Comp&railve Jlafe (f the Snmatr^ans in civil focle^y— Difference of 
Charailer beft&een the Malay and other inhabitants* Govern* 
ment — Titles and potver of the chiefs among the Rejangs* Irifiu- 
erne of the. Europeans — Government in Pqfnmmab, 
C^ONSIDERED as a people occupying a certain rank in tlie fcale g^^^'^'P^ji^y. 
of civil fociety, it is not eafy to determine the proper fituation of the 
inhabitants of this ifland. Though far diflant from that point to which 
tl\e poU&ed ftatcs of Europe have afpircd, they yet look down, with aii 
interval almoft as great, on the favage tribes of Africa and America- 
Perhaps if we diftingulfh mankind fummarily into five claflTeS; but of 
which each would admit of numberlefs fubdivifions ; we might ailign a 
third placcj to the more civilized Sumatrans, and a fourth, to the re- 
mainder* In the firft clafs, I fhould of courfe include fome of the re* 
publics of ancient Greece, in the days of their fplendor; the Romans, 
for fome time before and after the Auguftine age ; France, England, and 
other refined nations of Europe, in the latter centuries, and perhaps 
China. The fecond might comprehend the great Afiatic empires at the 
period of their profperity; Perfia, the Mogul, theTurkilh, with fome 
European kingdoms. In the third clafs, along with the Sumatrafts, 
Xoloans, and a few other ftates of the eaftern archipelago, I ihould 
rank the nations on the northern coaft of Africa, and the more polifhed 
Arabs. The fourth clafs, with the lefs civilized Suma trans, will take 
in the people of the new difcovercd ifiands in the South Sea> perhaps 
the cekb rated Mexican and Peruvian empires ; the Tartar hoards, and 
all thofe focieties of people in various parts of the globe, who, pofleiJing 
perfonal property, and acknowledging fome fpecies of eftablifhed fubor- 
dination, nfe one ftcp above the Carribs, the New Hollanders, the 
Laplanders^ 
