SINGAPORE. 429 



and the ores of gold and tin in particular. In the latter metal, it is 

 supposed to be the richest of any country in the world. In other 

 respects it cannot be called a favoured region, and in comparison with 

 the surrounding countries is barren. The greater portion of it is 

 still occupied by the primeval forest, which is frequented only by 

 beasts of prey. 



The Malayan peninsula, and the surrounding islands, are now far 

 less populous than they formerly were. Intestine wars among the 

 chiefs have, in fact, nearly depopulated the former, and what they 

 have left undone, the pirates in their incursions on the weakened 

 towns, have, by their cruel deeds of murder and rapine, completed. 

 The part of the peninsula that is tributary to the king of Siam has 

 fared but little better ; for his extortions are said to know no bounds. 

 Some accounts state that the Malayan peninsula has once been the seat 

 of civilization, and that various mines have been discovered, by some 

 of the few travellers who have made short excursions from its coast. 

 It is alleged, on the other hand, that both it and Singapore were 

 colonized as late as the twelfth century, by the people of Sumatra ; 

 other conjectures, said to have some foundation in the traditions of the 

 natives, state them to have been inhabited previously to that epoch, 

 by a half-savage race, which had the features of the Papuans. Other 

 accounts again assert, that the aborigines were the Jakongs or Rayetu- 

 tans, in the interior, and the Rayetlaut or fishermen, on the sea-shore. 



The Malayan peninsula contains nine petty states, each of which 

 is ruled by a chief, who aclurowledges the authority of the king of 

 Johore. The Dutch, however, formerly had through commercial 

 treaties much influence with the chiefs, and with the consent of the 

 king of Johore, elected a Bugis chief, by the name of Dyar Cam- 

 bodia, over the nine states. This produced a division and conten- 

 tions : four of them revolted, and invited over a prince of the royal 

 blood from Sumatra, Rajah Malayan, whose party was finally success- 

 ful, and drove Dyar Cambodia into retirement. Upon this, stipulations 

 were entered into, by which it was agreed that the four chiefs should 

 be assembled by the sovereign to consult on the affairs of state, and 

 that a majority should rule. In return they were to provide for the 

 maintenance of the sovereign, by levying an annual tax on the in- 

 habitants, each house contributing annually one gantam of rice, two 

 cocoa-nuts, and one suku. 



On the occasion of all rites, such as marriages, deaths, and circum- 

 cisions in the royal family, each district was bound to send three 



VOL. V. 108 



