When playing with applets, you should display the Java console (see your Java settings).
I see the following exception when I refresh the page:

Exception in thread "Animation Thread" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 10
    at Contact2.<init>(Contact2.java:76)
    at Contact2.<init>(Contact2.java:51)
    at XMLParse.setup(XMLParse.java:61)
    at processing.core.PApplet.handleDraw(PApplet.java:1583)
    at processing.core.PApplet.run(PApplet.java:1503)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

I don't have this problem when closing the tab and reloading the page.

I guess that on refresh, somehow the PApplet survives and your counter isn't reinitialized at the initial value.

I usually use only the deployJava script without the object and embed tags… until now it worked on every browser I tried and is perfect for fullscreen applets. It also keeps the html clean.

Thanks for the replies. @andreas, I tried using your code and the problem persists. @phi.lho your suggestion that the PApplet isn't reloading and so the array counter variable isn't reinitializing makes sense. I guess what I'm still unclear on is whether this could be due to an internal error in my Processing code, even though it runs without any issues as both application and applet in Eclipse; or whether it is due to an error that's happening on export or the way I'm invoking the applet, whether it be through js or object/embed tags.

Also, sorry, I completely forgot to mention in my original post: I'm pulling .xml from a file the data folder - could this be the problem?