NOTES ON MALAY HISTOKY. 145 



Mada's declared policy of conquest, except that in 1357 A.D. 

 he picked a quarrel with the Sundanese which ended in a 

 bloody battle wherein they were defeated and slaughtered, and 

 that in the same year an expedition from Majapahit conquered 

 Dompo. " Thereupon, " we are told, " Gajah Mada again 

 made use of palapa." 



Are we entitled to infer that the whole of this great min- 

 ister's programme of aggressive imperialism had been carried 

 out at that date ? Alas, no : for we know from Chinese sources 

 that Palembang was not conquered till 1377 A.D., nine years 

 after Gajah Mada's death' (which the Pararaton puts in Caka 



1290, i. e. 1368 A.D.). It would seem that he was not par- 

 ticular in adhering to the very letter of his vow (assuming it 

 to be correctly-reported) but was content to put up with an 

 instalment of his ambitious plan. Unfortunately the Parara- 

 ton thus leaves us in the dark as to the precise date when 

 Singapore was taken and destroyed ; but it makes it plain that 

 the event must have happened in the 14th and not, as the old 

 chronology has it, in the 13th century. I have already men- 

 tioned the fact that the Hikayat Raja-raja Pasei puts the 

 conquest of " the dominions of the king of Ujong Tanah " 

 shortly after that of Palembang. But it does not specifically 

 mention Singapore, though its list of the islands conquered 

 on this occasion includes Timbalan, Siantan ' (in the original, 

 Siatan), Jemaja, Bunguran, Serasan, Subi, Pulau Laut, Tiom- 

 an, Pulau Tinggi, Pemanggilan, Karimata, Belitong, Bangka, 

 Lingga, Riau, Bintan and Bulang. 



III. The Evidence of the " Nagarakretagama." 



Probably we shall never know the exact date of the fall 

 of Singapore. But the evidence available may at any time be 

 strengthened by some accidental discovery of a hitherto un- 

 known record. Such a discovery occurred a few years ago 

 when the Nag-arakretagaina unexpectedly turned up. This is 

 a panegyric poem composed' ''according to the Encyclopaedic 

 van Nederlandsch-Indie) in the year 1365 A.D. by a Javanese 

 court poet, a Buddhist bearing the name of Prapanncha, in hon- 



R. A. Soc, No. 53j I90Q. 



*10 



