Page:Journal Of The Indian Archipelago And Eastern Asia Series.i, Vol.3 (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.107696).pdf/16

THE JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO AND EASTERN ASIA. A TRANSLATION OF THE KEDDAH ANNALS TERMED MARONG MAHAWANGSA;

writings of Leyden, Raffles, Marsden and Crawfurd did much to dispel the mist, which shrouded the regions of Eastern Asia and the Eastern Archipelago from the gaze of the inquirer after ethnographical and other interesting pursuits, and of late years considerable light has been thrown on the histories of Indo-china, and China, by various writers, either publishing separately, or in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, and we have specimens from the pen of the talented Editor of the Journal in which this paper will appear, which exhibit what may yet be effected by a combination of industry and capacity, when brought to bear on the many barriers which the ignorance and barbarism of the Indo-chinese nations and Eastern islanders, oppose to our progress towards truth.

Much information may now lie concealed in Native manuscripts, but the means for extracting it are but scanty, for few will take the trouble of learning languages for the mere, and doubtful, chance of finding them lead to some desirable literary or antiquarian result. For the examination of the more recondite Pali in all its forms, scarcely any help can be obtained from the Priests or Laity of Indo-china or the