Note 626 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO (continued 2)

Sumatra, a name probably of Sanskrit origin, is first mentioned with that spelling by Varthema, but it had been visited previously by Marco Polo (who calls it Java the less); and probably by Nicolò de Conti, who calls it Sciumathera, and before him by the Arabian traveler Ibn Batûta (ca., 1330), who calls its capital Shumatrah or Sumatrah. Taprobane was the ancient name of Ceylon, not Sumatra. It is the most western of all the East India Archipelago, and next to Borneo and New Guinea the largest island proper, being about 1,000 miles long and having an area of about 128,560 square miles. The ancestral home of the Malay race was in the interior of Sumatra, in the region of Menangkaba, whence they colonized the coasts of Sumatra and spread to outlying islands. A number of tongues akin to the Malay and many dialects are spoken in the island. Neither the English nor the Dutch obtained any real foothold in the island until after 1816, since when the latter have entered upon a system of conquest. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, Varthema’s Travels (Hakluyt Society edition); Cust’s Modern Languages; and Lucas’s Historical Geography British Colonies, i, pp. 98, 99, 101.