Article

Penang in 1837, as seen by Captain Auguste Vaillant

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Penang in 1837, as seen by Captain Auguste Vaillant

Abstract

The French Captain Auguste Vaillant arrived in the Straits of Malacca in February, 1837, in the corvette La Bonite. He called briefly in Malacca, where he was received by the Resident-Councillor, Samuel Garling, and arrived in Penang on 3 March. His account describes Penang’s strategic position, its population and the effect of Singapore’s development on its trade. During his visit, he visited the Resident-Councillor, J. W. Salmond, who famously performed his duties from a house on Penang Hill. He also met French missionaries and saw their establishments for the young and the elderly. On 6 March, after inviting Georgetown’s authorities aboard his ship to bid them farewell, he set sail for India.

Summary

This article presents a complete English translation of the account of Penang written by Captain Auguste Vaillant during his circumglobal voyage aboard the French corvette La Bonite in 1836–1837. Vaillant, a 44-year-old naval officer who had served during the Napoleonic Wars, was given command of the expedition by the Minister for the Navy, Baron Duperre, whose instructions specifically named Penang as a port of call where the French flag was to be “seen everywhere as a friendly flag” (p. 98). After a brief stop in Malacca, where he was received by Resident-Councillor Samuel Garling, Vaillant anchored off Georgetown on 3 March 1837 and remained until 7 March.

The translation draws on volume three of the published Voyage autour du monde (1845–1852), which was compiled by A. de la Salle, a clerk at the naval ministry, from Vaillant’s original documents. The account covers the island’s strategic and commercial position, its population and agriculture, the military garrison, the mainland territory of Wellesley Province, and the activities of French Catholic missionaries. A particularly vivid section, narrated by Vaillant’s companion Mr Fisquet, describes the carriage-and-horseback journey up Penang Hill to visit Resident-Councillor J. W. Salmond at his mountain residence, where the two men discussed the colony’s plantations and governance while surveying the strait from the summit (pp. 105–107).

Key Findings

  • The 1837 census recorded a total island population of 38,454, dominated by Malays (16,204), Chinese (9,143), and inhabitants from neighbouring islands (6,866), together constituting 84% of the total (p. 102).
  • Annual trade, averaged over 1831–1835, amounted to 7,726,855 rupees-sicca (approximately 19,700,000 francs), with imports valued at 3,776,783 and exports at 3,950,072 rupees-sicca (p. 105).
  • Singapore’s rise had effectively absorbed Penang’s China trade, redirecting the island’s economy toward agriculture; by 1837 the island was already exporting nutmeg, cloves, coconut oil, indigo, areca-nuts, pepper, betel, and rattan, with sugar-cane production still insufficient for local consumption (pp. 101–102).
  • The garrison comprised roughly 100 European gunners and 500–600 sepoys of the 48th Regiment; Fort Cornwallis was described as a brick square with four bastions, its demi-lunes in ruins, and only a few guns mounted for salutes (p. 103).
  • Wellesley Province, the mainland territory acquired from the King of Queda, had a population of 47,555—larger than the island itself—and was administered by a Deputy-Resident (at the time an infantry captain) with a detachment of only 25 men (pp. 104–105).
  • French missionaries under the Bishop of Siam maintained a boys’ school, a girls’ orphanage run by three nuns, an elderly poorhouse, and a seminary at a nearby Chinese Catholic village where fifteen Chinese or Cochinchinese and one Siamese candidate were preparing for the priesthood (pp. 100–101).

Conclusion

Dyer’s translation preserves the full texture of a mid-nineteenth-century European naval officer’s impression of a Straits Settlement at a moment of economic transition. Vaillant’s account is notable for its frank assessment of Penang’s diminished commercial importance relative to Singapore, its detailed demographic and trade data, and its evocative description of the island’s natural beauty and the unusual practice of governing from a hilltop residence. The article serves as a primary-source window into colonial Penang’s administrative, military, and social landscape at a point when the island was pivoting from entrepôt trade to plantation agriculture.

Context

  • The source document is part of a three-volume French naval publication (Voyage autour du monde execute pendant les annees 1836 et 1837 sur la corvette “La Bonite”, Paris, 1845–1852), compiled by A. de la Salle from Vaillant’s papers; Vaillant himself never published his journal (p. 99).
  • This translation is one of three French accounts of nineteenth-century Singapore and Penang presented in the same JMBRAS issue, the others dealing with Henri de Ponchalon and Paul Doumer (p. 97).

References