192 ON THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 



to the practice of tlie Hindus. Like the unconverted 

 Javanese, they are peculiarly addicted to the worship 

 of Indra, Surya and Vishnu; but being neither in 

 possession of their original religious books, nor of 

 the extracts from them which have been adduced in 

 the Transactions of the Batavian Society, I forbear 

 to dilate on this subject at present. 



III. Bu'ois. — The Bugis may be reckoned the ori- 

 ginal language of the island Celebes, in the same 

 manner as the Javanese is that of the island of Java, 

 This ancient, brave, and martial nation, also, be- 

 came known to the Europeans only in their decline, but 

 there are a variety of circumstances, relative to them, 

 which incline me to regard them as probably more 

 ancient, in the eastern seas, than even the Javanese, 

 — In courage, enterprize, fidelity, and even fair 

 dealing in commerce, they are placed at the head of 

 all the orang timor, or eastern men, even by the tes- 

 timony of the Malays and Javanese themselves, and 

 to compare to them, either the Chinese, or the conti- 

 nental Indo-Chi?2ese nations, were to compare an ass, 

 caparisoned in stiff and gilded trappings, to a gene- 

 rous courser. The nation, to which the Bugis exhi- 

 bit the greatest resemblance, is the Japanese, but I 

 have not been able to discover that the same si- 

 milarity exists between their respective languages, 

 which appears in their natural characters. 



The island of Celebes was formerly divided into seven 

 principalities, which were all united under an elective 

 and limited sovereign. In this state, the island was 

 the centie of eastern commerce, and extended its con- 

 quests, on the one hand, as far the island of Bali, and 

 gn the other, beyond the Moluccas. The Bugis language 

 was assiduously cultivated, and their ancient my- 

 thology, traditions, laws and history, preserved ift 



