ake a fresh attack on the Dutch posts. In this manner they harass their
opponents, and occasionally inflict upon them a very severe blow. I
heard at Padang, that, when the country was ceded to the Dutch, in 1818,
these _Padres_ had said, they would never submit to their power; and
well have they kept their word.

Sumatra, were it under a European power, and peopled as well as Java is,
would soon rival that island. Its soil is, for the most part, equally
fertile, and yields coffee, pepper, nutmegs, &c. Only a small portion of
the territory is subject to the Dutch: the remainder is inhabited by
various tribes, who speak different languages, and mix but little
together. They are mostly an indolent people, and require driving by
their chiefs to make them work for a day or two now and then. The
comparatively small produce exported from this large and fertile island,
is obtained almost entirely by forced labour.

The pepper trade of the ports to the northward of Padang, has ceased to
be a profitable one, and is now neglected. European shipmasters used to
complain bitterly of the roguery practised upon them by the native
dealers; but who taught the native his roguish tricks? Who introduced
false weights? Who brought to the coast 56lb. weights with a screw in
the bottom, which opened for the insertion of from ten to fifteen pounds
of lead, _after their correctness had been tried by the native in
comparison with his own weights_? Who made it a regular rule, in their
transactions with the native dealer, to get 130 _catties_ of pepper to
the _pecul_, thus cheating him of thirty per cent, of his property? I
challenge contradiction, when I assert, that English and American
shipmasters have for thirty years been addicted to all these dishonest
practices. The cunning and deceit of the native traders, at the pepper
ports of Sumatra, have been taught them by their Christian visiters, and
forced upon them in self-defence. An acquaintance of mine, who had made
some purchases from a native, went on shore next morning to receive the
goods. When the pepper was being weighed, he told the native clerk, he
was cheating. The man denied it, and told the party he lied. The
European raised his fist, and threatened to chastise the native, who
coolly put his hand on his ever-ready _kris_, and said, "Strike, sir."
The raised hand dropped to its owner's side, and well it was that it did
so; or the party would not have lived to tell the tale of his havi