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OUR TROPICAL POSSESSIONS

MALAYAN INDIA.

OUR TROPICAL POSSESSIONS

MALAYAN INDIA:

BEING A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF SINGAPORE, PENANG,

PROVINCE WELLESLEY, AND MALACCA; THEIR

PEOPLES, PRODUCTS, COMMERCE,

AND GOVERNMENT.

JOHN CAMERON, Esq., F.R.G.S.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON-
SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
1865.

1 The tight if Translation u reserved.\

i 19149

CONTENTS

Paqb
Preface xi

CHAPTER I.

The Straits Settlement: History, Ancient and Modern.

Introduction — The three Stations, Singapore, Penang, and Malacca
— Geographical Positions — Singapore — Its very early History
— Colonized by the Malays in 1160 — Lost tlirough Treachery
to the Javanese — Story of its Loss — Re-occupation by the
Malays in 1512 — Settlement by the British — Sir Stamford
Raffles — Bencoolen — Bickerings with the Dutch — Colonel Far-
quhar first Resident — Town laid out — Mr. Crawfurd — Incor-
poration with Penang and Malacca — Mr. Fullerton — His
unpopularity — Quarrel with Sir John Claridge — Arrival of Lord
William Bentinck — Mr. Ibbetson Governor — Mr. Murchison
— Mr. Bonham — First China Expedition — Colonel Butterworth

— First Chinese Riot — Mr. Blundell — Lord Elgin's famous
Decision — Second Chinese Riot — Colonel Cavanagh now
Governor 1

CHAPTER II.

Scenery: Singapore from Seaward.

Surpasses in Loveliness that of Ceylon and Java — Green Islets —
The Old Strait — Lake Scenery — Ancient Piracy — Native Craft

— Wood Rafts — Singapore Harbour — Eastern Approach —
Approach from Westward — Mount Faber — P. and O. Com-
pan} r — Projected new Dock — H.M.'s Dockyards — Present Dock
— Shipping in the Roadstead — Men-of-War — Cliinese Junks
— Coolie Horrors — Malay Prahus — Small Boats— Coral — The
Town Frontage — Fort Fullerton— Public Buildings — Old Resi-
dences — St. Andrew's Church — Background — Fort Canning 2?

a 8

OUR TROPICA! POSSESSIONS

MALAYAN INDIA.

OUR TROPICAL POSSESSIONS

MALAYAN INDIA.

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

administration is a high and important trust, which
boldly, and yet wisely conducted, will go farther
preserve the predominance and permanence of Britis
interests — commercial and political— in the Easter
Archipelago, and the adjacent native continental Stat
— if not, indeed, in China itself — than any other mea
which the Imperial Government can employ. Foonde
under the rule of the old East India Company, anc
fostered from its infancy by a policy which, if faulty
in many other respects, was at least well suited to
protect and encourage a settlement ere it attained
inherent strength enough to stand by itself, the Strait
Settlement has grown to an importance incompatible
with such tutelage. It remains to be seen how the
progress of its maturer years will be advanced or
retarded by the wise or unwise government of Englisl
statesmen.

Hitherto but little has been given to the world
concerning it, and to the great bulk of untravelled
Englishmen it is known only as a distant Indinu
station, where manufactures are sold and produce
bought under the sweltering heat of an equatorial sun.
Indeed, an existence there is viewed as an exile of the
worst description, to be compensated only by the
wealth which it is reputed to bring. But those who
have endured that exile can tell a far different tale of
the condition of life in the tropical garden ; and those
at all acquainted with the high roads of Eastern trade,
have but to view the position of the island of Singapore
on the chart, to become sensible of its importance to
such a nation as Great Britain ; an importance which

OUR TROPICAL POSSESSIONS

MALAYAN INDIA

BEING A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF SINGAPORE, PENANG,

PROVINCE WELLESLEY, AND MALACCA ; THEIR

PEOPLES, PRODUCTS, COMMERCE,

AND GOVERNMENT.

JOHN CAMERON, Esq., F.R.G.S.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.

1865.

/ The light of Translation it reserved. \

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT,

millions and a half sterling, and its exports over five
millions and a half. Penang and Malacca, sharing
soon after their incorporation the liberal policy inau-
gurated at Singapore, have prospered with it, though
not to the same degree. The gross imports of
the three settlements may be represented in round
numbers by eight millions and a half, and the exports
by eight millions and a quarter. These facts have
at last forced their way, if not into the notice
of the world at large, at least into that of the
British Government, the great arbiter of the fate of
aspiring dependencies, and it has, I believe, been
concluded that a possession of such a gigantic com-
merce should no longer remain " the dependency of a
dependency;" nor has it been thought wise, that
a place so valuable, in a strategic point of view, to a
nation aspiring to paramount influence in the East,
should remain to be administered under the circuitous
routine of the Bengal Government.

The tropical colony, then, comprises the island
of Penang, (or Prince of Wales' Island, including
Province Wellesley,) the town and territory of Malacca,
and the island of Singapore. The East India Company
in 1786 came into possession of Penang by treaty
with the Raj all of Quedah, a native state on the west
coast of the peninsula ; and fourteen years later the
slip of land opposite Penang, now known as Province
Wellesley, was ceded to the Company by the same
prince*

Malacca was conquered by the Portuguese under
Albuquerque more than 350 years ago, and about 100

(iEOGKAriUCAL POSITION,

years afterwards fell by conquest into the hands of the
Dutch, who retained it until 1795, when we took it
from them. It remained in our possession until four
years after the conclusion of the treaty of Vienna, and
in 1818, was re-delivered by us to the Dutch in con-
formity with the terms of that treaty ; but seven years
afterwards it came finally into our possession in tenns
of the celebrated treaty with Holland of 1824. As
for Singapore, it has never changed European owners.
In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles, then Governor of Fort
Marlborough, or Bencoolen, in Sumatra, w r ho had been
long impressed with the importance of the position,
came over and took formal possession of the then
nearly uninhabited island, on terms which will be
treated of hereafter.

The three settlements lie along the northern boun^
dary of the Straits of Malacca, Penang is an island
situated at its north-western entrance, or in about
latitude 5° 24' north, and longitude 100° 21' east,
and is about 13£ miles long, having an extreme
breadth of 10 miles, containing an area of very uearly
70,000 acres, Province Wellesley is on the mainland
of the peninsula, immediately opposite Penang, the
water dividing them being about 3 miles broad at the
narrowest point ; it runs north and south 25 miles,
varying in breadth from 4 to 11 miles, and containing
an area of 15,000 acres. Malacca is a much larger tract
of territory, distant from Province Wellesley some
260 miles along the coast of the Malayan Peninsula,
in a south-easterly direction, the intervening territory
belonging to the native states of Perak and Salangore,

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

both under the English protection ; it has a fronts
to the straits of 43 miles, its extent inland varying
from 10 to 28 miles. The town stands in latitude
2° 16' north. About 100 miles south-east from
Malacca, at the eastern entrance of the straits, the
island of Singapore juts out from the native state of
Johore, and forms the heel of the peninsula. It is
25 miles long by 14 broad, and contains an area of
206 square miles. The position of the town is in
latitude 1° 17' north, longitude 103° 51' east.

Of the island of Singapore — the youngest but
most important of the three incorporated settle-
ments — I mean first to treat separately, leaving my
notice of Penang and Malacca to a later part of this
volume.

The very early history of Singapore can possess
but little interest to English readers as compared with
its present condition, and I shall consequently be
as brief on this head as possible. As will be seen,
when I come to treat of the native races of the settle-
ment, the aborigines of the peninsula and adjacent
islands were composed of wandering and very thinly
scattered tribes, who never built permanent villages.
As early as the year a.d. 1160, the pioneers of
the Malays came over from Sumatra, and driving
out the few scattered tribes of the aborigines, planted
a considerable colony on the island, which they named
Singhapura. The Icings of Java, anxious to possess
so prosperous a settlement, made repeated attacks
upon it, but were invariably driven back, until the year
1252, when treachery at last led to the defeat and

lER THE J A VAN

expulsion of the sturdy settlers. It appears that their
prince or chief, captivated by the exceeding comeliness
of the daughter of his bandahara or viceroy, took her
to wife, much to the disgust of bis other mistresses,
who, not long after her marriage, accused her of
infidelity, and so worked upon the jealousies of the
prince that he ordered her impalement. The banda-
hara, assured of his child's innocence, earnestly
entreated that, if his daughter must suffer death, it
might not be so shameful a one. His request, however,
was disregarded, and so was formed the first traitor in
the camp of the islanders. The bandahara secretly
invited the Javanese to the conquest of the place ;
they came, and the gates of the citadel admitted them
by night; an obstinate struggle succeeded, but the
Javanese were victorious, driving the Singaporeans
from the island to seek a new colony on the main-
land of the peninsula. This they did at Malacca,
and in the end became the founders of the Johore
Empire.

Singapore appears not to have prospered in the
hands of its Javanese conquerors. It never rose to
any pre-eminence under them, nor was it ever suffi-
ciently powerful to take part in the many struggles
that afterwards ensued between the Portuguese and
the surrounding native principalities. Indeed, the
most probable conjecture sinus to be, that a century or
so after its acquisition it had been abandoned, at least
as a stronghold, by the Javanese, and left to a few
peaceable fishermen and tillers of the soil, who neither
attracted the cupidity nor provoked the jealousy of

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

other states, nor possessed any sentiments of ambition
in themselves. In this condition the island appears to
have remained until the middle of the sixteenth
century, when the descendants of its original founders,
who had grown in power and opulence, were expelled
from Malacca by the Portuguese under Albuquerque.

From the time that the Malay pioneers had been
driven by the Javanese from Singapore to plant their
new settlement at Malacca, they had prospered in no
ordinary degree ; and had not only brought under
their dominion a considerable portion of the south-
western coasts of the peninsula, but had extended
their sovereignty over many of the islands south-
ward of the Straits of Singapore. When, therefore,
after many fruitless attempts to overcome their Chris-
tian foes, they were expelled from the centre of their
government at Malacca, they moved further south,
gathered together the remnants of their possessions,
and founded the kingdom of Johore, which embraced
the southernmost extremity of the peninsula, from
Point Romania on the east to the Cassang river on
west, and also included Singapore and many of
islands to the south of the Straits, such as
Carimons, Bintang— of which Khio is the capital,
I do not propose here to follow the chequered fortune
of the kingdom of Johore, but, from what has be«
stated, the singular circumstance can be noted, th*
the island of Singapore, though for whole centurn s
afterwards it remained an impenetrable jungle wit
but a tew fishing villages on its shores, was nev€
less the original settlement of the adventurous and,

THE DUTCH— SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES,

many respects, noble race, that, like English colonists
in more modern instances, have laid the foundation of
a great empire on but a very small beginning.

From the time of the foundation of the Johore
empire in 1512, till more than three hundred years
afterwards when Sir Stamford Raffles founded a
British settlement on it, Singapore was esteemed but
of very little importance. The great empire itself
had been much shaken by continued encounters with
native as well as European foes ; and, in some cases,
internal dissension and disturbances had still further
weakened its unity. The Dutch had just taken pos-
session of Rhio for 4,000 guilders a month, and were
busy with their intrigues to obtain supremacy over
the entire kingdom of Johore. Sir Stamford Raffles,
however, was not to be outwitted by native vacillation
or Dutch cunning, and he was far more wise in his
selection of the future English station than were the
Dutch, when they chose Rhio. He must have clearly
seen that, on the high road of China commerce, Sin-
gapore could not fail under a liberal and enlightened
policy, and in the possession of such a nation as Great
Britain, to grow up to an importance that would
wither the efforts of any rival power in its vicinity,
But he had no small difficulty to encounter. He was
desirous to secure not a virtual possession only, but
a legal one — legal in the eyes of the people themselves,
as well as of European nations. This was not a very
easy task at the time. In 1818 Major Farquhar, then
resident of Malacca, had made a treaty with Sultan
Abdul Rahman Shah, providing for mutual liberty of

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

navigation and commerce in the ports and dominions
of Johore, and securing a right to build a factory on
the island of Singapore, A few months afterwards,
however, the Dutch, when Malacca was delivered up
to them in terms of the treaty of Vienna, sent an over-
powering force to Rhio, where Abdul Rahman Shah,
with whom our treaty was made, resided ; they declared
this chief to be their vassal, and treated with contempt
all the negotiations he had made with ns ; extorting
a treaty from him for themselves, which altogethe
excluded British trade from his ports and possessioi
But Sir Stamford Raffles was not deterred from
pursuit of his original intention towards Singapore,
and in 1819 he proceeded there with Major Farquhar,
and hoisted the British flag, placing the latter gentle-
man in charge of the new settlement. It appears that
soon after landing, Sir Stamford was visited by the
Tumongong or viceroy of Johore ; this powerful chief
was far from friendly to the progress of the Dutch
in these parts, and readily lent himself to carry out
the wishes of Sir Stamford Raffles to obtain for the
British a legal and indefeasible title to the new settle-
ment. He stated that the legitimate

sovereign

Johore was Hassan Shah, the elder son of the late
sultan, and not Abdul Rahman Shah, with whom our
first treaty had been made, and whom the Dutch
had acknowledged as the legitimate successor simply
because he was more conceding in his disposition.
Assured of this fact, Sir Stamford Raffles secretly
despatched a packet to Rhio where Hassan Shah
was living in obscurity, and had him brought o

SINGAPORE, nOW ACQl (RED.

to Singapore in the night-time. As soon as he
landed, Sir Stamford Raffles called together the
Tumongong of Johore and Bandabara of Pahang, the
two hereditary elective officers of the empire, and had
him proclaimed Sultan, A treaty was now drawn up,
to the effect that British jurisdiction should extend
over a limited part of the island, from Tanjong (or
Cape) Mallang on the west, to Tanjong Katong on
the east, and as far inland as the range of cunnon
shot. It was not until five years afterwards that final
arrangements for the entire cession of the island to
the British were made ; when a treaty was con-
cluded on the 2nd of August, 1824, between Mr.
Crawford, on the part of the Company, with their
Highnesses the Sultan and Tumongong of Johore,
whereby u the island of Singapore, together with
the adjacent seas, straits, and islets, to the extent
of ten geographical miles from the coast of Singapore,
were given up in full sovereignty and property to the
East India Company, their heirs and successors, for
ever ; " the Company agreeing to pay the Sultan the
sum of 33,200 Spanish dullars, together with a yearly
stipend during his life of 15,000 Spanish dollars ; and
to the Tumongong the sum of 26,000 dollars, together
with a yearly stipend of 8,400 dollars. By this treaty,
too, the Sultan and Tumongong bound themselves
to enter into no alliance, and make no treaties with
any foreign power or potentate, without first obtaining
the consent of the British thereto.

As will be gathered from the sequel, owing to a
want of energy and a want of strength of character in

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT,

the family of the Sultan, it has gradually Jost both
power and fortune ; while, on the other hand, the
Tumongong's family, being distinguished by great
ability and determination, had steadily acquired wealth
and influence, until seven years ago, when, by a treaty
between the Sultan and Tumongong, recognized by
the British authorities at the time, the entire
sovereignty of Johore was conceded to the family of
the latter. The transaction had certainly not the
approval of a very large majority of the European
communitv at the time ; and it was said that the local
government authorities pushed matters on somewhat
indiscreetly. To the present day, the question of the
rights of the Sultan as against those of the Tumon-
gong is not imfrequently the subject of argument in
the newspapers. But it seems clear that the Tumon-
gong's authority is now far too firmly established to be
overturned ^ and it would even appear that from the first
the Tumongong had more voice in the government than
the Sultan, especially in all that regarded Singapore,
the soil of which appears to have been his property.

Singapore was not associated with Penang till

1826, but ranked for the first four years after its
settlement as one of the dependencies of Fort Marl-
borough (Bencoolen), of which Sir Stamford Raffles was
Governor, and after Sir Stamford left for Europe, was
constituted an independent residency under the Bengal
Government. Bencoolen — which had been in the
Company's possession since 1685— was of but minor
importance, possessing almost no attractions in a com-
mercial point of view. It was valuable chiefly for its

BEXCOOLF.W

pepper produce, which was a monopoly in the hands
of the Company ; and it was to the servants of the
Company there that the celebrated message about
white pepper came out from the directors. It appears
that at the time white pepper found a much more ready
sale in the home market than black, and the directors,
ever watchful of their interests, wrote out to Bencoolen
in their usual magniloquent style, directing their
servants to i( pay more regard in future to the planting
and cultivation of white pepper, and not to increase
the number of black pepper plants/' But both black
and white pepper are from exactly the same plant,
the difference of colour only arising from the method
of preparation, the latter being allowed to ripen on the
vine, while the former is plucked when green. It is
said that the directors were always very tender to their
Bencoolen establishment after they found out their mis-
take, about which they never provoked a discussion.*

* It was not very long after this that a somewhat extraordinary
accident happened to the treasury chest at Bencoolen. A considei -able
di>eiv] arid between the amount to the credit of the public

nit and the specie actually on hand: in fact, several thousand
dollars were wanting. Every effort was made to detect either error in
the accounts or defalcation on the part of the inferior officers in the
department, but neither the 0*6 nor the other could be established ; and
I t»elieve that, in the eno\ tia- blame was laid upon the white ants — a
most destructive insect, but one whieh had never before been known to
extend its ravages to bullion. Still, however, it was left to the conj-
of the directors whether the dollars themselves or only the «-h«r ihui
contained them had been demolished, and they must have concluded the
former, for they expressed no remonstrance, but despatched by first
return opportunity a small parcel of steel tiles; and when the Bencoolen
umont wrote bomfi Id ttA fat what purpose the files had be«m sent
out, the director* answered that they were to tie used against the teeth
of the white ants, should these insects again prove troubl'-smiic fed the
money chest.

1 1

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

But when Sir Stamford Raffles came back from
administration of Java, where he had bo distinguished
himself, Bencoolen was constituted a Presidency, merely
to confer upon him the appointment of Lieutenant-
Governor ; and it was very fortunate that the appoint-
ment was made, and that Sir Stamford Raffles he
the independent powers he did ; for had a referei
been made before Singapore was taken possession
as would have been necessary on the part of
inferior authority, the answer could not have coi
back in time to prevent the Dutch from complete
shutting us out of the Johore territories.

Colonel Farquhar was appointed by Sir Stain for
Raffles as first Resident, and continued to administ
the internal affairs of the settlement for the first fo
years of its infancy. Great outcries continued to
made by the Dutch against the legality of the sett
ment ; and the Dutch Governor of Malacca prodnc
a treaty of twenty-three Articles made with the Raj*
of Johore before Malacca had fallen into the hands of
the English in 1795, and which professed to place that
country and all its dependencies, including Singapore,
under the control of Malacca. That such a treaty was
made actually appears to have been the case ; but Sir
Stamford Raffles defeated its application by referring
to the terms of the cession of Malacca to us in 1795,
when the Dutch, with a cautious and scarcely hon*
policy, having in view to limit our ascendancy as
as possible, took care to declare that all the Malays
States connected with them were free and imkper
The deception must have come back rather forcit

TOWN LAID OUT.

upon themselves. These bickerings with the Dutch
did not cease till the completion of the treaty with
Holland in 1824, which gave us back Malacca, con-
firmed our possession of Singapore, and ceded us
supremacy over all territories north of the Straits of
Malacca, while it secured Rhio and Bencoolen and the
supremacy of the native States south of the Straits to
the Dutch,

The left or eastern bank of the Singapore river was
the first selected for the site of the town. Colonel
Farquhar built a residency bungalow on the ground in
front of where the Court House now stands, with a
number of smaller bungalows stretching eastward, along
the present esplanade, for the accommodation of the
other officers of Government. The cantonments for the
military lay further back at the foot of Fort Canning.

