Page:Malay Annals.pdf/14

xiv a much more rapid improvement, than in nations who, having once arrived at a high point of civilization, and retrograded in the scale, are now hardened by the recollection of what they once were, are brought up in a contempt for every thing beyond their own narrow circle, and who have, for centuries, bent under the double load of foreign tyranny and priestly intolerance. When these striking and important differences are taken into the account, we may be permitted to indulge more sanguine expectations of improvement among the tribes of the eastern isles. We may look forward to an early abolition of piracy and illicit traffic, when the seas shall be open to the free current of commerce. Restriction and oppression have too often converted their shores to scenes of rapine and violence; but an opposite policy and more enlightened principles may, ere long, subdue and remove the evil. In the spirit of personal independence which distinguishes these people, their high sense of honour, and the habits of reasoning and reflection to which they are accustomed from their infancy, are to be found