282 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



LANDING OF EAFFLES AT SINGAPORE. 



In No. 10 of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, page 285, is an interesting account of the " Landing 

 of Raffles at Singapore, by an Eye- Witness."* So long as Wa Ha- 

 kim, the name given to this venerable deponent, keeps to what he 

 saw, his narrative appears to be strictly correct ; but other details 

 are so evidently contrary to what w r ould have taken place, that I 

 venture to question their accuracy. For instance, he says : — " Ba- 

 " tin Sapi, an Orang laut, went to bring Tunku Long from Bulang. 

 " I think he was away four days. Batin Sapi came back first, and 

 " then Tunku Long came." 



Now, it is very unlikely that Sir Stamford Raffles, who had 

 some knowledge and experience in Malay etiquette, would send a 

 single "Orang laut " to summon to his presence a Prince of the 

 Royal Blood, whom he intended to make Sultan of Johor, in order 

 to obtain a proper cession of Singapore, and considering it a pity to 

 allow such an erroneous statement pass to posterity as history, 

 I have made enquiries from the best authorities, and find that 

 two Anak Raja, namely, Raja Ombong and Inche Wan Abdul- 

 lah, were the persons entrusted with the mission, and they brought 

 Tunku Long here, having found him fishing in the Straits of Rhio. 

 These Anak Raja received each $500 for their trouble. My chief 

 informant has been Mr. C. F. Keun, who derived his information 

 from Tunku Purba, wife of Sultan Hussein ; from Raja Prang, 

 brother of Raja Ombong, and from Tunku Dagang : and the 

 account seems generally accepted by the Malays as correct. It is 



*[ With reference to this "Note," it may be as well to give the letter with 

 which the previous "Note " was forwarded for Journal No. 10, which is here 

 referred to: — 



"All the accounts I have got hold of in H.'s extensive library are contra- 

 " dictory. Thus in ' Sir Stamford Raffles' Life by his Widow ' no definite 

 " account is given of his landing, but it says that the account as given by Ceaw- 

 " FURD in the " Embassy to Siam " is wrong. In the first number of the prede- 

 cessor of the Straits Asiatic Society's Journal, dated 1875, another account is 

 "given; and then there is the 'Hikaiat Abdullah' which differs from all. So 

 " that really I think old Wa Hakim's account is useful, I have put it in a 

 " condensed form." Ed.] 



