CHAP. , I HISTORY OF BORNEO 9 



mouths of the rivers, owed allegiance to several 

 Malay sultans and a number of subordinate rulers, 

 the local rajahs and pangirans. The principal 

 sultans had as their capitals, from which they took 

 their titles, Bruni on the north-west, Sambas in the 

 west, Pontianak at the mouth of the Kapuas river, 

 Banjermasin in the south at the mouth of the river 

 of the same name, Pasir at the south-east corner, 

 Kotei and Balungan on the east at the mouths of 

 the rivers of those names ; while the Sultan of Jolo, 

 the capital of the Sulu islands, which lie off the north 

 coast, claimed sovereignty over the northern end of 

 Borneo. But these Malay sultans were not the 

 first representatives in the island of culture and of 

 civilised or semi-civilised rule ; for history preserves 

 some faint records of still earlier times, of which 

 some slight confirmation is afforded by surviving 

 traces of the culture then introduced. 



In spite of all the work done on the history of the 

 East Indies, most of what occurred before and much 

 that followed the arrival of Europeans remains 

 obscure. There are several Asiatic nations whose 

 records might be expected to contain valuable 

 information, but all are disappointing. The Klings, 

 still the principal Hindu traders in the Far East, 

 visited the Malay Archipelago in the first or at any 

 rate the second century after Christ,^ and intro- 

 duced their writing^ and chronology. But their 

 early histories are meagre and unsatisfactory in the 

 extreme. The Arab culture of the Malays, which 

 took root in Sumatra in the twelfth century, is of 

 course of no assistance in regard to events of earlier 

 date, and does not give trustworthy and detailed 



^ Crawfurd, Descriptive Dictionary, p. 140. 



^ Despite Crawfurd's opinion this is now an accepted fact. Raffles's History 

 of Java contains much interesting information on the point, and there is a 

 remarkable statement which has not obtained the attention that it deserves, 

 showing that the Chinese recognised the similarity between the Java and Soli 

 (Nagpur) alphabets. — Groeneveldt, Notes on Malay Ai^chipelago and Malcuca ; 

 TxxOontx's Essays Relating to Indo-China, vol. i. p. 166. 



