Francis Light “Founder” of Prince of Wales Island
As is well known, the Portuguese were the first of the European nations to establish themselves in the Strait, having founded a trading settlement at Malacca in the year 1511. A hundred and thirty years later, in 1641, the Dutch drove the Portuguese out of the Malay Peninsula, took possession of Malacca, and opened trading stations in Perak, Selangor, and other native States. The Dutch adopted a policy of exclusiveness towards all rivals from the West, and in course of time the British East India Company, which was doing a large business with China, became alive to the importance of obtaining a foot holding the Peninsula which would make it independent of Malacca. In 1771, Captain Francis Light, a master mariner who had had considerable dealings with the Malay State of Kedah, suggested to the company the desirability of occupying the island of Penang. Warren Hastings was favourably impressed with the project, but the war with France intervened, and it was not until 1786 that it was actually carried out. In July of that year Captain Light, having entered into an agreement with the Sultan of Kedah, with whom he appears to have been on the most friendly terms, formally took possession of the island in the name of his Majesty King George III.
The Sultan’s reasons for ceding Penang to the East India Company, and the advantages he hoped to derive from the proximity of the English, are set out in a letter which he addressed to Captain Light at the time of the transfer. ” Whereas,” he says, ” Captain Light, Dewa Raja, came here and informed me that the Raja of Bengal ordered him to request Pulau Penang from me to make an English settlement, where the agents of the company might reside, for the purpose of trading and building ships of war to protect the island and to cruise at sea, so that if any enemies of ours from the east or the West should come to attack us, the company would regard the them as enemies also and fight them, and all the expenses of such wars shall be borne by the company … the articles of opium, tin, and rattans are monopolies of our own, and the Rivers Muda, Prai, and Krian are the places from whence tins, rattan, canes besides other articles are obtained. When the company’s people, therefore, shall reside at Pulau Penang, I shall lose the benefit of this monopoly, and I request the captain will explain this to the Gavenor-General, and beg, as a compensation for my losses, 30,000 dollars a year, to be paid annually to me as long as the company resides at Pulau Penang … Should anyone in this country become my enemy, *******, all such shall be considered as enemies also of the company ……. And when any enemies attack us from the interior, they also shall be considered as enemies of the company.”
The meaning of this letter is plain enough. The Sultan wishes, if possible, to obtain some compensation for the monetary loss involved in the cession of the island, but that this was a secondary matter is proved by the fact that it was put forward in the form of a request only. His real reason for agreeing to transfer Penang to the company was to secure its armed assistance against his enemies, and particularly against the King of Siamese, whose aggression he had reason to fear. The East India Company accepted the grant of these conditions, but it is to be feared it never had any intention of fulfilling them. Once the settlement was established, attempts were made to persuade the Sultan to accept a yearly sum of 4,000 dollars in full payment for the occupation of the island. The offer was declined, and matters continued to drift until 1971, when a treaty was concluded between the company and the Sultan by which the former undertook to pay the later a sum of 6,000 dollars annually for so long as the English remained in possession of Penang. A subsequent treaty, signed in the year 1800, provided for an increased payment of 4,000 dollars, making 10,000 dollars a years in all, so long as the company also occupied the strip of territory opposite Penang, now known as Province Wellesley. In neither of these treaties was anything said about the company affording military protection to the Sultan, and when Kedah was eventually overrun by the Siamese in 1821, the British stood aside and left the Malays to fight their own battles, though the Sultan himself was granted sanctuary in Penang.
