94 



sula, and the husbandman may raise a lux- 

 uriant harvest with a mine of wealth but a few 

 feet below the surface on which his crops arc 

 waving, A liitle more than a fiioDth previous to 

 tliesubjugalionof Perak, namely on the 30th Ju* 

 ly IHIH, the Engli.'^h entered into a Treaty with 

 the Uajah of that countty. (Appendix A.) 



I have now to advert to Kedah, or Quedah, 

 a state with which the British are so intimately 

 connected. Valentyo informs m that Kedah 

 was subject to Malacca at the same period as 

 the preceding state of Perak, and that the Dutch 

 had there a factory, drawing thence gold dust, 

 tin, and elefihants.* Siam had long endea- 

 voured to bring this? country under her galhng 

 yoke and repeatedly threatened to overwhelm 

 her with her power— To avert this impending 

 danger, Stdthatm Abdullah who ascended the 

 throne of Kedah in 1778 naturally looked around 

 him for some more powerful nation with whom 

 to form so intimate an alliance as to overawe 

 the Siamese. The English, who were at this 

 period looking out for a suitable settlement in 

 this quarter of the globe, as a sort of entrepdt 

 for their eastern trade, appeared to him to be 

 peculiarly well adapted for this end. 



It is not my intention to follow Mr, anderson 

 through hi*5 luminous argument by which he 

 proves that Kedah was essentially an indepen- 

 dent state. It will suffice to state what the 

 main points of his poj^ition rest on, namely ; 

 first, that the sending of the Bunga Mas by 

 Kedah to Siam is merely the homage of a weak- 

 er to a more powerltil ttate, and not a token 



• ValentjD. Book. 6. Cbapter liL prnge 311. US. 



