These Mahometans Are Said To Have Been Driven
Out Of Banda By The Early European Settlers.
They were probably a
brown race, more allied to the Malays, and their mixed
descendants here exhibit great variations of colour, hair, and
features, graduating between the Malay and Papuan types.
It is
interesting to observe the influence of the early Portuguese
trade with these countries in the words of their language, which
still remain in use even among these remote and savage islanders.
"Lenco" for handkerchief, and "faca" for knife, are here used to
the exclusion of the proper Malay terms. The Portuguese and
Spaniards were truly wonderful conquerors and colonizers. They
effected more rapid changes in the countries they conquered than
any other nations of modern times, resembling the Romans in their
power of impressing their own language, religion, and manners on
rode and barbarous tribes.
The striking contrast of character between these people and the
Malays is exemplified in many little traits. One day when I was
rambling in the forest, an old man stopped to look at me catching
an insect. He stood very quiet till I had pinned and put it away
in my collecting box, when he could contain himself no longer,
but bent almost double, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter.
Every one will recognise this as a true negro trait. A Malay
would have stared, and asked with a tone of bewilderment what I
was doing, for it is but little in his nature to laugh, never
heartily, and still less at or in the presence of a stranger, to
whom, however, his disdainful glances or whispered remarks are
less agreeable than the most boisterous open expression of
merriment.
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