Stamfordraffles.Pdf

RAFFLES J • 3*9 J » » . Sir Stamford Raffles' Statue. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles Kt., LL.D., F.R.S. Founder of Singapore 1819 Some of his Friends and Contemporaries By J. A. JSethune Cook " Author of Sunny Singapore," "Apa Suka, Tuan," etc. ^ TCoitfcon ARTHUR H. STOCKWELL 29 LUDGATE HILL, E.C. 1918 OPV ADDED RIOINALTOBE ETAJNED , PREFACE. The compiler and author of this book is chiefly indebted to the Life of Sir T. Stamford 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. S 3 5 o £> J CONTENTS CHAPTER. PAGE. I. EARLY TRAINING 9 II. WHO AND WHAT ARE THE MALAYS . 1 9 III. RAFFLES AT MALACCA . .27 IV. LEYDEN AND MARSDEN . -37 V. RAFFLES AS SEEN BY MUNSHI ABDULLAH . 45 VI. DR. MORRISQN AND DR. WILLIAM MILNE . 53 VII. MALACCA DREAMERS AND WORKERS . 67 VIII. CONQUEST OF JAVA .... 79 IX. HIGH ENDEAVOUR 99 X. BENCOOLEN AND THE BATTAKS . 108 XI. SINGAPORE 1 16 XII. CRAWFURD AND SINGAPORE . -135 ' XIII. PROGRESS IN SINGAPORE . 140 XIV. RAFFLES' PERSONAL SORROWS . -145 XV. SINGAPORE AGAIN 1 59 XVI. SINGAPORE FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION . 167 XVII. RAFFLES' FAREWELL TO SUNNY SINGAPORE . 1 75 INDEX 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 circumstances, 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 public 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 12 RAFFLES 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 training which would have made 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 government, 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 Leyden, 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, however, afforded no scope for his ambition and activity. He betook himself therefore to the study of natural history : made an enterprising journey 14 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.

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