g6 BRITISH BORNEO. 
qualifications especially requisite in officers selected for the 
management of native affairs. 
In addition to the indigenous population, there are, settled 
along the coast and at the mouths of the principal rivers, large 
numbers of the more highly civilized tribes of Malays, of whose 
presence in Borneo an explanation has been attempted 
on a previous page. They are known as Brunais—called 
by the Natives, for some unexplained reason, orang abai— 
Sulus, Bajows, Illanuns and Balininis; there are also a few 
Bugis, or natives of Celebes. 
These are the people who, before the Company’s arrival, 
lorded it over the more ignorant interior tribes, and prevent- 
ed their having direct dealings with traders and foreigners, 
and to whom, consequently, the advent ofa still more civili- 
zed race than themselves was very distasteful. 
The habits of the Brunai people have already been suffici- 
ently described. | 
The Sulus are, next to the Brunais, the most civilized race 
and, without any exception, the most warlike and powerful. 
For nearly three centuries, they have been more or less in a 
state of war with the Spaniards of the Philippine Islands, and 
even now, though the Spaniards have established a fortified 
port in their principal island, their subjugation is by no means 
complete. 
The Spanish officials dare not go beyond the walls of their 
settlement, unless armed and in force, and it is no rare thing 
for fanatical Sulus, singly or in small parties, to make their 
way into the Spanish town, under the guise of unarmed and 
friendly peasants, and then suddenly draw their concealed krises 
and rush with fury on officers, soldiers and civilians, generally 
managing to kill several before they are themselves cut down. 
They are a much bolder and more independent race than 
the Brunais, who have always stood in fear of them, and it was 
in consideration of its undertaking to defend them against 
their attacks that the Brunai Government conceded the 
exclusive trade in pepper to the East India Company. 
Their religion—Muhammadanism—sits even more lightly on 
the Sulus than on the Brunais, and their women, who are fairer 
and better looking than their Brunai sisters, are never secluded 
