THE EVOLUTION OE MALAY SPELLING. 89 



in any of the MSS. which we know to have been written else- 

 where. The Oxford MSS.. A. B. C. have already been proved 

 to have come from Acheen : of the Cambridge MSS. Gg. 6. 40 

 contains a vocabulary written by Pieter Willemsz. van Elbinck. 

 and dated Acheen, 1st June, 1604 : Dd. 5. 37, and the 2nd part 

 of Gg. 6. 40, which contains the writing in question, are both 

 written by the same hand as the vocabulary, and the former 

 closes thus (in Dutch) " end of the Story of Joseph, written the 

 1st October. 1604, by Pieter Willems." " The only MS. therefore 

 about which there remains any uncertainty as to whether or 

 not it was written at Acheen, is LI. G. 5. of the Cambridge MSS. 

 but there seems, from what Dr. v. Konkel says, to be no reason- 

 able doubt that this MS. came into the hands of Erpenius 

 with those bearing the name of the same Pieter Willems, 

 whom he believes to have brought all these MSS. from the 

 East, with the exception of Dd. ( J. ol)., which never belonged to 

 Erpenius. 



It should not be forgotten that, at the time when these MSS. 

 were written, Acheen was one of the most powerful Malay 

 States. In his letter to King James (Oxford MS. C.) the King of 

 Acheen claims sovereignty over all the rajas in Sumatra as well 

 as Perak and Pahang on the Peninsula, and from the accounts 

 of Lancaster's voyages he seems to have been able to enforce 

 his authority at least as far south as Priaman (near Padang). In 

 this connection I was interested to tind the statement made by 

 van de Wall, in his introduction mentioned above, that the 

 original Malay spelling is known as " Achinese spelling." 

 \\ 'here van der Wall obtained his information in regard to the 

 name heja Acheh I have not been able to discover, but if it is a 

 fact that this method of spelling, found in all its purity in our 

 Acheen MSS. of 300 years ago, is still known by tradition among 

 the Malays as " Achinese spelling," this would seem to point to 

 Acheen as having been the chief centre of learning and litera- 

 ture at that time, and perhaps even earlier. This would entirely 

 agree with the accounts of Lancaster's first voyages, which 

 state that the educated Malays at Acheen spoke Arabic fluently, 

 and Lancaster himself held intercourse with the Malays at that 

 place in the Arabic language, having as his interpreter a Jew 

 who spoke Arabic. 



12 



