January I, 1892 ] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
465 
AT THE EOYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE. 
On Tuesday evening, the 10th instant, I had 
the honour of being a guest of the Council of 
the Eoyal Colonial Institute at the dinner which 
usually precedes the first meeting of eaoh session, 
m the Whitehall Booms of the l\l<5trop61e. Lord 
Brassey, looking the veteran skipper, even though 
a peer, was Chairman, supported by no less than 
three Colonial Governors or ex-Grovernors — Sir Wm. 
Robinson of Western Australia whom I saw in the 
Colony in 1875 and who maintains his youthful 
appearance in a wonderful way, Sir Wm. Jervois, 
the Royal Engineer veteran as well as ex-Governor, 
and highly artistic lookiug Sir Henry Blake * who 
with clever Lady Blake left next morning for 
Jamaica. There were also Sir Frederick Young 
(almost the Founder of the Institute), Sir Hugh 
how (formerly of Perak), Sir David Tennant, 
Speaker of the Cape Parliament and Sir John 
Ackerman, Speaker of the Natal House of Assembly, 
a venerable genial colonist bearded like a wanderoo. 
I was honoured with a seat not far from the Chair- 
man and had with gentlemen of the Colonial Office, 
whom I found on eaoh side a very interesting, 
and, I trust, materially edifying conversation. 
There was a very large attendance, almost entirely 
of colonists, and the "function" or bcsiness of 
dining lasted quite a couple of hours, closing with 
the ona toast usual on such occasions — "The 
Queen and Empire," briefly but felicitously pro- 
posed by Lord Brassey. Ceylon was well repre- 
sented ; for, besides the Attorney-General looking a 
picture of robust health, there were present Mr. 
J. R. Mosse whom I was glad to find so hale and hearty 
and who, as a member of Council, takes a special 
interest in the Institute, as well as in all that 
concerns Ceylon ; Sir George W. E. Campbell, 
looking as handsome and fresh as ever, though he 
told me he had had a bad illness since he left 
Ceylon ; Dr. Van Dort and Mr. F. H. M. Dorbet were 
also at the dinner and probably some more Ceylon 
men — at any rate Messrs. J. L. Shand, Herbert 
Anderson, J. F. Churchill (white but vigorous look- 
ing) and E. B. Hurley were at the after meeting. 
This was for the reading of a paper by Mr. W. E. 
Maxwell, c.mg,, Resident at Selangor, on "The 
Malay Peninsula, its Resources and Prospects," 
There was quite a crowded gathering in the large 
hall to listen to this paper and the discussion 
thereafter. Some letters of apology were read by 
the Secretary, Mr. O'Halloran, includicg one from 
Sir J. F. Dickson which mentioned that he had been 
oalled suddenly away on public business, I think 
to Gibraltar if I heard aright. A very large total 
of new members was announced for this year, and 
the Institute altogether is now a most influential 
as well as representative body, so that it is no 
wonder it, as Sir Frederick Young told me, the 
Council and Fellows have no idea of allowing 
themselves to be swallowed up by the Imperial 
Institute, If there is to be Union or Amalgama- 
tion, it must be on an equal platform. The 
delicate point is, of course, that H. B. H. the 
Prince of Wales is President of both Institutes; 
but there is no immediate movement, the big 
building for the " Imperial " being now only under 
oonstruotion in West Kensington, while the "Colonial" 
is very comfortably aooommodateJ in Northum- 
berland street. 
Mr. Maxwell's paper proved a very interesting one 
* Whom the highly aristooratio QaeenslanderH re- 
fused to receive as Governor, because, forsooth, ho 
had worked his way up from Police Inspector ! In 
thai* case it was the Colonial snobs aud not the 
Seoretairy for the Colonies whom Lord Cftrrington 
OQgbt to have deuouutied.— Eq. T. A. 
