Page:A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language with a Preliminary Dissertation- Dissertation and Grammar, in Two Volumes, Vol. I (IA dli.granth.52714).pdf/292

the assistance of the Turks. The chief ambassador was the hero of Malay story, the Laksimana, or High Admiral. The fleet with which he sailed consisted of 42 praus, of various sizes, manned by 1600 mariners, and having as passengers the retinue and followers of the ambassadors, consisting of 300. Thus, on an average, each prau had a crew of about 40 men; and, passengers included, accommodated about 45 persons, a number which I believe is about the average of the crews and captives of a modern Malay or Lanun piratical fleet. The two fastest sailers of this squadron reached Achin, at the western end of Sumatra, in five days, and the rest of the fleet in seven. The distance is about 454 miles, and therefore the fastest sailing was at the rate of 90 miles a day, and the average of the fleet 65. The course was through the Straits of Malacca, in which not monsoons but variable winds and calms prevail, and therefore the oar was, most probably, occasionally plied.

After tarrying twelve days at Achin, the fleet sailed westward, and in ten days made the Maldive islands, called in Sanskrit Maladwipa, and by the Malays Pulo-dewa, a half Malay, half Sanskrit word, meaning "isles of the gods." Without touching at these, it sailed on, and after two lunar months, or fifty-six days' voyage, reached Jeddah, on the Arabian Gulf. The dis- tance from Achin to the Maldive islands is about 1456 miles; and therefore, the rate of sailing in this part of the voyage was 145 miles a day, not an exaggerated one at the height of the monsoon, and consequently, with a fair and strong wind. The voyage from the Maldive islands to Jeddah, in the Arabian Gulf, is about 1426 miles; but the rate of sailing is here reduced to 25 1/2 miles a day, the wind not being equally favourable, and, in the northern part of the Red Sea, most probably adverse. The whole sailing voyage of 3836 miles, then, occupied 73 days, the average progress being above 45 miles a day. The ficet must have been well provisioned for so long a voyage, and is expressly stated to have been so in the narrative.

It is, however, to be remembered, that the Malays were, at the time of the supposed voyage, no longer the same people they must have been when I suppose them to have achieved their adventure to Madagascar. They must have