1826. ] 
racter of the inhabitants, the court, and its 
ceremonies—with the language and dia- 
lects, the literature and arts, painting, sculp- 
ture, architecture, arithmetic, astronomy, 
&c. of the country.—A considerable por- 
tion of the second volume is occupied 
with a history of Java, commencing with 
fables, magnified by tradition and hyper. 
bole; and it presents, in its continuation, 
a series of contentions and wars, arising 
from the usual causes, ambition and cupi- 
dity—trom power perverted into tyranny, 
and resistance inflamed into rebellion. The 
map accompanying the first volume is un- 
questionably the most correct hitherto pub- 
lished. The illustrative plates are executed 
in a masterly style, by Mr. Daniell and 
other artists. 
Tt was highly to the credit of Mr. Raffles 
and to his system of government, that 
whereas the Dutch, while in power, were 
in the habit of bolting and barring up every 
avenue to their houses at night, the English 
slept in perfect security without locking a 
door. 
_ Inthe summer of 1817 Mr. Raffles re- 
ceived the honour of knighthood; and he 
afterwards went out to the East as gover- 
nor of Bencoolen, an appointment which 
held for several years. 
Amongst other public and beneficial mea- 
sures which Sir Stamford Raffles adopted 
in India, may be mentioned the establish- 
ment of the settlement and free-port of 
Singapore ; a settlement which, from its 
rapidly flourishing state, has from its origin 
been viewed by the Dutch with a jealous 
eye. 
Sir Stamford Raffles having been mar- 
ried a second time for some years, he, 
on the 2d of February 1824, embarked 
with his family and suite in the ship 
Fame, on his return to Europe. They 
sailed at daylight on the following morn- 
ing for England, with a fair wind, and 
every prospect of a quick and comfortable 
passage. In the evening, a sad reverse 
occurred: Lady Raffles had just gone to 
bed, and Sir Thomas had thrown off half 
his clothes, when a ery of “fire! fire!” 
foused them from their agreeable expecta- 
_ tions, and in five minutes the whole ship 
‘Was in flames. The fire had originated 
_ immediately under the governor’s cabin, but 
from what cause is unknown. Two small 
boats were immediately lowered—for there 
-dvas not time to get out the long boat—and 
Lady Raffles and her children were hurried 
into them with imStantaneous rapidity. 
_“ All this,”’ observes Sir Thomas, “‘ passed 
much quicker than I can write it: we 
_ pushed off, and as we did so the flames 
were issuing from our eabins, and the whole 
of the after-part of the ship was in flames. 
The masts and sails now taking fire, we 
y “moved ito.a distance sufficient to avoid the 
_ immediate explosion; but the flames were 
_ pow coming out of the main hatchway, 
_ and>seeing the rest of the crew. with the 
Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 
_ society had for some time reside 
221 
captain, &e. still on board, we, pulled back 
to her under her bows, so as to be most 
distant from the powder.’’ Fortunately, 
by the most active and intrepid exertions, 
every individual on board, even to.a poor 
sailor sick in his cot, was rescued. from his 
perilous and awful situation, The captain 
luckily had remoyed a compass, but they 
had no light excepting from the ship. There 
being no landing-place to the southward of 
Bencoolen, their only chance was to regain 
that port, which they estimated to be from 
twenty to thirty miles distant, in a south- 
west direction. The captain undertook to 
lead. The alarm was given at about twenty 
minutes past eight ; in less than ten minutes 
the ship was in flames ; there was nota soul 
on board at half-past. eight; and in less 
than ten minutes afterwards she was one 
grand mass of fire. Thus,” observes Sir 
Thomas Raffles, ‘‘ in two small open boats, 
without a drop of water, or grain of food, or 
a rag of covering, except what we hap- 
pened at the moment to have on our backs, 
we embarked on the wide ocean, thankful 
to God for his mercies.. Poor Sophia 
(Lady Raffles) having been taken out of 
her bed, had nothing on but a wrapper— 
neither shoes nor stockings ; the children 
were just as taken out of bed, whence one 
had been snatched after the flames had at- 
tacked it. To make the best of our mis- 
fortune, we availed ourselves of the light 
from the ship to steer a tolerably good 
course towards the shore. She continued 
to burn till about midnight, when the salt- 
petre, of which she had 250 tons on board, 
took fire, and sent up one of the most 
splendid and brilliant flames that was ever 
seen, illuminating the horizon in eyery di- 
rection, to an extent of no less than fifty 
miles, and casting that kind of blue light 
over us which is, of all others, most luridly 
horrible. She burned and continued to 
flame in this style for about an hour 
or two, when we lost sight of the object 
in a cloud of smoke. Neither Nelson 
nor Mr. Bell, our medical friend, who had 
accompanied us, had saved their coats; the 
tail of mine, with a pocket handkerchief, 
served to keep Sophia’s feet warm, and we 
made breeches for the children with our 
neckcloths. Rain now came on: but for- 
tunately it was not of long continuance, 
‘and we got dry again; the night became 
serene and starlight.” 
Fortunately the boats made their point 
in safety ; but Sir Stamford Raffles’ loss in 
valuable maps, and charts, and drawings, 
specimens of natural history, &c.—articles 
never to be replaced—was lamentable. 
Altogether his loss of property. was esti- 
mated at from £20,000 to £30,000... 
Some time after Sir Stamford’s return, to 
England, he edited The Malay, Ann 4 
the late Dr. Leyden, to. which he pre: 
an introduction. 
This respected and valuable. roemitas of 
in the 
