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Visit to Kelantan and southern Siam in 1888

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Visit to Kelantan and southern Siam in 1888

C. F. Bozzolo, an Italian-born official in the British administrative service in Perak, travelled overland from Upper Perak through Kelantan, Negri Say, Reman, Legais, and the Tomoh gold mines between April and July 1888, producing a detailed report on the political, economic, and social conditions of these Siamese tributary states. The journey was undertaken at the request of the Governor of the Straits Settlements to explore a practicable route of communication between Perak and Kelantan via the Plus Valley, and to assess the unresolved boundary dispute between Perak and the northern Malay states.

Summary

Bozzolo’s report is a comprehensive account of a region in political flux, where borders had not yet been fixed and local rulers maintained simultaneous relations with Bangkok and the new British administration in Perak. The narrative is organised around his physical journey: crossing the watershed from the Plus Valley into the Pates and Engere rivers in Kelantan, descending to Kota Bahru, sailing to Negri Say, and then travelling overland through Reman and Legais to the Tomoh gold mines before returning to Perak via the Balom valley. Throughout, he documents the severe demographic and economic decline afflicting Kelantan under Sultan Ahmad (r. 1886–1890), a state he describes as having lost two-thirds of its population in six years due to a combination of the burning of Kota Bahru, a typhoon, cattle disease, and a cholera epidemic around 1885. The Sultan, who had previously served as Siam’s representative in Kelantan before his accession, governed in what Bozzolo characterises as a “ruinous” manner, lending money at high interest to increase his slave population while the Raja Muda kept up festivities as natives died on the roadside (pp. 105–106).

The report also provides a detailed assessment of the gold mining industry at Tomoh and in the Kelantan tributaries, drawing on direct observation of workings, interviews with Chinese towkays, and the collection of rock specimens for assay. Bozzolo documents the history of the Tomoh mines from their discovery through the monopoly granted to Towkay Chiong by Siam, and the subsequent transfer of that authority to Chiong’s son, Towkay Ah Fat. He contrasts the relatively systematic operations at Captain Labet’s mines with the haphazard, individualistic workings of the majority of Chinese miners, and notes the absence of any quartz reef in the Tomoh proper, the gold having been found in crevices of volcanic-looking rocks and in alluvial deposits (pp. 129–131). The assay results appended to the report, conducted by L. W. Jr. (Leonard Wray, Junior), confirmed the presence of gold in fine subdivision in samples from Pak Chio and identified the tin ore from Negri Say as containing 40.7 per cent metallic tin (p. 142).

Underlying the descriptive material is a sustained argument about British strategic interests in the northern Malay states. Bozzolo contends that the Perak boundary should be extended to the natural watershed, which would give Perak command of the Telohbang valley and easy access into Kelantan, and that a railway along the northern border would both develop the gold mining country of Balom and act as a political counterweight to Siamese supremacy. He criticises the Perak Government for failing to “strike the iron when it was hot” in 1883, when the Siamese boundary commissioner Phia Peche Sonkram was in the region and could have been won over with a liberal offer, as Towkay Chiong had done to obtain his independent quassa (p. 132).

Key Findings

  • Kelantan’s population had fallen to one-third of its level six years prior; the Sultan’s personal share from the mines was 130 gantangs of rough gold, collected via a tax of one tael per miner leaving for China (pp. 105, 111).
  • Gold ornaments in Kota Bahru had fallen to $15 per tael; condemned rice (moistened to increase bulk) was the staple food of the poor and slaves (p. 106).
  • The Tomoh mining settlement comprised approximately 700 Chinese (excluding women and children) in 150 houses, with three water-powered crushing machines of six stampers each, let out at $1.50 per day, processing an average of 100 gantangs of quartz per diem (pp. 130–131).
  • Towkay Chiong’s quassa from Siam required payment of 30 catties of gold every three years to Bangkok; his son Towkay Ah Fat secured the transfer of this authority by presenting “plenty of gold and a quantity of tin” to the Siamese Government (p. 132).
  • The assay of tin ore specimens from Negri Say yielded a medium-grained sand with specific gravity 5.55 containing 40.7 per cent metallic tin, and a fine-grained sample with specific gravity 5.4 containing 29.6 per cent metallic tin (p. 142).
  • Market prices in Kota Bahru included gutta taban merah at $50 per picul, pepper at $18 per picul, and 100 gantangs of dammar for $1; rice in the Ulu was sold at $1 for 3 gantangs, payment in gold (pp. 100, 109).

Conclusion

Bozzolo’s definitive historical judgment is that Kelantan “will never again recover from her present state” under the current Sultan and Siamese policy, and that the only path to restoration lies in a change of government oriented toward British rather than Siamese influence. He frames the Perak boundary question not merely as a territorial dispute but as the linchpin of a broader strategy: extending Perak’s border to the watershed and constructing a railway would “greatly shorten the future existence of Siamese supremacy over those Malay States” and serve as “an obstacle against the invasion of a foreign nation” (p. 138). His four formal recommendations—frequent official visits to the northern states, gold prospecting in the Phia River district, a protectorate over the Sakei tribes, and reopening the boundary question at Bangkok—collectively articulate a vision of gradual British penetration into the Siamese sphere of influence in northern Malaya.

Context

  • Bozzolo served as a magistrate and collector in Upper Perak and had previously worked as an engineer in the region; his report was submitted to the Colonial Office as a confidential dispatch (CO 273/158/4762, dated 31 January 1889) and was printed for circulation among government officials but not published for general distribution until its appearance in JMBRAS in 2018.
  • The primary archival sources are the Colonial Office files CO 273/158/4762 and CO 273/159/9741, held at The National Archives, UK, which contain Bozzolo’s journal, six sketch maps (one missing), a drawing of Malay mining methods, and the assay report by L. W. Jr.

References