4 TIN MINING IN PERAK. 
Perak, and which much resembles the modern Malay bliong, has also 
been found in Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, Tennessee, Indiana, Java, 
and many other places, made both in stone and in copper and in bronze. 
Other types found in Perak also have a world-wide distribution, and it 
is quite inconceivable that the wild tribes of the Peninsula could have 
separately and independently invented these types of implements. It 
appears to be very much more reasonable to attribute them to some 
prehistoric inhabitants of the Peninsula, particularly as there are so 
many evidences that trade was carried on with Malaya long before the 
period of the historical settlement of the Sumatrans on the mainland. 
Anderson, in his Consderations Relative to the Malayan Peninsula, 
says: “It is singular that the city of Canca Nagara, or Ma Lancapuri, is 
placed by Ptolemy [who died in A.D. 140] in the exact latitude of the 
River Dinding, in the Perak Territory (which is known as the Temala 
or Land of Tin of the same author), and which is no doubt the same city 
alluded to in the Sefarah Malaya, or Malayan Annals, written in the year 
of the Hejeirat 1021, or a little more than two centuries ago,” reckoning 
from the year 1824. 
‘Confused and incongruous as is the history of the early settle- 
ments of the Malays on the Peninsula, which we find narrated in the 
Sejarah Malaya, or Malayan Annals, we are enabled to gather sufficient 
to show that prior to the emigration of the Malays from Sumatra in 
A.D. 1160 the more northerly part of the Malayan Peninsula was 
partially inhabited by Siamese. The Malays pretend to derive the 
descent of their sovereigns from Alexander the Great, and trace in a 
regular line of genealogy the successive dynasties and kings of Hindostan, 
till the time of Rajah Suran, grandson of Rajah Sulan, who reigned 
in Andam Nagara, and all the lands of the East and West were 
subject to him. The first place of importance he appears to have 
reached on the Peninsula, was a fort situated on the River Dinding, in 
the vicinity of Perak.’ From this account it would appear that there 
was a place of considerable importance on the Dinding river, in the 
Bruas district, in the year 1160. For a long time afterwards Bruas was 
the seat of government of the Rajas of Perak. 
‘It does not appear,’ Anderson goes on to say, “that Singapura, 
Malacca, Perak, Johor, Pahang, or Rhio, or indeed any of the Malay 
States which were founded by emigrants from Sumatra, ever were 
subject to Siam during the long interval from 1160, when Singapura 
was first settled, up to the period of the conquest of Malacca by the 
Portuguese in 1511.” 
After this date trading relations subsisted for many years between 
Perak and the Portuguese at Malacca. Some years ago an interesting 
discovery was made at Klian Kalong, in Kinta, of an earthenware jar, in 
which were a number of dollars of Ferdinand and Isabella. One of 
these dollars was secured by Sir Hugh Low, and is now in the Museum, 
It has been defaced in places and the date cannot be made out, but it 
must have been coined between 1469 and 1516, the dates of the accession 
and decease of Ferdinand. The jar was found buried 13 feet below the 
surface of the ground, and probably belonged to the men who were 
