INIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
CT!
Siu SxAMiukb Kami.ks' Statue.
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Kt., LL.D., F.R.S.
Founder of Singapore
1819
AND
_ Some of his Friends and Contemporaries
By
J. A. Bethune Cook
Author of *' Sunny Singapore,"
" Apa Suka, Tuan,"
etc.
^
Tondoit
ARTHUR H. STOCKWELL
29 LUDGATE HILL, E.G.
1918
JDS
PREFACE.
The compiler and author of this book is
chiefly indebted to the Life of Sir T. Stain ford
Raffles by his widow, Lady Raffles, but, he has
culled from other reliable sources, to set forth
■^ the man, and those most closely associated
with him, in his great and enduring work.
This has been a labour of love during a long
residence, and a busy life in Malaya.
If it gives a tithe of the pleasure to its
readers, which it has given to the writer,
he will be amply repaid.
l_lyt.J 4 f^w
CONTENTS
CHAPTER.
I. EARLY TRAINING ....
II. WHO AND WHAT ARE THE MALAYS.
III. RAFFLES AT MALACCA .
IV. LEYDEN AND MARSDEN
V. RAFFLES AS SEEN BY MUNSHI ABDULLAH
VI. DR. MORRISQN AND DR. WILLIAM MILNE
VII. MALACCA DREAMERS AND WORKERS
VIII. CONQUEST OF JAVA
IX. HIGH ENDEAVOUR
X. BENCOOLEN AND THE BATTAKS
XI. SINGAPORE
XII. CRAWFURD AND SINGAPORE .
XIII. PROGRESS IN SINGAPORE
XIV. raffles' PERSONAL SORROWS
XV. SINGAPORE AGAIN
XVI. SINGAPORE FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION
XVII. raffles' FAREWELL TO SUNNY SINGAPORE
INDEX .....
9
19
27
37
45
53
67
79
99
108
ii6
135
140
145
. 159
. 167
RE
• 175
.
. 194
RAFFLES
CHAPTER I.
EARLY TRAINING.
The work and worth of a truly great and good man-
will bear close and critical examination even after
a century. Indeed, with the vision clarified by the
lapse of time, the more correct perspective may
be taken as, from a knowledge of subsequent
events as well as a review of his time and circum-
stances, the objects appear in their relative series
of importance, while they can be seen as a
harmonious whole.
Raffles died young. He was only forty-five at
his death, but what a life he lived, and what an
amount of work worth doing he accomplished !
Fully thirty years of his short life were spent in
unremitting toil for the State, and for the Empire,
of which he was a real master-builder. He was a
man of many parts, who gave himself without stint
to a great variety of most congenial objects —
philology, geography, natural science, philosophy,
religion and philanthropy. Not only the patron,
but the participant, in whatever would likely
increase the sum of useful knowledge and benefit
humanity.
Off the harbour of Port Morant, Island of
Jamaica, on board the ship " Ann,^^ to the wife of
10 RAFFLES
Master Mariner Benjamin Raffles, one of the oldest
captains in the West India trade out of the port of
London, on July 5th, 1781, was born a son. He
was dearly loved and cared for by his mother to
whom he was ever devoted. He was the only
surviving son.
Not much is known of the Raffles' family
history. They were said to be a Yorkshire family
who removed to Berwick-on-Tweed, and thence, in
Stamford Raffles' great-grandfather's time, they
settled in London. Lady Raffles records of Sir
Stamford that his early years were a period of ob-
scurity and labour, without friends to aid him, as
well as without hope of promotion.
In after years, when writing to his cousin, the
Rev. Dr. Raffles of Liverpool, Sir Stamford said :
" The deficiencies of my early education have never
been fully supplied, and I have never ceased to
deplore the necessity which withdrew me so early
from school. I had hardly been two years at a
boarding school when I was withdrawn, and
forced to enter on the busy scenes of pul^lic life,
then a mere boy (at the age of fourteen at the East
India House). My leisure hours, however, still
continued to be devoted to my favourite studies,
and with the little aid my allowances afforded, I
continued to make myself master of the French
language, and to prosecute enquiries into some of
the branches of literature and science : this was,
however, in stolen moments, either before the
office hours in the morning, or after them in the
evening. I look back to those days of difficulty
and application with some degree of pleasure. I
feel I did all I could, and I have nothing to re-
RAFFLES 11
proach myself with. All I have ever presumed to
consider myself was that I was a lover and admirer
of all that I could reach in literature and science.
The high stations which I have held enable me to
foster and encourage the pursuits of others, and if
I have any merit it has rather been as the patron
of science than in any other capacity."
It was ever one of the most outstanding char-
acteristics of Raffles that he disclaimed any pre-
tensions to be regarded as more than a student,
when he was often a past master in the subjects,
not one but many, on which he wrote. Modesty
well accorded with sterling merit. He rejoiced to
be a fellow- worker with others, and was as ready
to learn as he was to pass on what he had
acquired, in the way of first-hand knowledge. In
reply to a letter from a friend who had made
enquiry about some linguistic matters for that
famous scholar, Mr. Samuel Marsden, Raffles con-
cluded a long letter, in which he had given a great
deal of information, by saying : " Should you deem
the replies to Mr. Marsden's enquiries in any way
satisfactory, and worthy of communication, I hope
you will, at the same time, state them as coming
from a young man who never made Oriental
literature his study, and is but lately arrived in
the place which furnishes the means of ob-
servation."
It is to be noted that Mr. John Crawfurd, writing
thirty years after the death of his rival, still showed
very strong animus in what he says of Sir Stam-
ford Raffles. After emphasizing the fact that he
was the son of a ship-captain, he remarks : —
*' After a very imperfect education he was entered
IJ KAFFLES
as a clerk in the secretary's office at the East India
House at the early age of fifteen (as a matter of
fact he was only fourteen), an inauspicious train-
ing which would have nniade the object of it, under
ordinary circumstances, a mere drudge for life.
Fortune and his own abilities rescued Sir Stamford
from this position, and raised him to eminence and
distinction. In 1805, after serving nine years in
the India House, he was appointed deputy
secretary to the absurd and extravagant govern-
ment, with which the authorities at home thought
proper then to overlay the little island of Penang
at that time with barely thirty thousand
inhabitants. This certainly was no field for the
active mind of Sir Stamford, but it placed him in a
position to obtain an elementary knowledge of
the Malay language, and to acquire the friendship
of the celebrated Orientalist, Dr. John Ley den,
who had visited the island in quest of health, and
there acquired himself that polyglot acquaintance
with the Malay language which gained him so much
distinction."
Crawfurd proceeds : — " In 1811 it became known
that an expedtion for the conquest of Java, and the
other possessions of the Dutch in the Archipelago,
was being prepared by the British Government of
India, and Sir Stamford repaired to Calcutta, was
introduced to the Earl of Minto by his friend. Dr.
Leyden, and tendered his services, which, in the
paucity of information respecting the Archipelago
which then existed, were gladly accepted. Sir
Stamford was appointed secretary to the Governor-
General, who himself accompanied the expedition
in person. In this capacity Raffles acted until the
RAFFLES 13
conquest was completed, when he was appointed
nominally Lieutenant-Governor, but in reality,
Governor of Java and all its dependencies, with, as
matters turned out, the unlucky exception of the
Spice Island, which had been captured the previous
year and placed under a distinct authority. In
Java, Sir Stamford found the government still con-
ducted on the old and vicious principle of com-
mercial monopoly and forced labour, and, intrepid
innovator that he was, he overthrew the whole
system. But he was not so successful in the more
difficult task of reconstruction. Many errors were
committed both by himself and by the officers who
served under him of whom I was one. The changes
from one scheme to another were too frequent, the
drafts on the treasury of British India became
burdensome to it, and Sir Stamford, after an
administration of four years, was removed by the
government of the Marquis of Hastings, the suc-
cessor of the Earl of Minto."
'' After his removal from the government of
Java he returned to England, and during his short
stay there published his History of Java, a work
which though hastily written is replete with valu-
able information : and a lasting monument of his
ability and industry, the more meritorious when
it is considered that the materials for it were col-
lected amidst the distractions of a most stirring and
busy administration. In 1817 he was appointed to
the government of Bencoolen, with the title of
Lieutenant-Governor. This poor settlement, how-
ever, afforded no scope for his ambition and
activity. He betook himself therefore to the study
of natural history : made an enterprising journey
U RAFFLES
into the interior of Sumatra, visiting a part of that
great island which no European had ever seen
before, and, with a view of establishing a com-
mercial emporium and free port in a convenient
and central position, he proceeded to Bengal and
laid his scheme before the Marquis of Hastings.
This gave rise to the establishment of Singapore- in
1819, the most enduring monument of his reputa-
tion. In carrying his plan into execution, he en-
countered obstacles which would have discouraged
and baffled a man less determined, but he was
rewarded with a success which was almost
immediate, for in his last visit to it in 1823 he saw
a miserable village of piratical Malay fishermen
already converted into a prosperous commercial
community."
Crawfurd then speaks of the return of Raffles to
England. " There," he says, " he continued the
study of natural history, and through his indefati-
gable activity, the Zoological Society and Gardens
were formed. His slender frame and weakly consti-
tution contrasted with the energy and activity of
his mind. His health had never been good, and in
]82r) he died suddenly from the effects of an abscess
on the brain. Activity, industry, and political
courage were the most remarkable endowments of
his character. In the transaction of public business
he was ready and expert — partly the result of
his early training, but far more of innate energy
and ability. He was not, perhaps, an original
thinker, but readily adapted the notions of others —
not always with adequate discrimination."
Does Mr. Crawfurd wish to suggest that Raffles
drew upon the brains and learning of his sub-
RAFFLES 15
ordinate without acknowledgment ? There is no
need to look much below the surface to see that
Crawfurd thought himself a misused man. He
further remarks that Raffles without much
time for examination, seeing it lauded by its
partisans, adopted, and at once carried into
execution, among the then five millions of Java,
the fanciful and pernicious system called the
Ryotwarry, and saw it break down even before he
had himself quitted the administration of the
island.
But the judicious reader will form his own con-
clusions on a fuller acquaintance of Sir Stamford,
and of the times and circumstances in which he
lived.
In contrast with what Crawfurd says about
Raffles we may consider what his widow. Lady
Raffles, who was his second wife, wrote about
him : " Little is known of his religious feelings on
first entering the world. Religious instruction was
not then, perhaps, so general as at present, and
he was not of the happy few to obtain it, but as
he advanced in life, prosperity warmed his heart
towards God, Who led him forward in his course
of usefulness : adversity taught him to look to
another state of being for the happiness which he
felt himself capable of enjoying : perhaps his most
prominent feelings on this subject were humility
and faith. From his first setting out in life he gave
praise to God for all the blessings which he enjoyed,
and was deeply impressed witli the sense of his own
unworthiness. He constantly mourned over his
own weakness, and deplored his want of power to
10 RAFFLES
do that which he ought to do, and his failure in the
performance of duty."
It is abundantly manifest that Raffles early
showed a high and noble resolve to devote himself
to the good of others, and he had a strong yearning
to acquire the station in life that would best enable
him to do the most good. His great affection for
his mother was shown when he gleefully carried
home to her his hard-earned pittance, and in after-
life of comparative affluence he simply delighted to
surround her with comforts. He revelled in all
high and lowly pursuits, his mind always on the
alert, contracting and dilating ; but he had no time
nor taste for mere pastime pursuits, so that he was
able to remark, on his return from England, that
he had never seen a horse race, and had never
firedva gun.
He was a born linguist, and from his first essay
in French went on to other languages with ease and
distinction. He never spent a waking unoccupied
minute : his active brain was ever on the alert. It
was because of his recognised ability that he was
chosen and sent in 1805 by the East India Com-
pany as assistant secretary to the establishment at
Pcnang. On his voyage out, in those sailing-ship
days, he learnt Malay so well that on his arrival
he was able to hold intercourse with the natives of
the place, and exchange with them his ideas and
sentiments, with the marked approval of the Com-
pany's officials. There he at once began the study
of other languages, and always kept in close touch
with his favourite sciences of natural history.
All facts and incidents that form sidelights on a
man's life and character are of special interest.
RAFFLES 17
Captain Travers records that in 1806 at Penang
he found Raffles to be a man of a cheerful and
lively disposition, and very fond of society.
Travers was surprised to note how well and
hospitably he was able to entertain, and yet was
so full of labours at the time, as was well known,
not only in his official capacity, but in acquiring
a general knowledge of the history, government,
and local interests of the neighbouring states. In
this he was greatly aided by conversing freely with
the resident natives, and the many others who
were constantly visiting Penang. In all this he
was very considerably assisted by his wife, whom
he married when about to sail in 1805. We shall
learn more of her in a later chapter. She died in
Java in 1814, and her tomb is still kept in good
order, as we have seen it, in the lovely gardens of
Beitenzorg, by the Dutch.
It was at this early period, 1800, that Raffles
first met Dr. John Leyden, on a visit to Penang \J
from Calcutta. The learned doctor resided several
months with Raffles, and then began that close
friendship which was only severed by death.
Raffles had an exceedingly trying time in
Penang with hard work and worry, and not a little
misunderstanding with some of his fellow-country-
men. Lady Raffles says the reason that led to
the removal of Mr. Raffles to Malacca, in 1S08,
was that he might recover from a very serious
illness which had been brought on by overwork,
which had completely prostrated him. And no
wonder, when we learn that he had no Eurasian
or other clerk to assist him, but that he had to do
all the transcription and the various official acts
18 RAFFLES
by himself. And all this in addition to his daily
and close and constant intercourse with the
natives. It was by his keen and kindly interest in
them, and their affairs, that he won and kept their
unmistakable esteem and confidence, and gathered
that knowledge which came in so usefully.
During this visit to Malacca he took in the
situation there as to the trade and condition of
the Asiatic settlers, and this led to the arrest of
the East India Company's endeavours to divert
both the trade and population to Penang. To
effect this more thoroughly, orders had previously
been given to destroy the fine, historic, fortifica-
tions of Malacca, and thus lead to the abandon-
ment of the whole town. Raffles wrote, pointing
out that there were still large numliers of people
there, some twenty thousand at least, of whom
there were considerable Europeans. These were
chiefly Dutch and Portuguese, the rest were
Eurasian, then usually called '' half-castes " : be-
sides large numbers of Straits' Chinese, often known
as " Babas,-' that is Chinese and their descendants
by Malay mothers, together with Arabs, Javanese
and Chulians.
It was by such like acts on behalf and in the
interests of the people, wherever he found himself,
that Raffles endeared himself to all classes and
races. And by such men and disinterested deeds
have the foundations of the British Empire been
laid both deep ;nid broad.
CHAPTER II.
WHO AND V^^HAT ARE THE MALAYS ?
The very first literary production of Raffles, whieh
was written in Malacca, was a paper to the Asiatic
Society at Calcutta. Much of it is of perennial
interest, as the following shows : — " The island of
Sumatra, as well as the islands of Java, Celebes,
Sulu, and the Moluccas, which, with Borneo, com-
pose what may be properly termed the Malayan
group of natives, are radically distinct from the
Malays. They speak languages entirely different,
and use various written characters, original and
peculiar to each. These nations are governed by
their several laws and institutions : and, if we ex-
cept the state of Menangkubu, in the island of
Sumatra, it is on the shores of these islands
(Penang, Singapore, etc.) only, and in the Malay
Peninsula, that the Malays are to be found.
Whatever may have been the origin of the Malayan
nation, the primary population of these various
and extensive islands could never, according to
any natural inference, have proceeded from the
Malays, though the reverse may probably have
l)een the case."
" I cannot but consider the Malayan nation as
one people, speaking one language, though spread
over so wide a space, and preserving their char-
acter and customs, in all the maritime states
20 RAFFLES
lying between the Sulu seas and the Southern
Ocean, and bounded longitudinally by Sumatra and
the western side of Papua or New Guinea. The
Malayan languages may no doubt be traced to a
further extent, and particularly among the South
Sea islands. Independently of the laws of the
Koran, which are more or less observed in the
various Malay states, according to the influence of
their Arabian and Mohammedan teachers, but
seldom further than as they affect matters of re-
ligion, marriage, and inheritance, each state pos-
sesses its own Undang Undang, codes of laws or
institutions, of different antiquity and authority,
compiled by their different sovereigns. Throughout
the whole there appears a general accordance."
" From the comparative rude and uncivilized
character of the Malay nation, learned disquisition
is not to be looked for : but simple ideas, simply
expressed, may illustrate character better than
scientific or refined composition. I have long been
engaged, so far as the severe duties of my public
situation would admit, in collecting Malay manu-
scripts of every description, and in particular of
the annals and traditions of the Malays. The laws
of Achin are peculiar, on account of the criminal
law : they are interesting in so far as they have
been generally adopted by Malays in the Straits
of Malacca. Those of Siak have a peculiar interest,
from the long established connection between that
state and the Menangkabus in the interior of
Sumatra. The Siak river takes its rise in the
Menangkabus country. As the population of the
Peninsula has excited much interest, my attention
has been directed to the various tribes stated to be
RAFFLES 21
scattered over the country." These he names —
the hill tribes termed Semang or Kaffers : those of
the plains, the Orang Benua, and the Jakuns of
Johore and Malacca. Raffles then gives a trans-
lation of Malayan history of the first arrival of the
Portuguese at Malacca, which is the classic
account :
" Ten Portuguese vessels arrived at Malacca
from Manila, for the purpose of trade, during the
reign of Sultan Ahmed Shah, at a time when the
country possessed an extensive commerce, and
everything was in abundance, when the affairs of
government were well administered, and the
officers were properly appointed. For forty days
the Portuguese ships traded at Malacca : but still
the Portuguese commander remained on shore
presenting dollars by the chest, and gold ; and how
many beautiful cloths did they present the illustri-
ous Shah Ahmed Shah, so that the Sultan was
most happy. After this the Sultan said to
the commander, ' What more do you require from
us that you present such rich presents?' To this
the commander replied, ' We only request one
thing of our friend, should he be well inclined to the
white man.' The Sultan said, ' State what it is
that I may hear it, for 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 what-
ever spot of ground they like best to the extent of
their request.' The captains highly rejoiced at
this, and the Portuguese immediately landed,
22 RAFFT.ES
bringing with thcin spades, brick and mortar. The
commander then took the skin of the beast, and,
having rent it into cords, measured out four sides,
within which the Portuguese built a house of very
considerable dimensions, leaving large square
apertures in the walls for guns ; and when the
people of Malacca enquired the reason for the
apertures being left, the Portuguese returned the
answer, ' They are the openings that the white
men recjuire for windov/s.' The people of Malacca
were satisfied and content.
"" Alas ! how often did the Bendahara and
Tumunggungs approach the Raja with a request
that the white men might not be permitted to
build a large house : but the Raja would say,
" My eyes are on them, and they are few in
number : if they do wrong I will order my men to
run amok." After this the Portuguese, during the
night, conveyed cannon into their store-houses,
and they landed small-arms, packed in chests,
saying that their contents were clothes : in this
manner did the Portuguese deceive and cheat the
people.
'' What the Portuguese next did was, when all
their arms were in order and it was midnight,
while Malacca slept, the Portuguese began to fire
off their guns from the fort of Malacca. They
soon destroyed all the houses of the people, and
their nibong (palm trunk) fort. It was night when
the Portuguese first attacked, and the Sultan Shah
Ahmed Shaw with his people fled in all directions.
Thus the Portuguese took possession of Malacca,
whilst the Sultan fied to Muar, thence to Johore,
and afterwards to Bentam.''
RAFFLES 23
" During thirty-six years, three months, and
fourteen days,* the Portuguese were employed in
the construction of the fort. The Portuguese re-
mained in quiet possession of Malacca for about
other nine years and a month, during which the
country once more began to flourish on account
of the large quantities of produce that were
brought from all quarters. After this period a
Dutch vessel arrived at Malacca for the purpose
of trade, the vessel's name was ' Afterleden,' and
that of the captain, Eber. The captain perceived
that Malacca was a very fine place, and had a
good fort : therefore, after the vessel had traded
for fifteen days, he set sail for Europe, and ar-
riving after considerable time at the great country,
he gave intelligence to the great Raja of what he
had seen of the extent of Malacca, its commerce
and the excellence of its fort. On this the Raja
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
Raja of Europe for the purpose of attacking
Malacca, and troops being embarked in each, they
set sail for the kingdom of Bantam, in the country
of Java, where the Dutch were on terms of friend-
ship. At Bantam they found two Dutch ships and
a ketch, and after they had taken on board
buffaloes and provisions, the vessels sailed for
Malacca. On the arrival of the fleet 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 like, we p.ve ready.'
21 RAFFT.ES
" The next day the Dutch attacked, and the war
continued for about two months : but the country
of Malacca was not carried, and the Dutch re-
turned to Bantam, where they remained quiet for
some time, with the intention of returning to
Europe : all the great men on board feeling
ashamed of what had happened. The head men
in each of the ships, however, held a consultation
respecting another attack, and decided to pro-
ceed against Malacca a second time, but still it
did not surrender. The Dutch then sent a letter
to Johore in terms of friendship to the Sultan, re-
questing his assistance in an attack. With this
the Sultan was highly pleased, and an agreement
was entered into between the Raja and the Dutch,
and this was sworn to : so the Dutch and the
Malays became as one as far as concerned the
taking of Malacca. The Dutch were to attack from
the sea, and the people from the land. If the
country surrendered, the Dutch were to retain the
country and the cannon : and everything else that
might be found within Malacca was to be equally
divided between the Dutch and the people of
Johore. The men of Johore and the Dutch sailed
for Malacca, and after attacking it for fifteen days
from the sea, many were slain, Portuguese as well
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 there-
fore agreed by all the Malays that fifty men should
enter the fort of Malacca and run amok. The
Malays then selected a lucky day, and at five
o'clock in the morning they entered the fort, and
RAFFI.es 25
every Portuguese was either put to death, or
forced to fly into the interior of the eountry with-
out order or regularity. Upon this the Malays
exerted themselves in plundering Malacca, and the
whole spoil was divided between the men of
Johore and the Dutch, according to the agree-
ment."
The men of Johore then returned to Johore, and
the Dutch remained in possession of Malacca.
This is tha account (as the Malayan chronicle re-
cords) of these former times.
Sir Stamford Raffles' comment on the foregoing
is : — " The most obvious and natural theory on
the origin of the Malays is that they did not exist
as a separate and distinct nation until the arrival
of the Arabians in the Eastern Seas. At the
present day they seem to differ from the more
original nations from which they sprung in about
the same degree as the Chulians of Kiling differ
from the Tamil and Telinga nations on the Coro-
mandel coast, or the Mapillas of Malabar differ
from the Nairs, both which people appear in like
manner with the Malays to have been gradually
formed as nations, and separated from their
original stock by the admixture of Arabian blood,
and the introduction of the Arabic language and
Moslem religion. The Malay language being
written in the Arabic character is termed mixed,
or crossed, for the Malays, as a nation distinct
from the fixed population of the Eastern islands,
do not possess any written character but what they
have borrowed from the Arabs."
Since the time of Raffles there has been much
controversy as to the meaning of the word
2C, RAFFLES
" Kling," which is quite unknown in India. Pro-
fessor Radhakmud Moorkerii, in his " History of
Indian Shipping Activity," reproduces from the
famous sculptures of the Tem.ple of Borobudur a
representation of a ship manned by Indian ad-
venturers, saihng to colonize Java. He writes : —
" In the year 75 A.D. a band of Hindu navigators
set out from ' Kalinga.' Instead of plying within
the usual limits of the Bay of Bengal, they boldly
ventured out into the open limitless expanse of
the Indian Ocean, and arrived at the island of
Java." There they planted a colony, and built
towns and cities, and developed trade with India
which continued for several centuries. It appears
that there is another account, preserved in native
records, which gives the credit of coloi>ization to
Gujarat, but the central fact stands that the
Hindu influence on Java was important and wide-
spread. It has been suggested that " Kalinga "
was the origin of the word " Kling," but
" Telinga," the Cuttack coast has its advocates.
CHAPTER III.
MR. T. S. RAFFLES AT MALACCA.
It was in 1809 that Mr. Raffles proceeded to Cal-
cutta, there to be received with great kindness by
Lord Minto, who ever afterwards continued his
firm and steady friend, and reposed m him the
most unreserved confidence. Lord Minto had
wished to place Raffles as Governor of the
Moluccas, as providing a wider field for the exer-
cise of his recognized talents, but it was to be
ordered quite differently. Napoleon was planning
the possession of the extensive holding of Holland
in the Eastern seas, possessions as important to
the Dutch as those of India are to Great Britain.
France looked to Java as the point whence her \
operations might be most successfully directed,
not only against the political ascendancy of Great
Britain in the East, but also against her com-
mercial interests both at home and abroad.
Lord Minto wrote in February, 1811, from Cal-
cutta, to Raffles to say that Mauritius and all the
French islands were in our possession, and that he
thought that nothing ought to retard the forward
movement to capture the Dutch islands, which
were claimed by the French, who now held
Holland. He informed Raffles tliat the expedition,
which had been fitted out, was comprised of four
thousand European infantry, with a suitable pro-
portion of artillery, and 'four thousand Bengal
28 RAFFLES
infantry, with about three hundred cavalry, all of
which would sail from India in the beginning or the
middle of March. The instructions to Raffles were
that he was to await Lord Minto at Malacca.
Thither he went, and after long waiting — his time,
however, as usual being well filled in — Lord Minto
arrived on the 8th of May.
Mr. Raffles had from the moment of his arrival
at Malacca set himself to acquire information on
every point calculated to promote the conquest
of Java. The results of his enquiries he com-
municated to Lord Minto by correspondence. These
letters are exceedingly interesting, and will be
read with keen zest by all students of those events
that then took place, and of the peoples and
places to which reference is made.
There was no dubiety in the mind of Raffles as
to the desirability of the annexation of Java and
the Eastern islands to our Indian Empire. He
sketched with a masterly hand what he termed
" our Malay policy," which was to extend the
British influence over all the chief points of
vantage. We will find that his advice was not
followed, and that we actually left ourselves
without an inch of ground to stand upon until he
secured for the Empire the then neglected island
of Singapore. That is East and South of Penang,
we had no footing till Raffles gave us the key to
the Far East. His policy, as propounded to
Lord Minto, was: — 1. The states of the Malay
peninsula. 2. The states of the island of Sumatra.
3, The state of Borneo. 4. The state of the Sunda
isles, comprising the chain of islands which ex-
tend from the Straits of Sunda to Timor and the
RAFFLES 29
Celebes, exclusive of Java. 5. The state of
Celebes. 6. The state of Sulu and Mindanwi.
7. The state of the Moluccas, comprising Ceram
and Banda. 8. The state of Jilolo, or little
Celebes. 9. The Black Papua states of New
Guinea, and the Papuan islands.
These states, as Raffles proposed to Lord MinLo,
were to be taken over by treaty to be made with
those who had indisputable pretensions to in-
dependence. This policy, he flattered himself,
appeared obvious whether the East India Company
contemplated the retention of the Malay islands
in permanent possession, or the possible trans-
ferring of the Dutch possessions to the enemy (i.e.,
the French) in the event of a peace in Europe.
In either event Raffles argued that the British
should score. In the first place it would enable
the British to turn these islands to the best ad-
vantage for European trade, and the general bene-
fit of India. In the second alternative, to quote
his own words, " we shall secure such a footing
among the Eastern islands, and such a favourable
regard among the bravest races as will baffle all the
attempts of the enemy to dislodge us."
He quite recognized the inability of the peoples
of these islands to govern themselves, but be-
lieved that they would gladly ally themselves with
so powerful a nation as the English on anything
like fair and equitable terms, by which they might
be '' secured from civil commotions and the op-
pression of foreigners, without being deprived of
all their natural advantages as under the Dutch
domination.''
Raffles then unfolds a plan for gaining the ready
;30 RAFFLES
adherence of the Malayan chiefs without com-
promisin<f their i)unctilious regard for their own
honours and titles. This wise and just policy was
many years afterwards most successfully carried
out by the Governor — Sir Andrew Clerk — who laid
the foundations of the Federated Malay States, but
both he and others who have had, in some cases,
such loud praises showered upon them, or who
claimed so much kudos, simply worked -out the
scheme of Mr. Raffles, who was far and away the
foremost statesman the Orient had seen from
England, who did his work East of our great
Indian Empire.
The key to the whole position is expressed by
llaffles'ln these words : — " I conceive that the
Malay chiefs might be easily prevailed upon by
suggestion to invest the Governor-General of India
with the ancient title of Bintara, equivalent to
Lord Protector, which has become obsolete among
therii for neaxly three centuries, and which would
not be reckoned injurious to the dignity of any
modern chieftain. This v/ould give a general
superintendence over, and interference with all
Malay states, which might be acted upon when cir-
cumstances should render it necessary : and might
be so limited by treaty as to remove any occasion
of suspicion from the natives powers. It is of im-
portance, however, that this should appear to be
the spontaneous and voluntary act of the Malayan
chieftains. ... In the districts, that may be
reduced under the sole authority of the English,
little doubt can be entertained that we shall best
consult our own interests by a line of policy
radically different from that of the Dutch."
RAFFLES 31
He, moreover, points out that many of the
leading Dutch, to serve their own purposes, ex-
ploited the Javanese by depressing the natives,
and by giving every encouragement to the
Chinese, who, he said, were only itinerants, and
not the children of the soil, and who followed the
general practice of remitting the fruits of their
industry to China, instead of spending them where
they were acquired. Raffles, who spoke as he felt,
and judging from what he observed, in very plain
terms roundly rebuked the Dutch and the Chinese
alike, as being " equally supple, venal and crafty
in their speculations," by means of the existing
system of the Dutch claiming the monopoly of
revenue, wJiich they controlled by farming out to
the Chinese, who also acquired all the Government
contracts. Had Raffles lived long enough, and seen
and learned more of the Javanese and Malays, as
contrasted with the industrious Chinese, he would
likely have modified considerably his opinions
of them, and also of the Dutch, of whose ad-
ministration of the Netherlands' India much can
be said in warm and unstinted commendation.
But tlie efforts that Raffles made for the better-
ment of the Malayan races are beyond all praise,
and are entirely in keeping vv'ith the high and dis-
interested aims of his whole life's service.
Raffles further observes to Lord Minto that what
he said about the Chinese was largely applicable
to the Arabs who frequented the Malay countries,
and, under the specious mask of religion, preyed
on the simple unsuspicious natives. He remarks
that the Chinese must be admitted to be indus-
trious, but the Arabs were mere drones, useless
82 RAFFLES
and idle consumers of the products of the ground.
Affecting to be the descendants of Mohammed, and
the most eminent of his followers, when in reality
they were commonly nothing more than manu-
mitted slaves, they had wormed their way into
favour with the Malay chiefs, and often procured
the highest offices of the states. " They hold like
robbers the offices they obtain as sycophants, and
cover all with the sanctimonious veil of religious
hypocrisy. Under the pretence of instructing the
Malays in the principles of the Mohammedan re-
ligion, they inculcate the most intolerant bigotry,
and render them incapable of receiving any species
of useful knowledge." He set himself resolutely to
plan for the exposure of these numerous adven-
turers, who styled themselves Sheikhs and Syeds,
and claimed, and generally obtained, exemption of
port duties in the Malay states, while they were
really, in most cases, pirates and the chief pro-
moters of the slave trade. He maintained that it
would have to be the object of the British
sedulously to repress those enemies of mankind,
and to institute a regular trade with any of the
Arabian commercial states, such as Muscat, Mocha
or Jedda, for the advantage of the Malay states.
Raffles, moreover, did not hesitate to state that
he thought that Lord Minto would have also to
check the inroads of the Americans of that day,
whom he found enriching themselves without any
consideration of the natives. Thus he pressed for
establishing certain determinate and regular ports
as emporiums of trade, as the most effectual
method of preventing the Eastern Islands from
being overrun by multitudes of unprincipled ad-
RAFFLES 33
venturers, ehiefly Chinese, Arabian and American,
whose presence, he contended, would neither tend
to strengthen the interests of the British nation,
nor ameliorate the condition of the natives. He
does not, he could not, as an honest man, shield
those of his own country who had too largely
sought and served their own material advantages.
