742 THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF MALACCA. 
unfortunately the mode adopted either by or through him, was one 
that proved most unpalatable to the natives of the place, and by its 
enforcement led to much vexation and dissatisfaction. This novel 
mode of raising a land revenue was by means of technical English 
legal indentures between the tenants and the East India Company, 
drawn up with all the precision and formality of a practising attorney 
in England, whereby the tenant engages to pay so much per annum, 
and the E. I. Co. engages not to demand any more, during a period 
of 20 years from the date of signing. This legal document occupies 
the whole of one side of a sheet of foolscap, while the other is filled 
with Malayan writing purporting to be a translation of the English, 
but, as may well be supposed, failing entirely to convey to a native 
reader any idea of its meaning. It requires some knowledge of 
law to understand the English original, considering that it is drawn 
up in strictly legal terms, and the attempt to translate those terms 
into Malay has produced an utterly unintelligible jumble of words. 
Indentures being duplicate dueuments are of course required to Le 
signed, sealed and delivered in duplicate by each party in the pre¬ 
sence of witnesses. To secure therefore the payment (often of a 
few annas only per annum) the tenants (ignorant Malay peasants) 
were sent for in shoals to put their marks to these sheets of foolscap 
paper filled with writing. They naturally got alarmed and evinced 
the greatest reluctance to affix their signature. To overcome this 
reluctance and to induce a general signing throughout, seems to 
have been the great and almost sole object of the Land Department 
from that time to the present. All the ingenuity of Residents and 
Assistants has been exerted to this end and all the principles of po¬ 
litical economy have been exhausted in endeavouring to explain the 
advantages of the system, but in many parts without success. Threats, 
coaxings and explanations have been set at defiance, and an obstinate 
determination evinced not to sign these legal papers. ’ In 1843 or 
44, the then Resident hit on the notable plan of punishing the recu¬ 
sants for their contumacy by putting their tenths up to auction and 
selling them to a Chinaman, the very thing that formed one of the 
grounds for redeeming the lands from the proprietors ! This system 
has been followed ever since, and every year the tenths on the uncom- 
muted lands are disposed of by public auction. The pecuniary re¬ 
sult of all this complicated machinery is very lamentable. For the 
two past years 1840-7 and 1847-8, the nominal sum engaged to be 
paid on the commuted lands was, Rs. 14,437. 
