28 



AUREA ChER- 

 SONESUS. 



Kingdom or 



JOHORE. 



StReights of 



SiNCAPOUR. 



INDIA BEYOND THE GANGES. 



rapid river divides the town from the fort, one fide of which is 

 wallied by the fea; in that part only four leagues diftant from the 

 low land of Sumatra. Malacca is a true emporium, or mart, the 

 great magazine of the various rich articles of commerce brought 

 from the feveral countries I have mentioned. As to the peninfula 

 itfelf, it yields little more than the fine tin and elephants' teeth. 

 Let me conclude, that this place was celebrated among the an- 

 tients for its gold, for which reafon it was called by them Aurea 

 Cherfonefus ; ftill, at no great diftance from the city of Ma- 

 lacca^ is a hill called the Golden Mount. Some imagine this to 

 have been the Qphir of Solomon, 1 fhall mention, in vol. of the 

 Outlines of the Globe, the fuppofition that Opbir was a place 

 in JEthiopia. I will not enter into the difpute, and only fay, 

 that if the birds which we know at prefent by the name of pea- 

 cocks, were thofe intended*, this, or fome other part of India, 

 might have been the place from which Solojnon drew his wealth, 

 peacocks being found in plenty here, and unknown, at leaft in 

 thofe days, in any part oi Africa. 



To the fouth oi Malacca is the fmall kingdom ofjohore ; wo 

 have fcarce any acquaintance with it, and know little more of 

 its hiftory, than that it was governed by a brutal fet of princes, 

 and that in 1712 a rebellion arofe, which ended in the expulfion 

 of the royal family. 



The fouthern entrance into the ftreights of Malacca is filled 

 with a moil numerous archipelago of fmall ifles, even to the 

 fhores oi Sumatra. The land from Tanjong Euro, in Jobore, 

 bends into a crefcent, likewife filled with ifles. One is called Sin- 

 capour, which gives name to the well-known pafiage for ftiips 



* I Kings, ch, x. verfe 22. 



bound 



