Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrai9101882roya).pdf/326

 A few years after re-occupying Malacca, a small force of Sepoys had to proceed against Naning, the interior district of Malacca, in which Dutch sovereignty had apparently never been fully admitted. Our first expedition (1831) failed; the second (1832) succeeded. In 1833 a Treaty was made, settling the south-east boundary of the Settlement as at present. There has been no disturbance in any part of Malacca since the "Naning War."

When Malacca was taken possession of by the Portngnese in 1511, it was one of the grand entrepôts for the commerce of the East, and it so continued till the close of the 16th century; but as the Portuguese and other European nations pushed further to the East, in the Archipelago and neighbouring countries, the trade of Malacca gradually declined; and the place ceased to be of much consequence as a collecting centre, except for the trade of the Malayan Peninsula and the Island of Sumatra. This trade it retained, under Dutch rule, till the establishment of Penang in 1786; when, in the course of a few years, it became, what it has ever since been, a place of no commercial importance, but possessing some agricultural resources. Penang soon acquired most of the trade of the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, and other places in the Archipelago, not reduced to mercantile subjection by the Dutch; but soon after Singapore was established, Penang in its turn declined in importance, the greater part of the extensive Eastern trade being centred at Singapore. [Penang's local trade has, however, largely increased within the last few years in consequence of the increased prosperity of the extensive tin mines in Lârut, Rendong, Junk Ceylon, the tobacco plantations on the East coast of Sumatra, &c.] The opening of Singapore in 1819 may be said to have accomplished, for the time being, the ruin of Malacca's commerce. To use 's own words at the time "the intermediate Station of Malacca, although occupied "by the Dutch, has been completely nullified."

The population and agricultural development of the country districts of Malacca have, however, been very considerably increased of late years, especially since roads have been made throughout the territory. The Revenue has, in the last ten years, increased in larger proportion than that of Singapore or Penang.