150 JAVA. [chap. ni. 



impossible, except by the despotic orders of chiefs whom 

 they have been accustomed to obey, as children obey their 

 parents. The free competition of European traders, how- 

 ever, introduces two powerful inducements to exertion. 

 Spirits or opium is a temptation too strong for most 

 savages to resist, and to obtain these he will sell whatever 

 he has, and will work to get more. Another temptation 

 he cannot resist, is goods on credit. The trader offers him 

 gay cloths, knives, gongs, guns, and gunpowder, to be paid 

 for by some crop perhaps not yet planted, or some product 

 yet in the forest. He has not sufficient forethought to take 

 only a moderate quantity, and not enough energy to work 

 early and late in order to get out of debt ; and the conse- 

 quence is that he accumulates debt upon debt, and often 

 remains for years, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave. 

 This is a state of things which occurs very largely in every 

 part of the world in which men of a superior race freely 

 trade with men of a lower race. It extends trade no doubt 

 for a time, but it demoralizes the native, checks true civi- 

 lization, and does not lead to any permanent increase in 

 the wealth of the country ; so that the European govern- 

 ment of such a country must be carried on at a loss. 



The system introduced by the Dutch was to induce the 

 people, through their chiefs, to give a portion of their time 

 to the cultivation of coffee, sugar, and other valuable 

 products. A fixed rate of wages — low indeed, but about 



