No aboriginal nation of Borneo has invented letters, as has been done bv the
inhabitants of the other great islands—Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and Luzon. Neither
have any of them borrowed those of any of the other nations of the Archipelago. In
a word, the most advanced of the tribes of Borneo are in the scale of civilisation
much below the least advanced of the civilised nations of the other islands a result
which may be fairly ascribed to the inaccessible physical form of the island, and to the
virtual sterility of its soil compared to that of the countries w it h i n the volcanic band
m which alone a reputable civilisation has sprung up. Such a state of society
evidently bears a nearer resemblance to that of America on its discovery than to
any thing Asiatic, with the advantage, on the side of the Borneans, of the knowledge
of malleable iron, with which, however, they had not attained so high a civilisation
as tne Aztecs without it.
I t would be instructive to know how much of the Dayak civilisation of Borneo is
indigenous and how much is derived from the strangers who have so long occupied
the coast of the island. We can only guess at this from an examination of their
languages. We possess a tolerably large vocabulary of the language of the Kayan the
most numerous and powerful native tribe of the island. This shows that the words
for n-on, gold anvil, hammer, file, chisel, gimlet, axe, hoe, knife, needle, boat, oar,
window, loft, floor, stairs, railing, beam, board, rafter, lath, thatch, pot, jar, areca-
palm, banana, orange, and mangostin are all native, while those for brass, copper,
whetstone, thread, cloth, chest, porcelain, cup, curtains, the balance, the durian the
coco-palm, the yam, sugar-cane, cotton, rice in the husk, rice freed from it and’rice
boiled, the hog and the dog, with all the numerals except the first, are Malayan. We
may be disposed then to conclude from this enumeration that the mAin» 0f
malleable iron and whatever is formed from it, with the construction of houses are
native arts, while the taming of domestic animals, the growth of com and’ the
weaving of textile fabrics, are arts which they have acquired from strangers.’
No negro race is found in Borneo such as exist in the Malay peninsula and in
Luzon, Panay, and Negros in the Philippines. Nearly the whole coast is occupied by
colonised strangers, the most remarkable of whom are the Malays, who are in possession
of the debouchements of the rivers and territory adjoining them from the north-east
angle of the island, including the whole north-western, western, southern, and eastern
sides, up to about the third degree of north latitude. In these quarters, to the
depth of about 100 miles, they have been settled for a time beyond the reach of
history, holding the conterminous aboriginal inhabitants in a species of vassalage or
helotism, and excluding them generally from maritime communication. Some
fifteen such settlements, which either now form, or which once formed, so many petty
independent states, may be counted. Of the time. when, or the manner in which
these colonies were planted, there is no record, but in their manner of formation it may
be said that it bears, although in a rude way, no inconsiderable resemblance to that
of the ancient Greek colonies of the shores of Italy, its islands, and the Mediterranean
coast of France. The probability is that the original Malay settlers were not composed
of premeditated emigrations, but of casual settlements of the wandering
warlike, and predatory people called the Orang-lant, or Men of the Sea, who finding
convenient localities for settlement on the rivers of Borneo, assumed fixed habits
from their position without altogether abandoning the occupations of fishermen and
traders of the people from whom they were sprung. This seems a more reasonable
mode of accounting for the Malay settlements in Borneo, than ascribing them to
deliberate emigration, little compatible with the rude manners of such a people and
for which no sufficient cause could exist in a country never over-peopled, and therefore
never under the necessity of migrating for more room. Settlements formed in this
manner, with essentially maritime habits, would naturally maintain an intercourse
with more advanced Malay nations, situated on the shores and islands of Sumatra
the parent country of this people, and by such an intercourse, acquire additional
strength and civility.
The Malays of Borneo invariably ascribe their origin to those of Menangkabo or
to those of Malacca and Jehore, supposed to have sprung from these. This however
is only tracing their source to the most powerful and civilised states which the
Malays are known to have formed, or to the parties to have sprung from whom does
themselves the greatest credit. Some merchants of Brunai or Borneo Proper, the most
considerable state which the Malays ever established in the island, informed myself
in 1824, while in Singapore, that the existing generation of their countrymen was the
twenty-ninth in descent from the original founders, the Malays of Menangkabo, and
in 1837 a similar account was given to a traveller who visited Borneo itself. In all
probability the statement refers to the reigns of kings, and not to generations
of men. Reckoning at the usual calculation of 20 years to a reign, this would make
580 years, and carry back the foundation of the state of Brunai to an era corresponding
with the year 1243 of our time. Settlements of wandering Malay fishermen
may, however, have taken place many generations before this date, which is little
more than half a century before Marco Polo passed through the Archipelago, and but
278 years before the companions of Hag oil i t n visited Brunai itself, and found it a tolerably
civilised country. The Malays of Brunai assert that the first settlers had not yet
adopted the Mahommedan religion, and the date given corresponds with this statement,
for their countrymen who had settled on the Malay peninsula had not embraced
it until 30 years later.