As traders and merchants poured in, a plan of the
town was drawn up, and the first allotments sold.
This embraced the greater part of what is now called
Campong Glam, as well as the lands fronting the
beach eastward of the Institution buildings. These
early sales were in fee simple, and contrary to the
policy of the Company, who never gave away an
absolute property in the soil, generally granting leases
of 99 years ; the reason being that they might, at any
moment, order all residents to leave their possessions.
As soon as Sir Stamford Raffles discovered his mis-
take, he called together the purchasers, and discharging
them from the payment of their purchase-money gave
them 99 years' leases of the land they had bought
without any payment whatever.

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

ient,

In 1823, Colonel Farquhar retired to England,
and Mr. Crawford, who had been a political agent «.»f
the Company, and had also held a high appointment
during the occupation of Java, was installed by
Stamford Raffles in his place ; and a few months a
wards, when Singapore ceased to be a dependenc
Bcncoolen, became Resident under the Government
Bengal. Both Sir Stamford Raffles and Mr. Cra
furd were literary men, and had commented on and
criticized each other's political actions ; but in Jum
1823, when about to retire to England, and in hi
ing the reins of government over to his old opponei
Sir Stamford Raffles said, w Mr. Crawfiird, there is no
one to whom I could entrust the government of this
infant settlement with so much pleasure as to your-
self." Shortly after Mr, Crawfnrd's accession, it was
resolved, at the request of the merchants, who had
grown a very considerable body, to build the town upon
the western side of the river, where the mercantile
portion of it is at the present day- At one corner of
what is Commercial Square now, stood a large stony
mound, and the rest was a mangrove swamp ; but the
swamp was filled up by excavations from the mound,
and so in time was formed the level plateau on which
the buildings now stand.

From the time of its settlement, Singapore had
been maintained as a free port ; whereas at Penang
the impost of five per cent, duties was continued till
the date of incorporation. With this advantage,
added to its favourable geographical position, it is no
wonder that Singapore grew and prospered, while

JEALOUS FOLK V OF THE HON. E. I. COMPANY. 17

older colony remained stationary, if, in fact, it did
not in some respects retrograde . The merchants of
the latter place made sad complaints, but they were
always met by the fact that the government of this
island already cost the Company some 60,000/. a year
over and above the revenue. The government of
Singapore, it is but fair to observe, was also carried on
at a heavy loss.

In 1825, Malacca was again handed over to the
English, and in the year following, Penang, Singapore,
and Malacca were incorporated as one settlement ;
Mr. Fullerton, a Madras civilian, and formerly member
of council of that presidency, was sent out as governor,
and as Penang was still by far the largest of the three
stations, he made that the seat of government.
Mr. Prince, and afterwards Mr. Murehison, both old
Bencoolen servants, were Resident Councillors at Sin-
gapore ; Mr. Crawford having, previous to the incor-
poration, gone home to England, where he still lives
one of the best and most active friends that the
settlement possesses. In 1827, Sir John Claridge
came out as first Recorder of the incorporated
settlements.

At this time, the Company pursued very nearly
the same jealous policy as the Dutch still do in Java,
and no one, merchant or otherwise, was allowed to
come out to India unless under what were termed
11 Free Mariner's Indentures. But Sir Stamford
Raffles had never paid regard to this form, and
had offered the greatest inducements to every one to
come and settle freely in Singapore. Mr. Fullerton,

18 THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

however, on one of his first visits to Singapore, issued
letters addressed to all the residents, asking by what
right they continued on the island. Only one or two
possessed the required " indentures/' and the others
pleaded the invitation of Sir Stamford Raffles. The
matter was referred to Calcutta, where it was allowed
to drop ; but Mr. Fullerton lost his popularity by the
measure, as it was believed some personal pique lay at
the bottom of it. Neither does Mr. Fullerton appear
to have been fortunate in getting the machinery of
government to work smoothly. On one occasion
of the circuit of the supreme court to Singapore, Sir
John Claridge, the Recorder, absolutely refused to
proceed with the accommodation placed at his disposal
by Mr. Fullerton, who as distinctly refused to furnish
better; and the difference ended in Mr. Fullerton
bringing down the court establishment, and holding
the session at Singapore himself. These proceedings
were afterwards referred home, and it is just to
say that the Recorder was severely reprimanded.
Mr. Fullerton, who had been eminently successful
in the settlement of the land question at Madras,
also made a great mistake by introducing hew
a tax upon cultivation similar to that which had
succeeded in raising the revenue there. This drove
many of the Chinese gardeners away from the island,
and caused others to retire back into the jungle to
be out of reach of taxation.

The condition of the Straits was far from satis-
factory. The revenue had not increased, while the
expenditure had steadily progressed till it approached

GOVERNMENT REMODELLED.

an annual deficit of about 100,000/. ; and several
expensive works had been commenced, including the
erection at Singapore of Fort Fullerton ; when, in
March, 1827, Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-
General, suddenly made his appearance armed with
powers from the directors to remodel the system of
government. Mr* Fullerton was at Malacca at the
time, and he there received intimation from Lord
Bentinck that if he proceeded to Anjer, one of the
Company's ships would he at his service to convey him
to India or England. The civil and military establish-
ments were both greatly reduced, and it was at first
contemplated to dispense with the office of Governor ;
but this was not carried out ; a reduction in the stipend
was mad«\ and Mr. Ibbetson, who had been Resident
Councillor at Penang, was appointed to the office.
One of Lord Bentinck's observations on landing at
Penang was, that he " could not see what the island
was like, for the number of cocked hats which were in
his way." We can readily believe that this was a pointed
observation, when we remember the then population
of the island, and reflect that its expenditure was
nearly treble what it is now.

Great improvements were made about this time,
1S30, in the appearance of the town of Singapore.
The buildings around Commercial Square were nearly
completed ; and on the other side of the river, the
court-house, which still forms one of the ornaments of
the town, had been erected, and the land now forming
the esplanade, which had been marked out by
Mr, Fullerton in building lots, was made a reserve,

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

on the condition that all the buildings fronting
it should be of an ornamental style of architecture.
This one act of liberality on the part of the Company,
by introducing among the residents a spirit of rivalry
in elegant building, has done a great deal to give the
town its present fine appearance,

Mr. Ibbetson retired from the governorship in
1833, after being three years in office, and was
succeeded by Mr, Kenneth Murchison, who had
bMB Resident Councillor at Singapore during Mr.
Fullerton's time, and also at Penang during the
governorship of Mr. Ibbetson. He did not bring any
very great ability to bear upon the affairs of the island,
and his administration was distinguished for its singular
immunity from anything in the shape of excitement.
In 1837, after four years' term of office, he proceeded
to the Cape on his way home, and the acting governor-
ship was handed over to Samuel G. Bonham, Esq,
(afterwards created Sir S. G. Bonham) , Mr, Bon-
ham had been Resident Councillor at Singapore during
Mr. Murchison's time, and had displayed abilities
of no ordinary degree, so that his confirmation to the
appointment of Governor was looked forward to with
general favour. This, however, was for a time post-
poned, and, indeed, rendered doubtful, by a somewhat
untoward event.

Mr, Church, who had held the office of police
magistrate and Assistant Resident Councillor at Penang
during the five years previous to 1835, and was con-
sequently higher in rank than Mr. Bonham, retired
in that year from the service, and proceeded home.

RAl'IH PROGRESS OF SINGAPORE,

He had not been long there, however, before he

repented of Ms resignation, and petitioned the Com-
pany to be allowed to rejoin, and this was allowed
him on the condition that he should be placed at the
bottom of the list for promotion* Mr. Church there-
upon proceeded to Calcutta, en route to the Straits,
and while there waited upon Sir Charles Metcalfe,
then acting Governor- General of India, who asked
him the period of his previous service. Mr* Church,
unfortunately for himself, as it afterwards turned out,
was by no means communicative on the point of his
late resignation, and Sir Charles Metcalfe, judging
that he was older in the service than Mr. Bonham,
sent him on to the Straits with powers to relieve that
gentleman of the acting governorship. This, on his
arrival there, he did, and continued to administer the
government for a few months ; but it was not long
before matters were cleared up, and as soon as this
was the case, positions were reversed. Mr. Bonham
was confirmed as Governor, and Mr. Church received
the appointment under him of Resident Councillor.
Singapore now, for the first time, was made the
permanent residence of the Governor.

The period of Mr. Bonham 1 s administration was
in many respects an important one, extending, as
it did, from 1887 to 1843. Singapore progressed
with rapid strides in commercial importance; and it
also came, for the first time, to be acknowledged as
of the greatest strategic value. The China war broke
out, and for nearly three years it formed the gathering
point as well as, in a great measure, the point of

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

the vessels of war and transports had been floe
in, both from England and from India ; and at

supply, of the fluctuating forces engaged in that
struggle* It is described as a brilliant sight,
departure thence of the first great force for
It was in April, 1839. For upwards of three mont

the array was complete. There were thirty-six trans-
ports and twelve men-of-war, and they left the harbour
in two divisions at the firing of the same gun, each
division led by a steamer. Admiral Maitland was in
command of the fleet,

Mr. Bonham was a most liberal man, and all
through the China war he kept open house. The
expense of this hospitality was enormous, but it was
borne uncomplainingly, and when the Company after-
wards passed to his credit the sum of 30,000 rupees,
they did about as little as they could have done.

In 1843, after six years of able administration,
Mr. Bonham proceeded to Europe, and was a few years
afterwards sent out to China as Governor of Hong Kong,
which island had then recently been ceded to us.
Colonel William John Butterworth (afterwards Major-
General Butterworth, C,B.) succeeded to the governor-
ship of the Straits, He had previously been assistant
quartermaster-general of the Madras army, but had
proceeded to the Cape on furlough in 1841. Here
he met Lord Ellenborough, who was on his way out
to assume the governor-generalship of India; and so
favourable was the impression he made upon the future
Viceroy, that, when he came back to India, the
governorship of the Straits having been lately vac

COLONEL BUTTERWORTH.

by Mr. Bonham, he received the offer of the appoint-
ment, and accepted it.

Colonel Butterworth's tenure of office was a very
long one, extending over nearly twelve years, and
witnessed considerable progress in the material pros-
perity of the island. The country lands which had
hitherto been locked up by the Company, under the
impression— derived, it is believed, from some reports
made by Mr, Ibbetson — that in the monopoly of their
cultivation there lay a rich mine of wealth, were now
thrown open to the public ; those within a certain
radius of town were disposed of at ten rupees per acre,
and those beyond it at five rupees per acre. This,
in a few years, added considerably to the exports of
the island, and Singapore promised soon to possess a
valuable trade in local products. How it has come to
pass that these expectations have been disappointed
may be learned at another part of this volume. An
improvement which closely followed, was the appoint-
ment of a municipal committee to look after the affairs
of the town.

The close of Colonel Butterworth's administration
was marked by two rather important events. The
one was the outbreak of the first Chinese riot in 1854,
and the other was the conclusion of a treaty between
the Sultan and the Tumongong of Johore already
alluded to, by which the former ceded to the latter
the sovereignty of Johore. The first was an event
entirely beyond the influence of our Government ;
but the second, which transferred a dynasty, certainly
from weaker to more powerful bands, but, nevertheless,

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.

from an ancient family of ralers to a family of subor-
dinates, was thought by many to be the result of a
scarcely fair exercise of the Governor's power in favour
of a personal predilection. However, Colonel Butter-
worth has altogether earned well the esteem in which
his memory is now held by the people of Singapore,*
In the latter part of 1855, Edmund Augustus
Blundell, Esq,, of the Civil Service, succeeded Colonel
Butterwortk. He had been for a long time commis-
sioner of the Tenasserim provinces, and would most
probably have been appointed to the governorship of
the Straits twelve years before, had it not been for
Lord EUenborough's attachment to Colonel Butter-
worth. During Mr. BlundeLTs administration the
great rebellion in India broke out, and with him it
was that Lord Elgin was staying when he issued the
famous order winch deflected the troops of the China
expedition at Anjer and sent them back to India*
The news of the Indian revolt reached Singapore in
the afternoon ; all that night Lord Elgin remained
pacing up and down his room in the Government
bungalow that stood where Fort Canning stands now,
kolding various interviews with the naval and military
officers of the expedition, and next morning at day-
light a steamer was despatched to the Straits of Sunda
with the order which, it is believed by many, saved
the Britisk empire in India,

* Major-Genend Butterworth died about two years aftex he returned

home. He bad received his commission of Mujor Gmmil just as he
was stepping ou board the vessel which was to convey him from the
hi had governed for twelve years*

COLONEL CAVANAGH.

The only two other events worth chronicling in
r. Blund ell's time were the breaking out of a some-
what protracted riot among the Chinese, and the
handing over of the East India Company's ancient
authority to the Crown.

In 18*59 Colonel Cavanagh received from Lord
Canning the appointment of Governor of the Straits,
Colonel Cavanagh had twice distinguished himself in
India ; he had been actively engaged in the Punjaub
war, where he hail had the misfortune to lose a leg,
and at the time the mutiny broke out ho was town-
major at Calcutta. For his skill and discretion in the
latter capacity, which at such a time as that of the
mutiny involved a rather important trust, he obtained
great praise. When the mutiny had been suppressed,
the office of town-major was abolished, and Colonel
Cavanagh accepted the vacant office of Governor of
the Straits, very much in the light of a temporary
appointment. The agitation for the transfer of the
settlement to the Crown had already commenced,
and as Lord Canning was one of those most favour-
able to it, he was particular, when making the
appointment, to explain its probably short-lived
nature.

Colonel Cavanagh 's term of office, however, has,
contrary to expectation, extended quite as long as
that of most Governors of the settlement, being only
exceeded by that of Mr. Bonham and that of Colonel
Butterworth. It has also witnessed a very marked
progress in commercial prosperity, and has not been
> quered by any local or national misfortune. It has

■i<;

THE STRAITS SETTLE*!

witnessed the uncontested imposition of a stamp-tax
and the successful resistance of a measure to burdei
the port with tonnage dues.

Of the eight Governors whom the settlement
possessed since its foundation, few hare probably bees
more painstaking than the present. He possesses in
a singular degree the ambition and the perseverance
to make himself well acquainted with even the mosi
minute affairs of his government ; and men of much
longer residence are scarcely better informed as to the
character and peculiarities of the population, as to the
capabilities of the soil and the extent of its cultivation,
or as to the elements of the settlement's commerce.
This is amply evidenced by the administration reports
now issued annually, and which embrace a much wider
range of subjects than they did in previous years. But
the limited power which has hitherto been entrusted
to the local government of the Straits is little cal-
culated to develope administrative ability to the full.
And, though surrounded by important interests and
events, the Governors have but too often found that
they can interfere neither with dignity nor effect. It
is to be trusted, that when the settlement comes under
the more direct control of the Imperial Government,
its Governor will lie vested with full powers as hei
Majesty's representative and plenipotentiary for the
Malay Peninsula and the Indian Archipelago.

27 )

CHAPTER II.

SCENERY: SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

^es in Loveliness that of Ceylon mid Java— Given Inlets — The
OKI Strait- l.ulr Snury — Amiint Piracy — Nulive Craft— Wmul
Raits — Singapore Harbour— Eastern Approach — Approach from

-t ward— Mount Faber — 1', ami O. Company — projected new
Dodf — 11 M s to— Present Dock— Shipping in the Road*

htoul — Men-nf- War — Chines J links — Cootie Honors — Malay
I'm huff- flmfcllfiotttn ffantl The Tom Froataga- -i-'.n-t. Fullertaa
— Public Buildings— ( >ld Ilesida&cee — fit Andrew's Church — Back-
ground — Fort Canning.

A great deal has been written about the natural
beauties of Ceylon and Java, and some theologians,
determined to give the first scene in the Mosaic nar-
rative a local habitation, have fixed the Paradise of
unfallen man on one or other of those noble islands.
Nor has their enthusiasm carried them to any ridi-
culous extreme ; for the beauty of some parts of Java
and Ceylon might well accord with the description
given us, or, rather, which we are accustomed to infer,
of that land from which man was driven on his first
great sin.

I have seen both Ceylon and Java, and admired in
bo grudging measure their many charms; but for
calm placid loveliness, I should place Singapore high

28 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

above them both. It is a loveliness, too, that
once strikes the eye, from whatever point we view
island, which combines all the advantages of
always beautiful and often imposing coast-line with
endless succession of hill and dale stretching ink
The entire circumference of the island is one pa
rama, where the magnificent tropical forest, with
undergrowth of jungle, runs down at one place to
very water's edge, dipping its large leaves into
glassy sea, and at another is abruptly broken b
brown rocky cliff, or a late landslip over which
jungle has not yet had time to extend itself. £
and there, too, are scattered little green islands,
like gems on the bosom of the hushed water, betw
which the excursionist, the trader, or the pirate
wont to steer his course. " Eternal summer gilds tl
shores ;" no sooner has the blossom of one tree pas
away than that of another takes its place, and &t
fresh perfume all around ; as for the foliage, 1
never seems to die. Perfumed isles are in m
people's minds merely fabled dreams, but they
easy of realization here. There is scarcely a par
the island, except those few places where the orig
forest and jungle have been cleared away, from wl
at night time, on the first breathings of tlie land wi
may not be felt those lovely forest perfumes, even at
distance of more than a mile from shore. These 1
winds — or, more properly, land airs, for they
scarcely be said to blow, but only to breathe — usu
commence at 10 o'clock at night and continue
within an hour or two of sunrise — they are welcoi

( 27 )

CHAPTER II.

SCENERY: SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

Surpasses in Loveliness that of Ceylon and Java — Green Islets — The
Old Strait — Lake Scenery — Ancient Piracy — Native Craft — Wood
Rafts — Singapore Harbour — Eastern Approach — Approach from
Westward — Mount Faber — P. and O. Company — Projected new
Dock — H.M.'s Dockyards — Present Dock — Shipping in the Road-
stead — Men-of- War — Chinese Junks — Coolie Horrors — Malay
Prahus — Small Boats— Coral — The Town Frontage — Fort Fullerton
— Public Buildings — Old Residences — St. Andrew's Church — Back-
ground — Fort Canning.

I have seen both Ceylon and Java, and admired in
no grudging measure their many charms; but for
calm placid loveliness, I should place Singapore high

30 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

two hundred years the entire population of Singapon
and the surrounding islands, and of the sea frontagi
of Johore, subsisted upon fishing and pirating; tin
former occupation only being resorted to when th
prevailing monsoon was too strong to admit of fhi
successful prosecution of the latter. Strange storii
are told of these pirating days, and old grey-headei
men still may be heard to gloat over the prowess the;
displayed and the victims they despatched ere wh*
they account English over-sensitiveness put a checl
upon the system. It seems, however, that they them
selves had always a lurking consciousness that tb
practice of piracy was scarcely justifiable according i
strict rules of right and wrong; and they invariaW
did their best to obliterate every trace of thei
crimes, by systematically destroying all those whon
they robbed. The idea was simple and primitive
but it was effectual in serving its purpose, and tb
individual pirates, did they afterwards find it to thei
advantage to pursue an honest walk in life, had m
fear that their old sins would be brought in judgmen
against them.

