he languages of the
islands, says it obtains its appellation from a certain high land called
Samadra, which he supposes to signify in the language of the country a
large ant; but in fact there is not any spot so named; and although there
is some resemblance between semut, the word for an ant, and the name in
question, the etymology is quite fanciful. Others have imagined that they
find an easy derivation in the word samatra, to be met with in some
Spanish or Portuguese dictionaries, as signifying a sudden storm of wind
and rain, and from whence our seamen may have borrowed the expression;
but it is evident that the order of derivation is here reversed, and that
the phrase is taken from the name of the land in the neighbourhood of
which such squalls prevail. In a Persian work of the year 1611 the name
of Shamatrah occurs as one of those places where the Portuguese had
established themselves; and in some very modern Malayan correspondence I
find the word Samantara employed (along with another more usual, which
will be hereafter mentioned) to designate this island.

PROBABLY DERIVED FROM THE SANSKRIT.

These, it is true, are not entirely free from the suspicion of having
found their way to the Persians and Malays through the medium of European
intercourse; but to a person who is conversant with the languages of the
continent of India it must be obvious that the name, however written,
bears a strong resemblance to words in the Sanskrit language: nor should
this appear extraordinary when we consider (what is now fully admitted)
that a large proportion of the Malayan is derived from that source, and
that the names of many places in this and the neighbouring countries
(such as Indrapura and Indragiri in Sumatra, Singapura at the extremity
of the peninsula, and Sukapura and the mountain of Maha-meru in Java) are
indisputably of Hindu origin. It is not my intention however to assign a
precise etymology; but in order to show the general analogy to known
Sanskrit terms it may be allowed to instance Samuder, the ancient name of
the capital of the Carnatik, afterwards called Bider; Samudra-duta, which
occurs in the Hetopadesa, as signifying the ambassador of the sea; the
compound formed of su, good, and matra, measure; and more especially the
word samantara, which implying a boundary, intermediate, or what lies
between, might be thought to apply to the peculiar situation of an island
intermediate between two oceans and two straits.