The principal inducement that has influenced Mr. Brooke in this undertaking is the interest he feels in the benighted people of the interior, who are known under the name of Dyack, and of whom some extraordinary accounts have been given.

A few of these, which I have procured from reputable sources, I will now relate, in order that it may be seen among what kind of people this gentleman has undertaken to introduce the arts of civilization.

[The Dyacks.] The Dyacks are, by all accounts, a fine race, and much the most numerous of any inhabiting Borneo.  They are almost exclusively confined to the interior, where they enjoy a fine climate, and all the spontaneous productions of the tropics.  They are believed to be the aborigines of the island.  The name of Dyack seems to be more particularly applied to those who live in the southern section of Borneo.  To the north they are called Idaan or Tirun, and those so termed are best known to the Sulus, or the inhabitants of that part of the coast of Borneo over which the Sulus rule.  In personal appearance, the Dyacks are slender, have higher foreheads than the Malays, and are a finer and much better-looking people.  Their hair is long, straight, and coarse, though it is generally cropped short round the head.  The females are spoken of as being fair and handsome, and many of those who have been made slaves are to be seen among the Malays.

In manners the Dyacks are described as simple and mild, yet they are characterized by some of the most uncommon and revolting customs of barbarians.  Their government is very simple; the elders in each village for the most part rule; but they are said to have chiefs that do not differ from the Malay rajahs.  They wear no clothing except the maro, and many of them are tattooed, with a variety of figures, over their body.  They live in houses built of wood, that are generally of large size, and frequently contain as many as one hundred persons.  These houses are usually built on piles, divided into compartments, and have a kind of veranda in front, which serves as a communication between the several families.  The patriarch, or elder, resides in the middle.  The houses are entered by ladders, and have doors, but no windows.  The villages are protected by a sort of breastwork.

Although this people are to be found throughout all Borneo, and even within a few miles of the coast, yet they do not occupy any part of its shores, which are held by Malays, or Chinese settlers.  There is no country more likely to interest the world than Borneo.  All accounts speak of vast ruins of temples and palaces, throughout the whole extent of its interior, which the ancestors of the present inhabitants could not have constructed.  The great resemblance these bear to those of China and Cambojia has led to the belief that Borneo was formerly peopled by those nations; but all traditions of the origin of these edifices have been lost; and so little is now known of the northern side of Borneo, that it would be presumption to indulge in any surmises of what may have been its state during these dark ages.  Even the Bugis priests, who are the best-informed persons in the country, have no writings or traditions that bear upon the subject; and the few scattered legends of Eastern origin, can afford no proof of the occurrence of the events they commemorate in any particular locality.