BRITISH BORNEO. gt 
would work for him if he would duy them! Sulu, under 
Spanish influence, and Bulungan, in Dutch Borneo, were the 
chief slave markets, but the Spanish and Dutch are gradually 
suppressing this traffic. 
There was a colony of Illanuns and Balinini settled at 
Tunku and Teribas on the East Coast, who did a considera- 
ble business in kidnapping, but in 1879 Commander E. ED- 
WARDS, in H. M. S. Kestre/, attacked and burnt their village, 
capturing and burning several piratical boats and prahus. 
Slavery, though not yet extinct in Borneo, has received a 
severe check in British North Borneo and in Sarawak, and is 
rapidly dying out in both countries; in fact it is a losing 
business to be a slave-owner now. 
Apart from the institution of slavery, which is sanctioned 
by the Muhammadan religion, the religious customsand laws 
of the various tribes ‘‘ especially with respect to the holding, 
‘possession, transfer and disposition of lands and goods, and 
“‘testate or intestate succession thereto, and marriage, divorce 
“and legitimacy, and the rights of property and personal 
“rights” are carefully regarded by the Company’s Govern- 
ment, as in duty bound, according to the terms of Articles 8 
and g of the Royal Charter. The services of native headmen 
are utilised as much as possible, and Courts composed of 
Native Magistrates have been established, but at the same time 
efforts are made to carry the people with the Government in 
ameliorating and advancing their social position, and thus 
involves an amendment of some of the old customs and laws. 
Moreover, customs which are altogether repugnant to 
modern ideas are checked or prohibited by the new Govern- 
ment; as, for example, the time-honoured custom of a tribe 
periodically balancing the account of the number of heads 
taken or lost by it from orto another tribe, an audit which, 
it is strange to say, almost invariably results in the discovery 
on the part of the stronger tribe that they are on the wrong 
side of the account and have a balance to get from the others. 
These hitherto interminable feuds, though not altogether pu- 
a stop to in the interior, have been in many districts effectt 
ually brought to an end, Government officers having been 
asked by the natives themselves to undertake the examina- 
