Three French Accounts of Nineteenth-century Singapore and Penang
- Three French Accounts of Nineteenth-century Singapore and Penang
Penang, Singapore, Malacca, French in Southeast Asia, Auguste Vaillant, Penang, J.W. Salmond, Straits Settlements, Malaya, Henri de Ponchalon, Whampoa, Paul Doumer
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- Penang in 1837, as seen by the French explorer Captain Auguste Vaillant
The French Captain Auguste Vaillant arrived in the Straits of Malacca in February, 1837, in the corvette La Bonite. He called briefly in Malacca, where he was received by the Resident-Councillor, Samuel Garling, and arrived in Penang on 3 March. His account describes Penang's strategic position, its population and the effect of Singapore's development on its trade. During his visit, he visited the Resident-Councillor, J. W. Salmond, who famously performed his duties from a house on Penang Hill. He also met French missionaries and saw their establishments for the young and the elderly. On 6 March, after inviting Georgetown's authorities aboard his ship to bid them farewell, he set sail for India.
Introduction
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Auguste Vaillant was 44 years of age when he arrived in Penang. He had joined the French Navy at an early age, and had served during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1836, he was given command of a circumglobal expedition and, on 6 February of that year, set out from Toulon in the 800-ton corvette La Bonite.
His formal instructions were set out in a letter from the Minister for the Navy, the Baron Duperré, dated 28 December 1836, and they specifically mentioned Penang. After leaving Toulon he was to visit the Canary Islands and then Rio de Janeiro before going around Cape Horn and arriving in Valparaiso. From there he was to go to Peru and from there cross the Pacific to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), then to the Philippines and Macao before arriving in Vietnam. From Vietnam he was to sail to Singapore at the southern end of the Malacca Strait. [End Page 98] "As you go along the Malacca Strait", Duperré had written, "you will stop, if the occasion presents itself, either at Malacca, or especially at the beautiful English settlement of Pulo Penang [sic]". Here, as elsewhere, he was to "show the flag of the King [Louis-Philippe]", which was to "be seen everywhere as a friendly flag", but Duperré added "It is important that our nation should appear everywhere as being strong and powerful".1
On the morning of 23 February 1837 (just over a year after leaving France), that La Bonite arrived "in sight of Malacca and its white houses", and "cast anchor in the harbour". "Of its former splendour", Vaillant would note later, "there remain nothing but ruins and pieces of wall from the fortifications where the inhabitants withstood so many sieges against the Malay sultans". Nonetheless, he added, "the population of Malacca is still ten thousand souls, made up of Malays, Chinese and mixed bloods, There is a garrison with four hundred sepoys, but the only whites living here are the officers of the troops and the administration employees, that is to say a Resident-Councillor, a deputy-Resident and a few minor agents". While in Malacca Vaillant was invited to dinner by the Resident-Councillor, Mr Garling, who was happy "to arrange everything" for his visitors before inviting them to a "charmante soirée dansante" the following day. Then, "on 26 February at daybreak", Vaillant set sail for Penang.2
On 3 March, the travellers ("after having admired, while sailing along the coast, the fresh countryside of Pulo-Pinang [sic] and the pretty sight of its numerous Malay villages") arrived in front of "Georges-Town [sic]", and dropped anchor a mile and a half from Fort Cornwallis".3
The extract from Vaillant's journal here begins at volume three, chapter 32, p. 326.
On his return to France, Vaillant himself did not write up his journal, but left this to "A. De Lasalle" [sic],4 a clerk employed by the naval ministry, who wrote "from various documents put at his disposal".5 For this reason, Vaillant is referred to...
