es his elevation to
British influences), all the Malay Governments throughout the Malay
Archipelago and in the Malay Peninsula are now subject either to the
English, the Dutch, the Spanish or the Portuguese. This decadence is not
due to any want of vitality in the race, for under European rule the
Malay increases his numbers, as witness the dense population of Java and
the rapidly growing Malay population of the Straits Settlements.

That the Malay does so flourish in contact with the European and the
Chinese is no doubt to some extent due to his attachment to the
Mahomedan faith, which as a tee-total religion is, so far, the most
suitable one for a tropical race; it has also to be remembered that he
inhabits tropical countries, where the white man cannot perform out-door
labour and appears only as a Government Official, a merchant or a
planter.

But the decay of the Brunai aristocracy was probably inevitable. Take
the life of a young noble. He is the son of one of perhaps thirty women
in his father's harem, his mother is entirely without education, can
neither read nor write, is never allowed to appear in public or have any
influence in public affairs, indeed scarcely ever leaves her house, and
one of her principal excitements, perhaps, is the carrying on of an
intrigue, an excitement enhanced by the fact that discovery means
certain death to herself and her lover.

Brunai being a water town, the youngster has little or no chance of a
run and game ashore, and any exercise he takes is confined to _being_
paddled up and down the river in a canoe, for to paddle himself would be
deemed much too degrading--a Brunai noble should never put his hand to
any honest physical work--even for his own recreation. I once imported a
Rob Roy canoe from England and amused myself by making long paddling
excursions, and I would also sometimes, to relieve the monotony of a
journey in a native boat, take a spell at the paddle with the men, and I
was gravely warned by a native friend that by such action I was
seriously compromising myself and lowering my position in the eyes of
the higher class of natives. At an early age the young noble becomes an
object of servile adulation to the numerous retainers and slaves, both
male and female, and is by them initiated in vicious practices and,
while still a boy, acquires from them some of the knowledge of a fast
man of the world. As a rule he receives no sort of school education. He
neither rides n