That the Malay settlers of Borneo brought with them some portion of the civilisation
of their parent country in Sumatra may be presumed, from at least, one
curious fact. In 1840 two enterprising American travellers who penetrated Borneo to
a considerable distance from its western coast, and by a tributary of the river of Pon-
tianak, discovered an alphabetic inscription rudely engraved on a mass of sandstone,
in an unknown character, but much resembling a similar one on the same material
found in Singapore, the ancient seat of a Malay settlement. Since no aboriginal
nation of Borneo now possesses, or seems ever to have possessed, the art of writing,-—
and since the inscription is not in the ancient or modern Javanese character, or in
any other of the Archipelago,—it is natural to infer that it is in that in which the
Malays wrote before it was supplanted by the modified Arabic now in use. I t may
be added, that when Brunai, the chief state of the island, was first visited by Europeans,
and this was by the companions of Magellan in 1521, they found the Borneans
in a state of civilisation hardly inferior to that of Malacca, considered, at the time,
the most civilised Malay community. They had domesticated the buffalo, the horse,
the goat, and even the elephant. They had adopted the money and the weights of
China. Their chiefs, at least, were clad in silks and brocades. The fortress was
mounted with both brass and iron cannon, and the art of writing (in the Arabic
character) was practised for useful purposes. “ He ” (the king), says Pigafetta, “ has
ten writers, who register his transactions on fine bark, and they are called chiritoles ”
(jurutulis, “ adepts in writing”). The horse is expressly named by Pigafetta as
among the domesticated animals of the Borneans, and it is probable that a few
were kept by the king for state; but it is to be observed that this animal, which
abounds in Sumatra and Java, with several of the smaller islands, is, even at present,
generally unknown in Borneo; a fact which attests the existence of a country of
marshes, of many rivers, of forest-clad hills, and one without open plains, or bridges,
or roads even to the extent of bridle-paths. Even the ox, less fitted to struggle
against such difficulties than the semi-amphibious buffalo, is still confined to a few
localities.
It is not to be concluded, that all the people of Borneo who go under the name of
Malays, are the genuine descendants of the original settlers. Malays have intermarried
with the aboriginal inhabitants; several tribes of the latter have adopted
the Mahommedan religion and Malay language, and are now, consequently, not
distinguishable from Malays, in the same manner that Scandinavian tribes settling
in England, and adopting Christianity with the Anglo-Saxon language, are not
distinguishable from the descendants of the companions of Hengist and Horsa.
The Javanese, like the Malays, formed settlements in Borneo, apparently at a much
more recent period, in a different manner, and to a less extent. They were conquerors
and propagandists rather than colonists. They are not distinguished in the
population of Borneo by their language; but in the names of places, persons, and
titles, abundant evidence exists of their presence and influence. They brought with
them the Hindu religion, such as it existed in Java; and relics of it, in the form of
monuments and images, still exist in that part of tbe island which is nearest to Java.
The names referred to are sometimes Javanese; sometimes Sanscrit, in the form and
sense of Sanscrit words in Javanese; and sometimes they are composed of the two
languages. Of names of places entirely Javanese we have such examples as the
following : Mogasari, “ conspicuous flower; ” Chandi, “ the monument,” or “ the
temple; ” Banjarmasin, “ saline garden ; ” Gunung-kumukus, “ smoke or vapour
mountain; ” Danu-pamingir, “ frontier lake; Gunung-aji, “ king’s mount.” Of names
of places wholly Sanscrit, we have the following examples : Martapura, correctly
Amartapura, “ city of immortals; ” Coti, correctly Kuti, “ the little fortress ; ” Suka-
dana, “ parrot’s gift.” With the two languages combined, we have the following:
Kali-nagara, “ river of the c ity ;” Kuta-wringin, abbreviated Kotaringin, “ fortress