Note 32 — Chapter XII

M. Kolff, whose opinion upon this point is totally at variance with that of Sir Stamford Raffles, and of every other writer on the Indian Archipelago, who has really taken an interest in the welfare of the natives, appears to have mistaken effect for cause; as in this part of the world it has invariably been found that the slave trade alone has been sufficient to render a people, previously mild and industrious, poor, idle and vicious. As to the slave trade preventing the natives from engaging in piracy, M. Kolff must have been aware that by far the greater number of piratical expeditions fitted out by the natives are intended solely for the capture of slaves, other plunder being in their eyes of minor importance only; and this is especially the case in the parts visited by M. Kolff, where the inhabitants possess nothing of sufficient value to tempt the cupidity of pirates.—Ed.