S M A T R A. i 
ftriking partlciiWs' in the manners of the people, to be no other than 
Sumatra ; as I think will appear to any inve£Ugator who is acquainted 
with the country.* 
At length the Portuguefe expedition in the eaflerti Teas, made- this Indemitjr^de- 
ifland known to the reft of the world, pointing out its fituation and cha- thePortuguJfe. 
raster, with as much accuracy as attended their other difcoveries;-}- and 
which the experience of later ages has determined with more prccifton, 
as follows. 
Sumatra is an ifland in the Eaft Indies ; the nioft weftern of thofe Situation.: 
clalTed by geographers under the diftindtion of S/mda iflands, and con- 
Hi tutes, on that fide, the boundary of the eaftern Archipelago. 
It's genw-iai HJre^lion is nearly north weft and fouth eaft. The equator 
bife<^s it in almoft equal parts, the one cxiimuUy bcin^ iji five degrees 
thirty three minutes, north, and the other, in five degrees fifty ftx 
minutes fouth latitude. Fort Marlborough, or Ooj&n^ Carrmg^ in la- 
titude three degrees, forty fix minutes, fouth, the only point whofe 
longitude has been determined by actual obfervation, is found to lie 
one hundred and two degrees eaft of Greenwich; J but the fituation of 
Acheen Head alfo, is pretty accurately fixed by computation, at ninety 
five degrees, thirty four minutes ; and the longitudes in the Straits of 
Sunda are well afcer rained, by the Ihort runs from Batavia, which city 
has the advantage of an obfervatory. Sumatra lies expofed on the 
fouth wea to the'gteat Indian Ocean ; the north point ftretches into 
the Bay of Bengal ; to tne aoio* u ;« rJJvtrIM fr/*>m the Pcninfuk 
of MalayOy by the Straits of Malacca ; to the eaft, by the Straits of 
Bama^ from the ifland of that name ; to the fouth eaft, by the com- 
• Occafion win be taken in the feg^uel, to examine ioto the authenticity of this curious, bttt 
obfcure author's relation, 
t SeeOforiust Maffeus: De Barros, 
X Preparatory to an obfervation of the tranfit of the planet Venus ovcf the fun*a difc, in 
June 1769, Mr. Robert Naime deterniined the lohgitudc of Fort Marlborough, by ccliprcs of 
Jupiter's fatellitei, to be ioi<^.^z*.^f eail from London} which was aftcrwuTds conre^ed by the 
Aftronomer Royal to 101°. 
mencemcot 
