ayo SUMATRA. 
former of whom holds a grant under the Sultan q( Menan^cahw, of the 
feacoaft, as far fouthward as Esncouko \ though in 1613 his pofTeffions 
extended no farther than to Barreos^ and his actual claim did not reach 
beyond Padang, All the early navigators who frequented this ifland; 
of whom the molt intelligent and inquifitive was certainly the French 
commodore, BeauUeUy who arrived in 1620; fpeak of Menan^cahow \ 
either dire^Sly or indiredly ; as a place of the grcatcft importatice ; 
particularly on account of the gold trade carried on, and almoft 
n\onopolized by its inhabitants, and their fuppjying the neighbour- 
ing countries with crecfes, iire arms and cloth. As they could have no 
immediate connexion with an inland power, and the princes with whom 
their commercial concerns lay, would not be forward to fet forth the 
confequence of another flrate^by acomparifon with which their own mu£l 
fuffer, the accounts which navigators give of this empire are obfcure and 
imperfeft, and but for the gold which flowed from it towards thefea coafts, 
it probably would havepafled unnoticed in the hiflories of their voyages. 
The commodore fpeaks of the kings of Aiheenj, Palemlmngy and hidra' 
four J as independent fovereigns, but as thefe avow the delegation of their 
authority from Mtnangcahow,^ it only proves that they had, by that pe- 
riod, lhaken ofT their liibjediion to an empire, then declining from its 
meridian, and finking in the gulph of time.* 
In 
* The fuUowing inftances have CKrcumd to mc, of mention made by writers, at dftfirt-nt pe- 
riods, of ihe kiugdom of Mcnangcabow. Odoardus Bnrbofa, 1519. Kaniufio. " Sumatra* 
a moft large and b^utifal tftand, Pir^itr the pdncipal city ; Facmt Acbtm, sudCmjpart 
Menangi^bo in the cLcmtr, which \% the principal fouatain of gold — Linfchoeten, 1579* At 
Manm££thQ, sxctUent poignands made, called cretfts 5 heft weapon in all the orient. Iflan^b 
along the coaA of Sumatra, called iftands of Mirmnca&Q, Vou muft run between the iihas d*Oar* 
ixnA the land. Pat into the rflandealted tiha d*OMrSf dg Mtimncahot a high and fair land,** — ^Meoi- 
dei d©; Pinto, 1 ** Mentions foldteci. of Menan^&i>& iii an army thai invaded A$kim i^n, 153^ 
Gold cmnrported from Mmancai^ to tbc kingdom of Camp&r^ oix the vvaien of Jmnbn and 
Brete&'* — Lancaller, itoi. *' Mstiofgcabo lies eight or ten leagiies inland of Pftammi* — Bed. 
161 3« "A man arrived from M^t/iangceboo at TtcoOf and brought news from j^jtVi^rr**'— Beau* 
lietJi ** To thft eaftward of Padang lies the king<iom of MamncaU. Tht moft powerftii 
-king of rhe aA»r0g/i£ifjr T^Gder bottvernr^tpltcc %ni^*rtcco, being pofTdT^jd of the cQUutry that 
produces gold, which is 'trucked wiibthe inhabitants of i!itf«iajrir^,,£or ncc^-arms, aad *loth-" — 
J>el&«xos : publiflied about 1558. ** Malacca had the ej[uthetof {imm given to it^ on account of 
