2 MARITIME CODE. 



their own Laws and Institutes ; and if we except the State of Me- 

 nangkabau on the Island of Sumatra, it is on the shores of these 

 Islands only, and in the Malay Peninsula, that the Malays are to be 

 found. Whatever may have been the origin of the Malayan nation, 

 the population of these various and extensive Islands could never, 

 according to any natural inference, have proceeded from the Ma- 

 lays ; but the reverse, more probably, may have been the caso, 

 whatever may have been the extent borrowed from a more foreign 

 source. 



Notwithstanding, therefore, the idea of Mr. Marsdex that the 

 various dialects of the Malayan tongue have experienced such 

 changes with respect to the purposes of intercourse, that they may 

 be classed into several languages differing considerably from each 

 other, I cannot but consider the Malayan nation as one people, 

 speaking one language, though spread over too wide a space to 

 preserve their character and customs in all the maritime States 

 lying between the Sulu Sea and the Southern Ocean, and bounded 

 longitudinally by Sumatra and by the Western side of Papua or New 

 G-uinea ; but as that point more naturally belongs to a dissertation 

 on the origin of the nation and of its language, it need not be 

 attended to here (where the subject is only alluded to) ; as it 

 might be necessary, in finding out those boundaries to which the 

 Malayan laws extend, to establish such distinctions and general 

 definitions as may assist in its explanation and more ready com- 

 prehension. 



The laws and customs of the Malays may, therefore, be con- 

 sidered either separately, or as they have reference to those of 

 the more ancient and original inhabitants of the Eastern Islands 

 with whom they are now so intimately connected. What may be 

 termed the proper laws and proper custom,-; of the Malayan nation, 

 as it at present exists, will first be adverted to. 



Independently of the Laws of the Koran, which are more or 

 less observed in the various Malay States according to the influ- 

 ence of their Arabian and Mahomedan Teachers, seldom further 

 than they affect matters of religion, marriage, and inheritance, they 

 possess several Codes of Laws denominated Vndang undang, or 

 Institutes, of different antiquity and authority , compiled by their 

 respective sovereigns ; and every State of any extent possesses its 

 own Undang undang. Through the whole there appears a general 

 accordance ; and where they differ, it is seldom beyond what situa- 



