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

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Jaarboeken Stichting Archiefpublicaties | 2012 | | pagina 107