This book is based on an extended essay the author submitted at SOAS in fulfilment of the MA degree in History in 1971. Although the eminent Raffles expert, John Bastin, stimulated the author to submit the thesis for publication, Ahmat Adam did not find the time or opportunity to work on the revisions before his retirement in 2005. Fortunately, the fact that this is a 30-year old thesis did not deter the author or the publisher from ‘dusting off’ and revising the old thesis. As might be expected the book certainly shows some flaws from its transition from thesis into a book, but its great merit is that for the first time the book allows a large audience to view and use these primary sources in transliterated form accompanied with a good and reliable English translation. The book contains more than eighty Malay documents predominantly related to the British endeavour to obtain military support and provisions, livestock and information from independent rulers in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia on the eve of the invasion of Java by British troops in 1811. In 1969 Bastin rediscovered these documents with Raffles' descendants in Scotland and the letters were soon reunited with the other items in the Raffles' family collection of letters, papers and other materials in the India Office Library, first on permanent loan, but in 2007 the British Library raised the funds to purchase the collection.

The author presents the documents in six parts and subdivides them in accordance with their geographical origin (e.g. Part III: Letters from Sumatra; Chap. VIII: Siak letters). Each part has a concise introduction about the historical context of the region at the beginning of the nineteenth century, while more specific information is provided in footnotes.

Here I will briefly discuss three regions that form the main providers of the documents. Perhaps rather surprisingly, Bali was the third biggest contributor of Malay letters, as Raffles considered the island of paramount importance in his strategy to conquer Java and envisaged it to supply 15,000 men with provisions and livestock (p. 321). There are ten Malay letters from the polity of Buleleng, under the ruler of Karangasem at the time, discussing their friendly relations, the rulers' eagerness to get rid of the Dutch, and the presents exchanged. There is also one letter in Balinese on palm leaf written by the ruler himself of which the Balinese original was enclosed with a Malay letter (Bali IX). A transliteration of the Balinese text and a Malay translation are given in an appendix. The English translation in the main section on Bali contains some confusing mistakes, which may be caused by errors in the Balinese original, but were left without comments by the editor. For instance, the English translation mentions that the ruler is sending twenty men or slaves as presents which is also stated in the Balinese original, but in the Malay translation of the text, and in the Malay letter accompanying the Balinese lontar manuscript, only two slaves are mentioned.

In the introduction to the Palembang documents, the second most important contributor to the collection with 11 documents, the rule of the rather unmanageable Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin is discussed, in particular, the prelude to the massacre of the Dutch garrison in September 1811. Ostensibly, Raffles instigated Sultan Badaruddin in killing the Dutch in the first letters he sent to Palembang which contain the phrase pukul buang habiskan sekali-kali segala orang Holandes (‘attack, evict and finish off all the Dutch’). The ruler seemed quite reluctant initially as the Dutch had been friendly with the Palembang court, but evidently changed his mind and decided to kill the garrison. The author puts the blame on Raffles' words, together with the British supply of arms and ammunition, and their offer of everlasting friendship instigating Sultan Badaruddin to commit the massacre. However, he does not discuss the phrase in comparison with similar examples in the other letters, which may throw some light on the question of whether Raffles actually intended to spur the massacre or was it a glitch in his communication with the indigenous ruler? The author also glosses over the reason Raffles removed Badaruddin from office in 1812 by blaming him for the massacre: if Raffles had intended to prompt the killings why would he dethrone Badaruddin?

In the most numerous and interesting contribution to the collection, Siak, with 23 documents, we can follow the tribulations of one of Raffles' most trusted envoys, Tunku Pangeran, who was entrusted with the important secret mission to make contact with the Javanese rulers. This is the Siak dignitary Abdullah Munsyi so dramatically and falsely accused of taking the opportunity to seek his own gain by committing piracy on his trip financed by the British, and whose exposure as a fraud in public supposedly embarrassed Raffles in front of Lord Minto. Here we can read the full story from its original source about how this Tunku Pangeran did go to Java to complete his difficult assignments for the British. It is one of the rare cases that we can read about such an indigenous agent in the service of the British, who was troubled by the severe pressure exerted on his family at the court of Siak, probably as a result of his assistance to the British, but survived as one of the versatile middlemen between indigenous courts and foreign forces in Southeast Asia (see Annabel Teh Gallop, The legacy of the Malay letter: Warisan warkah Melayu [1994], pp. 143–55). The documents give us such a rare opportunity to witness the reactions of the dignitaries at the respective courts and the local problems they were trying to overcome by providing assistance to the English Company.

The author must be commended for delivering such sources, but perhaps also could have done better in the general introduction to the book, which mainly describes the traditions of Malay letter-writing. In the description the author makes some important and interesting points with regards to the art of Malay epistolography which has a number of elements in the heading and preamble that evince local Sufi characteristics and practices. Another element, the dating system of the year of the letter by designating it a certain letter in an eight-year cycle, also seems related to Sufi practices which we are told were not fully understood or in practice anymore in the nineteenth century and scribes in different regions used different systems. Still, the author is able to explain the divergent methods because they ‘were mainly based on the intuitive feeling that Sufis strongly advocate in their action in life’ (p. 31), which seems to contradict the existence of a system. Ian Proudfoot in Old Muslim calendars of Southeast Asia (2006) does a better job in systematically describing the different methods applied and does not simplistically discard the interest scribes had in regulating the Muslim calendar as the author claims (fn 102, p. 28). Drawing more heavily on the important works by Gallop and Proudfoot, the author could have made a more balanced introduction and have discussed the Sufi background more elaborately and systematically.

Despite a few slips and hiccups in the book, however, the author is to be commended for making this collection available to a general public by giving the Malay originals in transliteration and painstakingly translating them into English. This work is so important that it can hardly be overestimated and we are indebted to Ahmat Adam for his determination in publishing this book so many years after he first laid eyes on the documents.