THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
J5Q 
devoted wretch is indescribable, and the mischief he often 
does is very great before a lucky shot brings him down. 
The natives fly before him in the utmost consternation, 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 destroy 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-dollars was offered for the 
destruction or capture 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 
attributable 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 in- 
sulting behaviour of their masters exasperated their natural 
ferocity; and the impossibility of obtaining legal redress from 
their tyrants stimulated them to seek vengeance in the de- 
struction of their masters, 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 
