hak cipta terpelihara © 1974 persatuan sejarah...

KUALA TRENGGANU: INTERNATIONAL TRADING CENTRE

by

Kho Kay KimJabatan Sejarah, Universiti Malaya

Part of the exercise of re-writing Malaysian history involvescorrecting the perspective of thesubject. It is seldom realised thatthe present generation is often somisled by recent developments thattheir view of the past is badlycoloured by anachronistic ideas.This has particularly affected his-torical interest in the eastern Pe-ninsular states for it is assumed thatthose states must have been alwaysbackward compared to the westernMalay states. The result, therefore,is a now, obvious imbalance inMalaysian historiography despiteattempts, lately, by scholars to fillin the gaps as rapidly as possible.

Also, whenever there is a callfor changes in history syllabuses,the usual complaint among schoolteachers is that they are unable tofind material on the less conspicuo-us topics of Malaysia history. Suchcomplaints are based purely onimpressions. The diligent teacher ofMalaysian history will soon findthat there is a large corpus of pub-lished material on numerous aspectsof this country's history.

It is mainly to illustrate thispoint that an attempt is made hereto present some vivid pictures of

students of Malaysian history.

Alexander Hamilton (1719-1720)One of the early English visi-

tors to Kuala Trengganu was thatwell known trader — Capt. Alex-ander Hamilton. He was in KualaTrengganu before the present rulinghouse was founded.1 Hamiltoncalled at Kuala Trengganu, probab-ly late in 1719, either on his way toor from Siam and he recordedthat3

Trangano stands pleasantly near the Sea,on the side of a River that has a shallow Bar,and many Rocks scattered to and againwithin the River, but Room enough in manyPlaces to moorc small Ships very securely,to keep them safe from the Dangers of theWinds or Floods. There may be about onethousand Houses in it, not built in regularStreets, but scattered in ten or twenty in aPlace distant a little Way from another'sVilla of the same Magnitude. The Town isabove half-peopled with Chinese, who havea good Trade for three of four jonks yearly,besides some that trade to Siam, Cambodia,Tunqueen and Sambas. When I came backfrom Siam with my Cargo unsold, as I men-tioned before, 1 came to Trangano to dis-pose of what I could of my Goods, and toprocure a new Cargo for Surat, the kindKing [Sultan Abdul Jalil of Johore| assistedme in doing both, with all the Readinessand Cheerfulness imaginable.

Hamilton, who had in fact earliervisited Johore in 1695 and 1703,

Hak Cipta Terpelihara © 1974 – Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia


the Sea. The Hills are low, and covered withever-green Trees, that accomodate th In-habitants with Variety of delicious Fruits,such as Lemons, Oranges, Limes, Mangoes,Mangostans, Rambostans, Letchees andDurcans: And in the Vallies, Com Pulse, andSugar-canes, The Ground is cultivated bythe Chinese, for the Malayas [sic] cannottake that Trouble.

The Product of the Country is Pepperand Gold, which are mostly exported by theChinese. About 300 Tuns are the commonExport of Pepper, and we have it almost forone half of the Price that we pay for Mala-bar Pepper. From the Month of October tillMarch, their River is shut up by the Bar,which fills up by the Impetuosity of thegreat Seas sent on that Shore by the North-east Monsoons; but in the Months of Julyand August their Seas produce the finestFish that ever I saw or tasted. There is oneSort exactly like a Salmon, both in Shapeand Taste, but the Fish is white, as theSalmon is red. Their Poultry are large,plump and sweet, but Beef is scarce, exceptBuffalo Beef, and that is plentiful enough.

Capt. Joseph Jackson (1764)Hamilton's interest in Kuala

Trengganu was by no means anisolated phenomenon. Englishcommercial interest in this part ofthe world had increased markedlyby the early 18th century. In 1737,the Dutch reported the arrival inMalacca of two English private tra-ding ships bound for Kuala Treng-ganu and the return of one of themfrom Trengganu later the sameyear. By the middle of the 18thcentury, Kuala Trengganu was aregular port of call for East IndiaCompany ships seeking provisionsenroute to China,5 In either late1763 or early 1764, a British ManO' War, Panther, called at KualaTrengganu and brought back aletter from Sultan Mansur Shah I toMadras. This was immediatelyfollowed by Capt. Joseph Jacksoncalling at Kuala Trengganu in theEast India Compar charter vessel,the Pitt. He arrived there on 14thJune 1764. Capt. Jackson's report

throws some further light on thestate of Kuala Trengganu at thattime. The greater part of his report,however, dealt with the need forthe Company to establish a morepermanent base in Trengganu. Heonly very briefly remarked that

Trangano appears to be very healthy andpleasant, large and very populous, aboun-ding in good Provisions of all Sorts, and afine River with Sixteen Foot Water over theBarr, and within Water enough for ships ofany Burthen. The Chinese have a largeSettlement and carry on a considerableTrade here. These the King said he wouldput under any Restrictions We pleased orsent them all away if desired.

