CHAP. XXI.] ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 13 



very determinedly that they would return to Ternate. So 

 their masters were obliged to submit, and I was left 

 behind to get to Dodinga as I could. Luckily I succeeded 

 in hiring a small boat, which took me there the same night, 

 with my two men and my baggage. 



Two or three years after this, and about the same length 

 of time before I left the East, the Dutch, emancipated all 

 their slaves, paying their owners a small compensation. 

 !N"o ill results followed. Owing to the amicable relations 

 which had always existed between them and their 

 masters, due no doubt in part to the Government having 

 long accorded them legal rights and protection against 

 cruelty and ill-usage, many continued in the same service, 

 and after a little temporary difficulty in some cases, almost 

 all returned to work either for their old or for new 

 masters. The Government took the very proper step of 

 placing every emancipated slave under the surveillance of 

 the police-magistrate. They were obliged to show that 

 they were working for a living, and had some honestly- 

 acquired means of existence. All who could not do so 

 were placed upon public works at low wages, and thus 

 were kept from the temptation to peculation or other 

 crimes, which the excitement of newly-acquired freedom, 

 and disinclination to labour, might have led them into. 