By the constant vigilance of our authorities a
Singapore, and by the combined action of the Dutcl
and the native princes of the surrounding States
piracy on an extensive scale in this neighbourhood
has been now put an end to, and we hear very seldon
of any case where a combination is attempted. Still
however, solitary instances of piracy, accompanied b
the most cold-blooded and brutal murder, continue i
obtrude themselves upon our notice, and take thei

OLD STRAIT OP SINGAPORE. 31

place on the criminal calendars of the settlement ; and
it is distressing to reflect that justice is in most cases
defeated, owing to the unreliable and often contradictory
nature of native evidence.

Of the numberless prahus, sampans, lorchas,
yukats and tongkangs, therefore, that in these days
give life to the waters of the old strait, and between
its numerous islands, nearly all have honest purposes,
fishing, timber-carrying, or otherwise trading. A very
extraordinary flotilla of a rather nondescript character
maybe often seen in this part of the straits at certain
seasons of the year. These are huge rafts of unsawn,
newly-cut timber ; they are generally 500 or 600 feet
long, and 60 or 70 feet broad, the logs being skilfully
laid together, and carefully bound by strong rattan-
rope, each raft containing often 2,000 logs. They
have always one or two attap-houses built upon them,
and carry crews of twenty or twenty-five men ; the
married men taking their wives and children with
them. The timber composing them is generally cut
many miles away, in some creek or river on the
mainland, so that they have to perform long voyages
ere they reach a market — either Singapore or the
Tumongong's saw-mills already referred to. Sails
are used when they are crossing from one coast to
another, but not otherwise, as it is found more expe-
ditious to haul them along. For this purpose a
windlass is erected about ten feet high, with a bench
behind it on which some ten or twelve of the crew sit,
driving, or rather treading, the barrel round with their
feet by projecting cogs. Attached to the barrel of the

SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

windlass is a strong rattan -rope, about the eighth of i
mile long, with an anchor at the end, which is
out by a small boat to its full stretch, and the anchor
dropt. The winding on the windlass then commences,
and goes on till the anchor is reached, when it is
weighed and again sent out. This is necessarily
very slow means of progression, and impracticable
certain conditions of the weather, and these voyages
often occupy months; but if the raft is successfully
brought to market, its price amply repays the venture,
and renders one voyage in six months a satisfactory
return.

But though the old strait displays more wildnes
of tropical scenery, it can scarcely be said to exceed
in loveliness the side which faces the present thorough-
fare of shipping. The harbour of Singapore is formed
of an extensive bay on the southern coast of the ishind
about equidistant from ite extremities. The approach
from the eastward is comparatively tame in appearance,
eocoanut plantations extending along its coast for
miles, with here and there a little fishing village
standing out in relief; yet the contrast between the
dark foliage of the trees and the snowy whiteness of
the sandy beach is very pleasing. It is at the western
entrance, through New Harbour, however, that the
greatest measure of beauty is to be found. This is
the side from which Singapore is approached by those
who come from home to take up their sojourn there ;
and no wonder that they enter their new home predis-
posed in its favour, for the scene is one very rarely to be
surpassed in the world, certainly not in the English

34 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

but in larger furrows ; these are the pineries belonging
to the Tomongong, and from which Singapore is
chiefly supplied with this its staple fruit. On the very
summit of Mount Faber stands a flagstaff, from which
vessels approaching from the west can be seen at a
distance of sixteen miles ; it also repeats the signals of
the town flagstaff at Fort Canning, and so great is the
commerce of the Straits, that from sunrise to sunset
they are both plentifully decked out in bunting.

On the top of this hill are two mortars, and lower
down is a battery of two 56-pounder guns, with barracks
attached, forming part of the far-famed fortifications
of Singapore. It is difficult to say whether the two
gaping mortars on the top of the hill, or the two
lonely guns below, convey the greatest feeling of
desolation and decay. The very sepoys that guard
the latter — for they don't man them — seem touched
with the melancholy of neglect.

The P. and 0. Company's wharves, at which their
steamers lie, are situated at the head of a small bay,
with the island of Pulo Brani in front. This bay is
completely shut in on all sides from the view of the
Straits, and is distant from town by water or by road
about 2£ miles ; it is commonly designated New
Harbour, but the name equally applies to the whole
of the land-locked passage between the south shore
of Singapore and the small islets lying off its western
extremity, about 3 miles in extent, and of which the
P. and 0. Company's wharves only occupy a small
frontage. It is not, properly speaking, a harbour
at all; for vessels rarely ride at anchor there, the

NEW HARBOUR.

narrowness of the channel, and the strong tides that
run through it, rendering this unsafe ; they only
come there to discharge their cargoes, which, from
the deepness of the water, they are enabled to do
at the wharves. Thoogh there are wharves belonging
to two other companies in New Harbour, still those
of the P. and 0. Company are the most extensive,
and the coal- sheds and other premises attached to
them are of great extent, and must represent a large
amount of capital. The coal -sheds of this company
are all built of brick, and tile roofed, and they are
capable of containing — as, in fact, they often do con-
tain — about 20,000 tons of coal. The wharves are
strong and substantial, and have altogether a frontage
of about 1,200 feet* What with these and the ware-
houses attached, I should judge that the marketable
value of the P. and 0. Company's premises at New
Harbour alone (for they have coal- sheds in Singapore
besides) is very little under 70,000/. I have often
thought if the shareholders in this company had an
opportunity to inspect the company's establishments
east of Suez, that they would be somewhat slower of
parting with their shares at the modest premiums
they do.

The mail steamers never come into the roadstead
now, but land their passengers and cargo at these
wharves. Most of the passengers, whether their
ultimate destination be Singapore or not, land, and
drive up to town to inspect for themselves the
beauties of a place the approach to which is so
lovely ; those who remain on board, however, may

a— %

36 SINGAPORE PROM SEAWARD.

find entertainment in the feats of swarms of small
Malay boys, who immediately surround a steamer
on her arrival, in toy boats, just big enough to float
them, and induce the passengers to cast cents or
other small coins into the water, for which they dive
down, and in almost every case succeed in recovering.
I may mention here, in case I should not have another
opportunity, that almost all the ships visiting Singapore
have their bottoms examined, and some have had as
many as twenty or thirty sheets of copper put on
by Malay divers. One man will put on as many as
two sheets in an hour, going down, perhaps, a dozen
times, and when such vessels have afterwards had
to go into dock, not a fault could be found with the
manner in which these odd sheets had been fixed.

On % leaving New Harbour to come out into the
roadstead, the scenery loses considerably in effect by
several long mud and coral reefs which run a long
way out from the shore, and are dry at low water.
It is on this part of the coast that the projectors of
the Tanjong Paggar Dock Company have determined
to construct their works. Opinion seems to differ
to a great extent as to the suitability of the position
in respect of the tides, the nature of the bottom, and
otherwise. The balance of local authority, however,
seems to be in its favour. Five years ago there was
no dock whatever in Singapore, though as far back
as fifteen years, specifications and estimates for one
on the island of Pulo Brani, fronting the P. and 0.
Company's premises in the New Harbour passage,
were prepared, and received the approbation both of

DRY DOCKS.

the Government and the merchants ; but from a want
of combination, the scheme was left to progress slowly
by the private efforts of the projector, till four years
ago, her Majesty's Admiralty took possession of the
site and the works which had already been constructed
there, no grant for the land ever having been obtained
by the persevering projector. Still there are certain
claims resulting from this appropriation by the Govern-
ment, which should not be overlooked* In 1857 a
private proprietary undertook an enterprise similar to
that which had so long hung fire on the hands of the
public. And at the western extremity of New Harbour,
that is, at its entrance, a dock 400 feet long was dug
out of the rock, and furnished with the necessary appli-
ances to take up and repair at once two vessels of
800 tons each. This dock, called the New Harbour
dock, has been in operation four years; but, as has
uerally been found at ports situated in the fair way
of a large traffic, the facilities for docking have
increased the demand, and at times vessels requiring
repairs have to lie as long as six weeks waiting their
turns to get into dock. The new company proposes
to provide the additional accommodation, and should
it succeed in doing so, the result, whatever it may
be to its own shareholders and to the proprietors
of the old dock, cannot fail to be beneficial in the
highest degree to the Straits.

On rounding the eastern exit of New Harbour, the
shipping and harbour of Singapore at once bursts on
the view, with the white walls of the houses and the
dark verdure of the shrubbery of the town nearly, if

38 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

not altogether y hid by the network of spars and
rigging that intervenes. It is truly a noble sight the
shipping that rides throughout the year in the road-
stead of Singapore ; for the box-shaped, heavy-rigged
East Indiamen that thirty years ago carried the then
moderate freight of the island, have been exchanged
for the beautifully modelled clipper or frigate-built
ships of the finest building yards in Great Britain and
America; their tall, slim, raking spars reaching in the
view from seaward high above the hilly background
of the island.

Neither is the harbour without a good supply of
steamers ; there is scarcely any time during the year
when there are less than half a dozen steam-vessels in
the port, and not unfrequently there are twice that
number. Of these, not a few are war vessels — British,
French, Russian, Austrian, Spanish, American, Dutch,
and, I may also say, Confederate and Chinese, for here
has harboured the renowned Alabama, and on Singa-
pore waters has been borne almost all of the notorious
Anglo-Chinese fleet under Captain Sherard Osborn ; it
may also, in these days, be worth recording that it has
harboured an Italian merchantman commanded by the
famous Garibaldi. The greater number of the steamers,
however, are those which belong to private firms or
companies, and are engaged in trade between India,
China, Java, Siam, Borneo, <fcc. ; and among them
there are probably as fair specimens of naval architecture
as are to be found afloat. The opium steamers, those
belonging to Messrs. Jardine, of China, and to the
Messrs. Cama, of Bombay, especially, lack nothing

HARBOUR OF SINGAPORE.

either in beauty of model or effectiveness of machinery
which money can secure. The boats of the Peninsular
and Oriental Company, too, that carry the mails are
some of them fine ships to look at; and it is but
justice to say that those of the Messageries Imperiales
are the largest, swiftest, and finest-fitted of any
steamers that have yet been placed on the route
between China and Europe for the purpose of passenger

(traffic.
But it is not so much from the fine character of its
foreign merchantmen that the harbour of Singapore is
chiefly remarkable ; it is rather from the extraordinary
variety of nondescript native craft that swarm in its
shoaler waters. Most peculiar and most striking of
all are the huge Chinese junks, some of 600 or 700
tons measurement, which during the greater part of
the year lie anchored there. Though the largest of
these junks must measure quite as much as I state,
t the great majority are much smaller ; but it is
singular that in shape, and generally in rig, all are
nearly similar. Indeed, the very sampans, or two-
oared China boats, used to convey native passengers
and luggage to and from the ships and the shore, are
identical in shape. All have alike the square bow and
the broad flat stern ; and, from the largest to the
smallest, on what in a British vessel would be called
her " head boards," all have the two eyes embossed
and painted. John Chinaman's explanation of this
custom, according to general account, *' no got eyes
no can see/' is but little complimentary to the good
sense of his utilitarian and sensible nation, I rather

40 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

incline to the belief that these " eyes," as they are
called, are significant of the new moon, and represent,
as snch, some principle in the Buddhist religion.
About the months of March and April the greatest
number of these junks are to be seen in harbour.
They come down from China towards the close of the
north-east monsoon, and remain till the opposite or
south-west monsoon sets in to enable them to return,
for they never attempt to make headway against a pre-
vailing wind. During these two months as many as
fifty large junks, besides many smaller ones, lie at
anchor in the eastern corner of the harbour. Some
are painted red, some green, some black, and others
yellow ; each colour, I have been told, being the badge
of the particular province to which they severally
belong. The ornamental painting is confined chiefly
to the stern, which generally bears some elaborate and
fantastic figuring, conspicuous in which can invariably
be traced the outlines of a spread eagle, not unlike
that which is borne on the reverse of the American
dollars. The rigging of these craft consists, when in
harbour, of little else than a few coir or rattan ropes
rove through the tops of the three bare spars or masts,
the centre one standing up about perpendicular, the
one forward leaning at about an angle of 15 degrees
over the bows, and the after one leaning at about the
same angle over the stern. It is difficult, while look-
ing at these junks, to imagine how they can manage
m a sea way ; and yet they must at times encounter
the heaviest weather along the Chinese coast in the
northern latitudes. It is true that when they encounter

ESE JUNK.s.

gale they generally run before it, but yet, in a

hoon, this would be of little avail to ease a ship.

ere is no doubt they must possess some good

ualities, and probably speed with a fair wind in a

smooth sea is one of them. Not many years ago, a

boat-builder in Singapore bought one of the common

pans used by the coolie boatmen, which are of
exactly the same shape as the junks, and rigged her
like an English cutter, giving her a false keel and a
shifting weather-board ; and, strange to say, won with
her every race that he tried for at the regattas. I
don't know why the experiment was not improved
upon ; I suppose the unsightly and unsailoiiike aspect
of the craft was the chief deterrent.

Passing through between these junks about sunset
is a singular spectacle. Amid the beating of gongs,
ringing of bells, and discordant shouts, the nightly
religious ceremonies of the sailors are performed,
consisting chiefly in the burning and scattering about
of gilt paper, the swinging to and fro of lanterns and
lighted torches ; one's boat, too, as it passes close
to them during these ceremonies, not unfrequently
receives a shower of the rare condiments which are
scattered on the sea as an offering of their worship.

But many of the junks which lie quietly at anchor
there, could, if they had the power to speak, tell sad
tales of human suffering, The chief trade of not a
few of them is the traffic of human freight; and
it is unfortunately of such a generally remunerative
character as to leave but little hope of its voluntary
abandonment. The demand for labour, and the wages

42 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

paid in Singapore, are so considerable, as to induce a
large number of junks yearly to sail from China with
men, picked up, and stowed away on board, under
what misrepresentations it is very difficult to say, and
on arrival they are kept on board till a bargain for
their employment is effected. It appears that no
passage money is demanded from these emigrant!
before leaving China, but that they are made to pledge
so many years of their labour on the condition of
bare sustenance only. Large premiums, at least fiye
or six times the mere cost of passage, are at once
offered by the gambier and pepper planters of the
island for the transfer of these contracts; and when
the bargain is struck the coolies are hurried off to
some isolated clearance in the midst of the jungle,
before they can have communication either with the
authorities, or with their own countrymen in town.
It is not, however, by the endurance of cruelty or of
unreasonably long terms of servitude, when the men
are arrived, that the laws of humanity are in much
danger of violation. One or two years at most, and
the new arrivals become acquainted with their rights
as English subjects, and with the knowledge how to
enforce them. The danger is in the overcrowding of
the vessels that bring them ; in this, the poor fellows
have not even the protection that is secured to the
African slave, in so far that by their death, though
there may be a loss of profit, there can be none of
capital to the shipper. The men cost nothing, and
the more the shipper can cram into his vessel the
greater must be his profit. It would be a better

HORRORS OF THE COOLIE TRADE. 48

speculation for the trader whose junk could only carry
properly 300 men, to take on board 600 — and lose
250 — on the way down, than it would be for him to
fltart with his legitimate number and land them all
safely ; for, in the first case, he would bring 350 men
to market, and, in the other, only 300. That this
process of reasoning is actually put in practice by the
Chinese, there was not long ago ample and very
mournful evidence to prove. Two of these passenger
junks had arrived in the harbour, and had remained
unnoticed for about a week, during which the owners
had bargained for the engagement of most of their
cargo. At this time two dead bodies were found
floating in the harbour; an inquest was held, and
it then transpired that one of these two junks on her
way down from China had lost 250 men out of 600 —
and the other 200 out of 400. The bodies upon which
the coroner's inquest was held, were two of the sickly
passengers who had died after arrival, and whose
corpses the owners, forgetful that they were now in
harbour, had tossed into the water as doubtless they
daily had the bodies of their companions on the
voyage from China. It is needless to say that no
Europeans are in any way engaged in this traffic.

But the Chinese junks are not the only remarkable
craft that are borne on the smooth waters of Singa-
pore harbour. There are the prahus, pukats and
tongkangs, besides some completely illegitimate ships
in the shape of old European hulls, which their
Chinese owners, with a strange persistency in their
national distinctions, have had cut down, patched and

44 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

rigged to look as near the junk genus as possible.
They are far from pretty, and doubtless the reran
of manageable ; but there is possibly something flit-
tering to the vanity of the Chinaman in thus reversing
the legitimate order of affairs, and, as it were, turning
back civilization to the old barbarian channels.

The Malay prahus are the craft of the natrn
inhabitants of the Straits, and therefore peculiarly
interesting. Though slightly similar in shape, thej
are never so large as the Chinese junks, seldom being
over fifty or sixty tons' burden. They have only
one large mast, or rather tripod, made of three large
bamboos lashed together at the top, but some two or I
three feet asunder at the bottom ; across two legi ]
of the tripod small pieces of bamboo are lashed, ]
making a sort of ladder up to the block at the head,
through which the haulyards of the large single sail
are rove. This sail is in the shape of an English log-
sail, but with much more width than depth, and with
a yard both at top and bottom ; it is generally made of
coarse grass-cloth, very light and gauzy, and rolled
round the lower yard, through the forward end of
which a cross-bar or handle is placed, by turning
which the sail can either be set, reefed or furled, with
great ease from the deck. These prahus would doubt-
less from their build sail well were it not for the
top-hamper they carry near the stern, which, though
composed of the lightest material, nevertheless renders
any attempt to make headway against the wind impos-
sible — it is not unusual for one of them to have the
deck only three feet out of the water forward, and for

APPROACH TO TE1E TOWN,

ie top of the housing at the stern to be at least
sen feet in height. Another peculiarity they pos-
sss is that they are steered by two rudders — one on
ler quarter.

In addition to the ships and native craft that are
>wded together in the harbour, there arc hundreds
small boats of all descriptions constantly pulling
xrat, selling fruit, provisions, birds, monkeys, shells,
id coral. The birds and monkeys generally find a
idy sale ; the former are of beautiful plumage, and
ie latter are a very small tractable species ; but the
lells and corals which are daily hawked about by
iese boatmen are of the rarest and most lovely
inscriptions. The corals are especially beautiful, and
probably in no other part of the world could a finer
collection he made ; they are of all tints and hues,
green, purple, pink, blue, mauve, and in shape often
resemble flowers and shrubbery; a whole boat-load
of them can be obtained for a dollar and a half, or
two dollars, — and I have often wondered that among
the curiosities which are picked up and carried away
from Singapare more of these beautiful specimens are
not included.

