Clear night

So glad to see a clear night sky at 10.52pm tonight. Moon had just attained its first quarter not more than 16 minutes earlier. And directly above it, a brilliant Jupiter. Here's how the moon and Jupiter look like through my camera.

Campaign observations

If not for the occasional party flags fluttering by the roadside, I would be hard put to remember that there is a nationwide general election (GE15 or PRU15) going on right now. I mean, the campaigning is so lowkey, not only in Bukit Mertajam where I stay but my friends tell me that it is generally the same in other parts of Penang. There's really no excitement here. Everybody already expects the Pakatan Harapan party to sweep 11 of the 13 parliamentary seats at stake in Penang. And it's not like they will be winning these seats for the first time. No, they are simply defending their tenure although there may be some different faces in some of the seats. 

I see a lot of Barisan Nasional flags and banners in Bukit Mertajam and a reasonable number of Perikanan Perikatan Nasional flags too. But Pakatan Harapan flags? Only a handful, as far as I could see. Possibly outnumbered 50-1 by the other two parties combined. But it should be a foregone conclusion. Steven Sim, the incumbent Parliamentarian, should win hands down come polling day this Saturday. From his facebook page comes this explanation (the translation is mine, but not totally):

From the first day of PRU I've committed not to spend big money. This was my promise to the people. The money donated for the PRU campaign, I use as minimally as possible, the rest I make a fund to help the people 🤝🏻.

Every day I'm with the photocopying volunteer team to fold leaflets at the office. Yes, they're not printed in colour at any printing shop. We photocopy them in black and white, make as many as we use so that there is no wastage. It's JIT, just-in-time. The photocopier is efficient, economical and saves cost by more than 90% 👍🏻.

Our crooked T-shirts have become a hot item. We print them ourselves at the office and at home. These few days, friends everywhere had called to buy these T-shirts 😁. When I tell them the website jalanteruih.com they thought that they could buy it there, but we don't sell there either. Instead, we teach how to print the T-shirts ourselves 😅. Print for yourself, print with the kids at home, make it a family activity; we struggle for their generation. If you can still afford it, print the T-shirts for distribution to your friends 👍🏻. Two pieces or 10 pieces, it doesn't matter. We make them together and tomorrow we can proudly tell our grandchildren that this crooked T-shirt was a sign of the struggle of Malaysians during PRU15.

Politics is not the game of the rich. Politics is the struggle of the common people. This is our battlefield, let us make it happen. The most important thing is to walk first 🚶🏻.

By the way, I was contacted by a DAP representative to enquire whether I could help out as a volunteer during polling day as I had done so during the last two general elections. But alas, I told her that although the spirit was still willing, the flesh was not. I'm recovering from an injury to my leg and would like to recuperate as much as I can without reaggravating the pain in the joint again.

 

Ghulam Sarwar Yousof, RIP

I am utterly devastated to learn of the death yesterday of Prof Dr Ghulam Sarwar Yousof, a respected figure in academia, a literary giant and a cultural behemoth. The world's foremost authority on the makyong. Describing his life's work here would demand thousands upon thousands of words beyond my abilities. I shall confine myself to saying only what I know best. 

It is very little known, but Ghulam Sarwar was the founding secretary of Penang Chess Association. It seemed like only yesterday but it had been 50 years since I first met him at the Penang Public Library in Farquhar Street where he was expounding to a group of chess enthusiasts why the Penang Chess Association should be formed. That was in March 1972. In the months that followed the founding, we exchanged heated letters in public through the Straits Echo newspaper; we were in disagreement how student chess in Penang should be progressing. Later in the year, he left for Hawai'i to pursue his Doctorate. After an illustrious career which took him around the world, he based himself in Kuala Lumpur but last month, he returned to stay in Penang. "For good," he said. 

I was in communication with him again about 10 years ago, this time privately and in silent awe of his stature, and more lately, two months back. I was in the midst of preparing him an invitation to the Association's 50th anniversary next month when news came of his demise. I was so looking forward to meeting him again in December....

