Population Will Then Certainly Increase
More Rapidly, Improved Systems Of Agriculture And Some Division Of
Labour Will Become Necessary In Order To Provide The Means Of
Existence, And A More Complicated Social State Will Take The Place Of
The Simple Conditions Of Society Which Now Occur Among Them.
But,
with the sharper struggle for existence that will then arise, will
the happiness of the people as a whole be increased or diminished?
Will not evil passions be aroused by the spirit of competition, and
crimes and vices, now unknown or dormant, be called into active
existence?
These are problems that time alone can solve; but it is to
be hoped that education and a high-class European example may obviate
much of the evil that too often arises in analogous cases, and that we
may at length be able to point to one instance of an uncivilized
people who have not become demoralized, and finally exterminated, by
contact with European civilization.
A few words in conclusion, about the government of Sarawak. Sir James
Brooke found the Dyaks oppressed and ground down by the most cruel
tyranny. They were cheated by the Malay traders and robbed by the
Malay chiefs. Their wives and children were often captured and sold
into slavery, and hostile tribes purchased permission from their
cruel rulers to plunder, enslave, and murder them. Anything like
justice or redress for these injuries was utterly unattainable. From
the time Sir James obtained possession of the country, all this was
stopped.
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