of other merchandise. This country is not very fertile,1 yet there is produced there grain, a little animal food, wood, birds like those of Calicut, excepting the parrots, which are better here than in Calicut. A great quantity of sandalwood and of tin is found here.2 There are also a great many elephants, horses, sheep, cows and buffalos, leopards and peacocks, in great abundance. A few fruits like those in Zeilan. It is not necessary to trade here in anything excepting in spices and silken stuffs.3 These people are olive them very sagacious. Moreover, the city is also populous, owing to the ships which resort to it from the country of the Chijs [Chinese], the Lequios [Japanese], the Luçoes [people of Luzon in the Philippines], and other nations of the Orient. All these people bring so much wealth, both of the East and the West, that Malacca seems a centre at which are assembled all the natural productions of the earth, and all the artificial ones of man. On this account, although situated in a barren land, it is, through an interchange of commodities, more amply supplied with everything than the countries themselves from which they come."" Id. p. 245. 1 Varthema's remark respecting the comparative infertility of the country, is confirmed by De Barros in the preceding note, and fully corroborated by Crawfurd, who says:-"It is in vain to plead for the unproductiveness of Malacca the maladministration of former national adminstrations, for Malacca has been, with little interruption, nearly sixty years under British rule, while Arracan, in less than half the time, under the same government, competing with its immediate neighbour Bengal, has become one of the principal granaries of India.” Id., p. 239. 2 I infer from Crawfurd that sandal-wood, if it exists there at all, is produced in very small quantities in the territory of Malacca, the chief places of its growth being several of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, but more especially Timur and Sumba, which latter takes its European name of Sandal-wood Island from it. In 1847, the quantity of tin obtained from the mines in the Malacca territory was about five thousand cwts., and it is yearly increasing. Id. p. 240. 3 Meaning, I presume, that these were the most marketable commodities. With regard to silk, Crawfurd says: "It may probably have been first made known to the inhabitants of the Indian Islands by the Hindus, if we are to judge from its Sanscrit name; but in all times known to us, they have been supplied with this article raw and wrought by the Q coloured, with long hair. Their dress is after the fashion of Cairo. They have the visage broad, the eye round, the nose compressed. It is not possible to go about the place here when it is dark, because people are killed like dogs,1 and all the merchants who arrive here go to sleep in their ships. The inhabitants of this city are of the nation of Giavai. The king keeps a governor to administer justice for foreigners, but those of the country take the law into their own hands, and they are the worst race that was ever Chinese, the original inventors of silk ;"...nevertheless, he adds :—“ that from the raw silk of China, the Malays and Javanese always wove, and still continue to do so, some strong and often rich domestic fabrics suited to their own peculiar tastes. p. 394. 1d., 1 Crawfurd describes the Malays as a brown-complexioned, lankhaired people, of a squat form, with high cheek-bones, large mouth, and flattened nose. With regard to costume, I had frequent opportunities, during my long residence at Aden, of seeing many Malay merchants on their way to Meccah, who were generally dressed like the same class in Syria and Egypt. As to character, the Malays in general bear a very questionable one, and are notorious for their vindictiveness. Barbosa describes them as (( very skilful and exquisite workmen ; but very malevolent and treacherous, rarely speaking the truth, and ready to commit any outrage and to die... There are some of them also, if attacked with any serious illness, make a vow to God that if restored to health, they will voluntarily select a more honourable death in His service. On recovery, they leave their houses with a dagger in hand, and rush through the streets, where they kill as many persons as they can, men, women, and children, insomuch that they seem like mad dogs. These are called Amulos, and when seen in this frenzy, all begin to cry out, Amulos! Amulos! in order that the people may be on their guard, who with knives and lances immediately put them to death." (RAMUSIO, vol. i. p. 318.) Amulos, I take to be a corruption of the native amuk, and the origin of our "running a-muck," which, according to Crawfurd, is a phrase introduced into our language from the Malay, the latter word signifying a furious and reckless onset.-"Running a-muck with private parties is often the result of a restless determination to exact revenge for some injury or insult; but it also results, not less frequently, from a monomania taking this particular form, and originating in disorders of the digestive organs. The word and the practice are not confined to the Malays, but extend to all the people and languages of the Archipelago that have obtained a certain amount of civilization." Desc. Dict., p. 12. created on earth. When the king wishes to interfere with them, they say that they will disinhabit the land, because they are men of the sea. The air here is very temper 1 Considering that Varthema was the first European to describe Malacca, and that his stay there did not extend beyond a few days, it is surprising to find how strikingly correct his brief remarks are, not only as regards the natural objects which were open to his inspection, but others also which were less obvious, connected with the past history of the people and their actual civil condition at the period of his visit. The statement that Malacca was inhabited by a nation of Javanese is corroborated by the learned researches of Crawfurd, who says: "On one point, all parties seem to agree, that not only the founders of Malacca, but even of Singapore, were Javanese and not Malays; for even the Malayan account is substantially to this effect, since it brings the emigrants who established themselves at Singapore from Palembang, which was a Javanese settlement." Id. p. 243. Equally remarkable is our traveller's notice of two distinct classes among the Malays, one given to trade and agriculture and subject to an organized government, the other a wild race acknowledging no superior authority, and who either felt themselves strong enough to resist any attempt to impose it by expelling the more civilized community from the country, or who did not care to reside on land because they were men of the sea;" for Varthema's words-"Et quando il re si vol mettere fra