Bali Chronicles. Willard A. Hanna
other royal courts. But he did mention, for instance, that the little radjadom of Gianjar (population about 10,000) was at war with Klungkung (population about 50,000) and that travel into and through the south, which he would have liked to visit, was therefore cut off. He was able, nevertheless, to accumulate a remarkable amount of information concerning geography, agriculture, and trade, and he gave genuine insight into manners and customs. He reported, for instance, on the large mountain lakes, the ingenious system of irrigation, the network of roads and trails, the bountiful produce of the land, the imports and exports, and the system of administration and taxation. The revenues of the Radja of Buleleng, he said, included the following items: annual customs duties equivalent in value to 4,000 Indian rupees; a tax of two rupees per acre on rice lands; a fine of one rupee to 200 rupees levied upon bridegrooms for engaging in the traditional practice of kidnapping their brides (usually with the bride’s consent and collusion); the proceeds of the sale of personal property, including female members of the family, of subjects who died without male heirs; and the proceeds from sale as slaves of all indigent persons.
Bali’s important products, according to Dr. Medhurst, were rice, cotton, corn, tobacco, salt, cattle, pigs, fowl, fruits, and vegetables, all of which were abundantly available for export. The island conducted a flourishing trade with Java, Sumatra, Ambon, and other islands. Most of the traders were transient or resident Buginese, Arabs, and Chinese, but Europeans also participated occasionally. The major items of export were cattle, beef, salt, cotton, cotton thread, and goods imported from the east for re-export. The imports were textiles, porcelain, iron, and opium, of which Buleleng took 20 chests annually from Singapore. Bali’s most noteworthy manufactures were hand loomed textiles, kris blades of superior style and quality, and gun barrels skillfully bored by hand. In the local market one could purchase rice at the equivalent of one rupee per pikul (132 pounds), fine fat cattle for four rupees each, sturdy little ponies for 15–20 rupees, and coconuts at the rate of one rupee per hundred. The actual currency of the market was not rupees but Chinese “cash,” the rate of exchange being one to six hundred. A man could live very, very comfortably in Bali, Dr. Medhurst said, on an income of fifteen rupees per month.
In his account of the Balinese people and their customs, Dr. Medhurst made special mention of the male’s predilection for cockfighting, drinking, and gambling, while allowing women to perform the manual labor. He described the improvidence and extravagance of the islanders as contrasted with the prudent accumulation of wealth by the Chinese and Arabs, who generally found it wise to resettle elsewhere when their properties attracted very great interest on the part of the rulers. He deplored the arrogance and ofttimes, he said, the rudeness of the Balinese, at least of the northerners, in dealing with foreigners, and the swiftness of their being moved to passion or violence. He gave some description of the Balinese costume—generally scanty and coarse, he said—and of the homes, palaces, and temples, all of which he deemed dilapidated and in none of which did he appear to observe any evidence of sophisticated art or architecture. He reported on the elaborate cremation ceremonies which the islanders were given to staging for the radjas, and the spectacular more or less voluntary practice of suttee on the part of the radjas’ widows. But his account of the Balinese religion was so inadequate as to indicate that he was virtually unaware of the major role of religious ceremonial in daily life. Or perhaps he was merely indisposed to discourage his missionary associates by reporting the degree of commitment of the Balinese to their Hindu practices. His report led in fact to the assignment of an English missionary, a Rev. Ennis, who arrived in Buleleng in 1838 but remained only a very short time and apparently exerted no influence.
The major shortcoming of Dr. Medhurst’s admirable pioneering study is his failure to describe or apparently to appreciate the peculiar beauty and vitality of the Balinese culture and the special charm of the Balinese way of life. He depicts Bali as an island of great plenty, suffering occasionally from earthquake or volcanic eruption but not from famine or pestilence, experiencing misrule but not repression, offering opportunity to Western enterprise, including, by implication but not by explicit reference, that of Christian missionaries. But he misses the magic. In pointing out this omission it must be reiterated that Dr. Medhurst was unable to visit the southern part of the island, where the splendors of the Balinese civilization are almost everywhere manifest, as is the marvelous accommodation of man to nature and to art. But the one place in the south where this phenomenon was least visible, the port town of Kuta, was the one spot which Dr. Medhurst particularly wished to visit. He would have liked to observe the activities of the Dutch agent whom he presumed to be no better than a slaver. It was Kuta that other Western visitors were already beginning to visit and describe. The very fact that early reports on Bali related mainly to the less attractive spots—Buleleng and Kuta—which the presence of foreigners did not necessarily enhance, may help to explain how Bali as a whole continued in the first few decades of the nineteenth century to enjoy its relatively serene detachment.
CHAPTER 4
Monopoly and Sovereignty,
Plunder and Salvage
(1830–1845)
Dutch Alarm Regarding Western Interlopers
Dr. Medhurst’s illuminating report on conditions in Bali in the year 1830 commanded a remarkably widespread audience for an article published originally in obscure ecclesiastical journals which one might expect to be read only by village clergymen. Bali was already becoming known, however, to the international world of traders and travelers, among them the ships’ companies of English and American whalers which were beginning to frequent waters adjacent to Bali and sometimes sent parties ashore to purchase provisions in the port towns or to hunt deer and banteng (wild cattle) in the mountains. The recently established English colony of Singapore, which most of these voyagers eventually visited and from which no few of them came, was especially curious about its not so distant neighbor, hence the quick Singapore reprints of the Medhurst report.
Enterprising individuals from Singapore were making tentative efforts to establish themselves elsewhere in the Indonesian archipelago than just Batavia and Surabaya, where certain English merchants had managed to stay in business even after Raffles handed Java back to the Dutch. The Singapore concern of Dalmeida and Company, of which the proprietors were Portuguese by origin, was especially active; it sent its ships frequently to Bali and may have had a resident European or Eurasian agent for a time in nearby Lombok. The Batavia- and Surabaya-based firm of Morgan, King and Company, the enterprise of a pair of not very reputable English traders from Bengal, also seems to have traded extensively throughout the eastern islands. George Peacock King, one of the partners, did regular business both in Bali and in Lombok and may have established his own trading post in Bali as early as 1831. There were others as well, but one of the most aggressive of all Western traders in Asian waters at the time was a Scottish sea captain, John Burd, who affiliated himself with the Danish East India Company to trade under the Danish flag in Singapore, Macao, Canton, Batavia and wherever else profit offered.
John Burd and Mads Lange in Lombok
Captain John Burd recruited an especially energetic and promising young Dane, Mads Lange (b. 1807–d. 1856) of Rudkobing as one of his ship’s officers and presently made him a business partner. Lange sailed with or for Burd on several voyages to the East and persuaded his three younger brothers, Hans, Karl Emilius, and Hans Henrick, to join him. In late 1833 Captain Burd set out on the heavily armed 800-ton merchant vessel de Zuid on a voyage to China and the Indies with Mads Lange as First Officer and the three other Lange brothers as members of the ship’s company. In early 1834 de Zuid visited Lombok, and probably also Bali. It was decided that Mads Lange would establish a permanent trading post ashore in Lombok as the focus for region-wide commerce which John Burd would develop. The pair would build up a shipping fleet of their own, captained by themselves, the three younger brothers, and other willing adventurers.
The enterprise was an instant success. Lombok was a happy choice as a commercial center. It was strategically located on the direct sea route between Singapore and Australia which was beginning to carry a very heavy traffic. It was rich in rice and other local produce for which there was great regional demand. It was also a convenient provisioning and servicing center for the many ships’