242 
ORIGIN OF THE BINUAS. 
D. that Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese, rediscovered the road from Eu¬ 
rope to India round the cape. 
According to the preceding considerations it may be supposed, with' 
out any presumption, that the Binuas are the aborigines of the land 
they inhabit, chiefly in the Peninsula, ( I will except a small number 
of them who are living near Malacca whom I will speak of hereaf¬ 
ter ). But from what branch of the great family of mankind do the 
Binuas spring ? This is a point extremely obscure; History says 
nothing on the subject, and tradition is almost silent. 
Lieut. Newbold, from the several opportunities he had of seeing 
the Binuas, observed that their general physical appearance, their 
lineaments, their nomadic habits and a few similarities in customs, 
point to a Tartar extraction. 
Another opinion, adverted to by Sir S. Raffies, says that Java 
was originally peopled by emigrants coming in vessels from the Red 
Sea; from whence it is infered that these ancient Egyptians might 
have been the ancestors of the people at present called Binuas. * 
I will not now attempt to offer any decided opinion on the sub¬ 
ject as respects the Battas of Sumatra, or the Semangs of Kedah 
Tringanu, Perak, and Salangor, as I have never seen any of these tribes 
and have received but very little information about them. I will how¬ 
ever here state what I have observed respecting the Jakuns, the 
third class of Binuas I have mentioned, as inhabiting the south part 
of the Peninsula. Under that name are comprised all the various 
tribes, known under the terms of Orang Utan, Orang Bukit, Orang 
Sungie, Orang Laufc, Rayet, Sakkye, Halas, Balandas, Besisik, Ak- 
kye, etc, different names which denote not several kinds of men, but 
which only point out the places where they are found, or their way 
of living. 
Although these various tribes are similar in many points, as in 
manners, customs, in their way of living, ete: in some other respects 
they seem to announce a different origin; and possibly I should not 
be mistaken were I to divide them into three subdivisions. Those 
* Sir S. Raffles’ opinion was that the people of the Archipelago and Pe¬ 
ninsula w ere of a Tartar stock. Hist, of Java, vol. i. p. 62, 3,(2d ed.) I-D. 
