68 COFFEE. 



bearing some written message or report from the superintendents, 

 they uncover their heads, and, bowing to the ground, they creep 

 upon their hands and knees in order to hand the message to 

 their " master." While the mo^vement added wonderfully to the 

 oriental aspect of tlie scene, it did not dispel the thought that 

 " oriental " has come to be entirely associated with the idea of 

 despotism and cruelty, the day for which has gone by. The 

 natives, however, are better than slaves in the following respects : 

 they cannot be punished by whipping, and are free to come 

 and go when they please. They are, however, miserably poor, 

 ignorant, and degraded, and whether this is the effect of the 

 climate, or not, is hard to determine. The old residents of the 

 island represent that they do not seem to display much energy 

 or to make much effort to elevate themselves. This is, doubtless, 

 owing in a great measure to the fact that the Dutch government 

 has adopted the plan of maintaining the authority of the native 

 chiefs over them, the Dutch, in turn, subsidizing and controlling the 

 chiefs, who, for hundreds of years, have maintained a most grinding 

 despotism over their miserable subjects, levying forced loans and 

 otherwise despoiling those who, by exceptional industry and pru- 

 dence, have accumulated anything beyond their daily subsistence. 

 The Dutch first conquered the island by force of arms, thereby 

 establishing a claim to ownership of all the land, and then kept 

 the native chiefs friendly by giving them a larger income than 

 they formerly enjoyed, but requiring the chiefs in turn to make 

 their people work systematically in cultivating the soil, and to sell 

 their entire product to the Dutch government at a price so low 

 that it barely gave them a subsistence. By this system the Dutch 

 have derived an enormous revenue from their East India posses- 

 sions, and in turn have given the natives greater security for life 

 than they before enjoyed ; but this has been the only improve- 

 jnent, the despotism of the nativfe chiefs being perpetuated indef- 

 initely, and most of the people kept so poor that there is but little 

 chance for them to better their condition. As the population 

 increased, a greater supply of labor became available than could 

 be profitably employed under government supervision ; and as 

 there was an abundance of land, portions of it were from time to 

 time leased to individuals with the privilege of planting, until 



