MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN LIGHT. I^ 



'' Light married; but it was sold to the British by the King 

 "in 1800." 



The statement about '' the marriage portion " is of course 

 unfounded. It has been repeated from old gossip"^ on this 

 subject in a way that is as discreditable as the other obvious 

 errors in the dates, &c. Captain LiGHT certainly allied him- 

 self in 1772 with Martina Rozells, but she was neither a 

 Malay nor a Princess, but was apparently a Portuguese 

 Christian of the Roman Catholic Mission at Kedah or Junk 

 Ceylon. The old Junk Ceylon Mission removed about that 

 time to Kedah, and in 1786 to Pulau Tikus village at Penang. 

 She lived with him to his death, and inherited his house 

 ''Suffolk" and other property. She bore him five children, 

 one of whom at least he took care to bring up in Englandf — 

 Colonel William Light, born in 1784, died 1839. This son 

 followed in his father's steps; for it was his pride to be the 

 "Founder of Adelaide." As the companion and "Surveyor- 

 General" of Sir J. HiNDMARSH, first Governor of the new 

 Colony of South Australia, he selected the site of the new 

 Capital on December 28th, 1836. 



The success of Captain Light's enterprise in establishing 

 Penang was already clear at the time of his death. This is 

 shown by Admiral CORNWALLIS' rival Settlement at the Anda- 

 mans being abandoned two years later in favour of Penang. 

 It is also testified to in the account of no less a personage 

 than the great DuKE OF Wellington (then Col. Wellesley) 

 which is to be found, under date 1797, in Vol. I of Gleig's 

 " Supplementary Despatches." Finally it was made manifest 

 to all the world in the despatch of the Court of Directors on 

 establishing the Presidency Government at Penang, in 

 September, 1805. (Published in Logan's Journal, Vol. V.) 



* No doubt the story was honestly accepted and propagated by Colonel 

 Light, and his English friends, when having distinguished himself in the 

 Peninsular War he became the Duke's confidential A.D.C, 



f It appears from his Will that ;^2,ooo was provided for this purpose. The 

 other domestic facts are also gathered from it and from some Memoranda 

 industriously collected by Mr, F. Light, a direct descendant 



