GAMING. 257 



w ill suffice to place the perpetrator beyond the fangs 

 of the law, and if in Province Wellesley, from a few 

 minutes to two hours are sufficient. Offenders bar- 

 ing thus in a manner outlawed themselves, they 

 either join themselves into bands of robbers, as a 

 matter of course, or betake themselves to the geuteeler 

 pursuit of piracy, which has, time out of mind, been 

 the perquisite of the younger and unprovided. for 

 brandies of Malayan families of high rank, and the 

 refuge of the felon. 



GAMING AND GAMBLING. 

 'Gaming: or Gambling— fur here the terms are 

 nearly svTionimous, — is perhaps at this moment fim 

 greatest evil existing, and it is to lie feared, rooted in 

 the native social system of the three Straits Settle- 

 ments, and it is in itself sufficient to paraike the effi- 

 ciency of any police by corrupting it. 



It is not my intention to tritely expatiate on the 

 immorality of gaming, but to point out, if possible, 

 its peculiar hurtful efFects in our very mixed native 

 community. 



Gaming is a vice which is widely diffused amongst 

 the Indo-Chinese nations ; and the rulers of the latter, 

 equally with the Dutch, have generally subjected it to 

 a tax, it is believed to the advantage both of the com- 

 munity, and the revenue; for we should not do wisely 

 to presume upon any European experience, while 

 called on in the** countries to say how any given Ed*. 

 li-h law would operate. The antiquity of tin's viee hi 

 the east is indisputable. We And in the native annals 

 demigods aud Jungs, staking powers ami kingdoms 

 at games of chauce ; and chess, which is itncon- 

 nested with chance, is not only with them a game of 

 skill, but one at which empires may be lust or won. 



It has been casually remarked in the first chapter^ 

 that Marco Polo has described the C hinese in his day 



