The Bugis, however, represent the learning, and the commercial activity of Celebes.
At present they are Mahometans. In A.D. 1504, when they were visited by the Portuguese, they were beginning to be so; their missionaries being the Mahometans of Sumatra and Malacca, and the religion, which was displaced, being Hinduism.
How far this came direct from India, or how far it came by way of Java, is uncertain. The results were the same for the two islands—in kind, but not in degree. An alphabet, and a literature, indicative of Indian influence, are common to both Java and Celebes. In the first island, however, they are the more developed. Inscriptions have hitherto been found in Java alone. The remains of temples have been attributed to Celebes, but they have not been described, and they have not been seen by Europeans.
The safe inference is, that the Hindu civilization extended itself somewhat later to Celebes than it did to Java; and that it took root less generally.
The Bugis are essentially maritime and commercial; and their name in the latter department is a good one; they being active, enterprising, and men who consider themselves bound by what they say.
Bugis approach to a constitutional government.—I am following, implicitly, both the facts and the deductions of Sir J. Brooke, who writes from personal knowledge of the island of Celebes, which he visited from his Rajahship of Sarawak, in giving prominence to what may be considered the nearest approach to a constitution, that is to be found in any Malay area.
One of the kingdoms into which the southern limb of Celebes is divided is the kingdom of Wajo. Beginning with the lowest ranks, the so-called constitution of Wajo is as follows:—
Servitude.—This is of a mild form, and of the domestic kind. Although so extensive in respect to its numerical dimensions, as for one freeman to have, sometimes, upwards of fifty slaves, an export or import trade is unknown. Debt creates the usual supply; since by incurring an amount which he cannot discharge by means of his property, the debtor forfeits his personal freedom. As this forfeiture extends to his family, bondsmanship becomes hereditary.