A SLIGHT SKETCH OF PENANG AND THE TREATMENT OF THE CONVICTS THERE
Penang, also named "Prince of Wales" Island as a compliment to the then
Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. This name for the island has
become almost obsolete, and the Malay name Pi'nang, for the "Areka
Palm," which flourishes there, is that by which it is now always known.
It is situated at the northern extremity of the Malacca Straits, and was
ceded to us by the Rajah of Kedah in 1785, when we gave up, but only for
a time, our British settlement on the North Andaman, which we had
acquired in 1789 and abandoned in 1796. Province Wellesley, opposite to
Penang, upon the Malay Peninsula, was thirteen years later taken by us
for the purpose of suppressing piracy, and forms part of this British
settlement. The island has an area of 107 square miles, and the province
of 270 square miles. Another dependency of the settlement since 1889 is
the Dindings with the Island of Pangkor, where the treaty of 1874 was
made by Sir Andrew Clarke, and which eventually led to our protectorate
of several of the native states of the Malay Peninsula, and their
complete federation in 1896.
[Illustration: FORT CORNWALLIS, PENANG.
_Plate II._]
When Penang was first occupied it was almost uninhabited, and the whole
island was covered with the densest jungle, but it was not long before
Captain Light, who was appointed the first Superintendent of Trade, made
a road to the highest point of the island, then called "Bel retiro" but
now Penang Hill.[2] A great part of the island was soon cleared and
roads made, so that in 1792, seven years after it came into our hands,
Captain Light was able to report that the population had increased to
10,000 souls; this increase of population has been steadily going on
from year to year, until, with its dependencies, Penang, after a little
more than a century, now numbers no less than 240,000.
[Footnote 2: There is an old legend in the island that Captain
Light, in order to encourage the Malays in the work of cutting
down the jungle, pointed a cannon in the direction in which he
required it to be cleared, then he loaded it with powder, and
instead of a shot he put in several dollars, and firing it off
he called out to the Malays, "Now you may have all you can
find."
It is said that the eager contest which ensued, of one
endeavouring to get the money before another, led to a regular
scramble, which considerably helped forward the work.]
Since 1825, when the Indian convicts from Bencoolen were added to those
already on the island, their labour was almost wholly turned to account
in the construction of roads both on the island and in the province; but
about 1850 some intramural work was also undertaken. The gangs in the
province were at last taught to cut and burn the jungle as well as to
construct the roads, and the records say at some risk from tigers which
infested the province in those days, and occasionally carried off a
straggler from the gangs at work. They were also bitten in large numbers
by the venomous hamadryads which used to abound there, and from the
poison of which some died.
About the time our treatise commences, Penang had acquired the monopoly
of the trade of the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra. It also had a large
traffic with China, Siam, Borneo, the Celebes, and other places in the
Eastern Archipelago; but after the establishment later on of Singapore
it had begun to decline, and the settlement then became second only in
commercial importance. But within the last quarter of a century the
trade has considerably revived, owing largely to the planting of tobacco
in Sumatra by European planters, and the annexation of the native states
of the Malayan Peninsula, both of which have constituted Penang the
chief shipping centre for their produce.