As the outer shipping is passed, the town of Sin-
gapore comes distinctly before the view. But the
word town, in its usual acceptation, fails to convey
the appearance which Singapore presents to its har-
bour. However dense and crowded together some
of the native divisions may be, this does not show
from seaward, and the houses and buildings appear
beautifully interspersed with patches of garden and

46 SINGAPORE FROM SEAWARD.

clomps of trees. The town has a frontage to the bij
of not much less than three miles, and is divided tit
its centre by the Singapore river, on the western ode
of the entrance of which stands Fort Fullerton, with
the black muzzles of nine 68-pounder guns peeping
from its grassy embrasures, and showing a pretty little
bungalow behind surrounded by shrubbery. Ynm
Fort Fullerton westward to a deep turn of the bay,
a fine stone sea-wall has been constructed with a long
range of elegant godowns in course of erection, the
land on which they are being built having not long
been reclaimed from the sea. Further to westward of
this, but in a recess of the bay, the line of native
houses commences, gradually becoming broken by the
intervening patches of cocoanut and fruit trees, until
Fort Palmer is reached, where four guns guard the
town's extreme western limit.

The eastern side of the river, however, presents
the most picturesque view to the harbour. This is
the non-mercantile half of the town, and the one upon
which all the public buildings are erected. Close to
the river, facing Fort Fullerton, stand the court-house
and town-hall ; both large, fine edifices, and ornamental
in design, but which are only partly visible from the
seaward, through some splendid drooping Augsana
trees, which were planted nearly forty years ago, and
have now grown to fifty or sixty feet in height, with
evergreen wide-spreading branches, clad urtheir season
with fragrant golden blossoms, and casting a dense
shade for many yards around them. Farther to the
eastward commences a succession of handsome lofty

TOWN FROM THE HARBOUR. 47

Mansions, which years ago, while the present suburbs
4f the town were yet jungle, constituted the residences
of the merchants and Government officials. They are
jH large buildings, generally kept snowy white with
pillared porticoes and balconies, and green-painted
latticed doors and windows ; to each also is attached a
compound or garden of fair dimensions, tastefully laid
out with trees and shrubs. Few of these houses are
now in use as private residences, some of the best are
taken up for hotels, and one is used as the masonic
lodge. The line of these old beach residences is first
broken by the noble pile of St. Andrew's Church, one
of the largest cathedrals in India, which, begun in
1855, has only this year been completed. Close to
the church is Baffles Institution, a fine square, massive
clump of buildings, with some stately old trees around
it. Further to the eastward, and about a mile from the
river, the native houses commence, but they are shut
out of view to a great extent by the projecting pro-
montory of Tanjong Khoo, which leads away to the
cocoanut plantations which I described before as lining
the eastern approach to the harbour ; and here a white
obelisk, standing out from the dark shade of the trees,
marks the eastern limit of the harbour.

The background is no less lovely than the front of
the picture ; peering over the red tiled roofs of the
bouses just described are an endless succession of little
knoll-like hills, covered with nutmeg and fruit trees of
all varieties, and each crowned by a white walled
bungalow. But most prominent in the background is
the hill on which Fort Canning has been constructed,

48 SINGAPORE PROM SEAWARD.

and which rises up abruptly about a quarter of a mile
inland from the beach ; it is almost pyramidal in
shape, covered from its base up to the ramparts with
beautiful green turf, and crowned with a cluster of
thick foliaged trees, through which the garrison
buildings can barely show their white walls and red
roofs. Here, too, is erected the town flagstaff, kept
pretty constantly busy signalling the daily arrivals in
the harbour.

Such is the appearance of the island and town of
Singapore, as it is viewed from seaward. As I have
stated before, the entire circle of its coast presents an
endless panorama, most beautiful where its wild forests
are untouched, picturesque where are clustered together
the leaf-built houses of its native villages, and most
interesting and little less lovely where stands its
European capital. For forty-five years have the hands
of man been busy accumulating wealth on its bosom,
and yet scarce a scar is visible. Nor do I believe that
in twice that number of years will the island present a
less charming picture than it does now.

( 49 )

CHAPTER III.

SINGAPORE: THE TOWN.

Ancient Tradition — Crowded Streets — Commercial Square — Verandahs
— Vigour of Nature — The River— Crowd of Boats — Busy Wharves
— Proposed Pier— Native Part of the Town — Native Shops— Chinese
Trades — Opium Shops — Manner of Smoking — Chinese Barbers —
Itinerant Vendors — Street Seribes — Dangerous Driving — B

Eastern Division of the Town — St. Andrew's Cathedral
— «A>urt House — Town Hall — Night View

Among the traditions that are handed down to us
concerning the early inhabitants of the island of Singa-
pore, there is one which deserves to be distinguished
from many of the others, in so far that some substan-
tia record is left behind, which will at least serve to
perpetuate its memory, if it cannot materially assist its
authenticity. On the western entrance of the mouth
of the Singapore River, near that portion which is now
built over by Fort Fullerton, stood, as late as 1835, a
large stone, with some strange characters carved or
impressed on it, the deciphering of which has defied the
utmost ingenuity. Sir Stamford Raffles was so much
occupied with the desire to learn the meaning of these
hieroglyphics, that he caused, it is said, an abundant
supply of muriatic acid to be poured over the stone,
with the view to clear off any cmstaceous matter that

60 THE TOWN.

might have accumulated on it, and bring out more
clearly the characters it bore. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the experiment failed, as has every more recent
attempt either to decipher the letters or to arrive,
through them, at a true knowledge of the date of their
inscription; and we are still left to the old legend
regarding them. It has been differently told, but the
most common account is, that a powerful chief— of
what country is not very clear — coming to attack the
Malays shortly after they had formed their settlement
at Singhapura, landed at this point of the island,
and proceeded up the hill to the Malay encampment.
He was met, it appears, on his approach, by the
greatest Sampson among the Malays, named Badang ;
and, after some altercation, it was agreed that instead
of engaging in a general combat, a trial of strength
between the foreign chief and the Malay Sampson
should decide the fate of the invasion. A large piece
of rock was lying close at hand, and it was decided
that whoever could handle this stone with the greatest
ease, was to be declared the victor. The invader tried
first, and he succeeded in raising the stone as high as
his knees, and then let it fall ; on which the Malay,
seizing it in one hand, balanced it high in the air,
took a steady aim, and shot it right out to the mouth
of the river, crushing to pieces the boat from which
the invader had landed. Others, who agree in the
first part of the story, as I have told it, maintain that
instead of the stone, the Malay giant seized the
invading chief himself, and hurled him back upon his
boat, and that the stone was afterwards conveyed

ITS BUSY

IAKCE.

there to commemorate the deed. In any case the
invading force, fearing that they would be immolated
if they had to combat with a race of men like Badang,

tat a precipitate retreat.
I have begun my chapter with this tradition
cause it is the only one I know of related by the
alays which serves to fix the exact locality of their
very early settlement on the island, And it is singular
that the spot marked out by this stone, where tradi-
tion says the invading chief disembarked 600 or 700
years ago, is but a few yards from the present landing-
pier by the site of Fort Follerton ; and as the Malay
encampment, according to the story, was but a stone's
throw distant, it in fill probability stood just where
the modern town stands to-day. But the scene which
is presented to the traveller on landing now forms a
striking contrast to that which moved the cupidity
of the invading chief, and tempted him to try his
strength with the Malay giant. In place of the little
pathway that must have led through the jungle to
the Malay village, composed, probably, of a cluster of
attap-covered huts, are now the busy thoroughfares of
a great commercial emporium. The first thing that
strikes the stranger on landing as remarkable is
this appearance of bustle and activity, heightened
by the motley character of those who compose
the crowd. The street leading from the landing-
place to Commercial Square, the great business
centre of the town, is a rather narrow one, with a
constant stream of Chinese, Malays, Klings, Parsees,

and Mussnlmen, pouring one way and the other.

4_a

52 THE TOWN.

Their costumes are as varied as their nationalities.
From the simple white rag of the nearly naked Kling,
to the heavy flowing dress of the Mahommedan
Hadjee, almost every shade of colour, and every variety
of habit which it is possible to imagine, are here
mingled together. The neatest style of dress is pro-
bably that of the better class of Chinese; the most
picturesque, and, to them, most becoming, is the
Malay costume.

But the place itself is no less Oriental in appear-
ance than its inhabitants, though considerably less so
here than at the native parts of the town lying further
back. Commercial Square, which, ever since the
settlement rose into importance has been the prin-
cipal locality for the European houses of business, is
about 200 yards from the landing, but completely
shut iu from a view of the sea. It is built round
a reserved piece of ground, turfed over with green
sod and tastefully laid out with flowers and shrubs,
which afford to the eye a pleasing relief from the
glare of the whitewashed walls of the square, while
the open space ensures good ventilation to the neigh-
bourhood. The square itself is some 200 yards long
by fifty broad, and many of the houses, or rather
godowns (the latter term being used to denote mercan-
tile establishments) * which surround it, are of very
elegant design. They are all built of brick and plastered
over, but as both labour and materials have at no period
since the settlement of the place been costly, their con-
struction and finish is good. Some of the finest now
standing are twenty or thirty years old. They are twt>

COMMERCIAL SQUARE.

stories high, lofty, and with heavy, overleaning eaves ;
and the lower part of the front wall is composed of
a series of arches or pillars inside of which a verandah
runs from building to building. It appears that, in
most eases, the early grants for town lands were in
the nature of 99 and 999 years' leases, and imposed
an obligation on the lessee to erect buildings with
verandahs of a certain width for foot passengers.
The clause seems, however, not to have been strictly
insisted upon, and many of the verandahs were
blocked up until about a year ago, when the muni-
cipal commissioners raised the point in the Supreme
Court and obtained judgment in their favour. Since
then, the verandahs have been kept tolerably clear,
which, in the narrower and more crowded thorough -
fares of the town, is a great advantage to pedestrians,
there being no pavement. In the centre of the
square is the telegraph-office, connecting New Harbour
with the town, and at one end of it is the favourite
stand for hack-gharries, which, with their drivers,
form by no means an ornamental feature of the town.
Four of the buildings fronting the square are occupied
by banks, each with an English proprietary, and the
everlasting chink of dollars to be heard on passing
these establishments is almost deafening. All the
cashiers in the banks, as, indeed, in mercantile esta-
blishments generally, are Chinamen, who count and,
at the same time, test the genuineness of dollars with
remarkable exactitude and rapidity, by pouring them
from one hand to the other. By the ring which the
dollars give in falling, they are able at once to detect

54 THE TOWN.

base metal and even light coin. These men keep
their cash accounts not in the English bnt in the
Chinese character, and it is remarkable that the;
are never known to be incorrect.

Till within the last year, the European business
was almost entirely confined to this square, but t
good deal of it is likely to be deflected to the sea
frontage immediately in advance, where, upon land
recently recovered from the sea, a fine terrace of
godowns is being built, some of which are already
in Occupation. These buildings are being constructed
as nearly uniform as possible, and though they are
not, individually considered, finer than some of the
old ones in the square, still, viewed together, they will
most probably form the finest part of the commercial
half of the town.

It is remarkable to witness occasionally in the
midst of the busiest parts of the town the straggle
made by nature to assert her presence. It is not
an uncommon sight to see ferns and creepers cluster-
ing about the tiled roofs of the older buildings, with
no other soil than the damp mould which time has
collected. I have witnessed a still harder struggle
on the part of nature; it was a small shoot of the
papaia-tree which had taken root in a soft and
probably earthy part of the plaster of the perpen-
dicular wall of a godown. It grew up gradually, till
it appeared to have exhausted all the nutriment about
its root, and then it remained stationary for a long
time, and I even thought it was growing less in bulk
About six months afterwards, however, to my surprise

•

mouth. It is here crossed by an iron girder bridge
named after the late Lord Elgin. From the river's
entrance to this bridge, on the town side, a long
range of godowns extend, forming a complete cres-
cent. Those nearer the entrance are occupied by
Europeans, but all the godowns further up are the
property of Chinese ; and though the whole range is
pretty much of a character as far as the buildings
are concerned, yet the Chinese division is the more
imposing on account of the bright colours which adorn
the walls, and the plentiful display of Turkey red
cloth, which at all seasons, but especially during their
feasts, forms the drapery of their verandahs. At night
the view of these houses is still more interesting, all
the verandahs and windows being lit up with many
coloured Chinese lanterns, the effect of which is
doubled by the reflection of the placid water that flows
past their doors.

On the eastern bank of the river for a considerable
way up there are no houses, the land having been
reserved for Government purposes, but the green grass
and the foliage which surround the public offices
erected close by, form a very pleasing contrast to the
thickly-packed buildings opposite .

The river is alive with boats of all sorts, Chinamen
with their shoe -boats, Malays with their sampans, or
fast-boats, and Klings with their tongkangs. The
first two craft are used for the conveyance of passengers
and their luggage ; the last, which are far the most
numerous, are employed in bringing up and down the
river the cargoes of ships in the harbour. The latter

ITS MERCHANDISE.

>ntain from ten to fifteen coyans* each, and so nume^
^>as are they, that they generally lie three or four
>reast along the entire western bank of the river, from

mouth to Elgin Bridge above. I have never counted

iem, but should say that very seldom indeed are there

5s than 500 of these small craft to be seen at one

le in this first reach of the river. To each of these

>ats, taking one with another, there is a crew of not

38 than three men, which would give a floating

population of at least 1,500 men; and the expression

by no means improperly applied, for most of these
men live and sleep in their boats, and at night time
le effect of this part of the river is considerably
heightened by the innumerable lights which glimmer
from under the attap or kajang awnings of this little
Heet

The crescent of buildings which I have described,
and which is about a quarter of a mile long, is termed
Boat Quay, from the fact of nearly the entire river
frontage opposite them being taken up with the loading
and discharging of cargo boats. Here it is, at present
at least, that three-fourths of the entire shipping busi-
ness of the island is effected, and from morning till
night may be seen the landing of huge cases, casks
and bales of British manufactures, as well as machinery
and iron-work of all descriptions ; and no sooner are
the boats which bring these emptied, than they are
filled up again with bales of gambier, bundles of
rattans, tin, bags or cases of sago and tapioca, bags

:a>

58 THE TOWN.

of pepper, and boxes of spices. It is, indeed, inpmrcks
sible to view these operations and not rediieftw? c '-
fact that Singapore possesses a commerce andco*^T^
mercial importance altogether disproportioned to ii
size and population. Here alone there mraktol^
landed and shipped not less than 8O,O00I.-wufcJ| "
goods per diem, throughout the entire year, oi
this is allowing some 5,0002. or 6,0002. -worth m»
to be landed and shipped from the private wham
possessed by a few godowns on the western ode of fa
town.

It has frequently been a subject of complaint nHk \*
the merchants of Singapore that great loss is sus-
tained during the year by the damage occasioned to
merchandise from the severe handling it receives in
this process of lightering, and several plans have
been proposed to remedy the evil. One was to build a
series of wharves at the nearest point of New Harbour,
where ships can lie close alongside, and connect these
to the town by means of a tramway or railway.
Another was to construct a pile-pier running right out
from the busiest part of the town into deep water, to
enable ships of all sizes to come alongside and load
and discharge into trucks, which could afterwards be
conveyed on tramways to the various godowns. The
latter plan is one upon which Colonel Colly er, for some
years chief engineer, spent a good deal of time, and
which he reduced to shape. Either plan appears to me
feasible, and likely to prove profitable to the capitalists
who would undertake it, and valuable to the town.
The first has not very many engineering obstacles, and

NATIVE QUARTER. 59

e works connected with it could be made permanent ;
t the cost would undoubtedly be very great. The

nd plan, on the other hand, requires a very limited
tlay, and though a considerable sum would have to

yearly spent in renewing the piles, yet similar
dertakings in other parts of the world have, I

eve, generally proved more successful than costly
irmanent erections. The water of Singapore har-
bour is never so seriously disturbed as to interfere
with mo the largest vessels lying safely alongside
such a pier, and from the soundings obtained along
the site proposed, the bottom was found to consist
of soft mud, so that ships might without danger
ground at low water, should a pressure of business
ever require them to do so.

Above Elgin Bridge the river continues of the
uniform breadth of about 200 feet, and is navigable
by small boats for about two miles, and, as it feeds
all the mangrove swamps in the suburbs of the town,
many houses entirely removed from the course of the
river itself have, at high water, the advantage of water
communication with the sea, and timber and building
materials are in this way often conveyed well out into
the country where they are required for use. It is,
however, a very insignificant traffic that takes place
above this bridge.

The whole of the native part of the town, the chief
business division of which lies behind Commercial
Square, and the river frontage I have described, are
very much alike in appearance. The buildings are
closely packed together and of a uniform height and

60 THE TOVVX.

character. The style is a sort of compromise betwe
English and Chinese. The walls are of brick, plast
over, and the roofs are covered with tiles. The ■,
dows are of lattice woodwork— there being no glaring
in this part of the world. Under the windows of many
hooses occupied by Chinese are very chaste designs
of flowers or birds in porcelain. The ridges of the
roofs, too, and the eaves, are frequently similarly
ornamented, and it is no unnsual thing to see a
perfect little garden of flowers and vegetables in boxes
and pots exposed on the tops of the hooses. Under-
neath ran, for the entire length of the streets, the
enclosed verandahs of which I spoke before, and in a
quiet observant walk through these a very great deal
may be learned concerning the peculiar manners and
customs of the trading inhabitants. The principal
street for native shops leads from Commercial Square
towards the country. For a quarter of a mile after
leaving the square, but before crossing the river, this
is a great thoroughfare. Being narrow, it is nearly
always crowded, and the buildings fronting it are
occupied entirely by Chinese and Klings.

The necessities of the European community have,
doubtless, created many trades before unknown to
these peoples; but still their shops are sufficiently
characteristic of their nationalities, and no one could
for a moment imagine, while viewing them, that he
was in a European town. The Kling shopkeepers are
principally sellers of European wares of the cheapest
and most indifferent description, and exposed in the
most extraordinarily confused manner ; but there are

artificers' workshops.

few who confine themselves to the sale of seeds
id spices, arranged in earthenware bowls, piled up
pyramid-shape in their windows.

The Chinese, who are in the proportion often to one
>f the trading population, embrace a much wider field
>f trade. These are warehousemen, tailors, carpenters,
>opers, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, gunsmiths, grocers,
>utchers, opium vendors, and barbers. The ware-
lonsemen seem to take things most coolly, and may
seen naked to the waist, lounging about upon
tats, and perched upon high bamboo stools. Their
joods are exposed to view, hut they neither by look nor
gesture invite the passer-by to purchase. The tailors
re a hard-working and assiduous class; in one
lop there are often as many as forty men seated
>n benches placed round three or four long tables.
They work with English needles and materials, but
36 them in a different way — sewing, as it were,
)m them. They stitch carefully and at the same
time rapidly. Many of these taOor shops are open till
midnight, but have relays of fresh workmen. The
right workmen have each a very primitive and very
effective sort of lantern, which I think might be
imitated with good effect at home, A small light only
is used, but the rays are completely reflected down
upon the table and cannot reach the worker's eyes —
indeed the room looks half in darkness, while the work
on which each man is engaged is strongly illuminated.
The method of sewing from the person may render
the use of this sort of lights more practicable, but yet
I think it could be adjusted to English use.