Rest in peace, Ghulam Sarwar. Without a doubt, the Penang chess community owes you its present success.

 

The eclipsed moon

After weeks of not seeing the moon due to immensely cloudy skies and rainy evenings, yesterday proved to be different. At about midnight, the clouds cleared up enough around the moon to allow me to take some quick snapshots of its fullness on my camera. But it was just too bad that I wasn't able to see the moon much earlier in the evening. It would have been a wonder to see the totally eclipsed moon rise in the eastern sky. But I was lucky to have caught the event streamed live through YouTube by the people in Semporna, East Malaysia. I managed to tune into their livestream minutes before the moon moved totally into the Earth's shadow.

The 99.9-percent full moon photographed from my house at 12.10am

The totally eclipsed full moon at 6.20pm as seen from Semporna in East Malaysia. The dark streaks were light wisps of clouds moving in Earth's atmosphere 

History of Penang, part four

From the Straits Echo of 27 August 1903, here is the fourth instalment of the newspaper's History of Penang. The first three parts of this story are available here: Part One | Part Two | Part Three.

HISTORY OF PENANG.
(Specially written for the Straits Echo.)

CONTINUED FROM LAST TUESDAY)

Arabs, and descendants of Arabs, form another part of the community. There are but few families; they have a great number of dependents, they are strict Mahomedans, proud and unwilling to yield to any au­thority, they trade with all countries, and among the Malays with particular privileges. They are good friends and dangerous enemies.

The Buggesses, though few, inhabit here at present, yet as they come annually to trade and remain two or three months on shore to the number of one or two thousand, they are, during their residence, a part of our society. They are Mahomedans, a proud, warlike, independent people, easily irritated, and prone to revenge. Their vessels are always well provided with arms, which they use with dexterity and vigor. They are the best merchants among the Eastern Islands. They are better governed by patient and mild exhortation than by force. If they commit a trespass they are easily made sensible, and may be persuaded to render satisfaction; but they reluctantly yield to stern authority. They require to be carefully watched, and cautiously ruled. The great value of their cargoes, either in bullion or goods, with quantities of opium and piece goods they export, make their arrival much wished for by all mercantile people.

The Malays, comprehending a great variety of people from Queda, through the Malay Peninsula, the Islands, Sumatra and Java, form another considerable part of our inhabitants. They are for the most part indigent, ignorant of arts, manufactures, or trade: they are employed in cutting down woods, at which they are both expert and laborious, and in cultivating paddy. They may be divided into two orders, the one of husbandmen, who are quiet and inoffensive, and easily ruled. They are capable of no great exertions, but content themselves with planting paddy, sugarcane and a few fruit trees, the cultivation of which does not require much labour. The other order is employed in navigating prows. They are, in general, almost without exception, a bad description of people, addicted to smoking opium, gaming, and other vices; to rob and assassinate is only shameful when they fail of success. Ten or fifteen men will live in a small prow (to all appearance not large enough for six men). For months they will skulk in bays and rivers, where there are no inhabitants, watching for the unwary traders; they spend their whole time in sloth, and indolence, subsisting upon roots, wild yams and fish, and are only roused by the appearance of plunder, which, when they have obtained it, they return home, or to some other port, to spend it. Here they are obliged to part with a share of their plunder to some chief, under whose protection they squander the remainder, and again proceed in quest of new adventure. The feudal government of the Malays encourage these pirates. Every chief is desirous of procuring many desperate fellows to bring him in plunder and execute his revengeful purposes.

The remainder of our people are composed of the Honorable Company's Servants, and their servants, with a few European settlers, which, with the people from the shipping, constitutes an assembly of about twenty-five thousand souls who are always here. 

To keep these several tribes in peace, settle their disputes, and prevent their destroying each other, it is necessary that a person should attend daily to receive and adjust their several complaints, which, if of a serious nature, or such as will admit of immediate relief, may be referred as follows:--

If of mercantile disputers, to a Court of Arbitration, composed of one of the Honorable Company's servants and four inhabi­tants.

