Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/339

 ANCIENT HISTORY OF JAVA. ^95 is its recentness, for even tradition does not pre- tend to an antiquity of above a fev7 centuries. In the history of the rude Javanese, the lapse of a hundred years removes from their knowledge all preceding facts, in a much greater degree than five times the period among a people acquainted with true history and chronology. It is for this reason that the Mahomedan conversion, an affair not yet three centuries and a half old, is already ancient history, and enveloped in its miracles and myste- ries, and that all previous transactions are involved in utter uncertainty and obscurity. The remote story of the Javanese is, in fact, a fit topic for a disserta- tion on antiquities, rather than a subject for histo- ry, and will soon be discovered to relate with pro- priety to the portion of this work which treats of the ancient religion and antiquities of the island, to which I, therefore, refer the reader. With respect to the history of Java, one very im- portant remark requires to be premised. Compact, defined, and, compared to great empires, limited, as is the territory, the island has never been perma- nently united under one sovereign. The state of society in Java did not supply those powers of com- bined action which enable a people to make exten- sive and distant conquests, and, above all, the skill necessary to regulate and maintain them. A few princes, more able and ambitious than their contem- poraries, have at times subjugated their immediate