SINGAPORE.
Batavia and Singapore--Raffles' arrival in the East--
Determines to oppose the Dutch supremacy in the
Archipelago--Occupation of Java--Is knighted--Returns
from England--Foundation of Singapore--Uncertainty
whether the settlement would be maintained--His
death--Description of Singapore--Epilogue.
A fortnight after my visit to Tji Wangi I left Java. As the train took
us from Batavia to the port, I caught a glimpse of the sea over the
palm-trees, and I felt something of the exultation which prompted the
remnant of the ten thousand Greeks to exclaim, "The sea! the sea!" I had
tired of the steamy atmosphere of Batavia, and that line of blue seemed
full of revivifying power. Three days later we reached Singapore. Here
everything was bright and new and English--miles of wharfs crowded with
shipping, broad streets, the cathedral spire _en evidence_, tall
warehouses, and handsome Government buildings. Watering-carts replaced
the bamboo buckets in the streets, and English iron and stone work the
quaint lamps and antiquated masonry. There the Dutch lived by
themselves; the wide streets, education, Christianity, were for them
exclusively. Here it was otherwise. Even the native streets were well
drained and lighted; for the Englishman shares his civilization with the
native races. The glory of the place is its splendidly turfed and
tree-clad esplanade; and in the centre of the broad carriage-road there
stands the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, for five years
Lieutenant-Governor of Java and the founder of Singapore.
The British occupation of Singapore arose so directly out of the cession
of Java, that a description of the circumstances which led to this event
will suitably complete my account of that country.
[Illustration: THE ESPLANADE, SINGAPORE. _Page_ 264.]
After some years' service as a clerk in the East India house in London,
Raffles was despatched in 1805, when only twenty-three years of age, to
the East, as assistant-secretary to the Government of Penang, where a
settlement was then being formed by the company. In this capacity he so
distinguished himself as to attract the notice of Lord Minto, then
Governor-General of India. In particular Raffles made himself
acquainted, as no other European had done before, with the circumstances
and character of the Malay races. Subsequently, in view of the
annexation of Holland by Napoleon, it became desirable for the Indian
Government to take some measures to prevent the establishment of the
French in the Dutch possessions in the East. When, as a means to this
end, it was determined to occupy Java, it was to Raffles that Lord Minto
applied for the necessary information upon which the operations of the
expedition could be based. The capture of Java was considered of such
importance that the Governor-General himself accompanied the expedition.
Raffles' information was found to be so accurate, and his suggestions so
valuable, that after the capitulation of General Jansens on September
18, 1811, Lord Minto entrusted the island to his charge. Up to the
present, Raffles had been acting first as agent and afterwards as chief
secretary to the Governor-General; he was now appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of Java and its dependencies.
I have already written of the principles upon which Raffles based his
measures during the five years of his administration, and of the
criticism which was directed against them. The whole of Raffles' public
acts as a servant of the company were reviewed by the Court of Directors
in 1826. The verdict of this very competent authority, with reference to
the financial expedients and the general reforms which he adopted in his
administration of the island, was entirely favourable, if we except what
refers to the sale of lands, which it characterized as a "questionable
proceeding." It is worthy of note, however, that this "questionable
proceeding" had been pronounced by the Governor-General to be "an able
expedient in a moment of great emergency." Raffles was bitterly
disappointed when the news reached him that, under the settlement
effected by the Treaty of London, the British Government had consented
to restore Java to the Dutch. For a moment the announcement of
Napoleon's escape from Elba seemed to bring a chance of a reprieve. But
this transient gleam of hope was soon dispelled, and in March, 1816,
Raffles relinquished the government to the imperial officer appointed to
carry out the transference of the island. Lord Minto had secured for him
the residency of Bencoolen, a settlement on the western coast of
Sumatra; but his state of health was so unsatisfactory that it became
necessary for him to proceed to England without delay.
After a stay of only fifteen months' duration, during which he received
the honour of knighthood from the king, Raffles again set sail for India
in October, 1817. He was appointed to the government of Bencoolen, with
the title of Lieutenant-Governor of Fort Marlborough, and it is in this
capacity that he signed his Singapore proclamations. It appears,
however, that he was in some way commissioned by the Home Government to
exercise a general supervision over British interests in the further
East. In a letter written in 1820 he says that he "had separate
instructions from the Court to watch the motions of foreign nations, and
particularly the Dutch, in the Archipelago generally, and to write to
the Court and the Secret Committee."[31] On his arrival at Bencoolen in
March, 1819, he set himself once more to achieve that object for which
he had incessantly worked ever since his first appearance in the
East--the establishment of British influence in Malaya and the Eastern
Archipelago. With this object in view Raffles resolved to proceed to
Calcutta, in order that he might personally confer with Lord Hastings,
who had succeeded Lord Minto as Governor-General, and secure the
co-operation of the Bengal Government in his plans. He arrived at
Calcutta early in July of the same year. Lord Hastings expressed a high
appreciation of the value of Raffles' services in Java, and gave him
general assurances of his further support. Although the Bengal
Government were not prepared to endorse the extension of the British
authority in Sumatra, they and the British merchants at Calcutta were at
least rendered sensible by Raffles' arguments of the importance of
endeavouring to check the progress of the Dutch in the Malay Peninsula.
