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Revamped history book gives voice to orang laut
New edition of text covering 700-year period also has fresh insights, reader-friendly features
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The revamped Seven Hundred Years: A History Of Singapore captures the documentation of the orang laut by gem trader Jacques De Coutre in the late 1500s.
PHOTO: SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS: A HISTORY OF SINGAPORE
Melody Zaccheus
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The orang laut people played a special role as vendors of the sea more than 400 years ago.
They pulled up alongside passing vessels in small boats and offered fish, poultry and fruit picked in the hills of Singapore. They also offered handcrafted palm-leaf parasols that they bartered in exchange for blankets, rice and nails.
