At any rate, the Malaccan origin of the earlier Sumatrans, and the Sumatran origin of the later Malaccans, are perfectly compatible doctrines.
As to the presumed date of the Malaccan settlements, it has already been placed in the thirteenth century. Whether this be an historical fact or not, it is certain that when Marco Polo, anterior to any Portuguese voyager, visited Sumatra, and described it under the name of Java Minor, the kingdom of Atchin, at least, was powerful, flourishing, and Mahometan.
JAVA.
Languages.—1. Sunda, spoken by one tenth of the population, and limited to the western side of the island.
2. Javan proper, falling into
- a. The Archaic dialect.
- b. The Court dialect.
- c. The popular dialect.
Culture of Indian origin; which, after attaining its full development, was replaced by Mahometanism, is the leading fact in the ethnography of Java.
Or—changing the expression—of the three forms of development the proper Malay, the Indian, and the Arabic, it is the second which is paramount in Java.
The details of its displacement by Mahometanism are historical rather than ethnological. Neither are they well ascertained even as historical facts. The date, however, is some part of the fifteenth century.