3

One morning in early April, Cathcart Methven, a captain in the Company’s service, entered Farquhar’s office and introduced himself. Captain Methven was thirty-two years old, the son of a magistrate from St. Andrews in Scotland, who had joined the Company’s service as a cadet at the age of sixteen. Major Farquhar asked him jokingly if he fancied a game of golf on their very sandy links, to which Captain Methven replied that he preferred horse racing. Pity the poor horse, thought Farquhar, taking in the size and girth of the man, as he strutted about in his scarlet uniform, looking to all the world like a giant turkey-cock.

Methven informed Farquhar that he had accumulated some money during his time in India, and planned to use it to establish himself as a merchant. He had written to his commanding officer in India requesting a discharge, which he was sure would be accepted given his exemplary service, something he declined to expand
upon.

‘I’d be obliged if you could deed me a piece of land so I can set myself up,’ he informed Farquhar.

‘I can set you up with a piece of land,’ Farquhar replied. ‘But you must understand it will be subject to the approval of Sir Stamford Raffles, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen, and ultimately the Court of Directors of the Company.

‘That’s a risk I’m prepared to take––I’m sure this place will make us all rich!’

‘I hope you’re right’ Farquhar replied. He then led Methven down the steps of the residency to the eastern entrance of the river, where the two men marked out a plot near Ferry Point.

Soon afterwards Captain Methven began the construction of his house and godown. He ferried stones downriver, and brought in boatloads of sand and brick. Carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, smiths and an army of labourers worked on it from dawn to dusk. When it was completed six months later, it was larger than any other building in the settlement, including the residency. Methven’s massive structure stood like a Martello tower at the mouth of the river, with walls so thick it looked more like a military fortification than a dwelling house and warehouse. The walls were painted white and sparkled in the morning sunshine, and the green verandah and Venetian shutters gave it a distinctly Italianate appearance. With its own pier built out over the river, where lighters and sampans could unload their goods from the ships in the roads, it looked not unlike a Venetian Palazzo. Captain Methven was swelled with pride, and fancied he would make a great merchant. While he was building his great house and godown he received word from his commanding officer in India that his request for a discharge had been denied, but it did not bother him. He simply carried on as usual, and wrote a letter of appeal.

Shortly after Captain Methven’s arrival Farquhar had the doubtful pleasure of greeting another Scot, John Morgan, who marched into Farquhar’s office one day and demanded a good plot of land near the river.^[1] Farquhar knew this man was going to be a troublemaker––he could feel it in his bones. But he assigned Morgan a plot of land between High Street and the river, about halfway between the residency and Hill Street, where he built a wooden bungalow.

Morgan would prove to be a troublemaker, but he was no fool, and he had a good head for business. While most of the other European merchants used Chinese––and especially those Peranakans who spoke a patois of Hokkien and Malay––as compradors^[2] in their relations with local traders from the archipelago, Morgan thought he might improve his commercial position by taking lessons in Malay, and accordingly contracted with Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir,^[3] known locally as ‘Munshi’,^[4] to teach him the language. He progressed well, having, Abdullah said, a natural gift for languages.

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1. After leaving school, John Morgan had been apprenticed as a clerk to James McDougall, an Edinburgh lawyer. When McDougall complained about a minor error in Morgan’s accounting, a matter of two and a half pennies, Morgan was enraged and flung his inkwell at the man. He stormed out of the office and returned to his lodgings, where he tossed his law books out the window. He then packed his bags and took the evening stagecoach to London.

   A few days later he joined the crew of an East Indiaman bound for China, intending to work his way up through the merchant marine to become master of his own vessel. But he hated the drudgery of life at sea, and jumped ship at Batavia, where he set up a small shop, trading with the native craft and Dutch merchant ships. His business prospered, despite the Dutch commercial restrictions and his own reputation for shady dealings, from which he derived the bulk of his profits. When he heard that the East India Company had established a new settlement in Singapore, he decided that he would make his fortune there. He sold up his business and took the next ship out. ↵

   
   
2. Native intermediaries or agents. ↵
   
3. Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir was born in Malacca in 1796, the fifth and only surviving child of Sheikh Abdul Kadir, a Muslim of Arab-Indian descent. His father worked him hard at his language and religious studies, but Abdullah was an eager learner, and became an accomplished scholar by the age of thirteen. He translated Arabic texts into Malay and Hindustani, and wrote letters and petitions for local merchants. The Muslim soldiers of the Indian garrison at Malacca called him ‘Munshi’, or teacher of language, and he became known to all as Munshi Abdullah, or simply Munshi. He taught Malay to the East India Company officers in Malacca, where Tuan Farquhar befriended him, and introduced Abdullah to Sir Stamford Raffles, when Raffles was convalescing there. Raffles employed Abdullah as an interpreter in his communications with the neighbouring rajahs, and as a scribe to aid him in the transcription of Malay laws and literature.

   A few years later Abdullah, a strict Muslim, attended Bible classes for local children taught by Reverend Milne of the London Missionary Society, in order to improve his English. Reverend Milne in turn asked Abdullah to teach him Malay, and Munshi was happy to oblige. He worked on a Malay translation of the Gospels for Reverend Milne and Reverend Claudius Henry Thomsen, a German missionary with whom he became friends. Six months after the new settlement was founded, Abdullah travelled to Singapore, where he had bought a house, and became a teacher of Malay to the soldiers, missionaries and merchants.

   Abdullah had intended to bring his wife and family down to Singapore, but he had graciously acceded to their wish to remain in Malacca, after their friends and relations there had begged them not to leave. Abdullah sold his house to John Hay, and never took Tuan Farquhar and Tuan Raffles’ advice to buy land, even though he had the money and the opportunity. As he described his state of mind at the time in his later memoirs, the Hikayat Abdullah:

   At that time I was like a person frightened out of his sleep—when it rained hard, I took no notice to catch some water—now I trust with full confidence in the Lord, that directs the rain to fall, giving to each his share, and not a whit more nor less than is right, and I offer up a thousand of praises to Him, as I have received my portion before and now.

   For, by my desires and covetousness, I would wish for what is more than right. On that account I was as one asleep during a heavy shower, and only when it had stopped falling did I awake to set about gaining that which is right.

   But he had no regrets, for as he also recorded, quoting the Malay proverb, ‘Realize your mistake in time and you may gain something, realize it too late and you gain nothing.’ ↵

   
   
4. Malay for ‘teacher of language’. ↵