113514
RAFFLES OF SINGAPORE
BOOKS BY
EMILY HAHN
RAFFLES OF SINGAPORE
HONG KONG HOLIDAY
CHINA TO ME
MR. PAN
THE SOONG SISTERS
EMILY HAHJNT
ncraoore
1946
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.
COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY EMILY HAHN BOXER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
flRST EDITION
With much affection to
GEORGE AND KATHARINE SANSOM
COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY EMILY HAHN BOXER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N* T.
FIRST EDITION
With much affection to
GEORGE AND KATHARINE SANSOM
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks are due the Ex-
plorers' Club of New York for their generosity in allowing a
free use of their excellent library during the preparation of
this text. The same is true of the British Library of Informa-
tion in New York, with special reference to the kindness of
Mrs. Mary Bujke of that organization. The writer also wishes
to express her gratitude for the practical help given her by
Dr. James Chapin of the American Museum of Natural His-
tory,
Dr. Bartholomew Landheer, of the Netherlands Informa-
tion Bureau in New York, was kind enough, during the
writer's absence in England, to check the book in proof for
the spelling of the many Dutch names which occur in the
text, a tedious job and one which she sincerely appreciates his
having done,
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing page
A Javanese Renggeng 78
A Javanese in Court Dress 79
A Madurese Petty Noble no
Elephant Sent by Raffles to the Shogun
of Japan in 1813 111
A Hollander and His Javanese Slave 111
Male Informal Attire 334
Eurasian Woman . 334
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles 335
Map of the Island of Singapore 366
Plan of the Town of Singapore 367
APOLOGIA
"The volume is too cursory
for the specialist and too detailed for others. . ." (From
R. O. Winstedt's review of Vlekke's Nusantara in the Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1944.)
Cruel words which, though they were not inspired by this
book, might well have been. The author of Raffles of Singa-
pore hereby offers a brief apology for her unorthodox treat-
ment of an exceedingly conventional subject, knowing that
biography and history used customarily to be written in a
special style, dry and pedantic. That, in her opinion, was a
fault. She feels that her own generation while growing up was
frightened away from history by this stupid tradition, which
masked Clio's beauty and drowned the music of her voice in
dull, pedestrian language. The old fashion was deliberately to
steal from the story of men and nations all excitement and
even interest. History we understood to be a dreary list of wars
and coronations, appended to a catalogue of dates,
If in following the new fashion the writer exaggerates, lean-
ing too far in the other direction, she hopes that her facts at
least are fundamentally sound and that she has avoided slop-
piness in recounting them.
Her hope and purpose in producing this book are not to
contribute to our knowledge of Raffles; for excepting that she
had access to Dutch sources which are not commonly known
to English readers, she has nothing new to offer. She meant it
rather for the ordinary person who ? like herself, was cheated
at school by bad teaching and never learned of history's true
deep pleasures until he was able to dispel his early false impres-
sions.
Those readers who are already well grounded in the period
are asked to refer to the Bibliography before reading the book.
They may then feel that the writer has at any rate tried to
avoid being included in the category of those so scathingly
condemned by Lord Curzon as "either not having read what
has been written by better men before, or reading it only in
order to plagiarize and reproduce it as their own, * . . mis-
understand, misspell, and misinterpret everywhere as they
go." The desire to avoid this pitfall for the hack writer turned
historian also explains why the author has refrained from the
temptation to paraphrase or modernize the older writers whose
works she has consulted.
The interest we all feel today in Indonesia as well as the
general topic of imperialism appears to her to lead as a matter
of course to England and, particularly, to Raffles's period.
What is happening today in Java has a definite relationship
with the past in which he played so large a part.
It has been difficult to keep to a consistent spelling of Malay
and Javanese names, particularly as they occur many times in
direct quotations where they must be left untouched in what-
ever form the original writer preferred: Dutch, English, or
purely arbitrary. Sticklers for accuracy are referred to the Glos-
sary and Index, where these variations are properly listed*
Acknowledgment is made elsewhere to those individuals
who have helped in various ways to locate or secure the in*
formation included in this book; but it should be stated here
that Major C, R, Boxer was responsible for all of the transla-
tion and much of the selection of the Dutch material used.
Naturally this responsibility does not extend to the writer's
interpretation of the facts thus supplied. On a number of
occasions Major Boxer's views did not coincide with those of
his wife, which is one of several reasons for his firm> consist-
ent refusal to accept more credit for his help than is herewith
* " EMILY HAHH
RAFFLES OF SINGAPORE
CHAPTER I
Had Mrs. Benjamin Raffles
been able to hold out one more night her son would have been
born on the terra firma of Jamaica instead of seeing his first
daylight from the cabin of the Ann. Not that it mattered to
anyone. Even the captain was complacent, a rare state of af-
fairs for a man of his calling when a baby gets itself born under
his command. But then the circumstances were unusual, for he
was Benjamin Raffles, father of the infant, who was the first
male child his wife had produced; what man under such cir-
cumstances would complain, even though he was captain? Not
the father of Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, in any case.
The eighteenth century was altogether more philosophical
about such facts of nature than is the twentieth, due in large
part to the difficulties of travel. When a ship's sailing schedule
is liable to be knocked galley-west by a change of seasonal wind,
it seems unduly captious to take exception to some feminine
mistake of a month or so. Today the shipping companies are
not so amiable about maritime deliveries. Ticket agencies have
been known to refuse ladies all too evidently close to their hour
of travail when they try to book passage on long sea voyages.
But such practice is generally frowned on and will probably
not become general. There is a good deal of old-fashioned
prejudice still to be found in our hearts: we are still hopelessly
in favor of reproduction, and it goes against our instincts thus
summarily to discourage women big with child, however in-
convenient their company aboard ship. We are extraordinarily
kind, for some reason, to any woman who, like Mrs. Raffles,
gives birth on a ship at sea. Be she steerage passenger or mil-
lionairess, half-witted or famous, malodorous or attractive,
sweet or bad-tempered, everybody loves her for a day. She is
esteemed, petted, and spoiled; she is considered a creature of
noble fortitude rather than just another feckless female who
can't count.
Since this is the case in 1946, one can see how much less
reason Captain Benjamin had to complain, back in 1781 on
the fifth of July. He wasn't an exception. English sea captains
who liked to have their wives about them used often to take
them along on voyages like this journey aboard the Ami. The
ship was making a routine run, London to Port Morant and
back with fresh cargo, so while she was loading Mrs, Raffles
had ample time to recover and to slip ashore and register her
babe properly, before the Ann pointed her nose toward home.
Our information on this subject is meager, but since we
learn from Raffles, in letters which he wrote years later, that his
father was chronically unable to support his family without aid,
we can guess that the bright warm islands of the West Indies
gave the captain's wife an unusual taste of luxury, after living
frugally in London most of her life, We must be satisfied,
however, with conjecture, because Sir Stamford has never been
generous with descriptions of his childhood's difficulties.
Doubtless he was reluctant to dwell on his own trials and
troubles partly because he was modest, partly because of pride*
Fortunately for us, writers like Thackeray, Hickey, and their
contemporaries have been less self-contained, and so we have
a clear picture of the London in which Raffles grew up,
whether or not he ever wished us to know the worst, We can
make a close guess at what his home was like: it must have
been dark and inconvenient, for even the wealthy residents of
London lived in gloomy buildings in those days* Nobody
knew any better. The Raffles family was poor, but not abject
with the poverty that knows no pride. Such a state wotild have
been, in many ways, easier to support philosophically. Raffles
came of gentlefolk, poor boy, and he was taught never to for-
get to be genteel, no matter what misfortunes he labored
under. When he went out into the world, a weedy boy of four-
teen, he had learned his lesson well and knew how to keep the
true state of affairs at home decently hidden. So did his parents,
so did his sisters, with a fierce pride that cost them God knows
what in privations which were never admitted, then or later,
when circumstances became easier.
It is difficult, indeed, not to lose patience with the long-
suffering clan of Raffles. Life could have been much pleasanter
for all of them if they had possessed a little less fortitude, a
little more humility. If only Captain Benjamin Raffles and
Mrs. Raffles (nee Lindeman of the Herefordshire Lindemans,
also sister of the Rev. John Lindeman, a respectable clergy-
man) , and the young Misses Raffles, and Master Thomas Stam-
ford Bingley Raffles if only they hadn't been so tiresornely
genteel and decent it would have gone better for everyone.
But they couldn't help it: they were victims of the time and
the system. Far more than she is today, England was rigidly
divided into classes, and the Raffleses belonged irrevocably to
the respectable middle class. Had they been low-class cock-
neys, they could have relaxed. A poor cockney with no educa-
tion, heir to no social position, was able in the late eighteenth
century to settle back in his dirt with his wife and ragged
brats; he got a little fun out of life. He took it easy. He could beg
or steal, he could even do a menial job and earn some menial
money, which goes as far as the other kind. Nobody expected
him to entertain ambitions for his children's betterment; he
wouldn't dream of it He took no more thought for his off-
spring's future than an animal of the fields. So long as they
pigged it with him and were willing to share his lot he was not
unkind to them, unless he happened by some accident to
achieve drunkenness. Then he might possibly beat up his dear
ones, unless they were wary enough to stay out of his path.
Anyway, one way or another, life for the genuine low-class
poor was not too terrible to contemplate, back in those dark
ages before England was modernized by machinery.
It was the shabby-genteel who were in pitiful condition, so
that one Is divided, when contemplating them, between exas-
peration and reluctant respect*
It is genuinely a relief to know that the captain's wife went
down to Jamaica once, at any rate, for a sort of holiday. There
were other mitigations in the Rafflcses' lot too: their father the
captain could at least tell them about warmer clinics, where
slaves were plentiful and everyone had leisure and every day
was like a dream. They would probably become ambitious to
see all this for themselves. At the end of the eighteenth century
xnore than one English heart yearned toward the romance of
"the Colonies." Hundreds of British men and women were out
in India or Malaya, finding compensation for the discomfort
of the long voyage in a marvelous manner of life unknown to
the home island.
English minds were full of oriental visions just then. We
citizens of the United States used to learn at school that the
loss of the American colonies and the revolution leading to it
were heavy blows to the British. We were taught that the
English were plunged into the depths of despair by our defec-
tion, and that George's throne practically tottered when his
subjects realized how he had wantonly lost this pride of the
Atlantic for them. For all I know, our children are still hearing
this nonsense. In actuality the ordinary Briton of the late eight-
eenth century was scarcely aware of America, either before or
after our war of independence. The quality of the troops the
Crown sent to put down the insurrection was a fair sign af
England's contemptuous opinion of us; only a handful of men
were spared for the job. When they failed in their mission, the
English, far from feeling astonishment and terror, didn't expe-
rience much emotion at all, with the exception of a few busi-
nessmen who had invested heavily rather than wisely in the
new western colonies. No ordinary Briton could have guessed
how the United States were to flourish in the next couple of
centuries. The only important effect our Revolution seemed to
have on the mother country was to turn public notice more
completely toward the Indies, West and East, which had long
held most of their attention anyway. And British above all-
it was so new? so glamorous, so full of possibilities! It was con-
venient, too, as a wastebasket: India in those days fulfilled the
function of Australia in the next century in accommodating the
wild youngsters, the problem children, and the younger sons of
England. She also offered tempting careers to solid citizens.
The ports of India were already well-established cities, with an
aristocracy composed of British men and women who kept
dozens of native servants, lived in a sort of fairyland, and were
too happily busy to remember their more humble origins at
home. A lady writing a friend from Madras in 1783 makes
none of the mention we might expect of political difficulties
or of housekeeping problems, but she speaks briefly and un-
grammatically of the trials of sea travel, as one sufferer to an-
other, before turning once and for all to the engrossing topic
of dress. A lady who at home would have been absorbed in
domestic topics, in India has learned to chatter like a lady of
fashion, of high degree, and of no earthly use to anybody.
"I have received your letter and am very happy to hear of
your safe arrival in Bengal after so uncommonly bad and disa-
greeable a passage as you had, but you was most fortunate in
meeting with such a man in the command of the ship as Cap-
tain Serocold. I make no doubt but you will like your situation,
as I hear the inhabitants of Bengal are much more sociably
disposed than we humdrum Madrassars. To add to your society
there are a great many ladies arrived here whose final desti-
nation is your quarter. Many of them are single, and some very
pretty, really beautiful. I have not yet been to see them, being,
as you well know, a sad visitor. I hear nothing talked of now but
the fashions/ It is reckoned the height of indelicacy to show
the ear or any part of it; the hair is therefore cut in such a man-
ner as wholly to cover that part of the head, not even the tip
must be seen. For my part I am very well satisfied with the old
custom, and too sedate to adopt every absurd and preposterous
innovation. . . "
A glorious vision had taken hold of the British. True, Eng-
land was not the empire she was to become when Queen Vic-
toria sat on the throne and Disraeli taught her to be an empress,
but she was already the country which had produced the East
India Company, and her people were cashing in on that fact.
that one is divided, when contemplating them, between exas-
peration and reluctant respect.
It is genuinely a relief to know that the captain's wife went
down to Jamaica once, at any rate, for a sort of holiday. There
were other mitigations in the Raffleses' lot too; their father the
captain could at least tell them about warmer climes, where
slaves were plentiful and everyone had leisure and every day
was like a dream. They would probably become ambitious to
see all this for themselves. At the end of the eighteenth century
more than one English heart yearned toward the romance of
"the Colonies." Hundreds of British men and women were out
in India or Malaya, finding compensation for the discomfort
of the long voyage in a marvelous manner of life unknown to
the home island.
English minds were full of oriental visions just then. We
citizens of the United States used to learn at school that the
loss of the American colonies and the revolution leading to if
were heavy blows to the British. We were taught that the
English were plunged into the depths of despair by our defec-
tion, and that George's throne practically tottered when his
subjects realized how he had wantonly lost this pride of the
Atlantic for them. For all I know, our children are still hearing
this nonsense. In actuality the ordinary Briton of the late eight-
eenth century was scarcely aware of America, either before or
after our war of independence. The quality of the troops the
Crown sent to put down the insurrection was a fair sign af
England's contemptuous opinion of us; only a handful of men
were spared for the job. When they failed in their mission, the
English, far from feeling astonishment and terror, didn't expe-
rience much emotion at all, with the exception of a few busi-
nessmen who had invested heavily rather than wisely in the
new western colonies. No ordinary Briton could have guessed
how the United States were to flourish in the next couple of
centuries. The only important effect our Revolution seemed to
have on the mother country was to turn public notice more
completely toward the Indies, West and East, which had long
held most of their attention anyway. And British above all-
it was so new, so glamorous, so full of possibilities! It was con-
venient, too, as a wastebasket: India in those days fulfilled the
function of Australia in the next century in accommodating the
wild youngsters, the problem children, and the younger sons of
England. She also offered tempting careers to solid citizens.
The ports of India were already well-established cities, with an
aristocracy composed of British men and women who kept
dozens of native servants, lived in a sort of fairyland, and were
too happily busy to remember their more humble origins at
home. A lady writing a friend from Madras in 1783 makes
none of the mention we might expect of political difficulties
or of housekeeping problems, but she speaks briefly and un-
grammatically of the trials of sea travel, as one sufferer to an-
other, before turning once and for all to the engrossing topic
of dress. A lady who at home would have been absorbed in
domestic topics, in India has learned to chatter like a lady of
fashion, of high degree, and of no earthly use to anybody.
"I have received your letter and am very happy to hear of
your safe arrival in Bengal after so uncommonly bad and disa-
greeable a passage as you had, but you was most fortunate in
meeting with such a man in the command of the ship as Cap-
tain Serocold. I make no doubt but you will like your situation,
as I hear the inhabitants of Bengal are much more sociably
disposed than we humdrum Madrassars. To add to your society
there are a great many ladies arrived here whose final desti-
nation is your quarter. Many of them are single, and some very
pretty, really beautiful. I have not yet been to see them, being,
as you well know, a sad visitor. I hear nothing talked of now but
the fashions! It is reckoned the height of indelicacy to show
the ear or any part of it; the hair is therefore cut in such a man-
ner as wholly to cover that part of the head, not even the tip
must be seen. For my part I am very well satisfied with the old
custom, and too sedate to adopt every absurd and preposterous
innovation, . . ."
A glorious vision had taken hold of the British. True, Eng-
land was not the empire she was to become when Queen Vic-
toria sat on the throne and Disraeli taught her to be an empress,
but she was already the country which had produced the East
India Company, and her people were cashing in on that fact
Colonization was not yet a political matter. It was not even
primarily the affair of the government. The colonies were off-
shoots of trade, the be-all and end-all of the average Briton.
If an Englishman went to far-off lands and wrestled with the
natives for existence, and finally produced something worth
sending home to sell, he was not thinking so much of his
country's glory or of his King as he was of his record witli the
Company. He was always, if he lived in India, connected with
one of the "factories," and through his very languid efforts
petty trading was done to such a degree that a thousand such
small transactions made up an important figure for the annual
accounting back home, in Threadneedle Street.
Remember, it was a disparity of opinion as to the nation's
duty toward British colonists which finally led to that revolt of
America. The colonists of North America had conic to think
of themselves as settled residents of the new country, rather
than temporary commercial travelers out to exploit a strange
land. In India the mentality was different
Stamford Raffles was born during the Revolutionary War,
and there is a definite link between our history and his. A com-
parison, though farfetched, is amusing. Our nation was bom
at the same time he was. We didn't know to what heights our
destiny was to take us; neither did he. (Though we all felt pre-
monitions of glory. ) The children being born in the American
provinces when Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles put in his
appearance were dedicated to the new experiment of a republic.
Raffles, on the other hand, was an empire builder, dedicated
to empire from the cradle. He didn't know it. Until just a bit
before the end he thought of himself as a servant of the East
India Company first, and second as a loyal and not unworthy
subject of the Crown, doing his best for the nation by way of
trade. But he was an empire builder nevertheless, perhaps the
first genuine one in England. Clive and Hastings came before
him and played their parts against the same backdrop, it is true,
But both of these men, particularly Clive, were individualists
and careerists first: their work was only fortuitously construc-
tive of the British Empire. Raffles, a younger man, saw the
Company, and himself an integral part of the Company^ all a
part y in turn, of the great divine plan of empire. He never
doubted the final Tightness of empire; he merely doubted the
Company's interpretation, sometimes, of Divinity's intentions.
Then he tried to set them right again, back on the path leading
to the right true end a greater empire.
As a result he was not half the "character" dive was, nor did
he want to be. In his world a man didn't stand alone on the
stage, posturing. A man who could choose his part didn't play
the hero: he preferred to be stage director. He stood offstage
and told the mob what to do yes, and the hero too.
The relations which had existed through two centuries be-
tween the East India Company and the Crown seem simple
enough in retrospect, a long record of charters granted, re-
newed, held back, and then granted again as new monarchs
came to the throne and felt kindly disposed or covetous toward
the merchant adventurers. Closer inspection breaks up the
orderly pattern. A conscientious student of history can easily
spend a lifetime tracing the East India Company's strange
Siamese-twin existence, side by side with the British Govern-
ment through the years; still he will not have unraveled it.
What at first seems obvious becomes obsure under the reading
glass. For example the chief article of trade for many years,
the staple industry which provided the lifeblood of the Com-
pany, was not an Indian product at all but a Chinese one tea.
And though we speak nowadays a good deal, loosely, of Eng-
land's conquest of India, as though it were a simple tale of
armed expansion, the British Government was not India's
conqueror. The East India Company John Company, was. The
conquest of India was primarily commercial; it was carried out
by commercial agents. It is true that they were Englishmen,
and their military wore English uniform, but they were acting
for the Company. For generations the British rulers of the
Indians and all their petty officials were East India Company
ageat, and nothing else. This does not mean the Indians were
mistaken IE laying the actions of the white men at the door of
the British Crown. By the time CHve made his name famous
there had been so much mingling of interests between gov-
ernment and Company out in Asia, and so many hundreds of
British soldiers dead on Indian soi! 7 that it would be an impos-
sible task to extricate the single strands of either agency's story
from the tangled record. The responsibility must be shared.
John Company is dead, but his soul goes marching on* We
find it in a thousand places: in a tradition, for example, sur-
viving today in the Belgian Congo, where the leading com-
mercial agent for the most important British firm in any sizable
community there is ipso facto British consul for the town.
Eighteenth-century England was not a nation of shopkeep-
ers. She was a nation of traveling salesmen, who carried arms as
well as goods in their sample cases.
It all began in 1581, when Queen Elizabeth granted a char-
ter to a group of merchants who wanted to seek foreign coun-
tries with which to trade. That group was not the original East
India Company, but many of the members went over to our
Company in time. They were all possessed with a dream of
the East, that land of gold and emeralds and rubies and spices
which beckoned to any adventurer worthy of the term* It was
not until 1600 that the true East India Company received a
charter, and that was first limited to fifteen years and allowed
simply for operations by ship between the Cape of Good Hope
and the Strait of Magellan,
In 1600 the Company's offices opened in Philpot Lane, in
the home of Sir Thomas Smythe, their first governor. From the
beginning competition was fierce, not only with the Portu-
guese but also with the Dutch, who had their East India Com-
pany too. The first and second British voyages were made to
Sumatra and Java, and though they were profitable enough to
satisfy the stockholders and to sway capricious royal prejudice
toward granting the new charter which was soon to be re-
quested, a good deal of the profit can't honestly be laid to the
address of Trade* Piracy pure and simple brought in those good
returns, at least one "prize ship" being towed into an English
harbor, the cause of great and joyful excitement.
The first English factory of the Company was founded at
Surat. That word "factory/' which persists through the decades
and is found with the same connotation in African posts, owes
its existence to the Portuguese word feitoria; early commercial
agents were always called "factors/' a word derived from the
same root. The Surat station, small and unpretentious though
it was, angered and affrighted the alert Portuguese. But the
Company's real competitor was not Portugal, as the British
soon learned: it was Holland. The Dutch had begun to sup-
plant the Portuguese everywhere, and though the English were
willing for a while to maintain peaceful relations in the East
Indies with these determined traders, such a state of affairs
could not continue forever. Not, at any rate, in the minds of
those traveling merchants and pirates from England, flushed
with success and flush with profit. They were in a grabby mood.
By 1621 the Company group had outgrown their offices in
Philpot Lane and had moved to Crosby Hall in Bishopsgate.
Altogether it would seem that as a commercial venture it had
proved itself solid.
The future was to bear out appearances. What other stock
company can claim to have lived more than two hundred and
fifty years?
Those days in which John Company matured and reached
his giant stature were to see a strange paradox, something that
seems to happen wherever commercial-minded Englishmen,
having led the way, are followed by more Englishmen, wanting
more trade. That was all they were after. None of these men
consciously aspired to responsibility, but they got it, and this
duty was to weigh heavily upon the shoulders of their succes-
sors. It is a sort of curse on England that her people should al-
ways get so heavily involved in governing the lands they set out
merely to exploit. It happened at that time too; the traders
didn't ask for all that authority in perpetuity, though there is
no doubt, later, that the British made a virtue of convenience,
and even miscalled convenience by the name of necessity. Who
at the beginning could have guessed that England would one
day rule India? Not the British, not the Portuguese, and cer-
tainly not the suspicious Dutch, who still held the advantage
In Far Eastern commerce. Nor y for that matter^ did the Indian
rajahs know what future they were preparing when they haggled
with the foreigners. Some of them had an inkling, perhaps, of
what lay in store, and they were the stubborn ones y the un-
reasonable ones 7 the troublesome^ narrow-minded ones who
resisted the encroachment of strangers on their lands and
steadily refused the blandishments of promises and gifts from
the Company.
Of course we can hardly consider Clivc a simple trader^ a
pawn of Fate, or a dark horse. He knew what he was doing, and
he liked it. dive's advent marked the real change in Britain's
approach to India, Had it not been for his stormy career, the
Company's records would probably have been wound up In
the middle of the eighteenth century Instead of the nineteenth,
It was Clive who gave the story of India a new twist, unveiled
the figure of Politics which had always been shrouded In the
Company's warehouse, and with his ruthless swift decisions
committed his country to the role of British Raj. One could
go further back and lay the blame, when it be considered
blame, at the door of the French, who by threatening English
supremacy in India brought out dive's military genius in op-
position to themselves, thus sacrificing any permanent French
interest there,
Robert Clive's career is an Imperatively necessary study for
anybody interested In Sir Stamford Raffles and his motives*
Clive more than any other of Raffles's predecessors made dcfi*
nite the relationship between the Crown and the Company,
and showed how inevitable was the final solution of any real
difference between them, in the government of India* Clive
saw early in his life In the East that the Crown would one day
have to take on the Company's work,
"See what an Augean Stable there Is to be cleansed/' he
wrote from India. "The confusion we behold, what does it
arise from? Rapacity and luxury; the unreasonable desire of
many to acquire in an instant, what only a few can or ought
to possess* Every man would be rich without the merits of long
service, and from this incessant competition undoubtedly
springs that disorder to which we must apply a remedy, or be
<*$ 10
undone, for it is not only malignant but contagious. The Court
of Directors must supply the Settlement with young men more
moderate or less eager in their pursuit of wealth, and we may
perhaps be reduced to the necessity of drawing some senior
servants from other Settlements."
In 1765 Clive obtained from the "Great Mogul/' in ex-
change for his support of the ruler, the most important treaty
ever made between India and the Company. By its rules, the
Company ceased to be merely a lessee of property and com-
mercial rights in India, and instead supplied armies to police
large areas as well as to protect the Emperor. This arrangement
led to a great influx of Englishmen aside from the soldiers, not
the earlier, adventurous type, but the civilian, the predecessor
of today's civil servant. Besides these good bourgeois, we see
the development of the special soldier who made India and
only India his career. One such youth bequeathed us his lively
memoirs. William Hickey at the age of nineteen, in 1768, had
got into so many scrapes that his father, upon the death of
William's mother, took a step which was evidently considered
desperate and "procured a situation" for his problem child as
a cadet in the East India Company's service. The young man
first went to interview the director who had nominated him:
"He said he had appointed me for Madras in preference to
Bengal. ... I then went to my father's tailor, Anthony Mar-
celis, of Suffolk Street, Charing Cross, to order regimentals,
but not knowing to what corps I should be appointed, I con-
ceived the best thing I could do would be to have a suit of each
description, which I directed accordingly. Upon my way from
Marcelis I met in the street a dashing fellow in a scarlet frock,
with black waistcoat, breeches, and stockings, which in my
eyes appeared remarkably smart. I therefore returned instantly
to the tailor to bespeak a similar dress, as I was then in mourn-
ing for my mother. Marcelis suggested an improvement, which
was to have the coat lined with black silk, and black buttons
and buttonholes, which not only looked better than the plain
red, but was more appropriate as military mourning,
"Mr. Walter Taylor, a very old friend of my father's, pre-
sented me with a beautiful cut and thrust steel sword, desiring
me to cut off half a dozen rieh fellows* heads with it, and so
return a Nabob myself to England/'
Here Is a chance to grow sentcntiously Indignant about the
young man's attitude toward India, which was evidently typical
of his times. But what would we prove? Hickey was no monster:
he was the logical result of the system. (And incidentally he
was usually charming and always drunk,) To the eighteenth-
century mind those natives of faraway India were not real
living creatures at all. They were part of the fairy tale of the
mysterious East. It was a Ncver-Never land of adventure, and
young Hickey thought of decapitating those "rich fellows" in
the same spirit in which our little boys go outdoors to collect
imaginary scalps from redskins. We shouldn't condemn the
Hickeys for their dreams as long as they do their dreaming in
England* It is later on that danger lurks, when they meet up
with real flesh-and-blood natives, genuine people they must
live with. With such preparation as they had in the xyHos, one
could scarcely hope the I lickeys of England would be particu-
larly imaginative or understanding representatives of the British
Raj when they disembarked and found themselves surrounded
by "natives/' It was high time, however, that tine young men
learn the strange truth: that the world outside England was
simply swarming with natives. The world was far bigger than
one had realized. It was made up in large part, one now dis-
covered, of potential colonies for England^ wherein English-
men governed natives, traded with natives, and were waited
upon by natives.
It was very good for the young men to get out and work for
the Company: it was good for them to travel Travel, if I may
be permitted to coin a phrase, broadens the mind-
CHAPTER II
"I am a bad Englishman/' said
Horace Walpole, "because I think the advantages of com-
merce are dearly bought for some by the lives of many more.
But . . . every age has some ostentatious system to excuse
the havoc it commits/' ;
Measuring with that yardstick, Walpole would have called
Raffles a good Englishman. So, of course, do the good English-
men of today. But though there are more bad Englishmen in
this generation than there were in Walpole's, even they don't
dislike Raffles too much. What saves him is the large propor-
tion in his make-up of humanitarian principle. He provides
what excuses there are for the imperialist pattern. His appear-
ance coincided more or less with a merging of the Crown and
John Company's interests. Perhaps because of this he was a
departure from the type of man who, before him, enlarged the
influence of the East India Company abroad.
As a youth, however, he was evidently Type incarnate. If
we are to believe his biographers, Thomas Stamford Bingley
Raffles was the prototyped every success story they told school-
boys of the past generation. He was the Alger boy himself, if
we are to believe his biographers, and if we are not for we
must consider the source and the times that produced it then
there isn't much to tell about Raffles as a child. All the ma-
terial that might have singled him out and given frim individu-
ality has been suppressed, ignored, or lost. When Raffles be-
came a great man and people began to write biographies and
memoirs about him (his greatness was commensurate with that
of Singapore, and Singapore waxed great just as her founder
died) the fashion was all for Alger boys. The word "debunk"
had not been invented. Neither, alas, had the practice, or, if it
had we must not forget Rousseau England was not yet
amused by it. Even if Raffles had been an unpleasant youth,
even if he had flouted his parents, or robbed an occasional
bank, or slain a little baby for the eoral round its neck, you
wouldn't have found anyone to say so, least of all the worthy
Demetrius Rcmlger, who wrote the standard biography of our
hero. "Worthy" is the word for Boulgcr, and for Boulger's boy
Raffles-
No Alger hero ever started life as a rich boy. There, immedi-
ately, at the threshold of his subject's life Boulger leaves us in
the dark on an important point. He gives us no explanation
whatever as to why the family of a sea captain should have been
so strapped for money that they couldn't afford the poorest
education for their only son. Young Thomas had only two years
of schooling, under a Dr. Anderson of Hammersmith, before
his parents took him out and put him to work. He was then
fourteen. Success-story heroes arc usually fourteen when they
begin life, unless they are fifteen. Freud was yet to be a power
in our civilization, and no one would have rebuked Raffles for
getting started so late on his career, as Ben Ilccht is reputed
to have rebuked Jascha Heifetz when the violinist said, "I first
appeared on the concert stage at the age of six/'
"I suppose before that," said Hccht, "you were just a bum?"
Raffles, according to the story, was grief-stricken at being
taken out of school, and though that item 7 too, sounds as if it
needed a little salt to improve the flavor* it may well have been
true, A normal boy would have been overjoyed, but young
Thomas couldn't have been normal .Only a strong, precocious
sense of responsibility could have made a fourtcen^ear-old
work as hard as he did when they put him to wage earning, and
his sense of bitterness is easy to perceive. Recollected in Ms
later life, when he wrote his confessions, it is obviously the
stimulus that kept him at his books after hours, when he tried
at night to make up for the schooling of which, he felt, Fate
and his parents had robbed him.
So seldom does he mention his father that we are apt to
forget the elder Raffles. Reading the Boulger biography, it
comes as a shock when Captain Benjamin's death takes place,
the reader having long since assumed from this neglect of his
name that he was already dead. What could have been the
trouble? He may have been a disgrace to the family because
he drank or bet on dogfights; something like that would ac-
count for their silence, and very little else would. Perhaps the
captain was simply so ineffectual that he drifted while still
alive into what amounted to oblivion. At any rate he couldn't
support his wife, three daughters, and one son, and though his
father's pension helped them out until Thomas was three, the
old man died in 1784. So at the age of fourteen Raffles went
to work in the East India Company's offices in Philpot Lane,
as an "extra clerk/' or in our language an office boy.
For these services he earned a guinea a month. It is doubtful
if India House ever had another office boy as studious or as
hard-working. As soon as he was given duties that called for a
little initiative, something better than polishing the handles
of the big front door, he tried to do them better and more
quickly than anyone elseaccording to the tradition of success-
story heroes. But it was the work he did at night that interested
him and prepared him for the career he was evidently de-
termined to have.
It is difficult to believe that his studies of French, Latin,
and science were not organized and channeled by some older
person, but that is evidently the case. Raffles never speaks of
anybody who offered sympathy or advice during that time. His
mother and sisters thought of him as their only hope: they
spoke, when they mentioned him, of the happy day when his
earning power would increase. His mother, indeed, grudged
him the candle he used for a reading light: he wrote in later
years of the struggle he had to keep up against her gentle
tyranny and soft, insistent miserliness. She watched his room
like a hawk for any sign that he was at it again, wasting ex-
pensive candles on his foolishness.
Since History is so stingy with us, we will have to make out
in roundabout ways to fill in the gaps of our knowledge. As a
detective, I deduce that Raffles's relations with his parents
and his three sisters, Mary Anne, Leonora, and Harriett, were
unusually pleasant to begin with, or they would have given way
before he grew up. There are not many family circles whose
members can long maintain a civilized politeness among them-
selves, under poverty's erosion. Of course Algcr mothers arc
always sweet, but Alger mothers let their sons use all the
candles they want Mrs. Raffles didn't quite play the game.
For the Raffleses it must have been especially hard to carry on,
because of that tiresome tradition of gentility, their pride, and
their sense of superiority. The strain of keeping up appear-
ances, and being ladies and gentlemen even when they wcrcn^t
well fed or warmly clad well, many relatives have come to
blows under those conditions. Anyone but a success-story hero
would bear a grudge. It was because of his mother's decision
that Raffles had been taken out of school, and his mother made
his difficult study periods at home much more difficult with
her complaints, yet he was unfailingly sweet and courteous
about her name; we can't doubt that in the face of evidence,
And as soon as he could afford it, even sooner, he contributed
money to help her out and make her comfortable. Again, the
inert weight of responsibility which, as a gentleman, he had to
carry for his sisters cut short his youth because, as they were
ladies, they couldn't work or help him out in any way; they just
sat at home, keeping up appearances, and waited for a miracle
to bring them husbands, portionless as they were. Yet Raffles
shouldered that responsibility without blaming them, at least
publicly. Moreover, as soon as he possibly could he worked the
miracle, and took them East, and found them husbands-
good husbands too.
From this we deduce that they were nice people. The only
other alternative I can see is that young Raffles was a true saint,
and in the light of later developments I don't think he was,
His second wife, Sophia, whom he married in 1816, would
have us believe it, but I almost never believe Sophia when she
estimates her husband's excellence. Unfortunately for those
of us who have to depend largely on her memoir, everything
she says about Raffles's merits sounds distant, unreal, phony.
Often we are misled by this trait: we defeat ourselves with
too much suspicion. She is certainly reporting accurately, for
example, when she says, "His affection for his mother was al-
ways one of the strongest feelings of his heart. At this time,
with that self-denying devotion to the happiness of others,
which was his distinguishing quality through life, he deprived
himself of every indulgence, that he might devote to her his
hard-earned pittance: and in after-days of comparative afflu-
ence he delighted in surrounding her with every comfort."
Yet we hesitate to swallow it whole. It sounds too good to
be true. Nothing could be more praiseworthy than these senti-
ments. There is nothing wrong with the grammar either.
Nevertheless the passage sounds doesn't it? like a funeral
oration. The impression left with us is unfair to Raffles's mem-
ory. Evidently in spite of all this he actually did love his
mother; he really did deprive himself for her sake; he did do
his amiable best to spoil her, the minute he could afford it.
Let us not yield to temptation, then, let us not try too hard
to be clever.
When Lady Raffles says, ". . . the early youth of Mr.
Raffles was a period of obscurity and labor, without friends to
aid him, as well as without the hope of promotion: his family
only searching for that mode of life in which he was most likely
to acquire the greatest pecuniary success, without regard to the
natural bias of his mind, or to the talents he possessed" when
she says that, we will not be wasting our emotion if we allow
ourselves to pity him. The boy Raffles could not have had a
very good time from any point of view, even the modern,
even when he has been debunked.
Still, though Lady Raffles speaks of "his dull routine of
duty," it may not have been so bad after all. The scene of
his labors was East India House, one of the most romantic
places in London, and the workings of the great Company
must have held considerable fascination for a boy of Thomas's
tastes. He saw the Important men of the day, working in their
offices; he heard the names of far-off lands, names which were
new to English ears; he learned the importance of such exotic
commodities as spices, tea, and silk. Why, even the great ladies
of London wore woolen gowns before his Company began
importing silk! Young Raffles swept floors muddied by the
boots of Clive himself. Fie must have heard exciting gossip
centering around dive's name.
The atmosphere of India House sharpened his appetite, al-
ready keen in a boy his age, for better things. He picked up
enough of trade secrets to learn valuable lessons about what
he must study in those extracurricular hours of toil at night.
The correspondence clerks taught him the value of French,
and so he went home and learned French with such assiduity
that all his life he was to be thankful for it. In the offices he
acquired the technique of map making; at home he perfected
it. He learned that his scientific tastes were not merely those of
a schoolboy, and so with a clear conscience, priggishly sure he
was not wasting time on mere enjoyment, he indulged his love
for natural historygeology, zoology, and most especially
botany. That knowledge even more than the "humanities"
was to help him to be an educated man in the Company's
special sense. Then of course there was Latin, without which
no gentleman went out into the world. And German, for
good measure.
Naturally during those weeks and months and years the boy
made friends among the other young fellows who took care
of all the odds and ends of Company routine. He maintained
a careful reserve, however. That fatal Raffles gentility kept Mum
from getting overly familiar with boys who were obviously go-
ing to be menials all their lives, but he was afraid of becoming
too intimate with the other sort, the sons of rich merchants or
professional men who were learning foreign trade (even in
those days foreign trade was much more acceptable socially
than the domestic kind) from the bottom, Thomas Raffia
knew he couldn*t keep up his end of any social relationship;
not yet. He was confident, I am sure, of someday belonging
to the choicer crowd without feeling any necessity to keep Ms
private life a secret, but the day was not yet arrived, not nearly.
(And wasn't there the possibility that he wanted to keep Cap-
tain Benjamin hidden away in life, as he was later in history?)
Therefore, among the young sprigs of sixteen and seventeen
with whom he mingled in the early years, Raffles kept his dis-
tance. Never once did he invite a friend home with him. Maybe
that shocks our American code of simplicity, but by the lights
of the English he was entirely reasonable. And of course many
Americans would act likewise but never admit it. His one good
friend was young William Brown Ramsay, whose father was
secretary to the Company, but even he never saw the inside
of the Raffles home. Mr. Boulger mentions this fact in what
would surely, if he were speaking it, be a commending tone.
One knew one's place, in Old England!
It is really too bad, that lack of material. The imagination
easily conjures up half a dozen scenes, but the truth, alas, is
what we want in biography. If it were not, we could listen in,
for example, to many a lively exchange of words between young
Thomas and Mrs. Captain, his mother. Thus:
T: "111 be late tonight, Mother. They want us to help copy
a few dispatches."
M: "Very well, Thomas. Is that nice young Chapman help-
ing too?"
T: "I dare say/' (Disapprovingly.) "Why, what do you
know about Chapman?"
M: "His mother sits next to me sometimes in church,
Thomas, why don't you bring him in someday for tea?"
T: (Freezingly.) "Because our acquaintance doesn't war-
rant such an invitation. Anyway, why should I do such a thing?
Chapman's not at all my style,"
M: "Perhaps not, dear, but you needn't be so self-centered.
He may very well be nearer Mary Anne's style than yours. It's
high time you give a little thought to your sisters; they sit here
night after night, and it's not interesting, poor things. And
such good girls too."
T: "Really, Mother. I'm sure the girls already have all the
amusement that's good for them Chapman will never be
more than a petty clerk anyway/'
M: "Half a loafs better than no bread, my dear, and it's
about time you realized it."
T: "My dear mother, you forget who we are. What would
your great uncle-in-law, the baronet, say to such a philosophy?
Would you sacrifice your daughters' birthright for such pottage
as Chapman?"
Or else, "But how could you guarantee Dacl wouldn't come
home stinking drunk?"
Et cetera, et cetera, as the Victorian novelists would say. It's
good fun; if s a pity I'm not allowed to do it once in a while.
Now let us return to the whole-wheat bread of truth, guiltily
wiping the crumbs of fiction from our lips. . . .
Lady Raffles says fondly of her husband-to-be, speaking of
the adolescent years, "His was a master mind and soon burst
its shackles, and manifested a high and noble resolve to de-
vote itself to the good of others, and a yearning to obtain the
station for which it felt itself best fitted."
There was, however, a grave drawback to the stimulating
atmosphere of East India House, even if we do not accept
Lady Raffles's "dull routine." Raffles in his teens may or may
not have had a master-mind; he evidently did, Sophia's affirma-
tion and our immediate resistance notwithstanding. But his
physical constitution was not that good. Considering the gen-
eral hygiene, or rather the lack of it, obtaining in eighteenth-
century London, it is scarcely surprising that a boy who habitu-
ally overworked during the day and studied half the Bight
should drive himself into tuberculosis. The only wonder is,
once he acquired a "chest," that he should have been able to
throw it off again. But Raffles always had plenty of common
sense. The minute he knew beyond doubt that his chest was
affected, he stopped everything he was doing and went out
into the country. As an incident, this is not much, but his
biographers have always been hard up for things to say about
Raffles's childhood, so they played it up. They talked so much
about it that we feel unreasonably let down to discover that the
whole business lasted only a fortnight. Fifteen days was what he
was allowed from his duties as extra clerk; fifteen days chari-
tably bestowed on the little clerk, merely in order to recover
his health! Sir Stamford Raffles lived longer than anyone who
knew him as a boy would have expected, but he died without
having heard of trade unions. And as for guilds, they were not
for the ambitious individualist. Raffles made his way alone-
all alone. Even when it came to fighting Death he went alone.
Whatever you may think of empire builders in general, I say
that the young clerk with his tainted chest went into Wales
as to a peculiarly terrifying battle. I see him as a soldier, and
as gallant a warrior as any in His Majesty's Army.
Free of India House, he set out on foot from London,
aiming for Wales because there, he had heard, the mountains
were everything he expected mountains to be. For the entire
fortnight the thin, intense youth walked, simply walked, with
grim concentration. He did as much as forty miles a day some-
times; he often covered thirty. It was a kill-or-cure treatment,
and it was sheerly by luck that he cured himself instead of
dying. Or perhaps the vigor of ambition did duty for physical
vigor too. He also got to Wales, which probably seemed as
important a triumph as the other to a boy his age. When it
was time to go back he was recovered and anxious to start
overworking again.
Boulger offers the theory that this boyhood vacation supplied
the training for long, arduous trips he made on foot through
the jungles of Sumatra and the Archipelago. Perhaps, but I
doubt very much if two short weeks during a man's adoles-
cence could be considered permanent "training." Whatever
special muscles Raffles developed in those two weeks had ample
time to become flaccid again in the long years before he reached
Sumatra. More likely getting to Wales, as well as to the East-
ern post he was aiming for, called for mental stamina, and he
had that. Some people have another word for it: they call it
stubbornness.
In the ordinary sense Raffles never was a sportsman. He
didn't care for games, probably because he never attended one
of the orthodox boys' schools. He hated the pastime of shoot-
ing, because he was thoroughly sentimental about wild animals.
The upper-class Englishman considers himself an animal lover
and the rest of the world has always accepted his evaluation
21
of himself as such, but I have never understood why. In Eng-
lish society it is de rigueur to be fond of dogs and horses and
it is not too eccentric to extend this affection to cats. But no
conventional British sportsman is truly fond of foxes, bears,
lions, elephants, or any of the other quadrupeds which arc con-
sidered trophies of the chase. As for pigs or cows or chickens,
they don't tug at British heartstrings in a really poignant man-
ner. Raffles may have come of gentle stock, but as a sportsman
he was an oddity.
Worse, he gloried in his unconventionally. Otherwise why
did he say in his later years, "I have never seen a horse race, and
never fired a gun"? Less courageous men would have sought to
conceal these shameful facts, not reveal them. Again I am
tempted down strange bypaths of conjecture, reading this
item. If Raffles had lived today, would he have followed the
conventional pattern of the colonial official; would he have
been a good bridge player? Probably not. And if he were not
a good bridge player, would he have become governor of
Java, as he did? Probably not.
Yet he was a very good governor. At least the British think
so. The Dutch, naturally, do not. It was a long time ago, but
Holland has not forgotten her prejudice against Raffles, In
a way that is a tribute; Raffles would certainly consider it one,
You see he was really Walpole's good Englishman: one of
the best.
CHAPTER III
Much of the literary comment
on the current events of Raffles's period sounds nervous. The
writers appear anxious to prove a point to themselves as well
as their readers, to establish beyond doubt or challenge the
Deity's favorable attitude toward commercial expansion. One
understands their apprehension; after all this is not an easy
thing to do. Military apologists who claim God for an ally
definitely have something: the Old Testament bears witness
that Our Lord does occasionally go to war. But one searches
the Scriptures in vain for any reference to Him as traveling
salesman,
And to date, the only generally accepted authority on such
matters is the Bible.
Historians of the time ultimately worked it out, however,
in a manner satisfactory to everyone, nor did they have to put
too great a strain on logic. The Lord their God was zealous in
battle; trade follows closely in the footsteps of war; the con-
nection between divine Providence and British foreign trade
was not, after all, so very tenuous. After peace was achieved the
Lord naturally would want the English to civilize and convert
the vanquished heathen. Only the most naive or willful Ori-
ental, therefore, could fail to perceive God's will back of the
East India Company.
One person not at all beset with doubts was Sophia, Lady
Raffles, who survived her husband and wrote a Memoir of
him. She vouches personally for Raffles's religious spirit 7 assur-
ing us of his faith in heaven and India House. The two institu-
tions, he firmly believed, were intimately connected. Lady
Raffles admits with reluctance that he was not an orthodox
worshiper in the Lord's house, but this was no fault of his. The
blame, she says, lay with his parents, who neglected to instruct
him when he was a child.
"Little is known of his religious feelings on first entering
the world/' says Lady Raffles. A careless glance at this state-
ment rather startles the reader until he realizes that she is
speaking not of the newborn infant Raffles but of a later phase,
when he was a young fellow just entering into man's estate*
As a child, Thomas didn't attend church or Sunday school
("Early religious instruction was not then, perhaps, so general
as at present") but he turned toward Christianity in time; as
soon, in fact, as he began to have a little luck collecting this
world's goods. That's what Lady Raffles says. "As he advanced
in life, prosperity warmed his heart towards the God who led
him forward in his course of usefulness." No mere fair-weather
worshiper, in adversity he pinned his hopes for compensatory
happiness on the afterlife. "He acquiesced in every privation,
as the wise purpose of an Almighty Father working for His
own glory. . " God, as usual closely collaborating with the
East India Company, kept a protective eye on Raffles, whether
in prosperity or adversity. "Beginning life under the influence
of such principles and feelings/' Lady Raffles says, "it will not
be a matter of surprise, that his own exertions proved his best
patron, and procured him friends, whose good opinion was at
once honourable to his talents, and favourable to his advance-
ment. Such friends, at a very early period of his connections
with the East India House, he had obtained; for a vacancy
having occurred in the establishment, his peculiar qualifica-
tions were allowed to secure his accession to it, notwithstand-
ing the claims of others, who possessed an interest of which he
could not boast."
Is the foregoing paragraph rather a lot to take in, all at once?
Sometimes this writer finds it helpful to translate Lady Raffles
at her most overpowering into colloquial American, like this:
"His character was just the sort to appeal to certain of the
directors, so, in view of his special talents, they put him first
on the list for the next vacancy. Thus, in spite of the fact that
other young men in the Company had friends at court, our
Raffles got the job/'
What is left out of my version is Sophia's implication that
God himself, personally, recommended Raffles for the job.
My skeptical mind seizes on the presence of one William
Ramsay in the secretary's office as a more logical reason for
Thomas's good luck. Ramsay, as I mentioned in the last
chapter, was the father of Raffles's best friend and contempo-
rary in the Company. Not that I wish for a moment to suggest
that God's Son, too, wasn't a good friend of our hero . . . but
they were on more formal terms.
At any rate whether God or Ramsay acted as patron (and
probably they both helped), Raffles was definitely the bene-
ficiary and a very fortunate young man too. Think of it: only
nineteen, without any official mentor among the older men,
with no fortune behind him, and no regular schooling; and
yet he was written down on the books of India House as a
junior clerk, "on the usual terms/' Nobody knows today ex-
actly what these terms were, but they must have been a great
improvement on the office-boy wages Raffles l\ad hitherto re-
ceived, for on April 7, 1801, according to the books, he was
given an extra sum, a bonus of twenty pounds. Twenty pounds
at that time was a lot, and a bonus was then, as now, calculated
according to salary. Then in 1802 we come across Thomas's
name again on the books, this time as the recipient of another
bonus (thirty pounds), and a fixed salary of seventy pounds
per annum. It is no use thinking of these sums in today's terms,
for there is no comparison. Seventy pounds was enough to
make a big difference to the family. Brother Thomas must
have been able to buy new dresses for Mary Anne, Leonora,
and Harriett, with a bit of 'baccy for Captain Benjamin thrown
in. Perhaps even a bottle.
Lady Raffles, writing that Memoir many years later, was
meticulously careful not to mislead her public, nor to claim
more of religious fervor for her husband than she really thought
he experienced during his life. It is obvious that she wasn't
quite happy on that score. Raffles was not the psalm singer
she wished he had been. It must have cost her a pang to in-
clude in his correspondence a certain letter he wrote to his
uncle in Liverpool a few years after he left England the first
time. Though he wrote it in 1807 when he was all of twenty-
six, and so it has no right to be included here, chronologically
speaking for he was still married to his first wife and had not
yet dreamed of a second marriage, nor of investing any wife,
first or second, with a title yet I feel that it should be quoted
in this place or not at all, because it is our only detailed evi-
dence of his religious convictions. We haven't much reason to
suppose that he changed them fundamentally, later on. lie did
become more kindly toward missionaries, and in the adversity
of which Lady Raffles speaks, during the truly horrible trials
he underwent in Sumatra, he did seek comfort in prayer; he
found it, moreover, but Raffles was too clearheaded to find a
disproportionate amount of consolation in specific hopes of an
anthropomorphic afterlife. We can see in this letter of 1807
that the poor man was cursed with a scientific mind as well as
just enough detachment to keep him levelheaded in grief, but
not enough to spare him any of its keenest anguish. All of that
phase, however, is not for our eyes just now. We arc occupied
only with the letter of 1807, a charming letter, and one which
must have sorely troubled and worried the humorless Sophia
when she came across it, yeafs later.
Penang, ijth January 1807
To Mr. Wm. Raffles.
MY DEAR SiRyI had the pleasure to receive a letter from you
some months bade, and beg leave to return you my sincere
thanks for its contents, Be assured I shall ever be happy to
hear from you. The accounts of your son Thomas are very
satisfactory. By this time I imagine him firmly feed in the
pulpit, and expect shortly to hear of his continued success. J
must confess to you that 1 should have been much better
pleased if his inclination had turned towards the Church of
England [Cousin Thomas was a Dissenting clergyman]; but
as he has taken that path which the light of the gospel pointed
out to him as the best, he must ever be respected for the choice
he has made. Tell him that I shall be very happy to receive
letters from him, and that I look forward to receive much bene-
fit and instruction from his correspondence. He need not be
afraid of writing on religious topics, although he looks upon
me as a heathen; it was the cant of Methodism that I detested,
and that only. Wherever there is cant there must be hypocrisy.
I respect the religious of every persuasion, and am sorry my ex-
perience draws from me a wish that Christians did as much
justice to their Redeemer as Mahometans do to their Prophet.
As I know that religious topics are those principally brought
forward in the society which you have selected for yourself,
it may be more entertaining to dwell upon them in this letter
than any other. Of the Christian religion I fear there is more
said than done, and therefore shall not add to the numerous
useless and foolish remarks upon it. I ever considered it as the
simplest religion on earth, and for that reason the best. But
of the Mahometan religion, on the contrary, as much, if not
more, is done than said. We are here surrounded with Mus-
sulmen, and I find them very good men, and by far more at-
tentive to the duties and observances of their religion than the
generality of Christians even Methodists. No religion on
earth is so extensive,, and though in many instances it has been
extended by fire and sword, it has in equally many others found
its way without such means. Their religion, which you know
is called IsMm (faith), would, in its general principles, be very
good if divested of its corruptions, superstitions, and ridicu-
lous observances. The great doctrine of the Koran is the Unity
of God to restore which point was the main object of
Mahomed's mission, and to be candid, I think Mahomed has
done a great deal of good in the world. I amuse and instruct
myself for hours together with the Mahometans here, who to
a man all believe in the Scriptures. They believe Jesus Christ
a prophet, and respect Him as such. Mahomed's mission does
not invalidate our Saviour's. One has secured happiness to the
Eastern and one to the Western world, and both deserve
our veneration.
I wish you would instruct Thomas to send me out a Hebrew
grammar and dictionary, as well as a Greet dictionary. I am
applying myself close to the Eastern languages, and must ob-
tain a general knowledge of these ancient languages before I
can finally decide on many points.
East India House had become aware of Raffles. Now that
he was earning a salary more suitable to what lie was worth
to them, his superiors decided to trust him with tasks that
were a little above the level of the ordinary clerical work which
his friends did. They gave him the Asiatic Annual Register, in
his own words, to "revise and improve/" It was a long, difficult
job and he never did finish it, as a matter of fact, because he
was interrupted later by the unprecedented promotion Fate
was fattening up for him.
The recognition of his excellence which the directors had
indicated in such a practical way may have increased Raffles's
self-esteem. Indeed, it's possible to see the first stirrings of
modest pride in his own account of his early career, written
from the Indies many years later to his Liverpool cousin, the
Dissenter. He had gone through the worst of his early struggles
and conquered them while yet in his teens* The soreness and
sorrow of that disappointment in the matter of school was at
last forgotten almost. We shall see that he never quite lost
it, as I said before.
In the meantime Raffles would have been no more than
human, and certainly no different from other very young mm f
if he had relaxed a bit on his uphill climb to success just at
this point. There were plenty of other boys who would have
thought they had done enough for life if they achieved a salary
of seventy pounds per annum so early In the game; certainly
his father, Captain Benjamin, never bettered that record In
his whole life. But Raffles wasn't like other young mm* He
carried on in the same intense way as he had done before, when
he was just an ambitious office boy instead of a well-paid clerk.
Perhaps he felt encouraged to work even harder at his extra-
curricular studies, if that were possible. Certainly he made a
resolution to that effect. He decided that he would "appropri-
ate eight hours in each day to study, reading, or writing, and
that the loss of time on any day should be made up on an-
other. My object in making this memorandum is that I may
hold the rule as inviolable as I can, and by frequently recurring
to it revive my sleeping energies should I at any time be in-
clined to indolence. I should not, however, omit to add that
all reading and study on a Sunday is to be confined to the
Bible and religious subjects. The Greek and Hebrew, however,
as connected, may nevertheless form a part of the study of
that day."
A formidable youth, Raffles. If he had gone on for many
years at such a rate, under such an austere, self-imposed pro-
gram of improvement, he might very easily have dried up and
lost all his human, emotional qualities. He would probably
have turned into a sort of dried fig, without a drop of sweet
juice in him. Luckily for himself, for his family, for his friends,
and for the slaves of Java and Sumatra, Fate arranged an in-
terruption. What the novelists of the period called, archly,
"the gentler passion" was just about to take a firm grip on
India House's prodigious young genius. The fig was not yet,
after all, completely devoid of juice.
Mrs. Olivia Fancourt walked into the secretary's office of
India House looking the perfect lady she was. One would have
guessed, regarding her, that she was not accustomed to such a
masculine atmosphere, that she had been recently bereaved,
that she was completely self-assured and not scared to death.
The last premise was incorrect; Mrs. Fancourt was rather a
worried lady at that period, preoccupied by financial diffi-
culties. But she was a stately person, one of your poised, dig-
nified sort: she did not show her perturbation. Her beauty was
particularly noticeable in England, being of a type the British
consider Latin; she was dark-haired and dark-eyed. Tall and
distinguished-looking, Boulger calls her, with flashing black
Italian eyes. People said she was handsome, but as she was now
thirty-three they probably spoke of her as a passcc beauty,
definitely out of the running. This was 1804, when women
were forced by public opinion to age early.
Her maiden name was Olivia Mariamnc Dcvcnish. Her
husband, Fancourt, up until his death had been assistant
surgeon of the India Company's Madras Establishment, Long
residence in India probably lent his widow a quality out of
the ordinary, an aura of glamor which added to the effect she
had on Raffles the minute he saw her. The clever, industrious
junior clerk was now twenty-three, and he may have been for-
tunate enough to interview the pretty lady himself, but that
detail hasn't been handed down to us. No such personal, trifling
bits of gossip about his courtship have been preserved in the
Raffles letters, partly because the couple were exceedingly sensi-
tive on the subject of Olivia's age. When Raffles wrote of
the marriage and of the events leading up to it he maintained
an austere, distant style which is definitely misleading. Royal-
ty's archives could scarcely sound more severe and less ro-
mantic. Somebody must have been very unpleasant about that
ten years' hiatus, to have had such an effect on the young lover,
Could it have been Raffles's mother? The ladies of his family,
depending as they did on Thomas for nearly every penny they
had, could not have been overjoyed when he fell in love and
planned to marry. At twenty-three, too, and to a widow old
enough to be well, scarcely his mother, but I don't doubt the
Raffles ladies used the well-worn phrase just the same,
The biographer Demetrius Boulger has gone to a good deal
of trouble to find out what he could about Olivia and Fan*
court. He was led astray by the one mention of the first wife
Lady Raffles allowed herself, but after he ran the inaccuracy
to ground he managed to dig up plenty of welkmnotated in-
formation. The husband was named Jacob Cassivelaun Fan-
court, he married Olivia in 1793, in Madras, and he died at
Ryacotta in 1800. Though Boulger couldn't prove it "beyond
the shadow of a doubt, he makes out a strong case in favor o
Olivia's being Irish, the daughter of a Devenish who had left
Ireland and settled in India.
She came to India House that day when Raffles saw her to
present a petition. "Young Raffles saw her/' Boulger writes,
"and it may even have been part of his duty to receive her
petition, to instruct her as to the correct form in which it
should be drafted, and, perhaps, even to add some literary
flourish of his own/ 7 (Pure conjecture, of course, but it is
pleasant to find that someone before me has also fallen victim
to this habit.) "Her application was not an uncommon one.
It was the petition of the widow of an officer on the Military
Establishment of Madras for assistance from the compassion-
ate fund, which was long known by the name of Clive, who
founded it out of Mir Jaffir's gift. ... In accordance with
custom, it lay on the table for a week, and on the i2th of
September Olivia Fancourt was granted a pension of one shil-
ling and threepence a day, and in addition the sum of twenty-
five guineas. This was entirely according to rule. The matter
followed a prescribed course. If she had been any other as-
sistant-surgeon's widow, old or young, remarkable for her plain-
ness instead of for her beauty, the result would have been
precisely the same/'
The rather waspish, defensive tone of this passage is due to
certain unpleasant hints which Raffles's enemies put into cir-
culation when they attacked Olivia some years later. We shall
come across the whole story in due course.
Raffles met Olivia about August 1804. * n ^ Q absence of
any written word from her, or any confidential remarks from
him on the subject, I don't really see why we can't assume
they fell in love. I realize I am going against the popular theory
in saying this, but I can't understand why Boulger and Co.
won't agree with me. I certainly have no intention of agreeing
with them. Boulger gives the strangest picture of all since
Thomas Raffles was going a long distance off, he says, and since
he wouldn't be back, in all probability, for years and years,
and since he was going to a place where he wasn't likely to
meet anyone who would serve as a "helpmeet" Mr. Boulger
boggles at the sentimental word "wife" what more natural,
daughter, whom the captain allegedly married. (One of his
sons later denounced this tale of marriage as a complete false-
hood, which it was, according to the best evidence. ) The island
was not a gift outright; Light paid rent on it. Because he took
possession on the birthday of the then Prince of Wales,
George, he called the island Prince of Wales Island and the
main town on it George Town. Along with the island proper,
a strip of territory on the mainland was included in the bar-
gain Light made with the Rajah, and this strip of land was
known as Wellesley Province.
Penang, or Prince of Wales Island, is fertile and productive,
and because of its mountainous nature and high relief white
men found it a pleasant health resort. Later they changed
their minds about its salubrity, but whether this change was
due to superior knowledge, or the conditions actually did be-
come bad, historians have not been able to decide. One theory
was that a bad drainage system poisoned the water. The harbor
of George Town, too, was good. As long as Francis Light lived
he ran the colony under the title of superintendent of trade,
but he died in 1794 and his place was taken by a lieutenant-
governor, who had other duties concurrently and so let things
slide. In 1800 the Company made another arrangement with
the Rajah and bought the island outright, but nothing else
was done about this promising little possession until 1805, the
date which interests us on Raffles's account
The Company decided to do something definite now, to the
advantage both of themselves and of Penang. (The name
"Prince of Wales" had somehow failed to supplant the old
original title. ) They elected to raise it to the rank of a presi-
dency, hoping it would serve as the leading trading center of
the island group. Mr. Philip Dundas was sent out as governor,
with a council, and Raffles was named assistant secretary. His
nomination was ratified at a meeting of the Court of Directors,
on March 8, 1805, and he was granted the rank of junior mer-
chant as well, with a salary of fifteen hundred pounds a year*
This was It. This was the break for which he had waited
all those joyless busy years. Now, all at once and by virtue of
one stroke of the Company's pen, Raffles was handed recog-
nition, a promising career, and the security of a really big
salary. He could provide for his family, marry, and still start
out for Penang comfortably well off. He could take with him
the eldest of his three sisters; he could set to work immediately
on the important task of finding her a husband, so that the way
might be clear for the other girls.
The thought nearest his heart must have been that he could
marry Olivia immediately. What a staggering affair an ap-
pointment can be! One brief hour in the committee room of
the Court, a little discussion, a ballot, and the thing was done;
the universe had been broken up into tiny pieces and made
over completely, according to the Raffles plan. What a plan,
what a day, what a world! Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles
must have been drunk, for the first time in all his worthy short
life, on nothing but triumphant joy.
Five days after he was appointed Raffles took out at the
vicar general's office a license for marriage between Thomas
Raffles, Esq., bachelor, twenty-three years old, and Olivia
Mariamne Fancourt, widow, no age given; to take place in
the parish church of St. George, Bloomsbury, London. The
day after that, March fourteenth, they were wedded by the
Rev. A. P. Poston. Richard S. Taylor, Thomas Raffles's busi-
ness agent, and Charles Hammond, his cousin, attended
the wedding ceremony, as well as two girls whose names do
not turn up again in any of the Raffles papers. Mariamne
Etherington and Maria Welthew weie probably friends or
relations of Olivia's.
Fairy tales always end with a wedding "and so they were
married and lived happily ever after/" But this was a true-life
marriage, so everything was different It marked the beginning
of a true-life tale, not the end. Nevertheless, the old nursery
tag would have answered for that portion of time which re-
mained of Olivia's story. She did, indeed, live happily ever
.after. Nor was it her fault, poor gracious lady, that she could
not keep pace with her beloved husband, step by step, until
lie too reached the end.
35 $%>
CHAPTER IV
Vanity Fair, required reading
in our United States high school classes, gives most of us the
first mention we encounter of the East India Company,
Though the name of India House may have faded from mem-
ory by the time we grow up, the figure of Jos Sedley almost
certainly has not, for any of us. Jos, you will remember, was
Amelia's fat brother, object of Becky Sharp's first matrimonial
hopes. Just by being there in the book, he is proof of how
closely the Company affected middle-class England at the
turning point of the century. India House was a fixed land-
mark in the world of the Sedleys and the Osbornes, Stupid,
fat Anglo-Indian Jos must have been so familiar a type that
Thackeray's readers were delighted to encounter him in black
and white, after meeting him so often in the flesh, "He was
in the East India Company's Civil Service, and his name
appeared ... in the Bengal division of the East India Reg-
ister, as collector of Boggley Wollah, an honourable and lu-
crative post." Jos was "a very stout, puffy man, in buckskins
and Hessian boots, with several immense neckcloths, that rose
almost to his nose, with a red-striped waistcoat and an apple-
green coat with steel buttons almost as large as crown pieces/'
He liked his curries very hot and could be depended upon to
give expert advice as to their preparation. He brought his sis-
ter Cashmere shawls from India. "He described the balls at
Government House, and the manner in which they kept them-
selves cool in the hot weather, with punkahs, tatties, and other
contrivances; and he was very witty regarding the number of
Scotchmen whom Lord Minto, the Governor-General, pa-
tronized; and then he described a tiger-hunt, and the manner
in which the mahout of his elephant had been pulled out of
his seat by one of the infuriated animals/'
I think I am not alone in feeling lost, when I read a biog-
raphy, until I have some idea of the appearance of my hero
and his friends. I want to know what they wore, and how they
furnished their living rooms, and in what sort of style their
meals were served. Thanks to Thackeray we know that Olivia
wore bonnets and shawls, and that her best dress was probably
made of muslin. We are vividly reminded that men in those
days could indulge their fancy in dress. We have one portrait
of Sir Stamford, by G. F. Joseph, which hangs in the National
Portrait Gallery, and there is also a bust by Chantrey, evidently
idealized out of recognition and therefore worthless. The
painting is pleasant; Raffles, in an enormously high neckcloth,
regards us out of wide-set, grave eyes. His face is full and youth-
ful in appearance, and his chiseled lips wear the look of a man
who smiles often. Though this may be too much to read into
an indifferently well-painted portrait, Raffles seems to be
eagerly interested, habitually, in the world outside him and
not in himself. One can imagine him talking to the painter as
he sits, asking questions about technique, pigment, and light,
all his attention and interest focused on Mr. Joseph rather
than on the execution of the picture.
Raffles, his wife, and his sister Mary Anne traveled out to the
East in the Ganges, a Company ship commanded by Captain
Harrington, Luckily for the novices, the voyage was unevent-
ful, though it was long, as trips must be in sailing vessels. It
is hard for us to imagine the extreme discomfort which those
travelers took for granted. We would complain loudly if we
had to journey through the tropics, nowadays, in a ship with-
out refrigeration or electric fans, a ship which gave way to the
mood of the ocean and felt every wave, rolling and slipping
across the surface of the sea even in good weather, and in bad
tipping at such an angle that the passenger must make his
way along deck like a monkey, holding to everything solid
that he can reach. Sailing, as in races, is all very well for a
hobby, but not many of us in this pampered world would care
to go on sailing for months on end, without a chance to relax.
The food was progressively worse as they passed more and
more time out of harbor, and usually by the time they put in
to another port and could provision afresh such victuals as
they had left were decayed and wormy. Salt pork and biscuit
were the staple diet, no matter how well they had supplied
themselves at the beginning with superior delicacies. Then
there was the matter of water. They had to use it sparingly,
washing in salt water, naturally, and going easy with the drink-
ing supply. After a few weeks it smelled and tasted stale.
But there was one bright spot, if not more than one, on this
gloomy canvas. Olivia and Mary Anne were at least comforta-
bly clothed. Seldom have women been as sensibly yet prettily
dressed as they were at that time in Europe, when the Empress
Josephine had her portrait painted in her favorite pseudo-
classic draperies, and a gathering of fashionable beauties in
Hyde Park resembled a collection of Greek statues suddenly
become animate. Olivia daily wore a gown of which the waist-
line was exceedingly high, under the armpits; of which the
neckline, even in the morning, might be cut so low that it
barely covered the lower half of her bosom. On cold days it
was permissible to fill in that wide, bare display of neck and
breast with swathed silken shawls or high boned collars, but
the favored decollet^, which nowadays we would consider too
daring for any costume but a nightgown, was then perfectly
respectable and worn by everybody, even fat old ladies. It was
the period when everything "classical" was good. Imagine the
two ladies in flowing robes of sheer muslin, with short puffed
sleeves, shawls, and heelless soft slippers, and large mobcaps
or deep bonnets to protect their hair, which they wore 4 la
Grecque, or cut short, again after the manner introduced by
Josephine Bonaparte. I defy today's designers to evolve any-
thing more suitable to a tropical climate. Those lucky ladies
were even permitted freedom in regard to underclothing. The
world of fashion in Europe had gone over completely to hy-
giene and nature nearly unadorned.
In this sudden triumph of simplicity Raffles was the loser.
He grew up just when men were sacrificing their position as
the peacocks of the human race. He came along after fashion
condemned the extreme color and f ussiness men had hitherto
enjoyed. The splendid striped coats and silken breeches worn
by the gentlemen of his father's day were now passe. It is ex-
ceedingly doubtful if Raffles ever possessed or wore a wig,
though a few older dandies still availed themselves of the
grudging permission given them by custom. (Ramsay the sec-
retary probably wore one, after the style of George Washing-
ton's, and sometimes clubbed his own hair.) Definitely Raffles
lost out, aesthetically speaking, when men gave up their fine
colors and silks in an ill-considered sacrifice from which their
clothing has never recovered. But like his wife he gained in
comfort from the new styles. His trousers, cut reasonably tight
at the knee, were worn tucked into high boots or confined by
gaiters, and gave him freedom in walking. His coat was tailed
and long in back, but ended at the waist in front, a sober dark
version of its glorious, heavy, satin and gold or velvet predeces-
sor. For color and dash he had to depend, now, on waistcoats, of
which he could wear as many as he liked, and on the many gold
seals which hung and clanked at his watch chain. His collar was
fantastically high, but at least it did not meet in front, and
so he was spared the torture of modern neckwear. His shirt was
ruffled, but the ruffles were smaller than they had been in the
old days, and were simple starched affairs, not the waterfalls
of lace that now seemed old-fashioned. He wore a tall curly-
brimmed beaver hat, and a cape in cold weather a "cloak/'
The famous Raffles statue represents him in Roman toga ?
flourishing a classically rolled document of the sort all such
statues seem to carry, but that was merely the customary for-
mality of sculpture, not a lifelike portrait. It is a pity he never
tried it out in actuality. In this garb he would have been a fit
companion for the draped Olivia, but the men, shy as
stopped short of adopting the clothes of those ancient
which in other respects they imitated enthusiastically.
39 $
We need not pity Olivia Raffles on her wedding trip, then,
as we might have done if she had made the journey later, when
gowns were instruments of torture even in the Temperate
Zone, and the crinoline and hoop made their extraordinary
appearance. She could walk the deck easily and gracefully in
her soft slippers, hoping for a rare tropical breeze to flutter her
light muslin draperies, and trying, ever vainly, to get away from
the smells of the ship. Some of these were so much a part of
everyday life that she soon ceased to notice them, but as the
weather grew warmer other unpleasant smells grew insistent.
We hope for Olivia's sake that Mary Anne Raffles was
pleasant company. Probably she was; she was bound to feel
happily grateful to her brother's wife, without whose chap-
eroning presence she could never have gone with Brother Raf-
fles on this exciting adventure. Without Olivia she would still
be crowded in at home with her mother and sisters, and no
prospect of freedom. Now that Thomas had married, anything
was possible for Mary Anne or, if not anything, at least she
could hope for marriage, which was the only ambition allowed
a young English girl in 1805. And in this delicate matter of
husband catching, Olivia was the all-important factor, in loco
parentis.
Indoors in their cabin, even though they must have been
crowded, the ladies were much more comfortable than they
were on deck. This matter of cabins was so entirely foreign to
today's arrangement that we must pause for a glance at the
ships, usually East Indiamen, in which Raffles and his family
made their voyages. Parkinson explains that what the passenger
bought from the captain or perhaps the purser and the pur-
chase sum was not fixed, but had always to be arranged before-
handwas deck space. In peacetime this was enclosed by light
wood frames or panels; in time of war by canvas screens, fixed
to beams overhead and laced down underfoot to battens nailed
to the deck. The "great cabin," just below the roundhouse,
was usually assigned to unmarried army officers if many of the
army were traveling. Passengers, if there were only a few of
them, dined in the roundhouse; if there were many they ate in
the "cuddy," under the fore part of the poop.
The East Indiamen were the most comfortable of all ships
for passengers, but even with these the selection of one's cabin
was not a choice of comfort so much as a choice of evils.
Hickey, who on his first journey out selected the starboard
side of the great cabin, speaks feelingly of the noises he had to
endure: sailors working the spanker boom, the feeding of poul-
try which was kept there in coops, with the pecking noises
that resulted, every day, twice a day, children crying or playing
in the steerage, perpetual creaking of the bulkheads. But if
one slept on the gun deck there were various other discom-
forts: stinks, heavy seas which occasionally forced their way
through the seams of the canvas, pouring over one's bed, and
similar joys. For this cabin Hickey paid a thousand pounds!
Many travelers wrote in great detail on this absorbing sub-
ject, often giving helpful advice, like the lady who published
an article in the Asiatic Journal for 1835:
"Notwithstanding the noise which is the invariable accom-
paniment of a cabin on the poop, old sailors will always make
choice of this situation, as more light and freer circulation of
air can be obtained there than in those below. But, as some of
the party must inevitably take the second deck, they should
endeavour to guard against the possibility of injury to things of
value in the event of shipping a sea. In the most exposed parts
of the cabin, the boxes should always be raised a little from the
floor, in order that the water may run under them; or it is a
good plan to dispense [with] boxes, altogether, and dispose of
their contents in canvas, or other bags, suspended from the
ceiling/'
For any man unable to get a cabin at all, even an inferior
partition shared with one of the ship's guns, there was the com-
mon dormitory, either in the great cabin or in steerage. Cadets
and -other youngsters usually braved such accommodations be-
cause they were cheaper.
Official passengers like Raffles were allowed baggage in vol-
ume proportioned to their rank. All passengers furnished their
own cabins, the minimum outfit consisting of a table, a sofa
or two chairs, a washhand stand, and bedding. If one was very
luxurious one brought a carpet, too, and most people added to
41
this list more chairs, bookshelves, a lamp, a coffee machine,
and some swinging "cots/ 7 rather like stiff hammocks, to avoid
the sea water when it got in and flooded the deck. One always
brought tobacco, soap in bars, and brandy to bribe the sailors
with, in the hope that they would then help out with odd
jobs in their leisure moments.
As soon as the passenger embarked he set to work fastening
down his furniture and boxes, nailing and roping them se-
curely. Then he swung his cot, fitting cleats for the purpose
if there were none already in place. He had to do all these
things himself, for the ship's carpenter was busy.
Setting sail was a noisy, rackety affair, for the ship was always
crowded then with a party for friends and well-wishers of the
captain. The noise of this kept up until the moment of sailing,
in perpetual open house. The traditional ship's farewell party
was for most passengers one of the worst features of sailing.
Parkinson quotes the diary of a lady who traveled out East
in 1805, the same year Olivia Raffles went out with her bride-
groom, This Mrs. Sherwood and her husband were very late
embarking; it was, in fact, at the last moment.
". . . When Mr. Sherwood hurried to the ship to make
what preparations he could, every cabin was already taken with
the exception of the carpenter's, and had he not been able
to secure this I must have stayed behind.
"No woman who has not made such a voyage in such a cabin
as this can possibly know what real inconveniences are. The
cabin was in the centre of the ship, which is so far good, as
there is less motion there than at either end. In our cabin was
a porthole, but it was hardly ever open; a great gun ran through
it, the mouth of which faced the porthole. Our hammock was
slung over this gun, and was so near the top of the cabin that
one could hardly sit up in bed. When the pumps were at work y
the bilge water ran through this miserable place, this worse
than dog-kennel, and, to finish the horrors of it, it was only
separated by a canvas partition from the place in which the
soldiers sat and, I believe, slept and dressed, so that it was
absolutely necessary for me, in all weathers, to go down to this
shocking place before any of the men were turned down for the
night. But, wretched as this place was, I was not to have it till
I could be truly thankful for it, for according to some rule
which I did not understand, the carpenter did not dare to let
us have the use of it until the pilot had left us. ...
"During the whole of that day our fellow-passengers were
coming in. We had on board eleven of our officers, nineteen
cadets, and several gentlemen of the Civil Service, Madras.
There were in the state cabins two families Colonel and Mrs.
Thornley and an infant, and Colonel and Mrs. Carr. In the
great cabin below were our officers on one side, and, on the
other, partitioned off, three daughters of a well-known Dean
of Bristol, Dr. L .
"I watched all these persons coming on as I sat on my gun-
carriage, and thus that miserable day wore out. At night we
got our cabin, not before I was thoroughly thankful for it
After a wretched night in our cot, which was slung over a gun,
I awoke, as it were, to renewed misery. . . .
"Our cabin was just the width of one gun, with room be-
side for a small table and single chair. Our cot, slung cross-ways
over the gun, as I have said, could not swing, there not being
height sufficient. In entering the cabin (which, by the way, was
formed only of canvas) we were forced to stoop under the cot,
there not being one foot from the head or the foot of the cot
to the partition. The ship was so light on the water that she
heeled over with the wind so much we could not open our
port, and we had no scuttle. We were therefore also in con-
stant darkness. The water from the pump ran through this
delectable cabin, and I as a young sailor, and otherwise not
in the very best situation for encountering all these disagree-
ables, was violently sick for days and days, the nights only
bringing an increase of suffering. The cabin could not be borne
during the daytime. . . "
Olivia had more reason than most brides to worry about
making her cabin habitable, because Thomas Raffles, unlike
most husbands, spent most of his time there. Other men hur-
ried out in search of male company to alleviate the boredom
of sea travel, when they weren't taking their wives for consti-
tutionals, or eating meals, or taking part in othex communal
activities such as concerts. But Raffles, as soon as courtesy per-
mitted, made for his books like a bee heading for the hive.
Day after day, hour after hour, he sat in the cabin studying
Malay, and Olivia and Mary Anne, knowing well they must
not disturb him, sewed or read quietly to themselves, pre-
tending not to be there at all. Raffles was accustomed to picking
up languages in this way, as we know. By the time the family
arrived in Penang he was able not only to speak Malay but to
read and write it, though his friend Travers must certainly
have exaggerated in saying that Raffles had acquired *'a per-
fect knowledge" of the language before the end of the voyage.
Captain Travers, who knew Raffles throughout his Far East
existence, kept a journal which unlike the diary Raffles him-
self kept, alas has survived the years. He writes:
"It was in the year 1806 I first became acquainted with Mr.
Raffles, at the Island of Penang. He was then deputy-secretary
to the new government, which had been recently sent out to
that place. At this time, which was soon after his arrival, he
had acquired a perfect knowledge of the Malay language, which
he had studied on the voyage out, and was able to write and
speak fluently. . . . [His heavy daily program] did not prevent
his attending closely to improve himself in the Eastern lan-
guages: and whilst his mornings were employed in his public
office, where at first he had but little assistance, his evenings
were devoted to Eastern literature."
Today the British bride who starts out for India with her
husband is considered fortunate by the women who watch
her go. The name "India" or its cousin "the Indies" may have
lost during the past years a certain luster of romance, but there
is still a glow over those magic syllables for the housewife who
drudges along at home on a middle-class income. In spite of all
the grumbling we hear from Anglo-Indian colonials about the
high cost of living and the dear dead days, a white man is better
off in the East than in England, and his wife has the greatest
benefit of the change. The famous lure of the tropics Is the
houseboy. That retired planter who sits in his Piccadilly club
with a dream in his eyes, longing for the mysterious East, is
thinking about horses and how easy they were to keep in Kuala
Lumpur. Don't believe the girl who says, "There's something
about India, I don't know what it is, but I'm longing to go
back." She knows perfectly well what it is. It's the way she
can say to her Indian head servant, 'There'll be ten for din-
ner tonight/' and then go out shopping for a hat.
If Olivia had any hopes that life on Prince of Wales Island
would be quite as simple and civilized as she had found it at
Madras, she was disappointed. It is more likely, however, that
she was not so ignorant as all that: the Company had ac-
quainted her husband with most of the important facts about
living conditions, and any woman who had been once married
could scarcely have failed to look up and question some vet-
eran female, some Company wife, who knew Penang of old.
The town was being filled with a greater number of people
from England than it had been planned to accommodate. It
was a one-horse city, suddenly pressed into service for a full-
dress presidency. No doubt the Ganges had carried other offi-
cials bound for Penang, as well as Raffles. They were lucky
when they found comfortable lodgings straight off.
On the other hand it would be an exaggeration to say that
the young newlyweds had to struggle at first. Such a word
simply cannot be applied to white people in the Far East,
especially a hundred years or more ago. The very armies of
conquest took their ease. Thus, though the Raffles couple and
Miss Mary Anne were probably worried to find a suitable
house, and though they may have been puzzled at first to set
a proper European table, and though they must have been
hard put sometimes to meet their bills promptly, they didn't
work hard at housekeeping. Raffles was not the leading offi-
cial in Penang by a long shot, but he would have had to be far
lower down in the social scale before he would have gone
short of servants.
We find proof of their difficulties in the Company cor-
respondence files. The governor, Dundas, and the council
complain in their earliest dispatches that they have insufficient
housing, both for living purposes and office space. Houses
were hard to get and very costly when you could find them.
Raffles had to pay three hundred thirty pounds a year for the
rental of Runnymede, which he and Olivia occupied the
whole of their Penang term. Other living expenses were com-
paratively high, so that he remarked ruefully that he had
been a lot better off in England than he was now. The fact
was, all the Europeans were suffering from a local inflation
which was not common to the other Eastern colonies, and
they had the bad luck to be stationed at a place which did not
stimulate the Court of Directors to generous treatment, either
then or later. If ever a British colony was run on pinched pen-
nies, that colony was to be found on Prince of Wales Island.
We are giving an unfair, gloomy picture of the life that
met Olivia however. There were compensations for these
pecuniary difficulties. She must have been well pleased with
her first sight of the harbor: it would have been a strange
woman who was not. These tropical places arc not glaringly
bright, as so many people imagine; the sultry heat of the cli-
mate usually adds a mist or fuzziness to the landscape which
softens the sunlight and gives a tender, soft appearance to
everything. Seen from shipboard, Prince of Wales Island was
all blue and purple, with silvery layers of mist floating about
the hills. The town lies between two ranges, not so close in
that any of the valley is in gloomy shadow. People of the coun-
try, Malays, came out to meet the boat in their little craft;
some of them clambered aboard with fruit to sell They were
small, brown people with liquid brown eyes and a charming
childish expression that went well with their soft speech,
Olivia, accustomed to the darker, more sophisticated natives
in Madras, must have lost her heart to them immediately.
Like most of the native dwellings in the Archipelago, these
were airy structures of light wood, standing on stilts where
they were built in swampy districts. But the British-built
houses were of a type which is found from Hong Kong south,
through all the places where the English have settled. Largely
planned, of white stucco, they are tropical variations of the
country houses of home. Save that the early builders raised
their ceilings a little higher and built their verandas a little
deeper, any of these dwelling places could have been carried
back to an English suburban town and set down there over-
night without attracting comment on the outlandish appear-
ance. Those were the houses they were used to ? and they were
the houses they wanted, and never mind the way the natives
liked their dwellings. A less rigorous adherence to convention
might have led to more comfort; the Spanish style, for in*
stance, would have been cooler and easier to keep clean . . .
but British architects have seldom been imaginative.
The furniture and decoration of these houses was always
as aggressively British as the owners could afford. Everything
possible was brought out from home. Carpets, pictures, chairs
and tables, silver, were just what one would find in a Kensing-
ton or Russell Square mansion: Axminster carpets, heavy dark
oil paintings in deep gold frames, dark brown chairs, ornate,
massive silver plate, linen that was the pride of the house-
keeper's heart and, for a few very fortunate women for whom
the triumph was worth all its deterioration in the tropics, the
pianoforte. Pianos did very poorly in the Indies. The humid
salt air relaxed the strings, and always within a week or two
the instrument was badly out of tune. (Today a piano tuner
comes every month to your house in Singapore, automatically,,
on a yearly contract.) But owning one gave the colonial bride
a special cachet, nevertheless, which was much prized by the
ladies.
There is no documentary evidence to support my theory^
but I am willing to bet against the chance of someday acquir-
ing proof that the Raffles house alone in the entire island num-
bered native wood carvings among its decorations, and found
a place for the Malay figurines and puppets and pictures which
today are considered prizes in our drawing rooms. Most of the
settlers were miserably homesick and showed it by closing out
of their private lives and houses any trace of the Archipelago's
culture. That accounts for the Belgian carpets, Irish linen, and
English walnut they cherished with such pride, and the few
English flowers which they brought and planted and tended
lovingly among the alien corn. That alien corn those tropical
flowers with what un-English vigor and vulgarity did they
flourish! That teeming, foreign soil! It must have frightened
the junior and senior clerks and their wives all the more be-
cause they had had no warning of it Strange lands in those
days were really strange, truly unexplored.
Be certain, at any rate, that Raffles was satisfied with his
Runnymede. Back home he would have toiled for a lifetime
without being able to shelter his family in a large house with
spacious gardens and more than enough servants to run it.
The tempo of life, Olivia found, was not unlike that of
India. That is, nobody except her husband worked as hard as
he would have done in London, in the home offices of India
House. The climate, soft and enervating and actually very
unhealthy, was an excuse, if an excuse had been necessary,
which it never was. There were dinners to attend and to give.
There were fruit trees to watch over and discuss. There were
the difficulties which always attended transportation by horse
in Penang the favorite vehicle was a tiny two-wheeled affair,
but grandeur and government service called for the larger,
heavier sort of carriage. There was the constant struggle for
fresh meat, in which all the wives of the colony cried out for
their share whenever a beast was slaughtered, and Mrs, Smith
of this house knew what portion of the late cow she would
dine off when she was invited to Mrs. Jones's across the way.
Everyone was a little less brisk, a little sleepier, a little slower
as time went on.
Life with Mr. Thomas Stamford Raffles called for more ex-
ertion than this. All the newly arrived officials complained of
the pressure of work, getting things started, all, that is to say,
except Raffles, who was still staggered by his good 'fortune and
not yet sophisticated enough to grumble. Yet lie alone had
good reason to complain, because he worked like a horse. This
was because he was accustomed to do it, and also because it
was expected of him, in his position. The climate never slowed
up Thomas Raffles. He fell victim to his own virtue; the more
work he did, the more the others piled on his shoulders, and
once he had set his pace he had to keep up with it.
I always see him, in my mind's eye, sitting at a desk with
his coat off, with hu elaborate shirt front and high collar
looking all the stranger, to my modern eyes, in deshabille. He
is writing with a quill penwhether my mind is correct on
this point of costume or commits an atavism, he is writing
with a quill pen, very rapidly, throwing the sheets of paper
aside as he finishes them, and pulling fresh ones toward him
without having to glance up. There are books piled around
him and the desk is not perfectly neat, either, in other re-
spects. In Penang the disorder must have been particularly
picturesque. I imagine one or two botanical specimens drying
out on their plates, waiting for overdue attention; a small
monkey's skull serves as paperweight until its owner shall find
time to identify it; a hunk of crystalline substance that looks
like gold has been brought to him by an excited, overhopeful
friend, and left to add to the modest litter. But all this is
anticipating: in London there were no monkey skulls. I see
him writing like this first as a young man in London, with
pink cheeks and thick hair, against the dark-papered walls of
his mother's house, that flicker in the stolen candlelight. Then
in Penang I see him in the same attitude, still writing rapidly,
but with hands finer drawn, with hairline sketchier than it was
in the past, and linen better. The background is changed too:
it is lit with the cheerful brightness of his study at Runny-
mede. The woodwork there is light. The shades are drawn
tight against the warm, heavily fragrant night air, but his lamp
is surrounded by great insects that have stolen in somehow,
and the little white night moths of the tropics try in vain to
kill themselves against the lamp chimney. Everything is dif-
ferent except the look on Raffles's face, the earnest, withdrawn,
purely unself-conscious expression of the scholar.
Captain Travers was much impressed by the manner in
which Raffles was able to keep up with his work, which was
of a crushing weight, and yet not neglect his true enthusiasms.
The Travers Journal enumerates the different duties he carried
out as assistant secretary details of the new government pro-
ceedings, compilation of almost every public document, pub-
lic dispatches, drawing up and keeping the records. "Being of
a cheerful lively disposition, and very fond of society, it was
surprising how he was able to entertain so hospitably as he
49
did, and yet labour so much as he was known to do at the time,
not only in his official capacity, but in acquiring a general
knowledge of the history, government, and local interests of
the neighbouring states; and this he was greatly aided in doing
by conversing freely with the natives, who were constantly
visiting Penang at this period, many of whom were often
found to be sensible, intelligent men, and greatly pleased to
find a person holding Mr. Raffles' situation able and anxious
to converse with them in their own language/'
It is small wonder if the natives were "greatly pleased"
with him. Penang is not British India, but the colonial Eng-
lishman is pretty much the same no matter where you encoun-
ter him, and there is no doubt that the "sensible, intelligent
men" native to the district had expected a Jos Scdley rather
than a Raffles when they heard that the East India Company
had sent them a new man. When the assistant secretary
evinced his delightful, eccentric interest in the history, gov-
ernment, and local customs of his Malay neighbors, he started
something that did not die with him. Today no other coun-
try belonging to the British Empire is so well documented or
its language so carefully studied as the British-occupied parts
of the Malay Archipelago. The average Briton, when he goes
out to live in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, is still affected by
Raffles's example. He begins as a matter of course to learn
Malay, even though he be the type who can live thirty-five
years in China without trying to speak Chinese, and then goes
out of his way to boast of his ignorance.
Penang had first been occupied by the British as a precau-
tionary gesture for the benefit of the Dutch, The Netherlands
East India Company had been much put out by this action;
it was the first time they took seriously the hint that England
was likely to become a formidable rival to their sovereignty
in the East Indies. Now as Raffles conversed with the native
gentlemen who came in from neighboring states to see what
he was about, he gathered much useful information about
the Dutch and their habits in colonizing, Penang had always
stood as a lone British colony on the Archipelago. But shortly
before the new government was formed there were many
changes in the surrounding territories, and all of them were
directly related to Penang's welfare.
"We hear of a Javanese prince/' B. H. M. Vlekke writes in
his Story of the Dutch East Indies, "who had been exiled to
Ceylon and who on his return to Java was considered a great
expert on dealing with Europeans. He tried to explain to his
countrymen the characteristic differences between the Dutch
and the British. . . . 'The British/ he said, 'are like the strong
rapid current of water; they are persevering, energetic, and ir-
resistible in their courage. If they really want to obtain some-
thing they will use violence to get it. The Dutch are very able,
clever, patient, and calm. If possible they try to reach their
goal rather by persuasion than by force of arms. It may well
happen/ he concluded, 'that Java will be conquered by the
British/ Thirty years later it happened. . . "
The Franco-British-American war of 1780, in which the
Dutch were also involved, was particularly disastrous to the
Dutch East India Company because their Indian possessions
were blockaded by the British, and before communication
could be re-established things were hopelessly tangled. In
1784 Holland sealed the Company's fate by signing the peace
treaty, thus sacrificing forever their monopoly.
In the meantime there were stirrings of revolt at home
(1780-81 ) in Holland unsuccessful at first, but 1793 saw the
fruition of the attempt, Holland became vassal to the new
French Republic and remained in this curious and difficult
position until 1810, when it was annexed outright by Napo-
leon.
What then of the Dutch Company's Indian possessions?
Prince William of Orange, refugee in London, arranged that.
In an attempt to rid the colonies of the French, never mind
how, he wrote a letter to all the governors of all the Dutch
territories and told them to hand everything under their con-
trol over to the English, who had promised to turn it back
after the war was finished and the Prince back in Holland
where he belonged, or thought he did.
51
"Batavia had to choose/' says Vlekke, ''whether it would
follow William V or the States General. The slogan, 'Lib-
erty, Equality, Fraternity/ had no appeal to them. On the
other hand, the prospect of surrendering the administration
of Java to the British had little more. Batavia, therefore, de-
cided upon a middle course, namely to maintain at the same
time its allegiance to the government of the Hague and Its
independence in internal affairs.
"Nevertheless, as soon as news came from Holland that a
new government had been established upon a democratic
basis, things began to move in the Indies. First a group of
citizens and employees of the Company composed a petition
to the High Government, written in the pompous style that
seems to have been an unavoidable evil in that period; 'If the
pretense of liberty that masked until now the most burden-
some oppression of the people had succeeded in making the
Netherlands into a republic of fame so great that it was envied
by the whole of Europe, what may now be expected once free-
dom has been established here on the unshakable pillars of
equality and fraternity?' They hastened to make clear what
was expected: a celebration of the liberation' of the Nether-
lands, the abolishment of all outward distinctions of rank
among the employees, and the organization of the defense of
Java against counter-revolutionary i.e., British attacks."
The directors refused to take the petition seriously, but it
scarcely mattered, for after 1798 they were out of a job any-
waythe Dutch Company was no more, Its affairs were put
in the hands of a committee, which asked, since Holland was
now free, what about Batavia? To which the authorities re-
plied ambiguously:
"We must state that we can hardly imagine m what way a
revolution based on the system of liberty and rights of the peo-
ple could be introduced into this country without destroying
its value for the home country.
"Of course we are not well informed on the special princi-
ples of the new system . . . but we trust that we may declare
that the revolutionary change will not be applied to our re-
lations with the native princes and peoples, for, as the whole
existence of the State is founded upon the moral and political
conditions actually existing among these princes and peoples,
such a change would cause a revolution in this State itself.
"Therefore we assume that it is your intention that the new
system shall be applied only to the Government of the Com-
pany, to its servants and the Dutch citizens. The number of
these citizens is, however, very limited, and only a few of them
are capable of forming a sound judgment on affairs of im^
portance. The interests of these few citizens can not out-
weigh those of the Company and they must never jeopardize
those more important interests/'
The new rulers of the Netherlands decided to consider these
special interests in a special way.
"We persist in the opinion," wrote the committee, "we
have always held that the doctrines of liberty and equality,
however strongly they may be based on the inalienable rights
of men and citizens and however thoroughly they may be in-
troduced into this commonwealth [the Netherlands] and some
other European countries, can not be transferred to nor ap-
plied to the East Indian possessions of the State as long as the
security of these possessions depends on the existing and neces-
sary state of subordination [of the Indonesians] and as long
as the introduction can not take place without exposing these
possessions to a confusion the effect of which can not be
imagined/'
The committee went on, expressing in the kindest manner
its compassion for the "miserable fate of the slaves, men and
women, born free like us and the rest of mankind/' but de-
clared that the abolition of slavery would have to wait "until
a higher order of general civilization will permit the ameliora-
tion of their fate under the cooperation of all European na-
tions that have overseas possessions/'
That last bit makes peculiarly good reading today, side by
side with the morning newspaper. It is doubtful if any other
nation since then would express this point of view (a funda-
mental one for all imperialists) as frankly or with such free-
dom from cant, always excepting the late lamented Fascists,
who didn't number cant among their vices. But it was an ordi*
53 *
nary enough philosophy for that time, not peculiar to the
Dutch. Even as it shocks us, it is a relief for that reason. Since
yesterday's defeat of the Nazi party no one save perhaps
Churchill has dared to speak out so clearly, without pulling
punches or muffling diplomatic utterance with pious nothings
and excuses. Considering that this attitude was held by the
Dutch (among others) so openly at the end of the eighteenth
century, one realizes how much happened in the years inter-
vening, that we idealists of the United States, in this genera-
tion, were brought up to think them model colonizers for the
world. That idea started early in the twentieth century.
There is always a reason, however obscure, for the opinions
popular among the citizens of the great American Middle
West. For example, ten years before the Japanese attacked
China by planting a bomb on the South Manchuria Railway,
the school children of the United States believed that all
Japanese were delightful, clean people, who wanted only to be
exactly like us or anyway as like us as possible. Of course we
liked that, and were convinced that the Chinese by compari-
son were a dirty people without taste or manners. None of
this misunderstanding was accidental, though perhaps its
origin was not obvious; and today we know why and how we
were taught to believe it. It would be interesting to know why
and how we grew to be so heartily in favor, at that particular
time, of Dutch imperialism. Today's newspaper headlines are,
of course, a different story. Another government supplies to-
day's schools with today's propaganda.
One of the drawbacks to being a man like Raffles, brilliant
and ambitious, is the loneliness of existence. As a boy drudg-
ing for a guinea a month, he had never had the leisure to make
friends or the wherewithal to keep them even if he became
acquainted. The long day was full of work and the night was
all too short for his studying. Even when he became a man
he was still too earnest to attract other young people like him-
self, and we have seen how his pride kept him from becoming
intimate with anyone of his own class, because of his poverty.
The one exception had been William Brown Ramsay. Among
his colleagues at India House in London he had always in-
spired respect, but until he won his spurs and gained the
heights, social life was one of the luxuries he did without.
Most men taste the sweets of friendship first, as bachelors,
and later experience love and marriage, but with Raffles it was
the other way about. He was a settled benedict before he met
his good friend Leyden. After that life was never quite the
same for him. Leyden led to others. Through him, his first
good friend of the adult world, Raffles found more of his own
sort of companions.
John Caspar Leyden, though he was only six years older
than Raffles, had achieved fame in the world of letters before
he came to take up his post in India. He was a many-sided,
many-talented person. Though it is Stamford Raffles who has
lived in the memory of mankind, and Leyden is known only
through being his friend, it was a different story at the time
the two young men first met. Then it was Leyden who was the
great man, Leyden who condescended to the friendship, Ley-
den who was the lion of any social occasion. A Scot of humble
origin, his boyhood bore no similarity to that of Raffles except
that he too received no formal education. But he made up for
it later by matriculating at the University of Edinburgh when
he was barely fifteen. Lockhart, in his Life of Sir Walter Scott,
gives us a romantic picture of John Leyden at the university,
confounding the learned doctors with his store of knowledge.
He was first intended for the Church, but he soon discovered
that he much preferred science to theology, and medical sci-
ence to any other kind. He studied and learned Hebrew and
Arabic at Edinburgh; at St. Andrews where he continued his
studies he took an M.D. degree. But his real aptitude (if Sir
Walter Scott is any judge, which some of us doubt) was for
poetry. Encouraged by Scott, Leyden wrote and published
many poems and was best known for his collaboration with his
mentor, the master, in the Border Minstrelsy.
It is not clear just why this young man, as soon as his fed:
were set on the road to success through letters, should have
elected to become a doctor instead, and to practice out in
India instead of England. He did just that, however; in 1803
he asked for and got an appointment to the Madras Establish-
ment, where Olivia Raffles's first husband had been working
when he died, three years earlier. It could have been a roman-
tic impulse of course. Whatever Leyden's reasons may have
been, it was obvious that he and Raffles should become friends
as soon as they met, if only because they had so many inter-
ests in common.
The meeting took place shortly after the Raffles family
arrived in Penang. Leyden had been ill ever since he landed in
Madras two years before, and though he managed in spite of
his poor health to study the local languages and to do a certain
amount of scientific work, he was sent to Penang on sick leave.
Penang was believed, 'Very erroneously," as Boulger says, to
have a healthy climate for white men, which is why Leyden's
medical adviser chose it. Probably the climate did not bene-
fit him, but his meeting with Raffles was the best thing that
could have happened to either man.
Although the following amusing passage, by Lord Minto,
was not written until some few years later, just before the ex-
pedition to Java, I am quoting it here*
"Dr. Leyden's learning is stupendous and he is also a very
universal scholar. His knowledge, extreme and minute as it is,
is always in his pocket at his finger's end, and on the tip of his
tongue. He has made it completely his own, and it is all ready
money. All his talent and labour indeed, which are both exces-
sive, could not, however, have accumulated such stores with-
out his extraordinary memory. I begin, I fear, to look at that
faculty with increasing wonder; I hope without envy, but with
something like one's admiration of young eyes. It must be con-
fessed that Leyden has occasion for all the stores which appli-
cation and memory can furnish to supply his tongue, which
would dissipate a common stock in a week. I do not believe
that so great a reader was ever so great a talker before. You
may be conceited about yourselves, my beautiful wife and
daughters, but with all my partiality I must give it against you.
You would appear absolutely silent in his company, as a ship
under weigh seems at anchor when it is passed by a swifter
sailer. Another feature of his conversation is a shrill, piercing,
and at the same time, grating voice. A frigate is not near large
enough to place the ear at the proper point of hearing. If he
had been at Babel, he would infallibly have learned all the
languages there. ... I must say to his honour that he has as
intimate and profound a knowledge of the geography, history,
mutual relations, religion, character, and manners of every
tribe in Asia as he has of their language. On the present oc-
casion, there is not an island or petty state in the multitudes of
islands and nations amongst which we are going, of which he
has not a tolerably minute and correct knowledge/'
Following the charming fashion of the times, Leyden kept
a journal. He was amused by the hectic atmosphere of George
Town, which was in a tremendous bustle, what with the ar-
rival of the new government staff and the departure of former
officials who were being relieved of their posts. The poetical
doctor remained nearly three months in Penang, most of the
time as Raffles's guest. While Olivia nursed the invalid, the
men studied Malay together and thoroughly enjoyed them-
selves.
CHAPTER V
Olivia, ah/ forgive the bard,
If sprightly strains alone are dear;
His notes are sad, for he has heard
The footsteps of the parting year,
For each sweet scene I wandered o'er,
Fair scenes that shall be ever dear,
From Curga's hills to Travancore
I hail thy steps, departed year/
But chief that in this eastern isle,
Girt by the green and glistening wave,
Olivia's Jcind, endearing smile
Seem'd to recall me from the grave.
When far beyond Malaya's sea,
I trace dark Soonda's forests drear,
Olivia/ I shall think of thec
And bless thy steps, departed year/
Each morn or evening spent with thee
Fancy shall mid the wilds restore
In all their charms, and they shall be
Sweet days that shall return no more,
Still may'st thou live in bliss secure
Beneath tliat friend's protecting care,
And may his cherished life endure
Long, long, thy holy love to share.
Leyden wrote and presented the Dirge of the Departed Year
when he said good-by to the Raffles home, starting back to
his professorship in Calcutta. Raffles was deeply moved, made
happy, doubtless, by that peculiarly satisfying emotion which
comes to a man when his best friend falls (hopelessly) in love
with his wife. There is no setup more pleasant, all the way
around, than that design for living which seems to take shape
oftenest in the warmth of tropical colonies. Perhaps this is
because white women are at a premium and native women are
not, so that the bachelor member of the trio need not be
under too much of a strain, preserving a high-minded worship-
ful adoration of his friend's missus.
This is a flippant generalization, definitely not to be ap-
plied to Olivia Raffles and Leyden. We may see the colonial
design for living in that relationship, but the reader's impres-
sions of the Raffles household will be distorted if he doesn't
remember that Olivia was not the usual wife of the colonies.
She was no more the brisk tennis-playing, cocktail-drinking
good sport (or whatever its equivalent was back in 1806) than
she was the overvivacious girl who "coulJ just dance all
night," and who usually does on Saturday at the club. We
have proof of Olivia's special quality, though not from Ley-
den. Leyden was a man of taste too good to write his impres-
sions of Mrs. Raffles even in his private journal. Writers know
in their hearts that they cannot insure true privacy for any of
their writings, particularly diaries. So the proof lies not with
him, nor with the second wife of Raffles, Sophie, who was one
up on Olivia in sharing her husband's title, and possessed
countless other advantages as well, but who never forgave her
predecessor just the same for having existed.
We get no help from Raffles himself. That agile pen which
was usually able to surmount even the difficulties of contem-
59$*.
porary style, so that he was readable in spite of regulation
pomposity that accomplished pen faltered when its subject
was Olivia, and the unhappy widower was driven to taking
refuge in stilted phrases to express his vanished happiness. "It
gave me domestic enjoyment/' was the way he described his
first marriage. It is scarcely a vivid portrait
Lord Minto has bequeathed us a few lines in a gossipy letter
to his wife, which we will quote in its proper place. But the
best, most detailed picture of Olivia which we will ever find
is that one which Abdullah, a young teacher of Malay who
first met the Raffleses in Malacca, was to write in his autobiog-
raphy some years later. Perhaps we ought to save Abdullah for
the Malacca chapter, but since no one else comes to our res-
cue, we must break the chronological order and borrow a little
bit from him in advance, if only for Olivia's sweet sake.
"She was not an ordinary woman," says Abdullah, "but
was in every respect co-equal with her husband's position and
responsibilities; bearing herself with propriety, politeness, and
good grace. She was very fond of studying the Malay lan-
guage, saying, What is this in Malay? and what that? Also
whatever she saw she wrote down, and, whatever her husband
intended to undertake, or when buying anything, he always
deferred to her. Thus, if it pleased his wife, it pleased him.
Further, her alacrity in all work was apparent; indeed she
never rested for a moment, but she was always busy day after
day. In this diligence which I observed there is a very great
distinction between the habits of the natives [of Malayan
countries] and the white people. For it is the custom of the
Malayan women on their becoming the wives of great people
to increase their arrogance, laziness, and habitual procrastina-
tion. . . . But to look at Mrs. Raffles, her hands and feet
were in continual motion like chopping one bit after another.
Then there was sewing, which was succeeded by writing, for it
is a real truth that I never saw her sleep at mid-day, or even
reclining for the sake of ease, but always at work with dili-
gence, as day follows day. This the Almighty knows also. And
if I am not wrong in the conclusion that I have arrived at,
these arc the signs of good sense and understanding, which
qualify for the undertaking of great deeds. Thus her habits
were active, so much so, that in fact she did the duty of her
husband; indeed, it was she that taught him. Thus God had
matched them as king and counsellor, or as a ring with its
jewels/'
Raffles was doubly proud of Leyden's Dirge. Poems which
are written to us, or to people who belong to us, always seem
much better than similar effusions which have no personal
interest, and Leyden was so well known then as a poet that
one could truthfully call him famous. No doubt it was because
of this fame that his ex-host thought himself justified in his
coyness when he gave it to the world without signature.
There is no obvious reason why this Dirge of the Departed
Year, blameless as it is in sentiment, destined as it was for pub-
lication under the author's name in a posthumous collection,
should have appeared first in such mysterious style, without
any signature. The fashion of the times, though, decreed these
harmless, meaningless little masquerades. It was thought to
be the essence of refinement, to avoid giving a person's name
outright, and yet to indicate it so that the thickest understand-
ing must know who was meant. No wonder Thackeray used
to make fun of the custom; when writing of someone like
Prince George, for instance, he would spell the name thus:
PR-NCE G-RGE. Byron, too, was impatiently scornful of so
much exaggerated caution and "good taste/'
"The following lines on the departed year have too much
merit not to find an acceptable place in your paper/ 7 wrote
Raffles to the editor. "They were written by a friend who,
after travelling far and near in pursuit of knowledge, was at
last driven to our Eastern Isle for the recovery of his health.
He has now quitted our shores, but his distinguished talents
and enthusiastic feeling must ever endear him to those who
knew him sufficiently to estimate his worth and value his
friendship. "The stranger is gone, but we cannot forget/ "
The British colony of Prince of Wales Island was not large
enough to be anything but intimate, and sometimes, proba-
bly, it was uncomfortably so. Thus it is significant that neither
Raffles nor his wife made other close friends in the community
during their first term of foreign service. Their chroniclers of
past days were afraid of current conventions and never spoke
directly about this, but now there seems to be no reason to
maintain such anxious secrecy about what was in truth trivial.
The whole thing seems to have been that there was gossip
about Olivia Raffles, from the moment she set foot on the
island; perhaps aboard ship, too, on their way out.
It was cruel that such a very small tale, inspired to some ex-
tent by jealousy of Raffles and his rapid advancement, should
have made any difference at all to Olivia. Perhaps it didn't.
We will hope so. She may have been perfectly happy with the
company she did have, her husband and a few others. There
was nothing Stamford Raffles could have done about it even
if he had known, and he probably did not, because nobody
would have dared repeat the gossip to him. It was the usual
thing that springs up whenever someone gets ahead faster
than the rank and file, in whatever society he may be. One
hears similar tales today, in theatrical circles and large busi-
ness communities as well as in the drawing rooms of the diplo-
mats. The burden of the legend was that Olivia Fancourt had
long been mistress to some big shot in the Companysome
said it was William Ramsay, others named the chairman
who, when tired of her, bribed Raffles with the assistant-sec-
retary post to marry her and take her to Pcnang. For cor-
roborative detail the scandalmongers cited Raffles's youth
("Why otherwise would such a good post go to such a young
man?"), Olivia's ten years' seniority ("Old enough to be his
mother, my dear"), her social obscurity ("After all, who was
she? How otherwise could they have met? Fm sure I never
heard of her" ) , and, of course, the suddenness of the marriage
('They say his people never set eyes on her until he brought
her home from church")
Much later, after Olivia had died and Thomas was made a
knight and Java had been taken from the French and then
given back five years later to the Dutch much Iater y in 1819,
Raffles came upon the story, boiled down to one catty little
paragraph, in the Biographical Dictionary of the Living
Authors of Great Britain and Ireland, edited by a man named
Henry Colburn. "Mr. Raffles went out to India in an inferior
capacity, through the interest of Mr. Ramsay, Secretary to
the Company, and in consequence of his marrying a lady con-
nected with that gentleman." Alone and to our modern eyes
this may not seem as bad as it was intended to be, but Sir
Stamford understood the insinuation. His state of mind was
like that of Browning when he wrote his famous sonnet to
Fitzgerald, the one beginning, "I chanced upon a new book
yesterday, " But Raffles was too angry to stop and think of
rhyme schemes and meter. He sat him down and wrote Dr.
Raffles, that cousin in Liverpool who for years served as an
exhaust to his feelings when Raffles felt one to be necessary.
Originally, no doubt, Sir Stamford's intention was merely to
retort to the biographer's insults with a speedy, smashing state-
ment, giving the lie to Mr. Colburn. Then his pen ran away
with him. Once embarked, he didn't stop; perhaps he could
not. He told the whole story of his career, and the remarks
destined for Colburn's address were only a small part of the
missive. But that is the portion in which we are particularly
interested just now.
"This work, from its nature, must be in general circulation;
and the mention it makes of one who is no more, as well as
the general tendency of the article altogether, is as disagreea-
ble to my feelings as discreditable to my character. My first
wife was in no manner connected with Mr. Ramsay; they
never saw each other; neither could my advancement in life
possibly be accelerated by that marriage. It gave me no new
connections, no wealth, but, on the contrary, a load of debt
which I had to clear off. It increased my difficulties, and thus
increased my energies. It gave me domestic enjoyment, and
thus contributed to my happiness; but in no way can my ad-
vancement in life be accounted owing to that connection. My
resolution to proceed to India, and my appointment to Prince
of Wales's Island were made before the marriage took place;
and, when I was about to quit all other ties and affections, it
was natural that I should secure one bosom friend, one com-
63 ?
panion on my journey who would soothe the adverse blasts of
misfortune and gladden the sunshine of prosperity but what
have the public to do with this? What right have they to
disturb and animadvert on my domestic arrangements? What
right have they to conclude that interest and not affection was
consulted by rne? . . "
Only one man seems to have recorded in writing the overt
insults and obvious snubs aimed against Mrs. Raffles in Pe-
nang. Raffles's position was not high enough to defend his
wife against spiteful demonstrations of that sort. If Prince of
Wales Island had an average group, then the gossip was prob-
ably held just within bounds; the women of such a colony
are no worse than those at home, but the monotony of the
lives they make for themselves, the unchanging dull routine,
sends them pelting in full cry after the smallest excitement.
And spite, of course, can be exciting. Scandal has a low boiling
point and a long life in the colonies.
Besides, Olivia was probably a little too individual for their
taste or understanding. It is difficult to imagine her joining
the other women in their feasts of malice on toast, with tea.
She had unusual interests, which made her suspect from the
beginning. Evidently the punishment was not drastic a gen-
tle, tacitly handled exclusion from all social life but the large
official functions would be the size of it, nothing so gross as
out-and-out snubs. Perhaps she noticed, perhaps not: it is most
unlikely if, noticing, she suffered acutely. Olivia and her quiet,
studious husband nevertheless did their share of entertaining.
Boulger proudly produces a notice from the Prince of Wales's
Island Gazette of "the elegant dinner given by Mrs- Raffles"
on the King's birthday in 1807, and from the same sheet of a
later date that year reprints a society column in full;
THE BEAU MONDE
We have the pleasure to congratulate our numerous read-
ers upon the happy return of the gaieties of Penang,
On Thursday, being Lord Mayor's Day 7 Mr. Robinson en*
tertained a select party of friends at his mansion on the north
beach. In the evening a most elegant fete was given by Messrs.
Clubley and Phipps. It is impossible for us to convey any idea
of the style and manner in which everything was concluded.
The Honourable the Governor, together with the whole
of the beauty and fashion of the island, assembled at an early
hour.
The ball commenced between eight and nine. Mr. Club-
ley had the honour of leading Mrs. Raffles down the first
dance to the tune of "Off she goes."
The supper rooms were thrown open precisely at twelve
o'clock. The tables were covered with every delicacy that India
can produce. The wines were of the most delicious quality;
and that nothing might be wanting to render gratification
perfect, several ladies and gentlemen entertained the com-
pany with songs, displaying on the one part the utmost del-
icacy of taste, and on the other true original comicality.
Dancing recommenced with increased life immediately
after supper, and continued until an early hour in the morn-
ing, when the party separated with every appearance of regret,
"That time should steal the night away
And all their pleasures too
That they no longer there could stay,
And all their joys renew."
In addition to the musicians of the island, Captain Harris
was so good as to allow his band to attend. They played sev-
eral pieces in a very superior style. One of the performers
danced a hornpipe & la tamborina, which bore strong rnarJcs of
his being a perfect adept in the art, and called forth loud and
reiterated bursts of applause from his fair beholders.
But we have on the other hand the evidence of one Mr.
Thomson, a teacher in a college at Malacca, who, if not quite
a witness of the newly wedded Raffles's social fate in Penang,
was nearly enough contemporary to be plausible. If he says there
was gossip, there is your gossip in itself. And he does. (This is
all in a footnote to his translation of Hifcayat Abdullah.) After
a few sarcastic remarks in which he rightly rebukes Lady Sophia
Raffles for ignoring the existence of Olivia, he continues, "Why
Mr. Raffles, a poor, half -educated clerk, should have been pro-
moted suddenly to a position that would give a salary of 2,400
a year (knowing the mercenary nature of the Leadenhall Street
Directors) was always an anomaly to me, till I had the cause
explained, and which I will repeat in as gentle a manner as
possible. The fact of the matter is, that young Raffles got a
precious woman to wife and a good salary from the same dis-
penser of patronage, whose name I need not mention. This
gave such umbrage to the ladies of Governor Dundas's suite,
that both were sent to Coventry. Thus Nature, true to her prin-
ciples, in young Raffles 7 humiliation opened the road to his
future elevation. Had he been carried away by the gaieties of
society he could never have studied the native languages
deeply, nor could he have mixed with the chiefs so as to gain
their confidence, . . .
"Thus also was it with his wife. . . ."
Sir Stamford was dead when Mr. Thomson (Dr. Thomson,
perhaps?) wrote this "gentle" passage, and I think from the
tone of it that his own indignant repudiation of the story 1 icl
not reached this gentleman's notice. This sounds as if the
scandal hadn't been imparted to Thomson by means of the
phony Biography either; rather, Thomson seems to have got
it from somebody in person, possibly after lunch in a historians"
club. It is, of course, that sort of item which always II; os most
tenaciously, traveling by word of mouth, and no amount of
denial like Raffles's, though it appears in print> can stamp the
thing out. It is a sad fact that people like such stories, and they
like repeating them, even when they aren't sure they are true.
For this reason alone, even if it hadn't been for the signif-
icant records dug up by Boulger, which prove that Olivia actu-
ally did petition for her pension, I would be inclined to
disbelieve it. It is much the kind of thing one hears today in
colonial communities, wherever rank or position counts a great
deal and where people are not overworked; that is, where the
tendency toward jealous spite is strong and chances to indulge
it offer themselves a dozen times a day. Anyone who has lived
more than a week or two in places like Peking, Hong Kong
or British East Africa, will recognize the type and will admit
that in these communities there is always an immense amount
of smoke stirred up by disproportionately tiny fires. In other
words, it could be true, but the chances are a hundred to one
against it, because a hundred pieces of false gossip must have
been told in Company social circles to every one piece which
was founded on truth.
Besides, Boulgefs disclosure of the records indicates how
unlikely it was that Olivia should have filed her widow's peti-
tion if she were actually under the protection of Ramsay or
any other Company official. Even if her hypothetical sugar
daddy had been mean enough to allow her to need that small
bit of money, the last thing he would permit, surely, would
be that his mistress should appear in the Company offices, and
on such an errand. It would have been madly indiscreet, render-
ing him liable at the very mildest to accusations of using undue
influence for his girl friend.
In his curmudgeonly way, Mr. Thomson goes so far as to
admit, however, that Olivia must have been extraordinarily
charming to have had the effect she evidently did upon Leyden,
Minto, and the humble Abdullah. (From his point of view,
of course, that charm makes the gossip all the more convinc-
ing.) Abdullah indeed, says Thomson with characteristically
delicate irony, must have been considerably smitten to burst
into verse as he does when he speaks of her. I shall quote that
verse presently: here I shall say only that Abdullah's tribute
doesn't sound in the slightest immoral to me. On the contrary
it is so virtuous as to outstuff the stuffiest of Leyden's literary
offerings.
It follows that part of Abdullah's description of Olivia which
I have already quoted, and if the Malay's style seems suddenly
to have changed, that owes itself to the fact that I now take
my text from a different translation Mr. Thomson's, rather
than the Rev. Mr. Shellabear's,
"Thus it was fit that she should be a pattern and friend to
those who live after her time/' wrote Abdullah, after likening
her to a "jewel set in a ring." "Such were her habits and deport-
ment as above related, and of which I have composed a pantim
as below/'
There follows the poem, which Mr. Thomson refers to,
sneeringly, as evidence of Olivia's charm, (A pantun, by the
way, is a Malayan form of poetry in which each stanza uses for
first line the second line of the stanza preceding. The only
similar form to which one can compare it in English, and that
a very farfetched comparison, is the triolet.)
The quail 'tis certain is the name,
The pool 'tis certain is its place:
Beautiful indeed and sweet his mien,
Combined with charming wit and grace.
The pool 'tis certain is its place,
Her loving chief her only guard;
Sweet indeed her mien with grace,
While prudence claims its best reward.
Well, Coventry or no, tea parties or none, the dark-eyed lady
must have kept busy enough. There remains one mystery on
that score which I admit I have been powerless to solve. What
of Olivia's children? Raffles docs not mention them in his
letters. Not only does he avoid speaking their names; he never
announces any births in the family, at least in any of the letters
we know about. There is one place where he refers to his
"family," but that word could apply quite correctly to Olivia
only, or to Olivia with his sister or sisters (for at one time all
three of them visited him at once), living together in his
house. Then there is one jovial mention in a letter by Lcyden
of Mrs. R. and Miss R., which might be interpreted as Mrs.
Raffles and a young daughter, but again it is much more likely
to have meant Mrs. Raffles and her youngest sistcr-m-law, who
became engaged to Leyden. I would be inclined to dismiss
both these hints and decide once and for all that Olivia's and
Thomas's was a childless marriage, except that Boulger is
definite: "The death of Olivia Raffles did not stand alone
among domestic afflictions, for about the same time he lost
in quick succession the children she had borne him/'
Now what can we say? It is easy to understand Raffles's
silence upon the subject after these children had died, but what
about his natural pride and happiness before the tragedy? How
reconcile his silence on that score with his triumphant an-
nouncements of later days, when, every time his second wife
Sophia presented him with a child, which was not an infre-
quent occurrence, he wrote all his friends about the happy
event?
Leaving aside this one mystery, we have a fairly detailed, ac-
curate picture of the Raffleses' domestic life during this first
term in the East. It was a quiet, cheerful, productive sort of
existence, with Raffles's success in the world of letters and
science running a close second to his mounting popularity
among his official colleagues. And in these triumphs Olivia
kept her place by his side, for she had her modest success too.
Whether or not she bore those children Boulger speaks about,
she did her duty as a good sister-in-lawshe married off Mary
Anne! Yes, within six months of their arrival the eldest Miss
Raffles made an excellent match, and became the bride of
Quintin Dick Thompson, sub-warehouseman and deputy pay-
master of Penang. Little is known about him save that his
salary equaled that of Brother Thomas, which is a good mark
for Mr. Thompson, and that he died three years later after
having begot a child a year one mark against Mr. Thompson,
because their care rested on their uncle's already overburdened
shoulders until Mary Anne married again. But in 1806 that
was all in the future.
All we see is the pleasant scene of Mary Anne's wedding,
which eliminated for her once and for all the danger of giving
up this dream which she was privileged to share in the glamor-
ous East, with brilliant Brother Thomas and clever sister-in-
law Olivia. No more of London as an underfed maiden of
good blood but poor parents! Couldn't Leonora and Harriett,
too, be saved? Brother Thomas started to think, and save, and
make plans toward that happy end. They were candid in those
days, franker than we are about marriage, sometimes really
brutal, though the British were apt to put on airs and to preen
themselves for being better than those disgusting French, with
whom marriage was just a business contract.
"What causes young people to 'come out', but the noble
ambition of matrimony?" asks the author of Vanity Fair, like
the sentimental moralist he is. "What sends them trooping to
watering-places? What keeps them dancing till five o'clock in
the morning through a whole mortal season? What causes
them to labour at pianoforte sonatas, and to learn four songs
from a fashionable master at a guinea a lesson, and to play
the harp if they have handsome arms and neat elbows, and
to wear Lincoln Green toxophilite hats and feathers, but that
they may bring down some 'desirable' young man with those
killing bows and arrows of theirs? What causes respectable
parents to take up their carpets, set their houses topsy-turvy,
and spend a fifth of their year's income in ball suppers and iced
champagne? Is it sheer love of their species, and an unadul-
terated wish to see young people happy and dancing? Psha!
they want to marry their daughters."
Harp playing has gone out with toxophilite hats of Lincoln
green, but the sentiment of that passage applies to colonial
society today as well as it did when it was written. With first
one and then two more young ladies to launch, Raffles was
put to considerable extra expense, though his salary, as he said,
had been inadequate from the beginning. Because of his
special talents, he always had extra work to do, but he didn^t
draw extra pay for it. For example, the new government had
not been long at work before it was obvious that the official
Company translator, a Mr. Button who had held the post
for years, was by way of being a fake. Not only did lie employ a
large number of native clerks for the actual work, but the
translations he produced were untrustworthy. Either through
ignorance or by design, he sometimes altered the text in tran-
scription. Raffles soon knew Malay well enough to watch Hut-
ton, and in four months he was able to tell the governor that
he could not only correct the translations of Hutton's de-
^70
partment but was able himself to put English letters into
Malay, or, as he then spelled it, "Malayee."
"I have been at much expense/' he wrote, "in retaining in
my service several natives whom I have selected as persons
whose ability, and perhaps integrity, might be depended upon
from their not being engaged in trade or other pursuits
wherein the occasional knowledge they might obtain of the
affairs of Government might be improper. These men were
engaged by me, and have hitherto been maintained at my ex-
pense.
"But I have now to regret the narrow limits of my income
will not longer admit of continuing so expensive an establish-
ment on my own account, and more particularly so as I had
reason to expect from them considerable assistance in explain-
ing and commenting upon the customs and laws of the adja-
cent States, which I am endeavouring to collect, in the hope of
laying a fair translation thereof before your Honourable Board.
