C0RIS\-T $ic*. 



which locks up his money In forbidding him lo MJs$ 

 interest. Trade and buying of landed property, are 

 the only means left to him of partialis ei ftding this law, 

 it ha*»bc< n supposr <l that the l\lala\s hnmched «)H from 

 a Tartar stock. This position, probable as il may be 

 seem, might perhaps be controverted by the tfg ument 

 that the Tartaric and Malayan languages, are B] p9k 

 renlly radically distinct. If the assumption, on the 

 other hand, he well founded, it may serve to account 

 for the erratic propensities of the iMala) s ; or at least, of 

 1he maritime portion of them. But die population of 

 Keddah apd Patani — from which ours has chiefly 

 be< n drained ohV-has a decidedly agricultural charac- 

 ter, and is not more disposed to locomotion, heluixt 

 harvest an<l harvest, than any other people so situated 

 would l>e. 



Province Wellesley was long the seat of the go- 

 vernrnent of Keddah Ik lore Buddhism was supplan- 

 ted there by Islamism; a tact which is proved by 

 written records and architectural monuments. It 

 pears, traces of having been fully cultivated — but it 

 must h;iu lain under forest for several centuries, and 

 uhtil the British ensign became the signal for the 

 tide of population to roll (jack from the northward. 



The Malays are not, however, the only rice cuk 

 fixators either in Penang or Province Wellesley, 

 although they are in the proportion of about 41 to 

 4 of the other classes. 



There are in the latter some native christian? — for 

 the most pirt (Ionian catholiesr— a good many people 

 from Bengal and t|ie CoromandcU oast— a number 

 of Samsamsj a class who speak the Siamese language 

 and worship Buddah— and a few liiigese— C hinese 

 t— Burmese and true Siamese, The Chinese, with 

 the exception of a few of those from Macao, look 

 villi contempt on jk Idie-phmters. Vet what b u 



