ON THE MALA'YU NATION, gg$ 



To the collection that. has already been made of the various laws and 

 usages of the Malays, Sumatrans, Javanese, Bugis, Macasars and Sulus % 

 may be added the compendium of the Muhammedan law of inheritance, 

 printed by the Dutch at Batavia 3 in 1760, in ,102 articles^, Dutch and 

 Maldyu, of which I possess a copy . 



As the collection of the Undang Undang Maldyu is so various and 

 extended, the compilation must necessarily be deferred, until the best 

 authorities procurable can be referred to, and if possible the leading 

 native courts visited. In the mean time I request to present to the 

 Asiatick society, a sketch of the maritime code of the Malays, as trans- 

 lated from the duplicate copies which I have brought with me to Bengal* 

 and which, when collated with the more original and authentic copies, 

 and elucidated by notes, corresponding with the general plan of theun^ 

 dertaking, I propose shall form one pf six books of the Malay laws. 



In tracing back the Malay laws, to those of the more ancient nations 

 on the island of Sumatra, Java and the Celebes, and thence, perhaps, on 

 one side, to the continent of India, and on the other, to the larger islands 

 in the South seas, a wide field will be opened for research, as well into 

 their origin, as into that of those extraordinary languages, which in pro- 

 portion as they are correctly spoken or written, seem to contain a larger 

 intermixture of Sanscrit, 



The comparatively modern origin of the Malays is a fact, so generally 

 admitted and universally confirmed by all their writings and translations, 

 that it is difficult to account for the extraordinary Opinion laid down by 

 the author of the " Sketch of an intended essay, on the Malay language," 

 that the Arabians and Persians have borrowed their present alphabet!- 



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