"I cannot, however, omit adding that I was in a great meas-
ure induced to engage those men, from the circumstance of
the full appointment of Translator to Government not having
been yet granted to any person at this Presidency, conceiving
that it was thereby intended to leave an opening for such who
might prove themselves best qualified for the situation. And I
trust that whenever the Honourable the Governor and Council
shall take this appointment under consideration that I shall
be honoured with their favourable notice, being willing to
undertake, if necessary, to write all letters in the Malayee
language that may be deemed of a secret nature in my own
hand, and in many other respects to prevent, by my personal
application, the affairs and interests of Government being in-
trusted in the hands of a native/*
The government duly forwarded this matter to London,
with Raffles's estimate of what his assistants cost him and a
recommendation that something be done to help him out. As
a result, Mr. Hutton was relieved of his duties and Raffles
took over. He was graciously allowed sixty dollars a month for
his native staff, but as for himself let the record speak.
"We have derived much satisfaction/' wrote the Court,
"from the representation made of the conduct of Mr. Thomas
Raffles, your Deputy-Secretary, in the great proficiency he has
acquired of the Malay language, in the short period of five
months after his arrival at Prince of Wales's Island, and desire
that he be informed, that we entertain a high sense of his
laudable exertions, and that a perseverance in that line of con-
duct will ensure our approbation and support. The establish-
ment of natives at an expense of sixty dollars per month,
which you have allowed Mr. Raffles to employ, and from
whom he expects to derive great assistance in explaining and
commenting upon the laws of the adjacent States (a work
which Mr. Raffles has commenced), has our entire approba-
tion. We trust, however, the establishment will be abolished
on the completion of the work,"
Not a word, you will observe, about boosting Mr. Raffles's
salary.
It might be in order here to put in a word about the salary
system, or rather the lack of it, obtaining in the East India
Company in Rafflcs's time. It seems to have been understood
that the Company servants should all dabble in the game of
profiteering, and because the gains were so great from this
corrupt practice, they were willing to take low salaries. Strange
and shocking as it may seem to us, they all did it, without ex-
ception, so bribery and unrecorded commission taking must
have been less immoral than they sound today that is, if we
consider morality as based on custom rather than social in-
fluence. One might say that racketeering today is equally wide-
spread; an important point of difference, however, is that the
government didn't frown on the eighteenth- and nineteenth-
century rackets; everyone benefited too much. After all, in an
age when commissions in the regular army were bought and
sold, it is unlikely that much public indignation would have
been called forth by any so-called expo$6 of the Company's
methods. Says Furnivall:
"Governor Pitt was drawing a salary of about Rs.aoo a
month when he paid Rs. 200,000 for the Hope Diamond; a
writer drawing 5 a year could not live on less than 5 a
month; princes were overset, populations sold and towns an-
nihilated in the ordinary course of business, and for every rupee
of profit gained by the English Company its servants made a
hundred; anyone who could obtain an appointment was a made
man, and a place on Rs.3O a month was actually worth some
Rs. 30,000 a year. In other respects also the position of the
English Company resembled that of the Dutch. While the
servants of the Company were amassing colossal fortunes the
Company was rapidly advancing towards bankruptcy. In 1772
the Directors had to borrow over i million to meet the neces-
sary payments of the next three months. In 1783, when the
debts of the Dutch Company were some 55 million, the lia-
bilities of the English Company exceeded its assets by Rs.So
million. And the accounts of the English Company were as
involved as those of the Dutch Company, and for the same
reason; they were kept in such a fashion that in 1813 it was
impossible to ascertain whether the actual trading balance
showed a profit or a loss. Finally the corruption in London
exceeded, if possible, that in Amsterdam; for the stock of the
Company, though worthless as a commercial asset, was keenly
sought as a title to patronage, and a Nabob might return ten
members of Parliament/'
Raffles must have taken his whack too. This circumstance
may not excuse John Company all his sins, rather on the con-*
trary, but it explains, at least, how he got away with treat-
ing his servants in such niggardly fashion. They still made out,
some of them more than fairly well.
Penang was not the health resort everyone had thought it
would be. Pearson, the secretary, like many other government
members, soon began to suffer from ill-health. For eight
months he was away, and Raffles did his work as well as his
own, already more than enough for one man. It was a formi-
dable task they set him. Even if everything had been in good
order it would have been formidable, and it was not: the cor-
respondence had fallen far behind. Raffles found it necessary
to hire extra clerks, and when the Court characteristically
cautioned him against such extravagance he had to defend his
action, explaining that his office was understaffed. Frequent
illness of the writers, failure of paper supply, a multitude of
difficulties made it absolutely essential to use more men. The
Court retired its claims, grumbling but undefeated.
Dundas, the governor, died in 1807. There were other deaths
too. In an all-round promotion Raffles was appointed full secre-
tary with an increase of five hundred pounds over his former
pay. Many of his colleagues considered this sum too little. Be-
ing on the spot, personally acquainted with Mr. Raffles, they
naturally felt more sympathy for him than did the Court of
Directors back in London, whose chief function, seemingly,
was to find fault with their agents out in the colonies, and
mechanically to refuse all requests from places like Penang.
When his new appointment went into effect, Penang decided
that Raffles should in all justice receive more than two thou-
sand pounds a year. This, they argued, was fair not only be-
cause he would give superior service in the post but because the
new assistant secretary was inexperienced and so could not
help Raffles very much. Therefore it was resolved that the
secretary's salary be augmented by two hundred extra rix-dol*
lars a month, this fund to be taken from the salary of the new
assistant secretary. All the local government approved this
decision (with the possible exception of the new man), and
Raffles drew his extra pay for two years. And then, but not
until then, the Court in London signified their disapproval
of the plan and ordered Penang to call the whole thing off! It
was, of course, their privilege to do so, but one wonders why
they took so long about it. A full year elapsed after they heard
of the plan, not to mention the year the suggestion was en
route, before they replied and ordered the arrangement to be
canceled, in the following words:
* We are not aware of any objection to the appointments
of Mr. Thomas Raffles and Mr. W. Clubley to the offices of
Secretary and Assistant-Secretary to your Government^ in con-
sequence of the succession of Mr. Pearson to a seat at your
Council Board; we, however, highly disapprove the arrange*
ments you have adopted with regard to the salary of the
former.
"The salary established by our Orders of the i8th April
1805, for the Secretary to your Government, namely [rix]
dollars 8000 per annum, we consider in every respect sufficient;
and although the addition you have granted is to be provided
by a corresponding reduction in the salary of the Assistant-
Secretary by which no additional expense was to attach to the
Company, yet we can never admit that because the salary of
one office will bear reduction, another is therefore to be in-
creased in a proportionate degree.
"Mr. Clubley being a writer of only two years' standing, you
very properly restricted his allowances to dollars 2000 per an-
num; but upon the expiration of three years 7 residence in
India, we agree with you that 3600 dollars per annum will be
an adequate allowance, which we accordingly authorise you
to allow to him.
"With respect to the salary of the Secretary to your Govern-
ment, we desire that it be reduced to the sum originally fixed
by us, and that Mr. Raffles be called upon to refund the
amount which he may have received over and above the sum
of dollars 8000 per annum/ 7
If that isn't clear, this is what it means. No raise for Raffles,
although the cut in the other chap's salary was to stand.
Furthermore, Raffles found himself faced with the extraor-
dinary problem of repaying more than sixteen hundred pounds
in one blow, though it was money which he had never re-
quested in the first place. Naturally he protested the injustice,
and the Penang officials backed him up in his protest. The
Court at last waived its claim, but in that, too, they were
dilatory. Not until 1810 was it decided that Raffles need not
repay the sum. He was returned to his original salary neverthe-
less, and besides, he had suffered much mental turmoil during
the years of argument. The amount of work he had to turn
out, and the number of extra duties and titles he now held,
were fantastic. One wonders sometimes why their outpost
people were so patient with the Company, but after all, where
else could Raffles and his sort have worked?
The true explanation for the Company's niggardly attitude,
though not for their inefficiencies^ is that none of these pos-
sessions in the vicinity of Penang was paying off. Like most
boards of directors, the Court was made up of businessmen
of average intelligence, and to every one who had foresight and
judgment enough to see that the East Indies might one day
mean a good deal to the Company, there were four or five re-
actionaries who saw only as far as their own noses. Raffles's
schemes and plans terrified them, and they resented the ex-
pense to which he was constantly putting them. Besides, there
was more than a hint that the government in England, on
whose promises the directors had gone in for that new estab-
lishment at Penang, was now backing down on the agreement.
In 1809 the Court commanded a reduction of Penang's govern-
ment, because the ministers of the Crown had not, in spite of
former agreements, used the island as a site for an important
naval station. Raffles and his pals were simply the innocent
victims of higher politics, though the Court, naturally, pre-
tended it was their own fault.
Nevertheless somebody loved Raffles nearly everyone, in
fact, who dealt directly with him, loved him. He was elevated
by Penang's governor to the rank of senior merchant some-
time in 1809 or 1810, and the Court of Directors, however
they may have grumbled, confirmed this promotion.
We should never close a chapter on the gloomy note of
official business if we can possibly help it. Private life in Pulo
Penang offered many compensations to these petty, humiliat-
ing matters and there was always the beloved Leyden, whom
Raffles would not have met if he hadn't come out to Prince
of Wales Island.
"My Dear Madame," wrote this Playboy of the Eastern
World as he sat on deck, Calcutta-bound after his vacation
with Thomas and Olivia. "We have now lost sight of Pooloo
Penang, more, I am sorry to say, from the darkness than from
the distance, and while our Portuguese friends are recommend-
ing themselves with great fervency of devotion to their patron
saint, I have retired to pay the devoirs which I owe to her
whom I have chosen my patroness for the voyage, I cannot
help congratulating myself a good dear on the superiority of
my choice of a living saint to a dead one, and am positive if
you choose to exert yourself a little you have a great chance
of rivalling his sublimest miracles, among which none of the
least is his preaching on a certain day with great zeal and
fervour to divers asses till their long ears betrayed powerful
symptoms of devotion. Now, without wishing to cast any re-
flections on the wisdom of the islanders of the modern Bara-
taria, I am perfectly of opinion that this miracle, doughty as
it is, may be rivalled in Penang.
"There is, however, another miracle which I should be glad
you would first try your hand at to enliven the dreariness of
a voyage which bids fair to be one of the most tedious and in-
sipid I was ever engaged in, as, if Providence do not send some
French privateers or others to our assistance, we have not the
least chance of an adventure. Most travellers by land or sea
are of a different way of thinking, and maintain that no ad-
venture is a lucky adventure, just as no news are reckoned
good news by all our insipid, half-alive, half-vegetable ac-
quaintance. I confess honestly I like to see some fun, and to
see every possible variety of situations as well as of men and
manners. However, if it be possible to overcome the irksome-
ness of light gales, a heaving cradle of a sea, and a barren,
sweltering, tropical voyage, I flatter myself that I have adopted
the best possible method by associating with all the pleasant
recollections which I hoarded up at Penang in the society of
you and your amiable husband. It is a terrible circumstance,
after all, that there is little real difference between the recollec-
tions of past pleasures and of past sorrows. Perhaps the most we
can make of it is that the memory of past pleasures is mournful
and pleasant. I remember to have read of some such distinction
in a volume of sermons, but I will by no means vouch for the
accuracy of the quotation, as on second thoughts the epithets,
I imagine, might be reversed with equal propriety. However
this may be, the recollection of the pleasure I enjoyed in your
society is by no means so vivid as my distress at losing it, and
the little prospect I have of soon recovering it. I need not now
request you, my dear sister Olivia, to think of me kindly, and
77
never to believe any evil you may hear of me till you have
it under my own hand, for whenever I have the courage to
become a villain, scoundrel and rascal are too pitiful to be
mentioned, but I say, whenever it shall be possible for me
to become a villain, I shall have the courage to subscribe my-
self one, which I am in no danger of doing while I have the
honour of subscribing myself your sincere friend/'
^78
A JAVANESE RENCJGENG OR DANCING GIRL
(From Raffles'* IHistory of Java)
A jAVANIiSli IN COUNT 1)RI;SS
(From Raflles's HMory o/ 'jdini)
CHAPTER VI
The beginning of the Java af-
fair found RafHes in exclusive company. Only he himself and
his confidant Leyden, as far as he knew, had any designs on
that large island with the interesting past. Nobody else in the
Company had the slightest intention of such a thing, or so he
thought. He was wrong. Gilbert Elliot, who was Earl of
Minto and currently governor general of Bengal, had been
thinking for a long time about Java, not as a seducer but as a
suitor with the most honorable intentions. After all, England
had a sort of claim on Java because the Prince of Orange had
given his promise. All the French-held colonies of Holland
were England's to borrow, he said.
Minto was something new among expansionists, a man who
thought colonizing ought to benefit the natives as well as the
agent. He now wanted to benefit the Javanese as well as
England.
RafHes was to see a good deal of this Lord Minto. (He was,
by the way, on John Company's pay roll, not the Crown's.
John Company was still running British India.) But until
1808 the Java expedition was nothing more than a gleam in
Minto's eye, and less than that with Thomas Raffles, who was
feeling ill and not at all enterprising. The Court of Directors
were not ripe for any suggestions along the line of expansion.
They were heartily fed up with the East Indies, afraid of their
79^
commitments in the territory they already had, and far, far
from wanting any more.
Somehow we modern Americans have fallen into a grossly
mistaken idea of how the British Empire came to exist* This
is true regardless of our attitude, whether we approve or dis-
approve of Great Britain. We take for granted that the Empire
was acquired by direct methods of piracy or armed assault, by
soldiers or sailors of the Crown led by aggressive empire-
minded commanders. Venturing out overseas and overland,
these armies, we mistakenly assume, wrested the land from
such hapless natives as lived on it and took whatever territory
they thought worth acquiring.
In truth the acquisition was seldom accomplished so simply
or in such crude fashion. Hie armies came, all right, but they
were always somehow a by-product of political or commercial
activity; they were sent out to protect the moral principles of
the state or to defend their native island from some threat
"some ostentatious system to excuse the havoc," as Walpole
sadly said. Even when they were only mercenaries for the
East India Company, the soldiers were all worked up. You
can't send men into battle without a battle cry to stir the
blood; not, that is, if you want to see real action. The Japanese
in their late bid for the Pan-Asiatic Empire appealed to their
public in the name of Greater East Asia, but it didn't work
until they dropped that comparatively intellectual concept
of simple gain. Though the Japanese leaders felt no necessity
for justification, the truth was not enough. They had to pic-
ture England and America to their people as personal enemies,
gross, overfed bloodsuckers who were attacking Japan's sacred
race by cutting them off from the wherewithal to live. Japan
was good, the States and England were bad; Japan was white,
the United Nations were black; Japan was Virtue, the soldiers
of the United Nations were frightful creatures who had to
be fought and conquered and stamped on as a desperate neces-
sity. And if, as an incidental, accidental result, Japan should
find herself owning all the territory in Asia after the war, why,
that would be very nice, but it wasn't what she went out fight-
ing for.
Now the interesting point of all these scarcely original re-
marks is this: that nowhere in Japan, after the war was under
way, would you have found a cold-blooded man directing
public thought processes. Nobody, however deliberately he
had made propaganda at first, remained detached. All the
militarists and the government officials actively mixed up in
the war were believing their own speeches before the end.
Even the intelligent ones, though they may well have started
out with cynical intentions, couldn't stand the strain; it was
a matter of joining in or falling out of line, minus your sanity
as well as your job. The picture painted by some extreme
pacifists, of wars being finagled and strings being pulled by
sinister, omniscient monsters in high places, is as unreal and
oversimplified as the picture of those sinister communists
painted by the extremist Red-baiters.
The Court of Directors was a group of average higher-ups
in the business world. With one or two exceptions they enter-
tained no dreams of conquest for glory's sake. Even when Lord
Minto persuaded them, a year or two later, into taking Java
over, they never thought of this step as an empire-building ac-
tion, or as anything bigger than a clever stroke of business.
Even Raffles went into the project as a practical man and no
dreamer. His visions came later, after he occupied a position
of responsibility, but they were always modified transports,
even at his most extreme moments. And the thing was typical
of all the Empire's expansion. England in the nineteenth cen-
tury was no 1939 Germany; no British Mussolini could have
led her into a glorious armor-clanking campaign. Her martial
ardor was working overtime, but working on the European
problem and Napoleon; France at home on the Continent
was the enemy to consider, not France or anybody else in some
far-off Pacific island, the other side of the globe. He was a wise
man who said Britannia's Empire was acquired in a fit of
absent-mindedness.
Official England, left alone, always followed a policy of
appeasement in the face of trouble, and stagnation in the ab-
sence of a crisis. That is the way democracy seems to work out,
internationally; ambition is a foible of the individual, not the
81
crowd. For instance, take this Javanese campaign. It was a case
of conquest in spite of home opposition; conquest by reluc-
tance; conquest which was intentionally and in practice tem-
porary. Its immediate and only object from the general point
of view was strategic, to put a stop to Java being used as a base
by French privateers, like Mauritius and Bourbon. But Java
could have had another destiny. Raffles and Minto dreamed it
up between them, and Raffles, particularly, lost his way iu the
end. So did England. They both, England and Raffles, lost
Java. It was relinquished deliberately and by default in Eng-
land's case, but not in Raffles's; he nearly broke his heart when
England gave Java back to Holland. The wonder is that he
was successful at all, dabbling in the game of conquest. After
all, he was a civilian. He was no fire-cater who loved war for
fighting's sake, though he was certainly a perfect example of
Walpole's good Englishman and was more than willing to
lose soldiers 7 lives in the cause of commerce. Never once has
Raffles left for posterity any suggestion, any hint that he might
have had qualms about those dead men. He didn't have any.
It was their duty, as he saw it, to die in order that England be
great. He never grudged his own life to the cause: why should
they?
In justice to Raffles, however, I must point out that Eng-
land's sojourn in Java is still memorable not for military
achievement it was a cheap victory throughout nor yet for
any permanent effect. Java, after all, was a dead issue as far as
that British expedition was concerned; the annexation of the
French-occupied isle was wiped out five years after it took
place, when Holland regained possession of her valuable
colony. But Raffles as administrator is the factor we will not
forget. He is remembered by the Javanese and by the descend-
ants of the slaves he helped there to achieve freedom. His hand
is still evident in some of the reforms he had put into effect.
Whatever Walpole might have thought of Raffles, Abraham
Lincoln would have liked to know him.
A visit to Malacca was the beginning for Raffles of the big
adventure. It started as a pleasure journey, Olivia went with
him: joyfully they planned a sight-seeing tour to refresh him,
body and soul. The secretary had actually broken down at last.
Many of his colleagues had long since given in to Penang's
"healthy" climate, but Raffles, though he was supposedly deli-
cate, was always a lion for work under difficult conditions. We
have seen how the tasks of his appointment multiplied out of
all proportion to the rewards, as soon as he took up his duties
in Penang. Now in 1808, as secretary to the Penang Presidency,
he was really snowed under. He hired clerks to help him but
there were never enough of them, due to the penny pinching
which the Court of Directors practiced more and more in-
tensively. He had to fight for every man on the pay roll. All
Company or committee minutes and everything else that was
recorded had to be done in quadruplicate (in longhand, of
course), but that was only the beginning of his tiresome rou-
tine labors. There was in addition to that a tremendous amount
of writing, every average day. The translating, for which he had
early volunteered his superior talents, increased with his pro-
ficiency in Malay, many such documents being far too impor-
tant to trust to anyone but himself. He was evidently the kind
of man who attracted responsibility, whether or not he con-
sciously wanted it. Now, however, he really had carried too far
his usual indifference to ordinary precautions. Traverses Journal
gives some idea of the amount of daily work done in Raffles's
office and at home:
". . . whilst his mornings were employed in his public
office, where at first he had but little assistance, his evenings
were devoted to Eastern literature. Few men, but those who
were immediately on the spot at the time, can form any idea
of the difficult task which he had to perform, in conducting
the public business of such a government as existed on the
first establishment of Penang as a Presidency. . , ."
From Lady Raffles's Memoir:
"The fatigue and responsibility attaching to the office of
secretary, in the organization of a new government, in a climate
which in a very short period proved fatal to two Governors,
all the Council, and many of the new settlers, brought on an
alarming illness. The attack was so severe, that for some time
little hopes for his life were entertained." Somehow Lady
Raffles manages to render her husband obnoxious even on his
bed of pain and all merely by using conventional phrases
which are almost certainly untrue. The italics are mine.
"Throughout sufferings/' she writes, "by which his strength
was nearly exhausted, he evinced the utmost patience and
resignation/' He must really have been pretty badly off, poor
fellow, but somehow it is difficult to pity him, even so, "When
the disease abated, and he could be removed without danger,
(1808) he was recommended to go to Malacca for the recovery
of his health/' Lady Raffles says nothing about Olivia's ac-
companying him.
Raffles had several reasons for choosing Malacca for a holi-
day, out of all the unknown East. One depended not on Malac-
ca's past but on her future. The East India Company had
lately decided to do away with the city; not merely to abandon
her but actually to destroy her, building by building. This
extraordinary project was already under way. Raffles speaks
his mind on the subject better than we can paraphrase his re-
port, but before we come to that let us read a romantic story
Malacca's.
It begins in the thirteenth century. Malacca existed before
then, but only as a little fishing village. A thirteenth-century
Javanese prince, having got into trouble at home, fled to the
Archipelago. He stayed a little while in Singapore, which was
then just as much of a one-horse town as Malacca, but his foes
caught up with him and he ran away again, following the
coast line. In Malacca he settled down, perhaps because he
could recognize the advantages of the town's position* His
crowd of followers, rich and sophisticated in comparison with
the local population, increased Malacca's size to that of a
considerable city. By the fifteenth century the language of the
inhabitants had been adopted by most of the Archipelago
peoples, and everybody visited Malacca, the center of com-
mercial activity, to trade,
China, at the height of her power, got into the way of using
Malacca as a stopping place for her fleets on their way to India
and Ceylon as they passed through the Straits. Under Chinese
protection the town flourished. It was the chosen rendezvous
of pirates and traders; they came not only from the rest of the
mainland but from the many islands round about. The official
religion of the Malays was now Moslem.
Then the Portuguese arrived. As usual they sought wider
horizons, for trade as well as piracy, and they did more than
that. Mingled with their practical ambitions was a strong urge
to save heathen souls. They had come as far as Malacca because
they sought new directions from which to attack the Moors
of Africa, in order to conquer Mohammedanism. Finding that
the Malay Archipelago, though it wasn't in Africa, was also
in the grip of Islam, they were more than willing to make war
upon this country as well, fitting it into a general allover cam-
paign for the Cross. We come across familiar names among the
crusaders: Vasco da Gama and Albuquerque. It was Albuquer-
que who took possession of Goa on the Indian coast for
Portugal. From Goa he went to Malacca, where he demanded
permission from the Sultan to erect a fortress. As they ex-
pected, the Sultan refused, and the Portuguese promptly at-
tacked, quickly driving the Malays into the interior; they built
their fort as soon as they were in possession. (This is the ac-
cepted version, though the Malays tell the story with a slight
difference. )
We already know the history of the Portuguese Empire.
They lost out, ultimately, in the East Indies as well as every-
where else, giving way to Holland's superior sea power. The
Dutch took Malacca in 1641; the story from then on is un-
eventful from the viewpoint of the native Malays until the
British took their town away from the Dutch in 1795.
It was the new establishment at Penang which nearly
brought her doom upon Malacca. In order to remove all pos-
sible competition to the projected presidency, in the same year
that Raffles came East 1805- Malacca was ordered aban-
doned. Her staff, stores, and part of the population were to be
moved to Prince of Wales Island, and the old fortress razed,
in order to prevent its being put to use against Britain, in the
future, by some rival European power. The commandant, a
man named Farquhar, not unnaturally was horrified by this
85 $v
naively drastic program. It is easy enough to speak of picking
up and moving the entire population of a town, especially when
one is at considerable distance from the people involved. But
Farquhar, being on the spot, knew that one cannot summarily
uproot a whole town's population and expect the people to
like it or even to obey the command unless they are forced.
Either the Court of Directors had been misinformed about
Malacca or they had somehow misunderstood the facts.
Malacca was a far larger place than they considered it to be,
and the people affected by their summary order were much
more numerous than was indicated by statistics in hand.
Farquhar strongly protested his orders and even sent the Court
a petition against the project, signed by the most important
men of Malacca, the list headed by his own name, but the
directors in reply reiterated the original message and in addi-
tion scolded him for stirring up the populace to send the peti-
tion. Farquhar could do no more. In 1807 he began the painful
task, and the fort was pulled clown immediately.
In 1808, however, before more mischief could be accom-
plished, the Marines arrived: that is, Raffles paid his momen-
tous visit to Malacca. It wasn't as long a vacation as he had
hoped for. Almost immediately his holiday was cut short be-
cause George Town had discovered after his departure that
they couldn't do without him, even for the brief time which
had been promised him for furlough. "We shall not be able
to make up any despatches for the Court without your assist-
ance," the governor wrote, and though he added many apolo-
gies to his summons, it was clear that Raffles, rested or not,
must return to work in Pcnang immediately. He argued not
at all; he stayed not upon the order of his going; he didn't wait
for a proper ship but took advantage of the presence in Malac-
ca's harbor of a small vessel, what was called a "country boat/'
and by embarking on that he arrived back much the sooner
at his desk. Nobody has recorded Olivia's reactions to this
summary disposal of her husband's holiday, his first in some
years' service. As it was also supposed to have been "sick leave"
because he had nearly died of his breakdown, we hardly need
written evidence of what his wife's feelings must have been,
^86
Still, one aspect of the matter must have comforted her and
quieted her shrill words of protest. If Raffles had used the rest
of his sick leave which was so rudely snatched from him in
the same way he evidently employed the free time he did have,
I don't see how he could possibly have survived the rigors of
his rest cure. Nowadays we laugh bitterly at those hit-and-run
journalists who visit a country for ten days or two weeks and
then go home to write a book about it. But the speediest
foreign lecturer, summing up America in three days after a
quick tour through the corn belt, or John Gunther, who got
under Asia's skin in four months, or even Brooks Atkinson,
who in one visit saw down to the middle of the Chinese-
Communist situation as if it were a flawless crystal all these
modern lightning-flash reporters will have to cede the title to
Raffles. On coining out of Malacca he sat himself down and
produced a report on that city, addressed to his chiefs and
aiming to prove that they had all been completely wrong in
advocating its destruction. The bare facts are not staggering,
but the report is; first because of its length, for he wrote thou-
sands of words without padding, and second because it is
such a beautiful example of logical argument. One is left in-
credulous that lie could have collected such masses of informa-
tion in less than several years of work. It is certain that he
must have had plenty of help from Farquhar and that he turned
the government offices upside down in Malacca, using the
trade and government statistics that had been collected
through years, but these are tasks anyone could have done.
He needed a special advantage, and he had it, simply in being
Raffles. It was his well-known gift for talking with the Malays
that gave his report its extra something. He must have spent
most of his research time looking up natives who could answer
his questions. The Court had fallen into error for want of
just this sort of information, and now Raffles was determined
to make good the hiatus in their knowledge of Malacca. He
deserves special credit because the original mistake was as
much his as anyone's. He had been as loud as the next man
in demanding the town's destruction; his name was signed
to one of the Penang missives addressed to Farquhar, the one
which commanded for the second and more peremptory time
that Malacca be wiped off the map. Raffles had a largeness of
spirit which is lacking in most of us, or perhaps it was rather
a scientific detachment: he was willing to admit having fallen
into a foolish error and was anxious to repair the damage as
quickly as possible, regardless of appearances.
Briefly the report's content was as follows:
The plan to destroy Malacca has two objectives: first, to
discourage any European power from wishing to develop it, in
case they should move into the neighborhood, and, second, to
improve the settlement at Prince of Wales Island by adding
to it Malacca's population and trade. The Court, having been*
misinformed, believes that Malacca has no natural advantages
in produce or in inducement to trade, and thus is not worth
the considerable expense involved in keeping it up. However,
twenty thousand people live in the town and its near neighbor-
hood. More than three fourths of this number were born in
the community of families which have been settled there for
centuries. Even the Chinese emigrated there at a very early
period. The Malays arc very good citizens. Besides this fixed
population there is a constant flow of traders from the East
and near by, Malacca being the center of native commerce in
the Straits. The country is well cultivated and valuable build-
ings have been erected. No common advantage will persuade
the natives to abandon their family tombs, their temples,
their independence, and their land. The inhabitants arc de-
cidedly not as they have been pictured to the council. Three
quarters of the population of Prince of Wales Island, for ex-
ample, might be induced to remove, but Malacca people are
entirely different. The adventurer class long ago cleared out
and went to Pcnang; those who remained are landed proprie-
tors or their employees, a class not willingly converted into
artisans. They have determined to remain by Malacca no
matter what. The offer made by government to pay the passage
of such Malaccans as would embark for Penang was not ac-
cepted by a single individual.
Owing to various designated sources of food supply, the in-
habitants are self-supporting and won't need government help.
Of course they won't move to a new place where they must
either buy land from earlier settlers or clear unhealthy jungle.
They remember certain promises made by the English when
the settlement fell into their hands and consider British faith
pledged to protect them. They are willing to make great sac-
rifices for this protection and pay heavy duties cheerfully. The
tax revenues of Malacca are never in arrears.
Indemnifying the European inhabitants who move to Pe-
nang is going to be particularly costly. Is it worth it?
There follows an exhaustive discussion of Malacca's market:
what tribes came to take part in it, what articles they bartered,
and when they came, with special reference to the problems
of navigation which faced the native traders. Raffles argues that
many of the prows going to Malacca found the added journey
to Penang too much to attempt. Only the rich and well
equipped made it. He also points out that if the duty at Ma-
lacca were lowered to Penang's level, Malaccan trade would
vastly improve. One of the most important items of trade was
evidently opium, and Raffles ascertained that it came from
Bengal either on commission or that it was bought from Ben-
gal ships returning from unsuccessful journeys eastward.
'The great object in fixing the commerce of Prince of
Wales' Island, is to establish it as an entrepot between East-
ern and Western India; . . . Great delicacy is requisite in
keeping the duties at Penang (and, perhaps, at Malacca, for
the smaller prows) sufficiently low to prevent the merchants
in Bengal from fitting out vessels direct for the Eastward. It
should be more to their interest to be satisfied in leaving it at
Penang; and the uncertainty and length of an Eastern voyage
will always induce them to put up with less profit there."
In like detail the report examines every other item of trade
and discusses the chances of improving British interests through
the proper use of Malacca's position. But the real bite of the re-
port comes at the last. The warning implicit in these lines is
familiar strategy, the most emphatic argument an empire
builder (or keeper) has in his arsenal. It was all the more em-
phatic when Raffles used it because he was quite sincere, then
and later. He was always afraid of the Dutch. When they were
powerful lie was justified by the evidence, and when they were
down he watched them anxiously, fearing a comeback. The
Dutch East Indies were always far too Dutch for Raffles, and
they didn't like him either.
"Thus far it has been my object to explain the difficulties
that will arise in transferring the present population and trade.
It is now necessary to view the subject as to the dangerous con-
sequences likely to ensue to Penang in the event of the garri-
son being withdrawn.
"Malacca, having been in the possession of a European
Power for three centuries, and even previously to that period
considered as the capital of the Malay States, has obtained so
great an importance in the eyes of the native princes, that they
are ever anxious to obtain the friendship of the nation in whose
hands it may be. Its name carries more weight to a Malay car
than any new settlement, whatever its importance. This pre-
eminence ensures constant respect from the traders to and
from the neighbouring ports: at least it has done so till very
lately; and by this means affords a considerable check to piracy.
Were Malacca in the hands of a native prince, however re-
spectable, or supported by us, this check would not only be
lost, but fleets of piratical vessels and prows would be fitted
out, even from its shores, whose depredations the enterprise
of our cruisers would find it difficult to keep under. . . .
"But to look at the subject in a more serious point of view
still, for I am far from thinking it would ever remain in the
hands of a native Power, although the permanent fortifica-
tions and public works of every description may be effectually
destroyed, the possession of Malacca will ever be a most desira-
ble object to a European Power and to our enemy. Prince of
Wales's Island, though advantageously situated for command-
ing the bay and the northern entrance of the Straits, has by
no means the same advantage and command within the Straits
that Malacca possesses. Every ship that passes up or down must
be observed from the latter place, and should this station ever
be held by an enterprising enemy, not only Penang, but our
more important China trade, would be materially endangered
We have now the command. Why give it up, unless we are
^90
forced? and I trust we are not reduced to that extremity. . . ..
"It is well known that the Dutch Government had in con-
templation to make Malacca a free port, with the view of
destroying the English settlement at Penang. Should the place
ever fall into their hands again, or into that of their now
superior authority, which it no doubt will if evacuated by the
English, a similar, or more active policy must be expected. . . .
"... I am enabled to assert with correctness that any Euro-
pean Power possessing Malacca would, in a very short time, be
able to intrench themselves nearly as securely as they could
have done within the old walls, and that we should find
the greatest difficulty in again obtaining possession of the
place. . . .
"The garrison and establishment at Malacca appear to have
been reduced to the very lowest state consistent with the hon-
our of the British Flag and the internal safety of the place;
and no further reduction can, I think, with safety, be at-
tempted/'
The paper had immediate results. A copy was forwarded to
Lord Minto at Calcutta as soon as it was ready, and he was
immensely impressed. Aside from the intrinsic interest of the
work, a special factor added to its effect on Minto. As we know,
John Leyden was in India, at the University of Calcutta. He
got ready to put in his two cents 7 worth as soon as Raffles noti-
fied him that the paper was on its way to the governor general.
Minto had struck up a close friendship with Leyden: he too
was a Scot, an ardent one, and Leyden's reputation among his
countrymen was especially high just then because he had col-
laborated with Sir Walter Scott on the Border Minstrelsy. It
may seern a far cry from the Scottish border to Malacca, but
it wasn't, as long as Gilbert Elliot governed Bengal for the East
India Company.
Leyden had already found occasion to call Minto's special
attention to Raffles. In a speech the governor general made
during some scholastic junket at the university he had awarded
honors to Raffles in absentia for his Malay translations, putting
him in a class with the learned Marsden as an oriental scholar.
In this opinion he was to be enthusiastically supported by
91
Marsden himself. Raffles, writing the elder man indirectly
through Governor Dundas of Penang, had done his usual ex-
cellent job of collecting and imparting information about the
natives. It was the beginning of an important friendship be-
tween the scholars, though they didn't meet personally until
1816, when Raffles visited England.
Some great men award these university honors easily, for
political reasons, without reflection beforehand, and com-
pletely forgetting the entire affair afterward. Not men of
Minto's caliber, however. A true Scot, he was predisposed to-
ward scholarship, and now, through seeing so much of Leydcn,
he had begun to take a personal interest in oriental studies.
But until now it had been more as a hobby than as a part of
his career that he kept an eye on the Malay world. Raffles's
Malacca report was not a scientific essay to be noted, praised,
and filed away under "Native Affairs/ 7 It showed a grasp of
possibilities that was statesmanlike. It was a clear exposition,
besides, of Raffles's own attitude toward the position of Eng-
land in the East, and this was so closely akin to Minto's ideas
that his full attention was immediately captured.
It goes without saying that Malacca was to be spared. This
was not only Minto's reaction; the men in whose hands the
city's fate rested were convinced of it as soon as they had read
and grasped the paper's import. Not one objected to Raffles's
conclusions or disagreed with him. Malacca was saved, and that
was the end of that chapter. But Raffies's career really began
when Minto read the Malacca report.
Those were good days, exciting days for the world's intel-
lectuals. The situation in Calcutta must have been something
like Franklin Roosevelt's ideal society. When our President
started his "Brain Trust/' he frightened the life out of the polit-
icos of Washington by attempting to bring scholarship out of
the cloisters of education into the white glare of American
government. Lord Minto was more fortunate than FJD.R., a
hundred and forty years ago. Then nobody was surprised or
alarmed that he selected scholars to be his advisers and sur-
^592
rounded himself with men whose common passion it was to
investigate the culture of the people they governed. The earl
actually thought his behavior natural rather than eccentric!
Yes, they were happy days.
They were happy for another reason too. In these our times
everything is specialized. We inherit and collect so great a store
of information that we are forced to divide it into compart-
ments. Our young researchers must decide which compartment
they want to work in, or they will never get anywhere; they will
be diffused. Those must have been better days when a colonial
official could combine his duties with language study, eth-
nology, botany, art, and yet be home in time for dinner. No-
body knew very much about any of these subjects in Indonesia,
so investigation became a duty as well as a pleasure. Every day
afforded a new discovery, every discovery added to the world's
wisdom, every piece of wisdom was hailed with joy not only by
the professors and scholars of England but even by their mer-
chants, the shopkeepers of the nation. Never in those halcyon
days would an office manager have administered a rebuke like
one the writer recalls in her wage-earning experience: "Trouble
with you, Miss Halm, is too much education." Imagine Dun-
das or Minto saying such a thing to Raffles!
After all, not, many stock companies can claim to have given
the world dictionaries, museums, and a national zoological
society. Put it down to credit in the ledgers of empire.
The specific job which inspired Lord Minto's flattering ref-
erence to Raffles in that Calcutta University address was a
paper the Penang secretary wrote about the Malay nation. It
was the first piece of the sort which he had attempted, and in
it he made a great stride forward for the cause of Malay civili-
zation by proving all these people to be members of one race.
Until then Malays had been studied piecemeal and considered,
group by group, as a lot of small scattered races rather than
one large one which has spread out and split up, which we now
recognize as the fact. As always when reading something by
93
Raffles, one wonders where on earth he found the time to pre-
pare it, to ask the necessary questions of his native friends,
patiently trace their families, visit ancestral places, et cetera.
And then there is his easy style, which triumphs over the
fashion of his day and makes us, comparing them, less patient
than ever with Sophia, Lady Raffles, and her misguided, gen-
teel, overpunctuated diction. Hitherto the reader has had only
his letters from which to judge Rafflcs's writing, so I herewith
reprint for an example a piece of translating which he included
in the Malay-nation paper. Remember and compare, while
reading it, the lame, jerky productions we usually get from
well-meaning people when they translate prose from oriental
writings into so-called English,
"The following is a translation of the Malayan history of
the first arrival of the Portuguese at Malacca:
" Ten Portuguese vessels arrived at Malacca from Manilla,
for the purpose of trade, during the reign of the Sultan Ahmed
Shah, at a time when that country possessed an extensive com-
merce, and every thing in abundance, when the affairs of gov-
ernment were well administered, and the officers properly
appointed.
" "For forty days the Portuguese ships traded at Malacca;
but still the Portuguese commander remained on shore, pre-
senting dollars by the chest, and gold; and how many beauti-
ful cloths did they present to the illustrious Shah Ahmed
Shah, so that the Sultan was most happyl
" 'After this Sultan Ahmed Shah said to the commander
of the Portuguese, "What more do you require from us, that
you present us such rich presents?" To this the commander
replied, "We only request one thing of our friend, should
he be well inclined towards the white men/' Whereupon Sul-
tan Ahmed Shah said, "State what it is that I may hear it, and
if it is in my power I will comply with the request of my
friend/' The Portuguese answered, "We wish to request a
small piece of ground, to the extent of what the skin of a
beast may cover/' Then said the Sultan, "Let not my friends
be unhappy, let them take whatever spot of ground they like
best, to the extent of what they request/' The captains were
highly rejoiced at this, and the Portuguese immediately
landed, bringing with them spades, brick, and mortar; the
commander then took the skin of the beast, and having rent
it into cords, measured out therewith four sides, within which
the Portuguese built a store-house of very considerable dimen-
sions, leaving large square apertures in the walls for guns; and
when the people of Malacca enquired the reason of the aper-
tures being left, the Portuguese returned for answer, 'These
are the apertures that the white men require for windows."
The people of Malacca were satisfied and content.
" 'Alas! how often did the Bendahara and Tumungungs ap-
proach the Rajah with a request that the white men might not
be permitted to build a large house: but the Rajah would say,
"My eyes are upon them, and they are few in number: if they
do any wrong, whatever it may be, I shall see it, and will give
orders for their being massacred (literally, I will order my
men to amofc, or, as it is vulgarly termed, run a muck among
them)/' Notwithstanding this, the Bendahara and Tumun-
gungs remained dissatisfied in their hearts, for they were wise
men.
" 'After this the Portuguese, during the night, conveyed can-
non into their store-house, and they landed small-arms, packed
in chests, saying their contents were cloths; and in this manner
did the Portuguese deceive and cheat the people of Malacca!
" 'What the Portuguese next did, the people of Malacca
were ignorant of, but it was long before the store-house was
completed; and when all their arms were in order, then it was
at midnight, at a time when the people of Malacca were asleep,
that the Portuguese began to fire all their guns from the fort of
Malacca!
" They soon destroyed all the houses of the people of Ma-
lacca, and their Nibong fort; and it was during this night, when
the Portuguese first attacked the people of Malacca, that Sultan
Ahmed Shah, with his people fled in all directions, for no one
could remain to oppose the Portuguese.
" Thus did the Portuguese take possession of Malacca, whilst
Sultan Ahmed Shah fled to Moar, and from thence in a short
time, to Johore, and afterwards to Bentan, to establish another
country. Such is the account of the Portuguese taking the king-
dom of Malacca, from the hands of Sultan Ahmed Shah.
" 'During thirty-six years, three months, and fourteen days,
the Portuguese were employed in the construction of the fort,
and then it was completed.
" 'From this time the Portuguese remained in quiet posses-
sion of Malacca for about nine years and one month, when the
country once more began to flourish, on account of the quanti-
ties of merchandise brought there from all quarters. Such is
the account of the country of Malacca under the Portuguese.
" 'After this period, a Dutch vessel arrived at Malacca for the
purpose of trade; the vessel's name was Aftcrlenden, and that
of the captain, Ibir. The captain perceived that Malacca was
a very fine place, and had a good fort; therefore, after the Dutch
vessel had traded for fifteen days, he set sail for Europe, and
arriving after a considerable time at the great country, he gave
intelligence to the great Rajah of what he had seen, of the
country of Malacca, the extent of its commerce, and the excel-
lence of its fort. On this, the Rajah of Europe said, "If such
is the account of Malacca, it is proper that I should order it
to be attacked/' Twenty-five vessels were thereupon ordered
by the Rajah of Europe, for the purpose of attacking Malacca,
and troops being embarked in each, they first set sail for the
kingdom of Bantam, in the country of Java, where the Dutch
were on terms of friendship.
" 'At Bantam they found two Dutch ships, and a ketch, and
after having taken on board buffaloes, and provisions for the
use of the persons on board, the vessels then sailed for Ma-
lacca.
44 'As soon as the fleet arrived at Malacca, the Dutch sent a
letter to the Portuguese, telling them to hold themselves in
readiness, as it was the intention of the Dutch to commence
the attack on the morrow, at mid-day. To this the Portuguese
replied, "Come when you please, we are ready."
" 'On the next day the Dutch commenced the attack, and
the war continued for about two months; but the country of
Malacca was not carried, and the Dutch returned to Bantam,
where they remained quiet for some time, in the intention
^96
of returning to Europe; all the great men on board feeling
ashamed of what had happened.
" The great men in each of the vessels, having afterwards
held consultations respecting another attack on Malacca, they
proceeded against it a second time, but it did not surrender.
The Dutch now sent a letter to Johore, in terms of friendship,
to the Sultan, requesting his assistance, in the attack of Ma-
lacca, With this the Rajah of Johore was pleased, and an agree-
ment was entered into between the Rajah of Johore and the
Dutch, which was swore to; so that the Dutch and Malays
became as one, as far as concerned the taking of Malacca. An
agreement was made, that the Dutch should attack from the
sea, and the people of Johore from the land. If the country
surrendered, the Dutch were to retain the country, and the
cannon; and every thing else that might be found within
Malacca was to be equally divided between the Dutch and the
people of Johore.
" 'When these terms were agreed upon, the men of Johore
and the Dutch sailed for Malacca, and after attacking it for
about fifteen days, from the sea, many were slain, as well
Portuguese as Malays and Dutch. The Malays then held a con-
sultation and began to think, that if they fought against the
white men according to this fashion, Malacca would not fall
for ten years. It was therefore agreed upon by all the Malays,
that fifty men should enter the fort of Malacca, and run a
muck or meng-amok.
" 'The Malays then selected a lucky day, and on the twenty-
first day of the month, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the fifty
Malays entered the fort, and commenced amok, and every
Portuguese was either put to "death, or forced to fly into the
interior of the country, without order or regularity.
" 'On this, the Malays exerted themselves in plundering Ma-
lacca, and the whole was divided between the men of Johore
and the Dutch, according to their agreement.
" 'The men of Johore then returned to the country of Johore,
and the Dutch remained in possession of Malacca.
" "This is the account of former times/ "
CHAPTER VII
Up to a point, real-life suc-
cess stories follow the simple lines of cause and effect, virtue
and reward, which have been laid down by Horatio Alger.
Then, I regret to observe, everything comes to pieces. Farewell
to H. Alger, and all that. In order to keep style consistent with
matter, a cynic should now take over and complete the story
of Thomas Stamford Raffles. (He had dropped the "Bingley"
by the wayside-, somewhere in his teens.)
The moment had come when the maxim of "early to bed
and early to rise/' as well as an infinite capacity for taking
pains, simply was not enough. Something extra had to happen
or our promising lad would have had to stay just where he was
for the rest of his life, getting up early, taking pains to an in-
finite degree, and interrupting his labors only to get to bed
early again. Raffles, you will remember, had reached a similar
point once before, though then it would not have been quite
so nearly fatal if he had failed to find William Ramsay. We
saw how a timely recommendation from that gentleman cut
short the long apprenticeship to glory, and how, perhaps
through his influence (which is my theory) or perhaps through
God's (Lady Raffles's bet), Thomas became the boy wonder
of the year. It was a triumph that he should have gone as he
did to Penang, a married man earning a high salary, at twenty-
four. This time, though, the occasion was far more important,
bringing him as it did many steps closer to his goal; close
enough to realize to some extent what that goal was. This time
he met Minto.
Let us play our game of conjecture. One imagines the earl
still a bit dazed after reading the entire Malacca report at one
sitting, but not too dazed to say, "Who is this man Raffles?"
One need imagine only a little further to bring John Caspar
Leyden into the scene, leaning forward in his chair, eagerly
ready to answer the question. Then, alas, one must throw the
whole thing out, because we remember that Minto was already
favorably aware of Raffles. The Malacca report did, however,
serve to confirm an opinion he had formed some months ear-
lier, and indirectly it accomplished more than that, for without
it the governor might never have thought to invite its author
over to Calcutta for a chat. Writing to his Liverpool relative,
Raffles tells this part of his story for himself:
"As a reward for my labours [his translations in service of
the Penang Presidency] and on account of my peculiar quali-
fications for the office, I was appointed Malay translator to
Government . . . [But he does not say the appointment car-
ried no salary with it: here, perhaps, his usually admirable
memory fails him, though discretion does not.] and the Earl
of Minto, then Governor-General of Bengal, thought fit to
honour my name and exertions with notice in one of his an-
niversary addresses to the College of Calcutta. This was the
origin of my acquaintance with Lord Minto, and the com-
mencement of that intimacy and confidence to which I am
proud to say that I owe the whole of my subsequent advance-
ment and prosperity in life.
"Encouraged by the flattering notice thus unexpectedly
taken of my humble exertions by the first authority in India,
and by a nobleman whose attainments and virtues had never
been surpassed, I was induced to submit to him the considera-
tions which occurred to me on the impolicy of the measures
pursued by the Government of Prince of Wales's Island
toward Malacca, once the emporium of the East, and still a
place of great commercial intercourse. This policy went to raze
to the ground every public edifice, and to drive from the
99$*
land of their forefathers every remnant of population. The
object was, of course, to aggrandise Prince of Wales's Island,
a small and insignificant spot, which in its greediness to de-
vour the resources of this more important neighbour reminded
me, in some degree, of the fable of the frog and the ox. In
these considerations I took a general view of the nature of the
Eastern trade, and the conclusions were so obvious that the
Governor-General in Council, without waiting for any ex-
planation on the part of the subordinate Government, at once
put a stop to the devastating and desolating system which had
been adopted, and acted without reserve on the propositions
I had submitted.
"It happened that, not long after this interference on the
part of the Supreme Government, the conquest of the Moluc-
cas was unexpectedly achieved by a small naval force which
had been merely sent to plunder them. The Governor-Gen-
eral refused to take charge of these islands on account of the
Company, and the Naval Commander hardly felt himself
warranted in establishing a king's government; but as the de-
cision was left with him, he proposed to the Governor-Gen-
eral, who was then at Madras, that I should be nominated to
the charge, and a provisional administration established pend-
ing a reference to Europe. Lord Minto immediately replied
that I was not unknown to him, that he was perfectly satisfied
of my fitness and claims, and that he would immediately ap-
point me if the Admiral would undertake that I should ac-
cept the office; for it occurred to Lord Minto that, being a
family man, and of high pretensions, I might be unwilling to
sacrifice a certainty for an uncertainty. My advancement at
Prince of Wales's Island was secure, but the Moluccas were
only a war dependency, and it was not known what measures
regarding them might be taken by the Government at home.
The Admiral did not like to take the responsibility, and the
arrangement dropped on an understanding that my assent
was alone wanting; but, as the Governor-General was about to
return to Bengal, he would, of course, feel himself at perfect
liberty to bestow the office on another, should an immediate
arrangement or the claims of others require an early attention.
Lord Minto went to Bengal, and the Admiral despatched a
vessel to give me the earliest intimation of what had occurred,
hoping he had acted for the best in declining to take on him-
self the responsibility. Some months had now elapsed, and it
was feared that arrangements for the administration of the
Moluccas were already in progress. Yet the chance of being
in time, and the expectation of still further advancing my in-
terests with Lord Minto, weighed with me in the resolution
I took of proceeding in person to Bengal. . . ."
This account he gives of the conquest of the Moluccas is
really too brief for our ignorance, but it will be confusing to
speak more about it just here, so we will discuss it in a later
chapter.
We come now to the crucial moment, when Raffles goes
to Calcutta in order to meet Lord Minto in person and talk
things over. The governor general's first suggestion after read-
ing the Malacca report had been a change of jobs for Raffles,
but for various reasons, as we have seen, nothing came of this
project. However, Raffles went to meet the earl anyway, so
eager for a personal interview that he traveled in a small boat
and nearly drowned.
"My attention had long been 'directed to the state of the
Dutch possessions to the eastward; and, as rumours were afloat
of a projected armament going against the Isle of France, it
occurred to me that the information I possessed respecting
Java might be useful, and possibly turn the attention of our
Government in that direction. I accordingly left my family,
and proceeded to Calcutta in a small and frail vessel the only
one which offered, but in which all my future prospects had
well-nigh perished. This was in the month of June 1810. On
my arrival in Bengal, I met with the kindest reception from
Lord Minto. I found that, though the appointment to the
Moluccas had not actually taken place, it was promised to an-
other. I, in consequence, relinquished all idea of it, and at
once drew his Lordship's attention to Java by observing that
there were other islands worthy of his Lordship's consideration
besides the Moluccas, Java, for instance. On the mention of
Java, his Lordship cast a look of such scrutiny, anticipation,
and kindness upon me that I shall never forget.
101
" 'Yes/ said he, 'Java is an interesting island. I shall be happy
to receive any information you can give me concerning it/
'This was enough to encourage me, and, from this moment,
all my views, all my plans, and all my mind were devoted to
create such an interest regarding Java as should lead to its an-
nexation to our Eastern Empire; although I confess that I had
never the vanity to expect that, when this object was accom-
plished, so important an administration would have been
entrusted to my individual charge; that I should be entrusted
with what Mr. Marsden emphatically observes was 'as great a
charge as a nation could entrust to an individual/
"It is unnecessary to enter on the detail which followed.
The fall of Bourbon, and the anticipation of success at the
Isle of France, encouraged a plan for the conquest of Java.
As it in a great measure originated with me, and as it was al-
most entirely on my information that the decision was taken,
I naturally took a conspicuous part, although little or nothing
met the public eye perhaps no secret was ever better kept
than the projected scheme against Java."
It is not a startling coincidence that other biographers be-
sides this writer have seen in the Calcutta visit the most sig-
nificant step in Raffles's life. The meeting was noteworthy,
even in the opinion of Minto's chroniclers, but the earl had
a more varied career than his protg6; his life was pitched on
a higher social plane, he started out with a more important
appointment because of this, and Java never loomed as large
in his summing up as it was to do for Raffles. Even so, the
Far Eastern chapter in Minto's biography, too, is of special
importance. His reputation with posterity would have been
good in any case, but when the Java campaign was added to
his list of accomplishments he crossed the line that divided
the good diplomats from the exceptional ones. He was a man
of vision, one proof of this being that as soon as they met he
recognized a valuable assistant and disciple in Raffles. Minto
himself is a fascinating, subject, but Boulger was preoccupied
with Raffles rather than with the governor general, telling the
story of Java, and so should we be as biographer to Raffles. We
must stick to our last and treat the earl, however respectfullj
102
and admiringly, chiefly as an important agent of our hero's
fate, the man who furnished a niche worthy of Raffles's statue,
nobly immortal in a toga. The name carved over the niche is
"Java."
Possibly Boulger's zeal carries him further, however, than
we are willing to go. In the following quotation, for example,
he credits Raffles with the entire original idea of annexing
Java. He implies that the conquest was practically a new con-
ception to Minto, though he gives the governor general full
marks for his sympathetic reception of the suggestion. In
modern language, Boulger "spotlights" Raffles in the affaire
Java, and it is somewhat of a question whether he had the
right to do so, considering certain letters of Minto's regarding
Java and England's chances of supplanting the French there,
which were written before he met the Penang secretary. Since
Raffles's name is honored enough by the unadorned truth, it
seems a pity that Boulger should have claimed even more
credit for him than was his by right. It seems particularly
futile in this case because Java did not long remain a jewel in
the British crown. She was prised from her setting after glit-
tering there only five years. Surely there is no need for the
devotees of these two talented Englishmen to squabble over
what used to be but is no more. Fortunately there has been
no squabble. No one took issue with Boulger, and Raffles as
well as Minto had already died when the book appeared. For
the rest, Boulger was fair and gave Lord Minto his just due.
"At Penang or Malacca," says Boulger, "he [Raffles] might
never have become famous. Commercial prosperity shunned
those stations, and the East India Company had no love or
regard for places that did not contribute to its coffers. Malacca
was doomed to exalt Penang; Penang itself did not realise the
expectations formed of it, and was accordingly reduced. The
Company had no policy at all in the Malay peninsula and the
Archipelago, where a knowledge of the Malay language was
alone of practical use. Nor had any of the Governor-Generals
who wielded its power any clearer views in this direction, with
one exception; and that was the very ruler whose notice Raffles
had attracted, and whose close confidence and favour he was
now about to obtain. Lord Minto was the one Governor-
General who had grasped fully the secret of maritime su-
premacy, and who believed that security in India depended
as much on the control of the seas and the possession of the
isles along our ocean highway as on military achievements
within the peninsula itself. Raffles must be pronounced su-
premely fortunate in the fact that such a statesman held the
reins of power at the moment of his going to Calcutta with
the set purpose of inducing the Government to conquer Java.
It may even be said that if he had come in the time of any
other ruler than Lord Minto, his errand would have been
bootless; but the recent conqueror of the isles of Bourbon and
France was naturally sympathetic to a scheme which would
entail the expulsion of French influence and authority from
the one remaining island east of the Cape where they still
survived.
"In everything he had undertaken Raffles had shown an
earnestness and elevation of spirit which gave him a title to
success. His uppermost feeling must have been one of bene-
fiting his country rather than himself, for he could not have
foreseen that his personal reward would have been as great as
it proved/'
Well . . . Here seems to be the moment to insert one of
those parenthetical grunts of skepticism, thus: (sic) . Although
there is plenty of reason to credit Raffles with benevolent in-
tentions toward other recipients as well as himself, he must
surely have been aware, even if he couldn't foretell the di-
mensions of his reward, that the Java scheme would scarcely
impede his progress. We can meet on common ground, how-
ever, by remembering that he really did believe it was good
for his country when he, Stamford Raffles, had power to run
things for England. A more likely commendation would be
that his ambition to acquire Java for England was based on a
simple, fervent faith in India House's good intentions (or at
any rate his own) toward Java's natives. Raffles was positive
that English administration would be welcomed by the Java-
nese, and that in any case they longed to be liberated perma-
nently from the Dutch, with or without the French overlords
104
who had been on the scene since Holland became a vassal state.
He was completely sincere in his belief, and he was probably
correct. In my experience subject peoples usually long for
liberation, and the grass looks very much greener to them over
the fence.
As for Minto's particular individual willingness to outguess
Napoleon, and the fact that he alone of all possible governors
general was the recipient of Raffles's confidence, surely it is
an extremely elaborate reason to thank Lady Luck for this
chance? "This country/' as Boulger says, "was only able to ful-
fill her part [in the struggle against Napoleon] because she
commanded the seas, and because she wrested from her rival
the island that Napoleon's genius would have made the
base of his designs on our Eastern possessions. It must not
be supposed that these designs exist only in the imagina-
tion of English writers, or that Napoleon accepted his de-
feat in Egypt in 1798-99 as the termination of his dreams
of Asiatic dominion." To call this setup peculiarly, fate-
fully fortunate for Raffles is rather the same sort of reason-
ing followed by my old geology professor, who struggled man-
fully to combine his religious faith (Southern Methodist)
with the theory of evolution, and succeeded only after working
out this line of reasoning: "If the Age of the Great Lizards
had not just then happened to come to a close a mysteriously
sudden close, I grant you and if the Age of Mammals hadn't
just happened to begin then, the mammals wouldn't have had
a chance. The first mammals were tiny, weak creatures, which
the lizards in their heyday would have stamped out of exist*
ence. As it was, the difference of a paltry few millions of
years gave the mammals their chance to survive, and as a re-
sult, MAN appeared on earth. I say that this was not just luck,
I say that GOD arranged for the lizards to die out just then. I
say that man exists by divine prearrangement In fact, I con-
sider evolution PROOF of divine intention."
It is always salutary to hear what the other side has to
say, and the voice of the Dutch is loud and clear in the works
105^3
of Bernard Vlekke. His opinions of Raffles are not like those
of the British. Though Raffles's direct intervention did not
begin until 1811, he had been watching the Dutch possessions
in the East Indies covetously, from the beginning of the cen-
tury. He was acutely aware of them as soon as he arrived in the
East.
Holland had held control of the Archipelago more than
a century, but her rule of Java, after about 1750, differed in
certain important respects from her treatment of the natives in
the other Dutch-held islands. The Dutch East India Com-
pany introduced drastic curtailment of the production of
spices, and in Vlekke's words (Story of the Dutch East
Indies): 'The system was evil and the effects horrible. . . .
The population of these villages rapidly diminished and grew
apathetic under the suffering caused by this constant oppres-
sion that afflicted them as heavily as the internecine wars of
the old days. . . . The Directors of the Company were pun-
ished for their misrule by the evil consequences of their own
system. When finally the demand for spices in Europe rose,
and prices went up, production could not be increased. The
resistance of the inhabitants to establishing new plantations
. . . could not be overcome/'
At the start of the nineteenth century there were still spo-
radic revolts against the Dutch on Java, particularly if the
man in charge was a bad egg, and some of them were, Nicolas
Hartingh wrote in 1756, "Apparently the Javanese prefer be-
ing skinned by their own people to being vexed by foreigners/'
There was reason to suppose, however, that relations between
Indonesians and Europeans Dutch and English were im-
proving a little, however slowly.
A coincidence suddenly put Java on the map, economically.
The West Indies, owing to the revolt of the slaves in Haiti,
abruptly disappeared from the coffee market and left Java
holding a monopoly, so that after five years of steady selling
there was not a pound of coffee left in the Javanese store-
houses. The boom period, as Vlekke says, came to an end as
suddenly as it began when the American Embargo Act in 1808
put a stop to American shipping, but Java had filled her money
chests in those prosperous ten years. "When Governor-Gen-
eral Wiese surrendered his high office to his successor, there
were two million guilders in the treasury of Batavia.
'This successor was Herman Willem Daendels. A Bona-
parte had come to power in the Netherlands, and from now
on military considerations took the first place in the colonial
plans of the Hague. Daendels had never been in the Indies,
but he seemed to be the right type of man to clean the Bata-
vian stables of Augeas, a new man who stood outside the
cliques and gangs, who knew what he wanted and had an iron
hand. . . . Immediately after his arrival he decided to leave
the unhealthy and desolate city of Batavia and move to
Buitenzorg. Then he set to work, slashing at corruption, tear-
ing down and building up the administration, constructing
roads and fortresses, in short, doing everything which a self-
styled dictator might be expected to do. He accomplished a
great deal but incurred the deadly hostility of many whose
interests he hurt, with the result that his silver-tongued suc-
cessor, Thomas Raffles, was able to take all the credit for the
reorganization of Java's government for himself alone while
Daendels' memory was burdened with the discreditable aspects
of the affair/'
These readjustments and counterclaims are inevitable as
long as historians preserve any nationalistic fervor at all. Boul-
ger is of the past, Mr. Vlekke of the present, and though
the modern historian obviously tries to be just, and to tell the
true story without showing the influence of his Dutch nation-
ality, he is defeated by something else: a very natural desire to
even things up. In his attempt to balance the scales of past
opinion, unconsciously, perhaps, he piles the weights too high
on Holland's side. But he does really evaluate Daendels's work,
giving a much better, more realistic picture of the man than
we get from either Raffles or Boulger, who make him out a
complete villain. Vlekke says that Daendels's dictatorial be-
havior turned the Dutch themselves, as well as the Javanese,
against him. Daendels snubbed the Javanese princes deliber-
ately, stupidly believing that the policy of politeness which
had been followed by his predecessors was injurious to Dutch
prestige. He was in favor of compulsory cultivation: he wrote
to the Minister of Colonies, "The only way to collect taxes
from the poor Javanese peasants is to make them work/' It
is to his credit that he tried to get the peasants their legal
share in the price of coffee, but the market wasn't profitable
enough to render that question anything but academic. As a
result Daendels committed the worst mistake in his entire
generally unfortunate career in Javathe sale of land. He sold
land right and left, whether or not it was owned by natives,
and like all such desirable territory the land was, of course,
thickly settled.
We quote Vlekke directly: "The Batavian government
possessed merchandise to a value of several millions, but no
cash. As a last expedient, Daendels resorted to the sale of 'gov-
ernment domains.' From Daendels' standpoint the whole of
Java, except the territory of the princes, was 'government do-
main/ . . . Daendels actually sold enormous tracts of land
west and east of Batavia. Fortunately he did not rule long
enough to carry out his plans to their full extent which would
have resulted in half the population of Java being reduced to
a state of bondsmen."
But he never for a moment forgot that his chief reason
for being in Java was to improve the "deplorable state of the
defense of the colony." He set to work "in feverish activity,"
increasing garrisons, improving communications, and other-
wise disturbing inquisitive, alert observers for the British. The
forced labor he put on the highway, which was swiftly com-
pleted, cost an immense number of lives. "That invasion
would come soon was inevitable, for Daendels' measures
for defense made it imperative for the British to destroy this
Dutch-French stronghold before it was too well organized.
Daendels, however, was not permitted to conduct the de-
fense. In 1810 Napoleon Bonaparte deposed his brother Louis,
the king of Holland, and annexed the Netherlands to the
French empire. Daendels hoisted the French flag in Batavia,
although . . . [it] caused great discontent among the old
Dutch Indian settlers. Shortly after the annexation . . . Na-
poleon decided to recall Daendels and to replace him by a
^108
man of more moderate character. He sent Jan Willem Jans-
sens, who had formerly been governor of the Cape Colony,
which he had reached just in time to fight a British invasion
and to surrender the colony to the enemy. The same fate befell
him once more when he had come to Java/'
We are not surprised, but we are amused at another dis-
crepancy which here occurs between the Dutch and British
versions of the Java campaign. It is typical of their general
differences. Vlekke pictures Daendels as very busy, knowing
that "invasion was inevitable/' feverishly throwing up defenses
and building roads, working against time. Boulger, on the
other hand, seems to think the British preparations were
shrouded in deepest mystery, "kept a close secret," so that the
invasion came as a crashing surprise to the Dutch, or perhaps
to the natives round about. As for the natives, however,
Abdullah, the clerk who worked for Raffles in Malacca, re-
cords in his memoirs that two or three months before Raffles
came to town, where he was to await Minto in order to start
the campaign, "the news came that the English intended to
attack Java/' He speaks as if it were the commonest bazaar
rumor, as it undoubtedly was. From whom, then, was the plan
kept in secrecy, as Raffles fondly believed?
The English at home, perhaps. All they did, after all, was
to supply army and funds, and that gave them no claim at all
to advance information. They knew their place, in Old Eng-
land.
A crisp, unimaginative report is usually better for the seek-
ing biographer than loquacious discussion, and it must be ad-
mitted in fairness to Lady Raffles that her Memoir usually
supplies it. Her editorial comment is admirably brief; in fact
there is only one grave fault in Sophia's book, once you have
learned to ignore her piety and to forgive her for the various
omissions that are due to her customary squeamishness. But
that one fault is truly grave. She has maintained an icy silence
on the subject of her predecessor, Olivia, and this is an inex-
cusable display of jealous spite. Only once, in a footnote, does
she take cognizance of Olivia's existence at all, and the infor-
mation supplied in that footnote is erroneous.
Fortunately for truth we have been able through other
sources to follow Olivia's modest career. Besides being inter-
esting, it is sometimes really important for us to know when
she accompanied her husband on his voyages, for example,
especially during this period. It is certain that she came with
him when Raffles, after the plan arranged "in secret 7 ' between
Minto and himselfand probably reported to Daendels by
native spies within the next fortnight moved to Malacca.
Olivia had to go with him this time, though the change was
not publicized; this move was definite and final. Raffles gave
up Runnymede, his Penang house, and took along most of
the household. In Malacca he became agent to the governor
general and, not quite incidentally, was in a far better spot
than Penang would have been from which to collect informa-
tion useful to the approaching campaign.
Toward the end of 1810 the move was complete. Raffles
and Olivia were finally installed in Malacca, with their cus-
tomary army of clerks and translators, in the midst of an at-
mosphere somewhat strange, doubtless, to both of them. The
visit they had paid before to the city, exhaustive as Raffles's
investigation had been, must have warned them, to a point,
of what to expect. But now they were a part of the com-
munity rather than visitors collecting material for a report,
and they found it very different from Penang. Nor could Olivia
have observed many details reminiscent of Madras,
The differences were mainly due to the contrasting his-
tories of these colonial possessions. British India and Penang
had both been taken over direct from oriental natives when
the British moved in. Such traditions of civilization as had
been built up by Europeans in those colonies, therefore, were
the traditions which Raffles and Olivia found natural and logi-
cal, stemming as they did from the same root as the couple's
own. But Malacca, an ancient town which had passed through
many hands before the British got hold of it in 1795, had be-
longed to the Dutch for a long time, and the Dutch had left
the strong imprint of their own very dissimilar culture on the
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place. In fact there were still many Dutch settlers there, as
well as half-caste descendants of their earlier compatriots.
In many ways the two sorts of Europeans differed far more
than any two white races do now ? in our era of international
standardization. We will see details of this difference more
vividly when we accompany Raffles to Java; but even in Ma-
lacca more than a few things must have surprised the British
Olivia when she started to keep house. For instance there
was the matter of wives. British colonials either brought their
women out from England, though that was not customary
practice as it is today, or they entered into irregular relation-
ships with the native women, carefully keeping such liaisons
hidden from the public eye. Only a brazen, exceptional sort
of British bachelor would have flaunted his native mistress
or admitted fathering the children of such a union. The
Dutch, on the other hand, ignored race distinction. In those
early days it was seldom that a white woman would come out
from Holland to be married and live in Java, but it was com-
mon indeed for a Dutchman to marry a woman of the people.
He considered his half-caste children quite as much his own
offspring as any Englishman would feel about his full-blooded
white children at home. Naturally the daughters of such
unions married Dutchmen rather than the native men, be-
cause they would be wealthy and in a higher social sphere than
most of the Javanese or Malay males. Their fathers disposed
of them arbitrarily, keeping the customary continental eye out
for profitable matches. Dutch children born in the colonies,
whether or not they had native blood, were known by the
slang name "liplaps."
As a result, in a Dutch-Indian colony the so-called Dutch-
women were nearly all black-haired, dusky ladies, who dressed
in the native style. More than one traveler of the time speaks
of these wives, who never accompanied their husbands to
parties but who mingled with each other in daylong idleness,
placidly chewing and spitting betel nut and depending down
to the tiniest, most trivial matter on their many slave girls.
It can be imagined, therefore, that Olivia, however picturesque
she may have found these "European ladies," scarcely felt as
111
if she could indulge in ordinary social intercourse with them.
They would have been the last to welcome unusually friendly
overtures from Mrs. Raffles. But there must have been at least
a few other English ladies in Malacca to keep Olivia company.
The young boy Abdullah, the clerk, watched the new house-
hold with a bright-eyed interest in its smallest affairs which
every scholar of the period now has reason to bless, because
he wrote it all down and left it to posterity, i.e., to us. Thanks
to Abdullah, we know, for example, that Mr. Raffles and his
wife stayed in the Banda Iliar quarter, in the plantation of one
"Capitan China/' evidently a rich Chinese of the district
called by Abdullah and the other Malays "Baba Chang-lang."
("Baba" is Chinese for "Papa.") We know that Raffles
brought in his luggage "numerous European goods, such as
boxes of guns and pistols, satin cloth of great value, and prints
with plain flowers, and many implements of which I had never
seen the like/'
These articles were intended as presents for native princes.
The satin must have been Chinese, the prints from England.
"Also woollen cloth of soft texture/' continues Abdullah,
"with clocks and watches, and paper for writing letters thereon
to Malay princes, on which were printed flowers of gold and
silver, besides many articles intended as presents for them/'
That writing paper was a sort much favored by the princes for
their royal correspondence, so the Dutch had always been care-
ful to use the richest-appearing paper they could find for their
proclamations and letters.
In addition, Raffles was given a considerable amount of
money to dispense as he thought best for his job, which in-
cluded among his other duties an undercover assignment
much like that of a modern intelligence operator. He was to
make valuable contacts, find out what he could, prepare such
people as he was sure would be friendly throughout the opera-
tion, and all the rest of it. Minto had no doubt that the author
of the now famous Malacca report would do this work better
than even a trained spy would have done. The new agent's
existence must have been busy and complicated in the next
few months, particularly as ordinary work had to go on at its
112
normal feverish pace regardless of the extra assignments rela-
tive to the Javanese adventure. Being in new surroundings, he
plunged deep into his hobby, making natural history collec-
tions. Everything he could get hold of in the way of insects,
snakes, plants and flowers, shellfish, et cetera, was collected
alive; more of them, were catalogued and preserved in alcohol,
or dried. The botanical specimens and marine animals and
shells, of course, were immortalized in sketches and paintings
as well. Raffles put the best native artists he could find on the
job, but his own executive was often as good as theirs if not
superior. He indulged in flower painting as a sort of recreation,
after the more austere pastime of map making. And then of
course there were his wild animal pets.
Along with various lesser simians he acquired two live
young orangutans, called by the Malays mawas. They were a
pair, and from time to time Raffles gave in to an impulse
which seems to be universal among ape fanciers and dressed
them up in suitable clothes. They had the run of the house
and the young Abdullah was fascinated by their playful antics.
When after four or five months the female orang died, the
male moped for several days, refused to eat, and soon followed
his wife to the grave, plunging the household in sorrow.
There was a tiger cub, too, which was usually the center
of a crowd of natives.
One special lesson in botany or shall we call it orchard
culture? was not relished by the enthusiastic master how-
ever. One day a peddler brought some durians to the house.
The durian, as most people who have visited the Indies know,'
is a fruit with a smell so foul it can only be described as ob-
scene. If you can forget the smell long enough to take a bite
of it, your prejudice is supposed to vanish, for it really does
taste good, but the first whiff is terrific.
The moment the peddler appeared poor Raffles grabbed
at his own nose and speedily, in Abdullah's words, "made off
upstairs." From a safe height, after a gasp, he called down in a
rage, "Who brought those durians? Show me that Malay!" he
shouted.
The unhappy peddler, much mystified, was hustled out
of the house and put on his way, earnestly assisted for several
hundred paces. Raffles came down after a time, claiming that
he still had a headache from the stench.
"It is most nauseous eating/' he said, whereat, according to
Abdullah, "Everyone was much astonished."
Raffles asked Abdullah one day to take him visiting at a
Malay school. Once arrived and poking about in his usual
amiably inquisitive manner, he soon discovered that the stu-
dents, though they were taught most assiduously to read the
Koran, never had to study Malay at all. He was surprised at
this, even shocked, and asked the schoolmaster why it was so.
Because nobody thought Malay necessary, replied the master:
the boys learned it at home anyway to some extent; the Ko-
ran, he said, as everybody knew, was of first importance to
anyone with a properly religious spirit. Malay was sometimes
studied later on, he admitted, by those few scholars who
wanted to continue with their education after they grew up.
His reply seems to have been somewhat defensive, even indig-
nantly surprised, for Raffles had to hurry with an implicit
apology.
"Very good, O master!" he said. "I want to know only;
don't be angry with me, O guru/'
As they walked down the road away from the school, safely
out of earshot, he told Abdullah, "If I live I shall have a school
set a-going for teaching Malay. I am most anxious about this,
as it is a beautiful language; further, it is of great utility."
Raffles was always asking Abdullah questions about every
subject in the world the methods of government among the
Malays, what they liked best, their customs of marriage and
death, the names of the hills and other places in Malacca Ter-
ritory, what were the pursuits of the people, and what mer-
chandise they produced; also he wished to find out "whether
the Malacca people liked the government of the Dutch or the
English."
In regard to that last question, Thomson observes dryly
that it was a very silly one, aside from being unworthy of a
great man. (Thomson must have been an internationalist.)
He says that if the truth were known the Malays probably dis-
114
liked the Dutch and the English equally, and wanted to gov-
ern themselves. He was evidently a man far ahead of his time
in some things, if not in all respects.
Undoubtedly Raffles enjoyed himself thoroughly in Ma-
lacca. It must have been all the better because he had never
experienced a normal boyhood. This life was a true boy's
paradise, not only because of his animals and his collections
but because he was playing what Kipling calls "the Game/'
What is the strategy of war and statesmanship, anyway, but an
elaborate game of skill for grownups?
At last everything was set. Lord Minto wrote:
"The Mauritius and all the French islands being now in
our possession, there is nothing to retard the execution of our
further views to the eastward The expedition, comprising
4,000 European infantry, with a suitable proportion of artil-
lery, and 4,000 Bengal infantry, with about 300 cavalry, will
sail from India the beginning or middle of March."
Then came a bombshell, but it was a welcome one. "I am
now to acquaint you with my own intention to proceed in per-
son, at least to Malacca, and eventually, I may say probably,
to Java. ...
"I count upon meeting you at Malacca: and then, in com-
munication with yourself and Sir Samuel Auchmuty, the final
plans, military and political, will be settled.
"I have no doubt that the communications you will have
opened with the Island of Java and adjacent countries, will
have furnished authentic knowledge of the disposition we shall
meet there, and enable us to place our enterprise upon a foot-
ing which will ensure the concurrence and co-operation of the
native states, if it does not procure the acquiescence qf the
Dutch themselves in our views."
As a matter of fact many of the Dutch were glad to ex-
change their French conquerors for the British when the time
came. Minto was no amateur diplomat.
The following passage should be carefully read, especially
if the reader has hitherto been inclined to give the Court of
Directors credit for normal intelligence. The italics are mine.
"I must tell you in confidence, that I have received the
11
sanction of government at home for this expedition, but that
the views of the Directors do not go beyond the expulsion or
reduction of the Dutch power, the destruction of their fortifi-
cations, the distribution of their arms and stores to the natives,
and the evacuation of the island by our own troops/'
Difficult to credit, is it not? At times like this we are forci-
bly reminded that the British were still fresh at this game of
colonization: the projected destruction of Malacca was one
illustration of their inexperience and the incredible commands
here quoted by Minto are another example. Today no gov-
ernment of any civilized nation would consider such an action,
unless they meant deliberately to invite disaster, as the United
Nations did, for example, when they armed the Thais during
the recent World War. Obviously the political world as well
as nature abhors a vacuum. Any community too weak to de-
fend itself is snatched up by the nearest powerful neighbor the
minute it is left without leadership. The directors no doubt
felt that Java's fate was not their affair, once the French had
been kicked out, yet even so it was difficult to credit them with
so much naivete. There was, first, a strong possibility that the
French would move back in as soon as they could muster the
necessary men and weapons. Next there was always the chance
that Holland would have a try at regaining what she still con-
sidered her own by force, for she had no confidence in Eng-
land's earlier promises.
Since the directors, after Lord Minto persuaded them to
see the situation, had wished to move the French out of Java,
because they were so uncomfortably close to England's own
station at Penang, then why leave the way open for them to
return? What was the sense of letting everything slip back
into the old arrangement as soon as the battle was over? Even
knowing it is so from the records, one can scarcely believe the
directors' message was meant to be taken seriously.
That would be Minto's first reaction as well as Raffles's, but
the second would come fast on the heels of the first. Java set
free, with the natives all freshly armed and supplied with food,
might become a scene of massacre as soon as the English were
out of sight. Though it was not absolutely certain, such things
116
might well happen. The Dutch settlers would be the first vic-
tims, and after all the whites had been killed the natives would
battle among themselves, and it would be a bloody affair be-
fore one party or another was admitted to be lord over the
rest. High-minded men among the directors might argue that
what the Javanese did among themselves should be their own
affair, forgetting the white settlers for the moment. I myself,
though I do not claim to be high-minded, would be among the
first to say so. But it is one thing to leave a nation of natives
alone from the beginning, and quite another to give them all
the latest paraphernalia for killing each other, show them
how to use it, leave everything in confusion and leaderless,
and then simply walk out of the scene.
This point is particularly important because on it hangs
Minto's claim to being a justified empire builder. Just as the
benevolent despot is his own best argument, so the apologists
for the Empire can point to Lord Minto without words. The
same justification covers Raffles, the two men being fully
agreed, always, on matters of this sort They probably decided
to consider the two obvious arguments against the directors'
projected policy as of equal importance, the first (that Java
would be occupied by someone else) on practical grounds, the
second (that the natives might turn to violence) on humani-
tarian. That would be their official opinion, though in private
they may have differed. It is not for me, so much later in the
game, to decide which argument loomed up first, really, in
Raffles's estimation, but if I am allowed to hazard a guess,
without being called on for any reason or proof, I would say
that the first argument was nearest to his heart, just as the sec-
ond was the one favored by Minto.
Merely as a small matter of interest is Lady RafHes's com-
ment on the question. She could scarcely have been ignorant
of the political implications of the situation, but she is too
much a creature of her time to mention those. Instead, with
all the fervor at her command (which is not very much), she
speaks of the second danger. People who are fond of the Java-
nese will be indignant at her choice of adjectives, who can call
the Javanese "uncivilized" while referring to the Dutch as
"their ancient masters." I quote her because this passage is an
excellent example of that kind of propaganda, and probably
one of the first of its kind, which was later to become familiar
to all of us.
"The mere object of destroying the ascendancy of an an-
cient [sic] European colony/ 7 says Sophia, suddenly becoming
very fond of the Dutch if it's a choice between them and the
natives, "however legitimate in itself that object might be con-
sidered, as a means of weakening a declared enemy, could
hardly be justifiable, if it were to be followed up by a transfer
of that enemy's power to the hands of millions of uncivilized
people, who would instantly annihilate the whole population
of their ancient masters."
"I conclude, however," said Minto in his letter, "that the
destructive and calamitous consequences of this plan to so
ancient and populous an European colony, the property and
lives of which must fall a sacrifice to the vindictive sway of
the Malay chiefs, if transferred suddenly and defenceless to
their dominion, have not been fully contemplated; and I have
already stated my reasons for considering a modification of
their orders as indispensable.
"The points on which I have been able to form a judgment,
with any confidence, are: first, that we must establish pro-
visionally an administration to supply the protection which
will have been lost by the abolition of the Dutch authority:
this applies more particularly to Batavia: That the Dutch
may themselves be employed, in a great and principal propor-
tion, in this new administration, under the control of a pre-
siding British authority ... To the native princes and peo-
ple the abolition of Dutch power would alone afford a gratifi-
cation of rooted passions, and a prospect of substantial relief
and advantage, which may be expected to withdraw them
from the Dutch and unite them to our cause: and a system
of connection between them and the English Government
may be founded on principles so manifestly beneficial to the
people of the island, as to attach them to our alliance, and
ensure tranquillity between us."
That last passage is particularly interesting, sounding as
it does the keynote of Lord Minto's benevolent imperialism.
It would have made Daendels, with his anxious love for pres-
tige, snort like a buffalo. Even though the earl himself had
been governor general of Bengal for some time this program
marked a departure from government policy in British India.
It sounded as if the ex-Dutch East Indies might be going to
serve as a proving ground, an experimental laboratory, for
these humanitarian gentlemen. It sounded good. Borrowing
a phrase from Vlekke, we might call Minto, Leyden, Raffles,
and Co., "the silver-tongued salesmen of St. George/'
It remained for them to open up their new market. Java
still flaunted her new flag, the unpopular banner of the French.
In the spring of 1811 the Earl of Minto cheerfully started out
with his entourage, bound for the Raffles residence in Malacca.
CHAPTER VIII
"In preparation for his expe-
dition against the Netherlands in Java, Lord Minto gathered
around him a group of men with genuine interest in Indo-
nesian affairs, in the Malay languages, and in native history
and w customs; men who certainly shared his humanitarian
views but who knew that their sole chance of promotion lay
in gaining the favor of the prominent Whig politician who
was their direct chief. This does not detract from the merits
of these men as promoters of the study of Indonesian affairs,
but it does explain their great display of moral indignation at
the injustice committed by others while their own actions
were often far from blameless/'
This, of course, is the voice of Vlekke.
"A burning ambition and a brilliant intelligence combined
to make Raffles the right man to execute Lord Minto's plans
for the East Indies. Raffles was not a man of great character,
but he was ambitious enough to prefer a reputation in history
to an immediate material award. To build that reputation, he
worked all his life, first by serving the leading humanitarian
statesmen, then by creating, through his writings, an histori-
cal legend about his administration in Java, and finally, by a
daring but unscrupulous policy of expansion which led to his
greatest achievement, the founding of Singapore. And he
wrote so well, in such an attractive form, that for a century
120
after his death people continued to judge Raffles by his words
instead of his deeds. His little publicity tricks tend to irritate
the historian who otherwise will gladly concede to Raffles the
honor of having been one of the most intelligent and active
governors that ever ruled in the Indies."
A hundred and thirty years have not sweetened those grapes
for the Dutch. Mr. Vlekke tries hard, but in the foregoing
passage he really did go off the rails to a considerable distance,
as the wryness in those words testifies. There are men, admit-
tedly, who are clearheaded and coolhearted enough to make
far-reaching plans for themselves and then carry them out,
but there has never, surely, been a successful man who enter-
tained such insanely complicated ambitions. The historian
even suspects Raffles of having supernatural powers. Certainly
he credited the Penang secretary with the gift of prophecy.
It is only natural to exaggerate the strength of one's enemy.
The mind boggles at admitting that anyone but a superman
could be superior to one's own compatriots. It is a case of
'We weren't so stupid; it was just that Raffles was damn
clever." But only the Antichrist himself could be as clever as
this Dutch version of Raffles.
Besides, Mr. Vlekke commits an error which is uncharacter-
istic of his usually clear style and logical thought processes.
Emotion does confuse people, even historians, who of all
scholars can least afford the emotion of patriotism. (Yet with-
out the urge of patriotism would Mr. Vlekke have troubled
to write this particular book?) Among the paragraphs which
follow on the portion we have just quoted, he scornfully calls
Raffles a "crusader." But he can't have it both ways. Either
Raffles was a crusader i.e., he gave up material gain for his
cause or he was a cold-blooded schemer, interested only in
personal fame. Vlekke makes both statements, accusingly, and
they cannot be reconciled. Which, Mr. Vlekke, is your choice?
The answer is that Vlekke, like Boulger in another dis-
cussion of Raffles's ambition, is dogmatic, though he errs on
the opposite side from Boulger's. Nowhere in the writings of
Raffles himself, who is our only unassailable witness for his
private hopes, and nowhere among the records of his intimate
121
friends and relatives, do we find any proof of an inordinate
desire on his part for posthumous fame. Most public servants
have that desire to a certain degree. After all, who hasn't? It
is one of the universal stimuli that keeps mankind at work.
But it is scarcely permissible to point scornfully at a public
servant whose crime lies in a lively literary style, and to say
that this style is conclusive proof of his perfidious designs, to
achieve fame with the next generation! Or does Vlekke really
mean to show himself a complete cynic: does he really think
that men who reform abuses always do it only to attract atten-
tion?
Only a prig would argue that Raffles was not sometimes
actuated by motives less than sublime. He had plenty of self-
interested motives in desiring a reformed administration for
Java, aside from a pure desire to do good. Of course he wanted
such reforms to be credited to the British East India Company
rather than to the Dutch Company; to England rather than
to Holland; to himself, if you will, rather than to Daendels.
Of course he wanted to hold Java for England and not give it
back to Holland. It is not impossible that he was gratified at
making his mark on the pages of history. But these facts do
not prove much to his discredit; he is not for this reason a
whitewashed monster. The British Company deserves the
credit he won for them; England's rule aimed at improving
the lot of the Javanese and the Dutch have tacitly approved
some of the British reforms by keeping them: Raffles was in-
dubitably a better administrator than Daendels had proved
himself. Possibly he exaggerated Daendels's faults and under-
rated his virtues when he made his reports and wrote his ac-
count of the matter, but he was far less guilty of such exaggera-
tion than Mr. Vlekke, for example, has been, and he had a
better excuse. It was a personal matter for him. It shouldn't
be for the historian Vlekke.
This leaves us the last statement, that Raffles until the end
fought to hold Java for Great Britain. He did, most decidedly.
Certainly, too, he dreamed, as Vlekke accusingly declares, of
a great British Empire in the Indies, with Java as the center,
though he realized the difficulties such a program would face
122
at the very outset, In the opposition of his own directors. He
always said that Java or some other station with an equally
central position was vitally necessary for Britain's commerce.
In the light of some modern experts' opinion he was not cor-
rect in that belief. He overrated the power of the Dutch to
sever Britain's lines of supply, and he underrated British power
to keep those lines open even without grabbing a port half-
way to Far Eastern points. Were these errors of judgment in-
sincere? Was he deceiving himself or the Court of Directors
when he kept after them to keep Java or, failing that, to take
another station in the Indies?
Probably he was doing both deceiving himself and mislead-
ing the Court as well, with his dire warnings and gloomy
prophecies. It is every man's own guess; mine is that Raffles
was an empire builder in spite of himself. His urge to create
a great empire around England was an emotional one, and his
reasons for doing so, sometimes good and other times specious,
were all secondary rationalizations of this emotional desire.
Even if you wanted to go further than that into his motives I
should have to beg off. I don't know enough about the inner
Raffles to do it. There is an obvious connection between his
urge to acquire, to build up subsidiary British colonies, and his
"crusading" desire to improve the lot of the natives coming
under British jurisdiction, but I can't claim that I know how
to figure it out. It is the egg and the chicken all over again:
did he want to take the land in order to do good to the natives,
or was he good to the natives so that England could keep the
land? Or, to go further, was he good, et cetera, in order to
justify England's keeping the land and taking more whenever
she got the chance? Unlike Vlekke, I don't think for one
second that Raffles would be able to answer that question any
better than I could. Of course he would have thought that
he knew.
Never mind all this layman's conjecture. Our job is to see
the situation clearly as it existed, not merely to guess at why
it all happened that way. The visible facts are these: Raffles was
fortunate enough to meet Lord Minto, the only powerful
Company official who shared his humanitarian principles; and
between them they wrote a new chapter in the book of British
imperialism. The novelty of their outlook is summed up in
Minto's letter, quoted in the chapter before this. Let us con-
tinue, then, with the factual story of how Java came to be bor-
rowed by the British and what her people experienced under
Raffles's administration.
Abdullah was one of the translating staff which Raffles
built up in Malacca as soon as he and Olivia were settled Into
the old town. We know a good deal about Abdullah because
he wrote his life story and it was published in England, as well
as in Singapore, under the title, The Autobiography of Munshi
Abdullah. His father had been tutor to Marsden, the oriental
scholar and historian of Sumatra, They were a Malay family
by adoption and Malay was their language, but Abdullah was
descended from an Arab, his great-grandfather, who came from
Yemen. His tribe, however, was not that of Asra, "who in lov-
ing ever perish." On the contrary they were hardy, fecund folk,
to judge by the records, and they had a tradition of scholarship
which they were careful to maintain.
The Arab's son became a merchant in the interior of
Malacca Territory, but he was well educated, he had read the
Koran, so after a time he drifted into his father's profession.
His son, Abdullah's father by the merchant-preacher's Malay
wife, was born in an upcountry village, and his mixed ancestry,
rather than these surroundings, was responsible for his wide
range of knowledge. Although he was well versed in Hindu-
stani he was naturally more proficient in Malay, "as regards
hand-writing," says Abdullah, "and composition, and writing
letters to Malay princes." In Malacca city he met Marsden and
served as his Malay teacher. "This gentleman gave him a letter
to show that he had been his teacher/' writes Abdullah. "I
found this letter in my father's writing case, and showed it to
the Rev. Mr. Thomsen [sic], for at that time I could not speak
a word of English, much less could I read it. . . . Mr. Thorn-
sen ... said, 'This letter is called in English a "character,"
and it was given to your father by Mr. Marsden, who wrote the
^124
Malay-English dictionary. Your father taught him for a year
and eight months in the town of Malacca/ "
Abdullah's father settled in Malacca town under the Dutch,
with a wife and a rapidly increasing family; he worked for the
harbormaster for a bit. Then the English came and took
Malacca from the Dutch, and he turned to trading, sailing
between Malacca and Siak. "Malacca was a great seaport and
had a fine trade, and merchandise was collected there from all
directions, the town of Penang not having been founded at
that time, so that the harbour of Malacca was full of traders
of every race, and they came right up into the river. That was
the time when most people became rich in Malacca/' It was
at that happy time, no doubt, that Marsden studied with
Abdullah's father and gave him the letter of recommendation.
Abdullah was just growing up when Major Farquhar moved
in as engineer to the resident, and he saw Farquhar succeed
in time to the residency. He saw the scare when the fort was
razed, and the relief when the orders were revoked. When
Raffles came over from Penang, his staff probably sent out word
that they needed more clerks. They always needed more clerks.
The young Abdullah, with two uncles, was made welcome in
the office and soon, because of his superior education, he be-
came a special sort of clerk who spent a large part of his time
helping the great man. All the natives knew that Raffles was the
man who had saved their city.
"When I first saw Mr. Raffles," wrote Abdullah, "he struck
me as being of middle stature, neither too short nor too tall.
His brow was broad, the sign of large-heartedness; his head be-
tokened his good understanding; his hair being fair, betokened
courage; his ears being large, betokened quick hearing; his eye-
brows were thick, and his left eye squinted a little; his nose was
high; his cheeks a little hollow; his lips narrow, the sign of
oratory and persuasiveness; his mouth was wide, his neck was
long; and the color of his body was not purely white; his breast
was well formed; his waist slender; his legs to proportion, and
he walked with a slight stoop. I observed his habit was to be
always in deep thought. He was most courteous in his inter-
course with all men. He always had a sweet expression towards
12
European as well as native gentlemen. He was extremely af-
fable and liberal, always commanding one's best attention. He
spoke in smiles. . . ."
If the observant little teacher had stopped here, the impres-
sion he left would have done nothing toward disproving Vlek-
ke's sinister, scheming, prophetic figment. But he did not stop.
After giving Olivia a similar microscopic examination, which
passage has already been quoted in full in Chapter IV, Abdul-
lah returns to the study of Raffles. Nothing is more revealing
than these observations by men of different racial birth and a
language far removed from our own. They are not impeded by
our customs or blinded by our habits. Deaf people see things
about speakers that we who hear them cannot, because we are
distracted by their speech, and it works out in a similar way
for natives of foreign lands on first dealing with us, the out-
landish strangers. Abdullah was quick to notice characteristics
in Raffles which Englishmen would never have thought worth
observing. The man he paints in the following paragraphs is
not Vlekke's Raffles. He is another man entirely, and an ex-
tremely attractive one.
Not everyone in Malacca agreed with Abdullah, however.,
Note the sentence about the Dutch in the munshf s final para-
graph. If the Dutch were objects of unreasoning prejudice to
Raffles, they returned his compliment with interest. Vlekke
didn't dream up his villain. The portrait was painted by a con-
temporary, back in the nineteenth century, and Mr. Vlekke
only inherited it.
"Now I observed," wrote Abdullah, "his habit was to be
always deep in thought. He also was an earnest inquirer into
past history, and he gave up nothing till he had probed it to
the bottom. He loved most to sit in quietude, when he did
nothing else but write or read; and it was his usage, when he
was either studying or speaking, that he would see no one till he
had finished. He had a time set apart for each duty, nor would
he mingle one with another. Further, in the evenings, after
tea, he would take ink, pen, and paper, after the candles had
been lighted, reclining with closed eyes, in a manner that I
126
often took to be sleep; but in an instant he would be up, and
write for a while, till he went to recline again. Thus would he
pass the night, till twelve or one, before he retired to sleep,
This was his * daily practice. On the next morning he would go
to what he had written, and read it while walking backwards
and forwards, when, out of ten sheets, probably he would
only give three or four to his copying clerk to enter into the
books, and the others he would tear up. Such was his daily
habit. Now Mr. Raffles took great interest in looking into the
origin of nations, and their manners and customs of olden
times, examining what would elucidate the same. He was es-
pecially quick in the uptake of Malay with its variations. He
delighted to use the proper idioms as the natives do; he was
active in studying words and their place in phrases, and not
until we had told him would he state that the English had
another mode. It was his daily labour to order post letters
[sic] to various Malay countries to support their good under-
standing with his nation, and increase the bond of friendship
this with presents and agreeable words. This gained the good-
will of the various Rajahs.
"Now Mr. Raffles' disposition was anything but covetous,
for, in whatever undertakings or projects he had in view, he
grudged no expense, so that they were accomplished. Thus his
intentions had rapid consummation. Thus loads of money
came out of his chest daily in buying various things or in pay-
ing wages. I also perceived that he hated the habit of the Dutch
who lived in Malacca of running down the Malays, and they
detested him in return; so much so, that they would not sit
down beside him. But Mr. Raffles loved always to be on good
terms with the Malays the poorest could speak to him; and
while all the great folks in Malacca came to speak to him daily,
whether Malays or Europeans, yet they could not find out his
object of coming there his ulterior intentions/'
We must now go back to pick up the thread of that other
story which we deliberately dropped some pages back the
conquest of Mauritius and Bourbon. Lord Minto, you re*
127
member, felt himself free to discuss the projected Javanese
expedition only because of the unexpected victory of the
Moluccas, which, by putting several nearby islands in the hands
of the British, inscribed on the map of the Indian Ocean cer-
tain arrows clearly visible to people of Raffles's persuasion,
pointing suggestively toward Java.
Mauritius and Bourbon, two islands not far from the south-
ern tip of Madagascar on a small-scale map, were in the hands
of the French in 1807, when Lord Minto first came out to the
East. French privateers, using them for bases, inflicted heavy
losses on the Company's shipping in the Indian Ocean, and so
the governor general had instructions to keep his eye on them
as well as on any other islands which the French held, but he
was unable to do more than keep his eye on them, much as he
would have liked to take action, because he was an agent of the
East India Company and they kept him short of funds. John
Company was keeping everyone out East on short commons
in 1807. Minto had ships though. The fleet was at his com-
mand, even though he had no money to spend on conquest,
and he was deep in plans regarding those two strategically
tempting little islands, figuring out ways to take them first and
then pay for the war on the installment plan, when the Court
of Directors got the wind up. Lord Minto received orders
countermanding the original directions. He was to take his eye
right off Mauritius and Bourbon. He was also to take to heart
and remember that the directors were expressing "a positive
prohibition of any expedition to Java and other places east-
ward of India." With a deep sigh Minto obediently turned
around and faced west for a while.
Three 'years later the vigilance of the directors relaxed. At
any rate they were not angry when Bourbon was invaded, per-
haps because it was such a little invasion, such a small one that
from London you would scarcely notice it at all. Admiral
Bertie landed three thousand men on July 8, 1810, and after
what was merely a token resistance Bourbon surrendered. The
British paused only long enough to station troops on the little
island and then turned their attention to the larger Mauritius,
where French garrison troops under the command of General
Decaen were waiting for them. Mauritius wasn't as easy as
Bourbon had been: she cost the British four ships during their
first, unsuccessful, attack, on August tenth. She surrendered,
however, in December. Presumably the company felt that the
cost of these two victories had not been excessive, for they
were now amenable, as we know, to Minto's more ambitious
designs on Java. But in justice to him we should say that his
unflagging attempts to persuade the Directors during the years
may have had at least as much effect on them as did the victory
over those strategically placed specks on the map.
The indefatigable earl did not receive word that the attacks
on Bourbon and Mauritius had succeeded until the end of
January. He was pleased though not surprised, and started im-
mediately, of course, to prepare for Java. In a letter to his wife
written the following month he spoke to her for what seems
to be the first time of his new protg6: "I have had Mr. Raffles,
Secretary to the Government of Prince of Wales's Island, a
very clever, able, active and judicious man, perfectly versed in
the Malay language and manners, and conversant with the in-
terests and affairs of the Eastern States, in advance for some
months past, to collect recent intelligence, to open communica-
tions with the Javanese chiefs, and to prepare the way for our
operations. I carry with me good assistance of every sort,
though few in number. Among these are ... Dr. Leyden, a
perfect Malay; . . ."
He evidently felt it incumbent upon him fully to explain
his decision to go himself to Java. Probably he felt just a bit
guilty for enjoying the expedition so much instead of sitting
in his close Fort William office, being an orthodox governor
general. In 1811 in the first letter of the year he says to his
wife, "We are now in the agony of preparation for Java; and
I will whisper in your ear that I am going there myself, not to
command the army, but to see all the political wars done to
my mind.
" 'Modeste' is to be my state coach/' (That is, his ship.)
"Calcutta, February 25, 1811
"I am to embark in a few days for Madras. I shall then, I
hope, proceed to Malacca on board the 'Modeste' My going
in person upon this service is not a very usual measure, and my
motives not being generally understood, many ingenious con-
jectures are, as usual, in circulation. The first notion was that
I was going home, and that my touching at Madras was only
a cover for my retreat; others reported that I was going to the
Mauritius, and from thence to visit Bencoolen and all the other
outlying settlements. A third conjecture was that some great
fault had been committed at Madras, and that I was going to
set things right there. My own reasons are that there are many
important points, regarding our future relations with the
Dutch, and with the native States in Java, which ought to be
adjusted at the moment of the attack; that . , . [it would be]
impossible to get complete information at a distance, that
modifications may be necessary. I think Admiral Drury is fond
of acting for himself, and M. would have no security for the
execution of his plans. Upon the whole, I am of the opinion I
should not perfectly discharge my duty without going. . . .
"The object we have in view is of the greatest national im-
portance, and it is of infinite consequence that the first politi-
cal arrangement should be made on the right principles. For
this I should have been equally responsible if I had remained
at Calcutta, but I could not have made an adequate provision
for it by any other course than that I am now pursuing. It is
not matter of taste or choice, but of duty, or rather of neces-
sity, that I am going to friskify in this manner, although I con-
fess, since it is right, that I never engaged in any affair with
greater interest or more pleasure; and you will easily conceive
what a gratifying break this kind of adventure must make in
the monotony of my not less laborious life at Fort William."
Things were moving toward Java at a good rate of speed.
A letter from Leyden gives us some feeling of the excitement
that must have prevailed in Raffles's Malacca home, the hur-
ried preparations for the great man's visit, the whisperings and
elaborate precautions which were deemed necessary even then,
for the expedition was still, officially, being kept secret from
France. Just as though a secret like that could be kept, one
week, in the Orient! I often wonder why Raffles pretended to
130
believe it could, and why he played the pompous game so
solemnly. Probably he enjoyed the play acting.
Lord Minto wrote to Raffles from Calcutta, in March, "I
still hope we may take our final departure from Malacca in
April/' He must have set out a few days after this letter was
posted, and one wonders why he took the trouble to write at
all, when he was so soon to be with Raffles in person. But per-
haps he did it deliberately so that he could thus informally
place the following promise on record: "It is proposed to style
you Secretary to the Governor-General when we come to-
gether: . . . secretary is the highest office below the Council.
I hope you do not doubt the prospective interest I have always
taken, and do not cease to take, in your personal views and
welfare. I have not spoken distinctly on that subject, only be-
cause it has been from circumstances impossible for me to
pledge myself to the fulfilment of my own wishes, and, I may
add, intentions, if practicable. The best is, in truth, still sub-
ject to one contingency, the origin of which is earlier than
my acquaintance with you; but I am happy to say that I do
not expect an obstacle to my very strong desire upon this point;
and if it should occur, the utmost will be done to make the
best attainable situation worthy of your services, and of the
high esteem I profess, with the greatest sincerity, for your
person/'
The governor general and his retinue arrived in Malacca on
May 18, 1811. Raffles was undoubtedly in a tizzy about it, and
Olivia must have been fairly busy herself with housekeeping
cares, preparing for their august guest. Nobody watched the
pageant more appreciatively, though, than Abdullah. He re-
corded it all with enthusiasm, beginning with the salutes which
were fired as the ships approached, a few every day until the
roadstead was crowded. He noted with joy the regimental uni-
forms of the British soldiers, the many Indians, Malays, and
other Orientals who made up the greater part of the army and
rendered life difficult with their religious dietary taboos, and
of course the navy with its British officers. The army tents
were surrounded constantly by thousands of staring Malaccans.
H. S, Banner, in a novel about Java and the conquest, goes
into details about those colorful British uniforms the Bengal
native infantry wore scarlet coats faced with the different
colors of their regiments; the Madras Horse Artillery were all
red and blue; the Madras Pioneers were comparatively sober
in gray and black; but the Royal Marines outshone them all
they wore red coatees with blue facings and shiny steeple hats,
It is no wonder that Abdullah had naively expected the
Great Lord Minto to look like an Indian nabob, weighted
down with brilliant silks and satins and jewels. The bigger the
official the more splendidly he would be attired, Abdullah told
himself, and so the governor general, who held a higher rank
than the little scholar had ever yet encountered, must be of
dazzling, blinding gorgeousness. One feels the mounting ex-
citement in the town as the Modeste, the flagship, sails into
view, last of all the fleet to arrive. Everyone in Malacca who
could walk was down on shore to watch the great lord dis-
embark.
Effectively Abdullah described the actual appearance of
Minto. The humanitarian statesman was "middle-aged, thin
in body, of soft manners, and sweet countenance; and I felt
that he could not carry twenty cutties [catties: about thirty
pounds that would be] so slow were his motions. His coat
was black cloth, trowsers the same, nor was there anything
peculiar."
After the first surprise Abdullah was soon scolding himself
for having felt disappointment. He need not have worried
about the august visitor's failure to provide excitement, for
from that moment when Minto landed on the beach the town
was whipped into a whirlwind of rumor, the wildest of which
was founded on fact.
For example, the day after he arrived, Minto set out to in
spect the town prisons. At the first one, which was evidently
an ordinary jail for malefactors of a less serious sort, the culprits
were all allowed to come out of their cells to pay him homage
in greeting. A ragged, pitiful crew, they ran in a small mob to-
ward Minto, swiftly approaching him as he came on foot; they
fell on their knees or on their faces, clutching at his garments,
all crying out together, begging for attention, for mercy, for
pardon, for justice. Abdullah saw tears in Minto's eyes. No
doubt the demonstration and greeting had all been arranged
beforehand between Raffles and his chief, but the prisoners
didn't know it, and I doubt if those tears were part of the pre-
conceived plan. Minto gave the word in Hindustani: "Don't
you worry, in a moment everyone will be set free/' and the
promise was kept, as a sort of good-luck gesture on the eve of
the expedition, and also no doubt to win the good will of the
natives for the British.
Scarcely had the populace ceased to marvel at the fortune of
those prisoners when Minto, next day, paid another visit, this
time to a special sort of dungeon reserved for extraordinary
criminals. This was a really nasty pesthole farther out from
town, well furnished with the efficient implements of torture
which the Dutch had used.
"When Lord Minto saw all these appliances," wrote Ab-
dullah, "he looked very cross, and he spat several times, and
said to the man in charge of the implements, Take these down
below and burn them; don't let one of them remain.' "
The prisoners themselves took part in the ceremony of the
burning, and meanwhile Minto gave orders that the prison
should be entirely destroyed. A model new one was later put
up in its place, and Abdullah takes time off to sing a hymn in
its praise. It must really have been a great improvement. Our
Abdullah was particularly impressed that visitors were allowed
to call on their relatives in the new jail. It was the most note-
worthy gesture the governor general of Bengal made during his
entire stay at Malacca, and we are fortunate to have Minto's
own account of the memorable day, a passage in one of his
letters to Lady Minto.
". . . One of the pleasantest parts of the celebration took
place privately after the levee. I released all the Government
slaves at Malacca, presenting to each with my own hand a cer-
tificate of their freedom and four dollars to provide for their
immediate subsistence till they can get into some way of life.
They have also the option of resuming their former state if
they find a difficulty in maintaining themselves. They are only
nineteen in number, male and female, of all ages, from infants
in arms to old helpless people. Most of them are born slaves to
the Dutch Company, some to the English, and all their chil-
dren would have continued slaves. Slavery is established in all
these countries to a shocking extent. An insolvent debtor,
however small his debt, is condemned to be the slave of the
creditor. Some have been slaves for life for 100 or 200 dollars,
and if the sum is considerable the whole family shares the
same fate. Men may gamble their children, their wives, and
lastly themselves into slavery, in satisfaction of bets upon fight-
ing cocks, or any other gambling debt; nothing is more com-
mon. If a criminal is condemned to slavery, his whole family
goes with him; or if he is put to death, the wife and children,
young and old, after witnessing the execution, are sold into
slavery the mother to one master, the children to others. I
speak now, not of Malacca, but of other Malay countries, in-
cluding Java. I hope something may be done partly by author-
ity, partly by influence to mitigate these horrors; in the mean-
while the people of Malacca have been told and have seen that
the English think no man should be deprived of his liberty
except criminals. Another proof has been given to them that we
dislike cruelty. Finding some instruments of torture still pre-
served, although they have been long disused, I had the cross
upon which criminals were broken, and another wooden in-
strument that had served as a sort of rack, burnt under the
windows of a room from which executions are seen by the
magistrates, where I and the magistrates were assembled for
the purpose; at the same time various iron articles for screw-
ing thumbs, wrists, and ankles, and other contrivances of that
diabolical sort, were carried out in a boat by the executioner
into the roads, and sunk in deep water, never to rise or screw
poor people's bones and joints again."
The lady who edited her distinguished kinsman's letters has
found the following footnote by Thomson, one of Abdullah's
translators, and appends it, as is fitting, thus:
". . . as a memento of the deliverance of the prisoners and
of other high-minded acts at Malacca, Lord Minto's portrait
was procured and hung up in the resident magistrate's office,
where he is represented as breaking the shackles of cruelty.
When I saw it in 1848, I viewed it with great curiosity. The
climate had so destroyed the colours that it might have served
for a black Madonna/'
Abdullah was there when Minto called on Mrs. Raffles at
home, paying his first ceremonial visit. The great man chatted
a little with the clerk, shook hands with him "His hand was
delicate and soft as a woman's/' Abdullah remembers and
then passed on to the interior reception room. Raffles, of
course, called on Minto daily at the earl's quarters. Writing to
his wife, Minto spoke of Olivia, and we learn from the same
letter that the Raffles household was now augmented by all
three of the sisters. (Two of them were shortly to depart under
the protection of their newly married husbands, Mary Anne
as Mrs. Captain Flint and Leonora as Mrs. B. Loftie.)
"Mrs. Raffles/' wrote the earl, "is the great lady with dark
eyes, lively manner, accomplished and clever. She had a former
husband in India, and I have heard, but am not sure of the
fact, that she was one of the beauties to whom Anacreontic
Moore addressed many of his amatory elegies." Lord Minto's
informant must have been mistaken, for as it has since been
pointed out Olivia and the Irish poet were not contemporaries.
Unless he wrote his elegies at the tender age of twelve or there-
abouts, he didn't write them to Olivia Fancourt, because he
never saw her again. 'The sisters are all fair/' Minto's letter
goes on, "one a very pretty woman. You need not smile,
Anna Maria, for George says so." George was Minto's son,
commander of the ship he traveled in. "She is the wife of Cap-
tain Flint of the Royal Navy; the other two, to avoid sneering,
I shall say, are honest-like. I have exchanged dinners with them,
have breakfasted and visited there."
Thus the shadowy Olivia once more takes on substance for
us, in spite of Sophia's determination to blot her out. "Dark
eyes, lively manner, accomplished and clever." Obviously the
earl meant it sincerely when he used the word "accomplished":
he was not saying it with the delicately scornful connotation
of Jane Austen's young clergyman from Northanger Abbey.
The coming battle for Java did not cast a shadow over the
spirits of Malacca's white population. On the contrary, the
great man Minto's visit was the excuse for a whirl of parties
such as had not been seen since white men first moved into
the city. Besides, people usually do feel gay and excited at the
beginning of important military events, however they may
feel afterward. Look at the ball held by the Duke and Duchess
of Richmond in Brussels, just before Waterloo, and the parties
given in Hong Kong to honor the newly arrived Canadian
troops just when Pearl Harbor was brewing; look at the social
columns in any city during all the wars, except, perhaps, this
latest one. We seem to have discovered, somehow, since Pearl
Harbor, that war is not such a junket after all. Or perhaps it is
just that we have cut the gold trimming off our modern battle
dress. Even in mess kit our gallant warriors aren't such beau-
tiful dancing partners as they used to be.
However, there was plenty of gold braid around in 1811. The
governor general of Bengal was frankly in high spirits, and the
agent for the government of Malacca saw small reason to con-
ceal his transports either. His dear friend Leyden had arrived
with Minto. Everyone he loved best was there, under his roof.
The penniless office boy of 1795 was playing host to the aris-
tocracy of England in Asia. The great ones of his world were
proving to be men very like himself, men who shared his tastes,
his opinions, his dearest hopes. One of the most cherished of
his plans, the acquisition of Java, was coming to fruition under
the happiest auspices. The frosting on the cake, for this soldier
in blue stockings, was that the Asiatic Society held a meeting
while the Earl of Minto was in Malacca, in special honor of
their distinguished visitor, and of course it was a meeting de
luxe, with everyone showing off his best paces and his lordship
himself presiding.
Dinner parties, soirees, card parties, amateur theatricals, all
the pageantry of colonial life at its most secure was there. The
men's uniforms vied with the ladies' best gowns in brilliancy
and glitter. It was all very exciting and amusing, taking Java
away from the French. Never had Malacca been in so much of
a bustle, though in truth the ancient town had seen the start
and finish of other expeditions. And of other empires too.
136
CHAPTER IX
If in the last chapter we were a
bit hard on the Dutch, too much attention to Mr. Boulger's
account of the Java expedition rather throws us in the other
direction, and might very likely start a prejudice working in
our minds against the British. Human nature is like that. Great
Britain's righteous indignation with the Dutch in Java makes
me want to ask Mr. Vlekke to move over and make room for
me. His Dutch ire (which incidentally he does not claim to be
righteous) is very natural.
For Mr. Boulger really does overdo it. In his own words and
also with a carefully chosen quotation from the History of Java
(author, Thomas Stamford Raffles) he draws, first, a picture
of Paradise which he calls Java, and then but here is the pic-
ture. The climate of Java, though varied, is delightful. The
cottages of the natives are charming, airy, sunlit, and placed so
cunningly against the verdurous background as to be invisible
to the untutored eye, though why this should be desirable
Boulger does not explain. The fields of crops are lovely in every
phase, but most particularly do they take the breath in beauty
during the harvest season, when the crop is golden yellow. . . .
And now, let's look at what the Dutch did to all this.
"The island might have been an earthly paradise; it became,
wherever the contaminating power of the Dutch was felt, a
long scene of misery and smothered discontent. Fair and fer-
137
tile provinces, once peopled by a happy peasantry, were turned
into vast farms or factories of sullen bondage, worked by a
rapidly diminishing race/' et cetera, et cetera.
It was the Dutch;
It was the Dutch . . .
Now all this is true enough, as Vlekke readily admits. If s
the way Boulger says it that seems unfair somehow. What ir-
ritates us is probably the unctuous tone and the emphatic sug-
gestion, so constantly repeated, that all this is peculiarly the
fault of those Dutch; that the Netherlands always, and only the
Netherlands, ruin the paradises of the world. It betrays a lack
of moderation in reporting which one usually finds only in
daily newspapers, and only during wartime. It is so very biased
that to come across it in a standard book of history is startling.
This work was intended for use as a reference book, and for all
time, whether in peace or war. Any unsuspecting Dutchman,
reading it, will probably be more than startled; he is fairly cer-
tain to be infuriated, particularly if he knows that many of his
compatriots, settled in Java at the time of the British invasion,
were heartily pro-British at first and helped the English to the
best of their ability in driving out the French. [Oddly enough
Boulger some years later wrote a book which was as much in
favor of the Dutch as Raffles is prejudiced against it.]
However, once Mr. Boulger has assuaged his conscience and
feels satisfactorily convinced that the invasion was justified, he
becomes again a careful and accurate historian, and a better
source of information for our purposes than a military expert's
technical report might be. We need not use all the material he
offers so lavishly, for Raffles had done his usual job and snowed
his superiors under with data. He knew exactly which rulers
among the many petty princes would work for him, which
would support the defense, and which preferred to remain on
the fence until they were sure of the safe side on which to
jump down. He made an ally of a powerful Sumatran prince
and arranged that this ruler should supply the troops regularly
with fresh meat. He thought of everything. Considering his
civilian status, he really did do a good, military job of intelli-
gence. His informants estimated the garrison to be twenty
thousand strong; it proved afterward to have been seventeen
thousand.
One of Daendels's many sweeping reforms was to move the
government from Batavia, which was low and marshy, to
Buitenzorg in the healthier hills. The Dutchman also gave
signs of expecting help from outside; at least it was reported
that he seemed cheerful and confident, a state of mind which
his existing defenses did not seem to warrant. Raffles wrote,
"The fall of Mauritius has no doubt fully confirmed his appre-
hensions of the nature of the intended attack. It seems
currently believed in Java that the Marshal expects almost
immediate assistance from France/'
We owe Abdullah thanks as usual; this time it is for a
glimpse of our hero in a refreshingly unheroic dilemma, upon
one occasion when he fell down on the job and, along with
England and the Company, was had for a sucker. This is how
it happened:
Two weeks or so before Minto was supposed to arrive in the
flagship, and very shortly before the early birds among the fleet
were due in Malacca, Raffles held an audience with the King
of Siak, whose name was Tengku Penglima Besar. This petty
King had come to Malacca to be there during Raffles's stay:
Abdullah, who usually knows everything, confesses that he
is not sure in this case whether Tengku was actually summoned
by Raffles or simply turned up on his own, in order to show his
loyalty* At any rate he was there, living at the expense of Raf-
fles's "expedition fund": his house, his servants, his carriage,
and his pocket money were all provided by the Company, for
that was part of the great game Raffles was playing. Siak is a
small state between Java and Malacca.
One day Raffles told Tengku that he very much wanted
someone he could trust to carry a letter to one of the sultans
in Java, the Susunan of Bantaram [probably Mataram], in
order to feel this chief out, "that I may get reliable intelli-
gence as to conditions there, and as to whether he intends to
side with the Dutch or not. If I can get a trustworthy man who
can keep a secret, to take my letter to Java, I shall be very much
pleased."
Dramatically the King of Siak leaped to his feet and
brandished his kris, one of those curved daggers which are car-
ried by almost every Malay. "What is the good of this kris?"
he cried. "As long as I have 'Si-hijau' [his pet name for the
weapon], wherever you go, sir, I will be in front of you; and I
must die first before you can be killed. Write your letter, sir,
and I will take it to the Susunan of Bantaram."
Abdullah, who anticipated the technique of modern novel-
ists by always being behind a nearby curtain or outside an
adjacent window when interesting things were happening, saw
Raffles's face light up at this. With sincere emotion he thanked
Tengku Penglima Besar, shook both his hands and assured
him of England's everlasting (and practical) gratitude. For the
next few hours they discussed elaborate arrangements, and
finally Tengku brought to the Raffles house one Pengerang,
the son of a Javanese chief, who declared himself able and will-
ing to show Tengku the proper place to land with his message,
when they should have arrived at Java. Raffles prepared his let-
ter for the Susunan and put together presents to the value of
two or three hundred dollars. He paid Tengku four hundred
dollars for expenses and gave him for himself two boxes of
valuable opium and two hundred dollars more. (Oh, Abdullah
and his greedy sharp eyes! )
Most important, according to Tengku, was the letter of safe-
conduct which Raffles wrote for him, through which he could
be sure of the freedom of the seas on his way, permitted by
British ships to go where he liked. "Hurry back," was Raffles's
last order, often repeated, "because the Lord Minto will arrive
in a fortnight and we must sail soon after that. Don't stop any-
where on the way."
He sent the men in his own fast cutter and watched them
away, standing on the beach. Then he turned to pressing duties
of preparation for the expected arrival.
Time passed. The messengers should have come back, but
they didn't. They were due, then overdue. Raffles was worried,
140
and so was Lord Minto, learning how important the matter
was. But the expedition couldn't wait, even on the Susunan
of Bantaram; everything had to go on according to plan. Some
of the fleet set sail, more ships departed, and still no Tengku
came. All of the fleet, save the very last few with the Modeste
herself, had gone when a government signaler brought news
at last: the long-awaited cutter was in sight. Just in time, too:
the Modeste was to sail in a week at the outside, some of her
officers did not want to wait even that long, and Raffles was
very eager for the information he had sent for.
Tengku and Pengerang landed and came straight to his
house, carefully and proudly carrying a letter wrapped, native
fashion, in a yellow cloth.
"Well, what is the news, Tengku?" asked Raffles. "Are you
well?"
"Quite well, sir: I was very nearly killed by being stabbed;
but only two of my men were killed, being stabbed as they
went ashore to take the letter."
"Don't worry, Tengku," said Raffles; "the English Company
will adequately reward all your labor. If we succeed in taking
the island of Java I will ask Lord Minto to let you govern a
province, whichever one you like. Now what about the letter?"
With a flourish Tengku produced the yellow bundle, and
Raffles eagerly grabbed it. "Did you yourself meet the Susu-
nan?" he asked.
Tengku said, "I did, sir, at night; and he told me that when-
ever the English wished to come and take the island of Java,
he was ready to come and help on shore." He went on to de-
scribe the dangers he had run, and the fierce fight they had
had with Javanese who surprised them in the interview. Oh,
he was fluent, and Pengerang, standing there, had no chance
to talk, but he kept confirming his superior's words. At last
the travelers took their leave and went back to town, to their
houses.
That afternoon Raffles sent again for Pengerang, as the only
Javanese handy, to read the Susunan's letter to him, and to
interpret as he went. Pengerang obediently did so. After the
customary compliments to the Company and to Raffles him-
self., the missive continued, said Pengerang, 'The letter and the
things sent me have been received, and as for our friend's re-
quest to us, we are ready waiting and whenever our friend
comes to Java, we will come to his assistance on shore/'
As Pengerang ceased reading, Raffles gazed at nothing for a
long time, sunk in thought. Pengerang waited a bit, hesitating,
then took his leave.
It was plain at least it was plain to Abdullah and no doubt
to others as wellthat Raffles was uneasy somehow. He seemed
"unsettled," the clerk noted. Every now and then he would
take up the letter, look at it, and put it down. That afternoon
he changed his usual habit and didn't ride out in his carriage
to take the air. He didn't seem to want to leave the house at
all. All night he was like that, restless and worried and thought-
ful, and the moment Abdullah saw him the next morning at
nine o'clock he knew that his chief was still in the same frame
of mind. He was leaning back in his chair, holding the letter in
his hand. In the course of the morning's work in the office he
carried it with him everywhere.
Suddenly he ran downstairs, still carrying the letter, to the
big workroom where several clerks were writing.
"Ibrahim," he said, "bring me four or five sheets of the
paper that is in the cupboard."
He took the fresh paper and the Susunan's letter and held
them out together to the secretary, saying, "Is the number of
this paper on which this letter is written the same as this paper,
or not?" (His words were probably, "Is the quality the same?"
but Abdullah evidently uses some local idiom, some office
language, which in translation is not clear. )
All the clerks answered together, without hesitation, "Ex-
actly the same; there is no difference, except that it is a little
crumpled by the hand which wrote it."
Raffles immediately sent a policeman to fetch Pengerang.
He arrived, pale as a ghost. Raffles let him stand outside on the
veranda while for a long time he marched up and down, up and
down. About twenty times he did this, ignoring the Javanese.
Suddenly he turned, still holding the letter; he rushed at Pen-
142
gerang, and very nearly struck him nearly, but not quite. Ab-
dullah, peeping through the window, fully expected to see a
blow.
"Did the Susunan of Bantaram really give this letter?" Raf-
fles shouted.
Pengerang, his face corpselike, was silent.
"Don't you hear what I ask?" yelled Raffles. "If you don't
tell the truth, I will have you hanged this moment!"
Pengerang, his feet and hands shaking, still remained silent.
Abdullah says that Raffles's face grew almost blue with anger.
RAFFLES: "You won't tell the truth?"
PENGERANG: "Sir, what can I do?"
RAFFLES: "What is that? Tell the truth."
PENGERANG: "Sir, I was a subordinate under the orders of
Tengku Penglima Besar, and I obeyed whatever he ordered;
if I had not obeyed, he would have killed me."
RAFFLES: "What is that? How did it begin? Tell the truth;
if not, it will be the worse for you."
PENGERANG: "How can I tell it? For I have sworn on the
Koran not to reveal this secret,"
RAFFLES: "That is no use, you must tell it."
The sorry, sickening story came out piecemeal, in painful
fashion. Cut down to essentials, the mission hadn't gone to
Java at all. They had put in first at Siak, because, as Tengku
said, the wind was too strong for sailing. There he took some
of the valuables ashore straight off and probably gambled them
away, piece by piece. At any rate he seemed to be in a vile tem-
per when he came back empty-handed to the cutter. He took
all the rest of the stuff that time. Before long he was openly
practicing piracy piracy, in Raffles's own cutter, using Raf-
fles's safe-conduct! When the time came to go back to Ma-
lacca, he pondered long, evidently, and at last decided that not
to turn up at all would be fatal. A King of Siak couldn't simply
disappear, after all; someday he would surely be caught if he
tried that And so ... and so he made Pengerang swear secrecy
on the Koran and write that phony letter, and . . .
Abdullah says that Raffles, as the long story of treachery was
disclosed by Pengerang, gnawed at his finger, and at the end he
stamped on the floor. His face was flushed as he said, "You go
downstairs."
Aloneor anyway thinking he was alone, for Abdullah re-
mained discreetly concealed he acted like a man in great
trouble, sighing from time to time. Abdullah understood. It
was the day he was to take his luggage and go aboard the
Modeste. All of this could not have been less opportune or
more worrying an omen. Every remaining ship but the flagship
was sailing that very day, and the Modeste's date of departure
was now put ahead and scheduled for the next day.
