at many places. The pilots seem to have steered by observation of stars and landmarks
; and the navigation was only bolder than that of the Greeks and Romans,
because it had the advantage of the monsoons. One easterly monsoon was expended
in the performance of the part of the voyage from China to the north-eastern coast
of Sumatra ; for the voyagers had to wait five months for the return of another,
before venturing to cross the Bay of Bengal. They must, indeed, have waited at
some Indian ports for a third easterly monsoon, before they could reach the Persian
Gulf. I t seems highly probable that the Chinese were, for many ages, acquainted with
the directive power of the compass, without using it for nautical purposes; just as
they were acquainted with the explosive quality of gunpowder, without using it for
propelling missiles. I t seems not improbable, that both the Hindus and Arabs may
have been acquainted with the directive power of the magnet, before it was known
to Europeans, and perhaps they even used it on land for determining the cardinal
points; but there is certainly no evidence of their employing the compass for
nautical purposes any more than the Chinese ; and the Italian name used by the
Arabs sufficiently attests that they, at least, learnt the use of it in modern times, from
Europeans.
In the Malay languages, the name for the magnet, and for the compass and its
divisions, are almost exclusively native words. That for the magnet is batu-
brani, or bâsi-brani, literally “ powerful stone,” or “ powerful iron.” The compass
is called pandoman or padoman, a word, of which the Javanese word dom, “ a needle,”
seems to be the radical part, the compound signifying “ place of the needle,” or
“ object with a needle.” The Malay compass is divided into sixteen parts, twelve of
which are multiples of the four cardinal points. For the cardinal points the different
nations have native terms ; but for nautical purposes, those of the Malay language
are used throughout, as in the case of the nations of Celebes, the most expert native
navigators of the present day. It may be here remarked, that all the ancient Hindu
temples of Java are found to face the cardinal points of the horizon with surprising
correctness, the principal façades being to the east and west ; a fact from which we
may be disposed to infer, that the builders, most probably Hindus, had availed themselves
of the directive property of the magnet.
When the Portuguese first arrived in India, they found the Mahommedan traders
to the east of the Cape of Good Hope in possession of the mariner’s compass, of
astrolabes and charts. De Barros does not expressly name the compass as being possessed
by them ; but he mentions other objects still less to be expected, and the
use of which would seem to imply the presence of that instrument. “ A Moor of
the kingdom of Gujrat,” he says, “ visited Yasco di Gama on board his ship, while at
Melinda, on the east coast of Africa ; and to the great satisfaction of the Portuguese
commander, showed him a chart of the whole coast of India, dressed in the manner
of the Moors, with minute meridians and parallels. Vasco di Gama showed this
person, whom he calls a pilot, his own astrolabes in wood and metal, at which he
expressed no surprise, saying, ‘ that the pilots of the Red Sea used instruments of
brass, of a triangular and quadrangular form, for taking the sun’s altitude, but especially
the altitude of the stars, which it was that they chiefly employed in their
navigation.’ The pilot added, however, ‘ that he himself, and the mariners of Cambay,
and indeed of all India, did not make use of such instruments, but of others,
which he showed; and also that they sailed by certain stars.” #*Decade 1. Lib. 4.
cap. 6. The compass is expressly named by Barthena as being used by the mariners
of the Archipelago about the years 1505 or 1506. “ Here,” says he, (Borneo),
“ my companion freighted a small vessel for 100 ducats, which being provisioned,
we took our course towards the fine island of Java, (bella isola de Giava,) where we
arrived in five days, sailing southward. The master of the vessel carried a compass
with magnet, after our manner, and had a chart marked with lines, lengthways and
crossways.”—Ramusio, vol. i. p. 168. Unfortunately Barthena does not tell us the
quality of his companion, or of the master of the vessel, but still there can be no
doubt of the fact he states.
