OF THE INDO-CHISTESt^ NATIONS. 18^ 



for SO great is the diversity in point of st^le be- 

 tween the Javanese-Malayu and the Arabic-]\Ialayu^ 

 that even in the same countiy, those who are pro- 

 ficients in the one, are often scarcely able to under- 

 stand the other. 



II. Jawa. — The Jaxca, or Javanese language, is 

 admitted by the Malays to be that of a more ancient 

 nation than themselves, and at no very distant period 

 •eems to have been current through the whole ex- 

 tent of Java. The island of Java was formerly sub- 

 ject to a single sovereign, bearing the title of Ratu 

 Agoxg or SusuHUNANG, of the Susupun race, who 

 generally held his court at Kirripiin or Suryakarta. 

 The nation was brave, enterprising and populous, and 

 before the introduction of the Mahurnmedan religion, 

 about the year A. C. 1400, their power was supreme 

 in the eastern seas, and they extended their conquests 

 to Sumatra, Borneo, and even as far as the Moluccas. 

 Their voyages often rivalled the celebrated Argo- 

 nautic expedition in the spirit of adventure. The}'' 

 became known to Eu?'opca?is only in the decline of 

 their power ; yet it WdS still so formidable as repeat- 

 edly to shake the autliority of the Portuguese in 

 Malacca itself; and one of the dependent princes of 

 Java was able to fit out a fleet of thirty large vessels, 

 the axlmiral of which was so strongly built, as to be 

 reckoned, at that period, cannon-proof. The Jazca 

 language is subdivided into a great number of dia- 

 lects, all of which may be respectively classed under 

 the heads of Basa-dalam and Basa-luar, the interior 

 or high language, and the exterior or vulgar* lan- 

 guage of the coasts. Both of these differ consider- 

 ably fjom the MalayUy which has adopted a multitude 

 of terms from the Basa-luar Jawa, or coast language 

 of Jaiva^ compared even witli w^liich the Malayu Ian- 



