THE 
JOURNAL 
OF 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
AND 
EASTERN ASIA. 
A TRANSLATION OF THE KEDDAH ANNALS 
TERMED MARONG MAHAWANGSA; 
AND 
SKETCHES OF THE ANCIENT CONDITION OF SOME OF THE 
NATIONS OF EASTERN ASIA, WITH 
REFERENCES TO THE MALAYS. 
By Lieut-Col. James Low, c. m. r. a s. & m. a s b. 
The writings of Leyden, Raffles, Marsden and Crawfurd 
did much to dispel the mist, which shrouded the regions of 
Eastern Asia and the Eastern Archipelago from the gaze 
of the inquirer after ethnographical and other interesting 
pursuits, and of late years considerable light has been thiown. 
on the histories of Tndo-china, and China, by various writers, 
either publishing separately, or in the Journal of the Asiatic 
Society of Calcutta, and we have specimens from the pen of 
the talented Editor of the Journal in which this paper will 
appear, which exhibit what may yet be effected by a combi¬ 
nation of industry and capacity, when brought to bear on 
the many barriers which the ignorance and barbarism of the 
Indo-chinese nations and Eastern islanders, oppose to our 
progress towards truth. 
Much information may now lie concealed in Native manu¬ 
scripts, but the means for extracting it are but scanty, for 
few will take the trouble of learning languages for the mere, 
and doubtful, chance of finding them lead to some desirable 
literary or antiquarian result. For the examination of the 
more recondite Pali in all its forms, scarcely any help can be 
obtained from the Priests or Laity of Indo-china or the 
VOL, HI. NO, I. JANUARY, 1849. A 
