Singapore first, and afterwards Malacca, was founded. This, probably, arose from
the real founders of both, as has been attempted to be shown elsewhere, not having
been Malays but Javanese. Even, however, supposing the emigrants in these cases
to have been Malays, and the statement to be trustworthy, the mere peopling of two
small places, and this too at a time by near a century posterior to the Norman
conquest of England, would be neither an account of the parent country of the Malay
nation, nor a history of its migrations.
To account for the civilisation and migration of the Malays, (to fix their original
seat is hopeless,) the most probable supposition seems to be, that the wandering tribes
of the Sumatran coast, or of the Peninsula, or of the islands between them, after they
had learned the construction of boats,—after they had acquired some nautical
skill and enterprise,—after they had, in a word, become the sea-gypsies which some
of them still, continue to b e; in process of time, reached lands more promising
than their own and there settled, abandoning to some degree, their habits as fishermen,
and addicting themselves to agriculture. By such a progress they would, in
due course, become what most of the civilised tribes of Malays are at the present
day, half-fishermen and half-husbandmen. Of such tribes there existed in Sumatra,
at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, no fewer than nine-and-twenty; while
in the Peninsula there were, at least, eight. All of these were at or near the coast,
and invariably at the mouth, or on the banks of a river. The maritime character of
the Malay nation is, indeed, impressed on its language, and discoverable in the copiousness
of its meteorological and nautical vocabulary. Thus, the compass is divided
into sixteen points with specific names, all native; and there are peculiar idiomatic
terms for windward and leeward, signifying literally, “ above the wind,” and “ below
the wind.” The river, the favourite and familiar locality of the Malay nation, affords
room for a curious variety of expression. Kuwala, and muwara signify “ the mouth,”
and ulu “ the source ” of a river. Ilir is to “ descend,” mudik to “ ascend ” it, these
last terms signifying, at the same time, “ the interior,” and “ the sea-board.” Taluk
means “ a bight,” or “ cove,” and rantau, “ a reach; ” but they also signify a district
of country, which is moreover frequently called anak-sungai, “ child of the river.”
# There is but one country eminently favourable to the development of an early
civilisation, in which we find the Malay nation planted—Menangkabo, so often
referred to in Malay story. This is in the centre of Sumatra, among the fertile
valleys of volcanic mountains rising to a height exceeding 10,000 feet,—in short,
in a locality of similar features to Java, and the islands immediately to the
east of it. The late Sir Stamford Raffles, who had visited Menangkabo, declared
that it was as populous and well cultivated as any part of Java that he had seen,
which is assuredly what cannot be asserted of any other country whatever inhabited
by Malays. The great probability then is, that this country was peopled by
the Malays of the eastern coast of Sumatra, penetrating into the interior of the island
by the principal rivers which have their source in it. This, indeed, is distinctly
asserted in the traditions of the Malays themselves. In this favorable position they
would naturally acquire a degree of power which the same- people have certainly nowhere
else reached. It is, no doubt, the possession of this comparative power which
has caused the maritime Malay states to look to it with respect, and to claim their
origin from it. Malay tradition, however, by no means asserts that Menangkabo was
the primitive seat of the Malayan nation; but, on the contrary, affirms that it was
itself peopled from Palembang, in the same island.
The Javanese, as already intimated, appear to have had no inconsiderable share in
the civilisation of the Malays; and although there is certainly no historical record of it,
there is satisfactory proof. As stated in a former article, the Javanese would seem
to have been even the founders of Malacca. Monuments, which prove the presence of
this people in the country of the Malays, have even been discovered. Thus, Sir Stamford
Raffles, when he visited Menangkabo, found there inscriptions on stone in the
ancient character of Java, such as are frequent in that island; and he was supported
in his conclusion that they were so, by the learned natives of Java who- accompanied
him in his journey. The settlement of the Javanese in several parts of Sumatra, is,
indeed, sufficiently attested. In Palembang they have been immemorially the ruling
people; and although the Malay language be the popular one, the Javanese, in its
peculiar written character, is still that of the court. In the state of Jambi, which
borders on Palembang, Hindu images, identical with those of Java in all respects,
except that the material is granite instead of trachyte, have been discovered. Probably
as much as on e-fourth part of the Malay language is equally Javanese, and in
a good many instances of compounded words, their Javanese origin is satisfactorily
made out through their elements, themselves without mgmfieance in the Malay
language. One example will suffice. The founder of the states of Menangkabo,
who is stated by Malay tradition to have come from Palembang, is called Sang
Snnnrha The word sang is not Malay but Javanese, and signifies, literally, a
flower but is frequently prefixed to the titles of personages of distinction, as
nrabu or sang-ali, “ a king; ’’ sang-yogi, “ a devotee; and sangywang, a god
o f “ deity.” Sapurba is composed of the article sa, “ one ” and the Sanscrit purba,
“ first” or “ beginning.” The name, in fact, has much the appearance of one fabricated
for the occasion. To these evidences of Javanese influence, it may be added,
that Malay literature has nothing original of its own ; being, when not drawn from
Arabic sources, borrowed from the fictions of Java, or the mythology of the Hmdus,
such as the latter was in that island. .
