a few whiffs of opium to
render them insensible to danger, as the people of another nation are
said to take a dram for the same purpose; but it must be observed that
the resolution for the act precedes, and is not the effect of, the
intoxication. They take the same precaution previous to being led to
public execution; but on these occasions show greater signs of stupidity
than frenzy. Upon the whole it may be reasonably concluded that the
sanguinary achievements, for which the Malays have been famous, or
infamous rather, in history, are more justly to be attributed to the
natural ferocity of their disposition, or to the influence upon their
manners of a particular state of society, than to the qualities of any
drug whatever. The pretext of the soldiers of the country-guard for using
opium is that it may render them watchful on their nightly posts: we on
the contrary administer it to procure sleep, and according to the
quantity it has either effect. The delirium it produces is known to be so
very pleasing that Pope has supposed this to have been designed by Homer
when he describes the delicious draught prepared by Helen, called
nepenthe, which exhilarated the spirits and banished from the mind the
recollection of woe.

It is remarkable that at Batavia, where the assassins just now described,
when taken alive, are broken on the wheel, with every aggravation of
punishment that the most rigorous justice can inflict, the mucks yet
happen in great frequency, whilst at Bencoolen, where they are executed
in the most simple and expeditious manner, the offence is extremely rare.
Excesses of severity in punishment may deter men from deliberate and
interested acts of villainy, but they add fuel to the atrocious
enthusiasm of desperadoes.

PIRATICAL ADVENTURES.

A further proof of the influence that mild government has upon the
manners of people is that the piratical adventures so common on the
eastern coast of the island are unknown on the western. Far from our
having apprehensions of the Malays, the guards at the smaller English
settlements are almost entirely composed of them, with a mixture of Bugis
or Makasar people. Europeans, attended by Malays only, are continually
travelling through the country. They are the only persons employed in
carrying treasure to distant places; in the capacity of secretaries for
the country correspondence; as civil officers in seizing delinquents
among the planters and elsewhere; and as masters a