History of the Indian Archipelago Containing an Account of the Manners, Art, Languages, Religions, Institutions, and Commerce of its Inhabitants History of the Indian Archipelago 3 Volume Set Series

Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd (1783?1868) went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopaedic sequel to the present work (all of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Volume 1 examines the character and manners of the islanders as well as their arts, sciences, medicine, and agricultural techniques.

Advertisement; Introduction; Part I. Character: 1. Physical form of the inhabitants of the archipelago; 2. Manners and characters of the Indian islanders; 3. Domestic ceremonies and familiar usages; 4. Games and amusements of the Indian islanders; 5. Manners of foreign settlers; Part II. Arts: 1. Useful arts; 2. Dress; 3. Art of war; Part III. Progress in Science and the Higher Arts: 1. Arithmetic; 2. Calendar; 3. Navigation and geography; 4. Medicine, music; Part IV. Agriculture: 1. General remarks on the husbandry of the Indian islands; 2. Husbandry of the materials of food; 3. Husbandry of articles of native luxury; 4. Husbandry of the materials of native manufactures and arts; 5. Husbandry of articles chiefly for foreign exportation.