S Hr M A T R A. 
drafted Jtfmt Miffionaryj mentions, that when file atf Ahthcin^f 
fo late as 1546, the people were then beginning to learn to write front 
the Arabians : But that ifl-and lies very far to the ealhvard ; and Being 
of lefs confiderable account in that age, than fubfeqnent tranfa<5tioQ9 
hare rendered' it^ the zeal and avarice of thofe religious adventurcTs, did 
not happen to be earlier at t rafted thither. 
The inhabitants of Menattgcakw did not only change their religion ; 
or rather adopted one, where there was none before 5 but an entire al- 
teration was Ukewife wrought in their language. Laws, cuftoms, and 
manners. This has indifputably been effeded^ by the fettling among 
them of Mdlays from the peninfula, with whom the former correfpond, 
at this day, in every point of referablance; infomuch, that throughout 
the ifland, a Mtnangcahow man, and a Malay ^ are nearly fynonimoua 
terms ; includijyg in the limits of that kingdom, the iea coaft of Atay* 
mighh^ whence they more immediately emigrate to the fouthern parts. 
They traTe no wheat, bfut ufe rice for bread. They ajre appstreotly without virwa, and extraQ theji* 
iiquor from a ccnain tree, in which they mike m incifioa i ibc )uice as it tiiftills, bttng received 
in a vefTcl. India ntics are likewire fourtd here. Jn the kingdom of Z^<^ij/^ (poffililythat 
called Ax'-drt^irii and which in later timts has been corrupted to Dfaguin), ihc}>eoplc frrefiivagc 
i(IoJat*rr» fjimdlt « j*nsci«-v iticiT own- ^-^^ncft uSiy Of ihcm axe fick or ii^arm^ and tticir ma- 
gicians tdl ihcjn they cannot recover, it is the pra^ice for their friends to kill them by fuflbcaiiou^ 
and then to cat their bodies, (which ihej )uftlfy by n curio«s argument). They alfo kill, and 
cat fuch ft rangers caught amongfl tliem, as cannot pay a raofom. In Lamhri (a name mentioned 
by B^oSf and other Portuguefe hiftoriana) grow? much fpicc, and certain plants by them calkd 
^yrciff which, after iranfplanting, they iet grow for ihjc<; years, and then pluck them up by the 
txjots. The inhabitants of the mounmlnoas parts have tails a palm long. tTntcora*, and other 
T,vild boafts abound here. In Fa/t/nr (perhaps Campar} grows mofl rare and exquifitc camphre, 
tllecmed equal in value to gold. The inhabitants eat rice* and draw their liqucrfrom (ires. Here 
arcfeen trees w ith a foft bark, under which \% found a wliite, nacaly fubflance that is prep:tred 
into excclicnt food, I have cmn of it many times wiiii much fatisfaftion. (fago). Fifty league* 
froln Ja'VA mttor. He the iflands of HtcutAU and AngmtiAf and from ibe latter to the gt-eat tftand 
of S^jfi^m, {C^is»J is three hundred and forty leagues Italian Edit, of jOoi, and Ficjich of 
* Atajmongiji fignifies windward i but the part of Sumatra fo called^ ejiteading from Natal to 
Prt'ia/iaft, does not, I fhould apprtbend, take it's name from it's fittiation, but from the people, 
Tfriio probably fettled there in confiderable numbers from thofe eafttm countries which lie to wind- 
ward (with regard to the North eallr monfoon) of the perrinfaia of Mnlqy&t a*!^ which are thence 
termed Alaj-afigin, as Uiofc 911 tiie weltern fide of the peaijUula, art teiiBed PtHm-eng 'tn^ 
Indeed 
