. 1 l' . . ..... 1 4'-'

2,.0

40

2,0

4jJ

20

20 C'

MALAY PENINSULA .</

1· Sh . Ssu:J.em.ents ofSing ori~hovinceW~ley~

Me1acca."

r .B1JV.lU1a:ri..u aT N aJ.iJve S f.a1e,s Surveyor Genzra.1;s Office ¢{J

an 'f/ile K7UJW7l, SingapOl"e.

Ifo·-2{1 _. 4{1 . It. 2,0 1~2' .

W Odober 1875.

4l!- 4.0 2.0 .~~~ 4p 1 4; .-'

.l==..:::.:sr~YSIA

Colonial and Ittdz'an Exhzoz'tzon,1886.

NOTES

ON THE

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS

AND

MA·LAY STATES.

LONDON:WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

:Wrinters an'll :WubIisbers to tne ~O"l1al l!tommission,13 CHARING CROSS. S.W., AND AT THE EXHIBITION.

1886.

NOTES

ON

THE STRAITS SETTLElVIENTS

AND MALAY STATES.

THE Colony of the Straits Settlements, as defined by LettersPatent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, dated the

\ 17th June, 1885, consists of the Island of Singapore, the Townand Province of Malacca, the Territory and Islands of Dindings,the Islands of Penang, Province Wellesley, and their Depen­

\ dencies, with any Territories that may at any time be added to,or become dependent upon the Colony.

The Colony takes its name from the Straits of Malacca, in theneighbourhood of which it is situated; Penang in latitude 5 .24North, longitude 100° 2' East, lying at the northern, and Singapore,in latitude 1.16 North and longitude 103° 53' East, at thesouthern extremity of the Straits; Mala~ca, the oldest settlementof the three, being situated between the two, about 240 milesfrom Penang and 110 from Singapore on the mainland of theMalay Peninsula.

HISTORY.-Mr. A. M. Skinner, in his' Geography of the MalayPeninsula,' gives the following account of the rise of the Colony,and its connection with the surrounding Malay countries.

"No account of the geography of the Malay Peninsula and. Borneo can be considered complete which does not include some

outline of the history of the British connection with Malaya." The history of our settlements there is, properly speaking; but

the latest chapter in the general history of British intercoursewith this region, now extending' over 300 years, which may bediv~d.ecl.:jnto three periods, viz. :-

,,"i: 'Th~t'~f individual and trading ventures (1578-1684.)B ?

4 Notes on tlte Straits Settlements

"2. That of trading closely connected with the administrationof the East India Company (1684-1762).

" 3. That of more direct political and military intervention(since 1762).

" A brief reference to each of these periods will best serve aspreface to the history of the Colony.

"The earliest dealings of our countrymen with Malaya were thef isolated visits of the discoverers Drake (1573), Cavendish (1588),

and Lancaster's first voyage (1592), prior to the foundationof the East India Company. These visits of discovery were of abuccaneering rather than a commercial character, notwithstandingthe Royal Letters of Recommendation and the' special Com­missions of James Lancaster, Henry Middleton, and CaptainBest. These so-calied envoys were, in point of fact, shipownersand merchants, sailing under the direct encouragement of theEnglish Sovereign; but without having, so far as is known, anyother than commercial objects committed to them; and certainlyin this earliest period they did not succeed in obtaining anyother than commercial results from their missions.

"Drake, in the course of his famous voyage round the world,came from the East to the Moluccas and touched at Bantam(1578). He is believed to have been the first Englishman tovisit Malaya. Cavendish followed the same course in 1588.

"Captain Lancaster'~ first voyage in the_B01zaventure (1592)was probably the earliest English venture to Malaya, simply fortrade; though privateering, in addition, was by no incans aban­doned by him or others for the next twenty years. His shipleft Zanzibar in February, 1592, and never cast anchor again tillJune, when it reached the shelter..£[ Penan (Pulau Pinang) 'ina very good harbour between three islands some five leaguesfrom the maine' (apparently Te10k Klimbar). Here it stayed tillthe end of August, to check scurvy, which carried off twenty-sixof the crew. It is singular that the very first English trader toMalaya should have found his way direct to this little out-of-theway and uninhabited island, which was to play so import;nt apart nearly 200 years after. He loaded chiefly with pepper, &c.,taken from the Portuguese and Peguan vessels he plundered offPerak, at which place three of them are said to to have' laden acargo of pepper.'

" Houtman's Dutch expedition to Bantam shortly afterwards

the________~__Clf

and Malay States.

.l====5.="~

~ (1594-8), and another about the same time from Flushing, ofwhich our celebrated countryman John Davis was pilot, were thefirst out of Holland.

