Mr. Alexander Hall made a charge in his public accounts of a sum paid to
a raja as an inducement to him to spare a man whom he had seen preparing
for a victim: and it is in fact this commendable discouragement of the
practice by our government that occasions its being so rare a sight to
Europeans, in a country where there are no travellers from curiosity, and
where the servants of the Company, having appearances to maintain, cannot
by their presence as idle spectators give a sanction to proceedings which
it is their duty to discourage, although their influence is not
sufficient to prevent them.

A Batta chief, named raja Niabin, in the year 1775 surprised a
neighbouring kampong with which he was at enmity, killed the raja by
stealth, carried off the body, and ate it. The injured family complained
to Mr. Nairne, the English chief of Natal, and prayed for redress. He
sent a message on the subject to Niabin, who returned an insolent and
threatening answer. Mr. Nairne, influenced by his feelings rather than
his judgment (for these people were quite removed from the Company's
control, and our interference in their quarrels was not necessary)
marched with a party of fifty or sixty men, of whom twelve were
Europeans, to chastise him; but on approaching the village they found it
so perfectly enclosed with growing bamboos, within which was a strong
paling, that they could not even see the place or an enemy.

DEATH OF MR. NAIRNE.

As they advanced however to examine the defences a shot from an unseen
person struck Mr. Nairne in the breast, and he expired immediately. In
him was lost a respectable gentleman of great scientific acquirements,
and a valuable servant of the Company. It was with much difficulty that
the party was enabled to save the body. A caffree and a Malay who fell in
the struggle were afterwards eaten. Thus the experience of later days is
found to agree with the uniform testimony of old writers; and although I
am aware that each and every of these proofs taken singly may admit of
some cavil, yet in the aggregate they will be thought to amount to
satisfactory evidence that human flesh is habitually eaten by a certain
class of the inhabitants of Sumatra.

That this extraordinary nation has preserved the rude genuineness of its
character and manners may be attributed to various causes; as the want of
the precious metals in its country to excite the rapacity of invaders or
avarice of colonists, the vegetable riches