102 At\ ACCOUNT OF THK WILD TRIBES 

 sattsracton answer. 1 will notwitiistandiiig 

 (>IVer lifire a few expressions, wliicli ma\ 

 present more or les^ prol>abilily. Tlie Ma- 

 lays are Moliamniedaiis : won Id not the 

 plunderinij and bloodj way of propagaling 

 tlie Koran be the first principle of iheii- 

 inclinatioji lo plundering and bloody ac- 

 tions? as it is natural in human nature to 

 feel less re[>iignance for any thing which al- 

 ready has become consecrated by religious 

 views. It is remarkable that al>ont (lie same 

 inclination is lonnd in almost all tlie Mo- 

 hammedan nations, fclvery one knows that, 

 before France took Algiers, the whole of 

 the Algeriiie states were an empire of pi- 

 rates. In the same nuniner, before the En- 

 glish sway had eslablishcd security in this 

 part of the world, the Malays too were a 

 nation of murderers and pirates. It is cer- 

 tain also that Islam ism leads its followers 

 into ignorance, and consequently into su- 

 peistition, which is its usual result. It is 



