Malacca, in Universal Geography

- p. 389 -

^{PENINSULA OF MALACCA:} To the south-east of the kingdom of Siam lies the Peninsula Of Malacca or Malaya, 550 miles long, and from eighty to 110 broad.

The interior of this peninsula seems to be entirely occupied with vast natural forests. No maps, ancient or modern, describe it as containing towns or villages. ^{Attempts to explore the interior:} In the year 1644, Governor Van Vliet, to whom we are indebted for a good account of Siam, attempted to send detachments into the interior. The level parts were covered with un-

-p. 390 -

derwood, where it was necessary to open a road with the hatchet; and with marshes, in which the natives alone were able to get along over the trunks of felled trees ^x. When an eminence is gained, the eye is delighted with beautiful trees; but among these trees, brambles, thorns, and creeping plants, are so closely interwoven as often to present an insurmountable obstacle to the progress of the traveller. In these forests musquitoes fly in swarms like thick clouds. At every step there is a risk of treading on a poisonous serpent. Leopards, tigers, and rhinoceroses, when disturbed in their native haunts, are ready to devour any traveller who is not provided with a strong escort, and who does not keep up a fire during the whole night. Nor is an escort easily commanded. The Malays, a hundred times more dangerous than the tigers and the serpents, never attend a European but with great reluctance. Even those who were subject to Dutch authority often seized the first opportunity to betray the persons whom they had been employed Journey of to conduct. ^{Journey of Van Der Putten:} In 1745 Van der Putten, a zealous traveller, undertook, with a detachment furnished to him by Governor Albinus, to penetrate to Mount Ophir, called in Malay, Goonong-Lelang, situated near the sources of the river Moar, in the south-east of Malacca; but as soon as he quitted his boat, his escort gradually took to flight, and he could not accomplish his undertaking.

^Productions: The parts best known produce pepper and other aromatics, and some species of gums. The forests, arrayed in eternal verdure, contain aloe-wood, eagle-wood, sea- wood, and cassia odorata, a species of cinnamon. The air is impregnated with the odour of innumerable flowers, which perpetually succeed one another without an interval. But the uncultivated state of the country generates in many parts a highly noxious atmosphere, and occasions a general deficiency of human food. Fish, however, beans, and fruits, are found in this country ^y. The animal kingdom is little

^x Balthasar Bort, MS. p. 103, quoted in the Memoirs of Batavia.

^y Blaneard, Commerce des Indes, p. 328

- p. 391 -

known. Among the birds which seem to be numerous and extremely beautiful, the bird of Juno is mentioned, which, without the tail of the peacock, displays a plumage equal to his in elegance and in beauty ^z. The tiger, pursuing the antelopes over the rivers, sometimes falls a prey to the caiman ^a. From the hedgehog of Malacca is obtained the Malacca bezoar from the wild elephants plenty of ivory. ^{Tin mines:} Tin is the only mineral substance exported, though gold is found in some of the rivers. The tin mines of Pera are found in valleys. After large roots of trees, sometimes seven feet in depth, are removed, the ore is found in a fine black sand, which closely resembles it in appearance. When a rocky stratum appears, the digging is discontinued, although it also seems to contain the same ore, because the mining resources of the Malays are too confined to enable them to make their way through the rocks ^b. Sometimes the Chinese undertake the mining operations, and they are decidedly more expert than the natives in refining and smelting the metal.

^{Provinces or kingdoms:} The maritime parts are divided into six Malay kingdoms; Patani, Tronganon, and Pahang, on the east coast ; Johor at the southern extremity ; Pera and Queda on the west side. To these we may add Malacca and its territory, called Malaya. In the interior, the state of ManangCabo is separated from the Dutch territory by the Romboon mountains.