He then hastened to add:In short the very great Advantage that

appears to me from the Trade of thisplace . .. seems to be equal or superior toeither the Coast of Choromandell or that ofMalabar, as to Pepper you will say you havesufficient Quantity from Bencoolen for theChina Market, but in that Case you mayalways sell it to the Amoy Junks, for asmuch as you can sell it for at Canton.

Jackson actually promised SultanMansur that within a year theEnglish would establish asettlement in Trengganu. AndMadras, in 1766, sent a private tra-der, William Powney, to maintaincommunications with Trengganu.But London soon discouraged anyfurther progress and it was probab-ly not until 1772 that anotherEnglishman, Edward Monckton,visited Trengganu subsequent to hismission to Kedah. We need not,however, concern ourselves herewith Britain's political and econo-mic problems at that time and turninstead to other reports on KualaTrengganu, this time, by Frenchvisitors to that port.

Jean-Francois de Surville (1769)

At the time when the Englishwere undecided whether to initiate

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closer political and commercialrelations with Trengganu, theFrench were also toying with theidea of gaining a firmer foothold inthat state. In fact, when Hamiltonwas in Kuala Trengganu, a Frenchship, under the command of Pedro-villamont Garden had also called atthe port and apparently the French-man promised Sultan Abdul Jalilthat the French would undertake toestablish a station in Trengganu.But nothing materialised. In 1755,another French vessel, under acertain Le Blanc, called at KualaTrengganu but no record is knownto exist as regards that visit. In1769, however, the St. Jean Bap-tiste, commanded by Jean-Francoisde Surville, arrived at Kuala Treng-ganu and this time the Frenchmenleft behind some very interestingreports of the port. The FirstOfficer, Capt. Labe, wrote:9

The town is badly built with roughwooden huts, some with tiled roofs, otherswith roof and house covered with coconutleaves, they are raised on piles 8 or 9 feethigh, there are bamboo ladders to climb up.The King's palace is the same thing, there isjust one small brick house which serves as apowder store in the same enclosure, thewhole enclosed by a kind of palisade ofheavy planks 20 feet high which have almostall fallen over because of lack of attention.There are three bazaars, one for the Malays,another for the Siamese and the largest forthe Chinese: their street is a pleasant one,their houses better built than the others andin the front they have their shops where youcan find Chinese and European goods.

Lieut. Pottier De 1' Horme, whoseaccount was the most com-prehensive, gave a more graphicdescription of the istana:10

The King's palace is the town fortress- Itis the only house with any appearance. It islonger than it is wide, surrounded by its outbuildings and an enclosure made of woodenplanks 1/2 to 2 inches thick and about 15feet high. This palace is situated on the

southern bank of the river a short distancefrom the other houses. Entrance to it isforbidden when the King is away. There isall around and 4 or 5 feet from this enclo-sure a fairly thick hedge that constitutes thetotal fortifications of this citadel. When youenter the river you find on the right bank awooden square building with 3 embrasureson each side for small cannons, a little fur-ther up you find a similar fort: those are allthe defences of this town. The King has afew guns in the courtyard of his palace butnone is mounted,

His description of the generalappearance of Kuala Trengganudiffers little from that of Capt.Labe's:11

Tronganon is a fairly large and verypopulous place, but the houses have a re-pulsive appearance: they are made of woodand thatched with palm tree leaves. There isno orderliness in the way they are arrangedor built. Since there are numerous Chinese astreet is allocated to them; it is the onlypassable one, it is well laid out, the housesare very clean and the shops fairly wellstocked.

The larger proportion of thereports dealt with various aspects ofTrengganu society — its economy,the Chinese immigrants, weightsand currency as well as somethingof its juridical system. On thewhole, it may be said that theFrenchmen came away favourablyimpressed by the commercial situa-tion in Kuala Trengganu. They feltassured that the local administra-tion was able to maintain politicalstability and was well disposedtowards foreign traders except theDutch who were then established atMalacca where they attempted tocontrol the entire trade of thePeninsula.

For the period between theend of the 18th century and thebeginning of the 19th century, nosimilar record on Trengganu hasbeen published. It should not beconstrued, however, that European

18



trade with Trengganu had come toan end. Possibly a diligent search ofexisting archives will reveal manymore interesting reports. For themoment it will have to be assumedthat the next interesting report onKuala Trengganu was made by anEnglishman called W. Medhurst.12

M. Medhurst (1828)

Unlike all the other previousvisitors, Medhurst called at KualaTrengganu not for commercialreason but to try to propagateChristianity among the Chinesethere. In effect, he was interested inall the Chinese living on the eastcoast of the Peninsula from Pahangto Senggora. However, as he wasmerely a passenger aboard a Chi-nese barge, he had no control overits destination and he was unable tovisit Kelantan which be very muchwanted to. Medhurst recorded:13

Sept. 4th [1828] Passed by Calintan,without entering the river, and was therebyprevented from seeing the place, and sen-ding some tracts up to the numerous bodyof Chinese, which reside in the interior.

Very little is known about Med-hurst but from his own account, itis evident that he had once lived inMalacca, probably during the first( 1 7 9 5 - 1 8 0 1 ) o r s e c o n d(1807-1818) British occupation ofthat old citadel.14 Medhurst wasliterate in Chinese and hence hismissionary activities were largelyconfined to the Chinese.

