90 BRITISH BORNEO. 
By their own extra work, after performing their service to 
their owners, slaves can acquire private property and even 
themselves purchase and own slaves. 
Infidel slaves, of both sexes, are compulsorily converted to 
Muhammadanism and circumcized and, even thoughthey should 
recover their freedom, they seldom relapse. 
M@here are) or rather were, a large number of debt slaves in 
North Borneo. For a dene of three pikuls—$6o0 to $75—a 
man might be enslaved if his friends could not raise the re- 
quisite sum, and he would continue to be a slave until the 
debt was paid, but, as a most usurious interest was charged, 
it was almost always a hopeless task to attempt it. 
Sometimes an inveterate gambler would sell himself to pay 
off his debts of honour, keeping the balance if any. 
The natives, regardless of the precepts of the Koran, would 
purchase any slaves that were offered for sale, whether infidel 
or Muhammadan. The importers were usually the Hlanun and 
Sulu kidnappers, who would bring in slaves of all tribes— 
Bajaus, Illanuns, Sulus, Brunais, Manilamen, natives of 
Palawan and natives of the interior of Magindanau—all was fish 
that came into their net. The selling price was as follows :— 
A boy, about 2 pikuls, a man 3 pikuls. A girl, 3 to 4 pikuls, 
a young woman, 3to5 pikuls. A person past middle age 
about 14 pikuls. A young couple, 7 to 8 pikuls, an old cou- 
ple, about 5 pikuls. The pikul was then equivalent to $20 or 
$25. Mr. WitTI further stated that in Tampassuk the pro- 
portion of free men to slaves was only one in three, and in 
Marudu Bay only one in five. In Tampassuk there were 
more female than male slaves. . 
Mr. A. H. EVERETT reported that, in his district of Pappar- 
Kimanis, there was no slave ¢rade, and that the condition of 
the domestic slaves was not one of hardship. . 
Mr. W. B. PRYER, speaking for the East Coast, informed 
me that there were only a few slaves in the interior, mostly 
Sulus who had been kidnapped and sold up the rivers. 
Among the Sulus of the coast, the relation was rather that of 
follower and lord than of slave and master. When he first 
settled at Sandakan, he could not get men to work for him for 
wages, they deemed it degrading to do so, but they said they 