He freely discusses in what respects the British
policy might be considered superior to that of the
Dutch, and how it was calculated to promote the
improvement and advantages of the Malay nations.
He admitted that the policy hitherto pursued had
not been by any means one of a conciliating or pre-
possessing nature. Raffles frankly said that
British intercourse had been almost exclusively by
adventurers little acquainted with either the
country or the people, who had proved themselves
more remarkable for boldness than for principle.
He justly complained of the long neglect of the
British Government to seek to investigate the
grounds of complaint, whether on the part of the
British traders, or the Malays, but maintained that
past dereliction of duty need form no rule for the
future, and that the benefits which the Malay
nations might derive from a close connection with
the British Government would be such that there
was no probability of them ever getting from one
another. He held that a colony should be con-
sidered, as an outlying province of the mother
country, to be encouraged to develop to its own
advantage in every way.
The power of the British in the East enabled
them fearlessly to employ this policy, he declared,
and humanity imperiously required that they
c
34 raffi.es
should employ it, and fortunately, British interests
coincided with these sentiments. With an un-
crrmg hand, writing from Malacca, on June 10th,
1811, " Thomas Raffles, Agent of the Governor-
General with the Malay States," sketches the
causes that had most tended to bring about the
depression of the Malays, and the deterioration of
their character. These were, he thought, the civil
commotions to which every state was liable from
the radical want of strength in the sovereign, and
the constant wars between the petty chieftains
and heads of villages or districts : the ill defined
succession to the throne : the prevalence of piracy :
the system of domestic slavery with all its con-
comitant evils, and wars for the purpose of pro-
curing slaves, and the want of a similar system of
commercial regulations respecting port duties,
anchorage and other charges : arbitrary exactions,
and the discouragement given to regular trade
by monopolies of the Malay rajas : and the redress
of these evils, which in a large measure had been-
within the power of the British, for there was no
other nation that possessed the means in an equal
degree, ewn if it had the inclination to bring about
a better condition of affairs.
Raffles pleaded for a well-defined and generally
acknowledged system of law, because, in his
opinion, nothing had tended so seriously to the
deterioration of the Malay character as the want
of it. The Malay nations had made considerable
progress in civilization before the advent of the
Arabs with the religion of Islam. They had
regular institutions of their ov/n of some antiquity
as those of the Javanese, Bugis and Maccasar
RAFFLES 35
tribes. Probably these were derived from the
Indian nations, and were radically different from
those of the Arabs, so that diverse anomalies
sprang up in the different states. This is evident in
their Undang-Undang and Adat-Malayu, which are
the systems of national law. The Malays were
thus in a very different situation from any of the
old Moslem states, such as Persia, Arabia, or
Turkey. The Moslem then had taken only a very
partial hold in many of the islands. In the interior
of all the larger islands paganism still prevailed :
in many districts considerable numbers professed
Christianity : the Chinese swarmed in every Malay
country, and intermarried with the Moslems. This
state of affairs led to the softening of the intoler-
ance of Islam, so that the Malays had not iieen
induced by their Arab teachers to abandon their
peculiar usages and customs. Raffles strongly
urged the revision of the native laws in conjunc-
tion with the Malays themselves.
At the time that Raffles had been appointed
Lord Minto's agent to the Malay states, he was
naturally much elated at the prospect of Java and
the whole Eastern Archipelago coming under the
British, and congratulated his Lordship on his
future administration of our first great acquisition
since India. He remarked that with the pacifi-
cation of India completed, the tranquility and
prosperity of our eastern possessions secured, the
total expulsion of the European enemy (Napoleon)
from the Elastern Seas, then with the justice,
humanity and moderation of the British, which
had been exemplified in fostering and leading new
-I'aces of subjects and allies in the career of im-
36 RAFFLES
provement, as the undaunted courage and resolu-
tion of British soldiers were in rescuing them from
oppression, would open up a splendid prospect for
the peoples whom he had learned to love, and for
whom he lived his short, but most successful life,
which was so rich in lasting beneficence.
CHAPTER IV.
DR. JOHN LEYDEN AND MR. WILLIAM MARSDEN.
John Leyden, the famous orientalist, scholar and
poet, was the friend of Raffles and many other
notable men. The son of a Roxburgh shepherd,
he was born at Denholm, near Jedburgh, in 1775.
After eight years spent at the Edinburgh
University, taking the usual Arts classes and the
Divinity course required by all students for the
Presbyterian ministry, he was licensed as a pro-
bationer of the Church of Scotland. Being an
ardent student he acquired much learning and
knowledge out of the ordinary routine, which in-
cluded European and Oriental languages. He was
a close associate of Sir Walter Scott, and assisted
him in gathering material for his Border
Minstrelsy, and on one occasion he proved his
keen interest by walking some fifty miles to pro-
cure the words of a ballad. Though thoroughly in
sympathy with Christian work, he does not seem
to have had the special gifts of the preacher, at
any rate he did not get, even if he wished, an
appointment as a parish minister. He engaged in
literary work of various kinds in the home land,
besides continuing medical studies, till his ap-
pointment at Madras as surgeon in 1803, The
38 RAFFLES
following year found him employed as surgeon
and naturalist on the commission for the survey
of Mysore and Travancore. Time and again his
health gave way, but never his indomitable spirit.
Five times over he was given up by the doctors,
but sick or well he laboured at the acquisition of
languages. For a while he resided at Penang in
search of health, where he met Mr. Raffles, and
that meeting had very important issues for Raffles
and himself. Leyden returned to Calcutta. There
he was made a professor in the Bengal College, and
then a judge, afterwards commissioner of the Court
of Request, then master of the mint. Meanwhile,
he translated the Gospels into five different
languages, in this way showing his hearty co-
operation with the Baptist missioners — all English
— living under the Danish flag at Serampore,
specially with the chief of them all, the truly
great Dr. William Carey, who was professor of
Oriental languages at Fort-William College, Cal-
cutta, from 1801 to ]830. His literary output of
grammars and dictionaries in Bengali, Mahratta
and Sanskrit, and many other languages, have
been the admiration and wonder of all who knew
him and have come after him. He was one whom
Raffles esteemed very highly for his works' sake.
Dr. John Leyden had long enjoyed the favour
and esteem of Lord Minto, who took him with him
as interpreter on the expedition against Java.
But at Batavia, after overhauling a musty, un-
ventilated library to read some long-wished-for
Indian manuscripts, which to him were more
precious than a gold mine, he contracted a fever
which carried him off on August 27, 1811, But
RAFFLES 39
his previous serious illnesses must be taken into
account.
Dr. Leyden, writing to Mr. Kaftles from Cal-
cutta, October 9, 1809, said : — '' I have received
both your letters, and with great vexation have to
inform you that Lord Minto is at present in
Madras. I have laid before him the manuscript
concerning Malacca, with which he is ^greatly
pleased. I shall not fail to write to him as soon
as I am a little recovered, for I have been for some
days confined to bed by a smart attack of fever."
He regrets that his literary studies had been
knocked on the head by his duties, not only as a
magistrate, but also in bush-fighting in the jungle.
He was then again beginning to attack his literary
work with vigour, and said he was still busy with
his Eastern researches, and requested Raffles to
get him a few copies of the best Malay manu-
scripts, and concludes by remarking that he pre-
sumed that he had never got into his, hand^ the
fateful Batavian researches. But, he says, he
must be done and go to bed again, or increase his
fever. Just what many a man in the East has
felt and said before him and since !
In another letter from Leyden to Raffles, sent
just before the departure of the expedition to
Java, he points out how Lord Minto had already
given Raffles important appointments. It ap-
pears that Minto's instructions from home were to
expel the French and the Dutch, and leave the
country entirely to itself, but the Governor-
General's good sense saw that this was impossible.
Then Leyden learnedly argued that the Malays
must neither be independent, nor yet dependent,
40 RAFFLES
but that there should be a general Malay league
in which all the Rajas would be united like the
old Pan of Burgundy, or the latter one of Ger-
many which would have representation in a
general parliament of the Malay states.
Lord Minto's plans did not commend them-
selves to the many local " bucks " of the day, and
they did not volunteer for the expedition to Java,
but this was in due time fitted out, and sailed for
Penang, where it arrived on April 18, 1811.
Leyden thereupon proceeded to Malacca to
spend some time with Raffles, and made an ex-
cursion into the interior. On reaching Batavia,
as already stated. Dr. Leyden passed away in the
arms of his friend Raffles, who deeply deplored
the loss in a letter to Mr. Marsden, and regrets
that in him Eastern literature had lost its fore-
most support.
Lady Raffles says her husband mournetj his
death, because he had anticipated the happiness
of having him as an inmate of the family, one with
whom he could have taken counsel both in public
and in private : whose judgment would have aided,
and whose affection would have cheered, and
whose society would have brightened the cares and
troubles of the responsible situation he was about
to undertake.
*******
In William Marsden the Empire had one of the
keenest Oriental scholars. He was the son of an
Irish merchant, and was born in Dublin in 1754.
He only lived eight years in the East, but so
thoroughly did he apply himself to study and re-
search that he laid in material to work upon as a
RAFFLES 41
foundation for the rest of his long life of great
interest and usefulness. When he died, in
October, 1836, he left enduring and valuable books
for others to cull from in their further studies in the
same departments of knowledge. Educated at
Trinity College, Dublin, he entered the civil service
of the East India Company, and was sent to
Bencoolen, Sumatra, in 1771. There he rose to be
chief secretary to the Government. He from the
first set himself assiduously to learn Malayan and
other Oriental languages, with a view always to
understand and describe the conditions, habits, and
customs of the peoples. Besides giving his atten-
tion closely to investigation on the spot, he
corresponded, after the manner of the true
scholar, with kindred spirits working on the same
subjects in which he was specially engaged.
By 1778 he retired on pension, and went to live
in England, and, the better to accomplish the
objects he had already planned, he withdrew into
literary seclusion. In 1782 he was able to produce
his History of Sumatra. After this, for a few
years he was in the employ of the Admiralty, first
as second and then chief secretary. The year 1807
again, and finally, saw him in retirement for the
loved work to which he had devoted himself.
His famous Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay
Language appeared in 1812. Besides many
publications in magazines, and to the learned
societies, he published a translation of the Travels
of Marco Polo in 1817.
He seems to have been in fairly comfortable
circumstances, for either by inheritance, or by his
literary labours, or, perhaps, by his earnings and
42 RAFFLES
investments in the East, he voluntarily resigned
in 1813, on behoof of the public, the pension of
£] ,500 which had been bestowed on him when he
left the service of the nation. In 1834 he pre-
sented his rich collection of Oriental coins, upon
which he had written at length, to the British
Museum, and he gave his valuable library of books
and MSS. to King's College, London, and two
years later he died after a full life of fresh and
mature service to the nation, with large benefits
to many of difference in race and creed, as every
man will, in his measure, who gives himself, as
unreservedly to congenial and worthy pursuits, as
Marsden did.
Mr. RafTlcs, writing from Runemede, Penang, in
March, 1809, to Mr. W. Marsden, acknowledges
two letters from him of June and November, 1808,
and pleads excuse for delay in answering them
owing to two long and serious illnesses, during
which Raffles v/as under the necessity of denying
himself the use of the pen, and all kinds of study,
and from the effects of which he had then scarcely
recovered.
He writes :— "With respect to the Menangkubus
I am more than ever confident that those in the
Peninsula derive their origin from the country of
that name in Sumatra. Inland of Malacca, about
sixty miles, is situated the Malay kingdom of
llembau, of which you have no doubt heard. The
Sultan and chiefs hold their authority immediately
from Menangkubu, and have even written com-
missions for their respective offices. In the
Asiatic Researches you will see a long disquisition
of the Indo-Chinese nations by Dr. Leyden. He
RAFFLES 43
was only Eashvard a few months, staying with
nie : you will note that he made good use of his
time.''
Then Raffles, in the large generous way in which
he ever did things, told Marsden that he had by
him a sketch of a grammar, which he would send
his as soon as he could correct and copy it, and
added that he was gradually compiling a
dictionary, and that he was welcome to it, if it
could be of any service to him. Again, when
writing to Marsden in 1811, Raffles tells of his
appointment as Lieut. -Governor of Java and its
dependencies, and adds :— " No man better than
yourself can appreciate the value of this new
acquisition to the British Empire — it is in fact the
other India. My time has been so completely taken
up in political operations that I have had to leave
my literary labours on the shelf untouched ; but
my present situation, and our new conquest, afford
such a wide and unparalleled field for research
that I should be worse than Goth or Vandal if I
allowed it to remain untried in the literary way."'
Besides being a statesman of the first rank with
true powers of initiation, and a good and able
administrator, Mr. Raffles proved himself no less
a man of learning. In another letter to Marsden,
from the Governor's beautiful residence at Buiten-
zorgset, in the centre of grand mountains, swiftly
flowing rivers, and smiling plains of paddy and
tropical flowers, on October 22, 1812, he sends, in
answer to a request about the Upas tree, a lengthy
report of medicinal plants, as well as a general
account of Java, by Dr. Horsfield. He assures
his friend that he was collecting for him a variety
44 RAFFLES
of inscriptions found in different parts of Java,
Madura and Bali. Drawings of all the ruined
temples and images were already in hand, and
Raffles had besides, vocabularies in the Javanese,
Madurese, Bali and Bugis languages ready com-
pleted, with others well in hand. Truly a workman
who had no need to be ashamed of his daily
output !
CHAPTER V.
RAFFLES AS SEEN BY MUNSHI ABDULLAH.
Abdullah in his Hikayat gives some life-like
pictures of the men who came under his notice,
which are well worth reading. It is always best
to let him speak in his own way, so we will let
him do so —
" A few days after the news came that the
English intended to attack Java, and it was about
two or three months from the arrival of such a
rumour, Mr. Raffles unexpectedly arrived with his
wife, accompanied by an English clerk called Mr.
Merlin, and a Malay writer called Ibrahim. Mr.
Raffles stayed at Malacca at the Banda Iliar
quarter in the plantation of the Captain China,
named Baba Chang Lang, and he brought with
him numerous 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. Also woollen cloth of
soft texture, 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 to
them."
"' Then on a certain day came the writer
Ibrahim to tell of the intention of Mr. I^affles as
to his engaging another writer ; also that he desired
k; raffles
to buy Malacca writings with histories of former
times, and to ask them who had them to bring
them to his house."
" When I first saw Mr. Raffles 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 betokened his good under-
standing : his hair being fair betokened courage :
his cars being large, quick hearing : his eyebrows
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
colour of his body was not purely white : his
breasts were well formed : his waist slender : his
legs to proportion, and he walked with a slight
stoop." (Thanks, Abdullah, for your description !)
" Now, I observed his habit v/as to be always in
deep thought. He was most courteous in his
intercourse with all men. He always had a sweet
expression towards Europeans as well as with
native gentlemen. He was extremely affable and
liberal, always commanding one's best attention.
He spoke in smiles. He also was an earnest en-
quirer into past history, and gave up nothing till
he had probed it to the bottom. He loved most
to sit in quietude, when he had nothing to write
and read : but 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 evening, after tea, he would take
ink, pen and paper after the candles had been
lighted, reclining with closed eyes in a manner
RAFFLES 47
that I took to l)e sleep : but in an instant he woukl
be up, and write for a while till he went to reelinc
again. Thus he would pass the night, till twelve
or one, before he retired to bed. This was his
daily practice. On the next morning he would
go to what he had written, and read it w^iile
walking backwards and forwards, when, out of
ten sheets, probably, he would give three or four
to his copying clerk to enter into the books, and
the others he would tear up. This he did every
day."
" He kept four persons on wages, each in his
peculiar department : one to go to the forests in
search of various kinds of leaves, flowers, fungi,
pulp, and such like products. Another he sent
to collect all kinds of flies, grasshoppers, centi-
pedes, bees, scorpions, giving him pins in a box
to put through the creatures. Another he sent
with a basket to seek for coral, shells, oysters,
mussels, cockles, and such like : also fishes of
various species : and yet another to collect
animals, such as birds, jungle fowl, deer, stags,
mousedeer and so forth. Then he had a large
book with thick paper, whose use was for the
keeping of the leaves and the flowers. And, when
he could not put them there, he had a Chinese
Macao painter, who was good at painting fruit and
flowers to the life, these he sent him to copy.
Again he kept a barrel of arrack or brandy, and
when he got snakes, scorpions, centipedes and
other such like, he would put them in till they
were dead, before putting them in bottles. This
occupation astonished the people of Malacca, and
many profited from going in search of the living
48 RAFFLES
creatures that exist in the sky and the earth, sea
or land, town or country."
" For the people brought books of Malayan
history to the number of many hundreds, so as
nearly jQnished the national literature. They
brought books from all parts, owing to the good
prices given for them. At that time the histories
stored up in Malacca were nearly exhausted,
being so readily sold by the people : and what
were only to be borrowed, these he had copied."
" Now Mr. Raffles took great interest in looking
into the origin of nations, and the manner and
customs of olden times. He was especially quick
in the uptake of Malay with its variations. He
delighted to see the proper idioms as the natives
do. He was active in studying words and their
place in phrases, and not till we had told him
would he state that the English had another mode.
It was his daily labour to order letters to be sent
to the various countries to support their good
understanding with his nation, and to increase the
bond of friendship. This gained the goodwill of
the Rajas, who returned the compliment with
respect and thanks, and moreover with presents.
There also came presents of books from various
countries."
" Mr. Raffles' disposition was anything but
covetous, for, in whatever undcrtajjings or pro-
jects he had in view, he grudged no expense so
that they were accomplished. Thus his intentions
had rapid consummation. I also noticed that he
hated the habit of the Dutch who lived in
Malacca of running down the Malays, and the
Dutch detested him in return : so much so that
RAFFLES 49
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 the great folks in Malacca came to wait on
him daily, whether Malays or Europeans, yet they
could not find out his object of coming there.
But to me it was plain that in all his sayings and
doings there was the intelligence of a rising man,
together with acuteness. And if my experience be
not at fault, there was not his superior in this
world in skill and largeness of heart."
Abdullah then relates Raffles' great distaste for
the smell of durians, and of his anger and surprise
at the way in which a Malay teacher punished his
scholars, and his keen but kindly interest in all
that concerned the weal of the people among
whom he dwelt. He also speaks of the first Mrs.
Raffles in these appreciative terms : — " She was
not an ordinary woman, but was in every respect
co-equal with her husband's position and re-
sponsibilities : bearing herself with propriety,
politeness and good grace. She, too, was very
fond of studying the Malay language." He then
contrasts the behaviour of Malay women with this
lady to her great advantage : — '' To look at Mrs.
Raffles her hands and her feet were in continual
motion. There was the sewing, which was suc-
ceeded by writing : for I never saw her sleep at
mid-day, or even reclining for the sake of ease,
but always at work with diligence as day followed
day. This the Almighty knows also. If I am not
wrong in the conclusion I have arrived at, these
are the signs of good sense and understanding
which qualify for the doing of great deeds. Thus
D
50 RAFFLES
her habits were active : so much so that in fact
she did the duty of her husband : indeed, it was
she that taught him. God had matched them as
king and counsellor, or as a ring with its jewels.
Thus it was fitting that she should be a pattern
and friend to those who live after her."
Abdullah, who can sing the praise of good
women, can also do the other thing as witness : —
" If the husband wants to go up the wife wants to
go down : the husband calls a thing white, then
the wife calls it black. Thus they wrangle from
day to day, fighting one another like cats and
dogs. There are others who, because of their
beauty, tread the husband beneath their feet :
thus to their idea God is very distant from the
women of their quality. Nay, apart from their
disregard of their obligations as wives, they do
not consider it necessary to behave a% friends to
their husbands."
Mr. J. T. Thomson, whose translation I use,
speaks of Sir Stamford RafHes as probably the
most prominent Englishman in the East Indian
Archipelago at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. He points out that when Rafllcs fii'st
came under the observation of Abdullah the latter
could only have been ^out twelve years of age.
The personal description he gives is said to be
excellent, as Thomson had heard contemi)oraries
of the great Pro-Consul relate. Thomson says that
we must remember v/hen Abdullah tells of the
evident dislike of the Dutch, that Rafifles dis-
played, was due to the fact that at that time the
Dutch had clearly decided against us in the war
v/ith Napoleon, and held sway in the East. He
RAFFr.ES 51
further remarks that an old friend had said that
the full; almost photographic, likeness of the first
Mrs. Raffles was true to life. But Mr. Thomson,
following the reprehensible habit of repeating tales
without any attempt to ascertain their truthful-
ness or otherwise, passes on the ugly rumours
which had done duty in the Penang community of
those days. Mr. Boulger, in his " Life of Sir
Stamford Raffles," has disposed of certain
malicious statements about the first Mrs. (Olivia)
Raffles, which were utterly without foundation,
but which in their silent, mean, underhand way
had made the life of Mr. and Mrs. Raffles exceed-
ingly unpleasant in Penang.
Mr. Thomson may, however, be permitted to
add, as he does, thus — '" Had Mr. Raffles 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. What sympathies he could
not interchange with his own countrymen he
perforce interchanged with them : and by this
means he established a position which a high and
noble-minded man like Lord Minto was not slow
to appreciate. Thus also was it with his wife. If
ladies of her husband's rank would not associate
with her, the wives of the native chiefs would, and
she gained in one way what she lost in the other.
By devoting her talents to the cause of her hus-
band she was, as Abdullah very beautifully said,
' the jewel in the ring.' "
Mrs. Raffles was ten years older than her hus-
band, but what of that ? Shakespeare's wife was
older than that ! Mr. and Mrs. Raffles were
52 RAFFLES
married at London before they sailed in 1805, and
Mrs. Raffles died at Batavia in 1814.
A})dullah has much to say of Mr. John Crawfurd,
which is in strong contrast to his high estimate of
Mr. Raffles, but it will serve no good and useful
purpose to transcribe what he does say. The work
of both men was done each in its own way, but
what a difference in the spirit and aim, and in the
result of it all, there has been these hundred years
past !
CHAPTER VI.
DR. ROBERT MORRISON AND DR. WILLIAM MILNE.
The two missionaries whom Sir Stamford Raffles
knew best, and for whom he had the highest
regard, were Dr. R. Morrison and Dr. W. Milne,
who were the first representatives of the whole
Protestant Church to the Chinese, both of whom
had close and lifelong connections with Malacca
and Singapore.
The two volumes of the " Memoirs of Robert
Morrison " by his widow are classical sources of
information of the period in which he lived. And
the " Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the
Protestant Mission to China " by William Milne,
which was printed at Malacca in 1820, makes ex-
ceedingly interesting reading. There, besides what
Milne had to say, he incorporates notes of what
Dr. Morrison had written on the tenth anniversary
of his arrival in China, which was the 4th of
September, 1807. Milne joined him at Macao in
1814.
Morrison writes very modestly of his peculiarly
difficult labours. At first he lived, ate and dressed
like the Chinese, that he might the better be able
to gain access to them, and perfect himself in their
language to carry out his plan in coming to China,
which was to make a translation of the whole
Bible, and also an Anglo-Chinese Dictionary. Both
of these objects in due time he accomplished.
After a time, in which he lived in an underground
51. KAFFLKS
room, he gave up the notion of Hving as a Chinese,
and removed into a hired buikling. Here he had
more room and convenience which were better
adapted to his pursuits, and more conducive to his
health than the little " go-down " he had occupied.
Before leaving England, Sir Jospeh Banks had
given him a letter of introduction to Sir Thomas
Staunton, Bart., who was credited with being the
only British man who then knew Chinese. Several
of the British and American merchants at Canton
took a kindly interest in the missionary, and some
few attended his services in English. These he
conducted from his arrival -till his death. But his
main and constant work was for the Chinese,
though from the day of his marriage in 1808, a year
after his arrival in China, he no longer drew any
stipend from the London Missionary Society, but
supported himself on the salary he drew from the
East India Company, to which he acted as
secretary in Chinese affairs, at a salary of £500 a
year, at that time a very substantial sum. This
income enabled him to give freely, which he did,
to missionary and educational objects, besides sup-
porting and educating his family. It left free his
stipend for the funds of the Society to send other
labourers, who began to come in greater numbers
after the first few years.
Some people in England hearing that Morrison
had entered the employ of the E.I. Company feared
he had laid aside his high purposes ; but then he
had not done any more than David Livingstone in
his later years when he, to carry out his heroic
endeavours to kill the slave trade, ceased to draw
his stipend from the Mission, and became a Govern-
RAFFLES 55
ment official for a time. Morrison tells how he had
to do nearly everything for the first time to pre-
pare the way for others who were to follow, and
who would, he was glad to think, enjoy the benefits
of his labours. Meanwhile he did alone the digging
and quarrying work. On Sundays and at other
times as he could get opportunities he says — " One,
two, three, five, ten, and twelve Chinese have
attended for instruction, and for the worship of
God ; but large congregations cannot be expected
in a country where to listen to instruction from a
foreigner is a crime against the state." He con-
soles himself with the reflection that Paul taught
privately those whom he could not reach publicly,
for the furtherance of the gospel.
By 1810 he felt he had acquired a sufficient
acquaintance with Chinese to satisfy himself that
the translation of the Acts of the Apostles, which
he had copied in London from the unknown MS. in
the British Museum, would be a useful version if
amended. This he succeeded in getting printed on
the usual Chinese wooden blocks, but the price was
high — some half dollar a copy, and the book was
prohibitive in another sense, because the E.I. Com-
pany would not sanction a book by a foreigner in
opposition to the wishes of the Chinese Govern-
ment. But in 1811 the same Company undertook
to print at their own charges in Bengal his Chinese
Grammar, though it did not appear for four years.
He made his home in Macao, but his duties lay
mostly in Canton. The translation of the
Scriptures form the chief part of his work, and with
the help of Dr. Milne at Malacca, he was able to
issue the whole complete.
5iJ RAFFl.i:S
It is extremely interesting to handle the book,
printed at Malacca by Milne, in which is embodied
the MS. compiled by Morrison. Here W. Milne
tells the story of how he came to be the second
missionary to be sent to the Chinese. After being
accepted by the Aberdeen Committee of the
L.M.S., and, having finished his training under the
Rev. David Bngue in the Theological Seminary at
Gosport, he sailed with his wife on the 4th
September, 1812, and arrived at Macao on 4th
July, 1813.
Though his wife w^as allowed to stay in Macao,
the Portuguese priests insisted that the Governor
should .compel him to leave. This he did, and went
to live al Canton to learn Chinese among the
heathen, as the nominally-called Christians would
have none of him. H6 gladly placed himself
under the direction of Morrison as to his studies.
Milne says his senior told him to lay aside all
other studies, and to spend his whole strength of
body and mind in the one pursuit of acquiring the
language. From early morning till late at night
Milne faithfully gave himself to Chinese, as all
must, even with present-day helps, who would
seek to gain a correct command of the tongue and
literature of the Chinese people. While learning,
he was well pleased to preach in English, on Sun-
days, to all * in Canton who would attend the
services at his lodging in the city.
Morrison at Macao went on with his translation
of the New Testament, which was revised and
finished at the end of 1813. The Milnes had the
great joy of sharing in this important event. The
following year they witnessed the baptism of the
BAFFLES 57
first convert by Morrison, as he himself records : —
" At a spring of water issuing from the foot of a
lofty hill by the seaside, away from human ob-
servation, I baptised Tsae-a-ko. May he be the
first fruits of a great harvest : one of millions who
shall believe and be saved from the wrath to
come."
What the harvest has been since may be
gathered from the fact that the Chinese Church,
for which the Protestant Church in its various
branches has worked, to-day has a quarter of a
million of communicants with a Christian com-
munity of many more than a million of souls, who
call Jesus their Lord and their God.
In July, 1816, Morrison left Macao in the suite
of Lord Amherst, the British Ambassador to the
Court of Peking. He returned on the first day of
1817. The embassy had failed to serve any useful
purpose, as all readers of history know. This was
a time of great interest to Morrison, and afforded
much needed relaxation after nine years' close, in-
cessant, and hard study, besides his duties for the
East India Company. Much printing was done for
the issue of books as well as for revisions of the
Holy Scriptures. Buildings were required for his
fellow-workers in Malacca, and these were put up,
and, towards all, Morrison freely gave of his means.
When it was evident that William Milne would
not be allowed to return and settle in Macao, and
neither could he stay on in Canton, Mr. T. Stam-
ford Raffles, then Governor-General of Java, wrote
expressing his great readiness to forward the
establishment of a Mission there, should Mr. Milne
determine to come to Java, which had a great
5S KAFFLES
Chinese population. Then the claims of Malacca as
a centre had to be considered. The Chinese there
were not so numerous, but it was near China itself,
with a ready intercourse with all parts of the East-
ern Archipelago where the Chinese had settled. Be-
sides lying on the direct way between Cochin
China, Siam, Penang, Burma and Ceylon, it pro-
vided frequent means of intercourse with India and
Canton. Malacca was fixed upon as the sphere of
the labours of Prlilne. He and Morrison argued that
it might not answer all the purposes they had in
view, but they were guided by what seemed to be
the best reasons.
It is a thousand pities that about 1843 not only
Malacca, but also Penang and Singapore, as well
as Java, were all abandoned and the missionaries
sent on to China. All the valuable properties were
realised too, and lost to Missions in Malaya, save
Prinsep Street in Singapore, which is in use till
this day, and the Church at Batavia, which was
built by Dr. Medhurst. Patient continuance in
well-doing would have reaped a rich harvest in
Malaya many years ago if the properties had been
kept intact, and a small staff retained to carry on
the work. When Missions were recommenced in
these parts, things were really forty years in
arrears, but the Roman Catholic Church had re-
mained in full force in this British colony, with
what result their public buildings testify.
On the 17th April, 1814, Mr. and Mrs. Milne re-
luctantly left their kind friends in China, and after
thirty-five days' passage, reached Malacca. Here
they were most kindly received by Major Farquhar,
the Resident, who on every occasion manifested his
RAFFLES 50
friendly regard for them. This greatly encouraged
Milne. He records how he largely let the judg-
ment of Morrison influence him in the mission at
Malacca, because of the perfect confidence he had
in one of such experience, for whom he had such a
high regard and brotherly affection. As he says : —
" To men who know little of what is past, and less
of the future, it should always be deemed a
privilege to have the counsels of the wise and
good."
Mr. Milne's first duty was to act as pastor of the
Dutch Church, as the minister had died. This Dr.
Milne did as long as he lived, as the marble mural
tablet in the church records. The building is now
used for English Episcopalian services. His grave
lies near by, but there is no stone to denote which
is the one in which his dust reposes, though that of
his wife, Rachel, is known.
Here was opened the very first of all Anglo-
Chinese Colleges, but it really was in practice a
school, and never, any rnore than Raffles' Institu-
tion in Singapore till this day, attained to the
dignity of a college. It began as a Free School,
as did all mission schools in Malaya : for in those
days parents actually asked the missionaries to
pay them for the time that their children spent in
school, when they might have been helping them
in the fields or in their businesses. To this school
Morrison gave considerable sums of his hard
earned money. Milne also tells of local friends and
others who gave willingly towards the mission.
The printing press was rightly regarded as an
essential part of the work to be done. On the 5th
of August, the very day that the school was
60 KAFFLKS
opened, the first pages from the press were issued
in Chinese. The daily preaching of the Gospel was
not neglected, besides daily worship in the mission
house. Milne had assigned to him certain portions
of the Old Testament which he translated for
Morrison. To Morrison belongs all the credit of the
New Testament and by far the bulk of the Old of
the first complete Chinese Bible. Copies of the
Scriptures and tracts were freely distributed among
the Chinese both on the peninsula and the islands,
by Milne himself as far as he could do so and by
other agencies. As in his time, so to-day, a know-
ledge of the Amoy vernacular will enable a
missionary, or a merchant (who ought, like the
civil servants of the Government, to learn the
languages of the people they live amongst) to reach
a larger proportion of the Chinese in Malaya than
any other dialect. Milne in his daj^ could write
that no females ever leave China : the prejudices
of the people against this are exceedingly strong.
A hundred years have altered this. The steam-
ships, easy and cheap passages, have wrought
wonders. Now the only class of Chinese which does
not bring its women-folk are the Hainanese, who
are the usual house-servants.
