— 76 — 



of gold, they pay a hundred picols of pepper, or thereabout. They like to 

 buy outside women, and girls from other countries are often brought here 

 and sold for pepper. 



They use money made of lead. 



San-bo-tsai was formerly known as a rich place, but since it was 

 conquered by Java, the capital has been deserted and few traders go there 

 now (*). 



From the different extracts trauslated by us and treating of the Eastern Coast 

 of Sumatra , we see that it was known to the Chinese of the 6 th century as Kandali , 

 which name has since been lost and is not found anywhere else. 



In the 10 th century the Chinese speak of it as San-bo-tsai, which is the 

 Sarbaza of the Arabian travelers , who visited the country a hundred years before ; 

 the latter inform us that it was a dependency of Java in their time already , and 

 it would seem that, in this as well as in other instances, these Javanese conquerors 

 settled there and soon made themselves independent from their mother-country , for 

 the Chinese speak of a new invasion about 990 and another conquest about 1377 (v. 

 above p. 65 , 36 and 69). "With this last conquest the name of San-bo-tsai disap- 

 pears , the new conquerors establishing their capital at Palembang. 



We are not told at what particular place San-bo-tsai was situated, but only 

 see on page 71 that it was apart from Palembang. It is probable however that is 

 was on the same river, in the first place because it was the largest stream of the 

 coast and therefore the best accessible place for foreign trade, and secondly on account 

 of the Chinese name which was given to Palembang' and its river after the conquest 

 of 1377: they called it Ku-kang, the old river, to distinguish it from Djambi , where 

 probably the princes of San-bo-tsai established their capital, after they had been driven 

 away from the old one by the Javanese; this name //the old river", given by them 

 to the river of Palembang, implies that they were familiar with it since long and 

 that it had been visited by them during their previous trade, which we know had 

 always been carried on at San-bo-tsai. 



It is not to be supposed that Djambi and Palembang were new places alto- 

 gether; they probably existed before and only rosé to higher importance by these 

 political changes. We see on p. 69 that previous to the conquest by Java there 

 were three different kings in the country, and the names of Djambi and Palembang 

 occur also before this event, coupled to the names of those kings (v. above p. 63 

 and 69). The explanation of the name Djambi, given in the history of the Ming 

 dynasty on p. 72, does not seem reliable, but rather to have no other authority 

 tlian the fancy of the writer. 



O This account is not very clcar: Ku-kang is Palembang, but at oncc the autkor introduces 

 «men of Djambi", witkout saying wketker tkey tradcd witk tkese at tkeir own capital, or only at 

 Palembang. 



