154 MALAY BOAT-BUILDING. 



from Java. Even in working in wood, though not un- 

 skilful, the Malays have very bad and inadequate tools. 

 Their planks for house- building they generally purchase 

 of the Chinese carpenters and sawyers at Sarawak, as 

 they themselves do not use the large saw for cutting 

 up timber, their boat-planks being formed with great 

 labour and waste of wood with the bileong, a small 

 kind of adze, which is the only cutting instrument 

 employed also in making their fine posts of balean and 

 other hard woods. They are, from their great prac- 

 tice, very dexterous with this instrument, and the sur- 

 face of the posts formed by them is as smooth as if the 

 plane had been used to them, and the square form is as 

 well preserved as if they had been cut out by the saw. 



In boat-building they have attained much greater 

 perfection than in other carpenters' work, and 

 in this art they have lately very much improved, and 

 endeavour as much as possible to imitate the strength 

 and durability of English ships in the construction of 

 their large boats. Thus they now copy the ships of 

 Europe; and all the boats of Sarawak have sails of light 

 canvass, and cordage of excellent quality, instead of the 

 clumsy mats and inelegant rattans formerly in use. 



The people of Sarawak and of the west coast of 

 Borneo, and indeed of the island generally, are far 

 behind the natives of Celebes and Java in the manu- 

 facture of cloths. They grow no cotton, and the cloths 

 they make are from cotton thread which they annually 

 import from Singapore. They have no variety of 

 patterns, all their cloths being variations of a red 



