Sunda Islands

“ The congested population of the fertile and indented coast of southern China, though not strictly speaking a sea-faring people, found an outlet for their redundant humanity and their commerce in the tropical Sunda Islands. By the sixth century their trading junks were doing an active business in the harbors of Java, Sumatra, and Malacca ”

“ Natives, Chinese and Arabs, are given seats, and in certain instances some of the members are elected, but more generally they are appointed by government. The islands are often described as of two groups, Java and Madura forming one, and the other consisting of Sumatra, Borneo, Riouw-Lingga Archipelago, Banka, Billiton, Celebes, Molucca Archipelago, the small Sunda Islands, and a part of New Guinea—the Outposts as they are collectively named. ”

“ The rhinoceros of the Sunda Islands differs from those of Africa, and there is none in America. The elephant of Asia differs from that of Africa, and there is none in America. One tapir is found in the Sunda Islands, there is none in Africa, but we find one in South America, &c. Everywhere special adaptation, particular forms in each continent, an omission of some allied type here, when in the next group it occurs all over the zone. ”

“ The sandy beaches of the shore hold their coco-palms, whose nuts by their milk eke out the scanty supply of drinking water, and whose fronds shade the tombs of the dead.588 The sea-faring Malays of the Sunda Islands, in thickly populated points of the coast, often dwell in permanently inhabited rafts moored near the pile dwellings. ”

“ Celebes—or with its satellite isle “the Celebes”—lies between the Philippines, Papua, and the Sunda Islands, and is separated from Borneo by the Macassar Straits; it is larger than Norway and Sweden combined. ”

“ In both respects what was observed in the Sunda islands did not differ from the state of the case in the Philippines. Through Jagor’s collections different places had become known where deformed crania were buried. Since then the number of localities has multiplied. I shall mention only two, on account of their peculiar locality. One is Cagraray, a small island east of Luzon, in the Pacific Ocean, at the entrance of the Bay of Albay; the other, the island of Marinduque, in the west, between Luzon and Mindoro. ”

“ Then next to Celebes comes the great island of Borneo, larger than France and Germany combined, south of which, across the Java Sea, stretches that long line of islands, over 1200 miles in length, from Sumatra to Timor, the nearest to Australia, and often called the Sunda Islands. Between them and Borneo and the Malay Peninsula are the shallow seas, and north-west of Borneo the China Sea. The deep seas and the shallow make the real division between the systems, though they merge one into the other. Here, too, is the great volcanic belt, for everywhere are volcanoes—active and extinct. ”

“ The Malay peninsula is practically another island of somewhat the same shape and general trend as Sumatra, and about one-half the size. Its general relations—and the remark applies to the great Sunda Islands as well—appear to be rather more with Burmah, Tenasserim, and even the Cingalese district, than with Siam. Points of connexion between Ceylon and Sumatra, and Ceylon and Borneo, have already (p. 304) been brought out. ”

“ Therein they are surrounded by an infinite number of rich islands, which were formerly frequented; these promised great increase in the promulgation of the gospel, and no small hope based on the wealth of their commerce, before the rebels of Flandes entered those seas and embarrassed their navigation and trade. The islands are also at equal or proportionate distances with the kingdoms which extend from the straits of Sincapura19 and of Sunda (or Sabaon) , to China and Japon. ”

“ After leaving Singapore, we passed the familiar shores of eastern Sumatra, Banka Island and Banka Strait, and the mouths of the Palambang, but in an inverted order, which made them seem as strange as if we never before had sighted them. Then one night, heading west against the tide, we anchored in a rolling swell, with Kodang Island to the northeast and Sindo Island to the north. On the one hand were the Zutphen Islands; on the other was Hog Point; and almost abeam of us the Sumatran coast rose to the steep bluff that across some miles of sea faces the Java shore. We lay in Sunda Strait. ”

