There Are Now Sixty-Seven Thousand Malays In The British Territory Of
Malacca, And The Number Is Continually Increased By
Fugitives from the
system of debt-slavery which prevails in some of the adjacent States,
and by immigration from the
Same States of Malays who prefer the
security which British rule affords.
[The police force is Malay, and it seems as if the Malays had a special
aptitude for this semi-military service, for they not only form the
well-drilled protective forces of Malacca, Sungei Ujong, and Selangor,
but that fine body of police in Ceylon of which Mr. George Campbell has
so much reason to be proud. Otherwise very few of them enter British
employment, greatly preferring the easy, independent life of their
forest kampongs.]
The commercial decay of Malacca is a very interesting fact.* Formerly
fifty merchantmen were frequently lying in its roads at one time. Here
the Portuguese fleet lay which escorted Xavier from Goa, and who can
say how many galleons freighted with the red gold of Ophir floated on
these quiet waters! Now, Chinese junks, Malay prahus, a few Chinese
steamers, steam-launches from the native States, and two steamers which
call in passing, make up its trade. There is neither newspaper, banker,
hotel, nor resident English merchant, The half-caste descendants of the
Portuguese are, generally speaking, indolent, degraded with the
degradation that is born of indolence, and proud. The Malays dream away
their lives in the jungle, and the Chinese, who number twenty thousand,
are really the ruling population.
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