Ill 



THE PEOPLES OF BORNEO 31 



country has hitherto been made, it is impossible to 

 state with any pretence to accuracy the number of 

 the inhabitants of the island. Basing our estimate 

 on such partial and local enumerations as have been 

 made, we believe the total population to be about 

 3,000,000. Of these the Chinese immigrants and 

 their descendants, who are rapidly increasing in 

 number, probably exceed 100,000. The Malays 

 and the native converts to Islam, who constitute 

 with the Chinese the population of the towns 

 and settled villages of the coast districts, probably 

 number between three and four hundred thousand ; 

 the Indian immigrants are probably not more than 

 10,000; the Europeans number perhaps 3000; the 

 rest of the population is made up of the six groups 

 of barbarians named in the foregoing paragraph. 



Any estimate of the numbers of the people 

 of each of these six divisions is necessarily a 

 very rough one, but it is perhaps worth while 

 to state our opinion on this question as follows : 

 Klemantans, rather more than 1,000,000 ; Kenyahs, 

 about 300,000 ; Muruts, 250,000 ; Sea Dayaks, 

 200,000 ; Kayans, 150,000 ; Punans and other 

 peoples of similar nomadic habits, 100,000 — i.e. a 

 total of 2,000,000. 



(i) Of all these six peoples the Sea Dayaks have 

 become best known to Europeans, largely owing 

 to their restless truculent disposition, and to the 

 fact that they are more numerous in Sarawak than 

 any of the others. They have spread northwards 

 over Sarawak during the latter half of the last 

 century, chiefly from the region of the Batang 

 Lupar, where they are still numerous. They are 

 still spreading northward, encroaching upon the 

 more peaceful Klemantan tribes. They are most 

 densely distributed in the lower reaches of the 

 main rivers of Sarawak, especially the Batang Lupar 

 and Saribas rivers, which are now exclusively 



