341* 
REMARKS ON THE SLETAR AND SABI MB A TRIBES. 
By J. T. Thomson, Esq. 
Hon. M. N. H. S. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 
In compliance wftli your request I send you a few notes on these 
tribes made during a late visit to the Old Straits of Singapore, when I 
came in contact with them. My duties have frequently led me to these 
parts, and my constant attention had been drawn to the fact of wild tribes 
existing in the creeks, and along the shores of the Strait above mention¬ 
ed; but, notwithstanding all my anxiety to obtain an interview with 
any of - them, my wishes had never been gratified. It is true that 
parties of the Sletar tribe had been often descried from the Gunboat, 
but we found them too shy and timid to allow of a near approach. 
This time we were more fortunate. A Panglima (i. e. Malay war¬ 
rior) a notorious pirate, had been caught by one of the Tomungong’s fol¬ 
lowers, who in former years had formed one of the crew of the Gun¬ 
boat—elated with his success, lie came to relate the circumstances of 
his bold feat; amongst these and other interesting matters regarding pi¬ 
racy, jn which trade our friend had in former years even obtained ho¬ 
norable notoriety amongst his country men,—the wild men or Orang 
Utan were casfually mentioned as being in the vicinity. The oppor¬ 
tunity was not to be lost, and our friend, on certain conditions, agreed 
to bring several of their class to the Gunboat on the following day. 
The next day, when anchored close to the shore, several small boats 
mid canoes were seen skirting the mangrove, and slowly approaching 
to our anchorage; these proved to be two families of the Sletar tribe 
mentioned at the end of your article on the Orang Binua of Johore. 
I found after careful examination that they were known to the Malays 
as the “ Orang Utan Sletiir.” On their first approach one could not 
help being struck with the extreme squalidness of their appearance, 
united as it was to a dull insensibility to what was going forward, a 
marked contrast to their pert Malay conductors, who assumed over 
them an air of superiority and command, which is never witnessed in the 
latter when in the presence of European^ alone, and affording at once, 
