e first went to India around
the Cape of Good Hope; and we have several accounts of this empire
written by travelers who saw and described it six hundred years before
this first Indian voyage of the Portuguese was undertaken. El Mas'udi,
who was one of these travelers, used very strong terms to describe its
extent, intelligence, and power. Speaking of its sovereign, he said,
"The islands under his sceptre are so numerous that the fastest sailing
vessel is not able to go round them in two years," implying that his
sway was acknowledged by the island world over a large portion of the
Pacific. This Malayan empire was maritime and commercial; it had fleets
of great ships; and there is evidence that its influence reached most of
the Pacific islands. This is shown by the fact that dialects of the
Malay language have been found in most of these islands as far in this
direction as Easter Island. The language of the Sandwich Islanders, for
instance, is Malayan, and has a close relationship to that now spoken in
the Malay islands.

The metropolis of this great empire was in the island of Java, where old
ruins still bear witness to the former "civilization, wealth, and
splendor" celebrated by El Mas'udi. Mr. A. R. Wallace, in his work on
the Malay Archipelago, says, "Few Englishmen are aware of the number and
beauty of the architectural remains in Java. They have never been
popularly illustrated or described, and it will therefore take most
persons by surprise to learn that they far surpass those of Central
America, perhaps even those of India." The purpose of his visit to the
island did not allow him to explore ruins, but he describes some of
them. He saw what still remains of an ancient city called "Modjo-pahit,"
and says, "There were two lofty brick masses, apparently the sides of a
gateway. The extreme perfection and beauty of the brick-work astonished
me. The bricks are exceedingly fine and hard, with sharp angles and true
surfaces. They were laid with great exactness, without visible mortar or
cement, yet somehow fastened together so that the joints are hardly
perceptible, and sometimes the two surfaces coalesce in a most
incomprehensible manner. Such admirable brick-work I have never seen
before or since. There was no sculpture here, but abundance of bold
projections and finely-worked mouldings. Traces of buildings exist for
many miles in every direction, and almost every road and pathway shows a
foundation of brick-work be