In 1695, the Company obtained, by grant from the Rajah, the town of Sillebar, near Bencoolen. Two years afterwards the island of Sumatra was the scene of hostilities between rival chiefs, in which the Company were compelled to take part; and in 1698, it was proposed, as a measure of prudence, to withdraw all the northern factories to York Fort, which was ordered to be made defensible against a European enemy. The concerns of the Company were at this period disordered by a new rival Company being erected at home.* The differences among the natives of Sumatra were composed in 1700; but a garrison of two hundred men was determined on for York Fort, to protect the Company's property. It was a principal business of the English to allay the differences among the natives, otherwise the pepper plantations would have been continually destroyed, and three years must elapse before they could be brought to maturity again. The character of the Malays is described as jealous and fickle, and some of the chiefs were engaged in a plot against the Company, in 1701.+ The Madras Government wrote a letter to the King of Acheen, in 1700, desiring to renew former friendship and ancient privileges; and some years afterwards the same Government made another attempt to establish a settlement there, under the conduct of the Hon. Edward Monckton, but were obliged to withdraw it.

States which surrounded the island, that the Queen of Acheen's actual possessions were in a state of blockade. After this, the trade seems to have declined. The government of the country was represented as bad, and the pepper, which was the chief object of trade, as coming from another part of the island (Lampong) which was subject to Bantam. When this place fell under the dominion of the Dutch, in 1683, it was proposed to revive the commercial connection with Acheen; but Bencoolen was then found to be much more convenient, as a commercial entrepôt for the island of Sumatra. The Company therefore established a settlement there in 1685, and York Fort was built by the agency of Benjamin Bloom, in consequence of the loss of Bantam. It was considered as the key to all the other settlements on this coast, but an unhealthy place, and therefore difficult to get persons to settle there. In 1687, the chief at Bencoolen, Mr. Ralph Ord, was poisoned at the instigation of the Dutch; and the Company had serious thoughts of withdrawing from Bencoolen, preferring Priaman or Acheen. At this time, the Government of Fort St. George were engaged in correspondence with the native chiefs of Sumatra, three of whom arrived at that Presidency in 1685, to treat of a settlement and trade. The correspondence lasted till 1688, when it was resolved to encourage the trade on Sumatra, by establishing factories at Priaman and Indrapore. factories, with others which had been established, it was afterwards found necessary to relinquish, on account of the hostile movements of the Dutch; and to confine the Company's pepper trade, after the erection of York Fort at Bencoolen, to that settlement. The Company have since established several small residencies for the collection of pepper along the coast, which have been maintained in time of peace, and not abandoned till untenable in time

of war.

These

In 1703, all possible encouragement was held out to some Chinese to settle at Bencoolen, such as the offer of having a captain of their own, as at Batavia; but they could not be per

*A union soon after took place, when the style of the Company was altered to "the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East-Indies."

†The contradictory accounts we have of the Malay character probably proceed from their de ceit and duplicity; they are represented as abounding in professions, always talking of bra. very and honour, and their language is the softest of any in Asia; yet they are, in fact, the most ferocious, sanguinary and treacherous people on the face of the globe.

suaded to settle. Bencoolen was this year made independent of Fort St. George; but was replaced under the superintendance of that Government in 1710.

In 1705, the Company lost the Governor, three civil servants, and forty-one slaves, through the unwholesomeness of the climate. All the outstations were therefore withdrawn to York Fort, when Mr. Jeremiah Harrison arrived in 1708, and found the settlement in a very unprosperous state. The number of independent rajahs gave rise to many feuds and disorders; and in 1719, the English settlers were nearly extirpated by the natives, who destroyed Ippoe,with the Resident, burnt Friamong Peggar (a small wooden fort),and closely besieged Banthall.* The English, however, returned the next year, and were permitted to proceed in building Fort Marlborough.

About this time the Company were endeavouring to procure pepper from other parts; and in 1718, they directed inquiry to be made as to the propriety of sending ships for that article to Banjar-Massin, on the island of Borneo, with which, as before stated, they had opened trade as early as 1614. It appears by the correspondence of 1703, that this place was then subject to the King of CochinChina. In that year, after some previous discussions, a factory was established there, under Mr. Allen Catchpole. This gentleman was afterwards Governor of Pulo-condore, off the coast of Cambodia (a very valuable settlement, well supplied with water, hogs, and cows, and resorted to by the Chinese), and was massacred by the Macassars, with the greatest part of the factory at that place. In 1706, liberty was obtained to trade at Banjar-Massin, without objections being made to fortifications; but the following year the English were driven from it by the natives. It was found that no trade could be carried on there

See a full account of this transaction in Lockyer's Account of the Trade in India, c. 4.

