128 NOTES ON MALAY HISTORY. 



as an hundred junks with full cargoes of sago (as food) and start 

 off and by the vigor of their attack they secure what they want. 

 (Thus) in recent years they came with seventy odd junks and 

 raided Tan-ma-hsif and attacked the city moat. (The town) 

 resisted for a month, the place having closed its gates and defend- 

 ing itself, and they not daring to assault it. It happened just 

 then that an Imperial envoy was passing by (Tan-ma-hsi), so the 

 men of Hsien drew off and hid, after plundering Hsi-li."J 



According to the editor, " Hsien " was Siam, and I think 

 there is no reason to doubt that it especially referred to some part 

 of that country adjacent to the Gulf named after it. Tan-ma-hsi 

 was the old Singapura (see this Journal, No. 53, pp. 155-6). As- 

 suming these identifications to be correct, as 1 believe we are en- 

 titled to do, the above quotation suffices to establish the fact that a 

 naval expedition from Siam attacked Singapore in the first half 

 of the 14th century. That is an interesting scrap of information 

 about a period of Malay history which is otherwise almost a blank, 

 so far as real history is concerned, though of course legends and 

 traditions are not altogether lacking. Slight as the information is, 

 it fits in well with what we already knew about the relations of the 

 Siamese with the Malays of the Peninsula in this period, and it 

 confirms the view (now pretty well established) that the old 

 Singapore was a flourishing port during the first three quarters of 

 the 14th centurv. 



+ rtti 



Jour. Straits Branch 



