Note 10 — TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

This statement is so extraordinary, that the Translator thought it necessary to compare many passages where the character shăh (8384 M.) occurs. Shăh originally means, according to the Shwŏ wăn, near, joining; and Shăh kwŏ, are, according to Dr. Morrison, "small states attached to and dependent on a larger one: tributary states." The character shăh is often used in the same signification in the 57th book of our work. The description of the Peninsula of Malacca begins (Mem. b. 57, p. 15 r.) with the following words: "Mwan lă kea (Malacca) is in the southern sea, and was originally a tributary state (shăh kwŏ) of Sëen lo, or Siam; but the officer who there had the command revolted and founded a distinct kingdom." In the war which the Siamese some years back carried on against the Sultan of Guedah, they always affirmed that the King of Siam is, by his own right, the legitimate sovereign of the whole peninsula of Malacca, and that the Sultan must only be considered as a rebel against his liege. The statement of the Chinese author, therefore, corroborates the assertions of the Siamese.