Referring to difficulties in his time, Mr. Milne
speaks of the prevalence of the sceptical philo-
sophy of the school of Confucius. It is the
same to-day, only with a very big difference.
Recent attempts to galvanize Confucianism into
life again have had some effect, but not quite the
result which was really aimed at, but this is only
a passing phase. The enlightened Chinese cannot
allow themselves to be for ever deceived, even by
RAFFLES 61
their own efforts, to try and retain the ancient
superstitions and sophistries though expressed in
the terms, and vitahzed more so by the teachings
and inner meanings of the very Christianity, which
is professedly repudiated, but which all the time
lies at the heart of all that is best in the new inter-
pretation of the books of the scholars of China's
great sage, who never professed more than to sum-
marize and hand down the teachings of the
ancients.
It was the intention that the Malacca Mission
should also be one to the Malays, but this was
never fully carried out, and the only man in the
mission, in after years, who, through a long life
carried on work among the Malays (and among the
Chinese in Malay) was the Rev. B. P. Keasberry
of Singapore. Others, like C. H. Thomson, did the
same for short periods only, so that a Mission to
Malays, as such, is yet to be commenced. To do it
at all well it should be exclusively for them, and
that by men and women specially trained and set
apart for this work. It is simply futile to talk of
the failure of missions to the Malays, since there
never have been any seriously attempted in the
British Possessions.
Buildings in Malacca for the mission were finished
in the beginning of 1817. Here the Chinese New
Testament was printed, and much other printing
was done with imperfect fonts of type, which is
apparent from copies the present writer has seen.
The quarterly " Indo-Chinese Gleaner," among
others, served a useful purpose, for it gave intelli-
gence about China and other lands, and had notes
on History, Philosophy, and the Literature of the
62 RAFFLES
lands specially under review. While V)usy with
many tasks, Mrs. Milne had a very serious illness,
which required her to take a voyage to Macao, no
slight undertaking in those days of sailing ships,
specially as her husband could not leave his work
to go with her. Mrs. Milne sailed for China, but
she never regained her strength, and, after faithful
service, was laid to rest by her husband at
Malacca in March, 1819.
While Milne was alone in Malacca, during his
wife's absence in China, and his colleague, Mr.
Thomson, away, he had the great joy of welcoming
another worker in the Rev. Walter Henry Med-
hurst (father of Sir W^alter Medhurst, so well
known in China in after days). He and his family
arrived on June 12, 1817. He began the study
of Chinese, superintended printing, and took a
general oversight of the work, while Milne went on
a visit to China, from August till February, 1818.
Before sailing he had finished his popular tract,
the " Two Friends," showing the folly of idolatry.
Morrison and Milne were mutually delighted to
have the company of one another, for a very real
and tender affection existed between them, as is
evident from their correspondence. While together,
they laid their plans for their future guidance,
and also for those who should be associated with
them in the Mission. They fixed rules for the
finishing and revision of the Bible in Chinese, and
decided to keep in view the important islands of
Japan, to collect all possible information respecting
them, and, if possible, prepare by gradual steps
the way for a voyage, by some of them, to that
country at a future time : in order to ascertain.
RAFFLES 63
after some knowledge of the language, what altera-
tions and modifications the Chinese version of the
Scriptures must undergo before it can be useful in
that country, or whether an entirely new version
might not be necessary.
It was settled that Milne was to build and have
charge of the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca,
to which an unnamed friend (Morrison himself) had
devoted four thousand Spanish dollars. And,
as no provision was made, by the Missionary
Society at home, for widows and orphans, they
founded one themselves, towards which Morrison
gave, to begin with, four hundred dollars. The
reasons given for drawing up rules are excellent,
and commend themselves for their sound sense.
These have guided many wise men since.
In brief, any number of men who are agreed on
certain general points, have a right to form rules
and regulations for conducting their work. It is
the duty of those who have been longest on the
field to recommend and suggest to the juniors such
measures as they conceive will be useful for
families and individuals. Newcomers are advised,
to fall in with things as they find them for the first
few years until they learn the language, and then,
with local knowledge, will be better able to form
mature judgments for themselves. Morrison and
Milne expressed the hope that, however widely
spread the Mission might become, it should be Odc
Body for effective service, which would greatly
contribute to the promotion of the Gospel, as well
as make for the usefulness and comfort of the
brethren. In these days Mission comity is, at long
last, becoming a thing to be used and not siglied
64 RAFFLES
for, for it is within rcaeh, if we have grace to use it.
It is gladly and gratefuily recorded that
American Christians had contributed $8,616
(Spanish). In those days all was given by the
foreigner, and nothing by the Chinese. But Milne
wrote in 1818—" The day will doubtless come
when the Protestant Mission to China will not
merely appeal to Christian liberality, but will also
have to give reports equally calculated to excite
gratitude to God for what He has actually
wrought." Long years ago both Chinese and the
missionaries have learnt to distinguish between the
Mission (Foreign) and the Church (Chinese). The
day is not now very distant when the Chinese
givings will be quite equal to, if not far in advance
of, what the Mission brings in finance, though
foreign contributions will need to be very much
larger than they have ever been, or indeed dreamt
of, up to the present.
This will be the world's guarantee of peace for
Asia, Europe, America, and the islands of the seven
seas. Till moral conditions are brought about by
the obedience of men and nations to Christ, there
will be no cessation of the fear and the fact of ill-
will and war. There ran only be ''' peace " to
'" men of good-will." Till this truth is played in,
evil cannot be played out of the thoughts and acts
of men. God's will shall l)c done on earth, and
men will yet do it. There will be no compulsion
save moral necessity, with the full knowledge and
consent of free and intelligent beings. God calls
for, and expects complete and voluntary service.
When the highest i\f\d the best is gladly given then
RAFFLES 65
the King shall be satisfied, and His Kingdom shall
come on earth.
Dr. Milne wrote : — '' At present the Church is
called to the exercise of patience, prayer and active
zeal with regard to China : and it is highly probable
that the slow progress of the Gospel among the
people will, for a long period, call for the con-
tinued exercise of these in a prominent degree."
Meanwhile, Dr. Morrison went on with his
literary work. In 1817 he finished his translation,
of the Psalms and Ruth, and wrote and printed
"A View of China for Philological Purposes."
Then, as proof of the catholicity of his mind, though
a Presbyterian Churchman, in the employ of a
Congregational Mission, he translated, in 1817-18,
Morning and Evening Prayer, and other parts of
the Book of Common Prayer. While Milne was in
China on this occasion, parts of the Old Testa-
ment which had been translated by him were
printed after the approval of his senior. On his
return to Malacca on February 17th, 1818, he found
the Rev. C. H. Thomson had come back, after an
absence of fifteen months, bringing with him the
Rev. John Slater and his wife. Thomson resumed
his Malay work, and Slater applied himself to the
study of Chinese. On the 14th of September the
same year, other missionaries arrived, the Revs.
Samuel Milton (afterwards the first missionary to
Singapore), Thomas Beighton and John Ince.
Those learning Chinese read for seme hours daily
with Milne, who says that once a week they wrote
exercises and pieces of composition, a most
valuable branch of Chinese study to the man who
wishes to be earlv useful, and an accurate
(>(> RAFFLES
scholar. They were helped by several parts of
Morrison's Chinese Dictionary, with the Grammar
and Dialogues which had been sent down to
Malacca, where the fojiindations of the coming
structures were being laid, which were to spread
to the Chinese in all parts of the world in which
they were to spread themselves.
By the signing of the treaty of Vienna on June
9th, 1815, Malacca had been restored to the Dutch,
but this did not take effect till September, 1818,
when Major William Farquhar handed over the
colony. Malacca was again given to the British by
the treaty of Holland in March, 1825 : and in the
following year, with Penang .and Singapore,
became part of the Straits Settlements.
CHAPTER VII.
MALACCA DREAMERS AND WORKERS.
The incoming Dutch officials were in full sympathy
with the aims and objects of the Mission, and gave
assurances that there would be the same liberty
under the Dutch as there had been under the
British. That year, 1818, on November the 10th,
the foundation stone of the Anglo-Chinese College
was laid in the presence of both the Dutch and
British officials. About this time the news came
that the Glasgow University had honoured itself,
as well as Robert Morrison ^ by conferring on him
the degree of Doctor of Divinity in recognition of
his philological works.
Medhurst gave himself heartily to educational
and printing work, and was a keen tract dis-
tributor, and often visited the junks and the
villages and plantations in the country to preach to
the Chinese. He continued to do similar work
when he was transferred to Batavia in Java. It is
interesting to the present writer to have preached
there, in 1911, in what is still known as Dr. Med-
hurst 's Church. This and the British Church at
Bangkok, Siam, are both maintained by the
British communities till this day, and are vested hi
the British Consulates for the use of Protestant
communities. The only other old church building,
going back to thse early days, is Prinsep Street
Church in Singapore, which was erected so late as
(18 RAFFLES
1843, the year all the L.M.S. agents were ordered
to proceed to China. This is now the property of
the Presbyterian Church of England for the use of
the Chinese Church.
In the spring of 1819 Mr. Medhurst commenced
the Mission at Penang, and there Messrs. Beighton
and Ince were settled, and Mr. Medhurst returned
to Malacca. In June of the same year the Rev.
John Slater went to Batavia for Chinese work, and
it is of note that he called at Singapore, which had
just been founded by Sir Stamford RafBes a short
time before, on 6th February, 1819.
Milne mentions that the first printing by wooden
blocks made the Scriptures very costly, then
movable types, made for the first time in Malacca
to print Chinese, made things much cheaper, so
whereas the Acts used to cost more than 2/6 a
copy to be produced in 1819, he rejoiced that the
whole New Testament in Chinese could be had for
the same cost. Later, by 1853, missionaries were
able to sell the same for sixpence, which is about
the present selling price. The invention of the
metal Chinese type stands to the credit of these
early L.M.S. men. What the Press has done for
China is beyond all calculation, though the living
voice, and the object lesson of the Christian family,
can never be done without, for a full-orl^ed repre-
sentation of what the grace of God, which brings
salvation, really means..
It was a red-letter day when the mission to
Singapore commenced. Though Sir T. S. Raffles,
on the very foundation of the settlement, cordially
invited a missionary to settle in Singapore, those
at Malacca hesitated because of the difference of
RAFFLES 69
view between the British and Dutch officials as to
the permanent possession of that so recently ac-
quired island. But they argued that should ar-
rangements be made for the Dutch to take Singa-
pore, the mission might expect to have the same
protection and liberty to follow out their objects.
So the Rev. S. Milton v/as sent in October 1819,
and he was most cordially received by Major
Farquhar.
On the 25th November the whole of the Old
Testament was finished, and Milne, one of the two
translators, speaks with becoming modesty of
this: — "Every scholar, especially every trans-
lator, well knows that first versions must be im-
perfect, the fastidious (who, by the way, are not
often the best judges) will find enough to blame :
and the judicious, profound scholar of future times,
abundance of room for the exercise of his talents
in revising and improving the work of his
predecessors."
He adds : — " For six years the senior missionary
laboured alone, for the next three years there were
only two labourers. The difficulties at first were
very great, in their kind, and the facilities few."
His faith and courage were sublime. He was per-
fectly convinced of the final triumph of the Gospel
in China, but he did not expect a very rapid
advance. Milne held it v/ould not be the work of
one or two, or of five ages, but would require
several generations, m.uch labour and many instru-
ments, before the glorious event yould take place.
"■ Yet we plough in hope, knowing that our labour
shall not be in vain in the Lord." Dr. James
Legge, the last of the Malacca missionaries of that
70 RAFFLES
'• race of saints," told the present writer, when he
was leaving home for Singapore in 1881, " Do not
be discouraged at what you see, or rather at what
you do not see as yet. Young men may think that
nothing has been done, but we old men know that
much has been done."
What William Milne wrote, a hundred years ago,
v/as to acquaint a large number of people in
Western lands of what they were then in pro-
found ignorance, and will not be without interest
even to-day. " The ultra-Ganges nations may be
considered as spread from Burma and stretching
east to Japan, including the Malayan Archipelago
and the vast group of islands lying between Penang
and the Korea. These embrace some of the most
populous and interesting countries under heaven.
They contain a full third of the human race : and,
from a variety of considerations, have most urgent
claims on the benevolence and commiseration of
Mission societies. In regard to civilization the best
of them are centuries behind the least improved
nation in Europe. Many of the tribes living in the
interior of the islands still continue in the wildest
state of savage life : while the chief part of the in-
habitants of the Archipelago are in the comparative
scale, but serai-bar])arians. All the governments of
the ultra-Ganges nations arc Despotisms. Many of
them tyrannical in a very high degree. To exalt
and aggrandize privileged orders of men, and keep
the people in a low, degrading servitude, ever
children in understanding, and the vassals of
arbitrary power, seems the uniform tendency of
every native government on this side of India.
Their constitutions seem framed on the principle.
RAFFLES 71
and the spirit of their laws tend to this end. In as
far as the theory of their governments may be in-
vestigated and reduced to general philosophical
principles, and the actual details of the executive
power, laid open to public view, in so far will this
proposition appear confirmed : particular tempor-
ary exceptions cannot invalidate it."
Milne then proceeds to urge the necessity of
caution in pronouncing opinions on insufficient
data, and maintains that one must learn the langu-
age and literature of a people before being able to
judge aright. He takes grave exception to those
who would eulogize the lav/s of a country before
seeing the development of the principles of the
Government. He seeks to be quite fair in his judg-
ments, and appeals to his Society, and all missions,
to bear in mind that further study, more research
under more favourable circumstances, may very
likely give a different view of the subject. But he
argues that from the character and conduct of the
people one may know what is the nature of the
politics and administration of the Government. He
contends that Liberty, in the European sense
of the word, is totally unknown under the native
rule. Therefore missionaries must not expect it,
and should, previously to their coming, resolve
firmly to bear, with patience and peace, all the in-
conveniences that may arise from living under
Governments, in their nature the very reverse of
those under which they had been brought up :
under all the various forms of legislative ad-
ministration they should be prepared to bo
subject to the powers that be. From these causes,
" vigorous intellect, improved understanding, in-
7-2 RAFFLES
dependence of mind, comprehensiveness of view,
and an open unsuspecting frankness of disposition
are rare things in this part of the world, and still
more so where the system of idolatry is of a de-
grading kind. It is, however, the peculiar glory
of the Gospel that it is suited to all the different
degrees, of understanding among men. . . .
Vigour and comprehensiveness of intellect are not
absolutely necessary in order to its reception, it is
indeed in many cases the parent of them." He
then briefly traces the outstanding features of the
religions of the East. " A very considerable
portion of the Chinese were infected with a vain
atheistical philosophy, which recognized no God,
and which acknowledges no hereafter, while the
common people worship the v/orks of their own
hands." He speaks of the early prevalence of
Hinduism in Java, Sumatra and other islands, the
traces of which remain till this day, as in Bali,
This had been fully proved, as Milne said, by Sir
Stamford Raffles in his large and interesting
history of Java. He expressed the common wish
that Raffles would soon write a similar history of
Singapore, which, alas, the world did not get,
much as he was ready and prepared to write the
work.
Milne had to confess that Christianity had fallen
on evil days in Mji^lacca, particularly among the
lower classes of Roman Catholics of Portuguese
and Malayan descent. " This must indeed be a
source of the greatest grief to the well disposed
clergymen who labour among them. How lament-
able that the true religion should have so exceed-
ingly degenerated as to be scarcely distinguished
RAFFLES 73
from the most senseless and disgusting forms of
Paganism ! How much is it to be desired that
pious and enlightened men of the Romish com-
munion would purge out the old leaven that their
Churcii may be a new lump." In after years Sir
Frederick Weld (who belonged to an old English
Roman Catholic family, which held out at the
Reformation) when Governor of the Straits Settle-
ments, did much in a quiet way to improve
matters, and strengthen the position of his com-
munion throughout Malaya. One result were orders
from the Roman Curia for the substitution of the
French to take precedence of the Portuguese
priests at Malacca, by which act a better order of
things began to prevail.
To be quite fair, Milne does not spare the re-
presentatives of the Protestant Church. " At
Malacca and Java the clergy seem to have directed
their chief attention to the Europeans, and did
very little for the heathen," He mourns that the
total neglect of all religion, by many so-called
Protestants, forms as mighty a barrier in the way
of conversions as the gross superstitions of the
Catholics. In his time there were three Missionary
Societies at work in a small way — the Netherlands
Mission, the Baptists (British and American) and
his own, that of the London Mission. Two Pro-
testant ecclesiastical establishments had extended
to those parts — the Dutch Reformed Church in
Netherlands India, and the " Reformed Church of
England, as by law established," at three points
only, Penang, Bencoolen and at the British Factory
at Canton. These were indeed the days of small
things, just exactly one hundred years ago."
71 * RAFFLES
Like Sir S. Raffles, Major Farquhar and Dr.
Morrison, Dr. W. Milne was in downright earnest
to set his face against slavery, opium and gambling.
And the colony, Malaya, and the Empire as a
whole would, have been better, by an immensity
of meaning to-day, had the advice of these men
been followed by those who came into office after
Sir Stamford. But as with man, so with nations ;
the harvest is always in strict accordance with the
nature of the seed sown. God and Nature cannot
l)e fooled.
Piracy and slavery have been put down, but
opium remains, to the standing disgrace of the
colony and the powers that be at Downing Street,
who could, if they would, end the crying shame.
Gambling is illegal in the colony, but it has only
quite recently been brought to an end in the
Federated Malay States. Till 1917 it was openly
carried on in Johore, and those who wished
could go there from Singapore and Malaya
generally, by train at any time and gamble.
Europeans and Straits Chinese women were a few
years ago prohibited, but they were allowed to go
there, for many a long day, to the disgrace of all
concerned. There should have been no difficulty
in dealing with gambling in Johore. It will ever
stand to the credit of these noble men that they,
attacked those evils as soon as confronted by them,
and suggested the only policy that has anything to
be said for itself. Had it been carried out, a
hundred years ago or later, how great would have
been the difference in the character and type of
the Asiatics, as well as of the Europeans of
Malaya ! True, things might have been worse, and
RAFFLES 75
there is much that is really praiseworthy, but
there was a more excellent way which could and,
therefore, should have been followed with very
great benefit to the whole community.
Milne said : — '' The vast consumption of opium
on this side of India is the source of so many evils
among the people, and yet of such gain to the
merchants, that I utterly despair of saying any-
thing on the subject that will not be regarded with
the most sovereign contempt and dislike. I cannot,
however, but regard it as one of the many obstacles
which hinder the moral improvement of Eastern
India and China. That a practice so destructive of
social order, and which so effectually impoverishes
a large portion of the people to enrich a few,
generally of the worst characters, should have the
sanction of any Christian Government, and a
portion of public revenue derived therefrom,
furnishes just cause for astonishment.*'
The tarming out of both opium, drink and
gambling savours too much of the degenerate days
of the Roman Empire, and the British Empire
has had, and will continue to have for
long, its heavy price to pay for its supuie-
ness and greed in seeking this easy, immoral
way of dealing with evils that it was the plain,
simple duty of those in authority to put an end to
so far as public, governmental recognition was
concerned. ** There was money in the thing " was
the cynical remark of men who saw the wrong
being done, but had not the moral courage to take
their part in seeking to right matters.
Milne was a hard-headed Aberdonian, and could
see as far as most people. He naturally felt very
76 RAFFLES
keenly the obstacles placed in the way of men
like himself by his own countrymen, who offered
objections to the aims he had in view, which were
simply the ordinary common duties of Christian
Ministers to put into operation the elementary
principles of Christianity. " There were men who
were governed solely by political views, or by re-
gard to the opinion of society, who sometimes
shake you by the hand, and speak well of your
objects, manifest politeness in company, and make
liberal promises of doing everything they can to
promote their views, and should missionaries be
simple enough to credit all this they might soon
consider themselves the favourites of the great,
and the bosom friends of chief men. But we must
not allow ourselves to be so imposed upon." While
deploring that nothing more hinders the success of
the Gospel than the lasciviousness, the intemper-
ance, the avarice, the injustice and the impiety of
nominal Christians, he said, it was his happiness
to live in an age when not a few men of the
highest rank, and holding the highest offices, were
real and hearty friends to every judicious and
laborious missionary. He very rightly takes grave
exception to the laudatory way in which some
people at home praise the missionaries as being
persons of superior ability or devotion, while they
were just doing their duty in the special circum-
stances of their fields. But he adds : — " Due con-
sideration and commendation may be given where
it is merited without makii>g the pulpit a stage
from which to trumpet forth the creature's praise."
By such men of sound, sterling good sense were
RAFFLES 77
the foundations of the Chinese Church laid in these
early days.
From his outlook, at Malacca, William Milne
considered the prospects of the conversion of the
Chinese on the side of mere human probability, and
on the principle of dependence on the Holy Spirit.
The conversion contemplated, he maintained, must
begin by the renovation of the soul by the power
of God's spirit, and extend to the formation of an
entirely new creature, influencing through life all
the operations of the mind and all actions. Less
than this would be to fail to effect v/hat the
Mission stands for. He well knew that there might
be real success in the way of preparation for those
who were to come after to reap what had been
sown, and strongly held that the success of missions
could not be calculated on mercantile principles,
viz., so many converts, for so much money, within
a given time limit. He does, for the sake of argu-
ment, go into facts and figures, on the ground of
probability, that at the end of five centuries there
might be two hundred and sixty-two millions of
Chinese Christians, allowing Christianity every ad-
vantage, and calculating the progress at a very
low rate : but on the other hand he pins his faith
to the agency of the Holy Spirit in whose in-
scrutable operations, accompanying the means used
for the conversion of the people, with the object
lesson of the virtues and moral excellencies of true
Christians, together with secret, efficacious prayer,
the result would undoubtedly be the turning of the
Chinese to God. What he expected was that,
when the influences to be exerted were in fuller
operation, the conversions of a year might be more
78 RAFFLES
than those formerly in a century. Professor James
Legge of Oxford gave utterance to the same con-
viction when he said. " We should not calculate by
mathematical, but by geometrical progression."
The first century of Protestant Missions to the
Chinese points to the realization of the best dreams
of these early workers being fully justified. And
can we look for less, with the prospects as glorious
as the promises of God and His Christ ? The work
is God's and not ours, except that we have the
privilege of being His fellow-workers together in
the grandest enterprise in which mortals can ever
be engaged. Are we prepared to fall into line,
with the different services of the Army of the
Church of God, and carry on the campaign to a
full and final victory for Christ, for Truth and
Righteousness ?
In 1814 Morrison's first edition of the New Testa-
ment was published for the Chinese. Since then
over thirty million copies have been circulated in
Cliina alone. In 1814 there were in all only two
missionaries representing the Protestant churches
of all the world in China. To-day there are five
thousand five hundred (including wives of mission-
aries, often most efficient workers). The in-
digenous, Chinese Church is a living, potent fact.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONQUEST OF JAVA.
By June, 1811, the expedition under Lord Minto
left Malacca for Java. The result was the British
occupation, and a proclamation was issued to that
effect at Batavia on August 4th. A month later Mr.
Stamford Raffles was commissioned to act as
Lieutenant-Governor of Java and its dependencies,
and Lord MintOi^. returned to India after only five
weeks in Java.
Raffles, who was never idle, was not long in
finding his way to East Java, and he writes to
Lord Minto : — "I shall only say I was most
highly gratified and satisfied with everything I
saw : it is impossible to conceive anything more
rich than the country, both in cultivation and
scenery. I was happy to perceive that between
Samarang and Sourabaya neither the country nor
the establishments had suffered from the effects of
the expedition, and everything was going on as
if nothing had happened. To give an idea of the
high state of the roads, and the facility of com-
munication in every part of the island, it may be
sufficient to inform you that from Surabaya to
Samarang, two hundred miles, I was only twenty-
four hours on the road, and thence to Buitenzorg,
/
80 RAFFLES
only two days and a half, and this without any
fatigue."
If the saying is true that the sailor always
beats the soldier, as indeed the sailor does regard
himself the better man, Raffles, at least, showed
the good breeding of his seafaring folk in the good
use he made of his long time on shipboard on his
way out when he laid in such a good store of
Malay, and much else, for the coming days of hard
and constant and most strenuous work. The sea
salt in his veins had been placed there to a very
good purpose. It is no little thing to have good
sea legs, but a greater matter is to have a fearless
nature ready to face duty and hardship anywhere,
and do anything that the moment requires.
It is here fitting that some of the words of Mr.
Kaffles, addressed to the Batavian Literary and
Scientific Society on the death of Lord Minto,
should be recalled as expressive of himself, who did
not get the full meed of praise and recognition of
the value of his work till many years after his
short, but most fruitful lifetime. Indeed, Raffles
was much misjudged and misrepresented, and was
allowed to retire without that appreciation which
was due to him, and without that ample provision
which should have been placed at his disposal.
After our hero recounts the great services of
Lord Minto as the friend and liberator of Java, he
regrets that he had not lived to see the fruits of
his benevolence come to a proper maturity. But :
*' However deeply we may bewail this melancholy
event, let us beware not to murmur against the
ways of Providence. Let us rather draw from the
circumstances the consoling reflection that Divine
RAFFLES 81
Justice will never fail, and, though full com|)ensa-
tion seems to be wanting on this side of the grave,
the deficiency will be amply filled up in another
state, where life, bliss and happiness will be ever-
lasting."
It is pointed out by Lady Raffles that while her
husband was occupied in the encouragement of
every object calculated to promote the good of the
people of Java, whom he governed, and sought to
enlarge our knowledge of their institutions, habits
and character, neither he nor his superiors in
Bengal knew of the intentions of the Government
at home, or of the East India Company, as to the
future fate of the island. His chief difficulties
arose from this great uncertainty. He had to
seek to administer the affairs of the island with-
out knowing whether it belonged to the King or
the Company, which led to embarrassment and
difference of opinion as to meeting the interests
and wishes of individuals, which were naturally
affected by any decisions that he might arrive at.
Lord Minto, on the eve of retiring from his high
office in Calcutta, wrote most affectionately to his
tried and faithful friend. Raffles, assuring him of
his gratitude and esteem for all his many services.
There was a prospect that some one else might be
sent to take up the appointment that Mr. Raffles
held, and the suggestion was made that Raffles
might take the Residency of Fort Marlborough at
Eencoolen, that is in case he would not care to
serve under the new Governor-General.
Much annoyance and anxiety fell to the lot of
Raffles through the action of General Gillespie in
bringing charges against his administration. This
F
.82 RAFFLES
gentleriuiii was relieved ])y the appointment of
General Nightingale. The mere fact of the charges
having been made, as Lady Raffles records, com-
pelled him to lay bare the whole system of his
administration with a minuteness v/hich, imder
any other circumstance, would hardly have been
allowable, but which in his case, under these cir-
cumstances, was an absolute duty.
llaffles, writing to a friend, in March 1814, says :
" While you are quietly gliding on in smooth and
sunny streams of private life, it is my lot to be
tossed on boisterous billows, and to be annoyed
with all clouds and evils which ensue from party
spirit. Without family pretensions, fortune, or
personal friends, it has been my lot to obtain the
high station which I now fill : and I have not been
without my due proportion of envy in conse-
quence." After alluding to the trouble with the
military commander, he continues : — " Arriving in
Bengal after Lord Minto had left it, I found the
new Governor-General, Lord Moira (afterwards the
Marquis of Hastings) unacquainted with all that
had previously passed, and succeeded, to a certain
extent, in impressing him favourably. He was
committed, in the course of our differences, by
assertions which he had made : and finding that he
had succeeded in directing the current of public
opinion against me, he has brought regular charges
against my administration and my character. The
whole are, thank God, easily to be repelled. The
closer the investigation, the purer my conduct will
appear. Lord Minto is fully aware of the violent
action which has taken up arms against me and
vvill de'cnd rnc in England. In India I have pos-
RAFFLES 83
session and a clear character to maintain it. Let
Satan do his worst. My enemies have said much,
and written more, but in the end truth and
honesty must prevail."
Lady Raffles records that the charges reached
Java when he was more than usually busy, but
it is a stronger proof of his ability, and the
assured confidence in his integrity, that he replied
with ease and despatch fully at the moment. At
the time he had his house full of company, and
never absented himself from the usual hours of
social intercourse, or neglected the usual routine of
business. The minute which he drew up, when
printed, filled a quarto volume of moderate thick-
ness, and is a monument of the powers of his mind.
It is right to put down here the finding of the Court
of Directors, which completely exculpates Mr.
Raffles. It reads : — " After a scrupulous examina-
tion of all the documents, both accusatory and ex-
culpatory, and an attentive perusal of the minutes
of the Governor-General and his Council, we think
it due to Mr. Raffles, in the interests of our service
and in the cause of truth, explicitly to declare our
decided conviction that the charges, in so far as
they impeach the moral character of that gentle-
man, have not only not been made good, but they
have been disproved to an extent which is seldom
practicable in the case of defence. Before pro-
nouncing upon the financial operations, we are
desirous of fuller information, and further time to
deliberate on their tendency and effects, as well
as on the circumstances under which they were
made. Were their unreasonableness, improvidence
and mefflciency clearly established, this would only
84 RAFFLES
indicate error or defect of judgment, or, at most,
incompetence in Mr. Raffles for the high and ex-
ceedingly difficult situation which he filled." A
full endorsement of tlie acquittal of Mr. Raffles was
given in the words that whatever might be said
as to the policy of Raffles, the Court of Directors
were satisfied that there was no sign of any sordid
or selfish taint, but that his conduct had sprung
from motives which were perfectly correct and
laudable.
Captain Travers, in his Journal, notes that Mr.
Raffles at this time of anxiety and trouble was
working out his plan for the introduction of an
improved system of internal management and land
rental, a measure which gave his administration
a lustre and widely spread fame. To gather the
necessary information at first hand he was in con-
stant touch with the chiefs, and visited in detail
every part of the eastern part of Java, often under-
going great personal exertions and fatigue, which
few who accompanied him were able to encounter.
He often rode sixty or seventy miles a day, and
what that means only those who have lived in the
tropics, so very near the equator, have any real
conception of. When Raffles got back to Batavia
he was in good health and fine high spirits, and
greatly pleased that he had carried out his under-
taking, and he found in General Nightingale a very
cordial supporter, which was a comfort and
encouragement.
In after life this period was considered the
happiest of any other during the administration of
Raffles in Java. Travers tells of the pleasant re-
lationship that existed between the fam.ilies of the
KAFFLES 85
Governor and the General. It was on one of those
enjoyable occasions that the news reached Raffles
of the charges which had been preferred against
him by General Gillespie at Calcutta. But although
Raffles had so much on his mind, and though this
came when and how it did, not a visitor could
perceive the slightest alteration in hi smanner. He
was the same cheerful, animated person that they
always found him, and only seemed anxious how
best to promote and encourage the amusement, and
contribute to the happiness and enjoyment, of all
around him.
It will remain to the lasting honour of Raffles
that he wisely studied the past history, as well as
the prevailing customs and condition of the people
of Java, and framed all his plans of government
as much for their benefit as for the good of the
state. The view he was led to take, rightly or
wrongly, was that the European occupation of the
island, previous to the coming of the British, ap-
peared only to have been exercised to invade and
destroy the property of the natives of the country.
He wrote : — " Whoever has viewed the fertile
plains of Java, or beheld with astonishment the
surprising efforts of human industry, which has
carried cultivation to the summits of the most
stupendous mountains, will be impressed in their
favour."
It is interesting to read the frank and character-
istic statement sent to Lord Minto by Mr. Raffles,
under date of February 13, 1814, as to his efforts
to place on a firm and solid foundation the rights
of the natives of Java as to their land tenure : — "I
have said so much on the effects of the change, and
80 llAFFLES
they are so obvious on general principles, that I
should but intrude on your time by enlarging upon
them here. I cannot but look upon the accomplish-
ment as the most conspicuous and important under
my administration : and in its success or otherwise
I am willing to stand or fall. I have suffered no
small share of anxiety and bodily fatigue while it
was in progress : but now it has been happily ac-
complished I am amply repaid for all."^
He speaks of having been absent from Batavia
three months that he might be personally ac-
quainted with the whole position of affairs, and
continues — " I have been able to judge for myself,
and although I have failed to avail myself of all the
talent and experience I could find, I may safely
say, I have in no case decided without a conviction
brought home to my own mind that I am right."