" The report of Dr. Thorne of Seville, the notes of Lancaster'svoyage, and still more the accounts of Houtman's profits, firstconvinced Englishmen of the great gains that were to be made inMalayan trade. The East India Company was in consequenceformed (1600), with a charter for fifteen years, afterwardsextended, chiefly with the object of trading to Malaya; and afew months later this Company sent out the same Captain (nowSir James Lancaster) as 'Admiral' over four vessels, with Davisas pilot. He made for the Nicobars, and afterwards loaded withpepper and sent home two of his ships from Achin (1602), wherehe was very well received. With the other two he proceeded toPriaman and Bantam, and at the latter place established aregular factory the same year-six years after that set-up by theputch. Large profits were made, and two other expeditionswere despatched; the first under Middleton, immediately afterLancaster's return (1604), and another in 1607. From this timethe voyages were at first annual, and then more frequent, until, inabout 1615, after the thirteenth voyage, the practice of namingeach voyage by its consecutive number was abandoned. It wasnot till the' third voyage' of 1607 that Captain Hawkins visitedSurat and the west coast of India, being the first English traderto do so; though the Portuguese had then been established atGoa a century.

" It was still later, not till 1612, that Captain Hippon, in theGlobe (the seventh voyage), on his way to Malaya, first showedthe English flag on the east coast of India, at Masulipatam; andat Petapoli, near the Dutch possession of Pulicat, he left somepeople to form a factory. Thus the English trade with Malayahad already made some advances before the East IndiaCompany commenced proceedings in India. U nti! Madras waserected into a separate Presidency in 1653, Bantam was thechief town of our Eastern .possessions, having been establishednearly forty years before Madras (1639).

"Captain Hippon's voyage of 16gis not only the commence­ment of British trade in the Bay of Bengal, but his journey is

(also of interest as the first made round the Malay Peninsula in anEnglish ship. He is even said to have formed a factory at

6 Notes on the Stra£ts Settle11lmts

.l==..:=::"~

Patani. This must have been in 1613; and until quite recentlyit was common to find on our English maps this date, under the'word' factory,' at Patani.

"From Patani he paid his first English visit to Siam; andCaptain Saris, his fellow voyager, made, about the same time,the first English .ourn~ to ~pan.

,/ "In 1613 (the tenth voyage)Captain Best, the founder of the\ Indian Marine, with two 'armed' vessels, visited Achin. But

the success he had just obtained over the Portuguese at Surat,and the treaty ratified by the Mogul, had already inaugurated anew era for the Company, which henceforth naturally devotedmore attention to Indian than to Malayan affairs.

"IBut up to this date the East India Company had, in accord­ance with its name and the terms of its charter, been engagedin Malayan trade only.

,. At the time when these Englishmen appeared on the scenethey had been preceded by the Portuguese as conquerors, orsettlers, in Malacca and elsewhere (151 1) ; by the Spanish in theManilas (1565-1571); by the Dutch in Bantam (r 596), Amboyna(1605), the Moluccas (r607), and Timor Kupang (1613), whichthey had wrested from the Portuguese. [Batavia was occupied(1619), and later still Banda (1627), and Padang (1660). Nopermanent fa<;tories had, before this last date, been establishedin Sumatra, Borneo, or on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula,except that above referred to at Patani (1613), and those atTiku (1615), and at Indragiri (1620), all of which were alreadyabandoned. On the Malacca side of the Peninsula, it is true,the Dutch had at this time opened factories in Perak, Kedahand Junk Ceylon; but that of Perak, which was established in1650, was cut off in. 1651, and in 1661 finally abandoned, untilthe Dutch, during the latter years of their rule at Malacca, re­opened it. That of Junk Ceylon was cutoff in 1658, and that ofKedah was soon abandoned.] •

"After 1613 the British trade with Malaya may be consideredestablished; and the practice of pillaging other traders was, forthe most part, discontinued here as elsewhere; but during thewhole of this first period (1578-1684) our trading in Malaya,unlike that of the Dutch and Portuguese, and of our owncountrymen in India, consisted in great part of individual enter-

Iprises of a non-political character. These enterprises were

and Malay States.

'almost wholl}jc:oncerned with the pepper trade in Bantam, andthe spice trade in Banda, Amboyna, Ternate and Tidore. Thesewere the local names then most familiar in England, and are tobe found in Milton's' Paradise Lost,' in Dryden, &c.

"There were also' private' ventures to other places on thecoast of Sumatra for pepper, and to the northern parts of thePeninsula for tin and pe£~r. The English E. 1. Company,though it did not promote them, and before long began tooppose them as 'interlopers,' took advantage of these enter­prises in some cases j but after the 'Presidency' passed to

I Madras, our political status in these parts was inferior to thatof the older settlers-the Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutch.When our Company's traders were admitted, as at Bantam andAmboyna, into a kind of alliance with the Dutch, it was alwayshumiliating, even before the latter became paramount throughthe capture of Malacca by the allied Dutch and Achinese (1641)'After that event, the Dutch supremacy was, of course, moreexclusive. No satisfaction could be obtained, either before or

Iafter' 1641, for the' Massacre of Amboyna' (1623), though thestory excited some indignation in England for many years.

"The next period (1684-1762) is one of mixed commercial and,political intercourse, promoted, and, as far as possible, mono­polised, by the East India Company, commerce being still firstand foremost in the consideration of all, both at home and abroad.

