1832.] 
ISLAND OP SUMATRA. 
133 
it by modern writers. In the original Hebrew, the word signifies 
ashes* It is generally supposed that the Arabians first discovered 
Sumatra, about the year 1173, and gave to it the name of 
Ramni. The writings of the great Venetian traveller, Marco 
Paulo, pubhshed in the year 1269, and so long looked upon as 
fabulous, do, nevertheless, bear many internal evidences of being 
descriptive of this island. It was the Portuguese, however, in 
their expedition to the east, under the command of Alphonso de 
Albuquerque, in the year 1510, who first gave to Sumatra its 
place upon the charts, and made its actual existence known to the 
rest of the world. 
Sumatra, which is one of the largest islands on the globe, is the 
most westerly of that group called by geographers Sunda Islands. 
It is computed to be more than nine hundred miles in length, and 
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty in breadth. But though 
this island, as we have said, was known to the Arabian voyagers 
before the completion of the twelfth, century, and has since that 
period been so much frequented by the Portuguese, Dutch, Eng- 
* Among other arguments which have been adduced in favour of Sumatra and 
Ophir being the same, we recollect the following : — In the days of Peleg, the sixth 
from Noah, " the earth was divided" between the patriarch's then numerous de- 
scendants. Among the divisions, it is written, speaking of the sons of Javan or 
Java, " By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands ; every one 
after his tongue, after their families in the nations." From this passage some 
writers infer, that the islands of Java, and Sumatra might have fallen to the lot of 
*' the sons of Javan" They say that Peleg's brother Jocktan had thirteen sons, 
one of whom he called Ophir, and another Havilah : — " and their dwelling was from 
Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east." Whether this may be 
Mount Ophir, in Sumatra, is of course a mere matter of conjecture. The same 
sacred historian, in speaking of Havilah, adds — " where there is gold, and the gold 
of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone." It was to Ophir that 
King Solomon sent a navy, built expressly for that purpose, on the shores of the 
Red Sea, which is an estuary of the Indian Ocean. This navy was manned by 
Hiram's servants, *' shipmen that had knowledge of the sea," who were accom- 
panied by the servants of Solomon. " And they came to Ophir, and fetched from 
thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon." 
" And the navy also of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir 
great plenty of almug-trees and precious stones." But notwithstanding this navy 
was manned by " shipmen that had knowledge of the sea," the voyage to Ophir, 
wherever that country might be, occupied nearly three years : — " once in three years 
came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks." 
Sumatra, it will be seen, abounds with valuable trees, gold, ivory, apes, and the argos 
pheasant, far exceeding the peajcock in the beauty of its plumage. 
r 
