184 
Malays of Ceylon. / 
they come. From having done duty in the same garrison witli 
them for three years and a half, and having during that period 
lived in habits of intimacy with their native officers, I had an 
opportunity of minutely observing the character of the Malays 
as soldiers. From their natural intrepidity and hardiness, they 
are well calculated to become very useful and serviceable troops 
if properly officered and commanded. It requires however much 
management, much attention to their tempers, skill in regulat- 
ing their economy, firmness in maintaining discipline, and at 
the same time great caution in punishing misbehaviour, to make 
our service reap in its full extent the advantage that might be 
derived from them. To their native officers, who were at that 
time chiefly from among their own princes and great men, they 
always paid the most implicit obedience, and seemed to hold 
them in the highest veneration. On being punished by sentence 
of a court-martial they never murmur, and their darling passion 
of revenge seems to be entirely laid aside. The contrast of 
this behaviour with their usual furious resentments on the most 
trivial occasions, struck me so forcibly, that I was induced to 
enquire the cause of some of their officers. I was told that it 
was an ordinance of their religion, and a rule among their customs 
which was never infiinged upon, to pay implicit obedience to 
all their officers, European as well as Malay, and to execute 
military orders with the strictest punctuality; and they were 
also enjoined never to murmur at any conduct of their supe- 
riors, or hesitate to execute orders as long as they received pay 
and continued in the service of any power. In addition to this, 
they are always tried for any offences by a court composed 
wholly of their own native officers, who are acquainted with 
their language and customs, and thus afford a security of every 
