Mada's declared policy of conquest, except that in 1357 A.D. he picked a quarrel with the Sundanese which ended in a bloody battle wherein they were defeated and slaughtered, and that in the same year an expedition from Majapahit conquered Ḍompo. Thereupon, we are told, "Gajah Mada again made use of palapa."
Are we entitled to infer that the whole of this great min- ister's programme of aggressive imperialism had been carried. out at that date? Alas, no: for we know from Chinese sources that Palembang was not conquered till 1377 A.D., nine years after Gajah Mada's death' (which the Pararaton puts in C̦aka 1290, i. e. 1368 A.D.). It would seem that he was not par- ticular in adhering to the very letter of his vow (assuming it to he correctly-reported) but was content to put up with an instalment of his ambitious plan. Unfortunately the Parara- ton thus leaves us in the dark as to the precise date when Singapore was taken and destroyed; but it makes it plain that the event must have happened in the 14th and not, as the old chronology has it, in the 13th century. I have already men- tioned the fact that the Hikayat Raja-raja Pasei puts the conquest of "the dominions of the king of Ujong Tanah" shortly after that of Palembang. But it does not specifically mention Singapore, though its list of the islands conquered on this occasion includes Timbalan, Siantan' (in the original, Siatan), Jĕmaja, Bunguran, Sĕrasan, Subi, Pulau Laut, Tiom- an, Pulau Tinggi, Pĕmanggilan, Karimata, Bělitong, Bangka, Lingga, Rian, Bintan and Bulang.
III. The Evidence of the "Nāgarakrĕtāgama."
Probably we shall never know the exact date of the fall of Singapore. But the evidence available may at any time be strengthened by some accidental discovery of a hitherto un- known record. Such a discovery occurred a few years ago when the Nāgarakrětāgama unexpectedly turned up. This is a panegyric poem composed (according to the Encyclopædie. van Nederlandsch-Indië) in the year 1365 A.D. by a Javanese court poet, a Buddhist bearing the name of Prapanñcha, in hon-
