ADDRESS 



BY 



DELIYEEED BEFOEE THE INDIAN SOCIETY, 



ON 



THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS 



AND 



THE MALAY PENINSULA. 





i^'^^^ N the immediate vicinity of our East Indian posses- 

 79§2li sions lie the Straits Settlements, an English Crown 

 ^^^^^ Colony, of which Singapore and Peiiang are the 

 Yfe^ chief ports. These are often touched at by passing 

 "^^ Civil Servants, Officers and other Dutchmen on 

 their way to Holland, and also on the way to or 

 from Acheen or the East Coast of Sumatra. They see then 

 in a cursory way something of these English trading places, 

 but in general Dutchmen still know very little of this Col- 

 ony, and of the adjacent Malay Peninsula. I was astonish- 

 ed to see how little of the literature that exists on this sub- 

 ject is to be found in Holland. If the contents of the li- 

 brary of this Society disappointed me in this respect, and 

 those of the Library of the '^'KoninMijk Instituut voortaal- 

 land-en volkenkunde van ISTederlandsch-Indie," I was still 

 more disappointed, when I came to enquire in the Eoyal 

 Library, as to what was to be found of this part of the world 

 upon this subject. 