Before we pass on to treat of the Singapore jail, it will be well
briefly to describe the method pursued in dealing with the Indian
convicts on their first arrival in Penang, as far back as we can trace
any definite notice in regard to them. They were confined at the outset
in the then existing prison known as "Chowrusta Lines," situated on the
Penang road; but this proving to be too small to accommodate all the
convicts from India, a larger and more commodious prison was built on
the opposite side of the road. It consisted of an enclosure, surrounded
by a high brick wall, subdivided into yards, in each of which were
erected the wards or dormitories. These were simply long rooms open to
the high roof, having windows on either side secured by iron bars. Iron
gates closed the doorways to each ward, which were locked at night. A
gangway seven to eight feet wide ran the whole length of the ward, and
sleeping platforms about seven feet wide extended to the full length of
the ward on either side of this gangway. The hospital ward was similar
to the others, except that it was a two-storied building, and cots were
provided instead of the continuous sleeping platforms. The hospital and
women's ward were all within the enclosure in a separate yard. Warders'
and apothecary's quarters were provided at the main entrance to the
prison. Cooking places for the different castes and latrines were
constructed in each yard; a military guard room, food and clothing
stores were also supplied. Little can be said in favour of this prison,
as the wards were ill-ventilated, and the sanitary arrangements were
very imperfect. All the prisoners were in a somewhat lax system of
association, except those undergoing punishment in cells. Prior to the
receipt of the convicts from Bencoolen, Penang itself, as a penal
settlement, had already been supplied from India with a number of
transported criminals of all tribes and castes, who were working in
gangs under free warders; but from vacancies and dismissals, and the
consequent inability to supply the place of these warders, where free
labour of the kind required was not obtainable, an attempt was then made
to enlist the services of well-behaved convicts to oversee their
fellow-prisoners. But it does not appear to have at all succeeded at
that time, and we have it on record that the Governor in Council at
Penang, in the year 1827, deemed it necessary to revise the regulations
under which these Indian convicts were controlled; and accordingly we
learn that a committee was appointed to assemble at Penang in November,
1827, when a code of revised rules was drawn up, and the following
comment was made by the committee as to the employment of convicts as
warders: "With regard to the present system of employing convicts as
tindals and sirdars, the committee think it very objectionable, as it is
impossible that men so intimately connected with those over whom they
are placed can exercise that authority and control which is so essential
in the management of such a body of men as the convicts. The duties at
present performed by these servants are provided for in the proposed
increase to the establishment."
These rules, subsequently known as the "Penang Rules," received the
sanction of the Governor in Council, and were sent for guidance to the
Resident Councillor at Singapore, to which settlement some few convicts
had already been sent. This remark of the Penang committee, which in all
fairness we have quoted, was doubtless quite true at the time when it
was penned, and when the system of employing prisoners as warders was in
its infancy, and, moreover, when the whole prison discipline was
acknowledged to be in more or less an indifferent state; but, as will
hereafter be shown, it did not hold good when the system was well
established, and the choice of warders was made from those classes best
suited for the control of their fellow-prisoners, especially in the
outstations, or "commands" as they were called, where gangs of convicts
were placed under their control in the construction and repairs of roads
or in stone-quarrying.
In these early days, no organised system of industrial employment
appears to have been carried on in this Penang jail, and no intramural
workshops of any kind were provided, the convicts being employed almost
exclusively on extramural works, such as opening up roads on the Penang
Hill and throughout the island, and in Province Wellesley; also in
brick-making, felling timber, burning lime, and reclaiming mangrove
swamps. The ground on which some portion of the present town is built
was filled up by convict labour. Much later on, however, in the Fifties,
rattan work was introduced into the prison, and easy chairs, lounging
chairs, baskets, and other articles of a very substantial quality were
manufactured and sold to the public at a higher price than that for
which the same articles could be purchased in the town, but they were
far superior both in the quality of rattan and in their make. About the
year 1860, blacksmiths' and carpenters' shops were established in the
prison, and on the different "commands" in the country districts.
The ordinary discipline of the jail was carried out in accordance with
the "Penang Rules" referred to, and any breach of these rules was
punished according to the nature of the offence, at the discretion of
the Superintendent. There was then no formal investigation or inquiry
into convict complaints or misdemeanours, and no records of them were
kept with any show of regularity. It was only after the appointment of
the late General Man as Resident Councillor of Penang, Captain Hilliard
being Superintendent, that a manifest improvement in the management and
control of the convicts took place, and especially in their industrial
training. He brought with him the system in force in Singapore, and the
new rules and regulations formed with the sanction of the Governor, then
Colonel Butterworth, and which were an improvement on the old Penang
rules, but were only at this time being tentatively carried out in
Penang. By these rules the entire abolition of free warders was
approved, and petty officers raised from amongst the convicts themselves
fully established, though as the Governor himself said in his letter to
the Resident Councillor of Singapore in August, 1854, "I had drawn up
these rules as long ago as 1845 in the face of much opposition."
The late General Man held the appointment at Penang from 1860 until
1867, when the Straits Settlements were transferred to the Crown, and
from Penang he went to the Andaman Islands to introduce there the system
of convict management in force in the Straits Settlements;[3] and with
the view to uniformity of practice, the Government of India had
previously deputed Major, now General, Forlong to prepare a code of
rules based on those in force in the Singapore jail.
