THE first Governor selected by the Colonial Office to
undertake the somewhat difficult task of introducing the colonial system into a
group of settlements saturated with the traditions of Indian methods of
administration was Colonel Harry St George Ord, C.B.,of the Corps of Royal
Engineers. It is perhaps not very surprising that Colonel Ord, who came from
the West Coast of Africa, made an indifferent impression on the white
population of this Far Eastern Government, and his unpopularity continued as
long as he held the office. He was regarded as masterful and overbearing ;
extravagant in his ideas of what constituted a suitable Government House and
Governor's yacht, and he neither sought the advice of the community, nor showed
himself much inclined to accept it when tendered without invitation. He brought
with him the usual Crown Colony Constitution, which comprised an Executive and
Legislative Council, and in the latter the unofficial element was usually in
opposition to the Governor. On the other hand. Governor Ord was a man of strong
character and ability; he came to a dependency which had always been a burden
on Indian finances, and he made it pay its way, and left it with a very
respectable credit balance.
Page 104
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 105
The returns of Revenue and Expenditure, and the Value of
Trade, in what we may henceforth call the Straits Colony, have already been
given for the year 1835-6, and the progress of the settlements, up to the date
of the transfer, may be gathered from the figures on the next page, far as they
are from being complete.
Having regard to these figures,1 and the fact
that the Government of India asserted, that the annual cost of maintaining a
military garrison in the Straits amounted to £300,000, to which the dependency
was only able to contribute £63,000, it is not surprising that no great
objection was raised to the transfer of the Settlements to the control of the
Colonial Office. This was more especially the case since Calcutta had lost
interest in a place which had been acquired mainly for trading purposes. As
India itself was to pass to the Crown, and be governed on new lines, it was no
doubt decided that the India Office would have enough to do, without the
additional responsibility of these small and distant Settlements.
Lord Canning, the Governor-General of India at the time when
the agitation for transfer first began, expressed his views in an able minute
in which he broadly stated the case for India and for the Straits. He wrote : —
" It must not be overlooked that the revenues of the
Settlements have been steadily increasing, and that while the receipts have
risen from 873,692 rupees, in 1854-55, to 1,323,368 in 1858-59 (being an
increase of 51 per cent in four years), the disbursements for civil charges,
not including the cost of the foreign convicts, have in the same interval risen
from 722,107 rupees to 821,913, being an increase of 14 per cent only. As there
is no reason why the civil charges of the Settlements should be further
increased, it may be anticipated that, if peace should happily
1 Kindly
supplied by the India Office. The expenditure figures do not include the
military charges, nor, perhaps, the cost of the Indian convict establishment.
Page 106 BRITISH MALAYA
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 107
be maintained between England and the great European Powers,
the revenues of the Straits Settlements will, in no very long time, equal their
full charges, Military as well as Civil. But even if it prove otherwise, and if
it should be necessary for England to make some sacrifice in this respect, I hold
a clear opinion that it ought to be made in justice alike to the Settlements
and to India."
Lord Canning evidently held the clear opinion that neither
India nor the Straits should be charged for the cost of a garrison which, when
once the Straits had passed from Indian to Imperial control, would cease to be
an Indian concern, and could not rightly be regarded as a colonial liability ;
for the Imperial, and not the Colonial, Government would decide what the
constitution of the garrison should be, and where drawn from. If there is any
truth in the saying, " Who pays the piper shall call the tune," it
would follow that, who calls the tune shall pay the piper. Lord Canning held
other views, equally excellent, which probably were not endorsed by the members
of the Indian Civil Service. He expressed them in a later passage of the same
minute, and they apply to-day to officers whose experience has been gained in
African or Mediterranean colonies, as well as they did, in 1859, to officers
with Indian training transferred for service in British Malaya.
This is the
passage : —
" But whether the main system of Government be altered
or not, that under which officers are provided for service in the Straits is,
so far as civil administration is concerned, a positive evil, which ought in
any case to be remedied. Indian officers have no opportunities of acquiring
experience of the habits or the language of either Malays or Chinese, and
accordingly, when officers are sent to the Straits, they have everything to
learn. The Government of India is unable to keep a close watch upon their
efficiency ; the field is so narrow as to afford
Page 108 BRITISH MALAYA
little or no room to the Governor of the Settlements for
exercising a power of selection in recommending to a vacant office ; and there
is consequently so complete an absence of stimulus to exertion that it may well
be doubted whether Indian Civil officers sent to the Straits ever become thoroughly
well qualified for, or heartily interested in the duties they have to discharge.
The character of the Chinese, the most important and at times a very
unmanageable part of the population of the Straits Settlements, is quite
different from that of any people with whom Indian officers have to deal. ... I
am satisfied that if the Straits Settlements are to remain under the control of
the Indian Government, it will be absolutely necessary to devise a plan by
which the persons employed in administering die Civil Government shall receive
a special training; and that without this the Indian Government cannot do
justice to these Settlements."