To Sir Hugh Inglis he wrote privately— "Whatever
may be the eventual fate of Java, whether it is
decided that the colony be attached to the Com-
pany's possessions, or even given up at a peace to
a foreign power (which may God forbid) the in-
habitants, of Java will have the happiness to bless
the day which places them under such a system of
government. I have been forced to act, in every
measure of importance, on my own responsibility,
not from the superior authorities being ignorant of
the real interests of the colony, but from a hesita-
tion on their part to involve themselves with the
government which might be finally fixed."
Raflles was ever well to the forefront in discern-
ing the needs of remedies to alleviate the special
distresses of the peoples of the lands in which he
found his lot was cast. He vei'y soon sought to
RAFFLES 87
take steps for the suppression of piracy. Writing
to the Governor of Prince of Wales Island (Penang)
he contended that nothing could tend so effectually
to this end as " the encouragement and extension
of lawful commerce, and the civilization of the
inhabitants of the Eastern Archipelago. This
would afford a steady support to the established
native sovereigns, and assist them in the mainten-
ance of their just rights and authorities over their
several chiefs, and along the shores dependent upon
their dominion. It appears to me the adoption of
i:his principle, and the establishment of British
agents at the leading ports, would gradually change
the barbarous and uncivilized life of the people who
inhabit the shores of the islands : and, united with
the beneficial effects of the abolition of the slave-
trade, would, by the lessening the means of
plunder, and securing the exertion of legal superior
authority, gradually tend to agricultural improve-
ment, and to the prosperity and interior trade that
naturally must follow."
The British Parliament at that time had declared
the slave trade illegal, so Raffles took the step of
introducing the same into colonial law, which con-
tinues till this day.
After the founding of Singapore, Sir Stamford
Raffles in September, 1819, wrote from Bencoolen to
William Wilberforce, seeking his assistance for the
benefit of the peoples whom he was trying not only
to save from slavery, but also to bring under con-
ditions which would lead to their elevation. Again
Raffles must speak in his own words — " I have long
delayed writing to you in the expectation of leisure,
which I have ne^er found : but I cannot longer
88 • RAFFLED
decline the duty of giving you some information
regarding the state of our population, and the
means which are in progress for its amehoration
and improvement. My pubhc duties have called
me to different and distant countries, and a large
portion of my time hps necessarily been devoted to
political objects : but in the course of these, neither
the cause of the slave, nor the improvement of
those subjected to our influence, has been
forgotten. In Sumatra I had, in many respects,
a new field to tread : its population, for the most
part, is many centuries behind that of Java : and,
before any rational plan for general improvement
could be adopted, it is necessary not only that
much detailed information should be collected, but
that the principles and extent of our political
authority and influence should be clearly under-
stood and established."
He then tells of the state of things as he found
them, and notes with gratitude that his efforts to
improve matters had received the approval of the
higher authorities as founded on sound principles
of economy, expediency and humanity. " Thus
encouraged, I have not hesitated to prosecute my
plans with ardour and decision, and the results, as
far as they have yet been seen, have fully answered
my expectations. As much has been done as the
time and the peculiar circumstances of the country
and people have admitted, and the foundation has
at least been laid on which a better state of society
may be established."
'• Among the more striking irregularities which I
found to prevail was the encouragement and coun-
tenance given to slavery, by the entertainment on
IIAFFLI^S 80
the part of Government of a gang of negroes, in
number between two and three hundred. This
appeared to me so opposite to the Company's
geneiral practice and principles in India, and so
prejudicial to their character, that I did not hesi-
tate to take upon myself the measure of emanci-
pating the whole, and by this my first act to give
an earnest of the principles on which my future
Government would be conducted. A provision was
continued for the old and infirm, as well as the
children, and, as the latter are numerous, no time
was lost in affording them the means of education.
An institution for the Kaffir children was estab-
lished, and placed under the superintendence of
our chaplain. From this small beginning, origin-
ating in the abolition of slavery, may be traced the
progress we are now making on a more extensive
and enlarged scale throughout the Archipelago."
Sir Stamford then speaks of his visit to Bengal,
where he obtained the aid of British missionaries,
the famous trio, Carey, Marshman and Ward, from
whom he got the services of a son of Carey (who
was the first of all British missionaries to India).
Young Carey was well acquainted with school
work, and he accompanied Raffles on his return to
Bencoolen bringing with him a small font of types
in the Roman and native characters, to found a
printing establishment.
Mr. Raffles soon found that his well-intentioned
efforts on behalf of the native races were not ac-
ceptable to many of the resident Europeans,
specially those of the older generation, but he was *
able to add that he found that the strong prejudices
against the natives were wearing away, and he
fm RAFFLES
hoped that he had introduced into the superin-
tending committee enough of the new leaven of
charity and benevolence to prevent the institution
from running aground on the rocks of illiberality.
While the school committee were to confine their
care to this institution, another one was appointed
to direct their undivided and particular attention
to the causes v/hich might have produced the very
unsatisfactory state of affairs. The aim was to go
to the origin and root of the evil that the means,
which a more extensive and large view would give,
might be used to effect most desirable changes.
Raffles then confides in Wilberforce and gives
his views as to Missions and Missionaries, which
sentiments are very well worth considering, even
at this distance of time with all the added experi-
ence of a century and more of missionary en-
deavour.
" I must now carry you to a more extensive field
to obtain all the aid of your powerful patronage
and support for an institution, which is to operate
on an enlarged and still more important scale, and
is intended to complete the design that I have in
view : it is the keystone to the arch, and, when once
this is constructed and well cemented, holier and
better men may raise upon it such a superstruc-
ture as their duty to God may require. All that I
attempt is to pave the way for better things.
Although I am far from lukewarm towards higher
ends, I am content to confine all my views to the
enlargement of the human mind, and the general
spread of moral principles. In the present state of
these countries these are the first to be attended to,
that the mind may be prepared for religious truth
RAFFLES 91
and Christian discipline. It is true the peoples of
these islands are distinguished by the absence of the
spirit of intolerance and bigotry, which prevails on
the continent of India, and they place the fullest
confidence in the benevolence and liberality of our
government and institutions ; but we as yet see
them as a sea in a calm. I am far from opposing
missionaries, and the more we have of them the
better : but let them be enlightened men, and
placed in connection w4th the schools, and under
control." Raffles then returns to propound his
dream of what was called the Ultra-Ganges
scheme : —
" I must return to my Institution, which is
intended to be a native college for the education of
the higher order of the natives, and to afford t]ic
means of instruction to ourselves (it is well to note
this) in the 'native languages, and of prosecuting
our researches into the history, literature, and re-
sources of the Further East. When I tell you
that the effect of this is intended to be felt among
a population of not less than thirty millions, and
that its influence may eventually, and perhaps at
no distant date, extend to ten times that number,
it is not necessary to say more on the extent and
importance of the field : of its nature and interest
I need only refer you to the map of the world, and
request you to consider all those countries, lying
east and south of the Ganges, as included within
our range. It is from the banks of the Ganges to
the utmost limits of China and Japan, and to New
Holland, that the influence of our proposed institu-
tion is calculated to extend. Of these extensive
02 RAFFLES
countries no portion has a higher and a more
peciihar interest than these Eastern Islands."
Mr. Raffles asks Mr. Wilberforce to excuse him
that his private letter had so far exceeded its
proper limits, but, further more, he encloses a
copy of the paper that he had submitted to the
Marquis of Hastings on the same lines, and requests
the good offices of Wilberforce to aid in the objects
aimed at. To this end he gave full liberty to
circulate the paper as might be thought advisable.
" I am particularly anxious that the lamp we
have lighted should not be allowed to shine with
a dim or imperfect lustre : the spark has been
struck with enthusiasm, and, while I remain in this
country, the flame shall be fanned with ardour and
perseverance : but we look to a higher Power for
the oil which is to feed and support it, and, above
all, to the protecting and encouraging influence of
true principles and British philanthropy to shield
it, not only against the blasts of adversity, but
the no less destructive vapours of indifference and
ncfiflect. However anxious I may feel to devote
the best portion of my life, and however much my
fortune might justify a longer residence in this
country, I have reason to feel that my health is
not likely to carry me through more than five or
six years' continuance in these islands : it is, there-
fore, necessary that I should look forward to a
period when the influence of my personal presence
and exertions will be withdrawn. I am now en-
deavouring to lay the foundations as broad as
possible, and have already selected fit instruments
for the furtherance of my plans in several of the
more important stations : but, that I may raise
RAFFLES 93
more labourers for the field, it is important that
they should have a high and steady superintending
authority to look to, and have support at home as
the labourers in the African cause at all times have
had. If our objects and principles are the same,
and the field as wide and important, why should
this fair and interesting portion of the globe,
superior by far in extent of its population, and
equal in its resources, and so peculiar in its
character, be left to slumber in ignorance, while
the wilder shores of Africa, and the more distant
isles of the South Sea alone invite the attention of
the philanthropist?"
"' Hitherto it has been left to the mercy of the
Moor and the Dutchman, and it might be difficult
to decide which has been the most injurious. For
my part I am inclined to prefer the former, but
perhaps my prejudices against the Dutch may
carry me too far. Be that as it may, we are now
independent of both. The station which has been
established at Singapore, at the southern extremity
of the Malayan Peninsula, has given us the com-
mand of the Archipelago as well in peace as in war :
our commerce will extend to every part, and
British principles will be known and felt
throughout."
" I ought to apologise for the length of this
letter. I will not say I envy the African because
he enjoys so much larger a portion of your
thoughts and attention, but I cannot help adding
that I wish they were, even for a short time,
directed to the Malay, the Javan, the Sumatran,
the Bornean, the Avanese, the Siamese, the
Chinese, the Japanese, and the millions of others
94 RAFFLES
with wjiom I am daily in communication, and to
whom the name of Wilham Wilbcrforce, if not en-
tirely unknown, is only coupled with that of Africa.
I know, my dear sir, that the boundless goodness
of your heart, and the noble stretch of your mind
embraces at once the good of all mankind : but
perhaps from an impression that individual
exertions are best directed to one particular focus
or object, or more probably from the absence of
correct information of the importance and necessity
of your influence in these seas, the subject may not
have sufficiently attracted your attention."
" I have observed it noticed in a late publication
that it is upon Asiatic soil only that the advocates
of slave abolition are to gain their final victory,
and that upon the British Asiatic policy in the
development of the unbounded resources of Asia
depends the ascendency of the British character.
The writer most probably drew his conclusions
from very different premises, and they so strikingly
illustrate what I mean that I could not help
noticing them."
" You must remember also that we have many
of the woolly race scattered over these islands,
from the Andamans to New Guinea, and that there
have not been wanting people who consider them
the aborigines of the country, and that the Malay
language extends westward as far as Madagascar,
and that however remote these islands may be
from Africa geographically, and distinct from it
politically in the present condition of the world,
there are traces of a more intimate connection in
former times. I mention this to show that we have
claims upon you as the friend of Africa, for I am
RAFFLES 95
far from concurring in the opinion regarding the
aborigines of these islands, and rather consider the
Kaffirs we now find in them to have been brouglit
by traders in remote periods as slaves, as such they
are generally regarded and treated whenever
entrapped."
" The same political objection which might be
stated to the interference of your Society in
Bengal, where we have an extensive dominion and
an efficient Government to provide for all its
wants, does not apply to the country beyond the
Ganges. With these our intercourse is entirely
commercial, and our object is to raise the native
Governments into consideration and importance :
the stronger and more enlightened these are, the
safer our communication, the more extensive our
commerce, and the more important the connection.
There is hardly one of these states whose history,
resources and population, is known to the world.
A part of my plan is to encourage the collection of
all interesting details on these subjects, and I
could wish that the persons who devote their time
to these objects should possess the means of com-
municating the information to the public. You will
perceive that we are not idle, and thaf the spirit
which has gone forth only requires to be properly
directed and supported to lead to results of the
most promising nature."
In this connection Raffles tells Wilberforce that
he had handed over to a native chief a seal, which
he had made as a present to him., because of the
noble way in which the chief had acted towards
his former slaves. Under the British administra-
tion, he was asked, as others were, to register his
9G RAFFLES
family, domestic slaves whom lie had inherited.
He proudly answered : — "I will not register my
slaves : they shall be free : hitherto they have been
kept such, because it was the custom, and the
Dutch liked to be attended by slaves : for long
have I felt shame, and my blood has run cold
when I have reflected on what I once saw at
Batavia and Samarang, where human beings were
exposed for public sale, placed on a table and
examined like sheep and oxen."
Lady Raffles makes the remark that in Java the
slaves were the property of the Europeans and
Chinese alone : and that the native chiefs never re-
quired the services of slaves, nor engaged in the
traffic of slavery. But in this, I think, she cer--
tainly was mistaken, for the Malayan chiefs, Arabs
and many others, held slaves. In Malaya to-day
there is still a good deal of domestic slavery, more
or less concealed. It is only quite recently that
slavery has been made illegal in some of the Malay
States.
After one hundred years it is well to consider
what is the condition of Java and Netherlands
India. The contrast is very great, and much can
be said, and has been said, in favour of the Dutch
administration. One of the latest tributes is from
Lord Cromer in reviewing in the Spectator a book
by Donald Campbell Maclaine, who lived in Java
for twenty-three year§, where he had business con-
nections. For many years he was in the British
Consular Service. Married to a Dutch lady, he
lived on intimate terms of friendship with the
Dutch. His book he wrote in his later vears, and
RAFFLES 97
in it he says, "-The Dutch have their national
characteristics, as we have ours, but in honourable
methods, always taking into consideration their
desires for sureness, even if it is necessary slowness,
they have nothing to learn from any nation, and
would be able to give, perhaps, a good many points
to some. They are a people of very high integrity."
Lord Cromer writes : — " The system of adminis-
tration adopted by the Dutch bears a somewhat
close resemblance to that of the native states of
Lidia, save that in the latter the native rulers
enjoy a greater degree of independence than in
Java. The Dutch have been wise enough to
preserve the framework and outward and visible
signs of the old native administration. The people
are nominally ruled by their chiefs, who, however,
are mere puppets in the hands of the Dutch. The
native princes are kept in a good temper by re-
ceiving liberal subsidies to replace the loss of their
former incomes. Besides this, as Mr. Campbell
says, they have enormous incomes from their
private estates. The real power is vested in a
Governor-General, who is aided by a Council, con-
sisting of a Vice-President and four members.
There can be no doubt that under Dutch govern-
ment the material prosperity of the inhabitants of
Java has enormously increased. The Javans, too,
are a prolific race. In rather over one hundred
years the population has risen from three millions
to over thirty millions." Mr. Campbell observes
that this is a rate unequalled anywhere else in
the world.
Gottfried Simon gives the present population of
98 RAFFI.ES
the whole of the Dutch East Indies as forty-two
milHons, of which about thirty-five millions, some
five-sixths, are Mohammedans.
CHAPTER IX.
HIGH ENDEAVOUR.
Mr. Raffles took a keen and a practical interest
in all Christian work. So early as October 5, 1819,
writing to a friend from Bencoolen, he said, " I
have much to communicate to you on the subject
of our Bible Society and schools, of the latter
particularly. My attention during the last two
months has been very closely directed to the moral
condition of our population. Schools of the
Lancasterian plan have been adopted with success,
and I am now proposing the establishment of a
native college at Singapore. I mean in the first
instance to submit my plans to the Government
of Bengal, and, if possible, carry Lord Hastings
with me. Some aid from the Company is indis-
pensable, and his Lordship has evinced a general
desire to support similar institutions."
" I can assure you we are not idle, and, if we
do not make more noise about what we are doing,
it is because we are more intent on the real object
than the acquisition of credit for what we do : it
is the pleasure and satisfaction which the labour
itself affords, and the gratification a favourable
result may ensure that we work, and not for the
uncertain praise and applause of the day. I en-
close the first report of our Bible Society : it says
but little but to the purpose, and it may be in-
TOO raffi.es
teresting as the first production of a small press
which I have established at Bencoolen."
The same month of October, 1819, finds him on
board the brig " Favourite " on his solitary way
to Calcutta, for he had to sail without his wife, as
all the accommodation the captain could offer was
to arrange a part of the hold of the ship. " I am
once more at sea. On deliberate consideration I
resolved to proceed to Bengal for the advantage of
personal communication. The size of the vessel,
the season of the year, about the change of the
monsoon, have weighed with me in leaving Sophia
(his wife) at Bencoolen : distressing as the separa-
tion must be, I do not regret that I am alone, for
we have experienced very bad weather, and it is as
much as I can do to stand up against all the
privations and annoyances of the vessel."
" My views of the Eastern Islands are extensive,
and, I think, important to our commercial and
political interests. The field is large, new, and
interesting, and in spite of all your service, self, I
can assure you, is never viewed or reflected upon
by me with any other feelings than those of
patriotism, benevolence, and duty. Hitherto you
have not had a word of my commercial plans, I
will give you some account of these. Here my
measures have met with general approbation.
They are admitted by the Supreme Government to
be founded on sound principles of economy, good
government, and humanity."
" My absence from the seatx)f government, with
little or no communication for upwards of eleven
months, during which the charge of the place
necessarily devolved on a person who did not com-
RAFFLES 101
prehend the principles on which I acted, has
afforded the means of proving that there was noth-
ing in the nature of these principles calculated to
create commotion, or to occasion dangerous
consequences : that, in fact, such an apprehension
was a mere bugbear created in the confused
noddles of those who were ignorant or afraid of
their advantage, and supported those who knew
no better : that innovation and reform are
attended with difficulties and dangers, no one will
deny, but it is for him that carries them into effect
to be prepared to meet and subdue them as they
arise. I wish, however, those who were so ready
to declare the impossibility of the change would
now admit they were mistaken, and state the
grounds of their misconception. They could not
resist giving me at least the credit of overcoming
what they conceived impossible. I would then
simply ask their opinion on the contrast between
what is and what was. You will recollect a con-
versation we had, previous to my embarking, on a
very serious subject. To prove to you that I am
not inattentive to these important interests on the
largest scale, I refer you to what we have done
towards the amelioration, civilization, and im-
provement of our population, the only rational
steps which can be taken for eventually spreading
the advantages of a higher nature, which we have
derived from the comforts of revelation and
religion."
There was always a good sound sense of real,
virile strength, and a fine, brave playfulness in our
hero.' In writing to this same friend, he says : —
" My health and constitution will not admit of my
J 02 RAFFLES
remaining many years in India, and I must en-
deavour, by an increased activity, to make up for
want of time. When do you think I shall get
home ? Will seven years' ' banishment ' be enough
for all my sins ? or must I linger till I can sin no
more ?"
Letters written during this voyage are of great
interest. To the Duchess of Somerset, under date
of November 9, 1819, in the Bay of Bengal, Sir
Stamford writes : — "I had hardly arrived at
Bencoolen when events occurred which made this
voyage indispensable. An opening seems now to
be afforded for extending my views and plans. If
I succeed I shall have enough to occupy my
attention while I remain in the East : but if not, I
can only return to Bencoolen, and enjoy domestic
retirement in the bosom of my family."
" In this country, you will be happy to hear, we
have completely turned the tables on the Dutch.
The occupation of Singapore has been the death-
blow to all their plans : and I trust that our
political and commercial interests will be ade-
quately secured, notwithstanding the unhandsome
and ungenerous manner in which ministers have
treated me individually, or the indifference they
have shown to the subject. I am perfectly aware
that they would not like the agitation of the
question : but they ought to have been aware that
it could not be avoided, and that, however easy it
may be in the Cabinet to sacrifice the best interests
of the nation, there are spirits and voices en-
gendered by principles of our constitution that will
not remain quiet under it. But a truce to politics :
you are already informed that Lady Raffles pre-
RAFFI.es 103
sented me with a son and heir while at Penang.
He is a fine stout boy, and as bold as a lion : the
reverse of your goddaughter in almost everything.
It is now a month since I left them, and two more
will elapse before I see them.''
" I intended to have sent your Grace a detailed
account of my mission to Achin, where I had to
put the crown on the proper head : but the subject
is so mixed with political matter that, I fear, it
would be of but little interest. What can you care
about a kingdom at the other end of the world,
where the people have no peculiar virtues to re-
commend them ? I was detained in the country
for two months, and, to give you an idea of ni}''
employment, it may be sufficient to state that our
proceedings filled upwards of a thousand pages of
the Company's largest-sized paper. This is the
laborious way in which we are sometimes obliged
to do business in India, and will perhaps account
for my unwillingness to enlarge farther on a sub-
ject of which I must be pretty well tired."
To his cousin, the Rev. Dr. Raffles, he wrote,
after telling of his efforts in the Bible Society work
and his plans for the college at Singapore—"' If you
refer to the map and observe the commanding
position of Singapore, situated at the extremity of
the Malay Peninsula, you will see at once what a
field is open for our operations. The Baptist
Missionary Society has lately written to me on the
subject of sending out missionaries. My answer
is encouraging, and I have accompanied it by some
general observations on the plan of conversion. We
have already one young man (Carey), and a small
printing press : but we require active zeal, and I
101 RAFFLES
shall find enough to do for all you can send out :
but let us make haste — years roll on very fast.
Two years have elapsed since I left England, and in
live or six more I hope to think of returning.
There is no political objection whatever to
missionaries in this j^art of the East, and, so far
from obstructing, they may be expected to hasten
and assist the plans which arc already in
operation."
" I wish to bespeak your good offices, and the
exertion of ail your energies, in the support of an
institution I am about to form for generally edu-
cating the higher class of natives. I have written
to Mr. Wilberforce on the subject. I promise
glorious results, and all I ask is support and en-
couragement, not so much for myself, but to aid
and foster a proper spirit in those who must prac-
tically assist, and on whom the immediate super-
intendence and labour must fall, when I am over
the seas and far away. All improvements of this
nature must be slow and gradual, and we should
look a good deal ahead. The short time that I may
remain in India will only serve to set the machine
in motion, and how uncertain after all is life !"
Writing to another friend, Sir Stamford speaks
of the great importance of the island of Billiton,
lying midway between Banka and Borneo, and of
other paits he had in view for a large forward
policy of development. Some ports which had all
along kept out the power of the Dutch, by closing
their trade down, were now prepared to reopen, if
assured of the alliance of the British and the non-
interference of the Dutch. Raffles argued that an
establishment at Billiton of the same kind as at
RAFFLKS 105
Singapore would give Britain a great advantage.
Singapore commanded the Straits of Malacca.
Billiton commanded the Straits of Sunda, and
would protect the trade to and from China by that
route in the days of sailing ships, as all trade was
in those times, which now seem like ages ago.
The noble unselfish spirit of Raffles is clearly
seen in some of his private correspondence at that
period. To the Duchess of Somerset — " I do all
I can to raise myself above these feelings in the
hope that there is, even in this world, more happi-
ness than we weak mortals can comprehend. I
have had enough sorrow in my short career : and
it still comes too ready a guest without my
bidding : but I drive it from my door, and do my
best to preserve my health and spirits that I may
last out a few years longer, and contribute, as far
as I can, to the happiness of others." He was
then writing from Calcutta, and was after his
voyage, under such disagreeable circumstances,
feeling very unwell. To continue — " But away with
this melancholy strain. I fear I am getting as bad
as those to whom I would preach, and, in truth,
I am heavy and sick at heart. I could lay me down
and cry and weep for hours together, and yet I
know not why. except that I am unhappy. But for
my dear sister's arrival, I should still have been a
solitary wretch in this busy capital. Of my public
views and plans I have not much to say : we re-
main quite neutral, pending the reference to
Europe. . . . I do not set my heart on any-
thing much, save returning to England as soon as
possible. On my return to Bencoolen I shall
probably be able to speak-more decidedly. . . .
lOG RAFFLES
I must look out for some cottage or farm, and,
profiting by the distresses of the great landlords,
endeavour to sell butter and cheese to advantage."
From'a letter of January, 1820, we learn that he
was detained a month longer than he expected, on
account of a severe and trying illness. He had
just got on board ship : and reported himself con-
valescent, " Singapore, I am happy to say, con-
tinues to rise most rapidly in importance and re-
sources. It is already one of the first ports of the
East, and I doubt not will receive very favourable
reports by every homeward-bound ship. I could
write volumes in its favour, but it may suffice to
say that it has in every respect answered beyond
my most sanguine expectations."
" On leaving Calcutta you will expect some
opinion from me. Here, as in England, I find
that my presence has served to dissipate many a
cloud, and that opposition has receded as I have
approached. There is a very favourable dis-
position to me personally, but, I believe, still more
so to my plans, which are now approved of, and
upheld by all descriptions of persons, high and
low. The following note which I have received
from a high and influencing authority will speak
for itself : — ' Your very interesting report, re-
garding the commercial relations of the Eastern
Islands, is still in circulation with the members of
government. It will not, probably, lead to any
practical result in this country, but will, of course,
be brought to the notice of the authorities at home.
I should sincerely rejoice to see adopted the ad-
mirable sc'heme which you have sketched for the
organization and management of our Eastern pos-
RAFFLES 107
sessions. I am surprised that the commercial men
of Calcutta have not more distinctly marked their
sense of the great advantages likely to accrue to
their commercial interests of India and England
from the successful prosecution of your plan.' "
But Sir Stamford adds : — " M'^ith regard to the
commercial men nothing can exceed the attention
I have received from them : they gave me a public
dinner, and made every demonstration to me
personally during my stay : but they wait till I
leave to send in a written representation to Govern-
ment, which, for many reasons, it is better should
be done during my absence."
CHAPTER X.
Bencoolen and the battaks.
SiE Stamford Raffles on his return to Ben-
coolen, when off Sumatra, February 12, 1820, un-
burdens himself to the Duchess of Somerset. "You
will have condemned me for so long a silence, yet
when you know the cause you will cease to think
unkindly. For the last month of my stay in Cal-
cutta I was confined to my bed and forbidden to
write or even to think. I was removed from my
room to the ship with very little strength, but I
am happy to say I am already nearly recovered :
the sight of Sumatra, and the health-inspiring
breezes of the Malayan islands have effected a
wonderful change. Though I still feel weak, and
am as thin as a scarecrow, I may fairly say that
I am in good health and spirits."
He recommends her ladyship to read Mr.
Marsden's History of Sumatra as to the fact that
the Battaks were cannibals — " Now do not be
surprised at what I shall tell you regarding them,
for I tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
To prepare you a little, I must promise that the
Battaks are an extensive and populous nation of
Sumatra, who occupy the whole of that part of the
island lying between Achin and Menangkabu,
reaching to both shores. The coast is but thinly
inhabited, but in'the interior the people are said,
to be as thick as the leaves of the forest, perhaps
RAFFLES ' 109
one to two million of souls. They have a regular
government, deliberative assemblies, and are great
orators : nearly the whole of them can write, and
they possess a language and written character
peculiar ' to themselves. They are warlike,
extremely fair and honourable in all their dealings,
most deliberate in all their proceedings : their
country is highly cultivated, and crimes are few.
Mr. Marsden has not gone half far enough in saying
they are cannibals. 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 only in a fit of
revenge."
Raffles had paid a visit to Tappanooly in the
heart of the Battak country to satisfy himself as
to the facts reported as to their cannibal habits.
Before going he had caused enquiries to be made,
but was determined to learn at first hand the
actual state of affairs. He writes : — " I have said
the Battaks are not a bad people, and I still think
so, notwithstanding they eat one another, and
relish the flesh of a man better than that of an ox
or pig. You must merely consider that I am
giving an account of a novel state of society. The
Battaks are not savages. They have codes of laws
of great antiquity, and it is from a regard for these
laws, and a veneration for the institutions of their
ancestors that they eat one another : the law de-
clares that for certain crimes, four in number, the
criminals shall be eaten alive. The same law
declares that in great wars, one district with
another, it shall be lawful to eat the prisoners,
whether taken alive, dead, or in their graves. In
110 RAFFLES
the four cases of crimes the crhninal is duly tried
and condemned by a competent tribunal. After
the evidence is heard sentence is pronounced, then
the chiefs drink a dram each. This last ceremony
is equivalent to signing and sealing with us. Two
or three days then elapse to give time for
assembling the people. The prisoner is then
brought forward on the day appointed, and fixed
to a stake with his hands extended. The party
injured comes up and takes the first choice,
generally the ears : the rest then, according to their
rank, take the pieces they like. After all have
partaken the chief goes up and cuts off the head,
which he carries home as a trophy. The head is
hung up in front of the house. In devouring the
fiesh it is sometimes eaten raw, sometimes grilled,
but' it must be eaten on the spot. Limes, salt and
pepper are always in readiness, and they s?)me-
times eat rice with the flesh, but never drink toddy
or spirits : many carry bamboos with them, and
filling them with blood, drink it off. The assembly
consisted of men alone, as the flesh of men is pro-
hibited to the females : it is said, however, that
they get a bit by stealth now and again. I really
do believe that many of the people prefer human
flesh to any other."
".On expressing my surprise at the continuance
of such extraordinary practices, I was informed it
was usual 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 neigh-
bours, forming a circle, danced round them crying
out, ' When the fruit is ripe, then it will fall.' So
RAFFLES 111
soon as the victims become fatigued, and can hold
out no longer, they fall down, when all hands cut
them up and make a hearty meal of them. This
practice has been abandoned, and thus a step in
civilization has been attained, and, therefore, there
are hopes for the future. It is calculated that no
less than sixty to one hundred Battaks are eaten in
a year in times of peace."
" I was going to give your Grace much about
the treatment of the females and children, but I
will conclude, entreating you not to think the
worse of me for this horrible revelation. You know
that I am far from wishing to paint any of the
Malay race in the worse colours, but yet I must
tell the truth. Notwithstanding the practices I
have related, it is my determination to take Lady
Raffles into the interior to spend a month or so
with the Battaks. 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, then throw it into
the fire : and still believe that, though half a can-
nibal and living among cannibals, I am no 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 Battak
feast, I should be thinking of kind friends at
Maiden Bradly."
In writing to Mr. V/. Marsden at the same time
he speaks of the forthcoming work by Crawfurd,
and mentions that he has a good deal of matcriiil
that Marsden might find useful for a new edition of
112 RAFFLES
his work on Sumatra, and quietly says that he is
not desirous of publishing, and yet would be sorry
if the information were lost. He writes of his
hopes and plans for the college at Singapore, and
asks to be favoured with the views of Marsden on
that and other subjects. He anticipates that he
would have to face full five months' arrears of
work when he got back to Bencoolen. A fortnight
later he again writes to Marsden, telling him of his
last visit to the Battaks. Sir Stamford gives the
evidence he had procured, which he describes as
clear and concurring testimony of all parties that
the common practice in their cannibalism was not
to kill the victims till the whole of the flesh was
cut off and eaten, should they live so long. The
bones were scattered abroad after the flesh had
been eaten, and the head, which belonged to the
chief, alone was kept. They did not eat the bowels,
but liked the heart. (The eating of the heart
seems to have been common enough among semi-
barbarous tribes. The present writer used to hear
the Rev. George Smith, of Swatow, tell how the
local Chinese, in their clan fights, in the fifties and
sixties, used to tear out the hearts of their
enemies and eat them. A remnant, perhaps, of a
former cannibal custom).
Raffles enters at length to describe what he had
learned of the Battaks. He says : — " I could give
you many more details, but the above may be
sufficient to show that our friends are even worse
than you have represented them. I have a great
deal to say on the other side of the character, for
the Battaks have many virtues. I prize them
highly. However horrible eating a man ma^-^
RAFFLES 113
sound in European ears, I question whether the
party suffers so much, or the punishment itself is
worse than in the European tortures of two
centuries ago. Here they certainly are eaten up at
once, and the party seldom suffers more than for
a few minutes. Adverting to the possible origin
of this practice, it was observed that formerly they
ate their parents when they were too old to work.
I have arranged to pay a visit to Toba, and the
banks of the great lake, in the course of next year.
Lady Raffles will, I hope, accompany me, and I
shall endeavour to give up full six weeks for the
trip. I am perfectly satisfied we shall be safe, and
I hardly know any people on whom I would sooner
rely than the Battaks.*'
In this connection it is well to note that Mr.
