ABSTRACT
The island has been, from its first discovery by Europeans, separated into several kingdoms, the limits and power of which have been constantly changing, their extent and influence generally depending on the talent and tastes of their respective chieftains. Coti, the largest of the Bugis kingdoms on the island, has been but little known to Europeans: the inhabitants are of the same commercial disposition as those of their countrymen in the other parts of the Archipelago. Besides the kingdoms of the coast above enumerated, there are several other small settlements of more formation on the south and western coasts, of Bugis, and the Javanese Malays, who are the chiefs of them, as of the settlements of Soolus and Magindanau. Since that time the kingdom has gradually lost its importance. The flourishing settlement of Sarawak promises soon to eclipse in power and importance the capital of the kingdom to which it is tributary.
