United States or Aruba ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In few parts of the country of Bencoolen or of the northern districts adjacent to it, could a tolerable level space of four hundred yards be marked out: about Soogey-lamo in particular, there is not a plain to be met with of the fourth part of that extent.
He added that his ship was the Montrose, homeward-bound, and that after touching at Bencoolen, she had been driven by the hurricane out of her course, when the island had been sighted in time to weather it, though no one on board was before aware of its existence. As the wind might change, the captain was anxious to be away as soon as possible, and the whole party therefore hurried on board.
"On my travels in the country at the back of Bencoolen I found the upas tree, about which so many ridiculous tales have been told. Some seeds must by this time have arrived in London in a packet I forwarded to Mr. Aiton at Kew. The poison is certainly deleterious, but not in so terrific a degree as has been represented. Some of it in an inspissated state you will receive by an early opportunity.
Leaving Bencoolen on the 17th of August, in the Perseverance, I arrived at Penang on the 27th, where I was agreeably surprized to meet my late chief mate Mr. Robson, who, along with the Lascars, had landed at Ceram. They reached Amboyna in safety, where they were received by the Dutch governor, Mr. Cranstoun, with a humanity and benevolence that reflect honor on his character.
The last time I saw him, he was very near his end, and spoke of his death as calmly and tranquilly as if he had lived the purest life imaginable. He is long since in his grave, and his family has sunk into insignificance. The country round Bencoolen is, with the exception of the spice-plantations, covered with a thick forest.
Several instances of this kind took place in 1829, within my certain knowledge. I have frequently heard it said, "Go where you will, you are sure to find a rat and a Scotchman." My having visited Bencoolen enables me to contradict this aphorism; for I there found abundance of rats, one Englishman, and not a single Scot.
This game is called by the Malays sipak raga, or, in the dialect of Bencoolen, chipak rago, and is played by a large party standing in an extended circle, who endeavour to keep up the ball by striking it either perpendicularly, in order to receive it again, or obliquely to some other person of the company, with the foot or the hand, the heel or the toe, the knee, the shoulder, the head, or with any other part of the body; the merit appearing to consist in producing the effect in the least obvious or most whimsical manner; and in this sport many of them attain an extraordinary degree of expertness.
He was appointed to the government of Bencoolen, with the title of Lieutenant-Governor of Fort Marlborough, and it is in this capacity that he signed his Singapore proclamations. It appears, however, that he was in some way commissioned by the Home Government to exercise a general supervision over British interests in the further East.
Broff's own words: The acquisition of the nutmeg and clove plants became an object of my solicitude the moment I received by Captain Newcombe, of his Majesty's ship Orpheus, the news of the surrender of the islands where they are produced; being convinced, from the information I had received, that the country in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen, situated as it is in the same latitude with the Moluccas, exposed to the same periodical winds, and possessing the same kind of soil, would prove congenial to their culture.
I. That by an act passed in 1773 it was expressly ordered and provided, "that it should not be lawful for any President and Council of Madras, Bombay, or Bencoolen, for the time being, to make any orders for commencing hostilities, or declaring or making war, against any Indian princes or powers, or for negotiating or concluding any treaty of peace, or other treaty, with any such Indian princes or powers, without the consent and approbation of the Governor-General and Council first had and obtained, except in such cases of imminent necessity as would render it dangerous to postpone such hostilities or treaties until the orders from the Governor-General and Council might arrive."
Word Of The Day