posing that portion of the globe which is comprehended within Polynesia and Austral Asia, our attention is arrested by the striking uniformity in habits and language which prevails throughout; and which induces the inference, either of one common origin, or of early and very general intercourse.

on

Such customs as the singular practice of filing the teeth and dying them black, noticed by the authors who have written Pegu, Siam, Camboja and Tonquin, and prevailing generally throughout the whole Malayan archipelago; the practice of distending the perforated lobe of the ear to an enormous size, noticed in like manner to exist in the same parts of the peninsula, and prevailing throughout the Archipelago, in a greater or less degree in proportion with the extension of Islamism; the practice of tattooing the body, noticed among the Burmans and people of Laos, common to many tribes in Borneo, and particularly distinguished in some of the islands in the Pacific Ocean, betray a common original; and if it is recollected that this custom, as well as that of plucking the beard, was noticed in South America, the question may arise, in what course or direction the tide of population has flowed. In a recent publication, an idea has been started, in reference to the similarity of the languages, that the population of the Philippines and of the islands in the South Sea originally emigrated from America. It will not be required of me to go into any description of those singular appendages to the virile member,

noticed by the writers on Pegu, Siam and Camboja, and adopted among many tribes of Borneo and the Moluccas. Whatever may have been the origin of this very singular custom, traces are to be found, even in Java of the veneration in which it once was held. The practice of triumphing over a subdued enemy may be common to the barbarous state in general; but the deliberate system of manhunting, in order to procure heads as a trophy of manliness and military gallantry, however it may have originated in this feeling of uncivilized nature, may be ranked among the peculiarities of this portion of the globe.

The language of the different tribes of Borneo is ascertained to bear a strong resemblance to that of the scattered tribes of Camboja, Champa and Laos. The position maintained by Mr. Marsden, that the Malayan is a branch or dialect of the widely extended language prevailing through the islands of the Archipelago to which it gives name, as well as those of the South Sea, appears to be established and confirmed as our information advances; and, if we except the Papuas, and scattered tribes having curled hair, we find the general description given of the persons of the Siamese and the ruder population of the adjacent countries, which have not admitted any considerable admixture from the Chinese, to come very near to the inhabitants of the Archipelago, who, in fact, may be said to differ only in being of a smaller size, and in as far as foreign colonization and intercourse may have changed them.

To trace the sources whence

this colonization and consequent civilization flowed, and the periods at which it was introduced into different states, is a subject new to the historian, and not uninteresting to the philosopher.

If we admit the natural inference, that the population of the islands originally emigrated from the continent, and, at the same time, the probability, that the country lying between Siam and China, is the immediate source from whence such emigration originally proceeded, the history of the Eastern Islands may, with reference to that of Java in particular, in which a powerful Hindu government was without doubt early established, be divided into five distinct periods.

The first division would include the period commencing with the earliest accounts of the population, down to the first establishment of a foreign colony in Java, of which the written annals of the country make mention. The date of this is pretty accurately ascertained, and may be fixed at about the commencement of the sixth century of the Javanese era, or A. D. 600; at which time only the period of authentic history can be considered to commence.

The origin of all nations is buried in obscurity; and, unless we may succeed in obtaining new lights from Siam or China, we shall have but little to guide us, during the early part of this division, beyond conjecture, and such general inferences as may be drawn from a similarity in person, language and usages, still found to prevail among the less civilized tribes. According to the division of Sir William Jones, the

original population of the islands were doubtless of the Tartar race, and probably from the same stock as the Siamese. The Javans date the commencement of their era from the arrival of Adi Saka, the minister of Prabu Joyo Boyo, sovereign of Hastina, and the fifth in descent from Arjuno the favorite of Krisna, and the leading hero of the B'rata Yud'ha. This epoch corresponds with that of the introduction of a new faith into China, and the further peninsula, by Saka, Shaka, or Sakia, as he is differently termed, and with the chronology of the Hindus, as explained by Sir William Jones, in which Saka is supposed to have reigned seventy-nine years subsequent to the commencement of the christian era. But whether Saka himself, or only some of his followers, assuming this name, found their way to Java, may be questionable; and it is not impossible that the Javanese may have subsequently adopted the era, on a more extended intercourse with the further peninsula. A connection would at any rate appear to have existed between Java and Siam; as this Adi Saka is not only represented to have founded the present era of Java, but to have introduced the original letters of the Javanese alphabet, by a modification of the letters used in Western India, and in Siam. It does not appear that either he or his followers established themselves in any authority; and we can trace but little with certainty during the following five centuries. Some of the Javanese accounts refer to the arrival of various settlers during this period; but we find no traces either of a govern

government having existed, or of the establishment of any extensive colony, until the commencement of the sixth century. I should observe, in this place, that the Javanese year corresponds pretty nearly with the Hindu year of Salivarna; and that the word Saka, in Sanscrit, means an epoch or era, and is applied to the founder of an era.

