As a major world port, Singapore naturally attracted the most dynamic merchants from around the world; among these was the community that gave its name to Armenian Street, which runs down toward the world-famous Raffles Hotel. (The Raffles Hotel was founded and made famous by Armenians.)
The continent stretches from the shores of the Mediterranean to Japan's outlying islands and has given rise to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, to name but a few of the religions that it boasts. From Japanese might and unity under the shogun to the glories of old Baghdad under the caliphate and the splendors of Moghul India and Buddhist Borobudur, Asia has many sources of cultural wealth.
During the 1800s, there was a sizeable foreign community in Singapore. A popular destination was the Botanic Gardens with its manicured gardens and water features and bandstand pavillion. Joseph Balestier was the first United States Consul of Singapore in the early 1800s. He owned a 1,000-acre sugarcane plantation, which produced sugar and rum. This plantation was known as Balestier Plantation, and was located at Balestier Plain. Balestier was forced to sell of his plantation following an industrial downfall and the death of his wife, Maria Revere Balestier. He returned to the United States soon thereafter.
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was born at sea on board a ship Ann on the 6th of July, 1781 off the coast of Jamaica. In 1795, the young man accepted his first job in the East India Company as a clerk. But he studied hard in his spare time and in 1804, was posted to Penang (then Prince of Wales Island) and promoted to Assistant Secretary to the Presidency of that Malaysian island. His mastery over the Malay language made him indispensable to the British Government, and he was later appointed Malay translator to the Government of India. In 1811, he returned as the Lieutenant Governor of Java, and was soon promoted to Governor of Bencoolen (now Sumatra). On 19th January, 1819, Raffles founded modern Singapore and first mooted the idea which led to the establishment of the Raffles Museum on the island. (The classic Raffles Hotel was named for him.)
For nearly two hundred years the Netherlands East Indies Company had been the EIC’s arch rival in the region. When Napoleon annexed the Netherlands in 1810, Britain occupied the major Dutch possessions in the Indonesian archipelago in order to prevent them falling into the hands of the French. Melaka, Bencoolen on the west coast of Sumatra and the island of Java were taken over by Britain.
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (July 6, 1781 to July 5, 1826), a British statesman, is credited with "founding" the city of Singapore; he was also involved in. When Raffles reached Singapore in the early 1800s he found a rain forest with orchids and monkeys roaming freely. Stamford Raffles was appointed head of a civil government to run Java and Sumatra. The colony was added to the EIC Indian empire, reporting directly to Calcutta.
Raffles designated land along the banks of the Singapore River as a port-settlement. Singapore soon became an important world port for both sailing and steamships. He hoisted the British flag on the island of Singapore on 29 January 1819. It was the second island in the region occupied by the English East India Company (EIC). Penang had been acquired in 1786. The EIC had a monopoly on the English trade between India and China, had acquired considerable territory in India and was eager to ensure control of the Straits of Melaka, the crucial passage of water through which most of its trading ships to China sailed. Penang gave it the ability to control the northern entrance of the Straits: Singapore gave it the ability to control the southern exit.
The British commercial community were strong supporters of the acquisition of Singapore, seeing it as a boost to trade in Southeast Asia. In 1824 the Anglo–Dutch Treaty settled territorial disputes between the two countries, with the Netherlands recognizing Britain’s possession of Melaka and Singapore and Britain handing Bencoolen back to the Netherlands. By the 1830s Singapore had become the major trading port in Southeast Asia. It was challenged by Manila and Batavia (now Jakarta) but had three crucial advantages over the other colonial port cities and over the major indigenous ports.
In the late 1820s, Chinese settlers from Singapore began to look towards Johor for gambier and pepper cultivation at the encouragement of Temenggong Abdul Rahman and his successor, Daing Ibrahim. As more Chinese settlers established gambier and pepper plantations in Johor during the 1840s, Temenggong Ibrahim formed a bureaucracy made up of Malay officials, to oversee administrative affairs upon the Kangchu.
Most of the Chinese leaders were also members of secret societies and communal warfare often broke out in Singapore between different dialect groups as a result of conflicting economic interests. From the late 1850s onwards, the Kangchu began to exert political influence in the state affairs by establishing close ties with Temenggong Abu Bakar.
