Description

This is a gargantuan and beautifully designed transportation map of Java and Madura, drafted by then Lieutenant Gijsbert Brandt Hooijer, a Dutch army officer who subsequently became a well-known author on the affairs of the Dutch East Indies.  The map was published in very high-quality colour lithography by the Topographische Dienst (Topographical Service) in Batavia (Jakarta), which by this time possessed one of the most technologically advanced presses in Asia.

Titled as an ‘Etappe-Kaart’, which roughly translates into ‘itinerary map’, the map showcases the transportation system in Java and Madura in immense detail, predicated upon the most recent official information.  The ‘Verklarung’ (Explanation), in the lower-left centre, identifies the numerous symbols used throughout the map.  Java’s extreme landscape, with its numerous volcanic peaks, is captured in grand scale by fine hachures, while the coasts, rivers and swamplands an are all precisely charted in bright blue.  Across the island, which is divided into ‘Residentie’ (roughly meaning ‘districts’ or ‘counties’), run post roads (marking the locations of post offices), secondary routes and trails; impressively the map provides the kilometric distances between every single village and junction along every route. Additionally, Dutch colonial administrative centres of varying levels are noted, as are military outposts and rest stops where travelling soldiers could spend the night.  The map also charts the locations of harbours and anchorages, as well as the routes of the steamship lines connecting the main ports.  The Verklarung also translates the acronyms used to express Bahasa geographical terms, translating them into Dutch.

The map is also one of first great overviews of Java’s incipient railway system that was being built in stages by the Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (‘NIS’, Dutch East Indies Railway Company).  The Dutch East Indies became only the second country in Asia (after India) to have a railway, when a short line between Semarang and Kemijen was opened in 1864.  Of special note, the map shows the important line between Batavia and Buitenzorg (today Bogor), in the mountains to the south, that opened in 1873, so connecting the official colonial capital to the governor’s country residence and alternate administrative centre.  Meanwhile, as the map shows, the NIS was in the process of extending the lines in central Java, between Semarang, Surakarta and Yogyakarta.  The map predates the great Javanese railway boom of the 1880s and ‘90s.

Interestingly, in the upper centre of the composition, is an inset map showcasing Java’s telegraph system, noting stations of various levels of importance, as well as international and local lines.  In the upper right corner, is a table marking the distances between 22 locations across the island.

The present work is by far and away the era’s finest and most detailed travel map of Java and and one of the most impressive maps to had been published in what is today Indonesia during the 19^th century.  The map was primarily made for the use of Dutch army officers and civil servants who had cause to frequently travel the island.  Moreover, the map would also have been employed by businessmen and commodity traders.  While Java was hauntingly beautiful and culturally rich, it was also notoriously difficult to traverse in many places, due to the considerable distances, rugged topography and frequent rainstorms.  A masterfully accurate and clear travel aid was thus not merely a luxury, but a necessity.

While the map, segmented on linen and folded, could be carried and consulted en route, examples would also had served as wall-hangings in army, government and corporate offices, used for logistical and strategic planning.

Interestingly, the present example of the map features contemporary manuscript additions, including itineraries traced neatly in pencil and red pen traversing the length of the island.  The details show an arrival in Batavia, and visits to many key cities and towns, as well as excursions, such a climbing a volcano, along with a few manuscript annotations in red ink.

This grand, expensive map was made during a lengthy period of economic prosperity for Java that extended from the 1840s until World War I.  The Dutch government had largely subdued local unrest since the Javanese War (1825-30), and improved governance and a seemingly endless commodities boom had virtually eliminated the famines which historically plagued the island.  As valuable plantations sprang up all across Java, and as villages grew into cities, the colonial authorities and their chosen private stakeholders invested heavily in in the road, and eventually rail, systems, such that by the time that the present map appeared most of the island’s more populated centres could be reached with relative ease.

At first glance, it seems that such a large, precisely colour lithographed map could only have been published in Europe.  However, in the late 1850s, the Dutch colonial authorities in Batavia starting importing the most advanced and expensive presses from Europe, manned by experienced printers, which allowed them to create grand maps of top-notch technical quality; only the Survey of India Office in Calcutta could rival their operations in Asia in terms of European-style printing.  While it was still more cost effective to print some ambitious publications at the Topographische Inrichting office in The Hague, it was most helpful that the colonial authorities in Batavia could charge the Topographische Dienst with printing vital manuscripts and texts for local use, such as the present map.

Gijsbert Brandt Hooijer: Cartographer, Writer and Soldier in the Dutch East Indies

Gijsbert Brandt Hooijer (1848 – 1834) was a prominent military figure and author on affairs in the Dutch East Indies.  He graduated from the Dutch Royal Military Academy, as second infantry lieutenant, in 1869, and applied to serve in the what is today Indonesia.

In December 1870, Hooijer arrived in Buitenzorg (today Bogor), Java, the important administrative and military base in the mountains south of Batavia.  A skilled draftsman, for the next several years, he was mainly tasked with drafting maps and topographical views based upon the latest survey and sketches arriving from the field.  The present work is by far and away his most impressive cartographic work, the result of many months of labour.

As the present map was being brought to press in Batavia, Hooijer was transferred to serve in the Aceh War (1873 – 1904), the brutal, long-running Dutch attempt to conquer the northern tip of Sumatra.  In Aceh, Hooijer distinguished himself as a skilled diplomat and strategist, for which he was knighted in 1880.

Through the 1880s, Hooijer received continuous promotions and was posted in various locations in Java and Lombok, often running military reconnaissance expeditions.  He soon established himself as leading academic authority on variety of topics relating the Dutch East Indies and the role of the Dutch military in the region.  He gave many lectures and published numerous books, including works on Aceh, (with W. Cool) Een schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh‘s geschiedenis (1889) and De verlaten posten op Groot-Atjeh (1897); on Lombok, (with W. Cool) De Lombok Expeditie (1896); the Guide to the Dutch East Indies (1897); and well as a guide to the Dutch East Indies section at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle Internationale.

After many years of service in the East Indies, and attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Hoojier first retired to The Hague, and then to Merano, Italy.

A Note on Rarity

We can trace 7 institutional examples of the map, held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, British Library; Bibliotheek Universiteit van Amsterdam; Universiteitbibliotheek Leiden; Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; Sorbonne Université; and the Österreichische

Nationalbibliothek (Vienna).

References: Bibliothèque nationale de France: GE C-768; Bibliotheek Universiteit van Amsterdam: OTM: HB-KZL X C 7; Universiteitbibliotheek Leiden: KK 041-02-02/05; OCLC: 557817511, 71457761; Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes’ Geographischer Anstalt, Band 24 (1878), p. 450; Registrande der Geographisch-Statistischen Abtheilung des Großen Generalstabes, Band 9 (Berlin, 1879), p. 289.