It is curious how applicable these words of Lord Canning
were to Colonel, afterwards Sir Harry, Ord ; for the real mistakes he made were
due to ignorance of Malay customs and affairs. It might be difficult to say how
far Sir Harry Ord was responsible for the policy by which England abandoned all
her interests in Sumatra, and ignored her treaty responsibilities to the Sultan
and people of Achin, in return for Dutch concessions, of doubtful advantage, on
the West Coast of Africa. It is, however, certain that Sir Harry Ord used all
his influence to have this arrangement carried out, with the result that we
were immediately saddled with the Ashanti expedition, which cost a good many
lives and £900,000 ; while the Dutch entered, light-heartedly, into an attack
on Achin which, after thirty-three years of fighting and enormous sacrifices in
blood and treasure, is not concluded yet This fact is worth remembering, in
view of the attitude of the Dutch towards this country during the
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 109
recent war in South Africa, when the two main chaises
against England were, that she had, without provocation, attacked an
inoffensive people, in order to possess their country and deprive them of
independence ; and, secondly, that it was a disgrace to British arms that the struggle
should have lasted so long as it did. The last that has been heard of Dutch
military operations in Achin was the slaughter of many hundreds of women and
children, and the explanation given was that they were thrust to the front by
the men, who sheltered themselves behind them, and, in any case, that the women
were as desperate fighters as the men. If the last statement be true, it is a
very significant testimony to the state of feeling of the Achinese, that their
women should join the ranks and die, with their children, in hundreds, under
the bullets of an enemy. It would probably be difficult to find a parallel1
in all Malay history,
1 Whilst this book was still in the press, a parallel to the incident
referred to above has been supplied by a Dutch writer to the Times. I have
never heard of tribal suicide as a Malay custom, and individual suicide is
extremely rare. In any case, we may be thankful that the sacrifice described in
the letter, here reprinted, did not take place in any Malay country under
British influence.
"TRIBAL SUICIDE."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "TIMES."
Sir, — May
I by your courtesy be admitted to the hospitality of your columns to refute a
statement I see in the Press?
In
consequence of the wording of a Reuter telegram, it is alleged that the
Netherland troops in Bali (not Achin, (that is 1700 miles away from Bali)
slaughtered about 400 people, among them a majority of women and children.
The death
of so many human beings is sad enough, without the imputation of cruelty
against the Netherlands soldiers. What happened is this.
All
students of Malay and Hindu history know that one of the most horrid customs in
those countries is the " poopootan," what I should like to call the
tribal suicide.
A Bali
prince, with the instincts of his warrior race, declines to surrender, but
prefers death, and he with all his people seek death. The Prince of Badoeng did
this. He turned a deaf ear to all suggestion of a settlement,
Page 110 BRITISH MALAYA
This is not the place to discuss the acquisition of the
Dutch Station on the West Coast of Africa, It may have been worth the Ashanti
War and all that stands for; but it can be confidently asserted that the Gold
Coast Colony, with its fatal climate and other drawbacks, would not compare in
value with the position we held in Sumatra, if we had taken advantage of it, as
Raffles intended that we should. Simply weighing the balance of advantages,
they are with Sumatra, and the Dutch would not have been ready to make the
exchange had they not felt convinced that they were getting the best of the
bargain.
Both the Dutch and the British have paid dearly for the
results of an arrangement in which those most nearly concerned were not
consulted. But, apart from questions of gain, the Achinese were under the
impression that we had treaty relations with them which did not admit of our withdrawal
without cause and without notice. When they found themselves involved with the
Dutch, the Sultan of Achin earnestly appealed to the Government of her late
Majesty, but without avail. Even supposing that no question of prospective
advantage was considered in making the exchange of rights (for we could not,
perhaps, foresee that it meant a war between Holland and Achin, any more than
the Dutch foresaw that we should be involved in a war with Ashanti), still, if
the arrangement had not been made, the people of Northern Sumatra would have
been spared thirty-three years of somewhat savage war-
but he and
all connected with him, men, women, and children, committed suicide.
Nearly the
same thing happened in 1895 in Lombok, a neighbouring island. The old King had
surrendered, but one of his sons, a
cripple, walked out with all his relations, dressed in gorgeous garment,
bedecked with all their jewelry, and with their swords and lances attacked the
Dutch army, only to find the death they courted. Those who were not killed in
the fight were afterwards found to have also killed themselves.
I am. Sir,
your obedient servant,
C. THIEME,
C. THIEME,
London Correspondent of the
De Niewwe Courant (The Hague).
National Liberal Club, Sept. 25.
National Liberal Club, Sept. 25.
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 111
fare, during which many innocent people must have suffered
terrible hardships, though the tale of them does not reach the outer world.
Sumatra is, unquestionably, one of the richest territories in the East, and
Raffles' object was to secure for Great Britain the keys of the Straits of
Malacca; Achin in the north, and Singapore in the south. It looks rather like
the irony of fate, that the first Colonial Governor of Singapore should have
devoted much of his time, and all his influence, to undo part of the work of
the Founder of Singapore. His action is curious for another reason. Pinang was,
in 1867, always had been since its early days, and is still, the principal
market for the trade of Northern Sumatra During the early years of Sir Harry
Ord's administration there were several complaints from Pinang of native
vessels from that Settlement being detained in the ports of Northern Sumatra,
and even, in some cases, pirated by the subjects of Achin or the neighbouring
States. Governor Ord remonstrated with the Sumatran chiefs, without great effect,
and he may have thought that he would be relieved of trouble, and the Pinang
traders of loss, if the Dutch authority was paramount in Sumatra. If so, he was
prepared to make great sacrifices for small cause, and it cannot be forgotten
that the first British station was established, at Bencoolen, as long ago as
1684, and the various agents of the East India Company, who resided there,
never had any particular trouble with the Sumatran Chiefs.
One of the grievances made by the Straits people, in their
petition for severance from Indian control, was that Raffles' principal
injunction, to cultivate friendship with all neighbouring Malay States, in
Sumatra, the Peninsula, and the Archipelago, and to advance British interests by
friendly intercourse, had been entirely neglected. Governor Ord was no doubt
aware of that complaint, and, having secured a Government yacht, he made
periodical visits to the Malay States on the east coast of the Peninsula, to
Page 112 BRITISH
MALAYA
Kedah on the west, and he even travelled as far as Siam and
Java, the latter in connexion with those Sumatran affairs already alluded to.
