353 
MEMOIRS OF MALAYS. 
In Malayan villages on the sea coast or on rivers, as we pursue our 
enquiries into the personal history of different families, we are often 
struck with the evidences which they furnish of a wandering dispo¬ 
sition in the race. But it very often happens that many of.the mi¬ 
grations which we can trace in the lives of the older villagers are at¬ 
tributable not to a love of change, but to the political and social con- 
dition of the Archipelago. The prevalence of slavery, and the ar¬ 
bitrary power which rulers and men of rank or influence possess in 
a greater or less degree, are constantly forcing individuals from their 
native countries. The suppression of slavery would go far to sup¬ 
press piracy, of which it is the principal incentive. We may des¬ 
troy piratical boats and Lanun forts, but so long as every river in 
the Archipelago remains a slave mart piracy will continue. 
What has England done to put an end to the cruelties and 
miseries which, directly and indirectly, are caused by slavery in the 
Archipelago ? Page upon page of indignation has been published 
against the short comings of other nations, but what are the labours 
for humanity and civilization to which we can point as an evidence 
of the earnestness of our commiseration for the oppressed and the 
suffering, and of our right to condemn the unfeeling indifference of 
others ? Holland may have undertaken a work beyond her power, 
and a sense of this may render her too selfishly conservative, but in 
that part of the Archipelago which, for the last quarter of a century, 
has been subject to our exclusive influence, and with which no other 
European power has even sought to interfere—the Malay Peninsula— 
we have abandoned the people to all the evils with which native in¬ 
stitutions, native wars, and frequent anarchy are attended. Our 
moral influence has been and is absolute here. Have we ever en¬ 
gaged the Malay chiefs to abolish slavery, to ameliorate those insti¬ 
tutions which bear most heavily on the liberty and industry of the 
people, to recognize the fact that the aborigines are entitled to pro¬ 
tection and justice as much as their other subjects ? The age for pure 
Malay institutions has passed away. Their work is ended. They 
