The Malay Archipelago, Volume 2 _ The Land - Alfred Russel Wallace

unarmed in the jungle, where I meet them continually; I sleep in a palm-leaf hut,
which any one may enter, with as little fear and as little danger of thieves or
murder as if I were under the protection of the Metropolitan police. It is true the
Dutch influence is felt here. The islands are nominally under the government of
the Moluccas, which the native chiefs acknowledge; and in most years a
commissioner arrives from Amboyna, who makes the tour of the islands, hears
complaints, settle disputes, and carries away prisoner any heinous offender. This
year he is not expected to come, as no orders have yet been received to prepare
for him; so the people of Dobbo will probably be left to their own devices. One
day a man was caught in the act of stealing a piece of iron from Herr
Warzbergen's house, which he had entered by making a hole through the thatch
wall. In the evening the chief traders of the place, Bugis and Chinese, assembled,
the offender was tried and found guilty, and sentenced to receive twenty lashes
on the spot. They were given with a small rattan in the middle of the street, not
very severely, the executioner appeared to sympathise a little with the culprit.
The disgrace seemed to be thought as much of as the pain; for though any
amount of clever cheating is thought rather meritorious than otherwise, open
robbery and housebreaking meet with universal reprobation.