A TRANSLATION OP THE KEDDAH ANNALS. 173 
about 40 miles further south, receded from 5 to about 100 yards 
in some places, while the land has lost as much in others. The 
word “ populous’' as employed by our author conveys no definite 
idea of the population of Keddi, at the period. Looking at the 
first area actually, by his account, occupied by the mere colony, 
I would be inclined not to rate it in RajA Podis&t’s time in the 
beginning of his reign, beyond 1,000 souls at the utmost, exclusive 
of the aboriginal inhabitants, or Girgassi. There seems to be a 
little too much of adaptation in the number of children assigned 
to Rajd Podisat, as it just meets the number desired by his father 
M£rong M£ l t£w£iig*£. This supposition is based on that of the 
colonists having consisted of the passengers of one ship only, and 
as the Girgassi chiefs asserted that the populous, or overpopulous 
state of Kedd& arose from the increase of their tribes, not of 
foreigners. 
If the description we here find of the attention paid by the 
Kedd£ Rajahs to the education of their children be correct, it will 
forcibly contrast with the culpable and aparhetical indifference 
exhibited by most of the Malayan Raj&s of the present day, for 
their sons receive little or no education befitting their station, but 
only such as to render them piratical abroad, and cruel and op¬ 
pressive to their subjects at home. There is however one part of 
education which is never neglected, a scrupulous attention to the rules 
of politeness, which in after life too frequently merger in a morbid 
sensitiveness, alike afraid of giving offeme by speech, andready to 
take offence at every fancied slight. It is a cloak too amongst 
the unprincipled portion of the Malays to treachery and revenge. 
There is now no predominant Malayan power. Were the 
shattered fragments of the original dynasties to be left to them¬ 
selves, without the checks of the Dutch on the one hand, and the 
British on the other, a dreadful scene of anarchy would ensue. 
Wherever a new settlement is formed a fort and ditch and a palace 
are the three things first attended to. The Girgassi were governed 
by a woman, and the chieftainess, Nang Soottaman, came it ap¬ 
pears from a distance , so that it is to be supposed that Kedda was 
not the seat of her authority, but where that was doer not appear. 
The horses alluded to may have been got from either Achin or 
Pegu, the latter is the most probable supposition, the Sumatran 
ponies being too small for warlike evolutions. But this continent 
southward of Ava has never been adapted to cavalry. The dis¬ 
tance allowed by our author from Kedd& to Siam Lanchang k 200 
days, and this would be more than sufficient for a journey to the 
present capital of Siam, The sea however directly to the eastward 
of Kedda can be reached in 7 or 8 day.*. The direction could not 
have been directly to the N. N. W. This must be a mistake as it 
would lead to the Bay of Bengal. It is stated that several districts 
would not submit to the kingdom of Siam almost inferring that 
the country was not a new one as here attempted to be shewn* 
