g ago as 1841, appealed to the English Government "to assist him to
put down piracy and the slave trade, which," he said, "are openly
carried on within a short distance of three European settlements, on a
scale and system revolting to humanity."

The exertions of Sir James Brooke and his nephews, aided occasionally by
her Majesty's ships, have indeed nearly put a stop to piracy, and
therefore to the kidnapping of slaves. Still the descendants of Dyak
slaves remain the property of their masters. Besides these, there are
slave debtors, whole families who have sold themselves to pay the
accumulations arising from taxes or impositions of the Malays which they
had no hope of repaying. Usury, which was the fountain of this evil, has
been forbidden at Sarawak, and many are the slave debtors whom the
Rajah's purse has freed.

"Slavery in the East," says Mr. Low,[13] "has always been of a more mild
and gentle character than that which in the West so disgusted the
intelligent natives of Europe. The slaves in Borneo are generally Dyaks
and their descendants, who have been captured by the rulers of the
country to swell the number of their personal attendants. Their duties
consist in helping their master, who always works with them, in his
house or boat building operations, accompanying him in his trading
expeditions, assisting in the navigation of his boats, etc. Their
masters generally allot them wives from amongst their female domestics,
and many of them acquire the affection and confidence of their
superiors. The price of a slave in Sarawak is from thirty to sixty
dollars, but as the trade is being as quickly repressed as possible,
without too much shocking the prejudices of the inhabitants, they have
of late become very scarce, and difficult to be bought. The price of a
girl varies from thirty to one hundred dollars, but at Sarawak they are
even more difficult than men to obtain." Thus wrote Mr. Low in the year
1848. By this time, 1882, slavery is almost nominal at Sarawak. I read,
in a _Sarawak Gazette_, six months ago, that Rajah Brooke had proposed
to his Supreme Council, which consists of four Malays and two
Englishmen, that slavery should be by law abolished in Sarawak
territory. He had proposed this, he said, six months previously, and the
Malay councillors present assented heartily as far as themselves and the
people of Kuching were concerned, but they thought it would be desirable
to give six months' notice to the outl