OLDEST RECORDS OF SEA-ROUTE TO CHINA FROM WESTERN ASIA. 353 



Now the Sea of Kadranj was entered, the Perimulic Gulf of Ptolemy. 

 Among the coast names of the Greek record we may draw attention to 

 Samarado, and its coincidence with Samarat, the Buddhisto-classical 

 name of the place commonly called Ligor (i.e. ' Nagara,' the city) on the 

 eastern shore of the Malay Peninsula, subject to Siam ; also to the river 

 Sohanus (Skt. Snvarna, Pali Sohana, 'the Golden'), and to its synonymy 

 with Sohanap4ri, one of the old cities of Siam in the Menam basin. 



The Arabs, as before, instead of coasting, struck across by another 

 ten days' run to the port of Kadranj. Here was a high mountain to 

 which slaves used to escape. I should identify Kadranj with the 'Ai^acpa 

 (^Akadra) of the Greeks, and place it abftnt Chantabon. ' Here,' says 

 Crawfurd (I quote from 'Hitter,' iv. 1069), ' at a short distance inland 

 there stands a very high hill, Bombasoi, which affords from its summit an 

 extensive view over Chantabon and Kamboja.' Between the Sobanus 

 and Akadra the Greek coasting navigators also mention Tiponohaste, 

 which would correspond to Bangpasoi of our maps, at the mouth of the 

 "large navigable river Bangpa-kong. 



Ten days further (these tens are doubtless a little arbitrary or gene- 

 ralised, like the ten days' intervals of Herodotus across the Sahara') the 

 Arab navigators reach Sa^if or Ghanf, which under the limitations of the 

 Arabic alphabet represents Champa, or the southern extremity of Cochin 

 China, which I identify also with the Za/3a or Za/3at of the Greeks. 



It is true that Champa, as known in later days, lay to the east of the 

 Mekong Delta, whilst Zabai of the Greeks lay to the west of that and of 

 the fjieya uKpoT)jpioi — the ' Great Cape,' or C. Cambodia of our maps. 

 €rawfurd (' Desc. Diet. Ind. Arch.,' p. 80) seems to say that the Malays 

 include under the name Champa the whole of what we call Kamboja. 

 This may possibly be a slip. But it is certain, as we shall see pre- 

 sently, that the Arab Sanf, which is unquestionably := Champa, also lay 

 west of the Cape, i.e. within the Gulf of Siam. The fact is that the 

 Indo-Chinese kingdoms have gone through unceasing and enormous 

 vicissitudes, and in early days Champa must have been extensive and 

 powerful, for in the travels of Hwen' T'sang (about a.d. 629) it is called 

 Ifa/ut-Champa. And my late friend, Lieut. Garnier, who gave great 

 attention to these questions, has deduced from such data as exist in 

 Chinese annals and elsewhere, that the ancient kingdom which the 

 Ghinese describe, under the name of Fii-nan, as extending over the whole 

 peninsula east of the Gulf of Siam, was a kingdom of the Tsiam or 

 Champa race.^ The locality of the ancient port of Zabai or Champa is 

 probably to be sought on the west coast of Kamboja, near the Campot or 

 the Kang-Kao of our maps. On this coast also was the Komar and 

 Kamdrah of Ibn Batuta and other Arab writers : the great source of 

 aloes-wood — the country, then, of the Khmer or Kambojan people. 



From Sanf the Arabs sail ten days again to an island (but evidently, 

 from the plural form of the name, a group of islands) called Sandar- 

 Fuldt, where they find fresh Avater. We cannot hesitate to identify this 

 with Fulo Condor. Marco Polo, in the name which he gives to the group, 

 * Sondur and Condur,' has furnished a link, if it be needed, to completa 

 the identification. These may also be the ' Satyrs' Islands ' of Ptolemy, 

 or they may be his Sindai, for he has a Sinda city on the coast close to this 



' Ilerod. iv. 181-183. 



' See Carte des Lieux Histonqnet de Vlndo-Chine, <5'c., at p. 128 in vol. i. of 

 Voyage d" Exjihration. 



1882. A A 



