DURIAN ISLANDS 126 DUTCH
are enveloped in a large quantity of a pale yellow pulp, which is the esteemed part
of the fruit. This is of the consistence of clotted cream, and has the taste of fresh
cream and filberts. Although possessing an offensive odour, resembling that of overripe
apples, so powerful and diffusive as to taint the ah- of a whole town when it is in
season, the pulp is rich without being cloying. The natives of the countries yielding
the durian, prize it beyond all other fruits. In countries with a suitable climate, it
flourishes without care or culture.- It is most abundant in the western portion of the
Archipelago, and extends east as far as the island of Mindano, the only one of the
Philippine group in which it is known. It is abundant in Siam, however, up to
the 13th and 14th degrees of north latitude; and again it is found on the coast of
Tenasserim, in about the 14th degree of latitude, which is the furthest distance from
the equator to which it has been successfully propagated. All attempts to cultivate it
in any part of Hindustan have failed; nor has it, like some other Asiatic fruits, been
transferred to tropical America. I- did not find that it was grown in Cochin-China,
although I think it most likely that it is so in some parts of Kamboja. A hot,
moist, and equable climate would seem to be indispensable to the darian, but soil
seems to be indifferent to it, for it thrives in the granitic, in the sandstone, and in
the calcareous ones of the Peninsula and Sumatra, in the volcanic soil of Java, and
in the rich alluvium of the valley of the Menam in Siam.
The name, which is perhaps most correctly written durian, is pure Malay, and is a
derivative from the word duri, a thorn or prickle, in reference to the sharp tubercles
with which the rind is covered. This name, with trifling variations, is that of the
fruit in every country in which it is found from Java to Siam, and it has no other.
From this, therefore, I think it may be inferred that the tree is a native of the
country of the Malays, viz., Sumatra, the Peninsula, and their adjacent islands, and
that through the Malays it was more widely disseminated. It may even be stated to
grow wild in some, at least, of the countries named. An intelligent writer in the
Journal of the Indian Archipelago, thus incidentally refers to the subject in a paper
rendering an account of the wild inhabitants of the interior of the Malay "peninsula.
“ In several places in the interior of the forest are found durian trees, always in a
body together, to the number of about ten or twelve trees. Such places are for the
Jakuns au object of great attention, and matter of work. They cut with the great
axe all the other trees which surround the durians, that these, by receiving more air,
may grow up more easily, and give finer and a greater quantity of fruit. They build
there a small house, of which I will hereafter speak; and they then return to their
ordinary habitations, which are sometimes distant from such places one or two days’
journey.” Another party, in the same publication, writes to the same effect respecting
the durian, as it is seen to grow spontaneously in one of the small islands off
the eastern coast of the peninsula, and which is nearly one entire forest down to the
margin of the sea. “ At Pulo tingi,” says he, “ we found orang-laut, or sea-gypsies,
assembled. A large crop of durians, this season, had attracted tribes of them from the
coasts of the peninsula, as well as from the islands of the Jehore Archipelago. Six
boats from Moro, an island of that group, we found on their way to Pulo tingi; they
had travelled by sea a distance of 180 miles, to partake of the fascinating fruit.”
DURIAN ISLANDS. The name of two islands of the vast group at the eastern
end of the straits of Malacca, between which is the passage into the China sea, called
by European mariners the straits of Dryan, the last word being a corruption of
durian. Like the rest of the group, these islands are of granitic and sedimentary
formation, and both have peaks,—that of the largest being of the height of 656 feet
above the level of the sea. Their coasts only are inhabited by Malay fishermen.
DUSUN, in Malay and Javanese means a village; and also the country distinguished
from the town. I t is the native synonym of the Sanscrit d’esa.
DUSUN. The name of one of the many wild tribes of the north-western side of
Borneo. I t inhabits the upper portion of the river of Brunai.
DUTCH. (In Malay and Javanese, Olanda, a corruption of Holland.) The first
appearance of the Dutch in the Archipelago was in 1596, seventy-six years after that
of the Portuguese. Although their enterprise ended in the formation of an empire,
their first sole object was the pursuit of the spice trade. In 1600, the Dutch East
India Company, the model on which our own was formed two years later, was established;
and in 1610, the Company appointed its first governor-general, Peter Both.
