Article

French visitors to Trengganu in the 18th century, . Dunmore

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French visitors to Trengganu in the 18th century, . Dunmore

John Dunmore’s 1973 article introduces and translates four previously unpublished French accounts of a four-day stop at Trengganu in July 1769 by the merchantman St. Jean Baptiste, commanded by Jean-François de Surville. The piece situates this brief call within the broader context of post-monopoly French commercial exploration in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and uses the accounts to illuminate both European perceptions of the port and the political economy of the Trengganu sultanate under Sultan Mansur Shah.

Summary

The St. Jean Baptiste, a 650-ton vessel built in France for trade in Eastern waters after the collapse of the French India Company’s monopoly, put into Trengganu from 28 July to 1 August 1769 before proceeding to Northern Luzon and a voyage of exploration that took her to the Solomons and New Zealand (p. 145). Four officers and the ship’s clerk each recorded the visit in their journals, all of which remain unpublished in the Marine section of the Archives Nationales, Paris. Dunmore translates the accounts of Captain Labé, Lieutenant Pottier de l’Horme, and the ship’s clerk Monneron, noting that the French relied on an interpreter who spoke Portuguese rather than French, which accounts for some contradictions and misunderstandings in the records (p. 145).

The accounts provide detailed observations on the port’s physical characteristics, the quality of its anchorage, the availability of fresh water, and the commercial opportunities it offered. The French sold four caskets of opium for 800 piastres and purchased buffaloes, bullocks, poultry, fruit, and vegetables, spending a total of 533 piastres and 150 Flemish knives (p. 151). The King’s first merchant, Jehie Boncson, is described as notably honest and straightforward by standards the French found rare among eastern traders (p. 155).

Beyond commerce, the accounts record significant political intelligence. The Sultan was absent, leading a campaign in the north with 2,000 men and 300 boats, and the French learned of his claim that Malacca had been ceded to the Portuguese by his ancestors for only one hundred years, a term that had now expired (pp. 148, 154). The Sultan had rejected an English request, made through Captain Jacqueson on behalf of the Calcutta Council, for a trading post in the Ridang Islands, instead proposing that the English help him expel the Dutch from Malacca (pp. 149, 154). The French also witnessed a public execution carried out by the “King’s Iron,” a two-pronged fork driven into the condemned man’s stomach, and noted the promptness of local justice (pp. 149–150, 153–154).

Key Findings

  • The St. Jean Baptiste traded four caskets of opium at 200 piastres each (free of duty) and spent 533 piastres and 150 Flemish knives on provisions, netting a balance of 271 piastres returned to the captain (p. 151).
  • Sultan Mansur Shah (Tun Dalam), aged approximately 44, was the sole merchant of his kingdom; all foreign trade was conducted on his account, and subjects owning ships were required to charter them to him for voyages to Cambodia, Siam, Cochinchina, China, Java, and Sumatra (pp. 148, 153).
  • The Sultan claimed Malacca had been ceded to the Portuguese by his ancestors for a fixed term of one hundred years, now expired, and sought to recover it from the Dutch, offering great privileges to any European nation that would assist (pp. 148, 154).
  • The English, through Captain Jacqueson acting for the Calcutta Council, had requested a factory post in the Ridang Islands; the Sultan refused, preferring to involve the English in his war against the Dutch at Malacca instead (pp. 149, 154).
  • A French vessel under Captain Le Blanc, approximately 300 tons and fitted out at Chandernagore, had traded at Trengganu around 1755 and was last seen entering the river nearly fully laden with calin; she was never heard from again (pp. 148–149).
  • The local currency system used the piastre (divisible into 8 coupons) and the rupee (worth only 3 coupons), with a small calin coin called pelit (400 to the coupon, 3,200 to the piastre); weights followed the Malaccan system of pic and catis (pp. 155, 158).

Conclusion

Dunmore presents these four accounts as valuable primary sources that illuminate the limited but practical European knowledge of Trengganu in the mid-eighteenth century, the commercial logic of the port as a provisioning and trading stop, and the ambitious political claims of Sultan Mansur Shah regarding Malacca and the Ridang Islands. The French, arriving as independent traders in the post-monopoly era, found a well-ordered sultanate with prompt justice, a monopolistic royal trade system, and a ruler actively seeking European allies against Dutch dominance in the Straits.

Context

  • The journals are held in the Marine section of the Archives Nationales, Paris, under references 4JJ 143:22–25 and B 316, and had not been published as of 1973 (p. 145).
  • The article was contributed to the JMBRAS as part of its ongoing programme of publishing primary source materials relevant to the history of the Malay world, in this case drawing on French archival holdings to supplement the better-known English and Dutch records of the region.

References