If of territorial controversies, to the Board of Plantations. 

If of wilful trespass, breach of peace, or personal injury, to the General Court.

Where the parties are strangers, and on the point of leaving the island, a General Court, of any three of the officers, may be summoned to decide upon the complaint.

A regular form of administering Justice, is necessary, for the peace and welfare of the Society, and for the honour of the nation who granted them protection. It is likewise improper that the Superintendent should have it in his power to exercise an arbitrary judgment upon persons and things; whether this judgment is iniquitous or not the mode is still arbitrary and disagreeable to Society.

Begging that the subject of this letter may be taken into early consideration,

I have etc.,

(Sd.) Francis Light.

Fort Cornwallis, 25th January, 1794. 

The above is the last document in the records bearing the honoured signature of Francis Light. 

In response to this letter the Governor-General, Sir John Shore, (afterwards Lord Teignmouth) transmitted certain regulations some years later. 

When the settlement was founded, the Colonists were surprised at the general absence of fever, but in the year following the superintendent was struck down with a malarial attack, which never appears to have left him, for his correspondence shows that he was subject to these attacks, the last of which terminated fatally at one o'clock in the morning of the 21st October 1794, to the great grief of the whole Island. There is no record of the event to be found, nor do the records, as they now exist, offer any testimony to the energy and ability with which he grappled with all the difficulties attendant on the formation of a settlement on an almost uninhabited Island, overrun with thick jungly vegetation. 

In the middle of the Protestant Cemetery, Northam Road, may be seen a plain plastered brick tomb, into the top of which is let a cracked marble slab on which is the following weather-worn and almost illegible inscription:—

The word "British” appears to have been put in place of another, probably “English," which is the word used in the tablet in the memorial tablet let into the wall of the canopy in St. George's Church-yard erected many years later by Robert Grieve Scott, descendant of the first settler.

His loss was keenly felt by the native population, whom his well-known name and great popularity had attracted round him; and how well he knew the native character is shown in the foregoing letter wherein he describes that of each class of native soil the Island. It may have been that when writing this letter Capt. Light was sensible that his life was drawing to a close, as he was urgent for the  appointment of some individual qualified to succeed him by a knowledge of the people, their language, and their customs, and insists on the necessity of training up a few officers to the local duties of the island, and it cannot be doubted that had his suggestions been carried out his successors would not have had trouble in governing the island.

There were simplicity, efficiency, and economy in the plan briefly yet ably sketched by him in his memorable letter, but neither simplicity nor economy were much studied in subsequent years either by the ruling powers in India or by the local authorities, and the simple Superintendent and his two or three assistants became a Governor-in-Council, with a large Civil Establishment and a Recorder with a costly Judicial Establishment.

Captain Light left two sons and three daughters and a wife to mourn his loss. His will is interesting as showing the care he took to arrange his affairs. To his relict, Martina Rozells, he left in life-rent "the paddy fields situated in Nibbon plain and  containing one hundred orlongs of land or thereabouts, together with the houses, plantations, implements of husbandry and forty buffaloes ***** the pepper gardens with my garden house, plantations, and all the land by me cleared in that part of the  island called Suffolk, as also the pepper garden and plantation forming by Chee Hong in Orange valley **** I give and bequeath unto the said Martina Rozells my Bungalow in George Town, with remainder to the children." His Malay bonds he willed to be delivered to his executors “to be by them recovered, and the money given to Martina, but I request the debtors may not be distressed for payment if their circumstances below." He gave his Batta slaves the choice of freedom, on payment of fifty dollars: gave liberty to several, but “not Esan she remains with Martina,” and remembered his English friends and executors, William Fairlie, of Calcutta, the "Prince of Indian Merchants," who acted as guardian to his children at Calcutta: James Scott and Thomas Pegou, with a “gold gurglet and bason." a "silver gurglet and bason" and a "watch, "respectively.