Of the two channels which alone gave access to the Archipelago, one was
already in the hands of the Dutch, and the other soon would be. In
short, unless some immediate and energetic measures were taken, the
trade of the whole Eastern Archipelago would be closed against the
English merchants. In his own words, Raffles asked for neither territory
nor people; all he wanted was "permission to anchor a line-of-battle
ship and hoist the English flag."
[Footnote 31: "Memoir of Sir Stamford Raffles, by his widow."
1830.]
In short, the result of Raffles' visit to Calcutta was that the Bengal
Government resolved, if possible, to keep the command of the Straits of
Malacca, and he was despatched as their agent to effect this purpose.
It appears that the Bengal Government hoped to sufficiently command the
straits by an establishment at Achin, in the extreme north of Sumatra,
and by taking possession of Rhio, a small island south of Singapore.
Raffles, however, foresaw--what indeed happened--that the Dutch would
anticipate him in the occupation of Rhio, while Achin seemed scarcely
suitable for the purpose. When he left Calcutta he had another plan in
view. On December 12, 1818, he writes from on board the _Nearchus_, at
the mouth of the Ganges, to his frequent correspondent Marsden, the
Sumatran traveller--
"We are now on our way to the eastward, in the hope of doing
something, but I much fear the Dutch have hardly left us an inch
of ground to stand upon. My attention is principally turned to
Johore, and you must not be surprised if my next letter to you
is dated from the site of the ancient city of Singapura."
In carrying out the difficult task which had been entrusted to him,
Raffles encountered not only the opposition of the Dutch, which he
naturally expected, but that of the Government of Penang. The
authorities at Penang had a double reason for their opposition. In the
first place, they regarded the establishment of a station further east
as detrimental to the interests of their own settlement; and, in the
next, they had themselves unsuccessfully endeavoured to acquire a
similar position, and now maintained that the time had gone by for such
measures. Fortunately, however, Raffles had already secured the services
of Colonel Farquhar and a military force. This officer was in command of
the troops at Bencoolen, which, at the time Raffles left Calcutta, were
on the point of being relieved. Raffles had written from Calcutta,
instructing him to proceed to Europe by the Straits of Sunda, where he
would receive further instructions.
Singapore, the spot which Raffles' knowledge of the Malay states enabled
him to secure for his settlement, is a small island, twenty-seven miles
long by fourteen broad, immediately south of the Malay Peninsula, from
which it is separated by a channel of less than a mile in width. No
situation could be imagined better calculated to secure the objects
which the new settlement was intended to effect. Not only does the
island completely command the Straits of Malacca, the gate of the ocean
highway to China and the Eastern Archipelago, but, lying at a convenient
distance from the Chinese, the Indian, and the Javanese ports, it was
admirably adapted to serve as an _entrepôt_ and centre of English trade.
The island at this time formed part of the territory of the Sultan of
Johore, and it contained the remains of the original maritime capital of
the Malays. It was within the circuit of these Malay fortifications,
raised more than six centuries ago, that, on the 29th of February, 1819,
Raffles planted the British flag at Singapore.
From the very first Raffles fully realized the value of the acquisition.
On the 19th of February, 1819, he writes that he has found "at Singapore
advantages far superior to what Rhio afforded." And in the same letter
he says, "In short, Singapore is everything we could desire, and I may
consider myself most fortunate in the selection; it will soon rise into
importance, and with this single station alone, I would undertake to
counteract all the plans of Mynheer."
Raffles was not able to remain for more than a few days at Singapore. He
hurried on to Achin, and, after completing the object of his mission
there, returned to his residency at Bencoolen. But the new settlement
rapidly progressed under Colonel Farquhar's able administration. A year
afterwards, this officer writes to Raffles that "nothing can possibly
exceed the rising trade and general prosperity of this infant colony."
He adds, "Merchants of all descriptions are collecting here so fast that
nothing is heard in the shape of complaint but the want of more ground
to build on."
In spite of this immediate assurance of prosperity, it remained for a
long time uncertain whether the British Government would maintain the
settlement.
