ABSTRACT

A careful perusal of the geographical literature of the ancient Chinese has shown that they have not gained their knowledge of south-eastern Asia by bold voyages of discovery; slowly and cautiously they have crept along its shores, probably not venturing to a country before they had become acquainted with it by others. This chapter discusses the history of the first Sung dynasty, the Liang dynasty, the Yüan dynasty, and the Ming dynasty. Ku-kang is the same country which was formerly called San-bo-tsai; it is also called Palembang, and is under the supremacy of Java. Indragiri is a country under the control of Java; its circumference is very small and it does not contain more than a thousand families. Malacca is situated in the south; originally it was a dependency of Siam, but afterwards the chief, who was in charge of the country revolted against his master and made himself independent.