Sumatra that I have met with; but in old times the
name occurs frequently under one form or another, and its position can be
assigned generally to the north part of the west coast, commencing from
the neighbourhood of Achin Head.
De Barros, detailing the twenty-nine kingdoms which divided the coast of
Sumatra, at the beginning of the Portuguese conquests, begins with Daya,
and then passes round by the north. He names as next in order LAMBRIJ, and
then Achem. This would make Lambri lie between Daya and Achin, for which
there is but little room. And there is an apparent inconsistency; for in
coming round again from the south, his 28th kingdom is Quinchel
(Singkel of our modern maps), the 29th Mancopa, "which falls upon
Lambrij, which adjoins Daya, the first that we named." Most of the data
about Lambri render it very difficult to distinguish it from Achin.
The name of Lambri occurs in the Malay Chronicle, in the account of the
first Mahomedan mission to convert the Island. We shall quote the passage
in a following note.
The position of Lambri would render it one of the first points of Sumatra
made by navigators from Arabia and India; and this seems at one time to
have caused the name to be applied to the whole Island. Thus Rashiduddin
speaks of the very large Island LAMURI lying beyond Ceylon, and adjoining
the country of Sumatra; Odoric also goes from India across the Ocean to
a certain country called LAMORI, where he began to lose sight of the North
Star.
