Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/18

 O GOVERNMENT. is farther south, and In a less elevated tract of country, within the territory of the Malay Prince of Perak, have a wider range of country, — are more numerous, improved, and powerful. They make a prey of the larger game, and have skill enough to encounter and destroy the elephant it- self. These people acknowledge the authority of a chief, and have, in their way, a regular form of social polity. The next step in the progress of improvement is the formation of permanent residences. This would be brought about in the peculiar circum- stances of the Indian islands, ;hy the acquisition of competent subsistence, either from an improvement in agriculture, — from the discovery of a favourable fishing-ground, with improved skill in fishing, — or from both. In this manner >-the village would be formed, i For protection from the aggression of neighbouring hordes, and from the attacks of wild animals, the institution of villages is the necessary resource, and must have been coeval, in these, and similar climates, with the first attempt to quit the erratic course of life. In that early period of so- ciety, a village and a nation were synonymous terms. * The village or nation thus formed would neces- Latium, and wherever the civilization of the human species
 * " In the centre of Anahuac, as well as in the Peloponnesus,