Extracts from the letters of Col. Nahuijs
H.E. Miller’s 1941 translation of extracts from the letters of Lieutenant Colonel Nahuijs, a Dutch colonial official who served as Resident at Surakarta and Djoejocarta, provides a remarkably detailed first-hand account of British-administered territories in the Malay Archipelago—Bencoolen, Singapore, and Prince of Wales Island—visited in 1823–1824, written to his friend the Lieutenant-General de Kock. The letters, originally composed in Dutch and published in Breda in 1826, constitute a comparative colonial ethnography that juxtaposes Dutch and British administrative practices with unusual frankness.
Summary
The first and longest letter, dated 10 December 1823 from Bencoolen, offers an exhaustive survey of the establishment at Fort Marlborough: its physical layout, the three-tiered deportee system imported from the West Coast of India, the manghiri (debt-bonded labour) system reformed under Raffles, and the economics of nutmeg, clove, pepper, coffee, and sugar cultivation. Nahuijs is candid about the establishment’s failures—the nutmeg and clove industry had sunk 436,000 Spanish piasters in European capital by 1820 yet yielded negligible returns, the native population was sparse and “lazy,” and the climate was so lethal that Raffles had lost eight family members and all five original officials within five years (pp. 176–177, 181). He contrasts the British system of free trade, no import or export duties, and Lancaster-method native schools with what he implies to be the more extractive Dutch model, while noting that the British garrison of 400 Sepoys and 40 European artillerymen was inadequate for the territory (p. 183).
The second letter, written from Padang in April 1824, shifts to the Padri war and the diplomatic standoff between the Netherlands and Britain over Sumatra’s West Coast. Nahuijs reproduces two confidential dispatches from the Bengal Government instructing Raffles to refuse Dutch requests for military cooperation against the Padris, a policy that forced the Dutch to negotiate peace alone with the Padris of Bontjol and Allahan-Panjang (pp. 189–190). He expresses personal horror at the atrocities committed by Dutch troops against native villages, writing that he does not “crave for laurels stained by murder” (p. 190). The third and fourth letters, on Singapore and Prince of Wales Island respectively, document the rapid commercial transformation of Singapore from a pirate haven to a free port handling 1,685 vessels and trade valued at over 10 million Spanish piasters in 1823, while simultaneously arguing that the port’s actual trade was overstated and that its title of possession was legally questionable (pp. 192–199).
Throughout, Nahuijs maintains a self-conscious neutrality, acknowledging his Dutch patriotism while insisting on judging British institutions “as a World citizen” (p. 192). His assessments are consistently more favourable to British administrative methods—free trade, native education, humane treatment of deportees—than to Dutch practices, particularly the high tariff on British piece goods imposed in Java, which he calls “unstatesmanlike” and which he documents as driving trade into smuggling channels (pp. 204–205).
Key Findings
- Bencoolen’s nutmeg and clove plantations, established from 1796, had attracted 436,000 Spanish piasters in European capital by 1820 but produced only a marginal increase in plantation value (445,437 sp. piasters in 1821), with individual planters losing 70,000 and 20,000 rupees respectively; Nahuijs concludes the speculation is not viable (pp. 176–177).
- The British deportee system at Bencoolen operated on three tiers: first-class deportees received one Spanish piaster per month and full legal rights; second-class received half a piaster; third-class received only food, clothing, and tobacco; those beyond improvement were chained for hard labour. Some first-class deportees lent money to natives at 25% per month interest (pp. 173–174).
- Singapore’s trade in 1823 comprised 1,685 vessels (166 European, 1,519 native) with a total tonnage of 76,933; imports were valued at 5,653,605 sp. piasters and exports at 4,961,113, though Nahuijs estimates the true figure could be one-fourth higher and notes that many “exports” were merely goods returned to their origin (p. 197).
- The Bengal Government’s June and August 1823 dispatches to Raffles explicitly instructed that Britain should not extend its territorial holdings in Sumatra, should live in peace with the Padris, and should politely refuse Dutch requests for military cooperation, thereby forcing the Netherlands to negotiate the Padri peace treaty unilaterally (pp. 189–190).
- Prince of Wales Island ran a structural deficit of approximately 150,000 sp. piasters per annum (149,000 in 1817/18; 139,000 in 1821/22; 155,000 in 1822/23), which the Company justified on the grounds of strategic trade advantages for its China traffic (p. 202).
- The Dutch high tariff on British piece goods in Java, imposed without advance notice, directly caused the suicide of merchant Wytman, who found his cargo’s prospective profit converted into certain loss overnight, and simultaneously enriched Singapore merchants who supplied the smuggled demand (pp. 205–206).
Conclusion
Nahuijs’s definitive historical takeaway is that British colonial administration in the Malay Archipelago, despite its legal vulnerabilities (particularly the title to Singapore) and its structural deficits, was superior to the Dutch model in its treatment of native populations, its commitment to free trade, and its investment in native education. He argues that the Dutch government’s protectionist tariff policy was self-defeating, driving trade into British hands and encouraging smuggling, while the British system of low or no duties, combined with Lancaster-method schools and humane deportee regulations, attracted native commerce and goodwill in a manner that the Dutch could not match. His letters thus serve as a contemporary Dutch critique of Dutch colonial policy, written from the vantage point of direct observation of the rival system.
Context
- The letters were originally published in Dutch as Brieven over Bencoolen, Padang, het Rijk van Menangkabau, Rhiouw, Sincapoera en Poelo-Pinang (Breda, 1826); Miller’s 1941 translation in JMBRAS Vol. 19 represents a selective rendering, omitting material he judged of insufficient “British interest” (p. 184).
- Nahuijs’s account of the Padri war and the Dutch-British diplomatic correspondence provides rare primary-source evidence of the Bengal Government’s non-intervention policy, which shaped the outcome of the Menangkabau campaign and the subsequent Treaty of London (1824).