The Early History 
OF 
Singapore, Johore & Malacca; 
AN OUTLINE OF A PAPER BY G. P. ROUFFAER. 
BY Rh. O. WINSTEDT, DB. LITT. (OXON.) 
In the Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van 
Nederlandsch-Indie (Deel 77), 1921, G. P. Rouffaer, who first identi- 
fied tanah Mélayu as the basin of the Jambi, has published a start- 
ling paper on the geography of the Malaya Peninsula. It is pro- 
bable that his surmises as to the situation of Langkasuka and 
several other theories will not be accepted, but his paper should be 
in the hands of every serious student of Peninsular history. 
Rouffaer brushes aside G. Ferrand’s recent theory (Journal 
‘Asiatique, 19118) that Malacca existed, as the unreliable Gaspar 
Correa wrote, for 700 years before the coming of the Portuguese, 
under the name Malayu, Marco Polo’s Malayur. Malayur 1s only 
a Tamil form of Malayu, the original home of the Malays in Jambi. 
Would Fra Odorigo van Pordenone and Ibn Batutah have been 
silent over the existence of such an early Malacca? Would the 
Nagarakretagama (1365 A.D.), recording the conquests of Hayam 
Wuruk, the famous ruler of Majapahit, ‘have then referred to the 
Peninsula simply as Pahang? 
On the other hand it is hardly likely that in 1403 Malacca 
“belonged to Siam,” as the Ming annals say; from 1405-1413 was 
a Hindu state wnder Permaisura and becoming Mushm under 
Gujerati influence in 1414 suddenly won trade and empire. The 
Pararaton mentions two Malay princesses captured at the fall of 
Jambi and one Tuhan Wuruju (= Bongsu), a dewa-putéra (1.e. 
son of a Ksatriya dewa) of Pamelekahan or “*“‘ Malacca lands,” a 
captive in Majapahit in 1328 A.D. Again Gerini tells how 
Siamese laws enacted in 1360 A.D. cite as tributary to Siam 
“ Ujong Tanah, Malaka, Malayu, Worawari’” (Researches, 1909, 
pp. 531-2). Probably Barros (1553 A.D.) and the Séjarah Mélayu 
are right in saying that Malacca existed as early as the middle of 
the XIIth century A.D. and became a commercial centre about 
1400 A.D. owing to immigration of Malays from Singapore or 
Tumasik, the “ sea-country.” 
Barros (1558), the most rehable of Portuguese chroniclers, 
relates how one Sangesinga (? Sangyane Singha) ruler of Singa- 
pore was murdered by his ouest Permaisura, who was a fugitive 
from Hast Java owing to disturbances on the death of Pararisa 
(=O. J. Bhra Wicesa, who ascended the throne of Majapahit in 
Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc., No. 86 1922. 
