Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait121878roya).pdf/241

 established more than four months every one is comfortably housed, provisions are in abundance, the Troops healthy, and every thing bears the appearance of content and abundance. I am sure you will wish me success, and I will therefore only add that if ny plans are confirmed at home, it is my intention to make this my principal residence, and to devote the remaining years of my residence in the East, to the advancement of a Colony which in every way in which it can be viewed bids fair to be one of the most important, and at the same time one of the least expensive and troublesome, that we possess. Our object is not territory but trade, a great commercial Emporium, and a fulcrum whence we may extend our influence politically, as circumstances may hereafter require. By taking immediate possession we put a negative to the Dutch claim of exclusion, and at the same time revive the drooping confidence of our allies and friends; one Free Port in these Seas must eventually destroy the spell of Dutch monopoly; and what Malta is in the West, that may Singapore become in the East.

I shall leave this for Bencoolen in a few days, where I hope to remain quietly until we hear decidedly from Europe, at all events I am not likely to quit Sumatra again for some months and then only for a short period to revisit my new Settlement. You may judge of our anxiety to return to Bencoolen when I tell you that we left our little girl there in August last, and have not since seen her. Lady Raffles, who accompanied me to Bengal and is now with me, has since presented me with a son; the circumstances preceding his birth were not very propitious; I was obliged to quit hier only four days before the event, we almost amongst strangers, no nurse in whom to confide, no experienced medical aid, for we had expected to reach Bencoolen in time, and yet all went on well, and a finer babe or one with more promise of intelligence never was behield. You will recollect that our little girl was born on the waves, under circumstances not more promising, and yet, no other and no children could have suffered less. What strange and uncertain dispensations of Providence! Good God when I think of Claremont and all the prospects which were there anticipated,--but I must check my pen.

I thank you most sincerely for your letters of the 8th December 1817 and 29th April, 1819; the former I could never acknowledge till now; the latter is before me and I cannot express how much I feel indebted to you for your kind and affectionate attention. The engravings I have