MALABON  , a

town of the province of Rizal, Luzon, Philippine finally into the hands of Great Britain, being exchanged by a Islands, , m. inland from the shore of Manila Bay and 3 M . N. r treaty with Holland for the East India Company's settlement of the city of Manila, with which it is connected by an electric I of Benkulen and a few other unimportant places on the western coast of Sumatra . By this treaty the Dutch were precluded from interference in the affairs of the Malay Peninsula, and Great Britain from similar action in regard to the States of Sumatra, with the sole exception of Achin, the right to protect that state being maintained by Great Britain until 1872 when it was finally abandoned by a treaty concluded with Holland in that year . The Dutch took advantage of this immediately to invade Achin, and the strife begun in 1873 still continues and is now a mere war of extermination . It was not until 1833 that the whole territory lying at the back of Malacca was finally brought under British control, and as late as 1887 the Negri Sembilan, or Nine States, which adjoin Malacca territory on the east and north-east, were completely independent . They to-day form part of the Federated Malay States, which are under the protection of Great Britain, and are governed with the assistance and by the advice of British officers . Malacca, in common with the rest of the Straits Settlements, was administered by the government of India until 1867, when it became a crown colony under the control of the Colonial Office . It is to-day administered by a resident councillor, who is responsible to the governor of the Straits Settlements, and by a number of district officers and other officials under his direction . The population of the town and territory of Malacca in 1901 was 94,487, of whom 74 were Europeans and Americans, 1598 were Eurasians, the rest being Asiatics (chiefly Malays with a considerable sprinkling of Chinese) . The population in 1891 was 92,170, and the estimated population for 1905 was 97,000 . The birth-rate is about 35 per thousand, and the death-rate about 29 per thousand . The trade of this once flourishing port has declined, most of the vessels being merely coasting craft, and no large line of steamers holding any communication with the place .

This is due partly to the shallowness of the

harbour, and partly to the fact that the ports,of Penang and Singapore, at either entrance to the straits, draw all the trade and shipping to themselves . The total area of the settlement is about 700 sq. m . The colony is wholly agricultural, and the land is almost entirely in the hands of the natives . About 50,000 acres are under tapioca, and about 9000 acres are under rubber (hevea) . This cultivation is rapidly extending . There are still considerable areas unoccupied which are suitable for rubber and for coco-nuts . The settlement is well opened, up by roads; and a railway, which is part of the Federated Malay States railway system, has been constructed from the town of Malacca to Tampin in the Negri Sembilan . There is a good rest-house at Malacca and a comfortable seaside bungalow at Tanjong Kling, seven miles from the town . Malacca is 118 m. by sea from Singapore and 5o m. by rail from Seremban, the capital of the Negri Sembilan . There is excellent snipe-shooting to be had in the vicinity of Malacca . See The Commentaries of d'Alboquerque (Hakluyt Society) ; The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto (London, 1653) ; An Account of the East Indies, by Captain Alexander Hamilton (Edinburgh, 1727) ; Valentyn's History of Malacca, translated by Dudley Hervey; Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; " Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India," by the same author, ibid . ; Further India, by Hugh Clifford (London, 1904) ; British Malaya, by Sir Frank Swettenham (London, 1906) .

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