Or 14858

In Malay in Jawi script. Letter from Pangeran Nata Negara of Sumenep, Madura, to Captain James Clark, Resident of Sumenep, 19 Jumadilawal 1230 (Saturday 29 April 1815). The writer states that he is sending as a present a Malay-style keris and a brazier belonging to his late father, the Panembahan.

Pangeran Nata Negara later ruled Sumenep as Panembahan Nata Kusuma and then as Sultan Paku Nata Ningrat; information on James Clark can be found in de Haan (Bijdragen, Vol.92, 1935, p.516).

Malay text

Qawluhu al-Haqq

Bahwa warkat al-ikhlas yang termaktub di dalamnya beberapa tabik dan hormat yang beserta selamat al-khair selama-lamanya datang mengadap ke hadapan majlis sahudara saya Tuan Kaptin Jims Klarq Residint di dalam negeri Sumeneb adanya. Wa-baadahu maka adalah saya melayangkan nubdhah yang sedharrah ini ke hadapan majlis sahudara akan seperti saya sendiri bertemu dengan sahudara, lain tiada hanya saya hendak kasih kepada sahudara satu pertanda daripada saya yang saya sudah dapat pusaka daripada sahudara [sic] punya bapa Panembahan yang sudah meninggal, iaitu satu keris cara Melayu lagi satu tempat bara api, keduanya itu dahulu Panembahan punya pakaian, melainkan saya harab sahudara terima tiada dengan sepertinya hanya cuma pertanda sahabat, demikian adanya.

Tersurat kepada 19 hari bulan Jumadilawal sanat 1230.

[signature] Thalib al-da‘i al-Pangeran Nata Negara al-amir

Translation

His Word is the Truth

This sincere epistle, containing greetings and respects together with eternal best wishes, is sent into the presence of my brother Captain James Clark, Resident of Sumeneb. After that, the reason I am sending this fragment of a note into my brother’s presence, in lieu of our meeting, is that my only wish is to give my brother a memento from me which I inherited from brother’s [sic, i.e. my] father the late Panembahan, namely a Malay-style keris and a brazier, both of the Panembahan’s own using, and I hope my brother will accept these, though they are not as they should be, but are merely a token of friendship.

Written on the 19th of Jumadilawal in the year 1230.

[signature] Student of The Summoner, the Pangeran Nata Negara, the prince