NOTES ON MALAY HISTOEY. 141 



conquest by the Javanese of the dominions of the Raja of 

 Ujong Tanah. This latter country is of course the southern 

 extremity of the Malay Peninsula, known since the 16th century 

 as Johore, and the dominions of its Raja included a number of 

 island groups, such as the Riau-Lingga Archipelago, the Na- 

 tunas, Anambas, etc., which are duly enumerated in the Hikayat 

 Raja-raja Pasei. Now we know from Groeneveldt's Chinese 

 sources that Palembang was taken by the Javanese in the year 

 1377 A.D. The inference is that the conquest of Ujong 

 Tanah and its insular possessions (which must have included the 

 island of Singapore) took place shortly after 1377 A.D. The 

 foundation of Malacca must then be put at some intermediate 

 date between 1377 and 1400 A.D. ; and the establishment of 

 Muhammadanism in that State cannot have taken place very 

 many years belore the close of the 14th. century. When first 

 visited by Chinese envoys in the first decade of the 15th. cen- 

 tury, it was a Muhammadan State. 



II. Allusions to Malays in the " Pararaton." 



I propose here to draw attention to a few additional data 

 which confirm the conclusions already stated and throw a little 

 more light on a very obscure period of Malay history. At the 

 time of reading my paper I had not had access to the Javanese 

 historical work styled the " Pararaton " (i.e. Book of Kings), 

 which has been edited and translated (with the addition of 

 copious and valuable notes) by the late much lamented Dr. 

 J. L. A. Brandes, a most eminent authority on the history of 

 the Eastern Archipelago. This appeared in 1896 in Deel XLIX 

 of the Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van 

 Kunsten en Wetenschappen. It is a work of uncertain date 

 and authorship, but is probably in part based on more or less 

 contemporary records of the events it relates, and is certainly 

 older than 1600 A.D. It is of no great length ; but it is one of 

 the few professedly historical works in this part of the world 

 that can really lay claim to some historical value,. (Most 

 Javanese and Mala> histories are a blend throughout of 

 fact and myth ; but in the Pararaton only the beginning 

 bears the stamp of being merely legendary). It contains 



R. A. Soc, No. 53. 1909 



