Career
Light served as a Royal Navy midshipman from 1759 to 1763, but went out to seek his fortune in the colonies. From 1765, he worked as a private country trader.
For about ten years he had his headquarters in Salang, Siam, near Phuket, reviving a failed French trading post. While living there he learned to speak and write several languages, including Malay and Siamese. In 1785, he warned the Thais on Phuket Island of an imminent Burmese attack. Light's warning enabled the islanders to prepare for Phuket's defence and subsequently repel the Burmese invasion.
On behalf of the British East India Company, he leased the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah, where many others had failed by promising military aid to Sultan Abdullah from Kedah. In addition, he was supposedly given a Princess of Kedah as a reward. (Other sources state that the Princess was sent to covet Light's aid on behalf of the Sultan).
The multicultural colony of Penang became extraordinarily successful from its inception and Light served as the Superintendent of the colony until his death.
Read more about this topic: Francis Light
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)