■with Castilian fowls (common poultry), rice, palms and cocoa-nuts. There is no
maiz in that island, but for bread, they use rice, and a bark which they call Sagu,
from which also they extract oil, in like manner as they do from palms.” Vol. i.
p. 376. The hardihood of maiz, the facility with which it is propagated, and the
extent of the geographical range in which it thrives, have probably contributed to throw
obscurity on the history of its introduction into the different countries in which it has
been naturalised. In the first volume of Eamusio, published in 1550, there is a very
accurate wood-cut of an ear of maiz, which is thus described : “ The wonderful and
famous seed called maiz of the Western India on which one half the world is fed.
The Portuguese call it Miglio Zaberto, and some of it has already come into Italy,
both red and white. Above Polosene de Brigo and Villabona, whole fields of both
colours, red and white, are cultivated.” From this, it would appear that within little
more than half a century after the discovery of America, maiz was already an object
of extensive cultivation in some parts of Italy. Maiz grows in unirrigated land, and is
cultivated in places that do not admit of being watered. In the Archipelago, however,
it is nowhere converted into meal and baked as bread, hut boiled and eaten as with
us peas and beans.
MAJAPAIT. The name of the last kingdom of the Javanese professing Hinduism,
and the subversion of which is considered the era of triumph of the Mahomedan
religion in Java. The ruins of the capital of this state are to be seen in the district
of Wirasaba (in Sanskrit “ hall of heroes”) and province of Japan. Maja in Javanese,
is the name of a kind of coarse fruit of a sweetish taste, the Mgle marmelos of
botanists, and pait signifies bitter, the compound forming an imaginary fruit. In the
ceremonial language, the first part of the name is turned into Maos, and hence some
persons, converting the last part of the word into the Sanscrit pati, a lord, have come
to the conclusion that Maospait is a corruption of Maospati, which, in Hindu legend,
is the name of the kingdom of the hero and demigod Arjuna. This is a fair sample
of the fancifulness of some etymologies. The state of Majapait is supposed to have
been founded about the year 1221 of Salivana, or 1299 of Christ, and was certainly
overthrown by the Mahomedans in 1400 of the first-named era, and 1478 of the last,
so that its duration was in all, but 179 years. In this time five princes only are said
to have reigned, which would give about 36 years to each reign, far too long a duration
for any state of society. That all of these were Hindus, however, is attested by their
Sanscrit names, as Ardi-wijaya, “ mountain of victory,” and Marta-wijaya, “ life of
victory.” _ I t has been asserted that the kings of Majapait ruled over all Java, but
for this, it is certain, there is no evidence, but the contrary; for within the same
period, Pajajaran certainly existed in the country of the Sundas, and Jangala close
to Majapait itself, is proved to have done so by the evidence of an inscription on
stone, containing the name of its king and bearing the date of 1242. The ruins of
the city of Majapait afford evidence both of power and civilisation. Among these is
a cistern 1000 feet long by 600 broad, of which the well-built walls are 12 feet deep.
Some of the gates of the Kadaton or royal palace also remain, and although in a
ruinous state are beautiful specimens of native architecture, the style and workmanship
being equally commendable. All the remains of Majapait are of well-baked large
bricks, skilfully put together, and not like most of the ruins in other parts of the
island, of hewn trachyte.
MAJINDAHO. The largest island of the Philippine group is thus frequently
written in our maps, b u t on what authority is not frown . See Mindano.
MALACCA, in more correct orthography, Malaka, the name of the well-known
town and territory on the western side of the Malay peninsula, washed by the Straits
which bear its name, and which are here but five-and-twenty miles broad. The
town is in north latitude 2° 14', and east longitude 102° 12'. The territory extends
along the shore of the Straits for 40 miles, and is considered to have a mean breadth
inland of 25, so that its area is 870 geographical or 1000 square statute miles, which
makes it about the same size as the East Riding of the county of York. To the
north and the south, respectively, it is bounded by the Malay states of Salangor and
Jehor, and inland by the very petty ones of Rumbo and Jehol. The geological
formation of the territory of Malacca, consists chiefly of granite rocks, overlaid in
several places by the red cellular clay iron-stone, called by geologists laterite.
