Together with the commissionaire-general there was a relatively big group of people moved towards the Indies for quite some time. The long period of isolated European living in the Indies had developed an own character even more than it used to be, which caused the differences between the ‘oldies’ and the ‘greenies’ to as big as never before. The oldies stayed on top of the European community - formed by no more than several thousand people - , which caused irritation among the fresh people, which brought an enlightened spirit with them from Europe. Olivier, for example, wrote about the oldies that ‘they always wanted to look like they are always worried about the wellbeing of the country, while they only think about their own money’.

Like during the VOC, all people would care about is money. Olivier thought that the Europeans enjoyed being lazy and rich. They liked acting like ‘Roman senators in the Forum, and being enjoyed as half-gods, unless they didn’t know that these Tartuffes had an orgy to pay damages of which even the Bacchants and Carmelites would retreat.’ With concern on this last one, Olivier knew where he was talking about: in 1823 he was acquitted from the Indian civil servants after ‘having too much liquor’ and started as a writer in the navy, where he would attack an officer when he was drunk three years later. A single trip to the Netherlands was the result and probably also a slightly embittered look on the Indian society.

The group of new people among which Olivier belonged, had a, to put it gently, very strange composition. One of the causes was the need to put up an entirely new civil government to take over the government from the British in the Indies. During this recruitment of the servants in The Hague there was ‘the biggest chaos possible’, according to J.C. Baud (the later minister of Colonies). Everyone that applied for a job at the Ministry of Colonies in The Hague, had gotten one.

Also fired military personnel and ‘all kinds of luck-seekers, most them without any knowledge, or even unwilling to learn some’, were able to start a career for the government in the Indies in this way. Members of the rich Dutch regent-class also applied in this way, made poor by the French era. The Dutch-Indies were, according to Olivier, overloaded with ‘entire shiploads’ or ‘elderly people which didn’t know anything about the Indies, but only shipped their offspring with them, without doing anything else than to recover what they had lost in the Netherlands after moving to the Indies, and eventually to return home from the East-Indies without bothering what they had left behind.’

The old city of Batavia was a bad thing to see when people arrived there. ‘When entering the city, you felt sad until the bone,’ Ver Huell wrote. Empty offices and ramshackle houses: many new people were astonished and didn’t know where they had ended up. Luckily the welcome by the people which already lived there and the new houses in Weltevreden made up a lot. Nowhere in the world there was, according to resident-nobleman Van Hogendorp ,’such a high grade of tolerance in state and religious feeling, friendliness to the guests and a open mind of the residents’.

Besides this, many people kept thinking: where have I ended up? Loneliness and illnesses demanded their toll. A sad officer of the Indian army understood: ‘You are now alone, this is what you wanted, now you have to take care of yourself, because this is the truth in the Indies, never count on your friends; the intensiveness with comes with the hot climate, rises high, until the monument that nothing is worried about, not even the death of a person is more than, how’s the weather today’.

Dieing in The Indies was very common indeed. There was little to go against tropical deceases as malaria and cholera. To keep healthy the new people were advised to dress like the locals and not to eat the European food anymore. Consumption of meat, fish, eggs or ‘buttered toast’ caused stomach problems, 'wrote James Johnson, writer which wrote the much-used De invloed der keerkrings-luchtstreken op Europeesche gestellen. Furthermore, the British doctor was sure tat the ‘beautiful tables and nice meals and the different wines on the evening festivities only increased the nightly fevers by ‘horrible dreams’ which caused trouble for hours which were normally reserved for sleeping!’. Olivier was sure about it as well: the people who stayed longer also ate lighter, local dishes, while the most new people were hurt by fevers after eating their standard European meals’.

Not that there was no European food in Batavia, the opposite is true. In an advert in the Bataafsche Courant you could read all about the latest goods shipped from Europe, wines, herring, vegetables, cheese, locks, watches, mirrors, lights and much more. A very curious collection of goods which didn’t seem to belong in the tropical environment in the first place, but they made it possible for the Europeans to live their live in Batavia.

There were enough Europeans in Batavia to maintain their own social European style. Except for many days that there was nothing to do in the city, there was a monthly performance in the City Theater and there was the possibility to enjoy yourself in the society De Harmonie with billiards, playing cards or reading. The society was also important for the contacts between the both sexes. ‘On birthdays of the Royal family, and other festivities there is a beautifull ball over here, in which the beauties show themselves’, Olivier wrote. He emphasized on the women born in Europe, which had the benefit that their white color was much better than the brown faces of the locals’.

