256 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL 



Brunei. 



The territory of the Sultans of Brunei, whose power 

 in former centuries extended actually over the greater 

 part of Northern and North-western Borneo, and 

 nominally over all the Malay settlements in the island, 

 is now reduced to very narrow limits. It embraces, in 

 fact, very little more than the lower part of the valley 

 of the river Limbang, upon a side branch of which the 

 capital is built. The first visit of the Spaniards in 

 1522, and the description given by Pigafetta of the 

 court, have already been mentioned on a former page. 

 The Sultan holds his office by right of heredity, and 

 claims descent from the Menangkabo Malays of Sumatra. 

 There is also a hereditary nobility ; but the power and 

 glory of the state has departed, the Sultan's palace is 

 little better than a barn, and the titles of his Datus 

 and Pangerangs a barren honour. The city of Brunei, 

 however, still remains in many particulars unchanged 

 from its state as described by Pigafetta. There are, it 

 is true, no batteries of trained elephants, and the number 

 of inhabitants, if his account be correct, is at the present 

 time much diminished, but the manner of life remains 

 the same. Scarcely a traveller has described Brunei 

 without speaking of it as the Venice of the East, and it 

 is, on the whole, a not inapt comparison. The vast 

 collection of houses is built on piles in the water, and 

 placed in the centre of a lake-like expansion of the river 

 15 miles from the sea, shut in on all sides by hills 

 which, though of insignificant height, are not lacking in 

 picturesqueness. A most striking view is obtained from 

 them of the city. Scarcely an inch of ground is to be 

 seen anywhere, and many of the houses are built in 