Ward, who was one of the famous missionary trio
of Serampore, four days after his arrival at
Tappanooly commenced an excursion into the
Battak country with Mr. Burton. This was in 1820,
and Mr. Burton, a,s Lady Raffles relates, had got
permission to leave Bcncoolen to settle, with his
wife and family, in the Battak country for the
purpose of establishing schools, and devoting his
life to the education and uplift of these people.
He was exceedingly well received, and the people
gladly availed themselves of the means of instruc-
tion thus afforded them : but after years of hard
work both he and his wife fell a sacrifice to the
climate. A tender tribute is paid to them by Lady
Raffles, who bears her testimony to their bright-
ness of faith, their humble trust in God, their total
sacrifice of all personal comfort, with the deter-
mination there to live and die : there, to devote
Ill RAFFLES
themselves to their labour of love, in the hope of
conveying the glad tidings of the Gospel to those
who were yet to learn that the Son of God died for
them.
Ward and Barton penetrated as far as the lake
of Toba. The hill people, thousands of them
crowding to see white people for the first time,
received them in a way which recalled what they
had read of the reception of the first visits of the
Spaniards to South America, Some venerated
them as gods, paying them great respect. At a
gathering of the chiefs the objects of their mission
were explained. They assured Mr, Burton of a
hearty welcome, and so far as he and his family
went, they redeemed their promise. In 1834, how-
ever, the two American missionaries, Munson and
Lyman, were killed and eaten by the Battaks. No
other missionaries attempted to settle among them
till the year 1856, The Dutch missionary. Van
Asselt, worked in the southern part of the Battak
country, which was then already overrun with
Islam, and he met with but little success.
In 1861 the Rhenish Missionary Society sent its
pioneer. Dr. I. L. Mommensen, who has had such
great and signal success among the purely heathen
tribes of the Battaks in the north. The story of
this work is one of the most delightful of any in
the Middle East, whether in regard to the German
or other workers, the Battak Christians themselves,
the teachers and the taught. The Mission In-
spector, Dr. John Warneck, speaks of the wide-
spread influence of this endeavour, specially during
the last twenty years, northwards from lake Toba
and finding an entrance into every district. In the
RAFFLES 115
south, too, even among the nominally Moham-
medan distriets as well as among the heathen, it
is confidently expected that the time is not far
distant when all will be Christian. But stubborn
resistance may be looked for from those tribes that
have embraced Mohammedanism.
The total Battak population to-day is estimated
at between 600,000 and 700,000 : 103,528 of these
have been received into the Christian Church by
baptism, and there are in addition 11,200 candi-
dates for baptism. There are 29 ordained native
pastors, 659 preachers, teachers and evangelists,
and 1125 elders who serve the Church as voluntary
helpers. There are 494 schools attended by
27,485 children. Missionaries have no longer any
trouble in gaining admission to heathen tribes. On
the contrary, they are frequently entreated to
come, erect schools, and give instruction for
baptism. It is harvest-time upon a great scale.
CHAPTER XI.
SINGAPORE.
By March, 1820, Sir Stamford Raffles was again
settled in Bencoolen. Having done his great life-
work, without quite knowing it, he now devoted
himself to his favourite pursuits. A charming
picture is drawn, by his widow, of this period of
their lives. He built a country-house, and soon as
one room was ready, he took with him part of the
family and occupied himself in cultivating the
ground, forming spice plantations to a large extent
and introduced the cultivation of coffee. The labour
force were convicts, who were settled in a village,
and soon became a useful community. The beauty,
the retirement, the quiet domestic life which he led
in this happy retreat soon restored his health. He
rose at four in the morning, worked in his garden
(in which he alM^ays planted all the seeds himself)
until breakfast, then wrote and studied till dinnerj
after which he examined his plantations, always
accompanied by his children, and often walked
about until a late hour of the night.
From a letter we learn that much as he enjoyed
this place, and his life in the bosom of his family,
he regretted tha,t the civil servants had literally
nothing to do in Bencoolen, and adds that they
ought to be transferred to some other settlement,
and not })e allowed to waste their time, life and
health there in idleness.
RAFFLES 117
To Mr. Marsden he wrote of his purpose of send-
ing the whole of his zoological collection home,
which was to lead to the establishment of the Zoo-
logical Gardens, of which he was the real founder
as his bust in the Lion House testifies. About this
time he wrote, "I have thrown politics away : and,
since I must have nothing more to do with men,
have taken to the wilder but less sophisticated
animals of the woods. Our house is on one side a
perfect menagerie, on another a perfect flora.*'
The outstanding event not only in the life of Sir
Stamford, but in the whole history of the Far East,
was undoubtedly the founding of Singapore, which
shaped the entire subsequent course of shipping,
commerce, agriculture and industry with the
attendant political events, and the expansion of
British influence from the Straits of Malacca to
China and Japan, and to all the countries that lie
between and spread themselves out to the
Southern Ocean.
After Raffles had made his peace with the Mar-
quis of Hastings at Calcutta, and gained the object
of his heart's desire, through Lord Hastings really
inclined to recommend the exchange of Ben-
coolen for Malacca, Raffles from his knowledge of
Malayan history, and his keen statesman's view of
the unique natural position of Singapore, had his
mind fully made up, and was just waiting his
opportunity.
The statement that the Karimons were the origi-
nal selection of Sir Stamford, for the contemplated
British station, is contradicted by Lady Raflles,
who says her husband, merely out of courtesy to
Colonel Farquhar, while he was Resident of
118 RAFFLES
Malacca, surveyed these islands, but with no in-
tention of diverting his attention from the classic
soil of Singapore.
The fateful day and hour were drawing near, and
we find Raffles writing Marsden, on December 12,
1818, on board ship, off the Sandheads : — "' 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 to stand upon. My attention
is principally turned to Johore, and you must not
be surprised if my next letter is dated from the
site of the ancient city of Singapura." Knowing
that he could not get his object carried out with
any assistance from the government of Penang,
Raffles wrote, from the mouth of the Ganges, to
the officer commanding the troops at Bencoolen,
requesting him to bring the needed military force
round, by the Straits of Sunda, where a vessel
would meet him with instructions.
Again on January 16, 1810, he writes : — " God
only knows where next you may hear from me.
By neglecting to occupy the place we lost Rhio,
and shall have difficulty in establishing ourselves
elsewhere, but I shall certainly attempt it. I think
I may rely on the Marquis : his last words to me
were that I might depend on him."
Sir Stamford was then on his visit to Achin, and
had to call at Penang, where he had nothing but
cold water thrown on his plans, because Penang
and the powers that then were had failed to find a
site for a British station, but Raffles, son of an old
sea-dog, was a man who knew his own mind, and
was not to be deterred by difficulties, or dis-
couragements. The Dutch had, as they thought,
RAFFLES 119
succeeded in occupying every available station
within the Eastern Archipclajjo, and they bad not
hesitated to declare their supremacy, and to
publish their prohibitory regulations for the ex-
clusion of British commerce, and the exercise of
their own sovereignty over and throughout the
Eastern Seas.
Sir Stamford, with the innate sense of the fitness
of the thing he was doing, confirmed by much
thought, backed by his extensive reading and a
wide sweep of the eventualities for which he was
providing, proceeded straight from Penang,
strongly determined to accomplish the duty en-
trusted to him, and in ten days' sail, after quitting
Prince of Wales' Island, he landed and hoisted the
British flag at Singapore on the 29th day of
January, 1819. The next day a preliminary agree-
ment v/as made with the Tumunggong of Johore,
and the definite treaty was signed on February 5th
by the Sultan and Sir T. S. Raffles. The celebra-
tion of the foundation of the settlement of Singa-
pore is fixed as the 6th February, on which day
the proclamation of the British Establishment there
was issued.
Sir Stamford, in the pride of his heart, writing to
his ever faithful and appreciative friend, Mr.
Marsden, says : — " Here I am in Singapore, true
to my word, and in the enjoyment of all the
pleasures which a footing on such classic ground
must inspire. The lines of the old city, and its
defences, are still to be traced, and within its ram-
parts the British Union Jack waves unmolested.
(Date January 31st). ^
" Most certainly the Dutch never had a factory
IJO RAFFLES
in the island of Singapore : and it does not appear
to me that their recent arrangements, with a sub-
ordinate authority at Rhio, can, or ought to,
interfere with our permanent estabhshment here."
" This place possesses an excellent harbour, and
everything that can be desired for a British port
in the island of St. John's, which forms the south-
western point of the harbour. We have com-
manded an intercourse with all the ships passing
through the Straits of Singapore. We are within
a week's sail of China, close to Siam, and in the
very seat of the Malayan empire. This, therefore,
will probably be my last attempt. If I am deserted
now I would fain return to Bencoolen and become a
philosopher. We are making very considerable
collections in natural history : and if the political
arrangements, which I now contemplate, are
adopted and confirmed, we shall have it in our
power to do a great deal in every department."
Colonel Farquhar (whose daughter the present
writer had the pleasure of meeting in Edinburgh
some twenty-five years ago) was chosen by Raffles
to be placed in charge of Singapore, with the per-
mission of Bengal, and he delayed his return home
to take up the appointment. Sir Stamford was
only a few days in Singapore on this occasion, for
we find him writing from Penang, on February
19th, 1819, telling of the occupation of Singapore,
which he describes as one of the safest and most
extensive harbours, with every facility for protect-
ing shipping in time of war.
To the Duchess of Somerset, he writes also from
Penang, on February 22, 1819. He tells of his
constant rambles, and says it seems to him that he
RAFFLES 121
is never to enjoy rest and repose, whieh he at heart
so much longed for. He briefly describes his re-
turn from Calcutta to Penang, and asks her Grace
to look at the map and trace the whereabouts of
Singapore. He refers to the fact that this island
was the site of the ancient maritime capital of the
Malays, within the walls of the old fortifications,
razed before he landed, and that he had erected
the pole on which he had left the British flag
flying, where, he trusted, it would long triumph-
antly wave.
Raffles then proceeded to Achin to carry out the
duties he was expected to attend to before taking
over Singapore. The task there was to decide on
whose right it was to wear the crown. A native
merchant settled in Penang had endeavoured to
establish a claim to it. By his command of money
he had done all he could to strengthen his claim,
and actually tried to bribe Lady Raffles, as she
says, with the only bribe ever offered to her. This
was a casket of diamonds which was presented, and
as Lady Raffles records, ** it seemed to create much
surprise that it was not even looked at !"
Sir Stamford was absent three months on this
business. On his return he only stayed a few days
in Penang and then got back to Singapore. Here
he took a keen interest in marking out the future
town, and gave Colonel Farquhar his instructions
as to the management and development of the new
colony.- Several letters of his, under date of June,
1819, evince his great satisfaction in having gained
the object of his constant endeavour. " I will say
nothing of the importance which I attach to the
permanence of the position I have taken up at
122 RAFFLES
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. I am sure
that you will wish me success : if my plans are
confirmed at home, it is my intention to make this
my principal residence, and to devote the remain-
ing years of my stay in the East to the advance-
ment of a colony, which, in every way in which
it can be viewed, bids fair to be one of the most
important, and at the same time one of the least
expensive and troublesome which we possess. Our
object is not territory, but trade : a great com-
mercial emporium, and u fulcrum, whence we may
extend our influence politically as circumstances
may hereafter require. By taking immediate pos-
session, we put a negative to the Dutch claims of
exclusion, and at the same time revive the droop-
ing confidence of our allies and our friends. One
free port in these seas must eventually destroy the
spell of Dutch monopoly : and what Malta is in
the West that may Singapore become in the East."
He tells of his favourite recreations, apart from
his public duties of administration and the dis-
cussions with the Dutch authorities. He con-
tinued to make considerable additions to his natural
history collections and to botany, and ever was on
the alert to learn all he could of the peoples who
came under his notice, either from first hand
knowledge, or from the reports and writings of
others. He held that Sumatra, which had few
relics of former civilization and arts, which
abounded in Java, was probably a thousand years
behind that island,
RAFFLES 123
To the Duchess he writes telling of the birth#of
a son in Penang, while he was away in Achin : —
" One of the most beautiful boys that eyes ever
beheld. He is three months to-day. Our troubles
are not yet over, as we have a sea voyage (to
Bencoolen) of at least a month before us."
" My new colony thrives most rapidly. Weiiave
not been established four months, and it has re-
ceived an accession of population exceeding live
thousand, principally Chinese, and their number is
daily increasing. You may easily conceive with
what zeal I apply myself to the clearing of forests,
cutting of roads, building of towns, framing of
laws, etc."
" It bids fair to be the next port to Calcutta.
You take my word for it this is by far the most
important station in the East : and, as far as naval
superiority and commercial interests are concerned,
of much higher value than whole continents of
territory."
One of the results of this visit to Achin was that
Raffles was able to write to Mr. Marsden, and re-
port that he had found a fine harbour on the north
side of the island of Pulau Way, the best in the
Achin dominions, and until then unknown to
Europeans. This we have seen in reccjit years
opened up by the Hollanders as a port of call, a
wireless, and a coaling station, which is now well
known as Sabang.
Sir Stamford tells Sir Robert Hugh Inglis, on
the eve of his return to Bencoolen, that " under
any circumstances Bencoolen would have struck
me as more insignificant and unimportant than any
one of the twenty-two Residencies lately under my
124 RAFFLES
authority as Lieutenant-Governor of Java." He
gives good and sufficient reasons why Singapore
should be his scene of action rather than this out-
of-the-world place. But he never let a prospect of
other duties, under different circumstances, deter
him from making the best of things as they were,
wherever he happened to be placed.
He made visits into the interior, as we have al-
ready stated, and on two occasions Lady Raffles
accompanied him in journeys to Menangkabu, that
interesting country from which came the Malays of
Malacca and Johore, whose language forms the
standard for the widely scattered Malays over the
Peninsula, Borneo and many other islands.
Raffles recounts how he had refused to let the
Dutch Commissioner take charge of Padang, by far
the most important, indeed the only valuable
station, on the west coast of Sumatra. The reason
being that Raffles wanted an outstanding account
between the two governments settled before allow-
ing the Dutch flag to be run up, because he had
found that, once he had allowed the Dutch flag to
be hoisted at Java, the Dutch would do nothing
to settle their financial obligations. The result was
the return of the Commissioner to Batavia for
further instructions. Then, as the Dutch refused
to waive the point, Raffles remained resolute and
referred the matter to Bengal. Meanwhile he de-
cided to make himself acquainted with Padang, and
to attempt a visit to Menangkabu.
It is best always to let Sir Stamford speak for
himself : — " Menangkabu, the ancient capital of
the Malayan empire, of which Europeans in these
seas had heard so much, but which no European
RAFFLES 125
had yet seen. The difficulties far exceeded those
we had met with at Pasiimah, but I determined to
overcome them. We accompHshed our object, and
during a journey of fifteen days, principally on
foot, we passed over a distance of, at least, two
hundred and fifty miles, which no European foot
had before trodden, crossing mountains not less
than five thousand feet in elevation : sometimes
whole days along the course of rapid torrents, on
others in highly cultivated plains, and throughout
the whole in a country in the highest degree
interesting."
'' We here found the wreck of a great empire
hardly known to us by name, and the evident
source whence all the Malayan colonies now
scattered along the coast of the Archipelago first
sprang, a population of between one and two
millions, a cultivation highly advanced, and
manners, customs, and productions in a great
degree new and undescribed. I can hardly
describe to you the delight with which I first
entered the rich and populous country of Menang-
kabu, and discovered after four days' journey,
through the mountains and forests, this great
source of interest and wealth.
" To me it is quite classic ground, but, had I
found nothing more than the ruins of an ancient
city, I should have felt repaid for the journey, but
when, in addition to this, I found so extensive a
population, so fertile a country, and so admirable
a post whence to commence and effect the civiliza-
tion of Sumatra, the sensation was of a nature that
does not admit of description. Instead of jealousy
and distrust, on the part of the natives, they re-
120 RAFFLES
ccived us with the utmost hospitality, and though
their manners were rude, and sometimes annoying,
it was impossible to misunderstand their intentions,
which were most friendly. They have but one
request, that I would not allow the Dutch to come
to Padang. (They assigned as their reason — ' For
the twenty years that the place had been in our
possession great changes had taken place, new
interests had arisen, children then unborn had
become men, and those who were friends with the
Dutch were now no more.') I pacified them by
receiving an address, which they wrote in public, to
the King of England, soliciting his attention to
their interests. I found, on subsequent enquiry,
that the Dutch influence had never extended
beyond the mountains, but had been expressly
limited to the western side of them, so did not
hesitate to enter into a commercial treaty of
friendship and alliance with the Sultan of Menang-
kabu, as the Lord paramount of all the Malay
countries, subject to the approval of Lord
Hastings."
Raffles complains that the Dutch did all they
could to prevent not only the orderly commerce of
the British in these seas, Init also their determina-
tion to keep us out of the Archipelago altogether,
and argued that, unless we immediately occupied
some station, for the security of »ur own trade, it
would be in the ])ower of the Dutch, without direct
acts of hostility, to interfere with it, and seriously
embarrass our future intercourse.
By the Peace of Amiens, this convention with
Holland, had placed British interests in a parlous
state in the East, without the politicians in Great
RAFFLES 127
Britain at all realising what they had done by
being parties to the compact. But the man on the
spot he knew. He told Sir Robert Inglis that the
case called loudly for the interference of the
powers in Europe.
Sir Stamford writes : — " From the period of our
first establishment in India our interests and
policy have been opposed to those of the Dutch.
We found them in possession of the sovereignty
of Java and the Moluccas, and, by an arrangement
with the different chiefs of the Archipelago, enjoy-
ing the monopoly of the whole trade. In order
to maintain this monopoly unimpaired, they first
claimed the sovereignty of the seas, and refused
admission to our ships, but our interests, parti-
cularly as connected with China, soon over-ruled
this claim, and a free navigation was admitted.
We had, however, no sooner obtained this than we
felt ourselves entitled to participate in some of the
advantages of the Eastern commerce. We found
that European as well as Indian manufactures were
in constant demand, and, as the Dutch power de-
clined, the enterprise of our merchants and the
dealing of the natives became more daring, until
at last the former traded openly, and the latter
declared their independence of Dutch control."
" Where the Dutch authority was not actually
withdrawn a compromise was made with the local
resident, and, with the exception of Java and the
Moluccas, the English at last found themselves in
possession of all the valuable trade of the
Archipelago. This trade, it is true, was established
on the decline and ruin of the Dutch power : but
in order to secure it, we felt ourselves perfectly
128 RAFFLES
justified in founding the settlement of Penang, and
our right to a fair share of the southern trade has
never been questioned. At last, in 1795, we took
possession, on account of the Stadholder, of the im-
portant stations of Malacca and Padang. Although
these, as well as the Moluccas, were restored by the
treaty of Amiens (1802) they have remained in our
hands till now : the Dutch power being too weak to
attempt the resumption of such distant settlements.
Thus for twenty years have our traders had an un-
restricted intercourse with the different states of
the Archipelago, while the native vessels were at
liberty to come without molestation to our settle-
ments at Penang and Malacca."
" I come now to another period in the history of
these islands. In 1811 we conquered Java, and
from that time became supreme over the East as
well as the West of India."
" The instructions to Lord Minto, which
authorized the conquest, directed that, after dis-
mantling the fortifications, the country should be
given up in independence to the native chiefs.
Holland at that time did not exist as a nation, and
the prospect of transferring Java to France was not
contemplated. The humane and benevolent mind
revolted at the idea of suddenly transferring back
to the natives a colony which had been in possession
of European authority for two centuries. If such
a policy were to be pursued, he conceived that it
ought to be gradual : and while he took upon him-
self the responsibility of suspending, pending the
reference to Europe, the rigid enforcement of the
orders he had received, he did not hesitate to say
that he had done so, and publicly to assure the
RAFFLES I'JO
natives that they would, in the meantime, be
allowed every degree of national liberty and inde-
pendence consistent with the safety of the pro-
visional government he had established. On this
principle my government was regulated."
" You may judge with what surprise we re-
ceived a copy of the convention (that of the Peace
of Vienna, 1818) for the unconditional transfer of
the country to the Dutch, as the first and only
communication from Europe. The Dutch no sooner
obtained possession than it became an object with
them to lower the character of the British pro-
visional administration, to displace those in whom
we had confidence, and to obliterate, as far as
possible, all recollections of our rule."
" Of this I do not complain : if our ministers, in
the zenith of our magnanimity, chose to sacrifice
the interests of five millions of people, and to cast
them aside without notice or remembrance, it is
not to be expected from the Dutch that they
should be so very nice. Gratitude is not among
the list of natural virtues : it is, perhaps, incon-
sistent with them : at least it is at variance with
national pride and vanity. I am willing to leave
the Dutch to the full enjoyment of all the improve-
ments they are inclined to make in Java and the
Moluccas : to give them the full advantage of all
that they can fairly claim, and to patiently put up
with all the ingratitude, rivalry, and even hostility,
that is naturally to be expected : but I wish them
to be confined to their proper ground. I wish them
to leave us in possession of the advantages of that
trade which we enjoyed in the year 1803, previous
to the last war."
130 RAFFLES
No apology is at all necessary for quoting so
fully this intensely interesting account of such
great events. To continue : — "Not satisfied with
those places which, at that date, were occupied by
the European power, wc find them grasping at the
sovereignty of the whole of the Archipelago,
taking advantage of our generosity and forbear-
ance, and, profiting by the reduction of our naval
establishment, they have sent to Batavia a force^.
both military and naval, of an alarming extent.
The European troops in Java alone exceed 10,000
men, besides what are at the Moluccas and other
out-stations. A large colonial army is raised, while
a navy, consisting at present of one ninety-gun
ship, one seventy-four, three frigates, eight cor-
vettes and innumerable smaller vessels, manned
with upwards of 1,700 Europeans, striking terror
through all the adjacent countries." (What a
change in these waters in a single century !)
" Thus armed they are perhaps excited by
recollections of ancient maritime and commercial
greatness, and no longer the corrupt agents of a
bankrupt company. They are anxious to re-
establish their supremacy to the full extent that it
was acknowledged two centuries ago."
" It was in vain that I represented, while in
England, that our settlements of Bencoolen and
Pcnang were both too inconveniently situated to
answer any useful purpose : the evil had not arisen,
and it was conceived the Dutch would be slow as
usual in their movements, and that at all events
we had abundance of time. All that I could
effect was to obtain instructions to watch and re-
port their proceedings, and on these instructions I
RAFFLES 131
have not failed to watch them narrowly, and to
place before the higher authorities the dangers to
which our interests are already subjected."
Sir Stamford Raffles then recapitulates, in a
clear aild succinct manner, the position of affairs in
which he proved himself the statesman that he
was, wherein he showed the then prevailing
ignorance of the home authorities, a not uncommon
occurrence of lack of wisdom now as then.
'" It has been an object of our policy to admit
and preserve the independence of the Bornean
states] At the period of the conquest of Java, no
European authority was established in any of them,
but the ports were open to the general trader.
Many of the princes of the states had risen into
authority and independence, subsequent to the
decline of the Dutch power : and with the excep-
tion of Banjer Masing, during the administration
of Marshal Daendels, the Sultan had fairly bought
the Dutch out. They withdrew, leaving him, by a
written declaration, independent, on condition of
his purchasing the fort and other buildings. This
condition he fulfilled : and while Lord Minto was
at Malacca, on his way to Java, he received am-
bassadors from the state courting an alliance. His
lordship was pleased to listen to their proposals,
and an agreement, or treaty, was entered into, one
of the articles was that we should never transfer
the place to the Dutch. Our treaty was made with
an independent prince, who was then acknowledged
as such by the Dutch, and without reference to
the conquest of Java. This place the Dutch com-
missioners claimed under the convention, and it
was in vain we urged the impossibility of making
132 ' I^AFFLES
a transfer. They were, however, determined, and
our Government, not thinking it a place worth
contending for, and being further displeased with
the local authority, and perhaps ignorant of the
value of the position, withdrew, on which the
Dutch sent a commanding force, took possession,
and entered into nominal treaty with the chief, by
which they secured to themselves the exclusive
trade and control, and of course shut us out from
further intercourse, the first and most important
article in all their agreements with these states
being the exclusion of the English."
" As our Government were content to abandon
Benjer Masing, and the Dutch had already effected
their purpose in that part of Borneo, it only re-
mained for us to endeavour to maintain the
independence of Pontiank and Sambas on the
western coast, Rhio and Lingen at the southern
entrance of the Straits of Malacca, and Palembang
and Achin on Sumatra."
Raffles, fully acquainted of the intentions of the
Dutch to seize all the salient points, wrote to Cal-
cutta, requesting permission to proceed in person
there, as soon as he knew of the return of Lord
Hastings to the seat of government, that he m-ight
lay out his view in full of the situation and the
dangers which threatened to drive the British from
the whole of these Southern seas and islands. He
recalled the history of the British connection with
Palembang, and how we became possessed of the
islands of Banka and Billiton in perpetuity. But
these and other questions had to be settled, so
Raffles went to Bengal to get his instructions,
after he had had a chance of stating his own views.
UxiFFLES 133
Then follows what will ever be the classical
record of the founding of Singapore, given by the
founder himself : —
" I must give you some account of Singapore,
our title to the place, its present condition and ad-
vantages, as well immediate as prospectively. The
Dutch in occupying Rhio had considered the
Sultan of Lingen as the legitimate sovereign of
Johore. We found, however, that there was an
elder brother, who by the laws and usages of the
monarchy laid claims to this distinction, and that,
in consequence of these disputed claims, neither of
them had been regularly installed, and that con-
squently since the death of the father, which
happened six years ago, there had been actually
no regular constituted King of Johore."
'" The elder brother's claim was admitted to be
just, and the cause of his not being regularly
crowned attributed to the intrigues of the Vizier
or Raja Muda of Rhio, who had nearly usurped all
authority, and who, of course, preferred a nominal
superior to a real one. The empire of Johore was
once the most extensive in this part of the world,
even in its most limited extent : it included the
southern part of the Peninsula, and all the islands
which lay off it. The Bandahara of Pahang and
the Tununggung of Johore are the principal officers
and hereditary nobles, and the acknowledgment of
these two is essential to the establishment of a new
sovereign."
" When I arrived off Singapore I received a visit
from the Tununggung, who represented to me the
recent conduct of the Dutch, and stated that, as
the Dutch had treated with an incompetent
134 RAFFLES
authority, it was still left to us to establish our-
selves, in this division of the empire, under the
sanction of the legitimate sovereign. This sover-
eign soon made his appearance, and, though not
formally installed, was recognised by us in this
capacity on his being acknowledged as sovereign
by the Bandahara and the Tununggung."
Thus Sir Stamford Raffles occupied the island of
Singapore. He reported the same to Lord Hast-
ings, by whom he was heartily supported. The
whole matter was then forwarded to the home
Government for consideration, on the detailed
statement of Lord Hastings from Calcutta.
CHAPTER XII.
CRAWFURD AND SINGAPORE.
It is well here to give in full the account that
Crawfurd wrote of the acquisition of Singapore.
'• For a period of about five centuries and a half
there is no record of Singapore having been
occupied, and it was only the occasional resort of
pirates. In the year ISll it was taken possession
of by the party from whom we first received it, an
officer of the Government of Johore, called the
Tununggung. This person told me himself that he
came there with about 150 followers a few months
before the British expedition, which afterwards
captured Java, passed the island. The history of
the formation of the British settlement is as
follows. After the restoration of the Dutch pos-
sessions in the Archipelago it was seen that no
provision had been made for the freedom of
British commerce, and various projects were sug-
gested for the establishment of emporia within the
seas of the Archipelago to obviate this incon-
venience. One of these was submitted to the
Marquis of Hastings by Sir Stamford Raffles, and
adopted by him in 1818."'
" This Sir Stamford Raffles proceeded to carry
into effect, and with the courage and promptitude
which belonged to his character. Many local ob-
stacles, by nameless parties vested with a little
brief authority, were thrown in his way, bul he
18G RAFFLES
overcame them all. The convenience of a port at
the eastern end of the Straits of Malacca was too
obvious to escape observation, and to this quarter
Sir Stamford Eaffies directed his attention : but in
the first instance the island of Singapore did not
occur either to himself (this is not, as we have al-
ready stated, the view of Lady Raffles) or to any
one else."
" Yet it is remarkable that, in what was called
a century and a half ago a ' New Account of the
East Indies,' it is expressly pointed out in the
following unmistakable words : ' In the year 1703,'
says the author. Captain Hamilton, ' I called at
Johore on my way to China, and he (the king)
treated me very kindjy, and made me a present of
the island of Singapore, 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 accompanied with
good rivers and safe harbours, so conveniently situ-
ated that all winds served shipping both to go out
and come in these rivers.' But this striking recom-
mendation of Singapore was at^that time unknown
to Sir Stamford and his contemporaries. He had
hence to grope for a suitable locality. The first
thought of was Rhio, but it was found to be
already in the occupation of the Netherlandg
government."
" The next was the Karimon Islands, out, how-
ever, of the convenient track of navigation, and
here Sir Stamfolv^ and his expedition tarried three
days, but found the place unsuitable. The river
of Johore was then thought of, but on the way to
it the expedition touched at Singapore to make
HAPFLES 187
enquiry, and then for the first time the advantages
and superiority of its locality presented themselves.
The cession of a small portion of the island, to the
extent of two miles along the shore, and to the
distance of the point-range of ordinary cannon
inland, was obtained from the resident chief."
" This was afterwards confirmed by the Sultan of
Johore, or the person v/hom we found it con-
venient to consider as such, who, on our invitation,
quickly repaired to the place. The inconveniences
of a state of things, which, with the exception of
the patch on which the town was to stand, left the
sovereignty of the whole island, with its adjacent
islets to the Malay princes, were quickly ex-
perienced, and obviated by a treaty which I drew
up in 1824 under the direction of the Earl of
Amherst, then Governor-General, and this conven-
tion continues to be the tenure on which we hold
the main island, with the islets and seas surround-
ing it."
Mr. Crawfurd did good research and literary (as
well as much administrative) work, but he held
radically different views to those which Raflles
entertained and put into practice. In brief, the one
seems to have been guided by expediency, while the
other sought always to be actuated by high prin-
ciple. The result was that the line of policy im-
mediately followed by Mr. Crawfurd, once he got
the chance, was a complete reversion of that of Sir
Stamford, and for one hundred years Singapore
and the Colony and British Malaya generally have
had to suffer, and to-day the moral sense of the
nation at home, and the demand of the Chinese,
who have been and are the chief sufferers, cry for
1:J8 RAFFT.ES
a cessation of tlie evils which have been allowed to
exist in connection with opium and gambling.
Raffles set himself to get rid of opium and gam-
bling, equally v/ith piracy and slavery. Crawfurd
carried out instructions as to these two latter evils
but deliberately perpetuated the former two,
largely from a fiscal policy, caring more for revenue
than the souls of men.
To fortify his contention he quotes Dr. Oxley,
who maintained that a man might use opium in
moderation. But with more evident approval he
quotes the high authority of my friend Sir
Benjamin Brodie, who said the effect of opium,
when taken into the stomach is not to stimulate
but to soothe the nervous system. It may be
otherwise in some instances, but these are rare ex-
ceptions to the general rule. The opium-eater is
in a passive state satisfied with his own dreamy
condition while under the influence of the drug.
He is useless, but not mischievous. It is otherwise
with alcoholic liquors.
Primed with " distinguished authorities," and
keen to avail himself of the advantages of making
money readily for the settlement from this vice,
Crawfurd writes, in vindication of his action in
fostering the opium habit in Singapore — " It is not
the use, then, but the abuse of opium which is pre-
judicial to health : but in this respect it does not
materially differ from wine, distilled spirits, malt
liquor or hemp juice. There is nothing mysterious
about the intoxication produced by ordinary
stimulants, because we are familiar with it : but it
is otherwise with that resulting from opium to
which we are strangers. We have generally only
RAFFLES 189
our imagination to guide us with the last, and we
associate it with deeds of desperation and murder ;
but the disposition to commit which, were the drug
ever had recourse to on such occasions, which it
never is, it would surely allay and not stimulate."