It is somewhat unfortunatethat Medhurst should have been amissionary because his religiousbeliefs completely coloured hisperspective of those who did notbelong to the same faith. He ridi-culed the Chinese and Islam andhad little that was favourable to

speak of Trengganu. One examplemay be given of the superior airwith which he viewed the localpeople. Reporting a conversation hehad with a son of the Sultan,Medurst wrote:15

He asked me where I came from, andwhat was my business in Tringano, but hedid not pay much attention to my answers,being so much taken up with his gun, thelock of which was of a peculiar constructionmade in Triangano, and he wished to knowif they could make such in Europe. I saidthat they could make any thing in Europethat was made in Triangano.

But, putting aside Medhurst's per-sonal sentiments, his report is in-teresting in my respects. It containsuseful information on the Chinesein Kuala Trengganu. For example,he said:16

Being at liberty, I went among theChinese, who amount to some hundreds,dwelling principally in strong brick builthouses, which have every appearance ofbeing erected many years ago. The womenand children all speak Chinese keep verymuch to themselves, and mix less with theMalays than in other places.

He further noted:l

The Chinese females in Triangano doublethe number of the males, and the childrenare more numerous still; all these speakChinese and I was struck with hearing in-fants lisp out the language with a correct-ness of tones it takes us foreigners years toacquire.

But, Medhurst did not explain whythere should be more women thanmen among the Chinese in Treng-ganu. However, the presence of alarge number of women does helpto explain why the Chinese inTrengganu were able to live as adistinct unit instead of having clo-ser social intercourse with theindigenous population.

Medhurst allocated muchspace to discussing the subject of

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major interest to himself. He re-ported at greath length the dis-course on religion which he hadwith the Chinese as well as the Sul-tan {Abdul Rahman Syah 1826-31).Although Medhurst tended to scoffat Islam, it is evident for his reportthat the ruler of Trengganu took agreat interest in religious disquisi-tions. Medhurst was questioned notonly about Christianity but also thereligious beliefs of the Chinese. Onone occasion,

. .. the Rajah provided me [Medhurst]with a supper, after which he came himselfto my room and ordered all the cleverestmen among the Chinese to be assembledtogether, that we might debate on the sub-ject of religion.

It was at this meeting that a Malaytranslation of the Testament wasproduced. Apparently this had beenprocured from Singapore. On ano-ther occasion, Medhurst discoveredthat the Sultan had a Malay trans-lation of the Bible which had beenacquired from a Mr. Thomsen ofSingapore and this prompted himto remark:19

. . . [it] rejoiced me to find that thebooks circulated by our Missionary breath-ren at their several stations do Find theirway to Mahometan countries and Maho-metan Courts, where the breathren them-selves can seldom go; and that the bookswhen thus dispersed are not destroyed orthrown away, but preserved with care, andperhaps read with attention.

The picture which Medhurst hadpainted of the great interest shownin religion by the ruler of Treng-ganu is consistent with presentknowledge about the very deepinfluence which Islam exerted onTrengganu society. Clifford was tomake the same observation manyyears after Medhurst. Altogether, itseems more than likely now that itwas in Trengganu that Islam first

took root in the Malay Peninsula.20

Medhurst had little to say ofthe physical character of KualaTrengganu and what little he saidwas unfavourable:

The river of Tringano is not so wide asthat of Pahang, but the town lies nearer theriver's mouth. The Malay town, into whichwe first entered is large and populous, butdirty and filthy in the extreme; — the hou-ses nearly all the attap, and the streets verynarrow. The two market-places which wewent through were stocked principally withwomen who appear to be the chief buyersand sellers, in like manner as I have witnes-sed it on .Java. After winding through half ofthis dirty town, we arrived at the customhouse, where I was introduced to the nativeShah bandar. He was smoking his hookah, inthe midst of a number of Chinese andMalays. . .

Elsewhere he continued:

The town wears on all sides the appea-rance of an old settlement, for many of thebuildings are falling into decay. The Malaytown is very large, containing in its imme-diate vicinity about twenty thousand in-habitants who live nearly all in attap sheds.The old brick buildings I saw, were theMosque (in good repair) and the customHouse, the latter of which is so dirty andfilthy, that one would rather suppose it thecommon sewer of the city. There weremany small Malay prows in the river, twoSiamese junks; and a cutter belonging toTringano, that was about to proceed toSingapore. In the summer moths the trade isvery brisk.

Despite the continual emphasis onthe dirty appearance of the place,Medhurst's description of KualaTrengganu in fact conveys thepicture of a trading centre whichwas still thriving in 1828. The re-ference to the mosque as one of thetwo brick buildings in the town and"in good repair" suggests oncemore that the government ofTrengganu accorded very highpriority to lslam.

