68 THE MALACCA SULTANATE. 
first time in the records of contemporary nations. The town in 
those early days was a walled or stockaded cluster of huts upon St. 
Paul’s Hill; and right in the heart of the place there was built a 
wooden godown or store in which goods were warehoused for 
safe keeping pending the arrival of a trading coaster or junk. The 
currency was tin; the trade was in tin, resin, and jungle-produce. 
The local Chief, a Hindu by faith, styled himself paramisura or 
king, but a few years later he became a Muhammadan and took 
the name of © Sultan Muhammad Shah, the Shadow of God upon 
Earth.” He was a keen man of business and made at least one 
voyage to China in pursuit of his own ends. 
Almost all the present Sultans of Malaya—outside Ses 
‘claim descent from the Paramisura who reigned over the godown 
on the slopes of St. Paul's Hill. To this day, when the casual 
visitor walks from the landing-steps to the Stadthouse he can-see 
on the slopes of the hill a weird image that an expert will tell him 
is a Makara, a monster of Hindu mythology, the sole surviving relic 
of the time when the Ruler of Malacca was still a Hindu. Among 
the regalia of one of the Peninsular Sultans he may also look upon 
a silver seal, a reputed relic of the Paramisura’s later years since it 
bears the name of the “illustrious Sultan Muhammad Shah, God’s 
Shadow upon earth.” But the courtly genealogists of our Malayan 
princely houses do not stop at Muhammad Shah; they trace his 
pedigree through a long line of earlier kings, rulers of Singapore and of 
Palembang, to Chosroes the Great, King of Parthia; to Alexander 
of Macedon, King of Rome; to Darius and Artaxerxes, Kings of 
- Persia; to Jamshid and Kai Kaius and Kai Kubad, Kings of 
Romance; as far as Kaiomerz, ‘son of Adam and elder brother of 
Seth,” for it is to Seth that the meaner branches of humanity owe 
their origin. But The Paramisura himself knew nothing of this; 
he was not a genealogist; he had an eye for realities. He went 
submissively to China with his tribute of tin and jungle-produce, 
- accepting in return raiment embroidered with dragons or unicorns, 
girdles of precious stones, gold and silk and paper money. One 
quaint old piece of embroidery in the ownership of a modern Penin- 
sular Sultan seems to date back to the time when the Ruler of 
China honoured the Paramisura with dragons of gold and gems. 
The line of trader-princes did not die with Muhammad Shah. 
His son, Iskandar Shah, paid two visits to China, one in 1414 and 
‘the other in A. D. 1419. Iskandar Shah died in A. D. 1424 and was 
- sueceeded by “Sri Maharaja,’ otherwise Ahmad Shah, another 
merchant-king. In the days of its poverty, Malacca had been a 
village of mean huts served by humble dug-outs, but the visits of 
- the great Chinese junks made it grow into a trysting-place for the 
traders of the Eastern seas. Whole colonies of strangers flocked to 
the port from Java, from Burma and even from distant Madras. 
Suburbs sprang into existence. Bandar Hilir began as a Javanese 
settlement ; so did Kampong Upeh (Tranquerah); the Tamils and 
the Burmese had also quarters of their own. St Paul’s Hill was 
Jour. Straits Branch 