The carpenters' and coopers' shops present very
much the appearance of similax establishments at
home, except as regards tlie workmen and their tools.
The Chinese carpenters are very clever, and wiU closely
imitate any piece of furniture given them as a pattern,
but I do not think they can at all approach European
workmen in fineness of finish. Blacksmith* here are
also very much like those at home in their way of
working, except that they have a different and original
sort of bellows. It is in the form of a square, air-tight
box, with a closely-fitting piston, which by an arrange*
rnent of leather valves forces a stream of air upon the
fire both as it is drawn out and pushed in. Tinsmiths
and gunsmiths are much of the same genus. One of
the chief occupations of the former of these, in the
part of the town of which I speak, is in making small
flasks into which the gunpowder that arrives here in
kegs is refilled. In this sort of package it finds,
I believe, a much more ready sale amongst the Klings
and native buyers. A rather singular occupation in
which I have seen the Chinese gunsmiths engaged,
was the furnishing of some thousands of percussion-
cap muskets with the old-fashioned flint-locks — the
reason of this somewhat extraordinary change being,
that the islanders of the archipelago, to whom the
muskets were to be furnished, could always find a
piece of flint to use in their guns, but might be years
before they could buy a box of percussion -caps.

The trades of grocers and butchers appear to be
combined generally at the same shop, as rice, tea or
coffee, flesh, fish, and fowl, — the two latter dead or

OPIUM SHOPS.

e, fresh or preserved — can be obtained. Pork is

chief, if not the only, butcher's meat consumed

lie Chinese, and they make use of it very sparingly,
ging by the small pieces into which it is cut up and
osed for sale. I have often seen Chinamen con-
tedly returning to their houses in the suburbs after
ood day's barter in town, carrying on a piece of
ng about a quarter of a pound of pork and three

bur small fish like sardines, out of which they

lid doubtless manage to make a good supper

breakfast. One thing must be remarked to the

it of the Chinese in their shopkeeping, viz., the
reme cleanliness they observe; but for this it
lid scarcely be possible to combine successfully
ether, as they do, the trades of butcher, fish-
nger, and grocer.

The opium shops present no particular appearance
n the street, as the windows and doors are usually
eened off. Inside there is very little remarkable

er : a few benches with mats spread upon them,

some few trays, containing little lamps and the

inary smoking paraphernalia, resting on tables close

Whatever may be the headaches or the frightful

ressions suffered from the practice of opium-
oking, none of them are visible here: a quiet
largy, unlike that of intoxication, seems to mark the
riires of the few men to be seen in these houses.
e process of smoking is somewhat different from
at might be conjectured by those who have not seen

The pipe is made of a short piece of Malacca cane,
ut three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and

W THE TOW>\

pezhape two feet long; towards the end, proJ€
from the stalk, a ™*^ 1Ki> (often stiver) knob — in
■nfliiwpr like the handle of a room-door — is fixe
through the centre of this knob a small hole is ]
communicating through the cane to the month of
pipe. The smoker lies cm his side on a mat, his he
pillowed np to the necessaiy elevation, with a
before him containing a small lamp, some silver proi
and a little cap of liquid opium of the consistency I
very much of the appearance of molasses. With
hand he holds the pipe to his mouth in such a position
that the knob is near to the flame of the lamp ; with
the other hand he takes a silver prong, and dips the
point into the opium, twirling it round till a piece the
size of a pea is accumulated ; this he then places close
to the orifice of the pipe on the metallic knob, and
approaches both to the flame of the lamp* As soon as
the opium commences to bum, he inhales heavily,
rather breathing it in than smoking it. While inhaling
he continues to hold the pipe to the flame, and uses
tin- silver prong to keep the orifice from clogging. A
good in, my fresh supplies of opium are applied during
IB ordinary smoke. The smell of the smoke while
fresh is not unpleasant, but when stale it is much
worse than that of tobacco,

The Chinese barbers' shops are numerous through-
out the town ; and, singularly enough , they are marked
by variegated poles very much resembling those used
by the same trade at home, only that they are square
and not round. They are generally entirely open to
the street, and the operations are gone through in the

ITINERANT VENDORS.

lost public manner possible. Hair-cutting is never
of these operations, for all the hair that Chin a -

len allow to grow on their heads is gathered op into a
behind, which is never cut, its length and luxuriance
>eing its chief recommendation. The tail, however,
opened out, combed, and replaited, and the head all

round, as well as the face, is shaved. While this is

>eing done, the customers sit poised upon stools, in

riew of all passers-by, gazing forward with the sarin*

>lank stolidity that pervades the faces of those under

operation in any barber's shop at home.

There is probably no city in the world with
such a motley crowd of itinerant vendors of wares,
fruits, cakes, vegetables, &c. There are Malays,
generally with fruit ; Chinamen with a mixture of all
sorts, and Klings with cakes and different kinds of
nuts. Malays and Chinamen always use the shoulder-
stick, having equally -balanced loads suspended at
either end ; the Klings, on the contrary, carry their
wares on the head on trays. The travelling cook-
shops of the Chinese are probably the most extraor-
dinary of the things that are carried about in this way.
They are suspended on one of the common shoulder-
sticks, and consist of a box on one side and a basket
on the other ; the former containing a fire and small
copper cauldron for soup ; the latter loaded with rice,
vermicelli, cakes, jellies, and condiments ; and though
I have never tasted any of their dishes, I have
been assured that those they serve up at a moment's
notice are most savoury, and that their sweets are
delicious. Three cents will purchase a substantial

G6 THE TOWN.

meal of three or four dishes from these itinerant
restaurateurs.

Another remarkable feature of the streets, and one
which carries the mind away back to a very eariy
period in the history of our own country, is made up
of the letter-writers or penny-a-liners, who take up
their stalls at various parts of the town. They are
always to be seen in the mornings seated composedly
at their desks in the verandahs or out in the streets.
On their desks or tables are piled several quires of
Chinese straw paper, and a small porcelain tablet con-
tains their ink and writing-brushes ; pens of any kind
are unknown to them. A large — perhaps the largest
— section of the Chinese population can write for
themselves, but all are equally endowed with this
amiable feature, that they never forget or neglect the
friends they have left behind them in China ; and these
letter- writers do a large business in making out for the
illiterate section epistles which invariably contain the
good wishes, and often convey the substantial money
gifts, of those who dictate them. When not engaged
in taking down the thoughts of others, these penmen
generally employ themselves in copying out stock
pamphlets, or, it may be, composing original prose or
verse suited to the popular taste. But their productions
cannot be very deep, for they seem to write away with
great facility, even when not copying; and I have
never witnessed them in anything like what we term
the agonies of composition. As a rule, they are not
more intellectual in appearance than their neighbours,
though I have remarked one or two who clearly bore

CROWDED STATE OF THE STREETS. 67

the print of letters on their features. The feast times
are the busiest seasons with them, when they make out
rge placards on red paper to adorn the door-posts
id lintels of their customers.

In driving through the narrow streets of Singapore,
is at times difficult to avoid running over some of
rowd. The danger of such an accident is increased
\v the circumstance that Chinamen are ordinarily very
leaf — owing, it is believed, to their so frequently having
their ears cleaned out by rough steel instruments — -
id are also very indifferent. If you nearly run over
Chinaman, and he escapes but by a hair's-breadth,
le only way he indicates an appreciation of the danger
le has escaped is by turning round to you with a
good-natured, well-pleased grin on his face. Some
of them will even pass on without raising their heads,
as if no danger had been incurred. I shall not soon
forget one occasion on which I had the misfortune
to run over a Chinaman. It was in a four-wheeled
Yankee buggy ; the horse had taken fright and started
off into a canter, and on turning a corner came right
up against a Chinaman who was leisurely walking in
the centre of the road. The shaft caught him About
the shoulder and down he went ; all I felt being the
bump, bump of the two pair of wheels passing over
Iris body. In a few moments the horse was pulled
up, and on approaching the man I saw him still on
the ground, but apparently busily engaged about some-
thing. When I got up to him I found that the wheels
had passed over his waist, cutting his belt in two,
attached to which had been a purse containing a

68 THE TOWN.

handful of copper cents, which were now scattered
on the ground, and the man was quietly gathering
them up, never having risen since he was run over.
He had two long skin wounds across his waist, but
they appeared to give him no anxiety whatever com-
pared with the safety of his money.

There are three permanent bridges across the river.
One is the iron girder bridge before alluded to, and
which, though connecting two of the busiest parts of
the town, and sustaining a constant stream of traffic,
is barely seventeen feet wide. The bridge was sent
out from home, and no doubt the natives gather from
it a somewhat narrowed view either of English traffic
or English good sense. The other two bridges are
wooden, both higher up the river. One of these is
the renewal of a very old structure, and the other has
lust recently been cut up for the first time. In addition
to these, a temporary foot-passenger bridge has been
thrown across nearer the mouth of the river, but it is
an eyesore to the town, and the sooner it is taken
down again the better, though some 3,000 dollars
were spent upon it.

The portion of the town wliich stands on the
western side of the river covers probably an area of
128 acres ; but though it is the busiest it is by no
means the largest. On the eastern side are the
various cainpongs, or districts, bordering one on the
other, and which together occupy an area of 333
acres. These campongs are chiefly composed of
dwelling-houses used by the natives, of similar con-
struction to those already described, and they scarcely

ST. ANDREW'S CHUBCH,

merit any particular notice* There is a Campong
Bencoolen, Campong Rochore, Campong Kapor, a
Campong Java, a Campong Bugis, and Campong
Glani, — the first part of the island sold, and where
the European merchants originally had their residences,
but which has now chiefly passed into the occupa-
tion of the natives. Though the Campongs Java,
Bugis, &c, were probably first occupied by the races
whose name they bear, no such distinction appears
now to exist.

The eastern division of the town is interesting
rather for its fine European public buildings than for
any peculiarity in the style of the native houses. The
finest of these buildings is the cathedral, called, as a
compliment to the nationality of the majority of the
European residents, St. Andrew's Church, It is a
fine edifice, and, as I have said in the previous
chapter, has occupied eight years in the construction.
Its dimensions are: length from extremes, 225 feet;
breadth across at the aisles, but independent of the
broad carriage porticoes, 56 feet ; height to the ridge
of main roof, 75 feet ; and the spire, which is 40 feet
square at its base, is 220 feet in height. Its style
is taken from Nctley Abbey ; the interior is very
handsomely fitted. The residents subscribed, and got
out an organ which cost 600L Three fine stained
glass windows, costing a large sum of money, were
also procured for the chancel ; one is inscribed M to
the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles, the illustrious
founder of Singapore ; " another to " Major- General
Butterworth, who successfuDy governed these settle-

70 THE TOWN.

ments from 1843 to 1855; "* and the third is set
up "to the honour and glory of God, and as a
testimonial to John Crawford, Esq." Bnt it is only
by close observers that these inscriptions can be made
ont ; the windows look very magnificent at a distance.
Though the new cathedral was named after the Scotch
saint, it has proved somewhat unfortunate for the
popularity of the Presbyterian worship, many of the
Scotch kirk-folks preferring the lofty arches of St.
Andrew's to the humble square walls of their own
chapel. There was such a great demand for seats
and such competition for choice places that a public
ballot was held for their disposal. It would be unfair,
however, to argue any great godliness from this eager-
ness to obtain places, for though all the forward seats
are now secured, it would be impossible to point to
any Sunday when they have been really well filled.

The court-house and the town-hall stand close
together on the east bank of the river. The former is
thirty-five years old, but not a bit the worse for its
age. It is a large graceful building with a fine display
of pillars and porticoes, and by its size and elegance
shows that as far back as the date of its foundation
the old Company had foreshadowed the greatness to
which Singapore would arise. It is now used as the
treasury, the land-office, and the resident councillor's
office ; only a small outer building connected with it is

* rnfortunately, the artist who executed these fine windows has
made this last date 45. instead of .">5 ; by which it would appear that
Colonel Butterworth had administered the government for only two
years instead of twelve ; hut I give it in the text as it ought to be. I
have, however, left the next epitaph exactly as it reads in the church.

TOWN HALL— INSTITUTION.

appropriated to the use of the Court of Judicature,
id which is scarcely large enough to afford aceomino-
ition to its thirteen licensed practitioners.

The town-hall is of modern construction, haying
aen commenced about four years since by public
subscription of the merchants. It was to cost just
20,000 dollars, though when finished it was found
lat no less than 50,000 dollars had been spent upon
it ; but it is a pretty building, and the money has not
sen grudged. It is of a mixed style of architecture.
The lower hall has been neatly fitted up as a theatre
by the Amateur Corps Draraatique, and the upper hall
is used for public meetings and other public purposes.
Close to both these buildings are some fine old
trees which throw a grateful shade all around, and
from this the esplanade extends in a broad belt of
beautiful turf along the beach as far as the institution
buildings. The esplanade contains about nine acres,
and it is wonderful how green the grass keeps through-
out the year. The institution buildings were erected
by Sir Stamford Raffles, and are consequently older
than any other public building in the place. The
purpose of the institution is a most worthy one. It
was endowed by the Company for educational purposes,
and a yearly sum is still granted for its maintenance.

To the line of buildings fronting the beach on this
side of the river, extending from the church for a
quarter of a mile eastward, more perhaps than to
any other feature, Singapore owes its pretty appear-
ance, viewed from the harbour. These, as I have said
lore, though the finest of them are hotels now, were

72 THE TOWN.

once the residences of the early merchants, and
large and of elegant construction ; they each c<r
considerable space of ground and have compount
gardens around. It is a very fine sight from the 1
to see these houses lit up at night, the bri
argand lamps in use shedding a flood of light i
the lofty white pillars and colonnades of the 1
stories, while the lower parts of the buildings ai
by the shrubbery of the gardens in front. Every
and window is thrown open to admit the cool
breeze, and gathered round their tables, or L
about in their easy chairs, may be seen the wc
travellers or residents, with the strange and
grotesque figures of their native servants flitting i
with refreshments. Indeed, on a fine starry i
standing there, on the sea-wall of the bay, wit]
stillness around only broken by the gentle ripf
the wavelets at one's feet, it is not difficult
gazing on the houses, the lights, the figures, an
heavy-leafed shrubbery in front, to imagine oi
amid the garden palaces of the Arabian Nights.

( 73 )

CHAPTEK IV.

INLAND SCENERY: JUNGLE— TIGERS.

Reodenoea — Indian Bungalows — Roads — Dhobies — Fireflies — Nutmeg
Plantations — Gambier Plantations — The Jungle — Parasites —
Rattans — Pitcher Plants — Jungle Roads — Selita Bungalows —
Monkeys — Deer — Hogs — Tigers — Yearly Victims — Concealment
by the Chinese Planters — Small Number of Tigers — Few killed —
First Tigers seen in Singapore — Swim across from Mainland —
How they attack Man — Instant Death — An Escape — Tigers
cowardly — Malay Adventure — Singular Attack in Province Wel-
lesley — How they mangle their Victims — Means adopted for their
Extermination — Their Habits — Tiger Pits — Late Incident at a Pit
— The Reduction of Tigers a Consideration for future Government.

The inland scenery of Singapore is exceedingly lovely,
whether we view that portion of it which has been
adopted for European residences, the districts which
have been cleared for cultivation further in the interior,
or that part, still by many times the largest, which has
been left in its primeval forest and jungle. The town
extends in very few points more than a mile from the
beach, and, being remarkably compact, the country
may be said to come right up to its walls. There are
none of those intermediate, half-formed streets, with
straggling houses here and there, separated by blank,
barren, open spaces, which so often disfigure the
outskirts of a town. Where the town ends, the
country commences ; indeed, it would be difficult for a

74 INLAND SCENERY.

piece of ground to remain long desert, for nature
would soon crowd it with her works, if man did not
with his.

The greatest number of European residences an
about two miles out, but some are twice that distance.
Those nearer town, where ground is more valuable, are
built tolerably close together, with perhaps one or two
acres to each ; those at a greater distance are more
apart, generally crowning the summits of the innumer-
able little hills, which are such a geological peculiarity
of Singapore, and surrounded by ten or fifteen acres
of ground, either covered with patches of jungle, or
planted with nutmeg and fruit trees. It is difficult to
account very satisfactorily for the hillocky appearance
which pervades the entire island, except along its
south-eastern coast. In the case of the large hills, it
is clearly to be attributed to some internal upheaving
action, for in these the broken strata can be distinctly
traced. Most of the smaller hills, however, show no
indication of any stratum whatever, consisting entirely
of an accumulation of large boulders of sandstone,
rounded as if by the action of water, and cemented
together with red laterite — a hard gravel, believed to
be the decomposition of granite. It appears, too,
from the discovery of shells and other evidences, that
the sea covered at one time by far the greater part of
the island.

However, let their origin be what it may, these
little round hills or bukits, as they are termed by the
Malays, give a very singular and very pleasing appear-
ance to the island. They average about 100 to 200

EUROPEAN DWELLING HOUSES. 75

in height. Bukit Timah, which is the highest

i of the island, and almost in its centre, has an

ition of 530 feet. All those within a radius of

miles from town are built upon, and generally

the names of their first European proprie-

The residences are built very similar to one

gjpnother, and generally of brick. Bungalows, a term

^jften applied to any style of dwelling-house in the

Hast, are, properly speaking, only of one story,

- elevated some five or six feet from the ground upon

•arched masonry. A moderate-sized building of this

• description might be 90 feet long, 60 or 70 deep,

usually a parallelogram in form, but sometimes varied

in shape to suit the arrangement of the rooms inside.

The walls from the flooring to the roof are seldom less

i than fifteen feet high, which gives a lofty ceiling to

j£ the apartments, and the roof is covered with tiles.

( The most striking feature of these buildings, however,

i is the broad verandah which runs right round the

house about eight or ten feet in width, resting on the

plinths of the pillars that, extending upwards in round

columns with neatly moulded capitals, support the

continuation of the roof which projects some four feet

beyond the pillars, forming deep overhanging eaves.

On to the verandah, which is surrounded by a neat

railing, all the doors of the bungalow open, and as

these also serve the purpose of windows, they are

pretty numerous; they are in two halves, opening

down the centre like cottage doors at home, with the

lower panels plain and the two upper ones fitted with

Venetians to open or close at pleasure. From the

76 INLAND SCENERY.

centre of the building in front a portico projects some
twenty-five or thirty feet, and generally about twenty-
five broad, covering the carriage way and a broad flight
of stone steps leading from the ground to the verandah.
The pillars and walls are chenammed to a snowy white-
ness, the doors are painted a light green, the tiled roof
in time becomes a dark brown, and the whole forms ft
very pleasing picture, especially in its contrast with the
foliage around.

Those residences which are not bungalows have no
peculiar local denomination. They are two stories high,
and very similar in construction to the others.

The interiors of all the houses are lofty, for in
addition to the side walls being seldom less than fifteen
feet high, the ceilings of the principal rooms are
alcoved. There are numerous columns and arches
inside as well as outside, and the Chinese builders
make very neat cornices to the doorways and ceilings.
The rooms are never papered, but the entire plaster-
work — ceilings, walls, and pillars — is kept beautifully
white with chenam. The floors are matted, not
carpeted, and the apartments not overcrowded with
furniture. The wooden doors leading from room to
room are usually tlirown open, there being silk screens
on hinges attached to each doorway, which, while they
maintain a sufficient privacy, admit of a free ventilation
throughout the house. From the ceilings are sus-
pended a very liberal supply of hanging argand lamps,
wliich, when lit up, give a brilliant effect to the rooms.
Punkahs are used in the dining-rooms, but not in the
sleeping apartments, as is the case in India.

