Raffles longed to visit Singapore, but with its future uncertain he decided that it was better not to do so. He had raised the matter in 1820 after Farquhar’s repeated requests in the previous year to be relieved of his post as Resident and Commandant of Singapore, and having informed the Supreme Government of Farquhar’s wishes on 24 March 1820,225 he reported to Hastings on the following day that he had provisionally appointed Captain Travers to succeed him.226
Letter 23
Raffles to Hastings
25 March 1820
Private
Bencoolen 25th. March 1820
My Lord,
I have the honor to inform your Lordship that in consequence of the repeated and earnest solicitations of Major Farquhar I have acceded to his request to be allowed to proceed to Europe by one of the Ships of the present Season – Captain Travers my acting Second Assistant has been provisionally appointed to succeed, and as this officer belongs to the 20th. [Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry] on duty at Singapore and is otherwise in every respect qualified, and competent to the trust, I hope your Lordship will be pleased to approve and confirm the arrangement –
I have lost no time in reducing and confining the Establishment at Singapore to the lowest possible standard, and I think it will be satisfactory to your Lordship to know that the monthly Expenses of this highly important Station will not in future exceed 5,000 Dollars a month –
The general tranquillity and confidence which prevail have justified my reducing the strength of the Military force to two Companies of the 20th. which will be fully equal to all the duties –
There are several questions particularly those relating to Police and the Administration of Justice which will require attention immediately, and whenever a favorable decision may be received from Europe I hope your Lordship will approve of my visiting Singapore & remaining there some months – The character & eventual prosperity of our Establishment depends so much on the precedents and principles established in the first two or three years that I think my presence may be very useful particularly as I am not aware of any necessity for my constant residence here – Singapore has already risen into far higher importance than Bencoolen can ever attain and on this account may be the most appropriate residence for the Chief Authority –
The Dutch Authorities at Batavia and Padang are very conciliatory in their present Conduct, and on this Coast the utmost harmony prevails.
I have the honor to remain
your Lordship’s most obedient &
faithful humble Servant
T S Raffles
I trust your Lordship will approve of my having selected Captain Flint for the Post of Master Attendant at Singapore – Your Lordship is aware of his very peculiar claims on the [East India] Company and it will conduce much to the value & character of the Port that an Officer of rank and experience superintends its details – I have been sorry to learn that many complaints have been made against Mr Bernard227 who was at first placed in provisional charge of this Office, but I may confidently assure your Lordship that under the arrangement now made irregularities of the kind cannot recur –
His Excellency
The Marquess of Hastings
&c &c &c
The fact that as early as 1819 Farquhar had made several attempts to resign his post as Resident and Commandant228 diminishes his claims to be considered an equal with Raffles in the founding of Singapore since he was willing so early to abandon responsibility for the infant settlement.
Raffles’s letter to Travers appointing him Resident stated: “Major Farquhar having earnestly requested to be permitted to avail himself of his leave of absence from the Madras Government to proceed to Europe, I have thought it expedient to appoint you to succeed him provisionally as Resident & Commandant at Singapore, and you will accordingly be pleased to proceed to that station without delay”.229
Travers was delighted with the appointment,230 and sailed from Bengkulu with his wife and child on 26 March 1820 on the Coromandel, arriving at Singapore on 8 April. He carried a letter to Farquhar from Raffles announcing his replacement as Resident:
I have the honor to inform you that in consequence of your repeated & earnest request to be relieved in the charge of the Settlement of Singapore in order that you may avail yourself of your former permission from the Madras Government to proceed to Europe, and the impossibility of my visiting Singapore myself for some months, I have appointed Captain Thomas Otho Travers[,] my Acting 2nd Assistant, to succeed you as Resident & Commandant, and that officer has accordingly been directed to proceed to Singapore forthwith … On the occasion of your relinquishing the charge of Singapore, I again request to offer you my warmest acknowledgements for the zeal and ability with which you have devoted yourself to the prosperity of the Establishment and for the prudence and judgment which you have displayed under circumstances of considerable difficulty …231
However, instead of relinquishing his post, Farquhar complained of the difficulty of securing a passage to Europe so late in the season, and expressed his regret to Travers “at being thus compelled to postpone the delivering over charge of the Residency into your hands until the usual period of the H[on]: C[ompany]: ships passing for China – in one of which it is my intention to embark and shall at all events hold myself in readiness to resign the rein of Govt. to you on or before the 1st Septr next”.232
