604 AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 
It is much to be regretted that the cession of this island had not 
been obtained directly from the Siamese court, which appears to 
have been not indisposed to the measure at the time. Siam was 
then waging war with Ava, and it had become an object of great 
importance for it to have ready means of procuring European 
arms and ammunition on its western coasts. But its Emperor 
could not brook that the British had acquired the island from the 
Lord of his vassal state of Keddah, and accordingly resented the 
unauthorized alienation which had been concealed from him; by 
threatening the Rajah with a full measure of his vengeance. 
It was not long however before the consideration just noticed 
began to have its" full and due weight, and as the island was in 
itself of no value to the Siamese King, he was apparently easily 
pacified, the intention was dropped of punishing the Rajah then, 
aud Keddayans and Siamese were soon allowed to enter into a 
friendly intercourse with the settlers on that island, one which has 
not been seriously interrupted up to the present day. 
The then tenure therefore of Pinang by the British rested upon 
the very flimsy foundation of recent occupation and it may now 
be considered as based on long occupancy alone—one however, 
which, subsequently to the waived protest of the Siamese, has never 
been questioned or disturbed by them, but on the contrary has 
been formally recognized in the treaties betwixt the court of Ban- 
kok and the British. 
The treaties with the Keddah Rajah were indeed null and void 
from the very first, since the Keddah Rajah as a delegated ruler, 
had no power to make them ; or at any rate to give away any por¬ 
tion of the territory of Keddah. Even had he been a ruler both de 
facto and de jure, his expulsion from that country afterwards by 
the Siamese would have had a similar effect, for he could not 
have performed then those acts to which he was by treaty bound. 
A sort of tacit right however to hold possession may have arisen 
from the Siamese having originally neglected to strongly and suffi¬ 
ciently protest against it, and from their not having enforced the 
not very regular one, which they did make. This however would 
be a dangerous precedent on which to base occupations of territory. 
The treaty of Bankok treats Keddah as one of the Siamese 
provinces. Hence there can be no independent Rajah there, and 
consequently no one who is entitled to the sum formerly payable 
to the self styled independent Keddah Rajahs, by virtue of the 
treaty made by Sir George Leith before noticed. The Siamese 
Emperor could not claim it on the plea that he is the ruler de 
jure of Keddah, without directly admitting that the Rajah who 
ceded Pinang was a ruler in his own right, and so nullifying such a 
claim. If this sum is now therefore to be paid it can only be as a gift. 
But it is one which cannot benefit the recipient, unless by helping 
to conciliate the Emperor, for it must as it now does, find its way 
into his coffers. But although ostensibly paid under this aspect 
