oms conquered in the 15th century
by the sovereigns reigning at Majapahit in Java. (_J.A._ ser. IV. tom.
xiii. 532.) Bintang was for a long time after the Portuguese conquest of
Malacca the chief residence of the Malay Sultans who had been expelled by
that conquest, and it still nominally belongs to the Sultan of Johore, the
descendant of those princes, though in fact ruled by the Dutch, whose port
of Rhio stands on a small island close to its western shore. It is the
_Bintao_ of the Portuguese whereof Camoens speaks as the persistent enemy
of Malacca (X. 57).

[Cf. _Professor Schlegel's Geog. Notes_, VI. _Ma-it_; regarding the
odoriferous trees, Professor Schlegel remarks (p. 20) that they were
probably santal trees.--H.C.]

NOTE 2.--There is a good deal of confusion in the text of this chapter.
Here we have a passage spoken of between "those two Islands," when only
one island seems to have been mentioned. But I imagine the other "island"
in the traveller's mind to be the continuation of the same Locac, i.e.
the Malay Peninsula (included by him under that name), which he has
coasted for 500 miles. This is confirmed by Ramusio, and the old Latin
editions (as Mueller's): "between the kingdom of Locac and the Island of
Pentan." The passage in question is the Strait of Singapore, or as the old
navigators called it, the Straits of Gobernador, having the mainland of
the Peninsula and the Island of Singapore, on the one side, and the
Islands of Bintang and Batang on the other. The length of the strait is
roughly 60 geographical miles, or a little more; and I see in a route
given in the _Lettres Edifiantes_ (II. p. 118) that the length of
navigation is so stated: "Le detroit de Gobernador a vingt lieues de long,
et est for difficile quand on n'y a jamais passe."

The Venetian _passo_ was 5 feet. Marco here alludes to the well-known
practice with the Chinese junks of raising the rudder, for which they have
a special arrangement, which is indicated in the cut at p. 248.

NOTE 3.--There is a difficulty here about the indications, carrying us, as
they do, first 60 miles through the Strait, and then 30 miles further to
the Island Kingdom and city of Malaiur. There is also a singular variation
in the readings as to this city and island. The G.T. has "_Une isle qe
est roiame, et s'apelle_ Malanir e l'isle Pentam." The Crusca has the
same, only reading _Malavir_. Pauthier: "_Une isle qui est royaume, et a
nom_ Maliur." The Geog. La