HEDGES OF BAMBOO AND HELIOTROPE. 77

The kitchen, stables, and servants' rooms are
always built at a good distance from the house, and
connected with it by a covered passage. There is little
remarkable about these, except perhaps in the internal
arrangements of the kitchens, which, though for the
use of Europeans, are thoroughly oriental in their
character. There is no fireplace, but in the centre of
the room a table of solid brickwork is built with slabs
of stone or brick tiles laid on the top ; at one end of
this a small circular chamber is built to serve as
an oven ; a strong fire is placed inside, and when the
brickwork is thoroughly heated, the fire is raked out,
and whatever dish is required to be baked placed
inside and the aperture closed up, the heat given out
from the bricks being sufficient to cook it in a short
time. The rest of the table is divided into a series of
little fireplaces, over which proceed the ordinary pro-
cesses of cooking. Wood or charcoal only is used
as fuel.

The grounds around the European residences are
for the most part tastefully kept. A couple of gar-
deners cost eight or nine dollars a month, and to such
good effect can nature be cultivated that the expendi-
ture is seldom begrudged. The beauty of the hedges,
which are either of bamboo or of wild heliotrope, and
the greenness of the grass, are features not often seen
in a tropical climate, but which are particularly note-
worthy about Singapore. The grass is a very coarse,
short, thick sort, and so vigorous is it of growth that
a considerable body of men are maintained throughout
the year at the public expense to keep the roads clear

7S INLAND SCENERY.

of it. Few of the private gardens as yet yield much
fruit, owing to the fact of the greater part of tin Iri
grounds around Singapore not many years ago having |t
been laid out with nutmegs, a crop which made magni-
ficent returns for many years, and then suddenly gare
way from some unknown disease or blight. Fndt
trees, however, are now growing up in their place.

The roads leading from one to another of these
residences, and from them to the town, are ray
pleasant walks or drives, according as it may be mom*
ing or evening. Of those leading into and out of town,
Orchard Road and River Valley Road are the two chiet
The former is the approach to the greater number of
houses, and has the most traffic ; it is, besides, pro-
bably the prettier of the two. Shortly after leaving
town it follows the windings of a small stream of any-
thing but pellucid water, in which the dhobies, or
washermen, are busy from morning till night, on'
Sabbaths and on week-days, in shower and in sun-
shine, beating away at the soiled linen of the clothed
section of the population. The process is common in
India, but certainly quite strange to Europe. The men,
generally strong, stalwart Klings or Bengalese, naked
to a strip of cloth round the loins, stand up to their
knees in the bed of the stream with a flat slab of
stone in front of them. They seize the pieces of cloth-
ing one by one — if it is a shirt by the tail, if a pair of
pants by the legs — dip them into the stream, swing
them over their heads, and bring them down with their
whole force on the stone slab. This operation is con-
tinued with each piece till it is thoroughly cleaned. A

ROADS. 79

it deal of damage is, of coarse, done to the clothes

rthis process ; it is especially fatal to buttons ; but on

other hand, it undoubtedly secures a matchless

j&hiteness.

& Beyond these dhobie lines, Orchard Road runs for

*ibout a mile in a straight line through a valley lying
between a series of little hills, from the summits of
febich the residences I have described look down ;
bat it is only at intervals that these can be seen. The
road on either side is lined by tall bamboo hedges

-with thick shrubbery behind, and broken only here
and there by the white portals at the entrances of the
private avenues leading from it, or occasionally by a
native hut or fruit shop. Many years ago, too,
angsana, wild almond, jambu, and weringan trees were
planted along both sides at equal distances, and these
have now grown up to their full proportions, closing
overhead, forming a complete shade to the road, and
giving the appearance of a very beautiful vista extend-
ing along its entire length.

The smaller roads which branch off from this, as,
indeed, all the others throughout the district, are
characterized by the fresh green appearance of the
hedges and the richness of the underwood behind
them, with here and there some fine old tree stretch-
ing its branches right across. There cannot be said
to be many wild flowers about, but the blossoms of
the trees more than make up for the deficiency, as,
in addition to their pretty appearance, they usually
give out very sweet perfumes. Some of the wild
creepers; however, that overgrow without apparently

80 INLAND SCENERY.

injuring the roadside trees, bear clusters of large
convolvulus flowers of almost every hue; othen,l v ~
again, bear little bunches of peculiar thick fleah- 1
coloured blossoms resembling wax-work. There in
also many orchids, which, though common here and
of no value, would be much prized at home.

An improvement that still remains to be earned
out on some of the roads leading to town is that of
hedging off the mangrove swamps through which they
here and there pass. These swamps, as I have remarked
when describing the Singapore river, are filled and dis-
charged by the rise and fall of the tide. At high water
they look pretty enough, for the mangroves are covered
over to above their roots, and display only their thick
green bushy tops. At low-water, on the other hand,
the muddy bottom is exposed and glistens half wet
in the sun, with the dull, dirty roots of the mangroves
standing naked out of the mud like the ribs of an
inverted umbrella. Passing these swamps on a sultn
night, especially at low water, and when there is no
moon, the sight is a very peculiar one, certainty
never to be met with in temperate climates. The
bushes literally swarm with fireflies, which flash out
their intermittent light almost contemporaneously ; the
effect being that for an instant the exact outline of
all the bushes stands prominently forward, as if lit
up with electric sparks, and next moment all is jetty
dark — darker from the momentary illumination that
preceded. These flashes succeed one another every
three or four seconds for about ten minutes, when
an interval of similar duration takes place ; as if to

FIREFLIES. 81

fellow the insects to regain their electric or phosphoric
rigour. The Malays here and in many parts of the
Archipelago have jewels made for night wear, set,
not with pearls or stones, but with little round cages
about the size of a pea, in each of which a firefly
m imprisoned ; the little insect, excited by the narrow*
D68B of its cage, gives out even more brilliant and more
frequent flashes than when at large. The jewel could
have no more pretty setting ; it is also a very cheap
■ad a very harmless one, as the firefly is set free
before the night is over. I have read somewhere that
these insects are impaled on little golden needles, as
in the agonies of death they emit a more brilliant
lustre. This must be a mistake, however, for I have
found that the strength of the flashes they give out
is in proportion to their vitality, and if this is in
any way impaired, as by the loss of a leg or a wing,
the bright flash becomes dull and often extinct. It
is difficult to believe that the light of these insects
is phosphorescent; it certainly has much more the
appearance of electricity, for it is a sharp bright spark
and not a dull lustre, and if not under the control of
the animal is at least affected by its passions. If
they are irritated, as by confinement, or if a branch
of a bush on which they are clustered be roughly
shaken, they will flash out much more rapidly and
brilliantly than when enjoying themselves undisturbed.
About three miles out the residences are thinly
scattered, and only one or two are to be found beyond
the four-mile radius. But the jungle does not imme-
diately commence where the residences end. So great

it He ~7Hf* xis "ne narra ir nasmeg plantations,
mi ««: ii=i~ £il x serin. ±ac :hi=y wool! realize luge
:. rnzi-r -, -iitir /rotfr?. 1I7K Tiary hundreds of acres
Tfr? -rLr.-iiu^— I is 1 i^a^ce :c focr or live miles from
vti :iie ;-ni_-f n= I:-v^_ she land cleared, and
*:uiz."r-I "rrii i/.rxLexs Tr:«iT3»Hi a£ great expense from
iie l£:L^cu&. 1£:^ :•: These plantations are now
ijozil- Hr^L -lie tk-** :er^ lead or dying, and it is
i s.d^riar -.f-m.j-io-T s^i: so see acre upon acre
:c ■-jf'5*r *k.rl-:t :n :r4*r£. iron Triich many enterprising
n-fn j-i^f Los: :-:r^rx-fs. -vti: ieir bark bleached white,
*L»i £.« ":riz.±« :Trrzr»:-»iL by tangled creepers.

Ec: ":eTvfif~ :l~se anl the pepper and gambier
plas.ifci-:za i :el: :: ;i^*ie intervenes, more or leas
croad. Pr.-jerlj sreakiz^. there is no particular
koaliry ::r ^Le p*:-*zt ..: pepper and gambier, the
f Lsc:ad:i.? ":^i: so^nereu all over the island. China-
men, wl: .ire ir. all cases the planters., select the
most retired spots they can find in the midst of the
jangle, generally one or two miles away from the
nearest road, and commence clearing all around till
they have perhaps fifty acres free of jangle. Gambier
requires little cultivation, and for its growth the roots
of the old trees are never removed. Pepper on the
other hand requires the utmost attention, and constant
tilling and manuring of the soil. Wherever there is
a garnbier plantation, pepper is sure also to be found
growing in a small corner of a few acres near the
liomcHtaad. It is a very pretty plant, and is reared
much hh grapes are at home.

Doubtless it is the desire to obtain land without

JUNGLE. 83

irchase which drives the Chinamen so far into the
ingle; bnt what induces them to keep so far apart
om one another, with, in many cases, miles of
ingle intervening, I am at a loss to understand,
erhaps it is their desire that the coolies they have
>r labourers, and whom they obtain by a species of
oiehase from the trading junks, should have no
leans of comparing their condition, or the term of
ieir servitude, with those of the men engaged by
ther planters. Or the reason may be, that the wall
f jungle which boxes in each plantation, and shades
flf more than an hour of the morning and evening
in, has a beneficial influence on the growth of the
Unts ; the proximity of a large tract of jungle, too,
i known to conduce to a more equable temperature. 41
[owever this may be, the circumstance, as will pre-
3ntly appear, has much to do with the fearful mortality
early suffered in the island from tigers.

It is difficult to convey any adequate idea of the
ingle to those accustomed to the forests of the
gnperate zones. In the back lands of Singapore it
insists, in the first place, of a forest of gigantic trees,
>mprising among others the daroo, tampenis, and
intaugor,f standing close together, like the stalks in

* In the preparation of gambier, as will be learned from my remarks
garding that product, a large amount of firewood is consumed, and
ia would render the proximity of a forest desirable ; but it certainly is
> reason why whole miles of jungle should lie between the various
antations.

t I use the Malay names throughout, as I am unable to give the
xtanical ones. In the Appendix, however, will be found a table of all
je forest trees of the peninsula, with their peculiarities, and the uses to
lich they are adapted, first published by Colonel Low, who had civil
targe of Province Wellesley.

6—a

?4 DTLA^D 5CESERT.

& wh.^ir-i-rLd. ^ieir trunks varying in diameter from
r?j :o *ix feet. They are smooth and branchlea
for :■ :zz-zrJis of their height, and then spread out in a
small ce: ooLira*!C foliage of dark green leaves. The
tops :<f these giants join together and form a dark
shade, ^nder which grow up trees of another tribe,
short in stature, but more umbrageous in their deve-
lopment. Among them are the wild fruit-trees, the
man^~?:een. the durian. the mangoe, the jack-fruit,
and the jambu. Beneath these again comes a growth
never seen beyond the limits of the tropics ; strange
hybrids between ferns, and palms, and plants, very few
of which have even got Malav names.

But it is not so much the way the trees are
crowded one upon another that gives the character to
the jungle as the extraordinary manner in which the
whole mass is literally woven together by a network of
creepers and parasites. Chief among the former is
the rattan,* pieces of which I have seen cnt ont from
the jungle nearly an inch in diameter, and over 300 feet
long ; the ordinary rattans, though much thinner, are
equally long. Among the parasites I have seen some
as thick as a mans body twining spirally round the
trunks of the larger trees, beginning at the bottom
and after seven or eight turns reaching to the top,
from which they not mifrequently drop down again
in straight columns of uniform girth to the ground,
where they become attached, and again start forth on
a fresh mission.

Another peculiar and at the same time beautiful

* The rattan is a species of palm.

junglj-:

feature of these jungles consists of the numerous
orchidaceous plants that drop from the elbows of the
larger trees, or, it may be, fix themselves on some
int of the creeper network that grows around them.
Conspicuous, too, are the varieties of pitcher-plants, to
found probably in greater luxuriance in the jungles
of Singapore than in any other part of the world,
'hese plantB have been bo frequently described that,
ough seen by but few, they are nevertheless well
own to most people now-a-days, and a description of
em here is therefore unnecessary. It is extraordinary,
owever, where these singular plants place themselves.
Some can be seen on the very pinnacles of the highest
ies, while others, as if destined for man, cluster
within an easy distance of the ground. They always
contain a good supply of pure, wholesome water,
perhaps about a quarter of a pint to each cup. It is
said that the monkeys which crowd the jungle rely
upon them entirely for their supply of water; whether
this be so or not, they are always called monkey-cups
l>v the Malays.

Besides these obstructions, which of themselves
nearly render the jungle impenetrable, there are the
fallen trees of bygone ages piled one on top of the
other or lying side by side, giving, in their decay,
birth to a hundred different forms of vegetation. With
respect to vegetable life in Singapore, I have noticed
that the process of decay by no means keeps pace with
the rapidity of reproduction. While beside you there
still he in good sound, solid consistency the trunks
that must have fallen half a century ago, there i6

IXL-LXD SCEXERY.

" J-S:~e j:c? Lead :be stalwart growth of bat

rr-^Tj jr-ATr. L Lis bc€n nanarked, too, that the
TT-*TiiV.r — :ill :: tl^ * :,; 2*?i* is Tery shallow, seldom
z*zz r :~er * :>:: ±. d*pik. and geologists have con-
cilia: fr:n itls circtiTr.^sarce. I think erroneously,
tL*:. ^:l:cii!tLllT shaking, only a very short time his
rassol sir.:e :ie s^r£»ce of the island underwent its

Lie* Z?**Z C V *"e.

There are ci: fe-^ who have had an opportunity of
vie-xir:: tie wild I^xorianee of this growth to the beat
adv^t^e. that is. in the thick of it ; but there an
marv .>: the roads stretching either across or around
the island, which at a distance of some nine or ten
miles from town give a magnificent glimpse of the
primeval jungle through which they have been cut.
One of these glimpses can be obtained near the termi-
nation of the road to Changhi, which runs for about
fourteen miles in a north-easterly direction across the
island to a beautiful little sandy bay on the eastern
entrance to the old strait where two bungalows hare
been built, one by the merchants and the other by
Government, which are resorted to for a fortnight or a
month at a time for a change of air and the benefit
of sea-bathing. But it is on the road to the Govern-
ment bungalow at Selita that the wildest jungle
scenery is passed. This bungalow is about nine miles
from town in a direct line across the centre of the
inland, and the road leading to it passes for some
distance through the thickest of the old forest. At
ono [joint, about a mile from the bungalow, where the
road winds through an elevated valley formed by two

SBLITA. 87

parallel ranges of hills, the scenery is particularly
imposing. Even in the glare of noonday it is little
Bore than a subdued twilight that reaches the traveller
.as he passes along. The tall forest trees start up
from the very edge of the road, as straight and regular
as the pillars of a colonnade, their branches often
meeting at a height of 130 feet overhead, and what
sunlight struggles into the road is admitted through
the leafy tops of these, for the winding nature of the
road shows no outlet in front or to the rear ; all around
is jungle, with here and there a cavernous rent, showing
the almost pitchy darkness it encloses.

The bungalow at Selita is, I think, as worthy of a
▼iflit as any place around Singapore. It is a simple
building in itself, constructed of wood, and covered
with attaps, the leaves of a species of palm ; but it is
beautifully situated, and stands fronting about a square
mile of cleared ground dotted over with the huts of
Malay and Chinese gardeners and planters. There is
also a small native village close by, and a police
tannah, or station, but these are hidden from the
bungalow by a row of weringan-trees, planted many
years ago, and which have now grown up to a good
height. About fifty yards behind stands the dark
impenetrable jungle, 41 from out of which gushes a
clear, sparkling brook of icy cold water that runs past

* On visiting Selita since the above was written, I was sorry to find
that the convicts there had levelled some of the finest trees on the borders
of this stream ; and also that the jungle along some of the wildest parts
of the road leading from town had been set fire to — acts of vandalism,
prompted, I believe, by the suspected vicinity of tigers, but perfectly
useless and unavailing.

88 INLAND SCENERY.

the foot of the declivity at the back of the bungalow.
A cover of attaps has been built over this part of the
stream, and there are steps leading down from the
bank to the water's edge. The bottom of the stream is
strewn over with sand and pebbles, and a very delightfal
bathing place thus secured. I have called the water
of this streamlet icy cold ; it is so, of course, only
comparatively speaking, though its temperature must
be at least ten degrees below that of water ordinarily
exposed to the atmosphere ; and this is scarcely to be
wondered at, as the stream here sees the light for the
first time, having hitherto meandered through the dull
shade of the jungle.

These Government bungalows here and through-
out the other stations are a relic of the old East India
Company which should not be swept away, but main-
tained even at some cost. They were built for the
accommodation of the Company's servants while tra-
velling through the country, but are freely placed at
the disposal of any one who makes application for their
use. The accommodation thus afforded to men of an
inquiring and perhaps scientific turn of mind, desirous
to visit the interior of the various settlements, cannot
fail to be amply repaid to Government by the further
development of the resources of the soil.

The denizens of the jungle here are not nearly so
varied in species as those on the mainland of the
peninsula. First, and probably greatest in number,
come the monkeys ; of these there are several species,
but all of diminutive size ; they are neatly formed,
gentle, and easily tamed. Formerly they used to be a

MONKEYS. 89

vourite dish with the Malays, but of late it has been
rand more profitable to capture them alive and dispose
>f them to the residents in town or on board the ships
in the harbour. They are very numerous in some
parte of the jungle, and seem to go together in tribes.
At morning and evening they show themselves
oftenest, jumping about from branch to branch of the
tall forest trees, and chattering loudly. They will
often venture tolerably close to the traveller, and
thrusting out their little faces from between the leaves
of the lower jungle, give a series of their peculiar
grimaces with raised eyebrow and puckered mouth,
and then dart back into the thicket. I have seen a
flock of them follow a party of pedestrians for more
than a mile along some of the jungle paths, grinning,
jumping, and chattering ail the way, not ill-naturedly,
but apparently in frolic. Down at Selita they were
very plentiful at one time. The convicts in charge of
the bungalow there had laid out a small patch of
ground with maize or Indian corn, surrounded by a
thick bamboo jaggar hedge, and this being just on the
confines of the jungle was a great attraction to them.
They used to come in flocks of forty or fifty, and while
the bulk were in the enclosure devouring the maize,
four sentinels were placed in position, one at each
corner of the hedge, and from whichever side danger
was seen to approach the flock invariably scampered
°ff in that opposite to it. The very young do not
J ftftr*pt to run about on these occasions by themselves,
°^ cling on to the bodies of the full-grown animals —
} * always those of their parents — and so are carried

i£<:m fnxs. ziasz v ii*«- Tie grown-up monkeji|e^
hmri^lj *#zZL Tfi lie emse^ berdened with Ik
jicz^wers- iz.-i norf sLel on*e I have seen thea|fc~
sai^r^r :•? zL~Ls zzsi-i—r&zl. evidently not in M
Iz^.r^. ihnscr^g aza ;-2Ea in anything but ilea
;•;=. I-=r mzz.-er az ih«r ^riy^g* of the young ones n It
ih-rir tz:^at:^t ;.: zei fr« : but they seldom soe
± ^±ir r.i :■£ ihcir burthen, and when eon- |c
Tzi.r«i :: ir i^^AsE-es? of their efforts, canv them k

The -=rili h:-r?. which crowd all the swampy parts
of ihe j^^le. are precisely the same Animal as is to
be s^ei: all ever the world, bm are usually black, and
much smaller and more wiry than the common pig of
Europe. There are two kinds of deer on the island,
the ordinary elk and the moose deer ; both are found
in considerable numbers, and supply the natives with
food. Alligators and boa-constrictors are likewise fre-
quently to be met with : the latter are harmless to
man, but destructive to poultry, and are often disco-
vered near the henroosts of houses close to the jungle,
either unable or indisposed to move after having gorged
four or five fowls. Otters have also been captured in
the creeks and rivers.

