SLAVERY. 
385 
the aged are commonly dispensed with when they have sons to sup¬ 
ply their places, and service may he commuted for the time it will 
occupy at the rate of 3 Dollars monthly to be paid in money or in kind. 
The number of slaves may be roughly estimated at 5 per cent of 
the population. The peasant cannot always afford the luxury of 
keeping slaves. The greatest number therefore falls to the share 
of men in power or office. These slaves constitute the principal 
part of their wealth. They are in fact retainers, who, when their 
masters have no employment for them, seek their own livelihood. 
Slaves of subjects do not all perform the 3 llionths service to the 
King. Those only who have engaged tlmmselves, or attached them¬ 
selves temporarily to an officer, or other person for maintenance 
only , are at liberty to go when they choose. Slaves of all classes may 
acquire and inherit property. But they are subject to the oppres¬ 
sion of their masters, who find means to attach part of the inheri¬ 
tance left by a slave on pretence of debt incurred by him while alive. 
Slavery is chiefly of that kind which originates in simple debt. It 
also arises from selling of personal service, which last mode of losing 
liberty is well known to extend over all the Malayan States to such 
a degree that one fifth of the population may he presumed to be in 
the condition of slave-debtors. 
The trade of kidnapping the inhabitants of different parts of the 
coasts, and in the Islands, and selling them, is constantly plied by the 
Malayan pirates. 
Slaverv in Siam is considered permanent and hereditarv in some 
cases, such as where the slave was taken in war or where he des¬ 
cended to his master as a part of inheritance. Those taken in'war 
belong of right to the King. He distributes them amongst Ins offi¬ 
cers. When slavery is thus incurred by war, the captive becomes 
absolutely a slave. But he may be ransomed, and it sometimes 
happens that a captive is admitted to certain domestic privileges 
which soften the severity of his fate; but in general his case is hope¬ 
less. 
A soldier may not appropriate to his service a captive, unless per¬ 
mitted by the King to do so. 
€ 3 
