390 



A notice -of the Malayan Code. 



[Oct. 



XVI. — A ?ioti'ce of the Malm/an Code. — By Lieutenant 

 T. J. Newbold, a. D. c. 



According to Malayan tradition the world was, from a very early 

 period, divided into three great empires, among which Mahomedan 

 writers give precedence to that of Hum ; the empire of Chin or China, 

 holds the second place, and that of Palo mas the golden island, or 

 empire of Menangkuboive, the third. This last is situated in the island 

 of Semut-raya or Sumatra. From it the Malays trace their origin, 

 their laws civil and criminal, their forms of government, state etiquette, 

 Sec. ; also rules for the division of lands by boundary marks and the 

 classification of the people into tribes or Sukus. This empire is absurdly 

 alleged by Mahometans to have been founded by a descendant of 

 Alexander the Great. It nourished during a considerable time in great 

 splendour: the religious veneration in which it is held to the present day 

 by Malays, and its ancient local remains, certainly indicate a high com- 

 parative state of former civilization. 



Emigration, the natural result of increased population and pros- 

 perity, took place during the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the 

 christian era, and probably at a much earlier period, not only to various 

 places on the east and west coasts of Sumatra, but also to the island of 

 Singapura and the extremity of the Malay peninsula, "Ujong Tannah." 

 Thence expelled by the invaders from Majapahit (A. H. 650) the settlers 

 proceeded, after various vicissitudes, to Malacca, where they finally 

 settled and founded a city [A. H. 673], afterwards famed as the wealthy 

 metropolis of the spicy east, and now sunk into insignificance. 



Prior to the founding of Malacca, these adventurous colonists, who, 

 like the Greeks, early distinguished themselves as a maritime people, 

 had gradually overspread the coast on both sides of the peninsula, 

 until they found themselves checked in their progress to the northward 

 by the ancient and powerful kingdom of Siam, which, both politically 

 and geographically, crests the Malayan states. Foiled here, and stimu- 

 lated by mercantile and piratical speculations, they turned the prows of 

 their vessels eastward, and effected settlements on the most fertile of 

 the beautiful and verdant islands which begem the bosom of the Malay 

 archipelago. The spicy Moluccas and isles of the Sulu archipelago, 

 did not escape their notice ; repassing the equator they may be traced 

 through the sea of Banda — southwards and eastwards along the west- 

 ern coast of New Guinea, by the isles of Arroo and Timor to the con- 

 fines of Austral Asia. 



In course of time these widely separated colonies, adopting partly 

 the manners of, and intermarrying with, the various nations they were 

 thrown among, found themselves under the necessity of adopting 



