Take the following as truth: Apart from the few Malays in the settlements' rural communities of Province Wellesley and the Melaka hinterland, most still lived inland along the middle reaches of the rivers, away from the coastal marshlands dominated by the orang laut pirates.
Then the following statement: "The region's inhabitants were located mostly along the coast, with fortified garrisons that protected them from pirates." is true, false, or inconclusive?