Pulau Langkawi
W.E. Maxwell published this account of a leisurely nautical circuit of Pulau Langkawi in 1887, recording the island’s coastal geography, place names, and the legendary cave of Goa Cherita as observed from the deck of the Sea Bird. The piece functions simultaneously as a geographical survey and a brief ethnographic note on the island’s population, resources, and the local reception of the Kedah royal chronicle.
Summary
Maxwell’s narrative follows the course of a single-day cruise around Langkawi, beginning in the strait between the main island and Pulau Dayang Bunting and proceeding clockwise through the principal bays and headlands. The account is densely annotated with Malay and Siamese toponyms, observations of fishing stakes, small kampongs, and the limestone karst topography that characterises the archipelago. The author notes the principal settlement at Kwah, the conical peak of Gunong Raya (approximately 2,900 feet), and the serrated Gunong Chinchang range, which he speculates remains unexplored except by climbers seeking wild bees’ nests—a product that constituted a royal perquisite of the Kedah sultan.
The article’s most substantial intellectual contribution is its treatment of Goa Cherita, the cave traditionally identified as the hiding-place of the shipwrecked Prince of Rum in the Kedah chronicle Marong Mahawangsa. Maxwell summarises the legend in some detail, tracing its narrative arc from the bird Gerda’s attempt to prevent a dynastic marriage between Rum and China, through the prince’s shipwreck on Langkapuri, to the final vindication of pre-ordained fate before King Solomon. He then offers a critical observation: successive generations of Kedah Malays had localised a legend originally set in Langka (Ceylon) onto their own island, a process of geographical appropriation that the chronicler himself appears to have accepted without question.
The author also records a weathered Malay inscription carved in the rock face of Goa Cherita at a height of roughly twelve feet, which he partially deciphered and tentatively dated to A.H. 1060 (circa 1650 CE), suggesting the visit of a raja approximately 240 years prior. He acknowledges the limitations of his reading and invites further scholarly attention to the text.
Key Findings
- Gunong Raya, the highest point on Pulau Langkawi, stands at approximately 2,900 feet (p. 16).
- The cave of Goa Cherita contains a Malay inscription carved in the rock at a height of about twelve feet, bearing the date A.H. 1060, which Maxwell interprets as recording the visit of a raja roughly 240 years before 1887 (pp. 20–21).
- The ground orchid Cypripedium Nivium grows in profusion in Goa Langsiah on Pulau Dayang Bunting; islanders had only recently learned of its commercial value when a collector paid a cent per specimen (p. 16).
- Wild bees’ wax from the limestone cliffs of the Gunong Chinchang range was a royal perquisite of the Kedah sultan, with the daring climbers receiving only a small proportion of their actual take (p. 18).
- Chinese settlers at Sungei Kisap had established themselves on the island’s western coast to cut firewood for export to Penang (p. 21).
- The Kedah chronicle Marong Mahawangsa, of which an English translation by Colonel Low appeared in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. III, is the primary literary source for the Goa Cherita legend (p. 19).
Conclusion
Maxwell’s definitive historical takeaway is that the identification of Langkawi with the legendary Langkapuri of the Kedah chronicle is a case of local geographical appropriation: the chronicler conflated the Ceylonese Langka of the Ramayana cycle with the island off Kedah’s coast, and successive generations of Malays accepted this conflation without question, preserving the legend in a physically specific and locally meaningful form.
Context
- Maxwell writes from the position of a British resident in the Straits Settlements conducting a recreational cruise; the tone is that of a gentleman-naturalist cataloguing curiosities for a metropolitan readership rather than a systematic ethnographic or historical study.
- The article draws on no archival sources beyond the Kedah chronicle (via Colonel Low’s translation) and oral information from islanders; its value lies in its early photographic and descriptive record of Langkawi’s coastal features and the physical state of the Goa Cherita inscription before further weathering.