A brief account of several countries surrounding Prince of Wales’s Island with their production. Recd. from Captain Leight {sic} Enclosed in Lord Cornwallis’s letter to Mr. Dundas, dated 7th January, 1789.
This is a brief geographical and commercial account of the countries surrounding Prince of Wales’s Island (Penang), received from Captain Francis Light and enclosed in Lord Cornwallis’s letter to Mr. Dundas, dated 7 January 1789. It was communicated to the Journal by C. E. Wurtzburg (p. 123).
Summary
The document provides a concise survey of approximately twenty ports, rivers, and territories around the Strait of Malacca, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, noting for each their political status, principal produce, and trade connections. Entries cover Siam, Chantebon, Chia, Sangora, Pattany, Ligore, Tringano, Pahang, Jahore, Rheo, Andiagery, Siak, Battubar, Langkatt, Achee Pedir, Acheen, Salang, Queda, Pirac, Salengore, Malacca, Mergui and Tavoy, Pallamban, Pontiano, Mompava, and Sacadanea (pp. 123–126).
The account reflects the commercial and strategic interests of the British East India Company in the late 1780s, recording annual export values (e.g., Achee Pedir’s 4–500,000 Spanish dollars in pepper and betel-nut; Pallamban’s 40,000 peculs of tin), Dutch factory locations, and the political disruptions caused by Burmese invasions and Siamese conquests (pp. 123–126).