144 BORNEO— THE DYAKS. [chap. vi. 



field — a change which has already to a great extent taken 

 place in the allied Malay, Javanese, and Bugis tribes. 

 Population will then certainly increase more rapidly, 

 improved systems of agriculture and some division of 

 labour will become necessary in order to provide the 

 means of existence, and a more complicated social state 

 will take the place of the simple conditions of society 

 which now obtain among them. But, with the sharper 

 struggle for existence that will then occur, will the hap- 

 piness of the people as a whole be increased or diminished ? 

 Will not evil passions be aroused by the spirit of compe- 

 tition, and crimes and vices, now unknown or dormant, 

 be called into active existence ? These are problems that 

 time alone can solve ; but it is to be hoped that education 

 and a high-class European example may obviate much 

 of the evil that too often arises in analogous cases, and 

 that we may at length be able to point to one instance 

 of an uncivilized people who have not become demoralized 

 and finally exterminated, by contact with European civi- 

 lization. 



A few words in conclusion, about the government of 

 Sarawak. Sir James Brooke found the Dyaks oppressed 

 and ground down by the most cruel tyranny. They were 

 cheated by the Malay traders, and robbed by the Malay 

 chiefs. Their wives and children were often captured and 

 sold into slavery, and hostile tribes purchased permission 





