BALAMBUANG. Name of a deep and well-sheltered bay in the province of
Banyuwangi, in Java, on the strait which divides that island from Bali. This place
was in former times frequented by shipping; but, on account of its insalubrity,
abandoned for Banyuwangi on the same strait.
BALANGUINI. One of the Sulu islands, hut claimed by Spain as p art of the
province of Zamboanga, in the island of Mindano. It lies in north latitude 5° 57' 30",
and east longitude 121° 39', and between two other islets somewhat larger than
itself, called Samusa and Parul. Its length is about a league, and its breadth a
quarter of a league. This small spot gives name to the most daring and enterprising
pirates of the Archipelago. In 1848, it was attacked and captured by a Spanish
force of 650 infantry and artillery, with a squadron of three war-steamers and sixteen
smaller armed vessels, under the governor-general of the Philippines; and the resistance
made will show the formidable character of these pirates. The Spaniards had
1 officer and 20 men killed, and 10 officers and 150 men wounded. They stormed
four redoubts, captured 124 cannon, mostly of small calibre, and burnt 150 praus.
450 of the enemy were killed, refusing to take quarter; 200 captives were rescued
from slavery. The forts and the houses of the inhabitants were levelled to the
ground, and in order to make the place uninhabitable, the coco-palms were cut down
to the number of between 7000 and 8000. This was the most signal punishment ever
inflicted on Malayan pirates by an European power.
BALI. The next island east of Java, and divided from it by a strait not
exceeding a mile and a half broad. The name in Malay and Javanese signifies “ to
return,” but how or why imposed is unknown. It is situated between south latitude
8 ° 3' 30", and east longitudes 114° 26' and 115° 40'. Its greatest length is 74 geographical
miles, and its greatest breadth 50. Its area is estimated at 1685 square
geographical miles, so that it is about one twenty-second part only of the extent of
Java, and not superior in size to some provinces of the latter. Its form is triangular,
narrowing to the south, where it forms an attenuating projection. Its western side
runs nearly due east and west. With the exception of a few calcareous ridges, its
whole formation is volcanic. A chain of volcanic mountains, seemingly a continuation
of that of Java, runs through it from west to east, leaving plains and valleys north
and south of it of more or less extent. The mountain chain is of great elevation,
commonly from 4000 to 10,000 feet. That called in our charts the Peak of Bali, in
the language of the country Gunung-agung, or the great mountain, attains the height
of 12,379 feet above the level of the sea, which makes it 433 feet higher than the
Peak of Teneriffe. One mountain of the chain, called Batur, 6168 feet high, is an
active volcano. From another there was a destructive eruption in i804; and from a
third, a more calamitous one in November, 1815, or within seven months after the
memorable one of Tambora in the island of Sumbawa. Bali has many small rivers,
navigable however for native vessels only, and as far as the reach of the tide. In
respect to its supply of water, its most remarkable feature is its mountain lakes,
situated at an elevation of several thousand feet. The moBt extensive of these are
as much as 12 miles in circumference, and all are of great depth, some of them of 40
and 50 fathoms, and some of from 300 to 400. These lakes from their position afford
a perennial supply of water, easily applied, even by a rude people, to irrigation, and
they are the main cause of the extensive culture of com, and hence of the great
population of Bali, despite barbarism and misgovernment. The mountain lakes
of Bali may in part, on a small scale, be compared to the lakes of Lombardy and
Piedmont in reference to irrigation, and the fertility of which it is the result.
The plants of Bali, with the exception -of a small number peculiar to itself, are the
same as those of Java. Those which form the chief objects of cultivation, are rice,
maiz, pulses, cotton, tobacco, and the fruits of Java. Becently coffee has been
cultivated in the mountains, but the quality, probably from unskilful growth, is
inferior. As to the Fauna, the tiger is found only in the western part of the island,
opposite to Java. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the tapir, are all wanting; and the
only wild animals of considerable size are the hog and some deer. The domestic
animals are the ox and buffalo, both of them large and numerous; the hog very
numerous; and the goat, with abundant poultry consisting of the common fowl and
duck.
