Java, as of course you know, is one of the largest and it is by far the most populous and prosperous of the East Indies. It has a population of over thirty million Javanese proper, the Sudanese and the Madurese—all three brown men, of course, of Malay stock. Java soil is said to be the richest in the world, and before Java was taken over as a colony the native sultans were among the most luxurious and absolute rulers in the world. When the Dutch took over the island and began to govern it they had often to leave the native rulers alone. Gradually seventeen of the sultanates have been formed into what the Dutch call residencies, with a Dutch resident as ruler or adviser to the native ruler; but in two sultanates—those of Surakarta and Jokjakarta—the native sultans still govern under only the most formal supervision of
