The Hidden Force: A Story of Modern Java

The Hidden Force

First published 1922
All rights reserved

Printed in Great Britain
by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh

Translator’s Note

The Hidden Force gives a picture of life in the Dutch East Indies in the last year of the nineteenth and the first year of the twentieth century. Conditions have altered slightly since then—Dutch ladies no longer wear “sarong” and “kabaai” so generally, and there are other minor changes—but the relations between the Europeans and the natives remain very much as they were.

I have translated nearly all the Malay and Javanese words scattered through the text, agreeing with my publisher that the sense of colour throughout the book is strong enough without insisting on these native terms, and I have done my best to reduce foot-notes to a minimum.

Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

Chelsea, 20th November 1921

Contents

•      Page
• Translator’s Note      5
• Chapter One      9
• Chapter Two      19
• Chapter Three      26
• Chapter Four      39
• Chapter Five      46
• Chapter Six      54
• Chapter Seven      59
• Chapter Eight