TUB HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF MALACCA. 753 
towards this result by an apparent exhibition of liberality. The 
Dutch, at least in the latter years of their rule, held these countries 
well in hand, and if they did not civilize much, at all events kept 
them quiet among themselves, and extracted from them no small 
sum by means of a strict monopoly of all the Tin procured in them, 
but we, from some unexplained cause, have adopted a diametrically 
opposite course. We have not‘only withdrawn from all interference 
of any kind with these countries, but we have given up to them, 
with the professed view of evincing our liberality and without a 
claim or demand being made for them, some of the richest mine¬ 
ral districts formerly part of Malacca Province, such for instance 
as Mount Ophir, formerly a portion of Malacca, where several 
hundreds of people were usefully employed in working the rich 
veins of tin and gold there met with, and where now, the few who 
are engaged in such work are in continual danger of being plun¬ 
dered and murdered by some petty chief or other, who may take 
it into bis bead to adopt that means of obtaining a little money, and 
may imagine himself strong enough to overcome resistance from the 
workers. The policy of such witlidrawel from all interference with 
the neighbouring petty states is extremely doubtful. They are fast 
becoming little more than the receptacles of the lawless and evil 
disposed, w'hose sole means of livelihood will be plunder and robbing, 
obliging us, in the end, for the safety of our own people, to take pos¬ 
session of the country, the very object we sought to avoid by our 
witlidrawel and subsequent exhibition of liberality. One very inju¬ 
rious effect of this refraining from the excercise of our influence and 
eontroul over the adjoining states, is the complete stoppage of the 
overland trade which once existed with Pahang and other states in 
the Gulph of Siam. Pahang itself may not be overwell governed, 
but it is generally believed that the present ruler of that country is 
something beyond the usual average of his class, and that the coun¬ 
try is tolerably flourishing under his rule. A constant intimate 
overland intercourse between it and Malacca would surely tend, 
above all things, to assist the efforts of such a ruler if lie should be 
really desirous of benefiting his country, and would as surely tend 
to check him, should he or his successors be inclined to overindulge 
in tyranny and oppression. But between Malacca on the Straits 
seas and Paliang on the Gulph, there lie two or three of those petty 
Malayan states from all interference with which we have withdrawn, 
and which, as before mentioned, being little better than a refuge tor 