The crop produce from these plantations were generally exported to other countries from Singapore with the assistance of Chinese merchants based in Singapore. From the 1860s onwards, many of these Kangchu chalked up debts and began to sell their property rights to these merchants or to larger business magnates (Kongsi in Teochew) based in Singapore, who were known to the locals as Tuan Sungai (literally Masters of the River). The Kangchu were often hired as supervisors or managerial roles by the merchants to keep watch of day-to-day operations of the gambier and pepper plantations. Temenggong Abu Bakar also began to issue contract-style letters of recognition to these Kangchu, which was known by its Malay name Surat Tauliah.
London and China Telegraph, February 26, 1863
London, Middlesex, United Kingdom
MALACCA STRAITS
Singapore
The following is the treaty which has been concluded between Colonel Cavenagh and His Highness the Sovereign Ruler of Jahore. We give it, as far as possible, in a condensed form:--
Whereas by Article 6 of the Treaty between the Honourable the English East India Company on the one side and their Highnesses the Sultan and Tumongong of Johore on the other, concluded on the second day of August, 1824, the said East India Company engaged, in the event of the said Tumongong preferring to reside permanently in any portion of his own states, and to remove for that purpose from Singapore, to pay ot the said Tumongong, his heirs or successors, the sum of fifteen thousand Spanish dollars ($15,000) and by Article 7 of the said treaty, the said Tumongong, in consideration of the said payment did thereby relinquish for himself, his heirs and successors, to the Honourable the English East India Company, their heirs and successors, for ever, all right and title to every description of immovable property of which his Highness might be possessed within the Island of Singapore, or its dependencies, at the time he might think proper to withdraw from the said island, for the purpose of permanently residing in his own states. And whereas it has been agreed that in consideration of his Highness Da'u Tumongong Aboobakar Sri Maharajah, for himself, his heirs, and successors, renouncing all right and claim to the payment of the aforesaid sum of fifteen thousand Spanish dollars ($15,000), and making over to the British Government certain portions of the lands of which he is now in possession at Telloh Blangah, in the Island of Singapore, as shown in the plan hereto annexed, the said British Government shall grant unto his Highness, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, a title in fee simple to the remainder of the lands at Telloh Blagah aforesaid in his possession, and that Articles 6th and 7th of the said treaty shall in consequence be abrogated and annulled. . .
May 6, 1887, Colonies and India
London, United Kingdom
A calamitous accident resulting in the loss of the SS. Benton has to be chronicled this week. The Benton was a Singapore screw steamer, and was run down and sunk on the night of March 29 by another local steamer, the Fair Penang, between the Formosa Bank and Batu Pahat. Of the 200 and odd souls on board only 50 have been saved, amongst whom may be mentioned Mr. Farquharson, chief officer; Mr. Anchant, second engineer; Mr. H. O. Newland, superintendent of police at Malacca; a German sailor, and the rest were Chinese, Malays, Klengs, and Javanese. Amongst the drowned were Captain Miles, the master; Mr. Blair Cooper, chief engineer; Mrs. and Miss Kappa, wife and daughter of the chief clerk, of the Singapore Magistrates' Court; Mrs. J. J. Arozoo, of Bangkok; and the remainder were native passengers. The Fair Penang had her bows damaged, but reached Muar, making no water. Captain Dorff, of the Will-o'-the- Wisp, saved 25 of the 50 passengers rescued, and it is not too much to say that had it not been for him they would most probably have perished from exhaustion. It is gratifying to hear that the owners of the Benton had expressed their great appreciation and warm thanks for the valuable assistance rendered by Captain Dorff and his officers and crew.
Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin
August 24, 1887
Winning a Wife in Singapore.
The damsel in Singapore is given a canoe and a double-bladed paddle and allowed a start of some distance. The suitor, similarly equipped, starts off in chase. If he succeeds in overtaking her, she becomes his wife; if not, the match is broken off. It is seldom that objection is offered at the alst moment, and the race is generally a short one. The maiden's arms are strong, but her heart is soft and her nature is warm and she soon becomes a willing captive. If the marriage takes place where a steam is near, near, a round circle of a certain size is formed, the damsel is stripped of all but a waistband and given half the circle's start, and if she succeeds in running three times around before her suitor comes up with her, she is entitled to remain a virgin; if not, she must consent to the bonds of matrimony. As in other cases, but few outstrip their lovers.