The Balinese are of the same race of man as the Malays and Javanese, and indeed,
but for some difference of costume, it would be difficult to distinguish one of these
nations from another. Some, however, have fancied that the Balinese are more athletic
than the Javanese, which as they are more amply fed is probable. As to the amount of
the population, all accounts of it can be no better than estimates One reporter, a
native of the Archipelago, who had lived among them, makes it 2,000,000; a Dutch
authority in 1818, above 900,000; while Baron Melvill De Camebde reduces it to no
more than 700 000, which may be accepted as by far the most likely. Even this
makes the relative population half again as much as that of Java, or near 480 to the
square mile, being the greatest density of population throughout the whole Malayan
^T^BalirieseHve1 in'villages of from 500 to 3000 inhabitants, surrounded by walls
built of clay without stone or brick. Within these walls are their dwelling-houses,
or rather huts, with their clay-built walls and roofs thatched with grass or palm-
leaves —their temples, their stables, their granaries, and their pig-sties. In civiliasr
tion the Balinese are among the most advanced of the nations of the Archipelago.
Their agriculture is said to be superior to that of Java, otherwise the best of the
Archipelago; their manufacture of arms, including fire-arms, is tasteful and comparatively
skilful, and their textile fabrics from cotton are substantial and cheap. They
have (in the Javanese character, however) a written language of their own, divided into
an ancient or theological, a vulgar, and a ceremonial dialect; but they are ignorant of
the manufacture of paper, which the Javanese had acquired before their intercourse
with Arabs or Europeans, and. their manuscripts are scratched on slips of palm-leaf.
They have, moreover, a coined money, such aB the Javanese possessed before their
I acquaintance with Europeans, and they possess a calendar and an epoch, the Indian
I one of Salivana beginning 78 years after Christ. The Balinese dress is a striped or
( tartan cotton cloth, in the shape of a sack open at both ends; this secured at the
i top with a girdle or careless knot, covers the lower part of the body, leaving the
upper stark naked with both sexes,—a barbarism, at least in the costume of women,
I unknown to the Malays and proper Javanese, although occasionally to be seen among
the lower orders of the Sundas. The hair of the head is cropped with the lower
■: orders, but preserved by the upper, who tie it in a knot at the crown, and this is a
mark of distinction strictly maintained. Neither of them wear any kind of headdress,
whether men or women; nor have they shoes or sandals.
The Balinese are a home-keeping people, which may be ascribed to their being
more an agricultural, and less a maritime and piscatory race than any other nation
of the Archipelago. The few strangers settled among them are Malays, Javanese,
mestizo Arabs, and Chinese. The government is rude and arbitrary, making small
account of the persons and property of the lower classes, confiscating the last without
scruple, and condemning to death or slavery the first. Some degree of security to
the middle and upper classes must, however, exist to have brought about the degree
of industry which is certainly found to exist. A country cannot be utterly lawless
where, on a comparatively small spot, food is raised to support 700,000 people, and
which yields a surplus for above 100,000 more. The trade of the island is more
considerable than might have been expected, but it is, in a good measure, the creation
of recent years. The exports consist of rice, said to amount yearly to 20,000 tons,
of pulses, oil, cotton-wool, and cotton fabrics, tobacco, and coffee. The imports are
iron and English cotton cloths. The trade is chiefly with Singapore, Java, and,
recently, with our Australian colonies.
The Hindu religion which once prevailed, to a greater or less extent, among all
the more advanced nations of the Archipelago, and which was extinguished among
the most considerable of them, the Javanese, in the year 1478 of Christ, at present
exists only in Bali, and in a more partial degree in the neighbouring island of
Lomboc. The Balinese are divided, as books divide the Hindus in their own country,
into four great orders or castes: the priest, the soldier, the merchant, and the
labourer, called, respectively, with a slight corruption, by the Sanscrit names,
Bramana, Satriya, Waisya, and Sudra. The Bramins are distinguished into those
who perform the offices of the priesthood, called Ida, and those who are Bramins
by lineage but do not engage in the functions of the priesthood, and have the title
of Dewa, that is “ Gods.” The Satriya, or military order, is more generally known
: by the title of Gusti, which is a Balinese and also a Javanese word, meaning “ a
lord.” The third order or Waisya comprises not only traders but such artisans as
goldsmiths and cutlers; and the fourth, the Sudra, comprehends husbandmen,
ordinary artisans, and slaves. The second order, of course, comprises the princes,
and it is usually forbidden to the different orders to intermix ; but it has happened,
notwithstanding, that several of the rulers of Bali and Lomboc have risen to power
from the third or mercantile order,—that is, from the middle class of society; and
I when such is the case, not much distinction is made between the second and third