It was a fact that there were a lot less women than men in The East. The female roles that were part of the plays, performed in the City Theatre, were often played by men. Elsewhere in the archipelago the living conditions of the Europeans were more primitive and there were even less women. Even Maluku, where there were relatively much Dutch, marriages with the ‘dark faces’ were common just because they ‘needed to’, but some preferred their housekeeper, the njai.

Especially Indo-European women were seen as bad. ‘Their stories are bad’, told Olivier, 'eating, drinking, nice clothing, walking and gossip are the only things they can do with their brain. 'The few women born in Europe didn’t have an easy life as well. ‘A Dutch woman, just working, watching the children, religion and properness, can’t attach to The Indies, 'warned Roorda van Eysinga. ‘Always surrounded by black people, lazy and dirty from their nature, not knowing the Ruler by the name, and only fulfilling their animal instincts, it’s a miracle when a decent Dutch woman is happy in the Indies.’

But also other things caused the life of the Europeans in the remote areas to be less attractive. Bad housing, a total lack of distraction and the meager kitchen, made it to an ordeal for Lord Nahuys van Burgst’s stay in Padang. ‘A dish as that of Padang, on which fat turkey is rare, of which potatoes and vegetables are banned most of the year because of the lack of fresh fertile area, in which they normally grow very well, is a very big miss for me.’ The Dutch-Indies became a temporary stay for many of the people living there because all of this, and also because of the fact that the country was completely different with the character of the Netherlands, as Roorda van Eysinga wrote.

When Governor-general Van der Capellen lay down his job on 1 January 1826, almost 10 years after he started, he left a very unstable colonial state. The ambitions were too big.

On the moment that the Dutch took over the rule from the British in Batavia, the enlightened ideas of previous periods didn’t miss it’s workout: among many there was the idea that the Netherlands had to offer something to the people in the archipelago and that it had to gain power everywhere because of that. A return to the old VOC-time was not possible. ‘We have opened the eyes of millions to something very good,’ wrote Roorda van Eysinga, ’We have gotten them away from the culture of force; (...) why would we stop this Englightment in return or slavery again? 'For the Dutch there was another future: ‘The job for eternal fame, which we would gain when we have made the populations of the Indies happy.’

In practice it proved that the Dutch weren’t able to bring up enough manpower to give shape to these ambitions. The sometimes astonishing small groups of force tried to control the royal leaders in the archipelago, but they were in no comparison with the bigger self-esteem and the increased feeling of superiority. With a lot of pain they could conquer Palembang and suppress the revolt in Maluku. On Borneo and Celebes the Dutch-Indies army only won because of the brutality that was used against the enemy, the colonial government finally getting a bad name from this. On the western coast of Sumatera, the Padri’s eventually seemed to be a too big of an enemy.

One of the few positive developments for the Netherlands was the agreement of London, signed in 17 March 1824. This made a definitive end to the arguments and rivalry between the Netherlands and Great-Britain in Asia. The British gave their possessions on Sumatera to the Dutch and promised not to accept any agreements with royal leaders on islands south of Singapore Street. They also closed down their office in Aceh, in agreement that the Dutch wouldn’t take actions against the independent sultanate. In trade for this all, Singapore was allowed to stay a British settlement, the Dutch gave up all their positions in India and Malacca and they promised to take care of the safety and trade in Aceh, without breaking down it’s sovereignty. The last agreement would have some nasty consequences.

The London pact didn’t bring in much for Van der Capellen. His economical governing had ended up in a financial disaster. The governor-general had hoped that the welfare of the entire Javanese population would be increased to buy up sugar and coffee for good prices. This would cause the interest on land loans to rise over time, which would bring in a large amount of money for the government. On short notice, the government mainly depended on the exports of the same coffee and sugar. A big problem was the drop in prices of these products which started after 1820 due to exports from the Caribbean and Latin America.

Not only the shortages on the budget of the Indies increased, but the Javanese farmers could not get a nice price as well, which caused that the farmers were more and more forces to produce coffee and sugar to maintain the production levels. That the shortages were also caused by very needed investments in infrastructure, wasn’t accepted as an excuse by critics of Van der Capellen in the Netherlands.

A colony ought to bring in money right away. To end all problems, King Willem I send commisionary-genereal L.P.J. du Bus de Gisignies to the East, with the task to cut government spending. The colonial ambitions had to be adjusted.