6 ed their visiter to wait the result. This, however, led to nothing; and council after council assembled, dispersed, and reassembled, until at length, Sir Stamford, somewhat out of patience, walked into the midst of the circle, and demanded that a decisive intimation should be given of their intentions. What did they require? Sa tali sa pau, was the reply. These magical words, simply meaning twenty dollars, cleared away every difficulty: the money was paid down, hands were shaken, congratulations given and received, and the travellers proceeded. The subsequent movements through this country, exhibited much the same character. The manners of the people were wild and savage; but, although troublesome, the natives were not unfriendly; they understood the value of money, and an occasional fee was an effectual method of smoothing down asperities, and removing obstacles. The aspect of the country was delightful: the extensive level occupied by the Tiga-blas Cotas, or thirteen confederate towns, is described as one sheet ' of cultivation,' in breadth about ten miles, and about twenty in length, densely populated, and thickly studded with towns and villages, embosomed in cocoa-nut groves. The breed of cattle is small, but beautiful; horses are in plenty, but not much used. The plain gradually declines into a noble lake, deep, abounding in fish, skirted by a beach of bright sand, surrounded with towns, villages, and hamlets, which carry on an active commerce with each other by means of large and well-built boats. Crossing this lake, (which appears to belong not to the Tiga-blas, but to a more commercial and less exacting sort of people than those of the thirteen cantons,) they landed on the sacred soil of Menangkabu. Here they were in the metalliferous region; and Dr. Horsfield collected an assortment of specimens, giving them to the coolies for conveyance. At the close of the day's journey, he asked for his collections; and the men, with all possible alacrity, produced their well-filled baskets, which, on inspection, presented nothing but an indiscriminate heap of common stones. Anger was unavailing; the men simply replied, that they preferred carrying empty baskets, and that they had now collected for him a much larger assortment than that which he had committed to their care. The kingdom of Menangkabu was found miserably shorn of its original honours. Divisions and invasions had ravaged this fine country, and its towns had been repeatedly fired by the bands of a religious reformer, who has displayed much energy of character, and even opposed the Dutch without disadvantage. Still, the reception was friendly, and Sir Stamford Raffles was happy in finding an inscription and other indications, which supported his system of the high antiquity of the Malay race. The manufactures of Menangkabu have long been noted for VOL. IV.-N.S. C their excellence. The kris blades are unrivalled; gold and silver fillagree is wrought in the highest perfection; and coarse pottery is sent to the coast, by means of the rivers which flow from the lake above described. After a short stay, our travellers recrossed the lake; but avoided the fleecing manœuvres of the Tiga-blas chieftainry, by taking a different route homewards. We have already alluded to the steps which the encroachments of the Dutch, not only among the unappropriated portions of the Indian Archipelago, but on the very island of Sumatra itself, had made it necessary for the Lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen to take. He had, in fact, delivered a strong protest ́against their proceedings, and they had made this protest a matter of formal complaint. Lord Hastings had taken a view of the measure, which was unfavourable to Sir Stamford Raffles; and his conduct had been further condemned both by the Court of Directors and Lord Bathurst. He was not a man to take these weak and unjust censures quietly; and partly with a view to explanation, but chiefly for the purpose of stating his opinions concerning the very critical state of things in this strangely neglected quarter, he determined on a voyage to Bengal. This step was successful. The wisdom of his policy was admitted; and his measures were owned to have been rendered all but imperative, by the circumstances in which he was placed.' It was further determined, as the best possible compromise with the difficulties of the case, to concede the claims of the Dutch on Sumatra, and to leave them the exclusive command of the Straits of Sunda; at the same time securing access to the islands of the Archipelago, and to the coasts of China, by taking up such positions as should make the English masters of the Straits of Malacca. Even this had become an affair of by no means easy adjustment; since the Dutch, to use Sir Stamford's expression, had hardly left us an inch of ground to stand upon.' He accomplished his purpose, however, by hoisting the British flag on Singapore, at the southern entrance of the Straits of Malacca, ، within a week's sail of China, close to Siam, and in the very 'seat of the Malayan empire.' Yet, even here, in the execution of this all-important measure, he was obstructed by the pitiful impulses of private interest. ‘I have,' he says, ‘a violent opposition to surmount on the part of the Government of Penang.' He effected his object, notwithstanding; and the subsequent cession of Malacca by the Dutch, in exchange for Bencoolen, has given us the complete command of the most important passage between India and China. All his anticipations respecting Singapore have been more than realised, and the place is continually rising in value and importance. Although we are now hastening to a close, we must pause to cite the following description of a sail through the islands of the Indian Archipelago. It is difficult', writes Lady Raffles, to convey an idea of the pleasure of sailing through this beautiful and unparalleled Archipelago, in which every attraction of nature is combined; the smoothness of the sea, the lightness of the atmosphere, the constant succession of the most picturesque lake scenery, islands of every shape and size clustered together, mountains of the most fanciful forms, crowned with verdure to their summit, rich and luxuriant vegetation extending to the very edge of the water, little native boats, often with only one person in them, continually darting out from the deep shade which concealed them, looking like so many cockle-shells wafted about by the wind. Altogether, it is a fairy scene of enchantment, deserving of a poet's pen to describe its beauties!' The return of Sir Stamford Raffles to Bencoolen, after having made the final arrangements for the settlement of Singapore, was signalised by his usual efforts for the advancement of science, the extinction of slavery, and the promotion of the social and religious improvement of those who were placed under his government, Of these exertions, it is, happily, not necessary for us to speak in detail, since