66 Note on the Inscriptions from Singapur, fyc. [July, 



quiries have been made regarding the inscription at Singapore describ- 

 ed in the Journal, Vol. VI. p. 680, and that the Hon'ble Colonel Butter- 

 worth, C. B. supposes that I may have some portions of the stone on 

 which it was engraved. 



I was an unwilling and pained witness to the demolition of that me* 

 morial of long past ages, my petition to have it spared being met by 

 the reply that it was in the way of some projected bungalow. On the 

 explosion taking place I crossed the river from my office and selected 

 such fragments as had letters on them. The Hon. the Governor, Mr. 

 Bonham, sent to ask me to preserve a piece for him, and this is the 

 portion alluded to by Col. Butterworth. 



As the fragments were very bulky I had them, at considerable cost, 

 gradually chisselled by a Chinese into the shape of slabs. But they 

 are still ponderous. It happens however that the smaller fragments 

 only contain the most legible (if the term is even here really applicable) 

 parts of the inscription, the rest being nearly quite obliterated, and I 

 have therefore selected them to be presented to the Society. It seems 

 to me that this Singapore Inscription (to which I have alluded in a 

 paper presently to appear in the Journal of the Eastern Archipelago) 

 may probably date from an early century of our era, and I would 

 merely here suggest that any one who may set about decyphering it may 

 derive assistance by adverting to inscriptions which may have been 

 discovered at the ancient Bijanagara in Orissa, or Cuttack, or wider still, 

 along the coast of central Kalinga. 



Note on the Inscriptions from Singapur and Province Wellesley, 

 forwarded by the Hon. Col. Butterworth, C. B. and Col. J. 

 Low. By J. W. Laidlay. 



The great interest expressed by the late James Prinsep and other 

 antiquarians in the remarkable inscription at Singapur induced me, as 

 mentioned in a former number of this Journal, to apply to the present 

 esteemed Governor of the Straits Settlements, the Hon. Col. Butter- 

 worth, C. B. to secure for the Society's Museum any fragments that 

 might remain after the gothic exploit alluded to by Col. Low ; a request 

 he was pleased very kindly and promptly to comply with. Since then 



