in his rice-fields without payment. You ought to have known itdid you know it?”
Verbrugge did not know it.
“You ought to have known it. I know it,” continued Havelaar. “There you have the monthly reports of the districts,"—and he showed the parcel which he had received in the Council,—“look, I have opened nothing; there are statements of the number of labourers that have worked in the metropolis for the different chiefs.Well, are these statements correct?”
“I have not yet seen them”
“Neither have I; still I ask you if they are correct?Were last month’s statements correct?”
Verbrugge was silent.
“I will tell it you: They were false! For three times the number of labourers had to work for the Regent that the orders regulating such matters permit, and they did not dare put this in the reportsIs what I say true?”
Verbrugge was silent.
“The reports which I received to-day are likewise false,” continued Havelaar; “the Regent is poor; the Regents of Bandong and Tjanjor are members of the family of which he is the head. He is an Adhipatti, and the Regent of Tjanjor is only a Tommongong, and because Lebak is not fit for coffee-culture, and therefore gives him no emolument, his revenues do not allow him to vie in magnificence and pomp with a simple Demang of the
K
