"From those who have visited, or spent a considerable portion of their lives in regions obscurely known, and contemplated man under various forms of existence, it is reasonable to hope for some information which may elucidate the moral and natural history of the race. Yet we find travellers often unjust in appreciating the characters of the natives they visit; the standard by which they usually decide, being that of their own country, and the times in which they live: hence the illiberal epithets of savage and barbarian are so lavishly and indiscriminately applied. We are aware of this propensity; and set out with a determination to avoid falling into it. This declaration we conceive the more necessary, because our subject leads us at once into the contemplation of a state of society, more debased, depraved, and ignorant than could be supposed to have existed for upwards of a century, under the influence of the British Government. In saying this, we trust we shall not be considered as presuming to pass any undue strictures on the past administration of this dependancy of British India. Our business is not with the past; the task of tracing effects to their causes, in this instance, would be as unprofitable as it is invidious; and after all, would answer little purpose. We must state things as we find them, and endeavour to point out actual and existing evils, that suitable remedies may be applied.

"The necessity and advantage of generally educating the native population, is the first point to which our attention is directed. In order to prove this necessity, we must exhibit the existing condition of the people with reference to their character; their religious opinions; their intellectual and moral knowledge; their government and habits; and their acquaintance with the manufactures and arts of civilized life.

"First, then, as to their character. It has been asserted, that among the Malayan tribes inhabiting the west coast of Sumatra, the infant is hardly separated from the breast of its mother, before it evinces a perverseness of disposition, impatience of control, and manifest tokens of disobedience to the will of its parents: that these keep pace with its increasing years, and prove the fruitful sources of that marked insubordination to authority, impatience under restraints, and implacability of revenge, which form very prominent features in the character of those people, and render them treacherous allies, uncertain friends, inveterate enemies, and dangerous subjects. We shall not pretend VOL. III.-No. 5.

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to decide on this point; but we must admit, that with the Malays, indeed, revenge is virtue: it is hereditary in their families, and regularly handed down from father to son. Slow in the attainment of useful knowledge, the murderous inventions of the country have preceded and outstripped the culture of those peaceful arts, which civilize and adorn society. Indolence the most obstinate, forms a striking peculiarity in their character. Persuasion cannot rouse or stimulate them to exertion: and coercion, as we have had but too fatal proof, only drives them to desperation,

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"Mr. Marsden, whose history is so justly celebrated, and whose character is remarkable for mildness, benevolence, and impartiality, speaks of them in the following They retain a strong share of pride, but not of that laudable pride, which restrains men from the commission of mean and fraudulent actions. They possess much low cunning and plausible duplicity, and know how to dissemble the strongest passions, and most inveterate antipathy, beneath the utmost composure of features, till the opportunity of gratifying their resentment offers: veracity, gratitude, and integrity, are not to be found in the list of their virtues; and their minds are almost strangers to the sentiments of honour and infamy: they are jealous and vindictive.'-The above, however, rather more strictly applies to the people of the coast, or to the Malays as distinguished from the inhabitants of the interior, who may, perhaps, be viewed in a more favourable light.

At the principal settlements, and indeed along the whole extent of the coast from Acheen to Kroee, the Mahomedan religion is established; but the tenets of the prophet are very imperfectly grafted on the ancient superstitions of the country. There is, however, a regular priesthood; yet it does not appear that their influence over the people is so extensive as might be expected, considering the ignorance which prevails. This is accounted for, when we consider the total absence of common information, even amongst the most learned; the priests, who are, with very few exceptions, the instructors of youth, themselves being unacquainted with the tenets of their own faith. They read the Koran, it is true; but in a language (the Arabic) which they do not understand, and are, consequently, unacquainted with its doctrines; some of the most objectionable of these, however, have been handed down to them from their first converters, and have taken a fast hold of their minds, and produced considerable influence on their conduct-parti

cularly the doctrine of fatality; agreeably to which, they believe that whatever occurs in the natural or moral world, whether it be good or evil, happens by the express appointment and positive ordination of God."

"It would be difficult to say, what are the religious opinions of the people of the interior. They have little or no conception of a future state of rewards and punishments; they have no priests, nor any species of worship to the Supreme Being instituted among them; they believe in the existence of certain superior beings, both of a benevolent and malignant nature, who have the power of rendering themselves visible or invisible at pleasure: to these beings they are in the habit of offering up sacrifices, with the view of conciliating their good will, or averting their wrath. Their superstitions are very numerous, and many of them are analogous to those of ancient and modern times in other countries. They have an imperfect notion of the metempsychosis: the terrific alligator which inhabits their rivers, and the ferocious tiger which prowls in their forests, are supposed to be animated by the souls of their departed ancestors: hence, although the mischief committed by these animals is said to be very great, such is their veneration for them, that they can seldom be prevailed on from any consideration to destroy or molest them. With respect to the state of their intellectual and moral knowledge, little need be said they are nearly without exception, especially in the interior, destitute of the most ordinary information on every subject connected with literature and the arts., They use the Arabic character, which they adapt to the peculiar genius of their own language, and write with considerable facility; but their orthography is so arbitrary and unsettled, that their productions are often with difficulty understood, even by each other; hence the little advantage to be derived from the present introduction of books, and the great benefits that might be communicated in establishing a fixed standard of orthography. They know nothing of astronomy, geography, mathematics, natural philosophy, nor indeed of any of the sciences,

