buffalos found in the forest by an epithet which implies this, and which in Malay is j alang,
meaning “ stray ” or “ vagabond.” The names given to the animal, however, afford no
warranty for this conclusion. With one exception, they are native, and not traceable
to any foreign tongue. The Malay name is Kârbo, or Kârbau, and this with very
slight variations extends over, at least, ten different languages of the Archipelago
and Philippines. I t is not, however, the only native name, for in the Sunda of Java
we have the word munding, and in the Bugis and Macassar of Celebes, tedung.
The only foreign name is the Sanscrit Maisa, restricted to the polite language of
Java. That the domestic buffalo, however, has often escaped from servitude and
become wild, is certain. This, for example, is probably the only source of the wild
buffalo of the Philippines, for the buffalo of these islands was the only domesticated
beast of burden in them before the arrival of the Spaniards. I t seems then, to have
been confined to Luzon, although it has since spread to the other large islands ; and
invariably, it is known by the Malay name kârbo only, even the Spaniards themselves
having adopted it, although at the same time expressing the inconsistent opinion that
the buffalo was introduced into the Philippines from China. It is easy to see how
readily it might have been introduced by the nearest Malays, those of Borneo; for even
in native craft, thé voyage from Brunai to Manilla, in the proper season, is performed
in seven days.
BUGIS, the name given by the Malays to the dominant people of Celebes, who
call themselves Wugi, of which, no doubt, it is a corruption. The native country of
the Bugis is the south-western limb of Celebes. The Macassar, or Mangkasara nation
occupying the most southerly part of this peninsula, borders the Bugis to the south,
and the Mandar nation to the north. Like the Malays, they are, for the most part,
a maritime people, and it may be suspected that the original seat of their civilisation
was the shores of the interior lake Labayo, or Tâparang-danao, a collection of navigable
water said to be about 25 miles in length, surrounded by fertile land, at present
well cultivated and peopled. See Tâparang.
The people who speak the Bugis language are, at present, divided into many small
states, and seem never to have been united under one government. Several of these
little states are united into confederations for general purposes. Each state is under
the government of its own prince, elected by the chiefs of the tribe from the members
of a family in which the office is hereditary, and women are not excluded from the
choice. The princes so elected form a council, which must be unanimous for the
decision of all matters of common concern. The confederacy of Boni consists of
eight princes, and that of Waju of no fewer than forty.
The Bugis are among the most advanced people of the Archipelago. They have
long possessed all the domesticated animals, and cultivated the useful plants known
to the civilised inhabitants of the more westerly islands. They understand the working
of the useful metals, the rearing of cotton, and the manufacture of cloth from it.
They had framed a native calendar, although they had no epoch. The year of the
calendar is solar, consisting of 365 days, and divided into 12 months, each with a
native name. It commences with the 16th day of May of our time; eight of its
months containing 30 days, three of them 31, and one 32. But, above all, they possessed
the art of writing, having invented an alphabet which expresses with adequate precision
the native sounds of their own language, a language that is softer than the
Malay, for even its liquids do not coalesce with other consonants, and every word
must end either in a vowel, an aspirate, or the soft nasal ng.
The Bugis, to judge by their language, would seem to have been indebted to the
Malays and Javanese for a large amount of their civilisation. Thus the names of
cultivated plants and domesticated animals are, for the most part, taken from the
languages of these people ; so are the names of the metals, terms connected with the
useful arts, navigation, numeration, and even law and religion.
I t is remarkable that the Bugis, now the most enterprising of all the native tribes
of the Archipelago, are never mentioned by the earlier European writers. Thus
Barbosa, who describes the Javanese, the natives of the Coromandel coast, and the
Chinese whom he met at Malacca, never alludes to the Bugis, who, had they existed
there in his time, could hardly have failed to attract his attention, were it only
for the very peculiar build of their vessels. De Barros’ enumeration of the people
trading to Malacca is even more full than that of Barbosa, for he adds to his list the
Peguans and the Japanese, but he makes no allusion to the Bugis. The inference is,
that this people were unknown as traders in the beginning of the 16th century, and
that the commercial enterprise by which they are now distinguished is of comparatively
recent origin. Even their native country, according to De Barros, was not
discovered until 1525, and when that happened, the country, instead of being considered
by the Portuguese as one great island, was thought to be an aggregation of
many islets, the people of which were thought to be in a very rude state,—clothed in
the bark of trees, and unacquainted with all the metals except gold.
