SUMATRA. 
tfinancc is added to the debt. This opens si door for many iniqiiicous 
praftjcesj and it is in the rigorous, and frequently vnjuft exertion of 
thefe rights, whiph a creditor has pver his debtor* that the chiefs ate 
enabled to opprefs the lower c^fs of people, apd which the EngUfh tc* 
fidpnts find it tieccffary to be moft watchful to reftraih them from 
abufing. 
When a man of one diflrift or country, h^s a debt owing to hltri 
from the inhabitant of a neighbouring country, v^hich he cfannot re- 
cover payment of, an ufual pfoiirce is to fpizg on one or more of his 
cMdren, and carry them oflf; which they call andac. The daughter of 
a Rijang dupatty was carried off in this manncf ^y the Lahan people. 
Not hearing for fome time from her father, flie fcnt him cuttings of 
her hair and nails^ by which fiic intimated a rcfolution of deftroyiog 
herfelf, if not foon releafed. 
The right of flavery is eftablifljed in Sumatra, as it is throughout ihc sh^eiy. 
eaft, and has been all over the world j yet but few inftances occur of 
the country people a^ually having flaves, though they are common 
enough in the Malay, or Tea port towns. Their domeftieks and labor- 
ers are either dependant relations, or the orang mengesring above def- 
er ibcd, who are emphatically ftyled debtors.* The fimple manners of 
the people require that their fervants fliould live, in a great meafure 
on a foot of eqymVtty with the reft of the family, which I3 inconfiftent 
with the authority neceffary to be maintained over flaves, who have no 
principle to reftrain them but that of perfonal fearf-, and know that their 
* The Malay terms, ormg birsofong, and er^tig mengnringt can onlj be fendeted by tbje 
Euglifli word dtbtm- \ ihot5gh they apply to pcrfbns in vf ry difTcrent circumftances t the epithets 
of filnent^ w/i^mt, would give ibrae idea of the difiiniSti on. 
f 1 d& not mean to afifcrtt tHat men tn tht condition of liates are tierdd of primrfpT«r 1 
bvvq exp(;nei}ced tb£ ccintrary;^ md fouiu^ m thua affcdion aad ftrlA boprny; but that^eiit 
dpes not refu It from their filu.ition, as Haves, any principle of moral rcftitgde^ u tic jcas every 
ether condition of fodety has annexed t« it, ideas of duty and mutual ojb ligation, ^riling from a 
fetife of general utility. That fublime fpecies of morality ilerived from the injuii6:ioiii of rttigiOnj 
h is almofl unimfiiUy their iW to be liktwife fltangert to j becaufe llavery is f^bndlfedoSiSt&it 
wnh the fpirit of the gofpef, not merely as irtculeating philanthropy, but infpiring a principle of 
«t^uaSitj amoitgA mankind. 
I i i civil 
