134 
PALAWAN. 
robbed or not. though I was their guest, for of the two sets of rascals the Chinese “ win in 
a canter,” the huge profits made by them in their trading-operations being sufficient 
evidence. 
The profits made by the Chinese are very large, or would be if they were honest amongst 
each other. Coods brought from Singapore, such as crockery (plates and bowls), cloth, 
silks, sardines, biscuits, rice, and lamp-oil, &c., &c., are exchanged with the Sulus for jungle- 
produce at from 100 to 200 per cent, of their real value, the produce being valued again 
very low. But not contented with this enormous profit, the store-keepers swindle the Sulus 
by manipulating their weighing-poles, so that they gain four piculs in every ten. One day I 
saw a Chinaman weigh sixteen piculs of damar as six piculs (a picul = 133 lb.) under the 
very nose of the Sulu from whom he was buying it. The Sulu at first looked perplexed, but 
in the end the Chinaman proved to his satisfaction that his sixteen piculs of damar weighed 
six. This may seem impossible, but I would back a Chinaman to swindle any Sulu. Now 
supposing the Chinaman had been detected, a few high words and the “ barong ” would 
have settled the dispute, and probably the rest of the Chinamen as well. Then in the 
course of time we should have heard of another massacre of Chinese in Palawan. In an 
island like Palawan every man is his own lawyer and settles his own disputes ; so if 
Chinese traders care to run the risk of making large profits by swindling, they must take 
the consequences. 
The Sulus in their relations with the Dusun aborigines are interesting. The Dusuns 
are farmed by them, no Dusun being allowed to deal with the Chinese at all. All jungle- 
produce must first be brought to the Sulu, who gives in exchange about half what he 
receives from the Chinese in trade-goods. As an example of this bullying trade custom : 
I have seen a Dusun bring a basket of damar to the entrance of the store, when an idle 
Sulu would get up and go to him and inquire what he wanted in exchange. After a few 
words the Sulu would go to the shelves in the store and get a plate or bowl, which he 
handed to the Dusun, taking the damar into his own possession. During this business trans¬ 
action our Chinese store-keeper has been looking on, without daring to purchase direct. In 
a day or two the Sulu sold the damar to the Chinaman at about 100 per cent, profit to 
himself. Wishing to get the Sulu idea of “ Free Trade,” I one day had a conversation with 
a Sulu on this subject, and asked him why the Dusuns did not sell to the Chinese direct. 
“ Well, if they did,” was his answer, “ how should I be able to sell it 1” or, in other words, how 
could I make a living 1 This answer was convincing enough for anyone. Thus it will be 
seen that the Sulu is a forced middle-man and one might suppose of no benefit to the com¬ 
munity ; his right he enforces by might, i. e. with his Snider and his barong. He never collects 
produce himself and would not be permitted to do so by the Dusuns. The point I cannot 
understand is why the Dusuns are so submissive to the Sulus, whom they vastly out¬ 
number. At the same time, the absence of the Sulu element would not benefit the Chinese 
much, if at all,—as the wants of the aborigines are almost nil, and if they were able to 
procure their small necessaries more easily they would only collect less produce; while 
our Sulu is a lazy, extravagant, gambling scoundrel, fond of opium-smoking, and, when he 
can afford it, dressing in silks and satins. Thus by doing away with this apparently useless 
non-producing Sulu drone we do away with demand, and bring the Chinese in direct contact 
