Bugis and Malay manuscripts now in the Library of Congress found their way to Washington D.C. through the combined efforts of four men in Singapore in the 1840s: Husin bin Ismail and Abdullah bin Abdulkadir (respectively teachers of Bugis and Malay), the missionary Alfred North and the explorer Charles Wilkes. From a quantitative point of view the Bugis collection is of no less value than the Malay one: the manuscripts collection of the Library of Congress possesses 14 Malay and 10 Bugis manuscripts. Together with a small number of works printed in Singapore from that period, these 24 manuscripts constitute one collection: collected for the same purpose, acquired through the same person, and copied by the same scribes. The following history of this collection explains its production within the environment of that small circle of people interested in Malay and Bugis manuscripts in Singapore during the 1840s. An appendix describes all ten Bugis manuscripts.