Old Penang

For centuries Penang was part of the Muslim state of Kedah, but after the intervention in 1786 of a `forgotten' English trader, Captain Francis Light, it became a British mercantile and shipping outpost, administered as part of British India and renamed Prince of Wales Island.

From this first toehold in the Strait of Malacca, British power and influence eventually spread to the entire Malayan Peninsula, as well as to Singapore and parts of Borneo.

Old Penang tells how Francis Light, using economic inventiveness, attracted peoples from all over the region so that the first settlement in the Strait quickly became a place where `so many people are assembled together and so great a variety of langauges are spoken in so small a space'.

This cosmopolitan flavour, combined with natural scenic beauty, made Penang a favourite port of call fpr travellers on the long voyage from Europe to the Fare East.

Using broad brush strokes as well as punctilious details, the author has painted a historical portrait of old Penang: its communities, its growing pains, its principal personalities, and its chief attractions.Beginning with James Wathen in 1811, there is also a gallery of travelling artists whose works have been included among the paintings and drawings that illustrate the text.