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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. VII. THE KINGDOM OF LOCAC
279
an earlier date possessed the lower valley of the J\Ienam, but, we see, did so no longer.
The name Lawek or Lovek is applied by writers of the 16th and 17th centuries to the capital of what is still Kamboja, the ruins of which exist near Udong. Laweik is mentioned along with the other Siamese or Laotian countries of Yuthia, Tennasserim, Sukkothai, Pichalok, Lagong, Lanchang (or Luang Prabang), Zimmé (or Kiang-mai), and Kiang-Tung, in the vast list of states claimed by the Burmese Chronicle as tributary to Pagán before its fall. We find in the Aín-i-Akbari a kind of aloes-wood called Lawáki, no doubt because it carne from this region.
The G. T. indeed makes the course from Sondur to Locac sceloc or S. E. ; but Pauthier's text seems purposely to correct this, calling it, "v. c. milles oultre Sandur." This would bring us to the Peninsula somewhere about what is now the Siamese province of Ligor,-f- and this is the only position accurately consistent with the next indication of the route, viz. a run of 50o miles south to the Straits of Singapore. Let us keep in mind also Ramusio's specific statement that Locac was on terra firma.
As regards the products named : (1) gold is mined in the northern part of the Peninsula and is a staple export of Kalantan, Tringano, and Pahang, further down. Barbosa says gold was so abundant in Malacca that it was reckoned by Bahars of 4
cwt. Though Mr. Logan has estimated the present produce of the whole
Peninsula at only 20,000 ounces, Hamilton, at the beginning of last century,
says Pahang alone in some years exported above 8 cwt. (2) Brazil - wood,
now generally known by the Malay term Sappan, is abundant on the coast. Ritter speaks of three small towns on it as entirely surrounded by trees of this kind. And higher up, in the latitude of Tavoy, the forests of sappan-wood find a prominent place in some maps of Siam. In medieval intercourse between the courts of Siam and China we find Brazil-wood to form the bulk of the Siamese present. E" 1\Ia Huan fully bears out Polo's statement in this matter, for he says : This Brazil (of which Marco speaks) is as plentiful as firewood. On Chêng-ho's chart Brazil and other fragrant woods are marked as products of Siam. Polo's statement of the use of porcelain shells as small change is also corroborated by Ma IIuan." (G. Phillips, four. China B.R.A.S., XXI., 1886, p. 37.)—H. C.] (3) Elephants are abundant. (4) Cowries, according to Marsden and Crawfurd, are found in those seas largely only on the Sulu Islands ; but Bishop Pallegoix says distinctly that they are found in abundance on the sand-banks of the Gulf of Siam. And I see Dr. Fryer, in 1673, says that cowries were brought to Surat " from Siam and the Philippine Islands."
For some centuries after this time Siam was generally known to traders by the Persian name of Shahr-i-nao, or New City. This seems to be the name generally applied to it in the Shijarat 1llalayu (or Malay Chronicle), and it is used also by Abdurrazzák. It appears among the early navigators of the 16th century, as Da Gama, Varthema, Giovanni d'Empoli and Mendez Pinto, in the shape of Sornau, Xarnau. Whether this name was applied to the new city of Ayuthia, or was a translation of that of the older Lopliāburi (which appears to be the Sansk. or Pali Nava Pura = New-City) I do not know.
[Reinaud (Int. Abulfeda, p. CDxvi.) writes that, according to the Christian monk of Nadjran, who crossed the Malayan Seas, about the year 980, at this time. the King of Lukyn had just invaded the kingdom of Sanf and taken possession of it. According
* The Kakula of Ibn Batuta was probably on the coast of Locac. The Kameirah Komar of the same traveller and other Arab writers, I have elsewhere suggested to be Khmer, or Kamboja Proper. (See L B. IV. 240; Cathay, 469, 519.) Kalula and Kamarah were both in "MulJava"; and the king of this undetermined country, whom Wassáf states to have submitted to Kúblái in 1291, was called Sri Rama. It is possible that this was Phra Rama of Sukkothai. (See Cathay, 519; Elliot, III. 27.)
t Mr. G. Phillips supposes the name Locac to be Ligor, or rather Lakhon, as the Siamese call it. But it seems to me pretty clear from what has been said that Lo-kok, though including Ligor, is a different name from Lakhon. The latter is a corruption of the Sanskrit, Nag art a, " city."
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