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ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE INDO-PACIFIC ARCHIPELAGOES.
By J. R. LOGAN,

Sumatra-Peninsular Province.*

THE CHAGALELEGAT, OR MANTAWE ISLANDERS.

Sources of Information.

1. RANDOLPH MARRIOT, 66 Report,"
" 1749.

2. JOHN SAUL, "Report," 1750 and 1751.

3. THOMAS FORREST, "Observations," 1757.

1, 2 and 3 are found in Dalrymple's "Historical Relation of the several Expeditions to the Islands adjacent to the West Coast of Sumatra," and are only known to me through the use made of them by Mr MARSDEN.

4. [C.] JOHN CRISP, "An account of the inhabitants of the Poggy or Nassau Islands, lying off Sumatra” (Asiatic Researches vi, 77, pub. in 1799).

5. [M.] WILLIAM MARSDEN, "The History of Sumatra &c." 3rd Ed. 1811, p. 468 &c.

A general description of the ethnography of this province will be afterwards given. Meantime I may refer to the notices which I have already published of the physical Geography and Geology of the Malay Peninsula, (Journ. Ind. Arch. ii. 83), of Sumatra and its races (Ib iii. 345), and of the ethnic history and langua ges of the province (Ib. v. 557 to 575.)

VOL. IX. JULY-AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 1855.

6. [H.] JAMES HORSBURGH, "The India Directory &c." 5th Ed. 1841, vol. ii, p. p. 123 to 128.

7. [Ch.] JOHN CHRISTIE, cited by [V.] P. J. Veth, in "De Mentaweieilanden ten westen van Sumatra, Inleiding" (Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie, 1849, Aflev. 1-6, 201).

8. [R.] H. VON ROSENBERG, "De Mantawei-eilanden en hunne Bewoners," (Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, uitgegeven door het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, Jaarg. 1, Aflev. vi. and vii., 1853).

1, 2, 3. According to Mr Marsden "the earliest accounts we have of the Mantawe Islands are the reports of Mr Randolph Marriot in 1749, and of Mr John Saul in 1750 and 1751, with Captain Thomas Forrest's observations in 1757, preserved in Mr Dalrymple's "Historical Relation of the several expeditions from Fort Marlborough to the Islands adjacent to the West Coast of Sumatra." [M. 468]. It appears from Mr Christie's papers that the object of the visit [ ? visits] of Messrs Marriot and Saul was to form an establishment in order to induce the natives to cultivate pepper, but the attempt, which is probably that alluded to by Mr Crisp, failed. He adds that it was renewed in 1801, when an establishment was formed on the Straits of Si-Kakap, but the person who was appointed Resident never took charge of it, and it remained under the direction of a Malay till the next year, when it was abandoned after a fruitless expenditure of about fifteen thousand dollars. [V. 211].

4. Mr Crisp-who was a civilian or "merchant" in the service of the English East India Company, attached to the Settlement of Fort Marlborough or Bencoolen-visited the Mantawe Islands in 1792. He left Bencoolen in a small vessel on the 12th of August, accompanied by Mr Best, a military officer. On the morning of the second day they made the southern Poggy and after coasting along it came to anchor in the Strait of Kakap. On the northern island, near the entrance of the strait, they found, at a place called Tungu, some Bencoolen Malays who had resorted there to build large boats, called chuneahs,-suitable timber for the purpose being found close at hand. One of these Malays, a man of intelligence, had acquired the Mantawe language during a residence of two years at Tungu, and Mr Crisp was thus enabled to converse readily with the natives. He had also brought with him an interpreter who spoke it tolerably well, and his facilities for intercourse were further increased by finding a native who had resided at Padang and gained some knowledge of Malay. Mr Crisp remained a month at the islands, with the sole object, so far as it appears, of prosecuting enquiries into their manners and customs, which had attracted his attention from their striking peculiarities when compared with those of the Sumatran people with whom he was familiar, and their resemblance to those of the Polynesian tribes, who were at that time exciting the interest and wonder of civilised Europe. In his introductory remarks Mr Crisp says "There is, however, one circumstance respecting the inhabitants of the Nassau or Poggy Islands, which may be considered as a curious fact in the history of man, and, as such, not unworthy of notice. From the proximity of these Islands to Sumatra, which, in respect to them, may be considered as a continent, we should naturally expect to find their inhabitants to be a set of people originally

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