G.W. Earl (1833)

Five years after Medhurst'svisited to Trengganu, George

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Windsor Earl, a man of many ta-lents, together with a British mer-chant, Robert Hunter, went on atrading voyage to the east coast ofthe Peninsula. They called twice atKuala Trengganu and once at KualaKelantan. The first visit to KualaTrengganu was rather brief. In fact,Eart did not accompany Hunter onshore. The ship itself was anchoredabout a mile and a half from themouth of the Trengganu river.Hence Earl recorded:

The town was hidden from our view bythe trees, and only a few huts were to beseen on the sandy point near the river. Onthis point two very extraordinary lookingforts, or batteries, had been constructed —indeed, I do not know what name militarymen would give them. They were eachcomposed of four strong posts, about forthfeet high, fixed firmly in the ground, havinga thick wooden platform on the top, cove-red with thatch like a house. On each ofthese, a long twelve or eighteen-poundercarriage gun, and a pile of shot were placed.These forts would be useful in defending themouth of the river in the event of an attackfrom the sea; but a land force would soondislodge the garrison, for the guns would beof no use unless they were tumbled downon the heads of the besiegers.

In the afternoon "an immense fleetof prahus, about an hundred innumber" came in from the sea.There were Trengganu fishingboats. Indeed, it is rather wellknown now that Trengganu hadalways had a very large fishingpopulation. It is in fact the onlyMalay state where a large concen-tration of the population is foundalong the coast line.

Earl and Hunter next pro-ceeded to Kelantan but Earl was ofthe opinion that2 4

Calantan is inferior in importance toTringanu, but gold-dust, pepper, rattans, andhides, are exported in considerable quanti-ties.

Chinese sampan-pukat (a long open

boat) from Singapore, however,frequently called at Kelantan and itappears that this was a very impor-tant aspect of Kelantan's trade atthat time. 25

Earl and Hunter returned toTrengganu a few months later aftervisiting Siam. This time, Earl wasable to make a more careful obser-vation of Kuala Trengganu. Of thetown itself, he said: 2°

The town consists of a large groupe ofhuts, composed of wood and thatch, heapedtogether without any order or regularity.The part inhabited by the few Chinese whowere not driven away by the tyranny of theformer Sultan, can boast of some appea-rance of regularity, the houses and shopsforming a small street, but the Malay habi-tations are all detached from each other.The dwellings of the Sultan, and of two orthree of the principal pangerans or nobles,are built of more substantial materials thatthe rest, indeed the former may be called afort, for it is surrounded with a paggar, orbamboo fence, and is defended by severallong brass Idahs [cannonl.

Earl described the government as"aristocratical" with the highestauthority vested in the Sultan butthe "pangerans or loads" held ac-tual power. He also found thatIslam had a very strong hold on thepeople and those who were mainlyinstrumental in spreading the reli-gion were the Arabs who formed asizeable community in Kuala Treng-

27

ganu.Earl confirmed that fishing

was perhaps the most importantoccupation in Trengganu: 28

Catching and curing fish forms the prin-cipal employment of the inhabitants. Thedried fish are disposed of to the natives ofthe interior, in exchange for inland produce,gold-dust, and pepper; and these arc againexchanged by the people of Tringanu, forrice, tobacco, cotton-goods, &c. the produceof foreign countries. Although rice formsthe principal article of food, it is not culti-vated, the Malays being little disposed toagricultural occupation, and preferring themore precarious subsistence to be gained bya maritime life.

21



However, the Malays were said tobe shrewd in business transactions.They would "adopt a mode of bar-gaining by means of the fingers,which precludes the bystandersfrom discovering what is going on."And they would "frequently offerfive dollars for an article worthtwenty, and should the vender puthimself into a passion, they willtease him with like offers, in thehope that he will give them thegoods at the cheapest rate for thesake of getting away." 29

Munshi Abdullah (1838)

Just about five years fromEarl's visit to Kuala Trengganu thenow very well known MunshiAbdullah arrived. His Kisah Pela-yaran, 30 a record of his voyage tothe eastern Peninsula, is still easilyavailable as it has been reprinted anumber of times. It is thereforeunnecessary to deal with it at anygreat length here. Sufice it to to saythat the Munshi was a very biasedcommentator on Malay society. Heprovided readers with no properanalysis of Trengganu's socio-poli-tical system but merely pointed outits dissimilarity with the westernidea of government. He was rationalenough in his arguments but couldnot understand that social changenever followed from common senseand, naturally, lacking any know-ledge of sociology he saw no func-tion whatsoever in the pantanglarang which he so severely criti-cised. Abdullah was also too muchof a literary man — a writer morethan a reporter. One can hardlyavoid the suspicion that he tendedto dramatise his experiences.

However, when Abdullah wasnot talking about the way of life of

the Trengganu people but confinedhimself to describing the geographyof the place, the information heconveyed differed little from thatgiven by earlier visitors to KualaTrengganu. A brief summary of ithas been given elsewhere and it maybe reproduced here: 32

Houses sited in a haphazard manner,many of them with a small shop on thefront verandah with women in charge; eachhouse claiming two or three coconut trees;lanes narrow and crooked; piles of driedcoconut husks underneath most houses todrive away mosquitoes; no schools; a largeChinese quarter with a Capitan China whospoke fluent Malay and dressed in Malaycustume; fishing the main occupation of themale Malay population, who are describedas being otherwise idle; the Sultan's placemade of stone and a flag pole on BukitPetri; the Kora'an taught to small groups ofboys; and very beautiful fishing boats.. .