His eldest son, William Light, was sent to England at an early age, to the care of George Doughty Esq., High Sheriff of Suffolk, and became afterwards Colonel Light, having distinguished himself greatly in the Peninsular War, where he was present in forty-three actions of the Campaign and ending in becoming Aide-de-Camp to Lord Wellington “the Great Duke." He was the first Surveyor-General of South Australia and founder of the City of Adelaide where a monument of freestone, at a cost of £466, was erected over his tomb by his grateful fellow-pioneer colo­nists. and in 1876 the following inscription was placed on it:

His memory, however, is not forgotten, for a picturesque ceremony takes place on the election of each Mayor of Adelaide when the "Memory of Colonel Light” is solemnly pledged in Colonial wine in a silver cup.

His second son Francis Lanoon Light afterwards became Resident of Muntok in Banka when the British held that Island, with Java and Sumatra. He married a Javanese lady Charlotte Arboni, and had two sons (1) William Light, and (2) Robert Rollo Light— a godson of Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie, one of the conquerors of Java.

The latter was father of Francis Light, now of Ayer Kuning, Perak, and of several daughters. Lanoon Light died at Penang October 5th 1823, and had a daughter, Sarah Martinah, who married at Penang June 29th 1835, to George Matthew Koenitz of Ceylon, with issue. 

Captain Light’s eldest daughter Sarah Light married at Calcutta December 28th 1794 General James Welsh of the Madras Army, a distinguished officer who died on January 24th 1861, having published his “Military Reminiscences” (2 vols.) 1830. She died at Waltair July 24th 1839, being described as “still lovely to the end.” They had one son (who died unmarried) and six daughters.

Mary Light, the second daughter of Francis Light, married at Calcutta, March the 9th 1805, George Boyd Esq., of Katulee and Pulma, Bengal, at one timea very wealthy indigo-planter, who died on May 15th, 1856, leaving issue (with two sons who died unmarried) and six daughters.

Anne (Lukey) Light, married on October, 1809, Charles Hunter, Esq., M.D., Hon. East India Co.’s service, who died, a member of the Calcutta Medical Board May 6th, 1831. He was a son of David Hunter, of Burnside N.B.

(To be continued) 

Soapbox derby in the 70s

I came across these old pictures from a contact print. Obviously taken in the late 1970s. I was at Gurney Drive with two of my ex-colleagues from Ban Hin Lee Bank and we were taking pictures of a Scout soapbox derby. Many schools were involved and the organisers managed to close off a portion of Gurney Drive for the races. It will be almost impossible to pull this off now. At that time, I was using a Canon A1 film camera with a f1.4 50mm standard lens, not one of the multitudes of digital cameras we see now. Anyway, I noticed now that the PFS Scouts were also participating. I wonder whether they do such activities nowadays.

Fathers with erections

Every few years, I seem to come across some hilarious local instances of the English language being used awkwardly on business signboards. I remember encountering a sign in George Town that said GLASS Museum but from my point of view, the letters had been covered up partially and all I saw was ASS Museum. 

It was in 2002 that the English chess grandmaster, Nigel Short, came to Penang and I was waiting for him at the CitiTel in Penang Road. One of the outlets in the hotel was a florist bearing the name, DE'FLOWER HOUSE. Needless to say, Short and I had a good laugh seeing it. A year later when I happened to be back in this hotel, the shop's proprietor had removed the offending DE' from the sign.

About 10 years ago in Kuala Lumpur's Jalan Sultan, I was amused to see the signboard above a shop there with the name DESPOTIC. Whatever they were selling, I wasn't particularly keen to find out.

Then just last night while walking along Gurney Drive here in George Town, there was this shop that prided itself on being called DAD'S WOODS. Now, I don't know whether the owners were aware of it, maybe they are, but having a WOOD is slang. I had posted this picture on facebook but so far, nobody seemed to have caught onto this shop's unintentional(?) gaffe.

 

History of Penang, part three

From the Straits Echo of 25 August 1903, here is the third instalment of the newspaper's History of Penang. Click here for Part One and Part Two of this story.

HISTORY OF PENANG.
(Specially written for the Straits Echo.)

