First Published in 1967. History of the Indian Archipelago, contains an account from 1820, on the manner, arts, languages, religions, institutions and commerce of its inhabitants.

Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd (1783 1868) went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopaedic sequel to the present work (all of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Volume 2 examines language, literature, religion, and history, and the impact of Islam, Christianity and European colonisation.

Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd (1783 1868) went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopaedic sequel to the present work (all of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Volume 1 examines the character and manners of the islanders as well as their arts, sciences, medicine, and agricultural techniques.

Trained as a doctor, John Crawfurd (1783 1868) went on to have a distinguished career in colonial administration with the East India Company. He held senior posts in Java from 1811 to 1816, including that of resident at the court of Yogyakarta. A talented linguist and ethnologist, Crawfurd acquired a sound knowledge of ancient Kawi and contemporary Javanese. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he became a fellow of the Royal Society and published this three-volume work on the Indonesian islands, principally Java, to great acclaim. Following further service abroad, he published accounts of his various missions in south-east Asia and an encyclopaedic sequel to the present work (all of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). Volume 3 examines political institutions and commerce, covering major exports and imports along with demographics, public revenue and laws.

Orientalist and colonial administrator John Crawfurd (1783 1868) published this work in 1856. He went to Calcutta as an assistant surgeon in the East India Company, then moved into administration, accompanying political missions to Java, Bali and Celebes, and heading missions to Siam, Vietnam and Burma. Retiring to England in 1828, Crawfurd became a Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Ethnological Society. Having studied ancient Kawi, contemporary Javanese and the Malay language, he published extensively on Asia in his lifetime, including his History of the Indian Archipelago, a Malay-language dictionary, and accounts of missions to the courts of Siam, Cochin-China and Ava. This work focuses primarily on Java, Malay, Siam and the Philippines. A monumental account of the culture, politics, language and geography of the region, organised as encyclopedic entries, it remains an invaluable source of information on the Victorian presentation and understanding of South-East Asia.

After studying medicine at Edinburgh, John Crawfurd (1783 1868) joined the medical service of the East India Company. While posted at Penang, he studied the Malay language and culture and became an expert in Eastern affairs. His talent was recognised by the British Government, which entrusted to him both administrative and diplomatic responsibilities. He was sent as an envoy on many missions, most notably to the Court of Siam (Thailand) where his efforts led to a possibility of opening up the diplomatic relations between the two countries, troubled since the seventeenth century. In 1827, he was sent on his last diplomatic assignment in the service of the East India Company, to the Court of Ava (then the capital of present-day Myanmar (Burma)). This 1829 work describes his experiences at Ava, and provided a reference source for subsequent missions. The appendix contains several relevant official communiqu s.