WD2990

Nusa Kambangan from Tjilatjap, Java. 1815

Probably by J. Knops.

Inscribed on front in pencil in the hand of Captain G.P. Baker: ‘Sketch of the N.E. end of the Island of Noosso Combangan & the Harbour from Chilachap on the Java Shore Augt. 1815. G.P.B’.

Pencil; 43 by 53.8 cm.

Note: A view, or more accurately an 'eye-sketch', of the north-eastern end of Nusa Kambangan, the so-called 'Floating Island', from Tjilatjap on the mainland of Java. The geographical details are exactly represented in the inset chart on the map of Java in Raffles's ‘The’ ‘History of Java’ (London, 1817). Nusa Kambangan is nearly 47 square miles in extent, and at the time of Baker's visit was uninhabited, apart from a few fishermen living along its southern shore. Depopulation had resulted from depredations by pirates, and in 1813 two small garrisons of Amboinese troops were stationed at either end of the island to prevent further incursions. The fort at the western end of the island, which was visited and described by George Windsor Earl some years later, was the more important, and in 1815 was defended by five six-pounders and a garrison of twenty-one men under the command of a German sergeant. The other fort, at the north-eastern end of Nusa Kambangan, had only three six-pounders and a garrison of fourteen men under the command of a Hungarian sergeant. The flag flying above this fort can be seen in the drawing, as well as the distinctive round rock, about fifty feet high and thirty feet in diameter, which lies off this point of the island, and is designated Karangbolong. At the time of Baker's visit this rock was surmounted by a single large tree, and this is just visible in the drawing. The intervening stretch of water between the north-eastern tip of Nusa Kambangan and Tjilatjap, as depicted in the drawing, was carefully sounded by Baker who spent four consecutive days in a small open boat completing the survey.