CONTINUED FROM 18TH AUGUST)

Capt. Light was so pleased with the success of his little expedition that he commemorated his victory by naming his second son, “Lanoon" Light,who afterwards became Resident of Muntok in Banka, when the British held that island, with Java and Sumatra.

On the 24th August, 1792, the Superintendent announced, in a despatch to the Government of Bengal, the discovery of tin at Bukit Timah. The island settlement continued to prosper very rapidly and its population increased by, leaps and bounds, the Chinese at this time numbering about 3,000.

On the 25th January, 1794, Capt. Light, always having the Settlement's interest at heart, penned an ever-memorable despatch to Sir John Shore, Governor-General of India, pointing out, interalia, that “a regular form of administering justice is necessary both for the peace and welfare of the society and for the honour of the nation who had granted them protection. It is likewise improper that the Superintendent should have it in his power to exercise an arbitrary judgment upon persons and things; whether this judgment is iniquitous or not, the mode is still arbitrary and disagreeable to society." This remarkable despatch, filling almost a ream of foolscap, showed at once the high character of the man, and the whole tone of it bore testimony to the singleness of purpose and administrative ability of a high order that characterized this great pioneer of Greater Britain.

Two circumstances appear to have been prominently brought forward in 1793 in support of the representations made to the Supreme Government, and thence to the Home authorities, for the establishment of a Court of Judicature of some kind in Prince of Wales Island. The first of these is of a civil nature, threatening to involve Captain Light in law proceedings before the Supreme Court in Calcutta. It is then described in a despatch from Bengal to the Court of Directors in May 1793, in which it is also stated that the Company's Advocate-General had been instructed to defend Captain Light. The Court,in reply, approved of the Advocate-General being so employed and stated that "the subject of a Court of Judicature of Prince of Wales' Island will be taken into early consideration." It does not appear whether the suit against Captain Light was prosecuted, nor is there any further notice of the matter to be found in available records.

Mr.Wright, father-in-law of the late Mrs. Wright, who died in 1883, aged 100 years, and who resided on the Island as a merchant, having died intestate, his effects were sold in the usual manner by Messrs. Gardyne and Lindsay, who were employed by Captain Light on that occasion, and the proceeds were divided proportionately among Mr. Wright's creditors on the island. After all the payments had been made Messrs Perreau and Palling, of Calcutta, stated to Captain Light in a letter dated 29th April, 1791, that they had taken out letters of administration from the Supreme Court for the estate of Wright, and they transmitted) to the Superintendent a Power of Attorney to act for them in recovering the property of the estate with the copy of a Bond for 20,000 rupees granted by Mr. Wright to them, observing that by virtue of their having become administrators they were entitled to payment before any of the other creditors. On receipt of the letter Capt. Light called upon Messrs Gardyne and Lindsay to send in their accounts, and he remitted the balance of cash to Messrs. Perreau and Palling. The subject then lay dormant for sometime, until, upon Mr. Gardyne going to Bengal, Messrs. Perreau and Palling claimed from him the property he had applied for according to Capt. Light's directions, and compelled him to give bail in an action to be brought against him during the next term--18th May,1793.

The other occurrence Is of a criminal nature, and relates to the murder of one European by another.It appears that a Mr. Smithers was owner of a small vessel called the Little Davy and that lie himself resided(whether permanently or temporarily is not stated) on one of the Nicobar Islands. The vessel appears to have been in charge of a man named Sudds and at anchor off Smitlfer’s place of residence. For some reason or other Smithers determined to take command of the vessel for himself,and after a few days he appears to have commenced a series of brutal severities on the man Sudds. He was about to have him tied up and flogged when Sudds seized a hammer and struck him with it on the head, causing instant death. Sudds then took command, but how the vessel was brought to Penang, or how Sudds was taken into custody, does not appear. The matter was duly enquired into on the 2nd July, 1793, at Fort Cornwallis by two military officers. Lieutenants Norman Macalister and Robert Duff, appointed for that purpose by Captain Light, and the man was found guilty of the offence. The prisoner was detained in custody until the 30th September 1793,whenhe was sent to Calcutta for trial, but was there discharged soon after, there being primarily no power in the Court to deal with him.The Advocate-General of Calcutta, who had been referred to for his opinion of the case, in a letter dated 26th September, 1793, informed the Secretary to Government of India that, apart from their regularity of the proceedings, there Was no evidence to support the charge and no law by which the well-meant directions of the Superin­tendent of Prince of Wales' Island could be supported, as far as they related to the trial or punishment of murder or any other crimes at that Island.

