SUMATRA. 
344 
of the Malays with those of the races of Sumatra who have 
surrounded the inland Malayan region fn m time immemorial, 
that any trustworthy conclusions are to be established with 
respect to the origin of a people who have filled such an 
important part in that history, and by their boldness, enter- 
prize and rapacity thrown the other indigenous tribes into 
the back ground. In this work we have made some pro¬ 
gress. The race that has appeared to us most important in 
such enquiries is that of the Batta’, and the results of a 
comparison of their dialects, fa*' they have several, with the 
Malayan, we shall lay before our readers in due time. The 
Battas have excited so much curiosity, and the notions 
commonly entertained respecting them are so erroneous, that 
before we can enter on these historical investigations with 
advantage, it is necessary to obtain a correct knowledge 
of their actual character and mode of life at this day. We 
are enabled to do this through the labours of Mr T. J. Wilier, 
who passed five years in the southern part of the Batta’ 
countries, in charge of the Provinces of Mandheling and 
Pertibi now belonging to Netherlands India He made an 
exceedingly able and careful compilation or their laws and 
customs, which was afterwards published in the lijdschrift 
voor Nederlandseh Indie, accompanied by an account of the 
country and the people. It is the last that we now intend 
to present to our readers. Our translation has had the 
advantage of being revised by Mr Wilier himself, who has 
added some further elucidations. The more important and 
valuable part of his work, that comprising the laws and insti¬ 
tutions, is too bulky to be inserted entire in one piece, but we 
shall afterwards give an abridgement or selections from it. 
We precede Mr Wdler’s paper by so much of a general 
sketch of the configuration and ethnology of Sumatra, as seems 
necessary to shew the place which the Batta and their coun¬ 
try hold with respect to the other races and their territories. 
This sketch will be continued, and as soon as we can give 
lithographed maps * to illustrate the subject, we shall com - 
inence descriptions of each country in Sumatra, its inhabi¬ 
tants, productions, trade, &c. as accurate and complete as 
our materials will admit 
* We hope soon to he in possession of a Lithographic Press which wa 
ordered some time ago for this and oilier illustrations required for this Jour¬ 
nal. We shall describe and illustrate ihe different countries of the Malay 
Peninsula in the same way, and we shall feel greatly obliged to any contri¬ 
butors who will undeitake a general geographical aecounl of Borneo, < elebo»«, 
the Phi 11 i pines, Moluccas, or the Tiraorean islands, to prepare the way r or 
mote detailed descriptions of the different countries which they comprise. 
