I ,(PULO), Hog Islands, a cluster on the western coast of Sumatra,
consisting of one large island about 60 miles in length and from 10 to 15 in breadth,
with an area of 480 square miles, and a number of small ones, the northern end of
. e Jarger island being m north latitude 2° 50', and east longitude 95° 82'. The name
given to the larger island by the Malays is Simalu, that is “ Shame or modesty island,"
and to the inhabitants of the whole group, on what account I do not know, Maros
or Maruwe. ihese speak a peculiar language, and have been converted to the
Mahommedan religion. The chief products are coco-nuts and buffalos.
BABUYANES. A group of volcanic islets lying off the extreme northern end of
.Luzon. _ Ik e largest of these are Calayan, and Babuyan which gives name to the
whole is only the second in extent. After it follow Carmiguin, Dalupiri, and Tuga,
the others being mere islets. The whole group abounds in hogs, and is supposed to
take its name from this circumstance. The Malay word Babi is pronounced in the
Philippine languages Babuy, as it is written in the Spanish orthography. Babuyan
means ‘ place of hogs,” and with a Spanish plural we have Babuyanes. These islands
are liable to terrific hurricanes at the equinoxes, and being surrounded by shoals
are difficult of approach. They form a part .of the province of Batangas in Luzon.
BABUYAN, called by the Spaniards Claro Babuyan, the second island in magnitude
of the above group, is in length three leagues, in breadth about two, and has an
area of five square leagues. The centre of the island is in north latitude 19° 34', and
m east longitude 122° 51'.
BACHIAN, written more correctly by the Dutch Batjan, and in the orthography
of this work Bachan, is one of the five original Molucca or Clove Islands, and the most
southerly of them. Like the other four, it is of volcanic formation. Its area is 800
square geographical miles. Its most easterly point is in south latitude 48' 30" and
longitude 127° 54'. Of late, fossil coal has been discovered in this island, stated to be
of good quality.
BAC5)B0B- The name of an estuary a t the north-western angle of the great hay
oi Manilla, into which falls a river of the same name.
BACOLOR. The chief town of the province of Pampanga, in the island of
Luzon, m north latitude 18° 13', and east longitude 120° 32'; distant ten miles from
Manilla. It lies m a fertile plain, on the left bank of a river of the same name,
where a brook called the Gogo falls into it. I t has a population of 8737, of which
1298 are assessed to the capitation-tax. The place has some reputation in the annals
of the Philippines, on account.of the gallant stand made at it by Don Simon de Andd
y Salazar, against the English invaders of 1762, the latter assisted by Chinese and
insurgent Indians.
BADONG. A principality of the island of Bah, occupying its most southern part,
and said to have a population of 130,000. In a commercial view, it is the most
important state of the island. See Bali.
BAGLEN. A central province of Java, having Banumas to the west, Pakalongan
to the north, Mataram to the east, and the Southern Ocean to the south. This fine
province, ceded by the native princes to the Dutch in 1830, has an area of 923 square
miles; and, in 1850, had a population of 528,718, of which 238 were Europeans, 342
Arabs and other foreign Asiatic Mahommedans, 1594 Chinese, and six Blaves. Its
horned cattle amount to 120,000, and its horses to 9000.
BAGU, in Malay; and Wagu, in Javanese ; the Gnemium gneturn of botanists, a
tree of the fibrous bark, of which a coarse cordage is made, in extensive use by the
natives of the Archipelago.
BAJAU. This is one of the most frequent of several names given to wandering
maritime Malays, of gipsy manners, and from whose questionable habits, the word
has become a synonyme for pirate. Some of this people have fixed dwellings on the
sea-coast; and others have no other habitations than the boats, in which they are
bom, live, and die. All are fishermen, engaged in taking ordinary esculent fish,
or the shell turtle, the tripang, the mother-of-pearl and pearl oyster. All speak
the Malay language, although rude and various dialects of it. Many of them have
embraced the Mahommedan religion; their observance of its tenets, however, being
for the most part confined to submitting to circumcision, and abstaining from the
flesh of swine.
