MALACCA

MALACCA is a name given to the whole Malay Peninsula, that remarkable tongue of land 44 to 210 m. wide, stretching 800 m. SE. from Burma between the Strait of Malacca and the Gulf of Siam; mountain ranges 7000 ft. high from the backbone; along the coast are deep mangrove swamps; the plains between yield rice, sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco; there are forests of teak, camphor, ebony, and sandal-wood, and the richest tin mines in the world; the climate is unhealthy; the northern portion is Siamese, the southern, once constituted the British Straits Settlements, of which one was on the W. coast, specifically called MALACCA; it exports tin and tapioca; the capital, MALACCA, 120 m. NW. of Singapore, was the scene of Francis Xavier's labours.