is mountainous, and its geological formation volcanic; corresponding, in this respect,
•with that of Bantam, in Java, which lies opposite to it. Its northern or inland portion,
on the contrary, is a level plain. The islands in the Straits of Sunda are
composed of high land of volcanic formation, and some of them have extinct
craters. The highest peaks of the mainland, those of the mountains called Tangamus
and Lampung, rise to the height of 7500 feet above the level of the sea; and the
peak of the island Krakatoa, which has been an active volcano in comparatively
recent times, to that of 2700. In the volcanic part of the country there exist
numerous hot springs, in which the heat rises to 180° of Fahrenheit. The rivers are
numerous, but none of them large; and none adapted for navigation.
The vegetation of the volcanic portion of the country of the Lampungs agrees
generally with that of the opposite shore of Java, but its zoology presents some
singular discrepancies. Thus, there are three species of ape; and two feline animals in
the first, unknown to the last. The elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear are
found in the country of the Lampungs, while they are unknown in Java. The Sunda
ox is found throughout Java, but does not exist- in the Lampungs. The peacock,
which is abundant in Java, is not seen in the Lampungs; but instead, there are
two pheasants, the Argus and another, both unknown to Java. These are strange
differences in two countries, of which the geology and vegetation, at the nearest
points, are similar ; and which are divided from each other by a strait only a few
leagues broad, having islands in the channel forming so many stepping-stones. “ The
whole phenomenon,” says the judicious M. Zollinger, from whom this account of the
Lampungs is taken, “ is, in my opinion, evidence against the notion that Sumatra
and Java, and indeed all the Sunda Islands, have been part of a continent, and united
Asia with Australia. Geological grounds, indeed, ought long ago to have been sufficient
to refute such an opinion.”
The Lampung nation constitutes a distinct people from the other inhabitants of
Sumatra; agreeing with the rest only in race, and differing from them in language,
in manners, and in social state. The language is a peculiar one, and has been imme-
morially a written tongue in a peculiar character of its own. About one-third of it
has all the appearance of an original tongue; the remaining part consisting principally
of Malay and Javanese, with the usual small admixture of Sanscrit and Arabic,
consequent on the peoples having adopted, successively, the religions associated with
those two languages. Compared with the Malays and Javanese, the Lampungs are
a rude people; and their backwardness is most probably to be ascribed to the unfavourable
physical character of the country they inhabit, the volcanic portion of which
is not peculiarly favourable to agriculture, while the alluvial is either sterile, or
covered with morass and forest, beyond the power of a rude people to redeem. This
rudeness of the Lampungs is evidenced by the almost total absence of irrigation;
carried to so great an extent in Java, and the two islands immediately to the east of it,
and even in several parts of Sumatra itself. Instead of the economical and productive
husbandry which is the result of artificial irrigation, the Lampungs, generally, do no
more than snatch an occasional crop of corn from the virgin land, using the ashes of the
felled and burnt timber as a dressing, and abandoning the soil so cultivated for a new
piece of forest, to be abandoned in like manner in its turn ;—a practice which seems
but one step above that of subsisting on the wild produce of the forest. The whole
population of the Lampung country is not computed at more than 83,000. This
gives the poor rate of from 6 to 7 inhabitants to the square mile, which is no more
than one twenty-third part of that of the opposite country of Bantam, the least
populous part of Java. The chief export is black pepper; and the others consist of
the produce of the forest, such as rattans, and damar or resin. In former times, the
country formed a part of the dominions of the kings of Bantam, from whom it has
descended to the government of the Netherlands.
LAMUNGAN. The name of a mountain in the eastern part of Java, between the
provinces of Prabalinga and Besuki, and an active volcano which rises to the height
of 6500 feet above the level of the sea.
LANDAK. The name of a small Malay state on the western side of Borneo,
situated on an affluent of the river of Pontianak. I t lies about 40 miles north of
the equator, and in a straight line about the same distance from the coa3t, but 70
miles by the windings of the river. Landak is only remarkable for being, unlike
others, an inland Malay state, and being situated in that part of Borneo most
remarkable for the production of gold and diamonds. Respecting its population we
have no detailed knowledge, but it is certain that it is very inconsiderable. Besides
Malays, it consists of some Chinese, and of aborigines or Dayaks. The name in
Malay and Javanese signifies “ a porcupine; ’ but why so called is unknown.
