[^] Goods are trans-shipped from these places, without government deriving any advantage.

[^] The legend of the Jos House, Hoe-chong-sze or Idol temple of Honam:—

Jos is a corruption of the Portuguese word Deos, God. Every idol temple is here called a Jos House; to worship any superior being is expressed by, to Chin-chen-Jos. This great temple was, originally, a garden, belonging to the family of Ko; about eight hundred years since, a small Budha temple was built and named, Tseen-tsow-sze, “the temple of ten thousand autumns.” It remained an obscure place till about the year 1600, when a priest of eminent devotion raised its character, and his disciple “Oh-tzze,” by his superior talents and sanctity, together with a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances, raised the temple to its present magnificence and extent. During the reign of Kang He, the second of the reigning Tartar dynasty, in the year 1700, Canton province was not fully subjugated; and the emperor’s son-in-law, entitled Ping-naw-wong, “the subjugator of the south,” reduced the whole to his father’s sway, and took up his headquarters in the Honam temple, according to the Tartar and Chinese usage. There were, on the island, thirteen villages which he had orders to exterminate. Previously to carrying into effect this order, the king, a blood-thirsty man, cast his eyes on Oh-tzze, a fat, happy, priest, and remarked, that were he to live on a vegetable diet, he could not be so fat—he must be a hypocrite, and should be punished with death. He drew his sword to put in effect the sentence; but the limb suddenly withered, and thus prevented its execution. That night a divine person appeared to him in a dream, and warned him that Oh-tzze was a holy man, and must not, unjustly, be killed. The following morning the king presented himself before Oh-tzze, confessed his crime, and immediately his arm was restored. He then did obeisance to the priest, took him for his preceptor and guide, and, morning and evening, waited on him as a servant. The thirteen villages heard of this miracle and solicited the priest to intercede in their behalf: he complied with their request, was successful, and the Honam villages were saved. Their gratitude to the priest was unbounded; and estates, incense, and money, were poured upon him. The king also persuaded his officers to make donations to the temple, and it became affluent from that day. A hall for the celestial kings was still wanting, and by seizing a fishpond belonging to a wealthy man who had refused to sell it, sufficient ground was obtained upon which to build it. The pond was filled up and built upon within the short space of thirty days. It is sometimes called the Lok-wa-sze, “the green temple.”

[^] Yet the prince, who assumes this latter title, is said to have received investiture from China, as a tributary king.

[^] This is an expression used by inferior officers, in corresponding with superiors, when referring to themselves.

[^] On the right bank of the river, which is called Bang-kok—the word Bang-kok is derived from ban, a house, and kok, a garden. Most of the fruit used at the old capital, came from this place.

[^] One of the sons of the wang-na watches at the temple, near the funeral pile, night and day, till the body is consumed; the ashes of the consumed body are then thrown into the river with many ceremonies; and the unconsumed bones are then delivered to the priests, and made into household gods.

[^] He speaks and writes the English language with considerable fluency, and his pronunciation is very correct.

[^] The present king is very desirous of encouraging foreign commerce to enter his ports, and the perplexities and endless changes which formerly annoyed them, are now removed. As long as the present king lives, this wise policy will be pursued. The amount of imports is rapidly rising in importance. A historiographer is regularly employed at the court of Siam, and the recorded events are deposited in the public archives.

[^] See Appendix A.

[^] Samples of goods should be in readiness, which will save great trouble.

[^] The baat or tical has been assayed in Calcutta and valued at two shillings and sixpence sterling. I have given it the same value as the European traders—viz., sixty-one cents.

[^] The turomudi and turobatu have the principal management in navigating the boat; the former has charge of the after part of the prahū and seeing the water bailed out, which is done by a bucket and pulley; the latter, that of the rigging and forward part, under the direction of the turomudi.

[^] The culture of coffee was first introduced into Java in 1723.

