MALACCA, a town on the west coast of the Malay peninsula, in 2° 14' N., 102° 12' E., which, with the territory immediately around and behind it forms one of the Straits Settlements, and gives its name to the straits that divide Sumatra from the Malay peninsula.
Malacca is administered by a resident councillor, who is responsible to the governor of the Straits Settlements, and by district officers and other officials under his direction. The popula tion of the town and territory of Malacca in 19o1 was 94,487. The figures and races at the 1931 census are given in the article STRAITS SETTLEMENTS: Population. The trade of this once flour ishing port has declined, most of the vessels being coasting craft. This is due to the shallowness of the harbour, and to the fact that Penang and Singapore, at either entrance to the straits, draw all the trade and shipping. The area of the settlement is 720 sq.m. The settlement is wholly agricultural. Much of the land is in the hands of natives, but there is a large acreage under rubber (hevea). The settlement is well opened up by roads; and a rail way, which is part of the Federated Malay States railway system, has been constructed from the town of Malacca to Tampin in the Negri Sembilan. There is a good rest-house at Malacca and a comfortable seaside bungalow at Tanjong Kling, seven miles from the town. Malacca is 118 m. by sea from Singapore and 5o m. by rail from Seremban, the capital of the Negri Sembilan. There is excellent snipe-shooting to be had in the vicinity.
History.—Malacca is visited by few ships and is the least important of the three British settlements on the Straits which give their name to the colony. It has, however, a remarkable his tory (see MALAY PENINSULA: History). The precise date of its foundation cannot be ascertained, but there is reason to believe that this event took place in the 14th century. The Roman youth Ludovigo Barthema is thought to have been the first European to visit it, some time before 1503; and in 1508 Diogo Lopez de Siqueira sailed from Portugal for the purpose of exploiting Malacca. He was hospitably received, but disagreements with the natives ensued and word was brought to Siqueira that a treach erous attack was about to be made upon his ships. Siqueira sent a native man and woman ashore "with an arrow passed through their skulls" to the sultan, "who was thus informed," says de Barros, "through his subjects that unless he kept a good watch the treason which he had perpetrated would be punished with fire and sword." The sultan retaliated by arresting Ruy de Araujo,
the factor, and twenty other men who were ashore collecting cargo. Siqueira immediately burned one of his vessels and sailed for Portugal. In I 5 I I d'Albuquerque captured the town. Malacca became a Portuguese possession for 13o years, and was the base of their commercial explorations in south-eastern Asia while they enjoyed, and later while they sought to hold, their monopoly in the East. It was from Malacca, immediately after its conquest, that d'Albuquerque sent d'Abreu on his voyage of discovery to the Moluccas, or Spice islands, which later were the objective of Magellan's voyage of circumnavigation. Under the Portuguese government St. Francis Xavier started a mission in Malacca, the first Christian mission in Malayan lands.
The Dutch held Malacca from 1641 till 1795, when it was taken from them by Great Britain, and the Dutch system of monopoly in the straits was abolished. The colony was restored to the Dutch in 1818, but six years later it came finally into the hands of Great Britain, being exchanged by a treaty with Holland for the East India Company's settlement of Bengkulen and a few other unimportant places on the west of Sumatra. By this treaty the Dutch were precluded from interference in the affairs of the Malay peninsula, and Great Britain from similar action in regard to the States of Sumatra, with the exception of Achin, the right to protect that state being maintained by Great Britain until in 1872 it was finally abandoned by a treaty concluded with Holland. It was not until 1833 that the whole territory lying at the back of Malacca was brought under British control.