A very Daniel come to judgment !
Everybody now knows what opium is and what
are its effects. The Chinese, following the example
of the Japanese, are bent on getting rid of it, from
patriotic, social, and moral grounds. Medical
science has pronounced its opinion; missionaries
and all who know the Chinese at first hand, learn
their language and have daily intercourse with
them, know what opium is, and no official views,
and no amount of fiscal income from this curse will
blind honest men to plain, indubitable facts. As
much may be said as to gambling. It is, as I
write, on its last legs in Johore, with what
ruinous results in Singapore is a matter of public
notoriety. Had Crawfurd continued as Raffles
began, these evils would have largely ceased long
ago, and like other vices and crimes, would have
been hidden away, to be dealt with as such with
the moral support of the community. Until men
are changed, vice will exist ; that the simplest
schoolboy knows, but the State should legislate for
the suppression of vice and crime, and not to
virtually encourage it by so-called policies of con-
trol. To attempt it is wrong, specially where there
are great opportunities of making gain out of the
weaknesses of the people that the State exists to
protect; and just as much the State requires the
best out of the populations within its bounds for
the common good.
CHAPTER XIII.
PROGRESS IN SINGAPORE.
Colonel Farquhar on the 31st of March, 1820,
wrote from Singapore, where he had been placed
in charge, to his chief. Sir Stamford Raffles.
"As 'a vessel sails from hence this morning,
bound for Batavia, touching at Rhio, I avail my-
self of the opportunity of sending a few lines to
Mr. Skelton at Batavia to be forwarded on to
Bencoolen by any opportunity that may offer. We
have been nearly seven weeks without any news
from Calcutta. Your letters of the 3rd of January
are the latest that are to hand. I have written you
frequently by way of Java, Penang, and by
Palembang.''
" Nothing can possibly exceed the rising trade
and general prosperity of this infant colony :
indeed, to look at our harbour just now, where
upwards of twenty junks, three of which are from
China, two from Cochin China, and the rest from
Siam and other quarters, are at anchor, besides
ships, brigs, prows, etc., a person would naturally
exclaim — ' Surely this cannot be an establishment
of only twelve months' standing ' !"
There were signs of forward progress in every
direction. Merchants, Chinese and others collect-
ing and trading, and no word of complaint by any.
Swampy ground was being built upon and coyered
by Chinese houses on what is now the principal
RAFFLES 141
business side of the river, and the Biiggis village
was growing into quite a town at the Kallang end
of Singapore. Settlements were forming up all the
rivers, and even so early, roads opened up com-
munications into various parts of the country.
" A trade direct with Japan will, I have no
doubt, be opened very soon, and the advantages
that are likely to result from suck a commerce you
are well aware of : in short, this settlement bids
fair to become the emporium of Eastern trade, and
in time may surpass even Batavia itself."
Raffles' letters of this period are naturally full of
Singapore : " Bencoolen, April 3, 1820. Singapore,
I am happy to say, continues to thrive beyond all
calculation, notwithstanding . . . and the un-
certainty of possession. The exports and imports
even by native boats alone exceed four millions of
dollars in the year. I enclose an extract from a
letter from Mr. Grant (one of the Directors of the
E.I. Company). His favourable opinion of what I,
have done is very satisfactory."
Mr. Charles Grant wrote to assure him that he
was paying strict attention to the letters and
papers which Raffles had so abundantly supplied
him with. " I have done all that I believe you ex-
pected from rne, that is, to uphold your views of
what our national policy ought to be with respect
to the Eastern Archipelago, the leading principles
of which I entertained before your return to India,
as favouring not only the fair commercial interest
of our country, and of a vast region of Asia, but
the moral and political benefit of its immense
population. You are probably aware of the
obstacles which have been opposed to the adop-
142 RAFFLES
tion of your measures, and even threatened your
posilion in the service. Your zeal considerably out-
stepped your prudence, and the first operations of
it became knov/n at an unfavourable juncture. It
was thought that the state of affairs in Europe
required that they should be discontinued."
" The acquisition of Singapore has grown in
importance. The stir made here lately for the en-
largement of the eastern trade fortified that im-
pression. It is now accredited in the India House.
Of late, in an examination before a committee of
the House of Lords, I gave my opinion of the
value, in a moral, political, and commercial view,
of a British establishment in the locality of Singa-
pore, under the auspices of the Company. From
all these circumstances and others, I argue well as
to the retention and encouragement of the station
your rapidity has occupied. I have noted your
efforts for introducing religious improvement into
Bencoolen. I hope that disposition will follow you
wherever you go."
Again we find Raffles writing: — "I hear the
Dutch place all their hopes on being able to remove
me from the Eastward. I have become so much
identified with the question now pending between
the two Governments that they conceive their in-
terests will be best served by getting me out of
the way."
He also writes to Mr. Marsden : — " As you may
not possess a correct vocabulary of the Nias
language, I send you a few words. I am at present
directing my attention a good deal to that island."
All this goes to prove, were such necessary, his un-
failing diligence in doing something worth while at
RAFFLES 143
all times, and his great and ready willingness to
help others who were engaged in similar congenial
pursuits for the common good.
To the Rev. Dr. Raffles once more he writes —
after telling of the arrival of the two missionaries,
Burton and Evans — " Mr. Evans and his wife re-
main in Bencoolen to open a school. Mr. Burton
proposes fixing himself in the north of Sumatra for
the conversion of the Battaks and the people of
Pulau Nias. Of the progress at Bencoolen I can
speak with more confidence than when I last wrote
you. The native school has fully answered my
expectations. I am now extending the plan so as
to include a school of industry. The arrival of the
missionaries is most fortunate, and I hope they
will, in time, complete what they have so sucess-
fully begun — the progress, however, must neces-
sarily be slow."
" My settlement (Singapore) continues to thrive
wonderfully : it is all and everything that I could
wish. 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 assertions 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 suffer
personally in the scuffle, the nation must be
benefited."
" Were the value of Singapore properly ap-
preciated, I am confident that all England would
144 RAFFLES
be in its favour : it positively takes nothing from
the Dutch, and is everything to us. God knows
the Dutch treat me unjustly : for although I have
disputed and opposed their enormous designs in
the Archipelago generally, I have never interfered
with Java, or any of their lawful possessions ; but
their fears magnify the danger."
He points out, at considerable length, to Mr.
T. Murdoch, under date of July 22, 1820, what he
was doing for the improvement of Sumatra, where
he had found things neglected for a long time,
largely due to being so far away from Bengal. He
then comes, to what was ever uppermost in his
thoughts. " We are anxiously awaiting the de-
cision of the higher powers on the numerous
questions referred to them. It appears impossible
to me that Singapore should be given up, and yet
the indecisive manner in which the ministers ex-
press themselves, and the unjust and harsh terms
they use towards me render it doubtful what course
they will adopt. If they do not appoint me to
Penang, it is probable that they will confine me to
Bencoolen as a place of punishment — banishment
it certainly is : but if even here they will leave me
alone, I can make a paradise for rnyself."
CHAPTER XIV.
PERSONAL SORROWS.
During 1821 Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles had
some very sad experiences in the death of friends,
and some of their own children. He mourns the
loss of Sir Joseph Banks, the learned President of
the Royal Society. He was longing to be relieved
that he might get a trip home, as both his own
and the health of Lady Raffles needed a change,
and their children were growing to an age that it
was imperative that they should be taken from the
enervating climate of the tropics, and left at home
for their schooling and training under rightful care.
In July another baby girl came to the happy family
circle.
Shortly afterwards came the sad blow of the
death of the eldest boy, the child most dear to the
father's heart, after only a few hours' illness. Froiu
that time, until his return to England, sickness
and death prevailed throughout the settlement, and
in his own family. Lady Raffles, in after years,
reflecting on these calamities, said : — " God's Holy
Spirit enabled him to receive these afflictions with
meekness, and to feel that they were trials of faith
and not judgments of anger."
In his great sorrow he was able to write to com-
fort another with the comfort with which he him-
self was comforted. " I little thought a week ago,
when overwhelmed with grief by the loss of our
146 IIAFFLES |
dear and eldest boy, Leopold, that I should so soon
have been called upon to report upon another, and
to you, my dear friend, a still more severe loss.
A vessel leaves this port immediately, and bad
news flies fast. Cruel as must be the stroke, and
ill qualified as I am at present to break it to you
with the tenderness and caution I could wish, I
must perform my duty : I must break your heart
by telling you that our dear friend and brother
Harry is no more."
With that touch of nature, that makes the whole
world kin. Lady Raffles speaks of her great prostra-
tion with grief for the loss of their favourite child.
Unable to bear the sight of her other children,
unable to bear the light of day, she was addressed
by a poor, ignorant, uninstructed, native woman,
who had been employed about the nursery : — " I
am come because you have been here many days
shut up in a dark room, and no one dares to come
near you. Are you not ashamed to grieve in this
manner, when you ought to be thanking God for
having given you the most beautiful child that
ever was seen ? Were you not the envy of every-
body ? Did any one ever see him, or speak of him,
without admiring him ? And instead of letting this
child continue in this world till he should be worn
out with trouble and sorrow, has not God faken
him to heaven in all his beauty ? What would you
have more ? For shame ! Leave off weeping, and
let me open the window."
By November 9th, 1321, Sir Stamford was able
to write to Mr. Marsden that he was planning to
leave Bencoolen the following year for Singapore,
with the intention of remaining there till he heard
RAFFLES 147
of the arrangements at home. He adds : — " I have
no idea of its being given up to the Dutch, but I
fear its being put under Penang. Should every-
thing go favoufably, which is hardly to be ex-
pected, I should wish to remain at Singapore till
the early part of 1824. My last letter will have
informed you that our attention is now devoted
to geographical and geological information. Our
little family are, upon the whole, well. Charlotte
is everything that mamma could wish, and Mars-
den, now, alas ! my only son, is advancing rapidly.
He has not the beauty and loveliness of poor
Leopold, but he is a fine boy, and remarkably quiet
and intelligent. Our last, Ella, is a great beauty.
Our missionaries are engaged in printing a new
version of the Gospel of John. Mr. Robinson is a
Baptist missionary, who settled under my ad-
ministration in Java, and has sought my protection
here : he has been a close student of Malay litera-
ture and language for the last seven years, and has
long been in the habit of preaching to the natives."
On the same day he wrote to a lady friend to
whom he unburdened his sorely stricken heart : —
" My heart has been nigh broken, and my spirit is
gone : I have lost 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.
I had vainly formed such notions of future happi-
ness when he should have become a man, and be nil
that his father v/ished him, that I find nothing left
but what is stale, flat, and unprofitable. My re-
maining children are, thank God, rather superior
to the ordinary run, and Charlotte is everything we
could wish her. How is it that I feel less interest
148 RAFFLES
in them than in the one that is gone ? Perhaps it
is our nature. 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."
Sir Stamford continued to have most severe
trials. He and his wife had to face more sickness
among their children : Charlotte was down with
dysentery, and the younger children had been very
ill, and both parents were worn out with anxiety
and nursing. This was in December, but even all
this did not prevent his mind dwelling on his
beloved Singapore.
" I have said and done all that was possible in
the political department. My attention will oc-
casionally be directed to the agricultural interests
at Bencoolen, but as soon as I proceed to Singa-
pore, commercial plans will occupy all my time.
I shall probably point out great advantages, such
as the introduction into China of manufactured
cottons, in lieu of twenty thousand tons of raw
material for Europe. The supersession in the China
market of the iron and crockery ware, now so ex-
tensively in demand from China throughout the
whole Archipelago : the extensive circulation of a
British cppper coinage throughout the Archi-
pelago. I hope to prove to the Company, and my
country, that in my views and expectations re-
garding Singapore, I have not been visionary."
Sorrow upon sorrow visited Raffles and his wife.
RAFFLES 149
Within six weeks their three eldest children were
laid in their graves. Utterly broken he took steps
towards going home by sending in his resignation.
" We have still one child left, Ella, thank God she
is apparently well. Severe as the dispensation is
we are resigned to it : we. have still reason to thank
God. I propose visiting Singapore about September
next to return here the following May. By Janu-
ary 1st, 1824, God willing, we hope to be on our
way home." About a month later, he struggled to
write after being ill with a severe fever, confined in
a dark room, and unable to see anyone, save those
of his family. "Our little darling (Ella) is under the
immediate care of Nurse Grimes, She leaves us in
excellent health, and we indulge the hope that by
the strong measures we have taken, of sending her
to a healthier climate, we may be spared this one
comfort to solace and enliven our declining days.
Sophia's (Lady Raffles') health, though it has
suffered severely, is, I thank God, improving, and
if it be the will of God that we continue as well as
we are, we hope to be able to stand out another
year or two with tolerable comfort.
To Mr. Marsden he writes saying that his only
child had been sent to London. He tells of his
plans and the situation in Singapore and the lands
adjoining.
To the Rev. Dr. Raffles — "We now pass our time
in great retirement. I have a dozen ploughs con-
stantly going, and before I quit the estate (on
which he had built his country house) I hope it will
realize a revenue of two or three thousand a year,
besides feeding the population. It is an experiment
but it will encourage others : and as it is a pro-
150 RAFFLES
perty which belongs to the Company, no one can
accuse me of interested views in the efforts which
I am making. It is possible that in England I may
look with interest to the returns in money which
my oats and barley may afford, but here I am
quite satisfied with seeing and collecting the
produce of my industry and exertions. I am
cultivating and improving for the mere love of the
thing, and the desire of employing my time advan-
tageously for others." He was also busy with
sugar and mills. He claims no great credit, but
says he took the models from books.
The kind of man he was is frankly revealed in his
letters. Ever brave, resourceful, stayed in confid-
ence of his own integrity in the justice of God, with
the assurance that his life had not been in vain, but
would be of benefit to others, both in his lifetime
and when he was gone. Here is one of them : — " I
am sure it will be satisfactory to you to know that
both Sophia and myself have become ourselves
again : not that we can forget our past and heavy
afflictions, or cease to mourn over them : but we
can now and again enjoy the present hour, and look
forward with steadiness and satisfaction. I am not
one of that ' Satanic ' school, who looked on this
world as the hell of some former and past creation,
but am content to take it as I find it, firmly believ-
ing, from all I have known and seen, that whatever
is, is for our good and happiness, and that there is
more of both, even in this world, than in con-
science we can think we have deserved. We have
had a sickly season, and among our casualities are
our chaplain and doctor : deaths are occurring
daily iij our small circle : but notwithstanding this,
RAFFLES 151
wc still k)ok up: therefore, M'ilh the blessmg of
God, do not despair of sceir\g us in 1824."'
" I have long looked for the appointment of Mr.
Canning as Governor-General : and I augur well of
his government, not from personal views of myself,
but with respect to public interests. My life has
hitherto been a public one : and long habit, if
nothing else, has made the public weal as interest-
ing to me as my personal prospects ever can be.
Without attending to it I should lose half the
interest of my life, so you must not be surprised if
I still hold on the same course, even though I may
not be able to prove that my interests are advanced
by it. To these I never looked primarily, and God
granti never shall. I believe, paradoxical as it may
seem to say so, I should lose my identity were I
to cease to love the other things better than myself.
It may be a wrong turn of my mind, but such is
the twist of it, and matured as it now is by forty
years' growth, I must change myself ere I think or
act otherwise.*'
" Do not, however, do me the injustice to
suppose that I am overweeningly attached to the
things of this world — am in love with ambition, or
suppose I can reform the world by my endeavours.
I think I know myself better. I would rather be
a simple unit with the united few, who act rightly
and on prh.^iple, than a blazing cipher acting for
myself and my own nothingness. But a truce to
this. I hope to be at Singapore by the time
Canning arrives, so that he will find nif^ at my post
of danger, and I hope of honour, too."
" As for Crawfurd, what you say, to a certain
extent, had now and then presented itself
152 RAFFLES
transiently to my mind in the same light : but you
mistake me if you suppose I entertain any un-
pleasant feeling on that account : whatever his
faults, he is devoting his mind exclusively to the
objects in which my heart and soul are deeply
interested. Let Crawfurd have his swing, and the
more extended the better : in the present time we,
perhaps, require such bold and fearless men. The
cloud of ignorance which still hangs over England
with regard to the Eastern Islands cannot be dis-
sipated by ordinary means, or by dint of reason :
it requires the agency of some of those powerful
elements which, while they disperse, cannot avoid
destroying. Where we differ we shall explain, and
longer and cooler heads may light their matches
from the sparks which we strike out. Two at a
trade, they say, can never agree : Crawfurd and I
are, perhaps, running too much on the same
parallel not now and then to be jostling each other :
but, if in following my steps, he profits by my
errors and experience, it will be a satisfaction to
me."
" I observe what you say about the nation. I
agree with you, as far as we can perceive from this
distance, that things look better. Manufactures
and commerce are certainly improving, and agri-
culture will come about in due time. It is very
amusing to hear complaints of the ruin of the
country in consequence of its too great riches and
abundance. For those that suffer, and they are
many, I feel most sincerely : most deeply do I
commiserate the wretchedness which must neces-
sarily be felt by certain classes : and all must be
content to retrograde from the high pitch of ease
RAFFT.es 158
and luxury, which were created by an over, but,
perhaps, necessary excitement : yet, I never can
bring my mind to suppose our case to be desperate,
while we not only have more people, but more food
and more money than we know what to do with.
Were I to land, for the first time, on some large
and highly populous island, and to observe a
similar state of things, what would be my
impression ?"
" Not that it was ruined, but a badly governed
countrJ^ Ours, perhaps, is so circumstanced : al-
though among the many quacks and pretenders, to
heal the diseases of the state, I have found but few
whose panacea were worth the trial. Upon the
whole, maybe, we cannot go on much better than
we are doing : our circumstances have changed, and
greatly changed, and the great object is to assist
the wheel as it turns round, and render the change
as gradual and imperceptible as possible. Most cer-
tainly do I think we are not changed for the
worse. Scarcity and high price never can be better
than cheapness and abundance : for a time it may
serve to gorge the appetites of the few, but in the
long run, and for the nation at large, it can never
last, but must inevitably end in ruin. Industry
and plain living suit better with good morals,
sound understanding, and, consequently, with the
happiness of this life, and the prospects of the
future, than luxury and idleness, though they were
to be bought without the sacrifices of the many to
the few. I look highly on the resources of the
country, I consider them inexhaustible, and that
the days of our true greatness are now approach-
ing. So much for politics,"
151 RAFFLES
Then follows a delightful insight into Raffles—
the great and good man, who all unite, old foe and
new friend, to honour and admire for the strength
of his principles, and the boldness of his goodness,
which led him to practise as in his inmost soul he
was. He believed it was the business of the true
man to be good rather than to try and make others
good, but to do all that he possibly could to bene-
fit them for their sole advantage, calmly leaving
the results with the Almightj^
He quaintly continues : — "I must not omit to
tell you a curious fact : the Java Government were
distressed for money, and proposed to raise a loan
of thirty lacs in Bengal, at from seven to nine per
cent., payable in five years. The terms were com-
municated to me, and the loan opened : but there
was a feverish anxiety in Calcutta as to the security
of the Dutch, notwithstanding their power and
means in the East were never less equivocal : and
the Dutch themselves thought better of it, and the
loan was closed, when, lo and behold, the only
subscription to the loan, actually realised, was from
me ! This has caused a reference to Batavia from
Bengal ; and it is odd enough, after all the
liattlings, that I should be found to be the only
man in India who would hear their distress, and
trust them with a penny. This is, at least, an
amusing anecdote for the entertainment of his
Netherlands' Majesty, when he may honour me
with another invitation to his palace at Lacken."
" Your letter respecting young M'Lean I pur-
posely put aside to answer, after turning the matter
in my thoughts : it is a serious matter to direct the
destination of a young man, and, as I never like to
RAFFLES 155
drop those whom I once take up, I am anxious to
see that all is right in the beginning. So much
depends upon the start that we cannot be too
cautious."
It is simply splendid to observe how Raffles de-
means himself, in the face of the treatment which
was measured out to him.
"I am placed here, as it has been my lot ever
since I have been entrusted with a government, to
administer the public affairs according to the best
of my ability. I lose no time in informing my
superior of my situation, and the circumstances of
the country and their interests. I implore advice,
and ask authority, I receive none : scarce an ac-
knowledgment, and when I do, that only proves
they never have read what I have written. Year
after year rolls on : the public weal must be
attended to, and time and tide stand still for no
man. How is it possible that a m.an, having the
honour of his country at heart, and any conscience
whatever, can remain a silent spectator of what is
daily getting worse and worse ? Either he must
step in to stop the ruin, or he must eat the bread
of idleness, and pocket the wages of iniquity, for
they cannot be honestly earned without the per-
formance of corresponding duties, to say nothing of
the happiness or misery of the thousands and tens
of thousands committed to his charge, and whose
destiny must, in a great measure, be considered in
his hands."
" My hand aches, and I must leave off with an
apology for writing you so long a letter : but, in
truth, I have not had time to write a short, and,
therefore, give you in haste what comes,"
150 RAFFLES
Here arc a few more sidelights on a transparent
character : — ^" You say our new Deputy Master
Attendant is a protege of Mr. Robinson, and on
that account entitled to my attention. I am not
aware that, as yet, I am under any obligation to
Mr. Robinson, for, if report says true, he is most
hostile to me, but for what I know not. Be it as it
may, I would rather return good for evil : and, in
the hope that he may one day lay aside his pre-
judices, and be open to reason and conviction, you
may assure him that I only regret I am not better
known to him. Times may alter as they have once
altered, and, really, I cannot account for much
that I see and hear : nevertheless, I shall continue
to pursue a straightforward course, as I have
hitherto done, without swerving to the right or
left, quarrelling with no one."
Referring to the case of young M'Lean he says —
" With industry and perseverance, a good con-
stitution and frugal habits, there wants but one
thing more to complete the requisites, and that is
capital, or credit, which is the same thing. Com-
mercial speculations are, in a great measure, at a
stand, and Singapore is overstocked with mer-
chants. They are too keen for a novice, and in
these times it is quite a science, even for the first
houses, to know how to make money : the most
that they can do is to prevent loss. In Java there
are great facilities and advantages, both in trade
and cultivation, particularly the latter, but then
it is under Dutch government. Of the extent of
capital required, anything from one to five
thousand pounds will answer, the more the better.
With two to three thousands to sink in Bencoolen,
RAFFLES 157
I really think a pretty fortune might be made in
ten years, paying back the first capital with a high
interest in three or four years. One thing, however,
must not on any account be expected either here or
in Singapore— there are no appointments to be
had — not more than you can pick up in the streets
of London : everything must depend upon the
party himself, and on his own frugality and
exertions."
On the eve of embarking for Singapore in
September, 1823, he wrote briefly to Mr. Marsden,
telling of the ill-health of Lady Raffles, and of a
severe nervous affection of his head, so that he
could not count on an hour's health. He sends on
the results of the surveys of a Captain Crisp, and
other matters.
On the voyage he was able to pull himself to-
gether somewhat to be able to write expressing the
hope that the ship to take them home would have
a poop, as he felt sure that his wife could not
endure the voyage below hatches, she being such a
bad sailor. Indeed, both were so weak and unfit
for a long voyage that he contemplated making a
port-to-port voyage, and stopping by the way for a
week or a fortnight to recruit.
To his cousin he unfolds his plan of work for
Singapore. This was to remain there for six
months, with a view of arranging and modelling
something like a constitution for the place, and
transferring its future management to a successor.
" Should God spare our lives, we then look to
return to Bencoolen for the purpose of winding up :
then, about the end of the year, if it is not too
presumptuous to look forward so far after what has
158 llAFFLES
passed, we contemplate the prospect of revisiting
England. At all events no views of ambition will
weigh with us beyond that period : and considering
the precarious state of our health, and the many
ties at home, it seems, in the natural course of
things, that we should take this step."
CHAPTER XV.
SINGAPORE AGAIN.
Sir Stamford Raffles was delighted to report
himself once more in Singapore. On October 11,
1822. " We landed yesterday, and I have
established my headquarters in the centre of my
Malayan friends. You will be glad to know I feel
sufhcient health and strength to do as I wish. The
coldest and most disinterested could not quit Ben-
coolen and land in Singapore, without surprise and
emotion. What, then, must have been my feelings,
after the loss of almost everything that was dear
to me on that ill-fated coast ? I did feel when I
left Bencoolen that the time had passed when I
could take much interest in Indian affairs, and I
wished myself safe at home : but I already feel
differently : I feel a new life and vigour 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. Rob me not of this my
political child (Singapore) and you may yet see me
home in all my wonted spirits, and with an elasti-
city about me which will bear me up against nil
that party spirit can do to depress me. ... In
our hearts we sing ' Oh, be joyful in the Lord.' "
To the Duchess he again writes—''' Singa-
pore .... there must be the utmost possible
freedom of trade and equal rights to all, with per-
fect protection of property and person. I shall
160 RAFFLES
spare no pains to establish such laws and regula-
tions as may be most conducive to obtain these
objects.! In Java I had to remodel, and in doing so
to remove the rubbish and incumbrances of two
centuries of Dutch mal-administration : here I have
an easier task, and the task is new. In Java I had
to look principally to the agricultural interests, and
the commercial only so far as tll^y were connected
with them : here, on the contrary, commerce is
everything, agriculture only in its infancy. The
people are different as well as their pursuits. I
assure you I stand much in need of advice, and
were it not for Lady Raffles I should have no coun-
sellor 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 these I
should have been cast away long ago."
" The only amusing discovery which we have
recently made is that of a sailing fish, called by the
natives ' ikan layer,' of about ten or twelve feet
long, which hoists a mainsail, and often sails in the
manner of a native boat, and with considerable
swiftness. I have sent a set of sails home, as they
are beautifully cut, and form a model for a fast
sailing boat — they are composed of the dorsal fins
of the animal, and, when a shoal of these are under
sail together, they are frequently mistaken for a
fleet of native boats."
To Mr. Marsden and other friends he continued
to send letters of unfading interest, because of the
light they throw on these far-off times of the early
days of bis colony, for surely Singapore and Raffles
must stand associated for ever.
" Of Singapore I could say much, but when I
RAFFLES 101
say that it is going on prosperously as possible, you
will infer what I would communicate. I am steadily
going on in the establishment of something like a
constitution for the place, on the principle of
making a free port in every sense of the word. The
active spirit of enterprise which prevails is truly
astonishing, and for its extent, I believe I may
safely say, that no part of the world exhibits a
l)usier scene than the town and environs of
Singapore."
" You must be aware that the grounds on which
I maintain our right to Singapore rested on the
following facts, which it has never been in their
(the Dutch) power to disprove. 1st. — That sub-
sequent to the death of Sultan Mohammed, which
happened twelve years ago, there had been no
regular installation of a successor, nor had any
chief been acknowledged as such, with the essen-
tial forms required by Malay custom. 2nd. — That
the regalia, the possession of which is essential to
sovereignty, still remains in the custody of Tunku
Putrie, widow of the deceased Sultan. 3rd.^ — That
the Raja of Lingen had never exercised the
authority of the 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
constituted 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 Lingen was actually in-
L
ir»2 RAFFLES
vested with the sovereignty of Johore : })ut, 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. I enclose you the parti-
culars : it is a curious document and deserves
preservation as connected with the history of this
part of the world." *
Raffles then speaks of the diplomatic visits of
Mr. Crawfurd to Siam and Cochin China, and re-
marks : — " It does not seem that there is any
foreign European influence, at either court, pre-
judicial to our political or national interest : Craw-
furd seems to think they are both too jealous to
admit of any. Siam proves to be fully as rich a
country as we supposed. Its population is esti-
mated at six millions, of which one-sixth may be
Chinese, and nearly one half the whole are included
at the districts of Lao, the other half occupying
Lower Siam. The value of the junk trade is so
important, to the king and all concerned in it, that
they naturally are averse to the admission of our
shipping to its supersession, and perhaps destruc-
tion : this circumstance, added to the despotic
nature of the government, its jealousy and general
bad character, seems to preclude the hope of our
enjoying a direct trade, to any extent, by means of
our own shipping. We must be satisfied with the
entrepot which we have established at Singapore,
whither their junks regularly come with a large
proportion of the produce of the country, and can
afford to sell it at a lower rate than foreigners can
get the same articles in Siam itself : and under the
RAFFLES 103
protection of the Britsh flag the exchange must
take place. In the extension of this trade the King
and his court are so much interested that he will
in a manner feel dependent on us for the accom-
modation and protection afforded. On his way to
Cochin China, Crawfurd touched at Saigon. This
place he describes as full of activity and produce,
and abounding with Chinese, who seemed anxious
for a more general intercourse with us. Cochin
China is a poor country comparatively with Siam :
but the principal value of our connection with it
seems to be with reference to the channel which it
may give for a more extensive intercourse with
several of the provinces of China."
To Mr. T. Murdoch, Sir Stamford wrote from
Singapore, on December 4, 1822 : — " I am afraid
you will accuse me of neglect in not writing for so
long a period, but I must tell the truth, and rely on
your kindness. I have not been able to bring myself
to the point since the loss of my dear boy, Leopold,
and even now feel a reluctance in doing so, which I
can hardly overcome. The loss of that dear boy,
in whom our hopes were centred, had indeed been
a severe blow : and the rapid succession in which
our other darlings have been swept from us has
been almost too much to bear. But I thank God
the worst is past : and, though we may have
hardened our hearts a little in order to get over it,
I will yet hope that there is such happiness left
for us in this world as we deserve to enjoy. We
were, perhaps, too happy, too proud of our
blessings : and, if we had not received this severe
clieck, v/e might not sufficiently have felt and
known the necessity of a hereafter. The Lord's
164 RAFFLES
will be (lone, and we are satisfied. You will, I am
sure, congratulate us on our removal from Ben-
coolen. Only two days before we left we lost
another member of our family, my inestimable
friend. Dr. Jack (Lady Raffles' brother). This blow
was reserved till the last, but it has been none the
less severe. Poor fellow, we have lost in him one
of the clearest heads I ever met with : but death
has so assailed us, in every quarter within the last
year, thati hardly yet know or feel all that I have
lost."
" Public report speaks so favourably of this
place that I cannot say more about it, without sub-
jecting myself to the charge of egoism, for it is,
indeed, everything I could wish, and is rising and
improving in every way, fully equal to my expec-
tations. It is at least a child of my own : and, now
that I am in other respects childless, I may perhaps
be indulged with this. I can assure you that the
interest, that I may take in it, cheers many a day
that would otherwise be gloomy, and sad enough
in reflections on the past."
*' I am npw busy in allotting the lands and
laying out the several towns, (defining rights, and
establishing powers and rules for their protection
and preservation. I have been a great deal im-
peded, but the task, though an arduous and serious
one, is not one that I find unpleasant. What I
feel most is want of good counsel and advice, and
a sufficient confidence in my own experience and
^judgment to lay down so broad and permanent a
foundation as I could wish. I have already up-
wards of 10,000 souls to legislate for, and this
number will, I doubt not, be increased during the
liAFFLES 105
next year. The enterprise and activity which pre-
vails are wonderful, and the effects of free trade
and liberal principles have operated like magic.
But, that the past prosperity of the place may not
prove ephemeral, it requires that I be the more
careful in what I do, for the future : for if the past,
under all our uncertainty of possession, has so ex-
ceeded my expectations, what may not be cal-
culated upon hereafter, when our possession is
considered secure, and when British capital and
enterprise came into full and fair play?'*
He tells of the failure of Crawfurd's mission to
Siam and Cochin China, though the visit had been
productive by learning the character of the
governments of these places. From a political
point of view they were a most impracticable
people, so that Raffles thought it folly to attempt
any further political negotiations with them. He
hoped that the powers at home would see in this
an additional reason for the retention of Singapore
to be in trade touch with these countries.
To another friend, about the same time, he says
that he will be surprised to hear of the value of land
in Singapore. A few spots of ground hitherto con-
sidered of no value, and passed over by the local
resident, sold in the course of an hour for upwards
of $50,000. He mentions that the capital turned
over at Bencoolen never exceeded $400,000 in a
year, and nearly the whole of this in Company's
bills on Bengal, the only return that was made :
the capital turned over at Singapore, in less than
four years of its inception exceeded eight millions
a year, without any government bills or civil
establishments whatever.
