His Anniversar^'Discourses to the Batavian Societi/. 47 



as commencing. The progress of this historical sketch leads 

 to the following observations on the Taprobdne of the ancients. 



" Sumatra was long considered the Taprobdne of the ancients, 

 and when we advert to the single circumstance that this was 

 said to be a country in which the North Polar Star was hot 

 visible, or only partially, we must still doubt the correctness of 

 the modern conclusion in favour of Ceylon. The Eastern Islands 

 furnish that peculiar kind of produce, which has from the earliest 

 times been in demand by continental nations, and the same 

 avidity with which in modern days Europeans contended for 

 the rich products of the Moluccas, in all probability actuated, 

 at a much earlier period, adventurers from Western India. 

 Traces of intercourse with Ethiopia may be found at this day in 

 the woolly-headed race peculiar to Africa, which are to be found 

 on the Audamans, on the southern part of the further peninsula, 

 and throughout the archipelago;* and that the Hindus were at 

 one period an enterprising and commercial nation, may I think 

 be established with little difficulty, from the incontestible proofs 

 which at this day exist in Java ; and the traffic which still ex- 

 ists in native vessels and on native capital between the Coro- 

 mandel Coast and the Malayan peninsula. If any country there- 

 fore lays claim to this distinction more than another, it is Java : 

 — but probably it was rather to the Eastern Islands generally 

 than to one island in particular, that the appellation was given : 

 — both Ptolemy and the Arabians would seem to have designated 

 the islands by one general name — by the one they were termed 

 Jabadios Insula^ by the others Jau or Jawa^ hence probably 

 the confusion in the travels of Marco Polo^ and the still disr 

 puted question between Java Major and Java Minor.^^i 



He then pursues this sketch or programme of the history of 

 Java through the intervening divisions, to the last, which is 

 comprised between the years 1600 and 1811, .the former being 



♦ Some remarks on tliis curious point in the natural history of the human 

 species, viz. the existence of a woolly-headed race in the south-eastern countries 

 of Asia, will be found in a subsequent page of this memoir. 



+ We shall have occasion, when giving an analysis of Mr. Raffles's History 

 of Java, to notice particularly the different opinions that have been entertained 

 as to the country designated Taprobane by the ancients. 



