noted that apart from European children who were sent to the European schools in Batavia, the only other community whose children demonstrated the same capacity for learning was the Mardikers/Topazes.

29. Nieuhof (1704: 313–314).

30. Nieuhof’s account of Batavia included a tally of all the communities that resided there, in the 1660s–1670s. As he noted: ‘Among the Foreign Nations refiding here, there may, according to computation, be raifed 6,720 Fighting Men, viz. 400 Topaffers, or Mardiiken, under two captains, within the city, besides 710 without the city under three Captains; making in all 1110; of Regantiins 70; Amboynefes 600; Malayars 201; Chinefes 1,200; Moors 200; Of the Javanefes within their Quarter within the New Gate, 750; Near the burying place of the Chinefes 1,500; In their Quarter beyond the New Fort 800; And of Bafilians beyond the fort 300’ (Nieuhof, 1704: 317).

31. De La Harpe M, Prevost (ed.) (1780) Abrege de L’Histoire Generale des Voyages. Paris: De Thou.

32. Nieuhof’s image of the Ambon warrior was reproduced under the title ‘Insulaire D’Amboine, arme pour la guerre’ in De La Harpe (1780) and appears in volume IV, plate 29, facing page 213. Also in the same volume is the image of the Javanese couple in Batavia, under the title ‘Homme et Femme de Ifle de Java’ in volume IV, plate 28, facing page 162.

33. Blackie WG (1882) The Comprehensive Atlas and Geography of the World, Compiled and Engraved from the Most Authentic Sources. London: Blackie and Son Publishers.

34. Marsden W (1783) The History of Sumatra – Containing An Account of the Government, Laws, Customs, and Manners Of the Native Inhabitants, With A Description of the Natural Productions, And A Relation of the Ancient Political State Of that Island. London: Printed for the Author.

35. Raffles TS (1817) The History of Java. London: Black, Parbury and Allen, booksellers to the Hon. East India Company, and John Murray.

36. William Daniell was the nephew of the famous painter Thomas Daniell. His reputation grew after his visit to India along with his uncle, after which he published some of his first drawings of India under the title Voyage to India. During his time in India he met up with other European painters who were employed by the East India Company, then based in Calcutta, and developed his own style. Though none of the aquatints in Raffles’ History of Java are signed (as was customary then), they have all been attributed to him.

37. For the sake of comparison, see for instance: Daniell W and Daniell T (1810) The Malays of Java. Engraved by the artists. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme. (Lithograph).

38. Raffles TS (1844) Antiquarian, Architectural, and Landscape Illustrations of the History of Java. London: Henry G. Bohn, Black, Parbury, and Allen, and John Murray.

39. Domeny De Riezi MGL (1836) L’Univers Pittoresque: Oceanie Ou Cinquieme Partie Du Monde. Revue Geographique Et Ethnographque. Paris: Firmin Didot Freres.

40. Marryat FS (1848) Borneo and the Indian Archipelago. London: Longman, Brown and Green, and Longmans.

41. Marryat (1848: v–vi).

42. Marryat’s narrative is sprinkled with accounts that support the warlike impression lent by the plates in his work: He mentions Dayak children walking about wearing necklaces of human teeth around their necks (p. 15) and their sharpened, razor-like teeth (p. 79); the head-hunting ways of the Dayaks ‘whose customs are nearly those of the American Indians’ (p. 81); the people of Sooloo (Sulu) who ‘patronise piracy of every description’ (pp. 41–42); the Ilanun pirates and the bounty on their heads (p. 54); and the tribes of Borneo in general who were ‘but colonists for piratical purposes’ (pp. 60–62) – in contrast to his portrayal of his host James Brooke, whose ‘kindness was beyond all bounds’ (p. 18).

43. Hardouin EA (illus.) and Ritter WL (text) (1872) Java’s Bewoners in hun eigenaardig karakter en kleeder-dracht. Nach der natuur geteekend. Voorwoord van M. T. H. Perelaer. Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff.

44. Hirshman C (1986) The making of race in colonial Malaya: Political economy and racial ideology. Sociological Forum 1(2); Hirshman C (1987) The meaning and measurement of ethnicity in Malaysia: An analysis of census classifications. Journal of Asian Studies 46(3).

45. Blackie (1882).

46 Manderson L (1990) Race, colonial mentality and public health in early twentieth century Malaya. In: Rimmer PJ and Allen LM (eds) The Underside of Malaysian History: Pullers, Prostitutes and Plantation Workers. Singapore: Malaysia Society of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, Singapore University Press, pp. 193–213.

47. Alatas SH (1977) The Myth of the Lazy Native: A Study of the Image of the Malays, Filipinos and Javanese from the 16th to the 20th Century and Its Function in the Ideology of Colonial Capitalism. London: Frank Cass.

48. Todorov T (1984) The Conquest of America. New York: Harper Collins.