184 COINS FROM MALACCA. 
proved by certain accounts in Albuquerque’s Commentaries (2)*, 
out the fact seems to have almost escaped numismatologists, for 
Millies (22), p. 140, speaking of the currency of the Malay Pen- 
insula says: ‘“ Méme 1’état malai si célébre de Malaka, qui était 
parvenu a son apogée au commencement du XVI° siecle, lors- 
qwil tomba sous la force matérielle majeure et l’héroisme des 
Portugais, ne nous a laissé aucun monument numismatique connu,. 
et nous he savons méme pas, si ce état malai possédait déja une 
monnaie propre.” In this Millies is certainly wrong, for in Al- 
buquerque’s Commentaries (2), Vol. III, p. 77, we find a mention 
of native coin which tells how King Xaquendarxa (i. e. Iskander 
Shah), ruler of Malacca, went to see the king of China, wishing 
to become his vassal and took with him many presents, 
receiving in return, amongst other privileges, permission 
to coin small ‘‘money of pewter, which money he ordered 
to be made as soon as he reached Malacca; and to it he 
gave the name of Caixes which are like our (i. e. Portuguese) 
ceitils, and a hundred go to the calaim, and each calaim was 
worth, to an appointed law, eleven reis and four ceitils. Silver 
and Gold was not made into money, but only used by way of 
merchandise.” The fact that Malacca possessed native pewter 
coins on the arrival of the Portuguese becomes indisputable 
when we read that Albuquerque after the occupation of Malacca 
minted coins under the name of his king, D. Manuel, “in order 
to withdraw and suppress the coinage of the Moors and cast 
their root and their name out of the land,” and that when the 
new colnage was ready, he gave orders “that all the Moors 
who held coin of the King of Malacca should convey it thither” 
(i. e. to the mint) ‘ without delay under pain of death; and so 
great a quantity of money was thus carried there out of fear of 
the penalty which had been appointed to them, that the officers 
could not dispatch their business fast enough.” (Vol. III, p. 138). 
I am sorry I cannot furnish absolute proof that the collec- 
tion really contains coins of that early period. There are about 
150 tin coins with Arabic inscriptions, but those few which are 
clear enough to be deciphered are of a much later date. It may 
be that the most worn and defaced coins belong to the period 
-*These numbers refer to the list of Literature at the end of the 
paper. : ; ee 
Jour, Straits Branch 
