Page:Malay Annals.pdf/15

Rh the rudiments of improvement, and the basis on which a better order of society may be established.

Such were the opinions entertained by Leyden, previous to the conquest of Java; and the peculiar interest which these people excite, cannot, perhaps, be better illustrated than by the general feeling which exists towards them, on the part of every Englishman who has since been among them, and become more intimately acquainted with their character: notwithstanding their piracies, and the vices usually attributed to them in their present state, there is something in the Malayan character which is congenial to British minds, and which leaves an impression, very opposite to that which a much longer intercourse has given of the more subdued and cultivated natives of Hindostan. Retaining much of that boldness which marks the Tartar stock, from whence they are supposed to have sprung, they have acquired a softness, not less remarkable in their manners, than in their language. Few people attend more to the courtesies of society. Among many of