100 ACCOUNTS OF THE MALAY TAPIR. 
Lastly this early Chinese account of the tapir is interest- 
ing in that it anticipates, by exactly four hundred years, Major 
Farquhar’s discovery of the tapir in Malacca. There will be 
found in Volume XIII of “ Asiatick Researches,’’ published in 
Calcutta in 1820, a very interesting account of this discovery. 
Major Farquhar, who was Governor in Malacca, wrote from 
Malacca on the 29th January 1816 the following letter to one 
Honourable A. Seton: 
My dear Sir, 
Conceiving that the accompanying account of an animal of 
the tapir kind, found in the forests in the vicinity of Malacca ; 
but which I believe is not generally known to exist in any part 
of the old world, may prove interesting, I have taken the 
liberty to transmit it to you, for the purpose, (should you 
consider it as meriting public attention), of being presented to 
the Asiatic Society : I have likewise the pleasure to send a full 
length drawing of the animal, and a drawing and ees of 
its head, which is of very singular shape. : 
I remain My Dear Sir, 
Your much obliged and very Pathieal servant , 
W. FARQUHAR. 
Malacca, 29th January 1816. | 
Major Farquhar’s account, after a detailed description of 
the dentition and dimensions of the animal, is as follows :— 
“The tapir (called tinnoo by the Malays) is an animal, 
which I believe has hitherto been considered, by the natural- 
‘ists as being peculiar to the New World; it will however 
ss appear abundantly evident from the present account, that this 
‘isa mistake; and that aspecies at least of this quadruped is 
t common to many of the forests on the Malay Peninsula, and 
"par ticularly so in the vicinity of Malacca, being as well known 
‘to the natives there as the elephant or rhinoceros. The tapir 
“ of Malacca, although differing in some essential points from 
‘that of America, cannot, I conceive, be considered but as a 
“variety of the same genus of quadruped. 
¢¢ 
Jour. Straits Branch 
