The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1938-03-19
Malay RaseaIity

|-0LYDE keeps barking back to
1.-The situation Mantusen was in
when we came. The Dyaks didn't
have our support then, and only
a few Of the Tenyalang were
armed; yet they had Mantusen
absolutely backed against the wall.
With our guns and the Linkang,
and wEite rajah, Clyde thinks
his tribes can stand Of anything
In the islands. But ! don't think
so. If MantuSen comes again he'll
come with enough bankongs to
turn the river into q foaming hell.
You can't stop Malays without
destroying the whole mass Of them
outright-you know that.
Il do know II" Christine said
very low. We simply must have
peace here; a fight with the Ma
lays, and especially with Saremba,
must absolutely be avoided at all
cost"
And that's Just about the small
est hope Of any" I said. ! told her
now some Of the things which
Clyde had perhaps not told her
in Their full meaning. After all, ]
was the one who had done the
greater part Of the Dyak-chasing
IN the jungle, and ! knew what
was talking about better than
Clyde.
Ever since CIyde's occupation.
the Aalays had been filtering back
into the raj. their arrogance un-
chastened by the Dyak successes.
This element Of Malays had now
returned to supporting itself in the
usual way. A Malay would bundle
together some worthless rag-tags
Of trade goods, then 90 and camp
upon some unhappy pangiran. who
was supposed : supply him with
the best of board and lodging with
out cost. At his leisure the Malay
traded his stock for whatever the
DyakS had that he wanted. A re-
fusal to make a trade that : Malay
suggested was an insult-and these
people had long ago learned not
to insult Malays.
The thing was sucn open rob-
berry that it was hard 70 see why
the Malays made a pretense that It
was trading at all Possibly even
they had discovered that there
had to be a closed season upon
Dyaks, If they had always come
with fire and sword there would
soon have been no Dya-ls left for
seed. and the Malays would have
had to 60 TO work
But that was only the first stage
Of Malay rascality. When q ped
dlers trading stock was exhausted.
he moved down 70 another village,
this time representing himself as
a tax collector. and repossessed
himself d the articles he had
traded there on his previous trip.
They represented themselves as
Cly1eS special ENJOYS. and pro-
ceeded with their usual extortion-
ate taxation. IN the white rajah's
name After my campaign in the
Palowit. my name also was used,
even more often than Clyde's. Tuan
Paul would come with his great
guns ant personally blast any Of
the Dyaks who disobeyed the Ma
iaysi
In the face Of the bitter CON-
plants Of Rentongen. Clyde was
forced TO penalixe these practices
as savagely as he could. II seemed
impossible that he would ever en-
tirely contrel them. for the Malays
had no other means Of existence,
and could learn none. To Try them
with view 70 imposing fines was
out OF the question, because no
Dyak would testify against a Ma
lay. Clyde now arbitrarily imposed
heavy fines upon those traders
whom he knew, By private infor-
nation. 70 be the worst. Renton-
gen was Sullen and ugly; he re-
peatedly Threatened Clyde. His
people. he declared. were being
starved and robbed. His people
were beini Inundated.
And when Saremha found out
what Clyde was dang. there
would be war 90 the bitter finish.
fcsssrixGs. Isgs. ia. E4Ns1