390 Life of Sir Stamford Raffles. 



in perfect agreement with the views of Lord Minto ; and their 

 immediate importance consisted in the necessity of preserving what 

 may be termed the police of the Eastern Seas, infested, from time 

 immemorial, by the pirate-vessels of many Malayan states. The 

 security of commerce with Java itself, together with the general 

 maritime and commercial interests of Great Britain and of the 

 East-India Company in these seas, was consequently involved in 

 the object thus held in view by the Governor of Java. 



When this island and its immediate dependencies first became 

 subject to the British crown, it was the intention of Lord Minto 

 that the Moluccas or Spice-islands should revert to their former 

 connexion with and dependence upon the superior residency of 

 Batavia, in which the same controul over the Archipelago would 

 then have been vested, as it exercised during the flourishing times 

 of the Dutch government of these colonies. This intention was 

 not accomplished ; but Mr, Raffles considered himself warranted 

 by his instructions, in assuming the authority and influence of the 

 British Government in the surrounding seas. With these views he 

 adopted measures with reference to the great and important island 

 of Borneo, for the purpose of opening its ports to general com- 

 merce, and finally establishing his country's influence in the island, 

 so far as might be necessary for securing that object. In 1813, 

 the Sultan of Pontiana, one of the Bornean states, solicited the 

 protection of a British garrison, against the incursions of the pirates 

 of Sambas, another native state in Borneo. The protection desired 

 was immediately granted him ; and an expedition against Sambas 

 in the preceding year having failed, a new one was now under- 

 taken, with the assistance of the Sultan, which proved completely 

 successful, the fort at Sambas being carried by storm, and the 

 Kajah compelled to retire into the interior of his dominions. In 

 the following year, 1814, a similar expedition was dispatched 

 against the Rajah of Bony, in Celebes, who had betrayed designs 

 inimical to the British Government, and it was attended with simi- 

 lar success. 



Whilst the Earl of Minto continued at the head of the Supreme 

 Government in Bengal, the connections and authority thus estab^ 

 lished by Mr. Raffles in the Archipelagian seas, were sanctioned 



