513 
TRACES OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MALAY KINGDOM 
OF BORNEO PROPER, 
WITH NOTICES OF ITS CONDITION WHEN FIRST DISCOVERED BY 
EUROPEANS, AND AT LATER PERIODS, 
Origin of the Malay kingdom of BrunS .—From all the notices 
of the Portuguese and Spanish writers we may confidently conclude 
that Borneo Proper, when it first became known to Europeans three 
ceuturies ago, was noted for the same productions, inhabited by the 
same races, in the same stages of civilization, and with the same 
mutual relations, as at the present day, Malays from the Johore 
Archipelago and Sumatra between 300 and 400 years previously, 
had taken possession of the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, 
reducing the natives to a state of subjection, and establishing those 
relations with the Binua which still exist, and which naturally grew 
out of the respective civilization and character of the two races. 
The kingdom of Johore thus established, and preserving its exist¬ 
ence, by the Malayan principle of fealty to the royal family, through¬ 
out the successive invasions and captures of its capitals of Singapu- 
ra, Malaka, Bdntan and Johore,* appears to have extended its do¬ 
minion or sent emigrants to Borneo at any early period. 
In all ages the growth of Malayan states has been the same. 
The germ is the occupation of a river or river’s mouth, most com¬ 
monly by a few families, who have gone forth urged by enter- 
prize, want, discontent with their lot, or oppression. Civil wars 
have been prolific of larger emigrations. A Malayan state, with a 
few exceptions, is only an aggregation of river settlements. The 
first colony is often under a Nakhoda who has touched at the river 
and found the soil fertile, the forest produce plentiful or the situa- 
* It is singular what little effect the successive European conquests 
and dominions in Johore have had in breaking up the unity of the Malay 
kingdom. In 1511 the Portuguese occupied Malacca and it has remained 
under Europeans ever since. In 1819 the Johore Archipelago was politi¬ 
cally separated from the mainland, and this disjunction was rendered per¬ 
manent by the treaty of 1824 between England and Holland, yet the 
Malays of continental Johore, and even their de facto rulers, the Binda- 
hara of Pahang and the Tamungong of Singapore, consider the sover¬ 
eign of the Archipelago, the Sultan of Linga, as the lam Tuan of Johore. 
v 
