Chinese get on well with all natives, with whom they intermarry, the mixed offspring being a healthy and good-looking type. They form the merchant, trading, and artisan classes, and they are the only agriculturists and mine labourers of any worth. Without these people a tropical country would remain undeveloped.
The only census that appears to have been attempted in Sarawak was taken in 1871. Judging by the report that was published in the _Gazette_ this census was made in a very imperfect manner.[39] Of the interior population it includes Sea-Dayaks, but no means were obtainable for ascertaining the numbers of Kayans, Kenyahs, and many other tribes that go to make up the population of the State. It makes no separate mention of the large coast population of the Melanaus, who were presumably lumped with the Malays.
Malays 52,519 Dayaks 70,849 Chinese 4,947 Indians 364 ——————— 128,679
Allowed for evasions and omissions 10 per cent 12,867 ——————— Total 141,546
The report concedes it was the generally received opinion that the population was nearer 200,000, and if we include the Kayans, Kenyahs, etc., and accept the approximate correctness of the above figures, that estimate would be about correct.
In 1871, the State extended as far as Kedurong Point only, but since that the territorial area has been nearly doubled. The population is now estimated at 500,000, though this is probably too liberal a calculation, and the following is a fairer estimate:—
Coast population, Malays and Melanaus 100,000
Interior population, Land and Sea-Dayaks, Kayans and 250,000 Kenyahs
Interior population other than these 18,000
The names by which the various tribes are known are those given to them by others, mostly by the coast people, or are taken from the name of the river on which they reside, or from which they came. _Daya_ (as it should be spelt, and as it is pronounced) in the Melanau and Bruni Malay dialect means "land," "in-land." So we have _Orang daya_, an inlander. _Ka-daya-an_ is contracted into _Kayan_; _Ukit_ and _Bukitan_ are from the Malay word _bukit_—a hill; and _tanjong_ is the Malay for a cape or a point round which a river sweeps. Hence _Orang Ukit_ or _Bukitan_, a hill-man,[40] and _Orang Tanjong_, riverside people.