the shape of a scythe. A single stroke of this weapon will
sometimes completely lay open the body of his antagonist.
■But whether thus hacking down with cutlasses, qr pricking
each other like gentlemen with small swords, will be considered
as the more humane and the more genteel practice,
is a point I must leave to be determined by the Malays, and
those refined gentlemen of our own country who can derive
amusement from the destruction of so noble-spirited an
animal. But while we condemn the ignorant and but half-
civilized Malays for their eagerness in the pursuit of this fa-
vounte and inhuman sport, we cannot too much reprobate
the same barbarous practice so sedulously encouraged, as an
amusing relaxation, in many of our seminaries of education,
where it is usually preceded by the elegant exercise of football,
as a suitable preparatory for the cock-pit, which on
such occasions is generally graced by a few black eyes and
broken shins. Thus are scenes of quarrelling and cruelty
made familiar to youth, as the proper accompaniments of
gaming and idleness in riper years. The education of Malay
.children is not less attended to in their way. While too
young to manage so large an animal as the cock, they indulge
their propensity to this species of gaming by carrying
about in little cages, like the Chinese, quails trained to fight,
and different species of grasshoppers.
The ferocious conduct of the Malays would appear to be
sometimes the result rather of a wanton cruelty of disposition,
or an implacable hatred of strangers, than of mental distress,
insult, or injury. On the coast of Sumatra we had the misfortune
to lose a very valuable man by the daggers of these
people. Finding him alone and defenceless, employed at the
watering-place in washing his foul linen, they had rushed
upon him unawares, plunged their weapons into his back,
and thrown him into the pool of water. His companion, who
had strayed to a little distance along the beach, met the
murderous party who, perceiving he carried a musquet,
passed fom without the least molestation. He dragged the
body of his friend out of the water, but poor Leighton had
already expired. I t could not have happened for the sake
of robbing him of a little dirty linen, for in this case it was
not necessary to commit a murder; neither was he likely to
have given them any provocation. He was, on all occasions,
a man of thorough good humour. A circumstance was recollected,
after the accident had happened, to which perhaps
it might have been owing. One day a Malay came on board
the Lion, with monkies, birds, fruits and vegetables for
gale. Leighton, among his various pursuits, had a turn for
portrait-painting, in which he was flattered with being successful.
The Malay being a new character, he was desirous
pf obtaining his features. The man not understanding what
he wanted, and suspecting that he might be practising some
incantation, of which this nation is extremely apprehensive,
springing from the deck of the ship, plunged at once into the
sea and, scrambling into his canoe as well as he could,
paddled off. Calling to recollection this circumstance,, it was
supposed by many that this same man might have instigated
the party to put him to death. , *