Reporting on Penang’s twin, Pulau Jerejak, 1787
4 min read
“The island of Jerajah is about two miles in length and one in breadth, it is very high and steep and thickly covered with wood in the s...
Germany Wins Battle of Penang, 1914
4 min read
Sydney On October 28, 1914, the Germans disguised their ship as an Allied vessel and entered Penang harbour. Before their enemies could respond whe...
Slavery in Penang,1841
7 min read
Slavery in the British colonies was not abolished until the Slavery Abolition Act was passed on August 23, 1833, but this was repealed in 1838.Civil activism...
Epidemic Diseases in Penang, 1819
5 min read
“The principal Epidemic Diseases (on Prince of Wales Island) have been the small pox and cholera. The former recurs nearly every year, with more or less...
Martina Rozells – Penang’s first First Lady
5 min read
During the year 1772 Light allied himself with Martina Rozells, a lady regarding whose antecedents an element of romance has been attributed by some contempor...
Penang and East Sumatran Ports 1824
5 min read
The volume is a good reminder of what the cultural, commercial and political diversity in the Straits of Malacca looked like before late colonial empire-build...
Developers of 18th Century Pinang
5 min read
Since the details are largely hearsay passed down by a son of Haji Brunie to Vaughan, caution should be exercised in accepting them as facts.The possession...
Penang Before Francis Light (as the English saw it in 1905)
3 min read
The book also intriguingly states that when Francis Light in 1786 settled in Penang, an island thought by the Europeans to be uninhabited, “he found 58...
System of Government in the Straits Settlements, 1942
5 min read
Mills’ work is most probably the last scholarly analysis of how the British Empire was run east of the Indian subcontinent written just before it all came...
Inhabitants of Penang, 1803
4 min read
The 38-page typewritten volume was conceived more as a report to the East India Company and the British Government in London than as a public document. Certain...
Of Birds and Buffaloes, Alligators and White Ants, 1816
5 min read
As soon as it gets dark on this mountain [Penang Hill], there arises on every side, a singular concert of birds and insects, which deprived us of sleep for th...
Smoking opium in Penang, 1854
4 min read
It destroyed countless lives and countless families, and came to be associated with Chinese culture despite the trade being run largely by the British as part o...