Table Of ContentFugitive 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
