She Begins This Kind Of Labour When Nine Or Ten Years Old,
And It Never Ceases But With The Extreme Decrepitude Of Age.
Surely
we need not wonder at the limited number of her progeny, but rather
be surprised at the successful efforts of nature to prevent the
extermination of the race.
One of the surest and most beneficial effects of advancing
civilization, will be the amelioration of the condition of these
women. The precept and example of higher races will make the Dyak
ashamed of his comparatively idle life, while his weaker partner
labours like a beast of burthen. As his wants become increased and
his tastes refined, the women will have more household duties to
attend to, and will then cease to labour in the field - a change which
has already to a great extent taken place in the allied Malay,
Javanese, and Bugis tribes. Population will then certainly increase
more rapidly, improved systems of agriculture and some division of
labour will become necessary in order to provide the means of
existence, and a more complicated social state will take the place of
the simple conditions of society which now occur among them. But,
with the sharper struggle for existence that will then arise, will
the happiness of the people as a whole be increased or diminished?
Will not evil passions be aroused by the spirit of competition, and
crimes and vices, now unknown or dormant, be called into active
existence? These are problems that time alone can solve; but it is to
be hoped that education and a high-class European example may obviate
much of the evil that too often arises in analogous cases, and that we
may at length be able to point to one instance of an uncivilized
people who have not become demoralized, and finally exterminated, by
contact with European civilization.
A few words in conclusion, about the government of Sarawak. Sir James
Brooke found the Dyaks oppressed and ground down by the most cruel
tyranny. They were cheated by the Malay traders and robbed by the
Malay chiefs. Their wives and children were often captured and sold
into slavery, and hostile tribes purchased permission from their
cruel rulers to plunder, enslave, and murder them. Anything like
justice or redress for these injuries was utterly unattainable. From
the time Sir James obtained possession of the country, all this was
stopped. Equal justice was awarded to Malay, Chinaman, and Dyak. The
remorseless pirates from the rivers farther east were punished, and
finally shut up within their own territories, and the Dyak, for the
first time, could sleep in peace. His wife and children were now
safe from slavery; his house was no longer burned over his head; his
crops and his fruits were now his own to sell or consume as he
pleased. And the unknown stranger who had done all this for them, and
asked for nothing in return, what could he be? How was it possible
for them to realize his motives? Was it not natural that they should
refuse to believe he was a man? For of pure benevolence combined with
great power, they had had no experience among men. They naturally
concluded that he was a superior being, come down upon earth to
confer blessings on the afflicted. In many villages where he had not
been seen, I was asked strange questions about him. Was he not as old
as the mountains? Could he not bring the dead to life? And they
firmly believe that he can give them good harvests, and make their
fruit-trees bear an abundant crop.
In forming a proper estimate of Sir James Brooke's government it must
ever be remembered that he held Sarawak solely by the goodwill of the
native inhabitant. He had to deal with two races, one of whom, the
Mahometan Malays, looked upon the other race, the Dyaks, as savages
and slaves, only fit to be robbed and plundered. He has effectually
protected the Dyaks, and has invariably treated them as, in his
sight, equal to the Malays; and yet he has secured the affection and
goodwill of both. Notwithstanding the religious prejudice, of
Mahometans, he has induced them to modify many of their worst laws
and customs, and to assimilate their criminal code to that of the
civilized world. That his government still continues, after twenty-
seven years - notwithstanding his frequent absences from ill-health,
notwithstanding conspiracies of Malay chiefs, and insurrections of
Chinese gold-diggers, all of which have been overcome by the support
of the native population, and notwithstanding financial, political,
and domestic troubles is due, I believe, solely to the many admirable
qualities which Sir James Brooke possessed, and especially to his
having convinced the native population, by every action of his life,
that he ruled them, not for his own advantage, but for their good.
Since these lines were written, his noble spirit has passed away.
But though, by those who knew him not, he may be sneered at as an
enthusiastic adventurer, abused as a hard-hearted despot, the universal
testimony of everyone who came in contact with him in his adopted
country, whether European, Malay, or Dyak, will be, that Rajah Brooke
was a great, a wise, and a good ruler; a true and faithful friend -
a man to be admired for his talents, respected for his honesty and
courage, and loved for his genuine hospitality, his kindness of
disposition, and his tenderness of heart.
CHAPTER VII.
JAVA
I SPENT three months and a half in Java, from July 18th to
October 31st, 1861, and shall briefly describe my own movements,
and my observations of the people and the natural history of the
country. To all those who wish to understand how the Dutch now
govern Java, and how it is that they are enabled to derive a
large annual revenue from it, while the population increases, and
the inhabitants are contented, I recommend the study of Mr.
Money's excellent and interesting work, "How to Manage a Colony."
The main facts and conclusions of that work I most heartily
concur in, and I believe that the Dutch system is the very best
that can be adopted, when a European nation conquers or otherwise
acquires possession of a country inhabited by an industrious but
semi-barbarous people.
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