In 1830 and 1831 he took part in the Dutch campaign in Belgium, and in 1844, after being promoted to the rank of general, was sent on an important mission to the Dutch East Indies to inquire into the state of their military defences.
The governor-general not only has supreme executive authority, but can of his own accord pass laws and regulations, except in so far as these, from their nature, belong of right to the home government, and as he is bound by the constitutional principles on which, according to the Regulations for the Government of Netherlands India, passed by the king and StatesGeneral in 1854, the Dutch East Indies must be governed.
The total number of Christians in British Malaysia and the Dutch East Indies is about 600,000 (including 57,000 Roman Catholics).
The entire fruit preserved in syrup is used as a sweetmeat in the Dutch East Indies.
There are numerous varieties of this plant in cultivation, one of the most remarkable of which is the variety pendula, with long, flexible, hanging, cord-like branches; it was discovered in Japan about 1776 by Carl Peter Thunberg, a pupil of Linnaeus, who made valuable collections at the Cape of Good Hope, in the Dutch East Indies and in Japan.