Kwi RAFFLES
To Mr. Marsden he had the great gratification
of reporting the rapid extension of the trade of
his beloved colony. " Singapore, January 21,
1823. — By the statement I forwarded to the Court
of Directors in February last, it was shown that,
during the first two years and a half of this
establishment, no less than two thousand eight
hundred and eighty-three vessels entered and
cleared from the port, of which three hundred and
eighty-three were owned and commanded by Euro-
peans, and two thousand and five hundred and six
by natives, and that their united tonnage was one
hundred and sixty-one thousand tons. It appears
also that the merchandise in native vessels arrived
and cleared amounted to about five millions of
dollars during the same period, and in ships not
less than three millions, giving a total of about
eight millions."
No wonder Raffles was a proud and happy man,
in spite of all his great and many difficulties, his
personal sorrows and heavy losses. His life was a
full and real achievement.
CHAPTER XVI.
SINGAPORE FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION FOR THE
WHOLE OF THE MIDDLE AND FAR EAST.
Sir Stamford Raffles, on January 12, 1823,
wrote to his cousin Dr. Raffles :— " The death of
my friend, Dr. Mihie of Malacca, has for a time
thrown a damp on missionary exertions in this
quarter, but I expect Dr. Morrison, of China, to
visit this place (Singapore) in March, and I hope
to make satisfactory arrangements with him for
future labours. The two missionaries here have
not been idle. Messrs. Milton and Thomson, the
former in Chinese and Siamese, and the latter in
Malay and English printing. I have selected a
spot for my intended college : all I require now is
a good headmaster or superintendent. It is my
intention to endow it with lands, the rents of which
will cover its ordinary expenses. I am about to
commence upon a church, the plan of which is
already approved."
Here should be given the text of the tribute to
the work and the worth of Milne from the tablet
in Christ Church, Malacca : —
log RAFFLES
Sacred to tbe ^Jttcmor^ of tl)e
Rev. William Milne, D.D.,
PROTESTANT MISSIONARY TO CHINA, UNDER THE
AUSPICES OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
FOR SEVEN YEARS, HE RESIDED AT THIS SETTLE-
MENT AS PRINCIPAL OF THE ANGLO-CHINESE
COLLEGE, SUPERINTENDING THE EDUCATION OF
CHINESE AND MALAY YOUTHS, COMPOSING USE-
FUL AND RELIGIOUS TRACTS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE
LANGUAGES, AND OFFICIATING IN THIS CHURCH
AS A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF CHRIST. THE CHIEF
OBJECTS OF HIS LABOURS, IN CO-OPERATION
Vv'lTH THE REV. ROBERT MORRISON, D.D., WAS
THE TRANSLATION OF THE EARLIEST PROTESTANT
VERSION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IN CHINESE,
IN WHICH HE RENDERED MOST VALUABLE AND
EFFICIENT SERVICE.
HE WAS BORN IN THE YEAR 1785, IN KENNETH-
MONT, ABERDEENSHIRE. LEFT ENGLAND AS A
MISSIONARY IN 1812, AND DIED IN MALACCA,
JUNE 2, 1822, AT THE AGE OF THIRTY-SEVEN."
Morrison visited Malacca in 1823, and on his way
there, on January 29, he landed at Singapore, and
was most cordially received by Sir Stamford.
Their views coincided on many subjects, and both
were equally solicitous to better the moral and
social condition of the peoples.
The widow of Morrison wrote, in after years : —
" Had Sir S. 'Raffles' liberal and benevolent
measures met the support which they merited,
his administration would doubtless have been
rendered a blessing to those colonies over which
his authority extended."
Together Raffles and Morrison planned the
RAFFLES 109
*' SiNGAroRE Institution," by which name alone
it was known in Raffles" Ufetime. It was
founded on the first of April, 1823, and on that
day Dr. Morrison made a notable speech in which
he said : — " The state of our British ancestors,
eighteen hundred years ago, compared with their
present state, is frequently brought forward (and,
I think, conclusively) to disprove the allegation
that all attempts to improve the intellectual and
moral condition of man are visionary, and must
end in disappointment. Some men will -not plant a
tree because it cannot attain its proper size in their
lifetime : but the tree of knowledge which we
would plant is not for our individual use, it is for
the healing of the nations around us. Knowledge
is not virtue, but it is power, and should always
be possessed by the virtuous to enable them to do
good to others. Although knowledge may be
abused, and employed for evil purposes, it is,
generally speaking, a positive good to the
possessor. I assume this of knowledge generally,
whilst I maintain further that there are some parts
of knowledge that are of infinite value — ' It is life
eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus
Christ Whom He has sent.' "
'• This implies an eternity of unmixed happiness
at an infinite distance from every ill. Science and
philosophy cannot at present be said to flourish
anywhere but in Christendom. . . . China I
have taken as my province, and to it I purpose
resolutely to adhere. I had an able coadjutor,
who established for me the Anglo-Chinese College
(Malacca). Would that he had been with us to-
day ! But God's will be done. Milne has finished
170 RAFFLES
his labours, and has entered mto his rest. The
Malayan College (i.e., the Singapore Institution),
to which we shall resign the Malayan division of
the work, is a great acquisition, and I rejoice that
China and the Archipelago are to be associated,
having no other strife and rivalry but the very
pardonable one of trying which can be the most
useful. And as sowing and planting are ineffectual
without alternate sunshine and shower, which
man cannot command, but God alone can give, so,
let us remember, intellectual and moral culture
will be all unavailable without God's blessing,
which may He be pleased to grant on all these our
efforts, through the merits of our blessed Re-
deemer, Jesus Christ."
Before sailing for his first and only furlough to
England, in 1824, Dr. Morrison forwarded to the
treasurer of the Institution four thousand Spanish
dollars. This was Mr. A. L. Johnstone, a Scottish
merchant, who was the founder of the earliest
British firm in Singapore. In all, as the accounts
show. Dr. Morrison gave $5,900 to this school,
which to-day scarcely knows his name.
It was not till so late as 18G7 that the name
" RafHes Institution " was used, and appears for
tlie first time in the Annual Report for 1868, for
what reason it does not state.
On his return from England in 1826, and while
staying in Singapore, Morrison wrote to the
secretary of the trustees. Captain Davis, suggest-
ing what might be for the welfare of the Institution.
He also signed a petition to the Governor in
Council (R. Fullerton, Esquire) requesting that
the lands, donations and subscriptions given for
KAFFLES 171
the Institution should be used, as was originally
intended by the donors : — *' Having for its object
the cultivation of the languages of China, Siam
and the Malayan Archipelago, and the improve-
ment of the moral and intellectual condition of the
inhabitants of these countries." He also points
out that, from the very first formation of the
Institution till that time, elementary schools for
the instruction of the natives had been established
under the patronage and control of the same.
Two years later, Raffles having died in 1826,
Morrison wrote from Macao in November,
1828 : — " My dear Sir, — I have your favour of
September 26th, on the subject of the Singapore
Institution. You refer me to Captain Flint and
Mr.. Maxwell, two of the original trustees who ar^
coming to China. As to the plan you propose of
investing the funds of the Institution and Monu-
ment to form a Town Hall and Reading Room,
although a good object, it is so different from the
' education of the natives,' which Sir Stamford and
the other contributors intended, I do not see how
the trustees can alienate the property. Such
being my view I cannot consent to the plan pro-
posed. ... I hope you and the other trustees,
on the spot, will do what you can to secure the
grounds originally granted, for they are real
property, and may in the course of time increase
in value and be devoted to the purpose of Native
Education."
" I would rather, even if it were a hundred
years hence, have the land reserved for this
purpose than for the sake of any other object con-
sent to alienate it. It is a shame to the whole of
172 liAFlLES
us that such a design should totally fall to the
ground."
The hundred years are well nigh up. It is for
the present Government and the varigus com-
munities, not only of Singapore, but also of British
Malaya, now to have realised what Raffles and his
like-minded friends intended on the founding of
this Mother of Institutions,
There is already a Medical College for Malaya.
Let the other " faculties," by affiliated colleges,
in due course, be added to what will be the
University of all the Middle East. There will then
spring up the necessary hostels, which, to be really
effective for good, and to ensure the moral welfare
of the students, will need to have the same wise
care exercised over them, as in the *' schools "
themselves. To accomplish this, there should be
International, or Interdenominational Hostels.
These must be run on Christian principles, with
full provision for the best expansion of young life,
under sympathetic and wise guidance.
No view of the comparatively recent develop-
ment of higher education in the Far East, notably
in Japan and China, will be complete, without
taking into account what Raffles and Morrison did
for education in Malacca and Singapore a hun-
dred years ago.
There are now twelve universities in China. One
of these is Chinese, the Governmnt University of
Pei Yang at Tientsin. This is the principal
engineering and technical college of China. The
staff are Chinese, Americans, British and Germans.
The English language is used. One is British, the
University of Hong Kong. One is American, St.
RAFFLES 173
John's University qI Shanghai. This last owes its
inception entirely to its Christian character. The
nine others are all Missionary Institutions. These
are the University of Nanking, which is a combine
of Presbyterians, Methodists and Disciples of
Christ, from the United States. Yale University
at Changsha is maintained and staffed by the
Missionary Society of Yale. The Shangtung Union
University, to be removed from Wei to Tsinan, the
capital, is a union of British Baptists, and latterly
of Anglicans, together with American Baptists,
Congregational and Methodist Churchmen. The
Shansi University of Tai Yuan was established by
the English Baptists, in 1901, out of the " Boxer "
indemnity. Peking University is a union of
American Congregationalists, Presbyterians and
the British " London Mission," along with, for
medical work, the British Methodists and Angli-
cans. Hangchow University is the outcome of
American Presbyterian Churchmen. Soochow
University is the work of Methodists from th^jC
U.S.A. At Wuchau the American Protestnnt
Episcopal Church have Boone University, and here,
too, Anglican Churchmen of Oxford and Cambridge
are to establish a University. To close the list,
for the present. South China has the Canton
Christian College.
Canton College, in many respects, first opened
the way for all the rest, and though American
Presbyterian Churchmen, specially Dr. Happer
and Dr. Kerr, brought the scheme to completion,
the foundation of this work was laid by the first
Canton missionary, Robert Slorrison. To him be-
longs the high and signal honour of pointing the
174 RAFFLES
path out for those that were to come after, and
this honour is shared by his colleague Milne as well
as by Raflles, the great Christian Empire Builder.
Nearer Singapore, Siam, which, in their days,
was a closed land, on the 3rd of January, 1916, had
its king lay the foundation stone of the University
of Siam.
Netherlands India, too, is moving to higher edu-
cation for the native races, who were the special
wards of the care and regard of Sir Stamford. At
the Hague on August 28th, 1916, the Minister for
the Colonies, Mr. Th. B. Pleyte, said that much
had been done for the education of the natives. In
contrast, as showing the past with present policy,
he mentioned that, in 1855, elementary teaching
was given to 17,000 pupils, and in 1915 to 700,000,
of whom 600,000 were natives of the soil. The best
people in Holland now desire that the Javanese,
and others in their colonies, should get the best
education that they can profit by. By this
generous policy the tone of native society will be
gradually raised, and, as in all lands, the cream
will come to the top. In matters of land tenure,
agriculture, industries and commerce they will get
their fullest chance. There can be no longer any
deliberate depressing of native races. There will
be, rather, equality of opportunity for all.
CHAPTER XVII.
raffles' farewell to sunny SINGAPORE.
What is now Fort Canning was the site of the first
Government House. Hf^-e in 1823 Sir Stamford
wrote : " We have lately built a small bungalow
on Singapore Hill, where though the height is in-
considerable, we find a difference of climate.
Nothing can be more interesting and beautiful than
the view from this spot. I am happy to say the
change has had a very beneficial effect on my
health, which has been better during the last
fortnight than I have known it for two years."
'' The tombs of the Malay kings are, however,
close at hand : and I settled that, if my fate is to
die here, I shall take my place among them : this
will, at any rate, be better than leaving one's
bones at Bencoolen. If it please God, we still live
in the hope of embarking for Europe towards the
end of the year."
" I am laying out a botanic and experimental
garden, and it would delight you to see how
rapidly the whole country is coming under cultiva-
tion. My residence here has naturally given much
confidence, and the extent of the speculations
entered into by the Chinese quite astonishes me."
At the same time he playfully adds : — " I have
built a very comfortable house, which is sufficient
to accommodate my sister's family as well as our
own : I only wish you were here but for half an
176 RAFFLES
hour to enjoy the unequalled beauty and interest
of the scene. My house, which is one hundred feet
front, and fifty deep, was finished in a fortnight
from its commencement. When will our cottage
be done ?"
To his friend, Dr. Wallich of the Botanic Garden,
Calcutta, he writes, telling about doings in Singa-
pore. First he refers to some matters of his letter
and says :— " Your principles are too pure, and
your heart too warm, to encounter the shafts of
ridicule which envy and malice may fling at you.
These are the weapons of the heartless and un-
principled : of those who have no sympathy with
the feelings of others, no consideration for their
happiness, no common feelings for the common
benefits of mankind. Never mind, ' magna est
Veritas et prevalebit,' and truth is virtue. You
must recollect my warning. We live in a strange
world. Unfortunately in the political part of it we
are often obliged to smother feelings : this I say
in my own defence, lest you think I do fiot suffi-
ciently espouse your cause. My heart and soul are
with you, and therefore you may judge how I
feel."
" The slave master and slave debtor system
seems to have been permitted here to an unlimited
extent. I have not 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 other lands, and that is 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
RAFFLES 177
alike, guilty to say nothing of the British
authority who countenances the trade.
"• I am now in negotiation with Dr. Morrison for
the transfer of the Anglo-Chinese College from
Malacca to this place, and its union with my pro-
posed Malay College, under the general designa-
tion of the ' Singapore Institution.' " This was
not carried out as Sir Stamford had hoped and
planned. The institution at Malacca was con-
tinued by the London Missionary Society till 1843,
when, on the opening of the treaty ports in China,
the Principal, Dr. James Legge, and his colleagues
were transferred to Hong Kong and Amoy.
Sir Stamford Raffles had this exceedingly
gratifying letter, from the Bengal Government, on
the eve of leaving : —
'' Fort William, March 29, 1823.
" The first question for consideration is the
nature of the control to be exercised henceforth
over the affairs of Singapore, and the proceedings
of the local Resident." Then follow the details,
which will always be of living interest to all who
can let their imagination live, touched with the
historic sense, in those days of the past of
Singapore.
" There is a general impression that the pros-
perity of Singapore must in a degree be attended
with a proportionate deterioration of Penang. As
far as information furnished by the records of the
custom-house of the latter place affords the means
of judging, it would not appear that this has been
the case : but thexe is no doubt that the feeling
prevails among the inhabitants of both settlements
M
178 RAFFLES
generally : there seems no advantage to be con-
templated in rendering Singapore dependent on
Penang. The systems of government and the
principles of commercial i)olicy prevailing at both
places are radically different, and it is not reason-
able to expect that each could be administered
under the direction of a subordinate and limited
authority with equal effect."
" On the occasion of relieving Sir Stamford
Raffles from the superintendence of Singapore, the
Governor-General in Council deems it an act of
justice to that gentleman to record his sense of the
activity, zeal, judgment, and attention to the
principles prescribed for the management of the
settlement, which has marked his conduct in the
execution of that duty. On placing Mr. Crawfurd
in charge of Singapore, you will be pleased to
communicate with him fully on all points."
Lady Raffles then gives a short extract of her
husband's report to the Bengal Government,
which will show the reasons which guided him on
drawing up the regulations : —
" First I declare the port of Singapore is a free
port, and the trade thereof open to ships and
vessels of every nation, free of duty, equally and
alike to all." What follows bears the stamp of the
great Christian, far-sighted statesman that he was,
and history has proved him to have been.
" I am satisfied that nothing has tendered more
to the discomfort and constant jarrings, which
have hitherto occurred in our remote settlements,
than the policy which has dictated the exclusion of
the European merchants from all share, much less
credit, in the domestic regulations of the settle-
RAFFLES 179
ment, of which they are frequently its most im-
portant members. Some degree of legislative
power must necessarily exist in every distant
dependency. The laws of the mother country
cannot be commensurate with the wants of the
dependency : it has wants of which a remote legis-
lature can very imperfectly judge, and which are
sometimes too urgent to admit the delay of
reference."
" It may be expected that I should explain the
grounds on which I have felt myself authorised to
go, even as far as I have done, in legislating, and
constituting a power of legislating provisionally for
Singapore, and, at the same time, state the mode
in which I considered the legislative and judicial
branch of the public administration can be best
provided for, in any permanent arrangement to be
made by the authorities at home."
" I shall briefly state that an actual and urgent
necessity existed for some immediate and pro-
visional arrangements : and that, in adopting those
which I have established, it has been my
endeavour, while I give all due weight to local
considerations, to adhere, as closely as possible, to
the principles which from immemorial usage have
been considered the most essential and sacred
parts of the British Constitution. The peculiar
tenure on which Singapore is at present politically
held, the unusual degree of responsibility still rest-
ing on me personally, and the actual circumstances
under which a large population and extensive
capital have been accumulated under my ad-
ministration, naturally called upon me to adopt all
such provisional measures as necessity might
180 RAFFLES
dictate. More than this I have not attempted : and
I should have but ill fulfilled the high and im-
portant trust reposed in me, if, after having con-
gregated so large a portion of my fellow creatures,
I had left them without something like law and
regulation for their security and comfort?"
Raffles appointed magistrates and juries, not
merely for punishment, but, as far as possible, for
the prevention of crime. He prohibited gambling
and cock-fighting, and declared these illegal. The
Bengal Government highly approved of this effort
to check vice, but no sooner was Sir Stamford
away to England, than Crawfurd, to his eternal
disgrace, and anxious to raise a revenue at any
cost, and in what he considered an easy way,
estaljlished licenses for the free and open indul-
gence of both vices. Following the example of
Rome, in its declining days of ease and degeneracy,
Crawfurd farmed out the various vices and weak-
nesses of the people to the highest bidders. This
evil system, thus introduced, lasted until quite
recently until the Government, acting under in-
structions from home, abolished the farms for
drink and opium, and took over the control of both
as Government monopolies. This will eventually
enable the powers-that-be(i,e., the final and intelli-
gent will of the people of the British Empire) to
deal effectively with these, when the time comes,
which surely cannot tarry much longer. Things
may lag for many a day, but the end will come at
long last with a decision, short, sharp, and beyond
question.
Slavery, gamliling and other vices have been
dealt with in the colony, and in the Federated
RAFFLES 181
Malay States, in recent years, but opium must soon
be legislated out of existence in the same areas,
unless we are to have the shame of being miles
behind China and Japan. That some opium is
still grown in China, and that the Japanese still
tolerate it for the Chinese in Formosa, is no reason
why we should not wash our own hands clean from
the foul thing in our own colony, and throughout
Malaya, which has been opened out, for the bene-
fit of ourselves, as well as for their great advantage,
too, and all the world is the better for the Chinese
being in Malaya, from a material point of view,
but how much better for the manhood of the
Chinese if opium had been kept out, as Raffles
intended it should, and as the Japanese decided
it would have to be kept out of Japan, when once
again she opened her ports to trade with the
world.
On the departure of Sir Stamford from Singa-
pore, the whole community, headed by the leading
European and Asiatic merchants, expressed their
sense of indebtedness to the founder of Singapore :
" At such a moment we cannot be suspected of
panegyric, when we advert to the distinguished
advantages which the commercial interests of our
nation at large, and ourselves more especially, have
from your personal exertions. To your unwearied
zeal, your vigilance, and your comprehensive
views we owe at once the foundation and mainten-
ance of a settlement unparalleled for the liberality
of the principles on which it has been established :
prmciples, the operation of which have converted,
in a period, short beyond all example, a haunt of
pirates into the abode of enterprise, security and
182 RAFFLES
opulence. While we acknowledge our own peculiar
obligations to you, we reflect at the same lime with
pride and satisfaction upon the active and bene-
ficent means by which you have promoted and
putronised the diffusion of intellectual and moral
improvement, and we anticipate, with confidence,
their happy influence in advancing the cause of
humanity and civilization. We cannot take leave
of the author of so many benefits without emotion,
and without expressing ^our sorrow for the loss of
his protection and his society. Accept, Sir, we
beseech you, without distinction of tribe or nation,
the expression of our sincere respect and esteem,
and be assured of the deep interest we shall ever
take in your prosperity, as well as in the happiness
of those who are tenderly related to you."
Raffles suitably replied, and among other things
thanked the merchants for helping him to found
the Institution. He then said of the Singapore
merchant what has always been generally true of
them — " The liberal manner in which you came for-
ward to spare from your hard earnings so large a
portion would at once stamp the character of the
Singapore merchant, even if it did not daily come
forward on more ostensible occasions."
Lady Raflles and her husband sailed from
Singapore on the 9th of June, 1823. They touched
at Batavia, and stayed at Bencoolen for a few
months. From there he wrote that should he
reach England alive, nothing would induce him to
return to the East. He had already passed nearly
thirty years of his life in the Company's service,
and had always been placed in situations of so
much responsibility that his mind was ever on the
RAFFLKS 188
stretch, and never without some serious anxiety.
Fresh trials had to he faced in Rencoolen. Sick-
ness and death came carrying off his few remaining
personal friends. His own health broke down
again, if indeed he ever regained it.
But he was a brave man, true and unbendable,
and he refused to be crushed by the weight of his
great burdens. He was a Christian, as his wife put
it, and believed that all that had happened, or
could come, was only for his good. Lady Raffles'
firm faith and ever ready help greatly sustained
him. She, too, was a martyr to malarial fever, but
in those days people daily fought for their lives,
and had to remain at their posts more than is
binding nowadays of ready communication. Then
came the last sad blow in the death of their only
remaining child, which was a terrible shock to the
mother.
In all this trouble they waited week after week
for the '• Fame," the ship that was to take them
home, and no news of her came. The weeks got
into months but still no " Fame " arrived.
Raffles at last was about to aim for a passage by
another ship when the "Fame " at last came in.
On the 2nd of February at dayligliit, with a fair
wind, they set sail for England. That very night
there was a cry raised that the ship was on fire.
The boats were lowered, and pushed off from the
vessel as quickly as possible, as there was powder
on board, which could not be got hold of to throw
overboard.
Sir Stamford writes a thrilling account of what
took place. In less than ten minutes after the
alarm the ship was in flames : within that time all
184 RAFFLES
the souls were off the vessel : in ten minutes more
she was one great mass of fire.
" There was not time for anyone to think of more
than two things . ' Can the ship be saved ? No.
Let us consider ourselves.' All else was swallowed
up in one grand ruin." After a feverishly anxious
night, fearing that they might have to face starva-
tion and exposure in the blazing hot sun by day,
and the cold, without clothing, by night, for they
had retired to their cabins, and were in undress.
But daylight came bringing them the welcome
sight of land, which proved to be the coast and
Rat Island. About eight o'clock they saw a ship
standing to them from the Roads, and boats came
to their rescue. Among these whom Raffles recog-
nised first was one of his missionary friends, whom
he describes as a minister of Providence in the
character of a minister of the Gospel. The cry of
one and all was — ' God be praised !' "
Afterwards, in writing an account of this unto-
ward event to the Court of Directors, he enters into
a number of very interesting details : — " Sub-
mitting, as it is my duty to do, with patient
resignation to this awful dispensation of Pro-
vidence, I make the following statement, not in
the spirit of complaint, for I repine not, but
simply as illustrative of my personal circumstances
and prospects, as they stand affected by this dire
and unlooked for calamity. After a service of
nearly thirty years, and the exercise of supreme
authority as Governor for nearly twelve of that
period over the finest and most interesting, but
perhaps least-known countries in creation, I had
as I vainly thought, closed my Indian life with
RAFFLES 185
benefit to my country, and satisfaction to myself,
carrying with me such testimonials and information
as, I trusted, would have proved that I had not
been an unprofitable servant, or dilatory labourer
in this fruitful and extensive vineyard."
Then follows a brief sketch of his hfe in the
Compfjny's service, with special reference to his
administration of Java, and what he had to con-
tend with on taking his stand at Singapore as
against Dutch rapacity and power . • . . "In
addition to avowed enemies to British power and
Christian principles, I had to contend with deep-
rooted prejudices, and the secret machinations of
those who dared not act openly : and standing
alone, the envy of some and the fear of many,
distant authorities were unable to form a correct
estimate of my proceedings. Without local ex-
planations some appeared objectionable, while
party spirit and Dutch intrigue have never been
wanting to discolour transactions and misrepre-
sent facts."
He had lost on board the " Fame " his endless
volumes and papers of information on the civil and
natural* history of nearly every island within the
Malayan Archipelago, collected at great expense
and labour, under the most favourable circum-
stances, during a life of constant and active re-
search, and in an especial manner calculated to
throw light not only on the commercial and other
resources of the islands, but to advance the state
of natural knowledge and science, and finally to
extend the civilization of mankind. These, with
all his books, manuscripts, drawings, correspond-
ence, records, and other documents, including
186 RAFFLES
tokens of regard from the absent, and memorials
from the dead, had all been destroyed hi the dread-
ful conflagration : and — most pathetic tale to tell —
he adds : *' I am left single and unaided, without
the help of one voucher to tell my story, and up-
hold my proceedings, when I appear before your
honourable Court." He then gives from memory
a short statement of what had gone up in flame,
or to the bottom of the sea forever.
" Of Sumatra — a map on a large scale, con-
structed during a residence of six years, calculated
to exhibit, at one view, the real nature and general
resources of the country, together with statistical
reports, tables, memoirs, notices, histories of the
Battaks, and other original tribes and races, native
and European vocabularies, dictionaries, and
manuscripts in the different languages. Of Borneo
— a detailed account of the former history, present
state, population and resources of that long
neglected island, drawn out to the extent of up-
wards of one thousand pages of writing, with
numerous notes, sketches, details of the Dyak
population, their government, customs, history,
usages, etc., with notices of the different ports,
their produce, and commercial resources."
" Of Celebes— nearly a similar account. And of
Java and the Moluccas — the whole of the volumin-
ous history, as carefully abstracted from the
Dutch archives while I was in Java, with careful
translations of the most valuable books, vocabu-
laries, memoirs, and various papers intended
principally to assist in a new edition of my History
of Java. Of Singapore — a detailed account of its
establishment : the principles on which it is
RAFFLES 187
founded : the policy of our Government in found-
ing it : the history of the commerce in the Eastern
Islands : its present state and prospects : the rapid
rise of Singapore : its history until I gave over
charge : with all the original documents con-
nected with the discussion with the Dutch, and
every voucher and testimony which could have
been required to make good the British claim, and
uphold the measures I had adopted."
'' In Natural History .... Indeed it would
be endless for me to attempt even a general des-
cription of all that has perished .... a loss
like this can never be replaced, but I bow to it
without repining." He then says that he is com-
pelled, meanwhile, to take up the duties again at
Bencoolen, until he knows what to do. And, in
closing this official communication, he pays a well
deserved tribute to those who had proved them-
selves such friends in need in his distress.
Lady Raffles tells how the loss of all things far
from taking all the spring out of his life, simply
seemed to spur him on to more arduous labours.
The very next morning he recommenced sketching
the map of Sumatra, and began work on natural
history. The following Lord's Day he publicly
returned thanks to Almighty God for having pre-
served the lives of all those who had for some time
contemplated a death from w^hich there appeared
no human probability of escaping.
Once more the party embarked, on April 8,
1824, in the " Mariner." He drew up a time-table
as to how he would spend his time on board in
study and writing, to which he gave eight hours a
day, with the intention of making up one day for
188 RAFFLES
any lost time on another. This, as his wife put it,
afforded another proof that the energy of his mind
was not shaken, nor the buoyancy of his §pirit
broken, though his health had received a severe
shock by the great calamity. His reading and
study on Sundays were confined to the Bible and
religious subjects, including the Hebrew and Greek
languages.
On the 25th of June the ship arrived at St.
Helena (where he met Napoleon) after a passage of
eleven weeks from Bencoolen. She had en-
countered constant and severe gales off the Cape of
Good Hope during three weeks. Sir Stamford and
Lady Raffles stayed at Plantation House until the
ship again weighed anchor for England on July
the 3rd. They crossed the Line on the 12th of the
same month. On the 20th of August this great and
noble man, after his epoch making labours, landed
with his party at Plymouth all safe and sound.
The father at once hurried off with Lady Raffles
to see their child at Cheltenham, and they were
delighted to find her all that their fondest wishes
could desire. Unfortunately, the reaction set in,
and Sir Stamford had several months of serious
illness, which interfered with his movements. Of
plans he seemed to have none very definitely
fixed, though he often expressed to his close
friends his liking to be a farmer. But he engaged
himself daily as he was able in doing what he could
for the objects which he cared for. Pleasure and
ease were not for what he aimed at, but much
higher ends, which were the source of unfailing joy
and pleasure to him, who had had so literally spent
himself, and that most willingly for others.
RAFFLES 189
To the Duchess of Somerset he writes frankly,
and besides speaking of his home hfe, which was
very happy, he tells of his correspondence with
the East India Company, also of having put the
new maps, of Sumatra and Singapore, into the
hands of an artist, to be constructed and engraved
on a scale to suit a quarto volume. In another
letter to the same lady he says he had taken her
kind advice and was " idling and playing the fool "
with his times as much as possible. But we know
that would not mean much, for he, who had been
a hard worker all his days, could not be a mere
idler, or waste any time in doing nothing.
He wrote at considerable length to the Com-
mittee of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
in whose work he was keenly interested. Lady
Raffles remarks that Sir Stamford had always held
the view that the idea of converting the peoples of
India by preaching only was fallacious. His con-
viction was that the best means of securing the in-
gathering of converts was to civilize and instruct
the people, and, together with civilization and
instruction, convey to them the truths of the
Gospel, trusting that God, in His own good time,
would bestow upon them that faith in the Re-
deemer, without which all knowledge is vain.
In after years, the undertaking of giving India
a Christian education in English was the special
privilege of the Church of Scotland through their
pioneer missionary, the justly celebrated Dr.
Alexander Duff. The present writer heard him, in
his old age, the year before he died, address a
group of students for an hour without a break. He
told of the steps which had led him to put into the
190 RAFFLES
hands of the peoples of India, by the teaching of
English, the key of a great literature, which he
said was so saturated by Christian thought and
sentiment that it could not but unlock the supreme
treasures of the English translation of the Bible,
which, he held, was one of the chief glories of the
English language. But Dr. Duff was equally de-
sirous of having the Scriptures in the vernaculars
of the different tribes and peoples.
Raffles, in his letter to the Bible Society, spoke
of the labours of Dr. Robert Morrison in trans-
lating the Scriptures into Chinese, and more parti-
cularly of the advantage that there would be in
the appointment of an agent to proceed to Singa-
pore, from which centre to work China and the
different parts of the East. No agent, however,
was stationed at Singapore till 1882. But it must
be remembered that a great deal was done in
China by Gutzlaff and others from 1830 till the
opening of the treaty ports to missions in 1842,
when all the Protestant missionaries in Malaya
were sent on to China, which left Singapore, . and
all the Eastern islands, almost entirely in the
hands of the Roman Church for well-nigh forty
years.
It v/ill ever be to the credit of the founder of
Singapore that he was also the founder, and the
first president of the Zoological Gardens. It was
he who suggested its formation to Sir Humphrey
Davy, and, with the patronage of other eminent
men, the thing was done. Sir Stamford said he
looked mainly not to numbers, for the character
of the institution, but to the proportion of men of
science and sound principles, who began the enter-
RAFFLES 191
prise. He personally looked more to the scientific
part of it, and said he would transfer to it
the collections in natural history which he had
managed to bring home.
In spite of persistent illnesses he continued to
take a lively interest in various scientific, educa-
tional, and, not least, missionary societies, as his
correspondence shows.
Writing to the Rev. Dr. Raffles, he tells that he
with his devoted wife were happily settled in High
Wood, near Barnet, in the north of London, where
he spent the last two years of his life. " We are
here, thank God, once more out of the trammels
and disorders of a London life. . . . Let me
have a line from you when you reach Highbury,
should you stop by the way at Barnet. I generally
go to town once a week. We suffer a little from
the heat : but as we hope to make our hay in the
course of next week, I do not complain. High
Wood 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."