Trengganu's exports were "gold,tin, coffee, pepper, betel nut, silkcloth and fine sarongs interwovenwith gold and silver thread, andminor products such as rotan,damar and buffalo ghee." The mainimports were opium, thread andEuropean cloth.

Skinner's Geography (1884)

Since the beginning of the19th century, especially after theopening of Penang (1786) and thenSingapore (1819), followed by thegrowth of the tin mining industry,there had been such extraordinarydevelopments in the western Malaystates that by the middle of thecentury, the portion of the Penin-sula facing the China Sea becamealmost completely eclipsed by thearea facing the Straits of Malacca.Even then it would be hardly trueto say that Kuala Trengganu declin-ed at this juncture. Both Earl andAbdullah testified that it was still abusy trading centre in the 1830s.

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But, British economic interest inthe Peninsula was beginning tochange significantly by the 1860s.Although Singapore continued tohave close commercial ties with theeastern Peninsula, as fas as Londonwas concerned, commercial eco-nomics had become secondary inimportance to industrial economicsand hence the tin producing stateswere of more consequenece thanthe trading centres of the east coaststates. Within a period of twentyyears, beginning from about 1860,a new phase of urbanisation wastaking place in the mining areas.There was no similar developmenton the eastern side of the Peninsulaand hence Skinner, writing in 1884,said of Trengganu: 34

. . . nearly the whole country is onecontinuous jungle, with less development,either of its minerals or its commerce, thanperhaps any other of the Malay States. Theinhabitants consist almost entirely of Malaysand some wild tribes, with a very fewChinese, who carry on the little that is nowdone in the way of trade or mining. Thetotal population of the State was computedat 37,500 in 1856. Of this number, thetown of [Kuala Tringganu,. .. was thenestimated to contains 15,000 to 20,000inhabitants... A most destructive fire tookplace in August, 1883, which is said to havedestroyed nearly 2,000 habitations. Thetown has been much deserted since, and thepopulation of the whole country has, it isbelieved, declined considerable, and doesnot exceed 20,000 at the present time,many hacing been attracted away to Ke-lantan. The place is but little visited, and thesmall quantity of gold and tin producedcome, it is said, from the Pahang moun-tains .. .

It is certain that Skinner himselfdid not visit Trengganu but he hadcompiled his Geography from se-veral sources and therefore hisremarks clearly mirrored the cli-mate of opinion prevailing in theeconomically conscious StraitsSettlements. It was probably at this

point that Kelantan began seriouslyto challange Trengganu as the mostprogressive state on the easternPeninsula. It is not possible here tolaunch on a comparative study ofsubsequent development in the twostates. Recent studies by under-graduates have shown that educa-tional developments made greatstrides in Kelantan at the end of the19th century and, by the 1920s,when exciting literary advance-ments were clearly observable inKelantan, Trengganu still showedno sign of any significant socialchange.

Hugh Clifford (1895)

To return to Kuala Trengganuin the late 19th century, we maynow consider the very lengthy andcomprehensice report prepared byHugh Clifford who entered Treng-ganu from the interior on an expe-dition in pursuit of the Pahangchiefs who staged a resistancemovement against the British ad-ministration in Pahang. Cliffordtouched on almost every aspect ofTrengganu society paying particularattention to the situation in KualaTrengganu. Invaluable though hisdocument is, there are seriousinaccuracies as Clifford could nothelp but judge Trengganu on thebasis of western values and systems.

Clifford wrote disparaginglyon the indigenous political systemand his attitude towards Islam isreminiscent of Medhurst's com-ments. He imagined numerousabuses where few actually occur-red. 6 He could not accept the ideathat a deeply devout ruler couldgovern his kingdom effectively. Tohim all forms of tax collection inthe past were evil practices. He

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paid tribute only to the manufac-turing skill of the Trengganupeople.

The principal articles of manu-facture in Trengganu then weresilks, cotton fabrics, weapons suchas knives, daggers, swords, spears,pruning-knives and choppers, metalware and wood work. The Treng-ganu Malays were also expertsboat-builders but few of the boatswere exported. Clifford describedTrengganu as "the Birmingham ofthe Peninsula" and he was of theopinion that "the natives are moreingenious than the Malays of anyother part of the Peninsula" though"their genius is imitative ratherthan creatives."38

There were altogether threemajor occupational groups inTrengganu. Apart from the manu-facturing group, there was also anagricultural group. They were chief-ly employed in the cultivation ofrice, maize, tapioca, yams, gambir,coconuts, sugar-cane and fruit trees.Agriculture was basically of a sub-sistence type for one third of therice consumed in Trengganu wasimported from Siam and theStraits.39