Still, the news had to be transmitted to the other heads of
the expedition, and so he sent out word. At three in the after-
noon their carriages began to roll up to his door, all the men
anxious to hear what news had come from Bantaram. Raf-
fles, his clerk thought, was suffering cruelly from humiliation,
but I don't think so, as I said before. Still, it is possible. He
might very likely have felt that Tengku's defection reflected
on his judgment of character, and of course the financial loss
was his responsibility, and the use of his private cutter as a
pirate vessel was no more or less than a wicked joke on
him. . . . Yes, Raffles probably did feel humiliated. But first
and foremost he must have been a badly worried man. Now
the expedition would have to set out without that important
information as to the Sultan of Bantaram's true intentions.
Minto's arrival was the signal for assembly, and when they
were ready Raffles sent for Tengku Penglima Besar, giving pri-
vate orders to the sepoy on guard not to let him bring any of
his retinue into the house. They were to remain outside the
door while their chief entered alone.
As soon as he appeared before the assembly Raffles shouted
at him: "Go away! Don't stand in front of me any longer! I
do not want to see the face of a liar and a pirate." If Tengku
didn't get out immediately he would tie him at a cannon's
mouth and shoot it off; and if the party had not been sailing so
soon, he added, he would certainly see that Tengku should
hang.
Abdullah's private opinion was that Raffles meant to convey
a hint in his angry ravings, and it does sound rather like it. He
said, "The small boat is leaving at four-thirty"; without some
such explanation this ambiguous statement doesn't make sense
at all. Raffles must have been telling Tengku in this round-
about manner that the prince had better get out of town
instanter, and would if he knew what was best for him, other-
wise the speaker, Raffles, would have no recourse but to punish
him as he deserved. There is small doubt that Raffles didn't
really want to carry vengeance as far as all that against a native
king. No matter how much he may have longed, personally,
to hang the man, he knew such an action would reflect ad-
versely on the British and would have harmful repercussions.
Therefore, even while he screamed and raved and abused
Tengku Penglima Besar, he was warning and directing the
prince at the same time. It is a nice picture, the worthy British
officers in righteous wrath assembled, nodding as one in ap-
proval while Raffles ranted and roared, and all the while, subtle
as any Oriental, transmitted his message to the craven prince
at the top of his voice. It is a very nice picture.
Tengku Penglima Besar duly escaped that night by sampan,
probably going straight back to Siak. What the British gentle-
men said among themselves Abdullah doesn't report. After all,
there was very little that could be said at that late stage of the
game.
We learned at first hand in the recent war that the chief
problem facing the invader is always how to get there. When
the invasion is to take place on another continent or an island,
the task is doubly formidable. The United Nations, when they
made their celebrated landing in North Africa, planted the
seed of victory then and there. But they had the resources of
half the world at their disposal. To the earl and his aides, con-
templating the transportation problems involved in moving
their little army from Malacca to Java, the job must have
looked at least as tough as that which the United Nations dealt
with in 1942.
Two sea routes were possible, neither of them particularly
inviting. One voyage, round the northern tip of Borneo, would
take at least two months, with luck and barring accidents. The
145
navigation was risky though. And if they elected to go this way,
they would have to put off the whole thing, because otherwise
the rainy season, due in a month or six weeks, would overtake
them about halfway even if they started immediately.
The other route by the southwest was known only by hear-
say, but its reputation was bad. Navigation was supposedly far
worse that way than by the North Borneo passage.
Raffles, backed up by Minto as usual, refused to accept these
vague accounts, which if they were believed would have dis-
couraged everyone from attempting to do anything whatever.
He dared not take a risk with the whole fleet however. Though
time was precious, unless he were to decide to hang around
Malacca for months with the entire expedition, waiting for the
end of the rains, he allotted three weeks for research. At his
suggestion the efficient, intelligent Captain Greigh took his
ship ahead to explore the unknown channel, with the under-
standing that he was to make his report within twenty days at
the most.The point to be considered was not the advisability
of going by the southwest; Raffles and Minto had decided al-
ready that they had no choice and must use it. What was still
unsettled was whether they should go by the Strait of Macassar
or the Karimata Passage.
In twenty days, as he had promised, Greigh returned, and
with welcome news. The Karimata Passage appeared quite
feasible. Moreover, it was his opinion that the voyage could be
accomplished in a month, or six weeks at the very outside.
Many of the officers wagged their heads dubiously when the
plans were announced, and no wonder. From start to finish the
thing was unorthodox. These naval and military men were not
only mercenaries hired by the Company, a good many were
soldiers of the Crown, which was sharing in the venture with
the government's Siamese twin. It was Lord Minto, the good
Englishman, who had arranged that. Now they found them-
selves in a most unconventional position, in the hands of a
youthful civilian who was not even in government, a merchant
with no claim to experience in the field of naval or military
campaigns, a self-confessed amateur, even in navigation. And
failure on the field o battle was not the chief thing that the
i 146
soldiers had to worry about, for once. The tropical waters of
the Indies are infested with sharks. . . .
What could they do when the governor general himself was
always on Raffles's side? Nothing; not even hint. Pity the of-
ficers of His Majesty's Army and Navy whose fate had sent
them on the Java expedition. But pity Raffles, too, for the
weight of responsibility he was carrying. A less imaginative
man would only have enjoyed his brief, extraordinary authority,
but for Raffles it was as if he were worrying with the combined
anxieties of every man in the party. He wasn't used to it. I
wonder how many nights of good unbroken slumber he en-
joyed after the expedition set sail with him from Malacca. He
probably counted ships instead of sheep one hundred ships,
and eleven thousand men, a lot of ships and a lot of men. And
the man on whom they depended, the agent who had brought
them all to Malacca and was now leading them to Java, the
one single solitary thirty-year-old dreamer who had brought it
all to pass, was Thomas Stamford Raffles.
A century later Raffles would certainly have developed
stomach ulcers. Fortunately for him and his associates, stomach
ulcers hadn't yet been discovered.
History says the expedition started out from Malacca on
June 11, 1811, but that is because History is an orderly muse,
strongly prejudiced against anything vague or indefinite when
it comes to dates. The fleet did not set sail on any one day,
because Minto forbade this and made them divide the ships
(fifty-seven of which were transports) into groups in order to
avoid bumping and crowding. The troops, eleven thousand,
were a mixture of white men and natives. There had been more
at the beginning, but twelve hundred were already casualties
left in the Malacca hospitals, victims of the ordinary tropical
complaints, probably for the most part dysentery.
Pride of the fleet was the Modeste, commanded by the Hon.
George Elliot, Minto's son, and naturally she was the earl's
choice for flagship. The Modeste carried himself and his closest
friends, of whom Raffles was of course numbered. She made
much better time than the others, so Elliot kept her in port a
week beyond the day the first of the fleet sailed. In no time,
147
however, she was leading, and Lord Minto, his high spirits
continuing, wrote his wife: "Commodore Broughton, who is
the most cautious navigator that ever wore a blue coat, was not
satisfied to abide by Greigh's report, but ordered the Modeste
to go ahead and reconnoitre the whole passage, thinking, very
properly, that I had better drown than he. As I was entirely of
the same opinion, I accepted the service very thankfully. In
reality I knew that George was much fitter to perform this duty
than any other officer in the fleet, and I thought it would be
amusing to myself/'
It has been a long time since we depended on sail. We sim-
ply do not realize the difficulties of such navigation even while
we are claiming that we understand. Nobody could, who hasn't
lived with it. They really were giants in those days, who went
out in such small force, in such cranky craft, to make war on
foreign shores. Beset with disease and remember, every fever
was a mystery, and every recovery was pure luck not know-
ing most of the fundamental rules of hygiene, those officers
and such men as were not natives, but British, had yet another
unofficial foe to conquer. The name of it was Discomfort.
Those Company quartermasters were too new at empire build-
ing to realize the need of special uniforms for the tropics, so
the unfortunate British set out under the blazing skies of the
East as heavily caparisoned as they would have been in chilly,
gray-skied Europe.
Lord Minto has noted in a brief account some few of the
problems faced by his son and the other naval officers.
"The difficulty was this. As soon as what is called the south-
east monsoon in the eastern seas sets in, the wind blows hard
and pretty steadily from the east along the channel between
the north of Java and the south of Borneo; it blows to the
north-west along the east coast of Sumatra, and between that
coast and the Malay Peninsula; it blows to the north between
the west coast of Borneo and the Straits of Malacca. So that,
starting from Malacca, the wind was directly contrary in every
part of the course to the northern coast of Java. Besides this
difficulty there is a current in the same direction as the wind
throughout. To carry a great fleet of transports, not famous
^148
in general for working to windward, a long voyage directly
against wind and current, did not appear promising. It was
known, however, that with a little patience, a fleet can at that
season make a passage down the Straits of Malacca by any one
of the several passages which lead to the eastward. This is done
by the help of squalls, which generally blow from the north-
ward; by occasional shifts of wind, and by alterations of tide
or current, which afford a favourable start to the eastward. . . ."
Captain Greigh's estimate had been accurate. The full fleet
glided up Java's coast just six weeks after setting forth though
the Modeste, of course, could have arrived a week sooner, ac-
cording to proud Papa Elliot, Lord Minto. They assembled on
that part of the coast opposite Batavia.
"I will not attempt to say what my feelings were on the oc-
casion," wrote Raffles (in his autobiography). "We had sep-
arated from the fleet for a few days, and it was only when we
again joined them that we saw all the divisions united at the
close of one of the finest days I ever recollect, and this in sight
of the Land of Promise." But even if it had rained, hailed, and
snowed, it would have been fine weather for the happy Raffles
that day. "Lord Minto, while at Malacca, had communicated
his intention of appointing me to the government in case of
success; and, as I had nothing to do with the military opera-
tions, I now looked upon my part as completed perhaps a
greater responsibility was never for so long on the head of a
single individual, and the relief which I felt was proportion-
ate." Yes, for a moment the Modeste's sails must have been
. filled with the heartiest sigh of relief ever heard in the history
of the Indies.
From now on the leader of the expedition would be the
commander of troops, General Sir Samuel Auchmuty, a good
friend of Lord Minto's and a talented officer. He had started
out with troops numbering just short of twelve thousand. A
tenth part of these, remember, was left ill in Malacca. Fifteen
hundred more fell ill en route to Java: this left him with nine
thousand against the Dutch General Janssens's seventeen
thousand. But those are customary odds in an invasion.
The name of the place along the Javanese coast where the
149
troops disembarked, on August sixth, is Chillinching Bay, and
there in a small village the British troops prepared for the
march on Batavia. ''The troops were so well behaved," wrote
Minto proudly, "that they did not even kiss an old woman
without her consent/' It doesn't sound like war in Asia as we
know it. Today (February 4, 1946) is marked in the news by a
few developments in the trials of the Japanese "war criminals"
Yamashita and Homma. What kind of letters, I wonder, did
the Japanese commanders write to their wives from the vic-
torious battlefields of Manila and Singapore, four years ago?
Proud, small doubt of that; burstingly, overweeningly proud,
and with reason. They had lived up to their traditions as Minto
lived up to his. Today at their trials they seem bewildered by
our code of honor. Spiritual heirs to the Earl of Minto, we are
placing emphasis on what seems to the Japanese generals the
most utterly trivial matters. So their soldiers were cruel to their
prisoners? So a few thousand women were raped, an occasional
civilian got himself bayoneted? So what? A truly courageous
army is the only virtuous army. What, they wonder dully as
they stand in court, and plod back to the cells, and plod out
again for the next day's inexplicable proceedings, what is the
idea of going over and over these boring details? To try a man
in court because he surrendered, that is a different matter and
it makes sense. To kill Yamashita and Homma only serves
them right, think Homma and Yamashita. They should have
killed themselves first, before falling into the hands of the
enemy. They are worse than dead right now, and death will be
a welcome escape. Oh, bitter humiliation, to have met defeat
at the hands of these masqueraders, these civilian sheep in
wolves' clothing, these uniformed eunuchs who place value on
the worthless lives of cowards and talk mystifying nonsense
about forcing women, just as if women were not created to be
forced!
The entire passage from Minto's letter, which is practically
a journal of the first three days, is as follows:
"The disembarkation took place without any kind of oppo-
sition. All the troops, a few field pieces and part of the stores
were landed that evening and in the coufse of the night. The
horses, ordnance, and additional stores were put on shore next
day. . . - This village is principally Chinese. They made us wel-
come; and brought their articles out for sale with very flattering
confidence. This was justified by the exemplary behaviour of
the troops, who paid their way and did not even kiss an old
woman without her consent. There has been but one drunken
man in two days.
"August 7. As everything has been quiet, and the army re-
mained at Chillinching, where the general [Auchmuty] occu-
pied the only gentleman's house, I have continued on the
'Modeste' and go on shore when I like. Yesterday I took a ride
with the General to the advanced post, about four miles, and
then returned to the 'Modeste/ The country is like Chinese
paper on a wall. Canals, tanks and narrow ways between; here
and there a little dry ground, and these spaces are in a state of
high cultivation. Every now and then we found a gentleman's
house with no appearance of splendour, but always marked by
the characteristic neatness of the Dutch. Our road ran westward
parallel to the sea; the right of the line of the troops on the
sea, the left inland. I had an opportunity of observing what
may be deemed, I believe, a pretty nearly unexampled degree
of discipline in the troops. They do not use tents, and have as
yet had only their salt provisions. They are posted in gardens
and orchards with cottages and houses of a better description,
surrounded with poultry, fruit and vegetables. No fresh beef
or pork was to be procured, the cattle and pigs having been
very generally removed by order of the Government. In these
circumstances we saw the peasants living as quietly in their
own houses and carrying on their usual occupations with as lit-
tle annoyance, apprehension, or even notice of an invading
army in the midst of them, as if we were all their near relations
on a visit. You see the trees laden with cocoa, nuts and plan-
tains, acres of onions, cabbage and many tempting things, not
one taken, nor the slightest offence given to a single inhabit-
ant. Not a duck or a hen made free with, money offered and
given in every instance for what the people are willing to
spare. . . . The gentlemen's houses and other habitations of a
middling kind being deserted, with some old slave or servant
151
left behind to look after them, the officers have astonished
these guardians by refusing to occupy the houses with clean
beds and neat furniture, and sleeping sometimes in the ve-
randah, sometimes in a separate pavillion, and never in the
house; and the cocks are seen fighting, the hens and chickens
pecking about, and the ducks gobbling and dabbling, just as
if they were our own fellow-subjects. I observed yesterday to
the General, as we were passing the house of the Dutch Pay-
master-General, that a battle which we saw between two of his
cocks was the only thing like war I could perceive in our inva-
sion.
"August 9. The advance of the army having moved forward
to a place about three miles from Batavia, the General sent a
summons to the city which was immediately acknowledged
by a surrender at discretion. The enemy, in order to concen-
trate their force at a place called Cornelis, had withdrawn the
troops on the 6th, and set fire to some public stores and to the
citadel; the town was therefore glad of our protection against
a disposition to plunder and disorders manifested by the slaves
and lower class of Malays. We were thus in possession of the
metropolis of the Dutch East Indian Empire the fourth day
after our landing. Not a gentleman, not a person of any note
was left in the city. The Dutch, that is, the French Governor,
had required them under pain of death to quit their houses and
repair to the headquarters of the army, where they are nar-
rowly watched. They had left their houses, however, richly
furnished, their wives, children, and slaves to the safe-guard
of the invaders' generosity; and we are all Scipios. The de-
serted women were in terror, not of us but of their own slaves,
who have a slavish trick of using the opportunity of public
disorder to gratify their private passions by rising on the de-
fenceless whites and murdering those they rob. , . . Everything
portable of public property had been removed from the town,
but much valuable public property was consumed and much
plundered. In some streets people walked during the first days
of our occupation over their shoes in sugar, coffee, spices and
rice. But much had been preserved. In that great city were
found only six horses (ponies) and not one head of cattle.
"I sent a letter yesterday to General Janssens, the Governor-
General, containing a summons, and distributing at the same
time a sort of manifesto to the Dutch inhabitants to remove
their apprehensions and invite their cooperation. The sum-
mons was refused and I received the answer that night/'
Two proclamations, signed by the earl and countersigned
by Raffles, were posted in the town. One was addressed to the
Dutch, in their own tongue, and the other was written in
Malay and Javanese for the natives. The Dutch were reminded
that France was their enemy, and as for Holland, "Their
country has expired/' England offered them refuge: England,
"champion and defender of Europe . . . His Excellency . . .
offers friendship and protection during any contest which it
may be necessary to maintain with those who would adhere
to France/'
The address to the natives was not so brief. After the cus-
tomary reassurances and promises of liberation, they were
warned not to take up arms against the French or the Dutch,
"except when expressly called upon to do so by an English
officer/' Take note of this, because it is interesting in the light
of Minto's orders, which you should remember as being of an
opposite nature. He had been commanded to "subdue the
Dutch Government, to destroy the fortifications, to distribute
the ordnance, arms, and military stores, amongst the native
chiefs and inhabitants, and then to retire from the country/'
Minto was a humanitarian, and he had all the excuse of
his principles in annexing the territory he "liberated," instead
of retiring from the country as he had been ordered to do. Re-
member his letter. He argued that the Company could not
ignore its moral obligation to protect the Dutch settlers from
retribution at the hands of the natives. From there to the next
argument, that England was equally obligated to protect the
natives from the aftereffects of this disrupted system, was a
short step. It was a very short step then, and it is shorter now-
adays, when we face the same problem in other parts of the
world as well as in Java, though at the moment of writing it
crops up in Java again today.
There are echoes of this argument everywhere. They re-
sound deafeningly from the shores of India. They thunder
from Japan. We have heard them for years in Hong Kong.
And the commissions and committees of the victors are not
silent even in Europe.
As for Java in 1811, Lord Minto was there on the spot and
the Court of Directors was not. Minto could be stubborn
when his Scottish conscience was involved, along with his
Scottish foresight. Thus their moral obligation was recognized
by their representative, and the meeting of it became a fait
accompli.
Meantime the war continued, though not in Batavia.
Janssens held a position in the hills where the climate was
comparatively healthy, and he felt that the British, occupying
as they did the swamps and fever-ridden, low-lying locality of
Batavia, would soon be decimated by nature, without any
effort on his part. Auchmuty's methods, however, were not of
such a passive character. lie attacked Janssens and captured
his position two days after the occupation of Batavia, then
he waited at ease in those superior hill entrenchments until
heavy artillery could be brought up from the ships. Janssens's
losses in men were great; Auchmuty's were not. To tell the
truth none of these encounters, save Cornelis, was more than a
skirmish.
The battle for the fort of Cornelis was definitely a brilliant
victory, credit for which lies with Colonel Gillespie. Then
the worst was over. After that it was a matter chiefly of time,
though there were still the battles of Samarang, Sourabaya,
and Fort Ludowyck to win. Java was obviously soon to be sur-
rendered to the British, at least those portions of Java which
the white men held. (The island had never yet been com-
pletely conquered.) Though fighting was rumored still to
be going on in several obscure localities, Lord Minto felt
himself justified in issuing his proclamation of victory Sep-
tember eleventh. Java, after a very short term under the
French, was now in the hands of the British "added to the
dominion of the British Crown/' as Minto said in his dispatch
to the Court of Directors, "and converted from a seat of hos-
tile machination and commercial competition into an aug-
mentation of British power and prosperity/'
Raffles had done it. There he was occupying a position
that rivaled a boy's wildest dreams of power. He remembered
dreams like that. Filmy stuff they had been, reveries to com-
fort a frustrated, undernourished, overworked youth in Lon-
don, fairy tales to allay his adolescent disappointments. Now
they had come true, and he, Thomas Raffles, who had been
too poor even for a rotten little Hammersmith school Raffles
had done it. He had paid his way, and he had got there.
" 'What will you have?' asked God. Take it, and pay for
it/ "
Raffles had paid a high price, Leyden was dead.
When the expedition started out from Malacca, John Ley-
den had been as integral a part of it as Lord Minto himself.
It was John Leyden who first interested the earl in Malays as
humans, with a literature and a morality of their own. It was
Leyden who spoke warmly to the governor general of Bengal,
time and time again, of his friend Raffles, until Minto began
to watch out himself for communications from the remark-
able secretary of Penang. Leyden had sympathized with Minto
in his enthusiastic plans, at the very beginning, when Java first
crept into their talk. Leyden it was who had invested the ex-
pedition with charm and turned it from a political maneuver
into a golden adventure with his eager plans for the Javanese
and his intuitive appreciation of his friends' special quirks and
loves and hates. He somehow took from the undertaking the
curse of most military projects saber rattling in society and
invested it with a scholarly flavor that was piquant and origi-
nal. Leyden was the first to dash ashore when the fleet weighed
anchor on the Java coast; he rushed through the surf at Chil-
linching and stood on dry land in advance of the army. He
was a happy man when they moved into Batavia, eager to
touch and to read the Malay manuscripts there. The Dutch
offices had been closed since the administration moved to
Buitenzorg: Leyden hurried to open them up and examine
such archives as had been left there. According to the accounts
they gave Raffles afterward r he must have been struck down
in one of the "godowns"the warehouses where such papers
were stored. He had broken into the little room, ignoring
the fetid atmosphere, and begun immediately to go through
some official papers stored on the shelves. He came out shiver-
ing with the ague and died two days later in Raffles's arms.
That happened in August. A few months later and he would
have married Leonora Raffles, the youngest sister of his best
friend. But even that marriage could not have brought him
closer to Raffles than he was already, and had been for years.
His enemies called Thomas Raffles an overly ambitious
man. Perhaps he was. But if anything is certain it is that on
this, the occasion of his greatest triumph, he was completely
indifferent to all his success. It is doubtful whether he knew
what his friends were celebrating, or cared. In the center of the
joyous hubbub of victory he was silent, trying to appreciate his
loss and foolishly, futilely missing the closest friend he had
ever had or was ever again to find.
CHAPTER X
Scenes sung by him who sings no moref
His brief and bright career is o'er,
And mute his tuneful strains.
Quenched is his lamp of varied lore,
That loved the light of song to pour;
A distant and a deadly shore
Has Leyden's cold remains/
What amazingly bad poetry
Sir Walter Scott wrote, to be sure.
Lord Minto helped Raffles at Leyden's funeral. They were
pallbearers, if that is the correct term. His closest friends, who
were together because of him, buried him in Batavia ceme-
tery. The greatest honor Raffles was able to pay Leyden he
had to keep until he published the History of Java, and that
was not until five years later. He paid due tribute to Leyden
in the Introduction. But though the words are correct and
thus sound cold, he must have been acutely aware of his loss
all the while he was writing his book. No occupation could
have been more calculated to remind him hourly of how much
he could have profited by Leyden's advice and how they would
have enjoyed doing that work together. "We have lost in him
a host of men/' he wrote Marsden soon after the event.
Whatever his private feelings, however, it was now time,
when Leyden had been buried, to take over Java and the im-
mense lot of work that accompanied the island's possession,
after the final victory. The day of the proclamation was also
the day Lord Minto kept a promise he had never quite voiced
but only hinted: he commissioned Raffles lieutenant gover-
nor of "Java and all its dependencies/' It seems impossible
ever to award a diplomatic plum like this clean and clear.
There is always some other claimant who must be disap-
pointed, and Lord Minto, whose career included many proj-
ects beside his favorite Java, had evidently led someone else
to expect the governorship. The man's name has never been
put on record. Boulger thinks it was probably Robert Farquhar
(not William) , formerly of Malaya, now a knight and the new
governor of Mauritius.
I mention it because I would like to make a guess myself.
Could some one of Minto's circle possibly have given Colonel
Gillespie any idea of hoping for the job? Gillespie was an ex-
cellent army officer and his part in the campaign for Java was
an important, honorable one. Perhaps he dreamed a few
dreams of his own while the battle was going so well. Later
developments indicate that his was not a subtle nature, nor
an overly modest one. Even though he had no right, logically
speaking, to feel aggrieved when Raffles got the appointment,
he must have experienced a pang of resentment that the youth-
ful civilian had done so well out of the venture. Military groups
relinquish the prizes for which they have fought very reluc-
tantly, and there have been cases when they wouldn't relin-
quish them at all. (MacArthur's men held onto Manila jeal-
ously for a long, long time.)
It is not difficult to understand this. Consider the matter
from the soldier's viewpoint. He feels that he carries the whole
burden of the undertaking. If he didn't think of this for him-
self, everybody assures him of it, and praises him, and pets
him before the battle. When the war is over and everyone
is happy and the prizes are being given out, it must be hard to
watch some civilian, who, as far as the soldier can see, has done
nothing but send other men into danger, step up and become
the big boss. A high-ranking officer has even more aggravation
than that. His men, if they like him, are more than ready to
help him feel aggrieved and to assure him of their support. In
Java things must have been hard enough for these army peo-
ple all the way along, for Raffles was with them from the be-
ginning to the endRaffles the outsider, the tradesman, gov-
erning their lives, telling them what to dothem, soldiers of
the King! Every time an unpopular direction came from
Minto, the younger officials probably muttered curses on
Raffles's head for having put the old man up to it. It was obvi-
ous that he carried a lot of weight with the governor.
If, added to this normal resentment, Gillespie had reason
or even thought mistakenly he had reason to hope for the
big appointment, it is no wonder that he hated Raffles bit-
terly from the day the new governor general took office.
Ignoring all such spiteful jealousies, as he had long since
learned to do in his career, Lord Minto was happily certain
that he had been just. The words of the appointment included
a statement that he could not "conscientiously withhold it
from the man who had won it." Exactly, grumbled Colonel
Gillespie in his secret heart; and who, he would like to ask,
had won it? When he was told that he would remain in Java
as a council member and as commander of the garrison, his
transports were moderate. He was one of three councilmen,
and the only Briton. The others were H. W. Muntinghe and
J. P. Cranssen, Dutchmen who had served before with the
Javanese Government, under Dutch rule, and who were favor-
ably disposed toward their British conquerors, the self-styled
liberators of Java.
Minto wrote his wife, after the campaign, about the ill-
fated Janssens, his number one prisoner of war, recommend-
ing the Dutch general to her courteous attention in the un-
likely possibility that she might meet him. The passage is
quoted here because of an interesting reference to Daendels.
It should be mentioned that this concept of Daendels, though
Minto was thoroughly sincere, in the light of later evidence
appears to be exaggerated and unjust. Witness the fact that
Raffles in his Javanese post actually learned to admire the
"Thundering Marshal" for some of his works, and did not
scruple to admit it.
"This letter goes by transport, the 'Countess d'Harcourt',
which carries General Janssen and his suite to England as
prisoners of war. If you should by any chance come their way,
Palm, be civil [a phrase frequently addressed by Lady Palmer-
ston to her lord] for he is one of the best and most estimable
men I ever knew. He has suffered a great and severe reverse,
which he has felt so deeply as to affect his health. His prede-
cessor was a wretch in every imaginable way, one of the mon-
sters which the worst times of the French Revolution en-
gendered, or rather lifted from the mud at the bottom to
flounce and figure away their hour upon the surface. He was
greedy, corrupt and rascally in amassing money for himself,
and equally unjust and oppressive in procuring public sup-
plies. He was cruel, and regardless of men's lives beyond most
of the revolutionary tyrants in the Realm of Terror. He forced
the Javanese to cut a road through a morass at the expense of
6000 lives for this short space. He ordered two Javanese
Princes, confined by him as state prisoners, to be privately
murdered, and became savage from the delay which arose from
the scruples of the officer in whose custody they were; a provi-
dential delay, for Janssen arrived in the interval, and passing
through the place on his way to Batavia saved the victims.
D'Aendels was as great a brute and tyrant in his pleasures-
no man's family was safe. ... In short, none of the worst of
the Roman pro-consuls ever vexed and scourged the provinces,
too distant for control, with more extortion and cruelty than
this villain. His successor is his opposite in every point a vir-
tuous, just, and humane man; a brave and good officer! and
I think, from his conversation, a wise and even enlightened
statesman.
"Bonaparte certainly did one good action in sending a
character so respectable to supersede D'Aendels at twenty-
four hours notice; for he was peremptorily ordered to resign
the government in that time, and to embark immediately for
Europe. As soon as the ship was under weigh, it is understood
here that the captain produced an order to carry him to France
160
as a prisoner. The attachment of all sorts of men to Janssen
is remarkable; and he certainly deprived us of the support
which, if we had found D'Aendels in the government, the
Dutch particularly of this colony would have given us. So
pray be civil to my virtuous predecessor in Java, if you have the
opportunity/'
Minto could not stay more than a month or so, after his
proclamation indicated that the war was over. In October,
Raffles, now officially in residence at Ryswick in Batavia, gave
a large dinner party and ball in honor of Lord Minto and Gen-
eral Sir Samuel Auchmuty, who were sailing for India on the
nineteenth with most of the troops. It was the grandest affair
over which he had ever presided, with fireworks and all the
trimmings. A heavy rain spoiled the fireworks, but then noth-
ing is ever quite perfect, and without that trifling annoyance
our Raffles might have felt too proud to stay on the ground
like ordinary mortals; he might quite possibly have discovered
the power to fly.
Minto seemed equally elated, as his gay letter to Lady
Minto testifies.
"George sent you the history of my orgies at a dinner given
by me to Sir Samuel Auchmuty and the army. The army has
since given a ball and supper to Sir Samuel and me promptly;
and we entered hand in hand, like the two kings of Brentford
smelling at one nosegay. This festival was at the residence 6f
the former Governor-General, and the decorations had been
all or nearly so in a state of preparation for the celebration of
Napoleon's birthday, which we disturbed like trouble-fetes
as we were, by landing and getting possession of Batavia,
Government House, decorations and all, a few days before the
grand occasion. ... It is impossible to give you anything
like an adequate notion of the total absence of beauty in so
crowded a hall/'
It is said by the novelist Banner among others that the
Dutch guests at this dinner many of them were invited, even
General Janssens and two of his generalswere shocked by
British levity. The fact that toasts were drunk to music startled
them, and they were further amazed and dismayed when
161
Raffles was "chaired" around the room, to the accompaniment
of great cheers and hunting halloos.
It would not be so very strange if that were true. One could
scarcely expect to find Janssens entering into the spirit of the
party with genuine gusto.
For the several years preceding the climax of Java, every-
thing moved so quickly for Raffles that the account has been
confusingly crowded. It would have been one more extraneous
detail in an already overdetailed canvas, and so I have pur-
posely postponed, until now, speaking of a letter Raffles wrote
to England in 1809, just before he went to India and met Lord
Minto, and settled his fate.
He had not yet met Minto, but he evidently had premoni-
tions of grandeur. Or perhaps it would be better to say simply
that he saw which way things were shaping, for the word
"premonition" is a rather silly one to use in connection with
the scientific Raffles. One may as well claim he had been en-
tertaining premonitions ever since as a boy he fought for his
right to an education. Let us rather call it an "intimation"
that led him to write the following request to his uncle
William:
My DEAR SIR,
The above extract [it was from a book of heraldry] will in
part show the purport of this letter. The only circumstance
relative to OUT family to be traced in the Heralds' College is,
as far as I could learn, that about the time of James the First,
or Second, there was a Sir Benjamin Raffles created Knight-
Banneret, and I recollect to have heard you mention that,
after some troublesome search for the arms of the family, this
information could alone be obtained.
Now, as Knights-Banneret were next to Barons in dignity,
as appears by statute made in the fifth year of King Richard
II, statute 2, chap. 4, and by the foregoing extract, their heirs
male are entitled to precedence, and consequently the title,
162
it is of some importance to me to trace this more particularly,
not that I am anxious at present to obtain the title, but I have
reason to think that hereafter it may be of consequence. I
have therefore to request of you, as a particular favour, that you
will mate the most diligent enquiry for me into every particu-
lar to be found in the Heralds' Office, and communicate the
same to me with every particular you know respecting the
family of my grandfather, and back from him to the date in
which the glorious Knight-Banneret, Sir Benjamin, strutted
his hour.
Whatever expense may attend the inquiry will be cheer-
fully defrayed by my friend Mr. R. S. Taylor of Gray's Inn.
If you are successful, send out attested copies of every par-
ticular in duplicate by the first opportunity, and oblige, your
affectionate nephew,
THO. RAFFLES
Prince of Wales's Island
^^th Feb. 1809.
P.S. At all events get the arms drawn and emblazoned with
their supporters, etc.
The situation was not definite when Raffles began his
Javanese administration. Put in plain language, it amounted
to this: Minto and Raffles hoped, strongly, that the home gov-
ernment would agree with their urgent advice to keep Java as
a permanent acquisition. They were under no illusions how-
ever; they knew that many influential men were against the
idea and that their opposing counsels would in all likeli-
hood prevail, sooner or later. So much for the new ambitious
plan Raffles had evolved, to use Java as a center of a great
Eastern empire, from which to spread out not only to the
Archipelago but farther and farther, to the gateways of India
and China. "No man better than yourself," he wrote Marsden^
"can appreciate the value of this new acquisition to the British
empire it is in fact the other India." Knowing that his chances
of carrying out his plan grew slimmer every time his opponents
were confronted with evidence of his attempts, Raffles em-
163 *>
barked on a campaign of quiet, independent preparation. He
concealed nothing which it was vitally necessary to report to
the home group, but he did a good deal of feeling around, and
thinking, and talking things over with his ally Minto, which
was kept from the others. He went further than this in many
small ways. Boulger is blunt about it: "As he was fearless of
responsibility, he prosecuted his own measures without refer-
ence to the superior powers, because he knew that the delay
caused by reference would make them useless and out of date,
and was actuated by the conviction that the success and re-
sult of his proceedings would be their best and sufficient jus-
tification."
In doing this he was following the example of Minto, who
deliberately disobeyed every one of the Company's injunctions
when victory was achieved in Java. Minto hastened to explain
his disobedience and to ask forgiveness and support, as we can
see if we read the dispatch he sent back on the heels of his
proclamation of victory. In modem language we would call
the dispatch one long alibi. But even though he may have
made his point, and though the Company did not act fierce
about it, or demand his resignation (he had never feared they
would do that), they reserved the right to persist in their own
policy. It was a tug of war in the next few years, with Minto
and Raffles trying on one side to persuade the Company and
the government to continue carrying out the action they had
forced, and the Company and the government silently waiting
for the best way to get back without fuss on the path they
had determined to follow. In the meantime Raffles went
ahead piling up his bets, making ready for the eventuality of
Minto's carrying the day. He governed Java, deliberately, as
though the British were there to stay. But between himself
and the earl there was no need of pretense, and several times
in their correspondence we come across some reference to the
true situation. The two men felt that even if Java failed they
still had some secondary choice. There was the island of Banca
near Java, which had never belonged outright to the Dutch,
though they had some vague claims of suzerainty over it, as
usual. It couldn't be compared with Java in convenience for
164
their purposes, but it would do, failing better, and Minto was
quite certain that Banca at least would be retained by the big
bosses, even if they did give Java back. There were other pos-
sibilities too. Raffles never closed his eyes to new ones.
He found his policy of independence all the easier to fol-
low because he had extraordinarily full powers bequeathed to
him by the departing governor general. He needed such sup-
port for two reasons. One was the fact that Java was still in-
completely under control, to put it politely, and the second
was that Gillespie, smarting with a sense of injustice and tem-
peramentally predisposed to chafe under Raffles's direction at
any time, started making trouble in camp.
Java had never been entirely conquered by any European
nation. Two chiefs reigned over the unoccupied portion, and
until the time the topic of Holland's colonial possessions be-
came the tennis ball of Europe, the Dutch had been preparing
to give nominal independence back to yet more of the island's
inhabitants. Raffles found himself up against a formidable job
of subjugating nearly half of Java, before the strains of the
victory ball died out on the air.
The Emperor of Java, called the Susuhunan, and the Sul-
tan of Jojocarta were the two chiefs who held most power on
Java.
Two months after British occupation Raffles started out to
follow his instructions and to settle the situation, or at least
to establish relations with these kings. On the east coast of
Sumatra there was another territory, Palembang, which had
been a dependency of the Dutch in Java; that too had to be
rounded up. Therefore in November a commission set out
from Batavia for Palembang, to take over the factory in the
name of the British, and to pay a call on the Sultan just to see
how the land lay. A Dutchman was included in the party as
one of the commissioners.
The arrival of the commission had a disastrous effect on the
Sultan's temper. He gave his orders, and his subjects promptly
massacred the local Dutch settlers and would have done the
same to the British commission if they had got hold of them.
As soon as the news arrived in Batavia, Raffles sent out
troops, under Colonel Gillespie, to subdue the peppery Sul-
tan, and the affair was soon settled. Gillespie's account was
vivid and informative, though scarcely like a modern com-
muniqu6 from the front.
". . . In my inquiries, I have been occasionally so be-
wildered by falsehood, guilt, and prevarications, that I have
experienced considerable difficulty in selecting the evidences
most worthy of attention/' he said. He decided to believe the
following story, and threw away masses of taller tales.
Pangerang Ratoo, the then Sultan's eldest son, was the vil-
lain responsible for the massacre. 'The crimes committed by
this barbarous and sanguinary assassin, since the period he has
been enabled to indulge his abandoned inclinations, have been
distinguished by circumstances of such aggravated cruelty and
guilt, that the inhabitants of the kingdom have beheld him
with one common sentiment of horror, hatred, and indigna-
tion. . . .
". . . Among other pursuits that were followed by him
with great avidity, was that of spearing the unhappy and de-
fenceless wretches whom he accidentally encountered in his
lawless excursions, or of sacrificing their wives and daughters
to his abandoned cruelty and passions. * . ."
Attracted by a Chinese woman, he made her husband help
him accomplish her rape, upon which the outraged man, who-
lived near the Dutch garrison, shouted to them for help. "An
armed party was detached to his aid, and pursued the Pan-
gerang Ratoo to his prow on the river, without being sensible
of the dignity they were so successfully routing; the discovery
of this unpleasant truth was made by himself before their
separation. The boat was moored several yards from the shore,
and in consequence he was compelled to swim a considerable
distance before his escape was complete. No sooner, however,
had he gained his canoe than he turned to his pursuers, and
cried with the most callous effrontery, 'You are ignorant/
said he, 'of the influence and power you have so audaciously
defied; know, to your confusion, that it is the Pangerang Ratoo
himself, and rest assured that in three days you shall all of you
be murdered, and your present habitations rendered such a
scene of desolation, that they shall only be fit for birds to build
their nests on/ " Rather foolishly, it seems to me, considering
the warning, all the officers of the garrison soon afterward ac-
cepted the father's invitation to meet him at the palace for
some affair or other. While they were absent, his troops got
into the fort and easily massacred the whole lot of foreigners.
There was plenty of reason, averred Gillespie, for believing
that some of the townspeople joined with the Sultan in this
business, in particular the principal magistrate. "I have, there-
fore, stipulated most expressly with Adipattie," said the colo-
nel, "that all the prompters and abettors of this inhuman
massacre shall be treated with great severity; that their prop-
erty shall be sequestered the moment they are known, and
a portion of it laid aside for the support of the wives and
orphans who have been so cruelly deprived of their natural
protectors.
"There was one European [female] among the unhappy
victims thus sacrificed by the Sultan. She was embarked on
the boats, and after suffering every violence and pollution her
abandoned murderers were capable of offering her, she was
inhumanly butchered and thrown into the river with the rest
of the garrison.
"The remaining women were sent as slaves up the country,
and the relation of distress, starvation, and misery they en-
countered in their bondage, is calculated to excite such senti-
ments of horror and indignation against the whole race, that at
times I can with difficulty hold intercourse with people allied
to such monsters of barbarity. . . .
"Their joy on emancipation is proportioned to the severity
of their former sufferings, and their gratitude to the govern-
ment is animated and sincere. Except the one previously speci-
fied, they are nearly all of them under my protection, and I
shall take the earliest opportunity of either forwarding them
to their friends on Java, or permit them to remain on the
Island of Banca until some further arrangements may be made
respecting them.
"I have endeavoured to ascertain, as correctly as I can, the
primitive source of the Sultan's inhumanity, which is clearly
167^
to be attributed to the unbounded indulgence he has always
bestowed on the vices of his son. He appears to have tolerated
him in the pursuit of every evil, and protected him in the ac-
complishment of every object to which his unruly passion or
violent inclinations hurried him forward, and to have been
but an instrument for the protection of his son's wickedness.
He has discovered too late, by his own overthrow, the melan-
choly consequences that ought always to attend so unprinci-
pled a departure from every sacred law and moral obligation/'
On May twenty-ninth Colonel Gillespie was here referring
to the punitive measures adopted by him when he settled up,
in placing Sultan Ratoo Ahmed Nujm-ood-deen on the throne
in the room of his brother Mahrnud Badruddin, who had been
deposed. After describing the ceremony, the coronation, or
whatever the proper term is when a king is deposed and his
brother put on the throne in his place, Gillespie spoke of "the
treaty":
"I shall have the honour to forward to you all the public
documents that were either proclaimed or ratified upon this
important occasion. You will see by the stipulations of the
treaty, how completely they have been dictated with a view
to our interests, and you will perceive that the cession of Banca
and Billiton is unlimited and complete.
"In establishing the British authority at Minto (previously
called Minta by the natives) I declared the Island of Banca
to be named after his Royal Highness the Duke of York; the
capital town after the Right Hon. the Governor-General of
all India; and the fort now building there after his Excel-
lency the Commander-in-Chief."
That affair marked the beginning of the high hopes Raffles
placed in Banca as a second-string center for his empire.
At the same time that the commission to Palembang was
running into such stormy weather, Raffles was paying his re-
spects to the Sultan of Jojocarta. It was a dramatic occasion,
one on which the new lieutenant governor had his first op-
portunity to show what he was made of. Was he going to live
up to tradition as befitted a representative of the great white
race? Or would his inferior education now show up? Raffles,
168
as the angry Gillespie never allowed himself (or the world) to
forget, was not the orthodox diplomat with years of interna-
tional poker playing to give him that poise so necessary at
such moments. But the bulldog breed didn't let England
down. Raffles during the interview behaved exactly like all his
predecessors in history, and all his successors on the stage.
What made it so tense was a matter of arithmetic. Raffles
had only a handful of retainers, and the Sultan brought along
the entire military force of Jojocarta to witness the meeting
in the hall of audience. Since there had been no preliminary
correspondence between them, it was touch and go whether
the Sultan should become as capricious as his royal colleague
over in Palembang (though that news had not yet been
brought to Batavia) and suddenly command a massacre. How-
ever, he didn't. They talked and made an agreement which
was soon to be forgotten by the Sultan, and then they said
good-by, very politely.
"The Sultan was accompanied," says Lady Raffles in one
of her infrequent bursts of personal narrative, "by several
thousands of armed followers, who expressed in their be-
haviour an infuriated spirit of insolence, and several of his own
suite actually unsheathed their own creeses to indicate plainly
that they only waited for the signal to perpetrate the work
of destruction; had this been given, from the manner in which
the English were surrounded, not a man could have escaped/'
One of my favorite phrases in all the literature of Raffles is
included in this quotationthat "infuriated spirit of inso-
lence/' I can well imagine the Sultan's favorite wife writing
her memoirs, inditing her version of the same incident: "The
hirelings of the rascal Englishman, traitors to their own breed,
stood about in the royal hall and imitated in their behavior the
incredible impertinence of their white master. He, at least,
had the excuse of his own infidel ignorance, whereas they
knew better. Picture the scene: the puny potato-sprout crea-
ture without so much as a Ceylon ruby anywhere about his
dingy clothing, exhibiting the most barbarous bad manners
when he addressed the Lord of Creation, the monarch of our
mighty Java. Though to give the devil his due, at least he did
160 &^>
speak a civilized language, which is more than one can say
for most of the pests/'
Boulger actually tried his hand at it: ". . . in the centre of
this disturbed and threatening scene the far from stalwart but
energetic and impressive form of Raffles, calm, unmoved, still-
ing with eloquent Malayan phrases the storm, and convinc-
ing Sultan and vassals alike that in him they had a friend, per-
haps, but certainly a master/ 7
As a passage this has a nice ringing fall, but Boulger must
have been fairly carried away by his own eloquence thus to
forget in how short a time the Sultan and his vassals denied
their certain master and perhaps friend. A very short time in-
deed elapsed before Raffles had to accompany Gillespie,
scarcely off the ship from Sumatra, to remind the Sultan of
Jojocarta all over again of his existence. This time it was really
serious, for the Sultan had got in touch with the Susuhunan
and made peace with him for the first time in history, and the
two newly made allies with all the smaller Javanese princes
immediately determined to band together and get rid once
and for all of the whites.
This exciting event in Raffles's early Javanese days has been
incorporated in Traverses Journal in a vivid passage which
combines daily life with an extraordinarily grave struggle, in
a cockeyed sort of way, the way these things really happen.
"After the expedition to Palembang had sailed, Mr. Raffles'
attention was again directed to the courts of Djocjocarta and
Couracarta, where disturbances were recommencing, particu-
larly at the former place, and he ? in consequence, determined
on proceeding to Samarang, when he took his family with him.
On his arrival at Samarang he obtained such information as
led him to suppose that it would be difficult to bring the Sul-
tan of Djocjocarta to pacific terms. He accordingly deemed it
prudent to collect such a force in the neighbourhood as would
enable him to dictate such terms as he deemed advisable for
the safety of the Island.
"At the time these operations were carrying on, Mr. Raffles
was availing himself of every opportunity of gaining local
knowledge. The native chiefs were constant guests at his table,
170
and there was not a moment of his time which he did not con-
trive to devote to some useful purpose. The only recreation
he ever indulged in, and that was absolutely necessary for the
preservation of his health, was an evening drive, and occasion-
ally a ride in the morning. He was not, however, at this time
an early riser, owing to his often writing till a very late hour at
night. He was moderate at table, but so full of life and spirits,
that on public occasions he would often sit much longer than
agreed with him. In general the hour for dinner was four
o'clock, which enabled the party to take a drive in the evening;
but on all public days, and when the party was large, dinner
was at seven o'clock. At Samarang the society of course was
small in comparison with Batavia, but on public occasions
sixty and eighty were often assembled at the Government-
house, and at balls from 150 to 180. Mr. Raffles never retired
early, always remained till after supper, was affable, animated,
agreeable and attentive to all, and never seemed fatigued, al-
though perhaps at his desk all the morning, and on the fol-
lowing day would be at business at ten o'clock. In conducting
the detail of government, and giving his orders to those im-
mediately connected with his own office, his manner was most
pleasing, mild, yet firm; he quickly formed his decision, and
gave his orders with a clearness and perspicuity which was
most satisfactory to every one connected with him; he was
ever courteous and kind, easy of access at all times, exacting
but little from his staff, who were most devotedly attached
to him. The generosity of his disposition, and the liberality
of his sentiments, were most conspicuous and universally ac-
knowledged.
"As a public servant, no man could apply himself with
more zeal and attention to the arduous duties of his office. He
never allowed himself the least relaxation, and was ever alert
in the discharge of the important trust committed to him;
and it is astonishing how long his health continued good under
such great exertions both of mind and body.
"Whilst remaining at Samarang, a fleet arrived at Batavia
from England, bound to China, and at the same time a ves-
sel was reported ready to sail from thence to Batavia, which
determined Mr. Raffles on proceeding there without delay, to
receive the despatches; on which occasion, Mr. Assey, Secre-
tary to Government, and myself, accompanied him. We em-
barked on board a small vessel, the Hamston, and had a very
quick passage of only seventy-two hours; during which time
he drew up the Report on the capture of Djocjocarta, enter-
ing into a full and clear account of the circumstances which
rendered this measure absolutely necessary for the preser-
vation of peace on the Island. We landed at seven o'clock in
the evening, when a grand public ball was given at Welter-
vreeden, to celebrate the anniversary of the Prince Regent's
birth-day. At this entertainment Mr. Raffles, to the astonish-
ment of all present, attended, as it was supposed he was at
Samarang. He was the life and spirit of the entertainment.
Not less than three hundred persons were assembled; and,
indeed, on all similar occasions, which were always duly cele-
brated under Mr. Raffles' government, he contributed greatly
to promote and encourage the gaiety and amusement of the
party. After remaining a short time, he returned overland to
Samarang, where he was most actively employed in complet-
ing the arrangement attendant on the capture of Djocjocarta,
which of course brought an accession of territory to the Gov-
ernment, and which called for local knowledge and personal
observation, to render profitable and advantageous. After ob-
taining all the information within his reach, Mr. Raffles and
his family returned to Buitenzorg, at the close of 1812, where,
of course, some arrears of public business awaited his arrival,
and to which he devoted the most zealous assiduity/'
Not all the army had come back with Gillespie, but there
was no time to lose in waiting, so they did as well as they could
with the troops at their command. On June 20, 1812, it was all
over; the Sultan had been captured and Java could be called
pretty well under control at last. Gillespie was slightly
wounded; nothing serious. Five days later Raffles wrote Minto
about it, and joyfully summed up the profits of the expedition.
"A population of not less than a million has been wrested from
the tyranny and oppression of an independent, ignorant and
cruel prince; and a country yielding to none on earth in fep
172
tility and cultivation, affording a revenue of not less than a
million of Spanish dollars in the year, placed at our dis-
posal. . . . The Craton having fallen by assault, it was impos-
sible to make any provision for Government to cover the
expenses of the undertaking; consequently the whole plunder
became prize to the army. It is considerable, but it could not
be in better hands; they richly deserve what they got. I cannot
speak too highly of the conduct of the army."
(One of the most highly execrated customs of the Japanese
is that of turning over any town which they have just con-
quered for three days' plunder by the army. The commanders
feel that the men richly deserve what they get. Barbarians!)
Compared with these exciting affairs, the matter of piracy
suppression was not as impressive as it may sound. These pirates
worked from the islands fringing Borneo on the side nearest
Java, and some of their centers were on the mainland as well.
They would descend suddenly on one of the seacoast towns,
plunder it, and retire to the maze of straits which only they
knew well, whither no stranger dared to follow. They also set
up a lucrative business of attacking the trading prows of the
natives, and sometimes did so well at this that trade came to a
standstill. It became obvious in time that Raffles as a good ad-
ministrator owed it to the people to put a stop to the whole
thing.
Two elaborate campaigns made by the fleet did the trick.
Raffles followed up the destruction of two most important re-
pair centers on small islands,, where the prows had been in
the habit of putting in after battle to be refitted and readied
for more mischief, with a delegation to Borneo. Through a
messenger he assured the natives there that the anti-pirate cam-
paigns were just what they were alleged to be, and that he had
no slightest desire to annex more territory for Britain, either
from the Borneo mainland or their islands. (Though he left
small posts on the refitting islands.) He was aware that the
pirates drew their forces from the seacoast villages and that it
was likely most of the men his delegate addressed were them-
selves guilty of part-time piracy now and then. The natives took
the political agent's promises in such good faith and respected
173
the British fleet to such an extent that piracy in Java ceased
almost completely. It is interesting to reflect that it still exists
along the coast of China, and in very similar form.
All of this took up more than a year. It was not until the
beginning of 1813 that the first overt sign of resentment was
made by Gillespie, who had been giving an excellent account
of himself in the military actions of the past year. It happened
during a dispute on a matter of policy. Raffles felt that all im-
portant warlike activity was at an end, such operations as might
still be necessary calling for less material and men than had
the battles of 1811 and 1812. His was the viewpoint of the
all-round governor, with an eye to economy his apprentice-
ship in the Company's service had taught him the value of
that quality and he now proposed to reduce the garrison.
Major General Gillespie, as he now was, declared himself
strongly opposed to this suggestion. Raffles summed up the
difference in a dispatch to Papa Minto. He, the lieutenant
governor, had been directed by the Supreme Government of
India to keep Java's forces down to a size only just big enough
to maintain "internal tranquillity and security against ' any
predatory attack on the part of the enemy/' the enemy, one
supposes, being his word for the local sultans. It was "a defined
and limited purpose/' and called for defined and limited num-
bers. "The Commander of the Forces, on the contrary, has
been always in expectation of attack from Europe, and would
prepare accordingly."
It was the old, old story; any official who has ever served a
term in a colony will recognize that argument. The military
always want the lion's share of funds to build up their defenses,
and the civil government is always trying to hold them down
and turn the funds to some peaceful purpose. The military
are ambitious: they want serious trouble, and they want to
prepare for it. A similar argument raged in Hong Kong for
years before the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor; at least one
governor, it is rumored, was bumped out of the Crown Colony
for refusing to spend anything on preparatory measures. After
that the army crowd got their way to a certain degree, but it all
came about too late, and the funds available were insufficient
anyway, and what happened after Pearl Harbor gave the mili-
tary group a working argument for the future which may yet
cause the civil government many a headache. In Java, though,
back in 1813, Raffles had no intention of letting Gillespie
give him a headache. He called for help from Minto, who had
never yet let him down, and Minto backed him up as usual,
and Raffles had his way, and Gillespie hated him more than
ever.
CHAPTER XI
The thunder of the Javanese
campaign slowly diminished and came to a halt, with only an
occasional threatening rumble sounding in the distance, and
the British hastened to settle into their newly won territory.
Olivia Raffles brought her household from Malacca, but she
didn't occupy the house, Ryswick, which had been the Dutch
governor's official residence. The English nearly all followed
the example which Daendels had already encouraged, of living
outside town, and Raffles's new home was in Buitenzorg, on
the higher ground toward the Blue Mountain, about forty
miles south of Batavia. He transacted as much business there as
he could, though once or twice a week he had to ride into Bata-
via to take care of matters which had collected in his absence,
and sometimes he slept a night or two in Ryswick. Leyden's
tragic death must have strengthened his prejudice against the
canal city.
In those days people didn't know about malaria and its in-
sect hosts. They knew only from experience that swampy, low-
tying ground was unhealthy. Every traveler who wrote of his
visit to Batavia, then or earlier, told the same story. Of the
canals which ran through the town, they said, many were
practically stagnant most of the time, and all of them were full
of the filth of sewage. Thus the air which they exuded was un-
healthy, fetid, poisonous stuff, which it was probably fatal to
breathe. And worse, there were the trees which bordered the
canals; they looked pretty, yes, but they had a harmful effect
on that air, because they offered so much more opposition to
what should have been a "healthy movement of the atmos-
phere." It was necessary that breezes carry the air away to off-
set its poisonous influence, but except in the season of the
"good monsoon" this was impossible in Batavia, because of
the trees along the canals. Abandoned houses, too, exuded
bad air. (All these factors, of course, would account as well
for mosquitoes.) Everyone accepted Batavia's reputation as a
deathtrap, never for a moment supposing that anything could
or ever -would be done about it.
Major William Thorn, in his Conquest of Java, actually grew
lyrical on the tragic subject. "Death's shafts fly thickest at the
breaking up of the Monsoons, which is the most sickly period
of the year. Then
Gaily carousing,
Calling for joys beneath the moon,
Next night, Death bids them sup
With their progenitorsHe drops his mask,
Frowns out at full, they start, despair, expire!"
In no other country, says Thorn, did people hear of the
death of a friend with more nonchalance, or less surprise and
concern. They were too much used to it. During the "sickly
period" the sight of a funeral was an ordinary thing, so that
even the hired mourners smoked cigars or pipes as they
marched along, and they chatted with each other openly,
cheerfully disregarding the conventional behavior for funerals.
The traveler John Splinter Stavorinus, rear admiral in the
service of the States-General, whose translated memoirs ap-
peared in London in 1793, in his exhaustive descriptions of
social life in the Indies, also speaks of the "noxious exhala-
tions" of the swamps, morasses, and marshy woods of the
locality as being the cause of so much disease and death. He
calls Batavia one of the most unwholesome spots upon the
face of the globe, where preventive medicines were taken as
177
regularly as food. "The European settlers at Batavia commonly
appear wan, weak, and languid; as if labouring with the 'dis-
ease of death'/' Few strangers stay long without getting the
"fever/ 7 First it appears as a "tertian ague"; after three or four
such paroxysms the fever turns to a double tertian, then con-
tinues in remittent attacks which frequently carry off the pa-
tient in a short time. The "Peruvian bark" (quinine) was
seldom prescribed, or was taken in a quantity so small as to be
no use whatever, most Batavians preferring to dose themselves
with camphor in spirit of wine. Sometimes the patient sur-
vived and simply got used to his fever. Stavorinus cites the ex-
ample of one gentleman who, while talking of how many
friends he lost each year, though he continued, himself, to
enjoy "excellent health/' kept mopping his face, and explained
that he was perspiring from the aftermath of a bad attack of
fever. Oh yes, he said, he had had a shocking fit only that
morning, and knew that in time he would probably die of it,
but he hoped to be able to make his pile and retire to Europe
before that sad event came to pass. Stavorinus estimated a fifty
per cent death rate among newcomers every year. When an
acquaintance of some Batavian burgher died, the citizen would
only say calmly, on hearing the news, "Well, he owed me
nothing," or "I must get my money of his executors."
Stavorinus had a very low opinion of the typical Batavian
Dutchman and his Eurasian wife. Evidently the company of
the inhabitants offered no compensation for the climate. The
island itself, however, was so beautiful, and there were so
many lovely gardens around the rural residences, that it was
difficult to believe any land so attractive could be as unhealthy
as Java was. A young man just arriving exclaimed as he looked
his first on the island, from the boat:
"What an excellent habitation it would be for immortals!"
There are many absorbing accounts of social life in Batavia,
through the eighteenth century and for some years of the
nineteenth, before the arrival of the British. Styles and cus-
toms changed slowly in those days, and we can accept the
accounts of travelers through several decades as if they were
contemporary, remembering only that the British arrivals did
in time have a certain indubitable effect which will be men-
tioned in due course. Dutch and Eurasian society in Batavia
before the British came makes fascinating reading. One doubts,
though, if it was equally fascinating to experience.
Stavorinus had a most emphatically unfavorable opinion of
the Europeans in Java. The people there, he says, quickly
learned to care only for riches. Whatever ideas of virtue or
honesty they may have held when they arrived were lost in
record time. Very few men could resist the temptation in
Batavia to indulge in petty graft and dishonest practice. Yet
few of them got together enough wealth to satisfy themselves,
and they became disappointed, discontented, melancholy, de-
jected souls. Added to the effect on their spirits of the noxious
climate and the want of their customary food, all of this
rendered them easy prey to death. Most of the people looked
dejected, he observes, even the rich burghers. Their only re-
sources were tobacco, dull conversation, drinking, and cards.
They were bored to death. Stavorinus blames this ennui
largely on their attitude toward marriage, of which the "normal
happy intercourse" was unknown, for the Dutch kept their
women, slangily called "liplaps" (India-born girls, usually
Eurasian) in a world of their own, and that world too was
damnably dull.
Opinions seem to vary as to the position these women oc-
cupied in Batavian society. As Stavorinus's picture is that of the
town as it was in an early phase while still completely under
Dutch influence, we had better start with it.
The governor general, head of the government, was aided
by a council made up of a director general, five ordinary coun-
cilors, nine extraordinary councilors, and two secretaries.
Nevertheless his authority was almost unbounded. He was a
man to respect and fear, for he could get jobs for your relatives
or send you back to Europe at the slightest prompting of his
whim. He usually lived in the country, at his seat at Welte-
vreeden, a superb mansion where he would hold public audi-
ence every Monday and Thursday. On Tuesdays and Fridays he
held sessions in his second country seat, which was nearer
town. On all other days he was inaccessible in his official
179 *>
capacity, save for really urgent business. Nobody was allowed
or expected to pay him visits of ceremony during office hours:
he was bothered only for business affairs. The hours of audi-
ence were from 5 A.M. to 8 A.M. Everyone waited in the open
air, in a courtyard before the house, until his name was called
in due turn by the bodyguard.
When the governor rode out in his carriage he was accom-
panied by horse guards. One officer and two trumpeters pre-
ceded him. Anyone who happened to meet him and who was
also in a carriage had to stop and get out until he passed by.
Some of the most important councilmen also had this privi-
lege of being a nuisance to the public. A visiting British sea
captain, a man named Carteret, ran into a little excitement
because of this, in 1768. He had been in Batavia several days,
blithely ignoring the stop-carriage custom, until one day his
landlord brought him word from the governor that he was to
step out of his carriage like everyone else whenever he met the
governor's equipage, or that of any of the councilmen. Cap-
tain Carteret replied warmly that he had no intention of so
doing. When the landlord discreetly hinted that in that case
the governor's armed slaves might take action, Carteret replied
meaningly that he would know how to deal with that, and he
nodded toward his pistols as he said it.
After an absence of a few hours the landlord called on him
again, saying that His Excellency, after due consideration, had
pronounced that the captain might do as he pleased. From
that time on no visiting Englishman got out of his carriage
for anybody, unless he wanted to. (But Raffles revived the cus-
tom for a bit, later on.)
All the distinctions of precedence and rank were minutely
observed, and life in old Batavia must have been most disagree-
ably complicated. ''Every individual is so stiff and formal, and
is as feelingly alive to every infraction of his privileges, in this
respect, as if his happiness or misery depended wholly upon the
due observance of them. Nothing is more particularly attended
to, at entertainments, and in companies, than the seating of
every guest, and drinking their healths, in the exact order of
precedency. The ladies are particularly prone to insist upon
^180
every prerogative attached to the station of their husbands;
some of them, if they conceive themselves placed a jot lower
than they are entitled to, will sit in sullen and proud silence,
for the whole time the entertainment lasts/' Ladies would be
like that in a colony. They always are.
Stavorinus tells of a scene which took place before his eyes 7
in the street. Two ladies riding in carriages happened to meet
in a narrow road, and neither would give way to the other. It
happened to be a difficult matter to settle according to prece-
dence because their husbands were both clergymen! For fully
fifteen minutes they sat, both inexorable, "during which time
they abused each other in the most virulent manner, making
use of the most reproachful epithets, and whore and slave's
brat, were bandied about without mercy. . . ."
To prevent such occurrences, which sometimes dragged out
to a couple of hours' duration, the Netherlands East India
Company in 1764 drew up a remarkable set of rules, ascertain-
ing the respective ranks of Company servants. They laid down
regulations as to the pomp of funerals proper to each rank,
what sort of dress could be worn, i.e., who could wear embroi-
dered or laced clothes, and everything else which could possibly
be imagined. Most of the rules were broken every day, but
some were faithfully observed, such as the prohibition of the
wearing of velvet coats by any man of less rank than senior
merchant. The act related to one hundred and thirty-one arti-
cles in the most minute detail carriages, horses, chairs, serv-
ants, dress, and so on. Little hand-drawn chaises for children,
for instance, were not to be gilded or painted unless the exact
rank of their parents permitted it, and even then there were
restrictions on the styles of decoration allowed. No one lower
than a merchant could carry a parasol or umbrella unless it was
raining. Jewels worn by ladies whose husbands were of less than
councilors* rank must not be worth more than six thousand
rix-dollars. Ladies of the higher ranks could go abroad with
three slaves, and the slaves could wear earrings of single mid-
dle-sized diamonds, gold hairpins, petticoats of cloth of gold
or silver, or of silk, jackets of gold or silver gauze, chains of gold
or beads and girdles of gold, but they couldn't wear pearls or
181
diamonds or any other jewels in the hair. That was for the
slaves only; the mind faints at the thought of how many other
details were considered and decided before the Company of-
ficials were through with their commands!
There were also stringent rules regulating the number of
musicians permitted in the slave bands which customarily
played at mealtimes, or in the early days accompanied the car-
riages during the evening outing. Some high officers could have
trumpets, clarions, and drums in their orchestras; others, lower
in rank, couldn't. In Surat (for all the Dutch Company's colo-
nies came under these same regulations) the director when he
went out in state was especially permitted to carry four fans,
made of bird-of-paradise feathers and cow hair, with golden
cases and handles. Why fans, and why four? Why not three, or
five, or ten? God alone knows, now, but the solemn committee
which perpetrated all this incredible silliness must have had
their reasons.
Here is a contemporary description of an evening's festivity
in Batavia, when Reynier de Klerk, one of Daendels's prede-
cessors, was governor general:
"The General does not keep a table, at least not what can
be properly termed such; the evening company is received every
night about 6 o'clock. This company consists of those ladies
and gentlemen who have been invited 2 days previously by
cards of invitation. The company is received by the host sitting
on the verandah porch, in a black shirt [kamizool] with a
linen night-cap on his head, and when everyone is finally as-
sembled, the host says, 'Friends, take your coats off/ where-
upon everybody takes off his coat, hat and sword. Everyone
then sits down on the chairs which have been placed in a row
along the verandah, everybody in order of seniority, and if it
should so happen that somebody inadvertently fails to observe
this, the Host says to him, 'That is not your place; you must
sit there/ A glass of beer is then served to everybody with the
formal toast, 'A good evening to you/ then next a pipe of to-
bacco, and conversation then begins, but in such wise that
everybody only speaks with his neighbors, without seeming to
talk so loud that the Governor-General can hear him; this latter
talks only to the individual next to him, who is the senior in
rank amongst the guests, and the only things that the general
says in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, are toasts
such as The health of the Ladies/ As soon as he says this,
everybody jumps up from his chair holding a glass of wine, and
all together form a great half -circle, and with heads bowed low,
they all call out To the health of the General's Lady/ Next
follows a series of toasts drunk to the health of each one of the
guests in turn, each individual standing up and bowing deeply
when his own health is toasted. These toasts continue until
9 o'clock, when everybody gets up, takes his coat and sword
again, and hastens to drink the Host's health, who answers
briefly, 'Thank you for drinking my health/ The Company
then takes its leave, and in such wise does the East India Gen-
eral pass the time every evening.
"The ladies are received by the General's Lady, and stay
apart from the gentlemen. They also sit in order of protocol
according to their husbands' rank, with the General's Lady at
the top. In accordance with the Indian custom, tea is served
by slave girls on silver platters and in Japanese cups with tops/'
Stavorinus describes the town in careful detail. Batavia itself,
he says, was in the shape of a 'long square." Before Daendels
came it was enclosed by a stone wall, but the marshal caused
this wall to be pulled down and used the materials again for
new buildings. It was thought, of course, that by doing this
he improved the air of the city and reduced its unhealthiness.
Certainly he reduced the heat of the place. Buitenzorg, how-
ever, was already in favor as a healthier residential district, for
it is sixteen Dutch miles to the south, on the way to the Blue
Mountain, on ground higher than Batavia, so that the morn-
ings are always pleasantly cold. The seashore bounds Batavia
on the north.
In town the foreigners' houses were built mostly of brick,
stuccoed white. They were all alike, narrow-fronted, with floors
of large, square, dark red stones. No one used hangings, prob-
ably for the sake of coolness. The furniture consisted of some
armchairs, two or three sofas, and a good many looking glasses.
Several chandeliers and lamps hung in a row and were lit up
183 gv
at night. There were no gardens in town, and though some of
the houses were glazed, other residents preferred windows of
latticework instead.
The Chinese quarter, down in the oldest part of town, was
the scene of a horrible massacre in 1740 when the other resi-
dents, whose resentment against the industry and prosperity
of the Chinese had long smoldered, took advantage of a false
rumor involving a Chinese to rise up and create a race riot.
Since that time the Chinese had rather avoided that quarter,
called the "Chinese Kampong," preferring to live outside of
town if they could, where escape would be easier in case of
another race riot.
The Europeans followed this schedule, more or less: rise
at five and wear a light gown like a sleeping garment for
breakfast of coffee or tea, then dress and go to business, by
about eight o'clock; knock off work at eleven or eleven-thirty,
dine at twelve, nap until four in the afternoon, and then either
work until six or drive out in a carriage to take the air of the
country. At six the people assembled in companies to play
cards or converse until nine o'clock, then they either went
home or stayed for supper where they were; anyway they were
in bed by about eleven. Though the married men occasionally
took their wives to these parties, they ignored them once the
couples had arrived, and tried to keep them generally under
the marital thumb. The ladies didn't join in the parties as the
men did, but had their own assemblies in other rooms.
"Convivial gaiety seems to reign among them," writes
Stavorinus of the men, "and yet it is mixed with a kind of sus-
picious reserve, which pervades all stations and all companies,
and is the consequence of an arbitrary and jealous government.
The least word which may be wrested to an evil meaning, may
bring on very serious consequences, if it reach the ears of the
person aggrieved, either in fact, or in imagination. Many peo-
ple assert, that they would not confide in their own brothers
in this country/'
Stavorinus goes into considerable detail about the liplaps.
To put it politely, he did not admire them. He said you could
always guess at native blood to the third or fourth generation,
^184
because the eyes of Eurasian girls were smaller than those of
the whites. (Presumably he meant "narrower" rather than
"smaller" the Mongol obliquity.) Though Javanese and
Dutch offspring would, after a few generations, if they consist-
ently married white men, fade out to an ordinary white com-
plexion, those with Portuguese blood would always remain
dark [sic].
The girls were ready to marry at twelve or thirteen, some-
times even younger. They seldom waited longer, if they were
at all handsome and had money or expectations, or powerful
relatives. Though colonial Dutchmen did not usually legalize
their unions with the native women they chose to live with
them, they had no objections to marrying the children of other
such liaisons. The fathers, when they went back to Europe,
often took such children along with them. These liplap wives,
having married extremely young and never having had the
slightest education, could seldom read or write, nor did they
"possess any ideas of religion, of morality, nor of social inter-
course," said Stavorinus. Because of such early marriage, he
thought, they didn't usually bear many children, and at thirty
they were already old; women of fifty, in Europe, looked
younger than these women at thirty. They were delicately
made, very fair in complexion, but pallid a "deadly pale
white," he called it and he said that the handsomest among
them would scarcely be thought middling pretty in Europe.
They were very supple in the joints, what we would call double-
jointed, "but this they have in common with the women in
the West Indies, and in other tropical climates." They were
listless and lazy, no doubt because they had far too many slaves
attending on them.
They would get up at seven-thirty or eight and spend the
forenoon playing and toying with their female slaves, who were
never absent, laughing and talking with them at one moment
and yet at the next having the poor creatures whipped unmer-
cifully for the merest trifles. They would loll in loose, airy
dress on sofas, or sit on low stools with their legs crossed under
them, native fashion, and they were never without pinang, or
betel, to chew. Some of them also chewed Java tobacco. Betel
chewing made their spittle crimson and in time left a black
border along the lips, and also blackened the teeth. Their
mouths were very disagreeable, always, although it was claimed
by betel apologists that the custom of chewing purified the
mouth and protected the teeth from decay. (Even today for-
eign men complain that Indonesian women spoil their beauty
by chewing betel, thus blackening their teeth.)
In Stavorinus's opinion these women were ruthlessly spoiled
by the system then in vogue, which gave them no chance to
develop themselves mentally, so that though they were "not
deficient in understanding/' they grew up lazy and stupid as
animals. The mother abandoned her child, as soon as it was
born, to some female slave, who suckled it and reared it, hav-
ing complete control over her charge until the child was nine
or ten years old. Naturally the children showed the results of
this training. They were reared with no more education than
any of the natives had, but they were taught to think them-
selves vastly superior to the natives in station, and such a com-
bination cannot but show bad results.
It is only fair to say that a few travelers report exceptions to
this rule. The outstanding one is Maria Wilhelmina Engelhard-
Senn van Basel, a half-caste girl who at the age of eight, on
August 3, 1778, received as a school prize the Brieven Van
Mevrouw de Chapones, being the Dutch translation of a
standard English work on morals and manners entitled Letters
of the Improvement of the Mind, by Mrs. Esther de Chapones,
ne Mulslo, an English authoress. There must have been oc-
casional schools, then, and a certain degree of education pos-
sible for a few of the girls.
These Eurasian girls were reported by Stavorinus as being
remarkably fond of bathing, because they used to immerse
themselves in large tubs of water, capable of holding three
hogsheads, and they did this as often as twice a week. Con-
sidering the bathing habits, or rather the lack of them, in
Europe at that time, it is no wonder that Stavorinus found
this practice worthy of surprised comment. Another traveler,
however, says that to his knowledge they bathed twice a day.
In that hot, humid climate even this excess of cleanliness does
not seem too unnatural to us Western folk, but it was a shock
to the eighteenth-century European mind.
The Eurasian ladies were very jealous, especially of the
female slaves whose beauty and constant presence around the
house must have been a chronic threat to domestic fidelity.
Often when the jealous wrath of the mistress was aroused in
this manner she put the offending slave to torture, and she
knew various subtle and unusual ways of doing this. One par-
ticular passage of Stavorinus can scarcely be paraphrased, so I
shall quote it, as many a nineteenth-century traveler has done
before me:
"Among other methods of torturing them, they make the
poor girls sit before them in such a posture that they can pinch
them with their toes in a certain sensible part, which is the
peculiar object of their vengeance, with such cruel ingenuity,
that they faint away by excess of pain/'
Turning her attention next to her husband, the outraged
lady of the manor uses a very different torture on him, accord-
ing to the same writer. To him she administers an aphrodisiac
which has this one quality in common with Iseulf s love-potion
his passion will be aroused by the first woman his eye lights
on, after drinking the stuff, and he will have eyes for none other
but her. His wife must be careful to stick around at that time,
if she knows her stuff, and she keeps the slaves out of the way.
Unlike Iseulf s potion, however, the aphrodisiac keeps on work-
ingthis is the story; I don't say I believe it implicitlyuntil
the unfortunate husband dies of exhaustion. The tale has evi-
dently been current for many years in Java: a very pretty ex-
ample, to my mind, of wishful thinking.
There are other tales told of the jealousy of Javanese girls.
Stavorinus says, "The women are proportionately more comely
than the men, and are very fond of white men. They are jealous
in the extreme, and know how to make an European, with
whom they have had a love-affair, and who proves inconstant^
dearly repent his incontinence and fickleness, by administer-
ing certain drugs which disqualify him for the repetition of
either." Just the other effect, in sum, than Stavorinus's aphro-
disiac.
187 $%>
In the past century and a half the Dutch have not lost their
fear of the subtle revenges practiced by native girls. Only ten
years ago a Dutchwoman told me about a young man she
knew, a Dutch naval officer, who after living with a native girl
several years in Java threw her over in order to come back to
Europe and marry his white fiancee in Rotterdam. Foolishly
he allowed the Javanese to know his plans. Nothing happened
to him before he left Java: the girl went on being pleasant,
keeping house for him, cooking his favorite curry, et cetera,
until he kissed her good-by and sailed away. But when he
reached home he fell ill with a painful stomach-ache. He vom-
ited repeatedly, and nothing the doctors gave him had any
effect on the pain, until they discovered that he was voiding
countless tiny lengths of hair. The girl in Java had mixed cut
hair in all his food, and it was so stiff and bristly that it pene-
trated his intestines in a thousand places before he could get
rid of it. He died of course. My Dutch informant's eyes
sparkled and her face was pale when she told me this story;
there is no doubt that she, at least, believed it, every word.
The Eurasian ladies wore native dress, a very light and airy
costume. A piece of cotton cloth was wrapped round the body
and fastened under the arms next to the skin. Over it was a
shift, a jacket, and a chintz petticoat, all covered by a long
gown, the iabay or fcaba/a, which hung loose, the sleeves com-
ing down to the wrists, where they were fastened close with
six or seven little gold or diamond buttons. For state occa-
sions, such as a meeting with a councilor's wife, they wore a
fine muslin kabaja made like the other but much longer,
hanging down to the feet, whereas the ordinary everyday gar-
ment came only to the knees. Great importance was attached
to this matter of a kabaja's length, just as we speak of formal
and informal evening dress.
They always went about with their heads uncovered. Their
thick, sleek black hair was worn in a wreath, fastened with
gold and diamond hairpins, which was called a Jcondeh. Tlje
front and sides of this headdress were stroked perfectly smooth
and shining with coconut oil. Sometimes they also wore chap-
lets of flowers. It was a beautiful fashion, often copied by the
European ladies who saw it. For that matter, all the Dutch,
both men and women, adopted native dress for indoor, infor-
mal attire in Batavia.
On Sundays the Eurasian ladies sometimes put on Euro-
pean dress, but they didn't care much for it. (Later, under the
British, unfortunately they did start liking European clothes,
and the British thought that was just fine. ) A lady going out
would take four or five female slave attendants along, one to
carry the inevitable betel box. They all, mistress and slaves,
wore a lot of gold and silver, and loved it. The ladies seldom
mixed with men socially, except at marriage feasts, according
to Stavorinus. The title "My Lady" was kept exclusively for
.councilors' wives, and those who could use it were very proud
of their privilege.
The ladies loved to ride out in their carriages in the eve-
ning. In earlier days they were also fond of riding along the
surface of the canals in pleasure boats, with slave orchestras
playing music as they went, but this practice was discontinued
in the latter part of the eighteenth century, presumably be-
cause the water was growing too odoriferous. The coaches used
in Batavia were small and light, and glass windows in them
were permitted only to government members, as were painted
or gilded wheels. A slave had to run ahead of each carriage
with a stick, to give warning to the people in the street of their
approach. Sometimes ladies would ride out in a norimon, a
sort of sedan chair in which one sat cross-legged like a Buddha,
invisible to the public.
A passage by Victor Ido van de Wall, describing social life
in Batavia around 1812, differs in certain respects from all
these accounts, perhaps because the coming of the British had
already in one year made considerable difference to the atmos-
phere. According to the records he studied, the Eurasian ladies
evidently played a far more important role in daily life, and
mingled much more freely with the men of their acquaint-
ance, than some other commentators have led us to believe.
This description I am about to give, of daily life in a wealthy
family's country house where guests are staying, is taken from
the book by that Van de Wall who discovered a mention of
189 *>
the extraordinary half-caste girl, Maria Wilhelniina Engelhard-
Senn van Basel, the student who actually won a prize at school
The family of whose country estate he writes are these same
Engelhards; we come across the name Engelhard more than
once in the later annals of Batavia.
They got up very early, at daybreak (about five o'clock ap-
parently, summoned by five strokes on the gong). The com-
pany assembled dressed in sarong and kabaja (both men and
women), to drink coffee and admire the view; later the house
gong called the servants to work and the guests to their morn-
ing bath, which they took either in the river or in the bathroom
in the attached building, using only cold water. Next came
a big breakfast on the back veranda, of warm rice, curry, fish,
beefsteak, dendeng (dried meat), Makasas fish, bacon, pep-
pered small chow, greens, roast chicken, lavishly washed down
with red wine, beer, Madeira, Rhine wine, brandy and seltzer
water. The day at Pondok Gedeh (a country house at Buiten-
zorg which was the favorite visiting place of the Batavian beau
monde) began with this Lucullan meal.
When the meal was over and the hostess had risen from
the table, the guests scattered in all directions, so that the
great house seemed deserted. The gentlemen went with Engel-
hard to see his new indigo plantation and horse stables, or
they went horseback riding, or in a chair (sedan chair), in the
latter case with a slave to hold a parasol over their heads to
keep the sun off. The ladies, led by the hostess, went to the
outbuildings, watched the female slaves at work, the seam-
stresses, embroiderers, et cetera, and listened to the birds sing-
ing. They squatted or lounged around on low stools, benches,
and long easy chairs or even on mats on the floor, gossiping
busily. The hostess and her dearest friends smoked, usually,
the finest Manila cigars, but others had a good quid of prime
Puerto Rico tobacco to chew, with the inevitable cuspidors
close at hand.
The chat became very animated when it veered round to the
topic of wearing the troublesome European clothing which
Mrs. Raffles, in an unfortunate moment, had introduced for
daily wear. The new fashion caused much comment in the
190
Java. Government Gazette and was a burning topic with the
Indian ladies. Although an English poet had taken up the
cudgels for this airy clothing, wherein the English ladies
came off rather badly, a lady calling herself Njonja toea felt
herself obliged to break a lance on behalf of the much criti-
cized kabaja wearers, and wrote the following Malay poem
in which she twitted the English preference for roast beef and
beer:
Tra Tahon minoem sehari hari
Port, Madeira, Brandy, Beer
Tra Ton Makan Beef en Curry
Makanan Boesoefc, English Heerf
which may be translated freely as
To do nothing but drink, every day of the year,
Port, Madeira, brandy, and beer;
Nauglit accomplished save beefsteak and curry bitten,
Is a veiy bad thing indeed, Mr. Briton/
How fiercely the battle raged is evident from the fact that
even the men could not forever bear the taunts cast at their
womenfolk. A certain Lopes gave vent to his poetical spleen as
follows:
De Vrouwen al te zaam op eene leest te schoeien
En's Lands gewoonten op het bitterst te verfoeien
Is dat het werk eens gans of van eenen jongeling
Die ooit een wi/ze les in al zyn tijd entving?
Is spraak en vrouwen dragt in't eene deel van London
Als die ter zelver tijd in't andere werd gevonden?
To condemn all women together, in a fashion most uncouth,
To place the customs of a country in the worst conceivable
light;
Is it a goose who does this, or just a callow youth
Who has never in his life learned how to be polite?
Tell me, do all ladies speak alike in London town?
Do they all appeal like copies in the same design of gown?
After hurling this dirty crack in the direction of the autocratic
British, he concluded with the reproachful advice:
Wilt van een Indiaan dees Icorte les onthauwen;
Schimp nimmer zonder reden op mannen of op vrouwen,
Houdt U tbi/ roast beef, bi; Madeira, port and beer,
Want dat is, wel beschouwd, uw grootste, Uw waar pleizier.
Let an Indian teach you a lesson short and sweet:
Never without reason scoff at other folk you meet.
Just stick to your roast beef, your Madeira, port, or beer,
For after all that's the only joy Life holds for you out here.
The ladies' world likewise at Pondok Gedeh was divided
into two sides, the pro-kabajas and the anti-kabajas. The hostess
naturally belonged in the first category and was just argu-
ing heatedly for its retention, what time many a puff of cigar
smoke curled in the air, and many a gob of betel juice was
spat into the cuspidor, when heavy steps were heard, and the
shouting of slaves in the garden. Some moments later the
gentlemen entered, tired and sweating, plumped themselves
down on the long easy chairs in the hall, and indulged in some
glasses of "particular old and very [choice] Madeira." The ar-
rival of the gentlemen brought the ladies' lively conversation
to an end. It was now about i P.M. and therefore the hour of
siesta. Everybody went to their bedchambers and soon went
to sleep. For the old hands, the grumbling, retired old gen-
tlemen of over a score of years' service in the tropics, this was
probably the best time of the day. These could not drop off
soundly to sleep unless they were first properly massaged by
suitably trained slave girls. There were several forms of this
massage. The younger men also enjoyed these welcome atten-
tions of the slave girls. . . . About four o'clock everyone was
waked up from the midday siesta, and after a fresh bath in cold
water sat down to the welcome midday dinner. There was an
192
overflowing amount of fish, greens, and fixings, both fresh and
preserved, and alongside each plate was placed a plate of rice
and a finger bowl of white or blue crystal. The finest wines
were served on a kind of dumb-waiter, wrapped round with a
damp napkin to keep them cool. The rice was eaten with the
fingers, but the meats and vegetables with knife, fork, and
spoon. Conversation became general and the gaiety reached its
height when the house slave orchestra began to play lively
tunes, until finally the ladies thought it time for them to
withdraw and to continue elsewhere their arguments over the
kabaja problem. The gentlemen remained at the table, smok-
ing either a hoota, a Icabaalpip, or a good Manila cigar, and
took their ease with their legs stretched out on the table.
When the company had had enough, the carriages were
summoned and they went for a ride in the neighborhood. By
the time they returned, the evening shadows were falling and
the evening breeze had tempered the heat of the day in
house and grounds. In the hall card tables were ready, while
tea, pale ale, porter, claret, and grog were served to the guests.
Those who did not care to play cards sidled along the wall
to have a look at the dancing, which was participated in by
old and young alike. There was usually first a round dance,
then a gallop, with three, four, or more couples, called the
"Haagsche Officieren," ending in a general free-for-all when
many of the ladies lost their slippers and pocket handker-
chiefs. When this was over, the hostess gave the signal for a
collation to be served, consisting of rice and some Indian
dishes, which were enjoyed with equal gusto. About 11 P.M.
the lights were put out, and everyone went to bed, well pleased
with the enjoyable day. Such was the daily life at Pondok
Gedeh when there was a large house party.
The kabaja seems to have been largely discarded by the
Indian ladies as an outdoor costume, judging by the follow-
ing quotation from the Java Government Gazette of May 2,
1812: "At the entertainment recently given at Batavia, it was
remarked how great an improvement has been introduced in
respect to the attire of the Dutch ladies since the British
authority has been established. The 'Cabaja' appears now
generally disused and the more elegant English costume
adopted. We congratulate our friends on the amelioration of
the public taste because we see in it the dawn of still greater
and more important improvement/' This very readable and
exceptionally attractive Gazette contains many amusing
verses, contributed by the supporters and opponents of the
kabaja, who give full rein to their ironical and bantering
humor. The weekly journal forms a most important source for
the knowledge of the local social life during the period of the
English occupation.
Portuguese influence on pre-British social life was evident
in many little details: an occasional Portuguese word was used
as commonly as a Dutch one, and songs of a rather corrupt
Portuguese were very popular in old Batavia. These were usu-
ally love ditties, sung to the accompaniment of the viola da
gamba, zither, or flute. Here are a couple, in translation:
Bastiana, Bastiana,
Bastiana, my very dear:
Bastiana's handkerchief
I Iceep as hostage here.
Laugh, le/oice, my Bastiana,
Don't ciy alas, alack.
One day soon
You'll get your kerchief back.
Here's a golden ring, Margarita,
With seven stones, you see.
Whoever wants this ring, Margarita,
Will have to marry me.
When you are married, Margarita,
When you pass my door,
Then will I give you, Margarita,
A rose my rose tree bore.
They drank heavily, if we are to judge by the number o<
toasts which it was de rigueur to honor at their assemblies and
marriage feasts. Here is a typical toast list on the occasion of
a high society wedding:
1. A hearty welcome to the feast.
2. The bride and bridegroom.
3. The first best man and bridesmaid.
4. The second best man and bridesmaid.
5. The boy and girl pages.
6. The boy and girl trainbearers.
7. His Excellency the governor general.
8. Other relatives and friends of the bride and bridegroom.
9. The ladies and gentlemen of the government here
present.
10. The absent ladies and gentlemen of the government.
11. The married ladies here present.
12. The married gentlemen here present.
13. The unmarried ladies.
14. The unmarried gentlemen.
15. The good success of this present marriage.
16. The welfare of India under the rule of H.E.
17. The East India Company.
18. Their High Mightinesses.
19. The prosperity of the House of Orange.
20. The Lord Masters.
21. The welfare of the Fatherland,
As a signal that the party was breaking up, the company
sang the following song:
Strew posies and flowers:
The Bride must to bed.
Escort her, prepare her,
For now she is wed.
Then kiss her good night
And when she's undressed,
Be careful that no one shall hinder her rest.
The last admonition was scarcely necessary, as by that time
none of the guests, let alone the husband, was capable of hin-
dering anybody's rest. They were all too busy getting a spot of
rest themselves to worry about the bride.
195
These weddings were always celebrated on Sundays, accord-
ing to Stavorinus, and the bride was not supposed to appear
again in public until the following Wednesday evening, when
she attended divine service: "to be sooner seen in public
would be a violation of the rules of decorum."
It seems to have been quite true that death was not taken
as seriously in old Batavia as it usually is elsewhere. At least
the typical Batavian widow did not spend much time repin-
ing: the law expressly forbade her to remarry until three
months after the burial of her previous husband! A rich
widow never lacked for suitors, Stavorinus speaks of one lady
who lost her husband while the traveler was visiting Batavia.
In the fourth week of her widowhood there was a candidate
duly come a-courting her, and she would surely have married
him before the three months were up had the law allowed it.
Probably in this . particular case it was her wealth which at-
tracted the suitor, but Stavorinus seems to think that the lady
herself, like most of her Eurasian sisters, was chronically of a
passionate temper. "The warmth of the climate/' he explains,
"which influences strongly upon their constitutions, together
with the dissolute lives of the men before marriage, are the
causes of much wantonness and dissipation among the
women/ 7
Among the pages of Stavorinus's Voyages is a reference to
another Dutch naval man's report on his Motherland's colo-
nists, circa 1722. This man, Commodore Roggewein, gives a
ludicrous account untempered by mercy, saying that his crew
were contaminated by their example. All the lower classes
were "as profligate and lewd as it is possible to conceive peo-
ple to be, insomuch that the first question many of them
asked of strangers arrived from Europe is, whether they have
not brought some new oaths over; and whether they cannot
teach them a more lively and extravagant method of swear-
ing."
In the opinion of Major William Thorn, somewhat pomp-
ous chronicler of the conquest of Java, Batavians could scarcely
be called Europeans, "so completely are they intermixed with
the Portuguese and Malay colonists. The same may be ob-
196
served of the other great towns along the coast, and of the
Dutch Settlements in general throughout the East. With very
few exceptions, that which is emphatically called the Mother
Land, or Mother Country, is only known by name; and this
is particularly the case with the Batavian women, few of whom
are Europeans by birth. . . ."
The Dutch colonists did not seem to be of a mind to resent
this opinion, for when speaking or writing they often referred
to themselves as 'Indians*' rather than as "Indo-Europeans"
or some similar name, even when they were of white, unmixed
ancestry.
But of all the people who visited old Batavia, it remained
for a Dutchman to put on record the most vicious descrip-
tion of his colonial compatriots that has ever, I dare say, been
set up in print So violent is Mijnheer de Graaff that if he
were an Englishman, a Frenchman, or of any nationality but
his own, I wouldn't dare quote him. Since he is Dutch, how-
ever, I feel the use of this quotation to be excused, at least,
though I most decidedly don't claim that it is justified. Not
justified, let us say, but lively and amusing, like some other
sorts of hysteria. Mr. de Graaff fairly sputters.
He defines Batavian women in the following fashion:
(a) Holland women: those come out from Holland (where
they were born) in ships to the Indies.
(b) East-India Holland women: those born in the Indies
of pure Dutch parents, usually called liblabs on account of
their accent (cf. the Anglo-Indian chichi).
(c) Kastisen (from the Portuguese castigo) : the children
of a Dutch father and a Eurasian mother.
(d) Mestisen (from the Portuguese mestizo) : Those born
of a Dutch father and a native mother; these were usually
called "spotted nobility" or "unbleached dungarees," as they
were neither black nor white, but in varying shades of color.
"All [these classes of women] are so garrulous, so proud, so
wanton and lascivious that from sheer wantonness they
scarcely know what to do with themselves. . . . They are
waited on like princesses, and have a great many slaves of
both sexes at their beck and call, waiting on them like watch-
197^
dogs, night and day, and watching their eyes closely in order
to catch their slightest whim; and they are themselves so lazy
that one will not stretch out her hand for a thing, not even to
pick up a straw from the floor, even if it be just at her feet
or beside her, but will call a slave to do it. And if they do
not come quick enough the women will scold them for a
lousy whore; negress whore; son-of-a-whore; son-of~a-bitch/
[these words are written in Indo-Portuguese in the 1703 origi-
nal] and sometimes worse than this. And for the very least
fault, they have slaves tied to a stake or a ladder, and cause
their naked backs to be mercilessly flogged with a cat-of-nine-
tails, till the blood pours down and the flesh hangs in tattered
strips, which they then rub with salt, pepper and pickle, to
prevent the wounds' rotting or smelling. These women are
often too lazy even to walk . . . and cannot rear their own
children, but as soon as they are born, leave their upbringing
entirely to a slave nurse, or whore, or any kind of slave in their
entourage; which is also the reason why their children would
rather be with their slave nurses than their own parents, and
why they are brought up with the slaves' own ideas, and speak
as good Malabar, Bengali, Guzerati and Bastard-Portuguese as
the slaves themselves, and can hardly speak a single word of
Dutch when they grow up, and that little with a strong Indo-
Portuguese accent.
"Still worse than the Dutch-born women are the Kastisen
and Mestisen, who know nothing, and are fit for nothing, ex-
cept to scratch their arse, chew betel, smoke cigarettes, drink
tea or lie on a mat or a carpet; in this wise they sit the whole
day, idle and bored, without turning their hands to a thing;,
and squatting for the most part on their heels like an ape on
its arse; because they cannot even sit on a chair properly, but
they must needs tuck their legs under the body, which is the
common use amongst the Asiatics. Their usual topic of con-
versation is about their slaves, how many they have bought,,
sold, lost, etc., or of a tasty curry or rice dish. They also dis-
like eating at table with anybody save each other; seldom eat
with their own husbands; but invariably with some of their
own cronies and girl friends, their table conversation being
limited to such remarks as, 'A good chicken soup is not so
tasty as an appetizing curry sauce/ And they don't eat nicely
like other folk ... but mix their chicken or fish with the
rice, and gurgle and suck it up through the fingers like pigs
from a trough, and then stick their hands and fingers in the
mouth so that the juice runs down between and slops over
them. . . . And if these Liblab or half-caste women should
occasionally chance to be invited to a gentleman's table or a
wedding, they have no idea how to behave, and seldom dare
to speak a word save to their own kind, lest they make fools
of themselves in public. As happened on a certain occasion '
when one of these ladies, sitting at table with a number of
other ladies, was served by one of the gentlemen present, as a
compliment, with a piece of roast chicken: when she took
the same very ungraciously from her plate and put it back in
the dish, saying, 1 don't want to eat a bit of hen's arse/ [This
quotation is in Indo-Portuguese in the original]"
De Graaff also accuses these unfortunate females of another
vice, namely, lasciviousness. "I can give you more than one
example/' he says, "of those who have had to do with their
own slave boys or men, for which the latter have subsequently
been hanged." There follows on this a tirade against Dutch
employees of low rank, soldiers, sailors, clerks, workmen, et
cetera, "who marry stinking negresses and black canaille and
are invariably had for cuckolds by their wives, who would
rather sleep with a native or Eurasian than with a pure Euro-
pean."
This strikes a familiar note. Just so do suspicious Flemings
speak of their women in the Congo; just so do the gossips ac-
cuse European ladies who live alone in Peking. "It was by no
means unknown," says William Plomer (Double Lives), writ-
ing of his childhood in Johannesburg, "for a native house-boy
to complain that when his white employer was out at work
in the daytime his employer's wife had been making excessive
demands on his virility a remarkable circumstance in a coun-
try where the colour-bar is supposed to be rigid." De Graaff
obviously suffers from one of those mass jealousies which
stimulate such beliefs.
199
"The most astounding thing in Batavia is the great pomp
and ceremony which prevails, not only amongst the Hol-
landers but also amongst the Eurasians, particularly in going
to and coming from Church on Sunday, High-Days and Holi-
days. For everyone is then tricked out in her best finery, in
silk and brocade, cloth, damask and gold-thread work, or
heavily embroidered and decorated cloth of gold, striped and
flowered stuffs with gold embroidered borders, etc. Their
headdress is decorated with costly pearls . . . necklaces and
earrings, of fine pearls and diamonds, others on their breast
and so forth. Thus they sit by hundreds in the Church, decked
out in their finery like dolls in a row, the meanest of them
looking like a Princess or a Burgomaster's wife or daughter,
so that Heaven itself blinks; And what is more, when they go
to Church or come home, the least of them is accompanied
by a slave who holds a sunshade over her head, some of which
have large hanging silken embroidered borders. So that when
the Service is beginning and ending, the Church doors and
courtyard are so crowded with a throng of sunshades, slaves,
slave-maids, body-guards and lackeys, that one can scarcely
push through them, to say nothing of those that are waiting
outside with their coaches and carriages to bring their mas-
ters and mistresses home. . . . This ridiculous pomp and
ceremony is the rule not only in Batavia but throughout all
Asia wherever Hollanders live or are settled; because nobody
will give way to anybody else, or take a small step aside, each
one wishes to play the fine lady, even if it should be on the
steps of God's altar."
[Then there is more about the folly of "keeping up with the
Joneses" anno 1701.] He further points out how these women
who are so high and mighty in the Indies are very small beer
in Holland, being usually of very low origin, like kitchen
maids, dairymaids, et cetera, and if they try treating their
Dutch maidservants like their Indian slaves on their return,
they are speedily disillusioned and find themselves without
any. Hence the majority prefer to stay in India, where they
are so much better off.
Space doesn't allow us to cite examples of life in other Dutch
200
colonies at this time. But in Malacca and so on conditions
were very similar. The women of these communities were
brought up in the same careless way, and though the habits
they learned from the natives varied,, of course, with the dif-
ferent races, the Dutch veneer seems to have produced over
all this part of the world something like a special type of
woman.
CHAPTER XII
No survey of old Batavia be-
fore or during the British occupation would be worth a penny
if we did not take a special look at the slaves of Java. The sub-
ject of slavery is of particular interest to us. Raffles, while he
was lieutenant governor of Java, committed the outstanding
act of his career in declaring the slave trade illegal in the
colony, though his claim that he was merely enforcing litiga-
tion which already existed is justifiable.
He was, of course, encouraged and even put up to this
action by his patron Lord Minto, who wrote in one of his first
letters from Java:
'The state of slavery has attracted my serious and anxious
attention. That monstrous system prevails to a "calamitous
extent throughout these Eastern regions of India, and pro-
duces, as it cannot fail of doing, most of the miseries incident
to that mode of procuring the service of men. But it is too
general to be suddenly suppressed by any one Power in so
many separate and independent countries. In Java it is fortu-
nately not grievous to the slave; servitude being wholly domes-
tic or menial. I hope something may be done immediately for
modifying this evil, and I propose that Government should
set the example in this report by abstaining entirely from the
future purchase of slaves. A return is preparing of the public
slaves of Government now existing, and if the number should
202
prove inconsiderable, as I hope it will, I have in contempla-
tion to hazard an anticipation of your approbation, which I
shall surely receive, by emancipating all those to whom that
change would be advisable. The importation of slaves may
also be checked, although it cannot yet be abolished/'
By our modern lights, this bit of administrative detail out-
weighs all Raffles's other activity. Many of his contemporaries,
however, would not have agreed with us. They may have held
various opinions concerning slavery, but they were united in
their failure to recognize the far-reaching effect of his decision,
To begin with, Raffles hit some of the highest-ranking peo-
ple of his Company where it hurt most in their pockets by
putting a stop to the buying and selling of slaves. Those gen-
tlemen made no secret of their grievance; they were loud and
shrill in their condemnation of his behavior, which they inter-
preted simply as a reckless disposal of other people's rights;
theirs, for example. It is true slave traffic had already been
outlawed in British India, but most of the interested parties
had hoped this law would shortly be forgotten and allowed to
fall into desuetude, as anti-slavery laws have done more re-
cently in certain non-British African districts for example.
Raffles, they felt, was tactlessly pressing a point best forgotten.
Besides, the average stay-at-home Englishman who had no
personal interest in colonial life didn't have much personal
interest in slavery either. England was no place for the dusky
Oriental or blackamoor; save as an occasional curiosity, few
natives of tropical climes were ever brought to the fogbound
islands of Great Britain. Londoners, true cockneys, heard
about slaves, read about slaves, envied or criticized slavehold-
ers of their own nation, and characteristically suspected slave-
holders from other lands, one and all, of being monsters of
cruelty. But unless they profited directly from slave dealing,
as they did if they happened to be relatives of the British black-
birders, or unless, like Robert Browning's father, they them-
selves held property abroad where slave labor was used, it was
a question which didn't hold the attention of the public in
England. The man in London's streets was not interested in
the problems of the far-off Indies, East or West.
There were exceptions, naturally, or the legislation which
Raffles ultimately had to cite in support of his unpopular
action would never have been passed. A few wealthy people
like Browning of Jamaica felt that their principles forced them
to take action. Browning himself was one of the first planta-
tion owners in the West Indies to free his slaves, and he made
himself unpopular doing so, though he was very proud of that
record.
Travelers who reported on conditions among the slaves of
Java are by no means unanimously agreed. Reading their argu-
ments pro and con, one is inevitably reminded of the flood of
dispute, of defense and accusation, which followed on our
early public discussions of slavery in the United States. In
Raffles's time, however, in the East Indies around 1812, the
question of principle was not yet uppermost in people's minds,
or there would have been far more discussion of it than there
was. Most people accepted slavery, in Stockdale's words, as "a
necessary evil/' if they entertained any misgivings at all. The
main query was simple and oft repeated: were the slaves in
Batavia well off in general or were they usually victims of bad
treatment and cruelty? That is a question, of course, which
could be answered with perfect truth a hundred times over,
in every possible manner, and it was. Like the African slaves
of our own South, a Batavian slave depended for his welfare
upon the temper of his individual owner. Stockdale comes
nearest to drawing a general conclusion when he states that
the slaves of Batavia were better off than those of the West
Indies, because they would not support too much harsh treat-
ment. In the East a bad master was usually assassinated,
sooner or later. Considering the dangerous tendency of Malays
to "run amok/ 7 the slaveholders of the Archipelago and its
environs no doubt tempered their discipline with a certain
amount of discretion.
J. Olivier in 1836 claimed that the slaves at Batavia were
better treated than any others elsewhere in Asia, and that in
some respects they were even better off than ordinary servants
in Holland. In 1825 there were, according to him, 12,419
slaves at Batavia, and the total was slowly decreasing every
204
year. If this be compared with Stockdale's figures for 1778, in
which year he says there were 20,072 ordinary slaves and 4,873
"mardykers" (manumitted slaves of all nations), Olivier's
claim of a steady decrease in slavery certainly seems to be true.
Stavorinus declared himself in favor of harsh treatment of
slaves whenever it seemed necessary. Necessity as he saw it
meant self -protection against dangerously insane slaves (those
running "amok") , by means of unrelaxing vigilance and a regu-
larly severe punishment for grave crimes such as murder. He
does not, however, reconcile his description of slaves running
"amok," in which he admits that a madman of this sort is
not responsible for his actions, with his faith in severe punish-
ment as a warning and a deterrent. Evidently Stavorinus was
not troubled by doubts, as I am. I should like to be told why,
if nothing on earth can stop an "amok" native, the example of
some fellow slave, writhing in the agony of disciplinary tor-
ture, should have a salutary effect on the behavior of a man
incapable of seeing him, or rather of appreciating what he
sees.
We learned in the preceding chapter that the Dutch and
liplap ladies of Batavia were not always kind to their slaves, to
put it mildly. Raffles was shocked but not astonished when he
came across an example of his predecessor Daendels's brutal
notions of discipline. On one occasion Daendels ordered hang-
ing as punishment for nine native thieves, and he threatened
some Dutch magistrates who protested against the severity of
this command with a similar fate if they did not carry out the
sentence forthwith.
Yet Thorn thinks that we are generally inclined to be too
hard on the Dutch in this respect. In his Conquest of Java he
says they "have been unjustly accused of adding unneces-
sarily to the evils of slavery; but the fact is, that the imported
slaves, and those who have been made free, with their progeny,
are the only domestic servants that can be procured. The
Javanese are naturally too indolent for employment, and they
have besides an unconquerable aversion to servitude in fami-
lies, in which dislike the Chinese participate with still stronger
feelings of repugnance.
205
"In the selection of female slaves for the respective duties
of the house, great attention is paid to their personal appear-
ance and musical accomplishments, as well as to those quali-
fications, which seem to be their principal recommendation.
Here the slaves are valued for their beauty, their skill in play-
ing on the harp, and their melodious voices. This peculiarity
of Asiatic luxury is carried to such a height, that in some of the
houses of the more opulent Europeans, as well as of the
wealthy natives, some dozens of these enchanting female
slaves may be found, as if the owners thought of realizing the
promise of the Mahommedan paradise in this world/'
Doesn't one hear in this passage a note that is definitely
wistful? The good Thorn obviously has forgotten, for a mo-
ment at least, to weigh the strictly moral aspects of slavery,
when the slaves are beautiful women. He has lost himself in
a dream of beauty, ignoring for a space such crass matters as
commerce and private ownership of these Mahommedan
houris . . . until, with a start, he returns to his sheep.
"The condition of the slaves in Java/' he says with a fresh
burst of austerity, "is far from being uncomfortable; they
are well fed and clothed, and by no means hard worked or
severely treated, except perhaps where they are made to ex-
perience the resentment of female jealousy; which passion is
not confined to the European ladies, as many instances are
mentioned of some favoured slaves having taken revenge on
their masters for their inconstancy, by different kinds and de-
grees of poison/ 7 It seems a rather odd sort of freedom at
which to point with pride life, luxury, and the pursuit of
poison.
"Since the Conquest of Java/' continues the cheerful Thorn,
"the act of the British Legislature for the Abolition of the
Slave Trade, has been published and enforced in these seas;
in consequence of which, several vessels conveying slaves have
been seized by our cruizers, and this has not a little conduced
to enhance the value ,of those at present in the Island/'
This last item of information was hardly, one supposes, the
end Raffles had in view when he enforced the Abolition Act,
any more than the high price of scotch in the States, during
206
the period of the ill-fated Eighteenth Amendment, could have
rejoiced the hearts of W.C.T.U, members. Still, it was an evil
only to be expected, and if events proceeded according to his
plan it was only temporary pending complete emancipation.
Van de Wall, in the description of Batavian country life
which we have already noted, speaks of the large number of
slaves always found in such a household. It was not all ease and
luxury, either, when a housewife had to deal with her slaves'
disputes, for they were apt to dislike each other automatically
unless they belonged to the same race, and one usually found
a great mixture of races among these people. Timor versus
Nias, Nias versus Borneo, et ceterathey all quarreled with
each other. Most of the Java slaves came from the coast of
Coromandel, Van de Wall says, and from Bengal; the next
largest number were from Sumatra, the Moluccas, and all parts
of the Archipelago save Java itself, Javanese being forbidden
by law to be enslaved (though this law did not apply to chil-
dren born of slave parents on Java) . Slaves from Bali and the
Celebes were most feared as being liable to run amok, and for
this reason the Company periodically forbade their use.
Illicit amours between slaves were numerous, which is only-
to be expected, and it is not surprising, either, that masters and
slave girls were often lovers. Occasionally even mistresses and
their male slaves were guilty of cohabitation, though this varia-
tion on a familiar theme always raised a fearful scandal.
Johannes Olivier stayed in Batavia in the early years of the
nineteenth century, during a part of the time which particu-
larly interests us, and he wrote as follows: "I had heard and
read so much of the brutal mis-treatment which the poor
blacks were forced to endure, that the mere mention of the
slave trade sent cold shudders through me. But here now, I
saw on the contrary, that the slaves were considered and treated
not merely with great humanity but even with great considera-
tion, with mutual concern, with friendliness, and as members
of the same patriarchal family. The orders were given in the
most considerate fashion. If a slave, male or female, or one of
their children fell sick, strengthening soups and other deli-
cacies were sent them from the master's table, and often given
207^
them by the hand of their charitable mistress. Who can be
surprised that slaves who were treated in such wise, often re-
mained faithful to their master and mistress unto death? Look,
for example, at the Dowager Lady de Klerk, who on her death
in 1786, in her will freed over 50 of her slaves with their chil-
dren, and left them in many cases a sum of money varying
between 25 and 500 Rixdollars."
Other writers, however, such as Noble (1762), Haafnei
(circa 1800), and Dirk van Hogendorp (circa 1800) bitterly
criticize the mistreatment of the slaves at Batavia, which an
earlier French traveler, De Biervillas (1736) nevertheless con-
trasts very favorably with that meted out to the slaves at Goa.
However, Olivier, like everyone else, does admit that the lip-
laps treated their slaves very badly.
The governor's private orchestra, around 1786 or so, con-
sisted of seventeen slaves, playing without other members;
their instruments included a flute, clarinet, violin, horn,
trumpet, Castanet, bassoon, and various others, Olivier (circa
1810) states that the house-orchestra slaves were well taught,
had good ears for music, and gave a good performance. The
orchestras usually played during meals, at required intervals and
for dancing, this last category including Jcafarin/a, an old Portu-
guese dance, as well as gallops like the plow dance. Generally
speaking, the Dutch at Batavia were very keen on music. Cooks
were the most valued and highly priced slaves, but musicians
were next in importance, whereas female embroiderers and
seamstresses came third.
Classical names were favored by their Dutch masters foi
slaves: names like Achilles, Castor, Andromeda, Theodora;
they also liked biblical names, such as Joseph, Daniel, 01
Jacoba. Occasionally the slaves were called simply by native
names Ismail, Sapto, Lesarda. The ungallant C. F. Noble, in
1762, wrote, "Europeans that reside at Batavia, buy or keep as
servants the most beautiful Malay women. There are a few
Dutch white women in the City, but so sickly and weak, that
were I to reside amongst them, I would sooner chuse one of
the natives than one of them/' Well, after all, to paraphrase
the modern American colloquialismwho wouldn't?
j 208
Other categories of slaves were gardeners, maids of various
kinds, including some whose duty it was merely to serve tea
and refreshments, grooms, grocers, sandal makers everything,
in fact, that one might find in a village of freedmen, among
the shopkeepers of the town.
"It later became obvious to me/' writes Olivier, "that the
vast majority of the Europeans treated their slaves with the
greatest consideration and kindness, and I am the better
pleased to state this fact since it indubitably rebounds to the
credit of my countrymen. This observation does naturally not
apply to the Liplapps or Creoles, whose upbringing, hitherto,
has been most sadly neglected in India. But it seems a natural
conclusion that the generous spirit of the Netherlands Govern-
ment will finally exert its beneficent influence over the charac-
ter of this pitiful race. The way has already been pointed to
the improvement of the worst habits and customs of the female
section of the Liplapps (one cannot count many among the
fair sex) by the establishment of a Governmental educational
institute, in which they will at least be able to attain a certain
degree of moral and cultural civilization."
Notice the date when Olivier wrote that 1827. The British
had been and gone, long since, but they had left their mark at
least on the liplaps, if not on Javanese politics. The bad old
days were slipping backward, fading out, drawing nearer and
nearer to oblivion. Perhaps this is a good place to remark that
the attitude toward the Javanese at home, in Holland, was
changing too. The government was beginning to urge Euro-
pean ladies to go out to the colonies. In 1933, as a matter of
fact, young government servants going out to the East from
Holland had to be either engaged or married before they
started on their voyaging; and to home-grown Dutch girls, too;
none of your liplaps! Some of those portly old eighteenth-
century merchants must be looking on cynically from the other
world, sneering as they draw on their pipes; pausing in their
sneers only long enough for a good old-fashioned Batavia fever
chill (From habit, naturally nobody is really ill in the after
world.) White women, real white women, from Amsterdam
or The Hague? The old boys snort lustily. What good would
209
such chits be in a climate like Batavia's? The new project
(Operation Caucasian?) must look terribly impractical, from
the viewpoint of a real, genuine, eighteenth-century Dutch
ghost. But of course from his viewpoint the colonies have been
going to the dogs anyway, for a long, long time; for almost as
long as they h^ve been living among the other shades of an-
tiquity.
Here, however, it must be said that in the opinion of at
least one Dutchman, Dr. F. de Haan in his Oud Batavia, Raf-
fles was a hypocrite, for he himself was guilty not of owning
slaves but of importing them, during a later and different ad-
ministration. De Haan says that Raffles brought Balinese slave
girls into Singapore for the benefit of the Chinese of that city!
Since he does not give the name of his authority for this state-
ment, we cannot refute it r and speaking from the scholar's
scientific viewpoint, we should ignore the story.
On other points, however, De Haan is more generous with
data, and many of his observations are well worth noting. Ac-
cording to him, during the period when the English were in
Java, 1811-16, three quarters of the total number of slaves at
Batavia were not bom there but had been imported to keep
up their numbers, as their mortality rate was very high. He
implies that their death rate was even higher than that of the
ill-fated Europeans, probably because of their even less sani-
tary housing. The total number of slaves in Batavia and its
neighborhood in 1816, he says, was about twelve thousand,
and the largest number in a single owner's hands was 165.
"That one could do without slaves, and that one could get
better and cheaper service from free natives, was first made
clear after the English conquest. The English officers and
officials brought their own free servants with them and did not
like to use slaves/ 7 In contradiction to this general rule, how-
ever, we must remember that Gillespie at least once bought
slaves three dancing girls during his residence in Java. It be-
came a cause cd&bre after Raffles heard of the transaction.
"This must have had some effect," says De Haan, speaking of
the more usual behavior of the British in eschewing slave labor.
"Moreover, the times were such that people did not feel in-
210
clined to invest much money in possessions which involved
so much risk/' A slave's purchase money was too high a sum
to be considered lightly, and the high mortality rate among
them rendered slave buying a bad investment. "And also the
realization that slavery is as demoralizing for the master as for
the servant must gradually have gained ground. Fortunately
the abolition of slavery proceeded by very easy stages in Java,
and it was not until 1860 that the last slaves were freed, to their
great disgust."
Generally speaking, the treatment of slaves in the Dutch
Indies was better in the eighteenth century than in the seven-
teenth, and better in the nineteenth than in the eighteenth,
partly owing to the growth of religious tolerance. (This is still
De Haan.) Up to 1782, a slave woman who had children by
her Dutch master could be sold by him, together with their
children, whose status was that of slaves like their mother, but
this practice was then prohibited, and a man could not sell
either concubine or offspring. (Slavery did not legally exist in
Holland, and therefore the law was based on the old Roman
Law in this respect. )
Typical auction announcements are as follows: One, in
1814: "Household furniture, gold and silver work, some
dancing-girls, wagons and horses/' for sale by a Chinese.
Another, in 1816: "For sale, a perfect cook who can bake
pastry as well as anybody in Batavia."
Chinese were reputed to be the harshest taskmasters, De
Haan says, but does not name his informant (s).
Obviously De Haan was correct in describing the abolition's
progress as going by easy stages. As late as 1816 the Java Gov-
ernment GazetW reported a case where a young slave girl had
been shut up for some months in a vat, and another where a
smith's slaves had been chained to their workbenches.
The practice of sending slaves to prison or to the stocks for
punishment obtained in Java, according to De Haan: it was
evidently much like conditions in contemporary Cuba, de-
scribed in the book Anthony Adverse. He adds that Raffles
used to put natives and Chinese in jail if they did not show his
own servants proper respect, citing chapter and verse for one
211
occasion. That was evidently at the beginning of Raffles's term
in office, and it may well have happened that once, as an ex-
ample. But it could scarcely have been Raffles's habit.
De Haan's final comment on slavery versus the use of free
labor is an explanation as to why the slaves weren't better
workers. In a big household, he says, there would naturally be
a lot of them, and so no one slave had very much work to do.
Even that he usually did badly. In other words, slavery is not
only demoralizing to the master, but it also spoils a slave's own
working capacity. The average wealthy slave owner in Java,
when the English arrived, had about forty slaves, or perhaps
fifty or sixty; somewhere thereabouts. Such a number of
workers didn't really leave much for anybody to do on his own,
nor could these conditions have done very much for a man's
sense of responsibility.
The good old days, then, were not so very good after all, and
Raffles didn't really do anyone much of a disservice when he
insisted upon putting slave traffic out of action. For, after all,
it does no good to argue whether or not this slave was happy,
and that slave better fed than his free cousin in the backwoods.
Slavery asks a deeper question than these. We humans have
gone over the border and sipped the intoxicating wine of
Principle; it's too late, now, to answer critics by telling them
that we have, on the whole, been pretty good to our slaves.
Among all the Nazi practices which are now coming to light,
the one which shocks us the most is that they enslaved thou-
sands of people, inhabitants of the conquered territories of
Europe. They dealt in human flesh and bone and muscle, just
when we thought slavery was finished and done with. That
was the great outrage.
It is no use to talk of patriarchal households; that phrase
does not explain away the dreadful possibilities which always
lurk behind the word "slave." Look for a few minutes at the
punishment they meted out to a Macassar slave in Batavia
back in 1769, at that same period when many writers were sat-
isfied and smug about the situation, convinced that the slaves
of Java were better off than a good many freemen.
This man from Macassar had murdered his owner, and so
they condemned him to death by impalement, which was a
punishment concocted deliberately, by the council, especially
in order to discourage such slaves as may have felt a natural
urge now and then to murder their masters.
The slave was taken to the execution place and made to lie
down on his belly. Four men took hold of him and held on
while the executioner made a transverse incision at the lower
part of his body, as far as the sacrum. The executioner then
took a spike of polished iron, six feet long, and introduced the
sharp end of it into the wound, so that it passed between back-
bone and skin. Two men drove it up, forcibly, along the spine,
the executioner holding on at the other end and steering it
properly, until it came out between the neck and the shoulders.
The lower end was now put into a wooden post and riveted
fast, the whole contraption lifted upright, and the post driven
into the ground. At the top of the post,, about ten feet from
the ground, was a kind of little bench on which the body rested
and was kept in place.
Stavorinus, who witnessed the affair, said that the slave's
fortitude was incredible, or perhaps it was not fortitude as
much as insensibility. He did not utter the least complaint
except at the point in the proceedings when the spike had to
be riveted to the post: the hammering aiid shaking caused by
this did make him bellow out. Also he uttered loud complaint
when he was lifted up with the post and it was set into the
ground.
The slave from Macassar did not die until three o'clock the
next afternoon, and then, according to the bystanders who
talked to Stavorinus, it was because a light rain fell that he was
thus released from life. In dry weather such victims could last
much longer than that, they explained, as long, sometimes, as
eight days, and without food or drink. The reason they gave
for such slow death was that no vital parts of the body were
injured by the impalement. Water in the wounds, however,
brought on an immediate gangrene, they said.
The Only complaint the slave made was of insufferable thirst,
for he was out in the burning sun and no one was allowed to
give him water to drink (for fear of hastening death and cur-
tailing the punishment) . He was also, of course, tormented by
thousands of stinging insects.
Up to three hours before his death he conversed, quietly on
the whole, with the bystanders. He would relate the manner
of his crime and express repentance, doing all this with great
composure, yet an instant later would break out in bitterest
complaints of his thirst, and he raved deliriously, begging for
a drink.
That happened in 1769, but the date doesn't matter. It is
a thing which can happen any time, anywhere, to any slave, as
long as slavery exists. Don't talk nonsense about patriarchal
households, then. There were probably a few patriarchs in
Nazi Germany too. It's beside the point. Raffles and his friends
knew that, back in 1814.
CHAPTER XIII
It was with deliberate intent
that until now I have avoided as far as possible mentioning
British influence in Java after the conquest in 1811. Rather, I
have placed emphasis on conditions in Batavia before the
British interregnum while she was exclusively Dutch, for there
is no doubt that the island's administration under Raffles, and
the influx of British officials and a few English wives, produced
an impact from which the Indies staggered for a long time
afterward.
There were many elements in this situation which con-
tributed to its explosive nature. Some were political, some
social, and a good many more were a combination of both. To
begin with, there was of course the inevitable resentment a
conquered people feels against its conquerors. The setup in
Batavia was complicated; it had not been a simple matter of
England versus Holland, and so in a way Raffles was given an
out from the customary embarrassment which besets the over-
dog. He and his assistants tried manfully to maintain from the
beginning of their residence on Java the polite fiction that they
were welcome as flowers in May to the Dutch, and that the
Hollanders in turn were their favorite neighbors too. The Eng-
lish proclamation on landing day had been worded as tactfully
as Minto, out of his wide diplomatic experience, had been able
to make it, to imply that Great Britain and Holland were allies
in the campaign, banded together against their common enemy
France toward a common end, British sovereignty on Java.
Carefully planning for an amicable, just future, the earl and
Raffles arranged that out of the administrative council of three
which they decided upon, two members should be Hollanders.
Now that peace was achieved, during the four and a half years
of British occupation, the English and the Dutch to all out-
ward appearances were living on equal terms, like the usual
big happy European family. Both sides realized that this ap-
pearance of unity was vitally necessary because of the native
princes, who were always on the alert for any sign of trouble
between their ill-assorted masters.
There were many small matters which contained the seeds
of importance, and Raffles was a subtle soul who understood
such things almost too well, so that his career in Batavia was
complicated by countless little questions which must be care-
fully weighed before decision. For example there was that vexa-
tious problem of carriage stopping. It will be remembered that
a certain Captain Carteret while visiting Batavia under the
Dutch had insisted that he need not follow the Dutch law in
that case, and he had won by his resistance an exemption from
the rule, for all English who came after him. No Englishman
had to get out of his carriage when he met the governor or a
councilman riding along in the opposite direction under the
Dutch. Now, however, Raffles changed all that. De Haan says,
"But Raffles, who in the matter of state and dignity, followed
as far as possible in the footsteps of his Dutch predecessors in
order to prove that he was not their inferior, still ordered the
natives and the Chinese that on meeting his coach, they should
dismount from their horses and/or step out of their vehicles,
and that nobody could overtake him from behind and ride past
him, on pain of arrest; a coachman who dared to do this was
imprisoned for a month. On the other hand, employees ad-
dressed him in private letters as 'My dear Sir. . . / "
As anyone with knowledge of international diplomacy will
agree, social relations in a situation of this sort count a good
deal. For this reason Olivia Raffles too had an important role
to play, unofficially. As lady of the lieutenant governor she was
216
the acknowledged leader of Batavian society; it behooved her
to make all the nice adjustments and to pay the subtle cour-
tesies demanded of that position. Her deportment at official
parties would be only a part of it; the real test would come in
her dealings with the world of the ladies.
Did any other woman in all the history of diplomacy inherit
such an outlandish society to govern? Olivia's problem would
have been complicated enough even in an ordinary Dutch city,
for the position occupied by women in England was immeasur-
ably higher and more dignified, in those days, than that of the
typical household frump of Holland. On Java things were even
worse, much worse. The few Dutchwomen who had come
from Europe were not numerous enough to make a dent in the
system. Most wives of Batavian Dutchmen were either half-
castes or women who had been brought up in a milieu of half-
castes, and had in consequence taken on their habits and
attitude, which might be described in some as a combination
of betel chewing and ignorant laziness. The Dutchmen of
Batavia were of no mind to let any outrageous English notions
of women's rights enter the minds of their usually bovine
wives, and they presented an unbroken front of resistance to
Olivia and her feminine compatriots. In the end the English
ladies probably agreed to drop all attempts at intercourse, no
matter what hopes Olivia may have entertained at the begin-
ning. 'They stayed with each other and with their men, while
from afar the Dutch watched them and made scathing com-
ments. In this tendency they were not alone; the English were
not always silent on the subject of their neighbors either. Lady
Anne Bernard wrote of the Dutch girls at the Cape, about
1800, that "what they want most is shoulders and manners."
But of all English commentators, none exceeds in vividness
and bluntness of expression Lord Minto, who in a letter to his
wife described his first view of the cream of Batavian society.
It was at that ball which the army gave, honoring Sir Samuel
Auchmuty and the earl.
"It is impossible to give you anything like an adequate no-
tion of the total absence of beauty in so crowded a hall. There
never is a dozen of women assembled in Europe without a
few attractions amongst them. Here there was no difference,
except in some few varieties of ugliness and ordinariness of
dress and manner. The Dutch did not encourage, nor indeed
allow freely, European women to go out to their colonies in
India. The consequence has been, that the men lived with
native women, whose daughters, gradually borrowing some-
thing from the father's side, and becoming a mixed breed, are
now the wives and ladies of rank and fashion in Java. The
young ladies have learnt the European fashions of dress, and
their carriage and manner are something like our own of an
ordinary class. Their education is almost wholly neglected; or
rather no means exists here to provide for it. They are attended
from their cradles by numerous slaves, by whom they are
trained in helplessness and laziness; and from such companions
and governesses, you may conceive how much accomplishment
and refinement in manner or opinions they are likely to ac-
quire.
