History of the Indian Archipelago - Volume 1

Trained as a doctor John Crawfurd (17831868) 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.