268 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



We may conclude with an extract from a Consular 

 report made by Mr. Ussher upon the condition of 

 Sarawak, which, though written in 1878, is equally 

 applicable to the present date :■ — " It is not too much to 

 say that Sarawak presents one of the few remaining 

 chances of existence to the enervated and indolent race 

 of ]\Ialays. Under such a government, which appears to 

 strive to impress them with a sense of their duty to the 

 State, as well as with a feeling of self-respect, by in- 

 ducing and encouraging them to take an active part in 

 the administration of public affairs, the Malays of 

 Sarawak ought to prosper ; and they have, moreover, 

 continually before their eyes the example of the mis- 

 government and anarchy existing in the wretched king- 

 dom of Borneo proper, which is apparently hastening to 

 ruin and decay. 



" The policy of the Sarawak Government appears to 

 me to be just and equitable towards the native Dyak 

 and other races. It may fairly be assumed to be so, if 

 we take as a test the fact that extensive tribes of 

 savages have been transmuted from lawless head-hunters 

 and pirates into comparatively peaceful agriculturists. 

 . . . One of the principal recommendations attaching in 

 the eyes of the native to European rule in Sarawak is 

 the honesty of its administration, especially in pecuniary 

 matters. The object of the Malay nobles in the olden 

 times, and indeed now in the territories of Brunei, was to 

 squeeze as much as might be from the wretched 

 aborigines ; whereas the principal object of the European 

 appears to them to be to solve the problem of how to 

 carry on an effective government at the lightest possible 

 cost to its subjects. 



" Another recommendation in the eyes of the native is 

 the possi])ility of obtaining even-handed if rough justice. 



