M A G N E T 236 M A H O M E T A N I S M
the arrival of the squadron) all the “ inhabitants of this island were bantised and
also some of those of the neighbouring islands. In one of the latter * c ’ +
village/; because the inhabitants woufd obey neither the Hng f e u W S e l f
Here, says Pigafetta, we planted a wooden cross, as the people were Gentiles Had
f e .“ ^,001'!>we should llave erected a stone column, in token of their hardness of
heart, for the Moors are more difficult of conversion than the G e n t i l « ^ v®!!.
1 f?°l i a « l01b0-P ;89' fifteen days after these supposed conversions and in three
after the death of Magellan, the supposed converts entrapped and murdered four-and-
of Spaniards, including their new commander, the experienced Barbosa
and the astrologer or astronomer of the fleet, San Martino of Seville ’
« I n t - T T Ï v® - bichTled1. the death of Magellan affords ample proof of his
rashness and fanaticism. In the little island of Mactan, lying close to the eastern
shore of Çebu, there were two chiefs, one of whom offered to embrace Christianity
t0Í he SPanish bot was prevented resolved to bring the recusant to reason by force of armsb y tHlmis other. C X n f r i e n d s e+t * a
to dissuade him from risking his own person in the e n tom is e b u H e n l P 1
and left Çebu on the night of the 26th of April with a force of sixty SpaSiardl^nd
some native auxiliaries. Waiting for daylight, he landed with forty-nL men leavW
eleven in charge of three boats that had conveyed the party. In order to cet’nn fi
land, they had to wade knee-deep for the distance P0f two good bowTots Ë5 natives of the island, to the number, as Pigafetta says of 1500 met the q * j
and their allies boldly, with bows and arrows, bamboo spears, of which the pointTwere
sharpened and hardened in the fire, swords, stones, and even clods ofearth n il"
resistance was more vigorous than was reckoned on. Magellan commanded a i £ f
which became a rout, and he was left with six or eight persons surrounded e.,t
down by a sword-wound in the thigh, and killed in the fortieth e i -
Eight Spaniards and four friendly natives lost their lives in this inglorious l l l i
£ " C d!* * S = r , 45 E S
MAGNET. The name for the magnet in Malay and Javanese is batn-brani and it
extends to all the languages of the Asiatic Archipelago, including those of thé S ?
pines. The literal meaning of the word is dare-stoné,” or C eL u re stone ” a tern'
similar to our own of load or leading-stone, although less expressive. See Compass
MAHABARAT. This is the proper name of the renowned Hindu epic which
nai rates the wars of the Pandus and Kurus, the descendants of Bharata The
poem and its name are unknown to the Malays and Javanese • but thé latte
both m the ancient and modern language, an epitome of it under the name of the
Bratayuda which may be rendered “ the war of the descendants of S u m K I
last word being corrupted into Brata. The heroes and adventures of the Mahabarat
aanred aRs ofmamanilsi.a r Stoe e tBher aJtaavyanuedsae. as those of the poems of tHuormn eerr wweerree ttoo tthhee GGrreeeekt s
MAHOMETANISM. The Mahometan religion is known to the natives of the
Archipelago by its usua Arabic name of Islam, to which they generally prefix the
Sanscrit word agama religion. All who have adopted it are of the same professing
orthodox form as the Arabians, by whom, directly or indirectly, they were converted
The history of the conversion of the islanders of the Archipelago may be briefly told
The missionaries who effected the conversion were not, for the most J r t ■
Arabs, but the mixed descendants of Arab and Persian traders from the Peésfau and
Arabian gulfs parties who, by their intimate acquaintance with the m a ™ and
languages of the islanders, were far more effectual instruments. In the course of
several ages, Arabian and Persian merchants, and Mahomedan merchants frn™ P • 2
and other parts of India, had settled in various parts of the Archineh^n T? J
panied by their families, they intermarried with the native in h a b ita n tsL f ^ aC°+T '
union sprang the apostles of Islam. The earliest recorded conversan was X a t of
the people of Achín, m Sumatra, the nearest part of the ArchmeWn tT in ! • m S
parts of western Asia. This happened in 1206 of our era When the r
Sumatra were converted is not fixed, but probablv about* firl t Malays of
neighbours the Achmese. The Malays of Malacca adopted Mahometen sm'in 1276 •'
the Javanese m l 478 ; the inhabitants of the Moluccas about eighty vSrs beforé
the arnval of the Portuguese; and the general conversion of those o/celebes did
M A I L - A R M O U E 237 M A I Z
, , , „„«1 nfter their arrival. The progress of conversion, as might be
t i t ^ r ^ r a R v from west to east, and took several centuries to accomplish,
expected, was g ^ furthest point to which conversion reached was I n a n o r t h - e a s t e r n d i r e c t i o n , ^ * . w a n P ^ b e g u u t o m a k e s o m e
the island of Mmda Philippines on the arrival of the Spanish
impression m the^ chiefMslan owered by Catholic Christianity. The dates and
conquerors, but was q of the different people refer to that of their rulers
a n T n o T o f the people generally. Many converts had in every case been made long
T d nt df -tthe
savs he “ has two classes of inhabitants,—Moors and Gentiles. The last are natives
of the country: the others, in the beginning, were strangers who, in the way of
trade began to people the sea-coast, until multiplying, little more than 150 years
ago they came to make themselves masters of the countoy and to assume the name
of kings ” De Barros wrote his 3rd Decade, which contains this statement, m 1563,
which would carry the Mahomedan conversion of the people of Sumatra no further
back than the beginning of the 15th century.
