62 NOTES ON MALAY HISTORY. 



been discussed by the late Professor Schlegel in T'oung Pao, Vol. 

 IX, No. 4. *He thinks that it must refer to the Malays of the 

 Peninsula : it does not seem likely that the Siamese could have 

 had prolonged hostilities with Sumatra at this period. I think 

 he is right as to that point and interpret the entry as recording 

 the fact that when the Siamese, after asserting their supremacy 

 over Ligor, pressed further southward into the northern parts 

 of the Peninsula, they came into conflict with the Malays who 

 had already at that time colonised the country. This would 

 throw back the beginnings of regular Malay settlement in the 

 Peninsula well into the middle of the 13th century, if not 

 earlier, and I see no reason why that should not be so. At 

 any rate it is quite certain that Mr. Wilkinson's 1-400 A. D. is 

 much too late. Malacca was not, in point of time, the first 

 Malay settlement on the mainland; it rose rapidly to a position 

 of predominance which overshadowed its older neighbours, but 

 it by no neans marks the beginnings of Malay immigration in- 

 to the Peninsula. 



Here I must take leave of this subject. It may be con- 

 venient if I state briefly the general conclusions which the 

 evidence here adduced appears to me to establish. They are 

 as follows: — 



(1) that the Malay colonisation of the Peninsula was already 



in progress in the 13th century; 



(2) that Singapore, as a Malay settlement, was founded in that 



century (or possibly even earlier); 



(3) that Singapore was still in existence throughout the first 



60 or 70 years of the 14th. century and must have been 

 conquered and destroyed by the Javanese of Majapahit 

 shortly after 1377 A. D. 



(4) that Malacca was not founded till 'some short time after 



1377 A. D. 



(5) that the reigning family of Malacca did not become 



converted to Muhammadanism until very near the end 

 of the 14th century 



*Pelliot, loc. cit. p. 242, gives the same entry as veil as a Dum- 

 ber of others' (p. 324 et seq.) mentioning the Malays. I have followed 

 his version. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



