About the book (from jacket flap):
George Windsor Earl was a versatile man of many talents: ship’s captain, lawyer, colonial official, linguist, antiquarian and author. The Eastern Seas is his most famous and popular work. This was an account of his experiences from August 1832, when he left Fremantle, until May 1834, when he arrived back in Singapore from his Borneo expedition, together with observations on Borneo and Singapore, and an analysis of commercial prospects in the eastern archipelago.
The Eastern Seas was an immediate success in England but caused little stir in Singapore. The Singapore Free Press complained that the book was too tame, not living up to the ‘adventures’ claimed in its title. But it conceded that it was a ‘very readable volume, totally divested of anything approaching to exaggeration, and…generally describes with accuracy what the author has seen, and conveys with fidelity the facts which he has gleaned from inquiry regarding places which he did not visit in person.’
Earl’s description of Singapore and the neighbouring seas bored contemporary Singaporeans precisely because it was true to life. They found few errors in his narrative: he wrote straightforward easy prose without affectation or striving for effect. He shuned exaggeration and was careful to check the authenticity of information obtained from others, and he recounted his personal experiences and described the existing situation without delving into speculations on past history.
The Eastern Seas retains a permanent interest and value as the most comprehensive description of Singapore and the coasting trade in the 1830s. It was deservedly popular in Earl’s lifetime and remains in its modest way one of the best books written by an Englishman on South-East Asia in the 19th century.
