Selangor--Capabilities of Selangor--Natural Capabilities--Lawlessness
in Selangor--British Interference in Selangor--A Hopeful Outlook
Selangor is a small State lying between 2 degrees 34', and 3 degrees
42' N. Its coast-line is about one hundred and twenty miles in length.
Perak is its northern boundary, Sungei Ujong its southern, and some of
the small States of the Negri Sembilan and unexplored jungle and
mountains separate it from Pahang on the east. It is watered by the
Selangor, Klang and Langat rivers, which rise in the hills of its
eastern frontier. Its population is not accurately known, but the
result of an attempt to estimate it, made by the Resident in 1876, is
fifteen thousand Chinese and from two thousand to three thousand
Malays. Mr. Douglas, the late Resident, puts the Malay population at a
higher figure, and estimates the aboriginal population at one thousand,
but this is probably largely in excess of their actual numbers.
[*In offering this very slight sketch of Selangor to my readers as
prefatory to the letters which follow, I desire to express my
acknowledgments specially to a valuable paper on "Surveys and
Explorations of the Native States of the Malay Peninsula," by Mr. Daly,
Superintendent of Public Works and Surveys, Selangor, read before the
Royal Geographical Society on May 8, 1882. I have also made use of a
brief account of the Native Malay States by Mr. Swettenham, Assistant
Colonial Secretary to the Straits Settlements Government, published in
the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and of
"Our Malay Conquests" by Sir P. Benson Maxwell, late Chief Justice of
the Straits Settlements.]
The wealth of Selangor lies in its apparently inexhaustible tin mines.
The range of hills which forms the backbone of the Malay Peninsula
rises in places to a height of seven thousand feet, and it is from this
range that the alluvial detritus is washed down, beneath which is
deposited the layer of ore or wash, which varies from four inches to
ten feet in thickness. The supply of this ore is apparently
inexhaustible, but no veins have as yet been found. The mine of
Ampagnan only, near Kwala Lumpor, the capital, gives employment to over
one thousand Chinamen, and each can extract in a year one thousand
pounds weight of white smelted tin valued at 35 pounds sterling. This
mineral wealth is the magnet which, according as the price of tin is
higher or lower, attracts into Selangor more or fewer Chinamen. The
chief source of the revenue of the State has been the export duty on
tin.
The low lands on the coast are fringed with mangroves, which thrive in
blue mud and heavy clays, and these lands, when drained, are well
adapted for sugar. Wet rice grows well in the swampy valleys which
separate the minor ranges, and dry rice on the rises; while tapioca,
tobacco, pepper and gambier thrive on the medium heights. The sago palm
flourishes on wet lands. The high hills are covered with primeval
forests, and the Malays have neither settlements nor plantations upon
them. It is believed that these hills, at a height of from two thousand
five hundred to three thousand five hundred feet, are admirably adapted
for the growth of Arabian coffee, cinchona and tea; and some Ceylon
coffee planters are expecting an era of success in Selangor. At
present, however, the necessary labor is not available. The soil in the
interior on the mountain slopes consists of a light red and yellow
clay, the product of a comparatively recent rock decomposition, covered
with vegetable mould from eight to twelve inches thick. There are no
droughts, and the rainfall, distributed pretty fairly over the year,
averages about one hundred and thirty inches annually. The climate is
remarkably healthy, and diseases of locality are unknown. Land can be
purchased for eight shillings per acre on terms of deferred payments.
One curious feature of Selangor, as of Perak, is the occurrence of
isolated hills of limestone varying from eighty to one thousand feet in
height. At Batu there are magnificent limestone caves, richly adorned
with stalactites and stalagmites. The dome of one cavern is three
hundred and fifty-five feet from floor to roof. An important fact
connected with these caverns is that they contain thousands of tons of
bats' manure, which may be as valuable as guano to future planters.
Between the heavy clays and blue mud of the mangrove swamps and the
granite and sandstone of the mountain ranges, the undulating rises are
mainly composed of red clay, sandstones, shales, and granitic and
feldspathic rocks, with extensive deposits of laterite in red clays on
the surface. In the valleys along the rivers the soil consists of rich
alluvial deposits.
Undoubtedly Selangor has great capabilities, and if the difficulties of
the labor question can be satisfactorily disposed of, it is likely that
the new offer of leases for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, subject
to improvement clauses, will attract a number of planters to its
fertile soil and wholesome climate. Selangor includes three large
districts, each on a considerable river of its own--Selangor, Klang,
and Langat.
The Sultan was actually, as he is now nominally, supreme, but the story
of disturbances under this government is a very old one, internal
strife having been the normal condition of the State ever since
Europeans have been acquainted with it. It seems to have been an
undoubted fact that its rivers and island channels were the resort of
pirates, and that its Rajahs devoted themselves with much success to
harrying small vessels trading in the Straits of Malacca.
The name of this State is not found in the earlier Malayan records.
Negri Calang, or the land of tin, was the designation of this part of
the peninsula, and this depopulated region was formerly a flourishing
dependency under the Malay sovereigns of Malacca. The population, such
as it is, is chiefly composed of the descendants of a colony of Bugis
from Goa in the Celebes, who settled in Selangor at the beginning of
the eighteenth century under a Goa chief, who was succeeded by Sultan
Ibrahim, an intense hater and sturdy opponent of the Dutch. He attacked
Malacca, looted and burned its suburbs, and would have captured it but
for the opportune arrival of a Dutch fleet. He surprised the Dutch
garrison of Selangor by night, routed it, and captured all its heavy
artillery and ammunition, but was afterward compelled to restore his
plunder, and acknowledge himself a vassal of the Dutch East India
Company. After this he attacked the Siamese, and was mainly
instrumental in driving them out of Perak.
