472 TILWELS IN THE EAST IXDIAX ARCHirELAGO. 



make tliem conform more nearly to tlie rigid require- 

 ments of the faith they had pretended to adopt. Be 

 lieving, like true Mohammedans, that no argument is 

 so convincing as the sword, these zealots began a 

 warfare as well a reform. This religion is the 

 more remarkal>le, because, so far as we know, it is 

 the only one that has ever been originated in the 

 whole archipelago. 



In 1837 these religious conquerors came into 

 collision with the Dutch, and, after a severe contest 

 of three yearn, were completely conquered, and not a 

 vestige of their rigorous laws can now be tliscemed. 

 Such harsh measures were evidently distasteful to 

 the lax Malays, and now on all market-days and fes- 

 tive occai*ions they airay themselves in as gaudy colors 

 as they did betbre the zealous pilgi'ims of Korinchi 

 came back from Mecca. 



The skiliiil work of these people in silver and gold 

 has already been described. Tliis they did not learn 

 from foreignerSj but have practised for ages. They 

 were also veiy KkUful in the manufactui'e of kris- 

 blades, cannon, and matchlocks^ — ^mining, smelting, 

 and forgiiig the iron entirely themselves. Marsden 

 says their principal mine was nt Padang Luar^ prob- 

 ably Padang Lxiwa. or Lawa, a kampong on the level 

 land near Fort de Kock, and al)out a mile north 

 of that place. It was taken to Selimpuwong (on the 

 Dutch maps Salimpawa-ag), a small kampong between 

 Mount Merapi and Mount Sago, on the road leading 

 northward ft'om this place to Paya Kombo, where it 

 was smelted and manufactured. Tlieir cannon were 

 often mentionerl by thf» earliest Portuguese naviga- 



