Balambangan Island () is an island in

Kudat Division Kudat Division () is an administrative division in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. It occupies the northern tip of Sabah. Its total area of 4,623 square kilometres (6.3% of Sabah's total territory) makes it the smallest of the five divisions of Sa ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It is located off the northern tip of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

and is situated just about 3 kilometres west of

Banggi Island Banggi Island () is located in the Kudat Division of Sabah in Malaysia. With an area of 440.7 square kilometres, it is the largest island fully in Malaysia followed by Bruit Island, Langkawi Island and Penang Island. It is located off the no ...

. It is now part of the

Tun Mustapha Marine Park Tun Mustapha Marine Park is a marine park located off the north coast of the state of Sabah, Malaysia. It comprises an area of 898,762.76 hectares with more than 50 islands and islets located across Kudat, Pitas and Kota Marudu districts; maki ...

History

Alexander Dalrymple Alexander Dalrymple (24 July 1737 – 19 June 1808) was a Scottish geographer, hydrographer, and publisher. He spent the greater part of his career with the British East India Company, starting as a writer in Madras at the age of 16. He s ...

, an officer of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

(EIC), concluded an agreement with Sultan Bantilan Muizzud-Din on 12 September 1762 whereby the

Sultanate of Sulu The Sultanate of Sulu (; ; ) is a Sunni Muslim subnational monarchy in the Philippines, Republic of the Philippines that includes the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines. H ...

ceded the island of Balambangan to the company, and Dalrymple took possession of the island on 22 January 1763. The establishment of a

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

on Balambangan was officially approved by a committee of the board of directors in 1768 and Dalrymple was offered the role of management of the new settlement. However, Dalrymple quarrelled with the directors, and his insistence on absolute management of Balambangan led to his dismissal in March 1771. Dalrymple was replaced by John Herbert who commanded the ''Britannia'' as it transported soldiers, goods, and supplies from India in 1772, and arrived at Balambangan in December 1773. The settlement traded opium, munitions, and fabrics with the Tausugs and Maguindanaons. Herbert's mismanagement of Balambangan and poor relations with the Tausugs resulted in the settlement's destruction on 26 February 1775 at the hands of

Moro pirates The Sulu Sea, Sulu and Celebes Seas, a semi-enclosed sea area and porous region that covers an area of space around 1 million square kilometres, have been subject to illegal maritime activities since the pre-colonial era and continue to pose ...

, and Herbert and other survivors escaped to

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

. In the second half of the 18th century, the Dutch from Batavia attempted to settle the island's western coast, but withdrew by 1797. In 1803, in response to the restitution of the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

to the Dutch as per the

Treaty of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...

of 1802,

Lord Wellesley Richard Colley Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, (20 June 1760 – 26 September 1842) was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator. He was styled as Viscount Wellesley until 1781, when he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of ...

Governor-General of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the emperor o ...

, decided upon the resettlement of Balambangan, and instructed R. J. Farquhar, the British Resident at Amboina, to manage the expedition to the island. Farquhar reestablished the settlement at Balambangan by the end of September 1803, despite the ships and ''Thornhill'' being wrecked off the coast of

whilst en route from

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

to Balambangan on 23 September, and the being destroyed by fire in the settlement's harbour on 29 October. Farquhar left Balambangan for

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

on 7 December, and a commissioner was appointed to manage the settlement. Balambangan came under the jurisdiction of Penang, and as lieutenant governor of Penang, Farquhar planned to fortify the settlement on Balambangan, but the resumption of war with France led the court of directors of the EIC to veto the plan; the island was abandoned in 1805. In December 1805, five members of the ill-fated crew of shipwrecked schooner ''Betsey'' made it off Balambangan Island in a small boat despite being attacked by eleven natives; however, one sailor died in the boat due to his injuries.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Authority control Islands of Sabah 1762 establishments in the British Empire 1800s disestablishments in the British Empire Properties of the East India Company

History

See also

References

Bibliography