MALA? LAND TENURE. 139 



To transmute the serf into a proprietor, and to give him 

 immunity from forced labour and other exactions, was the 

 task which Raffles set himself. To use his own words : " The 

 " foundation of the amended system was, 1st — The entire 

 fi abolition of forced deliveries at inadequate rates, and of ail 

 " feudal services, with the establishment of a perfect freedom 

 " in cultivation and trade ; 2nd — The assumption, on the 

 " part of Government, of the immediate superintendence of 

 " the lands with the collection of the resources and roots tliere- 

 u of j 3rd— The renting out of the lands so assumed to the 

 " actual occupants, in large or small estates, according to local 

 " circumstances, on leases for a moderate term. In the course 

 " of the following years (1814 and 1815) these measures were 

 Ci carried into execution in most of the districts under our 

 " Government, with a view to the eventual establishment of a 

 Ci perpetual settlement, on the principle of the ryotwar 

 " or as it has been termed in Java, the tidng-dlit system/'' 



" In the first settlement, leases were only granted for a year, 

 " or, at the utmost, three years, and were given to intermedi- 

 " ate renters ; but in the more detailed settlement of 1814, 

 " after sufficient information had been collected on the state 

 " of the country, Government determined to act directly with 

 " the individual cultivator and to lay the foundation of a per- 

 " manent system. By this hitter period, the experiments had 

 " been tried to a certain extent, and had succeeded beyond the 

 " most sanguine expectation. Difficulties met us in the way, 

 " but they were by no means insurmountable : there were at 

 Ci first imperfections in the system, but they did not affect its 

 " principle, and were easily removed. By the zeal, the ability, 

 11 and industry of the various officers entrusted with the exe- 

 " cution of the duty, whatever was practicable in furtherance 

 Ci of the object in which they felt deeply interested, was accom- 

 " plished. In the course of the years 1814 and 1815, the new 

 Ci system was introduced into Bantam, Cheribon and the 

 " eastern districts, over a population of a million and a half of 

 " cultivators, not only without disturbance and opposition, but 

 " to the satisfaction of all classes of the natives, and to the 

 " manifest increase of the public revenue derivable from land." 



