NOT ENTIRELY UNKNOWN TO THE NATIVES.

When on a former occasion it was asserted (and with too much confidence)
that the name of Sumatra is unknown to the natives, who are ignorant of
its being an island, and have no general name for it, the expression
ought to have been confined to those natives with whom I had an
opportunity of conversing, in the southern part of the west coast, where
much genuineness of manners prevails, with little of the spirit of
commercial enterprise or communication with other countries. But even in
situations more favourable for acquiring knowledge I believe it will be
found that the inhabitants of very large islands, and especially if
surrounded by smaller ones, are accustomed to consider their own as terra
firma, and to look to no other geographical distinction than that of the
district or nation to which they belong. Accordingly we find that the
more general names have commonly been given by foreigners, and, as the
Arabians chose to call this island Al-rami or Lameri, so the Hindus
appear to have named it Sumatra or Samantara.

MALAYAN NAMES FOR THE ISLAND.

Since that period however, having become much better acquainted with
Malayan literature, and perused the writings of various parts of the
peninsula and islands where the language is spoken and cultivated, I am
enabled to say that Sumatra is well known amongst the eastern people and
the better-informed of the natives themselves by the two names of Indalas
and Pulo percha (or in the southern dialect Pritcho).

INDALAS.

Of the meaning or analogies of the former, which seems to have been
applied to it chiefly by the neighbouring people of Java, I have not any
conjecture, and only observe its resemblance (doubtless accidental) to
the Arabian denomination of Spain or Andalusia. In one passage I find the
Straits of Malacca termed the sea of Indalas, over which, we are gravely
told, a bridge was thrown by Alexander the Great.

PERCHA.

The latter and more common name is from a Malayan word signifying
fragments or tatters, and the application is whimsically explained by the
condition of the sails of the vessel in which the island was
circumnavigated for the first time; but it may with more plausibility be
supposed to allude to the broken or intersected land for which the
eastern coast is so remarkable. It will indeed be seen in the map that in
the vicinity of what are called Rupat's Straits there is a particular
place of this descripti