The full text of Captain Light's despatch, above referred to, is as follows.—

“To the Governor-General in Council, Bengal. 

“Honorable Sir—-From the present populousness of the Settlement and the daily increase of its inhabitants, circumstances repeatedly occur tending to show the necessity of establishing a more regular form of Government than that which exists at present under the sole administration of one person. From the great number of strangers, constantly coming and going, a strict police is essentially requisite. From the great diversity of inhabitants differing in religion, laws, language and customs, and constant and patient attention to their various complaints must be afforded and from the increasing acquisition of new settlers, to portion them out lands, to fix boundaries, and encourage their industry, by adminis­tering to their more urgent necessities, which of itself is a. sufficient employment for one person, a part of the Superintendent's time must be occupied.

"In the letter from your Honorable Board bearing the date 24th January 1787, in case of the removal of the Superintendent by death or otherwise it is directed that he be succeeded by the Commanding Officer of the Troops. This for a temporary relief may suffice, but as the power by this event both civil, military, or judicial, will be vested in the hands of one person, without any intermediate authority on the spot, either to control or to advise, it appears to me that if continued, especially in a commercial settlement like this, many cases would occur novel to a military officer, and disagreeable circumstances might soon arise which would; evince the absolute necessity of separating these powers. In consequence whereof if a Civil Servant be sent from the Residency he will for a considerable time be incapable of transacting the duties of this station except by means of an Interpreter, and as he must be unacquainted with the customs and manners of the people he is to govern, he will be liable to the imposition of designing people to the prejudice of the public. From these several reasons it appears to me necessary for Government to appoint a suc­cessor to the present Superintendent that he may acquire in due time a competent knowledge of the people, their language and their customs.

“Very few people residing here, excepting the Choolias were ever acquainted with European Governments. Brought  up under the Feudal Laws and customs they cannot at once change opinions that they have imbibed from their infancy. To endeavour to subject these people to our strict military law and discipline would soon depopulate the island of all the most wealthy and useful inhabitants. A mild, and at the same time, an active Government, is necessary. The inhabitants must at all times have recourse to the Chief, and as they are composed of many different nations, they are  jealous of each other, and will not submit their cause to the decision  of one whom they think is a partial administrator. The administration of Justice will therefore, for some years, continue to be a troublesome and fatiguing office, which makes it necessary that the person who is to execute the duties of it should be  acquainted with persons and circumstances before he enters upon it. Mr. Pegou has been here a long time, is well qualified as a successor in the Civil Department, but in order to have a regular train of succession and to have persons capable of executing the several trusts necessary to lie reposed in them by Government. I re­commend the following mode for your consideration.

“That the Superintendent may have three assistants, one as Assistant and Cash- keeper, one as Paymaster and Accountant, and one as Collector and Registrar of Lands and People.

“That each of these assistants should alternately act as Justice of the Peace monthly, and once a month a General Court should assemble, consisting of the Superintendent as President, two assistants, two military officers and two of the most responsible inhabitants, to try all criminal cases.

“The office of Collector may appear unnecessary where there is no landed revenue,  but the plantations, particularly pepper, are increasing so fast that it will afford employment for one person to examine and register them, previous to a tax being laid. A Board of Plantations might be established, to meet occasionally, at which this officer should preside to determine upon the making of  roads, division of the lands, the adjustment of boundaries, and the encouragement of agriculture; their determinations, when sanctioned by the Superintendent, to be carried into execution, unless  it should be so far creative of expense as to render it an object worthy to be previously reported to your Honourable Board. To execute the duties of all these departments with success and precision without more assistants I find impracticable.

