Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/52

 40 CLASSIFICATION AND sence in the latter country will be afterwards ex- plained. The origin of slavery in these islands is referable to four heads ; prisoners of U'ar ; debt- ors who cannot redeem themselves ; criminals, condemned to slavery by sentences of courts of law, and persons kidimpped. None but the most savage of the tribes destroy their prisoners ; and the more improved nations, like other men in a corresponding state of civilization, make slaves of them. In Java, we perceive that, in the con- quests of the dynasty of Mataram, the population of the districts which were overrun were carried off into slavery, more particularly the female por- tion of it, to satisfy the vicious demands of poly- gamy. In the wars of Celebes, even whole na- tions were, by the right of conquest, made slaves. We perceive the Macassar nation at one time in possession of ten thousand male slaves, of the van- quished Bugis, and employing them, without dis- tinction of rank, on the labour of public works. The right is, indeed, universally established, or rather the violence universally practised. The second source of slavery is the failure of the debt- or to redeem himself, and this must, from the indigence or indolence which gave occasion to pawn his liberty, be a frequent cause of servitude. Another ample source of slavery is the arbitrary and iniquitous sentences of the native law, with which the deprivation of personal liberty is a fre-