Of the many that succeeded him, by far the most eminent was John Pietrsoon
Koen, the real founder of the empire, the Clive of Netherland India, a man of talent,
DYAK 127 DYAK
energy, resource, and strong will. The Dutch authorities at home had made the
mistake of establishing the seat of government in the remote and sterile island of
Amboyna; but Koen, on his own authority, placed it in Java, and in 1619 founded
the city of Batavia, from which time may be dated the formation of the Dutch Indian
empire. Many able govemors-general succeeded Koen, but neither of him or of his
most eminent successors, can it be said that they acquired an European reputation,
which can for a moment be compared to several of the men of corresponding rank who
founded the Spanish empire in America, or the British in India. Yet this cannot
fairly be ascribed to any inferiority on the part of the Dutch officers, but rather to
their talents having been exercised on a narrower and obscurer field. In comparing
the Dutch with the English functionaries, one cause, the sordid, vulgar, and worthless
object of pursuit, a commercial monopoly, militated alike against the fame of both ;
but in a far greater degree against that of the Dutch, who, dealing with ruder tribes,
pushed the principle to a degree of rigour which was wholly impracticable with the
English, having to do with far more civilised nations, whose country, moreover,
yielded few or none of the products which stimulated the cupidity of the nations
of Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
The commencement of territorial acquisition by the Dutch preceded that by' the
English by at least 120 years, and has now been in progress for about 236 years. At
present, the Netherland possessions are stated to extend from the third degree of
north to the eleventh of south latitude, and from the ninety-fifth to the hundred and
thirty-fourth of east longitude.
The area of the territory claimed by the Dutch, including tributaries, is estimated
at 413,952 geographical square miles, of which 38,585 are in Java and Madura, and
375,367 in the other islands. In 1849, the population was stated as follows, namely,
Java and Madura, 9,584,130; Sumatra, 3,430,000; Banca and Belliton, 50,000; Rhio
and its Archipelago, 70,000; Borneo, 1,200,000; Celebes, 3,000,000; the Moluccas
and their dependencies, 718,000; Timur and its dependencies, 800,000; Bali and
Lomboc, 1,205,000. This gives a total population of 20,057,630. The relative
population is therefore no more than 48*4 to the square mile, which shows that the
far greater part of the vast region is unoccupied. The four islands of Java, Madura,
Bali, and Lomboc, although embracing little above one-tenth of the whole area,
contain better than one-half the whole population. The four islands in question
have a relative population of 257*3 inhabitants to the square mile; while the rest
of the islands have no more than 25, or less than a tenth part of the more
fertile and civilised. With the exception of Java and Madura, the numbers
here given are evidently mere computations, and most probably exaggerated ones.
Considered as territorial possessions, Java alone is valuable in so far as concerns
the maintenance of power, and the rest but an incumbrance. Java is, in fact, to
the Netherlands what the valley of the Ganges is to Britain, for, like it, it yields
the revenue by which all the other conquests or acquisitions have been made and are
maintained.
DYAK, more correctly Dayak, is a word used by the Malays as a generic term
for all the wild races of Sumatra and Celebes, but more especially of Borneo, where
they are most numerous. I t seems to be equivalent with them to the European
word “ savage.” The word is most probably derived from the name of a particular
tribe, and in a list of the wild tribes of the north-western coast of Borneo, furnished
to me by Malay merchants of the country, one tribe of this name was included. In
Borneo, the names given to the different tribes of this people seem, for the most part
to be derived from the rivers near which they dwell, as the Kayan or Dyaks of thé
river Kayan. The names of not fewer than fifty tribes of this people, inhabiting the
north-western side of Borneo, were furnished to me by intelligent native merchants
ot Brunai They are, perhaps, less numerous in the other quarters of the island, but
between the territory of Sambas and that of Banjarmasin, ten different tribes are
reckoned, and, probably, their whole number, including those of the interior, does
not tali short throughout of one hundred. As these differ from each other in
language,—m Borne respects in manners and customs, and to a considerable decree in
social advancement,—we have here a condition of things far more resembling the
wildest parts of Africa and America than of any portion of Asia.
1 he Dyaks of Borneo are in very different states of civilisation. Some of them are
wanderers in the forest, without fixed habitation, living precariously on the produce
ot the chace, or collecting the spontaneous products of the woods, to be exchanged
tor food, with their more advanced neighbours. Others have fixed dwellings, con