PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TILL CO. 882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Sir,
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Inclosure 20 in No. 78.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Singapore, January 19, 1874.
IN reference to your letters of the 17th and 22nd November and 17th December, as well as of the 10th instant, having reference to the late case of piracy at Merib near the mouth of the Langat river, I have the honour to request you will be so good as to endea- vour to obtain information on the following points
1. At what part of the river is Merib ?
2. Which is the fort or stockade to which the survivor swam?
3. Who is in charge of that stockade, and who is supposed to hold it, Tunku Dia Oodin or the Sultan ?
4. Why has not Ab Kim, the Chinaman, been examined?
5. Who is Rajah Alang?
6. Cannot the Bugis boatmen be procured ?
7. Where was the Sultan or Yeam Tuan when the survivor was taken to him by the
Bugis?
1
8. Who is Marsat (the headman), who sent him to the Yeam Tuan ?
9. Who is Mat Syed, to whose shop he was taken?
10. Who took the news to Malacca, a man from Mat Syed's shop, and where is he? 11. Where is the survivor's uncle, who went and fetched him!
Much fuller information should be furnished in this case, and more detail should be procured before the trial, as the present evidence is very meagre, but apparently could be easily supported.
I am to request that you will make the necessary inquiries and let me have the information now asked for as soon as possible.
If
you read over the depositions you will easily notice the points to which I allude,
The Hon. the Lieutenant-Governor,
Sir,
Malacca.
I have, &c.
J. W. W. BIRCH, Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements.
(Signed)
Inclosure 21 in No. 78.
Lieutenant-Governor's Office, Malacca, January 30, 1874.
WITH reference to your letter of 19th instant, forwarding certain questions relative to the case of piracy at the mouth of the Langkat river, I have the honour to return the answers numbered categorically.
1. Merib is a small river or creek about one mile southward from the mouth of the Langkat river.
2. The fort referred to is at the mouth of the Langat river.
3. Tunku Alang (Rajah Yacob) the third son of the Sultan, was in charge of the stockade.
4. Ah Kim is at Campong, Bandore, at Langat; he has, I believe, turned Mohamedan, and is now called Mahomed.
5. Rajah Alang is the Sultan's third son.
6. The Bugis boatmen are traders, believed to be Dutch subjects. Their place of resider.ce is not known.
7. The Sultan was at his house at Campong Bandore; he was sleeping when the Bugis took the survivor to his house. The Bugis then took the lad to Dato Bandore, where he remained about one hour. Then the Dato told the lad that, if he knew who attacked the boat he must not inform the Sultan or he would order him to be killed.
8. Marsat is Rajah Alang's headman in the stockade.
9. Mat Syed is a shopkeeper at Bandore, and is a native of Malacca.
10. Belah Isnien. He is a Malacca trader, and was at Lang at at the time the boat
was plundered, and is a great friend of Rajah Alang.
11. He is at Malacca, and trades at Langat and other Malayan States.
With regard to any further information to be obtained in this case, I would recommend that one of the Law Officers of the Crown should come to Malacca and prepare the case
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for trial. No doubt the depositions should have been much fuller, but that is a matter in which I cannot interfere.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
EDWARD W. SHAW, Lieutenant-Governor.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Singapore.
Sir,
Inclosure 22 in No. 78.
Lieutenant-Governor's Office, Malacca, January 31, 1874.
IN continuation of my letter of the 10th instant, relative to the case of piracy at the mouth of the Langat River, I have the honour to forward the inclosed copy of a state- ment made by a Chiuaman named Chow ah Yang, for the information of his Excellency the Governor.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
The Hon the Colonial Secretary, Singapore.
EDWARD W. SHAW, Lieutenant-Governor.
Inclosure 23 in No. 78.
Statement of Chow Ah Yang, residing at Langat, brother of Ah Kim, mentioned in the Langat Piracy case.
I WAS employed as salesman by my brother at Langat. My brother desires to come to Malacca, but neither Yuam Tuan nor Tunku Alang (Rajah Yacob) will allow him. My brother sent me to Malacca to inquire about some of his property which is missing. My brother and myself are both Chinese born, but be lived in Malacca five or six years. I have lived here only one year. My brother has turned Mahomedan. The property missing is as follows:-dollars, 500; gold, 9 bongkals; glang or bracelet (gold), 1 pair; guns, valued 30 dollars; 1 pedang (sword); 2 boxes containing silk and linen goods.
My brother sent these things to Malacca in the charge of Hadji Abdulraman, in the Chinese 9th moon, on the twenty-third day he left Langat. Hadji Abdulraman was detained in the river by contrary winds. They got on as far as the Qualla, and on the twenty-fifth were plundered. On the twenty-ninth day a Malay boy, about twenty years old, came to Langat, and was crying, saying that pirates had attacked him. I knew him to belong to Hadji Abdulraman's boat, but did not know his name. I beg for assistance from Government to get my brother from Langat.
Made before me, (Signed)
E. E. ISEMONGER, J.P.
Malacca, January 30, 1874.
(Confidential.)
(Signed)
Inclosure 24 in No. 78.
CHEOW AH YANG.
Sir,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Singapore, February 3, 1874. I AM directed by the Governor to forward to you a copy of a letter that he has addressed to Admiral Sir C. Shadwell, and to request that you will at once put on board Her Majesty's ship "Rinaldo" all the pirates in question, for whose delivery I now send
a warrant.
I am to request that you will also send all the witnesses who gave evidence before the Magistrate, as well as the Chinaman Chow ah Yang, as well as Belal Isnien, Mat Syed, and the lad's uncle, if they are at Malacca; or, if not, be so good as to give the captain of the "Rinaldo" a letter to the Attorney-General; explaining all you can ascertain about them.
Should you be aware of any other evidence, or should any more information turn up,
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