Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/178

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

the Malay and Javanese languages. The Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences has also offered its hearty support; and in all these cases our correspondents have volunteered their assistance. It is our Society which has been sought; and this may be regarded as a recognition of the useful position it is calculated to fill in relation to other Scientific Associations.

The Council would here more particularly acknowledge the co-operation they have met with from the Foreign Consuls in Singapore, through whose aid they look to obtain a wider basis for their proceedings, and the great advantage of exchanging publications with Foreign as well as with English "learned Societies."

In addition to the General Meetings, the publication of the Society's Journals, and the formation of the Society's Library, the Council has addressed itself to certain questions of a more practical character, such as the preparation of a new map of the Peninsula, the recommendation to Government to purchase the late Mr. Logan's Philological Library, the indexing of the 12 vols. of that distinguished man's Journals of the Archipelago, the publication of a new Dictionary, and the preparation and distribution of a serviceable Vocabulary to assist in collecting the Dialects of Wild Tribes.

With regard to the new Map, and to the purchase of Mr. Logan's Philological Collection, though neither of these matters has yet been definitely settled, the Council wishes here to acknowledge the powerful support afforded by Government to the objects which this Society has been formed to promote; and it may be mentioned that one of the difficulties in the way of publishing an improved map the want of funds has been to a great extent removed by the Government's undertaking to distribute among the Native States 200 copies at the price of $2 each.

As to the still more serious difficulty, the want of exact information regarding the countries that form the Peninsula—most of which is still unexplored—something has already has done by the Society. The River Triang, connecting Jĕlĕbu with the main stream of the River Pahang, was descended by a traveller from S. Ujong last June, thus clearing up a large portion of the water-system of the Pahang, and incidentally explaining the hitherto mysterious connection between Jělei and the Nĕgri Sĕmbilan. The prosecution