nature of the inscription than I was able to make may be arrived at. I give below the opening sentences as far as they are decipherable; of the remainder only a word here. and there can be made out.
(
Arabic characters)
There is an upper chamber in the cave to which the Raja and I climbed by means of a boat's mast and a rope, but there is little there to repay curiosity. Some enormous stalactites hang suspended at the entrance of the lower cave, but how the princess and her attendants managed to close the mouth of it with stones, as the Kedah chronicler represents them to have done, is not apparent to the modern visitor.
We quitted this beautiful island with regret, wishing that it had been possible to learn something of the interior. We passed Teluk Udang and then Sungei Kilin, where there is a creek between two headlands of the usual limestone type. Not far from this there is a curious island—Pulau Petukang—which looks like a wall of masonry; next, beyond a rocky promontory, Tanjong Běluru, a point covered with mangrove, came in sight, and passing Sungei Kisap, where Chinese have estab- lished themselves and cut firewood for export to Penang, we emerged into open water at Tanjong Dagu opposite to Tan- jong Tumbus on Pulau Dundang.
Leaving this at 4 P.M., we reached Penang in the Sea Bird at midnight.
W. E. MAXWELL.