The right of possession was from the first disputed by the Dutch.
Raffles himself succinctly states in a letter to Marsden the basis upon
which this rested. It appears, from his letter, that the Dutch had
secured the cession of Rhio from the Sultan of Lingen, whom they
recognized as the Sultan of Johore. On his arrival at Singapore, Raffles
was visited by one of the two chief hereditary officials of Johore, who
represented to him that an elder brother of the Sultan of Lingen was the
legal successor to that throne, adding, that as the Dutch had negotiated
with an incompetent authority, it was still open to the English to
effect a settlement on the territory of Johore. This elder brother was
subsequently recognized by the nobles at the court of Johore, and it was
with this personage, in his capacity of Sultan of Johore, that Raffles
concluded his treaty, and obtained permission to establish his
settlement. The Dutch, on the other hand, maintained that the Sultan of
Lingen had been legally invested with the sovereignty of Johore at the
time of the occupation; and, therefore, that the permission accorded to
Raffles was worthless. In a letter bearing date July 19, 1820, a
correspondent writes to him from London--
"You are probably aware of the obstacles which have been opposed
to the adoption of your measures, and even threatened your
position in the service. Your zeal considerably out-stepped your
prudence, and the first operations of it became known at an
unfavourable juncture. It was thought that the state of affairs
in Europe required that they should be discountenanced.
"The acquisition of Singapore has grown in importance. The stir
made here lately for the further enlargement of the Eastern
trade fortified that impression. It is now accredited in the
India House."[32]
[Footnote 32: "Memoir of Sir Stamford Raffles."]
Undoubtedly the Dutch were making strong endeavours at this time to
procure the removal from the East of a man who had shown himself so
resolute and capable an opponent of their commercial system. Raffles
himself writes from Bencoolen in July, 1820, "After all, it is not
impossible the ministry may be weak enough to abandon Singapore, and to
sacrifice me, honour, and the Eastern Archipelago to the outrageous
pretensions of the Dutch." Fortunately he had powerful friends, and he
was not immediately recalled. Meanwhile he continued to hold the
settlement on his personal responsibility against the efforts of both
the British and Dutch East India Governments. In eighteen months it had
grown from an insignificant fishing village to a port with a population
of 10,000 inhabitants. During the first two and a half years of its
existence Singapore was visited by as many as 2889 vessels, with an
aggregate burden of 161,515 tons. The total value of its exports and
imports for the year 1822 amounted to no less than 8,568,172
dollars.[33]
[Footnote 33: The Mexican dollar, which varies in value, but is
worth about four shillings.]
Raffles returned to Singapore on the 10th of October, 1822, on his way
to England. He remained in the settlement for nine months, and during
this time employed himself in laying-out the city, and in drawing up
rules and regulations for the government of its people. In one of his
letters he expresses a hope "that, though Singapore may be the first
capital established in the nineteenth century, it will not disgrace the
brightest period of it."
The position of Raffles in respect to Singapore was indeed remarkable.
Though a servant of the company for five years, he was personally
responsible for the administration of the settlement, and neither the
Bengal Government nor the Court of Directors in London would relieve
him. In the report which he sent to the Bengal Government before
returning to England, he states the main principles upon which he has
based the regulations which he framed. At the head of them stands a
declaration of the principle of free trade.
"First I have declared that the port of Singapore is a free port, and
the trade thereof open to ships and vessels of every nation, free of
duty, equally and alike to all." It was a hatred of their monopolist
policy which had especially inspired Raffles in his opposition to the
Dutch. In respect of the question of the authority of his legislation,
he writes that he considered himself justified in thus provisionally
legislating for the settlement by reason of the existence of "an actual
and urgent necessity for some immediate and provisional arrangements."
He further states that in framing these regulations he has, while giving
due weight to local considerations, "adhered as closely as possible to
those principles which from immemorial usage have ever been considered
the most essential and sacred parts of the British constitution."
Before he left Singapore, Raffles selected twelve merchants and
appointed them to act as magistrates for a year. He also provided for a
succession of such magistrates, who were to be chosen from a list kept
by the Resident.
Raffles' career was cut short by his sudden and premature death, which
took place on the 5th of July, 1826. He had lived, however, long enough
to see the merit of his public conduct established by the judgment of
the Court of Directors, which I have already mentioned, and which was
pronounced in the preceding April. The fortunes of Singapore were
secured two years previously to this event, when the island was formally
ceded to the British Government by the Sultan of Johore, in pursuance of
the terms of an arrangement then concluded between the Dutch and English
Governments. Subsequently it formed part of the consolidated Government
of Penang, Singapore, and Malacca. In 1867 these settlements were
converted into a Crown colony under the name of the Straits Settlements.
