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Article Excerpt
Introduction: The "country trade" and Borneo in the early nineteenth century
After the occupation of Prince of Wales Island (Penang) (2) in 1786 by the East India Company (EIC), there soon arose a small community of merchants and traders whose activities complemented those of the EIC. Their "country vessels"--not licensed to carry cargoes to Britain without special EIC permission--carried through the region commodities that included opium, textiles, iron, steel, arms and gunpowder, along with a range of luxury items such as cutlery, mirrors and watches. Elmore's sailing directory for British mariners in the East Indies, published in 1802 but based on the author's voyages in the period 1783-96, gave sailing directions for voyages around Borneo, with emphasis on the sale of opium (Elmore 1802:311). More details are given in Milburn's Oriental Commerce (1811), and recent sources include Lee (1978) and Nordin Hussin (2007). From 1793, when war began with France, British shipping in the region was subject to attacks by French naval vessels and privateers, but these greatly diminished after L'lle de France (Mauritius) fell to the British in December 1810. The conquest of Java in August 1811 stabilized the political situation, but naval threats re-emerged in the war of 1812-1815 with the Americans. Country vessels also had to be on the lookout for piratical attacks by local native inhabitants, including those with whom they (or their competitors) traded. Such attacks were rare compared with those on smaller native vessels, and were sometimes provoked by dishonest trading practices. This was the case with the capture of the Calcutta in 1803 that established in British eyes the piratical reputation of the Sultanate of Sambas in West Borneo. The Calcutta affair prompted R.T. Farquhar, Lieutenant-Governor of Penang from 1804 to 1805, to consider making commercial treaties with the main native rulers in the East Indies that would help regulate trade and allow supervision by the EIC (Wright 1961:269-277). His attempt came to nothing, but after the conquest of Java Raffles resurrected the idea and sought to confine country trade in the region to selected ports--including some in Borneo--where EIC representatives could be based (Bastin 1954; Wright 1961:179-184, 298-326). Raffles commented later that the traders supplied arms to pirate chiefs and did not wish piracy to be suppressed, because it reduced competition (Java Factory Records" 61, Letters from Java, 11 Feb. 1814). The attempts to regulate trade were strenuously opposed by the Penang merchants and their backers and allies in Calcutta. Likewise, the EIC officials in Penang were no supporters of Raffles, and maintained generally a laissez-faire attitude to unrestricted country trade through Penang or Malacca.
Nordin Hussin (2007:xvii) has recently emphasized that studies of colonial society should extend from "palace or state politics and the elite" to the "the common people": in other words, there is a need for more "history from below." The country traders were certainly not common people, but they were not among the elite either, and their activities are hard to track down for reasons of their uncertain social status and mobility. (3) This article attempts to help fill this gap by focusing on the experiences of a Penang-based country ship's captain, Daniel Smith, over a period (1808-1815) for which unusually extensive material is available, it shows how the regional events and issues summarized above influenced Smith's life at this time and also describes his associations with some of the Penang merchants, other country traders and especially the shrewd Sultan of Pontianak in West Borneo, a region that he visited frequently. Most of Smith's voyages can be traced in outline from departures and arrivals that were recorded (though not always comprehensively) in the shipping news in the Calcutta Gazette, Prince of Wales" Island Government Gazette (established early in 1806) and, from 1811, the Java Government Gazette. (4) in addition, and rather unusually, Smith's experiences can be unravelled from other sources that include private correspondence, official documents and a nineteenth-century naval memoir. The voyages are summarized in Table I where, to avoid cluttering the text that follows, I give full references. A short Appendix gives information about James Tait and Samuel Stewart, also ships' captains who lived in Penang, whose careers overlapped with that of Smith and who also had experiences at this time that demonstrate the hazards of the country trade.
