444 The Aeu Islands. 



or from doing to our neighbor as we would not be done by. 

 Think of the thousands of lawyers and barristers whose whole 

 lives are spent in telling us what the hundred acts of Parlia- 

 ment mean, and one would be led to infer that if Dobbo has 

 too little law England has too much. 



Here we may behold in its simplest form the genius of 

 Commerce at the work of Civilization. Trade is the magic 

 that keeps all at jDeace, and unites these discordant elements 

 into a well-behaved community. All are traders, and all 

 know that jjeace and order are essential to successful trade, 

 and thus a public opinion is created which puts down all 

 lawlessness. Often in former years, when strolling along the 

 Campong Glam in Singapore, I have thought how wild and 

 ferocious the Bugis sailors looked, and how little I should like 

 to trust myself among them. But now I find them to be 

 very decent, well-behaved fellows ; I walk daily unarmed in 

 the jungle, where I meet them continually ; I sleep in a palm- 

 leaf hut, which any one may enter, with as little fear and as 

 little danger of thieves or murder as if I were under the pro- 

 tection of the Metropolitan police. It is true, the Dutch in- 

 fluence is felt here. The islands are nominally under the 

 government of the Moluccas, which the native chiefs acknowl- 

 edge ; and in most years a commissioner arrives from Am- 

 boyna, who makes the tour of the islands, hears complaints, 

 settles disputes, and carries away prisoner any heinous oflTen- 

 der. This year he is not expected to come, as no orders 

 have yet been received to prepare for him ; so the people of 

 Dobbo will probably be left to their own devices. One day 

 a man was caught in the act of stealing a piece of iron from 

 Herr Warzbergen's house, which he had entered by making 

 a hole through the thatch wall. In the evening the chief 

 traders of the place, Bugis and Chinese, assembled, the offen- 

 der was tried and found guilty, and sentenced to receive 

 twenty lashes on the spot. They were given with a small 

 rattan in the middle of the street, not very severely, as the 

 executioner appeared to sympathize a little with the culprit. 

 The disgrace seemed to be thought as much of as the pain ; 

 for though any amount of clever cheating is thought rather 

 meritorious than otherwise, open robbery and house-breaking 

 meet with universal reprobation. 



