256 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
Brunei. 
The territory of the Sultans of Brunei, whose power 
in former centuries extended actually over the greater 
part of Northern and North-western Borneo, and 
nominally over all the Malay settlements in the island, 
is now reduced to very narrow limits. It embraces, in 
fact, very little more than the lower part of the valley 
of the river Limbang, upon a side branch of which the 
capital is built. The first visit of the Spaniards in 
1522, and the description given by Pigafetta of the 
court, have already been mentioned on a former page. 
The Sultan holds his office by right of heredity, and 
claims descent from the Menangkabo Malays of Sumatra. 
There is also a hereditary nobility; but the power and 
glory of the state has departed, the Sultans palace is 
little better than a barn, and the titles of his Datus 
and Pangerangs a barren honour. The city of Brunei, 
however, still remains in many particulars unchanged 
from its state as described by Pigafetta. There are, it 
is true, no batteries of trained elephants, and the number 
of inhabitants, if his account be correct, is at the present 
time much diminished, but the manner of life remains 
the same. Scarcely a traveller has described Brunei 
without speaking of it as the Venice of the East, and it 
is, on the whole, a not inapt comparison. The vast 
collection of houses is built on piles in the water, and 
placed in the centre of a lake-like expansion of the river 
15 miles from the sea, shut in on all sides by hills 
which, though of insignificant height, are not lacking in 
picturesqueness. A most striking view is obtained from 
them of the city. Scarcely an inch of ground is to be 
seen anywhere, and many of the houses are built in 