Travers accepted this arrangement and expressed his “readiness to afford … every assistance in my power and to be employed in any way you may deem best to promote the interests of the Settlement”,233 an offer gratefully accepted by Farquhar, who appointed him to take charge of the Pay Department “during the few months I have still to remain at Singapore”.234
On 18 August an “unpleasant correspondence” commenced between the two men with a letter from Farquhar stating that as he had received no reply from Calcutta or Bengkulu on the subject of his intended resignation on 1 September, he was unwilling to transfer the charge of the settlement to Travers, “until such time as answers to the Dispatches in question shall have come to hand”, or at least for a limited period of “say another month”, but if Travers did not agree he would “deliver over charge on the day specified in my official Letter to you of the 13 April”.235 This was followed by another letter to Travers on 4 September giving as a further excuse for not resigning a statement in a letter from Raffles to the effect that the longer his departure was delayed “the more gratifying it will be to him”.236 The ensuing correspondence on the subject does not reflect well on Farquhar,237 Travers attributing Farquhar’s change of mind to his realisation that the increasing prosperity and growing importance of Singapore afforded him the means “of providing for his large native family”.238 Unwilling to face a further delay in referring the matter to Calcutta, Travers decided to proceed immediately to Europe, leaving Farquhar in charge.
Raffles, who was unaware of these proceedings, was under the impression that Travers had been in provisional charge of the administration of Singapore since April. He therefore wrote privately to Hastings on 12 August suggesting that he should be replaced by his Second Assistant, Captain William Gordon Mackenzie, who had recently arrived at Bengkulu from the Cape of Good Hope.239
Letter 24
Raffles to Hastings
12 August 1820
Duplicate
Bencoolen 12th. August 1820
My Lord,
My 2nd Assistant Captain Mackenzie having arrived from the Cape, I have the honor to introduce him to your Lordship as an officer whom, on many accounts, I have selected for the charge of Singapore should such an arrangement meet with your Lordship’s approbation.
Independently of a wish expressed by Captain Mackenzie to proceed in the first instance to Bengal after his long absence from India, I am chiefly influenced by a most earnest desire to evince to your Lordship by every possible means, my extreme anxiety to suspend the adoption as far as possible of any measures without your previous approbation, and which might in any way interfere with or embarrass your Lordship’s ulterior views and arrangements. The expectation which may naturally be entertained of an early decision from Europe has been a further inducement to this step.
The arrangement made at Singapore by the provisional appointment of Captain Travers will afford every accommodation to Lieut Colonel Farquhar, and prevent any inconvenience to the service, in now sending Captain Mackenzie to receive your Lordship’s commands.
The unparalleled advance and prospects of this rising Establishment under numerous difficulties and obstructions which in the first instance conspired against it, will I have no doubt be as satisfactory to your Lordship as they are consolatory to myself, and it is but natural I should watch with peculiar anxiety over the future destinies of a place which I was the humble instrument of founding in furtherance of the extended and enlightened views of your Lordship for the protection of British Interests to the Eastward. Were I therefore to consult my own wishes and what I cannot but consider the interest of the place, I should have been happy to have relieved Lieut Col. Farquhar myself, particularly as the arrangements now introduced at Bencoolen have so simplified the establishment that my change of residence would not have occasioned inconvenience here, and the urgent request of Lt. Col. Farquhar and of the Chiefs that I would visit Singapore, were it even for a day, would at any rate have induced me to have done so at the present moment were I not apprehensive of exciting unnecessary jealousy and observation which might possibly lead to annoyance and embarrassment; I of course allude to the construction it might receive at Pinang & Batavia –
It is not to be denied that notwithstanding my efforts at conciliation, an extreme degree of jealousy exists on the part of the prevailing authorities at Penang towards me as well as towards the Settlement I have been the means of establishing; and in attempting to obtain the superintendence of that Settlement to my prejudice, it is probable that not only my movements and actions but the state & interests of the new Station may be liable to misrepresentation. If the sacrifice of my personal claims would in any way conduce to the further advantage, or tend to relieve your Lordship from any embarrassment or difficulty, I would not hesitate one moment, but I am fully convinced that were the Station of Singapore placed under the Penang Government, as at present constituted and with its present feelings, such a step would ruin all that has been done, and tend not only to frustrate the plans and views under which it was originally established by your Lordship, but to cast a blight on the rising prospects of the place, and involve with it a serious injury to the commercial interests of the Nation.