"Their form of government (patriarchal) is that which is generally attached to the most infant state of society; their chiefs possessing little more than a nominal authority, without the necessary power to make themselves feared and obeyed. So great indeed is the imbecility of their system. of legislation, that it cannot punish even murder, except by imposing a certain pecuniary mulct, which is proportioned,

not to the ability of the murderer, nor with reference to any circumstances of aggravation or extenuation which might attend the perpetration of the deed, but to the rank and quality of the person murdered. Yet whilst the native government is so weak and inefficient, many of the established customs and usages (for they have no written law) are of a nature the most oppressive and injurious; particularly those which relate to slavery, to debtors, and to marriage contracts. Slavery, which is so degrading to the species, and which was considered by an eminent statesman as the greatest practical evil to which the injustice of mankind had ever given birth, prevails on the coast, both amongst the European residents, and the Malays. But the principles of slavery have been so fully investigated of late, and its miserable consequences so indubitably ascertained, that little remains to be said, but that it really exists to a considerable degree.

"The late restrictions, however, which have emanated from the humane interposition of the British Government, have extended their influence to the shores of Sumatra ; and, indeed, the native regulations regarding this point, are on the whole less harsh and severe than might be expected; but it is to be feared, that for the most part they are little attended to. The state of debtors is little better than that of slaves; the only difference being a regulation which does not allow their creditors to strike them, and which leaves them the option of changing their masters, provided they can procure others to redeem their debts, when they transfer with their pecuniary obligation the conditions of their servitude. No part of the produce of their labour is appropriated to the liquidation of their debt, nor do they receive any allowance beyond what is necessary for their bare subsistence; consequently, the greater part continue for their whole lives in a state of servitude and dependance. The committee do not pretend to develope the origin and causes of institutions, so unjust and oppressive, but they may, doubtless, be imputed in part to the large sums exacted for marriage contracts. The average price paid by one man to another in the lower classes of society, as a consideration for the person of his daughter (according to the mode of marriage by Jujur) is about one hundred and twenty dollars, to which other charges and expenses are frequently added. Should the husband find himself unable to produce the necessary sum, he becomes the slavedebtor of his wife's family, until he can raise a sufficient

sum to redeem himself. This custom may be also assigned as one cause of the low and thin state of the population.

The arts and manufactures being of a nature in some degree allied to necessity, by their connexion with the immediate wants of nature, have at least kept pace in their progress with other subjects of improvement amongst them. Their houses are well constructed, and not unfrequently ornamented with rude carving; they forge iron into knives, but unskilfully; they know the use of the bellows, which they work after the manner of a pump, with double tubes to keep up a constant stream of air, and a piston formed of a bunch of feathers. They press the sugar-cane in a mill formed of two rollers, acting upon each other by the involutions of a perpetual screw*; and have many artful methods of ensnaring fish. The springes they set for birds are ingenious and effectual: the women weave with considerable neatness, and want only a fine staple, such as the Bourbon, or farfamed Pernambuco cotton. Sometimes they interweave an inferior kind of silk in their stuffs, but it is coarse and not glossy; and they are fond of ornamenting their clothes by working in the gold thread of China. They extract a blue dye from a plant that grows around their villages, and also a red one from the roots of the morinda citrifolia. Their fine works in gold, such as filagree, are well known; but these are performed by artists who reside at the principal settlements on the coasts. In the operations of agriculture, they content themselves with cutting down the trees for the purpose of cultivation, the new land yielding an immense increase. This toil is renewed every year or every second year, and contributes somewhat to the clearing of the land; but the population is so inadequate to the extent of the country, and vegetation is so rapid, that as they never remove the roots of trees, nor till the soil, the underwood quickly shoots up, and again covers the ground: but even where agriculture is practised, it is not carried to an extent sufficient to supply the demands of the island.

"This view, which we have taken of the existing state of the people, and of their genius and progress in the arts, we believe to exhibit a true picture of the state of society on the coast; and therefore are fully justified in our conclusion, that there does exist a very urgent necessity of ⚫ generally educating the population, and that the advan

The public spirit of the present lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen has induced him recently to order sugar-mills from England on the best construction.-EDIT.