A BRIEF VISIT TO MALACCA. 279 



Wallace's description, written over fifty years ago, still holds 

 good to-day, and I quote it in the footnote below.* 



But this peaceful "left behind" existence is by no means 

 characteristic of the old Malacca, the fortified Malacca of the 

 Portuguese, the trading centre of the Dutch or the Malacca in 

 the early days of the British occupation. Briefly its history 

 is this : — 



After about a century of prosperous growth the Malay city 

 of Singapore was invaded and sacked by a Javanese prince ; a 

 certain number of survivors however escaped and fled up the 

 west coast of the Malay Peninsula, and founded the city of 

 Malacca about 1250 a.d. Here they flourished under their Malay 

 chiefs until the advent of the Portuguese under Albuquerque in 

 1511. The large roofless church of St. Paul on the hill over- 

 looking the coast, where the celebrated missionary St. Francis 

 Xavier f was buried before being transferred to Goa, was built 

 by them, also a large series of fortifications, now, alas ! no more, 

 thanks to the misplaced energies of an English governor a 

 hundred years ago. The whole of the Portuguese Eastern trade 

 radiated from Malacca, which thus flourished as the most 

 important trade centre in the East for nearly a hundred years. 

 The Portuguese were succeeded by the Dutch, who have left 

 some substantial buildings, chief of which is the old Stadt 

 House, still used as Government offices, and the large church 

 at the foot of the hill near the landing-j)lace. After nearly two 

 hundred years of constant rivalry for the trade of the East, 

 Malacca was taken by the English in 1795, and the Dutch were 

 turned out. Sixteen years later a large expedition under Lord 

 Minto was despatched from Malacca to Java, resulting in the 

 occupation of that country by the English, with Stamford 

 Baffles as Governor, only to give place again to the Dutch five 

 years later in 1816. But Malacca remained ours, and round it 

 neighbouring states have gradually come under British influence 

 year by year, so that the Straits Settlements, the Federated 

 Malay States, and the Protected States in the Malay Peninsula, 

 now form one large tract of country prospering day by day 

 under British control and advice. 



From an entomological point of view Malacca has sadly 



* ' The Malay Archipelago,' by A. R. Wallace, 1902 edition, p. 19 :— 

 " The old and picturesque town of Malacca is crowded along the banks of the 

 small river, and consists of narrow streets of shops and dwelling-houses, 

 occupied by the descendants of the Portuguese, and by Chinamen. In the 

 suburbs are the houses of the English officials and of a few Portuguese 

 merchants, embedded in groves of palms and fruit trees, whose varied aud 

 beautiful foliage furnishes a pleasing relief to the eye, as well as most varied 

 grateful shade. The old fort, the large Government House, and the ruins of 

 a cathedral, attest the former wealth and importance of this place, which was 

 once as much the centre of Eastern ti'ade as Singapore is now." 



f He died in December, 1552. 



