Mehmood bin Nadir guided his tongkang back down the river to pick up more coolies from the waiting junks.
Business was good, and would only get better as the settlement expanded. Tuan Farquhar had been right about that, and Mehmood was glad he had stayed on with his wife and son after his service as a lascar with the Company had ended. He had borrowed money to buy his boat from a Tamil Chettiar[1] who had come down from Penang, and would be able to pay it off in no time if business continued as good as it had been these past few months. What great opportunities there were! He would write to his brother and cousins back in India, who eked out their livings as boatmen along the southern Coromandel Coast, as Tuan Farquhar had urged him to do.
* * *
A few days after the junks arrived, Major Farquhar received an envoy from the Dutch authorities on Riau, demanding the surrender of Arong Bilawa, the Bugis prince. Farquhar advised the Dutch envoy that he had granted asylum to Bilawa and his followers, under the protection of the British flag. A year later the Dutch authorities granted Bilawa amnesty, and invited him and his followers to return to the Riau islands, but they were content to remain in Singapore.
Farquhar came to realize why the temenggong and Sultan Hussein were so concerned about the abandonment of Singapore. They were worried about their loss of revenue from the gifts they received from the ships’ captains, an informal levy expected by most of the rajahs in the archipelago, and which they had managed to extract from the captains of the Chinese junks. Farquhar did not ban these gifts, but he was concerned about the reputation of Singapore as a free port, so he instructed his son-in-law, Francis Bernard, the harbour master, to inform the captains that such gifts were entirely voluntary and not required.
Later that week Captain George Ramsey came into the office of the harbour master, accompanied by his young son Adam. Ramsey was the captain of the armed Company schooner the Fair Maid of London, whose commission was to bring British trade goods to the merchants of Achin, in the hope of securing their support for British interests in Northern Sumatra. He was a widower from Cornwall whose wife and daughter had died of smallpox the previous year. He had taken his twelve-year-old son Adam––his only surviving child––to sea to teach him the basics of shipcraft, and hoped to be able to save enough money to send the boy to naval college in a few years’ time. The boy was bright-eyed and eager to learn, with a top of hair as red as his father’s.
‘Good morning, Mr Bernard,’ said Captain Ramsey. ‘I’d like you to meet my son Master Adam Ramsey. We’ll be off first thing tomorrow morning.’
‘Very pleased to meet you, Master Adam.’ Bernard shook the boy’s hand. ‘And how do you like the life at sea.’
‘Wonderful, sir,’ Adam replied. ‘I’m going to be the captain of my own ship one day, just like father. That’s if I don’t die first eating ships’ biscuits with weevils,’ he added with a grimace. ‘Horrid things!’
‘Well, you have to learn to take the rough with the smooth, as any sailor will tell you,’ Bernard replied.
At that moment Major Farquhar entered.
‘Ah, Captain Ramsey,’ he said, ‘I thought it was you, and I’m glad I caught you. We seem to be in need of your services. We have a consignment of silver bullion sent down from Penang and due to be shipped to Bencoolen to pay the troops and the local rajahs. The Marie Clare was supposed to be taking it, but she’s no come in yet, and I need tae get it out right away.’
‘Not a problem,’ said Captain Ramsey. ‘I’ll come back this afternoon and arrange for it to be taken aboard the Fair Maid of London–so long as I have your written authority for the diversion.’
After Farquhar promised him he would have it right away, Captain Ramsey introduced Adam.
While the three men talked and joked with the boy, the Malay messenger who had brought requests for petitions to be heard at the next bechara court slipped out of the room. His bare feet made no sound and he left as quietly as he had come in. Nobody paid him any attention as he made his way out of the residency and walked along the beach to where another Malay sat waiting under the great banyan tree by the Bras Basah stream. After a brief conversation, the man got up and the messenger followed him along the beach to the sultan’s compound in Kampong Glam. They both knew they would be well paid for this information by the sultan, who would in turn be well paid by one of the pirate captains who plagued the waters of the Malay Archipelago.
As Major Farquhar was leaving the harbour master’s office, his aide-de-camp met him at the top of the stairs.
‘Marie Claire been sighted in the roads, sir,’ he informed Major Farquhar.
‘No need to bother about the Bencoolen silver then,’ Farquhar said, turning back to Captain Ramsey and Francis Bernard. ‘Enjoy your voyage, Master Adam!’
When he returned to the residency, Farquhar found a familiar figure waiting in his office. It was Captain James Pearl of the Indiana, the ship that had borne him and Raffles to Singapore just over a year before.
‘Good morning, Captain Pearl,’ he said, and the two men shook hands. ‘What brings you back to Singapore?’
‘Oh, business as usual,’ Pearl replied, ‘I’ve brought a cargo of rice and tin, and I’m taking a load of sugar and sapang wood to Bencoolen. My, but this place is booming! I’ve been taking a look around, and I’m thinking of settling down here myself after I’ve made a bit more money trading.’
‘I suppose you’ll be looking for a piece of land on the eastern bank of the river, like a’ body else?’ said Farquhar.
‘Well no, actually,’ said Captain Pearl. ‘I’m been thinking of going into the plantation business. Always fancied myself as a farmer, although I never fancied I’d do it out here. As I said, I’ve been looking around, and I’d like to build a house on the hill opposite Bukit Larangan on the other side of the river.’
‘But there’s already some Chinese on that hill, gambier and pepper farmers,’ Farquhar replied. ‘Raffles wants to keep the Chinese there, and the Europeans on the east beach. Although God knows none of them want to build their godowns there.’
‘I’m sure he won’t mind, Major, Stamford and I are good friends. I’ll have to buy out the Chinese of course, which is why I’ll need to keep trading for a year or two. But when I’m finally settled I’ll call it Raffles Hill, which I’m sure will gratify him.’
‘Aye, I’m sure it will,’ Farquhar replied, ‘but you should probably write and tell him what you plan to do, just in case. You’ll also need to ask permission from the temenggong, for the hill you speak of is just beyond the boundary that we agreed with him.’
‘But man it’s good to see you, James,’ said Farquhar, dropping the formality. ‘Will you join me for tiffin?’[2]
‘I’ll write to Stamford, William, and I’d be happy to join you for tiffin. I’ll bring along a little something I brought from Calcutta. It will help to wash it down.’
* * *
In March, Raffles and Sophia welcomed to Bencoolen his sister Mary Anne, whom he had brought out with her new husband, Captain William Flint, and their baby, Charles. The Flints did not stay long, because Raffles had decided to appoint William as harbour master at Singapore. They left at the end of March, much to Sophia’s disappointment. They were accompanied by Captain Thomas Otho Travers, Raffles’ long-time friend and aide-de-camp, whom Raffles had instructed to take over from Major Farquhar as resident at Singapore.