f& Life of Sir Stamford Raffles. 



The peninsula of Malaya, or Malacca, as it is sometimes deno- 

 minated, from the metropolis pf the country, is the westerly and 

 most extended branch of the greater peninsula, which consists of 

 the Birman, Siamese, and Cochinchinese states. It forms the 

 southernmost extremity of the Asiatic continent, extending to 

 within about 43' of the Equator ; being washed, on the west, by 

 the straits of Malacca, separating it from Sumatra, with the general 

 range of which island it forms a small angle, and towards the east 

 by the Gulf of Siam and the Chinese Sea. The commercicil em- 

 porium of Zaba, celebrated by the ancients, which was a place of 

 great importance in the time of Ptolemy, and for many ages 

 Subsequently, was situated in Malaya, at a place upon the river 

 Jehor, near the southern termination of the country, now called 

 Batu Sabor. The peninsula, with some of the adjacent islands, 

 formed one of the states to which the appellation of Maharaja was 

 anciently given in the East. In after times it became the principal 

 seat of the Mohammedan Malayan Empire, which was in its 

 greatest splendour during the ninth century; being dismembered 

 many ages before the country was visited by Europeans. As 

 already intimated in the Introduction, the Malayan states and the 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago in general, were first discovered 

 and frequented by the navigators of Europe, about the same time 

 that America became known to them ; and the city of Malacca 

 was conquered by the Portuguese general, Albuquerque, in the 

 year 1511, from which period it became an European settlement, 

 passing from the hands of the Portuguese, into those of the Dutch 

 and the English, successively. 



The most extensive group of islands in the world, termed the 

 Indian Archipelago, and also, by some geographers, the Asiatic 

 Isles, occupy the intervening space between the south-eastern 

 countries of the Asiatic continent, and the north-eastern coast of 

 New Holland. They thus form, as it were, a continuation of the 

 land, in a south-easterly direction ; connecting the shores of China 

 and of the further Indian peninsula, with those of Carpentaria, 

 the land of Arnheim, and De Witt's land in New Holland. 

 Comprehended within the 90th and 150th degrees of east longi- 

 tude, they are included, with the exception of the northerly 