52 
written in a clear, practical fashion, and he him- 
self ig evidently the right man for Resident in a 
Native State, straightforward, energetic and alto- 
gether an attractive personality. I send you the 
complete paper in print, but will only venture 
to mark a few extracts. Ha began as follows : — 
In the early days of the East India Company it was 
to the Further East, rather than to the territories 
which cow constitute British India, that English mer- 
chant adventures turned their eyes. In the reign of 
James I. the E^sst India Company traded with seven 
potts or states in Sumatra, four in Borneo, and four 
in Java, and factories were established at most of 
these places. At Patani, on the East Coast of the 
Blalay Peninsula, they had a factory (that is to sayj a 
place of business where two or three Englishmen 
traded with the natives and collected produce for ship- 
ment to England) from 1612 to 1622. At this time our 
ccmmerce with Hindustan was in its infancy, and 
Eoglishmen at Surat Broach, Agra, and Ajmere were 
making timid ventures in the country of the Great 
Mogul. That the men who, settling for trading pur- 
poses on the baisks of the Hooghly, laid the founda- 
tions of the city of Calcutta and the great Bengal 
Presidency, had served a novitiate in Malayan countries 
is proved by some of the words which they and their 
Malay servants and seamen carried westward with 
them.* These still have a place in the Anglo-Indian 
jargon which the late Sir Henry Yule has so well 
described. We have so long been content with a second 
place in the East Indian Archipelago that the story 
of the long struggle between English and Dutch traders 
for supremacy there (the object being the trade 
of the " Spice Island '"f) is almost forgotten. The 
brilliant history of cur achievements on the contin- 
ent of India supslies the reason for our gradual 
abandonment of much that we coveted and fought 
for in remoter regioaa. Though the places with which 
the English East India Company traded in India 
proper gradually fell into the possession of the 
servants of that Company, their stations in the islands 
and ports of the Eastern Archipelago were one by ona 
abandoned in favour of the Dutch. We were driven by 
the Dutch from the Spice Islands in 1620, and from 
Bantam and Jakatra in Java in 1683. Expelled by 
their influence from Bantam, we establiehed ourselves 
in Ben cool en [Banyka Ulu) in 1685, " oar sole and 
humble object being to secure a share in the pepper 
trade.'"}; Little more than a hundred years ago the 
only English station east of Cape Comorin was Ben- 
coolen, oh the West Coast of Sumatra, 
The SettlementB which we now possess in the Straits 
of Malacca, namely, the islands of Singapore and 
Penang, and the territory of Malacca, are remarkable 
as having been originally Indian Colonies. Calcutta, 
not London, was responsible for their first acquisition, 
and conducted their government uiitil 1867. Penang, 
which occupies a commanding position at the Northern 
end of the Straits of Malacca, was occupied by the 
orders of the Supreme Government, then under the 
presidentship of Sir John Macpheraon, in 1786. Mai- 
acoa was taken from the Dutch (by an expedition sent 
from India) in 1795. Singapore was acquired (by cession 
from the Malays) in 1819, by Sir Stamford Raffles, 
acting under the authority of the Governor- General of 
In^ia, the Marquis of Hastings. These places contin- 
ued to be 'outlying portions of the great Empire of 
India until twenty-four years ago, and were, at the 
time of their recognition as a Crown Colony, being 
governed from Calcutta. 
Early iu this century events happened which might 
have given us that supremacy in the Eastern sess which 
* I may instance the following words, well-known 
in British India, which are ruaily Malay : Compound, 
the Anglo-Indian term for an enclosure round a house, 
is the Malay k-ampoiio, a plantation or orchard. Godovm, 
a merchant's warehouse, is a corrnption of the Malay 
word (/edoiig, a brick boase. Bankshall, the port-oflScer's 
place of business at a seaport, is easily recogniBable 
in the Malay bant/sal, a shed. 
t Amboyna and the Moluccas. 
j Crawford, Dmriptm Dictionart/t^ns, 
