268 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
We may conclude with an extract from a Consular 
report made by Mr. Ussher upon the condition of 
Sarawak, which, though written in 1878, is equally 
applicable to the present date :—“ It is not too much to 
say that Sarawak presents one of the few remaining 
chances of existence to the enervated and indolent race 
of Malays. Under such a government, which appears to 
strive to impress them with a sense of their duty to the 
State, as well as with * a feeling of self-respect, by in¬ 
ducing and encouraging them to take an active part in 
the administration of public affairs, the Malays of 
Sarawak ought to prosper; and they have, moreover, 
continually before their eyes the example of the mis- 
government and anarchy existing in the wretched king¬ 
dom of Borneo proper, which is apparently hastening to 
ruin and decay. 
“ The policy of the Sarawak Government appears to 
me to be just and equitable towards the native Dyak 
and other races. It may fairly be assumed to be so, if 
we take as a test the fact that extensive tribes of 
savages have been transmuted from lawless head-hunters 
and pirates into comparatively peaceful agriculturists. 
. . . One of the principal recommendations attaching in 
the eyes of the native to European rule in Sarawak is 
the honesty of its administration, especially in pecuniary 
matters. The object of the Malay nobles in the olden 
times, and indeed now in the territories of Brunei, was to 
squeeze as much as might be from the wretched 
aborigines; whereas the principal object of the European 
appears to them to be to solve the problem of how to 
carry on an effective government at the lightest possible 
cost to its subjects. 
“ Another recommendation in the eyes of the native is 
the possibility of obtaining even-handed if rough justice. 
