Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/90

, Mr. J. W. Birch and Mr. Daly"—scale 15 miles to 1 inch; and it was "Lithd. at the Qr. Mr. Genl's Dept. under the direction of Lt. Col. R. Home " It is much to be regretted that no separate copies of this excellent map were procured. The similar but less correct map published on the part of the local Government, and received out here towards the end of 1876, met with a rapid sale, the whole issue having long since been disposed of. Many applications have been made in vain for further copies, especially during the present year; and I feel little doubt that, apart from the crying want of a good map on a large scale for educational purposes, there will be numerous private purchasers to recoup any expenses of publication which may thus be incurred by Government, or by the Society if disposed to venture on such an undertaking. And even if copies could still be procured of either map of 1876 I should recommend a re-publication; so many of the inaccuracies having now been corrected, and no small portion of the blank spaces having been filled in with fresh particulars.

Before I turn to the explorations, extending over a period of half a century (1825-75), to which such knowledge of the Peninsula as we possess is mainly due, I will briefly refer to the charts of the old Navigators, so far as I know them. But I must here state that our Raffles Library is extremely deficient in old "Travels," and that I cannot hope to give anything like a complete view of the growth of our knowledge. The earliest accounts of the Peninsula, as a whole and accompanied with Maps, are those of the French traveller de la Loubère, and the English navigator Captain Dampier, who appear to have been in these parts at the same time (1686), though without meeting or even hearing of each other. I have not succeeded in finding a copy of Loubère's Map, but Major McNair, who saw a copy in England, thus refers to it in his book "Sarong and Kris" (p.315):—"In De La Loubère's book is a quaint but very correct Map of the Malayan Peninsula, prepared by M. Cassini, the Director of the Observatory of Paris in 1688, from which is gathered the fact that Perak then continued to be looked upon as second only to Malacca on the Western coast. The River Perak is not very correct in its representation, being made more to resemble