324 REPORT ON THE ISLAND OF BANKA," 
degree. Flight is tlieir only resource to escape an attack. As soon 
as the symptoms are perceived or expected, a patient is abandoned 
infallibly without mercy or consideration. All the other members 
of a family, or the inmates of a house -retire precipitately into the 
woods. From this habit there is no exception. No ties of consan¬ 
guinity or affection can retain an attendant for the unfortunate pa¬ 
tient, and he is indiscriminately left to his fate. 
This feature in the character of the inhabitants is not sketched 
from partial information. The accuracy of the statement rests on 
an unanimous report in every part of the island not only of the na¬ 
tives but also of the Malays and Chinese. Wherever my enquiries 
were made I was assured that a mother infallibly abandoned her 
child as soon as she suspected by the symptoms the approaching di¬ 
sease, and that no consideration of affection or duty could retain 
the husband with the wife in the case of an attack of the small-pox. 
If a patient attempt to follow his relations and friends in their de¬ 
sertion he is destroyed without mercy. This quality in a race of 
people possessing in many other respects good sense and consider¬ 
able propriety of conduct shews their near approach to the condi¬ 
tion of savages, in which little else is regarded than self-preserva¬ 
tion. 
|j The condition of the inhabitants at this period in various parts 
induced them to give themselves up to voluntary slavery to escape 
the evils which awaited them on their native soil, and the name 
'Penggawo Sengkang has been preserved in the memory of the 
Bank&nese. A native of Macassar and habituated to the traffic in 
. slaves, he employed the disasters of Banka to his private benefit. 
Provided with the common necessaries of life he coasted along the 
western side of the island with small vessels on which he received 
many persons who gave themselves up to his mercy in order to es¬ 
cape the combined miseries which threatened them from famine, pi¬ 
rates and disease. 
From the year 1804 the Lanons gradually retired out of this 
neighbourhood to their accustomed range in the eastern seas. Lit¬ 
tle more was afforded to their enterprise by the exhausted state of 
