322 THE KYANS. 



great distance from the coast ; always having between it 

 and them other tribes, and frequently Malayan states ; 

 which latter have, by their intrigues, in a great measure 

 prevented our acquiring that knowledge of them, which 

 the settlement at Sarawak might otherwise have ob- 

 tained. 



The Kyans of the rivers Banjar, Coti, and Pasir, 

 appear to have been always subject to the European or 

 Malayan power, which held the mouth of their respective 

 streams. But the Kyans of the north-west have always 

 been feared by the inhabitants of the Malayan towns of 

 the coast; and the chiefs of Hoya, Mocha, Egan, and 

 Serekei, have always eagerly sought alliances with their 

 barbarous, but powerful neighbours ; and, on several 

 occasions, such as have quarrelled with them, have found 

 to their cost, that they were implacable foes, several 

 coast towns having been burnt by them to the ground. 

 The populous town of Sarebas was last year attacked 

 by them, in conjunction with their ally, Dattu Patingi 

 Abdulrahman, of Serekei, to whose assistance they are 

 reported to have come, with ninety boats, under three of 

 their Rajahs, or most powerful chiefs. 



In their government, they are said to resemble the 

 Sea Dyaks, each village being under one chief, who is, 

 however, much more subservient to the authority of a 

 higher chief, than either the Sarebas or Sakarran Orang 

 Kayas. The country is divided into little states, each of 

 which contains many villages, tributary to that in which 

 the Rajah of the province, as he is said to term himself, 

 resides. The principal chief of this kind is the Rajah 



