Javanese prajurit, of which this is the literal sense, the word being corrupted in
Malay p&njurit. Satriya or chatriya from the Sanscrit is also used, and has the same
sense,
SOLO, according to Javanese, and Sala, according to Malay pronunciation, is the
name of the largest native city of Java, and capital of the tributary prince who has
for some generations assumed the religious title of Susunan, or “ object of adoration,”
and is called by Europeans, “ Emperor of Java.” The town is situated in the province
of Pajang, on a river of the same name. I t contains a large palace, a Dutch fort
and a large Javanese population with a suburb, inhabited by Europeans or their
descendants, but I have not seen any statament of the total number of its inhabitants.
Solo was founded only in the year 1742, after the previous capital, a few miles to the
west of it, had been abandoned as unlucky, in consequence of having been captured
by Chinese insurgents, although retaken by the Dutch and their allies the Madurese.
The name of the abandoned capital had been the Sanscrit one, Kartasura, which
signifies “ work of gods or heroes.” The word having essentially the same meaning
was reversed in position, and the proper name of the new capital becomes Surakarta,
Solo being only the name of the village, the site of which the town now occupies.
The entire native principality embraces an area of 1803 square miles, and in 1850 was
computed to have a population of 603,759, or 334 to every square mile. The bulk of
the inhabitants is of the pure Javanese nation, the number of Europeans and Chinese
being inconsiderable, the first no more than 863, and the last 1649.
SOLO ItlVER. This is the largest and most useful river in Java. I t has its
source in the range of mountains which runs along the southern side of the island,
—passes through the rich and extensive valley of Pajang, by the city of Surakarta,
through the districts of Sukawati, Jagaraga, Blora, and Rembang, and disembogues
between Sidayu and Gressik in the strait which separates Java from the western end
of Madura. Prom Surakarta to the sea, a distance of about 200 miles, it is navigable
for large cargo boats, and affords cheap transport for rafts of teak timber, large forests
of which it passes through.
SOLOR. The name of one of several islands between Floris and Timur, lying
close to the eastern coast of the first and to the south of the isle of Adenara, the strait
between these two being the navigable passage called the Straits of Floris. It is
computed to have an area of 80 geographical square miles. The island is of volcanic
formation and barren. The inhabitants of the coast are the far-spread Malays called
orang-laut, or men of the sea, but those of the interior, the aborigines, have dark
complexions and crisped hair, resembling in their persons the aborigines of Timur.
These are certainly savages, and have been represented as being even cannibals. The
inhabitants of the coast are fishermen and pursue a small whale of about twenty feet
long, from the blubber of which they extract the oil by the heat of the sun, collecting
it in rude gutters. They profess Mahometanism, for the most part, but a few have
adopted Christianity. The Dutch drove the Portuguese from Solor as early as 1613,
and have a small fort and garrison on it, for the purpose of maintaining their right to
what appears of very small value.
SOOLO, or SOELOE, and in Malay correctly Suluk, is called by the Spaniards
Jolo. The Soolo Islands, usually called an Archipelago, extend from the most
easterly extremity of Borneo, the promontory of Unsang to the most westerly of
Mindano, that of Zamboanga, a distance of above 200 miles. They are said to be no
fewer than 150 in number, most of them, however, uninhabited islets. They are
divided into four groups, named from the largest island of each, namely, Tawi-tawi,
Sooloo, which gives name to the Archipelago, Basilan and Cagayan Sooloo, the last,
however, forming no part of the chain, for it lies 120 miles to the north-west of it,
although inhabited by the same nation. The Archipelago lies between the fifth and
seventh degrees of north latitude.
SOOLO, called by the natives Sug, and by the Malays Suluk, from which our own
word is derived, is the name of the principal, although not the largest of the four
chief islands of the Archipelago to which it belongs, and that which gives name to it.
Its length is about 35 miles, its greatest breadth 12, and its computed area 288
geographical square miles. Its general aspect is hilly and undulating, without any
mountain of great elevation. Respecting its geology, we have little or no information,
but it will probably be found to consist of sedimentary rocks, chiefly limestone and
sandstone. The only metallic ore ascertained to be abundant is that of iron, although
gold is reported to exist. The face of the island is, as usual in these latitudes,covered
with tall trees having, however, it is stated, many open or cleared spots, which give
the island a very picturesque appearance, that distinguishes it from most others in
the same latitudes. The teak-tree has been reported to exist, but this seems very
doubtful. The ascertained larger wild animals are the hog and several species of deer.
