Governors-General Daendels andjanssens. Daendels' collection contains letters
from him to the King and the Minister of the Navy and Colonies.32 Compared
to that of Daendels, Janssens' legacy, which like that of Nederburgh is part of a
family collection, is fairly meagre.33 It should also be mentioned that for 1803
the Engelhard papers contain interesting correspondence, both incoming and
outgoing, with the High Government, kept during his term as Governor of Java's
Northeast Coast.34 This collection is also quite rich in other documents about
the administration of that province. Generally speaking, it can be said that these
private collections sometimes do contain interesting material, but not to the
extent that they actually compensate for the post-VOC decrease in informative
documentation in the governmental archives.
The fact that in the Netherlands itself the sources containing information
about conditions in Asia, including South Africa, were gradually drying up was
in first instance a consequence of the British supremacy at sea and the more
or less efficient naval blockade it could enforce after 1795. However, as certain
areas in the East were not conquered and occupied by the British, the Dutch
administration in them continued to function albeit shakily with varying degrees
of success. So, in principle, it should be that in the areas left to the Dutch, albeit
with certain intervening periods, sources will still be found. Consequently, it is
necessary to have a look at archival institutions in other countries, including
those in Great Britain.
The first place to look is the former seat of the High Government, located in
Batavia, present-day Jakarta. From the inventories available of the Landsarchief
and its successor, the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia, it seems
that the series of the resolutions of the High Governments does cover the whole
period after 1795, but at certain times does display gaps. The series of copies of
the General Missives is fairly complete, that is to say until 1810. The appendices
to the General Missives only run to 1802. The Daily Journal of Batavia is also
available for some years. It is also possible to come across Outgoing Missives of
the High Government to the provinces, although here again many gaps are to
be found.35 The same can be said about the reporting by way of missives from
the provinces to the High Government, that is to say in so far as they concern
provinces which were to become part of the post-1816 Netherlands Indies. These
series even tend to stretch to a sub-provincial level, but there are gaps.36 The same
situation obtains for the resolutions taken by the provincial governments of
Bantam, Java's Northeast Coast, Makassar, Moluccas (Ternate), Amboina and
Banda. Although Daendels abolished the Political Councils in the provinces in
1808, the series of resolutions sometimes continued until 1810.37
GERRIT KNAAP THE DUTCH COLONIAL ARCHIVAL LEGACY IN AN AGE OF REGIME CHANGE CI79O-Cl8l0
33 HaNA, Janssens, entry number 2.21.092.
34 HaNA, Engelhard, entry number 2.21.004.19, inv. numbers 199 and 200. There is more than one collection
containing Engelhard's papers: HaNA, entry numbers 2.21.004.21, 2.21.010 and 1.10.03. The last is
actually a collection of W.A. Alting, Governor-General from 1780 until 1796.
35 Van der Chijs, Inventaris Lands Archief, 41-42, 46, 50, 57-58, 80-88, 91-92, and 95-96; Balk etal.,
The Archives, 214-228, 249, 256-260, 264-267, 269-270, and 272-274.
36 Van der Chijs, Inventaris Lands Archief, 115-116, 145, 151, 158, 168-169, 174, 180, 187, 194, 212, 220,
248-249, 267-268, 287, and 292.
37 Van der Chijs, Inventaris Lands Archief, 113, 155, 215-216, 244-245, 259, and 282-283.
105