"In dancing the young beauties seemed lame in English
country dances, of which they knew neither the steps nor the
figures; but in their own dance, which was to a very slow valse
tune, the figures much the same as ours, with a valse embrace,
however, instead of an allemande, they were at home and not
without grace; while our English damsels and cavaliers were
all abroad and about as awkward and crippled as their Dutch
fellow-subjects had been before. Mrs. Bunbury, the wife of an
officer, a young pretty Englishwoman, stood up in the dance;
but seeing, when the first couple reached her, the Dutch
gentleman take his partner fairly in his arms and hug her, as it
appeared to her, as a bear does his prey, she fairly took to her
heels and could not be brought back again, by any means, to
see or share such horror. The Dutch valsers certainly deal in
very strict embraces, but our English gentlemen, to their shame
be it said, appeared so entirely unpractised in that art that their
.Dutch partners gave the point up as a bad job, and were forced
to content themselves with merely taking hands and swinging
the loobies about. The chaperons and older Dutch ladies are a
class not yet described in Europe. The principal mark to know
them by is their immense size. The whole colonial sex runs
naturally to fat, partly from over-feedingpartly from want of
exercise. The morning air is the grand pursuit of the English
Orientalists; the Dutch of both sexes have a horror of it and
prefer their beds. In the rest of the day nobody can go out; and
in the evening they think a drive in a carriage too great an ef-
fort. . . . Suppose an immense woman sitting behind a stall
with roasted apples and we have an old Dutch lady of the
highest rank and fashion. Her upper garment is a loose coarse
white cotton jacket fastened nowhere but worn with the grace-
ful negligence of pins and all other fastenings or constraints
of a Scotch lass, an equally coarse petticoat, and the coarsest
stockings, terminating in wide, thick-soled shoes; but by stand-
ing behind her you find out her nobility, for at the back
of the head a little circle of hair is gathered into a small crown,
and on this are deposited diamonds, rubies, and precious stones
often of very great value. It is well with this if they can speak
even Dutch, many knowing no language but Malay/'
The English never quite accustomed themselves to the cus-
tom, prevalent even among Dutchwomen without Asiatic
blood, of wearing the native dress. For example there was
Madam Couperus, who "was dressed in a mixture between the
Malay and the Portuguese, her outward garment being made
exactly like a shirt. She looked as if she reversed the order of
her dress altogether/' This was in 1795.
Yet little by little these Englishwomen's manners and tastes
did have an effect on the local ladies. This naturally showed
itself first in dress, with the liplaps leading the way in the
adoption of English fashions. Thorn speaks of it with custom-
ary smugness in his brief description of Batavia's social life:
"After the arrival of the English, the younger ladies, and
those who mix much in society with them, adopted the
fashionable habiliments of our fair countrywomen, and in their
manner as well as dress they are improving wonderfully. . . "
Like many other writers, Thorn mentions the Harmonic,
that club which before the conquest had been the center of
Dutch social life and which under Raffles's government con-
tinued to be important in a different way. In the old days the
Dutchmen had used the building for their smoking, drinking,
219
dull, conversational evenings; their women were brought along
sometimes, but rarely, and then merely as an afterthought.
When the English moved in, however, they brought their own
amusements with them and followed their usual custom of
joining parties in company with their wives. Thorn said, "The
higher circles, however, have to boast of ladies as well as gentle-
men of rather superior acquirements, who are for the most part
Europeans, either by birth or education. These meet fre-
quently in convivial parties, entertaining themselves with
sprightly dances and elegant suppers/'
It was the English who first popularized dancing at official
parties. It was the English who taught the Dutch burghers to
have music with their toasts rather than merely to recite them,
when they were drinking. Someone with a sense of humor
selected the tunes on purpose for their titles. To the toast,
"The Queen and the royal family/' the appropriate tune was
"Merrily Danced the Quaker's Wife and Merrily Danced the
Quaker." When 'The Company" was toasted, the tune was
"Money in Both Pockets." When the company drank to "The
ladies of Batavia," the band played, "Will You Come to the
Bower?"
New festivities were introduced after the British pattern:
for example, every year during his tenure Raffles held a New
Year's reception. Today an average international gathering in
the Far East would probably greet with amused incredulity the
statement that a British government, of all groups, should
have had a lightening, gay effect upon any society whatever,
but so it was in 1811. In those days and by comparison with
the slow Dutch, the British looked like tearing, merry madcaps.
What did these English ladies wear en grande tenue, and
how did they amuse themselves? It is rather a pity that they
should have happened to become models of fashion for the
Batavian ladies just at that particular time. It is a shame that
this political development didn't take place ten years earlier,
when European clothes were really pretty and simple. Now, in
1811 and after, the graceful pseudo-Grecian simplicity, with its
light draped muslins and its freedom of movement, was going
out. The women of Europe were entering on a phase of ridicu-
lous overelaboration. Olivia and her intimate friends were
probably a little later in getting around to it than were her fel-
low women in England and on the Continent, but she was no
unnatural monster; she tried to keep up with the styles, like
everyone else. And, also like everyone else, the half-caste wives
of Batavia obediently trotted along in the footsteps, those long
English footsteps, of Raffles's lady.
Both nymphs and goddesses now went out of style, and the
costumes which appeared instead were distortions of the
human body.
In European centers of fashion, about 1817, dresses were
now entirely bodice-less, and hung straight from the neck to
an embroidered hem on a comparatively short skirt. Pantalettes
were clearly visible beneath usually heavily trimmed in lace.
It was a peculiarly hideous style, concealing as it did all natural
shape of the figure. The only favorable thing about it was the
continued absence of elaborate corsets, but for almost a decade
European women went about looking like nothing so much
as bifurcated piping.
Shawls were much in evidence, in all materials and for all
possible prices. Women in every walk of life had their shawls.
It is said that the Empress Josephine, much to Napoleon's dis-
gust, owned four hundred English cashmere shawls, each cost-
ing at least fifteen thousand francsa far cry from the poor
cockney's printed cotton of the same shape and name. So im-
portant an article of dress was the shawl that a lady's entire
reputation for taste depended on the way she arranged this,
her most important garment. You didn't say that a woman
was well dressed, in 1810; you said she was "beautifully
dtaped."
Hair styles underwent a similar change. One's hair was worn
pressed flat to the head, either netted or arranged in small
tight curls over the brow; or plaited. Farewell to the luxuriant
wind-blown tresses of the pagan deities!
As for the men's clothing, it did not change so quickly. It
never does. Knee breeches, however, went completely out of
style about 1815. The redingote, which earlier had sported tails
so long they were carried by their wearers as a lady carried hei
221
train, settled down to its final shape. Already men who longed
for the old color and gaiety were reduced to wearing color only
in their waistcoats and neckcloths. Little did the poor crea-
tures realize, as they complained, that they would shortly be
reduced even further, and would have to depend for relief
from their drab suits solely upon one pathetic little scrap of
silk, called a cravat or necktie. "By about 1815 ... [the vest],
and the other two articles of man's attire, the coat and the
trousers, were essentially the same as they are now, all extrava-
gance of style having been discarded/' Men, hapless creatures
that they are, had stopped emulating the peacock, and forever.
Gone forever, too, were the velvets, plumes, and laces of the
good old days.
Travel books of the period speak more than once of the ex-
treme cleanliness of the Malays. Tourists tell in accents of
wonder and fright how the native women actually went bath-
ing, some of them every day. So, one supposes, did their men.
We need not wonder that white travelers considered this fact
worthy of comment, when we look at the personal habits
which prevailed among the "civilized" nations of the world.
In 1775 an order of the Batavian High Government forbade
forcing the soldiers of the garrison to take a bath once a week!
A few advanced souls had recently been driven to producing
tracts on the subject of cleanliness, begging their compatriots
in France and England to bathe at least once in a while, and
to change the underclothing of their children if not of them-
selves. The French were evidently worse offenders than the
English. Anyway that is what the English said. It was one of
the things you understood, without saying it aloud, about
French ladies of high society: that they were charming to look
at, but it was better not to get too close to them.
Now as to the parties of Batavia and Buitenzorg. We saw
away back in the columns of the Prince of Wales's Island
Gazette that Olivia was not above joining the dance now and
then. What were these dances like? Back home in England,
in France, and in Vienna, the waltz had become so popular by
1810 that ball program cards were predominantly given over to
waltz numbers. The remaining dances were the usual gavottes,
minuets, et cetera. The waltz was the only "round" dance. We
must remember when we read about styles in clothing, danc-
ing, and so on, that there was a time lag in receiving news
about fashion changes for people who, like Olivia Raffles, lived
in out-of-the-way places such as the East Indies and British
India. Even today, in our world of air mail and fast liners, the
white women who live in India and China are nervously aware
that they aren't quite up to the minute in such matters, so one
can imagine the pangs of impatience and anxiety suffered by
the ladies on Java back in 1815, who had to wait the best part
of a year for their Paris styles!
Public sentiment about the English was not always good-
natured, unfortunately, though we can scarcely be surprised
at this. It was a prejudice of long standing, an old story stretch-
ing back through two centuries. Stavorinus mentions the
British repeatedly and usually in anger; he repeats a long tale
from Surat, for example, setting forth the complaints of a lady
there who claimed she had been forced by an Englishman
(around 1770) to sell to him a pair of horses which she had
not at all wanted to give up, and at his price too. Stavorinus
said that wherever these haughty conquerors went trade de-
clined sharply. The English wouldn't pay the native workers
enough, and that was one of the chief reasons for the deterio-
ration of colonial economy, "The decay of Surat is not a little
owing to the superiority which the English have attained there
since the last revolution/' he says. "The arrogant and arbitrary
conduct of that nation, makes the merchants averse to engage
in extensive enterprizes of trade, and the capitalists are afraid
of putting out their money to interest, or of risking it in the
operation of commerce/'
Moreover, he complains, those English would always spoil
bargains for others if they couldn't trade; in proof of this al-
legation he describes how he himself experienced their "selfish
conduct" and suffered by it. An English councilor named Sit-
ton, conspiring with the local nabob, prevented the native
merchants from buying any commodity of Stavorinus, espe-
cially sugar, in private trade; so that the traveler had to sell
everything at the British fixed rates if he wanted to sell at all
223^3
The English even kept brokers from purchasing of him,
Stavorinus said bitterly. "Thus the trade of a formerly flourish-
ing emporium is running to decay."
He adds that one of the Dutch directors, one Senf, had sug-
gested that the Dutch take possession of some other place
near Bombay in order to steal trade away from the British
again. (This of course was fifty years before the conquest of
Java.) They had evidently gone so far as to send a committee
to a place called Goga, in the Gulf of Cambay, about 1765,
who, "under the appearance of a party of pleasure [i.e., picnic],
surveyed the places in that neighborhood, and the island
Peram. But nothing resulted therefrom. . . ."
That "party of pleasure" brings memories to us, as an early
example of the German and Japanese "tourists" who, it will
be recalled, flooded their neighbors' territories for months and
years preceding the recent war, surveying whatever places in-
terested their governments, and taking photographs as well.
On the general topic of British in the Far East, Stavorinus
made a few additional spiteful remarks. Domestic peace and
tranquillity could only be kept in English homes out East by
"enormous expenditure." The women would rise between eight
and nine, and spend the rest of the forenoon paying visits to
each other or "lolling on a sofa, with their arms across" (prob-
ably that means "with arms folded"). Dinner was served at
one-thirty, after which the ladies slept until four-thirty or five.
"They then dress in form," he writes does he mean in formal
attire? Probably "and the evening and part of the night is
spent in company, or at dancing parties, which are frequent,
during the colder season.
"Both men and women generally dress in the English style.
The ladies affect, for coolness, to wear no covering on their
necks; and leave none of the beauties of a well-formed bosom
to be guessed at. They are friendly and affable toward strangers,
and certainly do not deserve to be called either coy, or cruel.
They are fond of parties of pleasure, which are frequently
made both upon the delightful banks, and upon the pleasant
waves, of the Ganges."
When the British took possession of the Dutch colony of
Java they were quite as shocked by their predecessors' habits
as the Dutch were by their conquerors.
Dr. de Haan ? who has already contributed so largely to these
pages, comes to our help again, describing details of Dutch
colonial life which must have been viewed by the British with
horror and alarm. The beds of Batavia were large and spacious
and provided with as many as ten cushions or pillows, includ-
ing the "stomach-pillow," which was used to protect the lower
part of the body against cold. (Most of the Belgians and many
of the French in tropical Africa still wear a "cholera-belt/' a
wide strip of woolen stuff, around their bellies at night for the
same reason. The famous "Dutch wife/' a bolster provided the
traveler most places south of Singapore, is a different thing
entirely, designed for coolness.) There was such a general hor-
ror of catching cold, partly because of a fantastic notion that
this originated beriberi, that the sleeper not only surrounded
himself with a mass of pillows but often wore a "night necker-
chief" and a woolen nightcap. "When it is added that the bed
curtains were not usually made of gauze or muslin but of cot-
ton, linnen, or costly thick textiles, and that the bed room was
on the ground floor and was therefore very stuffy due to the
absence of ventilation, then one begins to get some idea of the
ambrosial nights passed by the well-to-do in Old Batavia,
whilst those of the poor, spent on a bench without curtains,
must have been little else than a hopeless fight against the
swarming mosquitoes."
Then there was the question of a proper diet for hot cli-
mates. The ideas of the old-fashioned Dutch on this subject
were not ours, to put it mildly. The Europeans at Batavia as
much as possible avoided eating rice until well on into the
nineteenth century, and they always preferred their costly,
difEcult-to-get, half-sour or rancid, ill-preserved and unsuita-
ble European foodstuffs, together with local poultry, green
vegetables, butter from the Cape and Bengal, all of which
were very plentiful. There is no mention in Raffles's day of
the now so famous Ri'/sttafel. From Holland came pickled
meats and salted bacon, butter, cheese, ham, smoked or salted
salmon, Bologna sausages, herrings, smoked tongue and meat;
225
from China, Persia, and India came dried and preserved traits
like apples, chestnuts, persimmons, and apricots; from Persia
currants and jams.
About 1625 Jan Pieterszoon Coen wrote, "Our nation
must drink or die," and for hundreds of years after that his
nation seems to have done its earnest best to go on living. The
Dutch consumption of alcohol was increased, if that were
possible, during the eighteenth century, by the idea that spir-
ituous liquor was a protection against malaria and all other
fevers. Thus in a bad malarial epidemic of 1732-35, the gov-
ernment issued the soldiers extra rations of arrack against "the
striking hand of God,"
For that matter, during some similar malarial epidemics in
the 18405, in Hong Kong, the British garrison there was is-
sued extra sherry and bitters rations, as a precaution against
malaria and "the damp night airs and exhalations/ 7
In Batavia everybody drank a bottle of wine a day as a mat-
ter of course, quite apart from the beer, sake, spirits, and so on
which were consumed on the side. Heavy drinking was cus-
tomary at parties. Visitors were given a toast with each glass
of wine, principally no doubt to compensate for the lack of
intelligent conversation. Official parties were punctuated with
a numerous and lengthy official toast list, sometimes accom-
panied by cannon shots and three cheers. The widow of Gov-
ernor General van der Parra, about 1780, who according to
contemporary witnesses was an exceptionally sober and strait-
laced man, died long after her husband but still left forty-five
hundred bottles of wine and over ten thousand bottles of beer.
Dutch, German, and English beer were all imported in large
quantities, and wine came from Persia and the Cape as well
as from Europe. It was so cheap and plentiful that it was
sometimes only six stuivers a bottle (that would be about six
cents).
Shortly after the capture of Malacca in 1641, J. Schouten
recommended that owing to the high death rate there among
the Hollanders "we should follow a more healthy way of life,
as is exemplified by the good example of the Portuguese, than
is customary with our own people, principally in washing the
226
whole body clean each morning, and utilizing the early morn-
ing and late evening cool in order to take walks or other forms
of exercise, and avoiding the heat of the burning sun, the
strong drinks; and particularly to use a fit and proper dietary
regime in food and drink."
Nevertheless bathing remained the exception rather than
the rule, at least among the men the women, under the Indo-
Portuguese semi-harem regime, .seem to have been more par-
ticular about washing until the English interregnum, when
the English habit of taking daily baths (in the East) took a
firmer hold. Minto said, in the long letter already much
quoted, which he wrote his wife from Batavia: 'There is a
canal opposite to every door on the other side of the road.
Each house has a little projecting gallery supported by posts
in the canal. The lower part of this, that is to say from the
level of the road down into the water, is made in some degree
private, by upright bars at a little distance from each other,
and with this bath the road communicates by wooden steps.
Here the lady of the house, her relatives and female slaves, lave
their charms, and here you may behold the handmaids of
Diana sporting on and under the wave in sight of all passing
Actaeons. This is the morning scene. In the evening they have
chairs brought out in the gallery above, and sit with their
beaux in conversation and repose."
The charm of this description is somewhat damaged when
one recalls that Raffles's secretary Addison calls the canals
"mere ditches/' and that all writers agree that the local prac-
tice of dumping the city's sewage and refuse into the water
gave it a noxious odor and an unpleasant "exhalation." Cap-
tain James Cook saw a dead ox lying for days in one of the
canals.
As we know, the world had long accepted Batavia's proud
claim of being the unhealthiest spot on earth. About 1795,
Lord Macartney, remarking on this, said that in its mortality
Batavia "resembles a field of battle or a town besieged."
Now, however, the British were about to issue a counter-
claim. "It was the English," says De Haan, "who first objected
to the bad name given to the sea breezes. They opined that
227
the winds from seaward must necessarily be healthy, and that
the faint smell of coral-reefs and pools were of no significance."
This because it was generally believed that bad smells carried
disease. "On the whole it can be said that the best account
of the reasons for the unhealthiness of Old Batavia are those
given in the Java Gazette of 1815, with the exception of
course of the malaria infection due to the mosquito, which
nobody did or could have surmised by Robert Tytler under
the pseudonym of Benevolus. The English in their colonies
followed an entirely different way of life than our Batavians,
gave light and air free circulation in their dwellings and took
much exercise. Hence Tytler was at once able to see various
unfavourable factors which the people at Batavia had ignored
through custom or ignorance. . . . Batavia might well have
been built, to show exactly how not to live in the tropics/*
He continues with the usual description of the city, but his
emphatic observations of the effects of some of this on the
public health are novel. The city was built on marshy land,
with the houses built close to each other on the edge of muddy
ditches and canals. In the dwelling places light and air were
excluded as far as possible. As if this were not enough, the
doors and windows were kept closed the greater part of the
day, curtains were hung to keep the sun out, and even then
one often sat behind a screen. To crown everything, the mode
of living was the worst possible. Exercise was almost never
taken, and baths only occasionally, while it was de rigueur to
overeat grossly of heavy foods and to regard alcohol as a splen-
did and indispensable medicine. Morning, noon, and evening,
said Benevolus, the Hollander drank gin, rum, and cognac.
Only too common were pale, wan, and bloated faces, shaking
hands, red and watery eyes, a foul breath. In the evenings it
was customary to sit smoking and drinking gin by the side of
a stinking ditch or canal, after which an unnecessarily heavy
supper was taken, after which one passed out, half seas over,
behind thick curtains in a stuffy room.
All this was in 1815, but as late as 1856 an Englishman
wrote that "Gin and brandy have killed five-sixths of all Euro-
peans who have died in Batavia within the last twenty years/'
^228
This is probably the reason why the women as a rule lived
longer than the men and why, frequently, persons of weak
constitutions lived longer than the robust individuals who
fancied themselves strong enough to resist any excesses.
The appalling mortality at Batavia at the end of the eight-
eenth century is shown by the following examples. In June
1775, C. P. Thurberg dined with a party of fifteen, on the
eve of his departure for Japan. On his return at the beginning
of 1777? he found that eleven of the thirteen were dead. Von
Wollzagen found in 1792 that all his friends had died within
a period of sixteen months. Of one hundred and fifty soldiers
who arrived with the ship Morgenstern in 1770, only fifteen
were alive four months later. Dysentery, typhus, typhoid, and
malaria were the principal diseases.
As might be expected of Raffles, one of his first actions in
an official capacity was to revive the moribund Batavian So-
ciety of Arts and Sciences. The origin of this society, the first
of its kind in the tropics, was due to the efforts of J. C. Rader-
macher, councilor-extraordinary and son-in-law of the Gover-
nor General Reynier de Klerk (1777-80). It is interesting to
note that one of his reasons for suggesting the formation of
such a learned society was that education must necessarily
precede the propagation of the Gospel, "in the same way as
the Renaissance had preceded the Reformation over 200 years
ago." Radermacher's pet project, after lying fallow for some
years, finally resulted in the founding of the society on April
24, 1778.
The society was inevitably too closely tied to the East
India Company's governmental setup (for instance the gov-
ernor general was automatically president and the director-
ships were limited to members of the governing council) but,
thanks to the presence of earnest seekers after knowledge and
well-educated individuals such as Radermacher himself, Wil-
lem van Hogendorp, Joshua van Iperen, and Isaac Titsingh,
the first three volumes of its Proceedings which the society
printed at Batavia in the years 1779-81 contained a number
22Q
of interesting essays. It was also fairly well endowed thanks to
the generosity of some members, who were lavish with gifts
in kind and cash, the former including, inter alia, a house, gar-
den, and "a white Papuan girl/' not as a lady's maid but as a
curiosity!
Moreover, the very fact that at the ordinary meetings the
members and even His Excellency the governor general met
common folk on a more or less equal footing made the foun-
dation of this society an almost revolutionary deed. The pro-
gram had a marked Masonic flavor and, as might have been
expected, was obviously influenced by its founders' reading
of the works of Rousseau, Voltaire, the Abb6 Raynal, and
other French humanitarians and Encyclopedists of the time.
It dealt as much with social questions as it did with purely
historical and scientific matters, the early volumes containing
queries on such varied topics as:
"i. What are the chief edible plants used by the East-
Indian natives in their food, and what are the best ways of
preparing and cooking them?
"2. What is the best way of rendering useful to the Com-
munity, the children of the common people who now aim-
lessly roam the streets?
"3. What reasons are there to prove that the children's
death-rate in the East-Indian colonies can be reduced to a
level similar to that in the countries of Northern Europe?
[W. van Hogendorp offered a prize of one hundred gold
ducats for the best answer to this question.]
"4. What means have been employed by the Imans and
other Mohamedan priests, teachers and missionaries, to con-
vert to and retain in the fold of Islam, the peoples of many
islands and localities in the East Indies? [Radermacher
offered a prize of a hundred gold ducats for the best answers
to this, but (as Raffles observed later) found no takers al-
though the society expressly stated that they would welcome
answers from native Moslems.]
"5. Why is sitting in the moonshine more dangerous here
than in Europe? What are the real ills that are derived there-
from and what are the best means of curing them?
"6. How can one fruitfully undertake to improve the moral
character of the Javanese, so that they may live lives more
happy for themselves and more useful to the community?
"7. What are the best means for improving the practical
and moral upbringing of the [Dutch and Eurasian] children
in this colony; and what is the best way to ensure that these
children speak Dutch as their mother-tongue from their earli-
est years?-
"8. What are the best means to get the household work in
Batavia done wholly or in part by free native Christian servants
instead of by slaves?"
One is inevitably reminded of the minutes from the early
meetings of the Royal Society in England, when large amounts
of time and reams of paper were devoted to essays proving
such points as "It is determined that no oaks do grow but
from acorns/' All the same, De Haan's acidulous observation
that there was something irresistibly comical about the society
should not be allowed to obscure the fact that some of its
founder-members were able and disinterested men.
Hofhout, nevertheless, was not far wrong when, shortly
after the opening in 1778, he expressed the fear that the so-
ciety would not last long. In fact, as De Haan points out, all
the requisites for a healthy career were lacking: public interest;
freedom of speech and writing; ability, knowledge, and charac-
ter in the leading personalities, with the exception of a few
like Radermacher and Titsingh. Although three volumes of
its Transactions were published in the first four years of its
existence, the society then fell into a state of decay, owing to
various factors of which the chief were (i) impossibility of
impartial investigation of controversial subjects due to its
dependence on the government; (2) the death of many of its
leading members and the absence of others in outlying estab-
lishments like Chinsura and Canton; and above all (3) the
disastrous English war of 1782-84 and the outbreak of the
French Revolution in the last decade of the eighteenth cen-
tury.
Between 1785 and 1792 only three volumes were published
and in the twenty years from 1792 to 1812, the society was vir-
tually moribund. From this state of stagnation it was revived
by the enthusiasm and drive of Raffles, who took a great in-
terest in its affairs and injected new life and vigor into its pro-
ceedings. 'To him was due the free and unpaid use of the
Government Printing Press, the presentation of a collection
of important books from the Government Library, and a fit
and proper building for housing its meetings, library and Col-
lections. The Rules of 1800 were revised under his presidency,
and partly modelled on those of the Asiatic Society founded
at Calcutta in 1784. The activities of the Society were resumed
with a flourish on its 3561 anniversary, 24 April 1813, with an
inaugural address by Raffles, reviewing its past, present and
future functions. The yth volume of the Transactions was
published in 1814 [the sixth had appeared in 1782]."
Contributors included himself (Raffles), the American Dr.
Thomas Horsfield (who had also been connected with the
society in 1802-10, but whose botanical and other works had
not been printed for lack of a printing press), Colonel
Mackenzie, and John Crawfurd, all of whose names are still
honored in the learned world. The seventh volume of the
Transactions, and also the eighth, which was printed in 1816,
were both largely the work of these men, and the society
thereby acquired a fame and reputation which affords a strik-
ing contrast to the deplorable situation in which it had stag-
nated for the previous two decades.
"But," writes Bleecker, "this flourishing period likewise
proved of short duration. After 1816, the Society again re-
lapsed into a state of inactivity, largely through the departure
of so many outstanding members after the change of govern-
ment from England to the Netherlands. When Raffles left
for Europe, there was enough material on hand for the pub-
lication of a gth volume, but Raffles's promise to secure pub-
lication of this material in Europe remained unfulfilled, nei-
ther did the Society receive back from him the manuscripts
which he had taken away,the reason for all this being proba-
bly connected with the important political events which tran-
spired in the Archipelago after the handing-over of Java/' An-
other temporary revival of activity occurred in the years 1821-
^232
26. From 1830 onward the society got fairly into its stride,
and for the last half century has been renowned throughout
the learned world for the high scholarship of its output and
the wide range of subjects covered, thus fulfilling the aim ex-
pressed by its original motto "Ten Nut van het Gemeen
The Public Weal."
The first number of the Java Government Gazette made its
appearance on Leap Year Day, 1812. It was in a completely
different style from that of the pompous official mouthpiece
of Daendels; it had character, a zest for life and freedom,
which had been completely unknown hitherto in the Indies,
and has seldom been equaled since. It is hard to believe that
such cracks at the government, even good-natured ones, would
be permitted to appear as, for example, the complaint that all
the prizes in a government lottery had been drawn by senior
members of the government. "The government has got them
all/' mourns the sender of a sorrowful poem.
This old paper, with its curicius sidelights on colonial life
of those days, on the prevailing antipathy between the Eng-
lish and the Dutch, and the struggle between progress and
reaction, is one of the most interesting Eastern products of
the grim drama that was being played out in the West-
Napoleon's march on Moscow, Leipzig, Elba, and Waterloo.
But there are no leading articles. The editor did nothing but
reprint snippets and cuttings from other papers. For his news
he was very dependent on the good will of the public. Agents
or correspondents were unknown. Even the British-Indian
papers only occasionally published leading articles, but con-
tributors were gladly welcomed and treated with great hospi-
tality. There was a separate "Poet's Corner/' and whoever
could write an indifferently good verse could probably find a
place in that corner. (Cf. almost any modern number of Hong
Kong's South-China Morning Post or Shanghai's North-
China Daily News. British journalism out East doesn't change
very quickly. )
The European news came only intermittently and very
tardily. No consecutive accounts were received for ten months
after Mav 10, 1812. In the number of May i, 1813, the latest
233^
news is of mid-September 1812. On one occasion the latest
(European) news is that received from Constantinople via
Bagdad; and on another it conies via Koepang in Timor from
an Australian pearl-fishing vessel which had touched at that
port.
Though a national attitude toward race difference is a
thing not easily defined, it can give rise to endless arguments
between representatives of different countries, such as Eng-
land and Holland, when they meet in a land foreign to both.
So it was whenever some incident pointed out the difference
between the way the Dutch had always treated the Asiatic
natives and the way the English who accompanied Raffles felt
about them. Though American readers will be skeptical about
this, the British showed far less severity than did the Holland-
ers in these white versus Asiatic relationships. The attitude of
the Batavian Dutch toward the Javanese and Indonesians of
the island who were not slaves is exemplified by Admiral
Cornells Maatpliefs remark, which has become famous: "So
long as the Dutch knife is sharp, the natives will show us re-
spect/'
Raffles accused the Dutch East India Company of treating
their Javanese subjects with less consideration than a West
Indian planter did his slaves. This was true up to a point, but
it should be remembered that the Company showed equally
small consideration for its humble European employees. Ad-
miral Verhuell, who was at Batavia in 1784, wrote that "Ex-
perience has shown that the sick [sailors] recover quicker and
better in the fresh air and aboard a hospital-ship. But this
makes no difference. The Hospital Directors are often favorites
of the Governor-General and must have their profits. There-
fore the poor sailors are sent thither, often at the cost of their
lives."
No European on Java, according to Raffles, understood the
native languages "except the Overseers in the forests or coffee-
plantations, whose duty obliges them to a constant intercourse
with the people of the interior." It is amusing, in the light of
the customary reproaches aimed today by Americans at the
British, to find an Englishman accusing some other national
of the same fault: ignorance of the language used by the
natives he is governing.
This question of languages, by the way, becomes less and
less simple as we study the situation on Java more closely. At
the time of the English occupation free Javanese were rela-
tively few in Batavia and its immediate neighborhood. More
numerous were Balinese, Amboinese, Bugginese, et cetera.
The Chinese were by far the largest colony of all, with the ex-
ception of the Dutch, and this in spite of that cruel massacre
and race riot in 1740. The "Mardykers," children of freed
slaves, were those of pure Asiatic origin, whose parents came
mostly from Arakan, Bengal, and CoromandeL By the end of
the eighteenth century they had merged under the term
"Portuguese" though they had no Portuguese blood at all, be-
cause they spoke the bastard Indo-Portuguese tongue found at
Batavia, Malacca, et cetera. This Portuguese language was
slowly replaced by the Malay tongue during the years between
1790 and 1820, after which period no Portuguese was to be
heard in Batavia.
The Mardykers had a bad reputation, according to Vlekke.
Because they were Christians, they didn't have to follow the
law which forced all other Asiatics to wear their native cos-
tume. One of the Dutchmen of the period said of them,
"They wear so-called European costume, but without shirt,
socks or shoes. They parade, dressed up like a quack's mon-
key at a country fair, and are the shrewdest and most self-
conceited of Batavia's inhabitants/'
One of the strangest products of this fantastically mixed
population of Batavia was the language spoken by Batavian
children, especially the hundred per cent Dutch infants who
were born on the island. A few schools were maintained for
such boys, but, as we have already seen, the girls seldom got
the chance to learn anything. They grew up among slaves:
they were trained by slaves. Often they didn't even learn to
speak Dutch. "They picked up a mixture," says Vlekke, "of
235 $*
Malayan, Portuguese 7 and Dutch, which remained their only
means of expression for the rest of their lives/'
The English stayed only four and a half years on Java. How
much longer would have been necessary, one wonders, before
their tongue added itself to this rich bouillabaisse of dialects?
CHAPTER XIV
It is not often that History
presents us with surprises, but through the Dutch East Indies
she has done just that. At the end of the eighteenth century
there appeared in Delft a pamphlet wherein one Dirk van
Hogendorp actually praised Great Britain's colonial policy!
What is more, this Van Hogendorp, in spite of being a Dutch-
man, proceeded on the strength of this unorthodox admira-
tion to recommend reforms in Java which bear a remarkable
resemblance to the actual changes Raffles was to put into
effect a dozen years later, while the British were occupying the
island.
England was wealthy and prosperous, said Hogendorp,
chiefly because her government officials administered their
laws with impartiality and justice. The laws themselves were
probably no better than those of many other nations, but they
were enforced as a matter of course in England. Hogendorp
ascribed this impartial justice to four causes. The first was the
independent position enjoyed by British judges, who could
not be removed from their posts for any reason but miscon-
duct, and who were paid such large salaries that they need not
fear poverty and were not subject to ordinary temptation by
bribery. The second was the trial-by-jury methoda jury, re-
member, actually composed of "good men and true." The
third reason was the assumption made by English law that a
237^
man is innocent until he is proved guilty and until sentence
has actually been passed on him by the judge. The fourth was
the fact that cases of law were always tried in open court, with
admission granted to all and sundry.
In comparison with this British state of affairs, all open and
aboveboard, the writer pointed scornfully to Dutch Java,
where, he asserted, there existed not even the shadow of jus-
tice, and a fair trial was unknown; Java, where the Council of
Justice, the Bench of Magistrates, and all subsidiary judicial
officials were part of, appointed by, and entirely dependent
on the local government, consisting of the governor general
and his council. These men could transfer, dismiss, remove,
or replace anyone they disliked at a moment's notice and with-
out referring to Holland for confirmation or approval, putting
in their own creatures to take the place of the banished vic-
tims. The august members of the judiciary of Java were badly
paid in the bargain: consequently they indulged in smuggling
and bribery quite as an understood thing.
It can be imagined how little chance any Hollander of
that time stood, under such circumstances, of receiving a fair
trial in Java, if he happened to do anything which might an-
noy the government. Needless to say, matters were still worse
as regarded the Javanese and other local natives. Owing to the
want of subordinate courts outside the urban centers, Batavia
and Samarang, cases involving natives might have to wait as
much as a year for trial, and since both witnesses and accused
were confined in noisome, unsanitary jails pending trial, many
hundreds simply died from neglect and starvation before they
were called into court. Of course this rule didn't apply to rich
natives, who could easily buy themselves off when they got
into trouble. The poor, however, whether guilty or innocent,
usually had to hang, as the cases were investigated and tried
in the most summary manner imaginable.
Van Hogendorp strongly advocated scrapping the whole
of the Company's feudal system of forced labor and deliveries,
replacing it by a small head tax, a land tax based on yearly
production of crops and extent of cultivated land, import and
export taxes, and taxes on salt, on firewood, on the seals on
^238
stamped documents, on the hire of open markets, and so
forth. These revenues, he asserted, would produce far more
than the Company's actual oppressive system. His claims
were justified, he added, by the example of the English in
Bengal: they raised more than sixty million guilders a year,
simply by similar means.
He also suggested a redistribution of land ownership among
the peasants who actually tilled the soil or, in other words, the
common Javanese. Van Hogendorp's distribution plan in-
cluded both the rice fields and the ground on which their
houses stood. Of course this rearrangement would have called
for an accurate land survey, and written proof of ownership
would have had to be given to each peasant-proprietor to start
out with. Under this (theoretical) system, the native regents
and the large landowners who had heretofore battened on the
toil of the tenant workers were to be compensated with tracts
of unoccupied land suitable for clearing and rice planting.
Any land that might remain was to be given to European,
Chinese, or native settlers, no more to one man, however,
than he was capable of planting and operating productively.
All woods, forests, and jungles were to become the property of
the State.
Van Hogendorp stressed the vital importance of giving the
Javanese peasants proprietary of the soil and the fields they
tilled, just as the peasants of Europe had at last come to en-
joy ownership of their land, after centuries of serfdom and
feudalism.
According to his estimate, "The Chinese possess ten times
the amount of wealth on the Island that the Europeans do,
whilst their yearly profits are in about the same proportion/'
The Chinese under the Company's jurisdiction in Java, he
said, numbered around one hundred thousand.
Considering the reforms put into practice by Raffles as
soon as he got his administration into working order, all of this
is surprisingly modern and anticipatory of things to come.
However, on second thought one realizes that anyone of the
then new school of thought, which embraced an advanced
idea of the value of humanity no matter what the race, would
239^
of course come to this sort of conclusion. The humanitarian
spirit was abroad in the land and Van Hogendorp's theories
were the only logical outcome. Nevertheless it is more than
surprising to find so much bitter criticism of Holland, with
such enthusiastic praise of perfidious Albion, appearing over a
Dutch signature, especially when we reflect that Raffles's land-
tenure reforms were severely criticized not only by the Dutch
but also by certain of his own superiors.
Moreover, Van Hogendorp's was not the only Dutch voice
raised in Raffles's praise. We must admit that they are small
voices indeed to be heard among the loud chorus of criticism,
even vituperation, which resounded from Holland's shores
after the British interregnum on Java, but they are noteworthy
for that very reason; their rarity makes them at least twice as
interesting as they would be without competition. One Jan
Samuel Thimmerman Thijssen, a merchant in the opium
trade and a magistrate, during the festivities which marked
the Dutch holiday and celebration in 1814 at Batavia (the
liberation of the Netherlands, August twenty-fourth), paid
the lieutenant governor eloquent tribute:
"The most fortunate moment which Java had ever known
was that on which Lord Minto selected Mr. Raffles for its fu-
ture Governor/' Thimmerman Thijssen had a good word for
Lord Minto as well: "His Sovereign has conferred on him the
dignity of an Earl, but the Almighty has recorded his name
in the Annals of Philanthropy and at a future period we may
expect to behold our Noble Benefactor in the Mansions of
Heaven decorated with the emblems of sincerity and virtue."
Bread-and-butter appreciation, you may say; a natural but
insincere speech from an unwilling subject who in his heart
wishes he had never been "liberated" by the British and sighs
for the good old days when Holland could call the East Indies,
as well as her soul, her own. But the Dutch didn't behave like
that. We can expect hollow manifestations of loyalty and love
from discreet Orientals, but in Java as well as Europe, Nether-
landers have always been remarkable more for blunt, un-
gracious honesty, even toward their conquerors, than f6r tact.
I think we can allow ourselves to believe Mr. Thimmerman
^240
Thijssen, just this once. God knows he didn't have much
compatriate company in his affection for that humanitarian
but British pair, Minto and Raffles; let us give him credit,
then, for the moral courage he showed in thus making a
speech which was sure to be unpopular.
One of the weightiest witnesses for the defense of the Dutch
administration, it will be recalled, is Dr. Bernard Vlekke. Dr.
Vlekke claims that many of Raffles's reforms on Java were
actually merely a continuation of plans made by Daendels,
who had no time to carry them out before the imminent
threat of British invasion brought about his recall to Holland.
Raffles had a positive genius, says Vlekke sourly, for making
himself sound big, without seeming, of course, to boast un-
duly of his own excellence. He skimmed the cream off Daen-
dels's projected renovation of the Javanese Government, and
then collected all the praise that was forthcoming for the re-
sulting success.
A study of the records provides some evidence in favor of
his idea; things had certainly been in a nasty mess in the Dutch
East Indies, particularly on Java, and Daendels's appointment,
even if Great Britain had not offered complications, would
doubtless have meant better days for the Javanese, or at least
some slight improvement. But at the very best these reforms
would not have been nearly so clean-sweeping or effective as
Raffles's. That wasn't the motive behind Daendels's presence
on Java. He had been sent out primarily to prepare a defense
against the English. It is exceedingly unlikely, even given the
good will such work calls for, that the marshal would have
been allowed to devote much of his time to social reform,
and he didn't have an overpowering amount of good will to
start with. Not to put too fine a point on the matter, the wel-
fare of Javanese natives was not closest to Daendels's heart.
His best friend would not have accused him of humanitarian-
ism and his worst enemy would not have dared. Daendels was
hard-boiled. Even among his compatriots there were few who
claimed to like him, though many were willing to bear witness
to their admiration.
D. J. A. Collet says the marshal can be described as a man
241
pany didn't make a positive statement one way or the other.
As long as it seemed likely they would decide against it, Minto
didn't press them for their decision: he hoped he might yet
be able to dispel their doubts and persuade them to see things
his and Raffles's way. Raffles therefore went ahead on the as-
sumption that his dearest wish would be gratified and that
Java would become in fact, as he saw her in his visions, the
center of a great British Oriental Empire. He couldn't have
been sure of it really; there is not much doubt that he tapped
on wood a dozen times a day, but in public he kept up the pre-
tense of believing everything was going to go just as he wished.
Not for one moment, however, did he set to work digging
Dutch influence out of Java or attempting to banish it. On the
contrary, he was careful to retain, whenever it was at all feasi-
ble, every appearance of the original form in administrative
action. The two Dutchmen on the council helped him in
doing this. Chiefly in order to reassure them of his friendly
intentions, the first measure which he caused to be put into
operation was an outright adoption of the Dutch legal code,
and it was, in truth, an adoption rather than an adaptation.
In only one respect did Raffles alter this code, though that
was an important alteration: he stripped it of its fangs by out-
lawing the former methods of torture and other penalties in-
volving extreme cruelty which had until then been in force.
He also added a new feature shortly afterward, just about the
time Lord Minto took his departure: trial by jury.
Dutch opinion of this latter innovation has been variously
interpreted. Boulger maintains that they looked upon it with
favor; Vlekke says it was not a success. The contemporary
Dutch could not have resented it too much, for it was one
change which they retained after Holland took back posses-
sion of her East Indian territory, though only for a short
while. Afterward, on the grounds that the Javanese didn't
like juries, they abolished that much of Raffles's judicial ad-
ministration.
Next and most pressing problem was the ever vexatious one
of revenue. Seventy years later J:he Anglo-Saxon world was to
be stirred to its depths when Morel "exposed" His Belgian
^244
In appearance he left the Indies a very different man to
what he was when he arrived. Before going out to Java his
portraits depict a striking figure of a soldier, stocky, strong,
and virile. Unfortunately the easy life of Batavia and perhaps
the excessive drinking then in vogue did the dirty on Daen-
dels and after a time he became monstrously fat and gross.
Like other Dutchmen in the islands, he often wore the Malay
sarong, but he went the rest of them one better by wearing
it even when he entertained, and sometimes did not stop short
of appearing a la Malay at his office. The effect of so much
avoirdupois thus lightly clothed, with his enormous hairy
arms and chest bare to the elements, can be imagined.
Nevertheless Daendels's qualities as military leader did not
seem to have been impaired as was his manly beauty. After
being recalled to Holland, with Janssens taking his place on
Java, he was made divisional commander and as such partici-
pated in the early stages of Napoleon's ill-fated Russian cam-
paign, in i8ii. He greatly distinguished himself by his fifteen-
month defense of Modlin (October 1812 to December 1813),
which he surrendered only after all food and munitions were
used up. After the Dutch Restoration of 1814 he offered his
services to the new government and was appointed governor
of the Dutch settlement of Elmina, on the Gold Coast, where
he died in 1818 of piles, incidentally. Piles are fatal, usually,
only to very fat people; Daendels's fat was acquired on Java; it
is not too awfully farfetched, then, to call him a Javanese casu-
alty.
Now for Raffles and the New Deal of 1812.
The situation will not appear clear to us unless we keep
in mind constantly the complicated state of affairs which ex-
isted regarding Java's ownership. Day after day would have
seen Raffles hopelessly hampered as he tried to make decisions,
completely inhibited in all his administrative measures, if he
had accepted as final his superiors' dictum that England was
not always going to maintain her hold on Java. For the space
of several years Java's future was ambiguous, and the Com-
243
pany didn't make a positive statement one way or the other.
As long as it seemed likely they would decide against it, Minto
didn't press them for their decision: he hoped he might yet
be able to dispel their doubts and persuade them to see things
his and Raffles's way. Raffles therefore went ahead on the as-
sumption that his dearest wish would be gratified and that
Java would become in fact, as he saw her in his visions, the
center of a great British Oriental Empire. He couldn't have
been sure of it really; there is not much doubt that he tapped
on wood a dozen times a day, but in public he kept up the pre-
tense of believing everything was going to go just as he wished.
Not for one moment, however, did he set to work digging
Dutch influence out of Java or attempting to banish it. On the
contrary, he was careful to retain, whenever it was at all feasi-
ble, every appearance of the original form in administrative
action. The two Dutchmen on the council helped him in
doing this. Chiefly in order to reassure them of his friendly
intentions, the first measure which he caused to be put into
operation was an outright adoption of the Dutch legal code,
and it was, in truth, an adoption rather than an adaptation.
In only one respect did Raffles alter this code, though that
was an important alteration: he stripped it of its fangs by out-
lawing the former methods of torture and other penalties in-
volving extreme cruelty which had until then been in force.
He also added a new feature shortly afterward, just about the
time Lord Minto took his departure: trial by jury.
Dutch opinion of this latter innovation has been variously
interpreted. Boulger maintains that they looked upon it with
favor; Vlekke says it was not a success. The contemporary
Dutch could not have resented it too much, for it was one
change which they retained after Holland took back posses-
sion of her East Indian territory, though only for a short
while. Afterward, on the grounds that the Javanese didn't
like juries, they abolished that much of Raffles's judicial ad-
ministration.
Next and most pressing problem was the ever vexatious one
of revenue. Seventy years later the Anglo-Saxon world was to
be stirred to its depths when Morel "exposed" His Belgian
^244
Majesty King Leopold's methods of exploiting his Congo.
It was stated in various British periodicals at that time that
never before had history seen a like example of downright
robbery; never before in the memory of man had nation or
monarch gone so cold-bloodedly to work, taking everything
out of a colony and putting nothing in, as Leopold was ac-
cused of doing when he squeezed the Congo. If this was a sin-
cere statement it proved one thing at least: the extreme for-
getfulness of all mankind and of newspaper writers in particu-
lar. Java was as obvious a case of exploitation as the Congo ever
proved to be.
The Netherlanders who had a share in the government of
the Eastern colonies never pretended that they had any other
intention, when they formulated their policies, than to profit
as much as possible and as directly as they could from these
possessions. It is an interesting difference and one which we
should not forget, for it is the keynote of all international
disputes over imperialism, now as well as in the early nine-
teenth century. The British take their cue somewhat from
Minto's school of thought and never forget to mention their
duty to subject peoples, even when, like Churchill, they speak
bluntly of what they want out of their empire. Kipling merely
expressed the attitude of imperialism's harsher exponents; he
did not originate it, as some people evidently believe, when
he spoke in Recessional of the "lesser breeds without the
Law." The Kiplingites are not one with the followers of
Minto; they are less altruistic and claim to be more realistic
than the humanitarians of England. But even these British
Junkers have never hit bottom, never stood firm on the bed-
rock opportunist philosophy of Holland in the East.
Muntinghe, one of the two councilors chosen by Raffles
from the Dutch community of Batavia to govern the colony,
side by side with Gillespie, had plenty to say about the new
era and Raffles's humanitarian methods of raising money.
Commenting on the new land revenue system as opposed to
the Dutch Company's forced labor and delivery, he observed
that its main object was improvement of the native popula-
tion's lot. This in itself was a noteworthy innovation, of course,
245 *>
and Muntinghe acknowledged that it was a great task and
one worthy of the British nation.
". . . And there is no doubt/' he continues, "but the re-
sult of it must be an increase of the happiness of the inhabit-
ants and consequently of the future wealth and prosperity
of the colony. The amelioration however of the condition of
the natives on this island, though undoubtedly a consideration
of the highest moment in the eyes of humanity, seems to me
to become only a secondary object from a political point of
view, and, with the exception of every measure contrary to
the principles of justice and equity, it appears to me that the
safest principle which can be adopted to judge of the pro-
priety of any colonial regulations or of any changes and altera-
tions to be introduced therein, is that every colony does or
ought to exist for the benefit of the mother country/*
Nothing could be franker, could it? In thus expressing him-
self, Muntinghe was reiterating the opinion of the state com-
missioners of 1803 (Nederburgh and Co.) in their Report,
that they had taken it as a fundamental maxim that "all in-
justices apart, the Colonies exist for the Motherland and not
the Motherland for the Colonies."
Even General Janssens, of whom Lord Minto became so
very fond after whipping the daylights out of him on Java,
even the general felt that way. In a letter of July 23, 1811, he
wrote "Les colonies sont pour la metropole et non la mdtro-
pole pour les colonies."
In order, then, to work out any sort of reasonable program,
and to find some ground on which they could meet, Raffles
decided that it was a matter of agreeing to disagree, and he
let it go at that. After all, for as long as he was boss on Java
he would be able to interpret the British policy rather than
the Dutch. Out of the ensuing four and a half years the
government archives offer a melange of languages and atti-
tudes, but Minto's policy, at any rate, reigned supreme. De
Haan feels himself called upon to make an odious compari-
son between the Dutch and English styles, in which the Eng-
lish come out definitely ahead, which occurred to him as he
turned the records over. He contrasts "shamefacedly, as a
Hollander, the long-winded, trivial, sloppy and cringing re-
ports of our countrymen in the Archives, with the brief, clear
and correct documents of their English colleagues/'
De Haan is too severe on his compatriots. At least part of
the inferiority manifest in their writings is due to the fact
that several of the best-fitted and most patriotic Dutch offi-
cials either refused to serve under the English administra-
tion or were not employed by it, owing to their close associa-
tion with Daendels. Any conquering invader can tell the same
story about the difficulties of government, once victory has
been achieved. The tri^e leaders of the people have a way of
going underground at such a time, and the triumphant gover-
nor has to make out with the community's second best offi-
cials, if he can get anything better than third class.
We had better get down to particulars on the reformed
laws. To begin with, Raffles found that one of the worst taxes
borne by the natives was a heavy, direct one on all native
produce. This shortsighted, stupid arrangement had the same
effect that such a tax always has had and always will. The
natives immediately became so discouraged that they simply
stopped producing anything in excess of their immediate
needs, in order to avoid being taxed. At the rate they felt them-
selves being pushed, it was cheaper not to work .at all.
Things had been going on in this sorrowful manner for a
long time, and it was impossible to come to a quick decision
as to the best method of reforming it all. Raffles went to work
carefully and set his best men to studying conditions as they
had been both before and during the recent (and worst)
period of Dutch rule. The Dutch council members, Mun-
tinghe and Cranssen, were each put in charge of two other
compatriots, with orders to collect and register all public
records and plans. A British colonel of engineers was attached
to this commission to compile statistics. They were all five
kept busy for two years, merely collecting and organizing their
material. That deliberation and the scientific approach were
typical of Raffles. No impending political change was going to
hurry his administration into making mistakes. According to
Furnivall, however, it wouldn't have mattered how long he
247
studied the picture: he would always find what he expected,
and it wasn't, alas, always there.
First, last, and in between, the Javanese problem for Raffles
was the same old one which faces all colonizers: namely, how
to make the project pay for itself. The Dutch system, be-
cause of the monopoly on produce, had not permitted the
levy of export duty on anything. Now, however, under the
British, the government claimed monopoly on nothing ex-
cept opium; and by "farming out" on such items as tollgates,
gambling houses, arracks, et cetera, they instituted free trade
on everything else. (The Company hung on to that one opium
monopoly until 1833, when the China trade was declared
open. In Hong Kong the government maintained an opium
monopoly until 1941, when it was taken over by the Japanese
conquerors of the Colony.) Now under the Raffles system, ex-
port duty of three per cent was collected on sugar, indigo,
arrack, and such native produce, whereas the new import duty
was six per cent. The system began to show good results im-
mediately, and revenue increased in a way to bring joy to
Raffles's heart and credit to his financial acumen. It wasn't
enough though: the money was coming in too slowly. The
government needed a large lump sum to put them on their
feet and get everything under way.
For a long time the Dutch system had been stifling native
enterprise. Large numbers of the populace were constantly
migrating, leaving deserted areas which in former days had
been busy, thriving communities. They were all searching for
some land where they could be safe. Everywhere natives
were on the move, in flight from the crushing taxation im-
posed on them by greedy Dutchmen who had evidently never
read of the goose and the golden eggs. Quick action was
needed,
For a long time, moreover, there had been no silver in the
treasury. The Dutch issued paper currency, but it decreased
in value as fast as it was printed. Daendels on his arrival in
Java dealt with this difficulty by issuing another million in
paper, to float which he calmly sold three of the best prov-
inces on the island (one of which was Probolingo) to certain
^248
rich Chinese residents of Java on condition that they buy up
fty thousand of the paper currency every six months. Im-
mediately the money was dubbed "Probolingo paper": nobody
showed the sudden fondness for it which Daendels had ex-
pected. Whereupon he issued a proclamation, ordering every-
one to accept the paper as hard money, but that was no good
either. Currency is one thing you can't be highhanded about.
It doesn't take kindly to dictatorship.
When the time came for the Chinese to pay for their first
fifty thousand they paid in that same Probolingo, or toilet,
paper, and blandly cited Daendels's recent proclamation
ordering it to be honored, in defense of their action. Daen-
dels was fairly caught on the horns of his own, home-grown
dilemma. It was a good joke on him, but the unfortunate
Malays who lived on the land of the betrayed provinces were
caught in a much more painful fashion.
One need drop no tear for the Dutch governor over the
Probolingo paper fiasco, because he didn't lose out in the end.
He had also appropriated for his private use one half the pro-
ceeds from Birds' Nest Rocks, a highly profitable area which,
it is said, produced forty thousand pounds in good years,
whereas the Probolingo paper, when the British moved in,
was selling at only sixty-six per cent of its face value.
Another cause of the trade depression on Java was that
the Dutch had neglected the local coffee planting and had
suppressed the vineyards so as not to compete with Dutch
wines from the Cape.
Not even Vlekke denies that Java's economy was a mess
in 1812. Present and future revenues were sold to alien tax-
gatherers, trade in the interior was at a standstill because of
heavy import duties levied between provinces and districts,
and the natives, beaten down by poverty and continued dis-
couragement, in larger and larger numbers fled into "free" ter-
ritory until the best districts were practically depopulated. As
Raffles expressed the task before him, he had to strike a deli-
cate balance by improving the lot of the Javanese without
quite giving them power to throw off European control; he
had to collect revenue enough to support a government and
249
garrison which they started out by not liking; and he had to
invest them with pride in being part of the British Empire.
That third item, one supposes, might or might not happen by
itself, as the mechanical result of success in the other two proj-
ects. But unless those two should be successful, the last one
was a hopeless proposition.
It must be said that we cannot always accept Raffies's claims
for his accomplishments. As far as he knew, his plans worked
out and were based on accurate understanding of local custom,
but an unbiased observer such as Furnivall maintains that
some of his reforms were introduced too hurriedly and led to
confusion in practice. In some cases they remained merely re-
forms on paper, because they were too ambitious. Sometimes
the surveys were not really made, and as regards his abolition
of forced labor, it was claimed this applied to the entire island,
"except that in the Preanger he introduced a new system
which made the burden heavier/' says Furnivall, "in Batavia
replaced the old arrangements by new arrangements to the
-same effect, and elsewhere left matters as before, apart from
neglecting roads and allowing public buildings to fall into
.decay."
As for his land reforms, Furnivall is similarly skeptical,
doubting that the common man experienced much benefit
"the arrangement by which he was required to pay his taxes in
money merely handed him over from the regent to the money-
lender."
Nevertheless Furnivall admits that Raffles's work was justi-
fied by its results. The Dutch took over his administrative and
judicial organization, although with certain large modifica-
tions, and they also carried on with his system of revenue
administration. The subsequent yield proved that Raffles's
expectations had not been wrong, merely overly optimistic.
The Dutch liberals who so admired him summed it up thus:
"Though his reforms were hastily introduced and often on
paper rather than in practise, still he must be honoured for
the great philanthropic ideals on which they were based."
Boiled down to simplest terms, Raffles's method was as fol-
lows: he abolished the practice of forcing natives to cultivate
^5250
crops they didn't want; he did away with all forced labor except
the minimum number of workers necessary for road building,
and even those laborers were at least paid for their work,
whereas on the old terms they had not been; he bought out the
Chinese who had been speculating in land sold to them by
Daendels (just in time, incidentally, to keep the entire popula-
tion of Probolingo from running out).
Unfortunately it was then that Raffles blotted his copybook,
and in the same way Daendels had done. At least that is what
it looked like, though there were many minor points of dis-
similarity. He didn't sell public lands for private gain and he
made no secret of what he was doing; he had the approval of
the council as well as the more cautious agreement of Lord
Minto (who wasn't asked to express his opinion, however,
until after the fait accompli because time was pressing). But
the fact remains that he did just that: he sold some of the pub-
lic lands.
According to Boulger, always his firm defender, Raffles's
action had an excellent effect on Java's finances, relieving the
government from having to continue operations on worthless
paper revenue. First of all, obviously, something had to be
done about all the paper money that was in circulation. Pro-
bolingo paper was only a part of it. As soon as British rule
began, these various notes took a further downward rush,
partly because all the troops had to be paid in silver, which
meant a drain of thirty-six laths annually. Raffles decided (and,
Boulger says, every sagacious statesman would have agreed)
that it was "imperiously necessary to remove this paper cur-
rency from the market, and to replace it with such a circulat-
ing medium as could be supported in its credit, and rendered
available for the public disbursements/' The council decided
to recall all the currency, partly by this sale of land and partly
by an issue of treasury notes at six per cent. The Lombard
Bank, a respectable institution which had some time since
fallen into disuse, was re-established in order to circulate notes
as loans for security deposited, taking nine per cent for ad-
vances and paying a small interest on its notes.
Boulger insists that the public remember, in the light of later
251 *
happenings, that General Gillespie actually gave his assent, in
December 1812, to this sale of land. Gillespie was also fully
aware at the time that one of the principal purchasers was
Muntinghe, the more outstanding of the two Dutch coun-
cilors. "It should also be stated that a sale of lands for the
benefit of Government was one of the recognized modes in
Java of replenishing the Exchequer/' says Boulger. "Sanc-
tioned by usage, carried in its early stages into effect with the
unanimous assent of the Council, and in its later with the
approbation of the Dutch members, Raffles might reasonably
assume that such a step would never be challenged, provided it
accomplished the purpose that dictated its adoption. That it
did accomplish that purpose is beyond the shadow of dispute/ 7
As far as one can make out from the quarrel which broke
out later over this piece of high finance, the delicate point was
not so much that Raffles sold the land as that he bought it
too. His excuse, that he did this simply in order to give the sale
a push in the right direction, makes sense, and he managed
to prove also that he didn't profit from the transaction. At
first glance, however, it does look odd, undeniably.
Himself, the lieutenant governor was haunted by no doubts
at all, and he wrote Lord Minto of his action not because he
wanted his patron's permission after all, he had already done
it but because he always did tell Minto what he was doing,
and he knew that this complicated maneuver would need ex-
planation. The effect of the news on Minto must have sur-
prised the innocent Raffles. The earl saw more clearly than his
protege what might be the result of this measure, which is
why he sounds a little worried in his reply of November 22,
1813. No doubt some part of his misgivings were due to the
fact that he was just about to resign office and return to Eng-
land, after which he knew Raffles would need an amount of
protection which would no longer, perhaps, be forthcoming
from Calcutta. How right he was will shortly be evident.
Minto started out by assenting "without reservation" to the
urgent necessity which was the motive and the justification of
Raffles's action. Raffles was left with no option but to with-
draw the depreciated paper from circulation, and quickly:
252
that much must be admitted, said Lord Minto. Also, since the
only resource in sight had been the sale of public property,
Raffles could count himself lucky that he had public property
on hand to sell.
The urgent necessity of a prompt remedy, said Minto, was
the essential, indeed the indispensable, ground for what had
been done. (What he meant was that it was Raffles's only ex-
cuse, and so would have to be good enough.) An extensive
"alienation of the public domains" was not in itself good, ever,
and particularly at such a time. In the first place it was too im-
portant a measure to have been adopted during a provisional
government, the duration of which was more than precarious.
(That was the rub of course. As usual he was reminding Raf-
fles that Java might not be British forever, and that it therefore
behooved the government not to forget its temporary nature.)
Secondly, the measure should have received the previous sanc-
tion of the Supreme Government of Bengal as of course it
would if only there had been time, he added tactfully. Third,
though Minto himself always approved the transfer of public
territory to "the management of individual industry/' he felt
that it could not be done suddenly in such a place as Java,
which contained at the time neither capital nor capitalists
enough to afford a sufficient knowledge of market values in
land. Minto himself would have inclined to small and partial
sales of land, if outright sales were necessary at all, but he pre-
ferred short leases at first. He cautioned Raffles that the senti-
ments prevailing at home were divided on this question of
permanent settlements. Though his own system in Bengal,
which had in a great degree been carried into effect during
his admiriistration, was gradual, even so it was more sudden
than was approved at home. Since Java was in a state infinitely
less favorable to perpetual alienations i.e., outright sale of
territory Raffles might be sure that such measures as his r if he
hadn't had the excuse of urgent necessity, would be disap-
proved, even disavowed and annulled, by the authorities in
England.
Raffles wasn't at all worried by this gentle warning. He went
over the situation again, surveyed the resulting conditions, and
253 $*>
happenings, that General Gillespie actually gave his assent, in
December 1812, to this sale of land. Gillespie was also fully
aware at the time that one of the principal purchasers was
Muntinghe, the more outstanding of the two Dutch coun-
cilors. "It should also be stated that a sale of lands for the
benefit of Government was one of the recognized modes in
Java of replenishing the Exchequer/' says Boulger. "Sanc-
tioned by usage, carried in its early stages into effect with the
unanimous assent of the Council, and in its later with the
approbation of the Dutch members, Raffles might reasonably
assume that such a step would never be challenged, provided it
accomplished the purpose that dictated its adoption. That it
did accomplish that purpose is beyond the shadow of dispute/'
As far as one can make out from the quarrel which broke
out later over this piece of high finance, the delicate point was
not so much that Raffles sold the land as that he bought it
too. His excuse, that he did this simply in order to give the sale
a push in the right direction, makes sense, and he managed
to prove also that he didn't profit from the transaction. At
first glance, however, it does look odd, undeniably.
Himself, the lieutenant governor was haunted by no doubts
at all, and he wrote Lord Minto of his action not because he
wanted his patron's permission after all, he had already done
it but because he always did tell Minto what he was doing,
and he knew that this complicated maneuver would need ex-
planation. The effect of the news on Minto must have sur-
prised the innocent Raffles. The earl saw more clearly than his
protege what might be the result of this measure, which is
why he sounds a little worried in his reply of November 22,
1813. No doubt some part of his misgivings were due to the
fact that he was just about to resign office and return to Eng-
land, after which he knew Raffles would need an amount of
protection which would no longer, perhaps, be forthcoming
from Calcutta. How right he was will shortly be evident.
Minto started out by assenting "without reservation" to the
urgent necessity which was the motive and the justification of
Raffles's action. Raffles was left with no option but to with-
draw the depreciated paper from circulation, and quickly:
^252
that much must be admitted, said Lord Minto. Also, since the
only resource in sight had been the sale of public property,
Raffles could count himself lucky that he had public property
on hand to sell.
The urgent necessity of a prompt remedy, said Minto, was
the essential, indeed the indispensable, ground for what had
been done. (What he meant was that it was Raffles's only ex-
cuse, and so would have to be good enough.) An extensive
"alienation of the public domains" was not in itself good, ever,
and particularly at such a time. In the first place it was too im-
portant a measure to have been adopted during a provisional
government, the duration of which was more than precarious.
(That was the rub of course. As usual he was reminding Raf-
fles that Java might not be British forever, and that it therefore
behooved the government not to forget its temporary nature.)
Secondly, the measure should have received the previous sanc-
tion of the Supreme Government of Bengal as of course it
would if only there had been time, he added tactfully. Third,
though Minto himself always approved the transfer of public
territory to "the management of individual industry," he felt
that it could not be done suddenly in such a place as Java,
which contained at the time neither capital nor capitalists
enough to afford a sufficient knowledge of market values in
land. Minto himself would have inclined to small and partial
sales of land, if outright sales were necessary at all, but he pre-
ferred short leases at first. He cautioned Raffles that the senti-
ments prevailing at home were divided on this question of
permanent settlements. Though his own system in Bengal,
which had in a great degree been carried into effect during
his administration, was gradual, even so it was more sudden
than was approved at home. Since Java was in a state infinitely
less favorable to perpetual alienations i.e., outright sale of
territory Raffles might be sure that such measures as his r if he
hadn't had the excuse of urgent necessity, would be disap-
proved, even disavowed and annulled, by the authorities in
England,
Raffles wasn't at all worried by this gentle warning. He went
over the situation again, surveyed the resulting conditions, and
253
felt more justified than ever. He wrote confidently to Minto
in Europe, saying so. The effects were so obviously good, he
felt, that he need have no fear at all that the authorities would
fail to approve what he had done. This was still during the
period when he hoped Java would remain in British hands,
evidently, for in the same letter (February 13, 1814, from
Buitenzorg) he prattles on lightheartedly about reforming the
laws more radically and definitely getting rid of the Dutch
institutions, the retaining of which for such a long period has
already brought upon the English, he feels, "much odium/'
(From whom?)
By this he was referring to the comparatively gentle way in
which the newly arrived British had handled the whole deli-
cate matter of working law, two years before. Raffles need not
have been in such a hurry to bring in yet more reforms. Judg-
ing from his record, a good deal had been accomplished since
then. For instance, with the council's approval he revived the
old village system of maintaining law and order, according to
which the village chief, who was chosen by election, decided
most disputes. Those cases too big for the chief to handle were
referred to a higher tribunal composed of a British resident,
a native regent, a chief priest, and a Moslem law officer. Crim-
inal cases which involved only natives of Java were tried by this
court, but the sentence had always to be confirmed by Raffles.
The resident's court was held at different times, 4 in different
places, as convenience dictated. There was a circuit court for
capital charges, with a jury of foreman and four members. The
circuit judges, members of the old Dutch courts, made tours
at regular intervals.
Raffles claimed that the system was immediately successful
and that crime fell to a minimum. Perhaps, he said, this hap-
pened in part because the inhabitants were better satisfied
now than they had been in the old days, but most probably it
was chiefly because the British had called in all the guns and
ammunition in the colony, besides which it was declared
against the law to carry arms in the street. Furnivall, on the
other hand, maintains that crime increased, because the times
were out of joint.
After several years had made it fairly evident that Raffles's
methods were meeting with satisfaction (though most Dutch
commentators will not admit this), he wrote a long report to
the Court of Directors on the subject of the Javanese, in which
he asserted that as a race they were much maligned. He
pointed out a few general truths; for instance, that no people
in the world can be expected to work when they are penalized
instead of rewarded for their industry, which is exactly what
the Dutch system of taxation was doing to the natives of Java.
Only exceptional human beings, moreover, will continue try-
ing to accomplish anything after they have been discouraged
and pushed down again and again; this, too, happened con-
stantly to the Javanese under the old Dutch regime. Raffles
pointed with pride to the effects, which he declared were al-
ready visible, of his reform measures. Under the new condi-
tions the recovery of Java's internal economy was proceeding
at a strikingly swift pace.
Nevertheless some of his superiors remained skeptical. The
land-tenure reforms were too sweeping to suit their taste, and
they looked with dubious and restrained rapture upon "so
sudden and so general a change in the system of revenue-
administration in Java, while the information possessed by
this Government [in Bengal] with respect to the resources of
the island, the nature of the tenures, the rights of individuals
on the soil and other points of high interest and importance
was necessarily so imperfect." Some people alleged that the
new Lieutenant-Governor was superimposing an Indian pat-
tern on the Javanese social structure, and that he was not justi-
fied in doing this.
A man who knew Raffles at least as well as any of his col-
leagues was John Crawf urd, who succeeded the first appointee,
Farquhar, in the government of Singapore. Crawfurd in his
Dictionary, after highly praising Raffles's abolition of monopo-
lies, forced deliveries, and corvee labor in 1811-16, continues,
"The financial system which he adopted, however, was not so
happy. Insofar as the land-tax was concerned, the elaborate,
vexatious, scourging, and impracticable system which proceeds
on the principle of the States entering directly into an arrange-
255^
ment with each individual occupant of a few acres, in the
case of Java probably not fewer than half a million, was at the
time in vogue with the authorities in England, and he at-
tempted the establishment of this pernicious innovation.
Under this system, the tax was paid either in money or in land
[kind?] at the option of the occupant; and being generally paid
in the latter, it followed that the government was converted at
once into a warehouse-keeper, and a corn-merchant. As in our
own Territories on the continent of India, the new system
was found mischievous and impracticable. The land was over-
assessed, and the hypothetical tax could not be realized.
"After a two years' trial, the Dutch commissioners who re-
ceived charge of the island, judiciously abandoned the Ryot-
warrie system of 1814, and arranged with the heads of the vil-
lage corporations for the land-tax, leaving its distribution
among the occupants, to these corporations themselves. This
natural and simple system, the only one suited to such a state
of society as that of Java, after being in operation for 14 years,
was partially relinquished in 1832, and the old system of forced
deliveries of certain agricultural products, and of corvee labour
in raising them, was to a certain extent restored."
I venture a guess that some of these critics were the men
who were so shocked and chagrined when Raffles, backed up
by Minto, began to stamp out the slave market of Java. There
is the same note of unemotional business sense, the tacit dis-
approval of Minto's sort of sentiment, the scarcely concealed
desire to find fault with humanitarian Raffles and his works,
no matter what he might be doing or how he did it. For, after
all, Raffles's knowledge (and consequently the government's
information) concerning "the nature of the tenures, the rights
of individuals on the soil and other points" was not "neces-
sarily . . . imperfect." As we know, for some months Raffles
had devoted the entire working time of five Europeans to a
meticulously careful investigation of -all those points, and of
his five European investigators at least one of them, the British
officer of engineers, had been especially trained to do that
work. I venture to say that never did any colonial administra-
tion approach its job with a greater eagerness for knowledge.
* 256
"Activity, industry, and political courage were the most re-
markable endowment of his character/' said Crawfurd of Raf-
fles. "In the transaction of public business he was ready, rapid
and expert, partly the result of early training, but far more of
innate energy and ability. He was not, perhaps, an original
thinker, but readily adopted the notions of others not always
with adequate discrimination. Thus, without much time for
examination, seeing it lauded by its partisans, he adopted, and
at once carried into execution among the then five million in-
habitants of Java, the fanciful and pernicious Indian revenue
system called the Ryotwarry, and saw it break down even be-
fore he had himself quitted the administration of the island/'
As long as we are sounding the hostile note, it seems in order
to glance at the opinions of one of Raffles's most redoubtable
critics, the Netherlander H. S. Levyssohn Norman. Mr,
Levyssohn Norman damns with faint praise and kindly for-
giveness rather than with blasting and bad temper.
To begin with, he excuses Raffles many of his (alleged) mis-
takes on the grounds of the difficulties which are likely to be
encountered by any conquering nation during the first uneasy
days of peace. "One cannot expect too high a standard of gov-
ernment in cases where a land is captured in wartime, so long
as its ultimate fate has not been settled by a peace treaty; be-
cause in addition to the inevitable difficulties of administering
territory that has been acquired by the uncertainty as to its
fate on the conclusion of peace. This is the reason why the
whole government usually has a purely administrative character,
the administration is usually carried on in the same way as be-
fore, and, if the government wishes to deal with the situation
fairly and squarely, it is usually content to avoid misusing its
temporary authority and power.
"This natural line of conduct was the one applied by the
English to the greater part of those Dutch possessions in the
Archipelago which fell into their hands, successively, after
1795. At Malacca, as well as in Sumatra and the Moluccas,
everything that was not otherwise directly affected by outside
matters of greater import was left as far as possible on the old
footing. It was not so much a matter of governing, as of limit*
257 $*
ing activity to the maintenance of the administration, and even
that was done in the most slovenly manner. In Java, on the
other hand, an entirely different line was taken, in spite of the
fact that it was the most important colony of all, and was re-
garded as ripe for great reforms; and despite the fact that it was
first captured after all the other possessions had fallen, so that
the prospect of peace was then more formidable than else-
where.
"The British government of Java was chiefly characterized
by its zeal to institute reforms which would overthrow the
existing order of things. This zeal was revealed in innumerable
rapidly drawn-up plans which, however, were too weak to at-
tain the wished-for goal. Lord Minto had previously given the
start to such a line of policy, because, although he realized that
the ultimate fate of Java was as yet uncertain, he took the
viewpoint expressed in the phrase which is attributed to him,
'but in the meantime let us do as much good as we can', as
also in his Instructions to Raffles, to broaden the scope of a
narrow and limited administration and if necessary to intro-
duce far-reaching changes in the seat of government."
It might here be mentioned that Mr. Levyssohn Norman's
accusation of "zeal/* which he declares led Raffles to change
everything possible for the sheer joy of throwing away what-
ever was born of Dutch statesmanship, is a very natural re-
action. Most reformers call down this criticism on their
unlucky heads, and of course the harder they try to reform
things, the more resentment they elicit from their predeces-
sors. Witness the paragraph directly before this last one,
wherein the writer dubs the British administrations of Ma-
lacca, Sumatra, and the Moluccas "slovenly/' on the grounds
that no changes were rung in by the incoming governments if
they could possibly be avoided. Raffles wasn't governor in any
of those places, it is easy to see. Yet when the British actually
did start moving, as Raffles did on Java, Levyssohn Norman
was cross just the same. The truth of the matter is that you
can't win when you're the winner of a war. Nothing in this
attack is surprising save that Levyssohn Norman has not em-
ployed the expression, "throwing the baby out with the bath/'
He continues:
"From this point of view, it is understandable that a man
like Raffles should have thought it possible to succeed as a bril-
liant statesman where he failed to possess the requisite qual-
ities of an administrator. If Lord Minto had confided the
government of Java to a routine official, things would probably
have gone on in much the same way as previously, and this
five-year British supremacy would undoubtedly not have pro-
vided sufficient material on which to write a monograph.
"There was too much government and too little adminis-
tration. No difficulty was made about destroying much of the
existing structure, but the inevitable ensuing disadvantages
were further increased by a lax and muddled administration.
"Although it can be regarded as creditable to the British
administration that it sought in all sincerity and inspired by
good intentions, to inaugurate a completely new state of af-
fairs, yet it must be admitted that it deserves no admiration
for the way in which it carried out the other part of a ruler's
task, that of the actual administration, which it seems to have
neglected and regarded as comparatively unimportant. It seems
to have been regarded as sufficient to lay down policy and
laws, and assumed that the execution thereof followed auto-
matically upon their promulgation. . . .
"The enthusiasm for trying to accomplish a great deal in a
short time with inadequate means was clearly discernible in
the political sphere. It was hoped to plant the British in-
fluence, not only on Java but all over the Archipelago, and on
a broad and firm foundation. It was thought that with the
destruction of the Dutch rule, the work of two centuries had
been obliterated. It was thought that under the influence of
British victory, complete submission would follow. This ex-
pectation was likewise far from justified, and the comparatively
little trouble experienced by the Dutch in subsequently renew-
ing their control, conclusively proved that British Diplomacy
had failed in this respect likewise.
"It was a great mistake on the part of Raffles, that he did
not realize the importance of a powerful administration. He
that of the British traders and factors in China, before the
Opium War, who were confined to a small segregated area, a
sort of ghetto, in Canton, from which they had to do their
work as best they could. But the Dutch in Japan were confined
even more stringently. It is true that they alone among Euro-
peans could share in the Japanese trade, but all that amounted
to was permission to send two ships a year to Nagasaki, which
carried cargo in and then carried other cargo out. Before the
British moved in on Java these ships were dispatched from
Batavia as the nearest important Dutch port, a fact which was,
no doubt, partly responsible for Raffles's idea of opening Japan
to British trade. His orders were to take over all subsidiary
holdings of the Dutch in the Far East, and he understood the
phrase "subsidiary holdings" to include the Deshima factory.
It wasn't a brand-new idea, anyway, to trade with the Nip-
ponese. Japan's exclusive attitude had not always been so ex-
treme. Before the middle of the seventeenth century, while
Holland was still battling for the supremacy of trade in the
Archipelago which she ultimately won, there had been an Eng-
lish factory in Japan, at Hirado. Also, though there isn't much
concrete evidence of this, it is difficult to believe that most
European nations with interests in the Orient didn't sneak in
by the back door sometimes, getting some of their products
into Japan by way of the Chinese, who were able to enter and
leave the stubbornly mysterious islands even when all white
men's efforts failed. There was always, throughout the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries, plenty of traffic between
China and Japan, though the Chinese trade, like that of the
Dutch, was strictly confined to the port of Nagasaki.
We see the beginnings of Raffles's interest in the part of
his speech, entitled "Japan," which he delivered to the Society
of Arts and Sciences at Batavia on September 10, 1815. He
was president of the society at that time, and the discourse
was a noble piece of work, of truly staggering length. Speaking
of the Japanese, he draws the customary courteous comparison
between his own homeland and the "imperial island" in a few
conventional words. The information he is about to divulge,,
he says, has come to him verbally, from Dr. Ainslie. Ainslie is
^5262
an interesting character in this drama. He had just spent four
months on Deshima; by what means he overcame the Japa-
nese prohibition of Englishmen is an interesting story. This is
what Raffles reported from Ainslie's description of the Japa-
nese. It is quite an experience to read this and then to turn to
more recent literature on the same subject.
'They are represented to be a nervous, vigorous people,
whose bodily and mental powers assimilate [approximate?]
much nearer to those of Europe than what is attributed to
Asiatics in general. Their features are masculine and perfectly
European, with the exception of the small lengthened Tartar
eye, which almost universally prevails, and is the only feature
of resemblance between them and the Chinese. The com-
plexion is perfectly fair, and indeed blooming; the women of
the higher classes being equally fair with Europeans, and hav-
ing the bloom of health more generally prevalent among them
than usually found in Europe."
Yes, puzzled reader, these are Japanese he's talking about.
"For a people who have had very few, if any external aids,
the Japanese cannot but rank high in the scale of civilization.
The traits of a vigorous mind are displayed in their proficiency
in the sciences, and particularly in metaphysics and judicial
astrology. The arts they practise speak for themselves, and are
deservedly acknowledged to be in a much higher degree of
perfection than among the Chinese, with whom they are by
Europeans so frequently confounded; the latter have been
stationary at least as long as we have known them, while the
slightest impulse seems sufficient to give a determination to
the Japanese character, which would progressively improve
until it attained the same height of civilization with the Euro-
pean. Nothing indeed is so offensive to the feelings of a Japa-
nese as to be compared in any one respect with the Chinese, [?]
and the only occasion on which Dr. Ainslie saw the habitual
politeness of a Japanese ever surprised into a burst of passion
was, when, upon a similitude of the two nations being un-
guardedly asserted, the latter laid his hand upon his sword! "
It should be mentioned here that Raffles until some years
later maintained an unfortunate and ill-founded prejudice
against the Chinese, perhaps owing to some personal experi-
ence, some unpleasant encounter he had during his term of
residence in Penang or Batavia. In these early days he did not
appreciate their valuable qualities as citizens, but after he
founded Singapore, if not before then, he learned his mistake.
There follows here a paragraph embodying opinions familiar
to anyone who has been exposed, as Raffles so obviously was,
through Ainslie, to Japanese self-advertising; a hundred and
thirty years have not changed international propaganda
methods, whatever may happen to our opinions. Raffles asserts
that the Japanese people have an extraordinary liking for for-
eign ways, and blithely casts aside any possible adverse criti-
cism of their awkwardly inflexible prohibition from their island
of non-Japanese, such as the British. He goes further than that
and actually manages to find something praiseworthy in their
"extraordinary decision" to exclude the world from their
shores. Say what you will, Raffles implies, but to carry out a
decision like that takes energy.
In another comparison with the Chinese to the derogation
of China China, where all individuality has disappeared, says
Raffles, broken down by the government until one Chinese is
the counterpart of the other the Japanese do not exhibit uni-
formity. And, again unlike those tiresome Chinese, "the
women here are by no means secluded they associate among
themselves, like the ladies of Europe." Dr. Ainslie was very
much mistaken on this, either about Japanese ladies or the
ladies of Europe. "During the residence of Dr. Ainslie, fre-
quent invitations and entertainments were given; on these oc-
casions, and at one in particular, a lady from the court of Jeddo
[Tokyo] is represented to have done the honours of the table
with an ease, elegance and address that would have graced a
Parisian. [Actually this "lady" was indubitably a tart, as only
such women were ever allowed on Deshima. The Japanese
made it a habit to palm off prostitutes on the innocent for-
eigners as great ladies. Their real ladies never appeared before
such people.] The usual dress of a Japanese woman of middle
rank costs perhaps as much as would supply the wardrobe of a
European lady of the same rank for twenty years.
"The Japanese, with apparent coldness, like the stillness of
the Spanish character, and derived nearly from the same
causes, that system of espionage, and that principle of disunion
dictated by the principles of both governments; are repre-
sented to be eager for novelty, and warm in their attachments;
open to strangers, and, abating the restrictions of their political
institutions, a people who seem inclined to throw themselves
into the hands of any nation of superior intelligence. . . ."
Here, too, Raffles cannot resist the temptation to cock another
snook at the Chinese. "They have at the same time a great con-
tempt and disregard of everything below their own standards
of morals and habits, as instanced in the case of the Chinese."
A Far Eastern expert has lately dubbed the Japanese, of
whom incidentally he is very fond, "professional charmers."
In Raffles's case at least his description proves amazingly apt,
the charm they exerted having been strong enough to carry
through a third party, and Ainslie did a magnificent job of
conducting an impression as it was intended to arrive, un-
changed.
"This may appear to be contradicted," says Raffles, referring
to the admiration allegedly felt by Japanese toward any nation
of superior intelligence, "by the mission from Russia in 1814,
under Count Kreusenstern; but the circumstances under
which that mission was placed should be considered. From the
moment of their arrival they were under the influence of an
exclusive factor, who continued to rain upon them every pos-
sible ignominy which can be supposed to have flowed from the
despotism of Japan, through the medium of an interested and
avaricious man, who dreaded competition or the publication
of his secret." The wicked Dutch, of course, were responsible
for every unpleasantness which overtook the Russian mission,
and the Japanese, equally of course, were utterly innocent.
It is not true, says Raffles, as has evidently been said by
prejudiced people, that the Japanese are not liberal in religious
matters.
Speaking of a former unsuccessful attempt on the part of
the British to start negotiating with the rulers of Japan, he
sounds a note of hope for better luck next time, because the
265^
failure of the previous attempt was of course due to the mach-
inations of those Dutch, who could now be expected to sing
but very small. For the past seven years, moreover, the younger
members of the College of Interpreters had been assiduously
studying the English language, in obedience to an imperial
edict.
"In a word/' he summarizes at last, "the opinion of Dr.
Ainslie is, that the Japanese are a people with whom the Euro-
pean world might hold intercourse without compromise of
character. ... In the same spirit let us hope, that now, when
That spell upon the minds of men
Break never to unite again
no withering policy may blast the fair fruits of that spirit of
research which has gone forth from this hall; nor continue,
under any circumstances, to shut out one half of the world
from the intelligence which the other half may possess."
If this seems to us rather excessively flowery language for a
simple ambition to sell printed goods and woolen cloth, re-
member that Raffles really felt that way about the sacred cause
of Trade. Trade to him was synonymous with Civilization. No
words were too harsh for him to use in speaking of those das-
tardly Dutch who stood in England's way when she wanted to
civilize Japan. We have seen how his honest anger carried him
to what other people probably found embarrassing ^extremes
in his speech; it must be remembered that his audience was
predominantly Dutch. But Raffles had long since convinced
himself that the Dutch settlers of Batavia were now his friends
and allies, which placed them automatically on the side of the
angels and against the Nagasaki Dutch. As far as Raffles was-
concerned, there was no reason in his discourse for embarrass-
ment on anyone's part.
The story carries on in the pages of Raffles's Report on Japan
to the Secret Committee of the English East India Company.
In a long preface the British consul for Osaka, Paske-Smith,
sets the stage and explains the rest of the volume, which is
that part of the correspondence between Raffles and the Secret
Committee dealing with his attempts to reopen trade relations
266
between England and Japan. Twice similar attempts had been
made, once in 1673 (the Hirado trading station was closed in
1623) and once again in 1792. The first effort consisted of the
actual dispatch of a loaded ship, the Return. Perhaps its failure
was due to the Return's name, which was certainly ill chosen;
at any rate the Japanese simply turned her away. Another at-
tempt in 1792 was not so definite; it was merely a part of Vis-
count Macartney's instructions when he was sent as first
British ambassador to the Chinese court. He was told it
wouldn't be a bad idea to look in on Japan, where tea as good
as China's was produced, and where "the difficulties of trading
... are now said to have almost ceased." They hadn't ceased
by a long shot, but Macartney never found that out, because
war broke out with France just as he was about to start for
Japan, and his ship was called over to Canton to carry out Eng-
lish cargo.
Paske-Smith emphasizes the fact that Raffles didn't intend
merely to transfer to the Company the privileges which the
Dutch had held for so long at Deshima; for he considered
those too insignificant to worry about. What he wanted was a
real life-scale Anglo-Japanese commerce, "based on principles
of equality, leading to an exchange of commodities between
England, China, India and Japan under the wing of the East
India Company."
The first excerpt quoted in the book is of special interest to
us because it comes from a report written by Raffles from
Malacca, in June 1811, before the final chapter of the Java
expedition had even begun. The date proves that Raffles's plans
for Japan were already well matured before the British occu-
pied the important central post of Batavia. His knowledge of
the history of Japanese-Dutch relations was surprisingly
thorough, then, even though he had not yet gained access to
the archives in Java.
The Dutch enjoyed these special benefits, he explains, be-
cause of a favor they did for the imperial family during the
Portuguese war of the seventeenth century. For these reasons
the Dutch originally "procured the Imperial Edict by which
they were permitted to trade with Japan to the exclusion of all
other European nations. This public act of their ancestors, the
Japanese have repeatedly declared that they will not cancel,
but they have done everything but formally cancel [it] for a
more limited and less free trade never was carried on by one
rich nation to another."
He thought that if the Japanese fully understood what had
recently happened to Holland, and if they knew that the
British were shortly to occupy Java, they would immediately
terminate all intercourse between themselves and Europeans
in general. "The Japanese conceive that they have entered into
engagements with the Dutch only while they exist as a nation
and there is the utmost reason to think in the event of the
Dutch merging in any other nation, they would by no means
consider these engagements as of any force/'
Therefore, said Raffles, the only chance the Company had
to retain the Japanese trade would be to gain to their interest
the present Dutch resident at Japan, "at whatever price it
may cost." He planned to insert, quietly, an English agent
into the Dutch institution on Deshima, "and to make the
transition as imperceptible as possible from the Dutch to the
English. The last Japanese invoices of articles required by the
Board of Trade will be found at Batavia and may be answered
exactly and it ^ill be requisite for the English Agent, if re-
ceived at all, to reside at Japan till the return of the ships
next season, according to the Dutch ceremonial, and if in
the interim he could acquire the Japanese language and in-
gratiate himself with the Bonzes of religions of the Buddhist
sects, much might probably be done to open the Japanese
trade on a more liberal scale. . . . With regard to the present
Japanese trade, it certainly is by no means equal to that of
many neglected countries in Asia, but the principal induce-
ment to make efforts for its continuance is the prospect of
it being opened on a more extensive scale, an event which is
very likely to be accelerated by the aggressions of Russia on
the Kurile Islands which properly belong to Japan, and sev-
eral of which the Russians have already reduced/'
Later, from Batavia, he speaks of a slight change in his
plans. He now proposes to send as agent a Dutch gentleman
^268
"of character and proper principles/' with two ships carrying
cargo under his superintendence. "I shall avow openly the
change which has taken place in Java, but with the view of
avoiding any objection to the English as a nation, make use
of the term 'Bengal Company' which change in the term I
am led to expect may remove many difficulties. . . ."
Other details as they occur make the plan seem more and
more feasible. "In 1797 the Dutch at Batavia compelled by
the lack of Dutch shipping chartered the English ship "Eliza/
Captain Stewart, to visit Nagasaki, where she passed as an
American because the Dutch feared to announce her as Eng-
lish. As the results of the information obtained on this voy-
age, Captain Stewart returned to India where he persuaded
the East India Company in 1803 to send a ship to Japan. Sail-
ing from Calcutta he entered Yedo Bay [Nagasaki Bay] in the
East Indian Merchantman 'Frederick' with a rich cargo, but
was refused admittance. . . ."
Naturally as Raffles lived longer and longer on friendly
terms with the Batavian Dutch, or at least with some of them,
he was able to pick and choose and finally to select men who
seemed eligible for his proposition. His choice lighted on a
Mr. Wardenaar, who had formerly been one of those resident
agents who lived at Nagasaki and "who is understood to have
possessed very considerable influence with the leading persons
there. ..." He promised Wardenaar a generous reward for
his services, excusing this seeming extravagance to the Com-
pany on the grounds that the enterprise was speculative and
unpleasant, and that Wardenaar was a man of high rank,
habit, and years to be involved in such doings. "For [so] deli-
cate and precarious a trust very few men can be considered as
perfectly eligible or possessing that suavity of manner, even-
ness of temper, spirit of enquiry, extensive knowledge of man-
kind, habit of privation and high notions of enterprize, calcu-
lated to meet the personal insults, local prejudices, inconven-
iences and disappointments to be expected from a haughty
and overbearing people so completely secluded and distinct
from the rest of mankind and so exclusively the arbiters of
their own conduct and behavior.
269^*
"Your Lordship not having pointed out to me any person
to be employed on this particular mission [as companion emis-
sary with Wardenaar, though Wardenaar was to be the
permanent agent] my choice has fallen on Doctor Ainslie, a
gentleman of very superior talents and education, in whom I
place the highest and most unlimited confidence, for the deli-
cate situation in which it is possible he may be placed, on the
one hand from the extraordinary disposition and regulations of
the Japanese, and on the other from the not impossible want,
notwithstanding the confidence placed in Mr. Wardenaar, of
that full and cordial cooperation of the Dutch establishment
and interpreters, which may be eventually necessary. . . ."
In other words, Wardenaar was just what the doctor ordered
for the job because he was Dutch, aside from all his other
good qualities. But just because he was Dutch there would
be a slight flavor of mistrust, so Ainslie's services for a certain
side of the work seemed preferable to Raffles. Ainslie was to
go along as surgeon, as he was actually an M.D., and Raffles
summed up the arrangement at the end of his letter as fol-
lows:
"For admission to the port and the commencement of the
intercourse, I rely exclusively on Mr. Wardenaar, but the ulti-
mate settlement and proceedings will be entirely at the discre-
tion of Mr. Ainslie/'
In reply to these letters, the government secretary, Mr.
Grey, replied that Mr. Raffles's appointments of Wardenaar
and Ainslie met with their entire concurrence, and that
Wardenaar's cut of twenty per cent, which Raffles had prom-
ised him, though certainly it was high, seemed reasonable
considering everything. This reply should be kept in mind
because of what followed later.
In a memorandum on the general situation, drawn up for
the convenience of the Secret Committee by one Mr. Breton,
there is mention of the "irreconcilable hatred" supposedly felt
by the Japanese for all European nations excepting only the
Dutch. It would therefore be advisable, suggests Breton, to
keep England out of the picture and to "send thither a ship
that would hoist Dutch colors on her arrival and during her
270
continuance at Japan"; also, as an added precaution, the cap-
tain should be at least "nominally Dutch/' if possible, a man
familiar with Nagasaki. The crew should be as largely Dutch
as would be practicable, and such of the crew as were English
should pretend to be American. The English seamen should
also be, in general, "mild and peaceable men, in order to ob-
viate disputes between them and the Japanese which may
give rise to unpleasant circumstances." All written transactions
between the Japanese and the people of the expedition, of
course, would be in Dutch according to custom, and so there
would have to be a person aboard who could take care of all
that, if possible a man formerly in the service of the Dutch
Company, and in a situation of respectability. The Japanese,
Mr. Breton cautions the committee, are very tenacious and
particular on this point, especially if the person has never vis-
ited them before, knowing by their books and documents the
names of the different persons who have been among them;
they are also touchy as to the rank of such a person, who
should be of such high grade as to render them honor. (Rat
fles's suggestions had not yet arrived when the memoir was
written, but Wardenaar and Ainslie were well fitted to these
descriptions.)
An important point made by Mr. Breton was that such
trade would be advantageous. Many members of the Com-
pany were dubious on this point, but Breton declared the
advantages to be sufficiently important to invite cultivation
of this trade, "even on the condition of great sacrifice. The
exports to Japan consist of the 2d. sort of Java brown sugar,
and of the manufacturers and other merchandizes of Europe
and India; and the returns are made in Japan copper and
camphor. These are the only articles in which the [Dutch]
company deal exclusively. All the other productions of Japan,
such as porcelain, silks, lacker, and other articles, are left to
individuals who carry thither such articles of merchandize in
which the Company do not maintain an exclusive trade. And
as the Company's ships are in general only ballasted with a
cargo of copper, they allow their servants and seamen to fill
up the ships free of freight." After a few further details of
271
the former trade, the memorandum states that a recent ina-
bility of the Dutch Company to satisfy Japanese demands had
greatly diminished the trade. The Japanese wanted sugar
chiefly, and a single ship could not carry enough of sugar and
other things to pay for one cargo of copper. The Japanese
would not accept money, so the Dutch were always in their
debt. As a result, the Chinese had been cutting in; they were
the only other foreigners allowed to trade with Japan and had
been able to supply the wants of the Japanese by means of
articles received from the English at Canton. The English
would have to overcome this opposition, but as they had
plenty of the necessary merchandise, which the Chinese had
been getting from them secondhand to pass on to Japan, that
would not be difficult.
Altogether the early correspondence on this subject pointed
to complete agreement between Raffles and the Company,
a situation which never seemed to last very long, under any
circumstances. There is, however, an obscure point here which
has never been cleared up, at least in print. Raffles and the
higher-ups, as well as Ainslie and Wardenaar, everyone, in
fact, who was in on this plan, were agreed that the Japanese
should not be notified of the changes that had taken place in
Holland's position among the nations of the world. Also the
Japanese were not to know that the British were in possession
of Java. The plans were discussed and changed and discussed
and changed again, as to the best lie to tell which would
effectively cover up the truth. This desire for concealment was
Raffles's reason for smuggling the English Ainslie into
Deshima, and for sending Wardenaar in under false colors,
as a Dutchman representing the old government of Holland.
They were all agreed, evidently, that it was possible thus to
keep the news of the world from Japanese ears. Their be-
lief was based on the fact that Japan deliberately and pains-
takingly kept herself cut off from every outside influence.
However, there was one channel of information which they
forgot. The Chinese were not excluded from Japan. The
Chinese came and went more freely than the Dutch of the old
regime had ever been permitted to do, and they were fully in-
^272
formed as to political changes in Europe, at least in so far as
they affected the Far East. Therefore it seems incredible that
the Japanese should not have had word from them of Hol-
land's recent annexation by Napoleon. It is possible that the
Dutchmen marooned on Deshima should not have got the
news; indeed, it seems to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt
that they didn't know, though even that lack of information
is difficult to credit. But the Japanese authorities couldn't
possibly have remained in ignorance indefinitely. Nobody
has spoken of this in the discussions of Raffles's plans which
took place at that time and in the articles and comments
which have been written since about the situation, but the
facts remain.
Why, then, hadn't the Japanese already cracked down on
the Dutch factor and his compatriots on Deshima? The only
explanation possible is that Raffles's supposition, which he
expressed in his first letter on the subject, written at Malacca,
was an error. He thought, it will be remembered, that if the
Japanese knew what had happened to Holland and what was
in the act of happening to Java they would immediately ter-
minate all intercourse between themselves and Europe in
general i.e., they would throw those two Dutchmen out on
their ears. Because, said Raffles, the Japanese felt that they
had entered into engagements with the Dutch, and were favor-
ing them, only while they existed "as a nation." Well, Raffles
must have been mistaken. The Japanese must have known,
and they must have felt that it didn't make any difference to
the Shogun's edict whether the Dutch were their own mas-
ters or subject to other nations, to France or England. There
is no other explanation. Considering this, however, the specta-
cle of everyone tiptoeing melodramatically about, taking
elaborate precautions to keep the truth from the Japanese, be-
comes slightly ludicrous.
Trouble reared its head in May 1812, when Raffles wrote
the committee that the adventure would have to be postponed
to the next season, owing to some delay in getting the re-
quired trade goods from Bengal. Even at the end of October
of the same year a delay until the next year was necessary. The
273
articles for trade were being got together, however, and the
first sailing was finally set for June 1813. In January of that
year Raffles's secretary, Assey, made a list of the presents and
goods destined for Japan, for His Imperial Majesty the Em-
peror, It is a fascinatingly varied array, including an almanac
of Batavia, two catties of Egyptian mummy [sic], one day
and night spyglass [telescope?], four civet cats, ten "Glattig"
birds, twenty sheep, ten polished liquor decanters, a carpet,
a piece of magnet stone, a table watch, many sorts of cloth,
Persian leather, et cetera. There are various smaller groups of
similar articles, evidently belonging to private deals in the
names of different burghers of Batavia and, perhaps, members
of the crew.
Of overwhelming importance, however, was the chief
present of all, the magnificent gift intended as the pice de
resistance for His Imperial Majesty the Japanese Emperor
[that is, the Tokugawa Shogun], It was nothing less than a real
live elephant. A very special elephant too: a white one from
Siam. Contemporary Japanese sources, on the other hand,
differ as to whether it came from Ceylon or Sumatra. No one
need be told in these enlightened days, surely, how very special
a white Siamese elephant was supposed to be, at least in Siam.
Raffles assumed that the reputation of the species must surely
have reached even to the august and protected ears of Japan's
Divine Ruler, the Son of Heaven.
Now you know why that particular voyage should be known
to history as Operation Pachyderm.
Two ships, the Charlotte and the Mary, were selected for
the voyage, the cargo being made up to look as much as possi-
ble like Dutch cargoes of former days. Mr. Wardenaar's orders
were to proceed to China and sell the stuff there if the Japa-
nde caught on to the trick or for some other reason would
not let him in.
Replying to various reports and letters sent by Raffles to
Bengal at this time, the government of India, on Januarf 29,
1814, sounded the first sour note of the proceedings. It was
sour enough, however, to make up for any amount of delay.
The governor general professed ignorance of Japan's state at
the time, and so declared his inability to estimate the diffi-
culty of the undertaking or to appreciate the advantages of a
successful outcome. This beginning was rather ominously
stately and sounded suspiciously like the makings of an alibi,
but worse came along right after it. The governor general,
furthermore, was suddenly appalled at the expense involved,
which was "far exceeding the amount which this Government
would have thought it prudent to sanction for the purpose of
making an experiment, the success of which appears to be so
uncertain independently of the cost of the goods, of the hire
of the ships, and of the monthly salaries. . . . His Lordship
in Council observes that the Lieutenant Governor has under-
taken to grant eventually a very large gratuity (50,000 Dol-
lars) to Mr. Wardenaar. . . .
"The Governor General in Council is disposed, therefore,
to doubt whether the expense is not disproportioned to the
value of the object contemplated; and although His Lordship
in Council has great confidence in the prudence and judg-
ment of the Lieutenant Governor, he cannot concur alto-
gether in the propriety of his engaging in so expensive an un-
dertaking without having more satisfactory grounds for as-
suming that the experiment was likely to succeed and that the
advantages to be derived from an intercourse with Japan, were
likely to be such as to justify great pecuniary sacrifices . . .
et cetera, et cetera. . . .
"The Governor General in Council is of opinion that with-
out some such assurance, it would have been more prudent to
have confined the undertaking to a very limited scale, and
that it would have been sufficient to have sent, in the first
instance, a single Vessel, with a cargo of small value, for the
purpose of ascertaining the disposition of the officers of the
Dutch Factory, as well as the disposition of the Japan Gpv-
ernment to admit a commercial intercourse with Java under
the .circumstances of the late change in the administration of
fliaf Colony."
He goes on to make the point that the Dutchmen at present
on Deshima would very likely object strenuously to the Eng-
lish proposals, which in the end could not possibly be advan-
275^
tageous to them, and that their alarm and jealousy might in-
spire them to betray the whole plan to the Japanese. The
governor general thinks a greater degree of confidence and a
''more open and candid proceeding toward the Dutch Fac-
tory" would have been better.
Also, he says, if the Japanese find out about the trick, they
will resent the imposition and refuse to carry on with the ar-
rangements. The governor general "is of opinion that the
attempt to establish an intercourse should have been open
and avowed, that it should have been in the first instance at
a small expense, and that if serious obstacles were found to
exist the idea should for the time have been relinquished/*
However, his lordship in council would be happy to find
that his apprehensions were not justified, and that the enter-
prise had been productive of advantages fully sufficient to
indemnify the government for the very heavy expenses attend-
ing it, et cetera, et cetera.
It is this sort of lightning-stroke development which used
to turn subsidiary governors' hair white in a single night.
Needless to say, the governor general in question was not
Minto; Minto had just retired and been succeeded in office
by Lord Moira, who started out on his new job with a strong
prejudice against Minto's white-haired boy over on Java.
Even that prejudice, however, scarcely explains the sudden
change of sentiment expressed in this letter, on reading which
one would suppose that none of the previous correspondence
had ever existed. Forgotten are those cordial reassurances to
Raffles that Wardenaar's salary, considering everything, was
not excessive. Gone with the wind are all the happy agree-
ments which came from Bengal as to the advantages of trade
relations with Japan and so forth. All of a sudden Calcutta is
frigidly washing its hands of the affair, and indeed behaving
as if the entire thing were a new, unpleasant suggestion.
It wasn't in Raffles's power, either, to make the retort dis-
courteous which must have sprung hotly to his lips. He
couldn't remind his lordship that his doubts were very late
in occurring, considering that the entire matter had been dis-
cussed over and over during the period of the past eighteen
276
months, or that it had been agreed in Bengal, months before,
that the gamble was well worth taking. He could not call his
lordship a silly ass for suggesting so long after the event that
a small vessel with a cheap cargo would have been sufficient
the first time, or point in explanation to his original plans,
which made clear just why the ships and cargo must approxi-
mate as closely as possible the ships sent annually by the
Dutch. He could not suggest that his lordship rub his hon-
orable nose in the past correspondence and take note of
Raffles's early-made suggestion that the Dutchmen on
Deshima be adequately compensated for their co-operation,
in which event they would presumably be willing to further
the English plans, rather than give way to fruitless alarm and
jealousy. He could not make the most obvious retort of all,
that to have followed his lordship's advice (always suppos-
ing it had been proffered in time, which it wasn't) and to
have been open and aboveboard with the Japanese would
have been the equivalent of asking for complete rejection
from the very beginning. Anyone with more brains than a
moron knew that the Japanese would never have even begun
to accept a ship that was openly British. They had always
turned down such attempts. To have gone about the project
as the governor general described would not have been a gam-
ble, that much is evident. It would have been something
worse: an outright waste of money and effort. It would be far
better to abandon the idea completely, from the beginning,
than to take his lordship's suggestions seriously. But Raffles
couldn't say that. He could only accept the unpalatable fact
that his beloved pet project, his Operation Pachyderm, was
all of a sudden unpopular in India.
He could only do what he did: write a polite communica-
tion in which he reiterated all his earlier statements without
calling attention to the fact that he was repeating himself.
Patiently he said, "Our object in negotiations with the Japa-
nese Government is the free admission of the British Trade
to that Island while the interests of Java only would be ac-
complished in being able to resume the Trade on the exclu-
sive privilege heretofore attached to it but it appears that
277^3
this cannot be effected in any way suitable to the honor and
dignity of the British Government." That is, he didn't want
merely to reaffirm Java's rights of trade, for that would revert
to the Dutch if Java did. He wanted to clinch the deal for
England. "It must either be carried on under false colours/'
he said, carefully simple and clear for his lordship's benefit,
"or abandoned and if it be possible to take advantage of the
communication which through Java is open to Japan for the
purpose of establishing a British connection is such a con-
nection to be considered an appendage to the Colony? . . .
Necessity, honor and policy therefore require that in what-
soever light one may regard our connection with Japan, the
general interests of the British Empire be considered rather
than the local interests and advantages of the Colony which
I am appointed to superintend. . . .
"We are gradually undermining the exclusive administra-
tion of a Dutch Factory and may possibly be able to supersede
it by an English one but this cannot in the present uncer-
tain state of Java be effected by the Chief authority of that
Colony, unless he acts on more enlarged views than the im-
mediate interests of that Colony may require." For the mo-
ment, he adds, the nature of the business necessitates that the
ships sail from Java, where they are outfitted, but in future, if
British trade is extended as he expects, eight, ten, or even
more English ships a year would be sailing to Japan, from
whatever port the supreme British authority might designate.
In February 1814, Raffles was able to report the successful
return of the two ships, Charlotte and Mary, and he enclosed
the reports of the commissioners. On their arrival they found
the commercial director, Mr. Doeff, "averse to acknowledge
the British Government, and steadily refusing to deliver over
the Factory; it was deemed impracticable, consistently with
the safety of the Ships and Crews, to avow the grounds on
which they had come, and to enter the harbour under British
Colours; but it was agreed that the Annual Trade might be
conducted under the usual forms. . . /' So much for that
part of his lordship's apprehensions.
Dr. Ainslie brought better news, too, in one way. Not only
^278
was all the business part of the voyage satisfactorily accom-
plished and arrangements made for the next trip, but it looked
as if in the course of time the Japanese might actually accept
the English traders under their own flag. At any rate much of
the violent prejudice hitherto felt in Japan against "the Eng-
lish Character" had been done away with; moreover some of
the chief interpreters who dwelt at the factory, as well as other
officers of the Japanese Government, had been entrusted with
the secret, and although they knew the true state of affairs
perfectly well long before the English departed, they did noth-
ing to hinder the success of the plan. As Ainslie said, "This
tacit participation on their part was the surest pledge of our
safety/' So much for another part of his lordship's apprehen-
sions. Indeed, though there had been few opportunities to
communicate with these sympathetic Japanese, Ainslie was
so certain of the ultimate success of Raffles's ideas that he sug-
gested obtaining a short letter from His Royal Highness the
Prince Regent to the Emperor of Japan, something as follows:
"His Royal Highness communicates to the Emperor that
the Dutch nation has been destroyed and annihilated by the
French, and that Batavia and all the Dutch possessions in the
East are now placed under the British Protection. The East
India Company will send an agent to Japan to explain these
circumstances and to enter on the subject of the English Ship
of War which formerly put into Nangasacky [sic] in distress."
Even if the prince regent or his government should object
to writing such a letter, a similar message transmitted verbally
would have a good effect, said Ainslie, for the Japanese Gov-
ernment set great store by rank and would look with more
favor upon any word from the English if they were sure the
highest authority had inspired it.
Among his own comments Raffles includes one to the effect
that not the least encouraging among the aspects of this first
expedition to Japan was the manner in which the Emperor
had been graciously pleased to accept all the gifts which had
been so carefully selected. The fact that he took them all was
significant; he didn't always do that. Only the white elephant
was sent back to Batavia, and this was not because His Im-
279
they took back in payment a thousand piculs of bar copper
per junk, lacquered ware, dried fish, soya beans, and whale oil
The Chinese were allegedly treated badly by the Japanese, and
their intercourse was allowed chiefly because they had certain
drugs which were much prized in Japan. If the English could
supply these, then it would be easy to supplant the Chinese
completely.
Raffles wrote his old friend Minto in February 1814, in Eng-
land, acquainting him with what had passed. This letter is
of interest to us because here again he admits that the Japa-
nese must be at least partially aware of Holland's plight, and
cites this certainty as encouraging for Britain's future relations
with Nippon. (Minto died before the letter reached him.)
But he adds that at the moment it would be fatal to send out
any ship which was openly English, as the very sight of such
a vessel, of any description whatever, would put the seal on
future chances of a rapport. In accordance, however, with his
policy of going gently, slowly, but steadily toward the goal,
Raffles would have the Company start working on the knotty
problem of Mr. Doeff, the Dutch resident at Deshima, who
had stoutly refused to lower the Dutch flag or to further Eng-
lish aspirations in any way. He says as much in a letter to the
committee, as well as to Minto. DoefFs refusal to acknowl-
edge British authority (which the fortune of war and the
rights of conquest had given England a right to expect) af-
forded a fair, just, and honorable plea to open a communica-
tion with the Japanese Government direct, and Raffles pro-
posed that an embassy be sent to Japan with authority to state
openly the political events which had taken place and the con-
sequent dependence of the Dutch factory at Deshima.
The embassy should offer presents as a proof of friendship
and show specimens of England's various manufactures, the
main object being to negotiate for the establishment of a
British factory wholly independent of the commerce hitherto
carried on between Java and Japan, and calculated to intro-
duce the British on the footing of the most favored nation.
He realizes that the whole mission must be carried on with
the greatest delicacy, and that even then the first attempt is
^282
tion this small matter to show how the persons involved since
the return of the mission had become so certain as to the
feasibility of British trade relations with Japan that they were
discussing the smallest extraneous details of day-by-day busi-
ness, presumably to go into effect after everything should have
been settled.
Throughout most of his letters and comment Raffles plays
variations on the same old tune; he is anxious to establish
England firmly in Japan, come what may to Java. And of
course there is another familiar old tune too: "The Character
of the Japanese/' says Raffles, "has evidently been subject to
the misrepresentation which the jealousy of the Dutch has
industriously spread over the whole of their Eastern pos-
sessionsit is observed by Dr. Ainslie . . . that they are a
race of people remarkable for frankness of manner and dispo-
sition, for intelligent enquiry, and freedom from prejudice
they are in an advanced state of civilization, in a climate where
European Manufactures are almost a necessary comfort, and
where long use has accustomed them to many of its luxuries."
Ainslie writes in a letter to the government that the re-
cent limiting of the trade carried on by the Dutch was due
in large part to the conduct of their officers, who were getting
so greedy that they took too much commission on articles of
trade, thereby limiting the already limited amount they were
able to bring in in their two ships annually. In his opinion
the Japanese were ripe for the introduction of new manufac-
tures: they were eager for more of what they already knew,
and would welcome variations. And though the returns from
Japan had hitherto been limited in the main to copper, cam-
phor, silk, lacquer, et cetera, there were many other things
which could easily be brought away tea, beeswax, pitch,
borax, gamboge, asafetida, cinnabar, iron, linseed oil, whale
oil, pit coal, and flour.
The Chinese trade, like the Dutch, was limited strictly,
though the limits allowed of more scope. They were permit-
ted to send ten junks a year, and these vessels, fitted out from
Nanking, brought sugar, chiefly, and a few trifling Chinese
products, as well as a lot of English woolen material, for which
281
they took back in payment a thousand piculs of bar copper
per junk, lacquered ware, dried fish, soya beans, and whale oil.
The Chinese were allegedly treated badly by the Japanese, and
their intercourse was allowed chiefly because they had certain
drugs which were much prized in Japan. If the English could
supply these, then it would be easy to supplant the Chinese
completely.
Raffles wrote his old friend Minto in February 1814, in Eng-
land, acquainting him with what had passed. This letter is
of interest to us because here again he admits that the Japa-
nese must be at least partially aware of Holland's plight, and
cites this certainty as encouraging for Britain's future relations
with Nippon. (Minto died before the letter reached him.)
But he adds that at the moment it would be fatal to send out
any ship which was openly English, as the very sight of such
a vessel, of any description whatever, would put the seal on
future chances of a rapport. In accordance, however, with his
policy of going gently, slowly, but steadily toward the goal,
Raffles would have the Company start working on the knotty
problem of Mr. Doeff, the Dutch resident at Deshima, who
had stoutly refused to lower the Dutch flag or to further Eng-
lish aspirations in any way. He says as much in a letter to the
committee, as well as to Minto. DoefFs refusal to acknowl-
edge British authority (which the fortune of war and the
rights of conquest had given England a right to expect) af-
forded a fair, just, and honorable plea to open a communica-
tion with the Japanese Government direct, and Raffles pro-
posed that an embassy be sent to Japan with authority to state
openly the political events which had taken place and the con-
sequent dependence of the Dutch factory at Deshima.
The embassy should offer presents as a proof of friendship
and show specimens of England's various manufactures, the
main object being to negotiate for the establishment of a
British factory wholly independent of the commerce hitherto
carried on between Java and Japan, and calculated to intro-
duce the British on the footing of the most favored nation.
He realizes that the whole mission must be carried on with
the greatest delicacy, and that even then the first attempt is
^282
almost certain to fail He repeats that the ships which go to
Japan must continue to sail from Batavia, as any sudden
change in routine would be likely to alarm the Japanese and
defeat their object. Everything must be introduced by de-
grees, allowing some consideration for the habits of centuries
and time for the subsidence of the prejudices which the Dutch
had endeavored to excite.
"The intercourse of last year [1813] has broken the ice. . . .
If the attempt be not made while we have possession of Java
the opportunity once lost may never be regained. ... It is my
intention to send one ship to Japan at the approaching season
in June next upon the same footing as last year and to relieve
Mr. Doeff from his situation; according to established usage
. . . two of the Honorable Company's Cruisers should be sent
to Japan at the favorable season in 1815, not for purposes of
commerce, but to convey an agent charged with authority as
above mentioned and with positive orders not to enter the
harbour unless a friendly communication is agreed upon, but
to inform the Japanese Government that if this offer is refused
the commerce between Batavia and Japan is to cease/'
Space forbids too much attention to detail on this fascinat-
ing study, which throws a valuable sidelight on Raffles's style
of reasoning and his powers of persuasion. It was after some
thought and reluctantly that I left out the story of the
Phaeton, reference to which occurs again and again in Raffies's
letters. The Phaeton, Captain Pellew, was an English frigate
which sailed into Nagasaki Bay in 1808; the unfortunate gov-
ernor of Nagasaki was so much ashamed of this forcible entry
that he committed hara-kiri. His fate was a vivid warning to
those who came after them, and the name of the Phaeton
lived on as a sort of symbol of the misfortune that was sup-
posed to accompany any English endeavor to establish inter-
course with the Japanese. Doeff referred to this incident when
he was approached by Wardenaar, declaring that the Japanese
would most certainly put a stop to all intercourse with Batavia
if they should discover that the British were in power there; he
283
also professed to be gravely worried for fear the Japanese might
put all the visiting English to death and confiscate ships and
cargo, if they were to discover the imposition being practiced
upon them.
Wardenaar, however, was skeptical, suspecting Doeff of de-
liberately fomenting trouble and of maintaining an artificial
level of suspicion among the Japanese. He could not accuse
Doeff outright of all this trickery, nor could he insist upon
taking over the authority of the factory. Patience was indi-
cated, and patience won out. For the duration of the visit no
further communication was entered upon with the Japanese
Government than had been the custom when the Dutch sent
their ships in. Mr. Doeff was to continue in his position as
director for the coming twelvemonth, at the very least. There
was a flurry among the rest of the people connected with the
factory, who wanted to be assured of their jobs under the new
management, and Wardenaar and Ainslie were busy for a long
time answering all the applicants, saying that their affairs
would have to be discussed and decided in Batavia upon the
return home of the two ships.
Ainslie's written report took a slightly different point of
view from Wardenaar's, in that he gave more credence to
DoefFs warning. He made an observation which even today
sounds plausible: "In Japan the Government pervades and
animates every fibre of the frame of society, it identifies itself
with its Subjects, and every Individual of its numerous popu-
lation moves by its pulse. . . . The consequences of the
Phaeton's visit to Nangasacky, were in themselves sufficiently
distressing, and it may be reasonably presumed, that the occa-
sion they presented was not neglected by the Dutch Factory of
directing against the nation whose influence they were chiefly
apprehensive of, that jealousy of foreigners indiscriminately,
which so strongly possessed the Japanese Government."
The question of direct introduction of the English, they
decided, was consequently at an end for the present. (What
would have happened- to Moira's project of sailing up to the
Emperor's front door and gaily demanding audience?) The
ships therefore remained at anchor under Dutch colors.
^284
It seems only fair, since we have it on record, to give DoefFs
own account of all this hubbub at Nagasaki. He is by way of
being one of Holland's favorite heroes because of this incident,
as according to him he was motivated throughout the pro-
ceedings by a patriotic desire to keep his country's flag flying.
It must be admitted (and it is admitted, admiringly in the
bargain, by Paske-Smith in his preface) that Doeff succeeded
in his aim, if this be true,
His story follows the one told in Batavia pretty faithfully,
with the addition that he was indeed deliberately playing on
the fears of Wardenaar when he invoked the affair of the
Phaeton, and warned them that they might be executed forth-
with. He persuaded them, and they in turn persuaded Ainslie
(who according to the Dutch was a frightful drunkard), to let
him manage everything, so that the ships should pass for
American-freighted Dutch vessels, and enough of their cargoes
should be sold to pay the factory's debt, secure a return cargo
of copper, and thus maintain the fiction of Dutch authority.
This was duly done according to signed agreement.
Doeff now tried to put one over on Raffles and sent his repre-
sentative, Jan Cock Blomhoff, on one of these ships to Batavia
with a proposal to Raffles to make a trade agreement whereby
the Batavia-Nagasaki annual trade ship should be resumed,
but under the Netherlands flag, pending a general peace in
Europe and Asia. Blomhoff failed to achieve this; on the con-
trary, Raffles offered him a bribe of fifteen hundred Spanish
dollars to head a second attempt on the same lines as Ainslie's.
Blomhoff rejected the offer, whereupon he was placed under
arrest and later sent to England, whence he was released and
made his way to Holland.
Raffles gave as his reason for rejecting DoefFs proposal that
Janssens's capitulation of 1811 included Java and all the Dutch
dependencies, of which Deshima was ipso facto one. Blomhoff
denied this and pointed out that the English had never tried
to take over the Dutch factory at Canton, which presumably
held the same status as Deshima. Raffles persisted in his atti-
tude and sent another ship to Japan in 1814, under the com-
mand of Cassa and Captain Vrooman, despite the fact that he
285^3
was already aware of the revolt of the Netherlands In 1813,
recall of the Prince of Orange and his accession to the throne,
the treaty of peace and friendship with Great Britain, and the
protests of Blomhoff. The ship reached Nagasaki Bay on
August 8, 1814, and was recognized by the Japanese inter-
preters as being one of the same English ships which had ap-
peared the previous year. In consultation with them, Doeff
gave Cassa the alternative of trading under the Dutch flag, as
had been done with Ainslie's ships in 1813, or telling the Japs
he had been sent by the English. Cassa chose the former
course, and the trade was conducted under these conditions.
No ship came in 1815 or 1816, but two arrived in 1817 w ^h
Jan Cock Blomhoff (accompanied by his wife, child, and
Dutch nurse) aboard, sent as relief for Doeff. Both Doeff and
Blomhoff were decorated by King William I for their patriotic
conduct, as the result of which Deshima is commonly alleged
to have been the only place where the Dutch flag flew in the
years 1810-13, but the same actually applied to the Nether-
lands Consulate at Tunis, the Fort of Epmina on the Guinea
coast, and the factory at Canton as well.
Among the papers forwarded to the government of India
after the first voyage in 1813 Raffles included the list of articles
which were ordered against the next voyage, by Japanese who
were still supposedly under the impression that the ships were
Dutch. It does bear out his contention that there was a large
demand for European manufactures, but it came to nothing,
ultimately, for the next communication that arrived from Ben-
gal, dated August 5, 1814, was calculated to dash Raffles's
hopes of Japan once and for all.
It appears under the title, Extract of a colonial general letter
from the Government of India to the Court of Directors,
dated the 5th August 1814 reviewing the reasons for prohibit-
ing further efforts to trade with Japan.
The first paragraph makes the strange statement, "as the
Lieutenant Governor anticipated the greatest advantages from
such an intercourse, and we were not aware that the Dutch had
acquired any rights to ^n exclusive trade, which the British
Government were bound to respect, we did not in ;the first
^286
Instance discourage the project of opening a communication
with the Dutch Factor in Japan although we saw reason to dis-
approve of the means which the Colonial Government had
resorted to for its Establishment/ 7
The second paragraph says that Raffles had ''unquestionably
much overrated" the ''real value" of the objective.
The report of the accountant general left the government
in no further doubt as to the value of trade with Japan, which
in their opinion was nil. "That the Japanese, as well as other
Nations, can justly appreciate the excellence of our manu-
factures may be readily admitted, and that they would gladly
consume them, if they possessed the means of procuring them,
is perhaps equally true, but it does not follow that this prefer-
ence will occasion an increased demand for an article, highly
valuable and desirable as it may be. It must first be shown that
the supposed consumer possesses the means of giving some
article equally valuable and desirable in exchange." Japan
didn't have anything England couldn't easily do without, was
their sentiment.
Actually the mystery and concealment observed by the
Dutch in regard to this exclusive trade had had the effect of
producing extravagant notions of its importance, the govern-
ment suspected.
Finally, Japan evidently didn't have any gold and silver.
Raffles did not give in immediately. He sent Bengal another
report which he hoped would cause them to change their
minds, but as there is no copy of this extant, we have no way
of knowing whether or not his hopes were justified. At any
rate the minds of the government were unchanged. There was
a slight flurry in May 1815, when the East India Company
wrote the government of India expressing their favorable atti-
tude toward continuing trade relations with Japan, if it were
at all possible. In February 1815 some firm in Batavia called
Skelton & Co. put in for permission to join in the next expe-
dition, in case one happened to be going out, but because of
a shipping shortage they had to recall their offer in September.
Skelton & Co. still wanted some assurance of being able to join
the expedition of the following year, but after a few exchanges
287^
of letters the government in Bengal politely and firmly put a
stop to all hopes in that direction.
As we have already learned from Doeff and the Dutch, even
this emphatic discouragement from India did not stop Raf-
fles however. The ship which returned in 1814 (on the seventh
of July, Doeff says) was their old friend the Charlotte, and
trade continued, still under the Dutch flag surely the
strangest transaction seen on those seas for centuries until
she left on the return trip for Batavia, on November sixteenth
of the same year. That voyage was really the swan song of John
Bull in false whiskers though. The next ship sighted by Doeff,
as he has told us ? was his relief ship, a real Dutch one, in 1817,
by which time Raffles and all the other British had long since
left Java. Doeff must have been happy to get all the news of
the past three years, at that. Imagine how he and Blomhoff
swatted each other on the back! Picture the celebration they
held, and the mighty laughs they laughed, talking it over!
So ended a gallant attempt on Raffles's part to set the clock
of History ahead by about forty years. When Japan was at
last opened to the world it was not the English who did it, but
though Raffles failed, we can rest assured it was not for want
of trying.
If we again indulge in the indoor sport of speculation, and
wonder how things would have gone if Raffles had not been
subservient to the government of India, we would not be the
first to play with that idea. Many a student of history before
us has looked at this record of the Secret Committee and then
at the date Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay. Of all
sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest might be those spoken
by Lord Moira Lord Hastings by that time in the afterworld
when Raffles confronted him with whatever newspaper they
have there, on July 14, 1853.
Come to think of it, there is another date which should in-
terest us, related as it is to the same subject December 7,
1941. On that day it was probably Moira's turn to brandish
the Afterworld Gazette triumphantly in front of Sir Stamford
Raffles's nose.
The last word has not yet been spoken.
CHAPTER XVI
The student of Raffles's life and
times, if he be of an optimistic habit of mind, thanks Provi-
dence for such observant gossips as Munshi Abdullah and
Addison, who for a while worked as secretary to the lieutenant
governor on Java. A pessimist is more inclined to grumble that
Providence couldn't have seen her way clear to granting a bit
more of the same help. Why, for instance, couldn't Abdullah
have gone along with Raffles to Java and Sumatra? Why did
Addison, after proving his worth as Raffles's Boswell, have to
die at such an early age, and after writing such tantalizingly
profuse letters too? However, it can't be helped. Providence
must take the blame that our information is spread so un-
evenly, so that we have long periods of our subject's life which
are only sketched lightly, in the barest outlines; and then
suddenly find ourselves snowed under by a flood of detailed
knowledge, an avalanche of well-annotated anecdotes and
manuscripts and contemporary comment.
The Javanese chapter of Raffles's life is like that. Not only
has History taken such a fancy to the years 1811-16 that she
keeps her brightest light trained on Raffles and Java during that
time, but humanity seems to have followed her lead. We know
a good deal about a lot of people .who were connected with
Raffles during his four and a half years in Batavia.
