of Singapura. During three years he withstood
the forces of the king of Mojopahit; but, in 1252,
being hard pressed, he retired first to the northward,
and afterwards to the western coast of the
peninsula, where, in the following year, he founded
a new city, which, under his wise government,
became of considerable importance. To this he
gave the name of Malaka, from a fruit-bearing tree
so called, (myrobolanum,) found in abundance on
the hill, which gives natural strength to the situation.
Having reigned here twenty-two years, beloved
by his subjects and feared by his neighbours,
Iskandar Shah died in 1274, and was succeeded
by Sultan Magat, who reigned only two years. Up
to this period the Malayan princes were pagans.
Sultan Muhammad Shah, who ascended the throne
1276, was the first Mahometan prince, and, by the
propagation of his faith, acquired great celebrity
during a long reign of fifty-seven years. His influence
appears to have extended over the neighbouring
islands of Lingga and Bintan, together
with Jehor, Fatani, Kedah, and Perak, on thd
coasts of the peninsula ; and Kampar and Aru in
Sumatra ; all of which acquired the appellative of
Malayu, although it was now more especially applied
to Malacca.**
I shall offer a few strictures and remarks on this
narrative. We find in it the precise year of the
emigration, and other dates, when no proof exists
that the Malays were ever possessed of a national
era or kalendar. Arabian and Persian names and
titles are given to the Hindu sovereigns of a people
who had not yet embraced the Mahomedan religion.
The reigns are unnaturally long. The new
establishment at Singapura is stated to have excited
the jealousy of the Javanese kingdom of Mojopahit,
before, according to Javanese record, Mojopahit
itself had any existence ; and the Malays are
stated to have been driven from Singapura by the
Javanese of Mojopahit, a transaction upon which
Javanese story is wholly silent.
Notwithstanding these suspicious circumstances
in the detail of events, the main points may be relied
upon, and we may conclude,—that an extensive
emigration took place from Sumatra to the extremity
of the peninsula;—that some Javanese drove the
settlers from Singapura to Malacca;—that- six sovereigns
reigned before the conversion to Mahome-
danism ;—and that this event took place about the
year 1276, in the reign of Mahomed Shab, for
now the Mahomedans may claim the prerogative
of imposing their own names, and determining
dates by their peculiar kalendar.
From facts brought forward in the above narrative,
we are enabled to offer plausible conjectures
respecting the name of the Malayan tribes. One
of the four great tribes into which the parent race
is subdivided is called Malayu. It was this, as Mr