The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

CHAP. ,
I
HISTORY OF BORNEO 9
mouths of the rivers, owed allegiance to several
Malay sultans and a number of subordinate rulers,
the local rajahs and pangirans. The principal
sultans had as their capitals, from which they took
their titles, Bruni on the north-west, Sambas in the
west, Pontianak at the mouth of the Kapuas river,
Banjermasin in the south at the mouth of the river
of the same name, Pasir at the south-east corner,
Kotei and Balungan on the east at the mouths of
the rivers of those names ; while the Sultan of Jolo,
the capital of the Sulu islands, which lie off the north
coast, claimed sovereignty over the northern end of
Borneo. But these Malay sultans were not the
first representatives in the island of culture and of
civilised or semi-civilised rule ; for history preserves
some faint records of still earlier times, of which
some slight confirmation is afforded by surviving
traces of the culture then introduced.
In spite of all the work done on the history of the
East Indies, most of what occurred before and much
that followed the arrival of Europeans remains
obscure. There are several Asiatic nations whose
records might be expected to contain valuable
information, but all are disappointing. The Klings,
still the principal Hindu traders in the Far East,
visited the Malay Archipelago in the first or at any
rate the second century after Christ,^ and introduced
their writing^ and chronology. But their
early histories are meagre and unsatisfactory in the
extreme. The Arab culture of the Malays, which
took root in Sumatra in the twelfth century, is of
course of no assistance in regard to events of earlier
date, and does not give trustworthy and detailed
^ Crawfurd, Descriptive Dictionary, p. 140.
^ Despite Crawfurd's opinion this is now an accepted fact. Raffles's History
ofJava contains much interesting information on the point, and there is a
remarkable statement which has not obtained the attention that it deserves,
showing that the Chinese recognised the similarity between the Java and Soli
(Nagpur) alphabets.—Groeneveldt, Notes on Malay Ai^chipelago and Malcuca ;
TxxOontx's Essays Relating to Indo-China, vol. i. p. 166.