289^
One fact has been mentioned by several people we have
come to know in that half-world frequented by biographers,
where the dead and the living meet to shake hands and swap
stories. Everyone seems agreed that the British Government
in Java was inexcusably understaffed and overworked. No
doubt the explanation is the same one offered by the Com-
pany's apologists when, for the time, the young man Raffles
was overworked and underpaid at Penang: the Indies, in John
Company's opinion, weren't worth too much expenditure.
Their miserliness seems strange just the same, considering
the importance of the Eastern situation in Napoleon's world,
especially when we contrast the list of British officials with
Raffles's domestic pay roll, for example. He employed a fan-
tastic number of servants and outdoor workers. At Tjipanas,
a country place with hot springs, he kept on the resident's
estate two mandoors (foremen or overseers) and fifty men for
general work, three mandoors and forty-eight men in the vege-
table gardens, three mandoors and thirty men for the flower
gardens and fruit orchards, one mandoor and ten men at Barn-
tarpeteh (another country place), one mandoor and twenty
men in the cow and deer paddocks, seven men in the rice
mills, twenty-seven in the dairy, five in the sheep pens, two in
the smithy, thirty-three in the stables, sixty grass cutters, four
watchmen, fifteen sweepers, four water carriers, four white-
washers, two cooks, two washermen, nine men for the poultry,
two in the dispensary, three lamplighters a total of three
hundred and forty-seven people. The mandoors were paid one
and a half Spanish dollars a month and the coolies one dollar.
At Batavia, Buitenzorg, and Tjipanas altogether, according
to a pay roll dated March 1814, he employed three European
servants, twenty-three free Indians and Javanese, plus seventy-
seven government slaves at Buitenzorg (nine musicians,
twenty-five house servants, seven cooks, one baker, one washer,
three shoesmiths, three coachmen, six grooms, one saddle
maker, six seamstresses, eleven maids, three bleachers, and a
cowman), as well as eight personal slaves, which made a total
of four hundred and fifty-eight. If this figure fails to stagger
you, reflect that Daendels probably employed more people
290
than that in his time, for he was even keener than was Raffles
on maintaining prestige or, as the Orientals call it, "face."
Now let us turn to the government offices and look at the
men there. Our invaluable friend Mr. de Haan has made a
good many comments on this situation, for he took the
trouble to study each one of Raffles's Englishmen and tame
Dutchmen separately.
Referring to an action on the part of the British which met
with his disapproval, De Haan thought he had the answer to
his complaint, and he was probably right, when he ascribed it
to understating in the government offices. "These stupid mis-
takes bear witness/' he writes, "to one of the many difficulties
of Raffles' governmentthe lack of trained personnel. While
one finds relatively few British-Indian employees (Hope,
Blagrave, Lawrence, Robinson, Macquoid) one meets cor-
respondingly more military men of high and low mark, some
of them King's Officers (serving in the regiments temporarily
stationed in India), others in the service of the East India
Company, either in a European regiment or in a Sepoy one.
The King's Officers, amongst whom men of birth and wealth
were by no means few and far between, with their ladies set
the tone for social life, and thus strongly opposed the Indian-
ization' of the original army of occupation. Above all we have
been struck by the Army Medical Officers, who, under Raf-
fles, carried out administrative functions; strong personalities
such as Assey, Crawfurd and Hopkins, likewise John Leyden.
Finally there is the class of fortune-hunters, with Admiral
Stopford, who got rid of his share of the loot, at their head,
and others like Barrett, Bingley, Addison and so on, who
looked to feather their own nests; whoever spoke fair English,
like Francis, could easily earn his bread.
"Next to all these English employees the Dutch officials
cut a poor figure. It is a lucky thing that the splendid gifts of
Muntinghe were so well employed and fittingly rewarded by
Raffles. Other capable men, like Van Haak, Van Sevenhoven,
and the two brothers Veeckens, he would not make use of,
owing to their political views. Rothenbuhler and Van Issel-
dijk appear to have been entirely worn out. Nicholas Engel-
291
hard kept himself aloof, and there was a great deal of deadwood
amongst the rest of them. The Dutchmen who stayed contin-
uously in the English Service as Residents, Doornik and Van
Naerssen, did little more than draw their salaries. That the
English personnel also was not free from deadwood is obvious:
two examples are Heyland and Roxburgh.
"But the shortage of personnel was astounding. There was
naturally a Resident in each Residency. He had to support
him an Assistant Resident, who was often commonly termed
a 'writer/ and who was in fact principally employed on clerical
duties, but who also represented his chief in the latter's ab-
sence. Sometimes there was, besides, a European Warehouse
or Harbour-Master, and that was all, save for some native
clerks, foremen and overseers. The Resident, frequently an
English officer, naturally understood neither Malay nor any
other native language used on Java; his assistant likewise was
no linguist, and with these two he nonetheless arranged all the
taxation of the land rent in that whole area, first like a 'des-
sage', later the individual tax. In this connection a surveyor
was sometimes ordered to map a whole Residency. And it was
done. But that was not all. A Resident might be ordered to
undertake [public] works outside his own area; he might serve
in one Residency and see the taxation done in another. No
sooner did a man begin to find himself somewhat at home
than he was shifted elsewhere. If one adds to this the com-
plete lack of English literature about Java, of maps, of diction-
aries, the lack of means, the prevailing ignorance amongst the
Hollanders on Java of both the English and Javanese lan-
guages, then one is forced to the conclusion that either the
native governmental employees did a colossal amount of work,
or else (and this seems more likely) that everything went to
pieces while the French [English?] were in charge. We also
find curious things in the financial sphere. The salaries of the
employees were discounted in bills of exchange, which gave
rise to much capriciousness and a burdensome control.
"The higher functionaries were well paid, in Spanish dol-
lars at sixty-four stivers and Javanese rupees at thirty, some-
times also in Sicca rupees at thirty-one and a half. If the lavish
pay of a military officer were added to this, one could live like
a prince. But one also finds a 'Resident' of Banjoewangi at
eighty Spanish dollars, and of Bawean at thirty. Whilst Dai-
grains as Sub-Treasurer received two thousand Java rupees a
month (equal to three thousand guilders ), Muntinghe as a
Councillor only received five hundred Spanish dollars, or six-
teen hundred guilders. Above all, the extraordinary bonuses
dished out to Hope show gaps -in the supervision of finances.
The numerous insolvent households show the effect [of the
setup] on the bourgeoisie society in the same way. In the
slovenly and delayed execution of given orders, a spirit of
laissez-faire is sometimes obvious. Raffles was personally cease-
lessly busy, and he worked very fast; the lengthiest missives
flowed successively from his pen, and the personalia of Addison
shows how busy he kept his immediate entourage. In order to
reduce written work, he ordered that all documents addressed
to him should be written in duplicate. He then wrote his de-
cision in the margin of one copy which was duly copied into
the margins of the duplicate for return to the sender. This
compendious correspondence had the result that many things
which should have been filed in one bureau were filed in an-
other, and the tracing of any retroacta is not thereby made
easier. Similarly, Raffles' decisions during his numerous
journeys did not invariably come to the knowledge of the
Council and Accountant/'
It is certainly refreshing to take a look once in a while at the
reverse side of the medal, isn't it? After Raffles's naively glow-
ing accounts of the progress he made, Mr. de Haan's fulmina-
tions remind us of so many that can be heard today in any
colony: that they are usually loudest in British communities
may possibly be due to the fact that British colonies are run
worse than any other, though after seeing the way various other
colonies are managed in different parts of the world, I doubt
it. It is more likely that because England possesses a lot of colo-
nies, and because her officials enjoy the game of baiting their
own governments, doing it with a will and a loud gusto, not to
mention uninhibited free speech, the volume of complaint
and abuse swells out louder than that of any other nation. De
293^
Haan's reporting is indubitably accurate, but the picture it
presents is not as horrific as he seems to think.
Proceeding with his study, he gives us a few brief descrip-
tions of the men who were close to Raffles in the government
of Batavia. First comes George Augustus Addison, a young
man who will have occasion to speak for himself shortly. De
Haan quotes from his letters to prove how he was rushed into
the job of acting secretary to Raffles the minute he landed on
Java; we shall also read the original context with a few addi-
tions which give a more rosy picture of the background against
which he worked, until his early death from fever.
The next, Dr. Daniel Ainslie, our friend from the Deshima
adventure, was originally surgeon of the horse artillery at
Madras, and he first came with this unit to Java. Raffles calls
him "a gentleman of high talents and abilities/' but Doeff,
the Dutch chief at Nagasaki, had, as we know, a different
opinion, and states that Ainslie's taste for liquor "rendered him
totally unfit for everything/ 7 In 1816 he was voted fifteen hun-
dred Javanese rupees for secret service money expended during
his trip to Japan. He died at Weltevreeden on July twenty-
second of that year. De Haan mentions that Crawfurd hated
Doeff, probably merely because Doeff had attacked his fellow
Scot, Ainslie.
Charles Assey, of whom Addison wrote a warm commen-
dation, was another surgeon originally, with the 3d Bengal
Volunteer Battalion. He became secretary to Raffles in 1812,
and held many concurrent posts because he was efficient and
hard-working. In April 1814 he went to Bengal to refute the
allegations Gillespie had been making against Raffles. He was
back in Java by the end of September of the current year. One
of his many talents seems to have been for journalism. He pub-
lished a brochure in 1819, when he was again with Raffles, On
the trade to China and the Indian Archipelago; with observa-
tions on the insecurity of the British interests in that quarter.
He was always Raffles's right-hand man when he was with him.
For a time he edited the Java Government Gazette, a consider-
able recommendation for anybody.
Then there was W. Barrett, a friend of Raffles from the
^294
Penang days. He was made assistant accountant in 1812. On
April iyth, 1812, he married Jacoba Maria Goldman, the
daughter of J. C. Goldman, a resident of Batavia. It was the
first wedding of an Englishman with a Dutch girl after the
conquest, and as such it was regarded as a great affair. The
couple had a son in 1813, but Barrett died in '14, well before
the British had to get off Java, thereby escaping being involved
in one of those international marital quandaries which can be
so awkward.
Hugh Hope, resident, deputy civil commissioner, and so on,
was the lucky winner of sixteen thousand dollars in the Java
lottery of 1812, and the inspiration of that poem which so
amazed De Haan in that it appeared openly in the Java Gov-
ernment Gazette:
As for the prizes great and small,
The Government has got them all,
God Icnows what they've been doing.
When at Samarang on official residence he seems to have
played unwilling host to at least one very gay party. We read
the following in his requisition for more housekeeping allow-
ance: "Fifteen officers with their concubines lodged there for
about a month; many articles in the house were in conse-
quence lost or broken, as the house was crowded every day/'
That is all we know about Mr. Hope and, perhaps, all we need
to know!
William Thorn, chiefly known to me heretofore as the author
of The Conquest of Java, does not stir Mr. de Haan, who
knows him better, to any transports of admiration. "An unim-
portant person and not over-trustworthy as a writer; for in-
stance the plates in his History, are largely the old illustrations
of Rach, enriched with British flags (Campbell has taken over
these plates wholesale in his book); the Chinese Captain
whose funeral is reproduced 'as drawn on the spot' had died
as long ago as 1784."
We have already encountered Jan Samuel Thimmerman
Thijssen, the opium dealer, general merchant, and magistrate.
295^
It was he who made flattering references to Raffles and Minto
in his Liberation Day address, in 1814.
George Augustus Addison was bom in India, in Calcutta,
but his British parents sent him home for a certain amount
of schooling, so that he didn't live in the East until his return
at the age of sixteen. His tastes were in the direction of letters
rather than the rougher pursuits. He was, for example, a good
Persian scholar and a poet No doubt the army circles called
him a sissy, or whatever may be the nineteenth-century equiva-
lent, though his writings show no hint of homosexuality. He
associated with women for choice and had no liking for sport
or politics. Perhaps these qualities were the reason he got on
so well with Raffles from the beginning; Raffles too had no
love for sport, and certainly disliked politics, though, unlike
his young secretary-poet, he had to play them just the same.
Addison was twenty-one when he got the job of acting secre-
tary to Java's lieutenant governor. He was a copious letter
writer, corresponding with several ladies, very good friends
whom he had met during his various attempts at a career in
India in the five years he was there before Raffles gave him a
chance. One of his correspondents edited and published a
selection of his letters after his death. We owe her a vote of
thanks for having thus preserved a fresh, vivid portrayal of
Raffles's household in Java, and of his intimate aides.
Evidently young Addison had had a try at the indigo busi-
ness just before 181 3, but his prospects failed, and he had never
entertained much love for indigo anyway. His father and
friends who lived in India advised him to go to Calcutta,
where it was hoped their pull might be able to procure him a
better, or at least a more congenial, post. Some influential
people at the presidency, interested and attracted by the boy's
general intelligence and unassuming manners, made arrange-
ments for him to go out to Java in the hope that Raffles could
use him. One of the first letters in the book, written from Cal-
cutta, tells us that Lord Minto was at that time just on the
verge of leaving for home, having at last resigned his post after
a long, arduous, but very honorable career. Lord Moira, his re-
lief, was on his way out, and the excited speculations and
chatter surrounding his name whenever it was mentioned at
parties can be imagined.
"Nothing is talked of but Lord Moira," wrote Addison in
September. "I hope his lordship may be detained a little, how-
ever, at Madras and elsewhere; for it is said, that having so
many gentlemen to dispose of, fifty at least must be sent to
seek their futures to the eastward, and I wish to anticipate
them." As was customary, the change of governors was the
signal for an army of job hunters to descend on Calcutta. They
were feverishly anxious times. "Three or four of his Aides-de-
camp are here. Nothing can be more splendid than their
dresses. The other poor moosahibs are quite eclipsed gold
lace, ostrich feathers, and mustaches in profusion.
"There is an , too, here, whose imagination has been
sufficiently heated with the tales of Indian wealth, as to have
made him give up between two and three thousand pounds
per annum in England, to come out under Lord Moira's
auspices/'
Soon the youth's early cheerfulness evaporated, owing to a
slight but definitely unpleasant development. He kept putting
off his departure for Java because Moira, through some friend,
had allowed him to understand that the new governor would
give him a letter of introduction and recommendation, which
he could present to Raffles on arrival at Java. Though Addison
had many other letters, such a one from Moira himself would
of course carry tremendous weight. With that letter he could
be practically sure of getting a post, whereas without it things
would not be nearly so certain. Naturally therefore it was well
worth putting off the trip, just so that he could be sure of get-
ting the magic document in the end.
Unfortunately for Addison as well as for Raffles, this Moira
seems to have been of a far less benevolent nature than was
Minto, his predecessor. Having promised that letter, for in-
stance, any really agreeable person in such a high position
would make some effort, no matter how busy he might have
been, taking office, to keep the promise quickly rather than
let the boy dangle about the residency in an agony of impa-
tience and incertitude. It was an easy promise to keep, after
all. But he didn't. He let the days go by, during which time
poor Addison had thrice to present himself in the ante-
chambers, to go through the humiliation each time of making
his request and reminder all over again. In this letter the
young man frets and fumes and threatens to go off in a huff,
without waiting longer, but he realizes that such an act would
be childish and would harm only himself, and so he grits his
teeth and waits. It is exceedingly disagreeable, he complains,
to keep him running like that, asking again and again. Feel-
ingly he quotes a Persian proverb, "Who gives quickly, gives
twice/'
At last there appears a postscript: Moira's letter has arrived,
and Addison is off.
His next is from Java, dated December 1813. The boy is
happy and relieved, for all his apprehensions appear to have
been idle. "At length I have the pleasure of addressing you
from my journey's endthis dreadful island of Java; dreadful,
however, only in report, for I never saw a more beautiful coun-
try, or experienced a more agreeable climate. Batavia alone is
unhealthy, somewhat from its mean vicinity to a large mud-
bank along the sea-coast, but very much more from the habits
of its inhabitants, the Dutch; who, living most grossly as they
do every where, sleep after every meal, shut their houses closely
up during the day, and sit in the evening drinking drams of
their own country liquor by the side of vile dank ditches, dig-
nified by the name of canals. This is the regular routine, and
with such it is hardly to be wondered at that three out of five
was the average annual mortality. The English, by adopting
quite an opposite system, preserve their health now as well as
in Bengal; there is hardly any sickness among them. Batavia
itself is certainly a low, unwholesome spot; and, so strong its
ill repute, that no Englishman ventures to sleep there a single
night they all reside at Weltevreeden and Ryswick, pleasant
towns at about six miles' distance; and if they are obliged to
have offices in the city, visit them in the morning, and come
out in the afternoon. But I am speaking of customs, etc., very
decidedly, when I have seen so little that I have no right to ad-
vance any opinion on the subject. The city of Batavia itself, is,
^298
I think, very handsome; and particularly striking to a new-
comer, as being totally unlike any thing either in Bengal or
England. The streets are broad and clean, mostly with rows
of trees at the sides, and canals in the middle; and the houses,
which touch each other as in England, are particularly neat-
all red-tiled, abundantly glazed, and many with facings of the
Dutch painted small slabs, and marble floors, forming alto-
gether an odd, but very pleasing appearance. . . "
April 1814: "You will laugh at my being so mightily occu-
pied; but recollect into how new a situation I have thus sud-
denly fallen; every thing to learn and yet to proceed at once,
as if every thing had been learned. The' best proof I can give
you of my diligence, is the not having read a single novel, a
single poem, or played three games at chess since I have been
with Mr. Raffles, but, above all, my omission [of a letter] by
the late cruiser says every thing.
"I have some little ambition, and, being placed in a situa-
tion so far above my expectations, I will at least strive to the
utmost to acquit myself so as to justify, in some measure, the
partiality that has been shown me.
"You will have been astonished to hear of my appointment.
It is one of the most respectable, and certainly the most pleas-
ing to myself; for had I had free choice of situations, I should
have selected this that is, consulting my inclination only-
ability will corne by and by; at least I will try hard for it. My
salary has been fixed at twelve hundred Rupees per month,
which also has exceeded my expectations but Mr. Raffles,
General Nightingale, and Mr. Hope, are all more kind to me
than I can express.
". . . They keep me as closely to my desk as even D. in his
busiest time is kept. Indeed, I generally begin at daylight, and,
with only such gross intervals as breakfast and dinner, keep at
it till eleven at night. I unluckily was appointed at the worst
period in the year for business, when despatches were to be
framed both for England and Bengal. . . .
"I have now, from my window, a prospect of the most beau-
tiful picturesque scenery. The descent from the house almost
precipitate in the bottom a valley filled with rice, with a ro-
299
mantic little village on the banks of a stream, which rashes
down by twenty torrents, and roars, foaming, over rocks in-
numerable; in the background, a majestic range of mountains,
wooded to the top, and capped in clouds, the nearest not more
than twenty miles off; nothing, indeed, can exceed the beauty
of the scene. . . .
'In speaking of Mr. Raffles, you will think me, perhaps,
biassed by his kindness to me; but really, setting this aside,
and judging impartially from what I have seen of him, and I
have now seen and marked him closely three months, I do
not hesitate to say, that I think most highly of him. He is a
superior character perfectly the gentleman of the most
polished manners and of a suavity of disposition I have not
seen exceeded. This, perhaps, is his foible; he is rather too
good-natured; and, as a governor, might have had a squeeze of
acid mingled in his composition with advantage. He is pos-
sessed of considerable information on most subjects; and is at
once the gentleman, the scholar, and the man of business.
"In the latter way he has few equals. I never saw anyone
more indefatigable, nor one who performs it in better or more
rapid style. From morn till night he is employed, and scarcely
the minutest detail on any point escapes him. This is warm
panegyric, but.it is sincere. To you I would not utter a senti-
ment I did not feel. He is no cold plodder, no calculator of
merely his own interest, but possesses a highly energetic mind,
an ardent imagination, and I could pledge myself for his even
chivalric honour; in short, for myself, I truly not merely like
and respect, but love him, he appears to me so amiable."
I would not for a moment carp at or criticize a scholar
like Mr. de Haan, but I would like to point out that he never
quotes this sort of passage when he makes his selections from
the records.
"In size he is a little man, but has a very pleasing coun-
tenance, quick, intelligent eyes, and the tout ensemble of his
features reminded me, at first, of Colonel H , which you
will admit to be good, a la Lavater. . * .
''Next comes our chief secretary, Mr. Assey. I cannot say
enough of him, and like him very much indeed. He is an ex-
300
cellent second to Mr. Raffles, quite as indefatigable, and as
capable. With two such examples before me, it is impossible
to shrink from any toil. Assey is uncommonly clever, quick,
and well-informed; and, what is better, joining to an amicable
disposition a fine manly independence of character. He is, in
short, universally esteemed, and fit for any thing. It is no slight
proof in his favour that General G. [Gillespie], though cor-
dially disliking him as a friend of Mr. Raffles, did not in any
of his attacks and he spared few venture a syllable against
Assey.
"Of course there are constantly a crowd of visitors in the
house; but the above, with a doctor, a Dutch secretary, and
myself, are the only permanent members. The doctor, Sir
Thomas Sevestre, is an original too; but I have not time to
describe him; . . ."
Buitenzorg, April 1814: "Mr. Raffles invited me in the
kindest manner to live with him while on the island. Of course
nothing could be more agreeable than such an invitation,
and me void regularly domesticated.
"This place is near forty miles from Batavia, most beauti-
fully situated, and has what is called a fine, cool, bracing cli-
mate; the season almost always the same never sufficiently
warm to make a punkah necessary, yet cool enough to make a
blanket agreeable for me; but I am quite heterodox this way.
It is very chilly and damp, and not one tenth so pleasant as
the Bengal gentle heats. There is a great deal too much rain,
owing to our close vicinity to the mountains. The clouds come
rolling down then, and favour us with a shower every after-
noon; and I detest rain it makes both body and spirits un-
comfortable."
Young Addison's experience of Java grows and deepens.
He goes out on the constant travels which the British officials
had found necessary, and is in raptures over the richness of
life in the countryside. "Plays, ombres-chinoises, antiquities,
pageants, tiger, buffalo, hog, goat, dog, and quail fights, etc.
etc. etc. ...
"The hog and goat fight was vastly amusing. A wild hog
and beautiful goat were turned into a small arena, a stool
301
being allowed the goat to leap on occasionally. . . . Next fol-
lowed a battle-royal three wild hogs, six dogs, and the vic-
torious goat. The hogs were torn to pieces, most of the dogs
in the same state, but the goat as fresh and frolicsome as
ever."
Here > for the first time since young Addison's letters have
appeared in these pages, I must admit a lack of sympathy with
him. Inevitably one wonders: did Raffles join him in watch-
ing this sport, and did the lieutenant governor, too, find it
"vastly amusing"? Most probably not.
About this period the acting secretary's mentions of the
Gillespie case grow so numerous and frequent that we are re-
minded it is high time to look at this matter and follow it
through. When last we spoke of Gillespie it was to mention
that his relations with Raffles were showing a deal of friction,
in spite of the good will each ostensibly felt toward the other
just after the day of victory. Raffles's correspondence with
Minto shows his side of the affair, and in these letters as well
as from many other records it is obvious that Gillespie at last
took his leave of Java and repaired to India in a very cross
frame of mind. He had no other course left open to him, for
things had reached a point where it was impossible for him to
go on being polite to Raffles, whom he now hated; and Minto
always backed up his enemy.
The first person who commented on the row which was to
cause so much excitement in Anglo-Indian circles is rather
disappointing in the light of later information. Major William
Thorn, a personal and loyal friend of Gillespie's, has written
a Memoir of him, evidently just after his death, in which he
talks feelingly of what a villain Raffles was, but never goes
into details. He is so very discreet that he never even men-
tions names, and often it is only because we already know the
story pretty well from other later sources that we have any
idea of what the estimable major is talking about.
One gathers from the following, for example, merely that
the work done by the British in Java is excellent, but that it
would have been a lot better if Gillespie had been running
things. Thorn takes a roundabout way of expressing this sen-
302
timent. "But though a very elaborate view has been exhibited,
and, no doubt, justly, of the ameliorated situation of the coun-
try, by the institutions that a liberal policy has adopted, and
of the rapid progress which industry and civilization have
made under our government, little, if any, notice has been
taken of the obligation due to the man, who, by his vigorous
measures and undaunted courage laid the foundation of the
great moral change thus wrought in the character and cir-
cumstances of Java.
"It was peculiarly the hard lot of General Gillespie to be
called to the execution of very perilous enterprises at the
imminent risk of his life, and to endure afterwards the mysti-
fication of seeing his glory acknowledged as a matter of course
in public, and of having his good designs impeded and ren-
dered ineffectual in private. Having extended the European
power in Java and its dependencies to a state of unrivalled
greatness, it was perfectly natural and just that he should have
looked for honourable confidence and dignified repose, as
some compensation for the difficulties which he had removed,
and the benefits which he had secured. Instead of this, he
found, that without compromising his principles, and yield-
ing to measures which he disapproved, it was impossible for
him to remain free from provoking slights, or unannoyed by
petulant opposition. All this, however, he endured much
longer than his private feelings would have permitted in any
case where the public service was unconcerned: but such was
his patriotic spirit and sense of duty . . ." et cetera.
No doubt a part of the major's ambiguity can be explained,
by the date of publication of this Memoir (1816). The
charges against Raffles were preferred by his ex-commander in
chief Gillespie in 1813, and the matter was decided, to some
extent, at least two years before the book was written, in
Raffles's favor, though not definitely enough to satisfy him.
Thus the general lost considerable face over the matter. Any
good friend would have done just as Thorn tried to do played
down the whole thing and taken refuge in muttered, vague
complaints. Thorn is saying what amounts to this: "The whole
thing has been grossly unfair, and posterity will realize it as
303
long as I give them something to go on, so, though I know
and respect the laws of libel, and can't say half of what is in
my heart, just remember this: I hereby put it on record that
Gillespie was a hero, and Raffles just a low-down common ad-
venturer with a talent for getting on in the world. Discretion
forbids that I speak further/'
CHAPTER XVII
We saw the beginnings of the
trouble back in 1812, when Raffles wrote that letter to Minto
in which he told about the sale of the public lands. Or rather,
that wasn't the true beginning, but it was the one Gillespie
took for the start of his revenge. Just when he and Raffles
discovered for keeps how much they did not like each other
isn't clear, but my guess, which I have already expressed, is
that it probably was soon after Gillespie first resented being
ordered around by a civilian. The characters of the two men
were thoroughly antipathetic. Gillespie was used to being a
hero. He made a name for himself during the Vellore Mutiny
of 1806, courageously getting into a besieged fort by climbing
a rope, and then persuading the soldiers there to hold out; he
also did very well in the Java conquest; he was indubitably an
excellent soldier. He was the epitome of the soldier. But it
was precisely as such that he could not be expected to appre-
ciate the points of Raffles's more subtle excellences. And
though Raffles could appreciate Gillespie's qualities he didn't
relish being stood up against, constantly, by a man whose
brains as he knew were not equal to his own. A clever man
hates to be balked by stupidity, especially when the stupid
person doesn't recognize his own inadequacy.
Gillespie was named one of the three councilors of the Java
Government, the other two being Muntinghe and Cranssens.
305 *>
He did not take his work as seriously as they did; rather, he
often pleaded ill-health and stayed away from the meetings.
After he and Raffles became unfriendly he showed up more
often, evidently in order to make as much trouble as he could:
at least that was the interpretation of his behavior supplied
by the exasperated Raffles, The really serious break between
them, it will be remembered, occurred in the spring of 1813
when Raffles decided to cut down the European garrison and
Gillespie was furious at the idea. Minto stood by Raffles. By
that time things were so bad that the tactful earl transferred
Gillespie to another post in Bengal, putting General Nightin-
gale in his place on Java. It was too bad for Raffles that all this
should happen just as Minto was retiring, for Moira, as we
know, took a dislike to Raffles immediately on entering office,
sight unseen, and was more than ready to listen to Gillespie's
innuendoes.
Perhaps the word "innuendo" is too much an understate-
ment for what Gillespie did, after he warmed to his work.
From his post in Bengal he charged Raffles outright with mis-
behavior in that 1812 matter, the selling of public land. Yet
he had condoned the act, definitely, at the time the govern-
ment made the decision (hastily, remember, on account of
the acute depreciation of the paper currency). The general
first had sent his objections by letter he had not been at the
meeting when the decision was made. He wrote that in his
opinion a measure of such magnitude should not have been
decided upon without previous reference to the supreme gov-
ernment, and gave as his chief reason the usual one, that no
one knew at that time how long Java would be British, or
whether the occupation was to be a permanency. These ob-
jections were always reasonable, whether it happened to be
Gillespie or Minto who expressed them, but after Raffles had
made further representations to the general, as he also did,
later, to Minto, and explained the limits of the proposed
action, Gillespie agreed to its necessity and assented to the
sale. That agreement is on record, and was Raffles's best point
of defense later.
An additional complication in 1812 had been that Gillespie
306
flatly refused to pay his sepoys with the phony paper money,
ignoring the fact that it was forbidden the Java Government
to draw bills on Bengal. Thus he had consistently aggravated
the financial troubles with which the Java Council was wres-
tling, though at that early time neither Raffles nor the other
councilmen could well accuse him outright of doing this de-
liberately. It is possible, of course, that he didn't, and created
these difficulties out of ignorance, not spite. Gillespie never
pretended to be a financial wizard.
Now, however, nobody was trying to be polite any more.
All gloves were off. Not only did Gillespie charge Raffles with
misbehavior and shady practice in regard to the land sale, but
he called the lieutenant governor "indelicate and discourte-
ous," in a counterattack to one of the most serious accusations
Raffles ever had occasion to level at anyone. That particular
affair 1 was supposed to have been fixed up and forgotten be-
fore the general left Java, but Gillespie's memory was long,
he had time to brood over his wrongs on the sea voyage, and
so the reconciliation was washed out long before he got to
British India. What had happened was as follows:
Because of his continued ill-health General Gillespie had
gone to live at Tjipanas, a popular mountain resort on Java
which featured mineral hot springs. There he acquired a
house, to which was attached a coffee plantation. Soon after
moving in he started building a new house on his estate. He
refused to pay taxes on any of this property, and he also failed
to pay any of the Javanese laborers and gardeners who worked
for him. Since this sort of thing was exactly what the British
blamed the Dutch so bitterly for doing, the other govern-
ment members were grievously shocked and angry, feeling
themselves let down by one of their own number. Raffles,
however, didn't allow himself to be carried away by the pre-
vailing mood of righteous indignation. He wanted to be sure
first of his grounds: probably he was even more careful than
usual because he disliked Gillespie so, and he checked the
story meticulously before taking the matter up in person with
the general. Boulger says he sent a responsible man to report
privately on the state of affairs, and when the time came he
307^
administered the necessary rebuke as quietly as possible; at
any rate Boulger thinks he did. Unfortunately for his own
position, which should have been completely unassailable in
a matter of this sort. Raffles's indignation, at last let off its
lead, carried him past the limits of scientific caution, so that
he believed a companion story to this unpleasant account
without being quite sure it was true before he accused Gil-
lespie of it. According to the other story, Gillespie, well
known for his susceptibility to women, had demanded of a
native mission school at Samarang that they send him a certain
student orphana virgin, according to the narrators threat-
ening the woman in charge with dire punishment if he didn't
have his way. The tale grew until Gillespie was accused of
carrying off a hapless maiden by force. Raffles's indignation
knew no bounds when he heard of this rascally atrocity, and
no doubt it was this part of the quarrel which gave Gillespie
the chance to use the word "indelicate." For, alas for purity,
when it came right down to cases Raffles could not substan-
tiate his complaint. Evidently there was no virgin, there had
been no abduction, and though Gillespie's house had been
occupied at times by more than one dusky maiden, none of
them claimed to have been dragged there against her will.
Moreover, obviously it didn't occur to any of the lasses to
claim virginity either. From the legal point of view the non-
existence of that virgin was too bad for Raffles, though in
the end he triumphed on all other charges. It was a point in
Gillespie's favor, not only because it made Raffles look "in-
delicate," as Gillespie had charged though the major gen-
eral's champions were not foolish enough to claim that he
was any Galahad but it also made the lieutenant governor
out to be a hasty-headed prig. Added to the hint of sharp
practice which still clung to the settled case like a bad odor,
the way these things do, the picture remained in the mind
of the uninformed public as a contrast between a bluff, good
fellow military man, a trifle sensual perhaps, a bit slow on the
uptake, but admirably brave, and a gentleman too, sir, placed
in the arena against a sly, hypocritical, nest-feathering, clever,
pious sort of fellow who wasn't out of the top drawer anyway.
^308
Let's look at De Haan's report, another excerpt from his
Personalia. It has special value because De Haan goes into a
detailed study of Gillespie's life, and there are significant
points in that. To begin with he was nineteen years older than
Raffles, of a "smart Scottish-Irish family in Ulster, as an only
son; very wild in his youth; became a Comet of Horse in 1783
against the wish of his parents, led a debauched life and de-
veloped into one of those typical heavy-drinking, roistering
and riding, but simultaneously foppish dandies of the days of
the Prince-Regent, 'our abstemious Monarch* as Raffles sar-
castically termed him later, when he gave orders for a cask of
Batavian arrack to be earmarked for H.M.
"Gillespie secretly married in 1782 (at twenty) a young
girl of good family of whom we subsequently hear nothing,
but his biographer (Thorn) sometimes lets hints fall about
his many mistresses. A few months after this wedding he fights
a duel over a pocket-handkerchief (with each of the oppo-
nents holding a corner of it), shoots his enemy dead and
flees; a price was placed on his head; he was arrested and ac-
quitted. All typically Irish; what is still more Irish is that some
years later he brawled in the Theatre at Cork, indulged in
fisticuffs, and again had to flee, this time dressed as a woman!
He took part in the campaign in San Domingo (West Indies)
where he proved himself a tough fighter. On one occasion he
was attacked by eight people in his house, whereupon, al-
though only a small man himself, he laid out six cold. In
1805 ^ e journeyed overland to India, had all kinds of adven-
tures on the way, and at Baghdad was given by AH Pasha an
Arabian horse Vhich became well known afterwards in India
by the name of the donor/ In 1806 he showed his leadership
and courage in the suppression of a dangerous sepoy mutiny
at Vellore. One can easily understand that such a man, with
such a past, a hunter who for sport could attack and kill a
tiger on horseback with a lance, a dragoon with all a dragoon's
love of wine, women and song, who could preside at a drink-
ing bout commemorating the capture of Meester Cornelis,
'where his toasts were as rapid as his movements in the field, *
and moreover a man of good family and breeding, should
look down on the obscure and titteen-year younger |_sicj aerK,
who had been suddenly placed over him by the favour of
Minto, a man who boasted (horribile dictu) that he had
never been present at a horse-race and never fired a firearm,
who never played cards and who never drank too much, who
always was taking lessons or poring over a book, who showed
an amazing predilection for associating with niggers, but who
likewise had a disconcerting ability to profit from others'
weaknesses, keeping himself in the background and playing a
noble r61e, thus winning friends and knowing how to keep
them, -a man who never lost his temper and who was always
and eternally too slippery for him. And one can surmise how
the hot-blooded dragoon boiled, when Raffles smilingly set
a foot in his way, or in his official capacity complimented him
on his proven courage and leadership, when he well knew
how that pen-licker and his patron at Calcutta chuckled to-
gether over his own excesses. Whereto it must be added that
Minto had no great reason to love the military. At any rate
there had been, for a number of years, particularly at Madras,
the most bitter disputes between the civil and military au-
thorities whiqh had nearly led to a military mutiny.
"There was thus plenty of material for a quarrel/'
Unfortunately for me, Mr. de Haan does not hold with my
theory, or rather with Boulger's theory which I formulated
later, on my own, in ignorance of his. De Haan doesn't think
it likely that anyone, least of all Minto, would have promised
the governorship of Java to Gillespie, either before or after
the conquest. On other points, however, we seem to be
agreed, which is a relief to this writer, since no one in my ex-
perience has ever known so much about another period in
history as does De Haan about the British interregnum on
Java (except Van der Kemp). Though in his opinion, then,
Gillespie had no reason for disappointment, "y e t: it must have
irked him to see that Raffles , . . was placed over him, who
had led the advanced guard at the landings and commanded
both the assault on Meester Cornells and the pursuit of the
beaten foe. The third of September, 1811, Minto wrote to the
Secret Committee in London suggesting the appointment of
Gillespie as Commander in Chief of the Army in Java. Before
Minto's departure from Java, Gillespie was already earmarked
for a seat in the Council. In a separate Instruction Minto had
tried to regulate the attitude between him and Raffles; but
reading between the lines of that document one can see that
Minto trusted far less in Gillespiq's self-control than in
Raffles'.
"By proclamation of the 22nd of October he was ap-
pointed Senior Member of the Council, with rank directly
after the Lieutenant Governor. Minto, in his report of the sixth
of December, 1811 on his doings in Java, states that he had
appointed Gillespie to this post with the idea of strengthen-
ing Raffles' [position], to show his consideration for the Army,,
and to secure more income for Gillespie (thus not on account
of Gillespie's great gifts). Nevertheless Gillespie at once
displayed his bad temper, by staying away from the official
installation of the new government on the twenty-first of
October, 1811.
'In the meeting of November first he took the oath and his
seat as First Member of Council, and forthwith opened hos-
tilities by tabling a note regarding the military arrangements
and establishments in Java (a point of great difference be-
tween him and Raffles), which note was filed in the Secret
Department. Some other proposals of his as to military mat-
ters were either rejected or side-tracked by Raffles, which
incident is recalled with bitterness in Thorn's Memoir. In
the meeting of the sixteenth of November, 1811, Raffles can-
celled the appointment of a certain staff officer Gillespie now
knew who was the strongest. In the Proceedings of the twenty-
eighth of November, it was decided to fit up the old and
dilapidated house at Weltevreden as Gillespie's dwelling. By
Proclamation of the same day he was appointed Vice-Presi-
dent of the Council during the absence of Raffles, who left
on board a ship the same day. Hardly had the latter left, when
Gillespie drove through the meeting all kinds of matters
which could not possibly have met with the Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor's approval, particularly the establishment of the Military-
Bazaar in the cantonment at Weltevreden.
311
"However, what Boulger states , , . that Gillespie first
regularly attended the Council meetings after his disputes
with Raffles which marked the year 1813, is not absolutely
correct. The quarrel dates from 1811, as we have seen. In
February and March, 1812, he was absent five times, but be-
fore March twenty-fourth he had already left on the Palem-
bang expedition, where he again gave proof of his exceptional
courage. He returned to Batavia on the thirty-first of May,
but left again on the fifth of June as an expedition against
Djokja, where he was wounded in the left hand. After con-
valescing in Tjipanas he returned to Weltevreden August
ninth for a council-meeting, but thereafter remained in the
highlands. He was again present on October igth, but absent
again till the twenty-third of December, being still at Tjipanas
where he took warm baths. In 1813 he came very irregularly
to the meetings, the last time on August thirteenth. On the
twenty-fourth of August he was appointed Vice-President
of the Council in the absence of Raffles.
"In the town, he had a house at Rijswijck besides another at
Weltevreden; in the highlands he had a country house at
Tjinanggis, belonging to the Cantonment there; in addition
he had rented Tency's house on Tjiloewar, with the slaves
belonging thereto, he also bought three slave girls from this
last (something very unusual for an Englishman). The quar-
rel with Raffles flared up again when Gillespie after the cap-
ture of Djokja arbitrarily disposed of some of the loot, which
annoyed Raffles greatly, whereupon Gillespie proffered ex-
cuses.
"Due to the reduction of the garrison by Raffles against his
advice Gillespie blamed Raffles for the Probolingo rebellion;
furthermore he was responsible for the way the Sepoys were
paid. He further disapproved of the expedition against Sambas
and was very pessimistic over the outcome of Raffles's land
taxation plans. Raffles on the other hand accused Gillespie of
oppressing the populace at Tjipanas, and accused him of mis-
behaving himself with orphan and slave girls at Samarang and
Palembang. This last is not improbable; but Raffles could
naturally get the people at Tjipanas to talk as he chose; and
^312
the almoner ot the institution at Samarang categorically de-
nied that Gillespie had taken an orphan girl for himself from
the orphanagewhich fact did not prevent Raffles from pub-
lishing that vile accusation in his Refutation, together with
the allegation that Gillespie had ordered a girl to be dragged
out of a house in Batavia by his soldiers, and had behaved in
a scandalous way at Palembang, according to Robison. How-
ever that may be, Gillespie was livid with rage. Already on the
thirteenth of February, 1813, he had addressed a letter to the
G.O.C. in Bengal, Sir George Nugent, with complaints over
the sale of land. At about this time he also asked to be re-
lieved, which was granted.
"From the Proceedings of the fifteenth of October, 1813,
it is clear that he asked for and was granted leave to proceed to
Bengal, whither he sailed on October tenth or eleventh. From
the advertisement of the auction sale of his property we see
that besides some valuable Arabian horses he had also about
one hundred dozen bottles of wine to dispose of. His friend
Thorn states that he finally had nothing but his pay and his
share of the prize money (which must however have amounted
to a tidy sum after the capture of Java, Palembang and
Djokja), and that he was of quite a different type from some
of his comrades who were mainly out to feather their own
nests. He was even fallen into disfavour through being too
trusting; had he but played ball with Raffles he could have
made a fortune. It is also characteristic that in 1814 he still
owed the fish-farmer of the fish-market seven or eight hun-
dred Spanish dollars 'for the fish supplied/
"According to Raffles there was a big reconciliation before
Gillespie's departure. On July eighteenth, 1813, Minto's son,
Captain the Honourable Elliot, arrived in Batavia, and effected
a reconciliation between Gillespie and Raffles. Thenceforward,
says Raffles, Gillespie had nothing but good words and even
in his last letter he still attributed their misunderstanding to
the machinations of others, but when he reached Penang he
already began to talk about the complaints he would make
on arriving in Bengal. Also N. Engelhard wrote in 1815, that
Gillespie had written a very friendly letter from Penang to
313^
Raffles, which occasioned all the more surprise at Gillespie's
subsequent attitude towards Raffles after his arrival in Ben-
gal. On the other hand it is worth pointing out that Gilles-
pie received no word of thanks or praise for his distinguished
services when he left Java, at any rate in the Gazette, although
the Government was usually lavish enough in this respect.
No official notice was taken of his departure save for a brief
mention of two or three lines, and it is thus very problematical
whether Raffles was present or not. It is true that later some
verses were published about Hollo/ who, 'to his best friend
proves a treacherous foe/ Gillespie's ex-Secretary Colebrooke
wrote in 1816, that Gillespie when he returned to Bengal,
expected to return to Java the following year, i.e. when Minto
had been replaced. His friend Shrapnell had the care of his
infant child, who was sent after him only in the autumn of
1816. The dispatch of this Colebrooke with Raffles' stooge
Methuen to Bengal, a month after Gillespie's departure, was
probably intended to counteract any action by him; in this
connection it is curious to note that the Major-General made
the voyage in company with his champion Blagrave.
"It is also noteworthy that Gillespie in his career had to
struggle for years with the results of a complaint brought
against him by one of his subordinate officers, and probably
fought a battle against his better judgment, since he drew up
all kinds of unfounded accusations against Raffles. Our at-
tention is also drawn to the fact that the biographer Thorn
passes over this accusation in complete silence, obviously be-
cause his hero had gained no credit among his comrades
thereby, although he deals in considerable detail with the
reasons for his dissatisfaction with the way things were going
in Java. We will leave aside the points of the complaint (over
which see Levyssohn Norman p. 301 and following, who has
taken them from a collection of printed pamphlets on the
subject, of which an extract was printed in Holland), and
merely note that Gillespie landed at Calcutta on the same
day as Minto left for England; that he immediately made ver-
bal complaints against Raffles (probably on the occasion of
his first meeting with Moira) and as early as the seventeenth
of December, 1813, had submitted documents in support of
his complaint, on the order of the Governor-General. He had
already boiled these up before his arrival, probably through
the suggestion of his travelling companion, Mr. Blagrave.
Raffles consistently takes the line in his Refutation (in flat
contradiction to Gillespie's character) that Gillespie's com-
plaints were prompted by exceptional guile. An impartial ob-
server however comes speedily to the conclusion that it was
absolutely spontaneous; for otherwise Gillespie could certainly
have obtained better material. A man like Moira, a soldier
himself and one who knew Gillespie (the 'noble' Gillespie,
as the knightly Nahuijs later called him), must have been
unfavorably impressed by Raffles' effort to ascribe his own
peculiarities to the hot-blooded soldier and to represent this
latter as a consummate hypocrite/'
The entire business was a headache from start to finish, in-
volving as it did long voyages for at least two of Raffles's peo-
ple, and days' worth of talk in Calcutta for many of the men
concerned. Captain Travers was entrusted with the job of
taking full copies of Raffles's "detailed and exhaustive replies
to the charges" to London. Assey went to Calcutta as deputy
for Raffles, carrying the original replies, but his ship was de-
layed by bad weather and he didn't arrive in India until autumn.
By that time Major General Gillespie, as he was finally ranked,
had met his death in battle in the Nepalese War. He never
knew the outcome of the charges he had so hastily preferred
against his enemy.
Everything and everyone involved in the inquiry seemed
fated to be delayed. Captain Travers couldn't get swift action
from the office in London, while in the meantime the gov-
ernment kept poor Assey hanging about India for months.
It was not until May 1815 that the governor general's council
turned their attention to the charges. By that time Java's fate
had been decided: the British, under the Treaty of London,
agreed shortly to evacuate the island. (A letter from Raffles to
Marsden, just before Napoleon was captured for the second
time, expressed his joyful hope that the Little Corporal's
escape from captivity and his return to Europe would settle
matters in Java as Raffles wanted them to be settled. How-
ever, History decreed otherwise.)
Two members of the council gave their opinions in long
minutes, both of which exonerated Raffles from Gillespie's
accusations, and by means of compliment and emphatic
praise vindicated the British administration of Java in general,
which naturally implied a direct vindication of Raffles and
all his works. One of these was produced in May, the other
in June, 1815. Lord Moira's opinion was not forthcoming,
however, until the late date of October, and it did not follow
the lines laid down by the others. The only advantageous part
of it, in fact, related to Raffles's next fob, at Bencoolen in
Sumatra. (Minto had worked hard to make that stick) Moira
said,
"With reference to that part of the Honourable Court's
instructions which relates to the appointment of Mr. Raffles
to the Residency of Fort Marlborough (that was at Ben-
coolen), the Governor-General in Council observes that noth-
ing has appeared in the course of the deliberations respecting
Mr. Raffles' conduct to authorise an opinion affecting his
moral character, and although he has not succeeded in ad-
ministering the extensive and important duties of the Gov-
ernment of Java with that degree of efficiency which is in-
dispensable to secure the advantages held out by Mr. Raffles
himself from the possession of the colony, yet there does not
appear to be reason to apprehend that Mr. Raffles is not com-
petent to acquit himself with due benefit to his employers in
the less complicated duties of the Residency at Bencoolen.
The Governor-General in Council accordingly considers him-
self bound in justice to leave unshaken the reserved appoint-
ment of Mr. Raffles to the situation of Resident at Fort Marl-
borough, of which Mr. Raffles is to take possession as soon as
another person shall be selected for the Government of Java."
The wording of this chilly little message gives the impres-
sion, not entirely erroneous, that Raffles is getting the sack for
having been complained against by Gillespie. No doubt Lord
Moira wanted to give that impression outright on the general
grounds that what Raffles knew couldn't hurt him, and that
316
every bit of such unofficial chastisement was presumably good
for his conceited upstart soul. In actuality, as both Moira and
Raffles very well knew (and so did the other council mem-
bers), it mattered not a whit who succeeded Raffles in the
Java governorship, for the British were starting to move out
already; also the Bencoolen post had been selected by dear
old Lord Minto some time before, as the choicest plum he
could offer his bright boy, from a very restricted stock of offer-
ings; thus it was not merely a curmudgeonly gift, a bone con-
temptuously tossed out to Raffles for want of someone better
fitted for the appointment, but the only thing he could reason-
ably accept.
Boulger says that this language on the part of Moira hurt
Raffles's feelings, even though it confirmed his appointment
as resident for Bencoolen, which he definitely did want. Ac-
cordingly he wrote the council a letter pointing out that this
reserved statement did not satisfy him, as all it did was to say
there was as yet nothing against his character that they were
able to see, et cetera. He wanted his "personal integrity and
honor . . . fully and candidly decided upon/' and indicated
that he was not going to stop sitting on their doorstep, in a
manner of speaking, until he was satisfied in that respect.
CHAPTER XVIII
It is not particularly significant
that we haven't had special mention of Olivia during these
busy years. She was around, and we can find her name if we
know where to look, but except for a chance mention in the
social columns of the press there wasn't much to say of Mrs.
Raffles. She did the honors of Government House quietly and
efficiently, for if she had not, someone would certainly have
said so. Boulger has taken the trouble to look up the very last
contemporary appearance of her name; it occurs in a letter
from a missionary protege of the Liverpool Raffles, informing
Dr. Raffles of the "erection" of '"the Java Auxiliary Bible So-
ciety." Whatever may have been Raffles's private opinion of
Christianity in the East, he evidently did not permit it to affect
appearances, because according to this Mr. T. C. Supper, "the
Governor has been unanimously chosen to the chair, as also
the Governess/' and the governor accepted the honor without
demur. That was in June 1814. In November, very suddenly,
Olivia died.
There seems to be no written account of her death beyond
the brief, bare mention. There were seldom any unusual de-
tails recorded when someone died in Batavia, as Olivia did, of
the fever which was for so many years thought to be mysteri-
ously connected with "effluvia." Such a demise was never sur-
prising. Raffles should have considered himself lucky at that,
that his family had been spared to him for as long as three
years, or that he himself was still alive after a full term on
that island of ill repute. But there seems to be no doubt that
this loss, coming as it did on top of the great worry and men-
tal strain of Gillespie's attack and the cumulative effect of
three years' intensive overwork, not to mention the shock of
Minto's death, succeeded in doing to the iron man what
nothing else could accomplish. Raffles broke down.
"For a long time," wrote Lady Raffles, "it was feared his
.life would fall a sacrifice to the keenness of his feelings/' One
does not forget, either, that strange, unsupported mention by
Boulger of the otherwise ignored Raffles offspring "The
death of Olivia Raffles did not stand alone among domestic
afflictions, for about the same time he lost in quick succession
the children she had borne him." No records, no birth cer-
tificates, no names, no reference at least, none recorded by
him in the local press to christenings, or to their funerals,
and no other historian or biographer to supply even that much
of a reference. . . . Where did Boulger get his information,
and why isn't there more data where that came from? Today
such quiet concealment could be explained by only one theory.
Were these children, if any, defective in some way?
I know of nothing more irritating to the student of history
than the roundabout literary style of Raffles's period. In to-
day's terser fashion the bereaved widower, speaking of his loss,
would probably say something on this order: "Please excuse
me for not having written, but my wife died last month."
Raffles wouldn't have dared be so downright, brief, and clear.
He had to say, "As you may have heard, grievous domestic
afflictions have lately been visited upon me," and that sort of
thing isn't much use to the seeker after information. "Domes-
tic afflictions" may mean the death of one person or of twenty.
In Raffles's world there were floods of words, yards of cliche,
to every fact. The letter writer of the early nineteenth century
steps round any definite statement like a timid chicken ex-
amining a new and rather frightening insect. He goes round
and round on tiptoe, cautiously strutting, an occasional gin-
him. "The three clergymen who arrived here have been well
provided for, and your friend Mr. Supper has been fixed at
Batavia. He is a good, simple creature, rather silly, but amia-
ble. He has unfortunately been in love, and as he made me his
confidant I may perhaps have seen him on his weak side/'
Raffles did not, however, profess a fixed dislike of the genus
missionary. In the same letter he spoke with sincere warmth
of Milne, of the China mission "a liberal, well-informed, ex-
cellent man, and I cannot say too much in his favor/'
It is worth noting that his recent loss did not result in any
sudden rush of abnormal religious feeling, as was the case with
many of Raffles's contemporaries when they lost beloved
friends to the rigors of climate in the colonies. Please note,
Reader, that I say "abnormal/' not "unnatural/' Most of the
memorial writings of those times are full of pious catch
phrases, but Raffles had too much taste to follow that fashion.
The translation he made instead will stand through the years
as a better tribute to Olivia than would any amount of insin-
cere quotation at second hand, even from Scripture. (An
Analysis of the "Brata Yudha," or Holy War; or rather the
War of Woe: An Epic Poem, in the Kawi or Classic Language
of Java. The History of Java; 1817, Vol. I.)
A more direct tribute was paid by Olivia's husband while
the wounds of his grief were still fresh, when he was sailing
for home sixteen months later. In reply to the regulation ad-
dress and tribute paid him by his staff , he wrote them:
"You have been with me in the days of happiness and joy
in the hours that were beguiled away under the enchanting
spell of one, of whom the recollection awakens feelings which
I cannot suppress. You have supported and comforted me
under the affliction of her lossyou have witnessed the severe
hand of Providence, in depriving me of those whom I held
most dear, snatched from us and the world, pre we could look
around us!"
Does not the last sentence refer to his children? It is diffi-
cult to think of any other interpretation.
Until now the fullest collection which has been made of
Raffles's voluminous correspondence is that which constitutes
the bulk of Lady Raffles's Memoir. Reading through these
pages, one begins to feel a genuine knowledge of Raffles, as a
three-dimensional man rather than an astute politician, an
idealist, or an enthusiastic scientific observer, all of which
roles he plays in turn, according to which of his various biogra-
phers one is reading. It is not the fault of anyone that these
accounts are oversimplified, the unwieldy mass of truth
trimmed down to publishers' size. The same can be said of
any biography which appears in convenient, compact form.
But the Memoir of Lady Raffles, shapeless though it may be
and irritating where my lady talks too much, has more value
than the neatest modern "Life" because it is full of Raffles's
own letters. It is like going through all his possessions and pa-
pers for ourselves. The picture we are able to paint from this
original material, of the rest of Raffles's Javanese experience, is
full of half tones and nuances; it is a living picture, not a clear-
toned, flat poster. We see and understand the man who retired
to Ciceroa and dived headlong into work, planning his day so
that he might never be left with more than an idle moment in
which to grieve and remember. Deliberately and doggedly he
translated a long Malayan poem into English; collected words
for a new dictionary; made voluminous notes on scientific ob-
servations; seized eagerly on the news from Europe about
Napoleon's return to the scene, and his mind slipped into an
activity for which it was well rehearsed when Raffles made
new, stubbornly hopeful plans for his dream empire in the
Pacific. Sorrow had not weakened the quality of his persist-
ence. His days were full of letter writing, and it is obvious that
during these hours of regret and lonely worry he preferred
Marsden to any of his other correspondents.
The first day of 1815 he addressed to Marsden a long screed
simply packed with material, as if he were crowding his mind
with anything and everything to stave off thought. A long
essay on the Malay character in general, the anthropological
history of the different islands, the language and its derivation
from Sanskrit, and a comparison of the Malayan and the
Celebes natives' characteristics, seemed to be Raffles's idea of
a chatty letter. Obviously the inspiration for this missive and
323^
the close of the Java termfor a time rendered Raffles, despite
his frantic busyness, unusually and dangerously reflective. All
of the past years, he says to himself, Olivia, Leyden, Minto,
my happy years at Buitenzorg, my youthful triumphs all are
gone. Tomorrow, who knows? Only a name, Bencoolen; the
rest is still mystery, and I grow too old to approach mystery
with eager curiosity.
He wrote William Brown Ramsay in October 1815, /'You
will be anxious to know my determination as to proceeding to
England; my charactermy future happiness require my
presence in England. The impression on my mind is, that I
shall quit this country at the close of 1816; but this depends
upon circumstances not within my control. I may go earlier
I may go later. Your advice will, I think, be for the best, and I
am inclined to concur in it: 'for here I am a lonely man, like
one that has long since been dead;' and should any thing keep
me away for one year, from friends who I am sure would be
glad to receive me with open arms! I want leisure to recover
from the effects of that weight of responsibility which has al-
most weighed me down; yet I am high and proud in my own
integrity. I thank you for the warmth and attachment which
breathe through every line of your letter now before me; it has
roused the finest feelings in my breast: and in the test of
friendship, where is the heart that would not be glad!"
Lady Raffles hints that the retiring lieutenant governor felt
hurt and insulted by the manner in which his term came to
an end, but she does not go into particulars as to the cause of
his feelings. Undoubtedly he resented not being given the
option of continuing until the end of British rule on Java; and
this happened because the matter of Gillespie's charges was
not yet settled to the council's satisfaction.
"Lord Minto had secured to him the Residency of Ben-
coolen/' says Lady Raffles, "as a provision in case Java had
been transferred to the Crown, when of course a Governor
and Council would have been sent out from England/' Java
^326
was not to belong to the Crown, but it was decided to offer
Raffles the Bencoolen appointment now in any case, since he
would be at liberty. However, though he accepted Bencoolen,
Sophia declares that his weak condition made a voyage home
an absolute necessity before he could begin to think of taking
on the new post.
This tactful evasion of the truth has stirred the Dutch writer
Van der Kemp to a scornful fury. So, Raffles went home for
his health, did he? Had to have a rest before taking on the
Bencoolen post? Stuff and nonsensel Raffles wasn't allowed
to go to Bencoolen, snarled Kemp, until the council should
declare itself satisfied that he was clear of Gillespie's charges.
And Kemp knew what he was talking abouthe always knew
if it was a matter affecting Raffles. His life's mission, self-
appointed, was to collect data unfavorable to our hero, so we
need not hesitate to accept the following information as per-
fectly accurate.
The Company in London sent a letter dated May 15, 1815,
to the governor general of Bengal (Moira) as follows:
"Whatever may be the result of the investigations of the
charges preferred against Mr. Raffles, we are of opinion that
his continuance in the Government of Java would be highly
inexpedient, and we, therefore, desire that you would select
forthwith from among the Civil Servants of the Company
some person of approved talent and integrity to whom you
can, with confidence, entrust the charge of that Colony, until
the period should arrive for restoring it to the Sovereign of
the Netherlands/'
There it was, then. There remained the formality of hand-
ing over his many charges to Mr. Fendall, who came out to
Java to relieve him. "Raffles felt himself aggrieved," says
Sophia, "but he well knew his being so was in no way attribu-
table to Mr. Fendall; and he wished to pay the respect and
attention which he thought due to the station that Mr. Fen-
dall was about to fill" regardless, evidently, of the obvious
fact that neither Mr. Fendall nor any other Englishman would
be responsible for Java very much longer. "Mr. Raffles was
alarmingly reduced at this time by the joint action of illness,
327^3
and of the violent remedies which had been applied; but his
spirits rose superior to his bodily strength, and he could not
be persuaded to allow any personal consideration to interfere
with a public arrangement/ 7 Thus he added immeasurably to
the anxiety of his physician and nurses by getting up at three
in the morning on the day his relief was to arrive, though he
had been confined to his room the three previous days, and
by insisting upon leaving Buitenzorg for Ryswick in time to
receive Fendall in proper style*
Everyone was presented according to form. Fendall was
polite enough to approve whatever Raffles had done and to
promise that nothing could or would be changed as long as
the British remained responsible. There was ample time, as it
turned out, for both men to look into everything for a cursory
view, before Raffles's ship was ready. The retiring lieutenant
governor characteristically employed that time to prepare a
memorial which he left with Fendall, setting forth a few last-
minute suggestions and pleas for his Javanese charges, "to
secure justice to the people whom he was leaving/' He wanted
various provisions in favor of certain sultans insisted upon by
treaty before the Dutch should regain possession. "The ques-
tion . . . arises, in how far the British Government might not
be subjected to reproach, were they unconditionally to hand
these princes over, thus reduced, to the mercy of their former
rulers/' he argued in his paper.
In the end none of this had any effect, for the island was
transferred unconditionally to the Dutch, in accordance with
the agreement made in Europe, and nothing Fendall or any
other last-minute deputy could do would have had any oppo-
site result. Out of his experience Raffles probably knew from
the beginning that this would be the case, but he was never
one to let a chance slip merely because it looked forlorn. I
mention the matter here because it is a good example of the
way Raffles's mind worked. He was gravely ill, so bad in fact
that for several weeks aboard ship his companions were in
doubt of his surviving the trip. Yet Java and the years he had
spent there, and the work he had done, and his hopes, how-
ever slender, for a lasting effect, were sufficient incentive to
^328
push him into a burst of energy that would have taxed even
a well man, those last days at Buitenzorg.
Raffles had been given plenty of warning: he was aware for
months before his departure of the full extent of this political
change. Even so, when it overtook him at last he must have
felt as if disaster had come upon all the South Seas. Not only
did he have to give up Java in his plans for the future of Great
Britain, but even the alternative places such as Banca, which
had always given Lord Minto and himself a comfortable feel-
ing that there would be at least some port in the storm, were
now out of the question. Bitterly he must have railed against
the shortsighted men in England who had sacrificed so much
of England's future glory, merely to achieve a peace in Europe
which Raffles considered temporary and trumpery. He had
spent too many years hating Holland to give up his opinions
now, at the careless command of some know-nothing back
home.
Raffles took his leave of Java in March 1816, sailing in a ship
which by a strange coincidence bore the same name, Ganges,
as that in which he had come out to the East Accompanying
him was that journal-keeping Captain Travers who had been
associated with him for so long, as well as Captain Garnham,
who with Travers shared the position of A.D.C., and his physi-
cian Sir Thomas Sevestre. The scene of his farewell was a
picturesque and moving one, as can be imagined. "The Roads
of Batavia were filled with boats/' said Lady Raffles, "crowded
with people of various nations, all anxious to pay the last trib-
ute of respect within their power to one for whom they enter-
tained the most lively affection. On reaching the vessel, he
found the decks filled with offerings of every description-
fruits, flowers, poultry, whatever they thought would promote
his comfort on the voyage. It is impossible to describe the
scene which took place when the order was given to weigh the
anchor. . . ."
Three days out, Captain Travers presented Raffles in his
cabin with a written address from the members of his personal
staff. "The scene which ensued," Travers noted in his Jour-
nal, "was the most distressing I had ever witnessed. After
perusing it, he became so completely overcome as to be un-
able to utter a word. . . ."
This was the address:
DEAR SIR,
Among the varied and distinguished proofs of regard and
veneration which you have received from all classes and de-
scriptions of people in this island, on your approaching de-
parture, we hope you will accept from us a more silent, but
not less cordial, assurance of the regret we feel at losing you;
of the grateful and pleasing remembrance we shall ever enter-
tain towards you; of the respect and ail ection, in short, which
can cease only with our existence. We have now, dear sir,
Icnown you long; and though some of us have not had the hap-
piness till of late years, we all equally feel that it is impossible
to know you without acquiring that cordial and heartfelt at-
tachment which binds us to you, as it were, through life, and
renders us as interested in your happiness and prosperity, as
we can be in our own.
Whatever may be our future destination, and however it
may be our chance to be scattered, when we return to our dif-
ferent feed situations in life, we can never forget the time we
have passed in Java. The public sentiment has expressed what
is due there to the energies and value of your administration,
which the more it is examined the more it will be admired. It
belongs rather to us to express what we have witnessed and felt
-to bear testimony to the spotless integrity and amiable qual-
ities which shed a mild lustre over your private life. These we
acknowledge with gratitude, and these are imprinted in our
hearts too strongly to be ever erased.
You will not receive these expressions of our regard until
you have left us; and when, perhaps, it will be long ere we
meet again.
Accept them then, dear sir, as the genuine feelings of our
hearts; and allow us to request your acceptance of a small
token of our remembrance, in the shape of a piece of plate,
which we have requested our mutual friends, Captains Trav-
^330
ers and Garnham, to purchase and deliver to you in England.
It bears no great value among the more splendid tokens which
you have received of the public esteem; but it may serve to re-
mind you of those who are, with the sincerest regard and at-
tachment, dear sir, your faithful friends and servants.
CHAPTER XIX
Change is bound to be salutary
for a patient like Raffles; not the temporary sort of variety he
found on his tour of the island, but a true cataclysm. He
wanted a power outside himself, to reach down among the
roots of daily existence and pull it up and transplant it. The
Bengal Government's summary dismissal of their Java lieu-
tenant governor, though he bitterly resented it at the time, may
very possibly have been the saving of him, nevertheless. With
every day carrying him farther from the East, from the sights
and sounds and smells he had known for the past eleven years,
his chances of survival grew stronger, and his companions
aboard ship, as their responsibility lessened, felt easier. At
first, Captain Travers said, Raffles spent most of his time sort-
ing his papers and reading "for amusement," and he meekly
obeyed Sevestre's orders, which was a bad sign. But during the
leisurely days of good weather he returned to normal more
swiftly than anyone had expected. Knowing that ships plying
this route sometimes would put into St. Helena, he showed
great eagerness to pay a visit to Bonaparte, who had lately been
sent there by the British after his break for freedom.
It is worth remarking, merely by the way, that Raffles seems
to have entertained the liveliest respect for the little Corsican,
and never, save for a few days following the conquest of Java,
did he express any sentiments of hostility toward the French
nation similar to those he constantly entertained for Holland.
Even that exception, which I make because of the British
proclamation to the Batavian Dutch in November 1811, is
perhaps invalid. The hand that wrote the proclamation may
have been the hand of Raffles, but the voice was the voice of
Minto. Perhaps we can rationalize this irrational prejudice of
Raffles's. His whole life does seem to have been very full of
Dutch trouble. The Netherlands had a tiresome way of loom-
ing up on his horizon: whenever and wherever he looked
around him in the Orient the Dutch had always, always, al-
ways got there first. The French, on the contrary, were ordi-
nary foes, familiar characters in an old story. Besides, they
merely threatened the homeland, and England wasn't nearly
as close to Raffles's heart as were the East Indian islands and
the Malay Archipelago. (I speak merely from conjecture, and
no serious historian need rise up in wrath against this danger-
ous statement. It is an errant impression of mine. No, I can't
prove it. No, Raffles never said it outright, to my knowledge. I
don't suppose he ever would have said it in any case, even if he
realized, himself, that he felt that way, which I am certain he
didn't)
Raffles seems to have felt a genuine admiration for Napoleon
Bonaparte, aside from his natural curiosity. Or if it was not
admiration it was an emotion not far removed from it; shall
we call it the vague stirrings of envy? Napoleon more than any
other character in history has aroused strong feelings among
the common fry who came after him, sometimes even in the
hearts of men not so common. There is no doubt, for example,
that he, or the idea of him, greatly influenced the monstrous
Hitler, and many of Mussolini's posturings must be laid to his
address. He has become so much a beacon light for small men
with inferiority complexes that if we were Asiatics and Napo-
leon a hero of Chinese history he would now be seen every-
where in sacred effigy, with small, forlornly ineffectual men
burning joss and loudly chanting their prayers to him.
Napoleon's popularity is so well known and accepted a
phenomenon that H. G. Wells deliberately tweaked the public
in the nose when he wrote his Outline of History, by giving
333
the Little Corporal less than a page of text, a niggardly allow-
ance compared with those he was pleased to bestow on con-
temporary scientists and philosophers. When the outcry came
which he had been mischievously expecting, the writer ex-
plained that he had apportioned his space and attention
according to the value of famous men's contributions to our
civilization. He had no desire, he implied, to place a premium
upon destructiveness. So much for Napoleon Bonaparte.
But in all fairness to Raffles, the attraction he felt for Napo-
leon was not a typical one. In the first place, this manifestation
of hero worship had not yet become a general thing in the
world. The wars and the escape from Elba were very recent
history. Even the traditional English spirit of sportsmanship
could scarcely have started working so soon after the event,
and the memory of danger was still vividly with most Britons.
Hence, of course, the precautions surrounding Napoleon on
St. Helena.
In the second place, Raffles had far more reason than does
today's little office manager to compare himself with the Cor-
sican, even though their techniques were so widely different,
for they were more or less in the same line of work, i.e., empire
building. Speaking from conjecture again, I think it possible
that Napoleon's slashing, dashing method was what attracted
Raffles. All his life the Englishman had been hobbled and
handcuffed by red tape the red tape of diplomatic tradition,
the red tape of commercial custom, the red tape that seemed
to grow by the yard in Calcutta, stretching out over the sea
and entangling Raffles in the East Indies whenever he tried to
take a step. It was his fate to see more clearly into the future
than did most of his elders and betters, without ever having
enough authority to act upon this superior judgment. A man
of restless intellect and large ambition, he suffered all the re-
fined tortures of frustration and regret. Usually he was ignored;
when he wasn't ignored he was scolded. It was his particular
bad luck to be associated with the Cinderella of all his Com-
pany's projects. Imagine, then, the emotions of such a man
contemplating Napoleon's iconoclastic career. He must often
have reflected that such a life might be worth the most dismal
^334
MALE INFORMAL ATTIRE
"Taking it easy" in Old Batavia
circa 1815
EURASIAN WOMAN
Going to church in Batavia
circa 1815
(From the Platen-Album of F. de Haan's OUD BATAVIA, 1919; by permission
of the Netherlands Information Bureau)
SIR THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES
A portrait by George Francis Joseph
(By permission of the Trustees of The National Portrait Gallery, London)
fate, even St. Helena, for the rapture, however short-lived, of
carrying out one's plans freely, unimpeded by any force but
the comparatively trifling one offered by the armies of all
Europe.
Many a lesser man has sighed wistfully, gazing on Napo-
leon's picture. Raffles did not sigh, but he was so keen to pay
a call on the ex-Emperor that the Ganges captain, Mr. Fal-
coner, went out of his way to discover that they suddenly
needed water and so would have to call in at St. Helena.
It was, they knew, most unlikely that they would get per-
mission to interview the illustrious prisoner. The events in
which Napoleon had played a central part were still recent,
'and the atmosphere surrounding him was full of suspicion,
especially now, so soon after his daring escape from Elba.
Falconer's and his passengers' worst apprehensions were
nearly realized, for as soon as the Ganges was spotted from
shore they were brought up sharp, there to wait while a couple
of naval officers came out from the admiral's ship in a small
boat, to see what they wanted. These officers communicated
the captain's requests to the flagship by signal first, fresh
water, and second, an interview with, or at least a glimpse of,
Bonaparte. Promptly and succinctly came a discouraging reply:
the water could easily be brought out to where they rode at
anchor from the flagship, and definitely no, they said, to any
communication with Napoleon.
Travers then sent a more detailed request ashore by letter,
informing the admiral, Sir George Cockburn, that Raffles was
aboard the Ganges, and expressing the hope that this circum-
stance might possibly make a difference in Sir George's de-
cision. In the meantime Raffles was advising his fellow pas-
sengers against entertaining any hope whatever. To allay the
pangs of disappointment, he said, it might be wise, rather than
thronging the deck, exhibiting chagrin, and staring wistfully
toward the forbidden shore, to go below to their cabins and
there compose themselves to writing an account of how they
felt at that moment; in other words, to compile a sort of log of
the emotions. They could compare the results later on, he
said, and thus relieve the tedium of their detention. Some of
535 gv
the others may have begun to follow his example. Raffles,
carrying on with the game, did go below as soon as he had
made his little speech, giving proof of his iron will by wasting
not another glance at the supposedly inhospitable island of
St. Helena. But after a short delay there came welcome news.
Owing to Mr. Raffles's presence, the entire passenger group
was granted permission, after all, to come ashore.
Raffles's party being invited to dine with the notables of
the island, they slept ashore that night at Government House.
After a short discussion the desired audience with Napoleon
was granted, at least so far as the British authorities were con-
cerned, with only two precautions they must not address the
royal prisoner as "Emperor," but only as "General," and if
Napoleon happened to be wearing a hat the visitors must keep
their heads covered too. Things did not go that easily with the
French household when the petition was presented in turn to
them. The ex-Emperor had little dignity left to stand on, but
such as it was he and his courtiers made it go a long way. Raf-
fles's party had to spend the morning sight-seeing in the vicin-
ity of Napoleon's residence without being sure whether or not
they would succeed in their attempt. However, when the go-
between, Marshal Bertrand, heard that they were scheduled
to sail that evening, he made special efforts and did, at last, get
a half promise from Napoleon to receive the Englishmen.
"We found this once great man," wrote Captain Travers
in his faithful Journal, "in earnest conversation with Countess
Bertrand, who was walking with him in the garden; General
Gourgaud preceded, Marshal Bertrand, Count Las Casas,
Captain Poniatowsky, and a page followed, all uncovered. On
our arrival being announced, we were quickly informed that
the Emperor would receive us in the garden; and Count Las
Casas added, that although it had been the Emperor's inten-
tion not to see any person for some days, yet on being told
that it was Mr. Raffles, late Governor of Java, who wished the
interview, he immediately consented to see us.
"On our approaching, Napoleon turned quickly round to
receive us, and taking off his hat, put it under his arm. His
reception was not only not dignified or graceful, but absolutely
^336
vulgar and authoritative. He put a series of questions to Mr.
Raffles in such quick succession, as to render it impossible to
reply to one before another was put. His first request was to
have Mr. Raffles' name pronounced distinctly. He then asked
him in what country he was bom? how long he had been in
India? whether he had accompanied the expedition against
the Island of Java? who commanded? and on being told Sir
Samuel Auchmuty, he seemed to recollect his name, and made
some observations to Las Casas respecting him. He was par-
ticular in asking the extent of force, and the regiments em-
ployed, and then enquired if Mr. Raffles delivered up the
Island to the Dutch, or was relieved by another Governor."
Such a point, of course, would have special, painful interest
for a dispossessed leader.
"He appeared to be acquainted with the value and impor-
tance of the Island, but put some strange questions to Mr.
Raffles, such as how the King of Java conducted himself. . . .
On his making a slight inclination of the head, we prepared
to take our leave, and on our making our bow we parted, Napo-
leon continuing his walk, and we returning to the house. Dur-
ing the whole time of our interview, as Napoleon remained
uncovered, common politeness obliged us to keep our hats in
our hands; and at no time was it found necessary to give him
any title, either of General or Emperor/'
This exciting interlude gave the travelers plenty to talk about
for a long time afterward, on what proved to be a tedious sec-
tion of the voyage. The weather was pleasant, but the winds
were "light and baffling/' Raffles's health now improved so
rapidly that he was considered practically cured, and his spirits
reacted accordingly. He read aloud to the company, from
selections of literature which he was translating from the an-
cient Malay in preparation for his Java history, and he talked
a good deal about the administration of Java, explaining this
or that one of his acts in office, or speculating on the probable
future of his friends the Javanese. Travers says that he was
never bitter about his having been removed from officefor he
persisted in his belief, probably justified, that in having re-
moved him from office at that point Lord Moira was allowing
337 g
Gillespie's charges to influence him and he seemed con-
vinced, now, that justice would be done him after he should
arrive in England. Practically, the recall made little difference,
but the hint was unpleasant. Raffles's whole attitude, however,
reflected a change for the better in his health. As everyone
knows, the balance between physical and mental well-being
is a delicate and accurate one, and so his friends were espe-
cially delighted with these evidences of improvement.
The Ganges had a narrow escape during a freak storm which
snapped the three topmasts off another ship, the Auspicious,
which had been keeping her company ever since the day of
sailing. What made the occurrence so odd was the circum-
stance that the Auspicious, when the accident overtook her,
was only a few hundred yards ahead of the Ganges, yet those
aboard the Ganges felt only a slight increase in the breeze,
whereas it was a vicious squall that attacked the Auspicious.
Fortunately for her, her crew was able to make the necessary
repairs immediately, and the two vessels continued their
journey together. RafHes's thirty-fifth birthday was celebrated
aboard on July sixth, and a good time was had by all. The dark
days of the immediate past were gone and almost forgotten.
Raffles wrote from aboard ship to W. B. Ramsay: "Although
I am considerably recovered, I yet remain wretchedly thin and
sallow, with a jaundiced eye and shapeless leg. ... I return to
you . . , a poor, solitary wretch; and the rocks of Albion, which
under other circumstances would have met my eye with joy
and gladness, will not now present themselves without re-
flections which I cannot dwell upon.
"If the Alcyon has arrived, you will have been apprized of
the result of Lord Moira's proceedings. His Lordship deemed
it advisable to postpone any decision on Gillespie's charges;
the Supreme Government, however, have declared my char-
acter unaffected by these charges, and further stated that they
considered it but an act of justice to leave my reserve appoint-
ment to Bencoolen unshaken, this being the test by which the
Court judged of my having explained my conduct satisfac-
torily. But the manner in which my removal from Java was
effected, and the whole course of proceedings adopted towards
me by the Governor-General has been such, that it was impos-
sible for me to rest satisfied with this tardy and incomplete
judgment. I therefore resolved to appeal to the authorities in
England, and in the mean time quietly to go to Bencoolen;
but the shock was too severe, my health has been undermined,
and this injustice threw me on my back. It was the opinion
of the faculty that remaining longer in India was dangerous,
and I took the resolution of proceeding to the Cape, and even-
tually to England. . . .
"It is my intention to appeal most forcibly to the Court
against the whole course of measures. I feel confident I shall
obtain justice from them; this is all I shall ask for. I have a
cause that will carry conviction. . . ."
The party disembarked at Falmouth, and there met with
an unexpected adventure when the customs officials subjected
them to a careful examination as to their state of health and
asked carefully whether there had been any infection either
on board ship or at the port of embarkation. "Methought the
officer seemed rather doubtful as to the positive assurances
our mouths were giving/' wrote Travers gaily,, "in direct op-
position to the strong evidence of our cheeks, which . . . were
of the most pale and emaciated caste. . . ." In those early days
the "Anglo-Indian complexion" was still a novelty to the stay-
at-home British native, though that characteristic greenish cast
of countenance was to become all too familiar to England be-
fore the end of the century. Moreover, since one member of
the disembarking group was Raden Rana Dipura, "a Javanese
Chief," his presence must have caused tremendous excite-
ment behind the scenes, though the customs officers no doubt
were careful to retain their customarily phlegmatic facial ex-
pressions during the questioning and the orthodox baggage
examination.
Safely through these formalities, one might have expected
Raffles to make tracks straight to East India House, or at any
rate to the luxury, such as it was, that London afforded the
weary ocean traveler. But Raffles was Raffles, which means that
he always took advantage of any chance that offered itself to
learn about a new subject. They found themselves near to the
339^
Cornish mines when they reached Truro, their first stopping
place as they traveled overland toward London, and Raffles an-
nounced that he meant to have a look then and there at the
mining industry. He did, too, going down a deep shaft and
asking hundreds o questions, as was his way, until his weary
companions decided he was now master of the whole routine.
Raffles made no such large claim, but only said that now he
was convinced of what he had only suspected before, that
Javanese ore was superior by far to the domestic sort.
He announced himself at East India House the morning
after his arrival in town, on July 17, 1816.
Most of us have had the experience, on a small scale, of
returning home after a long absence. Perhaps it was an ab-
sence of a few months at school, perhaps a year or so at col-
lege, or even some few years in another town or country. Raf-
fles, remember, had been away eleven years, on the other side
of the world. He was a boy when he departed, and almost
everything of importance that was worth mentioning in his
life had happened to him in the East. For him, coming home
must have been very nearly like entering a new world. There
were just enough familiar names and places in London to give
him a strange, unreal sensation, like that we have when we
encounter some scene or hear some speech which we think
we must have dreamed in the past. The greater part of his im-
mediate family were still alive, but since his sisters had shared
with him some few of his early experiences in the East they
were not a part of the confusing background supplied by all
the rest of London.
Raffles's instinct was not playing him false, either, in telling
him that this was all new country to him. The Raffles who was
now paying a visit to London, taking a house 23 Berners
Street and furnishing it, mainly with his own belongings from
Java, the Raffles who walked into East India House as one of
the important figures there, that Raffles was a complete
stranger to this side, the top side, of English life. Eleven years
ago he had been catapulted from poverty to success, but there
^340
was no time to taste the flavor of that success in his own
country; he had been hustled out of London with his bride,
practically in the act of pocketing his first good salary.
Now the boy was returned, still comparatively young, not-
withstanding which he had become a man with an exceptional
career, a famous name, and a record of which he should have
been proud. He had aided the great Lord Minto and had
launched the new humanitarian fashion in colonial govern-
ment. He was a personality of the day. All he lacked now was
someone to share the fun.
Each of us has somewhere in his past a special ambition.
It is a happy moment if that ambition is realized; a happier
one if there is some witness who shares our memory of the as-
piration and understands our triumph when it is achieved.
Raffles's youth, even his early boyhood, had been full of such
ambitions. It is unhappily true that nobody in the immediate
circle of the Raffles home had been sympathetic to these
visions, and so he had long since 'en joyed a harmless triumph
over them, and shared his luck ungrudgingly with his mother
and sisters, as fast as it came rolling in. The one loving heart
who really knew his most secret desires was of course his lost
Olivia, who had a part in his earliest Eastern adventure at
Penang, and who would have rejoiced more than anyone else
at the successful outcome of this journey. He didn't want to
dwell on her name. So grimly and determinedly had he filled
in the time after her death that it was, incredibly, a two-year-
old tragedy when the Gillespie matter was declared cleared.
Then at last the widower allowed himself time to breathe and
look about him.
Not that the charges had been cleared to his satisfaction,
even yet. He declared to the Court of Directors, as soon as he
arrived in London, that the affaire Gillespie had been decided,
and the decision imparted to him, in a 'loose and unsatisfac-
tory manner"; that if there still remained any doubt as to his
character he wanted the case reopened with an immediate
investigation, and if no doubt remained, then he felt that Lord
Hastings (formerly Moira) had done his, Raffles's, reputation
grave injury by not allowing him to come to Calcutta in person
341
or do anything else in his own defense before the order came,
recalling him from office: he prayed the Court to consider
these factors and to render some public acknowledgment of
Ids services, however belated and grudged they might be.
If the length of this last sentence had not bidden fair to
rival one of Raffles's own, there would have been added to it
a reference to the plaintiff's record on Java. He pointed out,
with considerable justice, that the British administration of the
past five years had elicited world-wide praise, with the possible,
and natural, exception from the chorus of Holland's voice.
The Court, as usual, failed to come up to scratch. This time,
though, it seems evident that no spite lay behind their failure
to give complete satisfaction. Rather they took the attitude
that Raffles's indignation was justified but that any further
discussion of the charges would be giving them too much im-
portance and making the affair overelaborate. Raffles was an
injured party, Raffles quite naturally was sensitive, and so Raf-
fles was making too much fuss over a closed incident. Raffles
must take their word for it, as gentlemen, that the incident
was indeed well and truly closed; besides which, Java was going
back to the Dutch, so what was all the shooting for? The Court
again pointed to their statement made in 1815 and said that it
still stood, correct in word and sentiment.
In part the 181 5 statement read as follows:
"After a scrupulous examination of all the documents, both
accusatory and exculpatory, connected with this important
subject, and an attentive perusal of the minutes of the
Governor-General, and of the other members composing the
Council, when it was under consideration, we think it due to
Mr. Raffles, to the interests of our service, and to the cause of
truth, explicitly to declare our decided conviction, that the
charges, in so far as they went to impeach the moral character
of that gentleman, have not only not been made good, but that
they have been disproved, to an extent which is seldom prac-
ticable in a case of defense
"Were their [the government's financial operations] un-
reasonableness, improvidence, and inefficiency clearly estab-
lished, this would only indicate error or defect of judgment,
or, at most, incompetence in Mr. Raffles for the high, and, in
many respects, exceedingly difficult, situation which he filled/'
(This refers to the fact, already mentioned in the complete
version, that the Court hadn't had time to look over all the
financial deals and so couldn't conscientiously pronounce on
them as yet.)
"But the purity, as well as the propriety, of many of his acts,
as Lieutenant-Governor, having been arraigned, accusations
having been lodged against him, which if substantiated must
have proved fatal to his character, and highly injurious, if not
ruinous to his future prospects in life, his conduct having been
subjected to a regular and solemn investigation, and this inves-
tigation having demonstrated to our minds the utter ground-
lessness of the charges exhibited against him, in so far as they
affected his honour, we think that he is entitled to all the ad-
vantage of this opinion, and of an early and public expression
of it . . ."
Not, you will say, completely satisfactory. One can under-
stand Raffles's persistent desire for something a little better.
It cannot be pleasant to be branded as a muddling fool, even
when the brander adds as his opinion that one has been a per-
fectly honest muddling fool. Naturally the Court didn't put
it quite so baldly as all that. In effect they said, "This man may
possibly have been the world's biggest ass at financial wangling
we haven't taken time out to look carefully at his work, and
we are far too careful ever to let slip a chance of calling a fel-
low a fool, so we're not going to go on record as saying he's not.
Not until we jolly well have to give him a clean bill as a finan-
cial wizard. Between you and us, he probably made the most
Godawful mess of the Javanese treasury. But no matter what
sort of boners he may have pulled, we are convinced he pulled
them from the best and purest of motives. Why, anyone can
see that Raffles is too stupid beg pardon, too honest a type
ever to try to feather his nest. So lay that tarbrush down."
Thus blandly, kindly, with the best of motives, the Court of
Directors kept assuring Raffles that his record was perfectly
clear and that they couldn't understand what more he wanted.
In vain did he dance with rage before the door of East India
343$**
House; everyone kept on patting his head and telling him ab-
sently to go away and sin no more. The wonder is that Raffles
was not dead of apoplexy before he got what he wanted at long
last, but he wasn't, and he did. After all, he had served his term
as apprentice to the foibles of that Court of Directors for many
weary years, and anyone who survived the correspondence
which Raffles used to receive from Moira should have been
able to survive anything the official brain, even at its muzziest,
could devise.
It is a pity that we have had to follow our subject's example,
dragging the reader straight off to India House before we give
him a chance to enjoy his return to his family as the complete
conquering hero.
Now, however, his official duties are over, and we can in-
dulge in a little personal gossip among relatives. Boulger is
our source; he found this passage among the reminiscences of
Dr. Raffles, the reverend cousin of Liverpool, who came up to
London to meet Raffles and welcome him home. It is pleasant
to find that the lieutenant governor had not forgotten his
favorite aunt, but then one knew that he would not.
"One of his first visits was to his aunt, for they were very
fond of each other. He left his equipage, which was a splendid
one,-and private carriages with rich liveries were not so com-
mon then as they are now, and were indeed a great rarity in
the quiet corner of London in which my father lived, and,
walking the length of Princes Street, knocked at old No. 14,
and on the opening of the door went at once into the sort of
parlour-kitchen where my mother was, busied as usual about
her household affairs. 1 knew well/ he said, 'where at this time
of the day I should find you/ and taking his accustomed seat
in an old arm-chair by the fireside, where he had often sat,
made her at once, by his affectionate and playful manner, quite
unconscious of the elevation to which he had attained since he
had last sat there. 'Aunt/ he said, 'you know I used to tell you,
when a boy, that I should be a duke before I die/ 'Ah/ she re-
plied, 'and I used to say that it would be "Duke of Puddle
Dock/' ' which was a proverb in London at that day, referring
to a wretched locality in Wapping, and with which aspiring
^344
lads, who had great notions of the greatness they should here-
after attain, were twitted. But he had actually attained to far
more than a dukedom, having had Oriental kings and regents
under him/'
His letters and other writing prove Raffles to have been con-
sistently gentle and affectionate toward his family, regardless
of the years and experience that might have separated some of
them spiritually from him. He never seemed to feel that he
had "outgrown" these simple folk, or lost touch with them.
I am not repeating the old cliche, always served up when Local
Boy Makes Good, that Local Boy was never guilty of putting
on airs. Raffles in keeping the common touch did something
much subtler than merely to refrain from ordinary snobbery.
He refrained also from feeling himself too complicated for the
old folks at home. He was a simple man and he remained sim-
ple; it is quite possible to be intelligent and educated without
becoming complex, and RafHes somehow managed to do this,
perhaps because he had had to deal so much of the time with
Malays, who are a sensitive, forthright people, and who recog-
nized in the Java governor an inner simplicity like their own.
"He did not know me, nor did I for a moment recognize
him. ... He had lost nothing of himself but his colour and
his flesh. ... He intends to publish an account of Java, and is
very busy in getting maps, etc., prepared for the work. He has
very extensive collections of Javanese literature of his own col-
lecting. I am amazed at his industry. In one day he wrote two
hundred letters with his own hand, and dictated to two secre-
taries besides."
The cousin, who now lived at Birmingham, often wrote his
wife from London, reporting fully on this his fabulous rela-
tive, back at last from Eastern parts. "My cousin has an un-
bounded flow of spirits; I fear too much for his strength." The
reverend gentleman gleaned what he could from his modest
kinsman about his work in Java; then when RafHes dried up
and wouldn't give him more, the parson applied to Raffles's
friends. "[The Javanese] declared that they would express their
sentiments to the King of England, and the native powers
were coming down in a body to address my cousin on the sub-
345^
ject, and entreat him to stay amongst them/' wrote Dr. Raf-
fles after that, gently boasting. "But this he prevented by the
quickness of his departure, for it was only determined that he
should come to England a few days before he sailed.
"He has brought over Eastern curiosities and treasures to
the amount of thirty tons weight, in upwards of two hundred
immense packages/ 7 he marveled. "He has some presents for
the Prince Regent/ 7
Modesty or no, Raffles was always glad of the chance to
spread abroad in England his sentiments about Java and her
reversion to the Netherlands. Assuming (well ahead of his
period) that advertising is always the best policy, he seized on
the fact that his presence in England was stirring up an interest
in the East Indies and took the chance which presented itself
to publish his book, the History of Java.
Raffles in everything he did was a bit of a politician, and his
book, though it was a sincere and extremely valuable piece of
work, did double duty. Aside from its intrinsic value, the tim-
ing was perfect for his purposes, just as he had known it would
be. Raffles during that period was a man with a message, and
he was not ashamed to preach it in any way, in any place, ac-
cording to any opportunity that offered itself. Briefly, the mes-
sage was that England had made a grave error in tossing Java
and her subsidiary islands back to Holland. Java was a valu-
able property, and the ordinary Englishman was ignorant of
that'fact, said Raffles, or there would have been an outcry when
the Treaty of London arranged for England to relinquish her
claims. If only even now the public could be brought to realize
how much had been lost to them, and what a waste had been
perpetrated, it might at least not happen again that so much
wealth and strength should be wantonly given up. And, what
was worse, it had been given up to one of England's dangerous
rivals, a country which had only lately been an enemy! The
soothing word "restored" was one which Raffles scorned. The
British interregnum of five years, he felt, had been so obviously
advantageous to the natives that it gave England a claim at
least as great as Holland's to the governorship of Java; in his
opinion the claim was far greater.
The production of the History was done with Raffles's cus-
tomary amazing accuracy and dispatch. He had been working
on the preparation of it for five years, collecting material,
translating ancient manuscripts, and tracing legends, not to
mention the valuable collection he had made in Java of paint-
ings and drawings for the illustrations. The actual work of
writing, however, and of putting it all together, was done in a
magically short time, in London, at the height of his social
activity. Sophia says that he would dash off a few sheets each
morning for the printer, and by evening the proof was waiting
for him; he would correct it the same night when he came
home from his usual dinner engagement. He began writing the
text in October 1816 and was finished in time for the book to
be published and out in May 18173 span of eight months.
Few of today's lightning-speed writers could do as well More-
over, there is nothing slapdash about the book. It is today, just
as it was when it appeared, the best of its kind, a standard work
of reference, rich in accurate information, clearly written as if
the author had possessed all the leisure in the world in which
to prepare it.
Those were days in which the dedication of a new book
was still an important matter of diplomacy, often far more
important than today's dedication, which is little more than a
courteous gesture, like the conventional gift of flowers or
candy. After due thought on the subject, Raffles requested
permission to dedicate his History to the Prince Regent As
the ex-governor of Java was enjoying quite a vogue just then
in society, a result of his suddenly enhanced reputation among
statesmen, the Prince readily granted his gracious permission
and accepted the honor.
When the book had come out Raffles was invited to attend
the Prince Regent's next levee. It is hard to decide at this date
which agency was the true motivation for the honor shown
him that dedication or his years of service in Java. Probably
both contributed, where either one alone might not have been
enough. At any rate the ceremony must have been most grati-
fying to Raffles, the self-made man who had incurred such
scorn from Gillespie. When he arrived at the party, his host
347 $%
the Regent told everyone to stop what they were doing. His
attendants, already prepared, formed a circle around the
Prince, and in their presence "Prinny" made a twenty-minute
speech to Raffles, thanking him for "the entertainment and
information he had derived from the perusal of the greater
part of the volumes/' and commending him for the services he
had rendered his country by his conduct in governing Java.
(It is quite possible, as a matter of fact, that he had actually
read the book. Prinny had a nice taste in literature.) Then
he told Raffles to kneel, and knighted him.
It was Sir Stamford Raffles who returned from the levee.
There was no need now to trace that vague relative, Sir Ben-
jamin Raffles, knight banneret, through the Heralds' College
in order to bolster the family name. Sir Stamford himself had
taken care of the glory of the Raffles family, forever and for-
ever.
CHAPTER XX
Henley-upon-Thames, 2%id February, 1817
MY DEAR COUSIN, You will, I doubt not, approve of the
change I have made in my condition in again talcing to myself
a wife; and when I apprise you that neither ranlc, fortune, nor
beauty have had weight on the occasion, I think I may fairly
anticipate your approval of my selection. The Lady, whose
name is Sophia, is turned of thirty; she is devotedly attached
to me, and possesses every qualification of the heart and mind
calculated to make me happy. More, I need not say. . . .
How unfailingly true is that old saying, autres temps, autres
moeurs. Imagine any newly wedded husband today daring to
write such a letter about his bride to a relative or, for that mat-
ter, to anyone at all. One realizes that Raffles meant well by
the lady in describing her as he did, but it certainly sounds
somewhat severe and unkind. One is tempted to ask what the
devil did have weight on the occasion, and why he married
Miss Hull at all, if she had no rank, no fortune, and no beauty.
He should at least have professed that in his eyes his bride was
beautiful. And why, too, was he so positive that those three
negatives by themselves would be enough to win Cousin
Tom's approval of his selection? Surely the British Isles could
349 *>
have offered him any number of ladies with similar charms,
surely ladies without rank, fortune, or beauty were a drug on
the market? "Turned of thirty . . . devotedly attached to me
. . . every qualification of the heart and mind calculated to
make me happy." No, it is too great a strain on at least one
imagination. The bridegroom was simply being coy and orien-
tal thus to deprecate his new wife. I prefer to tell myself that
the fair Sophia did possess a certain beauty, a reasonable for-
tune, and enough rank to keep her from getting an inferiority
complex when her husband came home late one evening with
a tingling shoulder and his brand-new knighthood. She had
something. But her possession of these qualities was not the
deciding factor with Raffles when he made his selection; and
that is what he meant of course. He was trying to say that he
had married Sophia for her spiritual superiority. She had
beauty, fortune, and rank as well, but he didn't care. He was
broad-minded. He married her in spite of them. He married
her because she had a kind face, and a heart and mind full of
quality. That is how it must have been, anyway.
Miss Sophia Hull was the daughter of T. W. Hull, Esq., of
County Down, Ireland. Raffles seems to have been peculiarly
susceptible to Irish ladies: Olivia Devenish, it will be remem-
bered, was also of Irish extraction. He met Sophia at Chelten-
ham, probably: that is where she lived, and he went to Chel-
tenham for the warm baths soon after his arrival in England.
(That is the time to get husbands, as any experienced English-
woman will tell you. You catch them as they step off the boat,
fresh from their lonely years out in the colonies.) With this
marriage the last of the Raffles generation was once more set-
tled in the bonds of matrimony, for Harriett, the remaining
spinster sister, the youngest one, who went out to visit Olivia
and Raffles in Penang back in 1809, had been married in
October of the preceding year to a gentleman at Somerset
House, a Mr. Browne.
Whatever may have been the accepted theory of Cousin
Tom's contempt for rank, which Raffles refers to in the an-
nouncement letter, the reverend doctor doesn't himself sup-
port it with much enthusiasm. He is frankly, innocently
snobbish, and dearly loves a lord. In his reminiscences of this
visit to England of his distinguished kinsman he proudly lists
the great people with whom Sir Stamford hobnobbed.
The people who live as Sir Stamford did in the colonies
most of their lives make up a very special world. They recog-
nize each other almost at sight, but in relation to the ordinary
humans who live at home, who own houses in England and
dig, in their own gardens, who raise children in a temperate
zone without once thinking how lucky they are, in relation to
the normal world, colonials are as a race apart. On infrequent
occasions when they come back, as Sir Stamford did in 1817,
for an extended visit, they may act normal and look normal,
so that one cannot distinguish them from the rank and file in
a crowd, but they are really acting a part and they know it.
Sir Stamford was on vacation. He had become a sort of man
of the hour. He was the rage, all of a sudden, and high society
was enthusiastic about him, and full of questions on the sub-
ject of Java. The East Indies and Sir Stamford Raffles were
altogether fascinating that season. Through it all Sir Stamford
smiled and moved graciously and enjoyed himself, putting on
his act, but in his heart he was counting the days before he
could get back in harness, back to the old routine, fighting off
fever and dealing with the recalcitrant government in Bengal
In the meantime he didn't at all mind being the rage of
society. No doubt it pleased Sophia as well.
He made many cordial acquaintances with whom he passed
the time for the duration of his leave, and in a few cases went
further and laid the foundations for lasting friendships.
Though he had passed the age where men usually find their
lifelong friends, the circumstances were abnormal and in this
respect Sir Stamford enjoyed a sort of rejuvenation, a compen-
sation for the pleasures of youth which he had missed. Most
influential among these new but close friends were Prince
Leopold and Princess Charlotte, that lady whose unhappy
fate was to be the daughter of a brilliant, erratic prince, yet to
possess in her own right neither brilliancy nor an unsteady
nature. She suffered keenly from her father's captious treat-
ment, acutely needing as she did the steadiness and security of
351
conventional affection. Her mother was too unstable to pro-
vide it, and though Prinny had his virtues, they were not evi-
dent in his dealings with his daughter. That is putting it
mildly. One becomes infected, inevitably, with the Raffles
caution, writing of these matters -a dangerous state of mind
for a biographer.
Indeed, if it were not for Cousin Tom the parson, we would
never have known some of the nuances of the situation there
at Claremont, or how they affected Raffles and his new knight-
hood. Sir Stamford was discreet to a fault, but Sophia's dis-
cretion amounted to a passion; very little but the barest facts
were left when she finished screening her account of this Lon-
don interim in the Memoir. Cousin Tom was more generous,
and Boulger was the gainer by this generosity. Through
Boulger we glean the following royal gossip.
Sir Stamford had given a handsome present to Princess
Charlotte, some furniture pieces made of a pretty Indian wood
called Iciabooca, which the princess put to use in her dining
and drawing rooms. When her mother, Caroline, saw the
tables and chairs she was seized with the, desire to have some
for herself, and immediately announced, with characteristic
lack of ceremony, her intention of calling on Sir Stamford at
home, in order to find out how to obtain them. It was this
sort of behavior which used to drive her estranged husband,
the Prince Regent, wild with rage. He felt that in his own
family he should have the monopoly on informality and ec-
centricity. This was one of his favorite poses, though as a mat-
ter of fact informality really displeased him very much from
any quarter. But I wander far afield; this sort of remark is too
indiscreet even for chatty Cousin Tom and cannot be blamed
on any of the Raffles group, I quote from later biographies,
from material in the public domain.
Said Sir Stamford when the royal message was brought to
him, "Of course I could not allow the Queen of England to
come to me/' Instead, he suggested, he would go to her at
whatever place she chose to name. This conversation was being
carried back and forth by the Countess Harcourt, one of Caro-
line's ladies in waiting, who with her husband the earl were
two more of Sir Stamford's very good friends, and so it was
finally arranged that the meeting should take place at the Har-
court country seat, St. Leonard's. Modestly Cousin Tom ad-
mits that while his cousin and Lady Harcourt waited for Caro-
line, of all things they talked about himself, the good doctor.
Sir Stamford described him as a Dissenting minister, which he
was, and said he had been to hear Dr. Raffles preach at Liver-
pool. Upon which Lady Harcourt said, "Ah, but you must not
tell the Queen that, for she hates Dissenters!"
Probably Sir Stamford found it more tactful to shut up at
this point He felt a strong admiration himself for his cousin,
who evidently maintained his unpopular views with a sturdy
independence which set at naught the fact that he was in a
blind alley as far as his career was concerned. Only bona fide
Church of England priests had any future, as Sir Stamford on
at least one occasion pointed out to Dr. Raffles, but this un-
palatable truth did not alter Tom's stand. Sir Stamford ad-
mitted he couldn't quite see the value of such a fine point
himself, but the idealism which saved his own ambition from
being unpleasant made him recognize its match in his kins-
man. He never pretended that Christianity in its full formal
panoply held many attractions for him, under one name or
another, but as soon as he and his cousin had agreed to differ
on this point they managed to maintain a close and affection-
ate relationship throughout life.
Caroline arriving at this point, introductions were performed
and the little party set out for a walk in the grounds. Caroline
was nothing if not direct. Almost immediately she dived
straight for her object. "I hear wonderful things," she said, "of
the treasures you have brought from India, and everybody is
in raptures with the beautiful tables, et cetera, which you have
given to the Princess Charlotte."
When he told the story to Cousin Tom, Sir Stamford said
that he was then "obliged," naturally, to offer her something
of the same sort for Frogmore, her house. As a result he was
commanded to Frogmore, and there met Amherst as my lord
was on the point of sailing to India, to which he had recently
been appointed. Altogether it looked as if Raffles's future in
353
the East was to be far less like Cinderella's early days than his
past had been, and more like her career after the ball was over.
Meeting your superior officer socially, as every statesman
knows, makes all the difference!
Dr. Raffles had a theory that the Prince Regent rather re-
sented Sir Stamford's intimacy with his daughter's household.
Prinny was often jealous for such petty reasons, so it seems a
logical conclusion to draw. Cousin Tom even dared elaborate
on his first idea, going so far as to suggest that without so much
Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold in Raffles's social pro-
gram he might have found himself a baronet that fine morning
of the royal levee, instead of a mere knight. Perhaps. Cousin
Tom was alive then and this writer was not, but it seems to me
that the knighthood was a sufficiently dizzy jump for the ex-
governor of Java to have made, considering that a few months
before that he had been very much in Lord Moira's black
books over in Calcutta, without speculating too exhaustively
on lost baronetages.
"The honour of knighthood could not be very highly es-
teemed/' wrote Cousin Tom sniffily, "by him, when he had
in his own establishment a man of equal rank, as his body
physician, Sir Thomas Sevestre." But after all, what's so low
all of a sudden about a body physician? This grumble must
have originated in Dr. Raffles's own loyal heart; for Sir Stam-
ford would have known better than to betray any chagrin over
such a matter. It's always a relative, usually a poor one, who
gets delusions of grandeur like that.
It is no wonder if all this royalty did go to Cousin Tom's
head a little, for he was not made of the stuff his cousin was.
Sir Stamford had been rehearsing for this drama, in a way, all
his life. Not without result had he lain awake as a young boy,
planning grpat things. His shabby bedroom had been the scene
for many a royal levee: often had the furniture witnessed Raf-
fles moving effortlessly in his dream, with superb grace and
perfect poise, through the glittering multitude as he gathered
to himself the plaudits of England's nobility. Raffles, the great
Raffles, champion of the world's poor and downtrodden, envy
and admiration of all Great Britain for his successes in the
^354
military field as well as the halls of diplomacy! After such an
apprenticeship the truth when he encountered it had no ter-
rors for Sir Stamford Raffles; it would have taken a far more
formidable figure than Prinny's to strike the governor of Java
with genuine awe. The world has more people of his stamp
than we realize. Have you never marveled at the readiness with
which a girl of the people can take her place in society when
she becomes a successful actress or opera singer? Hasn't it been
proved for nonsense time and again, that old proverb that
Breeding Always Shows? And Raffles was not exactly a new-
comer, an interloper among the princes. Years in the Orient,
holding audience with sultans in one of the world's most
courteous, deliberate, and stylized languages, had given him a
stateliness of manner which was deeply impressive.
We shouldn't, however, grudge Cousin Tom, the country
mouse, his moments of vicarious glory; rather we should ap-
preciate his wide-eyed wonder, without which he would never
have troubled to record these trivia, which make the drama
vivid all these years after the curtain. For the innocent parson
all this excitement was the biggest thing in his life. The Dis-
senting pulpit in Liverpool gathered dust while he hovered
about his wonderful kinsman in London, playing to admiration
the part of an adoring Boswell.
For example there was the awkward moment when Sir Stam-
ford found himself with two engagements on a single day,
both of them with members of the royal family. Princess Char-
lotte asked him to dine at Claremont, and just after he ac-
cepted this invitation the Prince Regent commanded him to
dinner at Carlton House for the same day. Knowing as every-
body did that Prinny was subject to fits of jealous spite, some-
times for quite ridiculously trivial reasons, Raffles felt that he
was on a spot. It called for careful handling, but after all his
years dealing with the Orient the governor of Java was up to it.
He wrote to Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, one of Prinny's
A.D.C.s, innocently asking to know whether he should con-
sider an invitation from Princess Charlotte in the light of a
royal command, as he did Caroline's summonses, or the
Prince's. Back came a prompt and pompous reply: The Prince
355
Regent chose to remind himself that his daughter's invitation
was that of heir presumptive to the throne; i.e., Her Royal
Highnesses invitation amounted to a command. That made it
easy for Raffles; all he had to do now was to write Sir Benjamin
again, informing him that, Her Royal Highness having com-
manded Sir Stamford to appear on the date in question, Sir
Stamford could not, much to his regret, dine with the Prince
Regent, owing to a previous engagement. Prinny was hoist
with his own petard.
The last time Sir Stamford was at Claremont Leopold and
Charlotte gave him a diamond ring as a keepsake (worth four
hundred pounds, said Cousin Tom), and made him pretty
speeches of farewell. "Sometimes wear that for my sake," said
the Princess. The pair did not scruple to show their scorn for
Sir Stamford's mere knighthood, a sentiment they shared with
Dr, Haffles of Liverpool. According to him, Princess Charlotte
"thoroughly despised the knighthood which her father had
conferred upon him ... a feeling in which the Prince fully
participated/ 7 Raffles reported to Cousin Tom that "the tone
and manner of Prince Leopold was quite ludicrous, when, on
his first visit after he had been dubbed, he [Leopold] turned
to the Princess and said, "Why, Charlotte, they have made
him a knight!!!"'
This story bears the stamp of truth even beyond the source,
far everyone knew how the feud between the two houses, the
Prince Regent's and his unfortunate daughter's, was always
blazing out in these little manifestations. Raffles was ear-
marked, according to Tom's gossip, for the governor-general-
ship of India if all had gone smoothly and Princess Charlotte
had become Queen of England. But Charlotte died, and Sir
Stamford was not fated to live to a ripe old age either. Even
the sliadowy possibility of the India post, which was as much
as could be achieved during this visit to England, should serve
to show us what a long way Sir Stamford had come, in the es-
timation of the higher-ups of his department, since he had left
Java, a sick, tired, aggrieved, and grieving man. But this good
fortune did not continue. After the death of the princess, her
husband Leopold found it impossible to remain longer on any
sort of friendly terms with her father, whose attitude toward
his wife Prince Leopold had never ceased to resent, though for
the sake of appearances he had concealed his feelings. The
royal widower stopped attending court, preferring to remain
withdrawn from all activities connected with his father-in-law,
and among the projects which were consequently lost sight of
were the plans the Prince and Princess had entertained for
Raffles, their particular pet.
Third family among the friends made by Raffles in 1816-17
were the Duke and Duchess of Somerset. The duchess dis-
covered in herself a great fondness for anthropological subjects,
and so Sir Stamford after his return to the East made a special
point of writing her the kind of letter he had always until then
reserved for Marsden, under the impression, probably correct,
that most people would not appreciate his scientific observa-
tions. He wrote often to the duchess from Sumatra, no doubt
exulting in having found in her an intelligent correspondent,
for Raffles was one of those men who worked best when he
could talk about his work with somebody able to understand
it, and the duchess's enthusiasm was genuine, as was her capac-
ity to learn. Like many men of his type, Raffles was at his best
and most charming when writing letters to a woman. If he had
not made friends with the Duchess of Somerset he would never
have found out this talent in himself. Though the duchess's
age and various other obvious factors rendered impossible any
likelihood of a flirtation between them, still there was between
them a something. There nearly always does exist between a
man of Raffles's sort and a woman of similar interests and en-
thusiasms, never mind what their respective ranks and ages, a
sentimental bond, harmless and tenuous perhaps, but never-
theless wielding a definite influence upon the correspondence
between them. He was sensitive, eager, intellectually passion-
ate: she was sympathetic and receptive. Because it was the
duchess rather than the duke whom Raffles addressed in his
letters, they were buoyant, fascinating compositions with a
special flavor, and made much better reading than did the mis-
sives dealing with the same subjects which he wrote to Mars-
den, valued old friend as he was.
357 ^
Regent chose to remind himselt that his daughter's invitation
was that of heir presumptive to the throne; i.e., Her Royal
Highnesses invitation amounted to a command. That made it
easy for Raffles; all he had to do now was to write Sir Benjamin
again, informing him that, Her Royal Highness having com-
manded Sir Stamford to appear on the date in question, Sir
Stamford could not, much to his regret, dine with the Prince
Regent, owing to a previous engagement. Prinny was hoist
with his own petard.
The last time Sir Stamford was at Claremont Leopold and
Charlotte gave him a diamond ring as a keepsake (worth four
hundred pounds, said Cousin Tom), and made him pretty
speeches of farewell. "Sometimes wear that for my sake," said
the Princess. The pair did not scruple to show their scorn for
Sir Stamford's mere knighthood, a sentiment they shared with
Dr. Raffles of Liverpool. According to him, Princess Charlotte
"thoroughly despised the knighthood which her father had
conferred upon him ... a feeling in which the Prince fully
participated." Raffles reported to Cousin Tom that "the tone
and manner of Prince Leopold was quite ludicrous, when, on
his first visit after he had been dubbed, he [Leopold] turned
to the Princess and said, 'Why, Charlotte, they have made
him a knight! II'"
This story bears the stamp of truth even beyond the source,
for everyone knew how the feud between the two houses, the
Prince Regent's and his unfortunate daughter's, was always
blazing out in these little manifestations. Raffles was ear-
marked, according to Tom's gossip, for the governor-general-
ship of India if all had gone smoothly and Princess Charlotte
had become Queen of England. But Charlotte died, and Sir
Stamford was not fated to live to a ripe old age either. Even
the shadowy possibility of the India post, which was as much
as could be achieved during this visit to England, should serve
to show us what a long way Sir Stamford had come, in the es-
timation of the higher-ups of his department, since he had left
Java, a sick, tired, aggrieved, and grieving man. But this good
fortune did not continue. After the death of the princess, her
husband Leopold found it impossible to remain longer on any
^356
sort of friendly terms with her father, whose attitude toward
his wife Prince Leopold had never ceased to resent, though for
the sake of appearances he had concealed his feelings. The
royal widower stopped attending court, preferring to remain
withdrawn from all activities connected with his father-in-law,
and among the projects which were consequently lost sight of
were the plans the Prince and Princess had entertained for
Raffles, their particular pet.
Third family among the friends made by Raffles in 1816-17
were the Duke and Duchess of Somerset The duchess dis-
covered in herself a great fondness for anthropological subjects,
and so Sir Stamford after his return to the East made a special
point of writing her the kind of letter he had always until then
reserved for Marsden, under the impression, probably correct,
that most people would not appreciate his scientific observa-
tions. He wrote often to the duchess from Sumatra, no doubt
exulting in having found in her an intelligent correspondent,
for Raffles was one of those men who worked best when he
could talk about his work with somebody able to understand
it, and the duchess's enthusiasm was genuine, as was her capac-
ity to learn. Like many men of his type, Raffles was at his best
and most charming when writing letters to a woman. If he had
not made friends with the Duchess of Somerset he would never
have found out this talent in himself. Though the duchess's
age and various other obvious factors rendered impossible any
likelihood of a flirtation between them, still there was between
them a something. There nearly always does exist between a
man of Raffles's sort and a woman of similar interests and en-
thusiasms, never mind what their respective ranks and ages, a
sentimental bond, harmless and tenuous perhaps, but never-
theless wielding a definite influence upon the correspondence
between them. He was sensitive, eager, intellectually passion-
ate: she was sympathetic and receptive. Because it was the
duchess rather than the duke whom Raffles addressed in his
letters, they were buoyant, fascinating compositions with a
special flavor, and made much better reading than did the mis-
sives dealing with the same subjects which he wrote to Mars-
den, valued old friend as he was.
357
All well-rounded young British gentlemen of those days
made the Grand Tour before they settled down to a man's
work or pastime, whatever that might be. Raffles in his new
capacity now felt it incumbent upon him to make up such ar-
rears in his early education. At the time when he should have
been putting the finishing touch on his education, touring
France and Germany, at the age of twenty-one, he was as we
know preparing for a much longer and more important voyage.
Nothing about his early education had been conventional and
he never pretended that it was, but he felt now that he should
make up for this particular deficiency without longer delay. It
was more than merely wanting to keep up with the Joneses,
this urge to take a look for himself at the Continent. Though
nobody in the diplomatic service knew more than did Raffles
about his particular province in the oriental world, his knowl-
edge was limited, and he felt the effects of these limitations.
A statesman ought to have a general, overall conception of
what makes the balance in international politics, and Raffles
could hardly claim to possess that, since he had never even
paid a visit to the home countries of the colonials with whom
he had been dealing. It was more than merely interesting, it
was really important that he should see Europe, the Nether-
lands particularly. As for Paris, from which had come all the
fashions of Western diplomatic society, naturally it behooved
a man who was soon to be honored with a title to pay a visit
to the world's center of elegance and style.
Besides all this, he and his Sophia really had a honeymoon
coming to them.
Therefore in April, just before his book appeared and he was
knighted, Raffles, his wife, and his eldest sister, Mary Anne
Flint, resolved that in the following month they would start
out on a tour of the Continent. "My plan/' he wrote Cousin
Tom, "is to visit Paris and Brussels, and to see all besides that
I can in the space of six weeks or two months, the limit which
I am ^bliged to fix. ... Now, my dear cousin, if you can pos-
sibly manage to be of our party I can promise you will find it
a pleasant and interesting trip, and I am sure I need not say
how happy it will make us to have you as a compagnon de
voyage. . . . My eventual plans are to proceed to India about
August; but a few weeks delay will be of no importance, as my
departure entirely depends upon my own convenience and
pleasure/'
As a result the party of fourfor Dr. Raffles was easily per-
suaded to accompany them used their six weeks to such good
advantage that the itinerary of the journey sounds like the effi-
cient see-all, cover-all kind of trip that might be made by some
modern American tourist on the traditional roller skates,
rather than an English party of pleasure, just out for sight-
seeing on the Continent. France, Belgium, Switzerland, Savoy,
and the Rhine were all included. The men of the party seem
to have spent most of their available time keeping journals or
writing letters that could be used later for publication. Dr.
Raffles actually did just that; he published the letters he wrote
from the journey in a book "and thus/ 7 says Boulger, "be-
came the historian of this continental trip, one of the first
taken after the Great Peace/' The fact that this volume of
letters, which evidently met with considerable success, in time
became a standard guidebook rather gives one to think. How
often is a guidebook upon which tourists trustingly depend
written, as was this one, by a traveler who did the whole thing
in six weeks? Of course we don't know for a fact that this was
Dr. Raffles's first time on the Continent, as it was for his
cousin Stamford, but even so, even supposing it was Cousin
Tom's second trip to Europe instead of his first, the ease and
speed with which the whole thing was accomplished is some-
what startling.
Raffles's own letters show, according to Boulger as he
quotes a missive addressed to the Duchess of Somerset, "how
he went to the root of things." It also answers in some part
the question which, it may be remembered, occurred to us
when we encountered Raffles's speedy way of doing things
some time back, after his first visit to Malacca, when he wrote
that enormous, long, comprehensive account of the city
which saved it from destruction. At first glance it looks as if
Raffles left himself open to the accusation of hasty judgment
and of basing his decisions upon information too easily ac-
359^
cepted, too carelessly gathered. On second thought, however,
once again we find we have been unfair. Unless he really knew
his subject he made no weighty decisions upon specific mat-
ters. It was generally an age of pontifical utterance, even among
the best of writers; very rarely do we encounter anyone of the
early nineteenth century who is not guilty of sententiousness
once in a while. And so, though Raffles's letters are padded
out with solemn observations, they are seldom startling or
meaty. They are not devoid of interest nevertheless; one is
sure to find something worth reading in the remarks of a white
man who has never until middle age watched a normal Cau-
casian peasantry going about its business. The sight of the
farmers of Belgium and France at work in their own fields
brought home to him sharply the advantages of private own-
ership over the landlordism which still flourished in the feudal
East.
"I was certainly surprised and delighted with the appearance
of agriculture in France/' reads his letter to the Duchess of
Somerset, dated from Brussels on July 14, "not that the fields
were as highly cultivated as in England, nor that any thing
like an advanced state of agriculture was to be seen. I was
pleased to observe two things, which I know are highly con-
demned by agriculture, the smallness of the properties, and
the cultivation of the fruit-trees in the grain and hay-fields.
Agriculturists maintain that capital is essential to improve-
ment, but when it is rich, and wants little or no improvement,
capital is unnecessary. For the greatness of a country it may
be an object that the greatest possible quantity of produce
should be brought to market; and those who are for raising
a nation maintain that this can only be effected by large farms
and the outlay of capital. The philanthropist, however, and
even the philosopher, will hesitate before he sacrifices every-
thing to the greatness of the nation. . . . And when I see
every man cultivating his own field, I cannot but think him
happier far than when he is cultivating the field of another;
even if he labours more, that labour is still lighter which is his
pride and pleasure, than that which is his burden and sorrow/'
There is no doubt that at this time, as is perhaps natural,
360
France and her recent Revolution were more in his thoughts
than were the natives of Java and Malacca. He felt that France
was in a healthy, hopeful state even though she was under-
going the depression inevitable to an after-war period; that
her new political structure provided a "foundation ... to
support a much greater nation than France ever yet was/'
By far the high point of the tour, of course, was the visit
paid by the party to Holland, where Raffles actually had an
interview with the King of the Netherlands. He must have
been the prey of many mixed feelings when he first saw the
streets of the Dutch towns, so neat, so closely built, so very
like the streets of Batavia. All the while, no doubt, the familiar
accents of that once alien language were sounding in his ears,
bringing back more keenly still the mood of his early days on
Java. Needless to say, he did not go about arranging a meet-
ing with the Dutch monarch solely to satisfy his curiosity, nor
yet to make a gesture of bravado toward a government which
he would never cease privately and secretly to consider as
inimical to him, his country, and all their works in the Orient.
In the back of his mind there seems without doubt to have
been an urge to present to His Majesty the case and claims of
his friends the princes of Java. Rumors kept coming from
Java bearing disquieting hints of their difficulties under the
new-old order. Besides that, Raffles wanted to put in a word
or two in favor of the Dutchmen who had helped the British
Government on Java by working pacifically side by side with
the intruders, in consequence lightening immeasurably the
burden of administration as well as making the take-over less
painful to the public. He had heard that they were now suf-
fering for this behavior, as alleged "Collaborationists/' It must
not be supposed for one moment that Sir Stamford visited the
royal palace as a representative of the Prince Regent of Eng-
land. He went purely as a private individual, in the hope that
he might be able, simply by force of personality, to banish
from the King's mind any prejudice which still lingered there
against his former enemies. Who knew better than Raffles
how stubbornly those feelings cling to the heart? It was only
for the sake of his friends in Java that he was able to bring
himself into the King's presence socially like this. Nor does
it seem to have occurred to him that he was inconsistent.
It is the pleasant truth that he succeeded, at least to some
extent, in this self-imposed mission. The cards were stacked
in his favor; the King had heard of him before. Those Dutch
authorities who followed him and his councilors in office had
already sent home favorable, reports on his work during the
British occupation of Java, and we have seen how they saw
fit to preserve many of the leading reforms which Raffles put
into working action during the daily routine of administra-
tion. It will not surprise anyone who knows Raffles's character
and prejudices, however, to learn that he was not so favorably
impressed with the King as the King in his politeness pro-
fessed to be with his guest. Raffles wrote to Marsden: "I met
with very great attention in the Netherlands, and had the
honour to dine with the King last Monday; they were very
communicative regarding their eastern colonies; but I regret
to say that, notwithstanding the King himself, and his lead-
ing minister, seem to mean well, they have too great a hanker-
ing after profit, and immediate profit, for any liberal system to
thrive under them. They seem to be miserably poor, and the
new government in Java have commenced by the issue of a
paper currency from every bureau throughout the Island;
formerly, you will recollect, that paper money was confined to
Batavia, it is now made general, and will, I fear, soon cause
all the remaining silver to disappear."
With that dinner the belated Grand Tour ended, and so in
a manner of speaking did Raffles's holiday.
The reason for his exile was gone; his stubborn vigil was
over, his record clear. The council had released a public letter
on February 13, 1817, which took up Gillespie's charges
separately, one by one, and admitted in each case that it had
been unjustified. The sale of lands was completely, satisfac-
torily accepted, along with the one fact which had been con-
sidered particularly awkward and suspicious- Raffles's own
purchase. Everyone on the council agreed with the findings,
and so at last the affair could be considered closed. Raffles
alone was still not absolutely satisfied, but he accepted the
362
letter pro tern, and with Sophia on receipt of the news he pre-
pared to set out for Bencoolen.
Thus on their return to England it became necessary to be-
gin all the unpleasant duties connected with travel, of which
packing is not the least. His bride now had a sample of what
her husband was like in his ordinary workaday mood; his
activity, she noted, was "incessant" He set to work collecting
animals and plants to take along for experimental purposes
and stock breeding. One of his favorite plans was to establish
in London, against the far future, a society of natural history,
the pattern for which he visualized as that of the Jardin des
Plantes in Paris, which had much impressed him. It was too
late, this time, to go further toward this goal than promise all
his scientific friends to send more and yet more specimens
from Sumatra, botanical, zoological, mineral, and of course
ethnological. (He had met throughout his entire stay with
the most gratifying enthusiasm whenever he produced his
traveling companion, the pet tame prince, Javanese Raden
Rana Dipura, but it is doubtful whether he promised to send
back any more live specimens of the human native. The
Raden accompanied him on the return passage.) But we must
not lose sight of the society project: Raffles did not, and in the
estimation of at least this biographer, the work for which Sir
Stamford Raffles ought to be most kindly remembered is the
Zoological Society of London, in Regent's Park. He finally
succeeded in making real this wonderful vision on his. next
and last return trip, in 1826. From the beginning it outshone
the Jardin des Plantes. Something about the British atmos-
phere seems to encourage zoological societies.
There were still two duty calls to be paid, one to Cousin
Tom's home in Mason Street, Liverpool, and the other to
Sophia's native heath in Ireland. A last visit to the Duke of
Somerset, another to Sir Hugh Inglis, and the Raffles couple
were ready, eager to sail for the East, where Sir Stamford was
now, at last, to serve his term as lieutenant governor of Ben-
coolen on Sumatra.
"Oh! that this leave-taking was at an end," Raffles wrote
the Duchess of Somerset shortly before they sailed. Scarcely a
363$^
soul would not feel warmly sympathetic, or refuse to say
"Aye/' to that sentiment. "My house is filled with those who
are all determined to say good-bye, and make me more miser-
able when it requires all my fortitude to keep my spirits calm
and uniform."
He wrote to the duchess often during the next fortnight,
in a sort of journal, a running commentary on the small ad-
ventures of getting off. Going through Cornwall, he again
visited a tin mine; the sea trip from Plymouth to the port of
embarkation for the East Falmouth, where his party had
entered England proved that poor Lady Raffles was very sus-
ceptible to the curse of seasickness; then, just before the
Raffleses departed in earnest, he received the sad news of
Princess Charlotte's sudden death.
