1835.] Naning in the Malay Peninsula. 305 



is become a well-regulated Government, and the character of the inha- 

 bitants peaceable and industrious, and that vice is severely punished. 



•' Every thing at Naning has turned out to our wishes. Raja 

 Merah and the chiefs were very submissive, and the inhabitants very 

 obedient to our orders." 



Governor Van Vliet had not long to felicitate himself on the sub- 

 missiveness and obedience of the inhabitants of Naning ; for shortly after 

 his return to Malacca, an extensive conspiracy was formed, in which 

 they assumed a prominent part against the Dutch Government, in the 

 denouement of which, two Dutch officers lost their lives at the hands 

 of the natives. The following paragraph from the records gives us an 

 insight into the method employed by the Dutch of this period, in 

 "persuading the refractory Manikabowes to return from the state of 

 barbarism under which they had the misfortune to labour." 



Well might Lord Minto, the conqueror of Java, commit to the 

 flames with indignant hands, those instruments of torture, so long 

 a disgrace to a city over whose ancient ruins the British flag 

 waved*. 



This document is dated " Malacca, 16th August, 1644." 



" "What an abominable treason and conspiracy have we not dis- 

 covered in Naning in the conduct of five Malays, named Inchi Itam, 

 Bongsoe, Sillap, Poetara, and a slave of the name of Patchuim, 

 who had been compelled by his master to join the conspirators against 

 Malacca. We have often trusted Itam with letters to the chiefs at 

 Naning and Rumbowe, but he has performed our commands in a very 

 unfaithful manner, by laying secret schemes with the said chiefs 

 against us, and three different times he swore fealty in favor of them, 

 against our Government, that he would not discover and make known 

 to us any plan which our enemy might project against our interest, 

 and if we should purpose to despatch a force thither, he would give 

 timely notice to them of our design. Moreover, he had undertaken to 

 lead 1,000 Manikdbowes to Malacca, in order to attack and destroy the 

 settlement. All this he did, and dissembled with us. Inchi, Sillap, 

 Bongsoe, and Poetara were for a considerable length of time our inhabi- 

 tants, and were together with the troop3 where Captains Forsenberg 

 and Menie were murdered ; since which time, they have taken up arms 

 against our Government, and threatened to murder us in our council 



* His Lordship, after the taking of Java, presented Malacca with a full length 

 portrait of himself, in which the burning of the instruments of torture is repre- 

 sented. The picture was formerlj suspended in the Stadt-house, but now adorns 

 the court-house of Malacca. 



