The History of Sumatra | Page 6

which he places in the same climate, is
evidently Borneo, and the two passages leading to it are the Straits of

Malacca and of Sunda. What is mentioned of Sumandar, in the second
climate, has no relation whatever to Sumatra, although from the name
we are led to expect it.
MARCO POLO.
Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetian traveller of the thirteenth century,
is the first European who speaks of this island, but under the
appellation of Java minor, which he gave to it by a sort of analogy,
having forgotten, or not having learned from the natives, its appropriate
name. His relation, though for a long time undervalued, and by many
considered as a romantic tale, and liable as it is to the charge of errors
and omissions, with some improbabilities, possesses, notwithstanding,
strong internal evidence of genuineness and good faith. Containing few
dates, the exact period of his visit to Sumatra cannot be ascertained, but
as he returned to Venice in 1295, and possibly five years might have
elapsed in his subsequent tedious voyages and journeys by Ceylon, the
Karnatick, Malabar, Guzerat, Persia, the shores of the Caspian and
Euxine, to Genoa (in a prison at which place he is said to have dictated
his narrative), we may venture to refer it to the year 1290.
Taking his departure, with a considerable equipment, from a southern
port of China, which he (or his transcriber) named Zaitum, they
proceeded to Ziamba (Tsiampa or Champa, adjoining to the southern
part of Cochin-China) which he had previously visited in 1280, being
then in the service of the emperor Kublai Khan. From thence, he says,
to the island of Java major is a course of fifteen hundred miles, but it is
evident that he speaks of it only from the information of others, and not
as an eyewitness; nor is it probable that the expedition should have
deviated so far from its proper route. He states truly that it is a mart for
spices and much frequented by traders from the southern provinces of
China. He then mentions in succession the small uninhabited islands of
Sondur and Condur (perhaps Pulo Condore); the province of Boeach
otherwise Lochac (apparently Camboja, near to which Condore is
situated); the island of Petan (either Patani or Pahang in the peninsula)
the passage to which, from Boeach, is across a gulf (that of Siam); and
the kingdom called Malaiur in the Italian, and Maletur in the Latin

version, which we can scarcely doubt to be the Malayan kingdom of
Singa-Pura, at the extremity of the peninsula, or Malacca, then
beginning to flourish. It is not however asserted that he touched at all
these places, nor does he seem to speak from personal knowledge until
his arrival at Java minor (as he calls it) or Sumatra. This island, lying in
a south-eastern direction from Petan (if he does not rather mean from
Malaiur, the place last mentioned) he expressly says he visited, and
describes it as being in circumference two thousand miles (not very
wide of the truth in a matter so vague), extending to the southward so
far as to render the Polar Star invisible, and divided into eight
kingdoms, two of which he did not see, and the six others he
enumerates as follows: Ferlech, which I apprehend to be Parlak, at the
eastern extremity of the northern coast, where they were likely to have
first made the land. Here he says the people in general were idolaters;
but the Saracen merchants who frequented the place had converted to
the faith of Mahomet the inhabitants of the towns, whilst those of the
mountains lived like beasts, and were in the practice of eating human
flesh. Basma or Basman: this nearly approaches in sound to Pasaman
on the western coast, but I should be more inclined to refer it to Pase
(by the Portuguese written Pacem) on the northern. The manners of the
people here, as in the other kingdoms, are represented as savage; and
such they might well appear to one who had long resided in China.
Wild elephants are mentioned, and the rhinoceros is well described.
Samara: this I suppose to be Samar-langa, likewise on the northern
coast, and noted for its bay. Here, he says, the expedition, consisting of
two thousand persons, was constrained to remain five months, waiting
the change of the monsoon; and, being apprehensive of injury from the
barbarous natives, they secured themselves, by means of a deep ditch,
on the land side, with its extremities embracing the port, and
strengthened by bulwarks of timber. With provisions they were
supplied in abundance, particularly the finest fish. There is no wheat,
and the people live on rice. They are without vines, but extract an
excellent liquor from trees of the palm kind by cutting off