loro, essi dicono che deshabitaranno la terra perche sono homini de mare,”—will bear both interpretations. How surprisingly this account is corroborated by Crawfurd, except that the latter makes three sections of the Malays, will be seen by the following extract :— "The Malay nation may be divided naturally into three classes: the civilized Malays, or those who possess a written language, and have made a decent progress in the useful arts; the gipsy-like fishermen, called the Sea People; and the rude half savages, who, for the most part, live precariously on the produce of the forests. The civilized Malays consist of the inhabitants of the eastern side of Sumatra, of much of the interior of that island, and of those of the sea-boards of Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. The sea-gipsies are to be found sojourning from Sumatra to the Moluccas... The only habitations of this people are their boats, and they live exclusively by the produce of the sea, or by the robberies they commit on it. The most usual name by which they are known is orang-laut, literally, men of the sea'... The rude wandering class, speaking the Malay language, is found in the interior of the Malay Peninsula, in Sumatra, and in the islands lying between them, but in no other part of the Archipelago."... These three classes of Malays existed near three centuries and a half ago, when the ate. The Christians who were in our company gave us to understand that we ought not to remain long here because they are an evil race. Wherefore we took a junk and went towards Sumatra to a city called Pider, which is distant from the mainland eighty leagues, or thereabouts. THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF SUMATRA,' AND CONCERNING PIDER, A CITY IN SUMATRA. They say that in this district there is the best port of the whole island, which I have already told you is in circumPortuguese first arrived in the waters of the Archipelago, just as they do at the present day. That people describes them as having existed also for two centuries and a half before that event, as without doubt they did in times far earlier. Thus De Barros describes the first class of Malays as 'men living by trade, and the most cultivated of these parts;' the second as 'a vile people,' whose 'dwelling was more on the sea than the land,' and who lived by fishing and robbery;' and the third as 'half savages' (quasi meios salvages,) while the Malay language was common to all of them." Id., p. 250. "The climate of Malacca, as to temperature, is such as might be expected in a country not more than one hundred miles from the equator, lying along the sea shore,-hot and moist. The thermometer in the shade ranges from 72° to 84° of Fahrenheit, seldom being so low as the first of these, and not often higher than the last. The range of the barometer is only from 29.8 to 30.3 inches. Notwithstanding constant heat, much moisture, and many swamps, the town at least is remarkable for its salubrity." Id., p. 239. " Mr. Crawfurd makes Varthema "the first writer who gives the name [of this island] as we now write it," which remark is only correct if restricted to the modern orthography of the word; for Sumatra is undoubtedly the island where Nicolò de' Conti was detained a year, and which he calls Sciamuthera. But although Conti was most probably the first to make known the name to our continent, I deem it tolerably certain that it was the island visited by Ibn Batûta about A.D. 1330, which he designates Jawah, but the capital of which, situated four miles from the coast, he calls Shumatrah or Sumatrah. Our Java, to which he subsequently proceeded, he distinguishes by the name of Mul-Jawah. This inference is corroborated by the fact that the former place was then under a Muhammedan king called Ez-Zâhir Jamâl ed-Dîn, whereas, according ference 4,500 miles. In my opinion, which agrees also with what many say, I think that it is Taprobana, in which there to Crawfurd, though several attempts had been made between 1358 and 1460 to convert the Javanese, it was not till 1478 that the Muhammedans succeeded in capturing the capital, and establishing their own power and faith;" which further agrees with Ibn Batûta's account of Mul-Jawah, who calls it "the first part of the territory of the infidels." (See LEE's Translation, pp. 199-205; and CRAWFURD's Desc. Dict., p. 185.) As Ibn Batûta was proceeding from Bengal to China, and appears to have touched at the Andaman or Nicobar Islands on his voyage from the former coast, I think it highly probable that the present Achin was the place which he visited in the island of Sumatra; for that town lies about two miles from the shore, and the Achinese are stated to have been converted to Islâm as early as the year 1204 And if Achin was also the city where Conti was detained, which is not unlikely, his designation of it strikingly accords with Ibn Batûta, for he applies that of Sciamuthera to the city as well as to the island, describing the former as "a very noble emporium." Coupling these ideas with the following quotation from Crawfurd, I think it by no means improbable that Shumatrah, or some modification of that word, was the prevailing name of Achin (and, perhaps, of the island also,) in Ibn Batûta's time, and that its present name is of more recent date :-"The native name is correctly Acheh; but this word, which means a 'wood-leech,' does not, although naturalized, belong to any of the Malayan languages, but to the Telinga or Telugu of the Coromandel coast." (Id., p. 2.) I note, however, that the same author conjectures that the word Sumatra is of Sanscrit or Hindu origin, probably from Samudra, the sea or ocean (Id., p. 414.) Respecting Marco Polo's visit, Mr. Crawfurd has the following observations:-"It is remarkable that the name of Sumatra had not reached Marco Polo, although he was six months wind-bound at the island, and in communication with the natives. That of Java, the only large territory of the Archipelago, familiarly called an island, by the natives, had done so; and he called Sumatra, knowing it to be an island but ignorant of its relative extent, Java Minor." (Id., p. 414.) Whereon I venture to suggest, that although Marco Polo designates Sumatra, the compass of which he approximately estimated at 2,000 miles, by the name of Java the Less, he nevertheless describes it as comprising eight kingdoms, six of which he visited, and one of these latter, namely, that where he was detained for several months, he calls Samara. That word, as it stands, approaches very nearly the orthography of the present name, and by the simple addition of the letter t, which may have been omitted by an oversight in the original manuscript or in the first copies, we have Samatra in full. It is further deserving of notice that the same traveller apparently makes |