Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/332

 288 PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE usual mediocrity of their country and ages, are the Lalmmana of Malacca, Surapati,the Balinese slave, Senopati, prince of Mataram, and his grandson, the Sultan Agung, Of these, the most distinguished, beyond all compare, was the Laksimana, or admiral of Mahomed, king of Malacca, a chief endowed with a courage, prudence, and resources, which enabled him, for years, to make head against the conquering arms of the Portuguese, who had the generosity to do justice to his great qualities. The Asiatic strangers who settled in the Archi- pelago, and effected so great a revolution in its re- ligious and even political history, as they belonged to nations in a higher state of social improvement than the native tribes of the Archipelago, so were their intellectual powers usually of a higher order and more vigorous character. The particular adven- turers, however, who found their way into the In- dian islands, were unfavourable specimens of the people whom they represented. Instead of being bold military adventurers, advanced to rank and command by their talents and exploits, or ambi- tious chiefs of distinguished birth, they were petty traders, whose minds were narrowed by the hum- bleness of their occupations. With all the aids of canonization, therefore, few of their names have been handed down to us, and still fewer have, from any real merit, a claim to have those names re^ eorded. The most distinguished is Shekb Mau« 12