Trengganu had perhaps thelargest fishing population of all theMalay states. They "inhabit a stringof villages which stretches along thewhole of the Trengganu coast-line,work very hard during the monthsbetween March and November, andin that time are enabled to win asufficient sum to keep them incomfort in the close season whenthe north-east monsoon rendersfishing impossible." During the off-season, the fishermen built andrepaired their boats and houses,made the mended their nets, did alittle planting or performed odd

jobs. They were certainly a verydiligent group.40

Kuala Trengganu in the late19th century was not what it was inthe 18th century. Its export tradewas still important. These com-prised manufactured goods, jungleproduce such as getah, camphor,agilar wood, rattan &c. as well asfish. But Clifford said hardly any-thing about Kuala Trengganu as aport. This is perhaps testimony thatit no longer enjoyed the pre-eminence it did more than a cen-tury ago. It does not mean, how-ever, that Kuala Trengganu hadbecome a dying settlement fordespite the calamity of 1883 it wasstill one of the most populoustowns in the Peninsula. Cliffordhimself commented: 41

The population of the valley of theTrengganu river is about 45,000 souls, only500 of whom inhabit the country above theKelemang falls, the remaining 44,500 beingcrowded into the space between the fallsand the sea. Of these, about 12,000 occupythe capital and the villages in the immediateneighbourhood. The country between thefalls and the capital thus accommodate apopulation of about 33,000 souls, and is,therefore, one of the most thickly popu-lated portions of the Peninsula-

There is further evidence that KualaTrengganu was keeping abreastof time albeit rather gradually. Onthe eve of the 20th century, it wasvisited by an expedition from theCambridge University.

W.W Skeat and F.F. Laidlaw (1899)

Of the two members of theexpedition — Skeat and Laidlaw —who made some observations aboutKuala Trengganu, Skeat was clearlymore impressed by what he saw. Hesaid:42

In the course of the next few days he[Che' Taib of Kampong Losong] took us

24



round all the many kampongs of which thecapital was composed, and we saw allmanner of crafts being followed from boatmaking to embroidery. Kuala Trengganuappeared to be a hive of industry, and wewere truly astonished at the range of activi-ties, and in parts at the high quality of thework. ..

The shops, we noticed, were well supplied with bread, light beers, soda, cherootsand similar European wares, as well as withan extensive assortment of Malay goods and,above all, Chinese and Indian articles. Thestreets, except round the Istana, were ill-kept and destitute of drains. Yet even herethe local talent for craftsmanship showeditself clearly in the well-built bridges acrossthe creeks. We also saw a few wooden lamp-posts, which must have been unique amongthe east coast states at the time of our visit.

He further recorded:43

On our way home this morning wenoticed men bringing sand up from theshore and depositing it in cloth bundles atthe end of the street. The Sultan had order-ed the fishermen at the Kuala to do this,because he wished to improve the road.Here and there, in other places, the roadsshowed evidence of having been windenedalready. The wooden creek-bridges were (ashas been stated) good, and there were eventwo or three small break-and-stone bridges,which was more than we had seen elsewhereon the east coast, Trengganu, in fact, show-ed more European influence than the otherMalay states. A Victoria, a dog-cart andseveral horses were landed by the Neera onher arrival at Trengganu even during ourvisit: pneumatic-tyred bicycles were alreadybeing used by the Sultan's entourage, and afew rickshaws had just been imported.

The Sultan mentioned was Zainal-Abidin III (1881-1918) whomClifford considered ineffectual.

Laidlaw, however, was lessimpressed with Kuala Trengganufor he commented:

The town of Trengganu did not seem tome as attractive, or as prosperous, as theKelantan capital [Kota Bharu]. The houseswere more ramshackle, and less well arrang-ed. The streets lacked the shady vegetationthat made some of the paths in Kota BharuSO pleasing.

There is, however, no major con-tradiction between the two obser-

vations. Skeat's description ofKuala Trengganu is, at any rate,more detailed. What is more interes-ting is that several years later,Graham had this to say of Treng-ganu:45

On government there was practicallynone. The Sultan, having alienated most ofhis powers and prerogatives to his relatives,passed his life in religious seclusion and wasruler in no more than name. The revenueswere devoured by his relatives . .. Therewere no written laws, no courts and nopolice. All manner of crime was rampant,the peasantry was mercilessly downtrodden,but the land was full of holy men and thecries of the miserable were drowned in thenoise of ostentatious prayer.

A comparison between Skeat'sreport and Graham's comments ishighly instructive because it illus-trates once again the need forstudents of history to exercise ex-treme caution even in the use ofcontemporary records. It need notbe assumed, of course, that Grahammeant to distort facts. For onething Graham was probably notfamiliar with Trengganu as he wasthe Siamese Adviser in Kelantan.But his basic problem very likelyarose from his inability to reconcilehimself to any kind of societalsystem not consistent with the typepreavailing in the contemporaryindustrial societies of Europe. This,however, is not the main concern ofthis paper. It remains now to takean overview of the various reportsearlier referred to.