At last they were off. From the other side of the Bay of
Biscay, where for once Lady Raffles can scarcely be called
delicate for having suffered agonies of mal de mer, he wrote in
gayer mood. "You will be glad ... to hear that all the indi-
viduals of the ark are well and thriving. The cows, dogs, cats,
birds, the latter singing around me, and my nursery of plants
thriving beyond all expectation; the thermometer is at 70.
What a waste of waters now lies between us and yet the dis-
tance daily widens, and will widen still until half the world
divides us."
Though the ship, which by the way was a new one the
Lady Raffles made no other port of call and went direct to
Bencoolen, she was five months en route, due to unfavorable
winds. She arrived at Bencoolen March 20, 1818, by which
time her passenger list had been augmented; history repeated
itself and Sophia discovered that ladies always take a chance
aboard a sailing ship. "The beautiful little girl," as her proud
father called her when writing the duchess, was born "to the
southward of the Cape," and was immediately given the name
of Tunjong Segara, the Lily of the Sea, by the tame Javanese
prince. Her English names for obvious reasons were Charlotte
Sophia.
^364
CHAPTER XXI
Though Sir Stamford and Lady
Raffles had enjoyed a great success at home in London, the
post to which they were going was no prize. In fact so strik-
ing is the contrast between the treatment afforded Raffles
during his leave by his friends in high places and that meted
out to him by the Company as soon as he went back to work
that anyone ignorant of the true story behind the scenes would
be completely mystified. There is no mystery about it, in
truth. Any experienced businessman knows that the gap be-
tween social and commercial success is a wide one. There was
not necessarily much contact between the royal personages
who had bestowed their favor so generously on Sir Stamford
and the powers in the East India Company who directed his
working career. It is quite probable that the leaders of the Ben-
gal Government didn't foresee how eagerly the rejected lieu-
tenant governor of Java would be received by London on his
arrival there; it is likely, too, that none of this popularity could
be said to have injured him. On the contrary, his stock in the
Company went up sharply when the news of all this arrived in
Calcutta. But though it was pleasant to have the opinions of
his superiors so sharply revised for the better, this improve-
ment was not sufficient completely to change an important
fixed appointment like Raffles's to Bencoolen. It had stood
365 $*>
too long, ever since Minto first arranged it. Raffles had to be
thankful that he need not now take a demotion, which had
been the Company's earlier plan for him, going out to Ben-
coolen as a mere resident. He was permitted to retain the rank
of lieutenant governor.
When we survey the field, what first appears to be stub-
born opposition and gratuitous cruelty on the part of the
Company loses a good deal of its harshness. True, Bencoolen
as a post was no plum. In comparison with Java it was an im-
mense comedown. But after the new regime was established
there wasn't really very much in hand to offer Raffles. Eng-
land had given back to Holland all those possessions in the
East Indies Archipelago which had belonged to the Nether-
lands before the Napoleonic wars. This left a very small part
of the East Indies in British hands. Nothing that had taken
place since Raffles's first arrival in the 'Orient, when he took
up his post in Penang, had been of a nature to stimulate the
Company's languid urge toward development and expansion
in those islands. India was their particular pet; India and the
trade with China was their reason for existing, as they saw it.
They did not deny that Raffles had laid the foundation for a
highly profitable colony in Java, if only Java had remained
British, but she didn't, and according to the records then
standing, a good deal of money had been expended on a
project which after all was cut short in its prime.
We do not give titles to our chapters in this work, but if
we did the title for this section would be 'The Dead Land."
That was the natives' name for Bencoolen (Malay Bankaulu),
a bare strip of land along the edge of the island of Sumatra
which had been in the possession of the British since 1685.
At first glance there seemed to Raffles no possible basis
for comparison between the two islands, Java and Sumatra.
As a scientist he may have been happy when he first saw the
land: Boulger thinks he was. Sumatra is a marvelous country
for people who like wild, mountainous scenery. The steep
range to which it probably owes its existence for the island
is merely a ridge of mountains high enough to keep their
heads above the ocean's surface is volcanic in origin, and
^366
when the Raffles family, now a trio thanks to little Charlotte
Sophia., first set foot on Bencoolen there was plenty of vol-
canic activity going on, chiefly earthquakes. As near as Raffles
could figure it from the native reports, there must have been
eighteen volcanoes in the range ready to pop off at any time,
and they often did. One put on a show for them the day be-
fore the ship dropped anchor. The slopes of the range were
covered with thick jungle growth, in which lived wild animals
and wild men. Anything less like the peaceful agricultural
levels of Java would be hard to imagine.
Raffles the scientist may have exulted in anticipation, but
Raffles the family man and career diplomat felt downcast and
apprehensive at sight of his new domain. He was not reas-
sured, either, by the inside information he possessed as to the
financial difficulties which faced him. One of the reasons
Bencoolen was not numbered among John Company's fa-
vorite possessions was that she had already cost a tremendous
lot for upkeep. In the eighteenth century the station of Fort
Marlborough, Bencoolen's leading settlement (founded
1714), had been a place of hope and favor. Just looking at
the map, there seems to be no reason why an island of that
size, so near the isle of Java, one of the same group and in the
same climatic belt, should not be as profitable a place for trade
as any part of the enviable and coveted Java. In fact, how-
ever, it did not work out well, though the Company lavished
a lot of money, men, and material resources on Sumatra be-
fore they found that out. The chief product of the settle-
ment was pepper; with this commodity, the directors had be-
lieved, and the position of Fort Marlborough, which appeared
advantageous for trade, nothing should have stopped their
progress toward wealth. In a century and a half they expended
a hundred thousand pounds annually on Bencoolen. The
directors' enthusiasm ebbed at a rate that was slow as well as
maddeningly costly. For a century and a half all they had got
out of Bencoolen every year was a few tons of pepper. The
Company kept trying, in order not to have it said later that
they lost the ship for a hap'orth of tar, but by 1817 they were
unanimously agreed that Bencoolen had never been a ship at
367^
all, and the tar had cost them immeasurably more than a
halfpenny. Bencoolen was one of those things which are
found in the possessions of any large established company
an investment which has been so disastrous that it is almost,
but not quite, the joke of the firm. Fifteen million pounds
is a sum about which it is very difficult indeed to be humorous.
Bencoolen was not the joke of the house; she was rather the
corn on John Company's toe, or the boil on his neck, which-
ever is the more painful.
And this was the job which they gave Sir Stamford Raffles,
recent toast of London: to whip Bencoolen into shape after
years of mistake and mismanagement, and to shift it from
the red side of the ledger to the black.
It seemed always Raffles's luck to slip into spots like that,
with the one happy exception of Java. To a certain point, how-
ever, his luck could not be expected to alter unless his entire
field of operations was changed. He was an East Indies expert.
To John Company the East Indies was made up of a lot of
islands with administrations all greedy for money, where only
very occasionally some colony paid off, sufficient for itself but
not for its neighbors. Raffles had been sent out to Penang at
a time when the Company grudged every penny they had to
spend on the place, and justly or unjustly some of that ill will
had somehow clung to him personally. Now he was in a simi-
lar situation, except that things were even worse for him here
in Sumatra. At Penang he had been starting out, a mere assist-
ant secretary. His employers might have been cross with him
at times, but he wasn't important enough to be the recipient
of their sharpest shafts of ill-humor. At Bencoolen, though,
he had grown in stature: he made a magnificent target. He
was the number one. Anything that went wrong on British
Sumatra under his administration would be traced to his ad-
dress as sure as God made little apples. It was not a cheerful
prospect, any way one looked at it. Sir Stamford needed every
bit of the new-found security he had brought with him from
the drawing rooms of London; the plaudits of admiring salons
still made music in his ears, softening to some extent the sor-
rowful plaints of the howler monkeys out in the Sumatran
^368
jungle. At any rate he was starting out fresh, thirty-six years
old, with new health, a devoted wife, a pretty little daughter,
and a title. At any rate it was a new adventure. He took heart,
and as an exhaust for his feelings sat down and wrote letters.
To the Duchess of Somerset he gave a vivid picture of the
awkwardnesses that met the family on disembarking.
"My arrival was not hailed by the most auspicious of omens,
for the day previous to it, a violent earthquake had nearly
destroyed every building in the place, and the first communi-
cation which I received from the shore was, that both Gov-
ernment-houses were rendered useless and uninhabitable.
. , . It occurred during the night, and by the accounts given,
it must have been truly awful. Every building has suffered
more or less; some are quite ruins, others hardly deserving re-
pair, the house which I now occupy is rent from top to bot-
tom, there is not a room without a crack of some feet long
and several inches wide; the cornices broken and every thing
unhinged; from some houses many cart-loads of rubbish have
been cleared away, and still they are inhabited, notwithstand-
ing they rock to and fro with every breeze."
Lady Sophia in her capacity as editor does not give her
personal reminiscences of that disastrous day so long ago,
which is a great pity. It is difficult to imagine just what could
have been the reaction of a thirty-year-old lady from Chelten-
ham, who as far as we know had never been farther from
civilization's amenities than a six-week honeymoon tour of
the Continent until her husband brought her out to Sumatra.
As a foretaste of the sort of life she was thenceforth to lead,
Fate had decreed that she bear her first child on board a
cramped little sailing vessel instead of solid ground. Then,
only a few weeks after that ordeal, she was set down with her
newborn child on this strange shore, under the frowning gaze
of a jungle-covered mountainside, with no home to move into
and no real community to receive her, and only the rubble of
an earthquaked town to reassure her. However, there were a
few members of her own race living there. Presumably, then,
it was possible at least to survive these trials.
"As we are not inclined to make difficulties, or murmur
369^
against Providence/' said her husband cheerfully to the
duchess, ''we shall, I have no doubt, contrive to make our-
selves very happy/' That's what he said. Sophia seems to have
said nothing, anyway not aloud.
"This is without exception/' wrote Sir Stamford to Mars-
den, "the most wretched place I ever beheld. I cannot con-
vey to you an adequate idea of the state of ruin and dilapida-
tion which surrounds me. What with natural impediments,
bad government, and the awful visitations of Providence
which we have recently experienced in repeated earthquakes,
we have scarcely a dwelling in which to lay our heads, or
wherewithal to satisfy the cravings of nature. The roads are
impassable; the highways in the town overrun with rank
grass; the Government House a den of ravenous dogs and
polecats. The natives say that Bencoolen is now a tana matf
(dead land). In truth, I could never have conceived anything
half so bad. We will try and make it better; and if I am well
supported from home, the west coast may yet be turned to
account. You must, however, be prepared for the abolition
of slavery; the emancipation of the country people from the
forced cultivation of pepper; the discontinuance of the gam-
ing and cock-fighting farms; and a thousand other practises
equally disgraceful and repugnant to the British character
and Government/'
"If I am well supported from home . . ." That was a very
big if. They were starting out under more disadvantages than
he sketched in this letter, for his most influential friend,
Princess Charlotte, was dead, Leopold was washing his hands
of anything that smacked of government, including the Indies;
and the gaming and cockfighting which Sir Stamford so slyly
mentioned were the two most profitable pastimes indulged
in by the Sumatran natives profitable, that is to say, for the
Company, which openly owned, operated, and supported
most of them as admitted sources of revenue. It was well
known, too, that the Company owned slaves in Sumatra. Had
they all been the ordinary local natives this awkward fact
would not have been so obvious, but there was in Fort Marl-
borough a group of African slaves who had been imported by
^5370
the Company and were resultantly their special property and
responsibility. It was appalling, thought Raffles, so much
slavery in a colony which had been British for a hundred and
fifty years and had never at any time been Dutch.
Continuing his letter, Sir Stamford outlined his plans for
a tour of inspection, which would also be a journey of ex-
ploration, "Mr. Holloway seems half afraid, but, nolens volens,
as he is Resident, he must accompany me."
Then came the familiar note, the inevitable refrain: "I
am already at issue with the Dutch Government about their
boundaries in the Lampoon country. They insist on packing
us up close to Billimbing, on the west coast. I demand an
anchorage in Simangka Bay, and lay claim to Simangka it-
self "
It was all too obvious even at this distance in space and
time, and must have been doubly, trebly obvious then, that
Raffles was up to his old tricks of empire building. These
border disputes were not aimed merely at enlarging Ben-
coolen's domains. The new lieutenant governor, his head
bloody but unbowed, was still hoping, for his great Pacific-
British Empire, only now in his dreams he saw Bencoolen as
the center instead of Java. Scarcely there long enough to set
up temporary housekeeping in a cottage cracked to the foun-
dations, still his brain was working away as fast as ever on the
old theme. He was incorrigible.
One of the least familiar aspects of this post to Raffles,
who had become accustomed to Java as a typical East Indian
community, was that the population was so sparse as to be
downright insufficient to keep things going. Java had been just
the opposite; Batavia was crowded, and even in the country-
side there had always been someone to be found somewhere
about, either working or living on someone else's toil In her
Memoir Lady Raffles briefly sketches this state of Sumatran
affairs. The Company when first they set about forming their
establishment, from which they expected only to get pepper
and nothing else, had founded their ideas on India, where the
population was thick and the civilization comparatively of
a high degree. Bencoolen was very thinly settled; the land was
371
new and needed a lot of preparation agriculturally as well as
economically. That in itself shot the expense curve way up, as
soon as the pepper production was got under way.
Then they had immediately started off on the wrong foot,
using the indirect method to handle the natives, though any
method of forced cultivation is bound to be bad. The Com-
pany "bound down" the native chiefs to compel their sub-
jects each to cultivate a minimum number of pepper vines,
and also insisted upon a monopoly market at which they paid
the laborers at a rate far below what the work was worth. It
is an ugly pattern which we have seen before and since. The
British themselves were horrified when they found King Leo-
pold of Belgium doing the same thing with rubber in his
Congo. Had the agents been men of experience they would
have realized that such methods, dangerously similar to those
of the Dutch, would not work indefinitely. They wouldn't
even work for any reasonable length of time. The cultivators
simply would not lift a hand unless they were driven to it,
and the chiefs could not or would not keep on driving them,
preferring to shift this arduous task to the Company agents
who had introduced the stupid method in the first place.
Discouraged and faced with the necessity of retrenchment,
the Company in 1801 cut down the establishment and with-
drew in force from outlying districts. People were now em-
ployed by contract, each of the outlying residencies being
farmed to whatever man made the best offer. As an induce-
ment to them to force their labor to greater efforts, these
residents were given a small percentage of payment for every
quantity unit of pepper delivered to the government. There
was also the "free-garden system" in operation around Ben-
coolen, wherein the natives were advanced a certain amount
of money in exchange for their cultivation of pepper. Seven-
teen years later, when the Raffles regime came in, a little less
than two thirds of this had been repaid, worked off in pepper,
leaving more than one third unaccounted for. Though many
of the debtors had died or run away, their children or their
villages were liable for the debt, and the contractors were be-
come "slave debtors/' while the children and the village peo-
^372
pie were practically slaves. Added to this sorry crowd were the
two hundred Africans, who according to Lady Raffles were
considered indispensable, as they were used for the hardest
work of the Company, loading and unloading their ships, et
cetera. "No care having been taken of their morals/' said
Sophia, "many of them were dissolute and depraved, and the
children in a state of nature, vice, and wretchedness/'
On top of all this the attitude taken hitherto by the British
toward the natives had been as bad as if not far worse than
that of the Dutch toward their people on Java. Malays, they
asserted with sincere belief in what they said, were an indo-
lent, vicious, despicable people by nature, and this sort of
treatment was absolutely necessary for their own sakes as well
as for the sake of the community in general. No blame at-
tached to the government for maintaining the gaming and
cockfighting establishments: the Malays were bound to in-
dulge in such pastimes anyway, and in pandering to their
instincts one simply bowed to the inevitable.
Against this argument Sir Stamford, at first, could only
oppose his personal philosophy, which today is widely ac-
cepted but in those days had still to be proved to a skeptical,
ignorant public, that no race is inherently, irrevocably this
way or that way. It was always an offense to his neatly logical
mind when this kind of fuzzy argument was presented. But
in any case he held the cards; he was lieutenant governor, and
so, unless he feared the arguments which his assistants pre-
sented, he had only to begin putting his reforms into action.
It is unnecessary to say that he did not fear the criticism of
Bencoolen's old-timers. Raffles was accustomed to the whole
routine, from the first appalled expostulation to the last, lin-
gering, hard-to-prove sabotage which slowed up his programs
whenever they were unpopular with his colleagues. Sooner or
later he usually won them over, by a combination of personal
charm and concrete proof that his ideas, wild as they may
have looked, usually worked out well in the end.
Here at Fort Marlborough he found a crying necessity, as
soon as he started in office, to improve conditions for the
civil servants. He described the situation to Marsden in a let-
373
ter which was written within the first month of his stay. Be-
cause earlier in the year their number had been reduced on
order of the directors, and because no writers had been ap-
pointed for several years, inevitably a good deal of local talent
had found its way into the establishment, first as a temporary
measure and then little by little as fixtures. As the civilians
from England dropped out or died, these local people rose in
importance. Then suddenly the Court sent out eight regularly
covenanted writers from England, young men who naturally
thought they had a good future at Bencoolen and were not
aware that they would find such strong competition from these
firmly embedded people who had been hired on the spot, un-
officially as it were. "At the date of my arrival/' said Sir Stam-
ford, "only two of them could be considered as holding
offices of any trust, and the salary of one of them only
amounted to 150 dollars a month. Some had either quitted
the place in disgust, or returned to England, and the remain-
der were posted as assistants under the other description of
servants, with an allowance of 150 dollars per month, a salary
which in this place is most certainly not equal to the sub-
sistence of a gentleman.
"If a cure for the evils that have been depicted is to be
found, it is not to be sought in the simple provisional reduc-
tion of establishment. An inadequate salary given to the Over-
seer by Government, creates the greater motive to draw his
advantage from the people subjected to him. A subsistence,
and even a liberal one, he expects, and will obtain, if not by
open, certainly by clandestine means. The evil is in the system
of management, and a thorough change is indispensable."
As to the condition of the Malays, free and enslaved, as
well as another class of native, convicts who had been trans-
ported in considerable number since 1797 from Bengal,
Raffles wrote a long letter to the Court of Directors, by way
of clearing the ground immediately for action. First he said
flatly that it was all too common an idea among respectable
people at Bencoolen as well as among the ignorant masses
that the Malayan character was too despicable to be entrusted
with personal freedom. "That indolence and vice prevail
^374
among the Malays on this coast, and to a considerable extent,
I am not prepared to deny/ 7 he said, "but I apprehend they
are rather to be attributed to the effects of the system . . .
than to any original defect of character/'
His own experience in the Archipelago, of twelve years'
duration, he claimed, gave him the right to claim some knowl-
edge of the matter and to assert that there was nothing radi-
cally wrong with Malays. At Bencoolen they were laboring
under oppressions and disabilities, and were surrounded by
temptations to vice. About these oppressions, he said, he
would not at present speak, because they were connected
with the revenues of Bengal, but he felt that he must point
out that the gaming and cockfighting were local in nature;
that as chief magistrate he asserted that their continuance was
destructive of every principle of good government, social
order, and the morals of the people.
The forced services and forced deliveries at inadequate rates
must be abolished. The laborer would have to be allowed to
cultivate pepper or not at pleasure. Radical changes must be
made throughout, so that the people could distinguish the
political influence of the British Government from the com-
mercial speculations of the Company and their agents. A sur-
prising statement to come from one of the Company agents,
was it not? It was a small matter but significant of Raffles's
high principles that he should think such a statement perfectly
natural, regardless of his own position in the matter. He was
discussing good government, and so he felt that he must state
the first principles of good government, that was all. "I am
aware/' he said, "that the task is difficult, if not invidious, but
under the confidence placed in me, and having at heart the
honour and character of the nation, and of the East India
Company, I shall not hesitate to undertake it"
His first public act, he continued, would be the emancipa-
tion of the African slaves. When he had done this, and
abolished the gaming and cock-fighting farms, he would feel
ready to call on the Chiefs to assist him in "the general work
of reform, amelioration and improvement/'
One other problem calling for immediate consideration was
375 g*
that offered by transported convicts. About five hundred of
them were alive on the island at that time. Raffles's suggestions
were in line with the humanitarian school of thought, closely
following Minto's pattern. Fear of punishment, he said, is not
as powerful an inducement to good behavior as is hope of re-
ward, and if you make this reward something for which your
convict really yearns, you possess a truly strong power. Promise
these men the restoration of their citizens' privileges, and they
will exert themselves; it is axiomatic. "The prospect of recover-
ing their characters, of freeing themselves from their present
disabilities, and the privileges of employing their industry for
their own advantage, would become an object of ambition, and
supply a stimulus to exertion and good conduct which is at
present wanting While a convict is unmarried and kept to
daily labour, very little confidence can be placed in him; and
his services are rendered with so much tardiness and dissatis-
faction that they are of little or no value; but he no sooner
marries and forms a small settlement than he becomes a kind
of colonist, and if allowed to follow his inclinations, he seldom
feels inclined to return to his native country/'
These ideas, worked out with additional detail, were applied
with excellent results to Bencoolen's transportees, Lady Raf-
fles declares. A large body of people who had been living "in
the lowest state of degradation" thus became useful laborers
and happy members of society, she said with pride. In 1825
when Bencoolen, too, was transferred to the Dutch these peo-
ple were sent to ^Penang, where they begged to be treated as
they had been at Marlborough and not reduced to the status
of the other Penang convicts, who were kept "as a gang, to be
employed whenever their services might be thought desirable."
Very unfortunately for them, the Administration at Penang
found the old method too advantageous to relinquish, and
they were forced to live again as unpaid laborers, in a gang.
Sophia observed shrewdly that the temptation is always strong
to keep ready at the disposal of the government a body of men
without family ties or position in society.
Raffles's enemies usually retorted to his wife's proud claim
that the statement of a reform is one thing, but that putting
^376
it into working order is quite another, and it was in this active
part of the program that Raffles and his theories always fell
down. The most determined hostility cannot stamp out all
factual evidence, however, and no one has ever been able com-
pletely to discredit the work Raffles accomplished on Sumatra.
The improvement he brought about was more dramatic and
palpable in Bencoolen than on Java, because reform was such
a crying necessity in Bencoolen. Dutch Java may not have been
perfect, but natural resources protected her. She was never in
the sad state of British Sumatra, when Raffles came out to be
governor in 1818.
As the first step in his spring cleaning, Sir Stamford called
together all the African slaves, and there at a meeting of the
important native chiefs, after making an oration about slavery
in general, emphasizing the British dislike of it, he set them
all free, separately and distinctly. He had prepared "certifi-
cates of freedom" which he duly presented, one to each slave.
It was an impressive ceremony, says Sophia. One of the Negro
children, "a little bright-eyed girl" eight years old, was imme-
diately selected by herself to rear, in order to set an example
to the rest of the European community. "She proved a most
docile, affectionate little attendant," said her protector. The
girl was properly married off, dowry included, about the time
the Raffles family went away from Sumatra.
Next the cultivation of pepper was declared free. No longer
were the people forced to cultivate it, whether they wanted
to or not.
Next was a special matter, closely related to native prejudice.
For a long time, but in vain, the chiefs had been asking for a
repeal of the dagger law, the prohibition of the kris, it being
against the law, according to recent orders, for natives to wear
or carry the curved Malay dagger in the city streets. Raffles
understood. To a Malay the kris is more than a mere weapon;
it carries a special significance which has nothing to do with
everyday offense or defense, and the chiefs felt that the Malays'
pride was being impugned when they had to obey this prohi-
bition. It had been in force ever since a shocking affair at Fort
Marlborough during which one Mr. Parr, a resident, had been
377
murdered. The story behind the kris prohibition is so interest-
ing as an example of misunderstanding between races and
civilizations that it should be repeated here in all its detail.
We have had occasion lately to think a good deal about these
same matters, ever since the Japanese attacked the United
Nations at Pearl Harbor. The ensuing war was packed with
misapprehensions, wild resentments, and bitter allegations of
wanton, atrocious cruelty, the results of just such mutual igno-
rance on the part of the combatants. It is always difficult to
bear in mind that one man's pride may not be another's, and
that what constitutes an insult, an act of courage, or a com-
pliment in our society may be subject to a very different inter-
pretation by members of a different culture, such as an oriental
civilization.
We have already mentioned that the year 1801 was marked
by a reduction of the establishment of Fort Marlborough.
From that time on Bencoolen ranked as a dependency of Ben-
gal. Before the change, private trade had been carried on
openly and without reproach by everyone in the colony, the
governor, his council, and the Company servants. The trade
flourished to an extent which kept the settlement in very good
financial shape. Articles were imported from western India; a
few were sold in Bencoolen but the greater part went to Java,
where the restrictive policy of the Dutch made such contra-
band trade very profitable, especially to the Bencoolen traders
because they were close by, right in the road, admirably placed
to intercept the flow of opium and piece goods from India. But
when Mr. Parr arrived in 1801 he changed this happy state of
affairs and enforced a "pure" system of administration. The
Company servants stopped their trade, and the higher author-
ities withdrew their support, so that the private trade, which
is more commonly known as smuggling, lapsed and dwindled
down to nothing. Something had to Ipe done to keep things
moving, so Mr. Parr cracked down on the forced cultivation
of pepper and added to that a new idea, the forced growing of
coffee.
All of this naturally made Parr unpopular with the people.
But added to it was another, graver factor. The drive for econ-
278
omy included a reduction of the public establishments, and
large numbers of people were resultantly thrown out of work
and reduced overnight to poverty. Naturally they associated
that calamity, too, with the new governor, and hated him for
it Also Parr was used to British India, where the lower classes
were docile and obedient: he behaved in Bencoolen as if he
were still in Bengal, which made him all the more detested,
if that were possible. Often he by-passed the native chiefs and
altered procedure in the courts in an arbitrary fashion which
made them fear for their ancient institutions and customs, of
which they were extremely jealous. Parr was not aware of this
sentiment, nor was he likely to have paid any attention to it
had he been. That was not his way.
For a long time the chiefs and the people suffered under
his authority. The finishing touch seems to have been Parr's
boorish manners. He insulted the chiefs gratuitously, not
merely once in a while but as a habit. One cannot say truth-
fully that it was this particular offense which sealed his doom,
for at the rate he was going he was bound to bring trouble upon
himself anyway, sooner or later, but there is small doubt that
he hastened the end by his bad manners.
The chiefs didn't know much about English custom, but
in all probability they would not have allowed such knowl-
edge to change their intentions regarding Parr, even so. Many
secret meetings were held, various plans of vengeance were
discussed and discarded, and it was at last decided that what
they wanted was Parr's head, tout simple. That was what you
did to your enemy on Sumatra: you collected his head. As
proof of how innocently these people went about procuring
justice for themselves, according to their uncomplicated
philosophy, we should take note of the fact that they carefully
warned every other European in town of their plans. The en-
tire native community, as Lady Raffles remarks, was in revolt
for several days beforehand, yet Parr knew absolutely nothing
about it. He was insulated by his stupid self-sufficiency. Only
two anxieties seem to have beset the chiefs: first, to get Parr's
head in spite of all difficulty, and second, to avoid harming
any other European. The avenging Malays were explicit about
379^3
this. Everyone of European race was warned to stay home on
that evening; even the date was announced!
Of course the whites warned Parr, but he wouldn't listen.
On the fatal night he refused haughtily to double his sentries
and turned down the suggestion that he take some sort of
weapon into his bedroom with him. His wife nevertheless car-
ried a hog spear to his room after dinner.
Just before midnight the first blow was struck; someone
shrieked, "The Malays have come!" and the fighting was on.
The conspirators had probably been lying in wait, concealed
in bushes near the house for some time, waiting for lights to
go out in the house and for Parr to retire before they attacked.
They cut down the guard and entered the house in short order,
three of them finding their way to Parr's room and dragging
him out of bed. Parr had been ill and was no match for even
one healthy man, let alone three, so that the execution would
have been swift if Mrs. Parr had not fought valiantly for her
husband's life. Patiently the Malays asked her to let them pro-
ceed, explaining that they were afraid they might accidentally
injure her, but the unreasonable woman persisted in interfer-
ing, throwing herself upon Parr's body and generally trying to
get herself killed. At last, when she had managed to be slightly
wounded in the hands, the men were reluctantly compelled
to use force on her. They shoved her under the bed and went
about their business. They cut off Parr's head and then, as
quietly as possible, without any ill-bred fuss, they went away
with it. As far as they were concerned the revolt was over, and
everything was quite satisfactory.
The Malays were astonished and aggrieved when the Eng-
lish seemed to resent the affair. At first it all went according
to a design they recognized; a reward was offered for the heads
of the assassins, and that, the chiefs thought, was intended to
be the customary compensation paid for murder. They only
wondered why the eccentric English didn't ask them to pay
compensation in turn for Parr's murder. They were perfectly
willing to stump up, shake hands all round, and thereupon
forget the whole business.
Unfortunately for all the wretched Malays in the near
^380
neighborhood, however, they were wrong; they woefully mis-
judged those English. The Company authorities, having talked
it over and decided that it was unsafe to punish the chiefs
directly, went about the business of punishment in a cruel
way. A few lower-born alleged assassins were tied to the mouths
of cannon and blown up, but the matter did not stop there.
"As the danger diminished/' says Sophia with ironical truth,
"the spirit of indignation and revenge seems to have in-
creased." Orders went out to destroy every village within a cer-
tain radius of the city, and this job was done with shameful
efficiency. The fruit trees surrounding these villages are looked
upon by the Malays as protecting spirits of the place; these
were dug up and destroyed, an act of deliberate sacrilege. The
buffalo were shot or driven away. The houses were burned, and
the homeless people were turned out into the wilderness. By
the time Raffles arrived there had been some recovery, but
none of these little communities ever regained their former
size or prosperity, inconsiderable as these had been at the best
of times.
He revoked the kris law, incidentally.
It is a small matter, but worthy of mention, that Mrs. Parr
and the children of the lieutenant governor, on their way home
after Parr's death, were shipwrecked and drowned off the
Cape.
That was the general situation then; that was the legacy
handed to Sir Stamford Raffles when he arrived to start his
term of office as lieutenant governor of Bencoolen. Business-
men have an expression which they use when they are selling
out their shops or firms. The purchasers are supposed to pay a
certain sum for a mysterious intangible something called "good
will." There seems little doubt that Raffles could not have sold
the good will of the Bencoolen Malays, when he took office
at Fort Marlborough, for a plugged halfpenny.
Unreasonably sensitive people, those Malays.
The life and career of Thomas Stamford Raffles has been
until now the record of a man who advanced himself a long
way in education, fortune, and rank, though in the end his ad-
vance in wealth will prove to have lagged far behind the other
items. But we haven't yet reached the end. At thirty-six we
see him just at the crossroads, though he doesn't know that;
a man who has done amazingly well in the summing-up but is
still heavily burdened with practical trouble and spiritual
doubt. His progress has not been exactly steady, Fortune hav-
ing led him along a most erratic path. But in justice to the
goddess it must be remembered that she has never, for one
moment, in morass or on mountaintop, relinquished her grasp
of his hand.
We pause here that I may make a prophecy, which is one
of the smaller indulgences historians permit themselves. They
have advance information; they gamble on a sure thing. No-
body else is playing, so it's all right; rather like the solitaire
player who cheats himself at patience.
I hereby prophesy that in the pages of this book the irregu-
larity of Raffles's past career will sink into insignificance as his
future unfolds itself. The word "irregular" will no longer
suffice. The next five or six years spent by Sir Stamford on
Sumatra and other points East were crazily complicated and
uncomfortably crowded, so crowded, in fact, that for the first
time we shall have to split the story into its component parts
in order to avoid the worse confusion of chronology. It would
be a pity to get mixed up at this point, because'it is just at this
spot on the map and at this moment in time that Sir Stamford
contemplates his post with a sinking heart, fearing his talents
will be buried in Sumatra, that the high-water mark has been
reached.
The story falls of its own accord into two parts, whereupon
the bigger portion promptly subdivides itself again, like an
amoeba having a baby. The first part is the story of Sir Stam-
ford governing Sumatra, exploring his domain with Lady
Raffles by his side, producing a family of children, adding im-
measurably to the world's store of scientific knowledge, clear-
ing up the name of Sumatra and putting her on a firm basis as
a proper and equal companion to Java, losing most of his chil-
dren, bowing his head helplessly under the crushing weight of
tragedy. That portion is the private personal history of Sir
Stamford, if such a man can be said to have a private history
at all, which is questionable. I propose to tell this story first,
all the way through to 1828 so that we may have it ready as
background for the other part when the time comes.
This divided treatment is necessary, for if we tell it all at
once Sir Stamford's life outside his working hours will be
smothered and lost. And then, besides, the rest of it is too
much of a tale by itself not to stand alone, as it deserves. These
five years following Raffles's 1818 arrival in Sumatra contain
in their span the climax to his lifelong campaign for victory
over the Dutch around the Malay Archipelago. Involved in
this story is British foreign policy as it shaped up during the
early nineteenth century. Because of Raffles, we see that policy
being radically altered. The beginning of the East India Com-
pany's inevitable disappearance becomes evident during these
years. But the main part of the story is Singapore, the final
flowering of all Sir Stamford's efforts, all his life. Time after
time he had built his empire and watched it crumble in the
dust or melt away in the ocean; time after time he started all
over again, like the ant whose anthill is destroyed, or the coral
insect when the atoll reaches the surface of the water. He
seemed indeed to be possessed of the same spirit as these
laborious insects; watching him, one might conclude that he
didn't build his empires so much out of conscious stubborn
will power as because it was his nature to: he couldn't help
himself.
The pledge is still the same for all disastrous pledges,
All hopes resigned,
My soul still flies above me for the quarry it shall find.
Singapore was the triumph, the anthill preserved forever as
hard rock; the coral island, strong and permanent wall of
fragile tiny bones, against which the waves of the ocean batter
in vain. Singapore, one more bulwark of the British Empire,
fashioned in spite of all the opposition which that empire's
own authoritative power could command. Singapore, founded
383 g
against orders, by trickery, in haste, in secrecy. Singapore, the
best thing Great Britain did for herself (or had done for her
under protest) in the entire century.
That is the subdivision of the story's second portion: Singa-
pore, how she was founded and how the battle raged around
her afterward. But the ant triumphed and the tiny coral sur-
vived. Sir Stamford Raffles planted the English flag on the
beach and then, having added immeasurable miles and un-
counted years to the British Empire's extent in space and time,
he went home to die. He was tired.
In the meantime let us follow the private fortunes of the
Raffles family on Sumatra, after they were welcomed by the
earthquake.
^384
CHAPTER XXII
When enough work had been
done to settle in the new government at Bencoolen, with a
certain degree of firmness, Sir Stamford's lively curiosity began
working on the question of Sumatra's interior. True, the East
India Company laid claim only to the strip of land along the
coast, almost every square foot of which at one time or another
had felt the effects of civilization in its less pleasant aspects.
But those were early days, happy days, when a good deal of the
earth's surface was still unclaimed by any nation if there
seemed to be no direct reason for building fortresses on it or
using it for some other sort of defensive structure. Soon enough
the nations of the world would become mine-conscious, and
then all the jungles and deserts which had been no man's
land would be covered with eager, greedy little figures staking
out claims over vast areas, just in case some kind of mineral
wealth was hidden away underground, however unlikely this
might seem. In 1818, though, mining fever and oil hunger
hadn't yet encroached on the jungles of Sumatra, and when
Sir Stamford Raffles wanted to go exploring, nobody stopped
him. The natives were sometimes reluctant to accompany him,
because they had been brought up on stories of angry gods
living behind the peaks of the distant mountains. Likewise
there were white men's legends. The local Europeans warned
Raffles dolefully that no one had ever crossed the mountain
385^
range extending down the middle of the island, like the bony
spine of Sumatra, and come out to tell the tale. Aside from
these rather metaphysical hazards there were a number of
actual dangers, chiefly from tigers, though wandering bands
of elephants are not always harmless either when one meets
them in thick underbrush. The Sumatran jungle was thickly
populated with dangerous wild beasts, actually more so than
the forests of the Congo. But to dare all that kind of thing
was in the British tradition and held no terrors for either one
of the Raffles couple. Even the inexperienced Sophia wel-
comed the chance to go out and examine the haunts of the
tiger.
We have full accounts of two such expeditions, the first ever
made under such circumstances by the Raffleses. For that rea-
son they were recorded by Sir Stamford with exceptional
gusto. There are references, also, to later trips in the letters
Sophia saved. Probably her husband prepared these long, de-
tailed descriptions especially for his faithful correspondent,
the Duchess of Somerset, because on leaving England he had
promised to tell her all about the strange people and the land-
scapes of this, his newest adventure. But reading between the
lines one can guess, too, that he loved writing for its own sake.
It is hardly accurate to say that literature lost a brilliant writer
when Sir Stamford went into politics. Literature gained him
as she would never have done otherwise, had Raffles embraced
any other vocation. Most likely the only reason he never
dabbled in fiction or wrote novels like Disraeli is that he didn't
have the time, though there are a few Dutch historians, come
to think of it, who would readily declare that Raffles was a
fiction writer, an accomplished one at that. Raffles didn't have
the time for novels, but after all he scarcely had reason to write
fiction, since almost everything he recorded was more exciting
than any plot he could have dreamed up.
His first journey inland was a short one, up the mountain
of Bencoolen, on a sort of preliminary survey. He traveled
quickly through country which he found "in a wretched state,
and very thinly peopled/' climbed a small range of hills, and
chose on the side of the "Hill of Mists" a pleasant location
^386
tor a country weeK-ena residence, wmcn ne immediately
started building, taking pleasure in the thought that no Euro-
pean had been there before him. The only inconvenience
about the neighborhood, he told the duchess airily, might be
found in the preponderance of tigers and elephants: tigers
were especially thick thereabouts because the people wor-
shiped them as sacred and believed their grandfathers' souls
were contained in the animals* bodies. When a tiger visited a
native village the people offered him rice and fruit and hoped
he would go away without doing too much harm, but in the
past year, said Raffles, as more than a hundred people had
been carried off, the appeasement policy could not be said to
have worked very well. "I am doing all I can," said Sir Stam-
ford, "to resume the empire of man. ... I hope we shall be
able to reside on the Hill of Mists without danger from their
attacks."
Lady Raffles accompanied him on his next trip, a far more
ambitious undertaking of three weeks' length. Dr. Arnold, the
government scientist, and Mr. Presgrave, resident of Manna,
a small community near by, with six native officers and fifty
coolies to carry supplies, were included in the party. Reading
the description is enough to give one a strong nostalgia for the
innocent days of the nineteenth century. We denizens of the
twentieth-century world still retain a few of their hopes and
admirations; we reach out pathetically for the shreds of that
pioneering excitement which was theirs in lavish quantity.
Over high cliffs and through thick forests they went; they came
across "tracts of elephants" which must have preceded them
by only a short time; they visited the alleged site of a village
but could find no trace of human dwelling or cultivation, and
after walking eight hours they set to work and erected "three
or four sheds to sleep in, collecting the materials from the
vegetation" around them. They were awakened once during
the first night by a party of elephants, and were also annoyed,
waking and sleeping, by leeches which got into their boots and
dropped on them off the leaves at night.
It was almost with the impossible luck which characterizes
the Swiss Family Robinson, that amazing castaway family who
387^
managed to find every sort of thing they needed on their desert
isle the moment they thought of needing it, that Raffles made
his great find on the second day out of this, his first long Suma-
tran expedition. However, it was evidently merely a matter of
getting there first, for the Rafflesia arnoldi was certainly not
difficult to discover, once you were in its vicinity.
The natives called it the Devil's Betel Box. It is a gigantic
red flower, often three feet across from petal tip to petal tip
when fully opened, though the bud before bursting open is
merely a foot in diameter. I am no botanist, but from the fact
that Sir Stamford describes it as a parasite on some other plant,
and later says that the chemical composition is "fungous," I
presume it is a sort of orchid, or a fungous growth like a mush-
room. In the drawing which accompanies his description, re-
printed in the Memoir, it looks like a simple flower pattern
of five petals, rather like a huge cosmos blossom. The "nec-
tarium," Sir Stamford told the duchess, could Have held a
gallon and a half of water, and the whole flower weighed fifteen
pounds. Inside the cup it was intense purple and dense yellow.
The petals were brick-red, with numerous pustular spots of a
lighter color. The flower itself was at least half an inch thick
anywhere, and of a "firm fleshy consistence/' probably similar
to that of more ordinary orchids. Soon after expansion, Raffles
said, it began to give out a smell of decaying animal matter.
The fruit never burst, but the whole plant gradually rotted
away, the seeds mixing with the putrid mass. That, too, sounds
orchidaceous. No doubt the plant is familiar nowadays to bot-
anists, but it must have been a shock at first sight. Raffles said
that there were not many of them even in their native haunts,
a conclusion he drew from the fact that quite a few Sumatrans
had never seen one, but he was later to contradict that state-
ment, saying that there were lots of them. As for that first
specimen, the party didn't have enough alcohol to preserve
the whole plant, flower and all, but they managed to save two
of the buds and sent them back to England.
"It appears at first in the form of a small round knob, which
gradually increases in size. The flower-bud is invested by
numerous membranaceous sheaths, which surround it in suc-
^388
cessive layers and expand as the bud enlarges, until at length
they form a cup round its base. These sheaths or bracts are
large, round, concave, of a firm, meinbranaceous consistence,
and of a brown colour. The bud before expansion is depressive,
round, with five obtuse angles, nearly a foot in diameter, and
of a deep dusky red."
The name our party gave their discovery, Rafflesia arnoldf,
doesn't need explaining. In Sumatra the native name is
Petimun SikinlilL Most specimens, they thought, were to be
found near the locality of Manna, Mr. Presgrave's residency,
but later this belief was corrected. The host plant is scientifi-
cally known as the Cissus Angustifolia of Box. Though as a
rule these discoveries spell news and excitement only to scien-
tists, there is something flashily tremendous about this particu-
lar flower which would indubitably have attracted attention
even in our blase age of sensational tabloid journalism. Imagine
the color films alone!
"There is nothing more striking in the Malayan forests than
the grandeur of the vegetation: the magnitude of the flowers,
creepers, and trees, contrasts strikingly with the stunted and,
I had almost said pygmy vegetation of England. Compared
with our forest-trees, your largest oak is a mere dwarf. Here
we have creepers and vines entwining larger trees, and hanging
suspended for more than a hundred feet, in girth not less than
a man's body, and many much thicker; the trees seldom under
a hundred, and generally approaching a hundred and sixty to
two hundred feet in height. One tree we measured was, in cir-
cumference, nine yards! and this is nothing to one I measured
in Java. . . .
". . . The day's journey being most fatiguing, and not less
than thirty miles, entirely through a thick forest, and over
stupendous mountains . . . Lady Raffles was a perfect heroine/'
Dr. Arnold evidently took advantage of this journey to
make a sort of preliminary health officer's survey, and vac-
cinated as many natives as he could persuade to undergo the
strange ordeal. The travelers noted that though the natives
were reputed to be Mohammedans they seemed to cling to the
older faith of their ancestors. "I clearly traced an ancient
589^
mythology, and obtained the names of at least twenty gods,
several of whom are Hindus. . . . The utmost affection and
good-humour seemed to exist among the people of the village;
they were as one family, the men walking about holding each
other by the hand, and playing tricks with each other like chil-
dren; they were as fine a race as I ever beheld; in general
about six feet high, and proportionably stout, clear and clean
skins, and an open ingenuous countenance. . . . Every one
seemed anxious for medicine, and they cheerfully agreed to
be vaccinated. The small-pox had latterly committed great
ravages, and the population of whole villages had fled into the
woods to avoid the contagion. . . .
". . . The hardest day's walk I ever experienced. We calcu-
lated that we had walked more than thirty miles, and over the
worst of roads. . . . The baggage only came up in part, and we
were content to sleep in our wet clothes, under the best shade
we could find. No wood would burn; there was no moon; it
was already dark, and we had no shelter erected. By persever-
ance, however, I made a tolerable place for Lady Raffles, and,
after selecting the smoothest stone I could find in the bed of a
river for a pillow, we managed to pass a tolerably comfortable
night. . . ."
The impression one gets of Lady Raffles from these lines is
exceedingly agreeable, far better, we must admit, than she
makes of herself. Sir Stamford's account also shows strikingly
how admirable is the British convention of understatement
when the topic is courage or fortitude. It is inexpressibly
pleasant and novel to read someone who dismisses as nothing
the courageous behavior of one of these women, many of
whom quietly followed their husbands and dealt as a matter
of fact with all the vicissitudes of life among the ragged out-
posts of Empire, taking it for granted that they should. As an
American, I for one have had a surfeit of the literature which
is still enjoying a vogue in our country, extolling the peculiar
virtues and hardihood of the "Pioneer Woman of America/ 7
There is even, I believe, a fund to maintain statues, one for
each state on the Santa Fe Trail, depicting one of these pioneer
women, complete with flintlock and sunbonnet, pointing with
heroic forefinger toward the West. I don't mean to say any-
thing against the pioneer woman; I do think, though, that we
have praised her enough for a long time to come. If we must
praise some female let's turn our attention elsewhere, though
not on the British wife, because she would only be embar-
rassed and puzzled. It's not that I want to detract from the
glory of the American pioneer woman, but did anyone ever
pause to ask himself what would have happened to her if she
had not accompanied her husband to the frontier but had re-
mained behind, alone in the wilderness?
At this point in her Memoir there occurs one of the few
passages in which "the Editor," as Sophia invariably refers to
herself, doesn't back out of the picture. In the ordinary way
she has an annoying habit of effacing herself in ladylike
fashion, no doubt just as her mother brought her up to do. It
is annoying for two reasons, one being that Sophia would
serve a useful purpose in her narrative by telling us directly, as
woman to audience, her impressions of what was going on.
It would give verisimilitude to the account, a fresh, nature-
colored, eyewitness tone which is woefully lacking in her con-
tribution to the text. Every time she calls herself "Editor" it
is a chilling reminder that we are not only poles apart; some-
how we are separated by one more than the usual dimensions.
There is another cause for our annoyance with the unfortu-
nate, if gallant, Lady Raffles: so exceedingly strained and
careful are her exits and retirings that she distracts our atten-
tion rather than leaving it unimpaired, which is her charitable
intention. One fairly sees her in the act, finger to lip in a warn-
ing gesture, voluminous petticoats rustling, floor squeaking
as she tiptoes to the draped velvet curtain in the corner and
secretes herself behind it "The Editor"! How many times,
I wonder, have I longed to interrupt in the middle of a page
and implore the Editor: "Oh, don't leave us, Sophia; draw up
a chair and be friendly. Relax, girl, relax!"
I was saying, however, that in this passage for once the
Editor does relax and tell us about her life as well as her hus-
band's. Immediately we are stirred to admiration of Sophia,
For once in a way she talks simply and pleasantly, like any
391^3
woman who loves and respects the man she is discussing. Sir
Stamford, she tells us, fell in love with Sumatra on this jour-
ney to the interior, and, though she does not say it, almost
certainly a large part of his happy surprise was due to relief.
The strip of land called Bencoolen was dismal, and the in-
habitants living there seemed at first acquaintance to be com-
pletely wanting in hope, energy, or joy in living. Therefore the
unfortunate lieutenant governor was doubly pleased when the
natives of the inland forest turned out to be "ready and willing
to profit by his influence and advice/' "The Editor" adds, "It
was Sir Stamford's extreme simplicity of mind and manners
that rendered him so peculiarly attractive to them
"The Editor on reaching Merambung, laid down under the
shade of a tree, being much fatigued with walking; the rest
of the party dispersed in various directions to make the neces-
sary arrangements and seek for shelter; when a Malay girl ap-
proached with great grace of manners, and on being asked if
she wanted anything, replied, 'No, but seeing you were quite
alone, I thought you might like to have a little bichara (talk)
and so I am come to offer you some siri, (betel) and sit beside
you/ And no courtier could have discussed trifling general sub-
jects in a better manner or have better refrained from asking
questions which were interesting to herself only; her object
was to entertain a stranger, which she did with the greatest
degree of refinement and politeness."
Sir Stamford offers further evidence of this amiability, speak-
ing of a part of their journey which included a visit to Passu-
mah. ". . . the country I now beheld reminded me so much of
scenes in Java, and was in every respect so different to that on
the coast, that I could not help expressing myself in rap-
tures. . . . The people, too, seemed a new race, far superior to
those on the coast tall, stout, and ingenuous. They received
us most hospitably, and conducted us to the village of Nigri-
Cayu, where we slept.
"I should not omit to inform you, that the immediate oc-
casion of my visiting Passumah was to reconcile contending
interests which had long distracted the country. For the last
ten years these people had been at war with us, or rather we
^392
had been at war with them, for we appeared to have been the
aggressors throughout. I was assured that my person would be
endangered, that the Passumahs were a savage ungovernable
race, and that no terms could ever be made with them, and I
was not a little gratified to find every thing the reverse of what
had been represented to me. I found them reasonable and in-
dustrious, an agricultural race more sinned against than sin-
ning
"During our stay at Tanjung Alem, the Chiefs entered into
a treaty, by which they placed themselves under the protection
of the British Government, and thus all cause of dispute and
misunderstanding was at once set at rest."
Mr. Presgrave, one of the members of this expedition, again
made the trip in October of that year, and kept a full journal
of his progress which is good reading. He must have been a
comfort to Sir Stamford, for he was obviously of the same
school of thought regarding the administration of colonies:
he bears the unmistakable stamp. Also his observations of the
natives are fuller, more detailed, quite as sympathetic in tone,
and if I may say so better expressed, than Sir Stamford's ran-
dom jottings which his wife preserved from the Sumatra expe-
ditions. With a companion of this congenial type, as was also
Dr. Joseph Arnold, the medical officer and botanical expert,
Raffles was not completely deserted and alone, as he had feared
he would be. One's admiration for Presgrave grows with every
paragraph of his journal; he was evidently an observant man
and, whether or not he was especially trained for it, an excel-
lent ethnologist. About this time, also, Raffles was in close
communication with Dr. Horsfield, whose name is still asso-
ciated with Java and Sumatra. The governor had need of all
this stimulation and encouragement, for History was develop-
ing a tendency to be truly monotonous, and in the cruelest
way, once again she decreed that death should rob him of a
valued companion. This time it was Dr. Arnold who fell vic-
tim to the dread tropical fever; not as suddenly, it is true, as
Leyden had been carried off, but evidently he died of the same
complaint. We can only hazard guesses from this distant point
in time; one is inclined, perhaps erroneously, to put all these
393
tragedies down to malaria of the cerebral variety because that
works most swiftly. Dr. Arnold was first taken ill during the
expedition on which Sophia gave such a good account of her-
self, after a thorough wetting and exposure, and though he
seemed to recover from that attack his death followed on a
similar one soon after the party arrived back at Bencoolen.
These journeys., in spite of hazards and catastrophes, were so
enjoyable to Sir Stamford that in the summing up he may
very well have decided that his term on Sumatra was better
than the Javanese episode. The luxury of writing Marsden from
Menangkabu, for example, was great. Menangkabu is an an-
cient territory, perhaps the cradle of the Malay race. Before
Raffles visited it very few Europeans had been there, though
in an indirect manner that land was responsible for the begin-
ning of the East India Company. My authority for this sur-
prising statement is the following passage from Lady Raffles's
book:
"Menangkabu had been famed since the earliest periods of
history for the riches of its gold mines, its iron ores, and its
mineral productions in general. It was from Menangkabu, and
principally down the Siak, Sudragiri, and Sunda rivers that the
gold which traders found at Malacca in remote periods was
carried. It was to the gold of Menangkabu that Malacca owed
its designation of the golden Chersonesus, and navigators even
distinguish in their charts to this day two mountains' in its
vicinity, called Mount Ophir, one in Sumatra to the west, the
other on the peninsula of Malacca, but nearly in the same de-
gree of latitude with the capital of Menangkabu, that is to say,
under the equinoctial line."
There you have it the golden Chersonese. Sir Stamford,
needless to say, fully appreciated what it meant to get there
first, and as soon as he reached that significant spot on the map
he sat down and wrote Marsden, historian of Sumatra, to an-
nounce his arrival, in company with Dr. Horsfield and Lady
Raffles. His letter to the duchess a few weeks later is of more
interest to the uninitiated public because there he was careful
to use plain language. From a combination of facts we may
conclude that the journey was not exclusively for the purpose
^394
of scientific exploration. Sir Stamford had good political rea-
sons for investigating that area. He wanted to ascertain how far
inland the Dutch were claiming influence, and he wished be-
sides to reassure himself that the British were in good standing
with the natives. Padang was the important town from that
angle but a later chapter is being reserved for the politics of
Sumatra. To the duchess, on September tenth, he wrote,
"On my arrival at Padang, I found, that notwithstanding
the previous instructions I had given, no arrangements what-
ever had been made for facilitating the proposed journey into
the interior. Here, as in a former instance at Manna, when I
proposed proceeding to Pasumah, the chief authority had
taken upon himself, on the advice of the good folks of the
place, to consider such an excursion as altogether impracti-
cable, and to conclude that on my arrival I should myself be
of the same opinion. I had, therefore, to summon the most
intelligent European and native inhabitants, and to inform
them of my determination. At first all was difficulty and impos-
sibility. Besides physical obstructions, the whole of the in-
terior was represented to be under the sway of Tuanku Pasa-
man, a religious reformer, who would undoubtedly cut me
off without mercy or consideration: but when they found
me positive, these difficulties and impossibilities gradually
vanished; distances were estimated, and a route projected; let-
ters were immediately sent off to the principal Chiefs of the
interior, informing them of my approach, and in three days
every thing was ready for the journey/'
Dr. Horsfield went on ahead of the main party in order to
gain time for botanizing. Two or three days later he sent a let-
ter back to Raffles which, as Sir Stamford says ironically, de-
serves to be quoted /(to the duchess, naturally) as a good ex-
ample of how to encourage your friends.
"Your servants, Covrington and Siamee, have just arrived
at Gedong Beo, with a report that one of the Coolies was car-
ried away by the stream, in attempting to cross the river; we
have had continued rain for twenty-four hours, by which the
rivers are all greatly swelled. Covrington thinks it impossible
that Lady Raffles can pursue the route. As for myself, I came
395^3
in just before the rain. I must inform you that there are many
difficult passages; I should not, however, despair of your
progress, as far as relates to yourself, but as for Lady Raffles,
I almost doubt whether, in favourable weather, she could
come on, as in many places a lady cannot be carried; if it rains,
doubtless, communication is stopped. The road passes through
the bed of a stream, which rapidly swells after rains; and if
the rains continue, the natives are positively of opinion, that
the progress forwards or backwards is impeded. I do not wish
to discourage you in the attempt, but it is my duty to inform
you of what your servants have communicated to me, with
a request to make it known to you as early as possible.
"The further route towards Tiga bias is reckoned worse
than that hither by far, and large packages, as a table, etc.,
cannot be transported/'
Just as a finishing touch, it rained all that night the letter
arrived. But Lady Raffles was of sterner stuff than Dr. Hors-
field thought, and the couple went ahead in the morning,
"fully determined to overcome every obstacle/' as Raffles
wrote the duchess. "The first miracle wrought was to bring
the dead to life, in the reappearance of the Coolie, who was
reported to have been lost; this poor fellow^had truly enough
been carried away by the flood, but having had the good sense
to lay hold of the branch of a tree which overhung the river,
he afterwards regained the rocks/'
Raffles's entire letter is full of interest, but we have not the
space to reprint more than the highlights, omitting descrip-
tions of a typical Sumatran native dwelling, the primitive agri-
cultural tools they used, and most of the trees and flowers the
travelers discovered.
"It was near Simawang (toward the goal) that we first found
feltspar, granite, quartz, and other minerals of a primitive
formation. They were here mixed with a quantity of volcanic
productions in the greatest confusion, , . . Dr. Horsfield got
specimens of these, which he gave in charge to some coolies
who attended him; after the day's journey he wished to exam-
ine this collection; the men produced their baskets full of
stones, but on the Doctor's exclaiming they were not what
he had given them, and expressing some anger on the occa-
sion, they simply observed, they thought he only wanted
stones, and they preferred carrying their baskets empty, so
they threw away what he gave them, and filled them up at the
end of the day's journey, and they were sure they gave him
more than he collected. . . .
". . . our path, which had hitherto been narrow, and some-
times steep and broken, widened, and it was evident we were
approaching the vicinity of some place of importance: but
alas! little was left for our curiosity but the wreck of what had
once been great and populous. The waringen trees, which
shaded and added solemnity to the palace, were yet standing
in all their majesty. The fruit-trees, and particularly the cocoa-
nut, marked the distant boundaries of this once extensive
city; but the rank grass had usurped the halls of the palace,
and scarce was the thatch of the peasant to be found; three
times has the city been committed to the flames. Well might
I say, in the language of the Brata Yudha, 'Sad and melancholy
was her waringin tree, like unto the sorrow of a wife whose
husband is afar/
"On our arrival at Suruasa we were conducted to the best
dwelling which the place now afforded to the palace, a small
planed house of about thirty feet long, beautifully situated on
the banks of the Golden River (Soongy Amas) . Here we were
introduced to the Tuan Gadis, or Virgin Queen, who admin-
istered the country. We were received with all the satisfac-
tion and kindness that could be expected. It was a scene
which made me melancholy, and I will not attempt to de-
scribe it.
"The extensive population and high state of cultivation
by which we were surrounded, seemed to confirm the opinion
I had always formed, and even publicly maintained, as you
may see in my History of Java, that the Malayan empire was
not of recent origin, and that in its zenith it was of compara-
tive rank, if not the rival and contemporary of the Javan. The
Malays have always excited considerable speculation from
the circumstance of their being evidently in a retrograde state;
but where were we to look for their history? In their literary
397^3
compositions they seldom go farther back than the introduc-
tion of Mohammedanism, except to give an account of Noah's
ark, or some romantic tale from which little or nothing can
be gathered. It was my good fortune in Java to discover the
vestiges of a former high state of literature and the arts, in
poems, in the ruins of temples, in sculptured images, in an-
cient inscriptions. Nothing of this kind was supposed to
exist among the Malays; Java was therefore considered as the
cradle of the arts and sciences, as far as they had been intro-
duced into the Archipelago. The Malays were even stated to
have derived their origin from Java, from the Javan word
Malayu, meaning a runaway; they were said to be the runa-
ways and outcasts of Java. You may see all this, and much
more to the disadvantage of the Malays, stated in the forty-
first number of the Edinburgh Review. Your Grace may there-
fore judge with what interest I now surveyed a country which,
at least as far as the eye could reach, equalled Java in scenery
and cultivation; and with what real satisfaction I stumbled,
by the merest accident, upon nothing less than an inscription
in the real Kawi character, engraved on a stone, exactly after
the manner of those which have excited so much interest in
Java. Immediately opposite the house, or palace, which I
have described, was the mosque, a small square building. In
front of the mosque, turned up on its edge, and serving as a
stepping-stone to this modern place of Mohamedan worship,
was this relic of Hindu dominion. I soon traced the characters
to be the same as those we had discovered in Java. All hands
were immediately collected. In about an hour we succeeded
in laying the stone flat on the ground, and the operation of
transcribing it was immediately commenced. The evening did
not pass without further inquiries. A second inscription in
similar characters, was discovered near the site of the former
Ictidam, or palace. This was on a stone of irregular figure, and
partly buried in the ground. We had only time to transcribe
two lines of this. . . .
'In quitting Saruasa we noticed several small tanks, and
passed over the site of many an extensive building now no
more. The only vestige, however, of any thing like sculpture,
beyond the inscriptions already alluded to, was in four cut
stones, which evidently had formerly served for the entrance
of the city/'
At the next town they made even more extensive discov-
eriesat Pageruyong, from where Sir Stamford sent his happy
little letter to Marsden. To the duchess he was more expan-
sive, realizing that he would not later be sending her a full
scientific comprehensive account as he would to Marsden.
Joyfully he recounted how he had found a Hindu image like
those discovered in Java, "evidently the work of similar artists,
and the object of a similar worship." Only scholars can ap-
preciate the full depth of excitement which must have been
Raffles's and Horsfield's, but one need not be a scholar to
understand the thrill of such a discovery. We all feel the pull
of ancient civilizations; our popular literature, even the "com-
ics/' often deals with like subjects.
At the risk of being banal I refer to Sophia's adventures,
It is actually difficult to avoid cliche here "the natives seemed
friendly, so we decided to spend the night," as well as that
good old chestnut about "the first white woman ever seen by
the simple blacks." But that's the way Sophia wrote it and
that's what I've got to repeat. The people of the Tiga-blas
country, she said, were struck with amazement by her appear-
ance. The question was not "Who is that?" but "What is
that?" She put it down to a combination of two things: her
fair complexion and her unfamiliar kind of clothing. At length
the natives decided she must be something supernatural, and
the idea gained ground rapidly that there was virtue in her
touch, so that women crowded around her, holding out their
young children and begging her to touch them. This became
such a nuisance that a guard was stationed at the door of the
hut where Lady Raffles stayed one day while the men were
away. There were so many native spectators, however, that
they overpowered the guard and crowded in their hundreds
into the house, and there they sat down and stared, and stared
and stared. They were peaceable enough, but after all ...
Lady Raffles begged them at last to go away so that she could
sleep. But they wanted to watch her sleep, too, to see if she
399^
did that like an ordinary mortal. There was no way of getting
rid of them until the rest of the party came back.
There is a definite note of pride, certainly a natural emo-
tion considering everything, in the few lines the Editor's hus-
band wrote to his friend the duchess after their return from
this arduous journey:
"We are going on, I am happy to say, very well; our dear
little Charlotte daily improving, and promising to be every
thing we could wish. Lady Raffles is quite well, notwithstand-
ing the excessive fatigue of the journeys we have taken; the
last occupied fifteen days, and we did not walk less than two
hundred and fifty miles over the very worst route, for road
there was none, at first, up the bed of a river, where we had
to force our way by leaping from rock to rock; then for some
days over hills covered with forest; and the roots of the trees
which projected far above the ground, our only foot-path; the
ascent sometimes so steep, that Lady Raffles was obliged to be
dragged up by two men, often so fatigued she could not raise
her foot the length of the step, having to walk some days
from day-light, with one hour's rest at mid-day, when the only
refreshment to be obtained was a little rice and wine, until
eight o'clock at night, before we reached the shed prepared
for our night's lodging."
Delicacy has evidently forbidden both Sir Stamford and
Mr. Boulger, as well as Lady Raffles herself, to point out that
she was pregnant when she embarked on this adventure. She
was not in an advanced state, it is true, but at just that time
when ladies of good breeding are apt to feel most miserable,
especially early in the morning. Nobody has ever remarked
on this fact, as far as I can discover. Moreover, this was not
the end of the excitements which precluded the birth of little
Leopold, but rather the beginning.
I have determined to tell the story of the Raffles family on
Sumatra in its entirety, finishing it and then retracing steps
and starting again on politics, without trying to sandwich it be-
tween chapters of the Singapore saga. For this reason we must
be satisfied with the mere mention of Sophia's journeyings in
company with her husband, without too much discussion as
to why she should thus abandon her little Charlotte in order
to visit Calcutta and Penang, at such a time. The truth was
simply that she wanted to stay with Raffles, and dared not
take the baby. Sir Stamford was madly busy then, and his
loving wife did not keep up with him all the way, but after
having visited Calcutta with him and afterward gone to Pe-
nang, she stopped there. He speaks of this in a letter to
Marsden, dated January 16, 1819: "Sophia will remain at
Penang, while I visit Acheen." She was within two months of
her time on that date. But for some weeks before that he was
speaking anxiously of his wife, mentioning her in almost
every letter to Marsden which is quoted in the Memoir:
"Lady Raffles has accompanied me [to Calcutta, in October]
she is quite well, but finds the climate very different from that
of our Eastern Isles. . . " In November, again from Calcutta:
"Lady Raffles is quite well, and unites/' et cetera. With the
Duchess of Somerset at the same time he is more confidential,
as is natural:
"My own health remains much the same as when I left Eng-
land, and Lady Raffles is, if any thing, better. Do you not pity
poor Lady Raffles and think me very hard-hearted to drag
her about in her present state, but she will not remain from
me, and what can I do? We are now above three months
without any news of our dear baby, so that you see we have our
minor as well as major separations."
It is from Sir Stamford's letter to someone who was not so
constant a correspondent as the duchess that we owe our most
definite information on little Leopold's birth. This is a long
epistle addressed to Colonel Addenbrooke from Singapore
itself on June 11, 1819 Addenbrooke was equerry to the late
Princess Charlotte, and Raffles no doubt felt moved to inform
the royal family in this manner that he had founded the new
colony:
"You may judge of our anxiety to return to Bencoolen,
when I tell you that we left our little girl there in August last,
and have not since seen her. Lady Raffles, who accompanied
me to Bengal, and is now with me, has since presented me
with a son. The circumstances preceding his birth were not
401
scale. His pleasures were limited and his happiness curtailed,
but at any rate such as it was, what there was of it, was of a
deep, strong, satisfying quality. Those people who have be-
come fond of Raffles may be sure that for a while, at least, in
his short life, so full of tragedy, he tasted the best our world
can offer.
Writing again to that anonymous recipient, probably his
mother, we learn in October that the family is back at Ben-
coolen, though the group was almost immediately to be broken
up again, this time in a manner less pleasant for Raffles and
his wife, as there was no room in the ship for her when Sir
Stamford was called again to Calcutta.
"Sophia enjoys the best of health, and our two children
are of course prodigies. The boy even excels his sister in beauty
and expression, and our only anxiety is to take them to Eng-
land before the climate makes an inroad on their constitution.
Till they are six, seven, or eight years old, they may remain
with safety; but after that period both mind and body will be
injured by a longer residence within the tropics.
"Such portion of my time as is not taken up in public
business, is principally devoted to natural history. We are
making very extensive collections in all departments; and as
Sophia takes her full share in these pursuits, the children will,
no doubt, easily imbibe a taste for these amusing and inter-
esting occupations. Charlotte has her lap full of shells, and
the boy is usually denominated 'Ie /eune Aristote/ "
His mention here of natural history has finally decided the
writer that this pursuit, a favorite hobby with Raffles, belongs
by rights to his private rather than his public life. From the
beginning of his career in the East, Sir Stamford seems to have
selected as friends those among his colleagues who shared his
passion for natural history, which accounts for the prepon-
derance of "doctors" in the list. It was his bad luck to lose
Dr. Leyden early in his official life, and a similarly unkind
turn of fate took Dr. Joseph Arnold from him at the outset of
the Sumatra adventure, practically at the very moment, happy
^404
ers and philosophers of only the past thirty years. That is to
say he has existed as an Englishman only that long, though
similar emotionless personalities have been the ideal of other
nations long before England thought up the type. In China,
for example, ever since the days of Confucius it has been con-
sidered bad form to exhibit much emotion of any sort, whereas
the Japanese go even further and refer to their wives and chil-
dren in the most unflattering terms they can think of.
When he went into transports of joy and admiration over
his little ones, Sir Stamford Raffles wasn't outraging conven-
tion but was, rather, right in the middle of the swim. Times
were different then. We must not forget that he lived in the
period of Thackeray and Dickens, when children were sup-
posed to be golden-haired angels of purity, adorable little imps,
beautiful infants, rosy-cheeked cherubs. It was to get a lot
worse, too, before it got better though there is no doubt the
pendulum has swung as far as it can go, now, in the other di-
rection, and it will not be long before we have another reac-
tion toward the rosy-cheeked school of thought. Before Eng-
land entered the present tight-lipped phase, where children
have become blasted nuisances and little horrors even to their
fond parents, and everyone must pretend to hate his children
whether or not he actually does before England reached her
present status, she was to live through a painful siege of the
Teutonic sentimentality which Victoria's Prince Consort
brought into fashion. Compared with the expressions then in
use, Raffles's exultations are not too offensive but seem in com-
parison to be touching, simple, honest, and natural.
It is hardly fair to speak of Thackeray et al in the same
breath with him, for Raffles's letters about the children are
not literature. They are genuine. Fashion or not, he actually
felt that way about his little ones. Few men of his time or of
any other period can claim to have enjoyed the company of
their offspring as much as did this self-appointed priest of
empire. In the aftermath when we add up the sum of his life,
when the time comes to evaluate the happiness he gained,
quite aside from his success and accomplishments, there is not
very much which can be declared on the credit side of the
403^
scale. His pleasures were limited and his happiness curtailed,
but at any rate such as it was, what there was of it, was of a
deep, strong, satisfying quality. Those people who have be-
come fond of Raffles may be sure that for a while, at least, in
his short life, so full of tragedy, he tasted the best our world
can offer.
Writing again to that anonymous recipient, probably his
mother, we learn in October that the family is back at Ben-
coolen, though the group was almost immediately to be broken
up again, this time in a manner less pleasant for Raffles and
his wife, as there was no room in the ship for her when Sir
Stamford was called again to Calcutta.
"Sophia enjoys the best of health, and our two children
are of course prodigies. The boy even excels his sister in beauty
and expression, and our only anxiety is to take them to Eng-
land before the climate makes an inroad on their constitution.
Till they are six, seven, or eight years old, they may remain
with safety; but after that period both mind and body will be
injured by a longer residence within the tropics.
"Such portion of my time as is not taken up in public
business, is principally devoted to natural history. We are
making very extensive collections in all departments; and as
Sophia takes her full share in these pursuits, the children will,
no doubt, easily imbibe a taste for these amusing and inter-
esting occupations. Charlotte has her lap full of shells, and
the boy is usually denominated 'k /eune Aristote/ "
His mention here of natural history has finally decided the
writer that this pursuit, a favorite hobby with Raffles, belongs
by rights to his private rather than his public life. From the
beginning of his career in the East, Sir Stamford seems to have
selected as friends those among his colleagues who shared his
passion for natural history, which accounts for the prepon-
derance of "doctors" in the list. It was his bad luck to lose
Dr. Leyden early in his official life, and a similarly unkind
turn of fate took Dr. Joseph Arnold from him at the outset of
the Sumatra adventure, practically at the very moment, happy
^404
as it then seemed, when they discovered the giant flower to-
gether. It was no mere convenience that had led Sir Stam-
ford and Sophia to an intimate friendship with Arnold: "he
formed part of our family, and I regret his loss as that of a
sincere friend/' Had this been the habit of the Raffleses, the
American scientist Dr. Horsfield would have been as readily
accepted in the family circle, but he was not. For some reason
which Sir Stamford and his wife have not wished to place on
record, they evidently did not like Dr. Horsfield. I have no
authority to say this; there is nothing definite that I can quote
in support of the statement, but there is certainly a feeling
in the words, printed and impersonal as they are, which are
used whenever Horsfield is mentioned; one feels a strain on
Sir Stamford's good nature in these passages. I know nothing
else of Dr. Horsfield except, of course, his reputation in the
scientific world, and a long letter from him addressed to Lady
Raffles after Sir Stamford's death, which praises Raffles with-
out stint. It forms part of the Memoir's Appendix. Perhaps it
was merely a matter of unsympathetic personality, but there
it is Horsfield was not accepted and loved by Sir Stamford,
but Arnold was, as was the ill-fated young Addison, and the
great man Marsden himself. Arnold had been recommended
to Raffles by Sir Joseph Banks, who was responsible in Eng-
land for the new Natural History Society, Sir Stamford's great
"Home" enthusiasm. Now it would be necessary to do with-
out him, though it is my personal opinion that Presgrave, the
resident at Manna, must have been just another such com-
panion. But as Sophia shared her husband's interests and was
more than willing to train the children along the same lines,
the cause of Science continued to flourish in the Raffles home
and in the lieutenant governor's office.
In fact that latter circumstance was responsible for one
more problem in Raffles's public life, so closely connected
with his personal tastes that I think any mention of it had
better be made here. About this time a botanist named Dr.
Jack was hired and set to work for Sumatra; and just when
young Leopold was born Raffles received an offer from two
Frenchmen, Diard and Duvaucel, who described themselves
405
CHAPTER XXIII
Of all the many letters writ-
ten by Raffles from Sumatra, the most original is a long
treatise, on the Batta tribe of cannibals, which he sent to the
Duchess of Somerset. He wrote it during his convalescence
from a serious illness which had confined him to his bed for
a month in Calcutta, "forbidden," he says, "to write or even
to think/' He wrote as he lay on deck within sight of Sumatra,
returning home, after weary long months away, in February
1820. The sight of that place which he had once feared and
detested, but which now meant all the happiness life held
for him, must have had the effect he declared was true. One
look and, miraculously, he was almost cured: he insisted on
it His gaiety proved it. Seldom did Raffles ever rise to such
heights of drolleryand on such a subject too! He must have
been sure of his audience, for his pen traveled on and on, un-
derlining every horrid detail, and all the while he kept assuring
the duchess that in spite of their peculiar habits he liked the
Battas very much. They were monotheists, he explained; they
were warlike and fair and honorable in all their dealings; their
country was highly cultivated, and crimes were few. Marsden
in the History of Sumatra had already talked about the Battas
at some length, but Raffles claimed that he had not gone half
far enough, describing their cannibalism. In order then to
refresh the duchess's memory, and also no doubt to start her
off with the proper attitude and make the ducal flesh crawl,
Raffles touched briefly on the high places of Marsden's ac-
count and repeated the worst of them.
"He seems to consider that it is only in cases of prisoners
taken in war, or in extreme cases of adultery, that the practice
of man-eating is resorted to, and then that it is only in a fit
of revenge. He tells us that, not satisfied with cutting off pieces
and eating them raw, instances have been known where some
of the people present have run up to the victim, and actually
torn the flesh from the bones with their teeth. He also tells us,
that one of our Residents found the remains of an English
soldier, who had been only half eaten, and afterwards discov-
ered his finger sticking on a fork, laid by, but first taken warm
from the fire: but I had rather refer your Grace to the book;
and if you have not got it, pray send for it, and read all that is
said about the Battas.
"In a small pamphlet, lately addressed to the Court of
Directors, respecting the coast, an instance still more horrible
than any thing related by Mr. Marsden is introduced; and as
this pamphlet was written by a high authority, and the fact
is not disputed, there can be no question as to its correctness:
it is nearly as follows.
"A few years ago, a man had been found guilty of a very
common crime, and was sentenced to be eaten according to
the law of the land; this took place close to Tappanooly; the
Resident was invited to attend; he declined, but his assistant
and a native officer were present. As soon as they reached the
spot, they found a large assemblage of people, and the crimi-
nal tied to a tree, with his hands extended. The minister of
justice, who was himself a Chief of some rank, then came
forward with a large knife in his hand, which he brandished
as he approached the victim. He was followed by a man car-
rying a dish, in which was a preparation or condiment, com-
posed of limes, chillies, and salt, called by the Malays Sambul.
He then called aloud for the injured husband, and demanded
what part he chose; he replied the right ear, which was im-
mediately cut off with one stroke, and delivered to the party,
who, turning round to the man behind, deliberately dipped
409
it into the Sambul, and devoured it; the rest of the party
fell upon the body, each taking and eating the part me
his liking. After they had cut off a considerable part c
flesh, one man stabbed him to the heart; but this was i
out of compliment to the foreign visitors, as it is by no r
the custom to give the coup de grace.
"It was with a knowledge o all these facts regardin
Battas that I paid a visit to Tappanooly, with a determir]
to satisfy my mind most fully in every thing concerning
nibalism. I had previously set on foot extensive enquiries
so managed matters as to concentrate the information
to bring the point within a narrow compass. You shall
hear the result; but, before I proceed, I must beg of y
have a little more patience than you had with Mr. Ma
I recollect that when you came to the story of eatin
aunt, you threw the book down. Now I can assure your <
that I have ten times more to report, and you must believ
"I have said the Battas are not a bad people, and
think so, notwithstanding they eat one another, and relis
flesh of a man better than that of an ox or a pig. You
merely consider that I am giving you an account of a
state of society. The Battas are not savages, for they writ
read, and think full as much, and more than those wl
brought up at our Lancastrian and National Schools,
have also codes of laws of great antiquity, and it is from
gard for these laws, and a veneration for the institutic
their ancestors, that they eat each other; the law declare
for certain crimes, four in number, the criminals shall be
ALIVE. The same law declares also, that in great wars
is to say, one district with another, it shall be lawful to e:
prisoners, whether taken alive, dead, or in their graves.
"In the four great cases of crimes the criminal is alsc
tried and condemned by a competent tribunal. Whe
evidence is heard sentence is pronounced, when the C
drink a dram each, which last ceremony is equivalent to
ing and sealing with us.
"Two or three days then elapse to give time for asserr
the people, and in cases of adultery it is not allowed to
the sentence into effect, unless the relations of the wife ap-
pear and partake of the feast. The prisoner is then brought
forward on the day appointed, and fixed to a stake with his
hands extended. The husband or party injured comes up and
takes the first choice, generally the ears; the rest then, accord-
ing to their rank, take the choice pieces, each helping him-
self according to his liking. After all have partaken, the chief
person goes up and cuts off the head, which he carries home
as a trophy. The head is hung up in front of the house, and
the brains are carefully preserved in a bottle for purposes of
witchcraft, etc. In devouring the flesh, it is sometimes eaten
raw, and sometimes grilled, but it must be eaten upon the
spot. Limes, salt, and pepper are always in readiness, and they
sometimes eat rice with the flesh, but never drink toddy of
spirits; many carry bamboos with them, and filling them with
blood drink it off. The assembly consists of men alone, as
the flesh of man is prohibited to the females: it is said, how-
ever, that they get a bit by stealth now and then.
"I am assured, and really do believe, that many of the peo-
ple prefer human flesh to any other, but notwithstanding this
penchant they never indulge the appetite except on lawful
occasions. The palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet,
are the delicacies of epicures!
"On expressing my surprise at the continuance of such ex-
traordinary practices, I was informed that formerly it was
usual for the people to eat their parents when too old for
work. The old people selected the horizontal branch of a tree,
and quietly suspended themselves by their hands, while their
children and neighbours, forming a circle, danced round them,
crying out, 'When the fruit is ripe, then it will fall/ This prac-
tice took place during the season of limes, when salt and pep-
per were plenty, and as soon as the victims became fatigued,
and could hold on no longer, they fell down, when all hands
cut them up, and made a hearty meal of them. This practice,
however, of eating the old people has been abandoned, and
thus a step in civilization has been attained, and, therefore,
there are hopes of future improvement.
"This state of society you will admit to be very peculiar.
411
It is calculated, that certainly not less than from sixty to one
hundred Battas are thus eaten in a year in times of peace.
"I was going on to tell your Grace much about the treat-
ment of the females and children, but I find that I have al-
ready filled several sheets, and that I am called away from the
cabin; I will therefore conclude, with entreating you not to
think the worse of me for this horrible relation. You know
that I am far from wishing to paint any of the Malay race in
the worst colours, but yet I must tell the truth. Notwithstand-
ing the practices I have related, it is my determination to take
Lady Raffles into the interior, and to spend a month or two
in the midst of these Battas. Should any accident occur to us,
or should we never be heard of more, you may conclude we
have been eaten.
"I am half afraid to send this scrawl, and yet it may amuse
you, if it does not, throw it into the fire; and still believe that,
though half a cannibal, and living among cannibals, I am not
less warm in heart and soul. In the deepest recesses of the
forest, and among the most savage of all tribes, my heart still
clings to those afar off, and I do believe that even were I
present at a Batta feast, I should be thinking of kind friends at
Maiden Bradly. What an association! God forgive me, and
bless you all.
"I am forming a collection of skulls; some from bodies that
have been eaten. Will your Grace allow them room among
the curiosities?"
Soon afterward Raffles was restored to his family, and great
was the rejoicing thereat. Though we have placed a tem-
porary prohibition on any discussion of politics, it should be
permitted to remind ourselves that the date of his arrival-
March 1820 is significant. By this time the new colony,
Singapore, had been settled, and Sir Stamford felt that his
most important life's work was thus accomplished. The
passage of more than a century since then has produced noth-
ing to disprove that belief. It is strange to reflect at this time
that Raffles was not yet forty years old. Small wonder that some
of his biographers have been tempted to overrate the length
of time devoted to some of the outstanding incidents of his
life. Even the most overwhelming of his adventures were usu-
-412
ally compressed into short periods. An ordinary man could
not have lived at that rate of speed. At thirty-nine Raffles
could look back on a life more packed with excitement and
accomplishment than the careers claimed by most septua-
genarians. His shade can afford to laugh scornfully at mod-
ern commentators when they talk, patronizingly, of the lei-
surely rate at which our forefathers ambled through their
allotted span. With all our planes and non-stop round-the-
world voyages and transoceanic telephone calls, we seldom ac-
complish as much, as quickly, as did young Sir Stamford
Raffles more than a hundred years ago.
Even at begetting children he didn't waste any time, once
he settled down to it, though admittedly he was late getting
started. "Charlotte and Leopold are in high health and spir-
its/' he wrote his mother when he got back to Bencoolen,
"and in the course of two or three months, we hope to make
up the trio." Considering that his son's first birthday had only
just been celebrated and that Charlotte, the first-born, was
little more than two years old, that was pretty good going.
Sir Stamford was in earnest when he announced to Sophia
that he had accomplished enough to satisfy his large-scale am-
bitions and could do no more than he had already done for
England's interests in the Orient. Only time could prove how
right he was in feeling that Singapore was a big thing, and he
for one was perfectly happy to leave that job to time. Now the
immediate task of Bencoolen's administration would be his
only public work, and he intended to enjoy himself in ways
which hitherto he had longed for in vain. For two years he had
intended to build a country house; now he did it, and Sophia
says with fond amusement that he moved out of town and
lived in it when one room was barely finished, taking with
him "a part of his family," as she put it, and happily planting
a garden while the workmen continued to build. There he was
able to experiment with spice and coffee growing, aided in
his work on the plantation by convicts who settled down and
made a community near by which they modeled on one of
Minto's favorite patterns. They did well with Raffles as over-
seer, and r were far more contented and useful with this ar-
413
rangement than they had been before, under the old plan.
Everything for once was exactly as Sir Stamford wanted it.
He was leading a regular, healthy existence, with enough ex-
periment and mental stimulation to satisfy him; he felt easy
in his mind and heart over Singapore, from where he received
only the most encouraging reports; his beloved children were
growing more interesting and lovelier every day. Lady Raffles
said that in the country he rose at four in the morning and
worked in the garden until breakfast, always insisting upon
planting the seeds himself; he wrote and studied until dinner
and then inspected the plantations, where, accompanied by
the children, he walked about, sometimes until very late hours.
Among the items in a zoological collection which he for-
warded to Sir Joseph Banks in London, described in a letter
to his friend Marsden, were a tapir, a rhinoceros, a kijangs (?),
and various rare animals of which at that date he was able to
supply only the Malayan names. "I have thrown politics far
away/' he wrote another friend, "and since I must have noth-
ing more to do with men, have taken to the wilder but less
sophisticated animals of our woods. Our house is on one side a
perfect menagerie, on another a perfect flora; here, a pile of
stones; there, a collection of sea-weeds, shells, etc."
He told the Duchess: "Your Grace will, I doubt not, be
happy to hear that our prospects, even at Bencoolen, are im-
proving; the place no longer has that gloomy and desolate
appearance of which I first complained. Population and in-
dustry are increasing; the iuland merchants begin to bring
down the gold and cassia from the interior, and a stranger
would hardly know the place again, so much is it changed
from what it was two years ago. We have a good many com-
forts about us, and shall really regret any political necessity
which obliges us to remove from what has now become our
second home. We have a delightful garden, and so many liv-
ing pets, children tame and wild; monkeys, dogs, birds, etc.
that we have a perfect rgne animale within our own walls,
to say nothing of the surrounding forests now under contri-
bution. I have one of the most beautiful little men of the
woods that can be conceived; he is not much above two feet
^3414
high, wears a beautitul surtout ot hne white woollen, and m
his disposition and habits the kindest and most correct crea-
ture imaginable; his face is jet black, and his features most
expressive; he has not the slightest rudiments of a tail, always
walks erect, and would I am sure become a favorite in Park
Lane."
Here a fellow ape enthusiast pauses for conjecture. Liter-
ally, "Man of the woods" in the Malay language is "orang-
utan," but orangs are not black-faced, and their children,
though like this one they always walk erect, are usually apt
to stand more than two feet high, I think this particular little
man of the woods is certainly the other tailless Malay anthro-
poid, a gibbon. Raffles, man of taste that he was, was known
to be fond of gibbons, and I cannot imagine any other an-
thropoid ape that could possibly, under any circumstances,
become a favorite in Park Lane. The gibbons have it.
A few months later Raffles announced to the duchess th
birth of his third child, a boy, christened Stamford Marsdeij
Marsden, of course, for Sir Stamford's great good friend,
the historian of Sumatra. (For the same reason the baby's
nickname was "Marco Polo," Marsden having recently com-
pleted and published his translation of that fascinating jour-
nal.)
"My dear little Charlotte is, of all creatures, the most an-
gelic I ever beheld. She has those inborn graces which, as she
expands, must attract the admiration of every one but she
has a soft heart, and is so full of mildness and gentleness, that
I fear she will have many trials to go through in this unfeel-
ing world. Her brother Leopold, however, will take her part,
for he has the spirit of a lio#, and is absolutely beautiful; but
I will not tire you with any moi^ family details. . . . My life
is at present rather monotonous, not however unpleasantly
so, for I have all the regular and substantial employment of
domestic comfort in the bosom of a happy and thriving
family; and in the daily pursuits of agriculture and magisterial
duty I find abundance to interest and amuse but I am no
longer striding from one side of India to another overleaping
mountains, or forming new countries I am trying to do the
415 *>
If we leave out of Raffles's story everything but family af-
fairs, we travel swiftly through the next few months, during
which there occurred no important change. His two most
faithful correspondents, Marsden and the duchess, were in-
formed in the autumn of 1820 that their friend was not feel-
ing perfectly well, and he had therefore reluctantly deter-
mined that the time was coming when the entire Raffles clan,
like many other colonials before them, must pull out of the
East for good and arrange to live at "home." His reasons for
deciding on this course were probably more urgent than he
cared to express. An occasional rheumatic twinge, a seasonal
fever, would not have been sufficient to frighten an old hand
like Stamford Raffles, but he knew it was more serious than
these trifles. His general constitutional resilience was failing.
It meant more to him now when there was a change in the
climate; he confessed it.
After all, he reflected, two or three years more would be
enough to realize his dearest wishes, to see his Singapore firmly
established and to feel satisfied that things were going well
enough in Sumatra to leave them under some other man's
guidance. Then, he said, he could carry on at home, of course
keeping an eye on the fountainhead of government and the
head office of John Company, for not even when planning to
retire could Raffles contemplate complete inaction. "My great
object, the independence of the Eastern Islands," he said com-
fortably, "has been attained. Lady Raffles and my dear children
continue to enjoy excellent health. Leopold is the wonder of
all who see him. Charlotte speaks English very distinctly, and
finds no difficulty in Malay and Hindostanee, and it is curious
to observe how she selects her language to the different natives.
To us or her nurse she always speaks English; to a Malay she
is fluent in his language, and in an instant begins Hindostanee
to a Bengaleeh: if she is sent with a message, she translates it
at once into the language of the servant she meets with. She
is only two years and a half old; such is the tact of children for
acquiring languages. She always dines with us when we are
alone, and the cloth is no sooner removed, than in bounces
Master Leopold, singing and laughing, and occupying his
place. Mr. Silvio, the Siamang" aha! then it was a gibbon,
and my judgment is upheld "is then introduced, and I am
often accused of paying more attention to the monkey than the
children. This last gentleman is so great a favourite, and in such
high spirits, that I hope to take him to England with the
family, and introduce him to my little friend Anna Maria."
Throughout the year his letters from time to time men-
tioned various relations and in-laws. Two of Sophia's brothers
dropped in sometimes to stay at Bencoolen, and one of the
Raffles sisters, probably Mary Anne Flint, made an extended
visit about the same time, accompanied by a little daughter.
Nothing is more eloquent of the improvement in conditions
brought about by the new governor of Sumatra than this series
of informal, comfortable, pleasantly long visits with the family,
which would have been impossible at the beginning of their
term, only two years previous. Yet it was the fate of one guest
to die at Bencoolen, and his death seemed to set off a veritable
avalanche of catastrophe. Scarcely three weeks had elapsed
after he sent the duchess this cheerful letter when Sir Stamford
wrote to inform a close friend in England 1 that one of Sophia's
brothers, Robert Hull, an army officer stationed in the East,
had died suddenly in their house, the fatal complaint aggra-
vated by the hardships of a campaign in which he had recently
taken part. And though it can hardly rank as a family tragedy,
the death of Sir Joseph Banks, when news of it reached Suma-
tra half a year" later, was far worse news for Sir Stamford Raffles
than the loss of any brother-in-law, however amiable.
The loss of such a good friend in London was all the more
of a blow because Raffles and his wife had been making their
plans afresh for retirement "if not in 1823, certainly in 1824,"
he told the duchess. "... a truce to politics: I have other rea-
sons to urge me home. Neither my health nor that of Lady
Raffles is very good; I never was strong, and during my first
residence in India, the climate made a considerable inroad on
my constitution. I have had two or three severe attacks since
my return, and am now under the necessity of being very care-
ful. I really do not think I could last out above two or three
years more [i.e., in the Indies]; and certainly ambition shall
419
about a successor to fill his place. In franker vein, he unbur-
dened himself to his good friend the duchess in what is in my
opinion one of the most pathetic letters ever written.
"My heart has been nigh broken, and my spirit is gone: I
have lost almost all that I prided myself upon in this world^
and the affliction came upon us at a moment when we least
expected such a calamity. Had this dear boy been such as we
usually meet with in this world, time would ere this have rec-
onciled us to the loss but such a child! Had you but seen him
and known him you must have doated his beauty and intelli-
gence were so far above those of other children of the same
age, that he shone among them as a sun, enlivening every thing
around him. I had vainly formed such notions of future happi-
ness when he should have become a man, and be all his father
wished him, that I find nothing left but what is stale, flat, and
unprofitable. My remaining children are, I thank God, rather
superior to the ordinary run, and Charlotte is every thing we
could wish her. How is it that I feel less interest in them than
in the one that is gone? perhaps it is in our nature.
"But I must leave this subject or you will have cause to re-
gret iny correspondence. You will be sorry to hear that Lady
Raffles and myself have been seriously ill, and that I am still
so far complaining that I hardly know whether I shall live or
die. At one time I am sorry to say I cared but little which way
my fate turned; but I now begin to think of the necessity of
exertion for those about me, and sometimes venture to look
forward; but I am too low and wretched to write much more
even if my paper allowed/'
He confessed to another friend that he was maintaining
"but a crazy kind of existence/' Since he was being doctored
with mercury at the time of writing (a favorite treatment in
those days for dysentery), he was probably in an abnormal
mood practically all the time, and spoke truer than he knew
when he used the word "crazy," mercury being a cumulative
poison, extremely depressing to the spirits. Even with the small
scraps of evidence at our disposal and after all these years, it
is possible to notice how changed Raffles's personality became
for the months following Leopold's death. He could not ab-
sorb himself in anything, even those administrative matters
which had always been closer to him, one would have said,
than any emotional interest. He could not make up his mind
to any course of action and follow it through. He thought they
must go away somewhere, but where? Singapore? But would
not Bencoolen be just as good for them, perhaps better? But
then they were calling out for him in Singapore, and a change
was what he and Sophia stood in need of more than anything
else. When, then? Immediately? He shrank from all the effort
such a move would involve. Colonials were used to thinking in
terms of years, as we think in weeks, and when at last he re-
solved to move the family outright in two years' time, no one
considered him dilatory. On the contrary, everyone realized
that such a program would be rushing matters, and when he
had thought it over for a month, and had achieved a more nor-
mal mental state, he relented a little from his first hasty deci-
sion and said again that it might be 1824 before they could be
ready to return home, and 1823 before he paid a last visit to
Singapore. At that time he was beginning to sound more like
his old self generally and was making plans and interesting
himself in his work when suddenly Fate, hovering over Ben-
coolen like a bird of prey, swooped down and struck again.
This time the victim was Charlotte.
She did not die as her brother Leopold did. The first attack
was "a violent dysentery/' and Sir Stamford was evidently
without hope of her survival as early as three days after the
onslaught, for he declared that their only chance was to effect
"a salivation with mercury/' whatever that may be. It was, he
said gravely, a matter for question whether they, the parents,
could support a loss like that so soon after Leopold's death.
The younger two children were also ill, but they were getting
better though Charlotte at first was not, and the parents, now
frantic, were half resolved to send them away by the very first
ship going direct to England.
"What a sad reverse is this! but the other day we were
423
alarmed lest we should have too many, now all our anxiety is
to preserve some even of those we have/'
A week later, however, he was reassured to the point of
writing of their alarm to the duchess "I cannot yet reflect
on the event with any degree of calmness" and reporting that
the little girl was for the time being, at least, out of danger.
But he wisely did not trust too much in this improvement. As
anyone familiar with the tropical form of dysentery knows too
well, it can hang on indefinitely and strike when it is least ex-
pected. Considering everything, the Raffleses were still deter-
mined on sending all the children to England without losing
more time. "If our dear Charlotte lives to embark/' he said,
"I shall write you more particularly, if not I shall want spirits
to address you, My own health still continues most seriously
affected. I am seldom well for twelve hours, and always laid up
for several days in the month I cannot leave my post with-
out previous notice, and completing some arrangements which
are in progress. . . . Lady Raffles is almost exhausted with con-
tinual watching, night and day."
Cruelly, the bird of prey waited to strike. A fortnight later
Sir Stamford, still watchful, was nevertheless feeling reassured
enough to report that Charlotte was still improving, if slowly,
and that all was arranged to send the children home in the
Borneo, about the first of March (two months later). He was
busy and occupied with outside affairs again. Though he dared
not say so, one can see that a weight was off his mind, and that
was the moment for which Fate was waiting.
There is no word at all from Sir Stamford until the middle
of January, a fortnight later. This time the dysentery had done
its worst. Little Marco Polo had been buried ten days before,
and Charlotte was carried to the grave that morning. Neither
father nor mother, evidently, had enough strength even to ex-
press their feelings. It was all Raffles could do to record the
facts and to say that they were sending the baby Ella, who was
all they had left, by the same ship in which he had arranged
accommodations for the other children. She was, he said, ap-
parently well, and would be in the care of their Nurse Grimes.
(Ella survived the voyage to England. She was alive and
^424
flourishing until her father's death, at least, but she died at
the age of eighteen without issue.)
With cold determination Sir Stamford was looking into the
matter of getting out of the East as soon as possible. It would
first be necessary, he had discovered, to get permission to leave
from the Court of Directors in Calcutta, under the signatures
of at least thirteen of them. This meant that few of his plans
could be changed. He would still have ample time to visit
Singapore before turning homeward; in any case it would be
nearly 1824 before that final journey could be attempted. But
it was a mechanical gesture, one feels, made by a man who for
the moment was in a completely anesthetized state, when he
said toward the end of the letter, "Yet, severe as the dispensa-
tion is, we are resigned to it; we have still reason to thank
God."
For what? one asks oneself. Sophia had not died, it is true:
the indomitable woman actually gave birth to another child
before they quitted the East, but it did not live, and no won-
der.
Sir Stamford now found that it was his turn to be ill, this
time of what they called brain fever instead of his customary
dysentery. For ten days he was confined to a dark room. The
fever "drove me almost to madness. I thank God, however,
that I have now got over it, and am on my legs again, but I am
still weak, and unable to converse with strangers/'
Yet in the same letter, after touching on the magic subject
of Singapore, his spirit revived to such an extent that he was
able to write several animated pages about Siam and the cur-
rent confused situation at Penang. He was like that hero of
mythology who was on the point of collapse during a great
battle with a giant until he fell down and touched his Mother
Earth, when, immediately refreshed, he leaped to his feet and
had at the giant with new vigor. The letter closed on a note
which could scarcely be called cheerful, but neither was it
heartbroken. There is only one adjective which can always be
applied to Raffles, in sickness or in health, in happiness or trag-
edy. He sounded busy.
425^3
CHAPTER XXIV
As we draw near to the climax
of Raffles's life and work it becomes increasingly evident that
we hold in our hands that rare article among historical anec-
dotes, the perfect example. For historians the trouble with real
life and this applies to the life of a nation quite as well as to
that of an individual is that one can detect trends, but it is
difficult to find conclusions: one can formulate opinions or
hypotheses, but the wise writer avoids cut-and-dried formulas.
There are few finalities in history; there is always a loophole for
your adversary in an argument. That is why the game, It might
have been if ... or, It would not have been, if only ... is per-
force the historian's favorite pastime, rather than something
scientific and exact, like chess. Therefore it is a satisfaction to
contemplate Singapore and her history. Raffles was scientific
and exact about Singapore, and for once it worked out. Raf-
fles succeeded, by employing almost every trick which states-
men are not supposed to play, in planting the British flag on
her beach, and, furthermore, in planting it deep enough to take
root. He knew it was the time and the place for empire build-
ing. He said that he must plant that flag in one place or another
before many more moons had waned, but his superiors dis-
agreed with him. Nevertheless by dint of stubborn argument
he managed to get the halfhearted acquiescence of one supe-
rior, and before it could be withdrawn he was off on his self-
appointed errand. He said that Singapore was the right spot,
but they were inclined to dispute that point too. Against the
will of practically everyone who had ever got into the habit of
saying no to Raffles, and their name was legion, he founded
Singapore. The Singapore affair tells in little the entire story
of Raffles versus England in large.
Throughout this work I have said that the British Empire
was not constructed in the manner we have been led to believe.
The average American, if indeed the average American has
learned to think of Great Britain at all as a body of men called
government rather than a giantess in draperies, which I doubt
the American thinks of the British Empire adorning England
as you think of your next-door neighbor's blondined hair,
something she resolved to possess and thereupon went out
and determinedly procured. In fact we need not become fanci-
ful: a metaphor is not needed when we have the original pat-
tern close at hand and can use a copy instead of a comparison.
We have been brought up to think that England collected
her empire as Mussolini collected his, and Hitler his, by cold-
blooded planning and efficient execution. But, as I have
pointed out once or twice before now, it wasn't done that
way; England didn't wax fat by means of committee meetings
and secret resolutions and careful campaigning. The average
Englishman wants peace, even with poverty. There have always
been one or two Englishmen who would like such a program
as Raffles suggested, and there have always, too, been a few,
built on his adventurous pattern, defiantly grabbing land for
their country in spite of orders to the contrary; but except
when there were more citizens than usual of that ilk, who got
together and combined weights and pressed their point home,
they failed. They failed because they played their hands alone:
all but Raffles, who was alone and didn't fail. That is why he is
extraordinary even among his extraordinary race.
I said in an earlier chapter that England, nation of shop-
keepers, has always been willing and eager to send out her
commercial travelers as long as their territory could be main-
tained without too much expense and bloodshed. But Wai-
pole's good Englishmen do not often carry the day, despite
427^3
his bitter protests that they do, and under the Regent's rule,
during the time when England was expanding to the limits
of what Disraeli was to hail as Victoria's empire, those good
Englishmen were not easy to find. You could seek them
through the Court of Directors in Bengal in vain. I grant that
the Englishmen of the period were not virtuous and peace-
loving for peace's own sake: rather, they were burned children.
The fact was, they were tired of war, with Boney safely locked
up on St. Helena, and as shopkeepers they were even more
tired of throwing good money after bad, in the waters of the
Pacific. The money question made them tired and sanctimo-
nious. Greed and land hunger horrified them: it was also ex-
pensive. It boiled down to a difference in judgments, RafHes's
against the Court's. He knew that it would ultimately be a
good thing to own a piece of the East Indies, but they simply
didn't believe him. They pointed to the long years of Com-
pany bookkeeping out East and reminded him that the col-
umns were always written in red. They refused to look forward
and hope for any different sort of bookkeeping; they didn't
have Raffles's faith.
That is the skeleton of the situation. The rest of it, Minto's
humanitarian ideals, RafHes's hatred of slavery, British versus
Dutch methods of governing Malays, scientific exploration and
its contribution to world knowledge, patriotic fervor in the
hearts of Dutchmen and Britons, that is all trimming. At bot-
tom the question was then as it is now: trade in the wide blue
yonder. We could settle today's problems neatly and with dis-
patch if only we would all remember that. Yesterday's histo-
rians did not see any more clearly, however, than do today's
statesmen.
Now seems to be a propitious moment in our story to re-
gard with a critically comparative eye the works of two histo-
rians who concentrated on Raffles: the Dutch Van der Kemp
and the British Demetrius Boulger. We have traveled a long
way with Boulger, not so much because I admire him so madly
as that he has written the most complete Raffles biography to
date. We have also gone more than once with Van der Kemp,
in part because he speaks for the other side and makes a nice
^428
change for us, but chiefly because he presents an exhaustive
amount of source material. He has peered into every little nook
and cranny he could find, looking for the Raffles story. One is
staggered by the amount of work he has done and the inten-
sity of the searchlight he trains on this object of his angry
indignation. One is also grateful, at this late date, for the origb
nal material he offers. Furthermore, one is inclined, perhaps,
to agree with him in his estimate of Boulger's faults. Not his
estimate of Raffles, decidedly not. Mr. van der Kemp is too
bitter and warped and far too chronically angry for even a
neutral reader to trust him or agree with him, and I am not
neutral; I am inclined to be prejudiced in Raffles's favor.
Nevertheless I read Mr. van der Kemp with avidity. The fact
that he is himself guilty of the crime which he abhors in Mr.
Boulger does not cancel out Mr. Boulger's crime.
With commendable vigor Van der Kemp wrote a long article,
"The Singapore Paper War [De Singapoorsche Papieroorlog]"
from a phrase used by Raffles after the occupation of Singa-
pore, in a letter to C. Assey: "Mynheer will probably enter
into a paper war on the subject." The Dutch historian's sole
intention was to oppose Boulger's views in his just-published
Life of Sir Stamford Raffles. Van der Kemp sums up his views
as follows: "The attitude of the governments in this dispute
can be defined in a few plain words. Whilst the English author-
ities in India took drastic and active measures, the Nether-
landers did nothing save write protests. How uncertain the
English superior authorities were over the rightf ulness of their
claim to Singapore, and how much they themselves expected
that they would have to climb down in face of the reasonable
claims and justifiable complaints of the Netherlanders, is clear
enough from this fact, viz. that the definitive treaty by which
the Sultan of Johore formally ceded Singapore to the English
Company, was first signed on the second of August, 1824, and
ratified by the Governor-General on the ninth of November,
1824, and this only after the Netherlands Government had
already formally renounced all objections to the occupation
of Singapore by the Treaty of London."
Another of his articles, "Raffles's Occupation of the Lam-
429^3
pongs in 1818," is devoted to the same cause. Sometimes one
wonders which man has most power to enrage Kemp: Raffles,
the originator of the dastardly deeds, or Boulger, his adoring
biographer. Certainly between them they make the unfor-
tunate Netherlander gibber with fury. He is far from being all
wind, though, and is even capable, at times, of being scrupu-
lously fair, which, considering his obsession, is saying a good
deal and places him high in the list of historians, most of whom
in that era did not observe the ethics which are supposed to
obtain today. His prejudice frequently carries him to ridiculous
lengths, as for example in the Lampongs piece, on page 27,
where, commenting on Raffles's letters of June 7, 1817, he says
that they "bear the aggravating, unpleasant character with
which his lying arguments are always characterized/' Yet quite
soon afterward, on pages 56 and 57, we find that he has quoted
an amusing letter written him by a Dutch merchant at Batavia
on September 21, 1898, apropos of his "Singapore Paper
War," pointing out that in the long run, and even from the
Dutch point of view, it was a good thing that Raffles got away
with Singapore and that "one must be very ignorant of the de-
tails concerning the commerce and commercial policy prevail-
ing in the Netherlands at that time, if one imagines for an
instant that Singapore in Dutch hands would ever have at-
tained even a part of the development which it has since
achieved in such an astonishingly short space of time. It irks
me as a good Hollander to have to admit it, but it would have
been an obstruction to world trade if Singapore had belonged
to the Netherlands Indies. It would never have been made a
free port (I am naturally not au fait with the Archives, but
even if you should be able to show me therein a declaration
by King William I, or by one of his Ministers, to the effect
that their object was to treat Singapore in the same manner as
the English have done, then I would be so bold as to attach no
concrete worth to a declaration like this made post factum
but remain convinced that nothing would have come of it
once the English had withdrawn). But I will go yet further,
and state that in the event that we had kept Singapore, one of
two things would have happened, either another Singapore
^430
would have arisen close by under the English flag, or if no fit
place could have been found, we, as the weakest against an
antagonist who virtually regards his own interests alone, would
have been obliged after a more or less honourable disputation
perhaps after an unfortunate war to have surrendered Singa-
pore to England. ... In the light of world history, I can regard
the occupation of Singapore by the English as indifferently
as the occupation of Hanover, Nassau etc. by Prussia."
The Singapore affair began long before the date of the col-
ony's founding. Strictly speaking, the story began when Raf-
fles learned finally and definitely about the Treaty of Vienna,
whereby Java and her dependencies reverted to their former
owner, the Netherlands. The blow was none the weaker for
having been expected. However, RafHes's busy intellect was at
work looking for other ways and means of building his empire,
long before he stopped bewailing Britain's loss. 'The map of
the East Indies was always in his mind. During the last year
of his governorship in Java, even in the midst of the battle
with Gillespie, which he had to fight by proxy in Calcutta, he
was always studying that mental map, wondering where next
to take the flag of England. At home on leave, in all the excite-
ment of his visit, while he got ready his History for publication
and wrestled with recalcitrant directors of the Company and
paid court to Miss Hull and looked over the land on the Con-
tinent, all that time his mind was on the Dutch East Indies,
wondering where to find some little corner that was not yet
too irrevocably Dutch for his purposes.
Back at work with his new knighthood, Raffles had not been
long in his post on Sumatra before the Dutch appeared again
on the horizon, and the diplomatic pouch for Calcutta was
heavy with his warnings and complaints. The Court was in no
position to object to this, exactly, for they had given the new
lieutenant governor at Fort Marlborough certain definite in-
structions, reminiscent of Minto's before the conquest of Java:
"It is highly desirable that the Court of Directors should
receive early and constant information of the proceedings of
431
the Dutch and other European nations, as well as of the Amer-
icans, in the Eastern Archipelago. The Court, therefore, desire
that you will direct your attention to the object of regularly
obtaining such information, and that you will transmit the
same to them by every convenient opportunity, accompanied
by such observations as may occur to you, whether of a politi-
cal or commercial nature. You will furnish the Supreme Gov-
ernment with copies of these communications. In the event
of any such communications appearing to you to be of a nature
to require secrecy, you will address your letter to the Secret
Committee."
All of this, naturally, was perfectly agreeable to Sir Stamford
Raffles. It is no coincidence that he began viewing the neigh-
boring Dutch and their activities with alarm ten minutes after
first setting foot on Bencoolen. He would have felt himself in
honor bound to do so at any rate, after writing the paper he
did before he left England, "Our Interests in the Eastern Archi-
pelago," and forwarding it for study to George Canning, later
Prime Minister, but the president of the board of control in
Liverpool's cabinet. In this article, which is too long to reprint,
he hammered on the now familiar theme of the Dutch and the
threat constituted by their ambition to monopolize the
oriental trade lanes. It was undeniably true, and nobody tried
to argue the point, that the Dutch did hold all the advantages
in that area; they held the gateways to Sunda Strait as well as
the Strait of Malacca, whereas the British lacked not only their
own ground anywhere between the Cape and China, but could
not put in at any friendly port for water and supplies in all
that distance. The differences of opinion held by Raffles and
his superiors were based not on fact but on another less easily
defined question. The Court was inclined to yawn and ask
languidly, "Who cares about that?" Fortunately for Raffles,
however, there were a few men who were not so indifferent,
more of them when he left England than when he had arrived,
and that was not coincidence.
The additional complaint which he felt justified in making
after he arrived in Sumatra was that those Dutch, not con-
tent with holding all the good cards as they already did, were
^432
now hard at work consolidating their positions and earnestly
engaged in squeezing out the few Britons who still dared hold
out in the locality, though they were in possession only of
vastly inferior positions. (An apologist for the Dutch might
reasonably point out that they would have been mad not to do
so, as being constantly on the alert was their only chance to
maintain these superior positions which Raffles coveted so
much. It was an open secret that the Netherlands could not
have held their belongings if the British wished to wrest them
out of their grasp. The British were ten times as strong as the
Dutch as regards sea power alone. Had it come to war, Holland
could never have held out, but England didn't want war. Hol-
land played on that British disinclination and worked away
like a colony of beavers, settling in on her islands as long as it
was safe to do so.)
Raffles in his paper pulled out all .the familiar stops and a
few new ones, valiantly trying to wake England up and stir her
to action. First one was commerce: two thirds of it, said Raf-
fles, was held by the Dutch because they owned Java, Banca,
the Moluccas, et cetera. A sixth belonged to native chiefs who
were contracted to deal only with the Dutch, though Raffles
questioned the validity of these contracts, or treaties. That
left only one sixth which could be called independent trade.
As long as England occupied Malacca she had enjoyed most
of the trade, and after she moved in on Java she held all of it.
Those happy days were past, but Raffles refused to give them
up for lost. Even though the dastardly Dutch would not recog-
nize any of the treaties which the British (i.e., Raffles) had
made with native chiefs while they occupied Java, et cetera.
Raffles refused to accept defeat. At the moment England was
entirely at the mercy of Holland's good pleasure, but there
were ways and means. "To these means what can we oppose?
To their system of taking possession of unoccupied ports, and
of making treaties of monopoly with the natives, we can op-
pose the same system. There are yet, at least there were when
the last accounts came away, ports of which we may take pos-
session before them, and princes at liberty to make treaties
with us in favour of our commerce. To their intimidation of
433
the natives we may oppose a Court of Protection. To their
imposition of heavy duties on our regular trade with the Dutch
colonies, no resistance can be made in the islands; but, to the
effect of such a measure, we can oppose the facility of obtain-
ing our goods free of duty, . . ."
The paper continued with suggestions for defense against
Dutch action in "degrading" the British in the eyes of the
natives, one of which would be to keep watch and promptly
to reply to any "calumnies" or "insults" which the Dutch
might put forth. Raffles wanted the British to declare distinctly
to the Dutch Government and perhaps also to the native chiefs
that they, the British, expected the Dutch to realize they were
bound to fulfill those engagements which the British, "either
directly or by implication," had contracted with the native
powers in the past twenty-three years, especially during their
tenure of Java. "No provision was made in our agreements
with the native princes for the contingency of the Colonies
reverting to Holland. The language which we held out to them
was that of a Government competent to make agreements in
perpetuity. Without such a language, we never could have
done what we have done for the Eastern islands.
"The British Government considered the native princes as
independent sovereigns, and treated with them accordingly.
The Dutch have refused to guarantee our treaties, and appear
to consider those faithful allies to [the] British nation as mere
vassals, who are now subjected to their vengeance and ra-
pacity."
There is a good deal more to the paper, but that part is the
most interesting in the light of what came after. Following up
the hint about the unoccupied ports, Raffles took up one pos-
sibility after another and discussed its advantages and disad-
vantages. Banca was his favorite, and he thought it might be
possible to buy it from the Dutch "out of the very heavy sum
of money due by the Dutch Government to the East India
Company in balance of the accounts of Java. . . ." Next there
was Bintang. After that, Rhio. Failing Rhio, the west coast of
Borneo.
One paragraph must have met with both enthusiastic re-
^434
sponse and scornful rejection. Prince of Wales Island and
Bencoolen, said Sir Stamford, had long been losing establish-
ments, Prince of Wales to the tune of eighty thousand pounds
per annum, Bencoolen a mere fifty thousand. Now that Ma-
lacca and Padang were restored to the Dutch, the above-
named colonies would be more costly than ever. The question
was now, in his mind, whether the Company was content to
go on maintaining those two losing establishments or whether
they would be willing, by means of a small outlay and the
acquisition of a third station within the Archipelago, to at-
tempt the "only feasible means in their power of removing
the incumbrance." To some of the Company directors that
project sounded pleasantly like one of those now-or-never
gambles; to others, unpleasantly like. They all, however, rec-
ognized it for a gamble. So did Canning, and he did not defi-
nitely dislike gaming. . . .
In addition to the problems already discussed, said Sir
Stamford, there were others which were worth considering.
America, Russia, and France were getting more and more
interested in foreign trade. What was to prevent one or all of
them from moving in and grabbing a few ports in this vicinity,
if neither Holland nor England did it first? Too long had
interested groups in England been thinking of the East Indies
as a private battlefield between themselves and the Nether-
landers, but there was no law, after all, that could keep the
fight private. 'Is not Russia extending her influence on all
sides?" demanded Raffles. "Has not France, in renouncing
the Mauritius . . . acquired a fresh motive for making estab-
lishments in the Eastern Seas? . . . The Americans have al-
ready a considerable trade with the Eastern islands, and are
favourably looked upon. Would any of these nations be de-
sirable neighbours?"
Now considering this paper, which had been written and
studied before Raffles went out to Bencoolen, we cannot be
amazed that it was only a few days, practically, before the
Dutch horrified the new lieutenant governor with their rough,
pushing ways on Sumatra. Nevertheless he possessed his soul
in patience for a year or two, until the Palembang affair. It
435
may or may not be remembered that Palembang, when Raffles
held office on Java, was the scene of considerable trouble not
long after the British moved in across the straits. While round-
ing up all the dependencies of Java, Raffles as early as Novem-
ber 1811, immediately after the conquest, sent a commission
to take possession of the Dutch factories on Palembang, a part
of Sumatra less than a week's sail in good weather from Bata-
via. On what was evidently a sudden impulse, and egged on
by his son, the Sultan massacred the Dutch who lived there at
the factory, and then, realizing that the commission would
not be pleased, he gathered up his skirts and his army and ran
away. Upon which, you will remember, Raffles sent Gillespie
(at that time they were on speaking terms) to punish the Sul-
tan, which Gillespie did most efficiently by kicking him off the
throne and placing his brother, a man named Ratoo, in his
stead. It was Ratoo who in gratitude made England gifts of
the islands Billiton and Banca, and for a long time the Eng-
lish really believed they would be able to keep those gifts,
come what might to Java. Lord Minto in particular had elab-
orate plans for Banca, all of which fell by the wayside after
1816.
In 1819 the situation on Palembang became a little con-
fused. Banca had reverted to the Dutch, though Billiton, evi-
dently, was still British. But it was Palembang, the center of
the original trouble, which proved again to be a storm center.
It was Palembang Raffles had meant when he talked darkly of
treaties supposedly in perpetuity, et cetera, for much to his
indignation the Dutch, after they had got Java and its de-
pendencies back, undid the British work by deposing Ratoo
and replacing the original Sultan.
At first the full iniquity of their actions was not apparent.
In April 1818, not long after the arrival of the Raffles family at
Fort Marlborough, Sir Stamford wrote an interested friend
in London this letter, in part:
"Prepared as I was for the jealousy and assumption of the
Dutch Commissioners in the East, I have found myself sur-
prised by the unreserved avowal they have made of their prin-
ciples, their steady determination to lower the British charac-
^436
ter in the eyes of the natives, and the measures they have al-
ready adopted towards the annihilation of our commerce, and
of our intercourse with the native-traders throughout the
Malayan Archipelago. Not satisfied with shutting the Eastern
ports against our shipping, and prohibiting the natives from
commercial intercourse with the English, they have dispatched
commissioners to every spot in the Archipelago where it is
probable we might attempt to form settlements, or where the
independence of the native Chiefs afford any thing like a free
port to our shipping. Thus not only the Lampong country has
been resumed, but also Pontiana and the minor ports of Bor-
neo, and even Bali, where European flag was never before
hoisted, are now considered by them subject to their authority,
and measures taken for their subjugation. A commissioner
long since sailed from Batavia for Palembang, to organize, as it
is said, all that part of Sumatra; and every native prow and
vessel is now required to hoist a Dutch flag, and to take out
a Dutch pass from Batavia for one of the ports thus placed
under their influence; so that whatever trade may still be car-
ried on by the English with the native ports of the Archi-
pelago, must already be in violation of the Dutch regulations,
and at the risk of seizure by their cruisers, who have not hesi-
tated repeatedly to fire into English ships.
"The Commanders of the country ships look to me to pro-
tect their interests, and even to support the dignity of the Brit-
ish flag; and it is to be hoped some immediate notice will be
taken by our Government of these proceedings."
All too evidently the villains, the unspeakable cads, had
outguessed Raffles and had actually got in ahead of him on
all those ports he had lined up for Canning's consideration
before leaving England! The slimy wretches, they had done
exactly what Raffles had planned to do! Words fail us when
we try to express our opinion of anyone low enough to do
that, or at any rate low enough to beat us to it. ... What
price the dignity of the British flag now?
Raffles was not easily discouraged, though, and all the while
he was blowing off steam in this manner he had a plan form-
ing. (In all probability, besides, he" was neither as surprised
437
nor upset as he pretended.) The time had come, he said,
when England must make up her mind once and for all
whether to accept defeat or not. If she accepted it, then it was
time to give up what shreds of belongings she still maintained
in the Eastern seas, relinquish her last two posts, and get out
altogether. If she did not wish thus tamely to submit to those
villainous Dutchmen, it was indispensable that she take strong
measures immediately, if not sooner"some regular and ac-
credited authority on the part of the British Government
should exist in the Archipelago, to declare and maintain the
British rights, whatever they are, to receive appeals, and to
exercise such wholesome control as may be conducive to the
preservation of the British honour and character.
"At present the authority of the Government of Prince
of Wales' Island extends no further south than Malacca, and
the Dutch would willingly confine that of Bencoolen to the
almost inaccessible and rocky shores of the west coast of Su-
matra.
'To effect the objects contemplated, some convenient sta-
tion within the Archipelago is necessary; both Bencoolen and
Prince of Wales 7 Island are too far removed, and unless I suc-
ceed in obtaining a position in the straits of Sunda, we have
no alternative but to fix it in the most advantageous situation
we can find within the Archipelago; this would be somewhere
in the neighborhood of Bintang."
The rest of the letter is the familiar tune, though he admits
the fact and this is a new development that the moment
was not propitious, "at the present period, when the most
rigid economy is demanded in every department of the British
service/' He is reassuring, however, on the amount of expend-
iture which would be necessary. He is not suggesting an
elaborate establishment, but rather a mere foothold, here and
there, a sort of staked-out claim merely, once in a while as it
were, to check the Dutch from extending an uninterrupted
chain from Batavia to Banca and Malacca. One must proceed
with great caution and gradually. "The footing, however, once
obtained in the Straits of Sunda, I apprehend all the rest will
follow without difficulty."
^438
It is in this letter, also, that we get certain news of Palem-
bang. Sultan Ratoo was still in the saddle and was appealing
to his old friends and champions the British to help keep him
there. He had an uncomfortable prickly sensation in the scalp,
evidently, that the Dutch intended to restore the status quo
which had existed in their time. It seemed more than likely
that they would do just that, as it was Ratoo who had made
a present of Banca and Billiton to the British, an act which
had never been popular with the Dutch. Of course Raffles
gasped with indignation that anyone should be so depraved as
to want the original Sultan on the throne after he had
slaughtered a whole community of Netherlandish compatriots,
but land is thicker than blood, said the Dutch.
Raffles was sorry to say that in the present policy of Batavia
there still remained much of the bad old principle of the
former colonial regimefar different, he was sure, from the
enlightened authorities' philosophy in Holland. "I have with
difficulty/ 7 he said, "refrained from the expression of that
honest indignation which every Briton/' et cetera, et cetera.
He was glad to reflect, however, that the British had left with
the native population of Java a new love of independence
which was going to make life tough sledding for the Dutch
in the future. Without exactly saying so, he managed to im-
ply a coming revolution. What he said was, "Fifty or a hun-
dred years hence, we shall equally feel the advantage of the
measures I have now suggested/ 7
That was April 14, 1818. A hundred years hence from April
14, 1818, was April 14, 1918. Raffles was about twenty-five
years off in his calculations, but what's a mistake of a few dec-
ades when you hit the ball so square in the middle in other
ways?
It was not more than about a fortnight later when the
news came through which he had been expectantly awaiting.
Ratoo was out and big brother Sultan was back, and Raffles
could slip the leash and let go of his honest British indigna-
tion any time he wanted now. "The Dutch choose to rein-
state the man on the throne who has been guilty of treacher-
439
ously murdering, in cold blood, the Dutch factory at that sta-
tion, rather than permit the Sultan whom the English raised,
in consequence of the atrocity of his predecessor, to continue
on the throne; when I likewise discover that they lay claim to
all the territory in the Lampong country, and oppose our
forming any settlement in Samangka Bay, for the purpose of
affording succour or refreshment to our ships passing through
the Straits of Sunda; and that they even object to the continu-
ance of the post station between Java and Sumatra, by which
alone communication can be kept up with the Eastern Islands
and Europe; I feel it to be my duty to submit to the Governor-
General a statement "
No, said the Court of Directors. There you go again, said
the Court of Directors, stirring up trouble with the Dutch.
It is beginning to be an obsession with you, said the Court:
you become a bore, Sir Stamford Raffles. No. No. No.
In spite of this lack of enthusiastic co-operation with his
general attitude, Raffles in 1819 made one of the boldest de-
cisions of his career. He was carried away, as he later explained,
by the fact that the governor general was not on duty in Ben-
gal and so could not be consulted. It was acutely necessary,
Raffles felt, immediately to stop these activities of the Dutch,
who by reinstating the original Sultan were directly affecting
British commerce; not merely indirectly in that a British
treaty was flouted before native eyes, but because Palembang
would thus cease to be what Sir Stamford knew was its most
desirable destiny^ a free port. The Dutch actually sent an ex-
pedition to enforce this change of rulers. When Raffles heard
the full story, without consulting any superior authority he
sent a small force of British troops straight across to Palem-
bang from Bencoolen, under Captain Francis Salmond. Un-
fortunately for everyone who appreciated the importance of
British success in this impulsive undertaking, the Sultan
Ratoo was worse than helpless by the time his friends arrived;
he was out. The Dutch promptly took Salmond prisoner and
sent him with his men, under guard to Batavia, and the effect
on diplomatic relations between England and Holland, back
home, can be imagined,
"I have nothing to send my friend but tears, which never
cease to flow/' wrote Ratoo to Raffles.
The angry Raffles sat down and wrote (and published) a
protest which became famous even before it was printed in the
Annual Register the following year. Publishing the protest,
even more than his highhanded dispatch of troops to Palem-
bang without permission from Calcutta, was what got Sir
Stamford into trouble. But both deeds met with harsh criti-
cism, not unnaturally: indeed, one wonders why in the first
flush of rage some outraged statesman did not go so far as
to insist upon his recall. Certainly Canning, who until then
had been inclined to listen to Raffles's plans with a sympa-
thetic ear, came close to effecting this act. It was only after he
had cooled off a bit that he decided to leave the matter to
the Bengal Government, where it properly belonged. Today,
it must be admitted, the reader is inclined to sympathize with
Canning rather than with Raffles, even when the case is pre-
sented by the warmly pro-Raffles Boulger, in whose opinioij
there is no doubt that the government ought to have sup-
ported Raffles and upheld his protest. Personally, I can see
plenty of reason for doubt. Much as I admire him in the ordi-
nary way, nothing else in Raffles's entire history sailed so close
to the wind as the Palembang affair, and I think he was amaz-
ingly lucky to get away with it. Canning ultimately forgave
him, but the letter which Boulger triumphantly quotes in
proof of this forgiveness is not exactly unqualified in its ap-
proval, even five years later.
