The unpublished Rennell Ms: a Borneo-Philippine journey, 1762–1763. J. Rennell. . Harrisson
Tom Harrisson’s 1966 article in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society presents an edited extract, with extensive introduction and commentary, from the original holograph manuscript of James Rennell’s journal of his 1762–63 voyage to the Sulu Islands and the northwest coast of Borneo. The article’s central thesis is that this manuscript—written by a twenty-year-old assistant surveyor who would become Surveyor-General of India and one of Britain’s foremost geographers—constitutes the first English surveyor’s account of west Borneo waters, and that its marginal pencil annotations by Alexander Dalrymple reveal a fascinating dynamic of professional rivalry, correction, and mutual dependence between two pioneering figures in the hydrography of the South China Sea.
Summary
Harrisson’s article is structured in four sections. The introduction establishes the provenance of the manuscript, which Harrisson purchased from Bernard Quaritch in London approximately ten years before publication. He identifies it as the original working copy (as opposed to a fair copy held in the British Museum) through detailed comparison of handwriting, pagination, signature style, and the placement of Dalrymple’s marginal notes. The introduction also situates the voyage within the broader context of Dalrymple’s 1759 preliminary expedition to Sulu, where he had negotiated a treaty with the Sultan and agreed to send the first English cargo to the islands.
The core of the article (Section II) reproduces Rennell’s text from pages 20 to 41 of the manuscript, covering the passage from Timoan Island to Sulu Road. This includes the first English observations of the northwest Borneo coastline, the anchorage at Abbai (modern Abai) harbour, the difficult passage through the Balambangan Bay, the transit of the Balabar Strait, and the arrival at Sulu. Rennell’s account is followed by a general description of the Sulu Islands, their inhabitants, dress, weapons, food, currency, and political condition under the Sultan.
Section III provides Harrisson’s extensive notes and commentary, which constitute the article’s greatest scholarly contribution. These notes cross-reference Rennell’s observations with Dalrymple’s later publications (particularly the 1769 Plan for Extending the Commerce and the 1792 Essay towards an Account of Sooloo), with subsequent European accounts (Marryat, Mundy, Brooke, Pretyman, Spenser St. John), and with Harrisson’s own field experience in Borneo from 1945 onward. The notes address navigational errors, ethnographic observations, the slave trade, the birds’ nest trade, the cowry currency system, and the political weakness of the Sulu Sultanate. A recurring theme is the contrast between Dalrymple’s confident but sometimes erroneous corrections and Rennell’s more careful but occasionally mistaken observations—most notably on the question of poisoned weapons, where Dalrymple emphatically writes “NEVER” in the margin but is contradicted by other contemporary sources.
Section IV is a postscript describing Harrisson’s own 1965–66 re-tracing of the Rennell-Dalrymple route by launch and aircraft, which allowed him to verify several of the manuscript’s geographical observations and to identify the first Borneo landfall as Pulau Tiga, a small island of volcanic origin that Rennell misidentified as “Mangallom.”
Key Findings
- The cargo carried on the London to Sulu was valued at £6,000 and consisted of India and European piece goods, iron, and 40 tons of cowries; it was the first English cargo ever sent to the Sulu Islands (p. 98).
- Rennell’s first Borneo landfall, which he identified as “Mangallom,” was actually Pulau Tiga, as correctly identified by Dalrymple’s marginal note; the island is a relic of mud-volcanic activity, with a C14 date of approximately 29,000 years from material underlying a lava flow at nearby Quoin Hill (pp. 111, 135).
- The Sulu Sultan’s fort at Jolo, built by the Spaniards, had two breaches through which seven men could enter abreast, a rampart of about 15 feet high composed of piles and large stones, and no ditch; the town was “incapable of making the least defence” (p. 106).
- The Sulu currency system used small pieces of coarse Chinese cloth called “Congons” (each passing for a Spanish dollar) and rice in the husk (“Padda”) for smaller change, with a “Gauton” measure of approximately 5 wine pints and a “Ragga” of ten Gautons (p. 108).
- During the voyage, three of the crew’s Lascars were attacked by Gimboes (mountaineers) near Sulu; one was killed on the spot and another died after a fortnight from three wounds; the Sultan issued a proclamation for the murderers but they were never apprehended (p. 129).
- In the first six months of 1964, 965 katis of white birds’ nests sold for $20,534 (over $200 per kati, approximately £20 per pound sterling) were collected by Dato Galpan’s people at Gomanton, making the nest trade the single most valuable commodity still in native hands (p. 134).
Conclusion
Harrisson’s definitive historical takeaway is that Rennell’s manuscript represents not merely a navigational record but a “close-up focus within a wider social, political and economic parabola” spanning several centuries, during which the major power of the Asian mainland had collapsed in the islands and no substitute system had yet filled the resulting vacuum. The voyage of 1762–63, he argues, was a pioneering entry into “that aching void of new order,” and the manuscript’s value lies in its status as reliable first-hand witness to a period of “near-chaos and extreme confusion” in the South China Sea, a condition that persisted until the advent of stronger outside controls at the turn of the twentieth century.
Context
- The primary archival source is the original holograph manuscript of Rennell’s journal, held in Borneo (purchased from Bernard Quaritch, London), compared against the fair copy in the British Museum; Dalrymple’s related publications (1769 Plan, 1792 Essay, and Natural Curiosities of Sooloo) are also drawn upon extensively.
- The article’s historiographical contribution lies in its demonstration that Rennell was the first English surveyor to record the west Borneo coastline, predating James Brooke’s 1839 arrival by 77 years, and in its use of the Dalrymple marginalia as a primary source for understanding the professional dynamics and geographical debates of the period.