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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. VIII.
THE ISLAND OF PENTAM
28I.
conquest of Malacca the chief residence of the Malay Sultans who had been expelled by that conquest, and it still nominally belongs to the Sultan of Johore, the descendant of those princes, though in fact ruled by the Dutch, whose port of Rhio stands on a
á small island close to its western shore. It is the Bintdo of the Portuguese whereof
1 Camoens speaks as the persistent enemy of Malacca (X. 57).
[Cf. Professor Schlegel's Geog Notes, VI. Ma-it; regarding the odoriferous trees, Professor Schlegel remarks (p. 2o) that they were probably santal trees.--H. C.]
NOTE 2.--There is a good deal of confusion in the text of this chapter. Here we have a passage spoken of between " those two Islands," when only one island seems to have been mentioned. But I imagine the other " island " in the traveller's mind to be the continuation of the same Locac, i.e. the Malay Peninsula (included by him under that name), which he has coasted for Soo miles. This is confirmed by Ramusio, and the old Latin editions (as Müller's) : " between the kingdom of Locac and the Island of Pentan." The passage in question is the Strait of Singapore, or as the old navigators called it, the Straits of Gobernador, having the mainland of the Peninsula and the Island of Singapore, on the one side, and the Islands of Bintang and Batang on the other. The length of the strait is roughly 6o geographical miles, or a little more ; and I see in a route given in the Lettres Edi fiantes (II. p. i i 8) that the length of navigation is so stated : " Le détroit de Gobernador a vingt lieues de long, et est for difficile quand on n'y a jamais passé."
The Venetian passo was 5 feet. Marco here alludes to the well-known practice with the Chinese junks of raising the rudder, for which they have a special arrangement, which is indicated in the cut at p. 248.
NOTE 3.—There is a difficulty here about the indications, carrying us, as they do, first 6o miles through the Strait, and then 30 miles further to the Island Kingdom and city of Malaiur. There is also a singular variation in the readings as to this city and island. The G. T. has " Une isle qe est roiame, d s'apelle Malanir e l'isle Pentam. The Crusca has the same, only reading Malavir. Pauthier : " Une isle qui est royaume, et a nom Maliur." The Geog. Latin : " Ibi invenidur una insula in qua est unus rex quern vocant Lamovich. Civitas et insula vocantur Pontavich." Ram. : " Chiamasi la cittci Malaiur, e cosi l'isola Malaiur."
All this is very perplexed, and it is difficult to trace what may have been the true readings. The 30 miles beyond the straits, whether we give the direction south-east as in G. T. or no, will not carry us to the vicinity of any place known to have been the site of an important city. As the point of departure in the next chapter is from Pentam and not from Malaiur, the introduction of the latter is perhaps a digression from the route, on information derived either from hearsay or from a former voyage. But there is not information enough to decide what place is meant by Malaiur. Probabilities seem to me to be divided between Palembang, and its colony Singhapura. Palembang, according to the Commentaries of Alboquerque, was called by the Javanese MALAYO. The List of Sumatran Kingdoms in De Barros makes TANAMALAYU the next to Palembang. On the whole, I incline to this interpretation.
[In Valeutyn (V. i, Besclzzyvizzge van Malakl a, p. 317) we find it stated that the Malay people just dwelt on the River Malayu in the Kingdom of Palembang, and were called from the River Orang Malayu. —MS. Note.—H. Y.]
[Professor Schlegel in his Geog. Notes, IV., tries to prove by Chinese authorities that Maliur and Tana-I\Ialayu are two quite distinct countries, and he says that Maliur may have been situated on the coast opposite Singapore, perhaps a little more to the S.W. where now lies Malacca, and that Tana-Malayu may be placed in Asahan, upon the east coast of Sumatra.—H. C.]
Singhapura was founded by an emigration from Palembang, itself a Javanese colony. It became the site of a flourishing kingdom, and was then, according to the tradition recorded by De Barros, the most important centre of population in those regions, " whither used to gather all the navigators of the Eastern Seas, from both
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