Even in the capital itself justice is not to be obtained. The instances which came to my knowledge were innumerable. I will mention a few to illustrate my meaning. In 1859, I was one day standing near my wharf, when my attention was called to a boat passing, in which there were one dead and one wounded man. I inquired the cause: it appeared that a Bornean, named Abdullah, pulling by a canoe in which two men were fishing, stopped on seeing them, and accused one of attempting to escape to our colony of Labuan, affirming that he was a slave. The man denied both statements; upon which, Abdullah began beating him with a paddle. His father, the other man, interfered to protect his son, when Abdullah seized a spear, and drove it through the old man’s body, and then severely wounded the son. There was much excitement among the relatives of both parties, and they assembled in great numbers, but the sultan and ministers interfered and promised inquiry. The result was, they inflicted a fine of 120_l._ on Abdullah, at which he laughed contemptuously, and never paid a farthing. He was considered to be under the protection of the de gadong, and no one would interfere to punish him. All attempts at improving the neighbourhood of the capital are stopped by such cases as the following. Another man, also named Abdullah, made a small plantation of cocoa-nut palms, and carefully tended them for seven years. Just as they were about to bear fruit, he was visited by a relative of the de gadong who claimed the plantation on account of its being made on his land. Abdullah appealed to the sultan: it was apparent on the face of it, he had used waste land, to which he had a right, but the case was decided against him. He asked permission to visit his property to remove his goods, and next day called on the pañgeran to say the ground was at his service. He went to take possession, but found only the land, every tree had been deprived of its cabbage, and consequently died, and jungle soon grew up there again. Abdullah placed himself under the protection of the tumanggong, who quietly chuckled at the joke. The same thing would have occurred to one of my own servants had I not remonstrated. I will only mention another. A Chinese boy robbed his Chinese master of a large amount of goods, and carried them off to the house of the head Mahomedan priest, whose son he asked to secrete them for him. The boy was subsequently seized, but escaped punishment by turning Mahomedan, and the imám’s son was considered far too respectable to be punished, or even to be compelled to restore the goods.