From Sumatra to Mindano, all the more civilised nations,-all those possessed of
the art of writing, have adopted the Mahomedan religion, with the exception of
those of Bali. All the ruder populations within the same limits have resisted its
introduction. The conversion, it will be seen, was slow and gradual, and bore no
resemblance to the rapid conversion by the Arabs of the nations of western and
central Asia, and which, within the first century of the Hegira, embraced most of
the nations from Persia and Transoxiana to Spam. The conquest of the Archipelago
was never attempted by the Arabs. I t was an enterprise wholly beyond the strength
of a people whose maritime skill never enabled them to subdue effectually even the
countries on the lower Indus, so much nearer to them. So slow was the proselytism
of the Malayan nations, that a period of no less than 572 years had elapsed from the
death of Mahomed to the first national conversion, that of the Achmese. Hone ot
the nations of the Archipelago are strict Mahomedans, often mixing up local customs
or old superstitions with its precepts and practice. The Malays are the most strict,
and the Javanese, probably, the least so. All of them still look up to the Arabs as
their spiritual guides, as they once did to the Hindus.
MATT-ARMOUR. In Malay, baju-rantai, and in Javanese, rasnkan-kàre or
kâlambe-kâre. The sense of the terms, in both languages, is the same, namely,
“ chain-coat ’’"or jerkin, and agrees exactly with our own definition of the term, as
given by Johnson, “ A coat of steel net-work for defence.” This coat, and a morion
or casque called katopang, both being native words, are the only kinds of defensive
armour which were used by the Malayan nations. They are now rarely seen, and
from the high price of iron and the impediments they would throw m the way of
the free use of the favourite weapons the spear and the dagger, were probably never
in general use.
MAIZ. The Zea maiz of botanists is a t present well known and much cultivated
in all the islands of the Asiatic Archipelago, taking among several corns the next
rank to rice. The Malay name for this plant is jagung, which appears to be a native
word, but it is not traceable to any root. The same name is found for it in many
of thé other languages, and extends to the Javanese, which, however, has a synonym,
jali, which signifies also a horn, possibly from the ear or cob bearing some resemblance
in form to this object. In several of the languages of the islands further
east, the name is different. Thus in the Bugis of Celebes, it is bârôleh, which seems
to signify “ found” or discovered, and to be a corruption of the Malay word
bârulih, which has this meaning. These native names would encourage the belief
that maiz was an indigenous plant, but after all, there is no solid foundation for
this, and there can be little question of its being a native of America, introduced
most probably by the Portuguese. Pigafetta, who gives an enumeration of the
cultivated plants of Massana and Çebu in 1621, does not mention maiz as one
of them, although he mentions rice, millet, and panick grass. A Spanish pilot of
the name of Juan Gaetano, whose narrative is to be found in Ramusio, and who
visited Mindano in 1642, one-and-twenty years after its discovery, is still more
satisfactory : “ In a certain part of that island,” says he, “ ruled by the Moors, there
are some small artillery, and hogs, deer, buffalos and other animals of the chase,