“ We instantly let go our anchor, being in a rapid current or tide-way, in seventeen fathoms upon oozy ground. When morning broke on the 31st we had sight of the high land of Sumatra, having an island a-stern, the ledge of rocks we had passed on our starboard, and three small islands forming a triangle on our larboard bow. We were about eight leagues off the high land of Java, but could not then get into the straits of Sunda, as the wind was quite fallen. ”

“ For the whole continent, the characteristic vegetable zone is that of Sudan and the equatorial regions, which stretches from sea to sea, and from desert to desert, between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, between the Sahara and Kalahari. Speaking broadly, it is much poorer in distinct species than the other tropical regions, such as India and the Sunda Islands, and even than some sub-tropical lands, such as Asia Minor. ”

“ There are ten species on this island, none of which are found in Java, while the four species of Java are never seen here, such a limit does the Strait of Sunda form to the faunæ of these two islands, although it is only fifteen miles wide in some places, and islands are nearly midway from either shore. The most remarkable of the apes found on the island is the orang-utan, which lives in the lowlands in the northern and eastern parts of the island. The governor at Padang had a live one that had been sent him from that region. She was more than three feet high and very strong. ”

“ This is very likely the etymon of our Sunda word Balai, and it has penetrated into the Pacific, where the Malai is well known, or was so when the islands were first discoverd by Europeans, as a place of religious observances. In mariners Tonga Islands London 1818- in the vocabulary occurs "Malai, a piece of ground, generally, before a large house, or chief's grave, where public ceremonies are principally held”. ”

“ At 4 a.m. we shall again be in a narrow fairway. We shall pass Singapore by day, and at six we shall enter the South China Sea. We shall pass the Natuna Islands, where the presence of the Japanese is suspected.
Do they intend to attack us in the straits of Malacca? By to-morrow evening this will be cleared up. Will they concentrate all their attention and their strength on the strait of Sunda, or east of it? Perhaps they do not want to undertake anything till the fleet enters the China Sea. The Japanese are enterprising. Why do they miss opportunities that are so favourable for them? ”

“ From this tree being called Ki-tua, and having certain supernatural attributes ascribed to it, and not tuwa, but kolot being the Sunda for old, it may be fairly doubted whether it exactly means old, and the idea suggests itself that it means: supernatural power or being, in some way, in which sense the word Atua has been preserved in the Pacific islands for Deity, and indeed both in Sunda, Malay and other Polynesian dialects generally. Tuhan Allah is still used to express the True God. ”

“ This rather small evidence of commercial activity is the more noticeable when one has just come from the free port of Singapore, where several hundred ships are always lying at anchor, sporting the flags of every sea-faring nation, without taking account of the almost innumerable Chinese and Malay coasters, trading between Singapore and the other islands of the Sunda Archipelago. ”

“ Tumbu, to shoot up, to come up as seed from the ground. To shoot, to vegetate. The etymon of the word is Wu or Bhu, C. 688, to be, with ti and um prefixed and thus indicating: in the act of becoming. In the Bisaya language of the Philippine Islands, the word is called Tubu, to grow, Crawfurd's Dissertation, page 116, and even at the Tonga Islands of the Pacific Tubu is the word used for: to spring up as plants. The Sunda word has thus the peculiar M inserted to imply continuity. See Tumagung. In the Maori of New Zealand Tupu, is to shoot or sprout. ”

“ The island of Sunda is divided on the south from Java by a very narrow channel. It produces pale gold with abundance of pepper and provisions. The natives are numerous but unwarlike, yet are curious in adorning their arms. They worship idols, and often sell their children to supply their necessities. The women are beautiful, those of the higher ranks being chaste, contrary to what is usual in most parts of the world. They have convents, as in Spain and Portugal, in which they reside while virgins; and the married women kill themselves on the death of their husbands. ”

“ The soil appears to be very infertile, yet when the sun was approaching the western horizon, and the cumuli, floating in the pure air, slowly drew along their changing shadows over the innumerable hills and valleys, the whole scene was nearly as delightful as my first view of the tropics in coming up the Strait of Sunda. There is no road in the interior of the island, and every one who will travel the shortest distance, must go on horseback along the sandy beaches. ”

