AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 521
Siam through the Java Sea and Straits of Macassar to Soolo, a distance of some 2,200 nautical miles, over a great part of which the ship had to be towed, would seem much less improbable than if the course were to Cochin-China or Tonkin. The naval power of Tawalisi is one of the most prominent features in the narrative, and the Soolo people have been noted throughout the seas of the Archipelago for the daring exploits of their piratical fleets from our earliest acquaintance with those regions. It would seem also from Ibn Batuta's expression, the load of two elephants in rice," that elephants were used in Tawalisi. Now the elephant is alleged by Dalrymple to exist in Soolo, and though Crawfurd doubts the fact, there seems no sufficient reason for his doubts. It is known, moreover, to exist in the adjoining part of Borneo, which may have belonged to Soolo then as it does now, and though not used now it was found in a domesticated state at Brunei by Magellan's party in 1521. These are the only portions of the Archipelago east of Sumatra in which the elephant is known.
However, I by no means put forth this hypothesis with any great confidence. The statement that the Sovereign was the equal of the King of China would certainly be preposterous ; but so it would in almost any conceivable identification of Tawalisi, unless we take it for Japan. To this there are objections still more serious.
I suspect this kingdom of Soolo, or Sicbick, as the Malays call it, may be also the Lohac of Marco Polo which has so much troubled commentators (iii, 7). This was an extensive region, lying 500 miles south-east of Son-dur and Condur (Pulo Condore), inhabited by pagans, with a language of their own, under a king tributary to no one, being in a very inaccessible position, producing much brazil-wood and great abundance of gold, having elephants in its forests, and supplying all the east with porcelains or cowry-shells for currency. The position answers to that of Soolo with fair accuracy ; cowries are said to be found in quantities there only of all the Indian islands ; the elephant, as we have seen, is reported to exist there, and certainly does exist in the adjoining territory of Borneo, belonging to Soolo ; its " much gold " is spoken of by Barbosa. Pauthier, indeed, in his new edition of Polo from ancient French MSS. reads Soucat instead of Lohac, and .identifies it with Sukadana, on the S.W. of Borneo. But neither elephants nor cowries appear to be found in that part of Borneo ; and as the native name of Soolo is Sup, that may have been the name indicated, if Soucat be the right reading. Let me add, however, that Soolo is said to have been at one time subject to Sukadana, and this circumstance might perhaps help to reconcile Pauthier's suggestion with the facts.
Confining ourselves to the indications afforded by the names as given by Ibn Batuta, besides the Tawal of Walckenaer we have (as noticed at p. 90) a place marked as Talysian, on the east coast of Borneo, and one of the chief Soloo islands called Tawi-tawi. As regards Kailukari, the Atlas of Mercator and Hondius shows on the west coast of Celebes a place called Curl-curt, which may perhaps be the same that we now find as Kaili, a district carrying on a good deal of trade with Singapore, Java, etc. There is also a place called Kalaliah, on the north-eastern coast of
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