It is said that there has been
recently a large immigration from Selangor.
The Malay population is
fifty-seven thousand nearly, with a large preponderance of males, but
fifty-eight thousand have crowded into the little strip of land called
Province Wellesley, which is altogether under British rule, and
sixty-seven thousand into Malacca, which has the same advantage. I
suppose that slavery and polygamy have had something to do with the
diminution of the population, as well as small-pox. Formerly large
armies of fighting men could be raised in these States. Islamism is
always antagonistic to national progress. It seems to petrify or
congeal national life, placing each individual in the position of a
member of a pure theocracy, rather than in that of a patriotic citizen
of a country, or member of a nationality. In these States law,
government and social customs have no existence apart from religion,
and, indeed, they grow out of it.
It is strange that a people converted from Arabia, and partly, no
doubt, civilized both from Arabia and Persia, should never have
constructed anything permanent. If they were swept away to-morrow not a
trace of them except their metal work would be to be found. Civilized
as they are, they don't leave any more impress on the country than a
Red Indian would. They have not been destroyed by great wars, or great
pestilences, or the ravages of drink, nor can it be said that they
perish mysteriously, as some peoples have done, by contact with
Europeans; yet it is evident that the dwindling process has been going
on for several generations.
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