He does not appear to have made the acquaintance of the Sultans of Perak or Selangor
till near the end of his term of office, but he befriended and took a very
great interest in the Temenggong Abubakar of Johore a State, which by this
time, had considerably developed, owing to the agricultural enterprise of
wealthy Chinese in Singapore, who owned large and flourishing plantations in
Johore, where they cultivated the pepper vine, and a shrub called gambir, from the leaves of which is
extracted a valuable dye.
In the history of the Straits, few things are more
remarkable than the gradual loss of interest in, and knowledge of, the neighbouring
Malay countries. We have seen that research into everything Malay was the
guiding force of Raffles' life ; to know the people, their language, customs,
and literature, were his greatest interest and delight ; in fact, his whole
official career was divided between this study of the Malay and the
determination to gain for his country a share of that trade and influence which
every day was becoming more of a Dutch monopoly. Raffles' example seems to have
stirred a good many other contemporaries to similar pursuits, and men like
Marsden, Crawford, Logan, and Braddell studied and wrote upon a great number of
subjects affecting their immediate neighbourhood, and countries as far afield
as Borneo, Siam, China, the Philippines, New Guinea, and Australia. This
admirable enthusiasm continued till 1860, by which time nearly all the leading
contributors to what may be called the English literature of Malaya had
disappeared from the Straits. Mr. Braddell alone remained, and was in the
Straits during the whole of Sir Harry Ord's administration; but his duties as
Attorney-General occupied all his time, and left none for further research into
those subjects to which he had formerly given his leisure.
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 113
In the first years of the colony's history, from 1867 to
1874, it is almost inconceivable how little was actually known of the
independent Malay States in the Malay Peninsula. It would not be too much to
say that in the colony there was probably not a European, and very few Malays,
who could have given correctly the names of all the States in the Peninsula,
from Singapore to the southern boundary of Siam. Similarly, no one could have
stated, with approximate correctness, how all the States should be placed on a
map, nor what were the real titles of their rulers. What was understood was
that, in many of the States, there was going on some kind of domestic struggle
between rival claimants to power who, from time to time, as they could raise
funds or gain credit, sent to the colony for arms and ammunition to carry on a
warfare which claimed comparatively few victims, and in which the fortunes of
the combatants varied with bewildering rapidity. Meanwhile the country was
being depopulated more by emigration and disease than by the numbers slain, and
only very rash people were so foolish as to thrust their heads into such a
hornets' nest, in spite of wonderful tales of its mineral riches. Indeed, when
some of those who had unwisely made advances of money or material to Malays and
Chinese within the zone of disturbance, appealed to the Government to assist
them to recover their debts or their property, they were met with the reply : —
" If persons, knowing the risks they run, owing to the
disturbed state of these countries, choose to hazard their lives and properties
for the sake of the large profits which accompany successful trading, they must
not expect the British Government to be answerable if their speculation proves
unsuccessful."
Johore, at this time, was tranquil ; indeed, it was only
sparsely peopled, and it was too close to Singapore for the making of trouble.
As already stated, Governor Ord took a great personal interest to the Temenggong,
and he
Page 114 BRITISH MALAYA
advised him on all important matters of administration,
making it understood that the advice was to be followed, as indeed it was,
almost invariably. Before Sir Harry Ord had been twelve months in the Colony
the Temenggong wrote to him a letter suggesting that, as the inferior title of Temenggong
was altogether inapplicable to the Sovereign Ruler of Johore, it should be
abandoned. The Governor forwarded the request, with a strong recommendation
that it should be granted, and on 20 May, 1868, the Duke of Buckingham and
Chandos replied : —
"... In reply, I have to instruct you to inform His Highness
that Her Majesty's Government have much pleasure in acceding to his wishes that
the title of Maharaja of Johore should be adopted in the place of that of Temenggong,
and you will consider yourself therefore at liberty to use that title in
future."
The title "Maharaja" is common in India, but
unknown as applied to Malay rulers.
A reference to the map will show that there are on the west
coast of the Peninsula, between Kedah in the north and Johore in the south,
three Malay States, namely Perak, Selangor, and Negri Sembilan, which means the
nine States. The boundaries of these States have been altered since they came
under British protection ; a tract of country called the Dindings, seventy
miles south of Pinang, has become British territory, and a coast district,
called Lukut, formerly under Selangor, is now a part of Negri Sembilan. These
three states, counting the Negri Sembilan as a whole, had for years been given
up to internal strife, and it will be necessary to explain the causes of the
various quarrels.
The outside world knew and cared very little about it, and
if the combatants had confined their attentions to their own countries and
refrained from molesting British subjects, it is quite possible that they might
have killed each other to the last man without our interference.
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 115
Letters imploring assistance, and offers to hand over their
States to the Company or the British Government, bad been made at intervals
ever since the occupation of Pinang. The former had been disregarded and the
latter politely declined, partly because no one urged that any special
advantage was to be gained by undertaking such responsibilities, partly because
people in authority were always afraid of offending some other power, and
partly because it was recognized that any such proposal would be declined by
the home Government. Towards the end of Sir Harry Ord's administration, the
disturbances in both Perak and Selangor began to affect persons and interests
outside those States. In 1871 the piracy of a British trading boat by Chinese
and Selangor Malays was reported, and when the Senior Naval Officer, in H.M.S. Rinaldo, went to the scene, and an
endeavour was made to arrest persons identified as having taken part In the
outrage, a struggle ensued, the Government vessels were fired upon by forts at
the mouth of the Selangor River, and these forts were destroyed by the Rinaldo. Sir Harry Ord was then in
England on leave of absence, but he returned to his post in 1872, and finding
the state of affairs in Selangor as bad as could be imagined, he endeavoured to
use his influence to secure a cessation of hostilities. In this, however, he
failed. In Perak matters were even worse, though the trouble was not of such
long standing. There was a Malay quarrel about the succession to the
sultanship, and a continuing fight, with very heavy losses on both sides,
between two factions of Chinese, who were struggling for the possession of
valuable tin mines. Both sides had friends amongst the Chinese in Pinang ;
these tried to furnish them with the sinews of war, and Pinang was invaded by
two thousand wounded and starving people who had escaped from Larut, the
district of Perak where the most serious fighting was taking place.
