52 VALENTY2* S DESCEIPTION OF MALACCA. 



got unmanageable. There are. moreover, many elephants and other 

 wild beasts. This same gentleman has told me also, that he once 

 saw a tiger which made a leap at a deer that tried to escape him 

 in the water ; the deer did escape, and the tiger was dragged down 

 by an alligator. 



The East India Company has a Governor at this place, who has 

 supreme authority over all the officers and over all the affairs. He 

 is assisted by a Supercargo (as second in rank), an Attorney- 

 General, (!) a Paymaster, and a staff of officers similar to those men- 

 tioned in our account of Amboina, performing almost the same 

 duties and receiving: the same pay ; there are here, besides, several 

 " Opperhoofden" (Commandants) of other places or factories, which 

 are under the authority of this Governor, and also an especial 

 " Shahbandar " or Collector of the Custom-house duties. 



A Council of Police is constituted from among these officers (as 

 also already mentioned under Amboina) forming the Government of 

 this territory ; another Council administers the law; and a third one 

 all the ecclesiastical affairs. 



The Malays of these countries are commonly called " orang 

 di baw(f angin" i. e., "the people below the wind " (to leeward), 

 or else " Easterlings," whilst those of the Occident, more especially 

 the Arabs, are called " orang atas angin" i.e., " people above the 

 wind " or Occidentals ; this is not that there are no other tribes of 

 that name, but that these two nations are the most renow T ned, the 

 most ingenious and the most civilised of that race. 



The Malays are the most cunning, the most ingenious and the 

 politest people of the whole East. 



Whether they have been thus called after the country, or whether 

 the country has been called after them, will be shown by and by, 

 when we shall have traced their origin as far back as possible, 

 producing it from their earliest history. 



They are of a rather pale hue and much fairer than other na- 

 tives of India, also much kinder, more polite, neater in their man- 

 ner of living, and in general so charming, that no other people can be 

 compared to them. Their language, Balidsa Maluyu, i.e., the Malay 

 language (whether called after the people or after the country) 

 was not onlv spoken on that coast, but was used through the 

 whole of India, and in all the Eastern countries, as a language 

 understood everywhere and by every one, just as French or Latin 

 in Europe, or as the Lingua Franca in Italy or in the Levant, 

 to such an extent even that, knowing that language, one never 



( » ) Prokuxeur-Generaal. 



