ABSTRACT
THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF SUM ATRA,’ AND CONCERNING PID E R, A CITY IN SUMATRA.
They say that in this district thei’e is the best port of the whole island, which I have already told you is in cireumPortuguese first arrived in the waters o f the Archipelago, just as they do at the present day. That people describes them as having existed also for two centuries and a half before that event, as without doubt they did in times far earlier. Thus De Barros describes the first class o f Malays as ‘ men living by trade, and the most cultivated o f these parts the second as * a vile people,’ whose c dwelling was more on the sea than the land,’ and who ‘ lived by fishing and r o b b e r y a n d the third as * half savages’ (quasi meios salvages,) while the Malay language was common to all o f them.” Id., p. 250.