The Javanese occasionally use the numerals for recording dates; but more generally, and particularly in dates of importance, they adopt an hieroglyphical invention, termed "Chondro Sangkolo," in which the different numerals, from one to ten, are represented by particular objects. This is either effected, in buildings and sculpture, by the actual representations of these objects; or, in writing, by the insertion of their names, the meaning frequently having some allusion to the fact which the date records: thus, the date of the destruction of Majapahit, in the Javanese year 1400, is recorded as follows, the order of the numerals being reversed:

Sirna ilang Kertaning-Burni. Gone-gone-is the work-of the land. 0 0

4

1

that which includes the consequences of the invasion of India by Alexander the Great. That the fabulous history of Rama as well as the exploits of Alexander, have been current in the Malayan Archipelago from time immemorial, cannot be questioned; and it may be remarked, that while the Javans use the term Rama for father, the Malays universally attempt to trace their descent from Alexander or his followers. Sumatra was long considered to have been the Taprobanè of the ancients; and, when we advert to the single circumstance, that this was said to be a country in which the north polar star was not visible, or only partially, we must still doubt the correctness of the modern conclusion in favour of Ceylon. The eastern islands furnish that peculiar kind of produce which has from the earliest times

been in demand by continental nations, and the same avidity with which, in modern days, Europeans contended for the rich products of the Moluccas, actuated, in all probability, at a much earlier period, adventurers from Western India. Traces of intercourse with Ethiopia may be found at this day, in the scattered tribes of the woollyhaired race peculiar to Africa, which are to be found in the Andamans, in the southern part of the further peninsula, and throughout the Archipelago; and that the Hindus were at one period an enterprizing and commercial nation, may, I think, be established, with little difficulty, from the incontestable proofs which at this day exist in Java, and the traffic which still exists

capital

capital between the Coromandel coast and the Malayan peninsula. If any country, therefore, in the Archipelago, lays claim to this distinction more than another, it is Java; but, probably, it was rather to the Eastern Islands generally, than to one island in particular, that the appellation was given. Both Ptolemy and the Arabians would seem to have distinguished the islands by one general name. By the one they were termed Jabadios Insulæ ;" by the others, "Jau or Jawa;" and hence, probably, the confusion in the travels of Marco Polo, and the still disputed question, between Java Major and Java Minor.

The second division would include the period between this first regular establishment from Western India, and the decline and fall of the first Eastern Empire in Java, which may be fixed with tolerable accuracy at about the Javanese year 1000, or A. D. 1073.

Su

During this period, by far the most eventful in the history of Java, we shall find that colonies of foreigners established themselves, not only in Java, but in various other islands of the Archipelago; that the arts, particularly those of architecture and sculpture, flourished in a perior degree, and that the language, literature and institutions of the continent of India were transfused in various directions through the oriental islands. It was during this period, that the principal temples, of which the ruins now exist in Java, were built; and, beside the concurring

testimonies of tradition, and the written compositions of the country, the numerous inscriptions and dates, on stone and copper, the characters of which we are now able to decypher, as well as the ancient coins, would lend essential aid in establishing a correct chronology. On the one hand, it would be our task to direct our inquiries to the history of the various continental nations whence these foreigners may have proceeded; and, on the other, to the nature and extent of the establishments, intercourse, and civilization introduced by them into the different islands.

This period will commence from the arrival of Awap, the reputed son of Balia Atcha, sovereign of Kudjirat, who came in search of a celebrated country, described in the writings of Saka; and who, under the name of Sewelo Cholo, established the first regular monarchy of which the Javanese annals make mention; and include the adventures of the celebrated Panji, the pride and admiration of succeeding ages. Our attention would also be directed, in a particular manner, to the intercourse between Java and the other islands, and the nature and extent of the foreign establishments formed by Java. Tradition, and the popular romances of the country, represent, not only the kingdoms of Goa and Luhu in Celebes, but even the kingdom of Menangkabaú, in Sumatra, to have been established about the conclusion of this period, by princes from Java.

The third division would include the period from the above date to the final overthrow of the

second

second Eastern Empire, in the Javanese year 1400. Some idea may be formed of the power and opulence of this second empire, established at Majapahit, from the extensive ruins of that city, still extant. These I took an opportunity of visiting during my late tour; and I believe I am within the mark, when I represent the walls to have enclosed a space of upward of twenty miles

in circumference.

Within this period will be included the establishment of the Western Empire at Pajajaran, the subsequent division of the island under the princes of Majapahit and Pajajaran, the eventual supremacy of Majapahit, and the final overthrow of the government and ancient institutions of the country, by the general establishment of the Mahometan faith.

It is during this period that Java may be said to have risen to the highest pitch of her civilization yet known, and to have commanded a more extensive intercourse, throughout the Archipelago, than at any former period. Colonies from Java were successively planted in Sumatra, the Malayan peninsula, Borneo and Bali, the princes of which countries still trace their descent from the house of Majapahit; and that adventurers from Western India. from Siam, from Champa, from China and from Japan, frequented Java in the greatest number. But the object of the first importance will be, to trace the introduction, progress and final establishment of the Mahometan faith in the various countries where it now is acknowledged as the established religion, and particularly in Java,

where we find, that notwithstanding attempts to make proselytes were as early as the commencement of the twelfth century, such was the attachment of the people to their ancient faith and institutions, that these efforts did not effectually succeed till the latter end of the fifteenth century of the Christian era.

A fourth division would commence with the establishment of the Mahometan government in Java, and might be brought down to the establishment of the Dutch in the Eastern Seas, which may be taken as A. D. 1600; and a ifth, and by no means uninteresting period, might include the history of the European establishments, down to the conquests by the British arms in 1811.

The further prosecution of this extensive inquiry would lead me beyond the limits at present prescribed; and I must, therefore, conclude with drawing your attention to the striking similarity between the early state of Greece, and that of the Malayan islands. Change but the names, and the words of Mitford's Introduction to his History of Greece will be found equally applicable to this more extensive Archipelago.

"Thus," he observes, "Greece in its early days, was in a state of perpetual marauding and piratical warfare; cattle, as the great means of subsistence, were first the great object of plunder: then, as the inhabitants of some parts by degrees settled to agriculture, men, women and children were sought for as slaves. But Greece had nothing more peculiar than its adjacent sea, where small islands were so thickly scattered,

that