The use of cannon in this and other parts of India is mentioned by the oldest Portuguese historians, and it must consequently have been known there before the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope.  Their guns are those pieces called matchlocks, the improvement of springs and flints not being yet adopted by them; the barrels are well tempered and of the justest bore, as is evident from the excellence of their aim, which they always take by lowering, instead of raising the muzzle of the piece to the object.  They are wrought by rolling a flatted bar of iron of proportionate dimensions spirally round a circular rod, and beating it till the parts of the former unite; which method seems preferable in point of strength to that of folding and soldering the bar longitudinally.  The art of boring may well be supposed unknown to these people.  Firelocks are called by them snapang, from the Dutch name.  Gunpowder they make in great quantities, but either from the injudicious proportion of the ingredients in the composition, or the imperfect granulation, it is very defective in strength.

SIDE-ARMS.

The tombak, lambing, and kujur or kunjur are names for weapons of the lance or spear kind; the pedang, rudus, pamandap, and kalewang are of the sword kind, and slung at the side, the siwar is a small instrument of the nature of a stiletto, chiefly used for assassination; and the kris is a species of dagger of a particular construction, very generally worn, being stuck in front through the folds of a belt that goes several times round the body.

(PLATE 17.  SUMATRAN WEAPONS. 
A. A Malay Gadoobang. 
B. A Batta Weapon. 
C. A Malay Creese. 
One-third of the size of the Originals. 
W. Williams del. and sculpt. 
Published by W. Marsden, 1810.)

(PLATE 17a.  SUMATRAN WEAPONS. 
D. A Malay Creese. 
E. An Achenese Creese. 
F. A Malay Sewar. 
One-third of the size of the Originals. 
W. Williams del. and sculpt.)

KRIS-BLADE.

The blade is about fourteen inches in length, not straight nor uniformly curved, but waving in and out, as we see depicted the flaming swords that guarded the gates of paradise; which probably may render a wound given with it the more fatal.  It is not smooth or polished like those of our weapons, but by a peculiar process made to resemble a composition, in which veins of a different metal are apparent.  This damasking (as I was informed by the late Mr. Boulton) is produced by beating together steel and iron wire whilst in a state of half fusion, and eating them with acids, by which the softest part is the most corroded; the edges being of pure steel.  Their temper is uncommonly hard.  The head or haft is either of ivory, the tooth of the duyong (sea-cow), that of the hippopotamus, the snout of the ikan layer (voilier), of black coral, or of fine-grained wood.  This is ornamented with gold or a mixture of that and