Page 116 BRITISH MALAYA
This was the condition of affairs in the end of 1872, and in
the following months, up to the time when Sir Harry Ord's term of office
expired, in the autumn of 1873, it grew much worse.
It is difficult, without wearying the reader, to give a
comprehensive sketch of the causes which produced such a situation that the
British Government reluctantly consented to authorize a new departure, and,
forsaking the policy of rigid abstention, to make trial of some method by which
peace and order might be introduced into the affairs of these unruly Malays,
without committing the local or Imperial Government to any serious
responsibility. The difficulty cannot be avoided ; for the principal aim of
this narrative is to show the nature of the Malay case which British officers
were set to deal with, how they handled it, and the result.
Perak is a large State, covering about eight thousand square
miles of territory. Its back is towards a great range of hills, some of them
eight thousand feet high, running down the centre of the Peninsula, whilst it
faces the Straits of Malacca, with a coast line about eighty miles in length.
Speaking very roughly, the northern boundary of Perak marches with Province
Wellesley and Kedah, while the southern boundary is a considerable river, the
Bernam, dividing the territories of Perak from the adjoining State, Selangor.
It will be understood that Perak and the other western
States are drained by many large and small rivers, rising, for the most part,
in the main range of mountains, and flowing, westward, into the waters of the
Malacca Straits. Similarly the eastern States are drained by rivers, rising in
the same mountain range, but flowing eastward into the China Sea. The principal
river of Perak is a very fine stream, navigable to boats for about two hundred
miles ; it bears the same name as the country, and it falls into the Straits of
Malacca just south of the
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 117
Dindings territory. On this river and its tributaries live
by far the largest proportion of the Malay inhabitants of the country. The
river is deep and tidal, and for the first thirty miles of its length from the
sea is navigable for steamers. The country on either side is flat, swampy, and
low, and the shore of the State, except the Dindings, is lined continuously
with a broad belt of mangroves. At the time of which I am now writing, 1872-3,
there were few Malays in this lower country ; but there were, dotted along the
coast, villages of Chinese fishermen over whom no one exercised any particular
control. Above that first thirty miles of the Perak River the water ran clear
as crystal over its sandy bed, and it was for the most part very shallow, with
deep pools at unexpected places. For the next hundred and fifty miles the width
of the stream varied from about seven hundred yards to seven hundred feet or
less ; it was dotted with islands, some of fair size, and, while the lower
reaches were often bounded, on one side or the other, by long stretches of
russet sand, the further the river was ascended, the higher became the banks,
till they maintained a uniform height of about twenty feet from the ordinary
level of the water. Throughout the whole of this river-length were villages,
large and small, usually divided from each other by several miles of heavy
forest, and each village was the residence of an important chief, or under his
control. Fifty miles from the sea the conformation of the country changed ;
small isolated hills were seen close to the river, while the spurs of ranges,
rising to two thousand or three thousand feet, ran down to the water's edge. A
hundred and fifty miles from its mouth the river forced its way through a succession
of gorges and the navigation was difficult, on account of the numerous rapids.
In the upper country, however, the villages were far apart and the population
scanty. To the north of this great valley of the Perak River was a district
called Larut, drained by an insignificant stream. North of that again was the
Krian
Page 118 BRITISH MALAYA
district, which marched with Province Wellesley and Kedah.
In Krian there were a few agriculturists, and on the coast a few fishermen.
Inland was a sub-district called Salama, where some tin mines were being
worked, partly by Chinese and partly by Malays.
Larut was the great tin-mining district of Perak. It
contained a population of about twenty thousand Chinese and two or three
thousand Malays. The mines lay at the foot of a great range of jungle-covered
hills (rising, in their highest point, to over five thousand feet), and were
distant from the navigable estuary of the Larut River about ten miles, with
another ten miles to the open sea. Speaking broadly, there were two groups of
mines (all open-surface workings), about two miles apart, worked respectively
by the Go Kuans (the five tribes) and the Si Kuans (the four tribes). In the
whole of Perak, at this time, there was only one road, about twelve miles long,
passing from the Si Kuan mines, through the Go Kuan village, down to the
landing-place on the river estuary. From the middle of this road there was a
branch of six miles to the village and residence of the Malay chief of the Larut
district This man was styled the Mantri, and he was one of the four high
officers of State.
On the southern side of the Perak Valley there were three
districts. First, Kinta, drained by a river of that name, which joined the Perak
River some forty miles above the mouth of the latter stream. Kinta was well
populated by Malays, and had a few rich tin mines, some of which were worked by
Chinese. Then came a district called Batang Padang, with a stream which also
joined the Perak River a few miles below the Kuala Kinta, meaning the mouth of
the Kinta River. There were very few inhabitants in the Batang Padang district,
and fewer still in Bernam, which comprised a huge stretch of virgin forest on
the left bank of a great river of the same name, the boundary between Perak and
Selangor.
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 119
Will the reader try to realize the general appearance of
this country before I tell him the nature of its rule, the condition of its
people ? I can no longer refer him to the authority of others. All that follows
was the result of my own observation, often of my very bitter experience ; and
when I write of events in which I did not personally take a part I had, I
believe, the best means of knowing what actually took place.
