Somewhat later Pasei was a great and famous city. Majapahit, Malacca, and
Pasei being reckoned the three great cities of the Archipelago. The
stimulus of conversion to Islam had not taken effect on those Sumatran
states at the time of Polo's voyage, but it did so soon afterwards, and,
low as they have now fallen, their power at one time was no delusion.
Achin, which rose to be the chief of them, in 1615 could send against
Portuguese Malacca an expedition of more than 500 sail, 100 of which were
galleys larger than any then constructed in Europe, and carried from 600
to 800 men each.
[Dr. Schlegel writes to me that according to the Malay Dictionary of Von de
Wall and Van der Tuuk, n. 414-415, Polo's Basman is the Arab
pronunciation of Paseman, the modern Ophir in West Sumatra. Gunung
Paseman is Mount Ophir. - H.C.]
[Illustration: The three Asiatic Rhinoceroses, (upper) Indicus, (middle)
Sondaicus, (lower) Sumatranus.[2]]
NOTE 5. - The elephant seems to abound in the forest tracts throughout the
whole length of Sumatra, and the species is now determined to be a
distinct one (E. Sumatranus) from that of continental India and identical
with that of Ceylon.[3] The Sumatran elephant in former days was caught
and tamed extensively. Ibn Batuta speaks of 100 elephants in the train
of Al Dhahir, the King of Sumatra Proper, and in the 17th century Beaulieu
says the King of Achin had always 900. Giov. d'Empoli also mentions them at
Pedir in the beginning of the 16th century; and see Pasei Chronicle
quoted in J. As. ser. IV. tom. ix. pp. 258-259. This speaks of elephants
as used in war by the people of Pasei, and of elephant-hunts as a royal
diversion. The locus of that best of elephant stories, the elephant's
revenge on the tailor, was at Achin.
As Polo's account of the rhinoceros is evidently from nature, it is
notable that he should not only call it unicorn, but speak so precisely
of its one horn, for the characteristic, if not the only, species on the
island, is a two-horned one (Rh. Sumatranus),[4] and his mention of the
buffalo-like hair applies only to this one. This species exists also on
the Indo-Chinese continent and, it is believed, in Borneo. I have seen it
in the Arakan forests as high as 19 deg. 20'; one was taken not long since
near Chittagong; and Mr. Blyth tells me a stray one has been seen in Assam
or its borders.
[Ibn Khordadhbeh says (De Goeje's Transl. p. 47) that rhinoceros is to
be found in Kameroun (Assam), which borders on China.
