¥
lightened philosopher Baron Humboldt, who, speaking
of the state of the natives of New Spain, make?
the following reflection, which is unexceptionably
applicable to the Indian islanders, though certainly
a more vigorous, moral, and improved race
than the Americans. |* In an age when it was
formally discussed, whether the Indians were rational
beings, it was conceived granting them a benefit
to treat them like minors, to put them under the
perpetual tutorage of the whites, and to declare
null every act signed by a native of the copper-coloured
race, and every obligation which he contracted
beyond the value of fifteen francs. These laws
are maintained in full vigour, and they place insurmountable
barriers between the Indians and the
other castes, with whom all intercourse is almost
prohibited. Thousands of inhabitants can enter into
no contracts which are binding; and, condemned
to a perpetual minority, they become a charge
to themselves, and the state in which they live.***
In almost all the , countries of the Archipelago,
something in the form of a capitation or poll tax is
levied, but, when more closely examined, this impost
is discovered to be another form of assessing the
land, being a tax levied on the cultivation or cultivators
jointly, and. on no other class of the people.
It does not bear a proportion to the rent or quali*
Political Essay on New Spain, Book II. chap. 6.
ty of the land, except that it is confined to uet
lands. Its amount is but a mere trifle. The western
inhábitants of Java term the tax Pagalahtang,
and the eastern Packumplang, sometimes sarcastically
Pangawang, or air-tax, which is as much as to
say, that they are not convinced that it is exacted
on any reasonable ground! The demand of one-
half the produce of their labour from the soil does
not appear extravagánt or unreasonable, so natural
does this prerogative of the sovereign appear to them j
but the trifling poll-tax is not so much associated
with their habits and feelings, and is consequently
unpopulaf. I conjecture that, in the first instance,
it was a /ntefe levied on conquered countries.
The eastern Javanese, when they conquered the
Sundas, in the reign of the Great Sultan, imposed
this táx on the conquered people, while the land-
tax Was left to their natural chiefs.
It would be in vain to pretend to render an account
of all the irregular coritributions and requisitions
to which a people are liable who labour under
the evils of a rude and arbitrary government. ' At
festivals, at marriages and births, whether in the
family of the sovereign or of the chief who presides
over them, the cultivators ¿re called upon for contributions.
In the transportation of public property,
or the conveyance of the minions of the
court or its officers—in the repair or construction
of roads, bridges, and other public works, the ser