There is one thing I must particularly mention, the remarkable honesty shown by these traders in all their intercourse with Europeans. An Englishman, who greatly facilitated their commercial transactions by loans of money at a rate of interest which in the East was considered remarkably moderate, told me that, in all his experience, he had only found one Malay who attempted to cheat him. He never demanded receipts, but simply made an entry in his book, and his loans with that one exception were all repaid him. He told me a story of a Malay trader that singularly illustrates their character. The man borrowed a small sum and went on a voyage; in a month he returned, stating he had lost both prahu and cargo, and asked to be entrusted with double the amount of his former debt; it was given him. Again he returned, having been wrecked close to the mouth of the river. He came to this Englishman and clearly explained his misfortune, but added--“You know I am an honest man, disasters cannot always happen to me, lend me sufficient to go on another voyage, and I will repay all I owe you.” My informant said he hesitated, but at last lent him the whole amount demanded. The trader was away three months, and his smiling face, when he came back to his creditor, showed he had been successful; he paid off the principal portion of the debt, and afterwards cleared off the remainder, and was, when I heard the story, one of the most flourishing traders in Sarawak. I thought the anecdote was honourable to both, and illustrates the kindly feeling that exists in that country between the European and native. This confidence, however, was the growth of some years, and the result of the system of government which I will now describe. In treating of the capital, I have shown the practice established there. In all the former dependencies of Brunei there were local chiefs who administered the internal affairs of their own districts. In Sarawak there were originally three, and that number Sir James Brooke continued in their employment, and permitted and encouraged them to take part in everything connected with the government of the country, obtaining their consent to the imposition of any new tax or change in the system of levying the old, consulting them on all occasions and allowing their local knowledge to guide him in those things with which they were necessarily better acquainted than he could possibly be.