Volume II Part 41 (1/2)
All this is very perplexed, and it is difficult to trace what may have been the true readings. The 30 miles beyond the straits, whether we give the direction _south-east_ as in G.T. or no, will not carry us to the vicinity of any place known to have been the site of an important city. As the point of departure in the next chapter is from _Pentam_ and not from Malaiur, the introduction of the latter is perhaps a digression from the route, on information derived either from hearsay or from a former voyage.
But there is not information enough to decide what place is meant by Malaiur. Probabilities seem to me to be divided between _Palembang_, and its colony _Singhapura_. Palembang, according to the Commentaries of Alboquerque, was called by the Javanese MALAYO. The List of Sumatran Kingdoms in De Barros makes TANA-MALAYU the _next_ to Palembang. On the whole, I incline to this interpretation.
[In _Valentyn_ (V. 1, _Beschryvinge van Malakka_, p. 317) we find it stated that the Malay people just dwelt on the River _Malayu_ in the Kingdom of Palembang, and were called from the River _Orang Malayu.--MS.
Note_.--H.Y.]
[Professor Schlegel in his _Geog. Notes_, IV., tries to prove by Chinese authorities that Maliur and Tana-Malayu are two quite distinct countries, and he says that Maliur may have been situated on the coast opposite Singapore, perhaps a little more to the S.W. where now lies Malacca, and that Tana-Malayu may be placed in Asahan, upon the east coast of Sumatra.--H.C.]
Singhapura was founded by an emigration from Palembang, itself a Javanese colony. It became the site of a flouris.h.i.+ng kingdom, and was then, according to the tradition recorded by De Barros, the most important centre of population in those regions, ”whither used to gather all the navigators of the Eastern Seas, from both East and West; to this great city of Singapura all flocked as to a general market.” (Dec. II. 6, 1.) This suits the description in our text well; but as Singhapura was in sight of any s.h.i.+p pa.s.sing through the straits, mistake could hardly occur as to its position, even if it had not been visited.
I omit _Malacca_ entirely from consideration, because the evidence appears to me conclusive against the existence of Malacca at this time.
The Malay Chronology, as published by Valentyn, ascribes the foundation of that city to a king called Iskandar Shah, placing it in A.D. 1252, fixes the reign of Mahomed Shah, the third King of Malacca and first Mussulman King, as extending from 1276 to 1333 (not stating _when_ his conversion took place), and gives 8 kings in all between the foundation of the city and its capture by the Portuguese in 1511, a s.p.a.ce, according to those data, of 259 years. As Sri Iskandar Shah, the founder, had reigned 3 years in Singhapura _before_ founding Malacca, and Mahomed Shah, the loser, reigned 2 years in Joh.o.r.e _after_ the loss of his capital, we have 264 years to divide among 8 kings, giving 33 years to each reign. This certainly indicates that the period requires considerable curtailment.
Again, both De Barros and the Commentaries or Alboquerque ascribe the foundation of Malacca to a Javanese fugitive from Palembang called Paramisura, and Alboquerque makes Iskandar Shah (_Xaquem darxa_) the _son_ of Paramisura, and the first convert to Mahomedanism. _Four_ other kings reign in succession after him, the last of the four being Mahomed Shah, expelled in 1511.
[G.o.dinho de Eredia says expressly (Cap. i. _Do Citio Malaca_, p. 4) that Malacca was founded by _Permicuri, primeiro monarcha de Malayos_, in the year 1411, in the Pontificate of John XXIV., and in the reign of Don Juan II. of Castille and Dom Juan I. of Portugal.]
The historian De Couto, whilst giving the same number of reigns from the conversion to the capture, places the former event about 1384. And the Commentaries of Alboquerque allow no more than some ninety years from the foundation of Malacca to his capture of the city.
