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IV. THE PEDAS AND REMBAU LETTERS T he following letter written by Raja Ali of Pedas is of historical importance. Not only does it shed new light on the person of Raja Ali and the district of Pedas but, more importantly, it illuminates the relationship between Pedas and Rembau in the early 19th century. Written sources available on the history of Rembau and the chiefs of the ‘states’ of Johol, Sungai Ujong and Naning have been mostly based on the writings of Begbie and Newbold, who wrote what they witnessed or learned around 1831–32 and 1838–39 respectively. Historians have generally agreed that following Raja Ali’s failure to dislodge Raja Asil from his throne as the Raja of Rembau he sought temporary refuge at Sungai Nipah. But the following letter shows that as early as 1811 he was already based at Pedas, not Sungai Nipah. Newbold himself described Raja Ali’s ‘stockaded house’ in 1833, and mentioned that he was already the Yang Dipertuan Besar in 1832.1 Both the Tuhfat al-Nafis and Hikayat Johor mentioned that Pedas had been a base for the Bugis chiefs since the mid-18th century.2 In late 1756, Daeng Kemboja and Raja Haji sought refuge in Pedas after their defeat at the hands of the Dutch in Malacca when they waged war against the latter with the collaboration of the Rembau chiefs. After the 1756–57 Bugis war with the Dutch, Bugis influence in Rembau became increasingly significant, and Pedas became their point of congregation until the early 19th century. Time and again the Bugis princes congregated at Pedas. Even when the Raja Di Baroh3 (Sultan Abdul Jalil Muadzam Syah) died in Selangor in January 1761, his body was first taken to Pedas, where Daeng Kemboja was resident, and only then taken to Riau for burial. 88 1 T. J. Newbold, British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1971, Vol. 1, p. 120. 2 See Virginia Matheson Hooker, Tuhfat al-Nafis: Sejarah Melayu Islam, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur, 1991, p. 406; ‘Hikayat Johor’ in R. O. Winstedt, A History of Johore, MBRAS Reprint No. 6, Kuala Lumpur, 1979, pp. 214–216. 3 Raja of the lower lands or the land below. Raja Ali of Pedas, the author of the following letter, was himself half-Bugis. His father was Raja Haman, the brother of Sultan Ibrahim of Selangor. The ‘war’ declared by the Raja of Rembau in 1811, as mentioned in the Pedas letter, implies that the enmity between Raja Ali and the Raja of Rembau (probably his uncle Raja Asil)4 must have begun much earlier—even earlier than 1812. According to Newbold, Raja Asil was driven out of Rembau in 1812 by the penghulu and suku of the ‘state’ with the collaboration of Raja Ali.5 This early history of Negeri Sembilan is still in darkness in the sense that the absence of sources has made it almost impossible for historians to provide a clear picture. The sources provided by Western writers such as Newbold and Begbie have become invaluable because of the absence of other reliable sources. Although attempts have been made to combine both Western and Malay sources in the reconstruction of Negeri Sembilan history, generally historians have not been able to give a convincing picture of its history as, heretofore, neither the written nor oral sources were contemporary reports of any of the events. Before the discovery of the Pedas letter, nowhere in the many sources known to historians has Raja Ali been named as the Tunku Besar of Pedas. Interestingly enough, the seal6 used by Raja Ali—despite the illegibility of the inscribed words—clearly mentions the name of Sultan Abdul Jalil.7 On another seal, undated but claimed by some to be Raja Ali’s seal when he was Yang Dipertuan Besar of Rembau, the name 89 4 Begbie mentioned him as the grandfather [grand-uncle?] of Raja Ali. P. J. Begbie, The Malayan Peninsula, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1967, pp. 138–139. 5 Newbold, British Settlements, Vol. 1, p. 120. 6 Following the shape of the Minangkabau seal in Sumatra, the seals used by Pedas and Rembau are both in lotus leaf [sic] design. See Jane Drakard, A Kingdom of Words: Language and Power in Sumatra, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999, pp. 154, 163. 7 This writer has attempted to decipher the words on the seal, with great difficulty. However, the legible words inscribed...

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