also, that the family do a fair day's work, and
as much as they are well able to perform. From these fields, when
harvest arrives, the squatter will pay his rent. And then is the time
that the European overseer and his deputies require to have their eyes
open, in order to see that fair play is dealt to the proprietor, who is
entitled to one-fourth of the crop, by way of rent, delivered in bundles
of paddy, at his barn-door, by the grower. The reaping and binding must
be watched, and the bundles be counted on the field; otherwise the
grower will, probably, carry more than his share to his own barn, in
place of his master's. Now is the time, also, if the season has been a
favourable one, to make the squatter pay off the whole, or a portion of
his debt, for the advance made to him early in the year. If he gets well
through the first year, he will, in all probability, take a liking to
the place, and fix himself there for good. One of the very best plans
for attaching Javanese to their residence on an estate, is, to see that
lots of cocoa-nut and betel-nut trees are planted in every desirable
locality. With half a dozen cocoa-nut trees, even in a bad season, a
native family will manage tolerably well; and in all my wanderings among
the Malayan islands, I never came to a place where even a single
cocoa-nut was not current, like money, for its full value in rice.
Another great advantage arising to the proprietor from rice-grounds
well-occupied, is, that he is entitled, by immemorial custom, to the
labour of every male on the estate one day in seven, in virtue of a sort
of feudal law. A friend of mine in Java, on whose estate were fifteen
thousand adults, seven thousand of whom were males, had thus the command
of the labour of one thousand men per day _free_. On a new estate, these
are the men to clear jungle, to make roads, to trim coffee-trees, and to
take a turn with a hoe among the sugar-canes, when the hired labourers
are busy at crop time, or when, from any other cause, labour may be
scarce.

Mr. Brook must take things leisurely. Let one capitalist be established
with a fair prospect, and he will soon be followed by dozens, who will
gradually creep into the forests, and make the place a second Java.
Before these capitalists make their appearance, however, he must, by
every means in his power, encourage squatters, and get them to work on
patches of rice-land, here and there. Let him but treat those men
kindly, help them t