A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language : with a preliminary ...

DTSSEKTATION. xlv
the Archipelago to the emporia of the west, where they
bartered them with the traders of Western Asia, for the
manufactures and produce of the latter, without themselves ever
going beyond the limits of their own seas. Barbosa enu-
merates the commodities which were, at the time of his visit,
brought to Malacca, then one of the principal emporia. They
were camphor, aloes-wood, white sandal wood, benzoin or
frankincense, black pepper, cubeb pepper, the clove and the
nutmeg with its mace, honey, bees-wax, gold, tin, and slaves.
He adds, that the native vessels went as far as the Moluccas
and Timur in quest of these articles, and that in their outward
and homeward voyage they touched at various intermediate
islands for trade. Such, then, was the state of the internal
trade of the Archipelago, before it was disturbed by European
interference, and such, in charactei", it had probably been
for many ages. It is remarkable that several of the native
products of the Archipelago are known even to the natives
themselves either chiefly or entirely by Sanskrit names : as
for camphor, " kapur," a corruption of " karpura ; " for aloes,
" gaaru," a corruption of " aguru
;
" for the nutmeg, " pala,"
for jatipahla; and for the clove in Javanese "gomeda," for
gomedha, literally " cow's marrow ;
" for black pepper, " mari-
cha.'' This would seem to prove that it was the trade of
the Hindus that gave importance to these commodities, which,
it may be added, are none of them held in much repute by
the inhabitants of the countries that produce them.
In the Javanese chronologies, never very reliable, and in
the early part wholly fabulous, the introduction of Hinduism
is referred to a king called "Aji Saka." These two words
are Sanskrit, the first meaning king, and the last the era
of Salivana, which is that which prevails in the south of
Continental India. In fixing the commencement of this era,
there is a discrepancy of one year between the Tamil and the
Talugu reckoning, the first making it seventy-eight years
after Christ and the last seventy-nine. It is the latter which
prevails in the island of Bali, and even in Java, allowing for
the error which has taken place since the year 1478 through
the adoption of lunar for solar time. This fact, the only