five to the building of the fort. Its tenor is as 

 follows, Three years after the Portuguese had 

 taken Malacca, an order carae from the king of 

 Portugal that they should build a fort at Malac* 

 ca^ like the one at Goa. The Portuguese straight- 

 way employed the Malays at Malacca in bring- 

 ing iron stones from Quallo Litiggy, Pulo Api, 

 Battoo Bras, Pulo Jara, Pu!o Mas, Pringgit,* 

 Bukit Bruang, and from the interior. Thirty 

 dollars was paid for every hundred large stones, 

 and twenty for a hundred &mall ones. For lime 

 they paid fifteen dollars a koyang; for egg«» 

 to mix with their mortar, a fanam each. The 

 laborers, employed in digging the hill, got half a 

 dollar each per dtem. The Portuguese were thir- 

 ty-six years and fourteen days in the constructi- 

 on of this fort." f 



The roof-f has long beeti ofi' the "venerable 

 church of the Visitation of our Lady, *' which 

 Valentyn % tells us was inhabited by the monas- 

 tic order of Jesuits and friendly brothers : he al- 

 so mentions that there was another church dedi- 

 cated to The mother of God," on the neighbor- 

 ing hill of St- John's, but of this there are now 

 no traces, it having been probably pulled down 

 by the Dutch in order to make room for the little 

 redoubt on this hill, and the materials used in the 

 construction of the work. The interior of the 

 church is nearly covered with flat and ancient 

 tombstones, having several quaint devices carved 

 on them. The inscriptions are much obliterated 

 in consequence of their exposure to the weather, 



• A hfU near MjOucci, al pre*eiil the watof W, T. Lt^wkEnq. 

 t With the e\c<*pHoo oftlieea&rejid, or dymcel, which bu loag bef» 

 cofiverted into a magazine. 



X VtlfDiyn, Bodt Ctb, CInpter J«. page 309. 