"The long Naval Wars with the Dutch, which t~rminated inj 1674, were looked upon with little satisfaction in England j but,they undoubtedly mark the beginning of an improved positionfor our Company's merchants in Malaya. The Dutch no longersucceeded when they tried against them at Bantam (1683) thesame sort of opposition which had been so successful atAmboyna. Our merchants did not, on being expelled' from the.former, yield up the pepper trade, as they had been ousted fromthe clove trade j on the contrary, the East India Company'sGovernment at Madras took the first opportunity to establishnew forts and factories in Indrapore (1684), and Fort York atBencoolen (1685). The former settlement did not long continue,but that in BencooJen was afterwards strengthened and securedby a stronger Fort, named after the great Marlborough (1714) j

and Bencoolen may thus be considered to be the germ of all oursubsequent growt_h in these parts.

8 Notes on tlte Straits Settlements

"Other 'experimental establishments were also made at Achin(1666 and 1695), Jambi, Tapanuli, Natal (1752), Moco-Moco, &c.,but' none of them proved permanent. After the establishmentof Fort York in 1686, all the Sumatran settlements were madesubordinate to Bencoolen. •

" The latest of the three divisions into which our history falls,comprising the period since 1762, is chiefly composed of politicaland military proceedings, commencing with the Bengal Govern­ment's expedition against Manila (1762), and continuing downto the present time.

" The result of that expedition was that the Spanish possessionswere captured without difficulty, but were restored at the Peaceof Paris (1763), when our possessions in Sumatra were alsosecured to us.

" The only token of success retai~ed by the English was tIieisland of Balambanzan, which was ceded by the Sultan of Suluin gratitude for his- rclease from Spanish captivity on the takingof Manila. This island lies off Marudu Bay in North Borneo,and is interesting as being, together with Labuan, which wasthen occupied for a still shorter period, ~ur first acquisition ofterritory in Bornean waters. It was cut off.by Lanun Pirates in1774, and after being re-established for a few weeks by LordWellesley in 18°4: was finally abandoned as unhealthy the sameyear: the fleet that took the Resident Farquhar there bringing

\ him away again."The most important result was the familiarising of the Bengal

(merchants wit.):l thiS' part of the world, consequent on the Manilaexpedition, and on the. negotiations that followed at the Peace;

'and after the treaty of 1763, Fort Marlborough (Bencoolen) was•formed into an independent Presidency, which arrangement lasted

till 1802. In 1781, Padang and the other Sumatran settlementsof the Dutch, with whom England had gone to war upon theirrecognition of American Independence, were seized by a militaryexpedition from Bencoolen. This Britishastendancy in the

I northern part of Malaya fostered the enterprises Captain Lighthad for some time been carrying on at the time the settlementon Pulau Pinang was first projected (1784-6). That politicalmotives and objects were not wanting~ from the Treatywith Kedah: and the correspondence that preceded it, andparticularly from the interest Warren Hastings took in Penang's

and M atay States.

foundation. The Settlement was made in 1786 by friendlycession and payment. In 1796 it became the Penal Station forBepgql, in place of Port Blair. In 1797-8 a second expedition

. against Manila was fitted out from Madras by Sir J. Shore,under the· command of Colonel Wellesley. It was recalled

.before it left Penang. A full account of the island at that time,written by its Commander to his brother, who had becomeGovernor-General, is to be found in ' The Wellington De­spatches' (Supplementary Despatches, vol. i., p. 25).

" The history of this latest period of the British connection withMalaya is, in fact, speaking generally, the history of enterprisesin which the Government, actuated by political considerations)has taken the lead in promoting British progress in these regions.There are, certainly two recent exceptions to be made, in Borneo,of enterprises which bear something of the earlier privatecharacter, viz. :-Mr. Brooke's action in Sarawak (1840--6), and

\ Mr. Dent's more recent enterprise in Sabah (1880). But thegeneral character of the period is seen in the two Manilaexpeditions-the successful one of 1762, and the abortive onp. of1797; in the occupation, and subsequent recapture of BaJam­bangan (1775-1804); in the foundation of Penang (1786), aftersome years of negotiation both in Bengal and Kedah; in tlieMarine Survey~' of McCluer and Hayes (1790-93) during thepeace, and in the seizure of Malacca and of the Moluccas, assoon as the great war began (1795-1801); and again of Java,&c., in the later stages of our struggle with Napoleon (1811-14) ;in the foundation and support of Singapore (1819); and in theprotection (since withdrawn) afforded to Achin (1819), and theStates of the Malay Peninsula, with which Tr~aties have fromtime to time been entered into, particularly during that unsettledperiod (1818-24).

" There are three principal dates in this interval :-1805, 1827,and 1867.

"The first of these brings to a close the period in which noregular English administration had been organised in Penang ;affairs were managed by commercial superintendents, and theIndian Government was content to leave their Malayan factoriesand possessions, in Penang at all events, outside the Indianpolitical system.

"The next stage exhibits an entire change. The Indian