i8 THROUGH CENTRAL BORNEO 



Althougli the Chinese had early knowledge of, and deal- 

 ings with, Borneo, there seems little doubt that the 

 country was first colonised by Hindu Javanese from 

 Modjopahit, the most important of the several kingdoms 

 which Hindus began to found in the early centuries after 

 Christ. Modjopahit enclosed the region round the 

 present Soerabaia in East Java, and it was easy to reach 

 Borneo from there, to-day distant only tv/enty-seven 

 hours by steamer. These first settlers in Borneo pro- 

 fessed Hinduism and to some extent Buddhism. They 

 founded several small kingdoms, among them Bandjer- 

 masin, Pasir, and Kutei, also Brunei on the north coast. 

 But another race came, the Malays, who with their rov- 

 ing disposition extended their inHuence in the coast 

 countries and began to form states. Then Islamism 

 appeared in the Orient and changed conditions. Arabs, 

 sword in hand, converted Java, and as far as they could, 

 destroyed temples, monuments, and statues. The Ma- 

 lays, too, became Mohammedans and the sway of Islam 

 spread more or less over the whole Malay Archipelago. 

 With the fall of Modjopahit in 1478 the last vestige of 

 Hindu Javanese influence in Borneo disappeared. 



The Malays established sultanates with the same kind 

 of government that is habitual with Mohammedans, based 

 on oppression of the natives by the levying of tribute with 

 the complement of strife, intrigue, and non-progress. 

 In the course of time the Malays have not only absorbed 

 the Hindu Javanese, but also largely the Bugis, who had 

 founded a state on the west coast, and in our time they 

 are gradually pushing back the Dayaks and slowly but 



