Book Condition: New, Unread. Singapore (Chinese) Printer's chop I millimetre sqaure on inside cover and some slight age related yellowing inside cover only, otherwise clear, clean, bright text in perfect condition. Singapore 1987 376 pp., 3 pp. illus. in col., 1 fold, 135 x 200 mm, with map insert of Straits of Malacca. Weight 0.565 Kgs. Osborn, Sherard; Blockade of Kedah in 1838, The: A Midshipman's Exploits in Malayan Waters. First published in 1857, Sherard Osborn's entertaining description of a young man's life at sea 150 years ago throws light on the character of the Malay people, then much maligned and misunderstood, and stands as an informative social record of the times, shedding light on relations between Europeans and Malays. Sherard Osborn was a junior naval officer in one of the British warships blockading Kedah in support of Siamese efforts in 1838 to re-conquer the State and capture the last Malay stronghold at Kuala Kedah fort. First Published in 1857, it not only provided an eyewitness account of the events surrounding the conflict but also revealed his growing admiration not only for his Malay crewmen but also the Kedah Malays he was supposedly at war with. Panic and terror immediately struck the whole of Kedah. Similar counter-attacks by the Siamese army had shown that its policy in such cases was one of terror and extermination and the Malays knew that torture and atrocity would be the order of the day. Osborn described various acts of cruelty invading Siamese armies were prone to, including\ncooking human beings alive. Prisoners were stripped naked and, with their hands tied behind their backs and large piece of fat lashed to their heads, put into hollow tree trunks. "Then a slow steady fire was maintained round it, the unfortunate victim's sufferings by these means terribly prolonged, his shrieks and exclamations being responded to by the exultant shouts of his executioners." Another torture involved building a wooden platform around a young 'nipah' palm and tying the victim to it in a sitting position over the young tree, so that the sharp spear-like point of its shoot would eventually enter the body. As the plant grew at a fairly rapid rate -several inches in twenty four hours - this would result in unspeakable pain and eventual death by piercing the intestines. "In short, a slow mode of impaling," Osborn noted. The climax of horror for Osborn was the gambling that took place whenever a pregnant Malay woman would have the misfortune to be captured - the stakes depending upon whether the unborn child was a boy or girl. The game would be concluded with the woman being gutted open to decide who were the winners.Osborn reflected on the conflict he had seen over the year and questioned which side he had to fight for. "Nothing but a sense of duty could prevent one from sympathizing in the efforts made by these gallant sea-rovers to regain their own." "Like spaniels, the natives of the whole sea-board of the Indian peninsula lick the hand that chastises them: not so the Orang Melayu; and we Englishmen should be the first to honour a race who will not basely submit to abuse or tyranny." Osborn later served in the Crimean War and Britain's wars in China. He ended his naval career with the rank of rear admiral and also served as an admiral in the Chinese navy from 1862-63. He eventually became one of Britain's leading Arctic explorers.
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