ay or two before
the ships sailed an invitation to the like purport was received from the
chiefs of Bang-kaulu (since corruptly called Bencoolen); and as it was
known that a considerable proportion of the pepper that used to be
exported from Bantam had been collected from the neighbourhood of
Bencoolen (at a place called Silebar), it was judged advisable that Mr.
Ord, who was the person entrusted with the management of this business,
should first proceed thither; particularly as at that season of the year
it was the windward port. He arrived there on the twenty-fifth day of
June 1685, and, after taking possession of the country assigned to the
English Company, and leaving Mr. Broome in charge of the place, he sailed
for the purpose of establishing the other settlements. He stopped first
at Indrapura, where he found three Englishmen who were left of a small
factory that had been some time before settled there by a man of the name
of Du Jardin. Here he learned that the Dutch, having obtained a knowledge
of the original intention of our fixing at Priaman, had anticipated us
therein and sent a party to occupy the situation. In the meantime it was
understood in Europe that this place was the chief of our establishments
on the coast, and ships were accordingly consigned thither. The same was
supposed at Madras, and troops and stores were sent to reinforce it,
which were afterwards landed at Indrapura. A settlement was then formed
at Manjuta, and another attempted at Batang-kapas in 1686; but here the
Dutch, assisted by a party amongst the natives, assaulted and drove out
our people. Every possible opposition, as it was natural to expect, was
given by these our rivals to the success of our factories. They fixed
themselves in the neighbourhood of them and endeavoured to obstruct the
country people from carrying pepper to them or supplying them with
provisions either by sea or land. Our interests however in the end
prevailed, and Bencoolen in particular, to which the other places were
rendered subordinate in 1686, began to acquire some degree of vigour and
respectability. In 1689 encouragement was given to Chinese colonists to
settle there, whose number has been continually increasing from that
time. In 1691 the Dutch felt the loss of their influence at Silebar and
other of the southern countries, where they attempted to exert authority
in the name of the sultan of Bantam, and the produce of these places was
delivered to the Engli