This is the king known by the Siamese title of Phaya Tak. He appears to have
ruled the country with ability and equity for fifteen years, but having incurred the
hostility of the nobles, he flew to the asylum of a monastery in 1782, from which he
was dragged and assassinated by one of the nobility who ascended the throne and
was the first prince of the reigning dynasty. He was succeeded by his son in 1811,
the prince, who was on the throne during my mission in 1822. On his death in 1825,
the throne was seized by one of his sons by a concubine to the prejudice of the
legitimate heir, the present king, who ascended the throne in 1851, under the name
of Somdet Phra and several others. During the lifetime of his brother, he had lived
in a monastery and worn the yellow garb of a talapoin for protection. Here he had
studied for twenty years, and apparently to good purpose, for he appears to be the
most intelligent and liberal monarch that ever ruled Siam. Along with him reigns
his brother, as seind, or junior king.
SIAOW, or SIYAO, is the name of a small island lying off the Sangir chain
which extends from the end of the north eastern or volcanic peninsula of Celebes
towards Mindano. This islet contains a mountain which rises to the height of 6000
feet above the level of the sea, and is the most elevated point of the chain to which
it belongs. I t is a volcano which has produced many eruptions.
SIBIRU (Pulo), literally “ the blue” or “ the azure isle” is one of the largest of
the islands lying off the western coast of Sumatra, between 2° 15'' and 4° 5' south
latitude. I t is sometimes called also Mintao. Sibiru is in length from north to
south, about 50 geographical miles, but of unequal breadth, and has been computed
to have an area of 480 geographical miles, or 16'5 myriometers. In its centre it
has an active volcano. Its inhabitants belong to the Malayan race and speak the
same language, and are of the same nation as the people of the islands immediately
south of it, Pora and Pagi.
SIBUYAN. A considerable island lying between the Philippine Islands of
Masbatd to the east and Isla de Tablas to the west, and north of the large island of
Panay, to the province of Capiz in which it belongs. It is five leagues in length and
three in breadth in its widest part. It is mountainous but fertile. The inhabitants
are chiefly fishermen, and amounted, in 1848, to 5634 souls.
SILK. This commodity is known to the Malays and Javanese by the name of
Sutra, which is the Sanscrit for thread or yarn, the form in which it was probably
first made known to the Indian Islanders. The same name, with more or less corruption,
is that by which it is called all over the Malay and Philippine Archipelagos. In
most of the languages, it is, letter for letter, the same as in Malay and Javanese, but
we find it in the Lampung of Sumatra as Sutagha, and in the Tagala andBisayaof the
Philippines, respectively Sutla, and Sukla, and in the Tagala, accompanied by a
native synonym. Silk may probably have been first made known to the inhabitants
of the Indian Islands by the Hindus, if we are to judge from its Sanscrit name, but
in all times known to us, they have been supplied with this article raw and wrought by
the Chinese, the original inventors of silk. Pigafetta, in 1521, found not only the king
of Borneo and his courtiers clad in silk, but the very housings of the royal elephants
made of it. The same thing was found to be the case at Malacca on its capture ten
years before, and Barbosa expressly names raw and manufactured silks as among the
articles brought by the Chinese junks, to Malacca. From the raw silk of China, the
Malays and Javanese always wove and still continue to do so, some strong and
often rich domestic fabrics suited to their own peculiar tastes. The culture of
the mulberry and the rearing of the silkworm have never been practised by the
natives of the Archipelago, whether from the unBuitableness of this branch of industry
to the climate, or to the state of society, is not ascertained. De Barros, indeed,
after enumerating, with great correctness, the commodities produced by Sumatra,
such as gold, camphor, and pepper, says, “ I t produces, also silk, in such quantity
that there are cargos of it sent to many parts of India,” but this is probably an
error on the part of that usually reliable writer. I am not even aware that wild
silk is produced in any of the insular forests such as it is found to be in many of those
of Hindustan. The only country of the two Archipelagos in which the rearing of the
silkworm has been attempted is Luzon. In 1786, a governor-general of the Philippines
caused four millions and a half of mulberry trees to be planted in the province
of Camarines. Their culture, however, being voluntary, and the natives showing no
disposition to attend to this branch of industry, the project wholly failed. It has
since, more than once, been renewed, and very good silk produced, but still the
rearing of the silkworm as a branch of industry has not succeeded, and most probably
from being uncongenial to the habits of the natives and incompatible with
the relative high price of labour.
