The range of the genus extends from the southern bank of the Bramaputra in Assam to southern China, the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and Borneo.
There is considerable reason to think, however, that the more frequent ports of call in the Straits of Malacca were situated in Sumatra, rather than on the shores of the Malay Peninsula, and two famous medieval travellers, Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta, both called and wintered at the former, and make scant mention of the latter.
In 1 528 a French expedition sailed from Dieppe, penetrated as far as Achin in Sumatra, but returned without reaching the Malay Peninsula.
Between the Andamans and Cape Negrais intervene two small groups, Preparis and Cocos; between the Andamans and Sumatra lie the Nicobar Islands, the whole group stretching in a curve, to which the meridian forms a tangent between Cape Negrais and Sumatra; and though this curved line measures 700 m., the widest sea space is about 91 m.
The newer rocks, common also to the Nicobars and Sumatra, are in Ritchie's Archipelago chiefly and contain radiolarians and foraminifera.
Among them was Nicolo Conti, who passed through Persia, sailed along the coast of Malabar, visited Sumatra, Java and the south of China, returned by the Red sea, and got home to Venice in 1444 after an absence of twenty-five years.
The ships touched at Achin in Sumatra and at Java, returning with full ladings of pepper in 1603.
After this there is a considerable gap before New Guinea, Borneo, Madagascar, Sumatra and the vast multitude of smaller islands descending in size by regular gradations to mere rocks.
NIAS, the largest island in the chain off the west coast of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, lying about 1° N., 97° 30' E.
Some require the hot, moist temperature of a stove; such are C. amabile, a native of Sumatra, C. amoenum (India), C. Balfourii (Socotra), C. giganteum (West tropical Africa), C. Kirkii (Zanzibar), C. latifolium (India), C. zeylanicum (tropical Asia and Africa), and others.
About this time an attack upon the city was made by the Achinese fleet, under the raja of Pedir in Sumatra; and Xavier's early biographers relate a dramatic story of how he roused the governor to action.
Between the islands of the Malay archipelago from Sumatra to New Guinea, and the neighbouring Asiatic continent, no definite relations appear ever to have existed, and no distinctly marked boundary for Asia has been established by the old geographers in this quarter.
They are placed on a line joining the north end of Sumatra and Cape Negrais, the south-western extremity of Burma.
They possibly owe their existence to the volcanic agencies which are known to extend from Sumatra across this part of the Indian Ocean.
The southern group of the Malay Archipelago, from Sumatra to Java and Timor, extends in the arc of a circle between 95° and 127° E., and from 5° to 10° S.
Sumatra, the largest of the islands, is but thinly peopled; the greater part of the surface is covered with dense forest, the cultivated area being comparatively small, confined to the low lands, and chiefly in the volcanic region near the centre of the island.
Rhododendrons occur in Borneo and Sumatra, descending to the level of the sea.
The south-eastern portion of Asia, with the adjacent islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines, form his Indian region.
At present it occupies the extremity of the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines and other islands of the Malay Archipelago as well as Madagascar, while the inhabitants of most islands in the South Seas, including New Zealand and Hawaii, speak languages which if not Malay have at least undergone a strong Malay influence.
In the second, Hindu civilization reached the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and other islands.
At the present time the Arabic alphabet is used on the mainland, but Indian alphabets in Java, Sumatra, &c.
At the end of the Napoleonic wars Portugal had Macao and Goa, Holland Java, Sumatra and other islands, France some odds and ends in India, while England emerged with Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon and a free hand in India.
Gibbons may be divided into two groups, the one represented by the siamang, Hylobates (Symphalangus) syndactylus, of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and the other by a number of closely allied species.
Agilis of Sumatra are well-known representatives.
Venetian beads are now sent in large quantities to the various colonies in Africa, and to India, Sumatra and Borneo.
Sumatra, Java and Borneo, where active development began in 1883, 1886 and 1896, bid fair to rank before long among the chief sources of the oil supplies of the world.
France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Rumania, Turkey-in-Europe, Styria, Slavonia, Hungary, Transylvania, Galicia, Lower Austria, Wurttemberg, Brandenberg, West Prussia, Crimea, Kuban, Terek, Kutais, Tiflis, Elizabetpol, Siberia, Transcaspia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Assam, Burma, Anam, Japan, Philippine Islands, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Algeria, Egypt, British Columbia, Alaska, Washington, California, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Barbados, Trinidad, Venezuela, Peru, South Australia, Victoria, New Zealand.
Tobacco culture, which declined after 1860 on account of the competition of Cuba and Sumatra, has revived since 1885 through the introduction of Cuban and Sumatran seed; the product of 1907 (6,937,500 lb) was more than six times that of 1899, the product in 1899 (1,125,600 lb) being more than twice that of 1889 (470,443 lb), which in turn was more than twenty times that for 1880 (21,182 lb)-the smallest production recorded for many decades.
Broadly speaking, all the brown races which inhabit the portion of Asia south of Siam and Indo-China, and the islands from the Philippines to Java, and from Sumatra to Timor, may be described as belonging to the Malayan family, if the aboriginal tribes, such as the Sakai and Semang in the Malay Peninsula, the Bataks in Sumatra, and the Muruts in Borneo, be excepted.
These people inhabit the whole of the Malayan Peninsula to the borders of lower Siam, the islands in the vicinity of the mainland, the shores of Sumatra and some portions of the interior of that island, Sarawak and Brunei in Borneo, and some parts of Dutch Borneo, Batavia and certain districts in Java, and some of the smaller islands of the archipelago.
