Bengkulu

Bengkulu faces the Indian Ocean along Sumatra’s south-western coast, where a narrow coastal lowland rises toward the Bukit Barisan range and hilly interior. The British East India Company founded a pepper-trading centre and garrison here in 1685. Fort Marlborough, completed in 1714, remains a conspicuous reminder of that ambition. Yet the station disappointed its sponsors: the climate seemed unhealthy to Europeans, buyers could not obtain enough pepper, and the settlement was never profitable, although East Indiamen occasionally called. During the early nineteenth century, Stamford Raffles served as Lieutenant-Governor and introduced reforms including the abolition of slavery. In 1824 Britain exchanged Bengkulu for Malacca under its treaty with the Dutch. Its history thus joins a coastal trading frontier with imperial competition.