“That you may be better enabled  to judge of our society I shall endeavour to give you an idea of the people who compose it.

“The Chinese constitute the most valuable part of our inhabitants. They are men, women, and children, about 3000, they possess the different trades of carpenters, masons, and smiths, are traders, shopkeepers and planters. They employ small vessels and prows and send adventurers to the surrounding countries. They are the only people of the East from whom a revenue may be raised without expense and extraordinary efforts of government.

“They are a valuable acquisition, but, speaking a language which no other people understand, they are able to form parties and combinations in the most secret manner against any regulations of Government which they disapprove, and were they as brave as intelligent, they would be dangerous subjects; but their want of courage will make them bear many impositions before they rebel. They are indefatigable in the pursuit of money, and like the Europeans they spend it in purchasing those articles which gratify their appetites. They don't wait until they have acquired a large fortune to return to their native country, but send annually a part of their profits to their families. This is so general that a poor labourer will work with double labour to acquire two or three dollars to remit to China. As soon as they acquire a little money, they obtain a wife and go on in a regular domestic mode to the end of their existence. They have every where people to teach their children, and sometimes they send males to China to complete their education. The females are always kept at home with the greatest strictness until they are married; they then enjoy greater liberty. They are excessively fond of gaming—there is no restraining them from it. This leads them into many distresses, and frequently ends  in their ruin.

“The second class of our. inhabitants consists of the Choolias, or people from the several ports on the Coast of Coromandel. The greater part of these have long been inhabitants of Queda and some of them were born there. They are all shopkeepers or coolies. About one thousand are settled here, some with families. The vessels from the Coast bring over annually 1,500 or 2,000 men, who, by traffic and various kinds of labour, obtain a few dollars with which they return to their homes and are succeeded by others.

“This is rather a drain upon the stock of the islands, but as they are subjects of the company it ultimately tends to the general good. The general, character of these people is too well-known to need any further comments excepting that those who have lived longer with the Malays are more vicious than those who come immediately, from the coast. Neither of them are worthy of much confidence or fear as subjects. 

“The Siamese and Burmans, the same in religion and customs but differing in language, form another part of our inhabitants. They are about one hundred in number. Many of them are converts to the Roman Church. They are moderately industrious and chiefly employed in cultivation.

(To be continued).

Almost new

I built my present desktop computer from scratch about nine years ago when my eyesight was better. The motherboard is a Gigabyte Z87-D3HP but I'm only using a fourth generation Intel i3 processor. I wasn't looking for anything high-end - I'm no gamer - but only a modest set-up that could satisfy my need to play audio files and view videos. No huge processing needs required. When Windows 10 was introduced in 2015, my desktop upgraded to this operating system quite seamlessly. And it went through countless automatic updates through the years. I didn't have to touch anything much. Very contented, actually.

Then at the start of last month, the desktop started developing the dreaded Microsoft blue screen (of death.) At first, the desktop rebooted with success but much later, I could stare at the blue screen for hours if I wanted to, and it would stare back at me. Arghh....there was nothing I could do but to try and instal the operating system onto the same harddisk. It worked for a while but the problem returned. I finally gave up after repeated failures.

Initially, I thought of building another desktop but then baulked at the work involved. Then I remembered that I had an unused solid-state drive (SSD) somewhere in the house. Purchased it a long time ago but I didn't find the need to open my desktop's casing. To do that, I would have to pull all the cables from the back of the motherboard and it was something I was quite reluctant to do. But here, inevitably, there was no other choice for me than to do just that!

So now, I have a SSD fixed up as my new C:/ drive and the old harddisks in the desktop have been converted into my storage devices. I had to replug all the cables one-by-one carefully and then reinstal Windows 10, the drivers and also all my essential programs. Too bad my set-up prevented me from upgrading to Windows 11; I would have done that too if I could. 

A whole mess of wires and cables inside the casing