Tlie most numerous and indeed the most useful are the
Malay slaves, brought from the different islands in the
Eastern Sea. Like the Chinese, they are prompt at imitation,
and expert in learning all handicraft trades. A great
part of the female slaves are imported from Pulo Nias, a
small island on the west side of Sumatra, being esteemed for
the elegance of their shapes, their vivacity, and their smooth
skins. They are, however, said to be subject to a cutaneous
disorder which, like the leprosy, withers the skin, and
changes its colour. The price of a Nias maid, when all her
points are good, is seldom less than one thousand dollars.
The Malabar is a mild and passive creature, willing to
learn, but slow of apprehension. His slender form is ill
adapted for hard labour, and he is therefore generally purchased
as a personal servant; and the women of this nation
are mostly employed to wait on then mistresses. The black
slaves from the island of Timor are not unlike the Malabars,
and in their features evidently betray their Hindoo origin.
The slaves from Madagascar and the Mosambique are a
harmless race of men, of a pliant and willing disposition,
but extremely stupid ; tall, muscular, and athletic, but their
strength is seldom employed with advantage to themselves
or their owners, or their labour conducted with judgment.
Their artless simplicity leads to the easy detection of their,
crimes. We had an instance of this at the hotel where we
lodged. Some articles were missing from one of the rooms.
The slaves were summoned to undergo the trial by rice.
Each slave was directed to open his mouth, into which was
to be thrown a certain quantity of dry riee. The actual
thief, impressed with the idea that the rice would certainly
choak him, and that a flogging was better than suffocation,
pertinaciously refused to open his mouth. Another mode of
detecting a culprit is by giving him at night a small stick,
notched at a certain distance from the end, whilst the master
keeps another notched exactly in the same manner. Being
persuaded that, if guilty, the notch will be farther removed
from the end, or that the stick will grow longer before the
next morning, the slave, in the simplicity of his heart, takes
good care that this shall not be the case, by cutting from it
a slice to keep it down to its proper length.
As none of the Dutch inhabitants are holders of land, beyond
the gardens usually annexed to their country villas, and
the Chinese are incomparably the best gardeners, there are
no field slaves in the neighbourhood of Batavia ; the whole
that are imported being either employed for domestic purposes,
or brought up to some useful trade,- by working at
which they earn, for the use of their masters, a higher interest
for the money expended in their purchase and subsistence
than they would be able to procure by employing the
same capital in any other way. Many Of the Malay slaves,
by industry in their profession, are enabled in a few years to
purchase their emancipation ; sometimes they are manumitted
for their long and faithful services ; but most frequently at
the death of their master, who usually bequeaths to one or
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