24 ADDRESS BY MR. KRUYT ON 



"I.— That of individual trade, 1602-1684. 



"IT. — That of the trade of the East India Company, 1684- 

 "1762. 



"III. — That of political and military interference, 1762 

 "till now." 



Thus this contact was of a purely commercial character 

 till 1762, when the consolidation of the position of the Eng- 

 lish in British India, and circumstances in Europe, led them 

 to pay more attention to Eastern lands, and politics came 

 more into the front. 



The first expedition of the English against Manila took 

 place in 1763. Their fleet had stopped at Penang, and they 

 were struck with the importance of the position of that 

 place. This expedition ended with the occupation of the 

 island of Balambangan, opposite Marudu Bay in North Bor- 

 neo. It was abandoned again in 1804, on account of its un- 

 healthiness. The island of Labuan was then occupied, but 

 was almost immediately abandoned, and in 1846 was again 

 taken possession of. 



The desirability of obtaining some fixed place in or near 

 the Straits of Malacca was the more evident from the cir- 

 cumstance that the trading fortresses in Sumatra, of which 

 Bencoolen, raised in 1763 to an independent Presidency, was 

 the capital, were less suited for that purpose. Acheen was 

 chosen, but the negotiations with the Sultan of that kingdom 

 led to no satisfactory result. Now, Francis Light, of the 

 British India Marine, who was acquainted with the trade of 

 Kedah, came with the proposal to choose for this the island 

 of Penang, which was to be acquired by a payment to the 

 Sultan of Kedah. It was then a desert, uncultivated, almost 

 uninhabited island, and was only touched at by ships to take 

 water or to wait for good weather. The first Englishman 

 whom we know to have done this was Captain Lancaster of 

 the Bonaventura, who visited Penang in 1592, and the first 

 Dutchman was Cornelis Matelief, who went there in 1607. 



The East India Company agreed to Light's proposal, and 

 in August, 1786, took formal possession of Penang, in con- 

 sideration of the payment of a fixed annual sum to the Sul- 