[^] The value of a Spanish dollar in this copper coin is styled a “black mamoody.” The abovenamed copper coin is the quarter Ana of the British East India Company; eleven and a half “white mamoodies” constitute one Spanish dollar, (this is invariable.) It is a nominal money or money of account.

[^] Sir S. Raffles remarks: “Farther investigation may, perhaps, establish Java and Sumatra, or rather the Malayan ports, (in which general term, we may include all the islands containing the Malayan ports,) as not only the Taprobane or Taprovana of the ancients, but also the sacred isles of the Hindoos.” See History of Java, vol. i., page 5.

[^] “As Ptolemy places Ma-Lancapuri in the same longitude with the Pauranies, he must have used the same data, which he had, probably, received from the Hindoos, whom he conversed with at Alexandria. Ma-Lanca being, according to the Pauranies, in the centre of the peninsula, it must be of course in about four degrees of latitude north, and there it is placed by Abul Fayil, and in 4°. 20′, by Ptolemy. Ma-Lanca is called, in the Pauranies, Yamala and Malaya, which last denomination it still retains. It is styled also Chanchan-apuda, or with the Golden Skirts. It may be translated the country of the Golden Feet, a title assumed by the emperor of Ava, and other kings of that part of the world: and the Malayan breeze is as famous in the East, as the Sabaean in the west, and its capital was also called Saba or Zaba. In the beginning of the Brahmanda-purans, it is declared, that the stronghold of Yama Tri-cuta, that is to say, the peninsula of Malacca, is one hundred yo-janas long, and thirty broad, which is sufficiently accurate. Ptolemy mentions, there is a place, called Malaioncolou, probably, from the Sanscrit, Malaya-Culum, which implies a place on the borders or shores of Malaya; the same is called Maletur by Marco Polo; Malayatir and Malaya-Culom, are synonymous.[†] It is singular, that the city of Canca-Nagera, or Ma-Lancapuri, is placed by Ptolemy in the exact latitude of the river Dinding, in the Perak territory, (which is known as the Temala, or Land of Tin, of the same author,) and which is, no doubt, the same city alluded to in the Sejara Malaya, or Malayan Annals, written in the year of the Hajeirat, 1021, or a little more than two centuries ago. It is therein mentioned, that Rajah Suran Padshah, (said to be a descendant of Alexander the Great,) formed the design of subjugating China, and for this purpose his men-at-arms, and the rajahs dependant on him, assembled from every quarter, with their hosts, to the number of one thousand and two lacs. With this prodigious host, he advanced against China, and in his course, forests were converted into open plains—the earth shook, and the thickets moved—the lofty grounds became level, and the rocks flew off in shivers, and the large rivers dried up. Two months he marched on without delay, and the darkest night was illuminated by the light of their armour, like the lustre of the full moon; and the noise of the thunder could not be heard for the loud noise of champions and warriors, mixed with the cries of the horses and elephants. Every country which Rajah Suran approached, he subdued and reduced under his subjection, till at last he approached the country of Gangga Nagara, the rajah of which was named Ganggi Shah Juana, which city is situated on a hill of very steep approach in front, but of easy access in the rear.[†] Its fort was situated on the banks of the river Dinding, in the vicinity of Perak.” It is also worthy of notice, that there are two rivers under this mountain, which bear the name of Sangah Kechil and Sangah Besar, or the small and great Laugah. It will also be observed, by a reference to any of the charts of the straits of Malacca, that there is an island, called Callum, or Collong, which forms the straits of the same name, and which are about a day’s sail from the Dindings. There is a river of the same name on the main, from which much tin is exported, and which is, perhaps, the Malaion-Colon of Ptolemy, and Malaya-Culum of the Sanscrit, notwithstanding the powerful arguments against such a supposition. It must not be omitted to notice besides, that there is another river to the southward of Colong, called Langar, which bears such a striking affinity to Lanca. An intelligent author (Mr. Crawford) asserts, that ‘The word Kolon is, without any alteration, Javanese, and means the west, and the compound word, Malayu-Kolon, exactly in the order in which it stands, means, ‘Malays of the west;’ and there is an unanswerable objection against supposing Malayu-Kolon to be on the Malayan peninsula, or supposing this to be the Golden Chersonesus or Khruse, at all, which will occur at once to every one familiar with the well-known history of the Malays. It is this—in the age of Ptolemy, and for many ages after it, the Malayan peninsula was uninhabited, or inhabited only by a few negro savages, resembling the cannibals of Andaman, wretched beings, with whom there could have been no intercourse, or at least no commerce. Malays did not emigrate from Sumatra, their parent-country, and settle in the Malayan peninsula, until the comparatively modern period of 1160, a thousand years after the time of Ptolemy, while Malacca was not founded until 1252, and every other Malay state, on the peninsula, is of a still more recent foundation.’—History of the Archipelago, vol. iii. p. 190, 191.

