It is intersting to note that the first villages established in the year 1827 by John Cluines Ross, the Scottish seaman and captain of the ship called BORNEO and who was a good friend of Alexander Hare, another Scottish adventurer and a former Resident and Commissioner for Banjarmasin and Borneo had been named Bantam Village and Malay Village, and names never lied, of course that goes to show that the Cocos Islanders first originated from Bantam Island, off Singapore Island, Johor and Malacca, two of the States in Peninsular Malaysia.
Some history stated that some of them had been former soldiers and convicts, many of them had fled from Alexander Hare group that left Malacca for Banjarmasin in Southern Borneo in 1811 to help the Sultan contain piracy and resistance from the Dayak and Bugis after the Dutch abandoned Banjarmasin, after two defeats by the British off Java Island.
Whoever they were originated from, they are now the Cocos Islander Community who have their own culture, religion and language.
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