ofthe SAME TREE

thee; if the land [in Bertam] seem good to thee, it is right that thou shouldst
give us alms for our good intentions, and that our work should not be without
reward.” He should then call himself king and give them “honor and assistance.”
Once the Permaisura is established and becomes ruler in Bertam, he
makes hereditary nobles of the eighteen Orang Laut, plus their sons and wives.
“Hence it is,” says Pires, “that all the mandarins [fidallguos, nobles] of Malacca
are descended from these.” 95 At the time of the arrival of the first Portuguese
to Melaka in 1509, according to Pires, the Laksamana and the Bendahara of
the kingdom were the fifth grandson descended of the original Orang Laut
ennobled by the Permaisura. 96 The Permaisura is succeeded by his son, Iskandar
Syah, who moves downriver to the coast with his Orang Laut father-in-law
and three hundred followers to participate in international trade. He establishes
the port city of Melaka, and within three years the population increases
to two thousand and Melaka begins its transformation into the most important
entrepot in the region. 97
It is this unique relationship between the Orang Laut and the ancient
rulers of Sriwijaya/Malayu, reaffirmed by their descendants in Melaka and in
subsequent Malayu kingdoms, that proved a lasting legacy well into the nineteenth
century. What is striking in Pires’ account is the claim that a sizeable
number of Orang Laut were ennobled by the Melaka ruler and that the two
most important offices of the Melaka kingdom, the Laksamana and the Bendahara,
were held by Orang Laut and their descendants until 1509, or just two
years prior to the seizure of Melaka by the Portuguese. If, as argued earlier,
Pires relied on Malayu sources in reconstructing this early period of Melaka,
the important role of the Orang Laut in the kingdom was still acknowledged
at the time of the Portuguese conquest and may have been edited out in subsequent
Malayu histories.
The Bendahara was the highest nonroyal position in the land, and the
early rulers of Melaka married the daughters of the Bendahara to reaffirm the
special ties between the the Malayu and the Orang Laut at a very precarious
time in the history of the kingdom. There was the ongoing threat from Majapahit,
but the more immediate danger was Ayutthaya, which was founded in
1351. It rose to become the leading entrepot in the region and rightly regarded
Melaka as a threat to its status. The intervention of the Chinese emperor, who
warned Ayutthaya against attacking Melaka, was probably a key factor in
ensuring Melaka’s continuing existence. 98 Under these circumstances, maintaining
the Orang Laut as loyal subjects would have been a major priority of
the Melaka rulers.
After the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511, the last ruler of the
kingdom fled upriver to the royal residence in Bertam. From there he went to
Muar, then upriver via the Penarikan route to the Pahang River, then down-
196 Chapter 6