[Footnote 4: Simpson, in his _Side Lights on Siberia_, uses "command" as denoting a jail outside of the prison walls.] It has not been already mentioned that the local jails, or houses of correction, though according to law they were kept distinct from the convict jails at the several settlements, nevertheless were in their superintendence placed under the Superintendent of Convicts and convict petty officers. A good proportion of these local prisoners were employed upon extramural works, under the guard of these convict petty officers, who, being natives of India, had nothing in common with the Chinese and Malays who formed the bulk of these prisoners, and they kept them well under control, and allowed but few escapes, and, moreover, they were never found open to the taking of bribes from the prisoners' relations and friends, who now and again would attempt to offer them forbidden articles. At Penang there were a considerable number of these Indian convicts upon ticket of leave, who gained their livelihood in a variety of ways. Some of them were the first to discover the palm known by the Malays as "Plas tikoos," and by botanists as the "Licuala acutifida," a small palm, ordinarily not higher than from five to six feet. From this palm, which grew mostly upon the Penang Hill, were constructed walking-sticks called "Penang lawyers," and the process of preparing them was very simple: the epidermis, or exterior coating, was scraped off with glass, and then the stick was straightened with fire, as is done by the Malays in preparing the Malacca canes. Several of these Penang lawyers were sold by the convicts on the spot, and many more were exported to Europe and America. [Illustration: BOUNDARIES OF MALACCA, PORTUGUESE PERIOD (From Godinho de Eredia's Work). _Plate III._] Chapter III OLD MALACCA AND THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF CONVICTS THERE Authorities differ very considerably as to the origin of the name of this place. Some attribute it to the Malay name for a shrub which largely abounded near the shore, a sort of "Phyllanthus emblica" of the spurge order; others, again, ascribe it to a plant called the "Jumbosa Malaccensis," or "Malay apple tree" of the myrtle bloom order; others, again, say that the Javanese were the first to colonize the place about the year 1160 of our time, and that they gave it the name "Malaka," which in that language means "an exile," in memory of one "Paramisura" who came there as a fugitive from the kingdom of Palembang.