Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/409

 I SEQUEL OF JAVANESE HISTORY. 365 al despotism which I have ever met with. " Fa- ther, replied the Javanese chief, (I quote the na- tive writer,) such a battle is conducted by us in per- fect earnestness with mutual slaughter, for not the smallest compassion is shown to the people. Keep- ing your secret, and saving the life of the chief, you may exterminate the rest." An action was accordingly fought on these principles, and some lives lost on both sides. The first minister, perfectly true to them, offered a rewavdjor every ear ofaChi- nese that was brought to him j when openly opposed to the Dutch a little before, he had offered rewards for " Dutch heads^' under similar circumstances. It may amuse the reader to be supplied with a specimen of the correspondence of the hostile chiefs. Martopuro, the chief of those Javanese who were on the side of the Chinese, and of the prince they had proclaimed, wrote to Pringoloya, commanding a detachment of the Susunan's army, a challenge in the following words : — '* There is a wild bull to the north of the range o£ Kdndang,^ that longs to gore the Jemale white elephant to the south of it." By the wild bull, which is an emblem of cou- rage among the Javanese, was meant the prince under whose banners he was fighting ; and by the part of the island, the low belt of land on the north coast, from Iti^ valleys of the centre of that quarter of the island.
 * A long range of mountains which divides, in the eastern