Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) – best-known as the founder of Singapore in 1819 – was the British Lieutenant-Governor of Java from 1811 to 1814. During a brief stay in England in 1817 he published this first English-language history of Java. It contains plates depicting Javan costume, some describing language and music, others illustrating Javan weapons, and one showing traditional masks and shadow puppets. It bears a dedication to the Prince Regent, later George IV, to whom Raffles had earlier sent several pieces of Indonesian weaponry. Raffles was knighted by the Prince Regent in the same year, and was praised by His Royal Highness in a twenty-minute speech. The volume is bound in blue goatskin, with gilt page edges and silk doublures.