Here, then, was Perak, a “limitless expanse “ of jungle ;
miles upon miles of forest, broken only by silver streaks, where one might,
from a very high place, catch glimpses of some river. A few patches of lighter
green showed where there were, or more probably had been, clearings. Excluding
the single district of Larut, there was not a yard of road in the country, and
hardly a decent house ; there was not even a bridle path, only jungle tracks
made by wild beasts and used by charcoal-burners and a few pedestrians. The
commerce of the country was by the rivers ; they were the highways, and the
people would not leave them, unless they were compelled to do so. The country
folk moved about but little, for they knew the difficulties too well. A boat
journey of a hundred miles down river would take a week, and back again a month
or more. When people of consideration had to journey by land, they travelled on
elephants, if they could get them, and cut their way through the jungle.
Pedestrians had to foot it as best they might; over the roots, through the
thorns, wading or swimming rivers and streams, ploughing through miles of bog
and mud in the heat and rain, stung by everything that stings (their name is legion),
and usually spending two or three nights in the jungle with any kind of shelter
that a chopper and the forest could supply. As for food, the traveller or his
people carried it, and even in villages it was practically impossible to buy
anything except an old hen. The Malay villages, always on the bank of a stream,
were composed of palm-thatched
Page 120 BRITISH MALAYA
wooden huts raised above the ground. These huts were
scattered about, without the smallest attempt at regularity, in orchards of
palm and fruit trees, no attempt being made to clear the undergrowth of weeds
and bushes.
There would be a mosque — perhaps two, if the village was
large — and behind it, in a swamp, there were usually some rice fields. The
people lived on what they could catch in the river or the swamp, on the fruit
of their orchards, on such vegetables as would grow without tending; poultry
and goats were a luxury. In the neighbourhood of mines it was a little better,
because it was possible there to sell what they had to Chinese. But there again
was a drawback, for, like vultures to a carcass, all robbers, thieves, and
murderers collected round the mines ready to despoil, by every means, any one
who possessed anything worth taking. If there was a complaint (poor people knew
better than to make one), and the parties were hailed before some chief or
raja, or swash-buckler with a few determined followers, the result usually was
that everybody concerned returned poorer than he went.
For authority and justice there ought to have been a Sultan,
the seventeenth of his line, for Perak is a State which prides itself upon the
antiquity and completeness of its rules and customs ; but, then, so do Pahang
and Kedah, though it is certain that, in Perak, there has survived the most
perfect organization of State officers, each with well-defined duties ; only,
in 1872, the duties were ignored and the titles were simply used as a cover for
the exercise of a large authority. As for Sultans there were three, and that
was the root of the whole matter. Not even an independent Malay State can put
up with three masters without a good many tears.
There was little fault to be found with the constitution of
Perak ; the trouble was with the holders of office, the disappointed, the
unruly, and the foreign freelances, who found the place exactly to their taste;
while the poor
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 121
groaned and suffered, and there was no one to listen to
their exceeding bitter cry. Ancient custom provided that the State should be
ruled by a Sultan — if possible, the eldest legitimate son of a previous
Sultan, and be was supported by two dignitaries, also of royal birth, the Raja
Muda and the Raja Bendahara. The former of these was supposed to be the head of
all those of Raja birth, and the latter was the Sultan's Wasir, his Prime Minister. There was another post, of no great
importance, with the title of Raja di Hilir, that is, the Raja of the lower, or
down-stream, country, and this office was, or ought always to have been, held
by the eldest son of the reigning Sultan. The office of Raja Bandahara was held
by the eldest son of the last Sultan, and that of Raja Muda by the eldest son
of the Sultan before him. So, when a Sultan died, he was succeeded by the Raja
Muda, and the Raja Bendahara and Raja di Hilir each moved up a step, the son of
the new Sultan being in due time appointed Raja di Hilir. By this means the
country was always supposed to secure in its Sultan a man of considerable
experience, who had held three high offices, who knew the State, its people,
its customs, and its needs, and who, if he failed during the period of
probation to prove his worth (in other words, if he turned out an irreclaimable
scoundrel), would be passed over and left in the stage at which he had arrived.
Should that occur, as it sometimes did, the son of the rejected did not
necessarily suffer for the sins of his father, but might, in his turn, be
appointed Raja di Hilir, when his ultimate destiny would be in his own hands.
Under the Sultan and his two royal props — as Malays call
them — were four great chiefs, of whom the Mantri (with Larut as his charge)
was one, the Sri Adika Raja, or Chief of the Upper Country, another, and the
Temenggong the last. Under these, again, were eight chiefs, at the head of whom
was the Maharaja Lela (of whom there
Page 123 BRITISH MALAYA
is more to tell later on), the Laksamana (the Admiral), the
Shabandar {Port Officer), the Date' Sagor, and others. Last of all were sixteen
minor chiefs, with sufficiently high-sounding titles and real duties, if they
had ever performed them. Besides all these, there were Court officials, priests,
village head-men, and so on.
To come from the abstract to the concrete. It happened that
when the last Sultan but one, Sultan Jafar by name, died, and was succeeded by
Sultan Ali, a certain Raja Yusuf, son of a previous Sultan, was passed over ;
his junior, Raja Abdullah, was created Raja Muda, and a foreigner, a man called
Raja Ismail, whose mother only belonged to the Perak royal family, was created
Raja Bendahara. It was said that Raja Yusuf was passed over on account of his
unpopularity, and I can believe it, for I knew him very well. He retired to his
own village in high dudgeon ; but as he could get no support there was nothing
to be done. Then Sultan Ali died, and this time Raja Abdullah was passed over,
and the foreigner, Ismail, was created Sultan by a certain number of chiefs, of
whom the Mantri was the leader. The excuse given in this case was that Abdullah
neglected to attend the burial of Sultan Ali, and as it was the custom that a
dead Sultan could not be buried until his successor had been appointed, the
chiefs present acknowledged Ismail. They also said that, when his wife was
carried off by a Selangor Raja, Abdullah had neglected the opportunity offered
him of revenging himself on the abductor and bringing his wife back again. As
to the first plea, it is unsound; for it had not been the invariable custom in
Perak to install the successor before burying a deceased Sultan, and Abdullah
had excuse for his non-attendance. The second plea was not publicly advanced.
