y sell to another.

To better succeed in their roguery they depicted the white man as an
incarnate devil, never tired of doing evil, who had come there for
nothing else but to ravage their land and disperse its inhabitants. The
_orang putei_ was described to the credulent Sakais as the most terrible
and cruel enemy that one could possibly imagine.

Thus the real persecutors of this primitive people were regarded by them
as true friends, whilst the relation of imaginary and fantastic perils
distracted their minds from the more practical dangers of this false
friendship.

By instilling in them fear of the white man there was less chance that
the wretched individuals, whose good faith and domestic affections had
been abused and outraged, would appeal to a British magistrate for
justice, believing him to be a worse enemy than the actual one, and if
sometimes a complaint was brought before this functionary through a
third party, a most distressing scene ensued.

The victim, under the influence of his injurer's glance and presence,
would acknowledge whatever misdeed, debt, and even crime was attributed
to him, responding to the demand if what his accuser said was true,
with the invariable and laconic words: "What he says is true".

I may here cite a case in which I took an active part when I was the
Superintendent of Sakais under the British Government.

One day a family of these Sakais who have dealings with other races,
rushed wildly into my hut, crying desperately. The parents, sobbing,
told me that a Chinese, to whom they owed a great deal, had seized and
led away their daughter.

I set myself to find the blackguard and after some difficulty succeeded.
I rescued the girl and restored her to her relations and then sent in a
report of the incident to the Magistrate. A case for abduction was made
out, and the English law does not jest on such matters. The Chinese
declared that as his debtors could not pay him his due he had agreed, if
the girl consented, to take her as his wife or servant, and so cancel
their debt towards him.

Whilst he spoke he never took his eyes off his accusers. The father and
mother of the young woman were interrogated and although they were in my
presence they replied, after a momentary hesitation:

"What he says is true".

The girl was then asked if she had followed the Chinese of her own free
will or if violence had been used in taking possession of her and she
too repeated like an autom