There will be one difficulty in the North Borneo settlement which will require wise handling. I mean the slaves which are the possession of every petty chief and every Malay family in the country. All pirates bring home fresh slaves from every expedition. This can be put an end to at once. But it will be as impolitic as impossible to put a sudden end to the state of slavery in which so large a proportion of the inhabitants will be found. In this respect I hope the North Borneo Company will take a leaf out of Sarawak experience. Sir James Brooke, as long ago as 1841, appealed to the English Government "to assist him to put down piracy and the slave trade, which," he said, "are openly carried on within a short distance of three European settlements, on a scale and system revolting to humanity." The exertions of Sir James Brooke and his nephews, aided occasionally by her Majesty's ships, have indeed nearly put a stop to piracy, and therefore to the kidnapping of slaves. Still the descendants of Dyak slaves remain the property of their masters. Besides these, there are slave debtors, whole families who have sold themselves to pay the accumulations arising from taxes or impositions of the Malays which they had no hope of repaying. Usury, which was the fountain of this evil, has been forbidden at Sarawak, and many are the slave debtors whom the Rajah's purse has freed. "Slavery in the East," says Mr. Low,[13] "has always been of a more mild and gentle character than that which in the West so disgusted the intelligent natives of Europe. The slaves in Borneo are generally Dyaks and their descendants, who have been captured by the rulers of the country to swell the number of their personal attendants. Their duties consist in helping their master, who always works with them, in his house or boat building operations, accompanying him in his trading expeditions, assisting in the navigation of his boats, etc. Their masters generally allot them wives from amongst their female domestics, and many of them acquire the affection and confidence of their superiors. The price of a slave in Sarawak is from thirty to sixty dollars, but as the trade is being as quickly repressed as possible, without too much shocking the prejudices of the inhabitants, they have of late become very scarce, and difficult to be bought. The price of a girl varies from thirty to one hundred dollars, but at Sarawak they are even more difficult than men to obtain." Thus wrote Mr. Low in the year 1848. By this time, 1882, slavery is almost nominal at Sarawak. I read, in a _Sarawak Gazette_, six months ago, that Rajah Brooke had proposed to his Supreme Council, which consists of four Malays and two Englishmen, that slavery should be by law abolished in Sarawak territory. He had proposed this, he said, six months previously, and the Malay councillors present assented heartily as far as themselves and the people of Kuching were concerned, but they thought it would be desirable