Note 24 — (Concluded) (continued 2)

From 1603 the English, as well as the Dutch, had a factory at Bantam for the purchase of pepper, which they maintained for eighty years. In 1683 the Dutch sent a considerable force from Batavia and expelled the English from Bantam; the latter, after being baffled at Achin, made a settlement at Bencoolen (1685), where they built Fort York. This site proved insalubrious, and in 1714 its successor, Fort Marlborough, was erected, away from the river. In 1824, Bencoolen and the factories dependent on it were given over to the Dutch, in exchange for Malacca and some factories in India. (Crawfurd’s Dict. Ind. Islands, p. 48). Sellebar was a village not far east from Bencoolen.