^Patani: In the time of Mandelslo, the city of Patani, inhabited by Malays and Siamese, was built of wood and cane, but the mosque was of brick, and the trade was in the hands of the Chinese and Portuguese, the natives being chiefly occupied in fishing and husbandry. According to this traveller, continual rains fall, accompanied with a north-east wind, during the months of November, December, and

^z Van Wurmb, Mem.de Batavia, p. 461.

^a Valentyn, Malacca, p. 310.

^b Memoirs of Batavia, IV. p. 558.

- p. 392 -

January. Oxen and buffaloes were used for agricultural purposes, and crops of rice were cultivated. Fruit and game were abundant; the forests swarmed with monkeys, tigers, boars, and elephants.

^Tronganon: A modern traveller praises Tronganon as a favourable mart for the purchase of pepper and of tin ^c. ^Pahang: Pahang, (in Chinese Pang-Hang,) exports gold, areca nuts, and rattans ^d. ^Johor: The kingdom of Johor occupied the eastern extremity of this Chersonese. Batusaber, the capital of the kingdom, was situated sixteen miles from the sea, on- the river Yohor, in a marshy soil. But at present this kingdom is in a state of vassalage to a piratical chief, who is called king of Riom, and resides in Poolo-Binlang Island, one of those which divide the strait of Sincapoor from that of Malacca. This strait derives its name from a Malay town, founded by the first colonies of that people after their emigration from Sumatra. Cape Romania, the southern point of Asia, is called in the country itself Oodjon Tana.

^{City of Malacca:} The city of Malacca, founded by a Malay prince about the middle of the thirteenth century, was in the hands of the Portuguese from 1511 till 1641, when the Dutch took it. According to le Gentil, this place, which once rivalled Goa and Ormuz, has now very little commercial importance, and is weakly fortified. But the marshes which render the approach difficult, the river Crysorant, which partly encircles it, and the solidity of the works of St. Paul, which are built of a regular iron-stone, render it capable of a long defence ^e. From 20,000 inhabitants, which it contained under the Portuguese, its population is reduced to 3000 or 4000. The suburb Tranquera is peopled with Chinese and persons of Portuguese extraction. Within the last half century some successful attempts have been made to cultivate the camphor tree in this neighbourhood, the

^c Blancard, p. 328.

^d Mem. of Batavia, IV. p. 344.

^e See the plate No. 37 in Valentyn, and the Memoirs of Batavia, IV. p. 325.

- p. 393 -

produce of which has somewhat re-animated a languishing commerce. .

^Pera: Pera, a kingdom rich in tin, is governed by Mahometan princes, who are withheld from working their mines by a superstitious fear of giving offence to the genii of the mountains. ^Queda: The adjoining state takes its name from the capital Queda, a town containing 8000 souls. It has a harbour, which is well frequented, and carries on a great trade in tin and elephant's teeth.

^{Poolo-Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island:} An English captain, having married the daughter of the king while he was on the coast of Queda, obtained the sovereignty of the island Poolo-Penang, which he, without delay, transferred to his country. The English call it Prince of Wales' Island, and have formed on it an important establishment, as the harbour is so situated as to command the strait of Malacca, while the soil is rich, covered with teak forests, sugar canes, and rice fields, and found well adapted to the cultivation of pepper and indigo ^f.

In our general view of the races of mankind, we have distinguished the Malays as the model of the fifth variety of our species. That people is not indigenous in the peninsula of Malacca, but one of their tribes invaded and colonized it in the 12th century, having fled from the territory on the river Malaya, in the island of Sumatra, before the victorious armies of a king of Java. This tradition has now been completely confirmed by the investigations of Messrs. Leyden and Marsden, according to whom, the Malays form the indigenous population of Sumatra, and probably also of Java. They belong, therefore, to the fifth great division of the world, Oceanica, which is to be described in the six following books.

^f Sir Home Popham's Description of Prince of Wales's Island, 1805. Howison, Extract in the Ephemerides of Weimar, XV III. p. 139.

- p. 394 -

Table of the Chief Geographical Positions of Chin-India.