A MALAYAN HOURI.

175

wept for a long, long time, and only sent it to the wash when I was equally bad about an ox-eyed peri of Ceylon—the good chieftainess said, “Ah! Touhan, my poor child has seen and suffered enough these last few days to make her mad, much more to cause her to walk in her sleep ;" and I have no doubt she had. Badinage apart, Baju-Mira was lovely enough to have touched a tougher heart than mine: at her age, an Indian girl is just blooming into womanhood, and as lovely and as fresh as a flower can be whose beauty in that fiery clime is but of a day. The child, the woman, mother, and old age tread on one another's heels, under an equatorial sun, with painful rapidity; perhaps it is on that account that the short heyday of an Indian or Malay girl is all the more romantic and lovable. Baju-Mira was not tall, but beautifully proportioned, and her slight waist seemed too small to support her exquisitely rounded bust; the neck and head were perfectly classical, and betokened Arab rather than Malay blood-an intermixture which was all the more evident in her oval face and beautiful features. sides the usual quantity of petticoats, made in her case of very fine Indian shawls or Cashmeres, she had an under vest of red silk, fitting tightly to her figure, and over this another loose one of the same bright

Be

176

A MALAYAN HOURI.

and becoming hue, not unlike an Albanian jacket. Her

"ebon locks,

As glossy as a heron's wing

Upon the turban of a king,"

were gathered off her face by the edge of a silk tartan scarf of native manufacture, which she wrapped round her head or person as was necessary; perfect feet and hands, strongly stained with henna, completed the picture of the little belle of Quedah; though I feel my attempt to delineate her falls short, far short, of the pretty trembling dream-like creature.

At sunrise, Jadee reported to me that one of the prahus was missing, and, strangely enough, one of those in which, for better security, I had stationed two of my own Malays. Desiring all the convoy to proceed to a spot called Quala Morbu, or Dove River, we altered course for the Bounting Islands, thinking the missing vessel might have parted company by accident, and gone there in the hope of meeting me. After four hours' search I discovered the truant quietly The men I had put at anchor in a secluded cove. into her did not give a very intelligible reason for having parted company, and I therefore removed them, and warned the master that martial law would be summarily applied if I saw any further attempt

RESIGN MY CHARGE AND RETURN.

177

to evade my surveillance. Hardly had I again got my convoy together, and before a fine breeze all of us were rapidly nearing Penang, when I met the "Diamond" gun-boat, and in obedience to the orders I had received, handed over my charge to her, parting from the chieftainess and my angelic BajuMira with mutual expressions of kindness and goodwill.

The "Emerald," taut on a wind, began to make the best of her way back again, and after I had had a good rest, Jadee came to tell me that my two men (in the prahu which had parted company during the night, and given me so much trouble) had come aft to make a confession and beg forgiveness. It appeared that the nicodar, and three natives left in the prahu to navigate her, had during the night pointed out to my men an easy mode of realising a large sum of money, and escaping the drudgery of their present life: it was simply to give me the slip, and carry the prahu, with its freight of women and children, to the coast of Sumatra, where they might be sold at highly remunerative prices! My men, it appears, were afraid to accede at once to the proposal, but I fear they expressed a willingness to share in the profits and risk if the nicodar could succeed in shaking off the society of the

N

178 ATTEMPT TO ENSLAVE FUGITIVES.

gun-boat. I had, however, stopped their cruise by seeking them amongst the "Bountings." I must say I was very angry at my Malays for not giving me information of the treachery of the nicodar in time to have handed over that worthy to the mercy of the Siamese brig "Teda Bagoose," whose gallant captains were like raging lions at the escape of all the fugitives: but for the men themselves, I merely tried to point out the villany of selling poor creatures into slavery who were going under their escort to what they supposed a place of safety. They, however, were rather obtuse upon this point, and evidently looked upon the women and children as merely amounting to a certain total, at from forty to fifty dollars a head, and only sent into the world to minister to man's pleasures, or to be sold for his especial benefit.

MALAY SLAVE TRADE.

179

CHAP. XIV.

Malay Slave Trade fostered by the Dutch. - Brutal System pursued by the Portuguese. Slavery doubtless founded by the Mahometans.—Retribution has overtaken the Portuguese. -An enlightened Policy most likely to eradicate Slavery and Piracy. Close Blockade.-The Call of the Siamese Sentries. The Call of the Malay Sentries. - Deaths from Want of Water.-Kling Cruelty. — The Trial and Verdict, and Punishment. Siamese Tortures. Novel Mode of impaling a Rebel. - Extraordinary Palm-spears.-Remarks upon Native Governments.

THERE can be no doubt that slavery and the slave trade exist to a very serious extent throughout the Malayan archipelago: it is carried on in a petty way, but still with all the miseries of the middle passage. The great mart for the disposal of the slaves is the pepper plantations of Sumatra, which are in the hands of the natives, although the Dutch claim a sovereignty over them; and the native and Dutch planters on the coast of Borneo readily take the slaves off the hands of the Malay slave-catcher, and work them to death in the plantations and gold or