238 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



solid a dominion. It is not necessary, however, to 

 conclude that the ]\Ialay power was established by the 

 single invasion of a conquering host, and it was more 

 probably the outcome of the long- continued immigration 

 and settlement of a trading people. The tradition 

 current among these people is that they are the 

 descendants of Malays from the great kingdom of 

 Menangkabo in Sumatra, who left their country about 

 600 years ago. Whatever may have been the case, they 

 are now found as settlers on the seaboard of the greater 

 part of the island, gradually — though slowly — extending 

 their influence over the tribes brought in contact with 

 them, and converting them to Mohammedanism. Their 

 headquarters are, as in bygone days, at Brunei. The 

 Sultan of Brunei was in Pigafetta's time a great monarch, 

 ruling actually a very large portion, and theoretically the 

 whole of Borneo, and it is from his capital (the Burnai, 

 Porne, Bornei, etc., of the old writers) that the whole 

 island has obtained its name. It is on the western and 

 north-western coasts that the Malay is most numerous 

 and has made most progress. In the south he has mixed 

 with and almost absorbed the Javanese, of which people 

 there must at one time have been a considerable immi- 

 gration, as is shown not only from the evidence of 

 language, but possibly also from the numerous temple 

 ruins ; for by some writers the Javanese are credited 

 with the introduction into Borneo of the Buddhist 

 and Brahman cults. 



The Sulus are found almost exclusively in British 

 North Borneo, over part of which country their sultan 

 ruled until the Company purchased his rights. They have 

 preserved their own language, akin, as we have seen, to 

 another widely spoken Philippine tongue, Bisayan, but 

 Malay is used by most as the lingua franca of that 



