A few days after that, the news reached Malacca
that the English were going to Java to fight.
About two or three months after we heard that
news, suddenly Mr Raffles came to Malacca
with his wife, and with an English secretary,
named Mr Merlin, and also a Malay secretary
named Ibrahim, born of Tamil blood at Penang.
Mr Raffles remained at Malacca, living at the
village of Bandar Hilir, on the plantation of the
son of the Captain China, named Baba Cheng
Lan. He brought with him many beautiful
things of European manufacture, such as many
kinds of boxes, and pistols, and expensive satin
cloth, and muslins with gold embroidery, and
many kinds of implements which people had
never seen, and fine broadcloth of many kinds,
and beautiful clocks, and paper for letters to
the Malay princes, ornamented with gold and
silver and besides that many things for presents
to the Malay princes.
One day his secretary, named Ibrahim, came
to my house, and sat talking, saying that Mr
Raffles wanted a Malay writer who had good
handwriting, and also that he wanted to buy
Malay books and histories of olden times, and
anyone who had such could bring them to
his plantation at Bandar Hilir. I had an uncle,
named Ismail Lebai, whose handwriting was
very good, and also his younger brother named
Mohammed Latif; these two men he engaged
as writers. The next day he came again to ask
for a specimen of my writing, and when I had
written it, he took it to Mr Raffles, and that
very afternoon one of his policemen came to
call me. So I went, and he said, “Write these
letters into the book.” A Malacca man named
Tambi Ahmad bin Nina Merikan was working
with me. We had to write all kinds of things,
copying histories, writing letters, and writing
about Malay idioms, and poetry, etc.; and each
of us had his own work.
Hikayat Abdullah, or The Story of Abdullah, recounts the life of Malacca-
born Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir: multilingual teacher, interpreter, writer,
and father of modern Malay literature. Penned between 1840 and 1843,
his autobiography’s colloquial writing style provides a glimpse of key
happenings in the 19th-century Straits SettlementsMr Raffles Comes to Malacca
COLONIAL DAYS
literature
Mr Raffles’ appearance was as follows: I
noticed he was of medium height, neither
tall nor short, and neither fat nor thin; he
had a broad forehead, a sign of high purpose;
his head was round, prominent in front, a
sign of intelligence; his hair was brown, a
sign of courage; he had big ears, a sign of
close attention; he had thick eyebrows, and
his left eye had a slight squint; his nose was
prominent, and his cheeks somewhat hollow;
his lips were thin, a sign of eloquence; and he
spoke gently; his mouth was wide, his neck
long, and the colour of his skin was not quite
white; he had a broad chest, a slender waist,
and his feet were of medium size; and when he
walked he stooped slightly.
As to his character; he seemed to me to
be always in thought. He paid people a great
deal of respect, and had a pleasant face; and
he used polite forms of address, calling people
“Sir,” and “Mister.” He treated people very
kindly, and he was open-handed to the poor;
but he knew very well how to put people to
silence. Whenever he spoke he always smiled,
and he had a great aptitude for inquiring into
things of the past. And if he had heard about
anything, he was not satisfied with a little, but
must know the whole matter. And he always
liked to live in a quiet place, and had no other
employment but writing and reading books.
[....]
One day Mr Raffles was talking with his
secretary about wishing to reply to a letter
from the King of Sambas, when all of a sudden
a Malay came bringing six durians, thinking
that Mr Raffles would want to buy them, so
he brought them into the house and stood
at the door. Mr Raffles noticed the smell of
durians, and immediately held his nose and
ran upstairs. Everyone was astonished to
see him run, not knowing that he could notText Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir
Translation William Shellabear