144 
BORNEO. 
Papuans hold tlie mandates of the Saltan and Butna 
Bicbara (Parliament) in the liighcst respect, and pay 
some trifling tribute; tliey were formerly brutal and 
ferocious to the last degree, and the Biayans (Bisayans ?) 
or Orang Solok decapitated them whenever they could ; 
but since their conversion to Islam ism this barbarous 
practice has ceased, and the Papuans have lost much of 
their ferocity. I never saw one of them at Sulu or Soog 
(the capital). They exchange the products of their hills 
with their neighbours for such articles as they moat 
require/'* 
Tbe Papuans of Sulu would ajipear to have been the 
most orderly of the Sultan's inland subjects at that time, 
as Mr. Hunt also states that ^' the people of the interior 
(Papuans excepted) are at open war with the Sultan and 
towTJs-people, having serious grounds of complaint 
against them ; the towns-people being in the constant 
practice of plundering their cattle and effects, and 
massacreing those that oppose their predatory pur- 
suits/'t 
BoENEO. — ^Tbe interior of this large island is occupied 
by tribes of the brown race, whose warlike habits, and 
skill in the use of missiles, will account for the disap- 
pearance of a less civilized race from the southern and 
western parts of the island. In the year 1834, when 
on a visit to the western coast of the island, I was in- 
formed by several of the more intelligent among the 
natives, that a wild, woolly-haired, people existed in the 
interior; but the information was mixed up with so 
♦ Himtj nH supra, p. i9. 
t Idem, 
