TRACKS OF THi' ORIGIN OF THE-MALAY KINGDOM 
5! f> 
tan, which had a considerable maritime population when Sang Nila, 
Utama (afterwards called Sri Tnbudna) of Plembang settled there 
fare of his own that the Bfaha Meru of the Malay historians was the moun¬ 
tain of Sungei Pagu in the Menangkabau country, and that the adventurers 
who established Singapura were from the suku Malayo in that country “one 
of the four great tribes.”* Mr. Crawford adopts this conjecture*}- and, 
misled by Blarsden’s loose transcript or imperfect comprehension of Va- 
lentyn’s notice of the sukus, tells us that the parent race, that is the Ble- 
nangkabaus, consist of these four tribes, the fact being that they are the 
sukus not of Menangkabau but of the country of the Sapulo Bua Bander to 
the south, which lies around Gunong Sungi Pagu. In Blarsden’s and Raf¬ 
fles’ maps of Sumatra the inland part of this country is a perfect blank, the 
name being erroneously confined to its maritime division. The number 
of sukus or clans is very great and their names are various. Thus theMa- 
lays’of Padang belong to 8 distinct sukus, one of which is also named Mala- 
yu. But Mr. Crawford does not rest his opinion merely on Marsden’s mis¬ 
interpretation of the Dutch authorities. "I his great authority goes fur¬ 
ther, and declares that we may believe the universal assertion of the 
Malays themselves that all the Malayan tribes, wherever situated, emi¬ 
grated directly or indirectly from Menangkahau.§ Our own enquiries 
however satisfy os that neither the Malay histories, nor the belief of 
the Malays, support the opinion that Singapura was founded by a swarm 
ihiown off by the inland people of Blenangkabau itself. Singapura, as 
slated in the text, was founded by Malays from Bentan, and the Malays of 
the Peninsula at this day so far from considering the Orang Menangka¬ 
bau, including those of the Sungei Pago Malayo, as Orang Mal&yu, re¬ 
gard them as a distinct though allied people. Although there can be no 
doubt that both originated from the same stock, there are differences in 
manners, institutions and even to a certain extent in language, which, even 
without reference to their traditions and opinions, would render it doubt¬ 
ful to our mind, that the Malays of the principal states of the Peninsula are 
descended from the Orang Blenangkabau. The existence of a suku Mala- 
yu in Menangkabau, which is the foundation of Blarsden’s conjecture, 
proves nothing in itself as to the origin of the word, because if a consi¬ 
derable number of Malays from Sungai Malayu in Plembang resorted to 
Menangkabau the rulers of the latter would have placed them in a se¬ 
parate Suku. The same policy is followed by the Menangkabaus of the 
Peninsula, and both there and in Sumatra sukus are generally named from 
the places where the clan had its first origin. The Blenangkabau tradi¬ 
tions derive their kings, and even the first inhabitants of Sumatra, from 
the country extending frem the Plembang to the Indragiri, and Malay 
histories relate that Sangsapurba from Plembang after visiting Java and 
Bentan ascended the Indragiri or Kuantan and was chosen by the Ble- 
nangkabaus for their king. Plembang did not even form part of the region 
over which Menangkabau extended its dominion in ancient times. (Tijd- 
schrift v. Neerl. Ind. vol. ii. p 29.) BIr. Blarsden’s conjecture that by 
Bfaha BJeru or Bukit Saguntang-Guntang the mountain of Sungei Pago is 
to be understood requires no other comment than that it is a mere sup¬ 
position, unsupported by evidence, and contradictory of the Malayan his¬ 
tories which were his only authority for a derivation of the Blalays of 
the Peninsula from Sumatra. As this eminently candid and sagacious 
author had only seen the Dutch abstracts of these histories he could not 
have been aware of the extent to which his hypothesis departs from them. 
* History of Sumatra, p, 830. 
f History of the India Archipelago vol. it. p. 375, 0. § Ih, p. 372. 
