276 COMPARISON BETWEEN J A RUNS AND MALAYS, 
ignorant, but aware of their ignorance; though they are proud and 
independent, yet they think that others know better than themselves 
and thus bear easily to be taught. With respect to the latter though 
these two people are superstitious, certainly the Malays are more so 
than the Jakuns; and I further observed, that those of the Jakuns 
who have less correspondence with the Malays, are also the less su¬ 
perstitious. 
From whence then comes so remarkable a difference between two 
peoples, who have inhabited the same country for so many centuries, 
and who appear to have about the same origin ? This question pre¬ 
sented itself many times to my mind, during my several journeys in 
the interior of the Peninsula ; and to it I have not yet found a sa¬ 
tisfactory answer. I will notwithstanding offer here, a few expres¬ 
sions, which may present more or less probability. Would not the 
plundering and bloody way of propagating the Koran, by which the 
Malays have been made Mohammedans,* be the first principle of their 
inclination to plundering and bloody actions; as it is natural in hu¬ 
man nature to feel less repugnance for any thing which already has 
become consecrated by religious views. It is remarkable that about 
the same inclination is found in almost all the Mahammedan nations. 
Every one knows that before France took Algiers, the whole of the 
Algerine states were an empire of pirates. In the same manner be¬ 
fore the English sway had established security in this part of the 
* The Malays were not originally coerced into Islamism, nor have in¬ 
stances of violent conversion, such as the recent one of many of the Battas 
by the Padris in Sumatra, been frequent in later times. “ The Arabs and 
other Mahomedan missionaries conciliated the natives of the country,—ac¬ 
quired their language,—followed their manners,—intermarried with them, 
—and, melting into the mass or the people, did not, on the onehand, give rise 
to a privileged race, nor on the other to a degraded cast. Their superiority 
of intelligence and civilization was employed only for the instruction and con¬ 
version of a people, the current or whose religious opinions was ready to be 
directed into any channel into which it was skilfully diverted. They were 
merchants as well as the Europeans, but never dreamt of having recourse to 
the iniquitous measure of plundering the people of the produce of their soil 
and industry. This was the cause which led to the success of the Mahome¬ 
tans, and it was naturally the very opposite course which led tothedcfcat of 
the Christians. The Europeans in the Indian Archipelago have been just 
what the Turks have been in Europe, and the consequences of the policy 
pursued by both may fairly be quoted as parallel cases.” Crawfurds Ilis- 
toty ofthe Indian Archipelago vol II. p. 275, Ed. 
