Fort Marlborough at Benkoelen is mentioned by Wøller during his voyage north to Atjeh en Onderhorigheden in April 1904.
“The following morning they ran the roadstead of Benkoelen and there was time to go ashore and view the old fort ‘Marlborough’ — a real fort with walls and bastions and lunettes, where old cannons still powerless as greybeards stood threatening invisible enemies, while heavy balls rested in neat pyramids beside them.”
Wøller links the fort to Sir Stamford Raffles: “From here ruled Sir Stamford Raffles for five years over Sumatra, after England had to return Java to Holland; this was his last temporary grip on the Indies, which he had governed with such great foresight and as no white man before him had loved and understood.”
He notes Raffles’ residence was destroyed “by an earthquake — on the same day that the Austrian ultimatum was sent to Serbia,” and contrasts Benkoelen’s sleep with Singapore, the “brilliant compensation” Raffles secured for Britain.
See Also
Source
Als officier van gezondheid naar Nederlandsch-Indië, by Dr. Johan Wøller, trans. Greta Baars-Jelgersma (Utrecht: Erven J. Bijleveld), p. 140.