They reserved to themselves the right of purchasing the
articles which the Dyaks had to sell, and then affixed to those articles
an arbitrary price, perhaps less than a five-hundredth of their real
value. They would send a bar of iron two or three feet long, and having
an intrinsic worth of a few cents, to the head mart of a tribe,
demanding that his village should give for it a sum equal to five, ten,
or twenty dollars. Another was sent in the same way, and another, and
another, until the rapacity of the chiefs was satisfied, or the wretched
natives had no more to give. Often, when the latter had been robbed of
everything, the Malays would seize and sell their wives and children. It
is recorded of one tribe, that there was not so much as one woman or
child to be found in it. All had been swept off by these remorseless
slave-hunters. Nor did their wrongs end here. If a Dyak killed a Malay
"under any circumstances of aggression," he was put to death, often with
every possible addition of torture. If he accidentally injured one of
the ruling caste, he was fortunate to escape with the loss of half or
two thirds of his little savings. On the other hand, a Malay might kill
as many Dyaks as he pleased, and if perchance justice were a little
sterner than usual, he might be fined a few cents or a few dollars.
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