tience, and that an opposite
course would raise such a host of enemies as to crush every good seed;
for, as it is, the gentlest course of justice brings down much odium,
and arouses intense dislike among a people who have had no law but
their own vile intrigues to guide or control them.

"Two cases have lately come to notice, which will serve as examples
of their singular crimes.

"One poor man owed another sixteen reals, and the debtor was away
trading for a few days, when the creditor sold the daughter (a free
woman) for thirty reals, to a person of influence.

"The second case, a respectable man, or a respectably born man, owed
a Pangeran fifty peculs of ore, and proposed to make over to him in
payment, a slave woman and her four children. The woman _had been_
a slave of his grandfather's, but was adopted as his daughter, and
enfranchised publicly; yet by intimidation, they were near getting
her and her offspring. Here the Pangerans and Nakodas bully a man
into silence and acquiescence; and the people dare not, as yet, bring
their complaints to me. But I hear these things, call the parties
together, and often prevent the commission of a premeditated crime;
by which means I save myself from the odium of punishing.

"There is great difficulty in acting at once with temper and firmness,
so as to appear the benefactor rather than the tyrant. It is, indeed,
an arduous and troublesome task; but _I think I see_ a ray of light
to encourage me.

"Here are the regulations, which I had printed at Singapore in the
Malayan language:--

"James Brooke, esquire, governor (rajah), of the country of Sarawak,
makes known to all men the following regulations:--

"'1st. That murder, robbery, and other heinous crimes will be punished
according to the ondong-ondong (_i.e._ the written law of Borneo);
and no person committing such offences will escape, if, after fair
inquiry, he be proved guilty.

"'2d. In order to insure the good of the country, all men, whether
Malays, Chinese, or Dyaks, are permitted to trade or labor according
to their pleasure, and to enjoy their gains.

"'3d. All roads will be open, that the inhabitants at large may seek
profit both by sea or by land; and all boats coming from others are
free to enter the river and depart, without let or hinderance.

"'4th. Trade, in all its branches, will be free, with the exception
of antimony ore, which the governor holds in his own hands, but which
no person is forced