BORNEO. 95 



the Malayan kingdoms on the peninsula, and thus 

 have appeared, at the kingdoms of which they after- 

 wards became the sovereigns, not only as spiritual 

 teachers, but also as temporal princes. It is not likely 

 that the three came at one time, but the Sultan of 

 Magindanau being himself successful, perhaps invited 

 the other two. 



There still existed during the lifetime of the late 

 rajah, Mudah Hassim, the genealogical tree of the 

 royal family of Borneo, and annals of its history, 

 but after his lamented death I could not learn what 

 had become of them ; and the surviving brother, 

 the present rajah, Mudah Mohammed, feared that 

 these relics, which had been preserved through gene- 

 rations with the most religious care, had perished in 

 the flames of the houses of the murdered pangerans. 

 These Mahometans, being more proud of their ancestry 

 than those of the eastern world will allow themselves 

 to be, take the greatest possible care of the his- 

 tories of their families. On returning to the island 

 I shall not fail to try by every means to obtain these 

 papers, or copies of them, if they should be found 

 still to exist. 



The Arab xerif, or serif from Mecca, is said to 

 have married the daughter of the last of the infidel 

 kings, and thus the Malays were established in this 

 part of the island; but it is curious, that, if this 

 had been a powerful Chinese settlement, so few 

 traces of their language or customs exist; and I 

 should rather be inclined to suppose, in the absence of 

 authentic documents, that the Chinese population was 



