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CHARACTERS.

CHARACTERS.

Of the Malais; from the Travels of a Philofopher. By Mr. le Poivre.

EYOND the kingdom of Siam is the peninfula of Malacca ; a country formerly well peopled, and, confequently, well cultivated. This nation was once one of the greatest powers, and made a very confiderable figure on the theatre of Afia. The fea was covered with their fhips, and they carried on a moft extenfive commerce. Their laws, however, were apparently very different from those which fubfift among them at prefent. From time to time, they fent out numbers of colonies, which, one after another, peopled the inlands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Celebes or Macaffor, the Moluccas, the Philippines, and thofe innumerable iflands of the Archipelago, which bound Afia on the eaft, and which occupy an extent of feven hundred leagues in longitude, from eaft to weft, by about fix hundred of latitude, from north to fouth. The inhabitants of all thefe islands, thofe at leaft upon the coafts, are the fame people; they fpeak almoft the fame language, have the fame laws, the fame manners.-Is it not fomewhat fingular, that this nation, whofe poffeffions are fo extenfive, fhould fcarce be known in Europe?-I fhall endeavour to give you an idea of thofe laws, and thofe manners; you will, from thence, cafily judge of their agriculture. VOL. XII.

Travellers who make observations on the Malais, are aftonished to find, in the centre of Afia, under the fcorching climate of the Line, the laws, the manners, the cuftoms, and the prejudices of the ancient inhabitants of the north of Europe. The Malais are governed by feudal laws, that capricious fyftem, conceived for the defence of the liberty of a few against the tyranny of one, whilft the multitude is fubjected to flavery and oppreffion.

A chief, who has the title of king, or fultan, iffues his commands to his great vaffals, who obey when they think proper. Thefe have inferior vaffals, who often act in the fame manner with regard to them. A fmall part of the nation live independent, under the title of Oramçai or noble, and fell their fervices, to those who pay them beft; whilst the body of the nation is compofed of flaves, and live in perpetual fervitude.

With thefe laws the Malais are reftlefs, fond of navigation, war, plunder, emigrations, colonies, defperate enterprizes, adventures, and gallantry. They talk inceffantly of their honour and their bravery, whilst they are univerfally confidered, by those with whom they have intercourfe, as the most treacherous, ferocious people on the face of the globe; and yet, which appeared to me extremely fingular, they speak the fofteft language of B

Afia,

Afia. That which the Count de Forbin has faid, in his memoirs, of the ferocity of the Macaflars, is exactly true, and is the reigning characteristic of the whole Malay nations. More attached to the abfurd laws of their pretended honour, than to thofe of juftice or humanity, you always obferve, that, amongst them, the ftrong opprefs and deftroy the weak; their treaties of peace and friendship never fubfifting beyond that felf-intereft which induced them to make them, they are almost always armed, and either at war amongst themfelves, or employed in pillaging their neigh

bours.

This ferocity, which the Malais qualify under the name of courage, is fo well known to the European companies, who have fettlements in the Indies, that they have univerfally agreed in prohibiting the captains of their fhips, who may put into the Malay iflands, from taking on board any feamen of that nation, except in the greateft diftrefs, and then, on no account, to exceed two or three.

It is nothing uncommon for a handful of thefe horrid favages fuddenly to embark, attack a veffel by furprize, poignard in hand, maffacre the people, and make them felves mafters of her. Malay bat teaux, with twenty-five or thirty men, have been known to board European fhips of thirty or forty guns, in order to take poffeffion of them, and murder, with their poignards, great part of the crew. The Malay hiftory is full of fuch enterprizes, which mark the defperaté ferocity of thefe barbarians.

The Malais, who are not flaves, go always armed: they would think themfelves difgraced if they went abroad without their poig

nards, which they call Crit. The industry of this nation even furpaffes itfelf, in the fabric of this deftructive weapon.

As their lives are a perpetual round of agitation and tumult, they could never endure the long flowing habits which prevail amongst the other Afiatics. The habits of the Malais are exactly adapted to their fhapes, and loaded with a multitude of buttons, which faften them close to their bodies in every part.-I relate thefe feemingly trifling obfervations, in order to prove, that, in climates the moft oppofite, the fame laws produce fimilar manners, customs, and prejudices. Their effect is the fame too with refpect to agriculture.

The lands poffeffed by the Malais are, in general, of a fuperior quality. Nature feems to have taken pleafure in there affembling her oft favourite productions. They have not only thofe to be found in the territories of Siam, but a variety of others peculiar to thefe iflands. The country is covered with odoriferous woods, fuch as the eagle or aloes wood, the fandal, and the caffia odorata, a fpeeies of cinnamon. You there breathe an air impregnated with the odours of innumerable flowers of the greatest. fragrance, of which there is a perpetual fucceffion the year round, the fweet flavour of which captivates the foul, and infpires the most voluptuous fenfations. No traveller, wandering over the plains of Malacca, but feels himfelf ftrongly impelled to with his refidence fixed in a place fo luxuriant in allurements, where nature triumphs without the affiftance of art.

The Malay iflands produce various kinds of dying woods, particularly the Sapan, which is the

fame

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