I was getting baffled: is it an a or an e? Google of course knows the answer: the more familiar Malacca dates back to colonial times; nowadays, Melaka is the more acceptable form. Though everyone still pronounces it Malacca. Clear? Splendid!
Clearer anyway than the tourist map with which we attempted a walking tour of the old town. We went to the first couple of places, including an austerely beautiful church – legacy of the Dutch occupation – and what’s left of the fort, built by the Portuguese, according to a sign, using forced labour and materials “…from demolished palaces, mosques and local mausoleums.” Need some bricks for your new fort? Just knock down a few local palaces and cart it away. Those were the days!
We gave up on the map in the end and just took a wander down the river, which was lovely – and strangely bereft of people. Brightly coloured buildings in various degrees of dishevelment line the banks, albeit mostly bearing the usual Americanised signage: Reggae on the River and the like.
One of a number of similar plaques in the church, bearing witness to the perils of life in the tropics in the days before science really got to grips with disease. Even 170 years on, you can’t but feel a bit lowered at the thought of poor Captain Evans: one day a happy family man, then standing by utterly helpless watching his young wife die, then his children, one after another, till in little more than a fortnight, his entire family were gone. Unimaginable.