“ In the island of Java, about twenty-five quintals of these nests are collected annually.
“There are likewise swallow caverns in the island of Bantam, and in Sumatra; but the inhabitants of the former are so indolent, and the government so detestable, that they are not even at the trouble to sow rice, nor do they cultivate any one article which contributes to human existence. The Chinese have never attempted to penetrate into the interior of this kingdom, and they have no commerce whatever with the mountaineers; indeed they have very little intercourse even with the coast. ”

“ And thus Sunda Kalapa may, in early times, have meant a secret place of deposit or a depot for the traders from continental India, to collect their goods and rendez-vous before leaving in a fleet, to proceed up the coast of Sumatra, and then cross the Bay of Bengal on their way home. The Sunda people have a tradition that Europeans first showed themselves at Nusa Kalapa, a small island lying off the mouth of the Chidani river, and thus a little to the westward of the present town of Batavia. ”

“ In our progress past the same latitudes in which we had previously encountered such perils, we now met with nothing of interest; steering south by the Strait of Gaspar—to the other side of the island of Banca, instead of by our former route when coming up—we navigated Sunda the same day, getting out into the Indian Ocean at the beginning of October. ”

“ One cannot help wondering if it is wise, losing so much time at Kamranh. All the preparations Japan made for meeting us at the Sunda Straits can be transferred to another spot. They will have time to construct everything afresh. Their device at Sunda Strait having failed, it will be more advantageous for them to meet our fleet nearer their own shores, where they could at once repair their damages and where they have many bases. ”

“ Passing through the straits of Saleir, between a cliff-bound island and the south-eastern Cape of Celebes, the returning steamer in due time reaches her moorings in Sourabaya, and a rapid railway journey through Java connects with the outgoing boat from Batavia to Padang, a three days' voyage through a chain of green islands breaking the force of the monsoon on a desolate and harbourless shore. The forest-clad ranges of Sumatra draw nearer at Benkoelen, buried in cocoa-palms on the rim of a quiet bay, within a terrific reef which makes landing impossible in stormy weather. ”

“ Sunda, the Western half of the island called by Europeans generally Java. It extends from Java Head to, and includes the residency of Cheribon, as distinct from the Eastern half of the island, which is Jawa or Java properly so called, and on the island itself always meant, when Java is spoken of. Sunda may be derived from the Sunda word Tunda, to set aside, to put by, and Sa or Saha, Clough, 722, a particle and prefix signifying union, association, with, together. In Sunda Sa in the composition of words means also having the property of. ”

“ The glorious fertility of Sunda, with its forest-clad volcanoes, its rushing rivers, and broad green valleys, could certainly not be produced on the arid plains of the famine-stricken Deccan by any amount of energy and wisdom on the part of the government. In order to make a fair comparison between British and Dutch rule in Asia we must pass over from continental India to the island of Ceylon, which in climate, scenery, and products is merely Java on a smaller scale. Java lies a few degrees south of the equator, Ceylon about as far to the north ”

“ Geologically this whole Malay Archipelago was one with the Malay Peninsula, and although so recently made, is still subject to earthquake change, as shown in the terrible eruption of the island of Krakatau in the narrow Sunda Strait, west of Java, in August, 1883. Native traditions tell that anciently Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Sumbawa were one island, and “when three [12] thousand rainy seasons shall have passed away they will be reunited”; but Alfred Russel Wallace denies it, and proves that Java was the first to drop away from the Asiatic mainland and become an island. ”

“ The natives of India, coming from the droughty coasts of Coromandel, would be struck with the beauty of the ever-verdant plains and mountains of Java. One of the wives of Silawangi of Pajajaran was called Nyai Mantri Manék Mayang Sunda, Raffles, Java, 2 vol., page 104, which may be translated, her ladyship the counsellor, the beautiful gem of illusion, or her ladyship of the counsellor, the gem of illusion of Sunda. ”