they have, for the most part, been long ago brought before the public, through channels sufficiently popular to make repetition inexpedient here. In the mean time, his earthly prospects were darkening round him. His children, lovely in aspect and engaging in disposition, were snatched from his arms, three by death, and the youngest by the necessity for sending her to England, in avoidance of the baneful climate of Sumatra. His own health was giving way, and Lady Raffles had to struggle at once with affliction and with indisposition. Still did his active and resolute spirit bear him up; and in October 1822, when, having quitted Bencoolen for a last visit to Singapore, he was, with undepressed energy, devising plans for the welfare of his charge and the promotion of his country's interests, the sight of the new settlement, his political child', in full vigour and prosperity, revived him; and he lost the sense of his own afflictions, in the honest triumph of success in behalf of his employers, though unaccompanied by the expression of their gratitude. His regulations for the management of the new settlement appear to us admirable; and it was a striking proof that they worked well, that an endeavour on the part of his successor, as a measure of finance, to re-establish the gaming-houses which Sir Stamford had rigidly put down, was instantly repelled by the presentation of the European Grand Jury, and the decision of the Recorder. 6 Sir Stamford Raffles quitted Singapore on his return to Ben coolen, in June 1823; and on his way, had occasion to as-certain the feelings which his measures had excited among the Dutch administrators. The ship in which he had embarked, touched on commercial business at Batavia; and, although Sir Stamford immediately announced, by letter to the Governor, his intention not to land, the poor Baron Van der Capellen was frightened out of his wits, and wrote a foolish letter, to which he got a most courteous but finished set-down in reply. The Dutchman makes a miserable figure in the grasp of Sir Stamford Raffles. On February 2, 1824, Sir Stamford and Lady Raffles left Bencoolen for England, in the ship Fame. They sailed at daybreak in the evening of the same day, the following scene took place. Sir Stamford is himself the narrator. 6 Sophia had just gone to bed, and I had thrown off half my clothes, when a cry of fire, fire! roused us from our calm content, and in five minutes the whole ship was in flames! I ran to examine whence the flames principally issued, and found that the fire had its origin immediately under our cabin. Down with the boats. Where's Sophia ?— Here. The children?-Here. A rope to the side. Lower Lady Raffles. Give her to me, says one; I'll take her, says the Captain. Throw the gunpowder overboard. It cannot be got at; it is in the magazine close to the fire. Stand clear of the powder. Scuttle the water-casks. Water! Water! Where's Sir Stamford? Come into the boat, Nilson! Nilson, come into the boat. Push off, push off! Stand clear of the after part of the ship. The alarm was given at about twenty minutes past eight, and in less than ten minutes, she was in flames; there was not a soul on board at half-past eight, and in less than ten minutes afterwards, she was one grand mass of fire. 6 The loss I have to regret,' is the closing observation in Sir S.'s description of the event, beyond all, is my papers and drawings,all my notes and observations, with memoirs and collections, sufficient for a full and ample history, not only of Sumatra, but of Borneo, and almost every other island of note in these seas;-my intended account of the establishment of Singapore ;-the history of my own administration ;-eastern grammars, dictionaries, and vocabularies ;—and last, not least, a grand map of Sumatra, on which I had been employed since my arrival here, and on which, for the last six months, I had bestowed almost my whole undivided attention. This, however, was not all; -all my collections in natural history,-all my splendid collection of drawings, upwards of two thousand in number,—with all the valuable papers and notes of my friends, Arnold, and Jack; and, to conclude, I will merely notice, that there was scarce an unknown animal, bird, beast, or fish, or an interesting plant, which we had not on board: a living tapir, a new species of tiger, splendid pheasants, &c., domesticated for the voyage; we were, in short, in this respect, a perfect Noah's ark. All, all has perished; but, thank God, our lives have been spared, and we do not repine.' It is singular, and among those strange coincidences which in former days would have been deemed fatality, that Sir Stamford had nearly, very nearly, taken his passage in another vessel, that every other risk was covered, the ship insured, the captain without interest in her, the East India Company's property, nothing but a few tons of salt-petre shipped for ballast,→ while his loss was irreparable. It only remains for us to say, that, in August 1824, Sir S. and Lady Raffles landed in England; that not till April 1826, did the Court of Directors deliver a final opinion on his public services; and that, even then, their constrained praise of this admirable man, was cold, formal, and qualified. In less than three months after this, he was beyond the insult of their commendation. He died July 5, 1826. We cannot more emphatically close this brief sketch, than with the concluding paragraph of the long analysis of this volume given in the lxxxivth No. of the Quarterly Review. We cite it, because we would hope that it expresses something like an official estimate of Sir Stamford's services. 'A great man said, some fifty years ago, what has been repeated by fifty other persons," Our empire in India hangs by so frail a thread, that the touch of chance may break it, or 'the breath of opinion may dissolve it." Chance and opinion are unquestionably two powerful agents for good or for evil; 'but we cannot help suspecting that, considering the placid and pliant materials to work upon in that empire, if a Raffles were "placed at the head of each of the three Presidencies, and of a fourth, or central one, which ought, as we think, to be es'tablished; "chance" would be less liable to injure, and opinion" the influence most likely to strengthen, the frail 'thread which binds to a foreign yoke from eighty to a hun'dred millions of human creatures.' 6.66 We have found it so difficult to compress our account of this interesting volume within reasonable limits, that we have passed over two interesting portions: 1st, the details connected with the interior of Java, because they have been made the subject of an extensive work, long since reviewed by us*, and recently reprinted in a much more accessible form than that of the original edition; and 2d, the brief but interesting notices relating to the Batta cannibals in Sumatra, an account of whom has also * See Eclectic Review, 2d Ser. Vol. xiv. p. 106, et seq. (Aug. 1820.) |