Dalrymple names the elephant, but this is very improbable in so small an island.
Soolo as well as the whole Archipelago to which it belongs, is within the influence
of the north-east and south-west monsoons, which, however, interrupted by so many
islands do not blow with the same regularity as in the open sea, and calms, and
variable winds, are not unfrequent. It is not within the range of hurricanes and
experiences no storms. The thermometer rarely rises above 87° or falls below 75°, so
that the range of temperature is reduced to 12°. But the seasons are unequal as to the
fall of rain, and droughts, with their concomitant scarcity of food, occasionally occur.
The inhabitants of Soolo are of the Malayan race, and have attained a considerable
amount of civilisation, cultivating rice, and rearing the buffalo, the ox, the goat, the
horse, and common poultry, and all of these in abundance and cheapness. They also
write their own language in the Arabic character like the Malays. That language is
peculiar, but seems to partake of the character of the Philippine tongues, and sounds
harsh to those accustomed to the soft Malay. Of this last language it contains a
considerable proportion, but much corrupted. The principal people of Soolo, besides
their own tongue, speak also Malay, as did those of the Philippines before the Spanish
conquest. In a list of about 170 words of the Soolo language, given by Dalrymple,
65 are Malays, but these are not a fair specimen of the language, for they include the
numerals, the names of the winds, of weights and measures, and of objects of commerce,
the majority of which are Malayan in most of the insular languages. The
orang-laut, bajaos, or sea-faring migratory Malays, are found on the coasts of Soolo,
as well as of others of the Archipelago, and, no doubt, have had some share in communicating
their language to the native inhabitants.
Of the number of the population nothing is known that can be relied on. A
Mr. J. Hunt who visited, and for some time resided in the island in 1811, and whose
account was printed by Sir Stamford Raffles in the Batavian Transactions for 1812,
states that he had access to the sultan’s archives, and that these made the whole
population 200,000. This would give to a society of buccaneers, for such are the
people of Soolo, near 700 inhabitants to the square mile, or about double that of the
most populous provinces of peaceful and industrious Java. Of course it is purely
fabulous, and even the more usual estimate of 60,000 is most probably an
exaggeration.
The principal articles of commerce furnished by the Soolo and neighbouring
islands are the usual ones of the rudest of the Malay and Philippine Archipelagos, such
as tortoise-shell, tripang and esculent swallows’-nests, to which are to be added two
which are in a great measure peculiar, pearls and pearl oysters. The principal place
of commercial resort is the seat of the native government, exercised by a prince who
like other petty sovereigns, has long assumed the title of sultan. This is situated
in a bay, the anchorage being a mere road towards the north-western end of the
island in north latitude 6° l'a n d east longitude 121° 12'.
The people of Soolo have been long converted to the religion of Mahomed, but are
very far from being rigid Mahometans. When they were converted, or by whom is
uncertain, but the great probability is, that the Malays and the Arabs of the half-
blood were the instruments of conversion, and that as Soolo is far removed from
Sumatra, where the Mahometan religion was first propagated among the Malayan
nations, and from which it was disseminated over other parts of the Archipelago,
it is not likely that its inhabitants were converted earlier than those of the Spice
Islands, who adopted Mahomedanism only eighty years before the arrival of the
Portuguese in 1512. In 1521, the people of Cagayan-Soolo were certainly Mahometans,
for Pigafetta mentions them as such, when the companions of Magellan touched
at it on their course from Qebu to Palawan and Borneo. “ Quitting that place (a port
in Mindano),” says he, “ and pursuing a course between west and south, we arrived
at an island almost uninhabited, which we afterwards learnt was called Cagayan.
The few whom we saw were Moors and robbers from an island called Burne.”
Primo Viaggio, p. 109. Of the early history of the people of Soolo, nothing is known.
The island is stated to have been, at one time, subject to Sukadana on the southern
side of Borneo, which was a Javanese settlement, and this notion certainly receives
some countenance from the existence in its language of w'ords which are Javanese,
without being at the same time Malay. The first authentic notice of Soolo is by
Barbosa. After describing Celebes and an island which he calls Tendaya, possibly