correspondent Marsden, the
Sumatran traveller--

"We are now on our way to the eastward, in the hope of doing
something, but I much fear the Dutch have hardly left us an inch
of ground to stand upon. My attention is principally turned to
Johore, and you must not be surprised if my next letter to you
is dated from the site of the ancient city of Singapura."

In carrying out the difficult task which had been entrusted to him,
Raffles encountered not only the opposition of the Dutch, which he
naturally expected, but that of the Government of Penang. The
authorities at Penang had a double reason for their opposition. In the
first place, they regarded the establishment of a station further east
as detrimental to the interests of their own settlement; and, in the
next, they had themselves unsuccessfully endeavoured to acquire a
similar position, and now maintained that the time had gone by for such
measures. Fortunately, however, Raffles had already secured the services
of Colonel Farquhar and a military force. This officer was in command of
the troops at Bencoolen, which, at the time Raffles left Calcutta, were
on the point of being relieved. Raffles had written from Calcutta,
instructing him to proceed to Europe by the Straits of Sunda, where he
would receive further instructions.

Singapore, the spot which Raffles' knowledge of the Malay states enabled
him to secure for his settlement, is a small island, twenty-seven miles
long by fourteen broad, immediately south of the Malay Peninsula, from
which it is separated by a channel of less than a mile in width. No
situation could be imagined better calculated to secure the objects
which the new settlement was intended to effect. Not only does the
island completely command the Straits of Malacca, the gate of the ocean
highway to China and the Eastern Archipelago, but, lying at a convenient
distance from the Chinese, the Indian, and the Javanese ports, it was
admirably adapted to serve as an _entrepot_ and centre of English trade.

The island at this time formed part of the territory of the Sultan of
Johore, and it contained the remains of the original maritime capital of
the Malays. It was within the circuit of these Malay fortifications,
raised more than six centuries ago, that, on the 29th of February, 1819,
Raffles planted the British flag at Singapore.

From the very first Raffles fully realized the value of the acquisition.
On the 19th of February,