on. They reserved to themselves the right of purchasing the
articles which the Dyaks had to sell, and then affixed to those articles
an arbitrary price, perhaps less than a five-hundredth of their real
value. They would send a bar of iron two or three feet long, and having
an intrinsic worth of a few cents, to the head mart of a tribe,
demanding that his village should give for it a sum equal to five, ten,
or twenty dollars. Another was sent in the same way, and another, and
another, until the rapacity of the chiefs was satisfied, or the wretched
natives had no more to give. Often, when the latter had been robbed of
everything, the Malays would seize and sell their wives and children. It
is recorded of one tribe, that there was not so much as one woman or
child to be found in it. All had been swept off by these remorseless
slave-hunters. Nor did their wrongs end here. If a Dyak killed a Malay
"under any circumstances of aggression," he was put to death, often with
every possible addition of torture. If he accidentally injured one of
the ruling caste, he was fortunate to escape with the loss of half or
two thirds of his little savings. On the other hand, a Malay might kill
as many Dyaks as he pleased, and if perchance justice were a little
sterner than usual, he might be fined a few cents or a few dollars.
Volumes are contained in this one statement, that in the ten years from
1830 to 1840, the Dyaks in the province of Sarawak dwindled from 14,000
to 6,000 souls.

A blow was immediately struck at the root of this black oppression. As
soon as the new government was fairly established, a few simple
enactments were published. They declared that every man, Dyak as well as
Malay, should enjoy unmolested all the gains of his toil; that all
exactions of every name and nature should cease, and that only a small
tax, evenly distributed, should be levied for the support of government;
that all roads and rivers should be free to all; that all molestation of
the Dyaks should be punished with severity. The proclamation which
contains these laws concludes with exhorting all persons who are
disposed to disturb the public peace to take flight speedily to some
other country, where they can break with impunity the laws of God and
man. These enactments were firmly executed, without fear and without
partiality. Wonderful were the results! Internal violence ceased. The
confidence of the natives was awakened. Industry and enterprise sprang
up