which you will obtain. After thus completing the objects
o f your mission in the manner above pointed out, you will
return to Singapore and P en a n g ; and unless you should,
at either of these places, find instructions of a different
tenour awaiting you, you will be pleased to proceed directly
to Bengal.
20.— Having thus sketched out the general objects of
your mission to Siam and Cochin China, it is necessary to
revert to the views and objects of the Government of P e nang,
in suggesting at various times the deputation of an
Agent to Siam, as stated in the third paragraph o f the
letter.
21.—In the year 1813-14, an application was received
by the Government of Prince o f Wales3s Island from the
King of Queda, for the friendly interference o f the British
Government in his favour with his superior, the King of
Siam. On that occasion, the Government of Prince of
Wales’s Island referred the question to the consideration
of the Supreme Government, when it was determined that,
whatever might be the claim which the King o f Queda
might be thought to possess to the attention and regard of
the British Government, our mediation for the adjustment
o f the differences subsisting between Siam and that country
might lead us into an embarrassing participation in the interests
and concerns of one or both States; and the Government
of Penang was accordingly instructed to limit its
proceedings to opening a communication with the King of
Siam, and addressing a letter to him, framed in conformity
with the views and principles which were distinctly laid
down for its guidance. T he subject was resumed in the
year 1818, when the Governor of Prince of Wales’s Island
recorded a Minute, taking a full view of the former proceedings
regarding the King of Queda, and another tributary
o f Siam, the Chief of Pera, and stating his deliberate
opinion o f the great political and commercial advantages
which the Government o f Penang would derive from cultivating
a more intimate connexion with Siam. Copies of
the whole correspondence which passed between this Government
and the Government of Prince o f Wales’s Island
on the occasions above adverted to, and also o f a later correspondence
in the year 1820, which led to his Lordship
in Council sanctioning the deputation by that Government
o f an Agent to Siam for purely commercial objects, are
now inclosed for your information.
22.— Although the Governor-General in Council is solicitous
to avoid mixing any thing of a political nature with
your negotiations at Siam, it seems desirable that you
should be in possession o f the grounds on which the Governor
of Penang has felt an anxiety for the security of the
States o f Queda and P e r a ; and that you should be prepared
to avail yourself o f any favourable opportunity o f
accomplishing the wishes o f the Governor in Council by a
friendly and unostentatious representation to the Court of
Siam. His Lordship in Council relies entirely on your
discretion for acting on this suggestion, or abstaining from
any advertence to the subject, according to the experience
you will obtain o f the general disposition o f the Siamese
Government, and the chances o f an overture o f this nature
meeting with a favourable reception. Your visit to P e nang
will enable you to learn from the Honourable the
Governor in Council the actual state o f the relations between
Siam and its dependencies in the Malayan Peninsula,
and to ascertain more precisely the views and objects o f the
Governor o f Penang with regard to those States.
23.— You will be provided with letters to the Honourable
the Governor o f Prince o f Wales’s Island, and also to