PAET I 
THE MALAY PENINSULA. 
CHAPTER I, 
The Malay Peninsula, known to the natives as " The 
Malay Land " (Tdtiah Maldyu), is the southernmost extremity 
of the great peninsular region of In do- Chin a, or Further India, 
to which it is connected by the prolonged Isthmus of Kra 
(Kraw). In the narrowest neck of it, at River Pakshan, lies the 
South boundary of British Burma. To the South of Kra, 
the Peninsula projects for about 600 miles. It runs almost 
parallel with the northern end of Sumatra, and terminates at 
Cape Romania, (Rnmmta), in latitude i'' 23' N. Geologi- 
cally speaking, the Asian extremity extends to Billiton (Bilttong), 
and ifi eludes the three Archipelagoes of Bentan, Lingga and 
Banka, now cut off from the main. On the North, the boundary 
is British Burma ; and on the other sides, the Peninsula is 
surrounded by the waters of the Straits of Malacca and the 
Gulf of Siam. li gradually widens from about 40 miles at 
the isthmus to upwards of 3° of longitude, or about 200 miles, 
between the Dindings and TringgSnu ; and then contracts 
again to an average breadth of less than 100 miles in 
Johor. The area of the whole Peninsula, South of Kra, is 
somewhat over 70,000 square miles, being rather smaller 
than Great Britain, with an estimated population** of 1,200,000 
* The (Wtimate of 050,000 in the otherwise careM article on the Malay Peninsula in the 
new Encyclopffidiji BriUnnica, Vo). XV, ifi certainly mucli below the mark. The Colony 
and its dependent Native Rtsitefl now almost reach that number. Four of the iteme which 
jfoto maice up that writer b tot«,I are j^wajt^/ to be vmderfitatcd+ viz.;— .Straita Scttlf raent# , 
:!14.0nO(l8flr): Kflantjm, 'JO,nr;f>: Jnhor. 20,0fM>: Pt>rnk. nO,<"lon. (.*/r pp, 