COPPER. Ores of this metal have been found in Sumatra, Celebes, and Timur,
and most probably in time will be found in Borneo. In Sumatra and Celebes, mines
of it are said to be worked, but if such be the case, even their locality has certainly
never been shown. The probability is that this metal has always been, as it now is,
imported. The prevailing name for it is tambaga, a corruption of the Sanscrit tamra,
and this corrupt form of the word extends from Sumatra to the Philippines, a fact
from which its dissemination may be traced to a single nation, most probably the
Javanese. To the use of this foreign name there are a few exceptions in-comparatively
rude tongues, but they are not material ones. Thus in the languages of
Floris, it is called by a word which in Malay and Javanese means a gem, and in the
language of the Kisa Islands the name seems a corruption of that which signifies
silver in Malay. The use of copper in Java, chiefly in the formation with tin and
zinc of alloys, is attested to have been of considerable antiquity by the discovery in
old ruins of many statues and utensils of bronze, and even of copper itself. A Hindu
cup, with the signs of the zodiac, in the collection of Sir Stamford Raffles, bears the
date, according to the era of Salivana, 1220, and two in my own possession, those of
1241 and 1246. The oldest of these carries us back to the year 1298 of Christ
Copper is not used to the same extent by the Indian Islanders as it is by the Hindus'
coarse Chinese porcelain for culinary purposes having immemorially taken the place
of brass vessels. Its principal use at present is in the manufacture of musical instru-
ments and cannon.
COWRY SHELLS. The Cyprsea moneta, of naturalists, is found in the Asiatic
Archipelago m considerable quantity, only on the shores of the Sulu group of islands
but the cowry seems never to have been used for money among the Indian islanders
as it has immemorially been by the Hindus. The Malay and Javanese « m . how-
or toll8 SOnt’ beya’ 311(1 18 also one of tlle synonyms which express duty, impost,
CUBEB PEPPER. This article, as it appears in commerce, is stated to be the
lruit of two different species of pepper—the Piper cubeba, and Piper carieum, both
natives of Java, to which island their cultivation appears to be confined. In the
Javanese language its name is kumukus, and this is its only specific one, for the
ay name ladab&rekor, meaning “ tailed pepper,” is a factitious one derived from
X & K S S m t ? frult> whicl1 has always the foot stalk adhering to it.
to th k n u rn o i to r ’ 7 “ i condiment, but in Hindustan, besides being applied
In f te I Z l S Tei ° ng US6d “ a r6medy iu certail1 ! i et y Pen°ds of the European commerce with the Archipelagose, xcuuable bmsa alapdpieeasr.
' l eetoaV XP *? 7 Ur°Pe- Barbosa munes them aBP one of the ¿tfcles
brought by the Javanese traders to Malacca, and they are included in his Calicut
price current where he calls them “ cubebas, which grow in Java, and are there
sold a,t a mean price without being weighed.” Their importation into Europe had
been long discontinued, but began again in 1815, upon their medicinal virtues
h kn°wledge of the English medical officers serving in
iriea of °th v®lr acquaintance from their Hindu servants. The prefent
price of the cubeb is about three times that of black pepper: the article still s s& m
CUT i tu ^ ' T te name °f a P°SSession of the Dutcl1 ^ the island of Timur. See
CU™ S- 7 ho name of a group of islets, said to amount to thirty-six in number
lying between the large islands of Panav and Palawan in too ■pp-r ■ » ,™ , ’
Cuyo, as the most convenient nnto in to • ' t ue trading vessels of Panay touch at
and the Calamianes Islands The soil a HI VOyf g®s and from Paragua in Palawan
consists in the culture of^ mountafflrt T ™ ^ P°°r’ f° r the C u l t u r e chiefly
I t seems chiefly adapted to the srrnwto of to™6 Slgn ®veiTwhere of inferior fertility.
chief article of exportation Tlfe C°®°‘palm’ tbe Bap of forms tlfe
cotton, which arePexported. but the *abricB. from the abaca and
include that of the Balatd or holothmto,?16 'n.°' 1 emJ )loyed m the fisheries, which
the esculent nests of the swallow On the ^ employment in gathering
the same name, consistinsg oufi 1iz2o5o6 Hhoouusseess , ffo r 7th. e motsbt ep iasrlat nnda tthiveer e hius tas ,t owwinth oaf