But the most remarkable animal of all, the one for
which the jungles of Singapore possess a melancholy
yet a world-wide reputation, is the tiger. There is a
statement by which it is not unusual to convey to the
minds of people at home an idea of the extent to
which the island is infested by these monsters ; it is,
that on the average one man per diem falls a victim to

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE BY TIGERS. 91

bhem. No doubt, this is in most cases received very
much as travellers' tales were as a rale received in
feklen times; for it most immediately occur to the
listener that Singapore is an island of but limited
dimensions, containing an area of only 200 square
miles, and that it is crowded with a population which
if spread out would give 500 men to each square mile ;
but the statement is no exaggeration. I am fully con-
vinced that 365 men per annum have their lives dashed
out by the crushing stroke of the tiger's paw.

In the first place, there are the indisputable proofs

of at least forty cases in the year recovered in the

mangled corses of the victims. Dating a year back

from the period at which I now write, there have been

recovered no less than forty-one bodies in all conditions

of hideous dismemberment, leaving no earthly doubt

as to the maimer in which the poor fellows met their

deaths. In the same period I find that eighty-five

additional cases have been reported to the police, in

which the bodies could not be found. This would give

only a little over a third of the number I have set

down; but the cases substantiated can never, under

the peculiar circumstances, be expected to reach a

larger proportion than this of the deaths that actually

take place from tigers.

It must be borne in mind that the victims are
almost invariably Chinamen, and that the distance
from town of the localities where these deaths take
place is seldom less than nine miles, and oftener four-
teen. For the neighbours of a man who had been
carried away by a tiger to come into the nearest police

jw^nn m_i ins -l rs ^inniiL irnbaaiy ae exsndei to
"tt.-' -r -imFrr iatt jr±.:m ±e io«rr it ae

iuiiupi >f i mifi~ Sai^anim. tj zaar awn.

H*ZL K ~r*» "I Zlilsx it ill* SIU dSL OT hoCT—

mil T -rifmr -; Hi£ miF ussis t"**- mucher *> the extai
if iie:r >rw;=r_ ^ Jg r? *r p nt*ieg xthkjx n*iKt» « |
lait r^i^;a me xmtr nnn. zmrs wsra Looking afar
~i'-*n l "ill nsdHii tekL rn»*5u Gi*y inow bx sad exse-

Tjsi&t -riiiz k ~^s^ jii?m^ 2iii% sszeti his prey never

j*a~-?s r i ^ ^ ^r^Tii jzii aias titscekxe all the

Tiniii fcr~ir ni:ut*7 "ijej niar fCfaziL if not in the aetzdk

;!? "it* iorr. is i^asc zi rrecrsnff the w 1 **^ to the

coi^- is i ze=tfey w*=Cc ir vijti they are not eallei

Trie -schc? ± liii :c" ib* liriz^ :r respect of the deal

I: is Jtss^naL cesde?. Tr-is Crimen hare a super-

»t;ri;rLi i"-=rs-:r. :.;. Tiroee the dead bodies of their

frier. is :.. p*:rle n:* of :heir own nationality and

religion. I: may Terr reasonably be believed, there*

fore, that even where there is no interested motives for

concealment, many and many a poor Chinaman is

carried away by a tiger, and his remains either left

unsought for in the jangle, or, if sought for and found,

'jnietly interred near the spot where he suffered.

But it is beyond all doubt that interested motives
rIho combine to still further prevent our obtaining a
knowledge of the true measure of mortality in the
inland caused by tigers. The men most exposed to
danger uro those who work on the gambier and pepper
I'liuiUtioiiH close to the wall of jungle which sur-

CONCEALMENT OP DEATHS BY TIGERS. 93

mods them. These are not independent labourers,
it either the hired or half-hired and half-purchased
rvants of the planter, who is forced from time to
ne into the labour market to replace the men whose
reements or whose terms of servitude are up. It
his interest to obtain these new hands as cheaply as
ssrible, and, that he may do so, it is obviously
arable that his plantation should bear a reputation

safety as well as for good treatment. The notoriety
the island for tigers has spread far and wide, and
B of the first inquiries made by new arrivals, as well
by those some time in the country, is as to the
edom of the locality from these monsters. If,
jrefore, a labourer on a plantation should be carried
ay by a tiger, it is only reasonable to imagine that
) proprietor will do all in his power, first to ignore
> fact, and if this be impossible, then to conceal it.

That a very extensive system of concealment is in
b way practised was, not long ago, made tolerably
parent, not certainly by direct evidence, but in a
inner perfectly convincing to those at all acquainted
th the habits of the people. About a year ago,
ten the reported cases of deaths by tigers had
iched a very low ebb, it was found on examination
Kt nearly ail the victims who had suffered were wood-
tters — men who are under no masters, but wander
out the jungles collecting firewood where they can
t it best to sell in town. Scarcely a gambier or
pper planter appeared to have lost a man, yet in
unbers the labourers on the plantations were as a
indred to one of the woodcutters, and they were

^ IVLiTO SCS5ERT.

•=xrt:t!t£il :•: *rzL ii^Trr. Inquiries were made, nl
n vi* ^.-fr. w^L &s*Eraiixd that concealment hid bm
sj^^dA^aZj jcrsc^i ly nearly every one of ttl
firrlT Tli^rr*. an-l thas :f the little graves which kj
%t:z^i *k± L;:zes;cai nearly one-half were filled if
tbr reruns ::" s^ch as had been killed by tigere.

Bn ii:;irc lier* can be no gainsaying the U
-Jla: ile^e 1-ratls t:»nn a serious item in the jmA
nonal::?. the sternest that a man falls each diji
vietin is sp: to carry with it a very erroneous
press: :i. as to the comber of tigers actually in ttl
isiand. One cot unnaturally jumps at once to tin
conclusion thai Singapore must be thickly infested lift
them, whereas I believe that there are not now
than twenty couples, if so many ; and probably it*
time previously have they been so numerous ; in pmrf
of which I may mention that the Government has J
along held out a reward of fifty dollars per head, sol
latterly, as the evil grew worse, extended it to o*
hundred dollars, with another fifty dollars from tbft
merchants' fund, for any tiger captured or slain, mi
vet during the last four vears there have onlv been tea
cases where the reward was claimed, and this though
a body of convicts are detailed for the purpose, anl
though, if the vicinity of a tiger in any locality **
known for certain, there are not wanting those of the
community who would gladly he in watch every nigW
in the week for the chance of a shot.

For many years after its settlement there were no
timers at all on the island — at least none were ever
seen, and the Malays make no mention of their

REMARKABLE ESCAPE FROM A TIGER. 95

wance antecedent to that. It was not till 1835
their presence first became known. Mr. Cole-
, the surveyor of the station, accompanied by a
r of convicts, was in that year laying out a new
through a low swampy part of the jungle about
miles from town. He was in the act of taking an
rvation through his theodolite when a crashing
.d was heard among the bushes close by, and a
i tiger leaped right into the thick of the party, but
luately alighted on the theodolite, which was over-
ed and broken, and, doubtless alarmed by the
motion occasioned, the animal immediately sprang
the jungle again and disappeared. The convicts
man flew back to town, and the surveyor himself
wed as quickly as he could, leaving the theodolite
re it lay on the ground. It was a long time before
people in town could be brought to believe that a
r really had been seen, and it was only on an
tal to the broken fragments of the theodolite — in
nature of that made by Macaulay in his lays to the
ken image of Horatius — that unbelief was finally
"come. After this no work was done near the
{le but under arms, though it was some years before
next tiger showed itself.

If these animals were not indigenous to the island,
nay be asked, how came they there ? and this
a question which for a time puzzled conjecture,
it was before long determined, and I think satis-
wily, in a rather singular manner. The old strait
lies between the back of the island and the main-
[ of the peninsula is a favourite fishing ground in

-e^-ir- f^a&*;cs :£ izjz ysar. and is then thickly sjwi
."rr :n *Lit= Sc^rvrcre s&e with stakes and ufc
7-lt"7 :=.^ _ »:?— ~r a pmv of Malay fishermen, lb
hi*i s^r: -ii-fzr --fcs :-~^id::. proceeded to ena»
wi^ic L~.:i ii-fj L*I isd. and woe surprised to hi
sec-zrri ± tl^ir n«?si>=s a larce female tiger. ThP*
it— 1. u*i ± its scrc^gies to get free thown^l
g.:ir rl^I r^lf. a^I w^s completely exhausted, irf
-~ar> rr: —*i. Tztvc was still some life left, hovflBi 1
az.1 zl± VYvr* ihosght it wiser to despatch it bete
ii~.r-z :: :•:■ sh:r*. From the part of the nefcB
Trii;l ±f y : ~al was entangled, it was clear that i
had ceen arpr: acr;ng from the mainland ; it could «
have swam 02 from the Singapore shores, for serai
rows of ne:s -ying farther in were nninjnred.

This circumstance first directed attention to ti
probability tha: i: was from Johore that Singapore v
supplied wi:h timers, and it is said that since then tb
have on several occasions been seen swimming acm
the channel. It is beyond doubt that, once establish
on the island, they have since increased and niultipKei
but it is probable that considerable reinforcements a
still from time to time received from the mainland.

What has induced these animals to leave tl
mainland of Johore, where the forests are undistorbe
for the limited jungles of Singapore, it is difficult
say, unless it be their horrible love for human bloc
In Johore, game is plentiful ; there are deer and *i
hogs in much greater abundance than in Singapoi

* TIi in is certain, as cubs only a few days old have frequently h
caught.

TIGERS, THEIR MODE OF ATTACK.

a host of other animals besides, that are unknown
the island, among which are the buffalo, rhinoceros,
elephant ; indeed, as far as animal life is con-
ied, it is beyond all doubt that the mainland is
er in every species except man. On the island,
^ever, they have now established themselves, nor
it seem at all probable that they will leave it as
Dg as a strip of jungle remains.

The manner in which they execute their destruction

>on man is simple and uniform. Though ferocious,

are cowardly to a degree, and while I have

uired into the circumstances attending every death

tigers for a number of years back, I have been

able to find one case where the victim was not come

unawares, and from behind. The animal moves

dly and noiselessly through the tangled brushwood

lie jungle as near to its intended victim as possible,

there keeps watch, it may be for hours, for a

ing opportunity. This occurs when, if the poor

ow be a garabier planter, he is intent upon stripping

e out-of-the-way branch of its leaves, and has his

,ck turned to the direction of the tiger. The brute

steps forth slowly in a crouching attitude till

a seven or eight yards, when it gives one fierce

well-directed bound forward, and down goes the

dead, with the first stroke of the beast's muscular

In an instant the tiger seizes the body, gene-

y by the neck, and tossing it across its back, bounds

the jungle, where it is safe.

It is at all events some comfort to reflect that
ever horrible the death may appear it is quickly

98 INLAND SCENERY.

suffered. There is every probability that the unhappy
victim loses all consciousness, and indeed every spaik
of life, with the first fell stroke that knocks him down;
for in almost every body that is recovered the back
of the head is found completely smashed in, or the
neck is found broken, the impression of the animal's
paw remaining distinctly visible. The force of this
blow must be something fearful. I have been told by
a gentleman who had travelled a good deal in the
peninsula, that he has frequently come upon buffaloes
which had been killed and partly devoured by tigen,
and in many cases found the frontal bone of the skull,
which is nearly an inch thick, smashed in by this
crushing blow of the fore-paw.

Rescue, therefore, may be said to be impossible,
and I only know of one man having escaped from
them after being thus struck. This was on the
Sirangoon Road about five miles from town. The man
was walking slowly along, when from a little eminence
on the side of the road, the tiger sprang forth upon
him. In springing from the bank, however, the tiger
had snapped some branches of a tree, and the man
was in the act of turning round to learn the cause of
the sound, when the animal alighted upon him. Either
disconcerted by this motion or thereby missing its
aim, the fore-paw of the tiger struck the man's cheek,
tearing off the flesh and skin down to his waist ; bnt
the blow did not stun him, and he had sufficient
presence of mind to draw his parang, or large knife,
and make a cut at the animal, on which it retreated
back into the jungle.

TIGER, ANECDOTE OF. 99

I believe that face to face a tiger will not attack a
unan being, unless he displays a thorough want of
irve ; the Malays are also of this opinion, but express
differently. They say that " if you will only speak

a tiger, and tell it that it can get plenty of food in
e jungle beside you, the animal will be persuaded,
id leave you unmolested." Unfortunately, few get
e chance to speak to the tigers in this way, because,
i I have stated, they almost invariably steal up
jhind those they intend to attack. I have, however,
*ard the following account told by an old Malay of
i attack which he prevented by an appeal to the
stter nature of the animal. He was returning home
tor a visit to town to his house at Selita, along that
trt of the road which I have described as being the
ost thickly surrounded by jungle. He had his little
did, a boy of seven or eight years old, slung behind
m, and both were contentedly chewing away at
gong,* when the father on lifting up his eyes saw a
ger crouching down right in front of him, and
yparently preparing for a spring. Calling to mind
ie old saying, he gasped out a few sounds and
and that they appeared to arrest the tiger, but being
ixious not to risk the life of his son, he moved
owly backward to a tree which he remembered to
ive passed a few yards behind. The tiger advanced
K>n him step for step as he retreated. When the old
an'sback touched the tree, he told his son to climb up.
tris the boy did, and the father relieved of anxiety on

* Indian com.

100 INLAND SCENERY.

his account, drew his wood-knife and commenced an
advance, arguing all the while with the keenest logic-
sharpened no doubt by the occasion — that it would
be infinitely better for both to part without quarrelling.
This advance and retreat continued for about fifty
yards, when the tiger, either persuaded by the logic,
or daunted by the bravery of the man, turned tail, and
bolted into the jungle.

Mr. Yaughan, in his notice of the Malays, tells of
a remarkable instance which fell under his observation.
" Several men had been killed at a village in Province
Wellesley by the same tiger, and for many nights he
had been heard prowling about the houses regardless
of cattle and dogs that fell in his way. He was
evidently bent on catching one of the inhabitants.
Finding at length that the villagers kept close, he
actually sprang at the door of a house at night, bunt
it open, seized a man from his bed and walked off
with him. At daylight he was traced by his foot-
prints into the jungle, and the body of the man was
found partly devoured. A native who was a famous
shot was in the neighbourhood, and he proposed that
the remains of the poor fellow should be kept in the
house, as the tiger would be sure to return for a
second meal. This was done, and over the door of the
house a strong platform was erected, on which the
native took his station with his gun. Sure enough
the tiger a little after nightfall returned to the house,
and was shot through the head."

But it is seldom that any account can be rendered
of encounters with tigers, beyond that which is to be

TIGERS, HARDLY POSSIBLE TO EXTIRPATE. 101

gathered from the mangled remains of the victims.
These are presented to the beholder in every variety
of dismemberment and mutilation. A leg, a foot, an
arm, and sometimes the head, is gone. From two
recently recovered bodies the heads only were missing,
and the other parts apparently untouched. In some
cases the chest is torn open and the heart and lungs
devoured, while in a few the body has been found
perfect, but sucked completely dry of blood — a gash
and the mark of the animal's fangs on the throat
showing where the suction had been applied. The
thigh, however, appears to be the part best liked by the
tigers, and in the greater number of bodies recovered
both thighs are eaten to the bone, while below the
knee the leg is untouched. It is a horrible spectacle,
the view of one of these mangled corpses, and raises
up in the breast of the beholder a feeling of malignant
hatred against these brute murderers.

No extensive or combined action has as yet been
attempted for the extirpation of these monsters ; nor
does it appear very clearly how such could be effected.
If the island could be cleared and kept free of jungle,
no doubt the tigers would immediately desert it ; but
such a proceeding on the part of Government is com-
pletely impracticable, even if it were advisable. It
would cost many times the year's revenue of the settle-
ment to cut down and burn all the jungle on the
island, and when this was done, it would annually
take tens of thousands of pounds to keep it down.
&* The only means by which we can look for a reduction
$ i* of the jungle is in a more extended cultivation of the

102 INLAND SCENERY.

soil ; but agriculture unfortunately, though stimulated
by the present high prices of produce, and by the
very easiest terms of land tenure, has of late yean
been decidedly on the decline. It is to the rifles or
traps of those, induced by the reward offered or by
the love of sport to undertake the hunt, that the
destruction of tigers is left ; even the convicts who are
detailed for the service go out on the understanding
that they will obtain the stipulated reward only if
successful.

Of the ten tigers destroyed during the past four
years' eight have been shot and the other two cap-
tured by means of traps. There is nothing exciting
about tiger shooting here, and consequently few join
in it from pleasure. Covered huts are built on two
or three of the trees around the spot where it is
thought the tiger is most likely to appear, and in each
of these a man with one or two loaded pieces beside
him keeps watch, one by night and one by day, till
the tiger appears or is known to have shifted his
quarters. It is usual to tie a bullock or some dogs to
a stake in the centre of the guarded trees as a lure
to the tiger. Watches of this sort often continue
for weeks — and dreary, uninteresting, uncomfortable
affairs they are — and after all the chances are ten to
one that no tiger shows itself. It frequently happens,
too, that the tiger actually carries off the bait un-
injured, owing either to the watchers being asleep or to
their ill-directed firing. There is an American here,
an old backwoodsman, who has for many years devoted
himself to the destruction of these animals; he is known

TIGERS, THEIR HABITS, 103

as Carol, the tiger hunter ; but he has had but poor
sport of it in Singapore, having only upon two occasions
succeeded in obtaining the reward — though I believe
he has killed many tigers in Johore. He is of
eccentric habits, but is kindly treated by the Chinese
planters throughout the island and by the Malays in
Johore, and seems content with the hunter's life.

I have learned something of the habits of the
tigers of Singapore from this hunter. I do not
suppose they will be found to differ from those of
the same animal in other parts of the world; but,
being gathered from the personal observation of this
man in the jungles of Singapore and the Malay penin-
sula, I may as well relate them. The tigress goes with
young for about two months ; towards the close of this
period she separates from her mate, and seeking the
shelter of a fallen tree in the loneliest and grassiest
part of a thicket, or sometimes in a cave amongst the
rocks, she brings forth from two to five cubs. On
leaving the lair she always covers her little ones up
carefully — sometimes she places them in the hollow of
a decayed log, and at others scratches a hole two feet
deep in the ground, and depositing them there covers
them over with loose soil through which they can
breathe. All these precautions are taken to save her
progeny from their most inveterate enemy — the " tiger-
father," who hunts about for the place of concealment,
and if he discovers it, immediately devours every one
of the cubs. Carol estimates that seven out of every
ten cubs born meet their death in this unnatural
manner; and so, he says, in the notes he has for-

104 INLAND SCENERY.

nished to me, " has Providence limited the too rap
increase of this scourge of creation/' Alligato
show a similar disposition, and in even a more aggi
vated degree, for besides the males eating up all t
eggs they come across, the females also prey upon t
contents of one another's nests — so that a very ami
proportion indeed of the eggs are ever hatched.