The Bajaus are found on most of the coasts of the islands of the Archipelago, from
Sumatra to New Guinea and the Moluccas; their fishing voyages occasionally
extending even to the northern coast of Australia. The various names which they
bear have sometimes a reference to their habits or origin. Among the numerous
islands at the eastern end of the Straits of Malacca, and on the opposite coast of
Borneo, they are called Orang-lant, literally “ men of the sea;” sometimes Orang-
f rayah, “ men of plunder;” and also Rayat, which is the Arabic word for “ subjects,”
I meaning no doubt, subjects of the kingdom of Jehor. On the south-eastern coast
of the Peninsula, they go under the name of Orang-jehor, or men of the country or
kingdom of Jehor, In Borneo they are called Sika, the meaning of which I do not
kno*w. The Macassars of Celebes call them Tau-rijene, which is but a translation of
the Malay name, “ men of the sea.” The Bugis of the same island it is that have given
them the name of Bajau, or, as they pronounce the word, Waju, and which is said to
signify “men that go in troops.” The Javanese call them Wong-kambang, or “ floating
people; ” and among the Moluccas they are distinguished from the aboriginal
inhabitants by tbe name of Orang Malayu, or Malays. Always speaking the Malay
language, and always fishermen, we naturally seek for the origin of this people where
the Malay language is indigenous, and where manners like theirs prevail; and as
these conditions exist only in the more southern portion of the eastern coast of
Sumatra, from the river of Palembang to that of Siak, we may reasonably fix on this
| as tbe parent country, not only of the gipsy Malays, but also of the more advanced
| tribes of the same nation, whose fortune, in placing them in more auspicious
| localities, enabled them to attain a higher civilisation, such as the agricultural Malays
| of the interior of Sumatra. See Malay.
BAKA. The name of an ancient king of Java, said by tradition to have reigned
| at Brambanan, and to have built the temples of that place, except Boro-budor, the
r most remarkable of all the Hindu ruins of Java. If this account be true, the antiquity
I of the temples is not great, for to the earliest, the date given is 1266, or about 30
F years before Marco Polo passed through the Archipelago.
f BALABAC. One of the Snln islands, about midway between Borneo and
Palawan, and 60 miles distant from tbe former. The island is about 15 miles long
and 10 broad, with an area of 420 geographical square miles, and its centre is in north
latitude 8°, and east longitude 114° 40'. On its eastern side there is a bay, called
Dalawan, wbich affords shelter to shipping. Little more than these naked facts is
known about it,
BALAB ALAGA. The name of a group of islands in mid-channel between Borneo
and Celebes, or Straits of Macassar, estimated to contain in all about 96 square
geographical miles.
BALACHONG. This is the name of a condiment made of prawns, sardines, and
other small fish, pounded and pickled. The proper Malay word is balachan, the
Javanese trasi, and the Philippine bagon. This article is of universal use as a
condiment, and one of the largest articles of native consumption throughout both the
Malay and Philippine Archipelago. I t is not confined, indeed, as a condiment to the
Asiatic islanders, but is also largely used by the Birmese, the Siamese, and Cochin-
Chinese. It is, indeed, in great measure essentially the same article known to the
Greeks and Romans under the name of garum, the produce of a Mediterranean fish.
BALAMBANGAN, correctly Blfimbangan. The word blambang, in Malay, means
a plank cut from a palm; and the name, therefore, signifies “ place of palm-planks.”
The island is situated in the Sulu Sea, and distant from the most northerly point of
Borneo 13 miles. Its most northern extremity is in north latitude 7° 3', and east
longitude 116° 50'. Its greatest length is about five leagues, its greatest breadth
about one, and its circumference about 300 miles. The land is hilly, without any
mountain of considerable elevation. To the south-east it is divided from the larger
island of Banguey by a strait, at one point not exceeding a league in breadth. On
this strait Balambangan has two harbours, the northern in latitude 7° 16', and
r KiUKle both difficult of access on account of shoals. The sovereign
that laid claim to this island, the Sultan of Sulu, ceded it to the English in 1762, as
a reward for liberating him from his captivity at Manilla. In 1775, it was taken
possession of by the Ea3t India Company; but soon after, the garrison and establishment
were driven out by a marauding party of the donor’s subjects. In 1803, it was
again taken possession of, but speedily and justly abandoned on an experience of its
V, u!', cssness, for the island is itself sterile, uninhabited, and in the most piratical
and barbarous neighbourhood of the whole Archipelago.