power and authority as would render him despotic,
and, in process of time, the body of the people
would be reduced to be the mere slaves of his will.
These abstract reflections on the progress of society
and government are naturally obtruded upon
our attention by those practical illustrations which
our observation of the manners of the Indian islanders
is constantly presenting.
Among the least improved of the civilized tribes,
the petty lords or tyrants of villages, or little districts,
have, for offence or defence, found it convenient
to associate, and to elect from among their num-
bei an individual to preside over their councils.
This may be deemed the second great step in the
progress of government towards despotism. We have
examples of it in all the governments of Celebes,
of the Suluk Archipelago, and less perfect vestiges
in those of Sumatra. In some of these aristocratic
federations, the Presidency is elective from the
body of the electors, but more generally from a particular
family. Such a form of government, I imagine,
in an earlier period of society, was very general
among the civilized tribes, but the same advantages
which enabled the village chief to usurp over his
fellows, would enable the elective president of a
confederacy to do the same thing over the federal
chiefs. The office determined to a privileged family
would soon become hereditary, and necessarily
despotic. Such a change has actually taken place
Gov ernment. 11
among all the more highly civilized tribes ; for example,
the Javanese, the Balinese, and the Malays.
No doubt, the arbitrary maxims imported along
with the Mahomedan and Hindu religions have
contributed, with these internal causes of change,
to the establishment of uncontrolled despotism
among these tribes.
From what has been here laid down, it will appear,
that, among the tribes and nations of the Indian
islands, there are no fewer than Jive distinct
forms of social union, besides numerous varieties of
each particular form,—beginning with the rudest savages,
among whom no subordination is recognized,
and none required, and proceeding successively,—to
the simplest form of elective magistracy,—to the
establishment of hereditary monarchy,—of elective
confederacies and, lastly, ending with the establishment
of unlimited despotism.
Among the civilized tribes, the two last forms
of government only exist. To these, therefore, it
will be necessary to devote more particular attention.
With this view, I shall furnish the reader
in detail with an example of each, choosing for the
federal government a sketch of that of the people of
Boni in Celebes, and for the despotic government
a similar one of that of the Javanese, supplying as
I proceed any necessary or interesting illustrations
from the other modifications of social union.
The federal state of Boni consists of eight petty