This was the last letter that Sir Stamford wrote
that his widow was able to make extracts from.
It was written on June 15, 1820. A few weeks
later, on July 5, his eager, but sorely worn spirit
had taken its flight where work brings no weari-
ness. He died on the day previous to the celebra-
tion of his forty-fifth year.
These concluding words of Lady Raffles will best
close the record of his life's history :
" The period of two years, which Sir Stamford
had now spent in England, had rapidly passed
192 RAFFLES
away : for who takes note of the days of happiness ?
It was his often expressed hope that he had ex-
perienced sufficient trial to purify his soul : and it
is humbly trusted that the many and heavy afflic-
tions, with which he was visited, were sanctified
by the grace of God, and were made instrumental,
through faith in a Saviour, to prepare him for the
world where sorrow and sighing are no more."
The few letters which have been introduced
in the last pages, are sufficient to prove that the
death-blow had been struck — the silver chord was
broken at the wheel. His sense of enjoyment, in-
deed, was as keen as ever, his spirit as gay, his
heart as warm, his imagination still brighter,
though his hope for this world were still less. He
was content with the happiness of the present
moment, and only prayed for its continuance.
That his prayer was not granted is his everlasting
gain ; yet even here, and after so many trials and
privations, he enjoyed no common pleasures : the
delight of being united to friends from whom he
had long been separated : the charms of society :
the interests of literature and science : the general
improvement of man : and, above all, the nearer
charities of domestic life, all combined to engage
and occupy his mind, and his heart was full of
enjoyment : and in the retirement for which he had
so long sighed, and surrounded by all the ties which
it had pleased God to spare him, he indulged his
happy spirit. In the midst of all the best of worldly
treasures, in the bosom of his family, that spirit,
which had won its way through a greatly
chequered career, was suddenly summoned to the
throne of God.
RAFFLES 193
So long as the silent stars look down on the
beautiful island of Singapore, I think, now, his
name shall be held in grateful remembrance by suc-
ceeding generations of those who will dwell here,
even though his name was, for many long years,
leftj^in neglect by his countrymen for whom he had
done so much.
He was buried at Hendon Church, but for many
years he lay in an unknown grave, and only quite
ijecently was this grave discovered, and then only
by accident. It has now been honoured by those
merchants of the present day, who have realised
their deep debt to the founder of this great centre
of the immense possibilities of British Malaya.
Should a day ever dawn on this earth when his
work here shall be utterly forgotten, he shall still
be among the ranks of the wise and the righteous
who lived and laboured to bless his fellow-men.
His shall be the
EVERLASTING MEMORIAL.
His name, and his place, and his tomb all forgotten,
The brief race of time well and patiently run,
Unthought of by man, in rewards or in praises,
He shall still be remembered, by wliat he lias done."
The End.
W. JoLLV & Sons, Printers, Aberdeen.
INDEX
Abdullah. Munshi.
describes Raffles, 51, 52 ; des-
cribes Mrs. O. Raffles, 49-51.
Achin
Raffles writes on the laws of,
20, on the Battaks between
— and Mengangkabu, 11 3-4,
128.
Adat-Malayu
or Undang-undang, the system
of Malayan national laws, 35
American
missions in Sumatra, 115 ;
missions in China, 173 ;
traders in Malaya in the time
of Raffles, 32.
Amiens (Peace, 1802)
by which Malacca was as-
signed to the Dutch, 126-8.
Anglo-Chinese College
in Malacca, 63, 67, 172, 182.
Appreciation
of Raffles by merchants, 107,
181, 193 ; By E. I. Co. 193 ;
of the Dutch by Lord Ciomer
and D. C. Maclaine, 97.
Arabs
arrival in the Eastern Seas,
20 ; foster piracy and slavery
32 ; spread Islamism, 19-20,
3I-32-
Archives
Dutch — in Java, 186.
Archipelago, Eastern
Dutch, 97; English, 29, 140- 1
B
Baba
Straits Chinese, 18.
Bangkok
Community Church, 67.
Banjer Masing
Dutch possession, 132-3.
Banka
British held Banka and Billiion
in perpetuity, 132.
Bandahara
of Malacca, 22 ; of Pahang,
133-
Banks, Sir Joseph,
Raffles mourns, 145.
Baptist
missions, 103.
Batavia
trade centre, 140 ; Medhurst's
church, 67.
Battaks
cannibals, 109 ; missions,
1 13-4, 143; population, 115;
Raffles visits, 109- 114.
Beitenzorg
resilience of Raffles, 17; tomb
of Mrs Olivia Raffles, 17.
Bengal
KafHes visits Calcutta and
Serempore, 89 ; Government
appreciation of Raffles, 177.
196
INDEX
Bencoolen
RatHes life there, 13, 87-9
99-102, 105, 113, 116; R.
regards B. as a heavy charge
on Bengal, 165.
Benua
the people of the plains
Malayan Peninsula, 21.
Bible
in Malaya and China, 55-9,
99. 189-
Billiton
Raflles advocates its retention,
104-5, 132.
Block
printing, 68.
Botanical Gardens
Beitenzorg, 17, ; Singapore,
175-6.
Borneo
104, 132, 186.
Bougler
Life of Raffles 51, disposes of
the slander as to Mrs. O.
Raflies 51,
British
connection in the East Indies,
132- 3; Empire as sketched
by Raffles throughout Greater
Malaya, 28-9, 33-5, 99, 102 ;
community church (formerly
Dutch) Malacca, Bangkok,
Batavia, 67 : and Foreign
Bible Society, 58, 68, 76, 97,
loi, 188;
Brodie, Sir Benj :
on opium, 138 ;
Burton
British missionary to the Bat-
taks 1I3.
Calcutta
Singapore to rival, 123 ; visit-
ed by Raffles, 12, 27, 91, 92,
105 7, Il7.
Cannibalism
among Battaks, 107 ; in China,
112.
Canning, Lord
Raffles hopes he will come as
Governor-General (after whom
the Fort is named), isi ;
Canton
one of the three points, in 1819,
in the Far East, where the
Church of England was re-
presented, 73.
Carey of Serampore
father and son, 38, 89,
103 ; — Marshman and Ward,
89.
Celebes, 186.
Centenary
Foundation of Singapore Feb-
ruary, 6, 1819. Founding of
" Raffles " Institution, April,
I, 1819. 169 ; Chinese mis-
sions, 53, 77.
Chinese
farm monopolies, 31 ; college
at Malacca, i67 ; college Singa-
pore, 10, no; Church, 65,
76 ; Bible, 50, 65, 77 ; great
indutry, 31 ; marry Malay
wives, 58 ; dialects in Malay,
58.
Christianity
in China, 61, 67-9, 77-8, 173-
4-
Church
in the Middle and Far East,
69 ; and Mission differentiated,
64 ; adumbrated, 63 ; activities
of Raffles, 15, 99, 103.
Chulians, 25.
Clerk, Sir Andrew
true successor of Sir Stanford
Raffles, both in spirit and
policy to carry out his plans,
30.
Cochin-China
Crawfurd's diplomatic visits to
162-4.
Colonisation
of East Indies by Hindu
Indians, 72.
Comity of Missions
oulliiie.s 100 years ago, 63.
iNDfiX
197
Commerce
central at Singapore, 120,
148.
Confucianism
referred to by Milne, 60 '■
who describes it as praclical
atheism, 77 ; recent efforts to
regalvanize inio life, 70.
Convention of Holland
re.'-lorcs Malacca to the British,
66.
Crawfurd, John.
and Singapore, 135-9 I baffles
takes his measure and is deter-
mined to let him have his
swing, 152 ; his mistaken ad-
ministration and policy injures
Malaya for a hundred years,
137 ; by which he entirely
reversed that of Raffles, 180 ;
Crawfurd and Raffles con-
trasted, 15, 52, 74,' 137, 152,
180.
His mission to Siam and
Cochin-China, 162-5.
His views on the acquisition
of Singapore 136; his tribute
to Sir S. Raffles 12-15.
Abdullah's reflections on
Crawfurd, 52.
Cromer, Lord,
appreciation of the Dutch,
97-
D
Daendels, Marshal,
administration in Netherlands
India, 131.
Despotism.
in the East, 70.
Directors
of E. I. Company completely
exculpate RajHes, S^ ; their
tribute to his worth and work,
_- 177-
Dutch.
oust the Portuguese from
Malacca, 23-5 ; depress the
natines, 31 ; in the Eastern
Archipelago, 12, 103, 126-8,
13O' 135; never estalilished at
Singapore, 1 19; their mis-
sions, 114: Raffles complains
i>f their interference wiih
British commerce, 122; 127-31 ;
Java restored to them, 128 ;
their ingratitude, 129; appre-
ciations of the Dutch 31, 97-8;
Archives at Batavia, 187 ;
Raffles iheir only subscriber to
loan, 154.
Dutch East Indies
po: ulatifin, 98; education, 174;
Raffles discuses the different
policies of the British and the
Dutch in the East, 142
East
despotisms, 70 ; (Dutch) Indies,
97 , Indian Company, 141,
188 ; India House, where
Raffles was a cadet, 10, 12.
Eber
Dalch captain who saw Malacca
and induced his nationals to
oust the Portuguese, 23.
Education
in China, 172-4 ; Siam, 174;
Dutch East Indies, 174 ; fostered
by Raffles in Java and Siimarta,
but not acceptable to Europeans
when given to natives, 89 ;
on the other hand encouraged
by British merchants in Singa-
pore, who supported Raffles,
91, 181 ; in India (Dr. A.
Duff), 190 ; for the whole of
the East founded by Raffles
and Morrison, i67.
198
INDEX
H
" Fame"
the ill-fated ship which was
burnt with all Raffles' trea-
sure, 183-5.
Farewell to Raffles
at Singapore, 187.
Farming out monopolies
Dutch, 31 ; British, 180.
Farquhar, Colonel
Raffles' right hand man, 66,
117, 140, left in charge of
of Singapore. 120.
Fort
of Malacca, 22 ; Raffles prevents
its destruction, i8;Canning, site
of first Government House at
Singapore, 175.
Free Trade
Raffles' object on the founding
of Singapore 178; his motto —
" the utmost freedom of trade
and equal rights to all." 1 59
Hamilton Captain
writes " New Account of East
Indies," in which he claims
that the "king" of Johore
gave him the present of
Singapore, 136. _
Hastmgs, Marquis (Lord
Moira)
relations with Raffles, 82, 99.
Hikayat Abdullah
Malay history, 45.
Hundu Indians
colonise East Indies, 72.
History
Sumatra by Marsden, 108 ;
Java by Raffles, 72 ; Singapore
projected, 137 ; Malacca, as
translated by Raffles from
Malayan MSS., 43-
Holland , ,.
and Netherlands India under
Napoleon, 126 ; by Treaty of
Holland Malacca was restored
to the British, 66.
Gambling
prohibited by Raffles, 74 ; re-
versed by Crawfurd, 180-1 ;
Johore, the last sufferer, as she
was the slate to give Raflles his
grand opportunity, 74, 139-
Gillespie General
brings charges again-st Raffles,
81 84
Gottfried, Simon
statistics of Dutch East Indies
of to-day, 77-S.
Government
inability of the Malays to
govern themselves, 29.
Grant, Charles
corresponds with Raffles as to
his representations to the E.I.
Co., I4I.
Ikan Layer
sailing fish of Far East, 160.
Imperialism
as sketched by Raffles, 152.
Indians
in Java and Malaya, 26,^^72 ;
oV)jection to term " Kling," 26.
Ingles, Sir R. Hugh
Raffles writes him on his care
for the natives, 123, 127 ; and
calls his attention to the parlous
state created by the Peace of
Amiens, 126.
Institution (Raffles)
foundation, intention, career.
167, i7i, 182.
INDEX
1<J9
J
Jakuns
aborigines of the coast of
Johore and Malacca. 21.
Japan
missionary plans in Malacca a
century ago, 62, 141 ; condem-
nation of opium, 139, 181.
Java
Indian adventurers colonise,
26; British conquest and ad-
ministration, 28, 79, 131-2 ;
Rafiles I.ieut-General, 13, 79 ;
restored to the Dutch, 129 ; pop-
ulation 98; monopolies, 97; history
by Rallies, 13, 72 ; Raffles' loan,
154; Medhurst's Church, 67;
missions (Dutch), 73.
Johore
Malays help the Dutch to oust
the Portuguese from Malacca,
24-5, 118, 133 ; "king" gives
Singapore to Captain Hamil-
ton, 136 ; Sultan and Tung-
munggong cede Singapore to
Sir S. RatHcs, 134-5.
K
Kaffers
Raffles frees Government negro
slaves, 89.
Karimons
not the objective of RafHes as
a British station, Ii7; as
Crawfurd suggests, 136.
Key to Malayan Policy
as maintained by Raffles, 30,
123.
"Kling" or{Kiling)
probable meaning of the term,
26.
Lake Toba
in the Battak country visited
by Ward and Barton, (1820)
113-
Land Tenure
Raffles views' in Java, 84-5 ;
need of just laws for the
Malays, 34-5.
Legge, Dr. James
last of Malacca missionaries
removed to China, 69, 70 ; his
forecast of progress of missions,
69, 70.
Leyden, Dr. John
famous Orientalist, i7-8, 3?.
Liberality
of Singapore merchants, 122,
181-2, 193.
Liberty
Milne contends that it is non-
existent out of Europe, 71.
Lingen
Sultan of, 133, 161.
London Missionary Society
(L.M.S.)
Malacca, 66, 167-8 ; Penang,
66 ; Batavia, 68 ; Singapore, 68.
M
Maclaine, Donald Campbell
appreciation of Dutch, 97.
Malacca
Portuguese capture, 22-3 ; who
are ousted by the Dutch,
assisted by the Johore Malays,
24 ; British in possession, 129 ;
Treaty of Amiens; (1S02) as-
signs — to the Dutch, 126 ;
Treaty of Vienna gives — to the
Dutch, 66 ; by the Convention
of Holland restored to the
British, 129; Missions at, 63-
66, 67-7S, 167.
Malayan
nations before Islam came to
them, 19, 34 ; Achin their
ancient maritime capital, 12 1 ;
their origin, 18; Mengangkabu
and Rembau, 42 ; habitat, 18 ;
inability to govern themselves,
28 ; depression of 31 ; their
Mohammedanism, 32 ; Raffles'
College on their behalf, i76.
200
INDEX
Malay Policy
RliIUcs seeks to take and to
holl Gr.:ater Malaya fur Great
Britian for the efficient cut^ of
the Malays, 28-9, 35, 85.
Malay States
on the .M;ilay Peninsula, 28, 103
Marsden, Dr. William,
Biilish pioneer scholar, ,
40-43, 108, III, 118, 142-
historian of Sumatra, 108 ; cor-
responds wfth Riillle's 111-I18,
146, 149, 160, 166,
Medhurst, Dr. William
L. M. S. mis.sionary at Malacca,
Penang and Batavia, 67-68.
Menangkabu
original home of the widely
scattered Malays, 10, 42, 108,
I '24-6,
Merchants
appreciation of Sir S. Raffles.
122, 181-2, 193,
Milne, Dr. William
missionary and scholar in
Malacca, "53, 59, 60, 168.
his literary work, 64-66 ;
tablet in the old Dutch Church,
168 : but unknown tomb on the
Malacca hill.
His estimate of slow apro-
gress of Christianity compared
with the view of Dr. J. Legge.
69, 77-8.
Milton, Rev. Samuel, (L.M.S.)
first missionary (1819) ; to
Singapore; invited from Mal-
acca i)y Raffles, 65.
Minto, Lord
plans conquest of Java, 13 ;
27, 79, 128; Raffles' tribute
to his chief, 80 ; Minto's a])-
preciation uf Raffles, 81.
Missions
Malacca, 60, 63, 73, 1 18;
Pen.ing, 68; Java, 67-68.
Battaks, 114; Japan, 62;
Singapore, 65, 75-6, rgo ;
China, 64, 69, 77-8, 172-3'
The worUi's only guarantee of
» lasting Peace, 64 ; Raffles'
views 1S9-90 ; neglected for
about forty years in Singapore,
-ss. 190, . , ^ .,
Mission Suggestion of Comity
one hundred yeais ago, 62.
Moira, Lord (Marquis Hastings)
Raffles and corresponds with —
82, 99,
M ohammedanism
among the Malays, 20, 25, 26,
31, 32, 114: in Dutch East
Indies five-sixths are Moham-
medans, i.e. thirty five out of a
total population of forty two
millions, 98.
Mommensen, Dr. J. L.
missionary to Batt'iks, 1 14,
Monopolies
Dulcii, 31 : English, 74-5.
Morrison, Dr. Robert
first Protestant missionary to
the Chinese, who associated
Milne with him in all his
undertakings, both intimate
friends of Raffies, 53-58 ;
His great speech at the
opening of the Singapore
(Raffles) Institution (1823) ;
167-70, his money gifts to the
.same, 170; his contention that
the lands of the Institution
should be kept intact for their
original purpose, if need be,
for one hundred years, 171.
Moluccas
129-30, 186,
Munson and Lyman
American missionaries killed
and eaten by Battaks, 114.
Munshi Abdullah
author of the Ilikayat, Malay
teacher and friend of Raffles,
45-
Murdock, Thomas,
Raffles writes him to say that
it was inconceivable that his
beloved Singapore should be
given up, 144.
N
Napoleon
his hold on Java, 27, 35 ;
INDEX
201
Raffles visits at St. Helena, i88.
Native Education
KaOles' cH'orts fur freed negro
slaves, 89 ; Morrison one with
him that all should have its
benefits offered, 171 ; fostered
by Raffles in Java, but opposed
there by local Europeans, 89;
encouraged by merchants in
Stngapore, 90, 99, 169-174,
181-2; ; in India Dr. A.
Duff, 189.
Natural History
Raffles great love for, 14, 47,
117, 187, 190.
Netherlands India
see Dutch East Indies, 98, 174,
Nightingale General
succeeds General Gillespie and
cordially supports Raffles, 82,
85.
Opium
its nature and effects, 138 ; and
condemned by Raffles, 74, 181,
by Milne, 75 ; debarred by
Japan, 139; China's incubus
139; made a Government
monopoly, 180 ; must be dealt
with in the Straits and Malay
States for its entire abolition
as a vice, 181 ; Sir Benj.
Brodie's belated remarks., 138.
Orang Benua
aboriginal tribe, 21.
Padang
coast port in Sumatra, 124.
Pahang
Bandahara of- 134.
Palembang 132,
Pasumah 124.
Peace
of Amiens, 126-8 ; of Vienna,
b6, 129.
Penang
in 1805 barely 30,000 inhabit-
ant'^, 18 ; Raffles in, 17, 42,
118 (described by Travers) 17,
Piracy
Arab pirates, 31 ; suppressed in
Malayan waters, 74, 87. Sing-
apore piratical nest, 135.
Policy of Raffles
for a Malayan empire, 131.
Population
Java and Dutch Indies,
98 ; Mohammedans in Nether-
lands India, 98 ; Battaks
country, 115.
Portuguese
advent in Malacca and their
Dido dupins:; of the Sultan, 21-
23 ; their deterioration of to-
t^^iy, 7273-
Printing
with wooden blocks and move-
able metal types, 68,
Progress of Christianity
among the Chinese : views of
Milne and Legge, 60-70.
Pulau Way
or Sabang, port of call, Raffles
regarded as of importance, 123.
R
Raffles, Sir T. Stamford
birth and pareiitnge, 7- 10.
education and training, 10, 12,
modesty and filial piety, 16.
his sailor Vireeding, 80.
personal character, 15-6
cheerful disposition, 101-2
predilections, 9, 10, 13, 16, 43,
122 ; a linguist, 10, 12, 16, 45,
122 ; had a love and
knowledge of Malay literature,
II, 43, 49, 117; devoted to
science, 10-14,
202
INDEX
founds the Zoological Gardens,
14, 117 ; described by Travers,
17 ; described by Abdullah,
46; described by Cravvfurd,
12-14; described by J. T.
Thompson, 50-51 ; distrusts the
Diucli, 3ii 50, 126-134 ;
btlieves in Briiish influence for
the benefit of Asiatics, 18, 28-
30, 33-5 ; criticizes the Dutch,
the Chinese, Arabs and his
own nationals, 31, 33.
Raffles seeks Singapore
and not tlie Karinvais, Ii7,
136, 178 ; recognises Malayan
chiefs' rights, their titles and
their honours, 30 ; prevision
as to the great imperial im-
portance of Singapore, 12 1-2.;
visits Calcutta,' 12, 27,. 89-99,
105-7, 117,^121; great pride
in Singapore, his "political
son " 106, 1 19, I2J, • 140-1,
165-6; his ideal of Singapore
as a trade centre, " freedom of
trade and equal rights to all "
with protection of the races
represented to come and go for
their mutual advantage, 121,
143-4, 159, 166; one hundred
years ago Rallies advocated
British trade with the Arabs at
Muscat, Mocha and Jedda for
the benefit of the Malays, 32 ;
invites a missionary (Rev. S.
Milton, L. M. S.) from Mal-
acca to Singapore, 65 ; founds
Singapore Institution, 59, 99,
167-174 ; his views as to the
Malays, 19, 42-3. 1034;
views as to missions, 189 ; sup-
ports B. and F. Bible Society,
103 ; seeks the aidof Wilber-
force against slavery, 87-9, 92 ;
aware of Crawfurd's fiscal
opposition, and different view-
point on many questions, but
allows him lo have his swing,
152 ; his policy and administra-
tion and that of Crawfurd con-
trasted ; 15, 52, 74, 137, 152,
Raffles' " Malay Policy " 27,
33-4.
Raffles in
Malacca, i8, 27, 43, 78-96
Java, 42, 78-96, 185 ; Bencoo-
len, 13, 87-9, 98, 100, 113, 116,
141 ; opposed by General Gil-
lespie, 81 ; supported by Gen-
eral Nightingale, 82 ; recounts
his official life, 82; arduous
labours, 14, 105 ; strong
aversion to opium, gambling,
piracy and slavery 74 ; longings
for Home and England, 102,
105-6; his strong, cahn confid-
ence in God, 82, loi, 145-150
176, 183-4 ; his firm con-
viction of the recovery of
Great Britain after the great
(Napoleonic) war, 152 ; Rafties
hands over to Crawfurd, 180 ;
farewell to his beloved Singa-
pore, 181 ; sails in the ill-fated
ship "Fame," which is burnt at
sea, 183, 185-6; arrival in
England, 188-9 ; home near
London, 191 ; his children, 103,
123, 145, 163 ; his death, 9, 14,
191 -2 ; his unknown grave, 193,
his widow's tribute 192 ; hon-
oured at last, 193.
Raffles
relations with— Grant, Charles,
141 ; Ingles, Sir R. Hugh, 123-
6; Leyden, Dr. John, 37-9;
Marsden, Dr. William, 37-9,
119, 146-8, 159, 166, 166;
Mcdhurst, Dr. William; 67-8 ;
Milne, Dr. William, 53-60 ;
Minto, Lord, 13, 27, 79. 128 ;
Morrison, Dr. Robert, 53-60
Rallies, Rev. Dr. (cousin) 10
103, 143, 149. 167, 191
Somerset, Duchess of, I02,
105, 108, 120, 123, 159 ;-
Wilberforce, William, 87-89.
Raffles, Mrs. Olivia
word picture of her by Ab-
dullah 49 ; false statements re-
garding lier, repeated by J. T,
Thomson, disposed of by Mr.
Boulger, 51.
Raffles, Lady Sophia
visits Ihe Battaks along with
her husband, 113, 121, 124;
INDEX
203
claiment to the Achin crown
tries to bribe her, 121 ; family
deaths and sorrows, 148 ; her
tribute to her husband, 191-2
Raffles, Rev. Dr.
Sir Stamford tells him of hi.s
early life, 10, 143, 149 ; gives
him his views as to Bil)le
Society and Missions, 103 ;and
looks forward to his return to
England, 158.
"Raffles" Institution
169-172 ;
Rhenish Mission
in Sumatra, 114.
Rhio
lost to the Dutch, 118.
Rembau
inland of Malacca, the oldest
settlement of the Menangkabu
Malays on the Peninsula, 42.
Sebang (Pulau Way)
Raffles sees its special im-
portance, 123
Science and Philosophy
flourish only in the lands of
Christendom, 169.
Semangs
hill tribes of the Malay Pen-
insula, 21.
Serempore
Leyden and Carey's connection
with this old centre of mis-
sionary learning, and their
friendship with Raffles, 38, 98 ;
trio of this college — Carey,
Marshman and Ward. 89
Siak
outlet of the Mengangkabu
Malays, 20.
Siam
closed to commerce in Raffles'
day, 165 ; Crawlurd's visits.
J62-3
Simon, Gottfried
gives present statistics of Dutch
East Indies, 98.
Singapore
Raffles lands and hoists the
British flags at Singapore,
January 29, 1S19: next day
he makes agreements with the
Tuminunggung of Johore, and
signs a treaty with the Sultan,
February 5 : Proclaimation of
British possession made on the
ne.\t day (Feb. C) which is the
official day recognized for the
anniversary of the Foundation,
of Singapore, 118 ; see also, 14,.
117, 142-4; great strategic
position, 104' 121, 143-4 ; naval
base, as centre for China, India
and Australia stations, 123;
Crawfurd's triliute to Raffles
on his keen prevision, 14 ;
Farquhar reports progress, 140 ;
gave Raffles huge saiisfaciion,
121-2 ; rather tardy recognition
of unique importance by the
Hon. the East India Company
177 ; to rival Calcutta, 123 ;
ancient city of Malays, 117,
gifted by " king "of Johore to a
Captain Hamilton 136; Craw-
furd on its acquisition, 135 ;
British title was from the Sultan
and Tummunggong of Johoro,
which the late Mr. C. B.
Buckley unearthed, and the
present writer had the pleasure
of handling, 140, 161 ; Singa-
pore's great prosperity, 106,
122, 140-4, 148, 166, 177,
Raffles' plans for its sta-
bility and progress, 179; revels
in its rising success on his last
visit there, 159, l66 ; Raffles
says farewell, iSi.
Singapore Institution
character and constitution,
59, 99, 167-172; Raffles'
special aim, 71-3; Morrison's
great speech on the opening
day, 169-0 ; his liberal money
gifts, 170; and strong eflotts to
204
INDEX
secure its permanency, 171 ;
centenary falls due on April I,
1923, 169.
Slavery
Arab responsibility, 31, 74;
condemned by Raffles, 74, S7 ;
siip]iressed in Malaya.
Somerset, Duchess of
currespi)ndence with Sir
Stamford, 102, 105, 108, 120
123, 159, 176, 180.
Straits Chinese (Babas) ,
18.
Sultan
of Malacca receives the
Portuguese, 21; of Johore, 119,
of Lingtn, 132, 133-4, 119.
Sumatra
centuries behind Java as to
development, 20, 88, 108, 112,
125, 185,
Baitak tribes there, 109-II :
Marsden's History of — 108 ;
Raflles's material for des-
cription of, lost in the
"Fame," 185-6.
Syeds, or Sheikhs 30.
Tombs
of ancient Malay kings on
Singapore ( Fort Canning)
hill, 175 ; of Dr. Milne,
Malacca, 168 ; Rallies, Hen-
don, 192.
Translation
of Holy Scripture into Chinese
\>y Morrison in China : by
Milne in Malacca, 69.
Treaty
of Amiens (1S02) assigned
Malacca, Padang and the
Moluccas to the Dutch, 126 ;
of Vienna (1S18) gave Malacca
to the Dutch, 66, 129,
of Holland (1825) restored
Malacca to the British, 66.
Tungku Putne
Dutch seize the regalia to try
to cstablisii a clain), 161.
Tumunggong
of Malacca (and Johore?) try
to dissuade the Sultan against
allowing the Portuguese to
settle at Malacca, 21 ; of Johore
by whom Raffles acquired
Singapore, 161.
u
Tamils
refuse to answer to term
" Kling" 26.
Tappanooly
capital of the Battaks, 113.
Thomson, J. T.
repeats reflection on the first
Mrs. (Olivia) RatHes, 51 ;
answered by Mr. Roulger, 51 ;
translates part of the " Hikaya
Abdullah," 50.
Toba
great lake in the mountains
of Jiattak land, 113,
Ultra-Ganges
nations described by W.
Milne, 70; missions, 72.
Undang-undang
Malay code of laws, 20, 35.
Universities
in China, the Middle and Far
East owe their inception to
what vSir Stamford Raffles and
the Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison
did for the Singapore In-
stitution, 173-4; already es-
tablished in China, 173-4 ; for
Malaya, l68-i73;for Siam, 174.
INDEX
205
V
Van Asselt
Dutch missionary to the
Mohammedans in Sumatra 1 14.
Vienna
treaty jjave Malacca, which
had been held during the war,
by the British, back to the
Dutch, 66, 129.
W
adventure to Tappanooly, 113.
Warneck, Dr. John
speaks of missions to the
Battaks 114.
Weld, Sir Frederick
Governor of Singapore, 73.
Wilberforce, William
Raffles pleads for his aid against
slavery in Malaya, 87-89.
Women
Chinese women not allowed to
leave China one hundred years
ago, 60.
World's
only guarantee of Peace, 64.
Wallich, Dr. (Calcutta)
in charge of the botanical de-
partment with whom Raffles
corresponds, i76.
Ward of Serempore
visited by KatHes in Bengal,
and he accompanies him on his
Zoo
Zoological Gardens founded by
Railles, 1 17, 190.
OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Sunny Singapore,
By J. A. Bethune Cook. Elliot Stock. Sold out.
"Written with commendable lucidity, graceful in diction
and serious in thought, Mr. Cook's book holds the interest
from the preface to the last page." — Straits Tifnes.
" A lively account of the land of perpetual sunshine and the
various institutions that flourish there." — The Scotsman.
"The book does not aim at being prophetic, it is not pes-
simistic ; it tells of the past, points to the present, and the
reader can revel as he will in visions of the iu\.u.rt" —Malay
Mail.
" The book does not confine itself to the capital, but deals
with other states, cities and islands. The author has spent a
quarter of a century among the scenes which he describes-
His comments on men and things in general, although we
cannot always agree with him, make very interesting reading."
— Straits Echo.
" This model volume is remarkable for two things ; an in-
teresting, fascinating style, and a wonderful variety of informa-
tion. Readers will be introduced to a part of the Empire that
is to play in the near future a much larger part than in the
past." — Bombay Guardian.
"The author ranges in a large number of short chapters
over a considerable variety of topics — geographical, historical,
and social — more or less connected with the central one, and
reaching from Japan to India. There is a great deal of
information gathered into the volume, and it is put very
succinctly."— U. F. Church Monthly.
OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Apa Suka, Tuan.
By J. A. Bethune Cook. A. H. Stockwell. Sold out.
His Majesty the King graciously accepted a copy from the
publisher, and the Private Secretary was commanded by His
Majesty to request Mr. Stockwell to thank Mr. John Angus fof
the work.
"The shortest of short stories. Extraordinarily powerful
fragments of life in Malaya. A style as unique as the stories.
Who would know the ' Middle East ' as if he had spent years in
it, let him read and re-read this weird hooV.."— Principal Alex.
Whyte.
"They carry on their face a warranty of xx\ii\\."— Scotsman.
"John Angus would seem to be of Malay ov\g\n.'^— Review of
Reviews.
" I have read the book with the keenest interest, and it seems
to me that Mr. Cook, has been able to reveal with very striking
and human power the many-sided and fascinating life of the
Malay States."— Z>r. John Kebnan, Edinburgh.
" It is replete with passion, love, hatred, fear, greed and lust,
every emotion and situation proper to a novel. Mr. Angus
writes with sincerity : some of his pen pictures are well drawn
but are very sad." — Glasgow Citizen.
Reviewed along with, 'Malayan IVIonochromes,' by Sir Hugh
Clifford, the Glasgow Herald sa\di : "Both have this in com-
mon, the revelation as a very real influence on conduct of the
power of the religion of Islam in its Doctrines of Fate."
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
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