of the Javanese accounts refer to the arrival of various settlers during this period; but we find no traces either of a government having existed, or of the establishment of any extensive colony, until the commencement of the sixth century. I should observe, in this place, that the Javanese year corresponds pretty nearly with the Hindu year of Salivarna; and that the word Saka, in Sanscrit, means an epoch or era, and is applied to the founder of an era.
The Javanese occasionally use the numerals for recording dates; but more generally, and particularly in dates of importance, they adopt an hieroglyphical invention, termed "Chondro Sangkolo," in which the different numerals, from one to ten, are represented by particular objects. This is either effected, in buildings and sculpture, by the actual representations of these objects; or, in writing, by the insertion of their names, the meaning frequently having some allusion to the fact which the date records: thus, the date of the destruction of Majapahit, in the Javanese year 1400, is recorded as follows, the order of the numerals being reversed:—
Sirna ilang Kertaning—Burni.
Gone—gone—is the work—of the land.
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Anterior to this supposed arrival of Adi Saka, the two most eventful periods in the history of these countries of which tradition and history make mention, are—first, that which includes the excursions of the far-famed race, which have been supposed to have peopled South America, and according to Sir William Jones, "imported into the furthest parts of Asia, the rites and fabulous history of Rama;" and secondly, that which includes the consequences of the invasion of India by Alexander the Great. That the fabulous history of Rama as well as the exploits of Alexander, have been current in the Malayan archipelago from time immemorial, cannot be questioned; and it may be remarked, that while the Javans use the term Rama for father, the Malays universally attempt to trace their descent from Alexander or his followers. Sumatra was long considered to have been the Taprobanè of the ancients; and, when we advert to the single circumstance, that this was said to be a country in which the north polar star was not visible, or only partially, we must still doubt the correctness of the modern conclusion in favour of Ceylon. The eastern islands furnish that peculiar kind of produce which has from the earliest times, been in demand by continental nations, and the same avidity with which, in modern days, Europeans contended for the rich products of the Moluccas, actuated, in all probability, at a much earlier period, adventurers from Western India. Traces of intercourse with Ethiopia may be found at this day, in the scattered tribes of the woolly-haired race peculiar to Africa, which are to be found in the Andamans, in the southern part of the fur-