He was succeeded in 1826 by an ignoble prince, and under his weak and
oppressive rule, and under the extortions and cruelties of his
illegitimate brothers, the State lapsed into decay. Mr. Newbold, who
had charge of a military post on the Selangor frontier in 1833,
witnessed many of the atrocities perpetrated by these Bugis princes,
who committed piracies, robbed, plundered, and levied contributions on
the wretched Malays, without hindrance. In Mr. Newbold's day the whole
population of Kwala Linggi, where he was stationed, fled by night into
the Malacca territory, where they afterward settled to escape from the
merciless exactions to which they were subjected. Slavery and debt
slavery added to the miseries of the country, and it is believed that
by emigration and other causes the Malay population was reduced to
between two thousand and three thousand souls.
Only one event in the recent history of Selangor deserves notice. This
miserable ruler, Sultan Mohammed, had no legitimate offspring, but it
was likely that at his death his near relation, Tuanku Bongsu, a Rajah
universally liked and respected by his countrymen, would have been
elected to succeed him. Unfortunately for the good of the State this
Rajah took upon himself the direction of the tin mines at Lukut,
formerly worked by about four hundred Chinese miners on their own
account, paying a tenth of their produce to the Sultan. One dark, rainy
night in September, 1834, these miners rose upon their employers,
burned their houses, and massacred them indiscriminately, including
this enlightened Rajah; and his wife and children, in attempting to
escape, were thrown into the flames of their house. The plunder
obtained by the Chinese, exclusive of the jewels and gold ornaments of
the women, was estimated at 3,500 pounds. This very atrocious business
was believed to have been aided and abetted, if not absolutely
concocted, by Chinese merchants living under the shelter of the British
flag at Malacca. With the death of Tuanku Bongsu all hope of
prosperity for Selangor under native rule was extinguished.
Matters became very bad in the years between 1867 and 1873, the
fighting among the rival factions leading to a more complete
depopulation of the country, not only by the loss in party fights, but
by the exodus of peaceable cultivators. Lawlessness increased to such
an extent that murders and robberies were of continual occurrence. Mr.
Swettenham, the Assistant Colonial Secretary, affirms that it is hardly
an exaggeration to say that every man above twenty years old had killed
at least one man, and that even the women were not unaccustomed to use
deadly weapons against each other.
The history of the way in which we gained a footing in Selangor is a
tangled one, as the story is told quite differently by men holding high
positions in the Colonial Government, who unquestionably are "all
honorable men." Our first appearance on the scene was in 1871, when the
Rinaldo destroyed Selangor, for reasons which will be found in the
succeeding letter. In November, 1873, an act of piracy was committed on
the Jugra river near the Sultan's residence. On this Sir A. Clarke,
the Governor of the Straits Settlements, with a portion of H.B.M.'s
China fleet, went to Langat and induced the Sultan to appoint a court
to try the pirates, three of the ships and two Government Commissioners
remaining to watch the trial. The prisoners were executed, the
war-ships patroled the coast for a time, and everything became quiet.
In 1874, however, there were new disturbances and alleged piracies, and
Tunku Dia Udin, the Sultan's son-in-law and viceroy, overmatched by
powerful Rajahs, gladly welcomed an official, who was sent by Sir A.
Clarke, "to remain with the Sultan should he desire it, and, by his
presence and advice give him confidence, and assistance to carry out
the promises which he had made," which were, in brief, to suppress
piracy and keep good order in his dominions; not a difficult task, it
might be supposed, for it is estimated that he had only about two
thousand Malay subjects left, and the Chinese miners were under the
efficient rule of their "Capitan," Ah Loi.
In January, 1875, at Tunku Dia Udin's request, a British Resident was
sent to Selangor. Some time afterward the viceroy retired to Kedah, and
the Sultan has been "advised" into a sort of pensioned retirement, the
Resident levying, collecting, and expending the taxes. Sir Andrew
Clarke was very fortunate in his selection of the Sultan's first
adviser, for Mr. Davidson, according to all accounts, had an intimate
knowledge of the Malays, as well as a wise consideration for them; he
had a calm temper and much good sense, and is held in honorable
remembrance, not only for official efficiency but for having gained the
sincere regard of the people of Selangor. His legal training and high
reputation in the colonial courts were of great value in the settlement
of the many difficult questions which arose during his brief
administration. He was succeeded in 1876 by Mr. Bloomfield Douglas, who
has held the office of Resident for six years.
The revenue of Selangor amounted in 1881 to 47,045 pounds, derived
mainly from the export duty on tin, the import duty on opium, and the
letting of opium and other licenses and farms. The expenditure was
46,876 pounds, the heaviest items being for "establishments,"
"pensions," and "works and buildings." The outlook for Selangor appears
to be a peaceful one, and it is to be hoped that, under the energetic
administration of Sir F. A. Weld, its capabilities will be developed
and its anomalies of law and taxation reformed, and that both Malays
and foreigners may experience those advantages of good order and
security which result from a just rule.