THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, &C. 23 



"is, outside the town, desert and uncultivated, as if there 

 "had never been a settlement there. This is to be attributed 

 "to the narrow policy of the Dutch at Batavia, who make it 

 "their duty to concentrate everything in Java, and to make 

 "everything dependent upon it/' 



It was under the English that all further development 

 of this portion of the East took place. We have contributed 

 almost nothing to this, and confined ourselves almost ex- 

 clusively to the town of Malacca, where all our Government 

 and trading influence in that district were concentrated. 

 In Malacca itself there was no further extension than was 

 absolutely necessary, and indeed, on many occasions, the 

 interests of Malacca were sacrificed to those of Java. Tin, 

 pepper, and also gold were already then the most consider- 

 able articles of export, and our efforts were directed to 

 obtain the monojDoly of these in every way. Achinese 

 influeuce was at first great on the Peninsula, so that it 

 was even necessary to obtain the sanction of the Sultan 

 of Acheen to trade either with Perak or Kedah. The role 

 which we played here was not always a brilliant one, as may 

 be seen from an article entitled "The Dutch in Perak," 

 written, for the Journal of the Straits Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, by the present Acting Governor of 

 the Straits Settlements, Mr. W. E. Maxwell. 



The proportion of English trade at this period in these 

 parts was small, although they, the indefatigable rivals 

 of the Dutch, also had their factories in many places. In- 

 deed, India took up nearly all their attention, just as Java 

 and the Moluccas did with us. 



Mr. Skixxer writes as follows in his "'British Connections 

 with Malaya" (a name first given, a short time ago, on the 

 founding of the above-mentioned Straits Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, to the whole of the countries wLere 

 Malay or one of its related dialects is spoken, viz., the Ma- 

 lay Peninsula from Tenasserim and the great India Archi- 

 pelago, from Sumatra to J^ew Guinea) : — "The contact of the 

 " English with this part of the world may be divided into 

 '' three periods — 



