obtain some information about the village itself as well as respecting the neighbouring places; but upon seeing me the inmates of the place fled, and I could scarcely succeed in reaching a few of them who appeared so much surprised and astonished that I could not obtain from them any satisfactory answer. I left the village about an hour after my arrival there; I sailed for Johore, where I arrived at four o'clock P.M.
Johore,* formerly the chief city of the empire of that name and residence of the Sultan, is situated about twenty miles up the river. The town was founded in 1511 or 1512 A.D. by Sultan Mahomad Shah II of Malacca who, after his expulsion from that place by the Portuguese, fled to the river of Johore. From that time the town of Johore has been the capital of the empire which took the name of the empire of Johore instead of that of Malacca.+
The inhabitants of Johore told me that their town was formerly a considerable one, that the Sultan who used to reside there had a fortified castle, and that the city was adorned by several handsome buildings erected chiefly upon some elevated ground distant a few hundred steps from the last houses of the present village going down the river. I visited the place but I could not find any remains of them. ++
The town of Johore has undergone the same fate as the empire; it has fallen entirely. It consists of about twenty-five or thirty Malay houses$ built on wooden poles, and covered with ataps and chucho leaves; about the center of the village I remarked a Mosque built with planks, but it appeared to be in a miserable state, calling for repairs; the place is now of no importance.
Johore is the residence of a Panghulu who is appointed both by the Sultan of Johore and by the Tumungong of Singapore. The present Panghulu, who is called Jawa, after having examined the credentials I had from the Sultan, received me very kindly. The men I had engaged at Singapore, refusing to go further, returned back with their boat. I passed the night in the house of a China man who kept a shop.
The next day, the Panghulu procured me a small boat with three men in order to go up the river to the small stream of Kamang. At ten o'clock A.M. I left Johore. At about tweltve o'clock I was near Pulo Kayu Anak Besar; this is
- The town of Johore Lama. - ED
+The seat of government was for some time in the Johore Archipelago. -ED ++ The remains of an extensive rampart are still visible. -ED $ The houses, like the inhabitants, are not Malay but Bugis. -ED