Conflict with the French: Captain Smith on the Margaret and Mary
Late in August 1808 the Prince of Wales Island Government Gazette reported that the country ship Margaret, commanded by "Capt. R. Smith," arrived in Penang from "the eastward," the term used to include destinations such as Borneo, Java, and beyond (see Table 1). The Margaret had earlier been captured by the Courier, a French privateer from Mauritius, off the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Some time later the French prize crew ran the ship alongside another British trading ship, the Ganges', off Sumatra, "fired two broadsides, and boarded her." Captain Smith was lucky: the Margaret was handed back to him, presumably because the ship and cargo were less valuable than the Ganges, and the prize crew was not large enough to take over two ships. (5) Captain Smith (no initial given in PG) soon departed from Penang with the Margaret for the eastward. The return was not reported but the ship departed again to the eastward two months later, commanded by "D. Smyth." There is no other reference to a country trader called R. Smith at this time, and there can be very little doubt that there was only one Captain Smith in command of the Margaret, especially given the vagaries of proofreading of the Gazette, or possibly the editor's poor handwriting when writing notes for publication. These voyages of the Margaret provide the first clues so far uncovered about Daniel Smith's association with Penang, and identification becomes certain from later references to Capt. "D. Smith," "D'l Smith" and, of course, "Daniel Smith." (6) The Gazette reported arrivals and departures of more than one vessel called Margaret at the end of 1808 and in 1809, but none was commanded by Capt. Smith, who had by then moved on. A "Captain Smyth"--probably Daniel--was a passenger on the Clyde, which arrived in Penang from Malacca at the end of March 1809.
Daniel Smith's next command was the Mary (Table 1). As with the Margaret, there was more than one Mary in the region and Smith may have commanded this vessel earlier than in the period covered here, because on 12 November 1807 the Calcutta Gazette (CG 48/1237, Supplement: 12 Nov 1807) listed "Capt. Smyth of the Mary, belonging to Calcutta" as one of those who had not collected letters that had been in the Calcutta General Office since 1 January 1807. This possibility aside, the Mary that Smith commanded after the Margaret must have been the vessel based at Penang that, commanded by Capt. A. Robertson, had made several voyages to the eastward and one to Calcutta in 1807-8. Soon after returning to Penang in December 1808, the Mary was advertised for sale (several references in PG) but went on to Calcutta, still for sale (CG 50/1299:21 Jan 1809). Robertson and Smith occupied two houses in Penang that in July 1809 were advertised to let by Carnegy & Co, an important Penang merchant and ship-owning house (PG 4/175: 1 Jul 1809, and some subsequent issues). Robertson does not reappear in the Prince of Wales Island Government Gazette, (7) but Daniel Smith departed with the Mary for India and, following the cessation of hostilities between Britain and Spain, went to Manila. Afterwards, the Mary was missing, and it was learned in Penang early in 1810 that during the return voyage in November 1809 she had been captured by a French privateer at the entrance of the Straits of Malacca. Shortly after the Mary was captured the privateer captured a Portuguese-owned trading vessel, the Ovidor Pereira, also en route from Manila and carrying 400,000 Spanish dollars. The vessels were dispatched to Mauritius and the officers and crews were put ashore at their request on Dutch-controlled Madura in December 1809. They remained there or on the mainland of Java on parole for six months, well treated by the Dutch. Marshal Daendels, Governor-General of Java, then gave them permission to leave, so they chartered an "Arab ketch" and returned to Malacca, from where Daniel Smith returned to Penang on an EIC brig, the Mar)' Anne. Smith had in his possession a letter from Daendels to Rear- Admiral Drury, the British naval commander in the East Indies (,Straits Settlement Factory Records, letter from Farquhar in Malacca to Clubley in Penang, 9 July 1810). Despite his detention, Captain Smith was again lucky not to join the many British personnel who were held on Mauritius. Its capture by the British in December 1810 removed the French naval threats, and "restored to the service of their country 2000 seamen and soldiers, confined in the enemy's prisons" (Milburn 1811, Vol. 2:567).
Trade with Sambas and Pontianak: Captain Smith on the Tweed
Daniel Smith very soon went back to sea. In August 1810 he took over command of the brig Tweed, which belonged to Carnegy & Co and had shuttled between Penang and various ports to the eastward for at least four years (many records in PC,). This pattern continued under Smith's command (Table I). The Tweed left Penang in mid-August, returning via Malacca two...
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