“JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO AND EASTERN ASIA” AND ITS PLACE AMONG THE EARLY ORIENTALISTIC PERIODICALS
Late 18th - first half of the 19th centuries were marked by the emergence of several monographs and periodicals dedicated to Nusantara (insular South-eastern Asia), an area of long-standing rivalry between the Netherlands and Great Britain. Among them, a special place is held by the “Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia”, published in Singapore in 1847-1859. According to the idea of its initiator, James Richardson Logan (1819-1869), the journal became an edition of a wide source study profile, comprising a variety of facts and figures related to Nusantara - geographical, geological and ethnographic surveys, essays on agriculture and traditional cultures, travel diaries, descriptions of the beliefs and languages of the ethnic minorities of the Malay world, translations of works of the Malay epic tradition and samples of folk poetry. The undoubted merits of the journal include the academic level of each of the materials presented there, their factual reliability and deep understanding of the peculiarities of the life of the peoples of Nusantara, although oriental studies were not a professional occupation for most of its contributors. J. Logan published on its pages not only articles by British authors, but also translations from Dutch orientalistic periodicals, and considered his colleagues from the Netherlands not rivals, but participants in a common cause. Logan’s activities and his position in life were appreciated by the next generations of Nusantara researchers - first, the founders and editors of the “Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society”, which continued the tradition established by J. Logan thirty years earlier.