NOTES ON MALAY HISTOBY. 161 



early as the lOfch. century simply because a Chinese coin of that 

 period has ben found there. But on the facts it does seem 

 probable that there was a trading station there considerably 

 before the middle of the 13th century. 



Colonel Gerini, in his article already referred to, has devot- 

 ed a good deal of ingenious speculation and conjecture to the 

 question of the antiquity of Singapore in pre-Malay times. But 

 I fear that the conclusions he arrives at are merely hypotheti- 

 cal. They depend largely on suggested etymologies of local 

 names which do not carry conviction. If, however, he is right 

 fas I think he probably is) in his theory that there was once 

 an old Mon-Khmer trading station on the island of Singapore, 

 it is certain that it must have been abandoned somewhere 

 about the middle of the 13th century (if not earlier). For at 

 that period the Siamese became finally the masters of the 

 whole Menam valley and a generation or so later Ligor, as 

 wellasTenasserim and Tavoy, became tributary to the Siamese 

 kingdom whose capital was at Sukhothai. *Colonel Gerini 

 claims that about 1280 A. D. the Siamese conquered not mere- 

 ly Ligor but the whole of the Malay Peninsula. One can 

 only say that up to the present there is no sufficient evidence 

 to support such a claim. If they conquered it then, why did 

 they let it go again a few generations later? 



Although there seems to be no sufficient reason for believ- 

 ing that the Siamese ever subdued the whole of the Peninsula, 

 there is evidence that at this period they came into conflict with 

 the Malays. In the History of the Yuan dynasty there is an 

 entry stating that in the first year of the period Yuan-Cheng 

 (i.e. 1295) an embassy was,sent by Siam to the court of China, 

 on which occasion " as the Siamese had for a long time past 



been at war with the Jffj|i-Jpy3 (Malays), both peoples 



submitted (i.e. to the majesty of China) and an Imperial order 

 was issued to the Siamese saying : ' Do no hurt to the Malays, 

 so that you may keep your promise'." This entry is quoted in 

 Bowring's Kingdom and People of Siam, Vol. I, p. 71 and has 



♦Gerini, Historical Retrospect of Junkceylon Island, in Jonrnal 

 of the Siam Society, 1905, p. 131. 



R. A. Soc, No. 53. 1909 ■ 



*11 