London and China Telegraph, London, United Kingdom
October 21, 1890
THE OPIUM FARMS.
The government has relet the Penang opium farm to a new farmer, Oong Ah Thye, who is know to be a nominee of the late farmer, at a reduction of $28,000 per month, so that on the fifteen months which have to run there will be a loss of over $400,000. That sum the Government will, of course, try to recover from the former contractors and their sureties; but we doubt whether anything approaching to the sum lost will be obtained. The Crown has reserved its right to sue the farmer or his partners for the loss, and the rights Of the farmer and --partners to resist this claim and insist on the objection of a flaw in the contract they raised in the late action now withdrawn also remain untouched. The right of the farmer, moreover, to sue the Crown by Petition of Eight or otherwise for the sums daily collected by the Assistant Treasurer is also reserved. In the meanwhile the deposit of ,$190,100 will be withheld by the Government.
Speaking of the settlement the Free Press observes: — We believe that in Singapore matters have been managed more judiciously, and the farmers have been dealt with in a manner firm, yet considerate. Whon unable to meet their monthly rental a promissory note has been taken for the balance, redeemable in three or four months ; and so the difficulty has been tided, over without disarranging the revenue, or disturbing the confidence of the public and the Government in the farm system. On what we believe to be good authority the Singapore Opium Farm is no longer embarrassed, acd it is doing something more than merely making ends meet. It may be thought by many that if the Pending farmers had been handled as judiciously as their colleagues at this end of the Straits, the difficulty and actual loss of revenue incurred might most likely have been avoided.
London and China Telegraph, London, United Kingdom
November 1, 1892
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. SINGAPORE.
The advices by this mail are to Oct. 5. The English mail, with London date Sept. 9, arrived per P. and O. steamer Ravenna on Oct. 3. The Straits Times reports as follows : — In connection with the recent accident to the Governor and party in the Kinta River it is said that the sunken; pinnace and the Governor's portmanteau containing H.E.V orders and decorations have been recovered, and that they were brought to Singapore this morning. H.E. has now recovered everything that was lost. The firms of Crane Bros, and A. H. Crane have amalgamated for carrying on business under the stjle of Crane Bros.
. . . The Free Press has the following news : — The first of a series of temperance meetings was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church on Oct. 3, when a lively and enthusiastic welcome was given to Miss Ackermann, a member of the W.C.T.U. The inquest held into the circumstances attending the death of Charles Over, a petty officer on board H.M.S. Mercury, who died as the result of injuries received in an explosion on Sept. 21, ended in a verdict of death from burns. It was elicited during the inquiry that a naked light had been. in use in the spirit room.
The S.C.C. Lawn Tennis Tournament, despite the phenomenal number of entries and the unfinished ties caused by the early failing light in this season of the year, is progressing very favourably. All first and second ties have been played.
Mr. Cheang Hong Lim has been nominated and recognised by the Governor as the "headman" of the Hokien community in Singapore. We do not desire in the slightest to impugn Mr. Cheang Hong Lim's fitness to become the " head of the Hokiens— whatever that may mean. Educated Chinamen may understand what it means, but it is obvious the distinction is open to very serious misapprehension among the ignorant . . .
By the 18th century, Armenian communities had established themselves in the East. By the 1830s, Armenian merchants began investing in land.
On Oct. 2 Mr. Catchick Moses, the venerable father of the Armenian community, passed peacefully away at his residence on Oxley Hill, at the age of eighty years. The funeral was very numerously attended by old residents. But a short time ago and we congratulated the venerable father of the Armenian community in Singapore on celebrating his eightieth birthday and the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of his firm. Mr. Catchick Moses was born at Bussorah in Persia on August 30, 1812, and went as a boy to Calcutta. He came to Singapore in the vessel Hercules, landing here on August 1, 1828. Soon after his arrival he joined the firm of Messrs. Boustead, Schwabe and Co., as a clerk, and left them to begin business on his own account. For sixty-four years he has been a continuous resident in this place, with the exception of a short visit paid to Calcutta in the Cowasjee Family in 1835. . .