At the present time the colony so constituted is administered by a
Governor, and an Executive Council of eight members, assisted by a
Legislative Council consisting of these eight official, and seven other
unofficial, members.
The town of Singapore has fully realized the expectations of its
founder. Its rapid and continuous growth is sufficiently indicated by
the fact that at the present time it possesses a population of 182,650
inhabitants; while the importance of its trade is demonstrated by the
fact that more than three million tons of shipping entered the port in
the year 1889. In connection with the growing recognition of the
necessity for an organized system of naval defence for the empire, the
strategical value of Singapore has of late years been greatly
emphasized, and the defences of the port have been strengthened and
improved. Batteries have been constructed by the colony at a cost of
£100,000, which have been furnished with guns at the expense of the
Imperial Government. At the same time a new harbour, including the
Tanjong Pagar wharf and docks, has been added three miles to the
westward, where the largest ocean-going steamships can find ample space.
The original "fort" is still conspicuous in the centre of the town, and
behind it are the gently rising hills on which the bungalows of the
English residents are for the most part built. At evening the blinds are
drawn up to welcome the reviving breath of the sea, and from the open
windows of these bungalows appears a panoramic scene of singular extent
and beauty, and one which forms a fitting background to the Eastern
viands and Chinese servants which give a Singapore dinner-party a
character of its own.
[Illustration: THE CAVANAGH BRIDGE, SINGAPORE. _Page_ 282.]
The ricsha furnishes the streets with an additional element of
picturesqueness. These charming vehicles are not used, however, by
Europeans during the day. Then the Anglo-Saxon instinct for
respectability (or some more subtle reason) prescribes the use of the
ghari, which is practically a four-wheeled cab with Venetian blinds
substituted for windows. The ricsha is especially used by the Chinese,
who, as in Java, have contrived to get most of the retail trade into
their hands, and many of whom are extremely wealthy and greatly attached
to the British connection. In addition to the public offices, the most
noticeable buildings are the Government House, which stands on a slight
elevation and is surrounded by a park, the cathedral, and the Raffles
Museum. Near the Cavanagh Bridge--a handsome iron suspension bridge
which spans the river--is the hospitable and commodious Singapore club;
and just outside the town there is a fine race-course. The esplanade
together with this latter provide the English residents with the means
of outdoor recreation which are so essential in the tropics. I have
already spoken of the great advantage which Singapore possesses over
Batavia in the singular healthiness of its climate. Almost the first
sight which I saw on my arrival was that of an English crowd surrounding
the tennis courts on the esplanade, where a very considerable tournament
was proceeding. It is by such pursuits as these, polo, golf, cricket,
and tennis, that the insidious languor of the East can alone be
resisted.
* * * * *
There are times when, among the prosaic surroundings of this work-a-day
world, our senses are unexpectedly stirred by some undetected stimulus
which sets in motion a train of memories. Such memories penetrate even
the gloomy recesses of Temple chambers. Sometimes they bring with them
a waft of perfume from the warm pine woods that clothe the slopes of
Table Mountain; sometimes a vision of glassy waters walled by the sheer
mountain heights of New Zealand Sounds; or it may be a sense of calm
swan-like motion over the sunlit reaches of the Hawkesbury. Not least
interesting among such memories I count the recollection of a time when
life was lived on a verandah, in the twilight of palm leaves, and its
needs were served by dusky ministers whose footfall brought no
disturbing sound.
It is not so very long ago since Mr. Lucy wrote that a man in search of
"pastures new" might do worse than try Japan. I would add that, having
tried Japan (and who has not?), he might do worse than take to Java.
Here, in an island where the business of the great world is heard only
as the murmur of a neighbouring stream, he will find an ancient and
interesting civilization still existing, some vast Hindu ruins, and the
gardens of Buitenzorg.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.
LONDON AND BECCLES. D. & Co.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (cocoanut,
cocoa-nut; crosspiece, cross-piece; ricefields, rice-fields)
Footnote 4, the text in the footnote refers to an "Appendix" but the
title at the actual location is "Annex". Original word "Appendix" is
retained.
Pg. 37, "Buitenzong" changed to "Buitenzorg". (Hotel Belle Vue at
Buitenzorg)
Pg. 275, "propably" changed to "probably". (You are propably aware)
Annex to Chapter V, Table showing the alternative routes to the Hindu
temples. Row starting "Bandong to Cheribon", comma in last column is
changed to a doublequote mark which is here serving as a ditto mark. Row
starting "Cheribon to Tegal", a doublequote mark is added to the last
column to serve as a ditto mark.