Overview

These reports present morethan just a graphic picture of thephysical appearance of KualaTrengganu over a period of abouttwo centuries. They establishbeyond any doubt that in the 18thcentury Kuala Trengganu, as a tra-

25



ding centre, was well known amongEuropean traders with economicinterest in the Far East and that ithad few rivals between the IndianOcean and the Pacific Ocean. Per-haps more important still, for thestudents of Malay society, thesereports provide useful material for astudy of the traditional Malaysocio-political system.

Of the many interesting fea-tures of the indigenous Trengganusociety which received commentsfrom the various visitors, a fewdeserve special attention if onlybecause little is yet known aboutthem. One of the most illuminatinyof these relates to the traditionaleconomic system. It is clear, parti-cularly from the reports of theFrenchmen, that in the earlier daysthe economy of the state was aroyal monopoly. Hence, Lieut.Pottier De l'Horme said of theTrengganu ruler: "He is his king-dom's only merchant." 46

The king, of course, hardly"participated directly in commercialtransactions. It was well within hisauthority to appoint agents to dealwith all forms of economic ex-changes and these agents often in-cluded foreigners such as theChinese merchants in Kuala Treng-ganu. In practice, the fundamentalprinciple of the system requiredthat economic transactions betweenthe local people and foreignersmust have the sanction of the ruler.It would be interesting to investi-gate how far the same system wasin vogue in all the other Malaystates, at least up to the beginningof the 19th century. It was asystem disapproved of by Britishtraders who were fervently infavour of free trade. The merits anddemerits of the system need not

detain us here. Suffice it to say thatthe economic system was an ina-lienable part of the total socio-political system which endowed theruler with absolute authority. Thelate 19th century witnessed thegradual disintegration of this autho-rity economically and politicallybut not socially. This disintegrationresulted from the forced introduc-tion of extraneous practices intowhat was formerly a more purelyIslamic situation where human lifeand endeavours tended to be view-ed as a cohesive whole.

One other aspect of the tra-ditional Trengganu society deservesfurther comments. This concernsthe administration of justice. Inview of the adverse comments byClifford and Graham which have tosome extent influenced recentwritings on Trengganu,47 it is per-tinent to draw attention to theremarks of the Frenchmen whoactually witnessed an instance whenjustice was meted out to a criminalfound guilty of murder as well asthay of other visitors to KualaTrengganu. Capt. Labe was soimpressed that he remarks:48

Such a justice shows that the King has agood administration in his state, so thatforeigners have no worries there.

Medhurst, however, felt that thesituation was unsatisfactory. Hewrote:.49

The administration of justice at Tringanois lax in every respect — if a native iscought in the very act of stealing, he isonly required to give back the article stolen,and receives a reprimand, which settles theaffair, but if a culprit is caught in the fact[sic] a second time he then loses a hand andfoot, which is cut off immediately at thejoint of the wrist or ankles, and some medi-cine being applied the wound heals in thespace of a fortnight The relations howeververy generally make away with the unfor-tunate individual by poison, rather than lie

26



has not been clear to students ofMalaysian history that until at leastthe 1840s, the Chinese populationon the eastern states was morenumerous than that in the miningstates, that is, before the opening ofLarut and Kuala Lumpur. Thevarious reports on Kuala Trengganuare therefore extremely revealing.All the earlier reports speak of avery large Chinese settlement there.No real statistics, however, areavailable but the rough figures pro-vided by Medhurst helpful: 53

On a review of the voyage, I find thatthree boxes of books and tracts have beendistributed, in five settlements [excludingKelantan], each of which settlements maycontain on an everage several hundredChinese colonists, with about as manythousands at the mines in the interior; al-together the Chinese settlers on the eastcoast of the Malayan Peninsula cannot fallshort of fifteen thousand, and the Malaysmay be about 100,000.

There is no way one can ascertainhow many Chinese were in KualaTrengganu but it is significant tonotice that all the visitors remarkedthat the largest Chinese settlementon the east coast was located atKuala Trengganu. Earl, in 1833,however, found that many of theChinese had left the place. He attri-buted it to "the tyranny of theformer Sultan", that is, SultanDaud whose successor was SultanMansur II (1831-36). Earl possiblyoverstated his case. It may be moreaccurate to say that many of theChinese probably left because, afterthe death of Sultan Abdul Rahman(1826—31), Trengganu experienceda period of political instability.Sultan Daud, in effect, ruled foronly about six weeks. The mainparticipants in the succession dis-pute which ensued after SultanAbdul Rahman's death were Sultan

Mansur II and his nephew, TengkuOmar. The latter eventually seizedpower in 1839. At any rate, the1830s undoubtedly marked the endof Chinese population concen-tration on the east coast states;thereafter, the Chinese turnedcompletely to the area of theMalacca Straits.

It is possible, on the basis ofthe material contained in the seve-ral reports, to deal at greater lengthon the nature of the society inTrengganu in general and KualaTrengganu in particular but suffi-cient has been said to show hownecessary it is for students andteachers of Malaysian history toread beyond the standard works asthey are wont to do. Research is anindispensable part of the process ofacquiring knowledge and in a situa-tion where historical writings havenot fully matured, as in Malaysia,there is always a need to correctand re-correct perspectives. A faul-ty perspective of the past oftenleads to a misunderstanding of thepresent and most students of his-tory will agree that it is the present,after all, that we are primarilyconcerned with in order that thefuture may be better shaped.

