British agree- 
ment of 1813 
AD 
British treaty 
of 1832 A.D. 
Reform of 
Rembuiu State 
Council, 
20 REMBAU HISTORY, ETC. 
In 1832, Raja Laboh, the last of the deputed princes, 
was driven out of the country and fled to Sumatra. A year 
before, his official existence had been ignored by the Supreme 
Government of British India, though his presence in Malacea 
was recognised, in concluding an agreement with Raja Ali, 
the Undang, (To’ Nganit)’ and the Four chiefs, acknow- 
ledging them as “ governing the country of Rembau and its 
dependencies’ and in treating with the authorities of Rembau 
and its dependencies as an independent state. 
Early in 1832 the British authorities in Malacca ratified 
the agreement of 1831 by a formal treaty between “the . 
English Government and the Rembau Chiefs as a Government 
of itself excluding all others.”’ 
Considerable importance attaches to this document his- 
torically. For Rembatu Raja Ali made his mark, the seal of 
Saiyid Shaban was affixed, and there also signed the Undang ~ 
Lela Maharaja ‘To’ Nganit), and Hight heads of tribes. In 
January 1832 then it is clear that Raja Ali, in the absence of 
any royal rival, posed as Yam Tuan Besar, and had fcreced 
from Rembau some measure of recognition for the claim of 
his son-in-law (Saiyid Shaban) as Yang di Per Tuan Muda. 
These claims were bitterly opposed in Rembau as the 
descent of Saiyid Shaban entirely failed to justify his preten- 
sions.” He was not of royal blood, and although the daughter 
of Raja Ali was guilty of no morganatic aliance in wedding a 
descendant of the Prophet, she could not by her marriage 
confer on her husband the right to equal rank with a Raja. 
The signatures of the Hight Tribal chiefs point to, and 
date, an important constitutional reform. The admission of 
the four great “‘darat’’ chiefs to the council of Lembaga, in 
whom vested the ultimate power in Rembau, marks an 
advance in the consolidation of the state. 
(1) Newbold op. cit. Vol. II, p. 132, spells this chief’s name 
Rennie ! 
(2) He was the son of an Arab Saiyid Ibrahim by his concubine 
Sri Kamis a Malay slave girl belonging to Zainudin capitan Malaiu 
in Malacca v. Newbold Vol. II, p. 131. 
Jour. Straits Branch 
