has any right of subjecting Queda to arbitrary 

 UTipositions of any kind. During- the former 

 wars between the Siamese aud the Burmans. it 

 appears that the Rajah of Queda has presentad 

 the sign of homage, or the gold and sih er tree, 

 sometimes to the one power, and sometimes to 

 the other, but it dues not appear that he has ever 

 submitted to arbitrary exactions. In the late 

 wars between the Sfamese and Burmans, it is 

 asserted that the Rajah of Queda furnished 

 some of the Burman prows \vith provisions, and 

 it is certain that a fleet of them did actually pro- 

 cure i^uppbes at Pinang. These circumstHnces 

 strongly irritated the Siamese, who compelled 

 the Kajah of Queda not only to furnish them 

 with great quantities of supplies, but aUo with a 

 thousand men, and this he was compelled to 

 submit to last year to prevent his country being 

 ravaged without mercy. This year the Siamese 

 have re-iterated the same demands, and the Ra- 

 jah states that the country will be ruined and 

 impoverished if he complies with the demands of 

 the Siamese Government, and not le^s certainly 

 ruined by ihe Siamese armies if he refuses to as- 

 sent to them. The question therefore, between 

 Queda and Siam m obviously a question of 

 might and not of right, for it ia not admitted by 

 the Rajah ofQueda that he is subject to the ar- 

 bitrary exactions; of the Siamese. 



" A bout the period when Mr, Light iirst acquir- 

 ed the original grant of Pnlo Pjuang from the 

 Kajah o( Queda, he was, 1 believe* directed by 

 tfie Supreme Government cf India to e.vamine 

 aud report on the nature of the relation be- 