[^] Crawford’s Archipelago, vol. i. p. 36.

[^] We are informed by Marsden, that the Sumatrans are firmly persuaded that various particular persons are what they term “betuah,” (sacred, invulnerable, not liable to accident.) The belief which prevails in that island, however, among the Malays, of the transmigration of souls, does not extend to the Malays of the peninsula, who have spirits and imaginary beings of their own, among which we may safely reckon the Mawas and Bilian. Mr. Marsden says of the Sumatrans: “They have an imperfect notion of a metempsychosis, but not in any degree systematic, nor considered as an article of religious faith. Popular stories prevail among them, of such a particular man being changed into a tiger, or other beast. They seem to think, indeed, that tigers, in general, are actuated with the spirits of departed men, and no consideration will prevail on a countryman to catch or to wound one, but in self-defence, or immediately after the act of destroying a friend or relation. They speak of them with a degree of awe, and hesitate about calling them by their common name, (ariman or machang,) terming them respectfully sewa, the wild animals, or even nenck, (ancestors,) as really believing them such, or by way of soothing them, as our ignorant country-folks call the fairies ‘the good people.’”

[^] In the history of Sumatra, there is a description of two races of wild people on that island, called Orang Kubu and Orang Gugu; the latter of whom seems to correspond with the description of the Bilian of the peninsula. “In the course of my inquiries among the natives,” observes Mr. Marsden, “concerning the Aborigines of the island, I have been informed of two different species of people, dispersed in the woods, and avoiding all communication with other inhabitants. These they call Orang Kubu and Orang Gugu. The former are said to be pretty numerous, especially in that part of the country which lies between Palembang and Jambi. Some have, at times, been caught, and kept as slaves, in Labun; and a man of that place is now married to a tolerably Kubu girl, who was carried off by a party that discovered their huts. They have a language quite peculiar to themselves, and they eat promiscuously whatever the woods afford, as deer, elephants, wild hogs, snakes, or monkeys. The Gugu are much scarcer than these, differing in little, but the use of speech, from the Orang Utau of Borneo, their bodies being covered with long hair. There have not been above two or three instances of their being met with by people of Labun, (from whom any information is derived,) and one of these was entrapped many years ago, in much the same manner as the carpenter, in Pelpay’s fables, caught the monkey. He had children by a Labun woman, which also were more hairy than the common race, but the third generation are not to be distinguished from others. The reader will bestow what measure of faith he thinks due to this relation, the veracity of which I do not pretend to vouch for. It has, probably, some foundation in truth, but is exaggerated in the circumstances.”—See History of Sumatra, p. 41.

[^] See History of Sumatra, pp. 332, 333.

[^] Major Milford’s Essay on Asiatic Researches, vol. x., pp. 144, 145, 146, 147.

[^] Forrest alludes to a remarkable mountain in this quarter: “Gunang Jantong, hanging hill, is remarkable, near Laroot river.”

