of the Ijland of Borneo* 227 



Would appear than that of Saudami * ; and had the latter 

 grown up, not at the court of the prince of Tabana, but in 

 the folitary woods of the ifland of Bali, his mental powers 

 would have been fo little expanded, that an inattentive ob- 

 ferver might have clafled him among the pongos, varis, 

 orang outangs, &c. of Battel, Pyrard, Leguat, and others. 

 But the figure which Bontius has given us of the orang ou- 

 tang may have been delineated with too great a refemblance 

 to that of man, and contrary to truth ; for, if we adhere only 

 to the defcription, we can difcover nothing more than a 

 common large orang outang or pongo. Briflbn, who clafles 

 the orang outang of Bontius along with the vari, appears to 

 have been of the fame opinion. An inftance of fuch a falfe 

 and too human-like reprefentation of this animal occurs alfo 

 in the figure of an orang outang of the ifland of Borneo, 

 given in Beckman's voyage ; where the author fpeaks, with- 

 out all doubt, of the fame fpecies as that tra'nfmitted to our 

 fociety from that ifland. But be this as it may, it is certain 

 that fince the time Bontius refided in Java, or the middle of 

 the lad century, no orang outang, fuch as that delineated 

 by him, has been found either in this ifland or in any of 

 thofe in the neighbourhood ; and as he aflerts that he faw 

 feveral fuch animals of both fexes, it is certainly incompre- 

 henfible why the leaft traces of them are not now to be dif- 

 covered. The oldeft and moft experienced Javanefe are 

 acquainted with no other orangoutangs than fuch as are 

 real apes ; and they diftinguifh under this Malayan name 



•• " The defcription of the white negro," fays the author in his Letters 

 from IiUia, " will afford a new and inconteftable proof to our natural ids, 

 that every thing hitherto faid of whole races of kakerlaks or white negro 

 night-men, and the like, is mere fables, and that fuch men are fom "imes 

 produced here and there only by accident. The parents of this white ne- 

 gro, who is called Saudami, were, like the other inhabitants of their native 

 country, the ifland of Bali, of a dark hrown colour, and their fon was not 

 fickly, but large and ftrong. I found him to be five feet two inches and a 

 half in height, Rhinlandilh meafure." Edit. 



Qjl two 