With regard to the Dutch authorities, I defy them to call in question upon any just grounds any part however minute of my proceedings or movements since the occupation of Singapore. I have felt it equally my duty and interest studiously to keep myself as quiet as possible and to confine myself to objects altogether unconnected with politics – Notwithstanding this the policy of the Dutch seems to be that of encouraging an impression that I am interfering to their further annoyance. The object of this policy is obvious, as in separating me from the general proceedings of the British authorities, the whole weight of their opposition may be made to fall on an Individual, who standing alone would find it difficult to maintain himself. There can be no doubt that the most exaggerated accounts are encouraged on their part in order to shew that our Establishment at Singapore was an act of aggression and calculated to injure their possessions, instead of being one of mere protection to ourselves without any views adverse to the right or legitimate possessions of that power – They have no cause whatever for alarm except from their own misgovernment, and their trade can only be affected by their adherence to Regulations which are intended for the manifest injury of that of other Nations –
I have only on this head to request that if any such representations either have been or may be made to this effect, your Lordship will place a full reliance on my assurance that as far as I may be concerned, all such complaints are utterly groundless and unjust –
In conclusion I will take the liberty of observing that I can have no personal interest or view to patronage in any arrangements that may be adopted with reference to Singapore. I am solely influenced by public motives, and a laudable ambition to act in the strictest accordance with the spirit and letter of your Lordship’s views, & wishes.
I trust the time is not far distant when the real value and object of the Settlement at Singapore will be fully and justly appreciated, by all parties, and that in the completion of these legitimate objects your Lordship will derive satisfaction from the contemplation of the important benefits conferred on the Commerce of Great Britain at a period when it stood so much in need of effectual aid and support; and that amid the numerous benefits and splendid successes which have so eminently distinguished your Lordship’s unequalled administration, the establishment of this small port (the key however to the commerce with Countries whose population have been estimated at a third of that of the Globe) will not be considered by your Lordship as the least of them; an expectation which the importance that the place has already assumed in public estimation fully justifies my entertaining –
I have the honor to be, with the highest
respect and consideration,
My Lord,
your Lordship’s
most obedient
humble servant
T S Raffles
His Excellency
The Marquess of Hastings KG KGCB
&c &c &c
It is appropriate that these memorable words should conclude Raffles’s private letters to Hastings on Singapore. His decision not to prejudice the future of Singapore by undertaking the early administration of the settlement and incurring the hostility of the authorities in Pinang and Batavia was entirely laudatory. Farquhar had written to him on 16 April 1820 stating that news of his own imminent departure from Singapore had
excited a very general feeling thro’ out the various classes of Inhabitants … as well as the Sultan and Tummongong to solicit that I would convey to you their united request that you would if possible gratify them with a visit previous to the period fixed on for my departure, in which solicitation I most cordially join them from a conviction of the Public benefit likely to accrue in the present stage of this rising Colony, by your personal presence, even for so limited a time[,] as it becomes a duty of the first importance to endeavour to strengthen by every possible means the present ardour of feeling, increasing confidence and attachment towards the British Government and Nation which has hitherto so happily prevailed in the minds of all classes of Native Inhabitants, not only in this Settlement but throughout all the surrounding countries.240
This invitation to visit Singapore must have had an overwhelming appeal to Raffles whatever political objections he felt stood in the way of its acceptance. He replied to Farquhar on 16 August 1820 expressing his regret that
circumstances do not admit of my meeting your wishes & those of the Chiefs by proceeding to Singapore at the present moment, and I have in consequence the honor to enclose a short letter to the Sultan and Tumongong stating my intention of visiting the place at a future period – In the meantime I have no doubt that the same confidence in the protection & measures of the British Government will continue to exist among all classes of the inhabitants.
He then added an interesting statement reflecting his own concerns about the future of Singapore:
The peculiar political circumstances in which the Settlement is at present placed in regard to the Dutch Authorities, render the most extreme caution necessary in our communications with the surrounding Countries, and it is prudent to avoid adopting any measures which may create a greater degree of confidence in the permanence of the Establishment than those circumstances warrant.241