There is not information enough to decide what place is meant by
Malaiur. Probabilities seem to me to be divided between Palembang, and
its colony Singhapura. Palembang, according to the Commentaries of
Alboquerque, was called by the Javanese MALAYO. The List of Sumatran
Kingdoms in De Barros makes TANA-MALAYU the next to Palembang. On the
whole, I incline to this interpretation.
[In Valentyn (V. 1, Beschryvinge van Malakka, p. 317) we find it
stated that the Malay people just dwelt on the River Malayu in the
Kingdom of Palembang, and were called from the River Orang Malayu. - MS.
Note. - H.Y.]
[Professor Schlegel in his Geog. Notes, IV., tries to prove by Chinese
authorities that Maliur and Tana-Malayu are two quite distinct countries,
and he says that Maliur may have been situated on the coast opposite
Singapore, perhaps a little more to the S.W. where now lies Malacca, and
that Tana-Malayu may be placed in Asahan, upon the east coast of
Sumatra. - H.C.]
Singhapura was founded by an emigration from Palembang, itself a Javanese
colony. It became the site of a flourishing kingdom, and was then,
according to the tradition recorded by De Barros, the most important
centre of population in those regions, "whither used to gather all the
navigators of the Eastern Seas, from both East and West; to this great
city of Singapura all flocked as to a general market." (Dec.
