BENCOOLEN 48 BENCOOLEN
settlement on the western coast of Sumatra, in south latitude 3° 48', and east
longitude 102° 28'. The entire territory, composing the British possession, did not
exceed ten square miles, composed chiefly of sedimentary rocks, the nearest mountain,
Gunung-bengkok (crooked mount), about 3000 feet high, and 18 miles to the northeast,
being the only mountain near it of considerable elevation. The soil, as described
by the faithful and judicious historian of Sumatra, who had passed his Indian life at
Bencoolen, is a stubborn, unfertile glebe. “ I cannot,” observes Mr. Marsden, “ help
saying that I think the soil of the western coast of Sumatra is, in general, rather
sterile than rich. It is for the most part a stiff, red clay, burnt nearly to the state of
a brick where it is exposed to the heat of the sun.” He proceeds to add, that the
soil in its natural state, with the exception of a few dells here and there, into which
the mould of the hills had been washed down, would, yield no useful plants, except
by the creation of an artificial soil and the help of manures.
The buffalo is the only one of the large domestic animals known in the territory
of Bencoolen, the horse and the ox being imported occasionally only. Black pepper was
the only exportable produce of the country until in 1798 and 1803 when the clove
and nutmeg were introduced from the Moluccas. Of these two plants, the nutmeg
alone has thriven, but even this only by dint of being forced by a laborious and
expensive culture.
The formation of the settlement of Bencoolen arose out of a dispute with the
Dutch touching black pepper. During the 17th century, Bantam was the great emporium
for this article of trade, most of which, however, was produced, not in Java,
but on the western coast of Sumatra. Prom 1603, the English, as well as the Dutch, had
a factory at Bantam for the purchase of pepper, and for 80 years the former seem to
have enjoy ed a fair share of this then much-envied trafic. About the end of this time,
however, the throne of Bantam was disputed between a father and son, the English
taking side with the first, and the Dutch with the last. By this time the Dutch had
been established in considerable force at Batavia, of which they had been in possession
for 60 years. They came from thence with a considerable force,—placed their protégé
on the throne,—obtained a monopoly of the trade of the kingdom of Bantam, and
expelled the English as interlopers, playing nearly the same part towards them that
the English themselves did towards the French in the Carnatic some seventy years
afterwards. Our countrymen resolving to have a share in the pepper trade, fixed on
Bencoolen for this purpose, after being baffled at Achin. This happened in 1685,
two years after their expulsion from Bantam. The first fort was built on the banks
of the river of Bencoolen, in a low swamp, and this, in honour of the reigning
sovereign, the afterwards expelled James the Second, was called Fort York.
The celebrated Dampier, who held the humble post of gunner of this fort, five years
after it was built, says it was a sorry place, sorrily governed, and moreover very
unhealthy. “ The land-winds,” says he, * coming over swamps, brought a stink
with them. ’Tis in general an unhealthy place, and the soldiers of the fort were
sickly, and died very fast.” The insalubrity of the locality produced the necessity
of removing the settlement about a mile and a half from the river, to a site somewhat
higher ; and to mark the change in English politics, the new fort, constructed in 1714,
took the name of Marlborough, but even this locality was not beyond the reach of
the malaria, for the place continued more or less unhealthy down to the cession
of the settlement in 1825. In 1719, the natives of the country, provoked at the
ill-usage of the Europeans, attacked the new fort, and took it, but fearing the Dutch,
it would seem, even more than the English, invited our people to return. Mr.
Marsden pleads for our countrymen that a t this time they were not versed in the
art of “ managing the natives by conciliating methods.” There was, however, no
reason why they should not have been so, for at the time of this insurrection against
them, they had been 116 years engaged in the pepper trade, and 24 years settled in
Bencoolen itself. The enforcement of the pepper monopoly, in fact, brought about
this'and several other insurrections. ‘‘The fort,” says Dampier, “ was sorrily governed
when I was there ; nor was there that care taken to keep a fair correspondence with
the natives in the neighbourhood, as I think ought to be, in all trading places
especially.—When I came thither, there were two neighbouring rajahs in the stocks,
for no other reason but because they had not brought down to the fort such a
quantity of pepper as the governor had sent for.” Bencoolen, and the factories
dependent on it, were given over to the Dutch by the Convention of 1824, in exchange
for Malacca and its territory, with some factories on the continent of India. And
thus a bad possession, after an occupation of 140 years, was happily got rid of.
Within the first dozen years of its occupation, it had already cost 200,0007, and as
ÆQ BENIT A
BENUA 4 9 _____________________________
and durmg its possession by the ng TfP;anr,s Malays, Bugis, natives of the
of whom one half, a mixed in ^ town. But at
island of Nias, and Chmese, w ^ and the territory forms part of the
present the town contains o y „ . concerned, a very extensive one, rendered
f e ' — tions from the countries of the Bataks and Malays of Meangkabo.
BENDA, or more correctly Banuwa, t a a Malay, b a t ^ n o t ^ ap.bo°ugb
signifying “ a land, c° ^ trJ ’ f itf the Philippine tongues it means “ a village
with some modifications ofsense, for I PP ^ prefixing to it the word
and in the Polynesian, land or earn. . f(jr all the wild tnbes
Orang, “ men or people,’ use the comP° themselves and of the same race, but
of the peninsula speaking the same lang g literal meaning of the phrase
who have not adored, the T K f t t T ^ S i which the
is “ men of the la n d - and it ^ f o u n d from the extremity of the
Malays use it “ aborigines. Such p e c> P j" not further north. They also
Peninsula up to the 5 of latitud , - i ti,e eastern extremity of the
exist in some of the larger islands
Straits of Malacca. Everywhere they a ^ features, and speak the same
S " S X t - £ & “ A . r , » * O, « « « «too U» p ~ p l. to o™
in small independent tribes. Jakun and Sakai are two n a m e s J on or near
known to the Malays, but they are Srinmba, and B5sisi. The
which they have their chief residence, as ’ appropriately
Orang-lant, “ men of the sea, or sea-gip »^ J^ 0f them have embraced
called, evidently belong to the , done so. The state of
Mahommedanism, or passed through the , . - more civilised than others,
advancement of the different tribes vanes, s°me ^m g ^ burning the
Some of those of the i ^ n o r practise a rude ^ ^ f j ^ X r i n a c e o L roots, some
forest for a dressmg, and dibbling in ’ habitations The only domesticated
fruits, as the banana and durian, and have.fixed
animals known to th em are th e dog, ; f rom th e Malavs in exchange for th e
of th e in te rio r receive them iro n an d clothmg weU khowh guttahspontaneous
products of th e forest, speaking of a trib e of Jeh o r,
f c S j f * for «to * , .to .
s r S u :^ f s s
The chief object of the first is the wi g, spears but fire-arms are unknown,
species of deer. Both are pursued wi baq recourse to. The modes of
Ingeniously constructed traps and P „proems an(l jg ^ Logan gives the names
taking fish which are plentiful are no g . ’ . rivers of the southern
«wihoarding
habits of the ^ tte r. in the perlinsula, the existence of this wild
From the first appearance of Eur p P , i described imtil visited
*¿1 s s S 3.’ & & & £ !&
S i n
— of