"I cannot deny/* he wrote, "that your extreme activity in
stirring difficult questions, and the freedom with which you
committed your Government, without their knowledge or
authority to measures which might have brought a war upon
them, unprepared, did at one time oblige me to speak my
mind to you in Instructions of no very mild reprehension.
"But I was not the less anxious to retain those fruits of
your policy which appeared to me really worth preserving, and
I have long forgotten every particular of your conduct in the
Eastern Seas, except the zeal and ability by which it was dis-
tinguished/'
441
However, the Palembang affair is the only one which leaves
us feeling that Raffles definitely overstepped the bounds. We
can take his side, heartily and without reservation, in the other
disputes which led up to the climax of Singapore. From our
vantage point of a later century and given the clear view we
now have, thanks to Van der Kemp, of the Dutch and their
contemporary activities, we can feel sure that Raffles was not
exaggerating either his v case against them or their case against
him. For example there is the report of William May, Dutch
consul general in London, 1817, who wrote that "the ex-
Lieutenant-Governor of Java, Raffles, was being sent as Resi-
dent to Bencoolen on Sumatra, with the principal object of
observing the Netherlands trade in the East Indies, for which
place Bencoolen is better situated than any chief factory on
the Indian continental shore." He further advised that Lieu-
tenant F. A. van Braam, as an old enemy of Raffles and one
who had suffered much at his hands, who had shortly before
returned to Batavia from Europe, should be appointed to a
position where he could dog Raffles's footsteps and thwart
his plans.
There was more than a little flurry in the Dutch dovecotes
when it became known where Raffles was going, in 1817, for
his next term. In the same paper we find a report by one Gold-
berg, director, to the King of the Netherlands, dealing with
the exchange of the Dutch factories in India for Bencoolen,
and full of reproaches and complaints against that man Raffles.
It is amusing to reflect that this must have arrived at just about
the same time Sir Stamford had dinner with the King, at
which affair he received many pretty compliments from the
Dutch.
Next to Palembang in importance and excitement was the
affair of Padang, which interests us chiefly (for it follows the
pattern otherwise, and is not worth too much detailed atten-
tion) because it brought into prominence the agreement of
1795, when according to Articles of Capitulation between Ed-
ward Coles, in the East India Company's service, on the part
of His Britannic Majesty, and Dirk Ten Hoeff, chief of Pa-
dang on the west coast of Sumatra, the English were to be
permitted on Sumatra at Padang to live and work side by side
with the Dutch. Raffles's argument was that this agreement
was the only one which still held water, because all those made
later on were obviated by the Treaty of Vienna when Eng-
land moved out of Java, et cetera. No Dutch were at Padang
when Raffles visited it in 1818, and the inhabitants begged
Raffles to keep them from coming.
Now, with the Dutch objecting to and pouncing on every-
thing the English did which smacked of muscling in on their
territory, Raffles was exceedingly eager to make this point. In
August 1818 he wrote the Secret Committee from Fort Marl-
borough, just after his return from the famous exploring ex-
pedition with Lady Raffles, on which they visited Padang, in-
cidentally: "I cannot too strongly impress on your Honour-
able Committee the importance of at all events preserving the
integrity of the larger islands. Unless this is done with respect
to Sumatra, our establishment must still continue on a ruinous
footing. Could the return of Banca be negotiated, and the
integrity of Sumatra be preserved under British protection,
the greatest advantages might be anticipated. . . . The Su-
preme Government are informed of the grounds, on which I
have felt myself justified in provisionally retaining possession
of Padang, pending a reference to Europe. As the delay will
afford an opportunity for negotiation, I trust its importance
to the British interests in Sumatra will be sufficient to induce
the Honourable the Governor-General to add the weight of
His Lordship's recommendation in favour of its remaining
permanently British, an arrangement which I have no doubt
can be easily effected by his Majesty's Ministers. . . .
'To the Dutch Padang was never of any value. If, there-
fore, they are desirous to regain possession at the present mo-
ment, it must be more to injure us, than to benefit them-
selves/'
In a long letter, dated June 1819, at Singapore to Sir Robert
Harry Inglis we find this interesting passage: "Bencoolen has
so little in itself that much can never be expected from it. The
only chance was by the establishment of a post in the Straits
of Sunda, or by the retention of Padang, and the extension of
443^
our influence in the interior. Had the latter been practicable,
I am inclined to think the period would not have been distant
when the whole of Sumatra would have acknowledged our
authority, and ^a settled and enlightened government been
established throughout/'
Considering that these ideas and hopes of Sumatra had
filled his brain at the very moment when Sir Stamford was
indignantly accusing the Dutch of bad faith, reproaching
them for wanting to crowd him out when all he admitted
trying to do was work side by side with them, we can see why
the Dutch Van der Kemp quotes all these documents together
and fairly digs the paper with his pen as he does so. The good-
neighbor policy of Sumatra certainly operated under difficul-
ties, and they were not all of Holland's making. During this
period Good Neighbor Raffles was also diligently collecting
letters from the local native chieftains, who after the manner
of subsidiary princes vied with each other in paying him and
his government compliments, and complaining of their then
masters, the Dutch. Some of them went further and put on
record their opinion that England had better claim to their
territory than did the Netherlands. A paper from Indrapura,
signed by Menang Cabow, willingly gives the British first right
to Mocco Mocco:
"I have no allegiance to the Dutch nation; I consider my-
self, my heirs, successors, and subjects, to have been absolved
from it by a breach of good faith, confidence, and of treaty
by their having attacked me at four o'clock in the morning
(which I repelled with success) without any intimation be-
ing previously made known to me as consistent with every
principle of justice and equity. In consequence whereof, I
entered into a solemn arrangement with Henry Heath,
Esq. on the part of the English nation, confirmed by the
then commissioner for the affairs of the residency of Fort
Marlborough, Walter Ewer, Es., which engagement is still
valid. . . " He went on to promise that he would strongly
resist any Dutch attempt to regain possession of Mocco
Mocco. "I now wish to conclude a specific engagement with
the Honorable the Lieutenant Governor of Fort Marlborough
^444
and its dependencies, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Knight;"
et cetera.
There was a similar paper from the chief responsible for
the assassination of "the late Thomas Parr, Esq./' who had
evidently since then been condemned, wrongfully as he
claimed, not for the murder but for receiving stolen goods.
The trial meted out to him by the British who were in office
at that time was unfair, he said, and besides, he now needed
money. He was more than willing to say anything expected
of him, about the Dutch or anyone else, if he could be extri-
cated from his difficulties. He would be awfully grateful. . .
All these odd treaties, promises, and vows of love and
fidelity were carefully gathered by Raffles and filed against the
day when they might come in handy, which day came fairly
soon. This was all merely a part of the game as it was played
by everyone in turn. The Dutch, too, had their sheaves of
these agreements, but since the native chiefs were always
ready to protest under pressure that their signatures had been
granted also under pressure, and need not therefore be taken
seriously, one wonders what value they could possibly possess.
Of course, read in print in the morning newspapers, back
home, without their companion pieces which the Dutch held,
they probably looked quite impressive at that. They impressed
the Bengal Government at any rate. The net result of these
documents relating to Mocco Mocco, et cetera, was that the
Marquis of Hastings, formerly Lord Moira of unfortunate
memory and still governor general of Bengal, was sufficiently
convinced to back up Raffles in his claims, and Hastings was
a thoroughly honest man, if not exactly brilliant. He also re-
ceived in a favorable spirit Raffles's letter to India in August
1818, which was a sort of summary of all these disputes. "The
Position, I [Raffles] have taken up, is that the Dutch can have
no claim to possession where their flag did not fly on the ist
of January 1803; and under this view, their claim to Malacca
and Padang is at least questionable, these stations having been
under the English flag since 1795."
Hastings forthwith sent a formal order to Sir Stamford,
constituting him his agent to negotiate with the government
445 $%>
of Johore, Lingen, and Rhio, and giving him full powers. If this
action seems like a bewildering about-face on the part of the
governor general, considering his earlier attitude toward
Raffles, the only explanation one can offer is that it was just
that. Hastings had been undergoing a change of heart pretty
steadily ever since Gillespie's charges came to a head and were
finally accounted for, while Raffles was in London. Though
he was strongly prejudiced at the beginning, Hastings was
actually a sincere man and had no desire to cling to his first
impressions when he was convinced that he had been unjust.
He probably felt guilty, too, for having listened too trustfully
to Gillespie. The campaign which Sir Stamford had been car-
rying on ever since returning to the Eastern seas, even though
many of the directors did not see eye to eye with Raffles re-
garding the Dutch, had the good effect of calling him favora-
bly to Hastings's attention. The governor general agreed with
much of Raffles's first protests about Palembang, though the
Salmond affair later was too rich for his blood too. Shortly
after his return from the first long expedition into Sumatra's
interior, Raffles was delighted to receive an invitation from
the governor general to come in person to Calcutta, there to
talk over his various projects in regard to a new establishment,
somewhere in the Sunda Straits.
Like everyone else in government, Hastings lived to see his
resistance worn away at last by the constant drip of water.
Raffles's stubbornness was bearing fruit.
^446
CHAPTER XXV
Thick as the leaves on Vallam-
brosa are the documents gathered together by the indomitable
Van der Kemp; anything, almost, that deals with Rafflcs's
activities from 1816 to 1821. Kemp has been extraordinarily
thorough. Nearly every word Raffles ever wrote about his dis-
putes with the Dutch in Sumatra, Banca, Singapore, and the
rest during that time must have been printed in his volumi-
nous series, as are all the relevant dispatches of the Dutch gov-
ernor general at Batavia, the British governor general and
consul at Bengal, and the East India Company in London,
Fortunately for us, there is no need to agree with all his com-
ments pertaining to them, since he was intensely biased not
only against Raffles himself but against England, writing as
he did at the time of the Boer War, and sympathizing as
he did, openly and deeply, with the Boers. I say "fortunately
for us" because if we were to adopt his views about Raffles we
would be tempted to throw this book into the nearest river,
spit after it, and spend the rest of the season trying to forget
Sir Stamford and all his works, Kemp loses no opportunity to
compare English policy in South Africa in 1890-1900 with
that of Raffles and others in 1816-24; ^ e evcn wrote an article
comparing the Jameson Raid of 1898 with Raffles's disastrous
expedition to Palembang.
447^
of Johore, Lingen, and Rhio, and giving him full powers. If this
action seems like a bewildering about-face on the part of the
governor general, considering his earlier attitude toward
Raffles, the only explanation one can offer is that it was just
that Hastings had been undergoing a change of heart pretty
steadily ever since Gillespie's charges came to a head and were
finally accounted for, while Raffles was in London. Though
he was strongly prejudiced at the beginning, Hastings was
actually a sincere man and had no desire to cling to his first
impressions when he was convinced that he had been unjust.
He probably felt guilty, too, for having listened too trustfully
to Gillespie. The campaign which Sir Stamford had been car-
rying on ever since returning to the Eastern seas, even though
many of the directors did not see eye to eye with Raffles re-
garding the Dutch, had the good effect of calling him favora-
bly to Hastings's attention. The governor general agreed with
much of Raffles's first protests about Palembang, though the
Salmond affair later was too rich for his blood too. Shortly
after his return from the first long expedition into Sumatra's
interior, Raffles was delighted to receive an invitation from
the governor general to come in person to Calcutta, there to
talk over his various projects in regard to a new establishment,
somewhere in the Sunda Straits.
Like everyone else in government, Hastings lived to see his
resistance worn away at last by the constant drip of water.
Raffles's stubbornness was bearing fruit.
CHAPTER XXV
Thick as the leaves on Vallam-
brosa are the documents gathered together by the indomitable
Van der Kemp; anything, almost, that deals with Raffles's
activities from 1816 to 1821. Kemp has been extraordinarily
thorough. Nearly every word Raffles ever wrote about his dis-
putes with the Dutch in Sumatra, Banca, Singapore, and the
rest during that time must have been printed in his volumi-
nous series, as are all the relevant dispatches of the Dutch gov-
ernor general at Batavia, the British governor general and
consul at Bengal, and the East India Company in London.
Fortunately for us, there is no need to agree with all his com-
ments pertaining to them, since he was intensely biased not
only against Raffles himself but against England, writing as
he did at the time of the Boer War, and sympathizing as
he did, openly and deeply, with the Boers. I say "fortunately
for us" because if we were to adopt his views about Raffles we
would be tempted to throw this book into the nearest river,
spit after it, and spend the rest of the season trying to forget
Sir Stamford and all his works. Kemp loses no opportunity to
compare English policy in South Africa in 1890-1900 with
that of Raffles and others in 1816-24; he even wrote an article
comparing the Jameson Raid of 1898 with Raffles's disastrous
expedition to Palembang.
447
Of course in a way his general comparisons of Anglo-Dutch
and Anglo-Boer enmity are not altogether wide of the mark,
since (although he nowhere says so) one of England's real
or alleged reasons for interfering in South African affairs was
the brutal Boer mistreatment of the natives, both Kaffirs and
Bushmen, just as Raffles's support of the natives and advocacy
of slavery abolition earned him the enmity of the Hollanders.
On the other hand (in my opinion) Kemp is quite justified
in the strictures he passed on the pretentious work of Boulger,
who was as anti-Boer as Kemp was pro, and delivers himself
of all kinds of criticism of Dutch colonial methods and for-
eign policy, which in a person totally unacquainted with a
word of that language is gratuitous to say the least.
In his "Singapore Paper War," Van der Kemp writes: "The
book [Boulger's] forms no exception to the majority of Eng-
lish works written about our Colonies, in so far as it deals with
the underrating of the Dutch rule. Superficial and minatory,
its stupidity and partiality are clothed in the guise of pre-
sumption. Admittedly if one does not apparently understand
anything more of the Netherlands language than the sarcasti-
cally employed word Mi/nheer, it is difficult to compile a work
dealing with the history of our colonies, without falling short
of the standards demanded by serious study, knowledge and
criticism. It is not so much the one-sidedness of these Jingo
books that is a defect. Where the historian cannot live with
his theme, shows that he has no feeling for the ups and downs
of his heroes; for the land whose past is sketched therein; for
the people in their greatness or in their decay ,then he is un-
able to infuse any spirit, life or talent into his picture; but
if he must have some bias, then it should be based on an earn-
est study of the sources of the rival parties, before the critic
himself can form his own opinion. The sole impartiality that
one can demand of him/ as G. Valbert so justly observes in
his remarks on the historian Von Trietschke, 'is this exact and
scrupulous equality which does not condemn any enemy with-
out having heard him, which does not pronounce any final
sentence without having let the accused speak and listened
to him patiently, and examined with care his proofs/
"Taken as a whole, the Dutch historian stands high in this
respect; the Jingo writer often deplorably low. Boulger's book
forms no exception thereto. There is naturally no mention of
the Bandjermassin scandal/' (No more has there been men-
tion of it in this book, but only because other matters, such
as Padang, have crowded it out Naturally, Van der Kemp
considered it important because it did not redound to Raffles's
credit, but that reason does not suffice us. In brief the facts
are these: Sir Stamford was at first friendly with a certain Alex-
ander Hare who lived on Borneo at Banjermasin and misbe-
haved considerably, in respect both to morals and politics.
Later Raffles, who had been intimate enough with Hare to
import for him a notorious girl friend, had to forswear all
friendship for the scalawag and sever every tie, or run the risk
of seriously displeasing Calcutta. But as this was Hare's scan-
dal rather than Raffles's, I still think my neglect of it justi-
fied.)
"Of Raffles' blood-letters to Palembang," continues Van
der Kemp, no doubt in a satisfied, savage kind of snarl, "one
only reads (page 90) 'He entered into an unsatisfactory nego-
tiation with the cruel Sultan of Palembang/ Oh! Come now!
... Of Major Mulder's heroic death in the English capture
of Meester Cornelis in 1811, he writes 'two gallant French
officers . . . fired the magazine', whereon the 'Franco-Dutch
army' fled. Of our eighty years' war, he writes (page 292) 'The
Putch did something for the cause of liberty in Europe' in
the sixteenth century, but even that something was 'aided by
subsidies and other support from England/ Even where the
writer should be fully aware of all the facts, where he finds
himself on his own ground, he prefers to give a bowdlerized
version, copying one in the Memoir of Raffles' widow, than to
put the departure of his hero from Java in its true light. Thus
on page 211, there is described the handing-over of Java by
Raffles to Fendall, as likwise Fendall's handing-over to the
Commissioners-General, 'with the exception of Banca and
Banjermassin/ Presumably the writer means Billiton and not
Benjermassin, and he then adds 'At first . . . only means of
saving his life/ With good or bad health, Raffles was forbid-
449^3
den to go to Benkulen, until he had been able to clear himself
from the accusations brought against him. In his own State-
ment he notes this expressly himself. . . . The whole of Boul-
ger's page 293 is a tirade against our colonial administration,
with the Amboina Massacre of 1624 in the lead of course!
Ignoring the fact that in those days the English were just as
exclusive as the Dutch and other European nations, this policy
is represented as an invariable characteristic of our nation even
to . , . the Transvaal! 'What was true in Japan and Java . . .
[is] evident in the Transvaal/ . . .
"But although Boulger's work is a repellent and in some
ways an unscientific book, it is none the less of considerable
importance. The writer prints several official papers which
throw a new, or I should rather say, a clearer light on our his-
tory. Nothing compels us to follow his unjust considerations.
We can leave those on one side and use what is true and neces-
sary."
I crave pardon for such a long quote, but insist that any
recapitulation of it would be vastly inferior. This is not all
by a long shot that Kemp has to say on the subject of Boul-
ger, but it ought to be sufficient to give a fairly representative
idea of his style. It also should be enough to show us how
Kemp falls himself into one of the sins he twits Boulger with;
viz., confusing contemporary politics (Boer War, 1898-1902)
with those of the eighteenth century. Admittedly, however,
he was equally at home with French, Dutch, and English
documents, whereas Boulger could read only English and
French.
A strange paradox in this piece of research is the manner
in which our hero Raffles stands triumphant and secure in our
good opinion, in spite of all the harmful praise lavished on
him by his well-nigh stupid biographer and his pathetic, ad-
mirable, but certainly not too scrupulously truthful widow; and
also how he rises above the spite and hatred of his very adroit,
scientific, redoubtable enemy Van der Kemp. If I had to
choose between the two historians for source material I would
not hesitate to select the hostile Van der Kemp rather than
the adoring Boulger. And in the end I would still be pro-
Raffles. It is an axiom all too often forgotten in these days of
public relations counsels, bureaus of information, and plain
common propaganda, but in the end, do not forget, it is the
facts which speak. You can color it up, you can butter it and
pepper it, you can translate it into the foreign language of
psychiatry or bury it in religious dogma, but in the end a fact
is a fact is a fact. . . . And so is Raffles.
In reply to Raffles's suggestion, Hastings asked him to Cal-
cutta. A long overdue gesture, it was nevertheless a source of
joyful excitement to the lieutenant governor of Sumatra that
he was to have the chance of talking over in person his dis-
putes at home with the Dutch and his projects for the Archi-
pelago. Though Hastings was not in the least like Minto of
cherished memory, doubtless Raffles remembered how pleas-
ant had been the outcome of his first call on a governor gen-
eral in Calcutta and considered this invitation a good omen.
It was more than a mere invitation; it was certainly an olive
branch.
"It was painful to me," Hastings had written, "that I had,
in the course of my public duty, to express an opinion un-
favourable to certain of your measures in Java. The disappro-
bation, as you would perceive, affected their prudence alone;
on the other hand, no person can have felt more strongly than
I did your anxious and unwearing exertions for ameliorating
the condition of the native inhabitants under your sway. The
procedure was no less recommended by wisdom than by
benevolence; and the results have been highly creditable to
the British Government. I request you to consider yourself at
liberty to carry into execution your wish of visiting Bengal,
whensoever your convenience and the state of affairs in the
Island may afford an eligible opportunity. The means of ren-
dering the settlement at Bencoolen more advantageous to the
Honourable Company than it now appears to be, are certainly
more likely to be struck out in oral discussion."
Raffles stood not on the order of his going but leaped aboard
the first ship pointing in the right direction. If the voyage had
451
permitted time for recollection, he might have remembered
the first eventful journey that he made out of Penang. Cer-
tainly never has lieutenant governor traveled in a worse ship
than this dirty one-cabin vessel. Their pilot was drunk and
upset the ship at the Hooghly River mouth; she had already
lost a mast in the Bay of Bengal. Rescue from Calcutta was
not long in coming, and Sir Stamford was ready for his first
audience with Hastings only three months from, the date the
governor general posted his summons, which for those days
was speedy.
Of the two pressing matters which Raffles had been eager
to bring to Hastings's attention, the first was disposed of in
disappointingly quick time. Hastings's mind was already made
up not to carry the Sumatra quarrel any further, and to allow
the Dutch -all the freedom they were taking, without more
argument. It was obvious to the observant if thwarted Raffles
that his superior officer was primed for the interview with cer-
tain orders from England to hold back the offensive. More-
over, Hastings was not enough enamored of the British share
of Sumatra, Bencoolen, to want an enlargement of their hold-
ings. He was already considering an exchange with the Dutch,
Bencoolen for Malacca, which actually did go through six
years later.
The second half of Raffles's program, however, met with
a much more satisfactory response. He came away glowing
with hope, for Hastings had given him to understand that
they were of one mind about the necessity for stopping any
further Dutch encroachment like their surprise occupation
of Palembang. The governor general approved the idea of an-
other establishment or even two of them, provisionally at
Acheen and Rhio. Though it became evident later, after
Singapore had been staked out, that Hastings regretted his
first cordial agreement and would have backed out if he could,
fearing the repercussions at home, the first few weeks of their
new relationship were better and more amicable than Raffles
would ever in earlier days have dared to hope. Fortunately for
his reputation, though it is not so good for Hastings's, there are
in existence today documents which prove his claim that
^452
Hastings agreed to his proposals of expansion during the early
days of the Calcutta interviews. He wrote jubilantly to Mars-
den, of whose sympathy he could always be sure, that he had
made his peace with the marquis and that "his Lordship has
at last acknowledged my exertions in Java in flattering terms.
This was one object of my visit to Calcutta, and on it de-
pended, in a great measure, the success of the others. I am
now struggling hard to interest the Supreme Government in
the Eastern islands; and the measures taken by me at Pa-
lembang, etc., will, I doubt not, lead to the advantage of
some defined line of policy being laid down for the future.
With regard to the Dutch proceedings at Palembang, of
which I hope you are, ere this, fully apprised, Lord Hastings
has unequivocally declared, that his mind is made up as to the
moral turpitude of the transaction, and that he considers this
but as one of a course of measures directed in hostility to the
British interests and name in the Eastern Seas."
Nothing further had been decided as yet, and Raffles evi-
dently was not too sanguine as to the English reaction when
they should find out that they would be called upon to "inter-
fere" for the security of their trade. He was genuinely worried
now about the time element. There was no trickery in him
when he wrote his friend Marsden, for it was never necessary
to convince the historian of Sumatra by other than straight-
forward methods. Therefore it seems safe, though we take the
risk of calling out Van der Kemp's shade in angry denial
simply on general principles, to quote his bete noir Boulger
where he has summed up the Raffles-Hastings situation rather
neatly in a couple of sentences.
"Still, while Raffles had made up his mind that he could
rely on Lord Hastings whose last words were, 'Sir Stamford,
you may depend upon me/ and quoted freely his confiden-
tial verbal instructions from the Supreme Authority in India,
the Governor-General does not seem to have decided in his
own mind anything more than that something had to be done
in the Straits, and that Raffles was the only man available to
attempt it. He did not give Raffles his entire confidence; and
consequently he would, as will be seen, have backed out of
453 ^
the business altogether at the first check, only his emissary was
too prompt and too strong for him."
In the meantime Raffles worked fast. He wrote Marsden a
month later, still from Calcutta, that a change had now taken
place. . . . "All parties are now united in opposing the grasp-
ing and excluding policy of the Dutch* . . . They now re-
gret they did not listen to my advice at first. ... It is de-
termined to keep command of the Straits of Malacca, by form-
ing establishments at Acheen and Rhio. . . . Acheen I con-
ceive to be completely within our power, but the Dutch may
be beforehand with us at Rhio they took possession of Pon-
tiano and Malacca in July and August last; and have been bad
politicians if they have so long left Rhio open to us."
Clever as Raffles was, he didn't know the half of it! His
letter further informed Marsden that he was to embark in
about a fortnight's time to settle the whole thing. One can
well imagine his joyful excitement as he made ready to carry
out this plan, for it had been near to his heart a long time.
The hurry and flurry of the affair must have been doubly wel-
come to a man of Sir Stamford's caliber after having lived a
dull, if contented, existence for many months in sleepy Ben-
coolen. Raffles was not cut out to be a gentleman farmer: he was
not bom to rusticate. In the letter to the Duchess of Somer-
set, dated November 26, 1818, which we quoted earlier, that
one in which he cheerfully hints that Lady Raffles is soon to
give birth to their second child, we realize for the first time
that his wife must actually have followed him to Calcutta,
since she had not accompanied him. She must have made up
her mind as soon as it became obvious that he would not be
able to return to Bencoolen until after the conclusion of the
new establishment business. Considering her advanced preg-
nancy, we begin to realize that Raffles's proud report of
Sophia's devotion to him was certainly no idle boast. No doubt
the haste of his own departure was all that saved her from
sharing his ridiculous shipwreck in the Hooghly, outside Cal-
cutta, as well.
"I have begged of Lady Raffles to give your Grace an account
of the regal state of the Governor General, which really exceeds
all I had heard of it," adds Sir Stamford, not forgetting that
ladies, even when they are like the duchess and take pride in
their intellect, are fond of gossip and chitchat, especially in
high places. He soon sobers, however, and returns to his mut-
tons. "I have, at last, succeeded in making the authorities in
Bengal sensible of their supineness in allowing the Dutch to
exclude us from the Eastern Seas; but I fear it is too late to re-
trieve what we have lost."
There is not much question as to what Raffles would have
said if he had been informed in advance that tlie Dutch were
already well ahead of him. He had not long to wait for this
intelligence, poor fellow. In the meantime Hastings sent him
a carefully worded set of instructions which left no doubt as
to his duties. Only a man of Lord Hastings's eminence would
have dared in later days to go back on his word so blandly and
completely as the governor general did, with this document
there for all the world to read someday. At much greater
length, these were the duties Lord Hastings outlined for Sir
Stamford during his coming voyage:
Recapitulating Raffles's own arguments quite as if the gover-
nor general had dreamed them up himself, he informed Sir
Stamford that getting a foothold on Acheen was the first, most
pressing job, and so it should be embarked upon without delay,
or any further reference to London. After accomplishing this,
in order to ensure free passage through the straits a station be-
yond Malacca should be established, if possible in such posi-
tion as to command the straits' southern entrance. Upon due
consideration, said Hastings without the smallest blush, he
had decided (all by himself) that Rhio was the best locality
for such a project. Aside from its natural advantages, "the
Dutch possess no right, and have as yet stated no pretension to
interfere with the independence of this state, which is gener-
ally acknowledged." The native chiefs were in a Barkis state
of mind, according to a recent report from Major Farquhar,
our old friend on Java.
Undoubtedly, though certain friendly arrangements had al-
ready been made at these posts, the Dutch would try to move
in on them ultimately, and to forestall this, the maintenance
455^
of Farquhar's engagements "seem to point out the necessity
of supporting the arrangements made with these states, by
measures of a different character from what under other cir-
cumstances would have been necessary." Therefore, in the
event of the Dutch not having preoccupied Rhio, it was up to
Raffles; all details were left to his judgment. But Farquhar
would be a good man to leave in charge after everything was
settled. Acheen and all related interests in the Strait of Malacca
should be placed under Penang's management, and Rhio and
Lingen under Bencoolen's.
Lord Hastings's secretary thoughtfully enclosed copies of
Farquhar's agreements just concluded with the chiefs of Rhio,
Lingen, and Siack (Siak).
A week later (December fifth) there came a postscript full
of new directions from Hastings. It had occurred to him on
second thought that if Rhio and Lingen had really been occu-
pied in advance by those Dutch, "Johor" might be a good sub-
stitute choice. In case Raffles were to find that the worst had
happened, therefore, he was directed to go and pay a call on
the Sultan of this Johor, to feel him out. The governor general
had written a letter therewith enclosed, which Sir Stamford
was to present to the Sultan. (Johore is the name of the state
just across the bay from Singapore, on the mainland. )
This hasty little message turned out to be the most signifi-
cant one among all Lord Hastings's voluminous letters to Sir
Stamford Raffles. A week later the faithful Marsden was again
addressed, from the Nearchus this time, by his friend Raffles:
"We are now on our way to the eastward, in the hope of doing
something, but I much fear the Dutch have hardly left us an
inch of ground to stand upon. My attention is principally
turned to Johore, and you must not be surprised if my next
letter to you is dated from the site of the ancient city of Singa-
pura."
Well, there it is: the first time any of our friends have
spoken that name. We ought to pause here a moment for
cogitation. On the face of it, everything looks straightforward
enough: one day, evidently, Hastings said to himself, ''There's
Johor, come to think of it. Wonder why nobody else has ever
^456
thought of it? I think I'll make the suggestion to Raffles. Since
he's going in that direction anyway . . ." and Raffles, receiving
the letter, said to himself, in his turn, "Johore, eh? He didn't
know how to spell it, but I know the place he's talking about,
all right. Hmmmrn. Yes, that's not at all a bad idea, Johore.
Fll look into it as soon as I've got a free week end."
Only it wasn't done that way, really. Sir Stamford had al-
ready given some thought to Singapore; one reason no one
else thought of it was that there was no native city on the
island, though there had been something of the kind long ago.
Only chance has arranged it so that none of his earlier specu-
lations about it remain on paper. Even so, Raffles was not the
first to have had the idea. At least two other people had
thought of using Singapore, one more than a century before.
Alexander Hamilton was one of them Hamilton, the Scot
who, because he did not belong to the Company, was called
"the interloper/'
"In the year 1703," says Captain Hamilton, "I called at
Johor on my way to China, and he (the King of Johor) treated
me very kindly and made me a present of the island of Singa-
pore, but I told him it could be of no use to a private person,
though a proper place for a company to settle a colony on, lying
in the centre of trade, and being accommodated with good
rivers and safe harbours, so conveniently situated that all winds
served shipping both to go out and come into these rivers."
There had been a town at Singapore, a flourishing one at that.
But in 1818 almost no trace of it remained.
There was also the Dutchman Abraham Couperus, who sur-
rendered Malacca to the British in 1795. He wrote, in 1808,
that Malacca had no future: he advocated the Dutch founding
a settlement either at Singapore or in the Strait of Banka. The
government of Java for some reason ignored both suggestions.
Now for at least the third time the idea of using Singapore
Island occurred to white men. This time it took root, and grew,
and flourished, and bore such fruit as Aw Boon Haw the Tiger
Balm King, the Singapore gin sling, and the sinking, in 1941,
of H.M.S. Prince of Wales. It also perpetuated the name of
Thomas Stamford Raffles as nothing else could have done.
457^
CHAPTER XXVI
Experience has taught me that
the sequence of events in the founding of the British colony
on Singapore Island can be vastly confusing. There is so much
coming and going by two people, Raffles and Farquhar, so
much writing and answering and crossing of letters en route, so
much commanding by Lord Hastings and then recalling of
his commands, that the most satisfactory way to tell it is first
to draw up a complete outline showing what actually happened
from beginning to end. Then we can go back to the beginning
and fill it in with contemporary comment, clothing the bare
bones of the narrative with flesh. It would be misleading to
leave the skeleton to stand alone, even though the facts may
be all there in the outline. For one thing we would miss Ab-
dullah's version, which would be no trivial loss. For another,
there was the aftermath, the comments of the Dutch and the
British reaction. Later occurrences depended on these things.
The story begins properly with Major Farquhar's adven-
tures. He was involved in the affair just when he was leaving
for a holiday in Europe. His were the preliminary investiga-
tions: he visited the ports which Raffles had suggested as pos-
sibilities, after having abandoned his personal plans for
"furlough," or at any rate postponed them, because Raffles
implored him to do so. He went first to Lingen, where the
Sultan referred him to his uncle, Rajah Mooda of Rhio, as the
^458
highest authority in that region. Farquhar duly repaired to
Rhio, and there on August nineteenth the two men signed a
treaty, the Rajah on behalf of the Sultan of Johore, Pahang,
and its dependencies, including Lingen, Rhio, and so on, and
Farquhar for the Honorable Company.
Returned to Malacca, the major announced the news (on
October twenty-second, formally by letter, though he could
have walked down the street and told them in person) to
Their Excellencies Rear Admiral Wolterbeek and J. S. Tim-
merman Thyssen, the governor of Malacca, informing them
of the treaty which he had signed. (Remember Timmerman
Thyssen? They spelled it 'Thimmerman Thijsscn" in the
Government Gazette, in Batavia, when he praised Minto,
Raffles, et al in a speech.)
Their Excellencies replied warmly (on October thirty-first)
that the Sultan of Rhio was not empowered to sign such a
treaty on account of a pre-existing treaty dated November 2,
1784, between that same Sultan and the Netherlands East
India Company.
Next day Major Farquhar remarked in his turn that when
England had taken possession of Malacca, back in 1795, Sul-
tan Mohammed became independent; moreover, the Dutch
East India Company no longer existed anyway, nor had done
for a long time. The 1784 treaty between the defunct com-
pany and the Sultan, ever since then, was useless and might
just as well be filed with all the other ''obsolete or interrupted
treaties with other nations/'
Immediately the Dutch rushed pell-mell to Rhio in their
turn and made Rajah Mooda cede one half the revenues and
government powers to them, after writing Major Farquhar,
"We will not permit either of them [the Rajah of Rhio or the
Rajah of Lingen] to cede one inch of ground to the English/'
That was the situation before Raffles decided to try Singa-
pore direct.
As far as I am concerned, the story of Singapore's founding
is rendered much more exciting by the reappearance of Ab-
dullah the scholar. It may be remembered that we last saw
him standing forlornly on the beach at Malacca in 1811, wav-
459
ing good-by and good luck to his old idol Raffles and his new
idol Lord Minto, as they sailed off to conquer Java. His
mother had forbidden him to accompany the expedition, and
great was his disappointment because of this. Which is not
the same, however, as saying that life since then had been
without savor for the Munshi, because he had undergone
plenty of excitement, even though Raffles wasn't there in
Malacca to make it. For one thing, the Dutch were scheduled
to come back, empowered by the British to occupy Malacca
at the same time they regained Java and all the other territories
formerly belonging to them. At first, said Abdullah, the people
were happy to hear this news, because they thought things
would be far easier for them with Netherlanders than they
had been under British rule. As the time for the take-over ap-
proached, keen-eyed Abdullah noted that the English he met
in the road looked "sad and sorrowful, like people at a funeral,
and every face was pale."
One Englishman still kept in touch with the colony as the
painful time drew near Major Farquhar, familiar to Abdullah
and to us. In 1818 word went round that he was up to some-
thing special, and certainly he acted like it. He kept going
away and coming back and sailing off again. It was said on
good authority, the townspeople declared, that he was looking
for an English lady of high degree who had been snatched from
her ship and carried off by pirates.
Abdullah, however, soon learned that the pirate-and-lady
story was no more than a piece of fiction. "It was not to look
for a lady; that report was spread intentionally, so that people
might not know that the English were going to search for a
place to found a city/ 7 What purpose such a deception was
supposed to serve, once the natives knew it was a deception,
is definitely questionable. In that land where every man was a
spy for the sheer fun of it, Farquhar was noted, watched, and
checked up on every time he so much as spat. He must have
realized it, after all his experience. First, said Abdullah, he
went to Siak, then he went to Daik, then to the Carimon Is-
lands. We happen to know from other sources that the visit to
the Carimons was merely a polite gesture to Farquhar, who
^5460
thought he had a good idea there, but didn't. Sir Stamford
could have told him so in advance, but it would not have been
tactful to insist. It was better simply to let him make the voy-
age and see for himself, but it wasted precious time.
None of these places was good for what Farquhar had in
mind, said the gossips and self-appointed critics. Either the
anchorage was no good, or the winds were often unfavorable,
or there was a sound political reason for avoiding the locale.
Finally he went to Johore, after which he visited no other
port but sailed straight back to Malacca, and don't think for
a minute that every tiny child playing in the Malaccan dust
didn't know all about the affair.
About this time Farquhar placed Captain Daud in his office
as deputy, indicating that the major expected to be busy else-
where for a long time. Afterward he sailed back in the direction
of Johore, this time to Singapore Strait, where he stayed at
length, busily making friends with Tengku Long, the son of
Sultan Mahmud. Shortly thereafter the population of Malacca
was invited by Farquhar's attendants to share the significant
secret news that Tengku Long had taken money in exchange
for a promise that the island of Singapore should belong to
the English.
Still in strictest privacy (nobody knew it, that is, but the
town of Malacca and perhaps a few outlying communities)
Farquhar then wrote to Raffles at Penang, and Raffles in turn
wrote to the governor general in Bengal, and the contents of
the letter (strictly private) as told to Abdullah in the market
place were as follows: "If you wish to found a city at Singapore
you can do so, and the Company does not forbid it; the Com-
pany, however, will not pay the expense of founding the city,
but you and Mr. Farquhar must provide the money yourselves.
When this has been done, the Company will consider the mat-
ter/'
It is somehow reassuring that Abdullah and his pals got the
account so grotesquely mixed up. One begins to hope that,
after all, it may sometimes be possible to keep a secret, even
in the Orient. With Abdullah's crowd it seems to have been
a matter of any anecdote in a storm, no matter what.
461
So Raffles came to Malacca, said Abdullah. And when he
had arrived, he immediately sent Farquhar to Singapore,, while
he himself went to Acheen, and there settled a quarrel [sic]
between two princes.
As a matter of true fact Farquhar and Sir Stamford went
together to Singapore after Sir Stamford heard that a visit to
Acheen would be fruitless. His forebodings about Rhio at
least had been correct and the Dutch were already in residence.
Though Sir Stamford had been aching with impatience to get
started, he had been compelled to put in many days of delay,
hanging about Calcutta. It was a case, literally, of every minute
counting, and the Dutch had been wily enough to get in ahead
of him in so many places already that he was gloomily con-
vinced he would find them, if he went, sitting smilingly in
Acheen and Rhio, triumphant if perhaps a little breathless.
Considering this, he said to himself, the only way to beat them
to it in Singapore (for surely they would think of Johore
sooner or later, and Singapore was an inevitable afterthought)
was to lead them astray and lull their fears by pretending to
go somewhere else, then hastily to clinch the bargain with the
Sultan, The thought of landing unimpeded on Singapore
beach must have made the hateful smiles of the Dutch a little
more supportable when Raffles thought of them in occupied
Rhio.
With a couple of attendants from Malacca, Sir Stamford
Raffles and Major Farquhar duly arrived at Singapore, and
Abdullah's description of the scene is doubly interesting to
those who know Singapore today, as a full-grown city. 'They
landed on the Esplanade where the Court has now been built,
and found the place full of Icermanting and sakedudok bushes.
On the side towards the river there were four or five little huts,
and there were six or seven cocoanut trees which had been
planted there; and there was one house a little larger, but also
built of atap, which was where the Temenggong lived. [The
Temenggong, or Tumunggong, is a sort of prime minister.]
Mr. Farquhar walked all round the Esplanade, and the sea
gypsies (Orang Laut) came and looked at him, and then ran
and told the Temenggong.
^462
"Immediately the Temenggong, accompanied by four or
five men bearing arms came to meet Mr. Farquhar."
Throughout any direct quotation from Abdullah which may
follow, for "Farquhar" read "Raffles." Abdullah slipped badly
on this very important point.
They talked, says Abdullah, for a very long time, during
which the Temenggong told Raffles all about the various
princes who had a claim to the island and the neighboring ter-
ritories, and how they quarreled, and how their ancestors had
quarreled and they had inherited the disputes, after the im-
memorial manner of the Eastern nobility. He himself, he ex-
plained, was living on this desolate spot because he was in
self-appointed exile; he had come from Riau (Rhio) "in a
bad humour/' and was presumably sitting on the beach in the
sulks, with intent to remain there until he was rid of his hump.
Finally, said the men from Malacca when they told Ab-
dullah about it later, the Temenggong gave "Major Farquhar"
a document, and "Farquhar" lost no time, but immediately
put up the British flag there on the shore, driving into the sand
a flagpole thirty-six feet in height. This time there must be no
mistake about who got there first. Soon, Raffles did not doubt,
there would come Dutchmen to dispute the claim. Thirty-six
feet did not seem excessive.
The official part of the bargain completed, "Farquhar" pro*
ceeded to examine his new domain at leisure. At the mouth of
the Singapore River was a large flat stone to which the sea
gypsies had been in the habit of bringing offerings when they
were about to set out on some profit-seeking voyage, some-
times called piratic by impolite persons.
All around this stone were hundreds of human skulls, "roll-
ing in the sand," Abdullah said. Some were old and weathered,
but others were all too obviously new and more or less fresh.
Raffles was told that most of them were relics of pirates 7 pris-
oners, the custom of the trade being to bring such victims here
to Singapore and kill them on the stone by way of sacrifice.
Others, however, were the remains of pirates themselves, this
being a favorite battle ground for rival groups. They were apt
to meet one another at the stone, and one thing led to another,
463 %>
usually gambling, friendly competitions with weapons, cock-
fighting, and such. Pirates are traditionally short-tempered, so
these celebrations usually wound up with a few fresh skulls
rolling about at the foundation of the sacred stone. Raffles
ordered that they all, pirates' and prisoners', be gathered up in
sacks, weighted down well with stones, and sunk far out to sea.
Most of the land near the beach was flat, even unpleasantly
so, and covered only with a sparse sort of second-growth brush.
But there was one hill close to the beach, and the name of it,
known to all the natives r was Forbidden Hill. When Sir Stam-
ford announced his intention of climbing it, everyone was
horrified, and there was a mad scramble to get out of his line
of vision before he should pick the men to accompany him.
In vain, for he insisted that they come along, at least enough
of them to drag the cannon from his ship. Once on top, when
he had fired it off twelve times in all directions, public opinion
veered sharply, and the terrors of Forbidden Hill became the
best joke of the season. Its evil reputation had come down
through several generations, for the kings of Singapura had
lived up there certain seasons of the year, in a palace to which
only the very elite and sacred were allowed to come, and the
stories of what went on in the secret fastnesses of the palace
halls naturally grew better every time they were repeated. So
Raffles, who knew his history, laughed off the evil mists that
hung about the place, and caused the old roadway leading up
to the top to be cleared and made ready for use, because, he
said, this part of the island was probably healthier than the
low-lying ground.
It is alleged that "Singapura" in one of the Indian tongues
means "Lion City/' but the only animals on the island were
rats, who made up in number what they lacked in size. So
many were they that, far from fearing the cats that came ashore
off the ships, they killed them by ganging up, until Raffles
offered a bounty of one wang- i.e., two cents ha'penny for
every dead rat brought to him. Thousands were killed in the
following days, until there was not one rat left. Then Raffles
and the Malaccans turned their attention to the thousands
of centipedes which were doing their little bit to render the
^464
Lion City revolting. The bounty method disposed of them as
well. And now this scrub-covered piece of unattractive land
was ready, the stage was set, and the curtain rose on the drama
of Raffles's Eastern empire.
Leaving Abdullah's dramatic narrative for a while, however
reluctant we may be to do so, we go back a month or two to
see how Raffles had worked his way around to the great mo-
ment. He had got the bad news about Rhio as soon as he ar-
rived at Penang; it met him when he disembarked, and he
said, more in sorrow than surprise, "By neglecting to occupy
the place. . ." He was just in time to catch Farquhar on the
wing; the major had been on the verge of leaving for Europe
when he received Raffles's frantic call for help, but he dutifully
turned around and hurried back. Sir Stamford sailed from
Penang, caught Farquhar up as the major returned from Rhio,
and went with him to the Carirnons, which as we know were
not satisfactory. An earlier visitor had described them accu-
rately, evidently, as being a perfect jungle, not calculated for a
settlement. So much, then, for Rhio and the Carimons. Ra-
fles's personal hunch that Singapura might be just what he
wanted grew stronger with each disappointment. Boulger did
a bit of interesting research when he dug out of the Political
Records of India this letter from Raffles dated January six-
teenth, which is to say a fortnight before Singapore was occu-
pied and even well before he went to Carimon. Note that his
mind was already made up:
"The island of Sincapore [sic], independently of the straits
and harbour of Johore, which it both forms and commands,
has, on its southern shores, and by means of the several smaller
islands which lie off it, excellent anchorage and smaller har-
bours, and seems in every respect most peculiarly adapted for
our object. Its position in the straits of Singapore is far more
convenient and commanding than even Rhio, for our China
trade passing down the straits of Malacca, and every native
vessel that sails through the Straits of Rhio must pass in sight
of it.
465^
"The town of Johore is, in the main, at some distance up
the river, the banks of which are said to be low; but, on the
score of salubrity, there does not seem to be any objection to
a station at Sincapore, or on the opposite shore towards Point
Romanea, or on any of the smaller islands which lie off this
part of the coast. The larger harbour of Johore is declared by
professional men whom I have consulted, and by every East-
ern trader of experience to whom I have been able to refer, to
be capacious and easily defensible, and, the British flag once
hoisted, there would be no want of supplies to meet the im-
mediate necessities of our establishment/'
Abdullah has more to tell us of the matter. With the Eng-
lish flag flying bravely from its pole on the beach, there was no
longer need for secrecy, and in a short time the people of Ma-
lacca, among whom Abdullah was eagerly waiting, heard the
news that there would soon be a British city on the island of
Singapore. Immediately a lot of traders became eager to take
food down there to the settlement and sell it, and though they
feared the pirates who infested the neighborhood, many of
them braved the danger and did go. So many went, in fact,
that the Dutch, already infuriated by the way they had been
outguessed, declared that at this rate Malacca would soon be
deserted, and they passed a law forbidding anyone from Ma-
lacca to saij to Singapore (all this is Abdullah's version: I can't
find confirmation elsewhere), saying that they would confis-
cate any vessel they encountered that was Singapore-bound
Still they could not stop the rush southward, until at last they
set cruisers to guarding the river, and after that it was necessary
to use stealth to get out. But still the people fled, braving the
threat of loss from pirates or Dutchmen; they kept going, eager
to be free of Dutch oppression.
Abdullah painted in strong colors when he spoke of that
oppression. He said the taxes were crushing and that the petty
officials whose duty was to enforce the laws made matters even
worse by cooking up false accusations in order to collect fine
money. One of the most hated laws was that which provided
for street sweeping. Each householder in Malacca was to see
to it that the roadway before his house was kept clean and
swept, and the people tried to keep on the right side of author-
ity by being very careful in this respect. But there was one
official whose habit it was to discover imaginary infractions of
this rule as often as he inspected the streets. So often did he
levy fines that the natives nicknamed him "Mr. Broom/' and
he became a sort of symbol of Dutch oppression; he was the
most notorious and hated man in the city government.
Small wonder, then, that Malacca people found ways to slip
out of the city and down to Singapore even in spite of the
Dutch cruisers, and in spite of the news, which arrived soon
after the planting of the flagpole, that food was scarce in the
new settlement, although money abounded. Most people
thought the town would exist for only a short time before the
British pulled up stakes and departed. The Dutch of course
helped spread this rumor. But though they thought it might
be true, they still wanted to go and live there for as long as the
city existed.
Then Raffles came, said Abdullah (who thought it had been
Farquhar who founded the city, remember), from Bengal,
with four ships and two cutters, and as soon as he had entered
the harbor he sent for Tengku Long, the son of Sultan
Mahmud, who had carried on earlier conversations with him.
Until Tengku Long arrived Sir Stamford stayed aboard his
own ship. Tengku Long, said Abdullah, feared he was being
summoned in order to be arrested but he dared not disobey,
so he went, though he was shaking in his shoes. Seeing that he
had arrived, Raffles came ashore. All this time, Tengku Long's
heart beat fast with terror.
"Mr. Raffles showed Tengku Long every honor and respect,
and brought him to a place where they all four sat down in
chairs. Enchek Abu Pateh sat behind Tengku Long, and Raja
Embong sat a little way off. At that time Mr. Raffles was speak-
ing with smiles and a pleasant face, and kept bowing his head,
and was as sweet as a sea of honey. Not merely the human
heart but even a stone would be broken by hearing such words
as his, with a gentle voice like the sweetest music, in order to
remove any sadness and that the doubt which might be con-
cealed in the treasury of the human heart might also disappear,
467^
and so all the waves of uncertainty which were beating upon
the reef of doubt were stilled, and the cloud which threatened
a squall of wind with darkness such as that of a great storm
about to break was all dissipated, so that the weather became
fine, and there blew the gentle breeze which comes from the
garden of love, and then suddenly there arose the full moon
of the fourteenth day with its bright light, so that the sincerity
of Mr. Raffles became evident to Tengku Long. In a moment
his sadness changed to gladness, and his face lighted up. As
Mr. Raffles looked out of the corner of his eye, his face changed
color, and he rose from his chair, and taking the hand of
Tengku Long he led him into his cabin, and closed the door.
In that cabin these two men conversed, and no one knows the
secret of what they said. If I knew the secret of their conversa-
tion, I would certainly write it in this story, but God alone
knows it. After a considerable time they came out smiling and
holding one another's hands, and then they went down into
the boat. Mr. Farquhar and the Temenggong also went down
with them "
Tengku Long dressed up in his regal attire, the story con-
tinues, and by the time he came back Raffles and Farquhar
and the crews of the ships and all the Malacca people were
ready waiting in the middle of the Esplanade, and a table was
placed there with chairs right and left, and sailors drawn up
ready, right and left. The Malays came marching with the
sacred yellow umbrella.
"And as they were marching, by God's power there fell a
light rain [hu/an panas], which as the Malays reckon is a sign
of blessings to come."
Sir Stamford quickly came and shook hands with Tengku
Long, who according to Abdullah was suffering from a return
of his terror, so that he said in a frantic whisper to his attendant
Enchek Abu, "Don't you move from behind me/'
In the tent Raffles seated Tengku Long in the middle, then
Raffles stood on the right hand of the prince and Farquhar on
the left. Every European present now took off his hat and
stood with folded arms, paying respect to His Highness. The
proclamation was read aloud, announcing that Tengku Long
^468
had been appointed Sultan by the governor general of Bengal,
with the title "Sultan Husain Shah ibnu 1-Marhum Sultan
Mahmud Shah, in the town of Singapore and in the districts
and shores thereof." The Europeans saluted; the guns on the
ships were fired. Raffles and Farquhar escorted the new Sultan
to the Temenggong's house. Then Raffles went back to his ship
and the Sultan said to the Temenggong:
"Build me a palace, for I must ask my wife to come here
from Riau and all the retinue of my palace."
Next day Raffles moved ashore, to live in an atap house
which was built for him, with his brother-in-law Captain Flint,
whom he appointed harbor master of the town. The house
stood at the end of Singapore Point
He gave Tengku Long a thousand dollars, a roll of black
broadcloth, a roll of yellow broadcloth, and a fixed allowance
agreed on between them.
Traders poured in, says Abdullah. Merchandise came from
all countries like the flood tide, especially European goods.
Every day auctions were being held, four or five at a time in
different parts of the new town. All the houses were merely
hastily built ones of atap, for there was no time to build brick
ones. The first brick building was for the "police" -that is, the
courthouse. When Abdullah arrived at Singapore four months
after the occupation, the houses were still chiefly atap.
One day Raffles had an audience with the Sultan and sug-
gested that he take steps to put a stop to piracy, which had
flourished around this coast for many generations. What, then,
asked the Sultan, would they do for revenue? Sir Stamford
said that there were fortunes being made every day in trade,
and he would be glad to arrange that the Sultan start out with
an excellent stock of the best European goods. The Sultan
was horrified at this suggestion and became extremely haughty.
Good gracious no, he said; a sultan and a sultan's son couldn't
trade. Whatever did the Englishman take them for?
Raffles turned red and replied sharply: "Is it better to be a
petty pirate than a trader, then?"
469^
"Certainly/' said the Sultan. "We have always been pirates.
The pastime is inherited, and so is no disgrace. But trade! . . ."
It is not often we find Sir Stamford caught out like this,
failing to see the other side of an alien philosophy. But even
Raffles was vulnerable when it came to a matter of morality.
The ethics of honesty were so ingrained in his character he
forgot, no doubt, that they didn't obtain everywhere in the
world, and that some people saw nothing wrong with piracy.
So much for Abdullah and Singapore. What was happening
now among interested Dutch circles?
Plenty. Raffles's first public act when everything was settled
was to issue the following proclamation:
"A Treaty having been this day concluded between the
British Government and the native authorities, and a British
Establishment having been in consequence founded at Singa-
pore, the Honourable Sir T. S. Raffles, Lieutenant-Governor
of Bencoolen and its dependencies, Agent to the Governor-
General, is pleased to certify the appointment by the Supreme
Government of Major William Farquhar of the Madras Engi-
neers to be Resident, and to command the troops at Singapore
and its dependencies, and all persons are hereby directed to
obey Major Farquhar accordingly. It is further notified that the
Residency of Singapore has been placed under the Govern-
ment of Fort Marlborough, and is to be considered a depend-
ency thereof; of which all persons concerned are desired to
take notice.
"Dated at Singapore this 6th day of February 1819."
His private letters are naturally less reserved. He lost no
time in sending the all-important news to his faithful friend
Assey, to the duchess, to Marsden, and to Mr. Adam, who as
secretary to the Bengal Government had written all the letters,
actually, which announced to Raffles the desires and com-
mands of Lord Hastings. It is the letter to Assey which includes
the phrase made famous by Van der Kemp, "paper war":
"You will be happy to hear that the Station of Singapore
contain every advantage, geographical and local, that we can
desire an excellent harbour, which I was the first to discover;
capital facilities for defense to shipping if necessary; and the
^3470
port in the direct track of the China trade. We have a flag at
St. John's, and every ship passing through the Straits must go
within half a mile of it in short, you have only to ask any
India captain his opinion of the importance of this station even
without the harbour which has been discovered. Mynheer will
probably enter into a paper war on the subject; but we may, I
think, combat their arguments without any difficulty. They
had established themselves at Rhio, and by virtue of a treaty,
which they had forced the Raja of that place to sign, they as-
sume a right of excluding us from all the islands and declaring
the people their vassals. The legitimate successor to the empire
of Johor is with us, and, on the ruins of the ancient capital,
has signed a treaty with us which placed Sincapore and the
neighbouring islands under our protection. We do not med-
dle with the Dutch at Rhio/'
Explaining to the duchess just where his new project is to
be found, he says, "Follow me from Calcutta, within the Nico-
bar and Andaman Islands, to Prince of Wales's Island, then
accompany me down the Straits of Malacca, past the town of
Malacca, and round the southwestern point of the Peninsula.
You will then enter what are called the Straits of Singapore,
and in Marsden's map of Sumatra you will observe an island
to the north of these straits called Singapura; this is the spot,
the site of the ancient maritime capital of the Malays, and
within the walls of these fortifications, raised not less than six
centuries ago, on which I have planted the British flag, where,
I trust, it will long triumphantly wave/'
To Marsden: "If I keep Singapore I shall be quite satisfied;
and in a few years our influence over the Archipelago, as far as
concerns our commerce, will be fully established/'
The letter to Adams contains only what has already been
expressed in various ways, save that to the secretary he
naturally emphasizes the point, which is the most important
one he makes, that the Dutch can prefer no valid claim to
Singapore. Rhio, he is confident, possesses no authority over
Johbre, though that is the claim which the Dutch are most
likely to make when they begin their protests, which he doubts
not Will be immediately.
Among these letters of the end of January and the early
weeks of February it will not be out of place to mention an-
other, though that was written much later, in June. It is the
same letter to Colonel Addenbrooke, who had been A.D.C.
to Princess Charlotte, in which we have already found timely
news of Sophia, during our account of Raffles's private affairs.
He addressed Addenbrooke, but it was Prince Leopold's ear
he intended to reach when he sent the news of Singapore, for
he knew it would interest the Prince because of the many talks
they had had in 1817, on *^ e subject of Eastern expansion
during Sir Stamford's leave in England. Some of the state-
ments are particularly worth remembering:
"I shall say nothing of the importance which I attach to the
permanence of the position I have taken up at Singapore; it
is a child of my own. But for my Malay studies I should hardly
have known that such a place existed: not only the European,
but the Indian world was also ignorant of it. ... Our object is
not territory, but trade; a great commercial emporium, and a
fulcrum, whence we may extend our influence politically as
circumstances may hereafter require/'
Soon after the proclamation was issued, Sir Stamford has-
tened back to Penang, for he had still to visit Acheen and dis-
cover the exact position there. Also, it may be remembered,
Lady Raffles was at Penang, awaiting her second confinement,
and her husband wanted very much to get there in time for it.
He missed by just four days, but Sophia was none the worse for
having gone through the ordeal without his presence. The
journey to Acheen was satisfactory in its way, but none of these
political discussions and decisions Bore the weight of the great
adventure now under way at Singapore, and everyone who
knew anything about it appreciated the fact.
The "paper war" started out as Raffles anticipated. As far
as we know the first blow was struck by the Dutch when they
held in their hands (as early as February) a letter from the
Temenggong at Singapore, describing the arrival of the Eng-
lish-in highly imaginative terms. He implied that the occupa-
tion had been accomplished by force; Farquhar and Raffles
practically burst in on him, he said, and installed their troops
and stores before even announcing that they intended to stay
there. Farquhar, according to this letter, had almost immedi-
ately set forth again to Rhio (which is variously spelled Riau,
Rhio, et cetera) and came back dragging Tengku Long, who
then, supposedly much against his will, was named Sultan
Hussein of Johore and installed as a puppet prince. Sultan
Hussein had already sent an apology to the Sultan of Rhio,
explaining how it all came about though it was noticeable
that he did not offer to give up the title and honors that had
been allegedly forced upon him, the unwilling recipient.
All of this was only natural, and did not even irritate Sir
Stamford when it came to his attention, or turn him against
the wily native prince and his premier. It was only to be ex-
pected that these puppets should safeguard themselves against
attacks from any direction. Sultan Hussein, if the Dutch
should gain the possession of Singapore, which they obviously
were going to try for, would be out of luck unless he could
prove, however feebly, that it wasn't his fault the English had
set him there on the throne.
The governor of Malacca, full of righteous indignation, duly
made a protest to Colonel Bannerman, governor of Prince of
Wales Island, setting forth these facts.
Sir Stamford himself replied promptly from Penang. Ad-
dressing Timmerman Thyssen, in a letter dated February
seventeenth, he wrote: "Sir! I was on the point of addressing
Your Excellency for the purpose of apprizing you of the estab-
lishment of a British factory at Singapore, when I received
from the Governor and Council of this island a copy of the
letter which Your Excellency addressed to him on the loth
instant with the documents therein referred to.
"I have now the honour to inform your Excellency, that in
pursuance of instructions from the Supreme Government of
British India, and by virtue of the authority vested in me as
agent to the Most Noble the Marquis of Hastings K.G. etc.
etc., Governor-General, by the commission of which I have the
honour to inclose a copy in this letter, I have entered into and
concluded a treaty and defensive alliance in the name and on
behalf of the Governor-General with their Highness Sultan
473
Hussein Mohammed Sjah, eldest son and legitimate heir and
successor of His Highness the late Sultan Mohammed Sjah
and Datoo Toemengoeng Sri Moharadja Abdul Rahman,
Toemengoeng of that division of the empire called Johore
proper. By the stipulations of this treaty, a British factory has
been established at Singapore and the port and island placed
under the protection of the British flag, but as the views of our
Government are strictly commercial and as I was earnestly de-
sirous of avoiding collision with the subjects of our ally, His
Majesty the King of the Netherlands, whom I understood to
be established at Rhio, it has been provided by the treaty, and
forms a part of it, that the British government is in no way
bound to interfere with the politics of the adjacent states of
Rhio, Linga etc. or to assert the Sultan's authority beyond that
portion of the empire, in which it is now voluntarily acknowl-
edged.
"From your letter to the Governor and Council of this
island, it would appear you have done me the honour of ad-
dressing a letter to me, which I have not yet received, in which
you make a protest against the occupation of Singapore. I have
perused with attention the documents to which you refer in
your letter to the government of this island, and do not find
in them anything to effect or invalidate the arrangements I
have made at that island: in the event therefore of any dif-
ference of opinion on this subject I beg leave to refer you to
the immediate authority under which I act, and to request
that you will do me the honour to transmit a copy of this dis-
patch to His Excellency the Governor-General of Batavia by
the earliest opportunity/'
Major Farquhar, now in command as Resident at Singa-
pore since Raffles had gone to Penang, was quick to act on the
news as soon as it came to his ears. On March first he ad-
dressed Colonel Bannerman.
"Honble. Sir, Having obtained what I conceive to be au-
thentic information that the Governor of Malacca has ad-
dressed a letter to you intimating that the British Establish-
ment recently formed at Singapore has been effected in a
forcible manner without the previous consent of the Local
^474
Authorities of the country, and having at the same time ascer-
tained that this information has been grounded on a letter
from hence by His Highness the Tumunggong to Mr. Adrian
Kock of Malacca, I beg leave herewith to transmit an explana-
tory document, signed by Tunkoo Long, Sultan of }ohore r
and the Tumunggong of Singapore, which will no doubt re-
move every doubt which may have arisen in your mind rela-
tive to the proceedings which have taken place.
"I must also take the liberty to request that in the event of
the erroneous statement the Honble. Mr. Timmerman Thys-
sen is said to have transmitted having been received and sub-
sequently forwarded on to the Supreme Government you will
have the goodness to transmit a copy of the present dispatch
for the information of the Most Noble the Governor-Gen-
eral by the first opportunity.
"ENCLOSURE
'This is to make known to all whom it may concern, that
our friend Major William Farquhar, British Resident of the
Settlement of Singapore, has called upon me to declare whether
or not any letter or letters have been written by me to the
Governor of Malacca, or to any person under his authority,
or to the Rajah Mooda of Rhio, intimating that the factory
which the English have recently established here was forcibly
formed entirely against my will; I hereby freely acknowledge
that I did write a letter to Mr. Adrian Kock of Malacca, and
one to the Rajah Mooda of Rhio, to the above effect, but my
motive for so writing arose solely from the apprehension of
bringing on me the vengeance of the Dutch at some future
period.
"But I here call God and His Prophet to witness that the
English established themselves at Singapore with my free
will and consent; and that from the arrival of the Honourable
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles no troops or effects were landed,
or anything executed but with the free accord of myself and
of the Sultan of Johore. In token of the truth whereof we have
hereunto affixed our respective Seals."
The only trouble with this retort of Farquhar's to a protest
475
the existence of which he had merely guessed, but guessed
correctly, was that it did not meet all the loose-lying ends of
the affair. To the British official mind it appeared that if
Raffles had committed a misdemeanor or mistake his wrong
lay not so much in having used force to land on Singapore
Island and appoint an unwilling prince to be its puppet head
as in having done this, as it were, illegally. That is to say, if he
had merely been filling a vacuum, the British official mind
would not have been shocked that he did it by a show of
strength. The B.O.M. considered any place a vacuum which
had not yet been occupied and claimed by some white man's
government. Therefore, if the Dutch had truly, as they
claimed, signed a treaty with a genuine Sultan of Johore on
November 26, 1818 (as well as with the sultans of Pahang,
Rhio, Lingen, and dependencies), which gave them exclusive
right to establish factories at these places, Sir Stamford was
out of bounds in occupying Singapore, a dependency of
Johore. Definitely out of bounds. The question of whether
or not he used force in so doing was secondary and unim-
portant.
Colonel Bannerman was inclined to believe the worst of
Raffles in any case. Most exemplars of the British official mind
were, it will be remembered, and no wonder. Starting out with
this universal suspicion that Sir Stamford was an ever-trouble-
some stormy petrel, he glanced hastily at the Dutch claims,
decided they were sound, and forwarded the whole matter to
Calcutta along with his own opinion, most sententiously
worded. His motto was, "In case of doubt, Sir Stamford is
probably picking on the Dutch again/'
A few days later the gallant colonel was further disturbed,
in fact he was set to shaking in his military boots, by the
rumor that the Dutch were getting ready to make war on the
British at Singapore. Though a colonel, it did not occur to the
governor to wonder at a nation so comparatively weak in sea
power as Holland daring to get as belligerent as all that over
what was, after all, merely a local argument. In actuality, Hol-
land's declaring war on Great Britain at that point would
have been as likely as a Maltese poodle making trouble for an
Alsatian shepherd dog. Bannerman didn't behave at all like
an Alsatian. As fast as he could write and send it off he per-
petrated the following letter to Timmerman Thyssen:
"Honble. Sir,- Information having reached me that the
Netherlander' Government of Java are, it is strongly believed,
preparing to send up a force with orders to seize the English
detachment posted at Singapore under the command of Major
Farquhar, I conceive it as a duty I owe to you, as much as to
myself, to apprise you immediately that the whole subject
respecting the occupation of that island was referred by me
to the Most Noble the Governor-General on the iyth ultimo,
and that his Lordship's reply may be expected before the ex-
piration of twenty or thirty days from this date,
'Tending this reference therefore, motives of humanity I
hope you will allow, as well as the undoubted duty of preserv-
ing undisturbed the very friendly relations subsisting between
our respective countries, call upon us to adopt ourselves and
to recommend to the Netherlands Government of Java the
same moderation and goodwill as have hitherto attended the
transactions between your Government and mine. With this
view I have a right to expect that you will join your best en-
deavours with mine in deprecating any such violent measure
on the part of the Java Government as would lead to a cruel
effusion of blood and excite a- collision between Great Britain
and Holland.
"I am the more induced to make this appeal to you as Sir
Stamford Raffles is not under the control of this Government,
and I am really unacquainted with the nature of the reply he
may have returned to your communication of the Treaty ex-
isting between your Government and the Kingdom of Rhio,
etc. ...
"P. S.I have the honour to add that Sir Stamford Raffles
is now absent from this settlement/'
At the same time Bannerman was refusing the urgent re-
quest of Farquhar, who had also heard the rumor and was
equally excited by it, though why he should have credited
the tale is a mystery until we remember how jittery an iso-
lated community can become over even the most unlikely
477^
threats and perils, and this story came from a reliable source.
Farquhar wanted reinforcements, because an acquaintance
of his, a Captain Ross, had sailed into Singapore Harbor bear-
ing the news that the Dutch were mobilizing over at Batavia.
Bannerman replied coldly that Farquhar could take care of
himself, when it became necessary, simply by moving out of
the disputed territory with all his retinue, and that in any
case he should remember that the whole thing had been done
against his, Bannerman's, advice. The governor of Prince of
Wales Island wished it to be understood without any chance
of mistake that he had always kept clear of the affair. Come
the Revolution., or rather the Retribution, Bannerman in-
tended being on the safe side, no doubt about that. Probably
Boulger is not wrong in attributing his attitude to another
reason as well he knew that Singapore as a British post would
wipe out the importance of his Penang, leeching that city of
the red corpuscles of trade until it died of anemia. Even so,
Bannerman's behavior was a remarkable exhibition. One need
not belong to Walpole's category of good Englishmen to feel
contempt for his actions.
It was not the first effort Bannerman had made to put a
spoke in Raffles's wheel. An earlier attempt was nearly suc-
cessful. The governor had actually sent a strongly worded let-
ter to Lord Hastings soon after the new year opened, when
Raffles was in Penang, having just arrived there on his journey
south under Hastings's orders. The idea of an establishment
either at Rhio or at Singapore, declared the governor in this
dispatch, was totally unfeasible. The Dutch had every bit of
territory sewed up, he said; a new establishment was merely
another crackpot Raffles scheme, and the governor general
should not leave himself open to attack by countenancing any
such attempt to embroil England in a war, for this was obvi-
ously what Raffles wanted.
Had it not been for the previous relations between Lord
Hastings and Sir Stamford, the real motive behind this out-
burst might have been obvious to Hastings, but it played on
a familiar theme, and rang a bell in the governor general's
memory, and worked mischief. Besides, there was that worri-
^478
some fact of the Dutch occupation of Rhio. Supposing they
were right in their claim, and that Johore was, indeed, a sort
of Rhio, held under the same treaty? Hastings considered a
bit and then tried to back water on his former decision. He
replied to Bannerman, "Sir Thomas Raffles was not justified
in sending Major Farquhar eastward after the Dutch pro-
tested; and, if the Post has not yet been obtained, he is to
desist from any further attempt to establish one."
However, the post had been obtained, for this letter was not
written until February twentieth. Raffles had got in just under
the wire. He had known what he was doing when he avoided
delay as much as possible and rushed headlong to Singapore!
Even now the matter was not closed, and he was to spend
many anxious moments before it was. In London the faith-
ful Assey kept a close eye on developments; he could have ex-
plained something of Hastings's nervous vacillations from his
point of view there. The Secret Committee was definitely dis-
turbed by Raffles's latest activities. Assey wrote to Dr. Raffles,
Sir Stamford's cousin, early in May of that year:
"We have been under considerable apprehension lately.
Ministers were most excessively angry at the publication of
his, Sir Stamford's recent Protests and Proceedings with the
Dutch Authorities" referring, it will be recalled, to the
Palembang affair and the protest which Raffles published
later "especially those in the Cabinet, who have had the
credit of concluding the arrangements under which the resti-
tution of Java was to be effected, and they were earnest in re-
quiring his removal from Bencoolen." George Canning, par-
ticularly. "The fortunate arrival of intelligence, however, from
Calcutta of his reception by my Lord Hastings, and his sub-
sequent mission to Rhio under the immediate direction and
orders of the Governor-General in Council, enabled his
friends to interpose with greater effect, and I am happy in
being able to communicate to you that the original expression
of the sentiments of the authorities here is much softened,
and we confidently trust that nothing will happen to his
prejudice at Bencoolen, because it is left to the Government
in India to determine the necessity of any change. In the
479
meantime Sir Stamford has been apprised of the feeling of
Ministers towards him, and when he is thus convinced that
he cannot expect the support which he had anticipated, it is
to be hoped that he will remain quiet."
Vain hope! Charles Assey of all people should have known
better than to indulge in such a dream. Even as he wrote these
words, Sir Stamford was landing himself in more hot water
and imperiling that new understanding he had achieved with
Hastings, which came in so opportunely when Canning de-
manded his head on a silver charger. Reading the sequence of
events, one cannot resist giving thanks on Raffles's behalf that
the telegraph had not yet been invented. He owes his ultimate
success entirely to the delay in transit of news between Eng-
land and the East to which it was all subject in those days.
When Hastings was angry with him, England was not; when
England was infuriated against him, Hastings had got over
his peeve; by the time Hastings had swung back to anger, his
temporary liking for Sir Stamford had reached the ears of the
Secret Committee and saved the unfortunate Raffles once
again.
"He is undoubtedly right," Assey added anxiously, for fear
he had given a wrong impression of his own sentiments
toward his former chief, "in principle, and the day will come
when the national advantage of his propositions and the value
of his active exertions will be acknowledged; but at present
expediency seems to be more the order of the day, and the
secrets of European politics are opposed to him."
That they were. To give one good all-round example of
what went on behind Raffles's back when Fate was really try-
ing to do him down, I quote in its entirety the fascinating let-
ter Bannerman, drunk with his own perfume, now wrote to
Lord Hastings.
THE GOVERNOR.
I have the honour to present to the Board a letter from
Major Farquhar, dated ist instant, conveying intelligence of
a very extraordinary communication which the Chiefs of
Johore and Singapoor appear to have spontaneously and clan-
destinely made to the Ra/ah Mooda of Rhio, and to Mr.
Adrian KocJc, the Senior Member of the Dutch Council at
Malacca.
Although the circumstance mentioned in Ma/or Farquhar's
letter had not previously come to our knowledge, yet I con-
ceive we are bound to forward these documents by the very
first opportunity to the Governor-General.
It is, however, very unfortunate that Ma/or Farquhar's
present communication, instead of removing the mischievous
impressions which the secret correspondence of the Chiefs
may have excited, will, on the contrary, only serve to
strengthen them materially in the minds of the Hollanders,
and nowhere more so than in Europe, where the inference
will undoubtedly be, that whilst the secret letters of these
Native Chiefs were spontaneous and untutored, their recan-
tation forwarded by Ma/or Farquhar was written under the
control of that officer.
There is one fact, however, deducible from this correspond-
ence, and which I must notice, as it substantiates the truth
of my former assertion, that the Chiefs of Singapoor and
Johore are dependants of the Sultan [of] Rhio, etc. I can see
no other reason why these Chiefs should have addressed the
Ra/ah Mooda of Rhio, but that they knew they were accounta-
ble to him for their conduct, and had reason to dread his
vengeance as much as that of the Hollanders.
i6th March.
Since writing the above, a despatch-prow has brought me
another letter from Ma/or Farquhar, dated 6th instant, re-
porting, as the Board may see, that Captain Ross of the Hon-
ourable Company's Marine has given him information of the
Dutch Governor of Malacca having strongly recommended
the Government of Java to send up a force and seize the party
at Singapoor, and requiring therefore a reinforcement of
troops to enable him to maintain his post against a hostile at-
tack on the part of the Netherlanders.
It must be notorious that any force we are able to detach
to Singapoor could not resist the overpowering armament at
the disposal of the Batavia Government, although its presence
would certainly compel Ma/or Farquhar to resist the Nether-
landers even to the shedding of blood, and its ultimate and
forced submission would tarnish the national honour infinitely
more seriously than the degradation which would ensue from
the retreat of the small party now at Singapoor.
Neither Ma/or Farquhar's honour as a soldier nor the hon-
our of the British Government now require him to attempt
the defence of Singapoor by force of arms against the Nether-
landers, as he knows Sir Stamford Raffles has occupied that
island in violation of the orders of the Supreme Government,
and as he knows that any opposition from his present small
party would be a useless and reprehensible sacrifice of men,
when made against the overwhelming Naval and Military
force that the Dutch will employ. Under these circumstances
I am satisfied that Ma/or Farquhar must be certain that he
would not be justified in shedding blood in the maintenance
of his post at present.
The question then is, Shall this Government reinforce
Ma/or Farquhar, and invite him to a violent opposition against
the Netherlanders? or shall it recommend him rather to evacu-
ate the Post Sir S. Raffles has so injudiciously chosen, than
shed a drop of human blood in its defence?
After the knowledge we possess of the views and present
policy of the Governor-General; after the information we
have obtained of the means used by Sir Stamford Raffles to
obtain the Island of Singapoor; and after the intelligence we
have received of the Dutch right to that territory, admitted
as it is, by the secret correspondence of the Chiefs there, I am
decidedly of opinion that this Government will not be justi-
fied in reinforcing Ma/or Farquhar and inciting him to resist
the Hollanders by force of arms.
I had fully stated the possibility of a hostile attack from
the Dutch to the worthy Ma/or, when he first lost sight of his
usual prudence, and allowed himself to be seduced and made
a party in Sir Stamford Raffles's proceedings, as it appeared to
me upon the receipt of that gentleman's letter of the ist of
January, and although my advice was then little attended to,
yet my duty, as well as a considerable portion of personal re-
gard, will not now permit me to withhold from offering it to
him again, accompanied as it may be with much responsi-
bility to myself.
I beg, then, that the accompanying reply be returned to that
officer by the despatch-prow, together with copies of the dif-
ferent papers alluded to therein; and I further propose that
the accompanying temperate and firm remonstrance be im-
mediately addressed to Mr. Timmerrnan Thyssen, by means
of which I hope any projected violent measures of his Gov-
ernment will be deprecated, without affecting in the slightest
degree the national honour and credit.
I also beg to recommend, as no opportunity will probably
occur for several weeks, and as Ma/or Farquhar would in the
meantime be exposed to inconvenience, that one of the trans-
ports taken up for the convenience of the relief be sent to
Singapoor, with another European officer and a further sup-
ply of six thousand dollars. This last I am, however, surprised
to learn that he should require so soon, for his small detach-
ment has not been forty days at Singapoor before it appears
to have expended so large a sum as 15,000 dollars which was
taken with it.
In proposing to send this transport to Major Farquhar, I
have another object in view. I have just had reason to believe
that the Ganges and Nearchus (the only two vessels now at
Singapoor) are quite incapable of receiving on board the
whole of the detachment there, in the event of Major Farqu-
har's judgment deciding that a retreat from the Post would
be most advisable. If, therefore, one of the transports is
victualled equal to one month's consumption for two hundre4
and fifty men, and sent to Singapoor, with authority given to
Major Farquhar to employ her should her services be requi-
site, that officer will then have ample means for removing,
whenever indispensably necessary, not only all his party, but
such of the native inhabitants as may fear the Dutch venge-
ance, and whom it would be most cruel to desert.
This arrangement, the Board knows, may be executed with-
out any additional expense and without much inconvenience,
483^
as the transport is now lying idle in this harbour, and as the
instructions of the Governor-General respecting Singapoor
will certainly arrive before she can be probably required. I de-
sire, therefore, the Secretary to Government may issue the
necessary directions to the proper departments, and also ad-
dress the accompanying letter to Major Farquhar.
I must here fairly acquaint the Board that this measure of
despatching a transport to Ma/or Farquhar will subject us to
one serious imputation, i.e. that we held out inducements and
furnished means to that officer to withdraw the Establish-
ment from Singapoor, which he otherwise would not and
could not have done.
The necessity of sending another officer and more money to
Ma/or Farquhar must be allowed to be urgent, indispensable,
and immediate; and as to the expediency of placing within
his power means, and British means, for withdrawing from a
Post whence a Dutch force may, in the first instance, induce
him to consent retreat, and then compel him to embark on
board one of their ships, my conscience tells me is equally
indispensable and proper, and calculated to save the national
character from a very great portion of disgrace. I confess the
mortification to me would be infinitely aggravated if I was
Ma/or Farquhar and his detachment brought into this port
under the Dutch flag. If the Netherlander visit him, I cer-
tainly thinlc they will never allow him to wait for any reference
to this Government for a vessel, but insist upon his immedi-
ately embarlcing the Establishment on board of their ships.
Under every view of the case, therefore, I think it is our
undoubted duty to furnish Major Farquhar with means for
removing the Establishment in an English vessel if such a
measure becomes indispensable.
However invidious the task, I cannot close this Minute
without pointing out to the notice of our superiors the very
extraordinary conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor of Ben-
coolen. He posts a detachment at Singapoor under very
equivocal circumstances, without even the means of coming
away, and with such defective instructions and slender re-
sources that, before it has been there a month, its commander
^484
is obliged to apply for money to this Government, whose duty
it becomes to offer that officer advice and means against an
event which Sir Stamford Raffles ought to have expected, and
for which he ought to have made an express provision in his
instructions to that officer.
My letters of the i5th and i/th February will prove that
upon his return from Singapoor I offered him any supplies
he might require for the detachment he had left there, and
also earnestly called upon him to transmit instructions to
Ma/or Farquhar for the guidance of his conduct in the possi-
ble event of the Netherlanders attempting to dislodge him
by force of arms. Did he avail himself of my offer and state
what further supplies Ma/or Farquhar would require? or did
he attend to my appeal and send the requisite instructions to
that officer? No. He set off for Acheen, and left Ma/or Far-
quhar to shift for himself. In fact he acted (as a friend of mine
emphatically observed) lilce a man who sets a house on fire
and then runs away.
J. A. BANNERMAN
I think we are safe this time in trusting completely to Boul-
ger's historical judgment, which if one agrees with Kemp's
theory is all right as long as his jingo passions are not aroused.
He says two factors now militated in Sir Stamford's favor:
(i) though the governor general had given orders that the
project should be abandoned if the post had not yet been
founded, the post jolly well had been founded by the time
his letter reached Bannerrnan, six weeks before. Thus his
orders didn't stand, according to his own word. Also, he may
possibly have recollected late it is true but not too late
that he had agreed with Raffles during their early interviews
on the necessity of curbing Dutch expansion and aggression.
Then (2), there was something undeniably nasty in the spec-
tacle of a British official, a governor at that, actually taking
sides with the Dutch, who had recently been at war with
England and for all he knew would soon be at war again,
against his own compatriot, when that compatriot was acting
485^
on orders from Lord Hastings himself. In attacking Raffles's
actions Bannerman was attacking Hastings's authority, a fact
which he had completely forgotten if he ever gave it a thought
in his jealous haste to discredit his colleague.
Whereupon Hastings, without further loss of time, rapped
Bannerman over the knuckles.
"With regard to Singapore, we (the Governor-General in
Council) say that we think your Government entirely wrong
in determining so broadly against the propriety of the step
taken by Sir Thomas Raffles; 'the opposition of the Dutch'
was not of the nature which we had directed to be shunned
under the description of collision. The ground on which
Sir Thomas Raffles stood was this, that Singapore was never
mentioned in the Treaty between the Sultan of Johore and
the Dutch. The supposition that it was included in the gen-
eral term of dependencies is one of those gratuitous assump-
tions which merit no consideration. We fear you would have
difficulty in excusing yourselves should the Dutch be tempted
to violence against that Post. The jealousy of it, should mis-
fortune occur and be traceable to neglect originating in such a
feeling, will find no tolerance with Government, who must
be satisfied (which is not now the case) that perseverance in
maintaining the Post would be an infraction of equity, be-
fore they can consent to abandon it"
Unfortunately nobody seems to have recorded what the
earnest Colonel Bannerman said on receipt of this dispatch.
All we know is that he immediately, without further com-
ment, sent two hundred troops and six thousand dollars to
Farquhar at Singapore. Not, however, one supposes, with love
and kisses.
CHAPTER XXVII
The official date of Singapore's
founding is January 29, 1819, but not until well on in 1822
was the "paper war" finished. Not until then could Raffles
breathe easily, at last assured that his beloved colony would
not go the way of his other beloved colonies, into the greedy
maw of the Dutch nation.
The happy British public was not forced to wait as long as
Sir Stamford for this reassurance. They never had a doubt. No
matter how much dirty linen may have accrued to the Com-
pany by laundry day, the directors didn't do their scrubbing
and rubbing in public, and their officials allowed to pass un-
challenged a joyously congratulatory leader ("editorial" to
you, Americans) which appeared in the Calcutta Journal
March 19, 1819, and was reprinted in the august London
Times the following September seventh.
". . . We believe and earnestly hope," wrote the editor,
"that the establishment of a settlement under such favour-
able circumstances, and at a moment when we had every rea-
son to fear that the efforts of the Dutch had been successful
in excluding us altogether from the Eastern Archipelago, will
receive all the support which is necessary to its progress, and
that by its rapid advance in wealth, industry and population,
which in their establishment and development form the most
487^
honourable monuments of statesmen, it will attest hereafter
the wisdom and foresight of the present administration, and
its attention to the commercial and political interests of our
country.
"We congratulate our Eastern friends, and the commercial
world in general, on the event which we this day report to
them. They will rejoice in our having occupied the position
which was required as a fulcrum for the support of our East-
ernand China trade and from whence we can extend our
commercial views and speculations. The spell of Dutch mo-
nopoly, so justly reviled and detested, and which had nearly
been again established, has been dissolved by the ethereal
touch of that wand which broke in pieces the confederacy
that lately threatened our continental possession; and while
we are indebted to the noble ruler of these dominions for the
peace and security of our homes, we have not the less reason
to admire and applaud the extensive foresight by which an-
other and a nearer link has been added to connect us with
China, and by which our Eastern commerce has been se-
cured."
Very spirited, very pretty, but somewhat premature, was
what Sir Stamford must have thought, in gloomy mood, on
reading this effusion. It was all so much what he had been
preaching until his throat was hoarse, and it seemed so true
and obvious, and it was so evidently the popular trend of
thought, that a stupider man than he might have gone com-
pletely off the rails at the first reading, have seen too much
significance in the article, and assumed that everything was
already settled to his complete satisfaction. But years of un-
pleasant experience had taught Sir Stamford a hard lesson.
Public opinion means very little to politicians; after all, don't
they mold it? So Raffles ignored the Calcutta Journal; he con-
tinued to plead his cause and attend to his business at Ben-
coolen, and at long distance he watched his city grow by
leaps and bounds.
In truth its development went on at an amazing speed.
Even by the time the Calcutta Journal's leader was reprinted
in London it was becoming evident that Singapore was some-
^488
thing unprecedented in colonial history. Paradoxically, how-
ever, the appearance in England of the enthusiastic editorial
coincided with an outburst of enraged attacks upon Sir Stam-
ford by the Secret Committee, for the news had only just
arrived, at East India House as at the Times office. The gov-
ernor general came in for his share of scolding, though they
spared him abuse. No one found anything in Hastings's be-
havior to approve. Already the committee had expressed them-
selves definitely and repeatedly on the general subject of that
annoying man Raffles, as for example in reply to an earlier
dispatch from Hastings, about May, which signified his in-
tention to send Raffles East in order to find a spot for a new
establishment. Because such a mission was likely to bring
Raffles into close contact with the Dutch, the committee had
nearly scratched straight through the letter paper in their
eager haste to head off that dangerous plan.
"We express our decided disapprobation of the extension
in any degree to Eastern islands of that system of subsidiary
alliance which has prevailed, perhaps too widely, in India/'
they had said firmly, back in the summer of 1810. But the
message, as we know, arrived too late: all too evidently it had
crossed, somewhere in midocean, Lord Hastings's rather ap-
prehensive announcement that the nation now had a new
factory on Singapore Island. To say that the committee blew
its top would be understating the case. Judging from the
records, one supposes that the dignified committee members
fairly screamed with exasperation when they heard the ap-
palling news. Poor Lord Hastings! He may have been vacillat-
ing and pusillanimous and all the other polite words one uses
when one wants to call a man a sneaking coward politely, but
his lot was not a happy one. Few of the governors general of
Bengal knew how to manage the committee or dared take a
firm hand with the gentlemen in London. Lord Minto was
one of those few, but Hastings, to put it mildly, was not.
However, the members of the committee managed to get a
strong hold on their tempers before quite burning up in the
first heat of rage, and without ordering Hastings home, with-
out even commanding that Sir Stamford be kicked out of the
489^
Company in disgrace and Singapore dusted off and tenderly
handed over to the Dutch, they agreed to wait and investigate
the claims of the Netherlands before making any decision.
In the meantime Hastings himself was in an undignified
hurry to back water and soothe the Dutch. On June 26, 1819,
he sent a letter from Calcutta, signed by himself and two other
members of government, which included certain placatory
phrases:
"3. . . . The spirit of aggrandizement, evinced in the pro-
ceedings of the Commissioners-General of His Netherlandish
Majesty, and their manifest endeavours to establish the abso-
lute supremacy of the Netherlands in the Eastern seas, made
it necessary for us to adopt precaution with a view to avert
the injury and degradation, which could not fail to ensue
from a listless submission to the unbounded pretensions
displayed on the part of your nation.
"4. That our views relative to those seas have ever been con-
fined to the security of our own commerce, combined with
the freedom of that of other nations, is a position which does
not need demonstration. Its undeniable truth is shown by the
whole series of our conduct in the Eastern seas, during the
period, when our power in that quarter was unrivalled and
unassailable. We might then without difficulty have made
arrangements for the establishment of our supremacy and
might have stipulated for the preservation of those arrange-
ments at the general peace of Europe. Instead of which we
shunned the ready means of aggrandizement and restored to
your nation its noble colonies, without having made any step
towards the increase of our own power, during the long inter-
val in which no nation of any quarter of the globe could have
impeded its extension.
"5. In restoring your colonies with unlimited confidence
and without any literal restriction, we had not to expect that
you would assume as restored what we never received from
you, and never occupied ourselves. We little thought that
some of the first acts of your Government after the restitution
would be to reduce to vassalage the states, which we had
treated as perfectlv independent, and to impose treaties on
^490
those states, having for one of their principal objectives the
exclusion of our commerce from all ports, except when ad-
mitted by your permission. . . .
"7. . . . after the designs of the Netherlandish authorities
had become unambiguously manifest, we were desirous of
forming precautionary engagements with the independent
governments of Rhio, Lingin and f ohor; and for the execution
of this purpose a mission was deputed under Sir T. S. Raffles,
to be assisted by Major Farquhar, who were both selected for
that duty from their intimate knowledge of the affairs of the
Eastern archipelago.
"8. So anxious were we at the same time to avoid the least
collision with the Netherlandish authorities, that we directed
Sir T. S. Raffles to abstain from further intercourse with
Rhio, should he find any post established there on your part;
though our previous treaty with that state gave us a right to
consider ourselves as already connected with it.
"9. In the same spirit we warned Sir T. S. Raffles that, even
in the event of your having extended your claims over the
whole of the ancient kingdom of Johor, refutable as we should
conceive such pretensions to be, we were not disposed to in-
cur the probability of clashing with the Netherlandish Gov-
ernment in India on that question, but should reserve it for
the decision of our respective governments in Europe.
"10. Sir T. S. Raffles, on his arrival at Prince of Wales'
Island, found that the agents of your nation had anticipated
him in Rhio. He therefore very properly avoided that port.
"11. He proceeded to Singapoor and there formed a treaty,
with a chief, whom he describes as the rightful sovereign of
Johor, as well as with the local Government, which he repre-
sents as being independent of that established at Rhio. A copy
of the treaty is annexed for your Excellency's information.
"12. Sir T. S. Raffles has not sufficiently explained to us why
he proceeded to Singapoor, after learning the extent of the pre-
tensions advanced by your agents at Malacca. A strict attention
to our instructions would have induced him to avoid the possi-
bility of collision with the Netherlandish authorities on any
point. And so sincere is our desire to bar the possibility of any
491
altercations with your Excellency's Government that the oc-
cupation of Singapoor has been to us a source of unfeigned
regret.
"13. In fact, after becoming acquainted with the extent of
the pretensions advanced on the part of your nation, and be-
fore we knew of the establishment of a factory at Singapoor,
we had issued instructions to Sir T. S. Raffles directing him if
our orders should arrive in time, to desist from every attempt
to form a British establishment in the Eastern archipelago.
"14. These orders did not however arrive early enough to
prevent the establishment of a factory at Singapoor; and the
question for our consideration now is, whether we shall main-
tain the establishment which has been formed, or carry a com-
plimentary deference for the Netherlandish authorities so far
as to withdraw it.
"15. We flatter ourselves that your Excellency's candour
will at a single glance perceive the difficulty in which we are
placed, as well as the wide difference between that state of
circumstances in which we should have been at liberty to in-
dulge our solicitude to shun any apparent discordance with
your Government, and the case now before us in consequence
of the actual establishment of a factory at Singapoor. . . .
"17. But that which we were so studious to avoid, has now
perversely occurred; we find ourselves established by treaty
with the native government on a spot from which your Excel-
lency asserts a right to exclude us. We cannot relinquish our
possession on your demand without subscribing to the right
which you claim, and of which we are not satisfied; thereby
awkwardly forestalling the judgment, which must have taken
place at home.
"18. By the same account we should sacrifice the interests
of those who have entered into engagements with us, injure
our own reputation by such a sacrifice and justly suffer irre-
trievable loss of influence through so inexplicable a proceeding.
"19. Let us be convinced that, in establishing a factory at
Singapoor, we have intruded on any right possessed by your
nation or any claim which we are bound in equity to respect.
In this case we should immediately withdraw our establish-
^492
ment from Singapoor, fully recognising your title to expect
that course of conduct from us.
"20. On this point we at present entertain the strongest
doubts, which we proceed to explain most frankly to your
Excellency, in order that your Excellency may favour us, if it
be in your power, with such proofs and arguments as may tend
to remove them.
"21. Your Excellency claims Rhio, Johor, Pahang and Lin-
gin as dependencies of Malacca. But, when our Government
was established at Malacca, the Dutch authorities at that place,
in pursuance of the declared intentions of their superiors, the
government of Batavia, had withdrawn their establishments
from Rhio, the only post in their occupation, and declared the
independence of the chief of that country. On the strength of
that public and conclusive transaction we have always con-
sidered and treated Rhio as an independent state, and never
exercised over it any act of supremacy.
"22. When we restored Malacca to you, we could not re-
store that which we did not receive from you. We did not re-
store Rhio, Johor, Lingin and Pahang as dependencies of
Malacca, because (not having obtained them from you) we
did not possess them as such. We restored to you what was
transferred to us in 1795 and nothing more. That transfer did
not include Rhio, Johor, Lingin and Pahang, and this seems
to be admitted in your Excellency's letter to which we have
now the honour to reply. . . .
"25. If, as we hold to be the case, you have no just claim
founded on engagements, which may have existed before the
transfer of Malacca in 1795, your only right depends on the
treaty concluded at Rhio on the 26th November 1818.
"26. This treaty was subsequent to the one settled by Major
Farquhar on the part of the British government with the gov-
ernment of Batavia in the August preceding.
"27. Major Farquhar's treaty was settled with the govern-
ment of Rhio, not as a dependency of Malacca, but as an inde-
pendent state, purposely with a view to the validity and value
of the connection, after the restoration of Malacca to your
nation.
493^
"28. The treaty subsequently entered into by your agents
at Rhio, declares the treaty previously concluded on the part
of the British government to be null and void. The concilia-
tory spirit in which we sought to avoid all differences here, and
to leave all points to adjustment at home is sufficiently proved
by our not having remonstrated against this most extraordinary
and injurious proceeding.
"33. . . . Java was in the possession of Holland on the ist
January 1803. When Java came into our possession the only
dependencies beyond the island attached to that Government,
were the residencies of Macassar on Celebes, and Copang on
Timor, and the factories at Palembang and Japan, and these
only are we bound to acknowledge as the proper dependencies
of Java reverting to your Sovereign with that colony by the
convention of August 1815. When your Excellency carries
your pretensions further, as we have a deep interest, so we
possess an indisputable right to examine into their founda-
tions.
"34. Malacca was not actually in the occupation of Holland
on the ist January 1803; but has nevertheless been restored
with the only dependency which came into our hands along
with that settlement.
"35. According to this interpretation, if we had received
Singapoor as a dependency of Malacca in 1795, if at that time
the Dutch authorities had made over to us any factories or
establishments of any kind at Singapoor, if they had even as-
serted an acknowledged right to that place as a dependency,,
we should now, notwithstanding the lapse of so many years
during which it has been independent, be disposed to recog-
nize your claim. But the Dutch authorities which transferred
Malacca in 1795 declared that Rhio and Johor, Pahang and
Lingin, through the first of which you claim Singapoor, were
not dependencies of Malacca.
"36. We observe in the letter of your Excellency, to which
we have now the honour of replying, that you are disposed to
argue that the withdrawing of the Dutch establishments from
the states of Johor, Pahang, Rhio and Lingin, and the declara-
tion by the Dutch authorities at Malacca of the independence
of those states, were measures not approved by the constituted
authorities of the Dutch East India Company
"39. If we could agree to consider Rhio as a dependency of
Malacca, it would still remain to be shown that Singapoor is
a dependency of Rhio, or of the principality of which the Gov-
ernment resides at Rhio.
"40. This brings us to the point where the chiefs who made
treaties with us at Singapoor were competent to make those
treaties. . . .
"43. In the meantime we have the honour to enclose a state-
ment of information already received, which makes it appear
that the chiefs at Singapoor are independent of those at Rhio
and Lingin; and which directly contradicts the statement made
to your Excellency, that some adventurer, named Tookoelon,
had been brought forward as a pretender to the throne in order
to sanction the procedure of Sir S. Raffles. . . .
"45. We shall endeavor to ascertain to our own satisfaction
whether or not the Netherlandish nation possesses a right to
the exclusive occupation of Singapoor, and if that point be
decided in the affirmative, we shall without hesitation obey
the dictates of justice by withdrawing all our establishments
from that place. We most cordially invite your Excellency to
furnish us with proofs of the justness of your pretensions. We
do not seek any advantage, which is not supported by truth
and equity, and we shall really feel indebted to your Excellency
for putting us right, if we have erred in the view which we have
taken of this question.
"46. In like manner we shall endeavor to ascertain whether
or not the chiefs of Singapoor with whom Sir T. S. Raffles
has concluded engagements, possessed a right to enter into
those engagements; and if it should appear that the right to
the government of Lingin or that of Rhio, or of any other
native power, has been violated, our respect for the rights of
every power will induce us instantly to abandon Singapoor,
on the requisition of the injured power. . . .
"57. The measures pursued by the Netherlandish govern-
ment since its reestablishment in the Eastern archipelago
leave us only the choice of one of three modes of acting. To
495^3
submit implicitly to all your pretensions, which our interests
and our honour alike forbid. To oppose then by systematic
"counter-action and resistance which friendship and courtesy
prohibit. Or to refer all questions for the decision of our re-
spective governments in Europe, which is the course we have
adopted
"59. If we were to imitate the policy acted by the Nether-
landish authorities and seek to obtain exclusive privileges in
the numerous ports and countries of the Eastern archipelago,
we entreat your Excellency to reflect on the probable conse-
quences of the continual collision of interests and disputes of
subordinate authorities which would unavoidably ensue.
"60. We trust, therefore, that your Excellency will concur
in our view of the expediency of mutual forbearance until we
receive the orders which our respective governments in Europe
may be expected to transmit for the future regulation of our
relative policy and respective possessions and connections in
the Eastern archipelago."
In the meantime Singapore proceeded according to plan-
Sir Stamford's plan. Farquhar, now a colonel, accepted the
post of resident, but only temporarily. Boulger makes a point
of the fact that at first the appointment was described by Far-
quhar himself as temporary because his furlough was already
overdue; it was therefore understood that he accept the post
only as a favor, in order to give the new establishment a good
start in life. But his salary and allowances were comparatively
generous, and somewhere in the first months, liking his posi-
tion better than he had expected, he forgot his early deter-
mination. By the end of 1820 he saw that he was onto a good
thing "Its trade/' he wrote of Singapore, "already far exceeds
what Malacca could boast of during the most flourishing
years'' and he changed his mind about the furlough, asking
to be allowed to carry on until the season of 1821-22. How-
ever, the salary and allowances, when they were considered as
arranged on a permanent basis, were unjustifiably high, and
^496
so when things had settled down Raffles drew up a plan for the
future in which this outlay was much reduced. He decided on
a figure for salary and expenses based on the customary amount
and appointed John Crawfurd to succeed Farquhar at the end
of his term. (He also decided, with Lord Hastings's approval,
that Singapore was thenceforth to depend directly upon the
supreme government, and not on Penang or any other of the
subsidiary governments.) When everything had been ar-
ranged, Raffles's secretary wrote Farquhar, asking politely when
he would be ready to quit
Farquhar merely replied in September 1821, that he wasn't
ready yet.
At the risk of seeming persistent, Raffles wrote again. Again
Farquhar replied vaguely, and settled down more firmly than
ever in his nice comfortable post with its nice comfortable
salary. At last in 1823, when England had graciously consented
to keep Singapore as a permanency, Raffles went to visit his
new city, and this time Farquhar was told flatly that he would
have to get out and make room for Crawfurd, who was coming
soon from Bengal. "Farquhar refused to resign or to recognise
Raffles's authority/' said Boulger, "and, on the 2ist of March
1823, he was summarily removed by an official notification,
intimating that his resignation, dated and tendered as far back
as the 23rd of October 1820, had been accepted."
It was indeed too bad, as Boulger says, that a long friendship
between the two men should thus have come to an end, but
there wasn't much else Raffles could have done, considering
everything. For once Lord Hastings was firmly back of Sir
Stamford, declaring stoutly that Farquhar never had done very
well anyway when he departed from Raffles's instructions. It
is a matter for conjecture just what Colonel Farquhar hoped
to gain by his behavior, aside from a few months more of high
salary. There seems small doubt that he was suffering from an
aggravated case of swelled head. Months of being boss evi-
dently led him to exaggerate his importance to Bengal. He
must have thought that Hastings, forced to make a choice be-
tween them, would prefer him to Raffles; no doubt he himself
497^
believed by that time that Singapore was entirely his idea and
his work from start to finish. This sort of thing happens in
every walk of life, every day. But Farquhar, jolted out of his
complacent dream, departed from Singapore out of a job, sore
and angry, and ready to make the wildest accusations against
the man he now considered his successful rival, rather than
his superior officer.
If it were not that I am afraid to swamp this account in
statistics, I could write pages of figures to prove the rate at
which Singapore grew and prospered. A few simple statements,
however, are more effective. Farquhar, while still in a happy
and good temper, admitted that after one year it was a com-
mon sight to count twenty vessels at one time in the harbor.
Five years thence, said a Chinese merchant in conversation
with him, the yearly revenue would be more than five hundred
thousand dollars. Raffles wrote in 1820, early in the year, that
the exports and imports by native boats alone, leaving all
European trade out of the question, amounted to more than
four million dollars in the year.
By this time even the thickest heads at East India House
were being penetrated by a new idea, viz., that Raffles might
possibly have hit on something good in Singapore. One of the
directors, Charles Grant, wrote Sir Stamford to this effect:
^The acquisition of Singapore has grown in importance. The
stir made here lately for the further enlargement of the East-
ern trade fortified that impression. It is now accredited in the
India House/'
As for Lord Hastings, that barometer of official opinion, he
now dared to come out unequivocally in favor of the plan
which he had blown on so hot and cold a year before. It was
easy to see, he reminded the Court of Directors, that the
Dutch would not like the appearance of such a competitive
port, and would go so far in their dislike as to advance a prior
claim to it even when such a claim might not be considered
absolutely honest. Though such a conception seems to have
been a sad shock to the Court, who had never before, evi-
dently, entertained the possibility that one of their European
neighbors would actually stoop to trickery, a few of them were
^5498
moved to agree with Hastings. One sees them returning home-
ward after this session in India House, their heads bowed, their
hearts heavy with a new realization of mankind's wickedness.
One can well imagine the scene in many a director's humble
cottage that evening, when the brokenhearted father of the
family tells his wife and little ones that there is, after all, no
Santa Glaus in international relations.
"But, Daddy, 77 cries an eager child, "you mean the Dutch
told a fib?"
"Alas, yes, my child. And what is more, it seems that we
have been grievously unjust to that poor man Sir Stamford
Raffles. Come sit on Papa's knee and he'll quote you the net
profits from Singapore at the end of the fiscal year/'
There are so many documents available, chiefly in Van der
Kemp's papers, that we could if we wished spend hours read-
ing the entertaining story of the quarrel between Holland and
Raffles. On one occasion, for example, Crawfurd, Farquhar's
successor as resident, alleged to have discovered from a native
report that the Dutch had dug up another prince at Malacca,
a brother of the British-appointed Sultan, inviting him to
Rhio, where he was "put in possession of what are called the
Regalia and raised to the throne of Johore." The regalia, and
the possession of the regalia, played a large part in the argu-
ment, because the Dutch who took possession of them
claimed that according to the natives no sultan could be a sul-
tan without them.
This is Raffles's summary of the situation in retrospect, writ-
ing to Marsden about it. "You must be aware that the grounds
on which I maintain our right to Singapore rested on the fol-
lowing facts, which it has never been in their power to dis-
prove.
"ist. That subsequent to the death of Sultan Mahomed,
which happened about twelve years ago [this was written in
1822] there had been no regular installation of a successor,
nor had any Chief been acknowledged as such, with the es-
sential forms required by the Malay custom.
499
"2nd. That the regalia (the possession of which is consid-
ered essential to sovereignty), still remained in the custody of
Tunku Putrie, widow of the deceased Sultan.
"3rd. That the Rajah of Lingin had never exercised the
authority of Sultan of Johore, and explicitly disclaimed the
title, and
"4th. That the prince whom we supported was the eldest
son of the late Sultan, and was intended for the succession.
That he was acknowledged by one at least, if not both the con-
stituting authorities of the empire, and that he himself stood
in no way committed to the Dutch, when I formed the treaty
with him.
"The Dutch have allowed nearly four years to pass since our
occupation of Singapore, in trying to prove that the Sultan of
Lingin was actually invested with the sovereignty of Johore;
but finding our ministry more firm than they expected, and
that their assertions were not admitted as proofs, they have at
last given up the point, and actually proceeded to the seizure
of the regalia from the hands of Tunku Putrie."
In the end, as we can see, the argument fell by the wayside,
and so, one supposes, did the Dutch entry for the Johore
sweepstakes.
The annals are also heavily weighted with letters from
natives of high degree who have come to live in Singapore, all
in flight, according to Raffles, from Dutch oppression in one
colony or another. One Bugginese Prince Beluwa was in flight
from more than that, said the Hollanders. He was fleeing
justice, and when he had entered Singapore with all his family
and retinue of five hundred the British were called upon to
grant what would nowadays be termed the right of extradition.
Raffles listened to the Prince's plea, however, rather than that
of the Dutch, and Beluwa remained where he was, with Raf-
fles absolutely refusing to give him up, safe in Singapore. But
the incident didn't improve Anglo-Dutch relations, naturally.
Most of the anxious letters were inspired by hardy perennial
rumors that England was going to give in to Holland's repre-
sentations and move out of Singapore. Every time the story
went around town, which was as often as a large mail came in
500
from Calcutta, there would be fresh excitement and worry,
and a flood of frightened questions from the public. As time
went on, however, it became more and more obvious that the
English would not be willing to give up such a profitable
colony on anything less than complete, satisfactory proof that
they had no right to it.
I shall content myself with very few more figures to support
the tale of Singapore's prosperity, but they have been carefully
selected and are as simple and as comprehensive as I can find.
John Crawfurd has supplied just what we want, I think in an
article he wrote not long after his residency was terminated,
on the general subject of free trade.
Singapore, founded in 1819 on ground of which not ten
acres were cleared and where the population was about three
hundred, achieved in nine years the record of 2,875,800 value
in combined exports and imports. This was the figure reported
on April 30, 1828.
In 1814 England's whole trade in the Strait of Malacca was
short of a million sterling. In 1829, the year Crawfurd wrote
this article, it considerably exceeded four million.
That figure was achieved only seven years after the final de-
cision was taken to keep Singapore as a part of the Empire.
Raffles's letters preceding this resolution are plentifully
sprinkled with references to the settlement and his anxieties.
He expressed himself at length to his cousin Tom during the
period (1820) when everything looked most uncertain, in an
interesting little essay on his plans for the future, and Singa-
pore's general importance in them. 'It [Singapore] is all and
every thing I could wish/' he said, "and if no untimely fate
awaits it, promises to become the emporium and pride of the
East. I learn with much regret the prejudice and malignity by
which I am attacked at home, for the desperate struggle I have
maintained against the Dutch. Instead of being supported by
my own Government, I find them deserting me, and giving
way in every instance to the unscrupulous and enormous as-
sertions of the Dutch. All however is safe so far, and if matters
are only allowed to remain as they are all will go well. The
great blow has been struck, and though I may personally suffer
501
in the scuffle the nation must be benefited and I should not
be surprised were the ministers to recall me, though I should
on many accounts regret it at the present moment.
"Were the value of Singapore properly appreciated, I am
confident that all England would be in its favour; it positively
takes nothing from the Dutch and is to us every thing; it gives
us the command of China and Japan, with Siarn and Cam-
bodia, Cochin China, etc. to say nothing of the Islands them-
selves. . . ."
Between the writing of this letter and the end of his anxiety,
when he went to visit Singapore and help draft its laws, Sir
Stamford and Lady Raffles were to pass through the horrible
experience, as we know, of losing most of their children. It
sometimes seems to the reader, glancing through, his letters,
as if Singapore and the interest Raffles took in it were the only
influences that kept him in command of his sanity during his
ordeal. Certainly throughout the painful missives which he
produced during the worst of the period, when for the first
time in his life it was an effort rather than a pleasure to write
his good friends, Singapore is a motif which occurs again and
again, the only fixed point in his thoughts.
We have already spoken of the case of Palembang and the
wrath which Sir Stamford incurred by his action in sending
Salmond and troops out on an adventure which missed fire.
At least once more his behavior proved unpopular to the
authorities in England, though Raffles himself never admitted
that he had done anything but right in regard to Pulo Nias.
This affair was, in a way, an outgrowth of his earlier activity in
regard to slavery, when he set free the Company Africans im-
mediately after his arrival at Fort Marlborough. It will be re-
membered that some of the Court took umbrage at this, as
well as at his closing of the Bencoolen gaming houses and
cockfighting establishments, on the overt grounds that he was
making free of Company property. Raffles himself never
backed down on the subject, however, and his fiery defense,
that as a representative of Great Britain he did not see what
502
else he could have done and yet maintained the national repu-
tation, was never answered.
For a long time Raffles had, correctly, regarded the island
of Nias as headquarters for the entire slave trade in Sumatra
and nearby Java. It was there that the traders, realizing their
commerce was rapidly being driven as illegal from the large
islands, would meet and hold their auctions. Pulo Nias was
still chief clearinghouse for the slave trade of the Indies when
Raffles finally occupied it. Those who objected to this ma-
neuver in England argued vaguely, unwilling to come out
openly in defense of slavery, that Raffles had been too pre-
cipitate, that he should have waited for definite orders before
attempting anything of the kind, and that he was, as usual,
running the risk of trouble with the Dutch. Cheerfully unre-
generate, ignoring all criticism, Sir Stamford wrote in very
different terms to Marsden, in January 1821. Observe that he
was not yet out of the woods in regard to Singapore when he
incurred the wrath of the directors over Pulo Nias. . . . Some-
times one is inclined to sympathize with the Court of Direc-
tors, if only because they must have felt so outrageously
helpless against the stubbornness of the man.
"I have much satisfaction," he told Marsden, "in reporting
that the chiefs of Pulo Nias have ceded the sovereignty of that
island to the Company. Our principal station is at Tello
Dalum. . . . Not a vestige of primeval forest is to be found on
the island; the whole has disappeared before the force of in-
dustry; the whole island is a sheet of the richest cultivation
that can be imagined, and the interior surpasses in beauty and
fertility the richest parts of continental India, if not of Java.
"The people, and in particular the Chiefs, are active and in-
telligent, rich and powerful, and, as far as we can judge of their
character, are the very reverse of those we find on this coast.
They have cheerfully entered into our views for abolishing the
slave trade; and the people, and the country in general, promise
much."
In a letter to another friend he enlarged on the ticklish sub-
ject of "black ivory." More than fifteen hundred slaves were
taken from Pulo Nias annually, he learned to his horror; the
503^
circumstances, he insisted, were no less "revolting" than those
attached to the same industry in Africa. (It was a popular say-
ing in England at the time that the East Indies slaves were
far better off than the African. In that way the public kept their
consciences quiet.)
'The unhappy victims, torn by violence from their friends
and country, are delivered, pinioned hand and foot, to the
dealers in human flesh, and kept bound during the whole
course of the voyage. Instances have occurred, where the cap-
tives have seized a moment of liberty to snatch up the first
weapon within their reach, stab all whom they encountered,
and conclude the scene by leaping overboard, and seeking de-
liverance from their persecutors in a watery grave!"
Lady Raffles adds in her own right, "It was impossible to
witness the constant scenes of rapine and plunder, to which
the coast of the Island had so long been a prey, from the in-
roads of pirates and slave dealers, after the express injunctions
of the legislature, and the principle so universally declared to
actuate the civilized nations of the world. It was notorious that
Pulo Nias, although for a long period of years nominally en-
joying the protection of the English flag, was still the most
abundant, and almost the only source of supply of slaves on
the coast, and that notwithstanding the prohibition against
importation at Bencoolen and elsewhere, it was impossible to
prevent it entirely/' The Raffleses seemed to have an idea,
furthermore, that the natives of Nias were so ripe for conver-
sion to one religion or another that if they weren't quickly sup-
plied with Christianity they would immediately take to Islam
instead.
Now this brings us to a matter which has confused desultory
readers of oriental history for a generation and a half. It is
often stated that Raffles abolished slavery in the Indies and
even in British India. On the infrequent occasions that he and
his merits are discussed and approval of Sir Stamford is of
course unanimous among the British now that he is dead,
though he died under a cloud and almost wiped out by the
Company besides on these occasions, which admittedly do
not occur very often, because Raffles has never been glamor-
^5504
ized like Clive or Lincoln, he is always given credit first and
foremost for this matter of emancipating the slaves. He freed
the slaves, say his admirers. Sir Stamford comes in for com-
mendatory mention on the side, too, whenever Lord Minto is
discussed; humanitarian colonizing, the abolition of slavery,
painless expansion of empire, it's all a part of the story written
by Minto and Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, to hear their ad-
mirers tell it.
Nevertheless one keeps stumbling, even after the "emanci-
pation" should have taken place, over puzzling references to
slaves. First of all there are the slaves listed on Raffles's ex-
pense account on Java. There were also the three slaves which
Gillespie allegedly bought, for which the other Englishmen
looked askance at him because it wasn't quite an English
thing to do. But if slavery was abolished, how did Gillespie
manage to buy those slaves, and why was Sir Stamford of all
people using slaves in his gardens and plantations? Even the
statistics so triumphantly produced, though certainly they
prove that the importation of slaves dropped sharply under
Raffles's administration, also prove, not quite so flourishingly,
that slaves were imported during that period. So what price
abolition?
The answer is simple, yet it has always been difficult to put
across to the puzzled public. Raffles did not abolish slavery.
Raffles put a stop to slave dealing, which is a different thing.
Even in that he was not one hundred per cent successful but
he did fairly well; the figures prove it in a roundabout way.
We have noted that much already. During his tenure of office
at Batavia the value of slaves went up abruptly, so that one
had to pay a good deal more for a handmaiden or a good strong
carpenter after Raffles's legislative measures than before. That
was a simple reaction to the fact of scarcity. No more imports
meant higher prices for such marketable items as were still to
be found on the island. As for Gillespie's un-English purchases
and Raffles's gardening slaves, those are easily explained too.
Gillespie probably bought bootleg slaves, and Raffles was using
government property as he had to do; he was not empowered
to emancipate them without special permission from the
505^
Court of Directors, and it is a scandalous fact that he never
received that permission.
Indeed, on Sumatra he went against the rules anyway, as
soon as he had summed up the situation. I refer to the first
ceremony of his term, when solemnly and impressively he set
free the Kaffirs, handing a certificate of emancipation to each.
This caused a big stink in London, but things had gone further
by that time than when Raffles first came to Java, and the
ruffled directors dared not make too much of a noise about it
for fear of public opinion. Raffles was a good friend, chiefly
by correspondence, of the famous Wilberforce, and by 1817
the abolitionist's efforts were bearing fruit throughout the Em-
pire.
Though the distinction may not sound logical, there it was.
Under Raffles's reform measures it was still permissible to own
slaves, but it was against the law to buy and sell them. Ulti-
mately of course this amounted to the same thing, but literally
one cannot say that Raffles emancipated the slaves of the East
Indies, because he didn't. The following table of events will
serve to explain the matter more clearly. The writer is always
being called upon to produce it; only last week an English
publisher after an advance reading of this book reproached her
for not giving Raffles due credit as the man who did away with
slavery in England. Here, then, are the facts.
The export of slaves was forbidden, by proclamation, in
1789. It was certainly on the strength of this proclamation that
Raffles based his individual reforms in Batavia (1811-16) and
earned for himself sundry directorial scowls and black marks
in his copybook.
In 1811, no doubt providing encouragement and a spur to
Raffles's activities for the cause, the import of slaves from
Arabia was forbidden.
Not until 1824 was anything more done for slaves by legis-
lature in England. This naturally leaves out of the accounting
Sir Stamford's spirited antics at Bencoolen in 1818. But in the
year 1824 it was at last announced that engaging in the slave
trade was legally to be considered piracy, penalty for which in
most cases was death. From that time on any Englishman who
506
traded in black ivory was a blackbirder and a felon. But still it
was legal to own slaves.
Slaves belonging to the Crown were emancipated in 1831.
Two years later, in 1833, slavery was abolished wait a min-
uteas from 1845. Not before. Raffles by 1845 was dead and
beginning to be popular. Ergo, Raffles did not abolish slavery.
Is that clear?
And in any case he wasn't allowed to keep Pulo Nias. When
Lord Hastings made his deal with the Netherlands and re-
gained Malacca in exchange for British Sumatra, Pulo Nias
was a part of the bargain, and slave dealing continued at a brisk
rate on that fertile island.
From the letters Sir Stamford wrote, especially to his cousin
Tom, we become aware around the Bencoolen period of a gen-
uine softening in his attitude toward Christian missionaries.
Until his children were born and began to grow up their
father's attitude, while not exactly unbelieving, was certainly
lacking in enthusiasm toward Christianity and his own church.
Sir Stamford loved to write Dr. Raffles long quizzical disserta-
tions on comparative religion, obviously with intent to tease
his cousin a bit, and he sometimes declared that as far as his
own opinion counted he was satisfied to see his natives remain
Mohammedan. It was a religion which suited them, he im-
plied, better than the milk and water of Christianity, even
when Christianity was practiced by a courageous Dissenter
like the Rev. Tom. But around 1819, after his marriage to
Sophia, the lieutenant governor of Bencoolen dropped his jok-
ing attitude and became definitely helpful to the missions, in-
teresting himself in them to the extent of suggesting missions
among such difficult social problems as the cannibal Battas.
The thin end of the wedge for Raffles was probably the Rev.
Milne from China, a fine example of true oriental scholar. But
even with other mission people who fell short of Milne's
caliber, Raffles went out of his way to encourage them in their
teaching.
This was a perfectly natural development. His earlier atti-
507^
tude, though it was the advance guard of a much later time
when youth rebelled against all social forms, including the for-
mal church, was too far removed from the fashion of the day
for any man approaching middle age to sustain it. To remain
an agnostic, Sir Stamford would have had to devote a part of
his overcrowded life to self-defense and self-explanation, and
the necessity would have grown greater and greater under his
wife's gentle pressure and the soft smothering weight of public
disapproval. Then too, as Raffles became a conventionally
happy man, secure and content with his family and his work,
he lost the desire to rebel. His intellect became less explora-
tory and more spiritual. Intellects have a way of doing that
when they approach middle age.
By the time he so desperately wanted comfort and support,
when his children died, it is pleasant to realize that Raffles
was enough immersed in his church to accept what he needed.
Without that little touch of guidance, small as it must have
been, Stamford Raffles would doubtless have turned sour and
remained sour, hard, and wretched for the rest of his life. Even
a good, solid, old-fashioned atheist could scarcely object to Raf-
fles's Christianity as long as it helped him live through those
agonizing weeks. Sophia was a different matter; she had al-
ways been a conventional, practicing Christian, and perhaps
that was a good thing when the children began to slip away.
She seemed to draw courage from some inner source, for many
another woman has gone under and never risen to the surface
again, in like circumstances.
But then Sophia, like so many conventional people, remains
a bit of a mystery even though she may not intend to be mys-
terious. We know that she was stalwart and courageous and
not at all stupid, though there is no evidence of humor any-
where in her writings. We know nothing else about her:
neither her tastes nor her talents. She was well brought up,
and well-brought-up ladies in Sophia's day didn't talk about
themselves any more than necessary. Most decidedly never
did they talk about their thoughts and emotions, except in
well-worn cliches.
It is late both in the day and in the book to repeat ourselves
508
upon this subject, but these two people, Sir Stamford Raffles
and his wife, were embarking upon a new phase in their career
together and it seems not out of place once more to attempt
an evaluation of their characters. I think the answer to the rid-
dle of Sophia Raffles is not far to seek. She suffered agonies,
it is true, when her children died, but though her salvation
was not the same as her husband's she also had one. His was
his work; hers was her life's interest too her husband. She
must indeed have been devoted to him, as he had once written
Cousin Tom when describing his bride. Some women are first
and foremost wives, and others are first and foremost mothers.
Sophia was obviously a wife, and her love for her children came
second to her devotion to Raffles. And so, though her heart
broke when she lost her beautiful son Leopold and broke
afresh when Charlotte lay dead, and must have broken yet
again when little Marsden drifted off though by that time she
was too numb to suffer very much still, groping through the
darkness, she did at last encounter the hand of her husband,
and she knew that she was not, after all, alone; she still had the
dearest one of all. There was still work to do.
In spite of her neutral, quiet colors, then, Sophia is a person
we can see clearly enough when we look at Raffles's world.
There is nothing vague or shadowy about Sophia. The true
Raffles mystery remains, as it has for years, undisturbed in the
cemetery of Batavia, beneath Olivia's tombstone.
Sorrowfully resigned and still tottering from weakness, be-
hold Raffles and his Sophia, in 1822, departing from Fort
Marlborough with a double purpose: to get away from that
now accursed island where they had spent happy years, and to
do what Sir Stamford doggedly considered his most important
duty, putting Singapore on a firm foundation of law and
finance.
Immediately on arriving there Raffles felt better. For the first
time since the approach of his tragic domestic crisis he real-
ized that he was still alive and that he did not very much mind
having survived, which was a sure sign that health was return-
ing to his wasted body. The familiar miracle of convalescence
was enacted once more. He wrote, the day after disembarking:
509^
"We landed yesterday, and I have once more established
my headquarters in the centre of my Malayan friends. I have
just time to say this much, more you shall have soon and often:
in the meantime you will be glad to know that I feel sufficient
health and strength to do all I wish. The coldest and most dis-
interested could not quit Bencoolen, and land at Singapore,
without surprise and emotion. What, then, must have been
my feelings, after the loss of almost every thing that was dear
to me on that ill-fated coast? After all the risks and dangers to
which this my almost only child had been exposed, to find it
grown and advanced beyond measure, and even my warmest
anticipations and expectations, in importance, wealth, and in-
terestin every thing that can give it value and permanence?
"I did feel when I left Bencoolen, that the time had passed
when I could take much active interest in Indian affairs, and
I wished myself safe home; but I already feel differently; I feel
a new life and vigor about me; and if it please God to grant
me health, the next six months will, I hope, make some
amends for the gloom of the last sixteen."
The next line is poignant.
"Rob me not of this my political child. . ."
CHAPTER XXVIII
Though Canning started out
with the customary prejudice against John Company's problem
child Raffles, he changed his mind. In fact it now seems evi-
dent that Canning was the man directly responsible for Eng-
land's retaining Singapore and saving Sir Stamford's political
offspring for the Empire.
C. H. Philips in an article on the Secret Committee dis-
closes this fact and explains how it came to pass. According
to him. Canning took the advice of the Secret Committee in
the negotiations between England and Holland to settle dis*
putes in the Archipelago (1820-24). Pattison and Marjori-
bank, chairmen, and Elphinstone and Grant, senior directors,
were named by the committee as a Select Secret Committee
to advise Canning on this matter, and he had such respect for
their judgment that he let them overrule his earlier decision
to relinquish Great Britain's claim to the island. There were
in the Court of Directors five men who had been in office
more than twenty-five years Grant, E. Parry, Elphinstone,
Cotton, and Bosanquet and Canning bowed to their superior
experience.
It seems that Canning, "conscious of the weakness of Brit-
ain's legal claim to Singapore/' would have abandoned the
station if the committee had not stubbornly insisted on Singa-
, pore's importance to England. That island was the only safe-*
guard, they maintained, to the China fleet's passage through
the Strait of Malacca. But Canning was still dubious that
Britain could hold the new station, and he asked his advisers
to suggest some other port that would do as well for Eng-
land's purposes. The committee promptly retorted that there
was no such place, which was exactly why Singapore "must
on no account be relinquished/ 7 Canning thereupon agreed
to hold on, and Raffles's judgment was vindicated.
