Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/92

 has mistaken the situation of K. Kangsa, which he writes "Qualo Consow," and marks as an extensive tributary having at two days' distance a "Carrying Place one day by land to Larut River." I am inclined to think there has in fact been some confusion between this supposed tributary, and the bend to the North which the main stream takes near this point. If this surmise is correct the residence of "the King" was probably at Alahan, where Col. Low found the Court 43 years later. The only name given in its vicinity is Rantau Panjang, probably Pasir Panjang. But this tracing of Perak, before the Siamese invasion, is so interesting that I have had it copied, and readers can form their own judgments on these points. It will be seen that the lower part of the river is given very correctly, and that most of the names can be identified. All reference to the Bruas, as connected with Ulu Perak, has now disappeared; and it is curious that the mistake, as it undoubtedly was then, should have reappeared many years later in the Dutch Maps already referred to. Mr. Moniot might have have been warned by this to distrust so unsafe a guide. Col. Low, it may be remarked, also overlooks the importance of this portion of Forrest's sketch. The only reference he makes to the route from Kwala Kangsa to the sea is in the following passage from his account of Ulu Perak as "described to me by Natives, and by the Chinese;"

"From Quallah Kangsan there is an elephant road to Trong. The first March is to Padang Assun. The second to Pondok, chiefly across rice grounds. Here the population may be rated at 1,000."

It is possible that Col. Low. here speaks of the Kwala Kangsa, which he has referred to just before as near Kendrong; and that there is some confusion between the Trong near Larut and the Trong to the north of Kedah.

Between the date of Capt. Forrest's engraving (published in 1792) and Mr. Moniot's (published in 1862), no map with which the Malay Geography is specially concerned was published. There are however two M. S. drawings to speak of, Low's and Burney's, which have also been preserved in the Survey Office, originally at Penang and of late years at Singapore. The former bears date 1821; the latter is undated, but was probably compiled at the time Captain Burney negotiated the Siamese Treaty of 1826. Col. (then Lt.) Low confined his sketch almost entirely to the northern provinces of Siam. Captain Burney's tracing includes Kedah, Singora, and Patani; and the care with which he compiled it may be gathered from the "memorandum" at the side, from which I quote the following passage:—