MALAY LAND TENURE. 159 



" He (Mr. Young) seems to have brought to notice the 

 " very objectionable system of levying a revenue in kind on 

 " the produce of the lands, and to have induced the resort to a 

 " commutation of the tenths into a money payment, but 

 " unfortunately the mode adopted either by or through him, 

 " was one that proved most unpalatable to the natives of the 

 " place, and by its enforcement led to much vexation and dis- 

 " satisfaction. This novel mode of raising a land revenue was 

 " by means of technical English legal indentures between the 

 " tenants and the East India Company, drawn up with all the 

 " precision and formality of a practising attorney in England, 

 " whereby the tenant engages to pay so much per annum, and 

 " the East India Company engages not to demand any more, 

 " during a period of twenty years from the date of signing. 

 " This legal document occupies the whole of one side of a 

 <c sheet of foolscap, while the other is filled with Malayan 

 " writing purporting to be a translation of the English, but, 

 " as may well be supposed, failing entirely to convey to a 

 " native reader any idea of its meaning. It requires some 

 " knowledge of law to understand the English original, con- 

 " sidering that it is drawn up in strictly legal terms, and the 

 " attempt to translate those terms into Malay has produced 

 " an utterly unintelligible jumble of words. Indentures being 

 " duplicate documents are of course required to be signed, 

 " sealed and delivered in duplicate by each party in the pre- 

 " sence of witnesses. To secure therefore the payment (often 

 " of a few annas only per annum ) the tenants ( ignorant 

 " Malay peasants ) were sent for in shoals to put their marks 

 " to these sheets of foolscap paper filled with writing. They 

 (i naturally got alarmed and evinced the greatest reluctance 

 " to affix their signature. To overcome this reluctance and to 

 " induce a general signing throughout, seems to have been the 

 " great and almost sole object of the Land Department from 

 " that time to the present. All the ingenuity of Residents 

 " and Assistants has been exerted to this end and all the prin- 

 " ciples of political economy have been exhausted in endea- 

 " vouring to explain the advantages of the system, but in 

 " many parts without success. Threats, coaxings and expla- 

 " nations have been set at defiance, and an obstinate determi- 



