£4 GEOGRAPHY. 



k. h., Mr. J. W. Birch and Mr. Daly"— scale 15 miles to 1 inch; 

 and it was " Lithd. at the Qr. Mr. Genl's Dept. under the 

 direction of Lt.-Col. R. Home c. b. e. e." It is much to be 

 regretted that no separate copies of this excellent map were 

 procured. The similar but less correct map published on the 

 part of the local Government, and received out here towards the 

 end of 1876, met with a rapid sale, the whole issue having 

 long 1 since been disposed of. Many applications have been made 

 in vain for further copies, especially during the present year; 

 and I feel little doubt that, apart from the crying want of a good 

 map on a large scale for educational purposes, there will be nu- 

 merous private purchasers to recoup any expenses of publica- 

 tion which may thus be incurred by Government, or by the 

 Society if disposed to venture on such an undertaking. And 

 even if copies could still be procured of either map of 1876 

 I should recommend a re-publication; so many of the inaccuracies 

 having now been corrected, and no small portion of the blank 

 spaces having' been filled in with fresh particulars. 



Before I turn to the explorations, extending over a period 

 of half a century (1825-75), to which such knowledge of the Pe- 

 ninsula as we possess is mainly due, I will briefly refer to the 

 charts of the old Navigators, so far as I know them. But I 

 must here state that our Raffles Library is extremely deficient in 

 old "Travels/' and that I cannot hope to give anything like a com- 

 plete view of the growth of our knowledge. The earliest ac- 

 counts of the Peninsula, as a whole and accompanied with Maps, 

 are those of the French traveller de la Loubere, and the English 

 navigator Captain Dampier,* who appear to have been in these 

 parts at the same time (1686), though without meeting 1 or even 

 hearing- of each other. I have not succeeded in finding* a copy 

 of Loubere's Map, but Major McNair, who saw a copy in Eng- 

 land, thus refers to it in his book " Sarong and Kris 7 ' (p. 345) : — 

 " In De La Loubere's book is a quaint but very correct Map 

 of the Malayan Peninsula, prepared by M. Cassini, the Director 

 of the Observatory of Paris in 1688, from which is gathered 

 the fact that Perak then continued to be looked upon as second 

 only to Malacca on the Western coast. The River Perak is not 

 very correct in its representation, being made more to resemble 



* Our English Cosmographer Hakluyt, who, like Barros, never travelled 

 himself but devoted his life to promoting the discovery of unknown lands, 

 was probably the first Englishman to map out the Straits in his " very rare 

 Map" of 1599, a copy of which is in the British Museum. In the second 

 volume of " Navigations," published the same year, he refers to " the isles 

 of Nicubar, Gomes Polo, and Pulo Pinaom " (Pinang?) to the maine land 

 of Malacca, and to the kingdom of Junsalaon." (Jurk Ceylcn ?) 



