NOTES. 



Sultan Mahomed. — The tradition preserved in Brum, as 

 related to me by the Pangiran Kasuma, is that the Bruni Kajas 

 are descended from three sources : — 



(1°) from Awajtg Alak bee Tabar, who governed the coun- 

 try before the introduction of the religion of Islam ; (2°) from 

 Johor (Malacca ? ), a lady of that royal family having been forci- 

 bly brought to Bruni before the people were Mahomedans ; (3°) 

 from the Arabian Prophet : Alak bee Tabar was converted to 

 Islam and became Sultan Mahomed. The Chinese element seems 

 to be omitted in the above enumeration of the sources of origin 

 of the royal family. 



II. 



The productions of North and North-east Borneo must, from 

 early times, have attracted considerable attention from the Chinese, 

 as is shewn by the names of the largest river and the highest 

 mountain in that territory, viz., China Batangan and China Balu ; 

 very large quantities of birds' nests, beche-de-mer, sharks' fins, 

 Bornean camphor, pearls and pearl-shells are still collected there, 

 and in no other part of the island, for export to China. Gftie 

 unsuccessful expedition sent by Kublai Khan, a.d. 1292, to the 

 Eastern Archipelago was probably to this place, and may have been 

 that which gave a Eaja or Princess to Borneo, for there is unboubt- 

 ed uncertainty in this early part of the Bornean narrative as to 

 relative dates. It is very probable that the Chinese had a settle- 

 ment or factory at China Batangan, and that the wife of Sultan 

 Akhmed, the second Sovereign, came from there, as in some versions 

 of the Sclcsilah she is expressly stated to have been brought 

 thence by the Sultan. 



III. 



In the copy of the Selesilah given to me by Pangiran Kasuma, 

 Sultan Akhmed is represented as having been the brother of Sultan 



