1850.] 



of Continental India, Sfc. 



109 



and coincidences on this point : intentionally, and laboriously so ; 

 and only defective from the able writer's want of personal ac- 

 quaintance with the ancient iTa^'language, and of Hindu history, 

 languages, and poetry. I have seldom met with a work so full of 

 interest as this, in various places, was to me. Colonel Macken- 

 zie's essays, on the same topic, as regards Java I have not seen, 

 and know not where to procure them. However, I anticipate 

 nothing material as to loss, in that particular: the substance be- 

 ing, I believe, that the Colonel considered the sculptured anti- 

 quities in Java to be chiefly of Jain, or Bauddhist, origin. The 

 deficiency under which the preceding other authors have labored 

 is a want of fall knowledge, on both sides of the comparison ; and 

 this deficiency must still, to some degree, exist ; unless, an anti- 

 quarian from Java could visit, and explore India, or vice versa .- or 

 unless two competent persons, well informed on either side of the 

 question, could meet to compare notes. At the same time the 

 materials of comparison, on the more eastern side of the question, 

 are tolerably complete ; and those on the Indian side require to be 

 more fully adduced. Hence it will be seen, that the matter in 

 hand is to bring, from the authorities alluded to, various scattered 

 vestiges, into comparison with each other, condensing matter in 

 many bulky volumes into brief compass ; and then to compare 

 this abstract with the Indian side of the evidence : bringing forth, 

 from this last comparison, the conclusion, hinted at by various 

 writers, with the greater conclusiveness ; and as a guide to further 

 inquiries, where the subject may still remain shrouded with some 

 obscurities. 



It appears to me that it will be best to adduce seriatim the in- 

 formation which I have met with ; and afterwards to adduce, on 

 the testimony of each evidence, what I may have to offer of my 

 own. Marsden's history of Sumatra seems to be appropriately 

 the first in order. 



He tells us that Edrisi a Mahomedan writer speaks of So- 

 borma, evidently Borneo ; Marco Polo of Malabar, supposed to 

 be the Malayan kingdom of ''Sing apur 'a ; Odoricus a friar men- 

 tions Sumoltra ; the Ilinerarum Portugalentis* notices an Island 



* In a Portuguese manuscript I met with the word Sumatra in the sense of a storm 

 on water. The word is not found in Vieyra's Dictionary, nor have I seen it in print. 