The real reason why Ismail was acknowledged by a number of
up-country chiefs (many of whom had just received, or been promised, office)
was that the Mantri
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 123
willed it so. The Mantri, as already stated, was the chief
of the Larut district, and owing to the extent of the tin-mining industry in
that province, he was far the richest and most powerful individual in Perak.
The Mantri himself was not a pure Malay ; he was partly Indian, and the Indian
blood gave him a shrewdness and business capacity foreign to Malays. He, no
doubt, calculated that if be could get his friend Ismail, a foreigner and an
old man, elected Sultan, there was no special reason why he might not, in the
fullness of time, step into his friend's shoes. The Mantri was a travelled
person, with a house in Pinang, and he may have drawn his inspiration from
observation of passing events outside Perak. In any case Ismail received a
certain amount of acknowledgment, though Abdullah had a fair following in his
own country, down-stream.
As may be supposed, Abdullah was beside himself with fury,
but as he was not a very bold man, and did not possess sufficient resources to
make a fight of it, he caused himself to be acknowledged Sultan by his own
party, and at the same time made overtures to Raja Yusuf, the discarded, and
appointed him Raja Muda. In doing this he, no doubt, thought that he would
secure a fighter for his side (though Yusuf had neither means nor followers),
and Abdullah sent him to Larut with a handful of men to support those who were
in opposition to the Mantri, Then Abdullah wrote to the Governor of the
Straits, stating what had happened, asking to be recognized as Sultan, and also
requesting that a British officer might be sent to him to teach him the art of
administration.
Whilst all this was going on, affairs in Larut had got into
a desperate state. The rival factions of Chinese had quarrelled about the mines
— some said about a woman. The cause is of no particular importance, but the
result was a pitched battle, and three thousand men were said to have been
killed in a single day. The villages and
Page 124 BRITISH MALAYA
every isolated house had been burnt down, almost every mine
had stopped work, and the combatants had stockaded themselves in what they
considered the most advantageous positions. The Mantri and his distant village were
left unmolested, and, as his influence and authority were not sufficient to
re-establish order, he espoused the cause of one side, the Go Kuans, and gave
them all the assistance that he could The Si Kuans had seized and stockaded
positions between the Go Kuans and the sea, but as the Mantri owned two small
steamers and was the recognized authority in Larut, he kept his friends
supplied with food and arms, and attempted to starve the other side into
submission. Amongst these miners were many criminals, pirates, and desperadoes
from the South of China, and steps were at once taken to increase their number.
The Si Kuans were probably the best fighters, and their friends in Pinang did
all they could to help them. They sent Chinese junks, loaded with arms and
food, to out-of-the-way places on the coast, and tried to get the supplies
forwarded by creeks, rivers, and overland All this was, of course, done
secretly, but, in spite of such assistance as they could get, the Si Kuans were
driven to the most desperate straits, suffered terribly, and took to piracy to
relieve their necessities. As far as fighting went they would not give in, and
their opponents had not the courage to attack them in their stockades and make
an end.
Hoping to settle matters, the Mantri had bought some Krupp
guns and engaged the services of Captain T. C Speedy, of Abyssinian fame, to
recruit a number of Indian warriors (mostly Punjabis, Afghans, and Sikhs), and
they were in a stockade on the branch road, about four hundred yards from a Si
Kuan stockade built at the junction of the roads.
There had been several naval engagements off the coast of Larut,
between rival fleets of junks, and many
THE STRAITS FROM 1S67-73 Page 125
lives had been lost The Si Kuans established a fort in the
jungle, on the Larut River, and from this vantage ground they commanded the
river, attacked all boats, and fired on the Mantri's steamers. As months went
by, and this lamentable state of affairs continued, the Si Kuans fitted out a
number of long and fast fishing-boats, which, with guns and fighting platforms,
fore and aft, and double-banked oars, were used to prey upon all native craft
navigating the Straits of Malacca in the immediate vicinity of the coast of Perak.
No one was safe, all classes and nationalities were treated alike, and almost
daily came in reports of vessels pirated and burnt, the crews murdered, and the
cargoes stolen. A real panic was established, and not without cause. For months
one or two of H.M.'s gunboats had patrolled the coast of Perak ; but, as these
vessels could not approach the shore, owing to the immense mud banks which
stretch far out to sea, manned and armed boats were sent away, for days and
nights together, in search of the pirates. The duty was an excessively trying
one, the men being exposed, without the smallest protection, to the terrible
heat of the sun all day, with very often deluges of tropical rain all night. I
tried it for three weeks, so I know what it was like. It was impossible to
land, for the coast was nothing but mangroves and mud, with here and there a
fishing village, inhabited, no doubt, by pirates or their friends, but with
nothing to prove their complicity. These mangrove flats were traversed in every
direction, by deep-water lagoons, and whenever the pirates were sighted, as not
infrequently happened, and chase was given, their faster boats pulled away from
their pursuers with the greatest ease, and in a few minutes the pirates would
be lost in a maze of water-ways, with nothing to indicate which turn they had
taken. The whole business became somewhat ludicrous when native craft were
pirated (usually by night) under the eyes of the British crews,
Page 126 BRITISH MALAYA
and when their boats got up to the scene of action there was
not a trace to show what had occurred, or where the pirates had gone. Finally
the boats of H.M.S. Midge were
attacked in the estuary of the Larut River, and after a longish engagement the
pirates were beaten off, having seriously wounded two British officers. The net
result of these excursions was, that about fifty per cent of the crews of the
gun-vessels were invalided, and not a single pirate boat or man had been
captured ; but the Si Kuan stockade in the Larut River and several junks had
been destroyed. It will be understood that honest people did not frequent
either the land or the waters of Larut at this time, and, if necessity drove
them that way, they went warily and, for their own sakes, shot at sight.
