A TRANSLATION OF THE KEDDAH ANNALS. 
15 
betwixt Omar in the Persian Gulf and China was brisk in A. Dt 
£50 but had been carried on since A. D 450. 
I do not know upon what authority Sir S. Raffles (in his History 
of Java I think) stales that a King of Ceylon was, or the Kings of 
Ceylon weie, tributary to Rome in the year of the Hijra 601. It 
was doubtless a story invented by the Arabs. There is an account 
in the Malayan annals having reference to about the same period 
as Marong Mahawangsa’s advent—and having one point of resem¬ 
blance— that of shipwreck. 
The Son of Raja Nizam al Mulik Acbar Sha Mani Farendan, 
King of Pahali in India “ (by which is meant Calinga)” sailed 
after his father’s death for Malacca He was wrecked, but after¬ 
wards reached Malacca and visited Sultan Mahomed Shah. ( r ) 
We find in Sir S. Raffles’ History of Java ( 2 ) that a Prince of 
Rome sent [20,00r ] twenty thousand families to people that 
country—but that they were all destroyed. This would give about 
80,000 souls, allowing four persons to a family. But whence they 
came is not sj eeified. Although this account may be an error in 
the traditions of Java, its possibility might not be questionable, pro¬ 
vided it could be shown that the Romans exercised a controul over 
a portion of India. That Rome might have in such event had Cey¬ 
lon at one i eriod amongst its tributary or nominally tributary King¬ 
doms might have been possible, for we find that the Romans carried 
on a regular trade to India from 400 to 350 B. C. up to 650 A.D. 
when Islamism came in their way. There was an Embassy from 
Ceylon to Claudius at Rome ( 3 ) and they had at the last date 
a factory, defended by two Coharts of 1,200 men, at Muziris, on 
the Bombay side of India—and also had built there a temple to 
Augustus ( 4 ) and there were Indian Astrologers at Rome in 50 
A. D The Ambassadors from S. India informed the Emperor of 
China Seu an Woo that India carried on a trade with the Roman 
Empire and Syria about 500 to 516 A. D. ( 5 ) An Embassy was 
sent by King Porus of India to Augustus who was then in Spain 
in B, C. 24. Xerxes had a large body of Hindoos (? Buddhists) 
in his service when he invaded Greece in B. C. 480. But there 
were Soothsayers according to Isaiah in the West who came from 
India about B. C. 700. When Alexander the Grpat returned from 
his Indian expedition, a large body of Indians accompanied him 
with their families. ( 6 ) 
(2) All early nations drew omens from the Crow or Raven of 
( T ) Leydens Mai. An. 
( 2 ) P. 65 to 69. [We cannot find the passage, but Sir S. Raffles must mean 
Rum, or Constantinople. In the second vol. he mentions a colony from the 
Red Sea.— Ed.] 
^*) Vincent. 
( 4 ) A. R. vol. X. 
( 5 ) M. Landresse’s Wan Hien and Kiung Koon quoted by Mr Tournour in 
the preface to the Ceylonese MAhawaaso, 
(*) A. R, vol. IX, 
