PREFACE. T 
To form a general and tolerably accurate account of this 
country and its inhabitants, is a work attended witli great and 
peculiar difficulties. The neceflary information is not to be procu- 
cured from the people themfelves, whofe knowledge and enqui- 
ries are to the laft degree confined, fcarcely extending beyond 
the bounds of the diftri£t where they firft drew breath j and but 
very rarely have the aimofl: impervious woods of Sumatra been 
penetrated, to any confiderable diftance from the fea coaft, by 
Europeans 3 whofe obfervations have been then imperfect ; 
trufted perhaps to memory only ; or if committed to paper, loft 
to the world by their deaths. Other difficulties arife from the 
extraordinary diverfity of nalional diftindions, which, undef- 
a great variety of independent govern mento^ divide this ifland in 
many directions ; and yet not from their number merely, nor 
from the diffimilarity in their languages or manners does the cm- 
barraffment entirely proceed : the local divifions are perplexed and 
uncertain j the extent of jurifdiQion of the various potentates is 
inaccurately defined ; fettlers from different countries, and at dif- 
ferent periods, have introduced an irregular, though powerful 
influence, that fuperfedes in fome placeo the authority of tlie 
cHabliflied governments, and impofes a real dominion on the 
natives* where a nominal one is not aflumed. This, in a courfe 
of years, is productive of innovations that deilroy the originality 
and genuinenefs of their cuftoms and manners, obliterate ancient 
diftindions, and render cortfufed the path of an inveftigator. 
c • Thefe 
