Marco Polo
translation: Henry Yule, Henri Cordier

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
Volume II.
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OF THE ISLAND CALLED PENTAM, AND THE CITY MALAIUR.

The late Col. G.E. Gerini published in the J.R.A.S., July, 1905, pp. 485-511, a paper on the Nagarakretagama, a Javanese poem composed by a native bard named Prapanca, in honour of his sovereign Hayam Wuruk (1350-1389), the greatest ruler of Majapahit. He upsets all the theories accepted hitherto regarding Panten. The southernmost portion of the Malay Peninsula is known as the Malaya or Malayu country (Tanah-Malayu) = Chinese Ma-li-yü-erh = Malayur = Maluir of Marco Polo, witness the river Malayu (Sungei Malayu) still so called, and the village Bentan, both lying there (ignored by all Col. Gerini's predecessors) on the northern shore of the Old Singapore Strait. Col. Gerini writes (p. 509): "There exists to this day a village Bentam on the mainland side of Singapore Strait, right opposite the mouth of the Sungei Selitar, on the northern shore of Singapore Island, it is not likely that both travellers [Polo and Odoric] mistook the coast of the Malay Peninsula for an island. The island of Pentam, Paten, or Pantem must therefore be the Be-Tumah (Island) of the Arab Navigators, the Tamasak Island of the Malays; and, in short, the Singapore Island of our day." He adds: "The island of Pentam cannot be either Batang or Bitang, the latter of which is likewise mentioned by Marco Polo under the same name of Pentam, but 60 + 30 = 90 miles before reaching the former. Batang, girt all round by dangerous reefs, is inaccessible except to small boats. So is Bintang, with the exception of its south-western side, (...)

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