ion was rather that of follower and lord than of slave and master.
When he first settled at Sandakan, he could not get men to work for him
for wages, they deemed it _degrading_ to do so, but they said they
would work for him if he would _buy_ them! Sulu, under Spanish
influence, and Bulungan, in Dutch Borneo, were the chief slave markets,
but the Spanish and Dutch are gradually suppressing this traffic.

There was a colony of Illanuns and Balinini settled at Tunku and Teribas
on the East Coast, who did a considerable business in kidnapping, but in
1879 Commander E. EDWARDS, in H. M. S. _Kestrel_, attacked and burnt
their village, capturing and burning several piratical boats and prahus.

Slavery, though not yet extinct in Borneo, has received a severe check
in British North Borneo and in Sarawak, and is rapidly dying out in both
countries; in fact it is a losing business to be a slave-owner now.

Apart from the institution of slavery, which is sanctioned by the
Muhammadan religion, the religious customs and laws of the various
tribes "especially with respect to the holding, possession, transfer and
disposition of lands and goods, and testate or intestate succession
thereto, and marriage, divorce and legitimacy, and the rights of
property and personal rights" are carefully regarded by the Company's
Government, as in duty bound, according to the terms of Articles 8 and 9
of the Royal Charter. The services of native headmen are utilised as
much as possible, and Courts composed of Native Magistrates have been
established, but at the same time efforts are made to carry the people
with the Government in ameliorating and advancing their social position,
and thus involves an amendment of some of the old customs and laws.

Moreover, customs which are altogether repugnant to modern ideas are
checked or prohibited by the new Government; as, for example, the
time-honoured custom of a tribe periodically balancing the account of
the number of heads taken or lost by it from or to another tribe, an
audit which, it is strange to say, almost invariably results in the
discovery on the part of the stronger tribe that they are on the wrong
side of the account and have a balance to get from the others. These
hitherto interminable feuds, though not altogether put a stop to in the
interior, have been in many districts effectually brought to an end,
Government officers having been asked by the natives themselves to
undertake the examination o