Crawfurd regarding the tenure in the Provinces of the Native Princes, and in particular, from the result of the enquiries set on foot by the late Mr. Hopkins in the Districts East of Passoruwang, where the contingent and recognition system had not obtained, and where the forced services were least called for, that the annual change which appears to have taken place in the cultivators of the sawa lands, was rather to be attributed to the demands of the European Government, continually requiring a large portion of the population in attendance for the public service, and to the assessments of land continually made by their order, in payment for every description of service, than to any ancient practice in the country. The cultivators of a village would still appear to possess the sawa lands in common, at least the right of labouring them; and although an annual distribution of the cultivators became necessary, for the reasons above stated, the lands were still cultivated by the people of that particular village. Thus far the original cultivators may be considered to remain in the occupancy of the lands. This, I conceive, may be laid down as a general principle, though, I have no doubt, we shall find many exceptions.
It is deserving of notice, in this place, that where feudal service was abolished, and the petty officers of Government ceased to be remunerated in land, no difficulty was found in effecting a village settlement. No new distribution in the lands of the village appeared necessary: each cultivator made his agreement with the Head of theVillage,
