Alfred Russel Wallace 



greatest ease some conspiracies of one or two Malay chiefs 

 against him. It is a unique case in the history of the world, 

 for a European gentleman to rule over two conflicting 

 races of semi- savages with their own consent, without any 

 means of coercion, and depending solely upon them for 

 protection and support, and at the same time to introduce 

 the benefits of civilisation and check all crime and semi- 

 barbarous practices. Under his government, ^' running 

 amuck, ^' so frequent in all other Malay countries, has 

 never taken place, and with a population of 30,000 Malays, 

 all of whom carry their ** creese " and revenge an insult 

 by a stab, murders do not occur more than once in five or 

 six years. 



The people are never taxed but with their own consent, 

 and Sir J.'s private fortune has been spent in the govern- 

 ment and improvement of the country; yet this is the man 

 who has been accused of injuring other parties for his own 

 private interests, and of wholesale murder and butchery to 

 secure his government ! . . . — Your ever affectionate son, 



Alfred E. Wallace. 



To His Sister, Mrs. Sims 



Skbgapore. February 20, 1856. 



My dear Fanny, — ... I have now left Sarawak, where 

 I began to feel quite at home, and may perhaps never return 

 to it again; but I shall always look back with pleasure to 

 my residence there and to my acquaintance with Sir James 

 Brooke, who is a gentleman and a nobleman in the noblest 

 sense of both words. . . . 



Charles has left me. He has stayed with the Bishop of 

 Sarawak, who wants teachers and is going to try to educate 

 him for one. I offered to take him on with me, paying him 

 a fair price for all the insects, etc., he collected, but he pre- 



60 