LANGKA the mythio name of Ceylon in the Hindu poem of the Ramayana, and
as such, well known to the more advanced nations of the Archipelago. The popular
name for it, however, is Selan, evidently taken from the Arabs, who probably made
the island first known to the Malayan nations.
LANGKAT. The name of a Malay state on the north-eastern side of Sumatra,
constituting the northern limit of the Malay nation, who have here to the north of
them the Achinese, and westward and inland, the Batak nation. The entrance of
the river, called also Langkat, on which is situated the principal village, bearing
also this name, is in north latitude 4° V, and east longitude 98° 29 . At its mouth,
the river is 800 yards broad, but obstructed by a bar of several miles in depth,
on which there is little more than from a fathom to a fathom and a half of water,
so that it is only navigable for large boats. The total population of Langkat has
been estimated not to exceed seven or eight thousand, composed of Malays and
dependent Bataks. Its chief produce is black pepper, which it is said to export to
the yearly amount of from two to three millions of pounds. The country is °f
the great alluvial plain, which extends nearly along the whole north-eastern side or
Sumatra, and is washed by the waters of the Straits of Malacca.
LANGKAWI, called in our charts Lancava, is a considerable island, on the
western coast of the Malay peninsula, having several smaller ones contiguous to it
to the south, named the Ladas, which signifies the pepper-islands, so called more
probably from their number than their produce. Langkawi and all the islands contiguous
to it form part of the territories of the prince of Queda. They lie between
the sixth and seventh degrees of north latitude, and the ninty-ninth and one hundredth
of east longitude. Langkawi is about 25 miles in length from east to west,
and about 10 from north to south. The land of all the group is high and level,
and the geological formation, like that of the adjacent continent, plutonie, consisting
of granite and mountain limestone. Both Langkawi and the larger islands of the
group are inhabited by a Malay population.
LANGUAGE. In Malay and Javanese, there are the following words for lan guage
or speech, tutur, lidah, bahasa, chara, b&chara, and kata. Tutur and lidah are
native words, the last, literally “ tongue,” not of frequent use. All the others are
Sanscrit, the two first of them signifying also way or manner, and the two last talk
or discourse. In the present state of our knowledge, the languages of the Malay and
Philippine Archipelagos may safely be said to be innumerable, and even those ascertained
to exist are very numerous. In this respect the Indian Islands more resemble
Africa, and America, than continental Asia. As in America too, and, indeed, it may be
said in every country, the languages in different parts of the country are numerous
in proportion to the rudeness of their inhabitants. The Malay peninsula alone is in
this respect an anomaly, for, with the exception of the languages of its dwarf negros,
it has but one tongue, the Malay, having had seemingly no indigenous brown population,
until occupied by men speaking that tongue. Java is the most civilised island
of the two Archipelagos, and it has but two languages. Bali and Lomboc have each
but one tongue. In Sumbawa, there are six. In Celebes, there are four languages of
the more civilised nations, besides those spoken by rude tribes; in Floris six, and in
Timur and its adjacent islets at least as many. In Sumatra and its islands, there
are not fewer than ten, and in Borneo fifty have been counted, and this certainly falls
far short of the actual number. I t is the same in the Philippines. In Luzon, six
languages of the civilised nations are spoken, and thirteen of the rude tribes of the
Malayan race, besides the languages of the Negritos. In Panay, besides the Bisaya,
four languages of tribes of the Malayan race are spoken, and, at least, one of the
Negritos. The languages of Mindano, although we have no specification of them, are
stated to be even more numerous than those of Luzon.
All the languages, both of the Malay and Philippine Archipelagos, are of simple
grammatical structure, that is, they are tongues in which prepositions and auxiliaries
take the place of inflexions, and there is no evidence to show that their simplicity of
form has arisen from the breaking down of ancient languages of complex structure,
for no vestige of such complex language is discoverable. The only remains of an
ancient and obsolete language that exist is that of Java, and this proves on examination
to be equally simple as the vernacular tongues. Notwithstanding this general agreement
in grammatical character, there is still sufficient difference, both in this respect