Fate stopped just short of fashioning a Greek tragedy, with
Sir Stamford Raffles and Sophia each playing both hero and
victim. A veritable tidal wave of disaster had swept over Ben-
coolen, but afterward the waters of Raffles's life became calm
and quiet. And then, so gently that one scarcely saw how swiftly
it was happening, they ebbed away. It was as if the captious
gods of an earlier day than his, like the nearly human deities
on Olympus, after playing football with Raffles for years,
suddenly felt ashamed of their sport and resolved to let him
have his own way for a while at any rate, just for the few years
that were left to him. Raffles didn't feel in the least, how-
ever, like a man whose career was soon to close. He was full
of vigor and quiet satisfaction in his work, as well he should
have been, because of all his remarkable accomplishments
the framing of Singapore's laws was perhaps the most notable
arid praiseworthy. If for nothing else, it should be remem-
bered as a feat of efficiency, the entire set of laws having been
recorded and put in working order before their author took
his leave, only nine months after arriving. But it is for more
than winning high grades in a non-stop endurance run that
Raffles deserves admiring praise. He drafted those laws in
1823. Until Singapore was captured and occupied by the
Japanese in 1942 they still served, with a few minor changes,
and served well. Today, with the British again in possession,
Raffles's original outline for Singapore's laws and constitution
is still satisfactory. He did not exaggerate, though he meant to,
when he wrote with genial humor from the ship which carried
him away from Singapore Harbor:
"I have had ... to look for a century or two beforehand,
and provide for what Singapore may one day become/'
He started out, naturally, somewhat appalled by the size
of the task before him. He admitted this weakness frankly to
his sympathetic confidante, the duchess: "I assure you I stand
much in need of advice, and were it not for Lady Raffles, I
should have no counsellor at all. She is nevertheless a host to
me, and if I do live to see you again, it will be entirely owing
to her love and affection; without this I should have been
cast away long ago/ 7
But this melancholy mood soon gave way to the stimulation
that he always felt when he had a job as well fitted to his
peculiar talents as this one was to prove. Besides, life was
shaping up pleasantly for various little reasons. His sister
Mary Anne, of whom he had always been particularly fond,
was living in Singapore because Captain Flint, her husband,
was town harbor master. Together with the Flints and their
offspring, the RafHeses occupied a newly built house on Gov-
ernment Hill, Abdullah's Forbidden Hill of gloomy and
mysterious history, from the top of which Raffles had fired
his ship's cannon. Not least important of Sir Stamford's tasks
was coaching Crawfurd for his new post as successor to the
stubborn Farquhar, who was still holding out and perpetrat-
ing his sitdown strike.
At this period the Marsden correspondence becomes de-
lightfully informative. Raffles had evidently found that his
thoughts sorted themselves out the better for the letters he
wrote his old friend; and so even when he was lightheartedly
describing the natural history specimens he had been collect-
ing, the duyongs which looked like mermaids and the giant
"potatoe or yam" which proved to weigh almost five hundred
pounds, a fit match, he claimed, for his great flower, he was
using half his brain, all the time, to think out the new pattern
for Singapore's laws.
Raffles was in a unique position regarding that community.
For five years after planting the British flag on the beach he
had been solely responsible for his "political child." Farquhar,
living on the spot, had acted as resident, it is true, and had
certainly drawn his salary as resident. Nobody during those
five years had pinned Raffles down as to the exact relationship
between Farquhar and himself, but in fact, as the Bengal
Government was well aware, Raffles was the one and only
chief of Singapore. It was no innovation that one man should
draw up the rules for a new Company factory, but the rapidly
increasing importance of Singapore had already promoted it
out of the class of mere factories, and nobody knew better
than Raffles how important these particular rules were going
to be.
"I am now busy/' he wrote an intimate friend in England,
"in allotting the lands and laying out the several towns, de-
fining rights, and establishing powers and rules for their pro-
tection and preservation. I have been a good deal impeded,
but the task, though an arduous and serious one, is not one
that I find unpleasant. What I feel most is the want of good
counsel and advice, and of sufficient confidence in my own
experience and judgment to lay down so broad and perma-
nent a foundation as I could wish/' To another friend he said,
"My time is at present engaged in remodelling and laying out
my new city, and in establishing institutions and laws for its
future constitution; a pleasant duty enough in England, where
you have books, hard heads, and lawyers to refer to, but here
by no means easy. . . ."
It is characteristic of Raffles, beginning the task, that one
of his first preoccupations was with the college he had long
wanted to found somewhere in the Archipelago for the study
of Malay. Just as he had sought out and built up the mori-
bund Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences when he came to
Java, so he concentrated his first hopes and ideas for Singa-
pore on an institute of learning. The man who had experienced
such phenomenal material success never for a moment for-
got the boy he had been, that boy who sat up night after
night over his books, snatching an education out of the air,
stealing the candle for light to read by. Nor had he forgotten
that Malay class of which he had spoken to Abdullah long
ago, the two of them pacing the dusty pathway near a boys'
school in Malacca. It is questionable whether any other man
in all the Far East would have started out on a formidable
task in just that way, but Raffles knew his values. He founded
his college, and he endowed it with carefully selected lands,
As is usual in a boom town, real estate was immensely valu-
able, and he could not have found a better way to ensure
prosperity to his favorite project. Finally as an added precau-
tion he arranged with Dr. Morrison of China, successor to the
famous Milne, to bring the mission Anglo-Chinese College
from Malacca and incorporate it with his new Malay College,
the result to be designated the "Singapore Institution/' avow-
edly intended "for the cultivation of Chinese and Malayan
literature, and for the moral and intellectual improvement of
the Archipelago and the surrounding countries/'
It was not normal behavior for empire builders, but Raffles
knew what he was doing. Sometimes his foresight was un-
canny. Today, thanks to his activity during Singapore's early
years, no other part of the British Empire is so well known
through its literature and language as is the Archipelago. The
oriental scholar is overwhelmed by the wealth of material
offered him in this department of government. There are
always on hand any number of books, translations, brochures,
and dictionaries compiled by Malays and Englishmen alike,
so that the seeker after knowledge in related fields, such as
Chinese or Mongol, is smitten with wondering envy. The
secret of this fine collection is Raffles first of all, Raffles and
the promise he made to himself in Abdullah's presence, long
before Singapore was founded. When he established the col-
lege he created a tradition too; both have lasted through sev-
eral generations of war and peace.
Next to the college in importance, thought Raffles most
administrators would have placed it first on the agenda-
came the job of assuring clear representation and careful pro-
tection for his darling concept, free trade for Singapore.
Raffles made no mistake in judgment. He knew what agency
was mainly responsible for his city's fantastic growth. The
island's geographical position helped, it is true, and so did the
contrast between systems, vividly evident in the contiguity of
British and Dutch colonies there in the Straits. Naturally the
natives flocked to Singapore; they would have done, anyway,
because it was easy to reach and because they preferred British
to Dutch government methods, but the new colony owed her
life and health first of all to free trade. Sir Stamford had to
embody these principles firmly in the new constitution, and
it was also vitally important to protect them against attack in
the future, when he was no longer there to watch over things.
As he told Marsden, after proudly quoting a statement he
had just sent the Court of Directors eight million dollars
turned over in Singapore's first two and a half years, and all in
native trade 'It being a great object to establish the freedom
and independence of the port on a solid foundation . . ." he
had to be very, very careful to plug up all the holes, to make the
setup absolutely foolproof.
Last, but most pressingly important at the moment, was
the matter of law and order. A code of regulations was of
course necessary. In the very early days when the population
was still of a size to keep within bounds, a homespun, dictato-
rial sort of justice had sufficed, but the settlement was already
so large in 1822 as to need something more formal than these
methods. Besides, Sir Stamford had many theories which he
was anxious to put into practice, theories full grown from Lord
Minto's nebulous philosophies of the old days, which dealt
with social problems. It is nonsense to talk of democracy in
a Far Eastern colony of the nineteenth century, in a land over
which two European empires had squabbled, and a com-
munity composed of itinerant natives, traders, and pirates
from the hodgepodge of neighboring islands. Democracy is
too big a word, besides which Raffles would never have been
so grandiose or false as to use it. But he did have a strong
feeling that the city would be all the better for a government
in which the inhabitants had some voice, particularly in the
dispensing of justice. There his anthropological knowledge
stood him in good stead. He understood as few other English-
men could have done that in justice nothing is ever immuta-
bly fixed in space. What looks to be obviously right or wrong
to an Englishman may appear in completely opposite terms
to a Malay. This was not to say that Raffles advocated self-
government for his colony. He was neither so advanced nor so
unrealistic as to entertain such a revolutionary notion as that.
Even the mild measures he did advocate seemed violently
revolutionary to some of his colleagues. Briefly, it was a sug-
gestion that a magistracy be selected annually from among the
Singapore merchants, twelve each year: also that cases be tried
by jury and that the jury be composed, at times, of Europeans
and natives together.
Oddly perhaps, certainly unexpectedly, he encountered no
difficulty in persuading his colleagues to accept this idea.
They were distracted by other problems and were willing to
agree to this scheme in their haste to settle the other matters.
The difficulty arose over a related affair however over pre-
vention of crime, rather than punishment. Raffles had long
wanted to prohibit gambling and cockfighting outright and
legally in the colonies he governed, because he knew by long
weary experience how often these dissipations were responsi-
ble for serious infractions of the law as well as plain simple
rioting. He always ran into trouble when he attempted to
carry out this intention, however, because gaming houses and
cockfighting establishments provided revenue in a quick, easy
fashion, and the men directly responsible for the financing
of the colony didn't want to give up this speedy profit. Raffles's
experience in Singapore was similar to those of earlier occa-
sions when he had made like attempts to reform the com-
munity. He readily succeeded this time in winning the ap-
proval of the government in Bengal and of prohibiting all
such pastimes in Singapore town, but he had not been gone
from the colony very long before Crawfurd, tempted by the
prospect of large revenues and worried for the want of cash,
once again allowed the owners of gambling houses, et cetera,
to set up shop, as soon as he knew they were willing to pay
fat fees for licenses. Sir Stamford's policy, however, won out
in the end, for the matter soon came up for judgment before
the grand jury, and they held that Raffles had been right,
that Crawfurd could not reverse his decision, and that the
gambling had to go.
Perhaps the question which holds most interest for us to-
day, in this necessarily brief resum6 of Raffles's last months
and work in Singapore, is the recurring one of slavery. That
was an evil which he grasped and grappled with firmly as soon
as he had spotted it, flourishing like the plague in his city.
His decision in every matter pertaining to the slave trade was
one of the chief sources of trouble between him and sulky
Colonel Farquhar. Farquhar himself, it appears, was a slave
owner on a considerable scale, and he impeded Raffles's re-
forms in regard to the traffic as much as he possibly could.
However, his day was over, and at any rate no one could have
stood up successfully for slavery at this late date. Once Sir
Stamford knew that he stood on firm ground he struck accu-
rately and with effect. In a letter to Dr. Wallich, with whom he
had lately become friendly, Raffles speaks plainly of this:
'The magistrates have commenced operations with great
prudence and judgment; their first presentation was upon the
arrangement of the town,
"Their second came in yesterday [that would be March 7,
1823] in the shape of a memorial against slavery the slave-
master and slave-debtor system which seems to have been
permitted here to an unlimited extent. I have not yet finally
decided upon the question, but I am much inclined to think
the wisest and safest plan will be to do in this as I did in the
lands, annul all that has gone before. This establishment was
formed long after the enactments of the British legislature^
which made it felony to import slaves into a British colony,
and both importers and exporters are alike guilty, to say noth-
ing of the British authority who countenanced the trade. The
acknowledgement of slavery in any shape in a settlement like
Singapore, founded on principles so diametrically opposed to
the admission of such a practice, is an anomaly in the consti-
tution of the place> which cannot, I think, be allowed to exist/'
No doubt the following passage is the result of such cogi-
tations on his part. It is rather a pity that we cannot in some
way underline the words, or print them in red and gold, or
employ some other method of calling attention to them, for
they merit all the attention we can get for them. They mark
a tremendous satisfaction for Sir Stamford, but there is more
in them than one man's triumph, even when that man is
Raffles. They meant freedom for hundreds of people, living
or yet unborn.
"As the condition of slavery, under any denomination what-
ever, cannot be recognised within the jurisdiction of the Brit-
ish authority, all persons who may have been so imported,
transferred, or sold as slaves or slave-debtors, since the 2gth
of February, 1819, arc entitled to claim their freedom, on ap-
plication to the registrar, as hereafter provided; and it is hereby
declared, that no individual can hereafter be imported for
sale, transferred or sold as a slave or slave-debtor, or having
his or her fixed residence under the protection of the British
authorities at Singapore, can hereafter be considered or treated
as a slave, under any denomination, condition, colour, or pre-
tence whatever."
The reader will recognize this proclamation to be extremely
significant, once it has been translated into American English
out of the quasi-legal jargon in which our hero was, unfortu-
nately, so fluent. For his sympathizers it is an immense satis-
faction to realize that Sir Stamford was ultimately entitled
thus to settle the matter of slavery outright, once and for all,
in his own special corner of the world, regardless of all those
fine points in law which had held him back and frustrated his
former attempts to combat the traffic. That is not to say that
his earlier efforts were ever completely futile; they weren't.
Raffles had managed to put a crimp in the slavery business
more than once. In respect to Singapore, however, he wiped
the slate clean, which is as it should be. Note that all the slave-
holders in Singapore, as well as the dealers, had at last to give
in. Their day was done, All property rights in "black ivory"
which any Singapore resident may have held simply melted
away under Raffles's proclamation. Every slave on the island
suddenly owned his own body, complete and forever, with-
out having to worry about paying for it, then or later. Think-
ing it over, one reflects that of all the various sensations which
may contribute to a normal man's experience, the knowledge
that he has "been responsible for setting free some human
being, no matter who, or where, or what sort, must surpass
all the other intoxications which a mortal is capable of feel-
ing. Surely Raffles for at least a few days partook of divinity's
food and learned the savor of it. Almost, in spite of his Ben-
coolen ordeal and the ceaseless irritation of his lifelong strug-
gle with stupidity, I can find it in my heart to envy him his
life, for the sake of those hours when it was given him to real-
ize, freshly, that he had freed the slaves of Singapore.
The founding of Singapore, represented as the last great ven-
ture of Raffles the empire builder, is a godsend to a biogra-
pher. It is neat. It is nicely calculated in timing, in drama, and
in significance. A journalist himself and one of the best writ-
ers ever graduated from John Company's educational institu-
tion, Sir Stamford fully appreciated the value of Singapore on
the record as his final great accomplishment. Technically
speaking, it rounds off the story to perfection. One can see
that he was aware of this, in the insistence with which he re-
peats time and again to his favorite correspondents, "This is
my last public work. . . . This is my final important political
act; I am satisfied now. . . . After this the Dutch may do
their worst; I am no longer worried/'
Admittedly these are paraphrases, but they faithfully ex-
press Sir Stamford's mood throughout the closing years of his
stay in the Orient. Now if ever is the time for a careful chap-
ter in the best solemn manner of the historian, tracing the
effect on world events of Singapore through the years that
followed its annexation by Great Britain. Now if ever is the
moment to do a conventional, searching study of Singapore
the Cornerstone of Empire; Singapore, last, uttermost, outer-
most of all outposts. Had this book been written and pub-
lished, as was first planned, before the events that closed 1941,
that is just the sort of chapter with which it would have ended.
Fortunately for the writer, it wasn't finished in time. The dra-
matic splash of Pearl Harbor intervened, and today, when one
looks back and reads the periodicals current at that time, one
is deeply impressed by the amount of similar writing then per-
petrated
^520
Especially is one struck, unavoidably, by the incredible
sloppy-thinking silliness of most of it, in the light of what
came immediately after. I defy anyone, reading the weekly
Life which, a very few weeks before Pearl Harbor, featured
an article entitled "The Ragged Outposts of Empire" to re-
main mirthless. The laughter may well sound bitter, but it is
bound to come. Therefore I am fighting shy of the sententious
pleasures of the historian. Let someone else indulge in re-
sounding generalities: the facts arc few and easy to set down
in order. Until 1941 Singapore was certainly the bulwark of
the Empire. What importance she maintained throughout the
first hundred and twenty-two years of her existence as the gem
of England's oriental possessions was manifest: the British
themselves expected Singapore as a fortress to withstand
Japan's most furious attacks. She didn't. The Archipelago
fell, an easy victim, within the third month of the Pacific
war, 1941-45. Therefore, though Singapore is British once
more and I for one am glad of itfor she is exclusively a Brit-
ish invention and represents constructive action rather than
the usual snatch-and-grab tactics of empire buildingI have
become wary of making weighty pronouncements on Geo-
politiL Taking for granted the kind permission of my readers,
I once more eschew the temptations of prophecy and hastily
baked economics, and abandon the Significance of Singapore
in favor of a simpler theme Raffles, his story.
Unconsciously we have slipped, in the last few pages, into
a habit of evaluating all the incidents and developments of
the pain-filled weeks -Raffles spent in Bencoolen after the flight
of the good times, and of the busy months in Singapore after
that, as a sort of house cleaning. We have been finishing up
our accounts, as it were, mechanically clearing the decks in
preparation for the end. Belatedly I realize that I have been
speaking of "the end" in ambiguous phrases, quite as if Death
were lurking round the corner, ready to pounce on poor Sir
Stamford as soon as the unwary reader turns the next page.
This is decidedly not true; Death was not in my thoughts. I
must have taken on some few of my subject's ardent enthu-
siasms, and subconsciously have looked upon the fate of the
521
Fame as the true end of his career. Certainly that grotesque
calamity was a gratuitous turn of the screw.
In many ways John Company was a dull fellow, though it is
not nice to speak ill of the dead. Certainly he never subscribed
to that nursery maxim about all work and no play. He never
even cared for work of a different type from his own; anything
except trade, and such politics as those upon which trade
depended, was considered by the majority of the Court of
Directors to be a wicked waste of their time. That fact is apt
to be lost in the shuffle, for Raffles was always burningly en-
thusiastic about his natural history research and never allowed
his bosses' grudging attitude to discourage him. His personal
letters were full of the topic, especially when in the course of
his duty he was removed from a familiar locality and placed in
a strange settlement where the fauna and botany of the sur-
roundings seemed worthy of close study. Sumatra as a whole
was the most fascinating place, from that particular point of
view, which Sir Stamford was ever enabled to visit in pursuit
of his career. We have seen in excerpts from his letters to
Marsden and his duchess how all-absorbing the study of nature
was for him, and how happily he mingled this study with the
technical details of opening new fields of trade for his Com-
pany. Already, before his final departure from the East Indies,
he had almost completed important plans begun during his
1817 visit to London in conversation with Sir Joseph Banks:
to set up somewhere in England, probably London, a zoologi-
cal society. First necessity for the project, of course, was a
collection of live specimens for the zoo; second was another
sort of collection, of plants, minerals, mounted stuffed ani-
mals, and all the other requisites of a museum. The untimely
death of the older man, Banks, did not put an end to Sir Stam-
ford's favorite hopes, and the Regent's Park Zoological Gar-
dens are today the chief reason England has to remember the
name of Thomas Stamford Raffles. The man in the street
would probably be hard put to it to reply if you were to pose
him a sudden question regarding Singapore. He would not be
able to answer quickly any of the common sort of inquiry;
Raffles's connection with the Crown Colony is sadly con-
fused in his mind, so that he will, almost without doubt, tell
you that Raffles was the bloke who built the hotel out there.
But if you talk to your cockney about the zoo in Regent's
Park, you will get a very different reaction, "Him? Oh r that's
different! Why didn't you say it was him in the first place? Of
course, everybody knows about that Raffles. . . ."
The first time Sir Stamford sent home a considerable num-
ber of animals and plants from Sumatra he innocently ex-
pected the Company to share his pride and joy in having col-
lected so many excellent specimens. One of them, it so hap-
pens, was that giant flower of his, Rafflesia arnolcli: at any rate
the shipment as a whole was one to stir to rapturous excite-
ment any person who had the slightest true interest in nat-
ural history. Sumatra even today is a fertile hunting ground
for zoologists and botanists, teeming as it is with tropical life.
But John Company received the news coldly, to say the least.
The Court all but reprimanded their lieutenant general of
Bencoolen officially for having wasted time and money on
such foolishness, which, as Raffles would have been forced to
admit, certainly did nothing in the way of developing trade
for Great Britain in the Far East. He was definitely not, they
said firmly, permitted to waste any more of the Company's
money on that sort of thing.
Unregenerate and unashamed, Raffles went ahead with his
hobby, nor would the most inimical of his superiors have
dared to imply that he neglected his duties while so doing or
used funds improperly. With or without natural history, the
East India Company never got so much work out of any other
employee as they did out of Sir Stamford Raffles, and in their
very infrequent periods of being reasonable they admitted as
much. The American Dr. Horsfield as well as the Company's
Arnold and Jack, the ill-starred Leyden back in the early days
of Penang, and the two Frenchmen Diard and Duvaucel, all
were Raffles's companions in this world of science, and Mars-
den acted at long distance as professor emeritus, just as Sophia
and the children, during those short years when the children
were spared to him, played the parts of willing, eager students
to his teaching-
Later, talking it over, he usually said that one half the entire
collection he made in Sumatra was sent home in March
aboard the Mary and arrived safe in London early in 1820.
The bulk of it went to Sir Joseph Banks, of course, but a few
extra-special things, as for example a dried tapir, he gave to
friends: Prince Leopold got the tapir. There remained, then,
to accompany Lady Raffles and Sir Stamford on their last
trip home, the other half of the collection.
After the catastrophe the Raffleses made several attempts to
list their losses. The natural history collection headed it, for
at the time most of those plants and animals were irreplace-
able. In the light of the present, however, a far more important
portion of Raffles's belongings, surely, was his collection of
Malay manuscripts. Throughout his long term of office in the
East he had sought out these manuscripts; Abdullah said once
in his Memoir that there was not, he truly believed, one old
Malayan document left in the neighborhood of Malacca
after Sir Stamford had lived there a few weeks, so earnestly
did he look them out and buy them during the time he was
studying Malay.
There was also a full set of maps, made by Raffles himself
in his own beautiful style. Then too, of course, he had with
him the entire file of his official papers, representing the work
he had done since his first arrival on Pulo Penang, back in
1805. ^ide from these articles, the loss of which means a loss
to the general public, not only in England but in the entire
civilized world aside from these, there were the personal for-
tunes and belongings of Raffles and Sophia, Everything they
owned in the world, naturally, was packed up and stored in
the hold, ready to accompany them, and the estimated value
of this part of the cargo was, at a moderate computation,
twenty-five thousand pounds, Insured? No, of course not. One
couldn't easily take out insurance in those days for such a
perilous undertaking as a journey from Bencoolen to England.
It would have to be done by special arrangement at home,
and it wasn't. No, the thing could not have been avoided in
any way. It was purely and simply Fate in her worst mood,
the mood in which she always dealt with Raffles.
^524
The voyage back from Singapore to Bencoolen, in June
1823, might have passed without remark if it hadn't been for
our old friends the Dutch again. Lady Raffles and Sir Stam-
ford, finding themselves, aboard the Hero of Malown, under
necessity to pause in Batavia Roads for several days while the
ship unloaded cargo from Bengal, decided that Sophia ought
to go ashore and rest a little from the rigors of sea travel. (She
was pregnant, as usual, but not in her customary blooming
health. Lady Raffles's constitution must have been perma-
nently impaired after her serious illnesses of 1822.) As Raffles
reported with some amusement in a letter he wrote from the
ship, it was a trifling notion at best, and one which it never
occurred to them would give rise to any excitement. Purely
as a formality, a polite gesture, lie wrote a short note to Baron
van dcr Capellcn, the Dutch governor general at Batavia, and
sent it ashore by Sophia's young brother, informing the baron
that Lady Raffles would land, owing to her delicate state of
health, but that it was neither his, Raffles's, "wish nor inten-
tion' 7 himself to set foot on shore.
"Had Bonaparte returned to life, and anchored in the
Downs/' he commented in his account of the affair, "it would
not have excited greater agitation in England."
The baron, very much upset, hastened to reply that Raffles's
letter had extremely surprised him and that, considering every-
thing which had passed, it was of course absolutely impossible
for him to receive Sir Stamford ashore it was a meeting
which must be avoided at all costs* As a gentleman the baron
respected the fact of Mmc. Raffles's illness, and understood
that the couple would have to come ashore unofficially, but
he, the governor, begged to be excused from the usual diplo-
matic courtesies. He sputtered for a final paragraph, mention-
ing a few complaints which it had recently been his duty to
send to Raffles's government about Raffles's behavior, and
repeated that any personal interview between the two of them
must be avoided.
To this Sir Stamford replied with calm and dignity, though
he was inwardly quaking with laughter, that it had never been
his intention to leave the ship, that his note had been nothing
525 *
but a formality, that he was sorry the baron had been so
shocked and surprised, and that if it came to a matter of com-
plaintswell, he had in the recent past found it necessary on
his own part to make a complaint or two about the baron, so
they were probably quits on that. He reiterated his statement
that if Lady Raffles had not been very pregnant he would
not have dreamed of putting her ashore on Java, under these
awkward circumstances. However, she was and he had to, and
would the baron be sure she could get back to the ship as soon
as she wanted to return?
During the week the Hero of Malown stayed at anchor in
the roads, people in droves came out to see Sir Stamford. "He
there held as it were/' said Sophia, "a continual lev^e every
day, people of all ranks flocking to him/'
Presumably the baron kept his eyes turned in the other di-
rection for the duration of the visit and saw naught of this.
One can imagine him puffing and blowing and turning crim-
son whenever he thought of that fellow out there in midstream;
one visualizes the stout Netherlandish pride with which he
reflected that he had put that man Raffles in his place for
once, at any rate!
The stay at Bencoolen was characteristically unpleasant.
Raffles was still beset with doubts and regrets on the subject of
Farquhar: "if a brother had been opposed to them [the in-
terests of Singapore], I must have acted as I did towards
Colonel Farquhar/' he wrote Wallich, but the thought of it
still harried him.
There were a thousand arrangements to be made, for which
time was too short even after it was discovered that they could
not leave Bencoolen that year, as they had hoped, but must
wait at least until the second month in 1824 for the ship on
which they had decidedthe Fame. Meanwhile Sophia's con-
finement drew near; it was evident that she was in a danger-
ously weak state; her anxious husband reported just a week
before the birth that "only last night we were forced to apply
<^ 526
thirty leeches, and have recourse to warm baths and laudanum,
to keep down inflammation/ 7 What with this worry and sev-
eral sudden deaths among the members of the European staff.
Sir Stamford was scarcely in a state to put his many affairs into
good order, yet every moment was valuable and he couldn't
waste them,
The wretched Lady Raffles had her baby, a little girl they
named Flora, about the first of November, but she had scarcely
recovered when she was brought down again by a severe attack
of fever, and of course the child died during this onslaught.
Most colonials know how cunningly chronic malaria lies in
wait, attacking its victim as soon as his vitality is low. Sophia
was indeed so bad that Raffles wrote that month to Wallich
(my italics), "Whether I go home or not, I must, if Lady
Raffles survives, send her home by an early opportunity."
To a member of the family he was more explicit: "The loss
of an infant only a few months old is one of those things
which in itself perhaps might soon be got over, knowing how-
uncertain life is at that period, but this loss of our fourth and
only remaining child in India has revived all former afflictions,,
and been almost too much for us. Fortunately Sophia's fever
has not returned since the event, and upon the whole she is
in better health than she was preceding, but she has not yet
left the house; her spirits as well as my own are completely
broken, and most anxious are we to get away from such a
charnel-house, but here we are detained for want of an oppor-
tunity. How often do we wish the Fame had come out direct
we might have saved this last misfortune but we have
neither seen nor heard of her, and God only knows when the
day of our deliverance will arrive- Either I must go to Eng-
land or by remaining in India die/"
I doubt if we could find in all Raffles's correspondence an-
other passage as depressed as that one, and small wonder. Few
names are familiar in the melancholy roll call of the season's
casualties, though we recognize that of Captain Salmond, but
Raffles's reiterated comments on the death, now of this friend
and now of that, give m at least some idea of the depression
which hung ova: Beocoolen those last weeks like a miasma,.
Raffles did not spend much time, however, in repining. De-
pressed or no, well or ill, the habits of a lifetime carry one on,
and he was still able to send a long letter to Mr. Murdoch
respecting his satisfaction with Singapore and his assurance
that the colony was now, at last, surely, England's to keep.
He hoped to write a detailed account of the new city, either
en route to England or after arriving. In the meantime he was
happy to have received, tardily it is true, but nevertheless wel-
come for sentimental reasons if for nothing else, a message
from the Bengal Government expressing their approbation
<pf all his public works. Then there was Cousin Tom; Raffles
wrote Tom a sort of summing up of the state of grace to be
found, or rather not to be found, among the cannibals of
Sumatra. It was Sir Stamford's carelessly amused opinion that
more Christian missions should be established among the
natives of the interior, unless the Christian world wished to
resign itself to the danger of "hundreds of thousands, perhaps
millions, in Sumatra" ultimately falling for the blandish-
ments of Islam. Shrewdly Raffles called attention to one ad-
vantage which Christianity could offer as a selling point: Mo-
hammedans are supposed to refrain from most of the favorite
vices of the Malay i.e., opium, cockfighting, and so on. Not
that Christianity exactly endorses these pastimes, but ... In
any case, he said, according to British policy, the local officials
Ihad heretofore ignored religious matters, supposing there was
,any religion to ignore among these savage tribes, but the
Padries had lately made such headway as they carried the
Crescent inland, and had overrun so much of the rich and
populous country of Sumatra, that British authority felt called
upon to take some sort of decisive action.
But the best will in the world cannot keep impatient people
forever diverted. The ship did not come. Even with all his
time-killing activity, with all his distractions, the days lagged
until Raffles actually became neurotic and fanciful, which was
most untypical of him. To one of his intimates he wrote ir-
ritably, after January had opened:
"We have .entered the new year, and as yet no accounts of
rthe Fame, You can hardly imagine to yourself the serious dis-
appointment to all our hopes and plans which this occasions.
We begin to think we are doomed to end our days here, and
that there is something like a spell on our movements. After
Sophia's serious illness and our last affliction, the delay of a
day is most serious, and night and day we cannot help regret-
ting that you have not ensured a ship on the strength of my
letters to you I relied exclusively on what you would do, and
still have no other hope than that the Fame will be in time to
save our lives, though we have very little confidence that this
will be the case."
Raffles meant every word of this Ietter 7 exaggerated as It
may sound today, in the twentieth century. After so many
delays and so many deaths, he was becoming superstitious,
and one can scarcely wonder at this, considering how many
times during the past few years the life of a child or a friend
might have been saved, if only the ship had been in time. No
doubt in his innermost heart the unhappy man was convinced
that Sophia, his last and dearest love, would be the next vic-
tim of dilatory shipping. Run down as he was, overworked,
with frayed nerves and the emotional upset which accom-
panies such an important change in daily life, it is no wonder
that even the gentle Thomas Stamford Raffles sounded ill-
natured. The recipient of this letter, thanks to Sophia's discre-
tion as Editor of the Memoir, remains anonymous. Consider-
ing what was to happen in the near future, it is just as well
that his name was not disclosed. Whoever he was, he must
have been bitterly reproached a thousand times, after every-
thing was over, if not openly by the unfortunate Raffles couple,
then at any rate by his own conscience, because his neglect
cost them dear. It really becomes difficult not to believe there
was "something like a spell" on the Raffles fortunes; it is al-
most impossible to suppose that Fate didn't have a special
grudge against them. There was that matter of insurance, for
instance. Mr. Anonymous neglected to see to it at his end, and
at Raffles's end nothing could ever be done. The Fame, ac-
cording to the rules of shipping then in force, was insured only
in regard to her own cargo and the ship itself; thus the East
India Company, which could easily have sustained such a loss,
was never called upon to do so. The accident had no effect on
the fortunes of John Company; it merely wiped out those of
Raffles, who could not afford such an accident.
If only the Fame had disappointed them instead of turning
up at last, it would have been far better for poor Raffles. In
that case they would simply have shipped in the Borneo in-
stead. The Borneo arrived in England safe and sound. . . .
But what is the use of talking like that? If Raffles had shipped
in the Borneo, I doubt not that the Borneo would have piled
up on a coral reef somewhere. We may as well get on with
our story and find out what did happen instead of what might
have been. It's easily enough told. It happened quickly enough.
The Raffleses, with young Nilson Hull and a doctor named
Bell, sailed aboard the Fame at dawn on February 3, 1824.
What with the relief of having at last got away, and the knowl-
edge that he had wound up his affairs creditably, and the fact
that Sophia was after all still alive, even on the mend, Sir
Stamford had forgotten all his troubles and was in his more
characteristically cheerful frame of mind, a mood he had not
experienced for some weeks. Evidently that was a mistake:
Fate hated to see Sir Stamford cheerful. Perhaps she is really
as she is pictured, a crotchety old crone. If this be so, one can
almost sympathize with her at times, for certainly her victim
Raffles was the most irritatingly resilient mortal any super-
natural power ever tried to bedevil. Let her so much as turn
her back on him for the briefest moment, let her relax but an
instant after having concentrated on him for months and
months, having sent him all the worst luck in her whole stock,
and the maddening man was laughing again. It was enough
to turn any self-respecting Fate into a raging harpy.
'Til settle his hash this time/' she hissed. 'Where arc
those matches?"
The Fame burst into visible flame in the evening, her first
day out from Fort Marlborough. According to Raffles's own
discoveries, which he embodied in a carefully accurate report
in due course for the Court of Directors, the ship's steward
was responsible, for he carried a torch or a candle to light him
on his way into the storeroom when he went to draw some
^5530
brandy from a cask. The spirits took fire immediately, and
but Sir Stamford, as is usually the case, can tell the story bet-
ter than I could, and at first hand. He wrote a detailed letter
the very next day, reassuring such family members as were
waiting for them in England.
"Sophia had just gone to bed, and I had thrown off half my
clothes, when a cry of fire, fire! roused us from our calm con-
tent, and in five minutes the whole ship was in flames! I ran to
examine whence the flames principally issued, and found that
the fire had its origin immediately under our cabin. Down with
the boats. Where is Sophia? Here. The children? Here. A
rope to the side. Lower Lady Raffles. Give her to me, says one;
Til take her, says the Captain. Throw the gunpowder over-
board. It cannot be got at; it is in the magazine close to the fire.
Stand clear of the powder. Skuttlc the water-casks. Water!
water! Where's Sir Stamford? Conic into the boat, Nilson!
Nilson, come into the boat. Push off, push off. Stand clear of
the after part of the ship.
''All this passed much quicker than I can write it; we pushed
off, and as we did so, the flames burst out of our cabin-window,
and the whole of the after part of the ship was in flames; the
masts and sails now taking fire, we moved to a distance suffi-
cient to avoid the immediate explosion; but the flames were
now coming out of the main hatchway; and seeing the rest of
the crew, with the Captain, still on board, we pulled back to
her under the bows, so as to be more distant from the powder.
As we approached we perceived that the people on board were
getting into another boat on the opposite side. She pushed off;
we hailed her: have you all on board. Yes, all, save one. Who
is he? Johnson, sick in his cot. Can we save him? No, impos-
sible. The flames were issuing from the hatchway; at this mo-
ment the poor fellow, scorched, I imagine, by the flames,
roared out most lustily, having run upon the deck. I will go
for him, says the Captain. The two boats then came together,
and we took out some of the persons from the Captain's boat,
which was overladen; he then pulled under the bowsprit of the
ship, and picked the poor fellow up. Are you all safe? Yes, we
have got the man; all lives safe. Thank God! Pull off from the
pride: but as man has no business to be proud, it may be well
that they are lost. Cases of plants, minerals, animals &c. &c. I
shall not name.
"Indeed it would be endless for me to attempt even a gen-
eral description of all that has perished, and I will only add
that, besides the above, all the papers connected with my ad-
ministration of Java, as collected and arranged by my deceased
friend and secretary, Mr. Assey, have also been lost, with all
my correspondence.
"A loss like this can never be replaced, but I bow to it with-
out repining."
Well, there it was. There sat Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles,
she barefoot and in her wrapper, he sharing his coat with her,
and holding one or two odd children close to him for the sake
of such warmth as he could impart. There they sat in the life-
boat, the men with them rowing toward shore by the light of
their burning past "All else was swallowed up in one grand
ruin/'
They were fifty miles from shore, which the two "boats had
to reach at one certain point, the only landing place on the is-
land, or the refugees would certainly die of starvation, lack of
water, and exposure. They made it, just, at four next afternoon.
Sophia had given way by that time to a series of convulsive
faints, but they made it in time.
I do not think of the daylight scene so often. I think, when I
picture the disaster to myself, of Sir Stamford and Sophia half
naked in the little boat, looking on at the magnificent flaming
destruction of all their years in the East. The fire roars and
crackles and reaches up to the black sky, and the little "boat
rocks gently on the waves far, far below, and Sir Stamford
holds Sophia clutched in his arm, trying to keep her and
the children warm, and the fire roars louder than ever., and then
at last the Fame breaks up and goes down to the bottom of
the Pacific, and there is no more fire. In the little boat they are
colder than ever. Sir Stamford keeps his arm around Sophia,
who knows she is soon going to faint.
One might suppose that it would now be too dark for that
malignant old lady to see him. It wasn't.
^534
CHAPTER XXIX
The encyclopedic account of
Rafflcs's life is the first mention of him which most of us read,
and at the end our reaction is always the same "He was so
young to die!" Oddly enough this impression fades as we grow-
better acquainted with the circumstances. The last few years
of his term in the East were so full of experience and adven-
ture, and often so painful, that one can well understand the
fact which first seems strange, that Raffles, in the eighteen
months he spent in England preceding his death, often be-
haved and felt like an elderly man. I know that I, for one, slip
into the mistake of thinking of him as an old man whenever
I go over his earlier letters of this period, though I ought to
know better. He sounds like a person whose lifework is over
and who is well satisfied to leave it like that.
We are beginning to understand better than we used to the
complicated relationship between body and mind, or perhaps
the expression "body and heart" is more expressive of my
meaning. What is old age after all? It is a weariness of the flesh
when the body has worked for a long period; sometimes this
weariness carries over to the emotions and mental processes,
in which case we say that our man shows his age, and some-
times it does not, and then we say that he is remarkably young
considering his years. Raffles seems to have reversed the proc-
535 ^
ess. Doubtless we would have called him remarkably old con-
sidering his years. For a while he lost that resilience which had
always seemed such an integral part of him. He took to fret-
ting and worrying and brooding and pondering fruitlessly,
where in older days he would have risen up and gone out to do
battle with his enemies, and if he could not find them imme-
diately he would have put all their doings out of his mind
until he could deal with them in person.
It would be no wonder if this state had remained typical of
Raffles until the end, though it did not. His system was full of
malaria and dysentery, both in a chronic stage which medical
science had not yet learned to vanquish. He had been sub-
jected to grief and anxiety a hundred times over, and though
# human heart can rise above its trials at the time, there is a
residue after intense grief; it accumulates, and in later days
takes its toll. Sophia was not so great a letter writer as her hus-
band, and so we don't know so much about her, but I think
;she too must have been deeply and permanently affected by
the terrible days of Bencoolen.
It is scarcely fair 7 however, to judge a man in a hard-and-fast
way from the things he does and says when he first lives in a
Strange milieu, and Raffles as country gentleman in England
was playing a new role. He had experience with farming, it is
true, out in the Indies, but that had been on the grandiose scale
of governor. Back home on a little place, scarcely more than a
liundred acres, he had to learn his farming all over again at
Highwood. Before retiring to the country, however, there were
& few things to arrange.
Raffles had few remaining blood ties. His mother had re-
cently died, the news having been carried to him, actually,
while his ship paused at St. Helena on the homeward route.
.But there was still Cousin Tom, and Sophia's relatives at Chel-
tenham clamored for a visit, and these duties had to be at-
tended to before the Raffleses went to London for a season,
where they lived in a small house and enjoyed themselves
thoroughly, and began almost to feel young again. The
friends "Sir Stamford had made in 1817 were all there, with the
:notable exception, of course, of Princess Charlotte. Socially
everything was just what it should have been to make the two
people forget as much as they could of their recent troubles.
Otherwise, however, things were not going exactly smoothly.
Raffles lost no time in presenting his claim to the Company,
for he naturally felt they should make it up to him, as much as
such a loss could be made good, the fire aboard the Fame hav-
ing destroyed nearly everything he owned in the world.
The Court did not come to a decision immediately, but then
the Court never did work swiftly, and Raffles had not expected
an answer within the space of several months at the quickest.
Another affair connected with his work intruded on his at-
tention and was very annoying. Colonel Farquhar, the resident
of Singapore who had clung so stubbornly to his post that he
had to be booted out, was now taking his revenge on the man
on whom he laid the blame for all his misfortunes. The
method he used was simple, though one wonders what he ex-
pected to get out of it aside from being a nuisance to Raffles.
In a lengthy communication to the Court he claimed that
Singapore was entirely his own personal accomplishment; his
had been the brain which picked out that locality above all
others (he had forgotten the Carimons, you see) , his the power
which kept the settlement going from the beginning, his the
administrative genius which worked out the details of govern-
ment. Raffles he pictured as a rascally adventurer, what we
would call today a "kibitzer," who had muscled in and grabbed
the credit now that Singapore was the roaring success which
report made it out to be.
It is exceedingly doubtful whether any intelligent director
would have been taken in by this claim in any case. There was
too much evidence against it in the archives, and too many
independent witnesses in India who could speak up for the true
state of affairs, to render a serious reply necessary. But Raffles,
naturally, could not be satisfied until the matter was thoroughly
cleared up, and he took it far more to heart in his then parlous
state than he would have done some years earlier. He worked
very hard on his reply, A tiling like that, unfortunately, can
never be quite expunged from the records; that is the devil of it,
Even years later when Demetrius Boulger wrote his biography,
537$**
he found it necessary to present some of the more obvious
bits of proof on behalf of Raffles's indignant disclaimer, though
the entire affair should have been ignored and forgotten from
the start. The only practical harm it did was to Raffies's already
sorely tried peace of mind.
But when that retort had been accomplished Sir Stamford
felt rather easier about things in general. One can see this,
reading his letters. There had been some preliminary haggling
about money and other matters. For example Raffles had
earlier much earlier, six years in fact requested from the
Court a favorable decision referring to his administration in
Java, for he wanted a clean slate. The Court had never replied.
Now he pressed his request, repeating it. The money claim
was another headache. The story of Raffles's financial affairs is
complicated and I shall not attempt to do more than give a
simplified version of the outstanding points, but before we
begin to look at figures and sums, one thing should be said as
emphatically as possible.
To put it plainly, the East India Company behaved in regard
to Raffles's money like a carefully selected committee of highly
pedigreed hogs. This fact will not surprise most students of
John Company's history, for Raffles was not the only man to
suffer unjustly at his hands. John Company is dead and cannot
sue me for libel: the mystery of his sins remains. How did it
happen, why did it happen, would it have happened again?
The only answer we can give is in reply to the last question,
and that is a loud, firm yes.
The Company, in the middle of the nineteenth century, was
dissolved. What was left of its administrative assets were
merged with the Crown. There are plenty of genuine his-
torians, of whom I am not one, who can point without pride
to incidents in the history of the British Government wherein
worthy men who have given the best of their lives and talents
to their country were permitted, as Raffles was, to grapple dur-
ing their last years with utter ruin, usually brought on by their
grateful sovereigns. But this was not the invariable fate of the
great men of England. A general or a statesman who did well
by Great Britain and his king, or queen, had at least a reason-
able chance of his services being recognized at the end; John
Company's record can offer few similar tales: John Company
did not specialize in justice. Perhaps Raffles should not have
been surprised at what happened to him. Indignant, yes, but
surprised, no. He was, however; he was so amazed, in fact, that
he died of it
There had been a few arguments earlier on which showed
the way things were going. Boulger cites a case, that of the fare
for Raffles and his family, covering their journey out to Ben-
coolen in 1817. It amounted to fifteen hundred pounds, which
Raffles paid himself and then billed the Company. But when it
came time to collect from them they allowed him only a thou-
sand pounds, for reasons best known to their own book-
keepers, and even that they didn't pay for five years. The
ensuing argument dragged on, it seems, until 1825, after which
Raffles was out his five hundred pounds for good. There is
nothing at all unusual about this evidently. Then there were
the three thousand pounds he had to pay for the second home-
ward passage from Bcncoolcn after the Fame was burned; he
decided at last, in sheer weariness, to throw that item in with
his general claim for compensation.
"What the East India Company may do is uncertain/' he
wrote at the end of 1825, "but if their liberality keeps pace
with their delay, I ought to expect something handsome/' He
wrote more hopefully in February to his cousin: "The East
India Company are now talking of taking up my case and
granting me an annuity; but I fear it will be very moderate, and
500 a year is the largest amount I hear of. This, had I the means
of living independent of them, I should not be inclined to ac-
cept; but necessity and consideration for my family must pre-
dominate, . ," Poor devil.
He went on to say he had lost heavily by the cession of Ben-
coolcn to Holland; his bankers had failed and carried into
oblivion with them some thousands of his money. "The pres-
sure is, I hope ? only temporary, and I trust all will be right
again, and that I shall not be obliged to seek a tropical clime
539 ^
again in search of filthy lucre- for nothing else would, I think,
tempt me to venture/'
Let us turn to more attractive aspects of Sir Stamford's life.
There is no doubt that the activity which afforded him greatest
pleasure at this time was the encouragement and inception of
the Zoological Society. When it was successfully launched his
name stood first on the list, and if his ghost has not long since
quitted its old haunts on this earth in disgust, let us hope that
he still comes around to Regent's Park on members' days and
enjoys himself with the populace of London, with the admir-
ing crowd who watch his favorite gibbons at play, and the chil-
dren walking hand in wing with the penguins. He loved
gibbons and children, did Raffles.
Highwood in Middlesex, where he retired to live with
Sophia, Baby Ella, and a little cousin, was a small farm which
they selected because it was next to the estate of his old friend
William Wilberf orce. Cousin Tom had a letter from him writ-
ten the middle of June; it was very cheerful. In a postscript
Raffles said, "We suffer a little from the heat, but as we hope
to make our hay in the course of next week, I don't complain.
Highwood is now in its best dress, and will, I am sure, please
you. My neighbour, Mr. Wilberforce, takes possession to-
morrow, and will previously spend the day with us/' The chil-
dren as well as Sir Stamford himself had just recovered from
the whooping cough, and they were somewhat worried because
measles were in the neighborhood.
One must give him full marks for this cheerfulness. He had
already received word from the Company, just when he was ex-
pecting at least an annuity of five hundred, that they figured
things another way. What with claims for pay they said he
had got when he shouldn't, and rent he had paid when he
shouldn't, and things he had bought which he had no justifi-
cation for buying, and this and thatwhat with it all, Raffles
owed the East India Company, they told him blandly, a little
over twenty-two thousand pounds. His claim they ignored
completely.
Almost immediately after this letter arrived there came word
that a bank in India had closed. This, because of a note he had
signed, would cost him sixteen thousand pounds more.
Thomas Stamford Raffles, Knight, was found at five o'clock
in the morning of his forty-fifth birthday, July 5, 1826, lying
completely insensible at the foot of a staircase in his home,
Highwood. He was probably already dead. Sir Everard Home,
his old friend and physician, pronounced his death to be due
to an apoplectic attack. "The sufferings of the deceased must,
for some time past, have been most intense/'
AFTERTHOUGHT
The Court of Directors of the
East India Company, perhaps to soften the shock of the finan-
cial claim they put forward on the same day, April 12, 1826,
made the following decision concerning Sir Stamford Raffies's
administration in the Far East. Though somewhat late in ar-
riving, its text could not be called anything but completely
satisfactory. Perhaps it might even be considered worth
twenty-two thousand pounds, though personally I doubt it.
"DECISION
"Of Java. The Court admit, that the success of the expedi-
tion to Java was promoted by the plans and information of Sir
Stamford Raffles. That the representation of Sir Stamford
Raffles as to the financial embarrassment of Java on the outset
of his government is correct.
"That those financial difficulties were enhanced by the in-
evitable hostilities with Palembang and Jojocarta.
"That of the measures introduced by Sir Stamford Raffles
for the removal of the financial embarrassments; viz. the sale
of lands, withdrawal of Dutch paper currency, and a new sys-
tem of land revenue;
"The sale of lands is considered to have been a questionable
proceeding.
^542
'The entire series of measures for the reform of the currency
are conceded to have been well adapted to their object.
"With regard to the system of revenue introduced by him,
the Court state that they would have been inclined to augur
favourably of the success of his measures, and consider it highly
probable that the colony would have soon been brought at
least to liquidate its own expenses by the lenient and equitable
administration of Sir Stamford Raffles's system.
"The regulations for reform in the judicial department and
police, the Court consider entitled, both in their principles
and in their details, to a considerable degree of praise.
"On the measures respecting Borneo, Banca, and Japan, the
Court remark, that, under a permanent tenure of Java, and a
different system of policy, the measures in question [promot-
ing intercourse and enlarging the British power] would have
been valuable service.
"Sumatra.- The measures of internal reform introduced by
Sir Stamford Raffles are generally approved.
"In his political measures he incurred the strong disappro-
bation of the Court; but the motives by which he was actuated
were unquestionably those of zealous solicitude for the British
interests in the Eastern seas, and form a part of a series of
measures which have terminated in the establishment of Singa-
pore.
"Singapore, It is allowed that Sir Stamford Raffles de-
veloped the exclusive views of the Dutch, and the measures
ultimately carried into effect are to be attributed to his instru-
mentality, and to him the country is chiefly indebted for the
advantages which the Settlement of Singapore has secured to
it. The Court consider this to be a very strong point in Sir
Stamford Raffles's favour, and are willing to give him to the
full extent the benefit of their testimony respecting it.
"His administration of Singapore has been approved by the
Bengal Government.
"The Court* s opinion with regard to the general services of
Sir Stamford Raffles is summed up in the following terms:
"The government of Sir Stamford Raffles appears, with suf-
ficient evidence, to have conciliated the good feelings of, at
543
least, the great majority of the European and native popula-
tion; his exertions for the interests of literature and science are
highly honourable to him, and have been attended with dis-
tinguished success; and although his precipitate and unauthor-
ised emancipation of the Company's slaves, and his formation
of a settlement at Pulo Nias, chiefly with a view to the suppres-
sion of a slave traffic, are justly censured by the Court, his mo-
tives in those proceedings, and his unwearied zeal for the
abolition of slavery, ought not to be passed over without an
expression of approbation/'
Lady Raffles managed, by February of the year following her
husband's death, to scrape together something like ten thou-
sand pounds which she proposed to pay the Company in in-
stallments. The Court graciously consented to accept this sum,
and the matter was closed.
Nobody seems to have recorded an unimportant detail
which nevertheless may interest some members of the public.
It is not known just what Sir Stamford's widow and daughter
used for money, after the Company's claim was settled.
Singapore, however, when last heard from, was doing very
well.
GLOSSARY
Amolc, amuclc, armifc, to run amuclc, ct cetera. In Malay it means a furi-
ous and reckless onset, whether of many in battle, or of an individual
in private. The word and the practice are not confined to the Malays,
but extend to all the people and languages of the Malay Archipelago
that have attained a certain amount of civilization. Crawfurd (Malay
Dictionary) ascribes a Javanese origin for this word, but Yule
(Hobson-Jobson) considers it to be of Indian derivation. The phrase
has been thoroughly naturalized in England since the days of Dryden
and Pope.
Berzdahara. From the Malay bandahara, Javanese bendara", "lord." A
term used in the Malay countries as a title of one of the higher minis-
ters of state, and usually applied to the treasurer.
Bonze. A term applied by European travelers in the sixteenth to nine-
teenth centuries to the Buddhist clergy of China and Japan. Derived
by the sixteenth-century Portuguese from the Japanese word Bozu.
Captain China. The head of the Chinese community at Batavia who
exercised certain jurisdictional rights over his compatriots.
Collector. The chief administrative official of an Indian zilhh or dis-
trict, charged chiefly with the collection of revenue, but often also
holding controlling magisterial powers.
Couiatry ships, boats, et cetera. Term used colloquially and in trade, as
an adjective to distinguish vessels built or owned in Indian ports,
though often officered by Europeans, from the bona fide East India
Company's shipping,
Datoo, data. From the Javanese DatdL Grandfather; senior; elder; title
of the head of a tribe; a chieftain.
Desa, Crawford (Descriptive Dictionary) states that this word, taken
from the Sanscrit, signifies the "country/* as distinguished from the
545^
"town/' or rather from the seat of government, and it is also a
synonym for "village/' It occurs, not infrequently, in the names of
places. See following word.
Dessaye. A word of Indian origin (desai) applied to a native official in
the charge of a district, often held hereditarily. A native chief.
DiVani. The office of the Diwan or Dewaun, who was usually the head
financial minister of a state or province, charged with the collection
of the revenue; but with many other ramifications of meaning.
Factory. A European trading establishment in an Asiatic port or mart,
such as the thirteen European factories at Canton, and the Dutch
factory of Deshima at Nagasaki. In the early nineteenth century
the English East India Company's covenanted civil servants were
theoretically divided into four classes senior merchants, junior mer-
chants, factors, and writers, although these terms had long ceased
to have any relation to the occupation of these officials. The Dutch
Company had a similar hierarchy prior to its dissolution in 1798.
The terms were originally adopted from the Portuguese f eitoria and
feitor.
Kaba/a, caba/'a, cabaya, et cetera. Word of Arabic or Portuguese origin
commonly used in Java to describe the light cotton surcoat or "shift"
worn by women in deshabille.
Kampong. A village; a quarter or a subdivision of a town. Thus, Chinese
fcamporig, village or district where the Chinese lived.
Liplaps, libJaps. A vulgar and disparaging nickname given in the Dutch
East Indies to Eurasians, and corresponding to the Anglo-Indian
chee-chee or chichi.
Mandoor. Overseer or superintendent.
Munshi. A writer; a scribe; a teacher of languages.
N/onja, nona. An unmarried European or Eurasian woman,
Pajigerang. From the Javanese pangeran. A prince.
Pub, poeJoe, pooloo. Javanese and Malay word for island, isle, or islet.
It is prefixed to the names of all the small islands in the Malay Archi-
pelago.
Prouw, prau, parao, et cetera. In Malay and Javanese the generic term
for any vessel, whether rowing or sailing. Generally applied to small
craft, and more specifically to denote a peculiar kind of galley, the
so-called "Malay prow."
Ra/a Muda. The heir presumptive, literally "the young king."
Regent. A hereditary official belonging to the highest rank of the native
civil service in Java.
Ryotwarry. Hindustani adjective, from the noun lyot (xaiyat) literally,
"to pasture," its specific Anglo-Indian application being "a tenant of
the soil/ 7 The ryotwarry system was that under which the settlement
for land revenue was made directly by the government agency with
each individual cultivator holding land, not with the village com-
^546
munity or with any middleman or landlord, payment being also re-
ceived directly from each individual.
Sarong. From the Malay sarung; the body cloth, or long kilt, tucked or
girt in at the waist, generally of colored silk or cotton, which forms
the chief article of dress of the Malays and Javanese.
Sfcca rupee. Silver coin weighing 192 grains and containing 176 grains
of pure silver minted by the East India Company in the Bengal
Presidency in the years 1793-1836.
Susuhunan, Susunan, Susuunan, Soesoehoenan, et cetera. Literally, "ob-
ject of adoration"; religious title assumed by the ruler of Surakarta,
or Solo, after the division of the empire of Mataram into the sul-
tanates of Surakarta and Jojocarta in 1755.
Temenggong, Tuimmggong, Tamanggung, et cetera. The title of a pub-
lic functionary; a kind of minister of the interior or director of police.
Crawfurd (Malay Dictionary) adds that in Java it is the title of a
class of nobles, and not the name of an office.
N.B The foregoing definitions are applicable to Java and Malaya in
Raffles's time, and are taken or derived from the following works;
John Crawfurd. A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language,
Vol. II. London, 1852.
. A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent
Countries. London, 1856.
H, Yule & A, C. Burnell liohson-Jobson, A Glossary of Anglo-Indian
Words and Phrases. London, 1903.
S- R. Dalgado. Glossario Luso-Asia&co, 2 vols, Coimbra, 1919-21.
547 $
NOTES
(It should be understood that
the two standard reference works, Demetrius Boulger's Life
of Sir Stamford Raffles, London, 1897, and Lady Sophia Raf-
fles's Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas
Stamford Raffles, London, 1830, are included as part of every
chapter's bibliography. They have been used so steadily
throughout that it seems unnecessary to include the titles each
time.)
CHAPTER I
Foster, Sir William. The East India House. London, 1924.
Hickey, William. The Memoirs of William Hicfcey, 4 vok, 6th ed.
New York, 1923. Vol. I, 1749-75, p. 117; Vol. HI, 1782-00, p.
176.
CHAPTER II
Foster, Sir William. The East India House. London, 1924. (Chap-
ter on clerks.)
Namier, L. B. England in the Age of the American Revolution.
London, 1930, p. 36.
CHAPTER III
Vlekke, Bernard H. M. Nusantara. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1943.
Winstedt, R. O. A Histoiy of Malaya. Singapore, 1935.
^548
CHAPTER IV
Hickey, William. The Memoirs of William Hicfcey, 4 vols., 6th ed.
New York, 1923. Vol. IV, pp. 367, ff.
Minto. Lord Minto in India: Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot.
London, 1880, p. 253,
Parkinson, C. Northcotc. Trade in the Eastern Seas. Cambridge,
England, 1937, pp. 121, 264.
Vlekke, Bernard IL M. The Story of the Dutch East Indies. Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, 1945, p. 124,
CHAPTER V
Abdullah, Munshi. Hikayat Abdullah, translated from Malay by
Rev. W. G. Shcllabcar. Singapore, 1918. Also translated by John
Tumbull Thomson. London, 1874.
Fumivall, J. S. Netherlands India. Cambridge and New York, 1944,
p. 49.
Prince of Wales's Island Gazette. George Town, 1807 (as quoted
by Demetrius Boulger).
CHAPTER VI
(No references)
CHAPTER VII
Abdullah, Munshi. Hilcayat Abdullah, translated by John Tumbull
Thomson. London, 1874,
, The Autobiography of Munshi Abdullah, translated by Rev.
W. G. Shcllabear, Singapore, 1918.
Minto. Lord Minto in India; Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot.
London, 1880.
Stavorinus, John Splinter. Voyages to the East Indies, 2 vols., Eng-
lish ed. London, 1798. Vol. L
549 %>
Stockdale, John Joseph. Sketches, Civil and Military, of the Island
of Java and Its Immediate Dependencies, 2d enlarged ed. Lon-
don, 1812.
Vlekke, Bernard H. M. Nusantara. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1943, pp. 230, 239-55.
CHAPTER VIII
Abdullah, Munshi. Hifcayat Abdullah, translated by John Tumbull
Thomson, London, 1874.
9 The Autobiography of Munshi Abdullah, translated by
Rev. W. G. Shellabear. Singapore, 1918.
Banner, Hubert Stewart. The Clean Wind. London, 1931.
Minto. Lord Minto in India; Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot. Lon-
don, 1880.
Vlekke, Bernard H. M. The Story of the Dutch East Indies, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, 1945.
CHAPTER IX
Abdullah, Munshi. Hikayat Abdullah, translated by John Turnbul!
Thomson. London, 1874.
. The Autobiography of Munshi Abdullah, translated by
Rev. W. G. Shellabear. Singapore, 1918.
Banner, Hubert Stewart. The Clean Wind, London, 1931.
Minto. Lord Minto in India; Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot..
London, 1880.
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford. The History of Java, 2d ed. London r
1830.
Thorn, Major William. R. R, Gillespie, a Memoir. London, 1816.,
. The Conquest of Java. London, 1812.
4 CHAPTER X
Banner, Hubert Stewart, The Clean Wind. London, 1931,
Minto. Lord Minto in India; Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot*.
London, 1880, pp. 302, 306.
^550
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford. The History of Java, 2d ed. London,
1830.
Thorn, Major William, R. R. Gillespie, a Memoir, London, 1816.
CHAPTER XI
Anonymous. Nederlandscli-India in Haaren Tegenwoordigen Toe-
stand Beschouvvd. Circa 1780.
Graaff, Nicholaas de. "Oost-Indzsche Spiegel/' edited by J. C. M.
Warnsinck, in Vol. 33 of the Linsclioten Vereeniging.
Plomer, William, Double Lives. London, 1943, p. 81.
Stavorinus, John Splinter. Voyages to the East Indies, 2 vols., Eng-
lish eel. London, 1798.
Stockdale, John Joseph. Sketches, Civil and Military, of the Island
of Java and Its Immediate Dependencies. 2d enlarged ed. Lon-
don, 1812.
Thorn, Major William. The Conquest of Java. London, 1812.
Van der Wall, Victor Ido. "Maria Wilhelnnna Engelhard-Senn
van Basel, 1770-2823," Figtiren en Feiten uit den Compagnies-
ti/d ? Bandoeng, 1933, pp. 261 ff.
CHAPTER XII
Haan, F. de, Oud Batavia. Batavia, 1919. Vol. I, p. 451.
Minto. Lord Minto in India; Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot.
London, 1880, pp, 312-13.
Olivier,, Jz. J. Land- en Zeetogten in Nedcrlandsch Indie in 1817-
1826, 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1827,
. Tafereelen en merkwaardighcden uit OosMndie 7 z vols,
Amsterdam^ 1836-
Stavorinos, John Splinter. Voyages to the East Indies, \ vols. Eng~
lish ed, London, 1798.
Thorn, Major William. The Conquest of Java, London, 1812*
Van der Wall, Victor Ido, Figuren en Feiten uit den Com-
pagniesti/d. Baudoeng^ 1933,
CHAPTER XIII
Bleeker, P. "Overzigt der Geschiedenis van het Bataviaasch Genoot-
schap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen," Verhandelingen, 1853.
Vol. 25.
Fischel, Gukar, and Boehm, Max von. Modes and Manners of the
Nineteenth Century. London, 1909.
Haan ? F. de. Oud Batavia, 2 vols. Batavia, 1922.
. Priangan, 4 vols. Batavia, 1912. Vol. IV, p. 753.
Java Government Gazette, May 1812 (as quoted by Boulger) .
Minto. Lord Minto in India: Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot.
London, 1880, p. 305.
Staunton, Sir George. Authentic Account of an Embassy from the
King of Great Britain to the Empire of China, 2 vols. and atlas.
London, 1798.
Stavorinus, John Splinter. Voyages to the East Indies, 2 vols. Eng-
lish ed. London, 1798.
Vlekke, Bernard H. M. Nusantara. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1943, pp. 165, 173.
CHAPTER XIV
Collet, D. J. A. L71e de Java sous la domination francaise, Brussels,
1910, p. 230.
Daendels, Herman Willem. Staat der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische
Bezittingen. The Hague, 1814, p. 106,
Furnivall, J. S. Netherlands India, Cambridge and New York, 1944.
pp. 64-69, etc.
Haan, F. de. Priangan, 4 vols. Batavia, 1919. Vol. IV., pp. 754, 766,
Proceedings: 28, vii, 1813; and Substance of a Minute, p, 280;
Report of State Commissioners, 1803.
Hogendorp, Dirk van. Berigt van den tcgenwoordigen tocstant der
Bataafsche Bezittingen in OosMndien. Delft, 1799 and 1800,
p. 19.
Java Government Gazette, 23, iv, 1814 (as quoted by Boulger) *
^552
Levyssohn Norman, H. D. De Britsche Heerschappi; over Java en
Onderhoorigheden, 1811-1816. The Hague, 1857, pp. 341-44.
Vlekke, Bernard H. M. The Story of the Dutch East Indies, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, 1945.
CHAPTER XV
Doeff, Hendrik. Hcrinncringcn nit Japan. Haarlem, 1833.
Meijlan, G. F. Geschiedkundig Overzigt van den Handel der
Europezen op Japan. Batavia, 1833.
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford. "Japan/' The Pamphleteer. London,
1816, Vol, VIII. (Address delivered by Raffles at the Society of
Arts and Sciences at Batavia y September 10, 1815.)
. Report on Japan to the Secret Committee of the English
East India Company, 1812-16, edited by M. Paske-Smith. Kobe,
Japan, 1929,
CHAPTER XVI
Adclison, George Augustus. Original familiar correspondence be-
tween residents in India including sketches of Java. Edinburgh,
1846.
Haan, F. de. "Personalia der periode van hct Engelsche bestuur
over Java 1811-1816," Bi/dragen tot de Taal- Land- en VoIIcen-
Jcunde van Nederl, Indid The Hague, 1935. Vol. 92, Part IV,
pp. 477-681.
Hope, Hugh. Article in Java Government Gazette as edited by De
Haan, ibid., Batavia, October 24, 1812,
Thorn, Major William, R, R, Gillcspic, a Memoir. London, 1816.
CHAPTER XVII
Haan, F, de, "Personalia der periode van het Engelsche bestuur
over Java i8ia-i8i6/' Bi/dragen tot de Taal- land- en Volkcn-
Jciinde van Nedcrl. Indf& The Hague, 1935.
Java Government Gazette as quoted by De Haan 7 ibid. Batavia,
1812, L viiL
553^
Levyssohn Norman, H. D. De Britsche Heerschappi; over Java en
Onderhoorigheden, 1811-1816. The Hague, 1857, p. 301.
Minto. Lord Minto in India; Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot.
London, 1880, p. 296.
Thorn, Major William. R. R. Gillespie, a Memoir. London, 1817,
pp. 17, 32, 51, 55, 61, 128, 139, 192, 193, 200, 203, 246, 251, 252,
273.
CHAPTER XVIII
Haan, F. de. Platen Album to Oud Batavia. Batavia, 1919.
Raffles, . Sir Thomas Stamford. An Analysis of the "Brata Yudha"
or Holy War, Vol. II.
. The History of Java, 2d ed. London, 1830.
CHAPTER XIX
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford. The History of Java, 2d ed. London,
1830, dedication.
CHAPTER XX
Raffles, Dr. Thomas. Letters, during a tour through some parts
of France, Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands,
New York, 1818.
CHAPTER XXI
Benet, William Rose. The Falconer of God. New York, 1914.
Marsden, William. History of Sumatra. London, 1784,
CHAPTER XXII
(No references)
CHAPTER XXIII
(No references)
^554
CHAPTER XXIV
Philips, C. IL "The Secret Committee of the East India Company
(1784-1858);' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies. University of London, 1940. Vol. X, Part III, pp. 707-58.
Van dcr Kemp, P. II. "Sumatra's WestJcust naar aanleiding van
hct Londensch Tractaat van 13 Augustus 1814," Bi/dragen van
hct Koninklijk Instituut van Taal- Land- en Vollcenkunde van
Ncdcrlandsch-InJze. Vol. 49-, pp. 205-306.
. "De Singapoorsche Papicroorlog." Ibid., Vol. 49, p. 501.
,, "Raffles' besetting van de Lampongs in 1818." Ibid., Vol
50, pp. 1-58.
. Het Nedcrl. Jnd. bestuur Hct Midden." Ibid., 1817.
CHAPTER XXV
Hamilton, Alexander. A New Account of the East Indies (edited
by Sir W. Foster, London, 1931). Edinburgh, 1727.
Van der Kemp, P. IL "De Singapoorsche Papieroorlog." Ibid., Vol.
49, pp. 388-549.
CHAPTER XXVI
Abdullah, Munshi JMayat Abdullah, translated by John Tumbull
Thomson. London, 1874.
The Autobiography of Munshi Abdullah, translated by Rev.
R, G* Shellahcar, Singapore, 1918.
Winstcdt, R. O* A History of Malaya. Singapore, 1935, pp. 168-72,
CHAPTER XXVII
Spear, T. G. P. The Nabobs: A Study of the Social Life of the Eng-
lish in Eighteenth Ccntuzy India. London, 1932, Notes,
555 $>
CHAPTER XXVIII
Philips, C. H. "The Secret Committee of the East India Company
(1784-1858);' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, 1940. Vol. X, Part IV, pp. 707-08.
CHAPTER XXIX
(No references)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. LANGUAGES OTHER THAN DUTCH
Abdullah, Mimshi. Hzkayat Abdullah, translated by John Tumbull
Thomson. London, 1874.
-- __. Xlic Autobiography of Munshi Abdullah, translated by the
Rev, R. G. Shellabear r Singapore, 1918.
Shcllabear's version is fuller, but Thomson's is more informa-
tive and contains valuable notes. Original book is fascinating,
though not always to be trusted as to fact.
Addison, George Augustus. Original familiar correspondence be-
tween residents in India including sketches of Java. Edinburgh,
1846.
Useful for background, but unfortunately refers only to a
limited period, Rafflcs's last days in Java,
Arnold, Wright, and Reid, Thomas H. The Malay Peninsula, Lon-
don, 1912.
Compendium of the entire Archipelago; the Java section,
therefore, is limited and general,
Assey, C. "On the trade to China and the Indian Archipelago,"
The Pamphleteer, London, 1819. Vol. 14, pp. 515-43.
Reflects Raffics's ideas and usefully condenses many on which
he is inclined to be prolix,
Banner, Hubert Stewart. The Clean Wind. London, 3931.
"Costume novel" written according to the old black-and-white
557 $%
idea that Daendels was a fiend, Raffles an angel, but "atmos-
pheric" detail is trustworthy.
. These Men Were Masons. London, 1934.
Interesting account of Raffles's Java career as a Mason, with
Dutch brothers in the bonds.
Boulger, Demetrius C. The Life of Sir Stamford Raffles. London,
1897.
By far the most detailed of Raffles's biographies, containing all
English documents available to author at that date, including
many not published before.
Buckley, C. B. An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore.
Singapore, 1902.
Refers in the main to period following Raffles.
Collet, D. J. A. L'lle de Java sous la domination francaisc. Brussels,
1910,
The best apologia for Daendels and his work.
Cook, }. A. Bethune. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. London, 19x8,
Brief account from British viewpoint.
Coupland, Reginald. Raffles, 1781-1826. London, 1926.
Textbook; condensed biography.
Crawfurd, John. The Present system of our East-India Government
and Commerce considered: in which are exposed the fallacy,
the incompatibility, the injustice of a political and despotic
power possessing a commercial situation also, within the countries
subject to its dominion. London, 1813.
A 68-page pamphlet proving that for the E.I.C; "every trade,
except that of China, whatever they may assert to the contrary*
has, for years, been a constant and heavy loss to them/'
. History of the Indian Archipelago, 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1820.
Crawfurd was the second resident of Singapore, succeeding 1
Farquhar, and was coached in his days of apprenticeship by
Raffles, for whom he had a great but by no means uncritical
admiration.
. A view of the present state and future prospects of the Free
Trade and Colonization of India, London, 1829.
A io6-page essay containing inter alia interesting facts and
figures on the China and India trades, and on the rapid rise
of Singapore.
_ . A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian islands and adjacent
countries. London, 1856,
A remarkably thorough and comprehensive work which may
still be consulted with profit.
Egerton, H. E. Sir Stamford Raffles and England in the Far East.
London, 1900.
Elliot, Gilbert (see Minto).
Foster, William. The East India House: Its History and Associa-
tions. London, 1924,
Probably the most compact of this author's works about John
Company's London setup,
Fumivall, J. S. Netherlands India. Cambridge and New York, 1944.
Admirably detached point of view. Author was professor in
Rangoon,
Hickey, William, The Memoirs of William Mickey, 4 vols. New
York, 1923,
Excellent picture of social life in British India preceding and
during Rafflcs's period, affording striking contrast to con-
temporary modes and manners of Dutch colonists.
Kat, Angelino. Colonial Policy, 3 vols. New York, 1931, Vol. II.
Useful for clear, textbook presentation of Dutch colonial policy
in history, with explanatory comment.
Makepeace, Walter. One Hundred Years of Singapore. London,
1921,
Marsden, William. History of Sumatra. London, 1784.
Still the standard work on the subject in English,
Minto, Lord Minto in India: Life and Letters of Gilbert Elliot.
London, 1880.
Very useful for background as well as for sidelights on out-
standing men in East Indies,
Parkinson, C. Northcotc. Trade in the Eastern Seas, 1793-1818.
Cambridge, England, 1937.
Excellent study of conditions in East during this period, both
at sea and ashore.
Philips, C. H. 'The Secret Committee of the East India Company
(1784-1858);" Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, 1940,
Raffles, Dr. Thomas. Letters, during a tour through some parts of
France, Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. New
York, 1818.
Travel letters from Raffles's confidant and cousin, the Dissent-
ing minister, written while touring the continent with Raffles
and his bride in 1817.
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford. "A discourse delivered to the literary
and scientific society at Java, on September 16, 181 5," The
Pamphleteer. London, 1816. Vol. 8, pp. 67-105,
. Report on Japan to the Secret Committee of the English
East India Company, 1812-1816, edited by M. Paske-Smith.
Kobe, Japan, 1929.
Exhaustive account of this strange bypath in colonial history,
with full correspondence from records formerly kept secret in
Company archives.
. Substance of a minute recorded by T. S. Raffles ... on the
introduction of an improved system of internal management
on the island of Java. London, 1814.
. The History of Java, 2 vols., 2d ed. London, 1830.
Fit companion piece to Marsden's History of Sumatra. Beauti-
ful plates for accompanying illustrations.
Raffles, Lady Sophia (Hull) . Memoir of the life and public services
of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, 2 vols. London, 1830, 1835.
Invaluable collection of Raffles's correspondence, both personal
and, occasionally, official, with running commentary, not ex-
actly free and uninhibited, by his widow.
Renier, G. J. Great Britain and the Netherlands, 1813-15. London,
1930.
Say, J. B. Historical Essay on the Rise, Progress and probable re-
sults of the British Dominion in India. London, 1824.
A 36-page pamphlet giving interesting statistics on the Com-
pany's employees.
Saito, Dr. A. Doeff to Nihon. Tokyo, 1921.
In Japanese. The best authority for Raffles's efforts to open up
trade with Japan, as he has used Japanese sources in addition
to Doeff, Raffles, Boulger, et al.
Schoute, Dr. Dirk. Occidental Therapeutics in the Netherlands East
Indies during Three Centuries of Netherlands Settlement, 1600-
1900. Batavia, 1937.
^560
This contains special information about Raffles's policy in
regard to public health, including the treatment then in vogue
of "social diseases."
Song Ong Liang, One Hundred Years of the Chinese in Singapore.
London, 1923.
Spear, T. G. P, The Nabobs: a Study of the Social Life of the
English in Eighteenth Century India. London, 1932.
Entertaining informal account, including much material not
used by other historians.
Staunton, Sir George. Authentic Account of an Embassy from the
King of Great Britain to the Empire of China, 2 vols, and atlas.
London, 1797.
Sidelights on social customs in old Batavia.
Stavorinus, John Splinter, Voyages to the East Indies, translated
from the original Dutch by Samuel Hull Wilcocke, 3 vols. Lon-
don, 1798.
The original work from which most other travel writers of the
time have borrowed when writing of old Batavia and the other
Dutch colonies.
Stockdalc, John Joseph, Sketches, Civil and Military, of the Island
of Java and Its Immediate Dependencies, zd enlarged ed. Lon-
don, 1812.
Well-known travel sketches, which contain a good deal of Stav-
orinus material, but with further contributions from others.
Thorn, Major William. R. R. CiHespie, a Memoir. London, 1816.
The famous Raffles-Gillespic controversy colors these pages
with prejudice,
The Conquest of Java. London, 1812.
Account of the conquest by eyewitness and participant. De
Haan is scornful of its value,
Vlekke, Bernard IL M. Nusantara: a History of the East Indian
Archipelago. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1943.
Summary of the subject. Allowing for the author's prejudice
against Raffles, one of the most convenient books on the Archi-
pelago which we possess in America.
The Story of the Dutch East Indies* Cambridge, Massachu-
setts, 1945,
Widely used as a textbook in the United States, this is a con-
densation of Nusantara by the same author,
Wakeham, Eric. The Bravest Soldier Robert RoIIo Gillespie.
London, 1937.
Interesting biography, by modern writer who feels Gillespie
has never had his due.
Willson, Heckles. Ledger and Sword. London, 1903.
Another work on John Company, who possesses a fatal attrac-
tion, evidently, for novelists on holiday,
Winstedt, R. O. A History of Malaya. Singapore, 1935.
Includes excellent detailed account of the founding of Singa-
pore.
Wright, Arnold. "Singapore and Sir Stamford Raffles/' Quarterly
Review. New York, 1919.
Article on Raffles's early aims for Singapore,
B. WORKS IN THE DUTCH LANGUAGE
Anonymous. Nederlandsch-India in Haaren Tegenwoordigezi Toe-
stand Beschouwd. Batavia, no date but circa 1780.
Although this scurrilous but amusing little pamphlet on social
conditions at Batavia purports to have been printed there, it
was presumably published at an English or Danish settlement
such as Calcutta or Tranquebar, in view of its contents and
the strict censorship exercised by the Company.
Deventer, M. L. Van. Het Nederiandsch Gezag over Java en onder-
hooriglieden Sedert 1811. The Hague, 1891. Vol. i, 1811-20.
Covers the same period as Levyssohn Norman (q.v.) but con-
tains more original documents.
DoefE, Hendrik. Herinneringen nit Japan. Haarlem, 1833,
Gives the Dutch version of Raffles's attempt to open trade with
Japan in 1813-14, by the man chiefly responsible for peace-
fully thwarting it.
Graaff, Nicolaas de. Reisen van Mcolaas de GraafF, 1639-1687,
works published by the Linschoten Vereeniging. The Hague,
1930, Vol. 33.
A scholarly edition by J. C. M. Warnsinck of the rare eight-
eenth-century original. Particularly valuable for its account of
social life at Batavia as contained in the Oost-Indisclie Spiegel
or East-Indian LooIdng-GIass* This accounts for the status of
Batavian women in Raffles's day.
<^ 562
Haan, F. dc. Oud Batavia, 2 vols. i album of plates. Batavia, 1922.
DC Haan's magnum opus and an appropriate contribution by
the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences to the third centenary
of the foundation of the city (1619-1919). He has made
full use of material in the archives and supplemented it with
extracts from numerous relevant historical works in Dutch,
German, English, and French.
. Personalia der periodc van hot Engelsche bestuur over Java
1811-16, printed in Bz'/dragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volfcenfcunde
van NcdcrL Indie. The Hague, 1935. Vol. 92, Part IV, pp. 477-
681.
De 1 laan's last major work and a fitting climax to his labors.
As the title indicates, it is a biographical dictionary of English
and Dutch personalities of the years 1811-16. Even the most
obscure nonentities are included, and there is a great deal of
information about the major figures such as Thomas Horsfield,
Rollo Gillespic, and Alexander Hare, derived from unpublished
material in the Batavian archives.
. Priangan, 4 vols, Batavia, 1910-12.
This work contains a great deal more material than is indicated
by the title, which infers that it is limited to a history of the
Preangcr highlands. It is actually a veritable encyclopedia of
the political, social, and economic history of the Dutch in Java
down to and including the Knglish interregnum. The fourth
volume is particularly full of material for the years 1811-16,
Dr. de I laan has made use infer alia of unpublished English
documents (such as the Proceedings of the Lieu tenant-Gov-
ernor and Council) in the archives at Batavia.
Hogcndorp, Dirk van. Bcrigt van den tegenwoordigen toestand der
fiafaafsclic Bwittingen in OosMndien. Delft, 1799; reprinted
1800,
A sweeping condemnation of the Dutch East India Com-
pany's administrative measures based on his own experiences
in Java and on the liberal ideals he had conceived from his
reading of Voltaire, llayrial, and Rousseau, In many ways he
anticipates Rafilcs's reforms, which would not have been needed
had his own even more far-reaching suggestions been put into
practice,
, Nadere uitlcgging en ontwiklceling van Bet stelsel van Dirfc
Van Hogcndorp, etc. The Hague, 1802.
563^
A clarification and amplification of his former 1 94-page pam-
phlet, chiefly in rebuttal of the strictures of his enemy, C. S.
Nederburgh, the apostle of the status quo.
. Correspondence van Dirk Van Hogendorp met zi/n broeder
Gi/sbert Karel, edited by E. du Perron and DC Roos in the
Bi/dragen tot de Taal- Land- en Vollcenlcunde van Nederlandsch-
Indie. The Hague, 1943. Vol. 102, pp. 125-273.
Interesting as showing the development of Hogcndorp's liberal
ideas and giving a picture of the Dutch East India Company's
corruption and inefficiency which goes far to justify Raffles's
subsequent strictures.
Levyssohn Norman, H. D. De Biitsche Heerschappi/ over Java en
Onderlioorigheden (1811-1816). The Hague, 1857.
Written ninety years ago, this is still a standard work on the
British interregnum in Java and is based on a careful study of
English as well as of Dutch original sources.
Olivier, Jz. J. Land- en Zeetogten in Nederlandsch Indie in 1817-
1826, 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1827.
. Tafereelen en merkwaardiglieden uit Oost-Indie, 2 vols.
Amsterdam, 1836.
Interesting for his observations on the slave and Eurasian com-
munities in the years immediately following the English in-
terregnum.
Ottow, S. J. "De Veiwarring Raffles," DC Oorsprong dcr con-
servatieve Inrichting. Utrecht, 1937, pp. 35-64.
A trenchant criticism of Raffles's administration of Java,
largely vitiated by the author's unwarrantable assumption that
Raffles was a consummate hypocritean unjust characteriza-
tion which he applies (equally mistakenly) to Dirk van
Hogendorp.
Roo de la Faille, P. de. Jets over Oud Batavia. Batavia, 1919.
A good review of social conditions at Batavia at the end of
the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries.
Van der Kemp, P. H. Series of articles in the Bi/dragen van het
Koninklijk Instituut van Taal- Land- en VoHcenlcunde van Neder-
landsch-Indie during the years 1897-1905:
i. "De Slutting van het Londensch Tractaat van 13 Augustus
1814." Vol. 47, pp. 23^-339.
^564
2. "Fendalfs en Raffles' opvattingen in het algemeen omtrent
het Londcnsch Tractaat van 13 Augustus 1814." Ibid., pp. 341-
497.
3. "Het afbrcfccn van onze betreJdcingen met Band/ermassin
onder Dacndcls en de herstelling van het Nederlandsch gezag
aldaar op den i Januari 1817." Vol. 49, pp. 1-168.
4. "Sumatra's Wesfkust naar aanleiding van het Londensch
Tractaat van 13 Augustus, 1814." Ibid., pp. 205-306.
5. "De Singapoorschc Papieroorlog." Ibid., pp, 388-547; compare
ii infra.
6. "Raffles' begetting van de Lampongs in 1818." Vol. 50 pp
i- 5 8.
7. "De Commission van den Schout-bi/-Nacht C. J, Wolterbeek
naar Malacca en Riouw in Juli-December 1818 en Febr.-April
1820." Vol. 51, pp. 1-101.
8. "Raffles" At/eh-Ovcrccnkomst van 1819." Ibid., pp. 159-240.
9. "Paleinbang en Banfca in 1816-1820." Ibid., pp. i-xii, 330-764.
10. "Raffles" bctrofckingcn met Nias in 1820-21." Vol. 52, pp.
584-603.
11. "De Sfcfchting van Singapore, de afstand ervan met Malakfca
door Ncdcrland, en de Britsche aanspraken op den Linga-Riouw
Arehipel. n Vol. 54, pp. 313-476.
12. "Benfcoclen krachiens het Londensch Tractaat van 17 Maart
1824," Vol. 55, pp. 283-320.
13. "Gcschicdcnis van het Londensch Tractaat van 17 Maart
1824." Vol. 56, pp. 1-244.
14. "De Terruggave der OosMndische Kolonien in 1814-16."
llic Hague, 1910,
15. "Qo$t-lndii?$ Herstel in i8i6/' The Hague, 1911.
16. "Het Ncderlandsch-lndisch Bestuur in 1817 to het vertrek
der Engclschcn." The Hague, 1913.
17. "Het NcdcrhndscMndisch Bestuur in het Midden van
1827." The Hague, 1915,
18. "Java's Landdijk Stelsel " The Hague, 1916.
19. "OosMndi^ f $ inwendig bestuur van 1817 op 1818." The
Hague, 1919,
565^
20. "Cost-Indies Geldmiddelen Japansche en Chineesche handel
van 1817-18." The Hague, 1919.
21. "Sumatra in 1818." The Hague, 1920,
This series of essays forms an invaluable supplement to
Boulger and other English writers, for in addition to utilizing
the Dutch and Batavian records, Van der Kemp has made use
of numerous English documents in the India Office at London
which were transcribed for the Netherlands Indies Colonial
Institute in 1895-96, many of which escaped the notice of
Boulger,
(cf. Onderzoefc van stukken in het India Office. Verslag van
Mr. W. Roosegarde Bisschop. Bi/dragen T. L. & V., Vol. 47,
PP< 183-209.)
His later efforts of 1910-20 amount to little more than digest-
ing the sources used in his earlier essays into narrative form.
Van der Wall, Victor Ido. Figuren en Feiten uit den Compag-
niesti/d. Bandoeng, 1933.
An excellent account of various aspects of social conditions at
Batavia during the Company's time and the English inter-
regnum, based on contemporary sources including the Java
Government Gazette, 1811-16.
Verhandeh'ngen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en
Wetenschappen. Batavia, 1779-1941.
The first eight volumes of the transactions of this academy
the first of its kind in the tropics were published at irregular
intervals in the years 1779-1816, the seventh and eighth under
the auspices of Raffles.
C. SOURCES NOT DIRECTLY CONSULTED
1. Collection of printed papers on the Gillespie affair. Bound
in book form, small-folio, and printed at Batavia in 1815 on the
order of RafHes, without a title; containing his answers to the ac-
cusations brought against him by Major General Gillespie.
2. Official and secret papers relating to the sale of lands and
other subjects during the British Administration of Java, The
Hague, 1883.
3. Proceedings of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, i8n-
1816.
^566
Resolutions of the British-Indian Government over Java and
dependencies; only those in the "Public Department" still in
the archives at Batavia (1912). Those in the "Secret Depart-
ment" and other departments have disappeared,
4. Java Government Gazette. Batavia, 1811-16.
NOTE: None of the above works could be traced in the United
States libraries, and lack of time, coupled with wartime restrictions
and their aftermath, prevented copies being obtained from England.
The Dutch historians, Lcvyssohn Norman, Van dcr Kemp, and
De Ilaan, however, utilized them to a considerable extent and I
have availed myself of their quotations where relevant.
INDEX
Abdullah, Munshi, 1 24-27,
289, 459-60
autobiography, 6o y 124
description of Lord Minto,
* 3i-35
description of Olivia Raffles,
60, 67-68
on founding of Singapore,
458, 461-65, 466-70
on his father, 124-25
on Java campaign, 109
on Major Farquhar, 460-61
on Sir Stamford Raffles, 112,
113-14,
5*4 , ,
Acheen, 401, 452, 454-56, 462,
472
Adam, Mr y 470, 471
Addcnbroofce, Colonel, 401,
472
Addison, George Augustus,
227, 289, 291, 293, 294,
296*300, 301-02, 405
Afterlcnden (ship), 96
Ahmed Shalt, Sultan, 94-96'
Ainslie, Dr- Daniel, 262-66,
270, 271, 272, 278-79, 280,
281, 284, 285, 286, 294
Albuquerque, 85
Amboina, 242
Amboina Massacre of 1624,
450
America, 435; see also North
America
American Embargo Act
(1808), 106
American Revolution
cause of, 6
English attitude toward, 4
Amherst, Lord, 353
Anderson, Dr., 14
Anglo-Chinese College, 515
Ann (ship), i r 2
Anthony Adverse (book), 211
Army Medical Officers, 291
Arnold, Dr, Joseph, 387, 389,
393~94> 45> 5 2 3> 533
death of, 393-~94, 404
Asia, 8, 80, 87, 150
Asiatic Annual Register, 28
Asiatic Journal, 41
Asiatic Society, 136, 232, 407
Assey, Charles, 172, 274 291,
294,300-01,315,427,470,
479-80, 534
Atkinson, Brooks, 87
Auchmuty, Sir Samuel, 115,
149,151,152,154,337
dinner party for, 161, 217
Auspicious (ship), 338
Australia, 5
Autobiography of Munshi Ab-
dullah, The, 60, 124
Badruddin, Mahmud, 168
Bagdad, 234, 309
Bali, 207, 324, 437
Banca, 164, 165, 167, 168, 329
434, 436, 439, 443, 449,
543
Banjermassin scandal, 449
Banjoewangi, 293
Banks, Sir Joseph, 405, 414,
522, 524
death of, 419, 522
Banner, H. S., 131, 161
Bannerman, Colonel, 473, 474,
47 6 > 477> 47 8 > 479> 4 8o ~ 86
Bantam, 96
Barrett, W. ? 291, 294-95
Basel, Maria Wilhelmina En-
gelhard-Senn van, 186, 190
Batavia, 52, 107, 108, 118, 139,
149, 150, 152, 154, 155,
160, 161, 165, 171, 262,
283,290,298-99,313,320,
459
Chinese quarter, 184
courts in, 238
crowded conditions, 371
description of, 183-84, 298-
99
Dutch colonial life in, 225
food in, 190, 225-26
housing in, 184
mixed population of, 235
^572
Portuguese songs, 194-95
slaves in, 204, 207, 208, 210,
212
social life in, 178-200, 217-
2 3
unhealthy conditions in, 107,
154, 176-78, 227-29, 298
Batavian Society of Arts and
Sciences, 229-33, 2 & 2 > 5 1 4
Batta tribe, 408-12
Bawean, 293
Bay of Biscay, 364
Belgian Congo, 8, 245, 372,
386
Belgium, 359, 360
Bell, Dr., 530, 532
Beluwa, Prince, 500
Bencoolen, 130, 316-17, 326-
2 7> 33 8 > 339> 3 6 3> 3 6 4>
365-81, 413, 414, 435,
438, 442, 443, 452
Benevolus (Robert Tytler),
228
Bengal, 5, 11, 36, 89, 91, 101,
115, 119, 207, 239, 253,
273, 298, 306, 378
Raffles's visit to, 101
Ben tan, 95
Bertie, Admiral, 128
Bertrand, Countess, 336
Bertrand, Marshal, 336
Besar, T&igku Penglinia, 139-
45
Betel chewing, 186, 192, 198
Bible, 23
Billiton, 168, 436, 439, 449
Bintang, 434, 438
Biographical Dictionary of the
Living Authors of Great
Britain and Ireland, 63
Birds' Nest Rocks, 249
Bishopsgatc, 9
Blagrave, Mr., 314, 315
Blecckcr, 232
Blomhoff, Jan Cock, 285, 286,
288
Bloomfielcl, Sir Benjamin, 355
Boer War, 447-48, 450
Bombay, India, 224
Bonaparte, Josephine, 38* 221
Bonaparte, Louis, 108
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 51, 81,
l6l, 221,
332-36, 428, 525
Border Minstrelsy, 55, 91
Borneo, 145, 173, 207, 321, 437,
449* 533- 543
Borneo (ship), 424, 530
Bosanquet, 511
Boulgcr, Demetrius, 107, 359,
428-30, 448-50, 452
on Banncrman, 478
on Captain Benjamin Raf-
fles, 15
on founding of Singapore,
465
on Java campaign, 109, 137,
138, 158, 310
on Napoleon, 105
on Olivia Raffles, 30-32, 64,
66, 67, % 318
on Pcnang climate, 56
on Sir Thomas Raffles, 14,
19, 21, 31, 102, 103, 121,
1% 170, 244, 251, 252,
307-08, 317, 319, 344, 354,
359* 3^4 44^ 4^ 537
on Sophia Raffles, 400
Bourbon, 82, 102, 104, 127-29
Braam, F, A. van, 442
"Brain Trust," 92
Breton, Mr., 270-71
British East Africa, 67
British East India Company.
See East India Company
Broughton, Commodore, 148
Browne, Mr., 350
Browning, Robert, 63
Brussels, Belgium, 358
Buckinghamshire, Earl of, 324,
3 2 5
Bmtenzorg, 107, 139, 155, 172,
183, 290, 301, 320-21, 326,
328
Bunbury, Mrs., 218
Byron, Lord, 61
Cabow, Menang, 444
Calcutta, Raffles's visits to,
101-02, 401, 404, 406,
45 l ~53
Calcutta University, 57
Cambay, Gulf of, 224
Cambodia, 502
Canada, 260
Cannibalism, 408-12
Canning, George, 432, 435,
441, 479, 480, 511-12
Canton, 231, 262, 267, 272,
285, 286, 546
Capellen, Baron van der, 525
Cape of Good Hope, 8
Carimon Islands, 460-61, 465,
537
Caroline, Queen, 352, 353
Carteret, Captain, 180, 216
Cassa, 285, 286
Celebes, 207, 323, 494, 533
Ceylon, 51, 84
Chantrcy, 37
Chapones, Mrs. Esther de, 186
573^
Charlotte, Princess, 351, 352,
354^ 355. 356, 37> 4 01 >
402
death, 364
Charlotte (ship), 274, 277, 288
Chillinching Bay, 150, 151, 155
China, 50, 84, 87, 88, 90, 163,
171, 248, 262, 264, 274,
366, 403, 502
Japanese attack on, 54
piracy, 174
"China, Captain," 112, 545
Chinsura, 231
Churchill, Winston, 54, 245,
261
Ciceroa, 321, 323, 324
Cissus Angustifolia of Box
(flower), 389
Claremont, 402
Clive, Robert, 6, 7, 10-11, 18,
3 1 * 55
Clubley, W., 65, 74, 75
Cochin China, 502
Cockburn, Sir George, 335
Cockfighting, 370, 375, 464,
502, 517, 528
Coen, Jan Pieterszoon, 226
Coffee, 106, 108, 249
Colburn, Henry, 63
Colebrooke, 314
Coles, Edward, 442
Collet, D. J. A., 241, 242
Company, John, 9, 13, 73, 79,
128, 290, 368, 522, 523,
53> 538, 539
conqueror of India, 7
tradition, 8
Conquest of Java (Thorn),
177, 205, 295
Constantinople, 234
Convicts, at Bencoolen, 376
^574
Cook, Captain James, 227
Copang, 494
Cornells, 152, 154
Cornish mines, 340, 364
Cornwall, 364
Corornandel, 207
Cotton, Mr., 511
Couperus, Abraham, 457
Couperus, Madam, 219
Covrington, 395
Cranssen, J. P., 159, 247, 305
Crawfurd, John, 232, 255, 256,
260, 291, 294
resident at Singapore, 497,
499, 501, 513, 517
Crosby Hall, 9
Cuba, 211
Cuvier, 406
Daendels, Herman Willem,
107-08, 109, no, 119, 122,
139,159-61,176,205,233,
241-43, 247, 248, 249, 251,
290
Daik, 460
Dalgrains, 293
Daud, Captain, 461
Decaen, General, 128-29
Democracy, 81, 516
Deshima, 261, 262, 263, 267,
268, 272, 273, 275, 277,
280, 285, 286, 546
Devenish, Olivia Mariamme.
See Raffles, Olivia
Devil's Betel Box, 388-89
Diard, 405, 406, 523
Dickens, Charles, 403
Dirge of the Departed Year
(Leyden), 58-59,61
Disraeli, 5, 428
Djokja, 312, 313
Doeff, Mr., 278, 280, 282-86,
288, 294
Doornik, 293
Double Lives (Plomer), 200
Drury, Admiral, 1 30
Dundas, Philip, 34, 45, 74, 92
Durians, 113
Dutch East India Company,
8, JO, 51, 52, 73, 106, 122,
181, 234, 272, 459, 495
Dutch East Indies, 90, 337,
241, 431
Duvauccl, 405, 406, 523
East India Company, 5-6, 7,
36, 80, 122, 128, 365, 366,
406, 523, 529, 538, 539,
540
charter, 8
Civil Service, 36, 43
competition with, 8, 9, 33, 50
conquest of India, 7
Court of Directors, 11, 34,
46, 74, 76, 79, 81, 83,
86, 87, 88, 115-16, 123,
128, 129, 154, 255, 286,
341, 342, 343, 344, 374,
409, 425, 428, 431, 432,
440, 498, 503, 506, 511,
516, 522, 523, 530, 532,
537> 53 8 > 54 2 -44
Crosby Hall offices, 9
destruction of Malacca, 84,
85-86, 87, 91, 92, 99-100,
116
dissolved, 538
Eastern posts, 33
factories, 6
Irst factory, 9
first voyages, 8
God*s will and, 23
Japan and, 269, 279, 287
Malay Peninsula policy, 103,
164
origin, 5, 8, 394
Penang purchased by, 34
Philpot Lane offices, 8, 9, 1 5
relation to Crown, 7-8, 10,
1 3
salary system, 72
Sumatra and, 367-68, 371,
37 2 > 375. 3 8l > 3 8 5
treaty with India, 11
East India House, 15, 17, 18,
20, 21, 24, 28, 31, 36, 48,
498, 499
East Indiamen ships, 40-43
East Indies, 4, 76, 79, 106, 120,
240, 334, 351, 366, 368,
428, 431, 435
Edinburgh Review, 398
Eighteenth Amendment, 207
Elba, 233, 334, 335
Eliza (ship), 269
Elizabeth, Queen, 8
Elliot, George, 135, 147, 148,
161, 313
Elliot, Gilbert. See Minto,
Lord
Elmina, 243
Elphinstone, 511
Embong, Rajah, 467
Enchelc Abu Pateh, 467
Engelhard, Nicholas, 291-92,
313
England
acquisition of the Empire,
80, 81, 123, 427
attitude toward American
Revolution, 4
attitude toward India, 12
575 v
England Confd
colonization, 6, 12, 46, 116,
conquest of India, 7, 9
conquest of Java, 51, 79, 81,
82, 102-56
conquest of Malacca, 85, 89,
125
in eighteenth century, 2-4, 8
in nineteenth century, 81
occupation of Penang, 33, 50
occupation of Singapore, 431
relations with East India
Company, 7-8, 10, 13
South African policy, 447-
4 8
Etherington, Mariamne, 35
Evolution, 105
Ewer, Walter, 444
Factory
defined, 9, 546
first English, 9
Falconer, Mr., 335
Falmouth, England, 339, 364
Fame (ship), 526-29
fire aboard, 530-34, 537
Fancourt, Jacob Cassivelaun,
3
Fancourt, Mrs. Olivia. See
Raffles, Olivia
Farquhar, Major William,
455-56, 458-63, 465, 467,
468, 469, 526
in Malacca, 85-86, 87, 125
resident at Singapore, 470,
474> 475> 477~ 86 > 49M93>
496-98, 513-14, 518
revenge on Raffles, 537
Farquhar, Robert, 158
Fascists, 53
^576
Fashions
Batavian, 188-89, 191, 193-
94, 200, 219-21, 223, 224
in eighteenth century, 5
in nineteenth century, 37-
40, 221
Fendall, Mr., 327-28, 449
Flint, Captain, 135, 325, 469,
5*3
Flint, Mrs. See Raffles, Mary
Anne
Food, Batavian, 190, 225-26
Forbidden Hill, 464, 513
Fort Ludowyck, 154
Fort Marlborough, 316, 367,
509
Fort of Epmina, 286
Fort William, 129, 130
France, 81, 435
Holland and, 51, 105, 108
interest in India, 10
Java and, 108-09, 116, 119,
130, 136, 138, 139, 154,
216
Raffles's visit to, 359, 360-
61
Frederick: (ship), 269
French Revolution, 160, 231
Freud, Sigmund, 14
Frogmore, 353
Furnivall, Frederick, 72, 247,
250, 254, 260
Garna, Vasco da, 85
Ganges (ship), 37? 45, 329,
Garnham, Captain, 329, 331
Gedong Beo, 395
George, King, 4
George, Prince of Wales, 34,
61
George Town, 34, 57, 86
Germany, 81, 224
Gillespie, Colonel, 154, 158,
159, 166, 167, 168, 169,
170, 172, 174-75, 245,
252,294, 301^302-04,436
allegations against Raffles,
Harrington, Captain, 37
Hartingh, Nicolas, 106
Hastings, Lord, 6, 288, 341,
326-27, 338, 341^43, 362,
446
death, 315
slaves, 210, 312, 505
Goa, 85, 208
Goga, 224
Goldberg, director, 442
Goldman, Jacoba Maria, 295
Goldman, J. C., 295
Gourgaud, General, 336
Craaff, Mijnhecr cle, 197-200
Grant, Charles, 498, 511
Great Britain. See Knglancl
Greigh, Captain, 146, 148, 149
Grey, Mr,, 270
Guilds, 21
Gunther, John, 87
Haan, Dr. F, dc, 210-12, 216,
225, 227, 231, 246-47, 291,
293-94, 295, 300, 309, 310,
320
Hague, The, 52, 107
Haiti, revolt of slaves in, 106
Hamilton, Captain Alexander,
457
Hammond, Charles, 35
Hams ton (ship), 172
Harcourt, Countess, 352-53
Hare, Alexander, 449
Harmonic, 219
480, 486, 489, 490, 497,
498, 499, 507; see also
Moira, Lord
Heath, Henry, 444
Hecht, Ben, 14
Heifetz, Jascha, 14
Hero of Malown (ship), 525,
526
Heyland, 292
Ilickcy, William, 11-12, 41
Highwood, 540
Hill of Mists, 386-87
Hirado, Japan, 262, 267
History of Java (Raffles), 137,
157,321,322,346-47,397,
43*
Histozy of Sumatra (Mars-
den), 408
Hitler, Adolf, 333, 427
Hoeff, Dirk Ten, 442
Hofhout, 231
Hogentlorp, Dirk van, 208,
237-40
Hogendorp, Willem van, 229,
230
Holland, 9, 52-54, 433, 490-95
Bencoolen transferred to,
376
colonial life, 225
competition with East India
Company, 9, 33, 50
conquest of Malacca, 96-97
Japan and, 261-62
prejudice against Raffles, 22
Raffles's visit to, 361-62
577
Holland-Confd
regains Java, 82, 116, 328,
346
rule of Java, 106-10, 137-38,
165
sea power, 85
vassal to French Republic,
51, 105, 108
Holloway, Mr., 371
Home, Sir Everard, 541
Homma, 150
Hong Kong, 46, 67, 136, 154,
174, 248
malarial epidemics in, 226
South-China Morning Post,
2 33
Hope, Hugh, 291, 293, 295,
.
Hope Diamond, 72
Hopkins, 291
Horsfield, Dr. Thomas, 232,
393> 394> 395-9 6 7 399> 45>
523
Housing
in Batavia, 184
in Java, 1 37
in London, 3
in Penang, 45-47
in Singapore, 469
Hull, Nilson, 530, 532
Hull, Robert, 419
Hull, Sophia. See Raffles,
Sophia
Hull, T. W., 350
Hussein, Sultan, 473-74; see
also Long, Tengku
Hutton, Mr., 70-71
Ibir, Captain, 96
India, 6, 36, 44, 45, 84, 115,
154, 163, 366
^578
British attitude toward, 12
British people in, 4
conquest of, 7, 9
French interest in, 10
in eighteenth century, 5
ports of, 5
security in, 104
treaty with East India Com-
pany, 11
India House. See East India
House
Inglis, Sir Hugh, 33, 363
Inglis, Sir Robert Harry, 443
Iperen, Joshua van, 229
Isle of France, 101, 102, 104
Italy, 261
Jack, Dr., 405, 523, 533
Jamaica, i ? 4
Jameson Raid of 1898, 447
Janssens, Jan Willem, 109, 149,
246, 285
prisoner of war, 160
Japan, 54, 154, 173, 224, 261-
88, 502, 543
attacks on China, 54
Holland's foothold in, 261-
62, 494
Russian mission to, 265
war criminals, 1 50
women in, 264, 403
World War II and, 80-81,
150, 248, 378, 512
Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 363
Java, 8, 51, 52, 79, 101-02, 215,
238-60, 361^62, 533
climate, 137, 178, 298
conquest by England, 51,
79, 81, 82, 102-56
first British voyage to, 8
French control of, 108-09,
116, 119, 130, 136, 138,
154,216
Holland and, 82, 106-10,
116,137-38,165,328,346,
494
housing in, 137, 184
Raffles and, 79, 81, 82, 102-
56, 158-76, 216, 239^40,
243-60, 542-43
revenue system, 244-57, 325,
543
slavery in, 82, 202-14
women in, 111, 185-201
Java Auxiliary Bible Society,
318, 321
Java Government Gazette,
191, 194, 211, 228, 295,
3*4
editor, 294
first number, 233
Johannesburg, 200
Johore, 95, 446, 456-57, 459,
461, 466, 476, 479, 481,
491, 493, 494
attack on Malacca, 97
Jojocnrta, Sultan of, 165, 168,
1% 170
Joseph, G. F., 37
Josephine, Empress, 38, 221
Karimata Passage, 146
Kedah, Rajah of, 33, 34
Kipling f Rudyard, 115
Recessional^ 245
Kleck, Dowager Lady de, 208
Klerk^ Reinier de^ 182, 229
Kock* Adrian, 475, 481
Koepang, 234
iy Count? 265
Kuala Lumpur, 45, 50
Kurile Islands, 268
Kyushu, 261
Lady Raffles (ship), 364
Lampong, 429-30, 437, 440
Las Casas, Count, 336
Leipzig, 233
Lcith, Sir George, 406
Leopold, King, 245, 372
Leopold, Prince, 351, 354, 356,
357> 37> 4 02 > 47 2 > 5 2 4
Letters of the Improvement of
the Mind, 186
Levyssohn Norman, H. S.,
257-60
Leyden, John Caspar, 55-59,
67, 76-79, 91, 92, 99, 119,
129,130,291,523
Border Minstrelsy, 55, 91
death, 155-56, 176, 326
Dirge of the Departed Year,
58-59, 61
funeral, 157
Malacca visit, 1 36
Life (magazine), 521
Life of Sir Walter Scott (Lock-
hart), 55
Light, Captain Francis, 33-34
Lincoln, Abraham, 82, 505
Lindeman, Rev. John, 3
Lingen, 446, 456, 458, 459,
476, 491, 493, 494, 495
Liplaps, in, 179, 185, 199,
205, 208, 209, 546
Lockhart, on John Leyden, 55
Loftis, Mrs. B., 135
Lombard Bank, 251
London, England, 2, 3, 21, 35,
48, 339, 340
579^
Long, Tengku, 461, 467-68,
473> 475
Lopes, 191
Maatplief, Admiral Cornells,
234
MacArthur, General Douglas,
158
Macartney, Lord, 227, 267
Macassar, 324, 494
Mackenzie, Colonel, 232
Madagascar, 128
Madras, India, 5, 11, 30, 31, 43,
56, no, 129, 130, 310
Madras Horse Artillery, 132
Madras Pioneers, 132
Malacca, 84-92, 125, 129, 257,
452
Banda Iliar quarter, 112
British conquest of, 85, 89,
101,125,435
Dutch conquest of, 91, 96-
97, no, 494
Dutch oppression in, 466-67
Lord Minto's visit to, 131-
36
Portuguese conquest of, 85,
94-96
prisons in, 132-34
proposed abandonment of,
84, 85-86, 87-91, 92, 99-
100, 116
Raffles's report on, 87-91, 92,
99, 101, 359
Raffles's visit to, 82-84, 86,
110-15
social life in, 201
Malaria, 176, 394
precautions against, 226
Malaya, British people in, 4
Malay College, 515
^580
Manila, 150
Manna, 395
Marcelis, Anthony, 11
Marco Polo (Marsden), 57
Mardykers, 235
Marjoribank, 511
Marsden, William, 57, 91-92,
102, 124, 125, 415, 523
History of Sumatra, 408
Marco Polo, 57
Mary (ship), 274, 278, 524
Mauritius, 82, 115, 127-30,
139^5^435
May, William, 442
Memoir (Thorn), 311
Menangkabu, 394
Merambung, 392
Milne, Rev., 322, 507, 515
Minto, 168
Minto, Lord, 37, 60, 91, 92,
99-100, 123, 128, 174, 175,
306, 310, 314, 316, 317,
329, 489
Banca and, 436
death, 282, 319, 326
dinner party for, 161, 217
Java and, 79, 81, 82, 101-04,
109, no, 112, 115, 116,
117, 118-19, 120, 124,
127-31, 146-47, 150-55,
158-59,164,215,217,227,
240, 244, 246, 252-53, 259,
260, 310, 311
Leyden's funeral and, 157
Malacca visit, 131-36
on John Leyden, 56^57
on Olivia Raffles, 135
portrait of, 134-35
resignation, 276, 296
Moar, 95
Mocco Mocco, 444
Modeste (ship), 129, 132, 141,
144, 147, 148, 149, 151
Modlin, defense of, 243
Mohammedanism, 85, 398,
Moira, Lord, 276, 284, 288,
296-97,298,306,314,315,
316, 317, 325, 338, 344,
354; see also Hastings,
Lord
Mooda, Rajah, 458, 459, 475,
481
Moore, Anacreontic, 135
Moors, 85
Morgenstem (ship), 229
Morrison, Dr., 515
Moscow, Russia, 233
Moslems, 85
Mount Ophir, 394
Mulder, Major, 449
Muntinghe, II. W., 159, 245-
46, 247, 252, 291, 293, 305
Murdoch, Mr., 528
Mussolini, Benito, 333, 427
Nagasaki, 261, 262, 266, 269,
271, 283, 285, 286, 546
Napoleon. See Bonaparte, Na-
poleon
National Portrait Gallery, 37
Natural History Society, 405
Nazis, 54, 212, 214
Nearchus (ship), 456, 483
Nepalese War, 315
Netherlands East India Com-
pany, See Dutch East
India Company
Mas, 207, 502-03, 507, 544
Nightingale, General, 299, 306,
324
Nigri-Cayu, 392
Noble, C.F, 208
North America, colonists of, 6
North-China Daily News, 233
Nugent, Sir George, 313
Nujm-ood-een, Sultan Ratoo
Ahmed, 168
Old Testament, 23
Olivier, Johannes, 204, 207-09
Opium, 89, 248, 528
Opium War, 262
OudBatavia (DeHaan), 210
Outline of History (Wells),
333
Padang, 395, 435, 442-43, 445
Pageruyong, 399
Pahang, 459, 476, 493, 494
Palembang, 165, 168, 312, 313,
435-42,446,447,453,494,
502, 542
Palmerston, Lady, 160
Paris, France, 358
Parkinson (quoted), 42
Parr, Mrs., 381
Parr, Mr. Thomas, 377-80, 445
Parra, General van der, 226
Parry, E., 511
Pasaman, Tuanku, 395
Paske-Smith, 266, 267, 285
Passumah, 392-93, 395
Pattison, 511
Pearl Harbor, 136, 174, 175,
378, 520, 521
Pearson, secretary, 73, 74
Peking, 67, 199
Pellew, Captain, 283
Penang, 32, 45-58, 61, 85, 88,
no, 116, 125, 425, 435,
438, 478
British occupation of, 33, 50
581
Penang Confd
climate, 48, 56, 73, 83
convicts in, 376
early history, 33-34, 50
housing in, 45-47
living conditions, 45-46
Raffles's appointment to,
32-35, 48-50, 62-63, 66,
73, 74, 83, 86
Pengerang, 140, 141, 142-43
Pepper, 367, 370, 371, 372, 375,
377
Peram, 224
Perry, Commodore, 288
Petimun Siicinlili (flower), 389
Phaeton (ship), 283, 284, 285
Philips, C, H., 511
Philpot Lane, 8 7 9, 15
Piracy, 8, 80, 85, 90, 143, 144,
173-74, 463-64, 469-70
Pitt, Governor, 72
Plomer, William, 200
Plymouth, England, 364
Pondok Gedeh, 192-93
Poniatowsky, Captain, 336
Pontiana, 437
Port Moranty 2
Portugal, 85
competition with East India
Company, 8, 9
conquest of Malacca, 85, 94-
9 6
Poston, Rev. A. P., 35
Presgrave, Mr. 7 387, 389, 393,
405
Prince of Wales, H.M.S,, 457
Prince of Wales Island. See
Penang
Prince of Wales's Island Ga-
zette, 64
^582
Prisons, in Malacca, 132-34
Probolingo, 248-49, 251, 312
Raden Rana Dipura, 339, 363
Radermacher, J. C., 229, 230,
231
Raffles, Captain Benjamin
(father), 1-3, 15, 19, 25,
28,33
death, 15
Raffles, Charlotte Sophia
(daughter), 364, 367, 400,
401, 402, 404, 407, 413,
415,418,420,422, 509
called Tun jong Segara (Lily
of the Sea) in Javanese,
364
death, 423-24
Raffles, Ella (daughter), 420,
424, 540
death, 424-25
Raffles, Flora (daughter), 527
Raffles, Harriet (sister), 16, 25,
6 9
marriage, 350
Raffles, Leonora (sister), 16,
25, 69, 156
marriage, 135
Raffles, Leopold (son), 400-
02,404,405,413,415,418,
420, 509
death, 420-23
Raffles, Mary Anne (sister),
16, 25, 38, 40, 325, 358,
419, 513
in Penang, 45
marriage, 40, 69, 135
trip to Penang, 37, 40, 44
Raffles, Mrs, Benjamin
(mother), 1-4, 15-16, 19-
20
^ 536
trip to Jamaica, 4
Raffles, Olivia (first wife), 29-
32, 38, 40, 60-69, 86-87,
35
Abdullah's description of,
6o y 67-68
children, 68-69
death, 318, 325, 326, 341
Dirge of the Departed Year,
58-59, 61
fashions and, 37-40
first marriage, 30
grave, 320
in Java, 176, 216-17, 221
in Malacca, 82-83, 110-12,
131
in Penang, 45-46, 48, 62, 64
Lord Mmto's description of,
marriage to Raffles, 30, 33,
35>fo
Thomson on, 65-66
trip to Pcnang, 37, 40, 43,
44,62
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford
Binglcy
accusations by Gillespie, 303,
305-17, 319, 325, 326,
3 2 7 33% 34 1 "*43 3^ 44#
address from personal staff,
329-31
animal pets* 113, 41 4, 417
Banjermasin scandal, 449
Bencoolen appointment,
316-17, 326^27, 338, 339,
363,364,365-85,413,442,
543
Bengal visit 101-02
birth, ip 6
boyhood, 2-3, 13-20, 54,
115, 341
Calcutta visits, 101-02, 401,
404, 406, 451-53
children, 68-69, 319, 322,
364, 400-04, 41 3, 414,4! 5,
416, 417, 420, 421, 502,
clothing, 39
death, 384, 541
empire builder, 6-7, 123,
334^ 37 1 * W, 5 20
European trip, 358-61
expeditions into Sumatra,
21, 385-403
Farquhafs revenge on, 537
financial affairs, 538-40,
542-44
fire aboard Fame, 530-34,
537
health, 20-21, 83-84, 319-
, 3 2 7> 3A 337. 339^
408, 416, 418, 421, 422,
424, 425, 536
History of Java, 137, 157,
321, 322, 346-47, 397, 431
humanitarian principle, 13,
117, 376
Japan project, 261-88
Java and, 79, 81, 82, 102-
56, 158-76, 216, 239-41,
243-60
junior clerk, 25, 29, 30
knighthood, 348, 354, 356
London home, 2
Malacca visit, 82-84, 8 ^
110-15, 130
maps, 524, 532
marriage, 30, 33, 35, 60, 62;
second, 349
Raffles, Sir Thomas Confd
meeting with Queen Caro-
line, 353
natural history and, 113,
404, 414, 416, 522, 523-
2 4> 533
Nias affair, 502
office boy, 15, 17-18
Padang affair, 442
Palembang affair, 435-42
Penang appointment, 32-
35, 48-50, 62-63, 66, 73,
74> 3> 86
portrait of, 37
religious spirit, 24-29, 322,
353, 507-08
report on Malacca, 87-91,
92, 99, 101, 359
return to London, 339-41,
351, 522, 536
revision of Asiatic Annual
Register, 28
Samarang visit, 170-72
schooling, 14-15, 18, 29, 358
senior merchant, 76
Singapore and, 120, 383-84,
412, 413, 418, 425, 426-
27, 430, 456-521, 543
slavery and, 202-14, 375> 377>
428, 448, 502-07, 518-20,
544
social life, 18, 55
sportsman, 21-22
tribute to Leyden, 157
tribute to staff, 322
trip to Penang, 37-44
tuberculosis, 20-21
unconventionality, 22
visit with Napoleon, 336
writings, 93-94, 120-21, 322-
23, 386
^584
RafB.es, Sophia (second wife),
94, 349-50, 363, 364, 454,
472
expeditions into Sumatra,
386, 387, 390-93, 395-96,
399-400
honeymoon, 358
illness, 421, 525, 527
in Bencoolen, 369-70
marriage, 349
on Java campaign, 117-18
on Nias, 504
on Olivia Raffles, 30, 59, 66,
84, 109-10, 135, 320
on Sultan of Jojocarta, 169
on Sumatran affairs, 371, 373,
376, 377> 379> 381
seasickness, 364
trip to Bengal, 401
writings about husband,
16-17, 20 > 23-26, 83-84,
319, 321, 326-27, 329, 352,
363, 392, 413, 414, 416,
526
Raffles, Stamford Marsclen
(son), 415
death, 424
Raffles, Thomas (cousin),
26-28, 63, 321, 344-45,
349> 35. 35 2 > 353> 355>
356, 358> 359* 3% 479>
501, 507, 528, 536, 540
Raffles, William (uncle), 26-
28, 162-63
Rafflesfa Arnold! (flower),
388-89, 405, 523
Ramsay, William Brown, 19,
25, 33, 62, 63, 67, 98
Ramsay, William Brown, Jr.,
19, 55, 324, 326, 338
Ratoo, Pangerang, 166, 436,
439, 440, 441
Recessional ( Kipling) , 245
Return (ship), 267
Rhine, the, 359
Rhio, 434, 446, 452, 454, 455,
45 6 > 45 8 > 459* 4 62 > 4 6 5>
471,473,474,476-81,491,
493, 494, 495, 499
Richard II, King, 162
Richmond, Duke and Duchess
of, 136
Roggewcin, Commodore, 196
Roosevelt, Franklin D. y 92
Ross, Captain, 478, 481, 48?,
Rothenbuhler, 291
Rousseau, 14, 230
Roxburgh, 292
Royal Society in England, 231
Runnymcdc, 46, 48, 49, no
Russia, 435
aggressions on Kurile Islands,
268
Japanese mission, 265
Ryacotta, 30
Ryswick, 161, 176, 298, 328
St. Helena, 332, 334-36, 428,
536
St. John's, 471
Salmond, Captain Francis,
440,446,502,527
Samangka Bay, 440
Samarang, 238, 295, 308, 312,
3*3
battle of, 1 54
Rafflcs's visit to, 170-72
Samasi, Tokugawa (Japanese
Emperor), 274
San Domingo? 309
Santa Fe Trail, 390
Savoy, 359
Schouten, J., 226
Scott, Sir Walter, 55, 91, 157
Sea travel, difficulties of, i, 5,
Sedley, Amelia, 36
Sedley, Jos, 36
Senf, director, 224
Scrocolcl, Captain, 5
Sevcstre, Sir Thomas, 329, 332,
354
Shanghai, 233
Sharp, Becky, 36
Shellabear, Rev. Mr., 67
Ships, East Indiamen, 40-43
Shrapnell, 314
Siak, 125, 139, 143, 145, 456,
460
Siam, 425, 502
Siamee, 395
Sirnawang, 396
Singapore, 14, 50, 84, 150, 210,
255,383-84,406,412,413,
418, 425, 426-27, 429-
31, 442, 456-521, 533, 544
Sit ton, councilor, 223
Skelton & Co., 287
Slavery, 53, 82, 133-34, 2O2 ~
14, 370-71, 373, 375, 377 ,
503-07, 518-20
Smythe, Sir Thomas, 8
Somerset, Duchess of, 357
Sourabaya, Battle of, 154
South Africa, 447-48
South-China Morning Post,
.
Spices, 106
Sportsmen, English, 21-22
Stavormus, John Splinter, 178,
179, 181, 184, 185-87, 196,
205, 213, 223-24
Voyages, 196
585^
Stewart, Captain, 269
Stockdale, John Joseph, 183,
204, 205
Stopford, Admiral, 291
Story of the Dutch East Indies
(Vlekke), 51, 106
Strait of Banka, 457
Strait of Macassar, 146
Strait of Magellan, 8
Strait of Malacca, 149, 432,
454> 456, 4 6 5> 5 01 > 5 12
Straits of Rhio, 465
Sumatra, 165, 257, 316-17, 366,
368, 443, 444, 522, 523,
528, 532, 543
cockfighting in, 370, 375
convicts in, 374, 376, 413
first British voyage to, 8
Raffles's expeditions into, 21,
385-403
slaves, 207, 370, 373, 506
Sunda Straits, 432, 438, 440,
-22
,
Supper, T. C., 318, 321
Surat, 9, 182
Switzerland, 359
Tan jung Alem, 393
Tapirs, 406-07
Tappanooly, 409, 410
Taylor, Richard S,, 35, 163
Taylor, Walter, 11
Tea trade, 7, 267
Tello Dalum, 503
Temenggong, 462, 463, 468,
469, 472, 475, 547
Thackeray, William Make-
peace, 2, 36, 37, 61, 70,
403
Thais, 116
Thompson, Quintin Dick, 69
^586
Thomson, Mr., 65-68, 114,
124, 134
Thorn, Major William, 197,
206, 219, 295, 302-03,
309, 313, 314
Conquest of Java, 177, 205,
295
Memoir, 311
Thurberg, C. P., 229
Timmerman Thyssen, J. S.,
240, 241, 295, 459, 473,
475> 477> 4 8 3
Timor, 207, 234, 494
Titsingh, Isaac, 229, 231
Tjipanas, 290, 307, 312
Toast list, 195
Tokyo Bay, 269, 288
Trade, 23
chief article of, 7
East India Company and, 6
Trade unions, 21
Travers, Captain, 315, 329,
33-3*> 335> 339
on Napoleon, 336-37
writings about Raffles, 44,
49, 83, 170, 329-30, 332
Treaty of Vienna, 315, 325,
346, 431, 443
Truro, 340
Tunis, 286
Tytler, Robert, 228
United Nations, 80, 116, 145,
378
Valbert, G., 448
Van der Kemp, 310, 327, 428-
31, 442, 444, 447-50, 453,
470, 485, 499
Van de Wall, Victor Ido, 189,
190, 207
Van liaak, 291
Van Isseldijk, 291
Vanity Fair (book), 36
Van Naerssen, 292
Van Scvenhoven, 291
Vccckens brothers, 291
Vcllorc Mutiny of 1806, 305,
309
Vcrhuell, Admiral, 234
Victoria, Queen, 5, 403
Vienna, Treaty of, 315, 325,
346, 431, 443
Vlekke, Bernard H. M., 52,
107, 108, 122, 235, 241
on Daendels, 107, 109
on Java, 137, 138, 249
on Raffles, 119, 120, 121,
123, 126, 244
Story of the Dutch East In-
dies, 51, 106
Voltaire, 230
Von Trietschke, 448
Von Wollzagen, 229
Voyages (Stavorinus), 196
Vrooman, Captain, 285
Wales, 21
Wallich, Dr., 518, 526, 527
Walpole, Horace, 13, 22, 80,
82, 427, 478
Wardenaar, Mr., 269-71, 272,
274, 275, 276, 280, 283-
84, 285
Washington, George, 39
Waterloo, 136, 233
Weddings, in Batavia, 194-96
Wellesley Province, 34
Wells, H. G., 333
Weltevreeden, 172, 180, 298,
311, 312
Welthew, Maria, 35
West Indies, 2, 4, 106, 204, 309
Wiese, Governor General, 107
Wilberforce, William, 506, 540
William, Prince, 51
William I, King, 286, 430
William V, 52
Wolterbeek, Rear Admiral,
459
Women
Japanese, 264, 403
Javanese, 111, 185-201
Yamashita, 150
Zoological Society of London.
93, 363, 522-23, 540
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