The present royal house of Trengganu wasprobably founded in 1726-27 (A.H. 1139).See Misbaha, Sejarah Trengganu, Kuala Treng-ganu, 1966 (?), p. 51.

The chronological seqence of Hamaton's tra-vels is not always clear from his own account.Sir William Foster (ed), A New Account of theEast Indies by Alexander Hamilton, The Argo-naut Press, London, 1930.

3Ibid., pp. 81-2.

, p. 83.



Mark S. Francis, "Captain Joseph Jackson'sReport on Trengganu", Journal of the Histo-rical Society University of Malaya, KualaLumpur, Vol. VIII, 1969/70, p. 73.

6Ibid, p.76.

I have not seen Monckton's report,8John Dunmore (tr.), "French Visitors to

Trengganu in the 18th Century", JMBRAS,Vol. XLVI, Pt. 1, 1973, p. 149, n. 3.

9Ibid, p.147.

lOIbid.,P. 152.

11J bid.,

12See Journal of a Tour Through. The Settle-

ments on The Eastern Side of the Peninsula ofMalacca 1828, Mission Press, Singapore, n.d.,13

14

'Ibid., p. 20.

Ibid., p. 3.

15Ibid., p. 15.

16

17

18

19

'Ibid., p. 14.

Ibid., p. 19.

Ibid., p. 13.

Ibid, p. 37.

20The Story of the Trengganu Stone is now

well known and needs no repetition here. SeeEngku Pengiran Anum, "How The TrengganuStone Was Found", Malaya In History, Vol.VII, No. 1, Sept. 1961; Syed MuhammadNaguib AI-Attas, The Correct Date of TheTrengganu Inscription, Muzium Negara, KualaLumpur, 1970.21

22

Op. cit., p. 14.

•Ibid., p. 20.

23The Eastern Seas, Oxford in Asia Historical

Reprints, Kuala Lumpur, 1971 {With Introduc-tion by CM. Turubull), pp. 151-2.24'Ibid., p. 154.

On the sampan-pukat or perahu-pukat trade,see Wong Liu Ken, "The Trade of Singapore1819-69". JMBRAS. Vol. XXXIII, Pt. 4,1960, pp. 78-80.

26Op. cit, p. 184.

21 Ibid,, p. 185.

28/bid, p. 184-5.29Ibid, pp. 186-7.

See Kassim Ahmad (ed.), Kisah PelayaranAbdullah, Oxford University Press, KualaLumpur, 1966.31See C. Skinner, "Abdullah's Voyages To TheEast Coast See Through Contemporary Eyes",JMBRAS, Vol. XXXIX, Pt. 2, 1966.

M.C. ff. Sheppard, "A Short History ofTrengganu", JMBRAS, Vol. XXII, Pt 3, 1949,p. 28.

33

34

Ibid.,

A.M. Skinner (ed.), A Geography of TheMalay Peninsula, Singapore, 1884, p. 29.

35See Expedition: Trengganu and Kelantan

Report", JMBRAS, Vol. XXXIV, Pt, 1, 1961.36See Comments by J. De Vere Allen, "TheAncien Regime in Trengganu, 1909—1919",JMBRAS, Vol. XLI, Pt 1, 1968.

37

40

41

Clifford, op. cit, pp. 66-7, 71-6.

'Ibid., pp. 91-5.)Ibi±, pp. 95-8.

'/Md, pp. 89-90.

Ibid., pp. 89.

42W.W. Skeat, Reminiscences of the Expedi-

tion", JMBRAS, Vol. XXVI, Pt 4, 1953, p.122.43mIbid., pp. 123-4.

44F.L. Laidlaw, Travels in Kelantan, Treng-

ganu & Upper Perak, A Personal Narrative,"JMBRAS, Vol. XXVI, Pt 4, 1953, pp. 157-8.

'See W.A. Graham. "Trengganu" in Ency-clopaedia Britanica (1 lth Edition) 1910-11,p. 483. For further views on Graham's com-ments see J. De Vere Allen, op. cit, Allen basedhis comments on the journals kept by the firstBritish Agent in Trengganu — Conlay.

John Dunmore (tr.), op. cit, p. 153, Earl,many years later, made the same observation.He said, "The Sultan and the pangerans form asort of commercial company, and monopolizethe whole of the foreign trade, the people notbeing permitted to purchase a single ganton ofrice that has not passed through their hands,'*(The Eastern Seas, p. 185). Clifford arriving inthe 1890s found that the monopoly sistem wasstill in voyage. ("Expedition etc." pp. 74—5).

29



See especially Chau Su-ming, "Kelantan and "Expedition etc, . . ", pp. 82—3.Trengganu, 1909-1939", JMBRAS, Vol.XXXVm.Pt. 1, 1965. 51journal of a Tour etc., pp. 38-9.

°J. Dunmore (ed.), op- cit, p. 150. The others The Eastern Seas, p. 186.



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