1819

It's been too long. I really hate to sail in the ship, but I don't have much of a choice. We need a much better port. Malacca is a decent port, but it's not good enough. Major Farquhar's attempt in securing additional ports has had mixed results. We need a much better port that is out of control of the Dutch.

Farquhar told me about some islands south of the peninsula that could be useful, but I'm wary of his suggestion, partly because of the large amount of Dutch influence as we get closer to Java. There was this island that we passed by not too long ago that seemed promising; I've been told it's the island of Singapura, and that it was not under Dutch nor Sultanate control. I had been to the Karimun Islands as suggested by Farquhar, but I think they are too close to Dutch dominance to be useful.

Besides, they are far from the Straits of Malacca, that makes them rather useless as a refuelling stop. Singapura seems to have the most promise at this point.

The ship I'm on finally made its way to Singapura, and I found myself among the orang laut of the island, sea people indigenous to the land. I heard from the locals that the Temenggong was in charge, and confirmed that they were not under the Johore Sultanate, which will probably make it easier to secure rights to the use of the island. Our sail boat took some soundings at the bay that we landed on, and found that the harbour is naturally deep. This will be a very good place for a port of call after Malacca, especially since all the ships will need to pass through here before heading up north east again.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 2014-02-18 17:56:28)

[Ed: Prompt from WriteThis wanted a historical piece. This is an attempt to write about Sir Stamford Raffles, Founder of Singapore.]