The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

Ill THE PEOPLES OF BORNEO 31
country has hitherto been made, it is impossible to
state with any pretence to accuracy the number of
the inhabitants of the island. Basing our estimate
on such partial and local enumerations as have been
made, we believe the total population to be about
3,000,000. Of these the Chinese immigrants and
their descendants, who are rapidly increasing in
number, probably exceed 100,000. The Malays
and the native converts to Islam, who constitute
with the Chinese the population of the towns
and settled villages of the coast districts, probably
number between three and four hundred thousand ;
the Indian immigrants are probably not more than
10,000; the Europeans number perhaps 3000; the
rest of the population is made up of the six groups
of barbarians named in the foregoing paragraph.
Any estimate of the numbers of the people
of each of these six divisions is necessarily a
very rough one, but it is perhaps worth while
to state our opinion on this question as follows :
Klemantans, rather more than 1,000,000 ; Kenyahs,
about 300,000 ; Muruts, 250,000 ;
Punans
Sea Dayaks,
200,000 ; Kayans, 150,000 ;
and other
peoples of similar nomadic habits, 100,000
—
i.e. a
total of 2,000,000.
(i) Of all these six peoples the Sea Dayaks have
become best known to Europeans, largely owing
to their restless truculent disposition, and to the
fact that they are more numerous in Sarawak than
any of the others. They have spread northwards
over Sarawak during the latter half of the last
century, chiefly from the region of the Batang
Lupar, where they are still numerous. They are
still spreading northward, encroaching upon the
more peaceful Klemantan tribes. They are most
densely distributed in the lower reaches of the
main rivers of Sarawak, especially the Batang Lupar
and Saribas rivers, which are now exclusively