81 
CUAPTEB TITL 
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH CONNECTION WITH MALAYA. 
No aeeomit of the Gco;ijmpliy of the Mahiy Peuiusiila ami Borneo can be 
ronsidarc'.l cuiupltitf whii-h <lo»3s not include some outline of the hiijtory of the 
Briisish roniteotion with Mjiliya. 
The biiitory of our Settlements there i^, properlj'' Bpeaking, but the 
latetit chupter in t he jj^eiienil histiiry of Britisli intctvoursu with this region, now 
esteDcliii*; over 300 yvnm, which umy be divided into three periods, v'v/.. i- — 
1. That of individual and trading ventures (157S-IG84),: 
2. That of tradiiitj dnsety roiinected with the administration of the Ea«t 
India CVn[uiuy (1G84-Irt32) ; 
3. Tliat of more direct |!olilk*Jii and tnilitary intervention (since 1762). 
A brief reference to each of these periods* will berjt serve as preface to the 
history of the Cidony. 
The earliest dealings of our countrviueu with MinLiya were the isolated 1578. 
risits of the discoverers Drake (L'j7s)j OATEJcmsn (los's), and Laxcasteb's 
first voyage (1-192), priur to the foundation of tbe East India Company. 
These vmin of dii^covt^ry were of bueeHnecrin;^ rather than a eoinmercial cha- 
racter, notwitlistandin^^ the lloyal Letters of liecoraineridation and the special 
Comniiasione of Jaxieb LAjfOASTKn, IJiiyn^ Mtddleton, and Captain Best. 
Thfse KO-enlled Envoys were, m point of frtct^ ehip-ovvners and merchants 
pailint? under t he direct ontoura^^emont of the Englinh Sovereign ; but without 
having, »o far as is known, any other than eammerrial objects committed 
to them ; and certainly in thie earliest period they did not succeed in obtaining 
aoy other than eomintTt:i<il results frotn their mii^sinnB. 
D&ARK, in the course of his f-imous voyage round the world, came from the 
East to the M^luccaB and touched at Bantam (1578). He is believed to have 
been the tirt^t EnfjlUhman to viait 'Malaya, Catea'DIsh followed the same 
course in 15^8. 
Captain LAjfCASTEa's Brat Toy age in the *' Bonaventure," (1592), waa pro- 
bably the earliest Eiiijliah venture to Malaya, simply for trade, though priva- 
teering, in addition, was by no means aUmdoned by him or others for the next 
20 years. Hia ahip left Zanzibar in February, 1592, and never cast anchor 
a^ain till June, wLen it reached the tihelror of Penang (Pnlau Pinang) "in a 
" very ^ood harbonr between throe is'landB some five leaf^ues from the maine" 
(apparently Ti;lok Kiimbar). Here it stayed till the end of August, to check 
ncurvy, which earned oil 20 of tlie crew. It m niiiguLar that the very firs^t 
Eni^li^ib trader to Malaya ehould have found his way direct to tbia little, out- 
of-the-way and uiiinhabiteil island, which was to play bo important a part 
nearly 200 years after, l[e loaded chiefly with pepper, &c., taken from the 
Portuguese and Peiiuan vesseli* he plundered oS Pcrak, at which place three 
of them arc said to have *' laden a carnjo of pepper." 
HdCTMAN's Dutch ex[}edition to Bantam shortly afterwards (1594-8), and 
another about the same time from Flushing, of which our celebrated country- 
man Sous Dayis was PUot, were tEo iirdt out o£ Holland, 