It is remarkable that De Barros, drawing his information, no doubt, from the
traditions furnished by natives to the Portuguese conquerors, expsessly states that
the Sumatrans themselves considered that the Javanese were once masters of their
island. “ It is held by themselves,” says he, “ that the Javanese (JaSs) had been
once masters of their great island, and that prior to the Chinese, (Chijs). they conducted
its commerce, as well as that of India.”—Decade, III., book v., chapter 1. Ihe
authority of De Barros, in this case, no doubt, suffers some depreciation from his
asserting afterwards, that the Javanese themselves were a people of Chinese origin, a
derivation which he founds on their supposed imitation of the policy of the Chinese,
and of their skill in the mechanic arts. This assertion, however, is but an hypothesis
of his own. . . _ „ - ti i
The reliable history of the Malays began only with the arrival of the Portuguese.
As already stated, the maritime Malays, without including those of Borneo, were at
this time divided into near forty petty states. With the Malays of the interior of
Sumatra, the Portuguese did not come into communication. Menangkabo is simply
named, but certainly not, as it has been very absurdly called by some European
writers, as a great empire, which undoubtedly it never was, unless we are contented
to accept assertion for proof. The Portuguese found the maritime Malays, in common
with the Javanese, conducting the carrying trade of the Archipelago, including, at
the time, the most important branch of it, the spice trade. ^ Along with their trade,
they propagated the Mahommedan religion. Many of the inhabitants of Borneo, of
the southern Philippines, and most of those of the Moluccas, they had converted
before the arrival of the Portuguese. In most of the sea-coasts of the islands of
the Archipelago, we find traces of the settlement of Malays. Both for trade and
propagandism, this language was the medium of communication,^ and for such a
purpose it is certainly peculiarly well suited, from the simplicity of its structure and
facility of its pronunciation and acquisition. From Sumatra to the Philippines
and Moluccas, it was in general use for this purpose. “ The Gentiles of the interior,
as well as the Moors,” says De Barros, “who dwell on the coast, although they differ
from each other in language, nearly all speak the Malay of Malacca, ^ being the most
common in these parts.” When Magellan discovered the Philippines, he had no
difficulty in communicating with the inhabitants through a Sumatran slave that he
had brought along with him. The same state of things continues to the present day
from Sumatra to New Guinea.
But the Malay language, besides being the common medium of communication, has
been infused, to a greater or less extent, into all the languages of the Archipelago, and
clear traces of it are to be found even in the languages of tribes with which the
Malays of our time hold no communication, and even of whose existence they are
wholly ignorant, as in the case of the languages of the islands of the Pacific and of
Madagascar.
MALAY PENINSULA. This, or Peninsula of Malacca, is the name given
by European geographers to the long spit of land which forms the most southerly
extremity of the continent of Asia,—the supposed Golden Chersonesus of the ancients.
The Malays, although seldom giving names to such large masses of land, occasionally
call it Tanah-Malayu,—the “ Malay land,” or “ country of the Malays.” For a peninsula,
which it truly is, they have no name. Although the existence of this country
was really unknown to Europe until the arrival of the Portuguese in India, it is
remarkable how early its peculiar form became known to the latter. Barbosa, whose
work is dated at Lisbon in 1516, and who must have seen Malacca before its conquest,
describes it as “ a great piece of land which juts into the ocean, ending in a
promontory, and having the sea, as well in the direction of China as towards the west.”