SILVER. No veins of this metal have hitherto heen discovered in any of the
islands of the Malay or Philippine Archipelagos, many of which contain such abundant
stores of iron, gold, tin and antimony. A small quantity of it, however, appears
to be contained in all the gold of these countries. In Malay the name for silver is
perak and in Javanese s&laka. Both are native words of which the origin has not
been traced, and both have a very wide currency, for the Malay word is found as far as
the Philippines in the slight disguise of pilak, and the Javanese without any alteration,
in all the languages from the southern parts of Sumatra to Celebes inclusive. In
some of the ruder languages, however,! as those of Timur, Floris, and Madagascar,
it goes under the name of “ white gold,” while gold itself is distinguished from it by
the epithet of “ red.”
The silver with which the Indian Islanders were supplied before their intercourse
with Europeans, was most probably derived from Tonquin, China, and Lao. Indeed,
De Barros expressly states, that the silver which Alboquerque coined money from at
Malacca in 1511, came from the last-named of these countries through Siam. Ever
since, or at least since the discovery and conquest of Mexico and Peru, they have
been furnished from America in the course of trade, and their favourite form is the
column dollar or “ piece of eight” of the old coinage.
SINGALANG. The name of one of the highest mountains of Sumatra, rising
to the height of 9800 feet above the level of the sea. • It lies in the inland part of
the Netherland province of Padang towards the western side of the island and about
30 miles south of the equator.
SINGAPORE, correctly SINGAPURA, from the Sanscrit singa, lion, and pura
city. This is the name of an island, which with the exception of a single village of
poor and predatory Malay fishermen, and that only formed in 1811, was covered with
a primeval forest down to the 6th day of February, 1819, and is now the fourth in
rank of the European emporia of India, ranking after Batavia. De Barros gives a
whimsical etymology of the name “ Anciently,” says he, “ the most celebrated city
which existed in the land of Malacca, was called Cingapura, which, in the language
of the country signifies ‘ false delay’ (falsa demora).” This derivation must have come
through the Malays who, no doubt were then, as they now are, ignorant of the true
meaning of the name, and indeed, even of the fact that it is derived from the sacred
language of the Hindus.
Singapore is the most northerly of the large islands of the almost countless group
that in a great measure blocks up the eastern end of the strait which divides the
Peninsula from Sumatra, leaving but narrow channels for navigation, and forming
as it were, a region of straits. I t is about thirty miles distant from the southern
extremity of the Asiatic continent, and separated from the mainland by a strait
generally about a mile broad, but in some parts little more than three furlongs. This
is the S§,lat tambrau (strait of the tambrau fish), of the Malays and the “ old Straits
of Singapore” of European navigators. I t was the old passage into the China Sea, but
has long been abandoned for that by the southern side of Singapore. I went
through it in a ship of 400 tons, and found the passage tedious but safe. Singapore
in its greatest length from east to west, is 25 miles long, and in its greatest breadth 14,
having an area of 206 square geographical miles, which will make it 70 miles larger
than the Isle of Wight. To the north, it is bounded by the territory of Jehore,
the limit between them being the continental shore of the narrow strait already
mentioned. Everywhere else, the British settlement extends to 10 miles from the
shore of the main land, and within this distance are contained no fewer than 75
islets of various sizes, embracing an area of 17 square miles, so that the superficies of
the entire British settlement amounted to 223 square miles.
Viewed from a distance, Singapore presents no marked elevations, but has the
unvarying aspect of one continuous forest. The surface, however, is undulating;
consisting, generally, of rounded hills of from 80 to 120 feet high, with narrow
valleys not above 15 or 20 feet above the sea level. A chain of rather higher hills
runs through the island from east to west, making the water-shed in one direction
to the north, and in the other to the south. The culminating point of the land is
a hill, nearly in the centre of the island, called Bukit-timah, that is, “ tin-hill,” and
this rises to the height of 519 feet above low water-mark spring tides.
The geological formation of Singapore consists of the same rocks as the Peninsula
generally, and is plutonic and sedimentary ; the first consisting of granite, and the