156 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



years later, landing at Pedir, in Ache, in 1505. He 

 identifies the island with Taprobana, but calls it Sumatra, 

 using the orthography of the present day. He speaks 

 of the pepper, aloes, silks, and other products of the 

 island, and states that it was divided into four kingdoms, 

 that gold, silver, and tin coin was current, and that the 

 practice of suttee or concremation was in vogue. Diego 

 Lopes de Sequeira, with Magellan as one of his officers, 

 landed at the same port in September 1509, and con- 

 cluded a treaty with the raja. Thenceforward, and 

 especially after the fall of Malacca in 1511, the island 

 was frequently visited, and in Schoner's globe of 1523 

 we find it represented with very tolerable accuracy. In 

 the Carta Universal of Diego Kibero, published in Seville 

 in 1529, it is extraordinarily well plotted, both as 

 regards outline and position ; while, on the other hand, 

 it is curious to note that the northern coast of Java is 

 alone depicted, so that it is probable that the former 

 island had been circumnavigated before southern Java had 

 been visited by Europeans. For many centuries before 

 the arrival of the Portuguese in the archipelago, the com- 

 merce of the ports had been in the hands of the Arabs, 

 and in Ache this appears to have been especially the case, 

 resulting to a certain extent in the fusion of the immi- 

 grants w"ith the native population — a fact which may 

 partially account for the marked difference in type of the 

 Achenese of the present day from the other island tribes. 

 From the earliest times the Hindus carried on trade 

 with Sumatra, and there is sufficient evidence in the 

 remains of Hindu temples to show that they had at one 

 time established their religion among the natives. But 

 it was earlier ousted by Islamism than was the case in 

 Java, and Marco Polo found the people of the eastern 

 coasts Mohammedans at the time of his visit in 1291. 



