Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/335

 HISTORY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. ^91 suspicion, that the indiscriminate eulogies with which the latter are loaded, they owe rather to the lustre of their high rank, than to the greatness of their personal qualities. The first governors-general were men of plain good sense, steady perseverance, and intrepid courage, who sustained their difficult trusts with applause, and they were in all respects superior to their European competitors of the same ^age, on the same theatre of action. But they do not seem to have risen much beyond the level of ordinary educated Europeans of their own day. Coen was the most remarkable of them. Their successors degenerated from their virtues. Speelman was one of these, and may, upon the whole, be considered as the most eminent of all the characters which the Dutch history of the In- dies has prod 'ced. He was a man of enlightened understanding, and of active enterprise, and may be considered as a man endowed with high qualifica- tions, both for civil and military command. These qualities were displayed in a remarkable degree, in a long course of subordinate service ; but it turned out unfortunately for his reputation, that when he rose to supreme authority ^ he sunk into an indo- lent and ordinary voluptuary, and did nothing to support his early fame. The mercantile principle, which was perpetually held in view in the Dutch councils, was inimical to the growth and display of genius and talents of