Letters Printed in Full

1	Hastings, in Calcutta, to Raffles	4 December 1815
2	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	16 April 1818
3	Hastings, on the Gogra, to Raffles	6 July 1818
4	Raffles, in Pinang, to Hastings	8 January 1819
5	Raffles, in Pinang, to Farquhar	16 January 1819
6	Raffles, in Pinang, to Bannerman	18 January 1819
7	Raffles, en route to Pinang, to Young	12 February 1819
8	Raffles, in Pinang, to Adam	13 February 1819
9	Raffles, in Pinang, to Hastings	15 February 1819
10	Raffles, in Pinang, to Adam	16 February 1819
11	Raffles, in Pinang, to Young	16 February 1819
12	Raffles, in Pinang, to Hastings	28 February 1819
13	Raffles, in Pinang, to Hastings	19 May 1819
14	Raffles, in Singapore, to Hastings	8 June 1819
15	Raffles, in Singapore, to Hastings	17 June 1819
16	Raffles, in Singapore, to Hastings	17 June 1819
17	Raffles, in Singapore, to Hastings	22 June 1819
18	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	20 August 1819
19	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	29 September 1819
20	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	5 October 1819
21	Raffles, in Calcutta, to Hastings	25 November 1819
22	Hastings, in Calcutta, to Raffles	27 November 1819
23	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	25 March 1820
24	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	12 August 1820
25	Raffles, in Cheltenham, to Hastings	9 October 1824
26	Hastings, in Malta, to Raffles	5 December 1824
27	Raffles, in Pinang, to Young	12 January 1819
28	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	23 October 1820
29	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Hastings	15 May 1821
30	Raffles, in Singapore, to Tayler	9 June 1819
31	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Lansdowne	15 April 1820
32	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Lansdowne	19 January 1821
33	Raffles, in Bengkulu, to Lansdowne	1 March 1822
34	Raffles, in Singapore, to Lansdowne	20 January 1823

 

NOTE ON THE LETTERS

The 34 letters published in this book have been transcribed from the originals as closely as possible. Editorial insertions and clarifications are enclosed in square brackets, while longer explanatory notes are indicated by superscript numbers. Variations in spelling that occur in the manuscript letters, such as place names (Singapore/Sincapore), are preserved faithfully in the transcriptions, as are all punctuation marks (including Raffles’s liberal use of dashes), raised letters and capitalisation.

Most abbreviations, such as Gov^t (Government) and Serv^t (Servant), are clear from context; three that are rarely encountered today may be worth pointing out here: ultimo/ulto (last month); instant (this month); and &c (et cetera, often to shorten the formal valedictions preceding the signature).

The layout of the letters is also preserved as far as possible. In formal correspondence of Raffles and Hastings’s day, the recipient’s name and title were typically included at the bottom of the letter or at the foot of the first page (as seen, for example, in the facsimile facing the title page). In the transcriptions here they are always printed at the end of the letter.