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of the Indian Islands, is but comparatively recent, since, in all the 

 Indian Islands, with the exception of Sumatra, they occupy only the 

 coasts, and have made but trifling advances into the interior, which 

 yet continues to be possessed by tribes approaching the Negro in many 

 of their physical characters. With respect to the Malay Peninsula, 

 now the stronghold of the race, Mr. Marsden considers it to be fully 

 established, that their occupation of this territory is not to be dated earlier 

 than the twelfth century : their migratory course was from Sumatra to 

 Malacca; and the indigenous inhabitants, of a stock entirely different from 

 the invaders, and approaching, as Mr. Marsden says, to the Negroes of 

 Africa in their physical characters, were gradually driven by them to the 

 woods and mountains. These origines are, probably, Alfourous ; but 

 Papuan tribes* also exist in Malacca : still, the population was pro- 

 bably inconsiderable, antecedently to the influx of the Malays ; since, 

 according to Raffles, if an inconsiderable race of CafFres (Papous) be ex- 

 cepted, who are occasionally found near the mountains, and likewise 

 a few tribes of the Orang Benua (aborigines), a vestige of a nation 

 anterior to the Malay does not exist in the whole Peninsula. Raffles 

 states, that the tribes frequenting the hills are termed Semang, and are 

 woolly-headed ; those on the plain, Orang Benua, or people belonging to 

 the country.-)- " I had an opportunity," he adds, " of seeing two of these 

 people, from a tribe in the neighbourhood of Malacca ; it consisted of about 

 sixty people, and the tribe was called Jokong. These people, from their 

 occasional intercourse with the villages dependant on Malacca, speak the 

 Malay language sufficiently to be generally understood. They state that 

 there are two other tribes, the Orang Benua, and the Orang Udai. The 

 former appears the most interesting, as composing the majority ; the latter 

 is only another name for the Semang, or Caffres. From the vicinity of the 

 Jokong tribe to Malacca, and intercourse with its inhabitants, the people 

 of this tribe have adopted many Malay words, not originally in their lan- 

 guage. The men are not circumcised : they are well formed, rather short, 

 resembling the Malay in countenance, but having a sharper and smaller 

 nose : they marry but one wife, whether rich or poor, and appear to observe 

 no particular ceremony at the nuptials." The Malays, in fact, are not the 

 aborigines of the Peninsula of Malacca, or the adjacent islands ; and, of 

 these islands, Sumatra is the only one in which they possess an inland state, 

 or territory. This latter island, as well as those of Java, Jana Uyi, or 

 Bugesland (Celebes), Sulu, and the Moluccas, which, together with Borneo, 

 compose what may be properly termed the Malayan group, are peopled, 



* To these races reference will be made hereafter. 



t " The word Benua is applied by the Malays to any extensive country, as Benua China; but it 

 appears to be a sort of Malay plural to the Arabic word, ben, or beni, signifying a tribe : the early 

 adventurers from Arabia frequently make mention in their writings of the different tribes they met 

 with to the eastward : from them, most probably, the Malays adopted the term, Orang Benua." 



