"A Wonderful Mixture of History ..." a Melaka Travel Page by boocik04

A Sumatran prince, named Parameswara, was credited with the founding of the city and naming it Melaka.

Parameswara was out hunting one day and while resting under a tree, one of his dogs cornered a mouse-deer.

The mouse-deer in its defence attacked the dog and even forced it into the river-water. Parameswara was so taken up by the courage of the mouse-deer that he decided on the spot to found a city on the ground he was sitting on. The prince asked for the name of the tree he was sitting under. As it seems, it was a 'Melaka' tree that was shading him. Thus, Melaka or Malacca was born.

As time went on, Melaka grew bigger and bigger and became more and more prosperous. Parameswara, incidentally, was the first Malay prince to become a Muslim and inevitably, Islam became the religion of the Malays in the Peninsular (now West Malaysia).

The prince was later known as Iskandar Shah and died in 1424. During his rule, Melaka progressed into a booming international trading post, luring over Javanese, Indian, Arab and Chinese sea-merchants.

Under Sultan Mansur Shah (1456 - 1477) rule, Melaka's fame and wealth caught the attention of the Europeans with the Portuguese becoming the first to arrive and eventually conquering the land. They were led by Alfonso d'Albuquerque.

The Portuguese occupiers stayed on far 130 years and their King benefited immensely from this. After the Dutch captured Melaka from the Portuguese in 1641, they continued to use Batavia, now Jakarta, as their head quarters.