Not content with their exploits in Larut and the Straits of
Malacca, the Si Kuans attacked British police stations at the Dindings and in
Province Wellesley, and they, or their emissaries, blew up by night the
Mantri's house in Pinang, hoping to rid themselves of the man who had taken the
part of their enemies.
Now turn to Selangor. Whilst the Perak disturbances and
quarrels had only been active for a few years, those of Selangor had been in
progress for at least a generation. There had been intervals of comparative
quiet, but the normal state of Selangor was robbery, battle, and murder. The
people of the place rather prided themselves on their reputation, and the
conditions of life had made all men fighters, while even the women would
sometimes use deadly weapons under the spur of jealousy. As for the country it was
divided into six districts, each drained by a river of the same name; they
were, from north to south, Benam, Upper and Lower Selangor, Klang, Upper and
Lower Langat, Lukut, and Sungei Raia. Except in Lukut and Sungei Raia, the
rivers were all considerable, tidal in their lower reaches, where they were
navigable to small steamers, and, above that, to cargo boats. Every river on
THE STRAITS FROM
1867-73 Page 127
this coast, with one exception, has a shallow water bar; the
exception is the Klang River, the mouth of which is protected by two long
islands. As to the general appearance of the place, it was similar to Perak,
but the low country was more extensive, there being but few ranges of low
hills, while the distance from the sea to the foot of the main range was about
forty miles, throughout the length of the State: The coast line of Selangor
extended to a distance of about 140 miles until Lukut and Sungei Raia passed to
the Negri Sambllan by a rectification of boundary.
Bernam was practically uninhabited, except for one small
village on the Bernam River, some twenty-five miles from the sea. On the left
bank of the Selangor River, by its mouth, was an old Dutch fort, on an isolated
hill. At the foot of this hill, up river, and also on the right bank, were a
few cocoanut plantations and rice fields with a scattered population of Malays.
Seven miles up the Klang River there was a small town, guarded by a fort on a
low hill. The town possessed a few streets, or roads, and one respectable
house. On the coast were a few Chinese fishing villages, and the Sultan and his
people lived in a miserable swamp by the Langat River, while the Raja of Lukut
had a dilapidated house in his own district. Up-country there were some tin
mines (worked mainly by Chinese) at wide intervals along the foot hills of the
main range, but, at a place called Kuala Lumpor, on the Klang River about
seventy-five miles from its mouth, was a Chinese town, with two streets, and a
considerable number of shops and houses, built of adobe and thatched with palm leaves. From this centre, Kuala Lumpor
(now the principal town in the Malay States, and the head-quarters of the
Government), there were a few miles of rough, unmetalled, cart-track; running
north and south, to other smaller mining camps. For the rest there was unbroken
forest and a very sparse population.
Page 128 BRITISH MALAYA
Selangor had a Sultan, but practically no constitution. The
Sultan was a very old man and quite a curiosity in his way. He was supposed to
have killed ninety-nine men with his own hand, and did not deny die imputation.
He had secured his position by violence, ousting a Raja with a better
hereditary claim, and he had held the office for about thirty years by his uncompromising
reputation. This was rather strange for, in 1872, he was living in retirement
in a mud swamp on the bank of a melancholy tidal stream, and his manners were
as mild as those of a missionary. He was then over sixty years of age, a small,
spare, wizened man, with a kindly smile, fond of a good story, and with a
strong sense of humour. His amusements were gardening (in which he sometimes
remarkable energy), hoarding money and tin, of which he was supposed to have a
very large store buried under his house, and smoking opium to excess. He was not
a rigid Muhammadan, for he was fond of snipe, and, as I lived in a Malay hovel
in the swamp quite close by, I used to shoot snipe for him in the season, and
all the Sultan asked whether I had said " Bismillah” as I pulled the trigger. If I had, they were halal, and he could eat them. I rejoice
to think that, in spite of the difficulties of his position, he lived to the
age of ninety-three — gardening and hoarding and smoking opium to the last —
and died mourned, not only by his own people, but by all who knew him.
In the distressful times to which we must return, the Sultan
of Selangor reminded one of Old Mother Hubbard. He not only had a large family
(mainly grown-up sons), but they were singularly unruly, not to say wicked Then
there was a host of male relatives and connexions, also grown up, and the
difficulty of finding employment and incomes for these aspirants to place and
position was so great that, when they took to quarrelling, as they seem to have
done at a very early age (or they perpetuated some older quarrel of their
ancestors), the Sultan probably
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 129
decided that his own real tastes were agricultural. It was unfortunate
that his example found no imitators ; for in all the Peninsula there was not a
spot where life was so uncertain as in that mud swamp. It mast have been the
atmosphere of Selangor, as much as its ancient and evil reputation, which made
all men filters; even the Chinese, first, no doubt, for their own protection,
and afterwards for the excitement of the game, were almost as keen as the
Malays The one considerable body of Chinese lived in and around Kuala Lumpor,
and as they were the only workers in the country, and their single means of
communication with a market was by the Klang River, they had made friends with
three Rajas (the sons of the Chief of Lukut), who held the village and forts of
Klang. These brothers were driven from their position by three famous warriors,
Raja Mahdi, Raja Mahmud, and Seyyid Mashhur, whose names were, to the western
Malay States, what that of the Black Douglas was once to Scotland.
