THE BUGIS PEOPLE OF CELEBES ABORIGINES. 97 



it is this mixture of race which serves to distinguish 

 them in person, as already noticed, from the present 

 inhabitants of Java, as the mixture with the Chinese 

 may have altered the race of the kingdom of Borneo 

 from the true Malay of Sumatra. The east coasts of 

 the island appear to have been occupied by the Bugis 

 people of Celebes, who have kept themselves more 

 distinct, and their blood more pure than the other 

 races, so that the Bugis of Pasir or of Coti is in no 

 way distinguishable from his countryman on the 

 opposite island of Celebes. These are all the tribes 

 inhabiting the sea-coast : they profess the Mahometan 

 religion, and from the power given to them by being in 

 possession of the mouths of the rivers, they have 

 always continued to hold the Dyaks, the Kyans, and 

 other aboriginal tribes in some degree of subjection, 

 though in general, when the weakness of the Malayan 

 governments, or other causes, presented opportunities 

 of throwing off their allegiance, these have been duly 

 seized ; and the Kyans of the Barram, Bintulu, and 

 Rejang rivers, and the Dyaks of Sarebas and Sakarran, 

 at present allow of no coast government's interference. 

 The aboriginal inhabitants, which, doubtless of 

 the same race as their more civilized and power- 

 ful neighbours, but now differing much from them, 

 have, though divided into several families, so great 

 a general resemblance as to mark them undoubtedly 

 equally the offspring of the great Polynesian race. 

 At present they are distinguished by the Malays, and 

 after them by the Europeans, as the orang Dyak and 



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