Mr.
Swettenham, The Assistant Colonial Secretary Of The Straits
Settlements, Writes That "In Perak The Cruelties Exercised Toward
Debtors Are
Even exclaimed at by Malays in the other States."* In
Selangor, where it is said that slavery has been quietly
Abolished,
only five years ago the second son of that quiet-looking Abdul Samat
killed three slave debtors for no other reason than that he willed it;
and when two girls and a boy, slave debtors of the Sultan's, ran away,
this same bloodthirsty son caught them, took the boy into a field, and
had him krissed. His wife, saying she was going to bathe in the Langat
river, told the two girls to follow her to a log which lay in the water
a few yards from her house, where they were seized, and a boy follower
of her husband took them successively by the hair and held their heads
under the water with his foot till they were dead, when their corpses
were left upon the slimy bank. The Sultan, to do him justice, was very
angry when his son went to him and said, "I have thrown away those
children who ran away."
[*For Mr. Swettenham's _Report on Slavery in the Native States_, see
Appendix B.]
In Perak it has been the custom to hunt and capture the Jakun women and
make them and their children slaves.
Instances of cruelty have greatly diminished since British influence
has entered Perak, and I should think that Mr. Low will ere long
mature a scheme for the emancipation of all persons held in bondage.* I
heard of a curious case this morning.
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