[^] This race of people seem to correspond in their appearance and habits with a tribe called Jokong, which Sir S. Raffles describes as being found near Malacca, (Asiatic Researches, vol. xii., p. 109): “I had an opportunity,” remarks this author, in his paper on the Malay nation, “of seeing two of these people, from a tribe in the neighbourhood of Malacca; it consisted of about sixty people, and the tribe was called Jakoons. These people, from their occasional intercourse with the Malayan villages, dependant on Malacca, speak the language well to be generally understood. They relate, that there are two other tribes, the Orang Benna and the Orang Udai. The former appears to be the most interesting, as composing the majority; the latter is only another name for the Semang or Caffres. They are not circumcised, and they appear to have received some instruction regarding Nabi Isu, or as they pronounce it, Nabi Isher. They, however, have no books, nor any word for God, whom they designate by the Portuguese word Deos. The men are well formed, or rather short, resembling the Malay in countenance, but having a sharper and smaller nose. They marry but one wife, whether rich or poor, and appear to observe no particular ceremony at their nuptials; the consent of the girl and the parents being obtained, the couple are considered as man and wife.”

[^] On the language and literature of the Indu Chinese nations. (As. Res. vol. 10, 202, 203.)

[^] Herodotus, Lib. 3, s. 99.

[^] Dr. Leyden, in his disquisition on the language and literature of the East, makes mention of the negro-tribes as follows: “The Papuas, termed by themselves Inglote, but by the Spaniards of the Philippine islands, ‘Nigritos del Monte,’ from their colour of woolly hair, are the second race of Aborigines in the Eastern isles, in several of which they are still to be found, and in all which they seem to have originally existed. Some of these divisions have formed small savage states, and made some advances towards civilization; but the greater part of them, even with the example of more civilized races before their eyes, have betrayed no symptoms, either of a taste or capacity for improvement, and continue in their primary state of nakedness, sleeping on trees, devoid of houses or clothing, and subsisting on the spontaneous products of the forest, or the precarious success of their hunting and fishing. The Papuas, or Oriental negroes, seem to be all divided into very small states, or rather societies, very little connected with each other. Hence their language is broken into a multitude of dialects, which, in process of time, by separation, accident, and oral corruption, have nearly lost all resemblance. The Malays of the peninsula consider the language of the blacks of the hills as a mere jargon, which can only be compared to the chattering of large birds, and the Papua dialects in many of the Eastern isles, are generally viewed in the same light.” See As. Res. vol. x. p. 218.

[^] “The East Insular Negro,” says Crawford, “is a distinct variety of the human species, and evidently a very inferior one. Their puny stature and feeble frames cannot be ascribed to the poverty of their food, or the hardships of their condition, for the lank-haired races, living under circumstances equally precarious, have vigorous constitutions. Some islands they enjoy almost exclusively to themselves, yet they have in no instance ever risen above the most abject state of barbarism. Wherever they are encountered by the fair races, they are hunted down like wild animals of the forest, and driven to the mountains and fastnesses, incapable of resistance.” (Crawford’s Archipelago, vol., i. p. 26.) Sir Everard Home gives the following description of a Papua negro, carried to England by Sir S. Raffles, Hist. of Java, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 235: “The Papua differs from the African negro in the following particulars: his skin is of a lighter colour, the woolly hair grows in small tufts, and each hair has a spiral twist. The forehead is higher, and the hind head is not so much cut off. The nose projects more from the face, the upper lip is longer and more prominent, the lower lip projects forward from the lower jaw to such an extent that the chin forms no part of the face, the lower part of which is formed by the mouth; the buttocks are so much lower than the negro as to form a striking mark of distinction, but the calf of the leg is as high as in the negro.”

[^] The Company’s agents, in Canton, do not give the number of chests in their returns of teas shipped.

[^] Corresponding to seventh of October, 1833.

[^] The Chinese always omit the name of the ship, and insert the name of the captain.

[^] Consul.

[^] November sixteenth, 1832.