In the Malay Peninsula itself there is abundant evidence, ethnological and philological, of at least two distinct immigrations of people of the Malayan stock, the earlier incursions, it is probable, taking place from the eastern archipelago to the south, the later invasion spreading across the Straits of Malacca from Sumatra at a comparatively recent date.
The raja of Achin, in northern Sumatra, is said to have been converted as early as 1206, while the Bugis people in Celebes are supposed not to have become Mahommedans until 1495.
Mahommedanism undoubtedly spread to the Malays of the peninsula from Sumatra, but their conversion was slow and gradual, and may even now in some respects be regarded as imperfect.
The area over which it is spoken comprises the peninsula of Malacca with the adjacent islands (the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago), the greater part of the coast districts of Sumatra and Borneo, the seaports of Java, the Sunda and Banda Islands.
It is the general medium of communication throughout the archipelago from Sumatra to the Philippine Islands, and it was so upwards of three hundred and fifty years ago when the Portuguese first appeared in those parts.
Where Javanese is the principal language, Malay is sometimes found written with Javanese characters; and in Palembang, in the Menangkabo country of Middle Sumatra, the Rechang or Renchong characters are in general use, so called from the sharp and pointed knife with which they are cut on the smooth side of bamboo staves.
Hindus appear to have settled in Sumatra and Java as early as the 4th century of our era, and to have continued to exercise sway over the native populations for many centuries.
This has its origin in the names Great Java and Lesser Java, by which the medieval Java and Sumatra were called, and it accordingly means the language spoken along the coasts of the two great islands.
C. Klinkert, Nieuw Maleisch-Nederlandisch Woorden boek (Leiden, 1893); John Leyden, Malay Annals (London, 1821); William Marsden, The History of Sumatra (London, 181 I); Malay Dictionary (London, 1824); Sir William Maxwell, A Manual of the Malay Language (London, 1888); T.
A similar map has been in progress for Sumatra since 1883, while the maps for the remaining Dutch Indies are still based, almost exclusively, upon flying surveys.
In these respects the finest Cuban tobacco crops, produced in the sun, hardly rival the finest Sumatra product; but produced under cheese-cloth they do.
It furnishes most of the lubber of India, Sumatra and Java.
Successful plantations of Hevea have also been established in Java, Sumatra and Borneo.
With Mahommedan peoples it is sufficient for a woman to cover her face; the Chinese women would think it extremely indecent to show their artificially compressed feet, and it is even improper to mention them to a woman; in Sumatra and Celebes the wild tribes consider the exposure of the knee immodest; in central Asia the finger-tips, and in Samoa the navel are similarly regarded.
From India he sailed in a junk to Sumatra, visiting various ports on the northern coast of that island, and thence to Java, to the coast (it would seem) of Borneo, to Champa (South Cochin-China), and to Canton, at that time known to western Asiatics as Chin-Kalan or Great China (Mahachin).
For Cuba and Sumatra types.
Sumatra produced the best cigar wrappers of the world, and efforts to cultivate Sumatra tobacco in Florida under apparently suitable conditions of climate and soil were not successful.
The U.S.A. Department of Agriculture, in co-operation with local growers, devoted a great deal of attention and money to the problem, and Sumatra tobacco of very high quality is now produced in Florida and Connecticut.
So successful have the results been that American-grown tobacco of the Sumatra type is now exported even to Cuba.
The high quality of Sumatra tobacco is due in part to the local conditions of soil and climate, and perhaps to an even greater degree to the care taken at every stage in its cultivation and preparation.
British North Borneo competes with Sumatra as the source of the best cigar wrappers.
This species has a more extensive geographical range than the last, being found in the Bengal Sundarbans near Calcutta, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and Borneo.
It is the smallest of all the species, and its geographical range is nearly the same as that of the Javan species, though not extending into Java; it has been found in Assam, Chittagong, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo.
The Sunda Trench is distinguished by the wave-like configuration of its floor, and this wave-like character is continued to the westward of Sumatra with islands rising from the higher portions.
Coal is worked to some extent in Sumatra, British North Borneo, and the Philippine Islands.
Luban, frankincense, the first syllable being dropped in Romanic as if it were the article), a balsamic resin obtained from Styrax benzoin, a tree of considerable size, native to Sumatra and Java, and from other species of Styrax.
(2) Sumatra benzoin occurs only in masses formed of dull red resin enclosing white tears.
It contains about 20% of cinnamic acid in addition to 18 or even more of benzoic. (3) Palembang benzoin, an inferior variety, said to be obtained from Styrax benzoin in Sumatra, consists of greyish translucent resinous masses, containing small white opaque tears.
In 1666 the rajah Palakkah, whose father and grandfather had been murdered by the family of Hassan, the tyrant of Sumatra, made common cause with the Dutch against that despot.
MENTAWI, a chain of islands in the Dutch East Indies, off the west coast of Sumatra, between r° and 3° 30' S.
Indicus, the largest of the genus, from the Malay Peninsula (as far north as Tavoy and Mergui), Sumatra and Borneo, distinguished by its peculiar coloration, the head, neck, fore and hind limbs being glossy black, and the intermediate part of the body white, the height at the shoulder from 3 ft.
Instead they used every endeavour to establish friendly relations with the rulers of all the neighbouring kingdoms, and before d'Alboquerque returned to India he despatched embassies to China, Siam, and several kingdoms of Sumatra, and sent a small fleet, with orders to assume a highly conciliatory attitude toward all natives, in search of the Moluccas.