Just at this time the brother of the Sultan of Kedah married
a very comely and intelligent daughter of the Sultan of Selangor, and as a
marriage of this kind entails a long residence at the home of the bride, the Kedah
Raja thought he could improve it by introducing order into the disordered
household of his father-in-law. He therefore persuaded the latter to appoint
him Viceroy of Selangor. That was all very well, and there the Sultan washed
his hands of the business and returned to his garden; but while the discomfited
brothers were quite ready to acknowledge the new Viceroy, the other party laughed
at him, took all the tin which came down the Klang River, and sent their
friends to attack the Chinese at the mines. The Viceroy had supporters in the
colony, both Europeans and Chinese, and, with their money and the countenance
of the Straits Government, he succeeded in retaking Klang and relieving Kuala
Lumpor. The
Page 130 BRITISH MALAYA
curious thing was that each party in turn and each
individual leader made periodical visits to the old Sultan, complained bitterly
of the other side, and asked for tin or money, arms and ammunition. To all
comers, from whatever quarter, the Sultan seemed always to signify his
approval, and, with strict impartiality, made gifts of some sort. All the
combatants, therefore, declared that they were acting with the sanction and
authority of the Sultan. Long afterwards I asked the Sultan what it meant, and
His Highness explained, with a smile, that when people came and bothered him
with long statements, to save discussion and get rid of them quickly he said, " Benar, benar” which means "
Right, right " ; but, he added, " I mean right from their point of
view, not mine."
The fact that one or other party held this or that position
was of no importance. Driven from Klang, the famous three retired to the Selangor
River ; checked at Kuala Lumpor, they withdrew deeper into the forest, the
better to make another spring. So the "war" waged backwards and
forwards, and just as the Mantri, in Larut, hired Indian mercenaries to fight
for him, so the Viceroy of Selangor collected a cosmopolitan band of Europeans
and Easterns, and sent them to hold the mines. Very few of them ever returned,
for they were attacked and broke, followed false guides and were cut off in
detail, or died miserably in the forest. About that time I paid my first visit
to Kuala Lumpor; it was a pleasure trip, not an official duty. I had a companion,
and it took us three days and nights, poling up river, to reach Kuala Lumpor.
On our return, after twelve hours' walking, miles of it up to our waists in
jungle swamps, we reached a point on the Klang River where we got a boat to
take us back to Klang. That was the jungle where the " foreign legion
" was lost, and as they were all strangers it was not surprising.
The Chinese, under a very able captain, had their own
THE STRAITS FROM 1867-73 Page 131
way of doing their part of the fighting. Standing before an
open shed in the market-place of Kuala Lumpor, and pointing to a kind of table,
the Captain said to me, " That is where I pay for the heads of the enemy ;
every head brought in and placed on that table is worth $100, and sometimes it
has been as much as I could do to count the money fast enough."
After borrowing and spending a great deal of money; after
months and years of struggle, with ever-varying fortune, the Viceroy found
himself deeply indebted, and no nearer success. As a last resource, he asked
the Bendahara of Pahang to help him, and that potentate, when the request was
backed by Governor Ord, agreed to send three thousand men over the dividing
range, to take the Viceroy's opponents in rear. This move was generally
successful, but it introduced into unhappy Selangor a new element of trouble.
Of the Negri Sambllan it is not necessary to say much.
Behind Malacca, and between Selangor, on the north, and Johore, on the south,
were nine little States, named Sungei Ujong, Rembau, JohoI, Jelebu, Jempol, Gemencheh,
Sri Menanti, Gunong Pasir or Inas, and Ulu Muar. In former times these places
were a part of the ancient kingdom of Johore, but so long ago as 1773, owing to
their peculiar customs and the trouble they gave, they were placed under the
general control of a Raja from Menangkabau, in Sumatra, with the title Yang di
Pertuan, the domestic government of each little State remaining with a local
chief! Several of the States were fertile and well cultivated, Rembau alone had
ten thousand Malay inhabitants and Sungei Ujong was rich in tin. As all these
places were inland, the inhabitants could only get to the Straits of Malacca by
the Linggi River in the north, or the Muar River in the south. The Linggi River
is the northern boundary of Malacca, and about five miles from its mouth
divides into two branches, the northern branch draining Sungei Ujong,
Page 132 BRITISH MALAYA
and the southern Rembau. The command of this water-way was
everything to Sungei Ujong and Rembau, and there was constant fighting for its
possession. During these periods both sides built stockades on the banks of the
river, and levied toll on all passers-by, Malacca traders being the principal
sufferers. By 1872 the nine States had drifted apart and had not even a nominal
head ; there were two claimants to the post of Yang di Pertuan (the succession
being, by Menangkabau custom, through the female line), and neither had
influence enough to get himself recognized. In Sungei Ujong there were two
chiefs, the Dato' Klana, or land chief, and the Dato' Bandar, the water chief.
They were supposed to have equal authority over different divisions of the
State, but the Klana, being a Seyyid,
was trying to assume control over the Bandar, who refused to admit his
pretensions. None of these circumstances made for peace and order ; and if it
be added that a change in the holder of the chief office in each little State
almost invariably resulted in a struggle amongst the claimants to the
succession, some idea may be gathered of the conditions of life in the Negri Sambllan.
So when Sir Harry Ord left the colony, in 1873, there was
not only the promise of trouble, it had arrived, in over full measure ; and in
the brief period which elapsed between his departure in October, 1873, and the
arrival of his successor, the plot so thickened that it might truly be said the
western States of the Peninsula, from Perak to the borders of Johore, were
given up to native warfare, with all the evils and miseries that follow in its
train. At the same time, the Straits of Malacca were the scene of daily
piracies, and all trade by means of native craft was paralyzed.
No comments:
Post a Comment