24 Life o/*Sir Stamford Raffles. 



cerned in the advancement of a Watt, a Herschel, and a Davy, 

 that the genius of Sir Stamford Raffles also received that con-- 

 firmed and lasting impulse, vyhich eventually procured for him 

 his elevated rank in society, and his high reputation as an en- 

 lightened and a philosophic statesman. 



We have seen that his appointment to the office of Assistant 

 Secretary in the Government of Prince of Wales's Island, first led 

 him to those acquisitions of knowledge regarding the Mabyan 

 countries, which subsequently become so useful in extending and 

 securing the British dominion over " the Further East." But 

 about the period of his arrival at the Island, he formed an acquaint- 

 ance, which ripened into an endearing friendship, with " the 

 Bard of Teviotdale," — the late lamented philologist and historian, 

 Dr. Leyden : the example afforded him by the ardent and power- 

 ful mind of this accomplished scholar, and the assistance he de- 

 rived from the varied lore with which that mind was replete, ap- 

 pear to have determined his pursuit of the mo£t extensive views 

 and acquirements respecting the countries around him. And 

 through the advantages conferred upon him by these attainments, 

 under circumstances rendering their possession singularly appro- 

 priate and useful, he was appointed, in the short period of six 

 years from his arrival in the East, and at the early age of thirty 

 years, to the high and honourable station of representative of the 

 JBritish nation in the Indian Archipelago, as "Lieutenant-Governor 

 of Java and its Dependencies." 



Dr. Leyden had been appointed Surgeon and Naturalist to the 

 Commissioners directed to survey the Mysore territories on the 

 Indian peninsula, which had been recently conquered from Tippoo 

 Sultan. In this service, however, his health had become so 

 greatly impaired, that he was obliged to leave the Commissioners, 

 and at length, to facilitate his recovery, to make a voyage to 

 Prince of Wales's Island, where he arrived on the 22d of October, 

 1805. Mr. Raffles thus acquired a congenial friend, and they 

 "were quickly united by a close intimacy, the eff*ects of which on 

 the pursuits of the former we have just described. The peculi^ 

 arities of the Malay race attracted the eager attention of Dr. 

 Leyden j in order to extend his knowledge of their language, 



