BORNEO.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 September 1855, Page 15

BORNEO.

This island the largest in the world, is situated to the north of Java, between Sumatra and Celebes, it extends from 7° north latitude to 5° south, and occupies about eight degrees of longitude; being nearly 800 miles in length and 550 in breadth. The coasts alone of this immense island are at all known toEuropeans,having as yet penetrated but a few miles up the rivers into the interior. The inhabants of the coast purposely endeavoured to deter: voyages from exploring the inland country; and Beekman, who commander an Eglish East Indiaman and visited the south coast in 1713, remarked, that the many terrible stories concerning the ferocity and cruelty of the inhabitants of the interior were probably but fictions, invented for

the purpose of discouraging travellers and deterring them from farther inquiries. Hence our accounts of the natives of Borneo are very imperfect. They must be divided generally into the aboriginal inhabitants and the settlers on the coasts. The former belong to the Haraforas, who, together with the Papuas seem to have originally peopled all these eastern islands. Several tribes indeed are enumerated by name ; as thr Idahoos in the north, the Biadjos in the south, and the Orang Tedong on the north-easr coast; but all that is related concerning these tribes corresponds on the whole, and accidental circumstances alone 6eem to have produced some diversities and deviations. They all resemble each other in person, complexion and manners. The story that the Idahoos are descended from Chinese is but a fiction so also is the tradition concerning an ancient monarchy founded by the Chinese in Borneo, and which is said to have extended over the neighbouring islands. Respect* ing the manner in which Borneo was peopled by the Chinese the following legond only has been preserved :—A King of China, having heard that there was at Kini Ballu a serpent which guarded a precious stone, became desirous of possessing it, and sent thither so many men that they formed; a continued line from the shore to the abode of the serpont. They contrived to purloin the stone which, transferred from hand to hend, was put on board a ship that immediately set sail, leaving the men behind on the shore. All this haste, however, was in vain; the serpent pursued the junks, overtook them and recovered his jewel. It is said that in the interior are found statues and pyramids with intcriptions; all sorts of ornaments and utensils also are dug up out of the ground; and according to the account of the Biadjos, Javanese were formerly settled in the island: but all these statements so vague and nnauthenticated, that they lead to no historic result. The Biadjos are tall, stout and wellshaped, and their women are said to be fair and handsome. Their ears are perforated when they are young. and to the holes are fastened weights of about the breadth of a crown piece, which expand them to an immoderate length. People of the higher class have their front teeth plated wit gold, agreeably to the custom prevailing iu Java Beekman! even asserts, that they have then pulled out and replaced with artificial ones made of gold; but this statement probably originated in a misconception of the above-mentioned enstom. Their greatest ornament consist of a number of tigers' teeth strußg together and worn round the neck.

From "A Journey to Taranaki." Saturday, 29th. December.—A tremendous hot day. The natives brought us over some fine young ducks, and ;; pukeko which they had snared for us.at Iloto ivh'Jtiana. After breakfast we walked about and amused ourselves as we could till dinner time, which we had fixed for one o'clock. In the course of this morning we witnessed a most solemn and imposing ceremony—the baptism of a very old chief named ( To Ngahue. This man must have been nearly eighty years of age, and was so broken down and feeble, that he had the appearance of a dying man; and sueh was indeed the case, as the poor old fellow was completely worn out, and could not be expected to live much longer. He had for a long time been an anxious candidate for admission into the church, and had worked hard, with the assistance of the native teacher, to acquire the necessary knowledge, but age and sickness had prevented him from making much progress. He had learned to read a little, and he knew and believed in all the fundamental and absolutely; necessary points of our creed ; but the Catechism and other elementary books which are required to be learnt by heart as a preliminary to baptism, were completely beyond his powers ; in fact, the poor old man's mind was not sufficiently strong to enable him to retain anything new on his memory. Under these circumstances, and as it could not be doubted that the old chief's career in this world was nearly brought to a close, Mr. Chapman yielded to the earnest desire of himself and his friends, and consented to perform the ceremony at once, Te Ngahue was brought into the chapel, borne on an amo. or native litter, and deposited with the greatest solicitude and care by his relations on the ground, upon a spot at the upper end of the building, which was pointed out to them by Mr. Chapman. He was a fine dignified looking old man, and had evidently, in spite of his now bowed down and decrepit appearance, been in his youth tall and vigorous. It was a truly imposing and touching sight, to see the old savage—one of the Maori j chiefs of the old school, who had often led his tribes to deeds of blood and savage warfare, and had feasted, time after time upon the flesh of his enemies—now meekly offering himself as a candidate for admission into the Church of Christ. Surrounded by a few friends and European visitors, and assiduously attended by his wife (a person much younger than himself), he lay on his litter, the centre of a small knot of persons in a corner of the spacious chapel, while the clergyman performed the baptismal ceremony, whieh was preceded and finishad by a short and touching exhortation to the old man, and to the rest of the little congregation. He was baptized by the name of Hori (George), and the ceremony ended, he was taken up again in his litter (after

having shaken hands with the Governor, Mr. Chapman, and the other visitors), carefully wrapped up in his handsome dog skin and kaitaka mats, and borne back to his house in. the same way in which he had been brought into the chapel.