381 THE POPULATION OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
Pinan? and Province 
Welleily 1 
Malacca* 
Singapore , 
.. 120,000 
.. 46.882 
.. 60,000 
Total 
L . -— 
.. 542,482 
Thus in the Straits Settlements, and the Malay Peninsula, 
we have a population moderately computed at something 
above half a million souls. 
The second group consists of the extensive island of Suma¬ 
tra, and the numerous islands which surround it. 
A great difference of opinion, even amongst the well inform¬ 
ed, exists as to the amount of population of this island, as it 
has been rated as high as seven million, and as low as two 
million persons. 
Without venturing an opinion of my own on the subject, 
it will be the better mode to cite the various authorities in 
my possession, and to compute the population from the tes¬ 
timony of unexceptionable witnesses. 
Marsden states that the different kingdoms are populous, 
but he does so in general terms, and never ventures on num¬ 
bers. * Pasumah”, he writes “ is an extensive and comparative¬ 
ly populous country.” Acheen, he calls “ extremely »’ popu¬ 
lous, and an inference may be drawn from the minute descrip¬ 
tion of the laws and customs of Rejang, Lampong and other 
countries, that the people are numerous, for such laws are 
suitable only to countries, wherein the inhabitants needed 
their protection, and they could scarcely have existed amid a 
scanty population composed of small and distant tribes 
Sir Stamford Radies from personal observation speaks of 
the dense population of the interior—vide Raffles’s Memoirs. 
On visiting Pas;eruyong, he writes as follows. “ The whole 
country from Pageruyong, as far as the eye could distinctly 
trace, was one continued scene ot cultivation, interspersed 
with towns, and villages shaded by the cocoanut and other 
fruit trees. I may safely say, that this view equalled any- 
. 1828 census gave 60,551 and in 1833-85,275. Reckoning the 
increase at this rate, we shall, in 1849, have 163,596. In moderation 1 have 
put it down at 120,000 instead ot the larger figure. 
2 The census of 1836 gave the total population of Malacca, and its territo¬ 
ry, including Waning at 37,705 souls of whom the greater proportion were 
of a 2*706 Vd 81 r,r\ d °? ,y '° 25 ’ 000 ^ ivit *g an increase in 18 years 
of U,706, vide New bold. At the same rate of increase the population may 
be reckoned as stated. [The census for 1847 was given in this Journal (voL 
11 p. 173) at 54,995. We did not recollect this in time to correct the text. 
