WD2978

Fortified stockade. Java(?), c.1800.

By a Dutch artist

Inscribed on front in water-colour: ‘Vertooningh van twee Bergen Geleegen op Kaddoewille, met de twee Batterijen die de Singaleesen daar op gemaakt hebben en de door haar toegemaakte weg of ingang tusschen deselve’.

Water-colour; 37 by 52.5 cm.

Note: The inscription explains that the drawing is a representation of two mountains at 'Kaddoewille' surmounted by two batteries constructed by Singhalese, with a closed entrance or road between. The drawing is obviously by a Dutch artist, but the name of the place presents certain difficulties in identification, as does the reference to Singhalese. 'Kaddoewille' is presumably not intended to designate Kedu, the so-called garden of central Java, which was ceded to the British government by the rulers of Surakarta and Jogjakarta in 1812-13, and the most approximate place-name in the island is Kaduela in Tieribon, in the (later) Residency of Kuningan. If the drawing is in fact of that locality, the allusion to the construction of two batteries by Singhalese can only be accounted for by the practice of banishing from Ceylon those found guilty of serious offences against the rule of the Dutch East India Company. On the other hand, a possible explanation is that the drawing is of a locality in Ceylon, where place-names ending with ‘wille, welle, wele, ville,’ and ‘vele’ are more common. In that case, 'Kaddoewille' might have reference to Kaduwela, which in the eighteenth century commanded a strategic road centre between the maritime provinces and the kingdom of Kandy. Though this is the most obvious explanation, it is hard to envisage how the drawing could have come iiito Raffles's possession or why it would have held any interest for him.