[Footnote 3: Now under the able management of Col. R. C.
Temple, C.I.E.]
When the transfer was fully effected, the new office of Comptroller of
Indian Convicts was created, and the whole of those Indian convicts in
the three settlements were placed under his charge. The "Butterworth
Rules" remained in force, with certain alterations and improvements,
until the disestablishment of the whole department in 1873.
As many of the convicts were continued to be employed at Penang and
Province Wellesley on roads and works at a distance from the main jail,
it was necessary to provide accommodation for them in convict lines, or
"commands," as we have said, pronounced "kumman" by the convicts.[4] It
will be interesting to give some particulars about them: They consisted
of a stockaded fence, constructed of rough poles of wood from four to
six inches in diameter, and from ten to twelve feet long, set
perpendicularly in a trench about two feet deep, and placed close
together, being secured longitudinally by adze-dressed poles nailed
securely on the outside and along the top of them. The stockade enclosed
an area sufficient for the erection of the dormitory, cooking place, and
sheds for the bullocks employed in carts to convey road material, and
for protection also against the possible attacks of wild animals. The
walls of the dormitory were constructed in what is well known as "wattle
and daub." They were made with stout stakes driven firmly into the
ground at about one foot apart, twigs of trees were then interwoven, and
the whole then thickly plastered with a mixture of clay and cowdung, and
when this had become thoroughly dry it was coated with whitewash. This
formed both a substantial, and at the same time a sanitary walling,
which was frequently treated with a further coating of limewash made
thin. The dormitories were ten feet high, with a continuous open grating
of wooden bars at the top, under the eaves of the roof, for the purpose
of complete ventilation. The sleeping platforms were raised three feet
off the ground floor, which was covered with the same composition as
that of the walls, and the building was roofed with thatch. In the
centre of the dormitory an earthenware brazier of burning charcoal was
always maintained day and night, and occasionally crude fragrant gum
Benjamin was thrown upon it. The natives believe that an aromatic
perfume exhaled by fire keeps off all noxious effluvia; and we certainly
found that they were in better health from the use of this incense, and
from the fresh plastering of the floor every morning with cowdung
diluted with water, which is a common practice in most of the native
huts in India. This was regularly kept up by two convicts of the invalid
class, who also acted as caretakers. The entrance to the enclosure was
secured by a stout gate, which, after the roll was called, was locked
every night at nine o'clock. The number of convicts stationed on one
"command" averaged about thirty, and they were under the charge of a
responsible convict warder of the grade of a tindal, with a peon and two
orderlies and a native "moonshi," or timekeeper, to keep account of work
done, and to forward reports to the main jail. By a system of surprise
visits both day and night occasionally, we rarely found that any
irregularities occurred.
[Footnote 4: Simpson, in his _Side Lights on Siberia_, uses
"command" as denoting a jail outside of the prison walls.]
It has not been already mentioned that the local jails, or houses of
correction, though according to law they were kept distinct from the
convict jails at the several settlements, nevertheless were in their
superintendence placed under the Superintendent of Convicts and convict
petty officers. A good proportion of these local prisoners were employed
upon extramural works, under the guard of these convict petty officers,
who, being natives of India, had nothing in common with the Chinese and
Malays who formed the bulk of these prisoners, and they kept them well
under control, and allowed but few escapes, and, moreover, they were
never found open to the taking of bribes from the prisoners' relations
and friends, who now and again would attempt to offer them forbidden
articles.
At Penang there were a considerable number of these Indian convicts upon
ticket of leave, who gained their livelihood in a variety of ways. Some
of them were the first to discover the palm known by the Malays as "Plas
tikoos," and by botanists as the "Licuala acutifida," a small palm,
ordinarily not higher than from five to six feet. From this palm, which
grew mostly upon the Penang Hill, were constructed walking-sticks called
"Penang lawyers," and the process of preparing them was very simple: the
epidermis, or exterior coating, was scraped off with glass, and then the
stick was straightened with fire, as is done by the Malays in preparing
the Malacca canes. Several of these Penang lawyers were sold by the
convicts on the spot, and many more were exported to Europe and
America.
[Illustration: BOUNDARIES OF MALACCA, PORTUGUESE PERIOD
(From Godinho de Eredia's Work).
_Plate III._]