There is another approximate check to the chronology afforded by a Chinese record in the XIVth volume of Amyot's collection. This informs us that Malacca first acknowledged itself as tributary to the Empire in 1405, the king being _Sili-ju-eul-sula_ (?). In 1411 the King of Malacca himself, now called _Peilimisula_ (Paramisura), came in person to the court of China to render homage. And in 1414 the Queen-Mother of Malacca came to court, bringing her son's tribute.
Now this notable fact of the visit of a King of Malacca to the court of China, and his acknowledgment of the Emperor's supremacy, is also recorded in the Commentaries of Alboquerque. This work, it is true, attributes the visit, not to Paramisura, the founder of Malacca, but to his son and successor Iskandar Shah. This may be a question of a _t.i.tle_ only, perhaps borne by both; but we seem ent.i.tled to conclude with confidence that Malacca was founded by a prince whose son was reigning, and visited the court of China in 1411. And the real chronology will be about midway between the estimates of De Couto and of Alboquerque. Hence Malacca did not exist for a century, more or less, after Polo's voyage.
[Mr. C.O. Blagden, in a paper on the Mediaeval Chronology of Malacca (_Actes du XI'e Cong. Int. Orient. Paris_, 1897), writes (p. 249) that ”if Malacca had been in the middle of the 14th century anything like the great emporium of trade which it certainly was in the 15th, Ibn Batuta would scarcely have failed to speak of it.” The foundation of Malacca by Sri Iskandar Shah in 1252, according to the _Sejarah Malayu_ ”must be put at least 125 years later, and the establishment of the Muhammadan religion there would then precede by only a few years the end of the 14th century, instead of taking place about the end of the 13th, as is generally supposed” (p. 251). (Cf. _G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes_, XV.)--H.C.]
Mr. Logan supposes that the form _Malayu-r_ may indicate that the Malay language of the 13th century ”had not yet replaced the strong naso-guttural terminals by pure vowels.” We find the same form in a contemporary Chinese notice. This records that in the 2nd year of the Yuen, tribute was sent from Siam to the Emperor. ”The Siamese had long been at war with the _Maliyi_ or MALIURH, but both nations laid aside their feud and submitted to China.” (_Valentyn_, V. p. 352; _Crawford's Desc.
Dict._ art. _Malacca_; _La.s.sen_, IV. 541 seqq.; _Journ. Ind. Archip._ V.
572, II. 608-609; _De Barros_, Dec. II. 1. vi. c. 1; _Comentarios do grande Afonso d'Alboquerque_, Pt. III. cap. xvii.; _Couto_, Dec. IV. liv. ii.; _Wade_ in _Bowring's Kingdom and People of Siam_, I. 72.)
[From I-tsing we learn that going from China to India, the traveller visits the country of _s.h.i.+h-li-fuh-s.h.i.+_ (_cribhoja_ or simply _Fuh-s.h.i.+_ = Bhoja), then _Mo-louo-yu_, which seems to Professor Chavannes to correspond to the _Malaiur_ of Marco Polo and to the modern Palembang, and which in the 10th century formed a part of cribhodja identified by Professor Chavannes with Zabedj. (_I-tsing_, p. 36.) The Rev. S. Beal has some remarks on this question in the _Merveilles de l'Inde_, p. 251, and he says that he thinks ”there are reasons for placing this country [cribhoja], or island, on the East coast of Sumatra, and near Palembang, or, on the Palembang River.” Mr. Groeneveldt (_T'oung Pao_, VII. abst. p.