without heavy Mexican gold coin, and that the government of the King and Princes was arbitrary and oppressive: a settlement at Tong-borneo was therefore preferred. In 1736-7 the Company sent the ship Prince of Wales to Banjar-Massin, to trade for pepper. The expense for presents was deemed great, and the prices high. The ship sailed from thence with a cargo in 1738. In the year 1746, the ship Onslow was sent there. The Sultan received the Company's letter favourably; but afterwards ordered the Captain to be seized and kept prisoner, till a Prince of Mandura, a prisoner on board the English ship, should be given up to the Dutch; and subsequently detained the vessel as a guard-ship. The next year the Sultan would not allow an export of pepper till the English had furnished him with a guard-ship; and he sent a letter to the English captain, informing him that he could not trade in his territories without leave of the Dutch, and they were therefore compelled to depart. The Dutch entered into a contract with the Sultan that year for the monopoly of pepper in his dominions.

In 1770, Balambangan, a small island north of Borneo, possessing a convenient harbour for shipping, was ceded to the Company by the Sultan of Sooloo. The Bombay Government was instructed to form a settlement there, the objects of which were to establish a mart for the exchange of the manufactures of Europe and the continent of India, against the productions of China and the Eastern countries; to acquire a share in the spice trade; to extend the Company's trade to the unfrequented parts of Asia; and to divert the Chinese trade into a more advantageous channel. Balambangan was to be declared a free port, open to all nations; but the trade in spices, raw silk, and opium, to be reserved to the Company, and spice to be cultivated on the island. A small establishment of servants, consisting of a chief, two councillors, two

factors, and two writers, was appointed by the Court of Directors, to whom alone they were to be subordinate. This settlement was formed in 1773, and in 1775 the English settlers were treacherously expelled by the Sooloos. During the peace of 1803, the Bengal Government restored the settlement of Balambangan; but on the renewal of hostilities the Court were induced, by weighty considerations, to direct it to be withdrawn.

With the Philippine islands, the Company's endeavours to open trade were thwarted by the power and influence possessed by the Spaniards in that quarter. Various attempts were made between 1648 and 1694 to trade with the Manillas. In 1681 the Company sent 60 pieces of Colchester baize to Bantam, for the purpose of being introduced circuitously into Manilla, with a view of creating a demand for these British manufactures. But no traffic was permitted without a license, and so rigidly and cruelly was the law enforced by the Spaniards, that in 1668 a Danish Commander was executed, and his crew imprisoned, for attempting to trade without one. The Company in consequence endeavoured to procure liberty to trade, by means of the English Ambassador at Madrid, but without success. In 1675, the Presidency of Bantam, finding a glut of European commodities, owing to the transit of goods being stopped in China, by a revolution in that country, attempted to find a vent for them at Manilla. The Company's servants wrote as follows: "The baize and Norwich stuffs have been shewn to these people, and Punkee (the King of Tywan's Minister) has been acquainted that they are sent out as a trial for Manilla. They are a sort of manufacture they have not seen, so are unwilling to meddle with them; but Punkee hath offered to send them on the Company's account, freight free, on his junk,* which, though of

A junk is a Chinese foreign trader; it is a corruption of Tchuan, signifying a ship.

fering no certainty of a good price, may be better than keeping or returning them." "We had often urged on the Tywanners,† that the chintz and quilts were commodities proper for Manilla, but to no avail until this year, when a scarcity of China goods helped us off with the remains of the chintz." "On the despatch of their junks to Japan, we have never omitted to invite them to buy some of our Europe cloth; but they, fearing some inconvenience may accrue because we are not received there, have hitherto declined."

With the large southernmost island, Mindanao, they were at first more successful. In the instructions sent out by the London Company, by the ship Adventure, 19th Nov. 1684, they direct the supracargoes, if possible, to open a trade with Mindanao, and settle a factory there; and to advise Fort St. George, by letter, what English woollens may be disposed of; also promising large gratuities and future promotion in their service, if they should prove successful. The King of Mindanao having sent a letter to the Company, inviting them to send a ship and factors thither, and offering them a settlement, the Company's ship before-named, in obedience to the Court's instructions, on the 17th Dec. 1685, pursued her voyage to that island. On the 25th January 1685-6, the Adventure arrived at Magindanao, the chief town of Mindanao, in the territories under the King. The Company's factors were civilly received by the King and the Admiral; but when they endeavoured to commence a mutual trade, they found the place ill supplied with native productions, the people restrained from dealing with them till the King and the Admiral had fixed the respective prices at which they were to buy and sell; and these two personages, acting as if they were indifferent or hostile to trade,

The Company then carried on a friendly traffic with the kingdom of Tywan, which will be adverted to in Section 3.