Note 128 — Chapter II

"Commercial intercourse was maintained from a very early date between the South of India and the trading towns which formed the emporia of the spice islands, notably Johor, Singapore, and Malacca. When the Portuguese, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, first visited these places, they were amazed at the concourse of foreign vessels assembled there. When this intercourse began it is impossible to say, but it was probably much earlier than the above. Snouck-Hurgronje, writing of Acheh, says that the settlement of Klings from Southern India in that country is of great antiquity; and that the Tamils were the leaders in this commercial enterprise in Malaya is clearly shown by the pure Tamil words,—chiefly connected with commerce, though not altogether so,—which have found their way into Malay.... The Malay for 'ship,' kapal, is pure Tamil ... the pure Tamil padagu, 'boat,' may reasonably be taken to be the parent of the Malay prahu. If this be so, it would seem as if the Tamils first introduced the Malays to even the most elementary navigation, and, as they gave them kapal, taught them to 'go down to the sea in ships.' ... They do not seem to have settled down or intermixed with the Malays to any great extent,—not certainly so much as in Acheh, where considerable colonies of Tamils took up their abode. Their object being merely commerce, they went as they came, returning year by year as the monsoon favoured."—"Southern India and the Straits," W. A. O'Sullivan, Jour. Straits Branch Royal Asiatic Soc., No. 36, July 1901.