Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/96

84. He was the only surviving son of Benjamin Raffles, one of the oldest captains in the West Indian trade at Port London. His school education ceased at the early age of fourteen years, when he was removed from the seminary and placed as extra clerk in the East India House. He never overcame the deficiencies arising from imperfect early education. The habit of study which in after years made him remarkable for his attainments was due toutilizing the moments which he described as "stolen" either before office hours or after them in the evening.

In 1805 the Court of Directors determined to make an establishment at Penang, a small island on the west coast of the Malacca Peninsula. Raffles was appointed assistant secretary to Sir Hugh Inglis, the representative of the Court of Directors in the East India Board. He was at this time but twenty-four years of age. In 1811—namely, when he was thirty years of age—he was appointed by the directors agent to the governor-general. He suggested to the Indian Government the conquest of Java, and after this was accomplished in 1811 he was appointed lieutenant-governor.

The Spice Islands, so called because they yielded cloves, nutmeg, coriander, mace, ginger, pepper, and cinnamon, were so important to Europe that their possession was eagerly sought for by the maritime powers. As condiments the demand for many of the spices is much less now than formerly was the case. The esteem in which ginger and pepper especially are yet held is low in comparison with that entertained in the period from the fifteenth to the beginning of the present century. Are the relatively few dishes into which these spices enter to be regarded as survivals of