Malacca in 1824: an eye-witness account
Abstract
During his circumnavigation of the globe in 1824–1826, French Captain Hyacinthe de Bougainville visited Malacca in 1824. In his official journal of the voyage, translated here for the first time, he describes the town of Malacca and discusses the transfer of Malacca from the Dutch to the English, the decline in Malacca’s trade following the establishment of a British settlement at Singapore, and English dominance of the Malacca Strait.
The translation presented here was prepared by Colin Dyer based on Baron Hyacinthe de Bougainville (1837), Journal de la navigation autour du globe de “La Thetis” et de “L’Esperance” pendant les annees 1824, 1825, et 1826, 2 vols, Paris: A. Bertrand.
Summary
This article presents a complete, unedited English translation of the passage in which French Captain Hyacinthe de Bougainville recorded his visit to Malacca in August 1824, drawn from his official journal of the circumnavigation aboard the frigate La Thetis and corvette L’Esperance (1824–1826). Bougainville, son of the famous explorer Louis de Bougainville, arrived on 22 August after a storm that had severely damaged his ships near Penang, and remained at anchor until 26 August (pp. 132–133). The translation, prepared by Colin Dyer, is offered as a primary-source resource without editorial commentary or argument (p. 132).
Bougainville’s account captures Malacca at a precise historical juncture: weeks before the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 formally transferred the settlement from Dutch to British control. He observed a town whose commercial life had been effectively destroyed by the rise of Singapore, whose physical fabric bore no trace of its Portuguese past, and whose population was composed of Malays, Chinese, and a small community of Portuguese-descended Catholics known as Seranguis (pp. 134–136). His description of the town’s “delightfully rural aspect” and the absence of any ramparts or old buildings stands in stark contrast to its former reputation as a contested imperial prize (p. 135).
The passage also provides a rare French naval perspective on the strategic logic of the Anglo-Dutch exchange, which Bougainville judged “equally advantageous for both nations”: the British secured unimpeded command of the Strait for their China trade, while the Dutch obtained Belitung Island to protect their Bangka tin mines and eliminated the anxiety of a British presence on Sumatra’s east coast (p. 134).
Key Findings
- Malacca’s trade was “absolutely non-existent” by August 1824, despite Resident Vanson’s removal of the import duties the English had imposed during their occupation; the new settlement at Singapore had “finally ruined this trading-post” (p. 134).
- Only three merchant ships— all Dutch—were at anchor during Bougainville’s stay, and several vessels passed through the strait without stopping, a marked change from earlier practice (p. 134).
- No physical trace of the Portuguese town remained: “Buildings, ramparts: everything has gone! Time has destroyed some, and the English…have razed the others to the ground” (p. 135).
- The town and territory population in 1817 was approximately 35,000, of whom the town of Malacca itself held just over half; the Malays constituted the greatest part of the population (p. 136).
- The Seranguis (Portuguese-descended Catholics) were the only community in the peninsula still observing Roman Catholic rites, while all new conversions were to the Anglican faith (p. 136).
- The Anglican mission at the western end of town operated a printing works producing Bibles in multiple languages, and Chinese craftsmen were sculpting wooden type for sacred texts in their own language (p. 136).
Conclusion
Bougainville’s definitive historical takeaway is that Malacca, “deprived of its importance, its trade and its riches…should renounce forever the advantages it once enjoyed” (p. 135). He frames the town’s decline not as a tragedy but as a natural consequence of commercial geography: Singapore and Penang had absorbed the traffic that once made Malacca indispensable, leaving behind a quiet, fertile, and “delightfully rural” settlement whose inhabitants had “much more to thank Providence for than to complain about” (p. 135).
Context
- The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, which Bougainville describes as imminent during his visit, was completed by the end of that year; the British subsequently established the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore in 1826 (p. 134, n. 2).
- Bougainville’s journal was published in 1837 “by order of the King”; the present translation is drawn from volume 1, pages 124–133 of the original two-volume Paris edition (pp. 132, 137).