Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/349

 OF MAHOMEDANISM IN JAVA. 305 attracted the curiosity or cupidity of the Arabian traders or of their descendants, naturalized among the western natives. The Hinduism established throughout the Ar- chipelago was by no means of the same inveterate character as that of continental India. It had not laid a strong hold of the imagination, and was not, as there, interwoven, not only with political insti- tutions, but with the common duties and offices of life. * It had by no means superseded the still grosser local superstitions of the country, and it was a system in itself too complicated and subtile to suit a state of society unquestionably more rude and unimproved than that in which its baneful empire has been so fully established. In Java, which contained the most civilized com- munity, Hinduism, we are warranted in believ- ing, must have made a deeper impression than in any other country of the Archipelago ; and to this we ought,' in some measure, to ascribe the long rejection of Mahomedanism by the Javanese, after it had been adopted by so many of their neigh- bours. Even among the Javanese, however, the empire of the Hindu religion over the human mind was very far from being firmly established. The propagation of Mahomedanism, when once VOL. II. U
 * Hume's History of England, Vol. I.