179 
Malays of Ceylon. 
mischief he often does is very great before a lucky shot brings 
him down. The natives fly before him in the utmost conster- 
nation, and hardly any person but an European dares venture to 
attack him. It is indeed a service of incredible danger to hunt 
down the mad savage, as he defends himself desperately to the 
last, and even though mortally wounded often contrives to de- 
stroy his antagonist by a stab of his poisoned kreese. The 
Dutch government at Ceylon found it necessary to repress this 
ferocious practice by the severest punishments. A reward of one 
or two hundred rix-doilars was ofl’ered for the destruction or cap- 
ture of those who ran a muck ; and such of them as were taken 
alive were put to death with the most excruciating torments. 
The frequency of mucks in the Dutch settlements seems at- 
tributable to the manner in which that nation behaved to their 
Malay dependants. The slaves and servants of the Dutch were 
chiefly composed of that race ; and it is among this class that 
the instances of savage fury which we have described usually 
occurred. The cruel, capricious, and insulting behaviour of 
their masters exasperated their natural ferocity ; and the im- 
possibility of obtaining legal redress from their tyrants stimu- 
lated them to seek vengeance in the destruction of their mas- 
ters, themselves, and the human species. At Batavia, and the 
Dutch settlements to the eastward, where their conduct is most 
despotic and cruel, mucks are greatly more frequent than in 
Ceylon, or at the Cape of Good Hope. Since the arrival of 
the English at Ceylon, the barbarous practice has almost been 
unknown ; and a few private murders committed on the Sepoys 
and black people in the Pettah, were the only crimes of this 
nature attributed to Malays during my stay at Columbo. No 
other cause can be assigned for this difference in the conduct 
A A 2 