Many of the low plains are alluvial, the soil composed of decayed vegetable mould
intermixed with sand. The metallic ores are iron, gold and tin. The surface generally
is undulating, consisting of low, round ridges and narrow valleys, the only mountain
of considerable elevation being the Ledang of the Malays, and the Ophir of the
Portuguese, 4320 feet above the level of the sea, or less than one-half the height of the
principal mountains of the volcanic islands of Java, Bah and Lomboc, or those of
the partially volcanic neighbouring island of Sumatra. The rivers are numerous, but
all small, a id navigable for boats only to a short distance from their mouths. The
largest áre the Lingi and the Kasang, the first dividing Solacea from Salangor
and the last from Jehor. The other larger streams are the Batu-paat (Chisel-rock)
which is the Rio-formoso of the Portuguese, and Muar which is of some local renown.
The river which runs through the town of Malacca itself, is but a mere streamlet.
The climate of Malacca, as to temperature, is such as might be expected in a
country not much more than 100 miles from the equator, lying along the seashore,—
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, and with the exception of the early period of its occupation by the
Portuguese, has always enjoyed this reputation. _
Some English writers have dwelt on the eminent fertility of the soil of Malacca,
apparently judging it by the luxuriance of its vegetation, a test of useful productiveness
of about the same value as a profusion of weeds in a neglected field. Facts
contradict such a flattering notion of it. In a practical sense, a country can only be
considered fertile when it produces the Cereal grasses, that is, the best human food
with comparatively little labour, and this proof is eminently wanting in Malacca.
It has no chain of high mountains yielding a perennial supply of water for irrigation,
in such a climate an indispensable requisite for the production of cheap corn, and
assuredly the main cause of the abundant harvests of Java, Bali, Lomboc, and several
of the larger islands of the Philippine group. With Malacca, the result of this
absence is, that it has not only never exported corn, but never even furnished
enough for the maintenance of its own scanty population, always,—even down to our
own times, importing it, first from Java, then from Bali and Siam, and now from
Arracan. The Portuguese conquerors had formed a far juster estimate of the
capabilities of the soil of Malacca than ourselves. De Barros expressly calls the
country a “ barren land” (terra esteril), and informs us that, immediately after the
conquest, a dreadful famine ensued, in consequence of the junks which brought the
usual supplies of food from Java being stopped and seized by the expelled Malays,
while the Portuguese themselves were prevented by an adverse monsoon from
repairing to that island for a supply. “ The monsoon,” says he, “ was adverse for
going to Java in quest of provisions, for Malacca and all the neighbouring countries
depend on that island for them.”—Decade 3, book vi. chapter 1. The same fact is
stated by the historian Castaghneda. “ All provisions,” says he, “ they bring from other
parts by sea, for in the land there is nothing else but what I have mentioned.” What
he had mentioned consisted of the durian and some other fruits. The Dutch historian,
Valentyn, who wrote above two centuries after the Portuguese conquest, expresses
the same opinion of the soil of Malacca. “ The neighbourhood,” says he, “ is not very
productive in provisions, except fish and some fruits, so that everything besides has
to be brought from other places. The country, for productiveness, will not bear
comparison with Coromandel, Bengal, or Ceylon.” I t is in vain to plead for the
unproductiveness of Malacca, the mal-administration of former national administrations,
for Malacca has been, with little interruptions, nearly 60 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.
The zoology of Malacca is that of the peninsula generally, and the larger animals
may be briefly enumerated. They consist of nine species of Quadrumans, the tiger,
leopard, and several smaller feline animals; several species of Viverra, as the musang
or Viverra musanga, and the binturung or Ictides ater. Among Pachydermata, there
are the elephant, a one-horned rhinoceros, the Asiatic tapir, or tánuk of the Malays,
found here for the first time in 1816, after more than three centuries occupation of
the country by Europeans, by my friend the late Col. Farquhar; several species of
deer, and two species of wild ox, the Bos sondaicus, and another called by the Malays
the sáladang, not yet described.
In 1847, the population of the whole territory of Malacca was reckoned to be
within a fraction of 55,000, which, on the estimated area, gives 55 inhabitants to the
square statute mile, the majority, however,being comprised within the narrow compass