ABSTRACT
The first Governor selected by the Colonial Office to undertake the somewhat difficult task of introducing the colonial system into a group of settlements saturated with traditions of Indian methods of administration was Colonel Harry St. George Ord, of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Mr. Braddell alone remained, and was in the Straits during the whole of Sir Harry Ord's administration; but his duties as Attorney-General occupied all his time, and left none for further research into those subjects to which he had formerly given his leisure. Sir Harry Ord was then in England on leave of absence, but he returned to his post in 1872, and finding state of affairs in Selangor as bad as could be imagined, he endeavoured to use his influence to secure cessation of hostilities. In the first years of the colony's history, from 1867 to 1874, it is almost inconceivable how little was actually known of the independent Malay States in the Malay Peninsula.