10) gives some extracts from Chinese authors, and then writes: ”We have therefore to find now a place for the Molayu of I-tsing, the Malaiur of Marco Polo, the Malayo of Alboquerque, and the Tana-Malayu of De Barros, all which may be taken to mean the same place. I-tsing tells us that it took fifteen days to go from Bhoja to Molayu and fifteen days again to go from there to Kieh-ch'a. The latter place, suggesting a native name Kada, must have been situated in the north-west of Sumatra, somewhere near the present Atjeh, for going from there west, one arrived in thirty days at Magapatana; near Ceylon, whilst a northern course brought one in ten days to the Nicobar Islands. Molayu should thus lie half-way between Bhoja and Kieh-ch'a, but this indication must not be taken too literally where it is given for a sailing vessel, and there is also the statement of De Barros, which does not allow us to go too far away from Palembang, as he mentions Tana-Malayu _next_ to that place. We have therefore to choose between the next three larger rivers: those of Jambi, Indragiri, and Kampar, and there is an indication in favour of the last one, not very strong, it is true, but still not to be neglected. I-tsing tells us: 'Le roi me donna des secours grace auxquels je parvins au pays de _Mo-louo-yu_; j'y sejournai derechef pendant deux mois. Je changeai de direction pour aller dans le pays de _Kie-tcha_.' The change of direction during a voyage along the east coast of Sumatra from Palembang to Atjeh is nowhere very perceptible, because the course is throughout more or less north-west, still one may speak of a change of direction at the mouth of the River Kampar, about the entrance of the Strait of Malacca, whence the track begins to run more west, whilst it is more north before. The country of Kampar is of little importance now, but it is not improbable that there has been a Hindoo settlement, as the ruins of religious monuments decidedly Buddhist are still existing on the upper course of the river, the only ones indeed on this side of the island, it being a still unexplained fact that the Hindoos in Java have built on a very large scale, and those of Sumatra hardly anything at all.”--Mr. Takakusu (_A Record of the Buddhist Religion_, p. xli.) proposes to place s.h.i.+h-li-fuh-s.h.i.+ at Palembang and Mo-louo-yu farther on the northern coast of Sumatra.--(Cf. _G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes_, XVI.; _P. Pelliot, Bul. Ecole Franc. Ext. Orient_, II. pp.
94-96.)--H.C.]
CHAPTER IX.
CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF JAVA THE LESS. THE KINGDOMS OF FERLEC AND BASMA.
When you leave the Island of Pentam and sail about 100 miles, you reach the Island of JAVA THE LESS. For all its name 'tis none so small but that it has a compa.s.s of two thousand miles or more. Now I will tell you all about this Island.[NOTE 1]
You see there are upon it eight kingdoms and eight crowned kings. The people are all Idolaters, and every kingdom has a language of its own. The Island hath great abundance of treasure, with costly spices, lign-aloes and spikenard and many others that never come into our parts.[NOTE 2]
Now I am going to tell you all about these eight kingdoms, or at least the greater part of them. But let me premise one marvellous thing, and that is the fact that this Island lies so far to the south that the North Star, little or much, is never to be seen!
Now let us resume our subject, and first I will tell you of the kingdom of FERLEC.
This kingdom, you must know, is so much frequented by the Saracen merchants that they have converted the natives to the Law of Mahommet--I mean the townspeople only, for the hill-people live for all the world like beasts, and eat human flesh, as well as all other kinds of flesh, clean or unclean. And they wors.h.i.+p this, that, and the other thing; for in fact the first thing that they see on rising in the morning, that they do wors.h.i.+p for the rest of the day.[NOTE 3]
Having told you of the kingdom of Ferlec, I will now tell of another which is called BASMA.
When you quit the kingdom of Ferlec you enter upon that of Basma. This also is an independent kingdom, and the people have a language of their own; but they are just like beasts without laws or religion. They call themselves subjects of the Great Kaan, but they pay him no tribute; indeed they are so far away that his men could not go thither. Still all these Islanders declare themselves to be his subjects, and sometimes they send him curiosities as presents.[NOTE 4] There are wild elephants in the country, and numerous unicorns, which are very nearly as big. They have hair like that of a buffalo, feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in the middle of the forehead, which is black and very thick. They do no mischief, however, with the horn, but with the tongue alone; for this is covered all over with long and strong p.r.i.c.kles [and when savage with any one they crush him under their knees and then rasp him with their tongue].