242 Shetch of the four Menangkabowe States, [Mat, 



Sir S. Raffles, in a letter to Mr. Marsden, thus notices the state 

 of Rambowe : " Inland of Malacca, about sixty miles, is situated the 

 Malay kingdom of Rambowe, whose Sultan, and all the principal officers 

 of state, hold their authority immediately from Menangkabowe, and 

 have written commissions for their respective offices. This shews the 

 extent of that ancient power, even now reduced as it must be in com- 

 mon with that of the Malay people in general. I had many opportu- 

 nities of communicating with the natives of Rambowe, and they have 

 clearly a peculiar dialect, resembling exactly what you mention of 

 substituting the final o for a, as in the word Ambo for Amba. In fact, 

 the dialect is called by the Malacca people the language of Me- 

 nangkabowe." 



The foregoing remarks apply equally to the three vicinal states, 

 Sungie-ujong, Johole, and Sriminanti, and as has been already 

 observed, to Natiing. It is also worthy of remark, that in the ancient 

 records of the Dutch, preserved in the archives of Malacca, the natives 

 of Rambowe and Naning are invariably styled " Menangkabowes." 



The period when these colonies, from the heart of Sumatra, settled 

 in the interior of the peninsula, is unknown. It is generally admitted, 

 that Singapore and the extremity of the Peninsula were peopled by a 

 colony from Sumatra in the middle of the twelfth century, by the 

 descendants of which Malacca was founded nearly a century subse- 

 quent ; as well as other places on the sea-coast, as Perak, Quedah, 

 Pahang, Tringano, &c. 



Antecedent to this, according to the best native information, the 

 coasts of the peninsula and adjacent islands were inhabited, though 

 thinly, by a savage race, still known under the name of Rdyet Laut, 

 (subjects of the sea,) the Icthyopophagi of the ancients, and termed 

 by Valentyn, probably from their situation, " Cellates." The interior 

 was peopled by those singular aborigines, the Rdyet Utan, (subjects of 

 the forest,) of whom there are various tribes. Those that have hitherto 

 fallen under my observation have all borne the Mongol stamp on their 

 features ; though the Semang in the interior of Quedah is said to be 

 characterized by the woolly hair and thick lips, &c. of the Papuan. 



Tradition ascribes the peopling of the interior of the peninsula by 

 the Menangkabowes to a more recent and direct emigration from 

 Sumatra than the one above alluded to. In absence of all historical 

 information, the following story, as current among the better informed 

 descendants of this colony, may perhaps not be out of place. 



" After Sri Iscander Shah had fled from Singhapura to Malacca, 

 in the seventh century of the Hejira, a Menangkabowe chief, named 

 Tu Pattair, came over to Malacca attended by a numerous retinue. 