The first distinct notice we have of the Bugis is derived from native authority and
this assigns the year 1366 to the commencement of the reign of one of their princes
Their early commercial enterprises do not seem to have extended beyond the neigh-
bouring Spice Islands. In the native annals of the state of Malacca, they and the
people of Macassar are represented as harassing the trade of Malacca by their piracies
m the time of a prince called Munsur Shah, whose reign began in the year 1374. Even
the name of the piratical leader, Kraing Samerlak, is given, which proves, however
that he was not of the Bugis, but of the Macassar nation which had acquired notoriety
before it. No traces whatever of the Hindu religion, in the shape of temples, images
or inscriptions, such as exist in Java and Sumatra, have been discovered in thé
country of the Bugis, or in any other part of Celebes. Their language, however
shows that the people speaking it had been slightly tinctured with Hinduism, but no
more. It contains a considerable number of theological terms, palpably enough
Sanscrit, but identical with those contained in the Malay and Javanese, and obviously
introduced, with, other words of these languages.
Of all the more advanced nations of the Archipelago, the Bugis were the latest
converts to Mahommedamsm. Even the Macassar nation, although in this respect in
advance of them, did not adopt it until as late as 1605, or 94 years after the arrival of
the Portuguese, and even a few years subsequent to that of the Dutch and English
I t was this people, at the time the most potent in Celebes, that by force of arms
enforced the Mahommedan religion on the Bugis about the year 1640. I t was, most
H t H S • ai 2?t10“ Ü tbe. new religion that moved the Bugis, as it did the Arabs
w k t w l l ? direction, to action, and which in the sequel has made them
iTa^igatoTs of The Archipelago.6 ** M H ^ merch“ ts and
'1 he enterprising character of the Bugis belongs more especially to the tribes which
go under the common name of Waju. The trade of this people extends, at present
to every country of the Archipelago, from Sumatra to New Guinea. They are ié
fact the carriers of the internal trade, and now, what the Malays and Javanese were
| | f arri,val of Europeans. The exports from the eastern ports of the Archipelago
told d uT rÎe? ih re 7 °°mP°sed of cotto11 fabrics of their own manufacture,^
go d-dust, holothurion, esculent roots, tortoise-shell, pearl-shells, rice from Java and
Balq and of late years, tobacco and coffee. From the European emporia, they take
Indk TheR -bUted af ^ the Produce and manufa India. The Bugis are not only traders, but also settlers in macntyu roefs t^hfe^ rcoopuTntarnieds
with which they carry on trade. The largest number of such settlers are probably
on the western, and especially the eastern, coast of Borneo, on the stmft which
divides this island from their own country. On the large rivers of Pasir and Coti
supPosed be about 1600 families of them, in a state nearly independent of
of MbndY PrT T S' -r ^ Bugis have also established themselves in the territories
d’ and theBugis of Boni formed a colony in
îh L f island of Bomrati, between Celebes and Floris. In the European settlement
they form considerable communities, living in separate quarters, and preserving their
fouTdTnuSber 226a9.gUaSe' ^ “ SingaPore’ b? tba “ s of 1849, they were
Altogether, the number of the Bugis praus, usually known by the name of Padewakan
50 tons^eacb I^ th e 6* “ tb.0Ugb* not to b? short of 800, of the burden of about
Tj. . .I“ their navigation they use charts and compasses, the former from
tLhremml JW L t !h ^CcfhfliunekseT o^fo BfRat^av^ia“. 68^Th11e ^acc oBuungti sw chhicahra cMterr. > Manadrs dthene lgaisvte sm aodf e thfoisr
Macassar and^T . em at Bencoolen, above 80 years ago, is worth quoting. “ The
Celeheat o \ A ? ! PeoPle- says he> “ «'ho come annually in their praus from
manners looked up to bJ the inhabitants as their superiors £
S and achievements *° C0Py their style °f d^ > a“ d frequent allusions to tl e
for them this flattering distinction K t inp etohptle mso tthe eTashteeirrn r seepaust, aatciqonui rfeosr
the richness of the cargoes 7 ^ d e r i v e part of the respect paid them from
duce in garhing, cock-.f igghhttmingg, and opium-smokinsgp.l ,!'—lt H^ istbto wryb oicfh S uthmeayt rsap,e pnadg teh e2 0p9r.o