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deer, of which we saw plenty, but could not get one; and our crew went out fishing with a
net, so we did not want for provisions. When the time came for us to continue our journey, a
fresh difficulty presented itself, for our gentlemen slaves refused in a body to go with us,
saying very determinedly that they would return to Ternate. So their masters were obliged to
submit, and I was left behind to get to Dodinga as I could. Luckily I succeeded in hiring a
small boat, which took me there the same night, with my two men and my baggage.
Two or three years after this, and about the same length of time before I left the East, the
Dutch emancipated all their slaves, paying their owners a small compensation. No ill results
followed. Owing to the amicable relations which had always existed between them and their
masters, due no doubt in part to the Government having long accorded them legal rights and
protection against cruelty and ill-usage, many continued in the same service, and after a
little temporary difficulty in some cases, almost all returned to work either for their old or
for new masters. The Government took the very proper step of placing every emancipated
slave under the surveillance of the police-magistrate. They were obliged to show that they
were working for a living, and had some honestly-acquired means of existence. All who
could not do so were placed upon public works at low wages, and thus were kept from the
temptation to peculation or other crimes, which the excitement of newly-acquired freedom,
and disinclination to labour, might have led them into.
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