NETHERLAND INDIA. Netherland is a name in use for by European country called Holland, occupied by the Dutch people, who have large possessions in the Eastern Archipelago, which are the empire of Netherland India. In 1596 the Dutch, under Houtmann, first arrived off Bantam, and found the native king at war with the Portu guese. They lent him aid, on condition of having laud allotted for a factory. In 1610 the Dutch fortified the village of Jakatra, which they named Batavia. In 1619 this was destroyed, but it was then rebuilt by Mr. Bolt, the Dutch Governor General, and this was the beginning of the present town of Batavia. Java up to 13th century was partly Hindu, partly Buddkist, partly Muham madan; but in the 15th century Muhammadanism took the lead, and in 1475 a Muhammadan prince took the throne on the overthrow of the great kingdom of Majapahit, which had dominion over the whole of Java and the eastern parts of Sumatra. In 1635 they occupied Formosa; in 1640 they took Malacca from the Portuguese ; in 1647 they were trading at Sadras, on the east coast of the Indian Peninsula ' • in 1651 they founded a colony at the Cape of Good Hope ; in 1652 they built a factory at Palakollu, on the Madras coast ; 1658 they captured Jaffnapataui from the Portuguese in Ceylon i • in 1664 they wrested from the Portuguese al] their earlier settlements on the pepper-bearing coast of Mala bar; and in 1669 they expelled the Portuguese from St. Thome and Macassar. In 1749 the
reigning prince abdicated in favour of the Dutch East Indian Company. Seven years prior to that event the sovereignty had been divided into a spiritual head, the Susunan or object of adoration, whose descendants now reside at Surakarta, near Solo, and a second prince who was styled Sultan, and whose descendants reside at Jokyokarta, of them highly pensioned. Clive, in 1758, attacked the Dutch at Chinsura both by land and water. In 1811, when France overran Holland, the flag of France was hoisted at Batavia, but in the same year the British captured it, only to restore it on the 19th August 1816, and exchanged Sumatra for Malacca in 1824. From this time the Dutch ceased to have territory on the continent of Asia, and have been extending their great island empire.—Imp. Gaz. ; Bilcmore, pp. 22, 26. See Dutch • Holland.