MALAY PENINSULA, or Malacca. The name 3Ialacca having by erroneous usage come to be applied to the British settlement on the s.w. portion of the peninsula rather than to the peninsula entire as it should be, we will describe it under the head by -which it is also known, as the Malay peninsula. It is the most southerly part of the continent of Asia, extending from lat. 1° to 12° n. and between 98° and 104° e. of Greenwich. It is 775 in. in length n. and s., wi'th an average width of about 100 m., and an area of 75,000 sq. miles. The gulf of Siam and the China sea wash its eastern shore, and the straits of Malacca and the Indian ocean its western.
A range of granit,e mountains extends northerly the whole length of the peninsula; its highest summits being in the southerly part, between lat. 6° and 7° n., which are 6,000 ft. above the sea. Innumerable rivers flow e. and w. from the mountains, forming bars at their mouths that render them of little value for navigation or harbors. The country between the mountains and the sea has considerable table-land, of fair fertility, and well timbered. But the timber is not of species possessing greatest commercial value. Ebony, sapan, eagle-wood, and the canes of commerce known as Malacca, are the principal. Dense jungles, the broken character of the surface, and occasional swamps, make the country difficult to explore. The Perak on the w., and Pahang, are the largest rivers. There is small lake between the latter and the English settlement of Malacca. The products of the forests, be,siefes those timbers already named, are caoutchouc, gutta pereha, cocoa-nuts, gums, spices, and resins. The products of the soil are rice, tobacco, sugar-cane, coffee, cotton, bananas, yams, pine-apples, durians, and the mangosteen—the two latter large fruits. Tin mines have been worked in the mountains, but the mining is not prosecuted with increasing production; gold has been found in limited quantities.
The mean annual temperature near the sea is about 80°. There is no winter or rainy season, but rains fall frequently throughout the year, so that the climate is uniformly hot and moist, and subject to frequent fogs and heavy- dews. The annual rainfall is about 100 inches. 'Where the land is swept by sea breezes the climate is healthful. The districts peculiarly subject to malarial disease of a virulent type are local, and are apt to be contiguous to fresh-water streams or marshes. The animals of the peninsula are numerous. There are eight species of the cat family, the largest the tiger and the leopard, both of large size, numerous, and dangerous. The Indian elephant is here indigenous, and two species of rhinoceros. The buffalo is a native, and is domesticated for riding and for draught. Besides the domestic ox there are two species of wild ox peculiar to thc peninsula.; a wild and a domestic goat ; three species of deer; one small bear; ten species of monkey; and the ant-eater. The bats are the most peculiar of all the animals of the peninsula; one of them, the kalung, or vampire, being larger than a crow, flies high in great flocks, and is destructive of fruit. Sheep, hog,s, and some varieties of foreign fowls have been introduced and acclimated. Of birds there are some of great beauty. The marak, or wild peacock, the double-spurred peacock, and several species of pheasant are the most remarkable for their plumage. Partridges, snipe, sun-birds, woodpeckers, wild cock, pigeons of numerous species and great variety of size, a brilliant variety of parrots, and kites and hawks abound. Of reptiles there are forty species of snakes, several of them poisonous, particularly the cobra; and the alligator, iguana, and lizards. Fish
are abundant and among the finest flavored in the world. They constitute the main food of the people by the seaside. Shell-fish are rare, though shells not containing animals valued for food are large, beautiful, and numerous.
The population of the peninsula is estimated at 500,000, but this is little better than a guess. It is pretty near the geographical center of population of the Malay race, who occupy all its shores, though in the n. part, and especially away from the coast, the Siamese are numerous, and some negroes are found in the interior. The northern part of the peninsula is under the dominion of the king of Sia,m; the southern has mostly fallen under the sway of the British, whose colony of Malacca (see MALaccA) on the s.w. coast, and Singapore near the s. point, are the local centers of its power. The Dutch ceded the settlement of Malacca and Singapore to the English in 1824, in exchange for concessions in Sumatra and elsewhere. The Malays have been too long renowned for their daring as navigators, and their aggressive piracy, not to have won the considera tion of all nations which have come to greatness through the same manifestations of barbarian vigor. Their cruelty and treachery are probably not greater than the cruelty and treachery of European peoples in the centuries succeeding the dark ages; and remembering that the vast and intricate coasts of the islands and countries occupied by the Malays invited all their enterprise to be expended in maritime excursions, and that a forbidding wilderness of jungles and wild beasts repelled enterprise inland, it may not be unfair to place them in the same category of bold rovers as the pirate Norsemen and Danes of our own English ancestry. As to the excessive treachery which has always been attributed to them it is hardly probable that so widespread an opinion is without good basis of fact. Yet those who have of late years bad good means of studying their characteristics report that, under kind treatment and fair dealing, they are " transformed into an entirely different character, displaying gratitude, affection, fidelity, and higher sentiments of honor than are found among any other class of natives in India." The vigor and energy of the Malays as seamen and pirates have for centuries made them the terror of the more peaceful East Indians and Mongolians, as well as of the Europeans engaged in commerce with the east. A portion of the inhabitants of the coasts lived at sea rather than upon the land. Their boats, from 20 to 30 ft. in length, were arranged for cooking near the prow, their fishing and other conveniences in the middle, and the sleeping-room in the stern. Thus. with fish for their principal food and the fruits of the shores to be had for the seeking, roving became their daily life, and piracy the natural enterprise of the warlike--as it is of the warlike everywhere—by land or sea 'The more civilized of the natives are Mohammedans; the others are pagans of inany shades. The former claim to be descended from Malays of Sumatra who migrated into or invaded the peninsula in the llth or 12th c., and drove the former inhabitants into the mountains. Mohammedanism took root here in the 13th c., and Malacca was the .capital for rulers who had embraced 'Mohammedanism from the year 1276. In the 15th c. the peninsula was an appanage of the king of Siam. In 1'511 the Portuguese, under Albuquerque, overthrew the Malay-an sultan, and asserted Portuguese dominion.