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Chapter 7: Price of a Meal
- Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
- Chapter
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7 Price of a Meal On 6th April 1804, Hussein Sayed came home later than usual. He lived in a small wooden house in the maze of humble dwellings, which had grown, as the number of poor people from all ethnic backgrounds flocked to the Trankerah area in the northern part of Melaka. In the course of the eighteenth cen-tury, people – mostly Chinese and Portuguese – who earned their living from sundry work had moved into the Trankerah area and turned it into a maze of small houses. It was sort of a frontier of Melaka town, where all kinds of obnoxious elements of the local population such as poor folks suffering from infectious diseases, beggars, and the slaves who had fled away from their masters were hiding from the law enforcement authorities. Hussein Sayed, a sixty year old man, lived with his two sons, Seydu Ahmad and Mohamat Unus. In the early evening of 6th April, around seven o’clock, Hussein thought someone came into the house compound to steal his chickens, [for he heard some noise in the chicken pen behind the house.] His younger son, Mohamat Unus, went out to catch the thief. [After a little while], Mohamat Unus called out to say that he was wounded.1 Mohamat Unus’ brother, Seydu Ahmad, was returning home from a Chinese boutique at around eight o’clock and heard some noise in the chicken pen below the house so he went to investigate the matter. There was someone inside the chicken pen who was armed and attacked Seydu Ahmad. He avoided the blow but the thief escaped and Seydu Ahmad followed him and saw that there were two thieves. Meanwhile Seydu’s brother had been wounded by a thief and was lying on the ground. He had caught the thief by his neck and called for help when the thief 69 1 British Library, R 9/21/40, Trial of the Bugis Bachu on a charge of murder, 6 April 1804 – 24 October 1807, statement of Hussein Sayed, 7 April 1804, p. 16r. Foul (Murder) 1-33.qxd 2006/5/19 ⁄W⁄¨ 01:04 Page 69 stabbed him with his knife. Seydu Ahmad, who arrived on the scene called for help and caught the thief with the help of others who came in response to his calls for help.2 The inhabitants of Trankerah quarter were accustomed to frequent skirmishes and even violent crimes. The runaway slaves and other dubious characters lurking in the dark corners and alleyways were waiting for an opportunity to waylay unwary travellers abroad late at night, and to sneak into the houses hoping to snatch some food, money or valuables, or for a rendezvous with a woman. So it was not unusual for a crowd to gather around the injured young man and his family when the hue and cry was raised. Soon the news of trouble reached the law enforcement officials. They found the Moor boy Mohamat Unus’s body on the ground. The accused man had been captured by the dead boy’s brother with the help of others immediately after the crime was committed, and the culprit was handed over to the officers of justice upon their arrival on the scene of the crime.3 The man captured at the scene of the murder, Bachu, was a young man twenty three years old, born in Suria in the Bugis homeland. Bachu was one of many thousands of Bugis who were displaced as a result of political upheavals in the eastern part of the Malay Archipelago in the seventeenth century. The displaced Bugis in large numbers sought shelter in Sumatra and along the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, where they managed to acquire a degree of power culminating in effective control over the Johor-Riau kingdom. But their contest for power against the Dutch in Melaka brought about a radical reversal of fortunes when the Dutch attacked the Bugis strongholds in Selangor and Riau, forcing them to flee in 1784. Their fierce fighting and competitive commercial activities to counter the Dutch power in the Straits of Melaka led to the disintegration of the Bugis community.4 Some Bugis running away from the wrath of the Dutch sought and found shelter in the remote parts of Melaka. Most Bugis were enterprising traders, but some of them who could not find enough resources or did not possess a flair for trade, became slaves. Bachu was one of those less fortunate members of the...