Sir George Leith served as the first Lieutenant-Governor of Prince of Wales Island (now Penang) between 1800 and 1804. This book is his report on the progress of the colony on his relinquishing the post.
Penang was leased from the Sultan of Kedah by Francis Light for the East India Company in 1786. Light had been trading out of Phuket for many years and had developed a good relationship with successive sultans of Kedah, then a tributary state of Siam (now Thailand). He had a long-term relationship with a woman known as Martina Rozells, rumoured to be one of the daughters of Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin II (1699-1778), and it was believed by some contemporaries that Light received Penang as part of a dowry on his marriage to her. Light’s relationship with Rozells was never recognised by British authorities so her identity remains a subject of debate.
In July 1786, Light established a trading post on Penang, which he named George Town after George III. On 12 August, the birthday of the Prince of Wales, the future George IV, Light officially declared the founding of a new colony and renamed the island Prince of Wales Island after the prince.
George Town quickly became prosperous as an important harbour in Southeast Asia and on his assuming the post of Lieutenant-Governor in 1800, Sir George Leith negotiated a treaty with the Sultan of Kedah to confirm British claims to the territory (but still maintaining the annual payment of the lease) as well as acquiring a strip of land on the mainland to help defend the port.
Leigh’s account remarks on the situation of George Town, its inhabitants, governance and increasing prosperity. This book was probably presented to the Prince of Wales and contains three hand-drawn maps of the colony: a nautical chart of the Penang Strait, a map of George Town and another of the cultivated land surrounding the settlement.
The book was reissued the following year with an updated title page (see RCIN 1074411).