Editor's Note

In 1878, when the first issue of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society appeared, British administration in the peninsula was new, and one of the first tasks of officials posted to the Malay states was to explore the territories where they served. Early issues of the journal contained reports prepared by colonial officials on the history, geography and society of the areas where they served. These reports preserve significant details that would otherwise be lost. Surviving Colonial Office files in London and in the Malaysian National Archives contain reports on a large number of trips undertaken by colonial officials, and some of the more substantial were published in the journal, including the following:

W. E. Maxwell, A Journey on foot to the Patani frontier in 1876, (1882): 1-67.

F.A. Swettenham, Journal kept during a journey across the Malay Peninsula, JSBRAS 15 (1885): 1-37.

L. Wray, Journal of a collecting expedition to the mountain of Batang Padang, Perak, JSBRAS 21 (1890): 123-65.

The present issue of JMBRAS contains an account of a journey undertaken in 1888 by C. F. Bozzolo, an official employed by the recently-established colonial administration of Perak, who travelled overland from Upper Perak to Kelantan, a territory then under Siamese control. He returned through what is now the border zone between Thailand and Malaysia. Bozzolo's account, which was printed for internal circulation but not published, anticipates discussions that eventually led to the 1909 treaty transferring the states of Trengganu, Kelantan, Perlis and Kedah from Siamese to British control, while leaving several small Malay states that once formed part of the Kingdom of Patani under Siamese rule. In addition, it reveals details about the political and economic situation in Kelantan, and about largely autonomous Chinese mining communities operating in the border zone.

Paul H Kratoska
Editor, JMBRAS