This is an extract mined by Ooi Kee Beng from a collection of letters written by an ailing H.G Baron Nahuijs van Burgst.
Nahuijs was the first Dutch Resident for Suracarta and Yogjakarta, holding that office from 1816 until 1822 when he retired from office. While making his way home to Europe, he wrote diligently about the places he visited along the way. Translated from Dutch into English by Eric Miller, these letters were published in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol XIX, 1941. Nahuijs’ sixth letter was written in Chinsurah in Bengal in August 1824, and contains memories of a happy trip up Penang Hill that he made on horseback on June 5, 1824.
His lengthy letter to Henrik Merkus de Kock, an old friend who would soon become Lieutenant- Governor-General of the Netherlands Indies, appraises the English-controlled “Poeloe Penang” graciously.
Nahuijs himself was famously described by the Javanese Prince Diponegoro (1785–1855) as a person who merely enjoyed “eating, drinking and the spreading of Dutch ways” (see the autobiographical Chronicle of Prince Diponegoro written by the exiled prince in 1831–1832).
The trip that Nahuijs made up the hill, according to his letter, did wonders for his faltering spirit.