The method of trapping tigers is simple. A j
is dug about four or five feet square and some fifite*
deep, in what is thought to be the track of the aninu
and covered over with dead branches, grass, and fer
A large number of these pits are scattered over tl
country, each owned by the man who dug it. It
a labour which is so seldom rewarded that it
left almost entirely to the convicts, who are sure
their rations whatever luck they may have. No wafo
is kept over these pits ; the men to whom they beloi
go round and examine them every second day, ai
it is only when a tiger is snared that there is a]
approach to excitement. So great is the terror whi
these animals implant, that though secure in the p
much caution is observed in approaching them, a]
among the natives he is still thought a brave mi
who fires the death-shot.

It has sometimes happened that a tigress has h
her cub fall down one of these pits, and in such caa
there is no small measure of excitement, for t
tigress keeps hovering about the spot, lying for hor
perhaps in the jungle, and then suddenly boundr
out and leaping backwards and forwards over t
pit to see that her cub is alive ; but so rapid is h

TIGER, ADVESTTURE WITH. 105

on that a shot has very little chance of taking
> *fc. A case of this sort occurred only a few months
Several men had been carried off within four
v tire days from the same district, and a number of
■> **fc pits were dug. In a few days it was discovered
^*t a well-grown cub had fallen into one of them,
d as the object was to kill the mother if possible,
ie cub was allowed to remain in the pit uninjured,
d a body of police were sent for. On the following
orning about ten native peons armed with muskets,
arrived, under the charge of the deputy commis-
ioner and two European inspectors. They proceeded
autiously to the mouth of the pit, and were looking
own at the cub, when suddenly, with a fierce growl,
the mother-tiger bounded from the jungle right into
the midst of them, tearing the sides of the pit, and
forcibly scattering those around it, but directly attack-
ing none. For a moment all were petrified, for
the animal was actually brushing up against them.
It would have been well had they remained so, for
immediately the first surprise had passed away, an
ill-directed, random fire was commenced* by the native
peons, the effect of which was certainly fatal, but fatal
in the wrong quarter. The tigress retreated reluctantly
to the jungle, apparently scatheless, and it was found
that one of the peons had received a shot through the
body, from the effects of which he died the same
evening ; the deputy commissioner had himself received
a ball through the sleeve of his coat.

* In January, 1864.

106 INLAND SCENERY*.

Discouraged by the untoward result of this fink
encounter, no near approach was made to the {it
again that day, and though the tigress showed herself
frequently, she escaped the few scattered shots that
were fired at her. The brute's stubborn affection for
its young, however, was destined to prove fatal to it
On the third day the police, who apparently had had
enough of it, gave up the direction of affairs to t
person of some experience, who, approaching to within
a few yards of the pit, threw into it a large piece of
wood, causing the cub to howl out loudly. On hearing
the cry of its young, the tigress bounded fiercely to
the mouth of the pit, and ere it could change its
position, received in its breast the charge of a well-
directed rifle. The cub was afterwards taken out and
brought into town alive.

It is a good many years since the attention of the
House of Commons was directed to the mortality
reported to be then caused by tigers in Singapore.
It was asked, could it be possible in an island of such
limited area and with such a numerous population,
that men, at the rate of one per diem, were destroyed
by these jungle monsters ; and inquiries were directed
to be made of the Indian authorities. The then
Governor, Colonel Butterworth, was written to on
the subject, and his answer, I believe, was, that he
could not affirm to so extensive a destruction, bnt
that he thought at least 200 lives were each year
lost in this way. Since the period that that question
was put and answered, the evil has been gradually
growing worse, till, at the present moment, the

TIGERS, DEATHS BY, ON THE INCREASE. 107

mortality stands higher than ever it did before. It
becomes, indeed, a serious consideration whether this
increase is to go on or not,* and the subject, altogether
* singular one, must be earnestly taken in hand by
the future Government.

• I have thought that a few thousand dollars of the public money
might be well spent in the construction of additional travellers' bungalows
in the various jungle districts, to be thrown open to the use of the
residents when not required for Government purposes. They would
not fail to be frequently made use of, and would be likewise sure to
draw around them numerous native houses, and thus eventually become
the centres of little agricultural hamlets. Besides the stimulus thus
given to the culture of the soil, the measure would, I am sure, have
m wholesome effect in diminishing the number of tigers.

( 108 )

CHAPTER V.

POPULATION: ABORIGINES—MALAYS— CHINESE.

Population Tables— Aboriginal Tribes — Their Country — Their on
Traditions — Driven to the Interior by the Invasion of the Mahyi—
Customs — Feasts and Marriages — The Chase — Their Dwellings—
Features — Disposition — Superstitions — Contact with the Malay*
— The Malays : their Origin — Number in British Settlements—
Mahomedans — Hamlets — Domestic Relationship — Appearance-
Comeliness of the Women — Dress — Want of Industry — Pnmnti
— The Tumongong and Sultan. — The Chinese : their Industry-
Secret Societies — Obstruction to Justice — Opium Smoking—
Gambling. — Natives of India : Klings — Bengalese — Other Asiatioi
— Half Castes — Progress of the Population, past and future.

The population of Singapore may be set down roughly
at 90,000 souls. The last census, necessarily in such
a country a very imperfect test, made it 84,000.
The population of the united British possessions in
the Straits, that is, of Singapore, Penang, Province
Wellesley, and Malacca, together, may be estimated
at 290,000 souls, and the following table will give,
at a glance, a tolerably correct idea of what elements
the native part of it is composed. The numbers may
be slightly above or below the truth, but I believe
that the relative proportions are sufficiently accurate,
having reduced them from the last reliable accounts

ABORIGINES, VARIOUS TRIBES OF.

109

cron to the present time by the rales which seemed
i each case best to apply : —

Bach.

SntoAron.

PCWAMO AMD P.W.

Malacca.

fclXXngineS ........................................

Ways

Srinese ..

•Natives of India

other Asiatics

13,500

58,000

12,700

6,500

72,000

39,000

14,000

1,700

900*

55,000

12,000

1,200

2,500

Totals.

00,700

126,700

71,600

Europeans and their immediate and unmixed
[ascendants do not, I think, number 800,f nearly
iro-thirds of whom are stationed at Singapore.

By far the most interesting of the races set forth
bove are the aborigines, and they possess a claim
pon our attention quite independent of their being
q element in the population. They inhabit various
istricts in the peninsula; those towards the north
f the province of Ligor are called Karians ; towards
[edah, Perak, and Salengore, Samangs ; those between
lalengore and Mount Ophir, Mautras ; those from
fount Ophir to the coast, in the province of Malacca,
acoons ; and those in the territory of Johore, imme-
iately behind Singapore, Bumas. Besides these,
tiere are several othcfr tribes ; but those I have

• This item is considerably in excess of what has been set down in
ther tables ; but Father Borie, the French missionary near the town
f Malacca, told me that his flock of Jacoons numbered 450, and I judge
tat altogether there are at least twice that number within British
rritory.

f This figure does not include the military stationed at each settle -
lent, nor the seafaring population, which is constantly coming and
sing from the ports.

110 POPULATION.

named appear to me the chief divisions into which
the aborigines have subdivided themselves.

The aborigines of Singapore have long since ceased
to exist as a distinct race upon the island, though,
doubtless, their blood flows in the veins of manj
of the Malays now there. But we have not altogether
lost sight of them. It appears that not very long
after the Malays came to settle down at Singapore,
or about the beginning of the thirteenth century, i
large body of the aborigines — indeed all those vrho
had not become connected by intermarriage with the
invaders, crossed over to the coast of Johore, and
there rejoined the wild races of which they wen
doubtless originally a section ; and travellers into the
country of these people have encountered a tribe
named after a river in Singapore, and whose rude
traditions allude to the period when their ancestors
had crossed over the Straits to the mainland of the
peninsula. It seems to me, however, a very useless
task to attempt while treating of these people to keep
distinct the various tribes into which they are broken
up, or to attach much weight to the slight differences
of features and of language which are to be met with
among them. There can be little doubt that to all
intents and purposes they are the same people.

These tribes, then, that formed the aboriginal
inhabitants of Singapore, and of the most southern
portion of the Malay peninsula, including Malacca,
wander about the hills and valleys of the country of
which they were once lords paramount, very much
as they did in olden times but with this difference,

ABORIGINES, THEIR ORIGIN. Ill

they have now altogether forsaken the coast line,
retreated to the fastnesses of the interior before
gradually encroaching inroads of the Malays. The
lonely the spot of their encampment the better
to their taste. Scattered over a wide extent of
_jfay, it is very difficult to form anything likely to
^ba correct conjecture as to their numbers; but it is
^aierally believed that, including all the tribes in all
Starts of the peninsula, they do not exceed 7,000 or
fj,000 souls, and of this number only a very small
proportion are on British soil. That they are on the
jbcline seems certain, but it is not a rapid decline.
Bo great is the vigour of tropical nature, that the
Jmgle presents a barrier almost irresistible to the
progress of cultivation ; and to them the jungle will
continue to afford a home and means of subsist-
ence.

The accounts they give of their origin are amusing,
though somewhat conflicting ; but none of them indi-
cate otherwise than that they are indigenous to the
soil. Among one tribe it is stated, and with all
gravity, that they are descended from two white apes,
Ounka Puteh, who having reared their young ones
sent them into the plains, where the greater number
perfected so well that they became men ; those who
did not become men returned once more to the moun-
tains, and still continue apes. Another account less
favourable to the theory of progressive creation is
that God, having in heaven called into life a being
endowed with great strength and beauty, named him
Bat in. God, desirous that a form so fair should

112 POPULATION.

be perpetuated, gave to Batin a companion, and trill
him to seek a dwelling upon earth. Charmed irifhik
beauties, Batin and his companion alighted and took
np their abode on the banks of the river of Johm,
close to Singapore, increasing and multiplying vift
a rapidity and to a degree now unknown ; and fan
these two, they say, all the tribes of the peninsula m
descended. To the present day the name Batin n
given to their kings or chief leaders.

Another tribe of the aborigines give the following
account of their origin, and of that of the countrj
they inhabit.* " The ground, they say, on which we
stand is not solid. It is merely the skin of the earth
(kulit bumi). In ancient times God broke up thk
skin, so that the world was destroyed and overwhelmed
with water. Afterwards he caused Gunong Lulumnt
with Chimundang and Bechnak to rise, and this low
land which we inhabit was formed later. These moun-
tains in the south, and Mount Ophir, Gunong K£p,
Gunong Tonkat Bangsi, and Gunong Tonkat Subangcm
the north (all mountains within a short radius) , give a
fixity to the earth's skin. The earth still depends entirely
on these mountains for its steadiness. The Lulumut
mountains are the oldest land. The summit of Gunong
Tonkat Bangsi is within one foot of the sky, that of
Gunong Tonkat Subang is within an earring's length,
and that of Gunong Kap is in contact with it. After
Lulumut had emerged, a prahu of pulai wood, covered
over and without any opening, floated on the waters.

* Related by Mr. Logan in his paper on the Binnas.

MANTRA TRIBE, TH£IR ORIGIN. 113

tn this Gad had enclosed a man and a woman whom
«e had made. After the lapse of some time the
^J)rahu was neither directed with nor against the current,
:nor driven to and fro. The man and woman, feeling
it to rest motionless, nibbled their way through it,
stood on the dry ground, and beheld this our world.
At first, however, everything was obscure. There was
neither morning nor evening, because the sun had not
yet been made. When it became light they saw sewn
sindudo trees, and seven plants of runiput sambau.
They then said to each other,—* In what a condition
are we without children or grandchildren ? f Some time
afterwards ike woman became pregnant, not however
in her womb, but in the calves of her legs. From the
ht leg was brought forth a male, and from the left

female child. Hence it is that the issue of the same

omb cannot intermarry. All mankind are the descen-
ts of the two children of the first pair. When men

ad much increased, God looked down upon them with

leasure, and reckoned their numbers/'

Somewhat similar to this is the account given by
the Mantra tribe behind Mount Opkir; they say that
their fathers came originally from heaven in a large
and magnificent ship built by God, which was set

P floating on the waters of the earth. The ship sailed
with fearful rapidity round and about the earth till it
grounded upon one of the mountains of the peninsula,
where they declare it is still to be seen. Their fathers
disembarked and took up their abode on the new
earth, some on the coast, some on the plains, and
others on the mountains ; but all under one chief

114

POPULATION.

called Batin Alam. They farther relate, evidently in
regard to the invasion of the Malays in the twelfth or
thirteenth century, that a long time after the death of
their first Batin, who had lived an extraordinaij
period, they were attacked hy a people calling them-
selves Battacks, who came in boats from the sea, and
slaughtered great numbers of them. Their chief,
however, the descendant of Batin Alam, was a bold
and courageous man, who, gathering together the
remains of his people, built a large ark in which
he conveyed them to a land of safety, and then
returned alone to avenge the destruction of his people,
and liberate his country from foreign yoke. He landd,
it is said, at Malacca, where the news of his return
spread about like lightning, and the Battacks gather**}
together in great numbers once more, as they saiii fa
drive out the enemy ; the enemy, however, though
hut one man, had become invulnerable — the day
of reprisal was near, Meragalange, the pati
chief, threw himself among them, and they were
never able to arrest or to wound him. Turning
towards his enemies he said to them, " Even toot
arms respect my person, tie your arms in bui
tlirow them into the air, and if they can fly I will
admit myself to be your prisoner for ever ; if, on the
contrary, your arms obey the laws of nature, and fall
down upon the earth, and if mine only have the p
to fly, you will obey my laws as your conqueror/
The challenge was accepted, and when put to the
test, the arms of Meragalange alone could fly. Thej
flew, by themselves, cutting down the neighbouring

ABORIGINES, DRIVEN INLAND.

116

forests, and then returning to the astonished Battaeks,
cut them in pieces. All perished with the exception
of one only who, having submitted himself, saved his
life. Free possessor of the country, Meragalange
returned to where he had left his people, and brought
them all back in safety to their own land.

But about half a century after this, when Meraga-
lange was dead, the Battaeks came across once more,
and drove them finally back from the coast line.

The inference to be drawn from each of these
traditions seems to he pretty much the same, namely,
that these inland tribes, known among the Malays now
as the Orang Utang or Orang Bukit, according as
they are found on the plains or among the hills, are
the aborigines of the soil, who enjoyed an uninter-
rupted possession until the advent of the Malays
towards the middle of the twelfth century.

Driven by this invasion from the Island of Singa-
pore, and from the seaboard of the peninsula, they
have led a nomadic life, wandering about from one part
of the territory to another, yet still content and happy
in the enjoyment of the solitary grandeur of the
primeval forest. From the simplicity of their tastes they
are, except those few who have had the use of opium
and tobacco pressed upon them, independent of inter-
coarse with the world at large. In return for the
slightest exertion, the soil will yield an abundant
supply of fruit. Indeed the exertions of the fathers
frequently provide for the wants of the children ; for
many fruit-trees, such as the durian, the jack, and the
mango, do not mature for ten or twenty years, and

8—2

]

then continue bearing for, it is supposed, double or
treble that period. A right of property in these trees
is acknowledged to lie in the children of those who
had planted them, and such right is respected with
punctilious honesty* There are certain parts of the
forest more suited than others to the growth of parti-
cular trees, and the groves of an entire tribe often He
together. Great jubilees are held at the various fruit
Benson s, and the divisions of the tribe, which are
scattered far apart through out the year, gather together
round the district where the trees are planted. Here
they probably find the huts that served them at the
same season the year previous, and if their numbers
have increased, or if any of the huts have been
destroyed by the weather, they are not long in con-
structing new ones. Their stay lasts as long as anj
fruit remains on the trees, and in some cases this is
fully six weeks.

During these jubilees it is that marriages generally
take place. The ceremony is a simple one, and the
new-made acquaintance of the morning is often the
wedded wife of the evening. On the part of the suitor
it is more a matter of arrangement with the parents
than of courtship with the daughter ; but there is a
form generally observed, which reminds us strong!;
the old tale of Hippomenes and Atalanta. If the
tribe is on the bank of a lake or stream, the damst
given a canoe and a double-bladed paddle, and allowed
a start of some distance ; the suitor, similarly equipped,
starts off in chase. If he succeed in overtaking
her she becomes his wife, if not the match is broken

ABORIGINES, THEIR MODE OF LIFE.

117

>ff. Like similar arrangements in gut own country, it

but seldom that objection is offered at the last

moment, and the chase is generally a short one ; the

maiden's arms are strong, but her heart is soft and her

I nature warm, and she soon becomes a willing captive.
If the marriage takes place where no stream is near, a
round circle of a certain size is formed, the damsel is
stripped of all but a waistband, and given half the
circle's start in advance, and if she succeed in running
three times round before her suitor comes up with her,
I she is entitled to remain a virgin ; if not, she must
consent to the bonds of matrimony ; as in the other
case, but few outstrip their lovers.
When the fruit-trees are all exhausted the tribe
retires in a body, either to some new grove, or, if none

I other is ready, the divisions separate, and betake them-
selves once more to the thick of the forest, where they
can always obtain a plenteous supply of wild hogs,
deer, and birds, besides wholesome roots and berries ;
the streams, too, afford them abundance of fish. The
aborigines do not so much hunt their game as snare it.
It is true they have spears which they throw with great
precision, but they seem to rely more on the efficiency
of their traps. It is long since elephants, rhinosceros,
and the larger denizens of the forest ceased to be the
objects of their chase, though as late as the time of
Albuquerque we read of these aborigines bringing down
ivory and tusks for barter. It is deer chiefly which
they now seek to entrap, and this they do in a very
primitive manner. Across the valleys through which
the deer sweep, they construct slight barricades of

118 POPULATION.

bamboo and timber, with numerous narrow openings,
in each of which a trap is laid by bending down a
young sapling, and fixing it by a slight string which
must be broken before a way can be forced through the
passage ; the sapling let loose springs up, and drives a
spear which is attached to it into the entrails of the
unwary animal.

Another* deadly weapon possessed by these tribes
is the sunipitan, or blow-pipe, which is used chiefly
against birds and squirrels, and by which deer, too, are
not unfrequently killed. It is made of two thin pieces
of hollowed-out bamboo, about six feet long, one
within the other ; the outer bamboo is highly orna-
mented, and intended evidently as a casing for the
inner tube, which is very carefully bored. At one
extremity of the inner bamboo a mouthpiece is
attached ; into this mouthpiece a small poisoned arrow
about six inches long is placed, with a bit of wad or
fungus behind, and by a strong sudden puff of the
breath the arrow is sent with great velocity some fifty
or sixty yards. I received one of these instruments
from the Jacoon tribe in the Malacca district, and
with a little practice became tolerably proficient in
its use.

These people do not fish by means of a hook and
bait, but use nets stretched upon the four extremities
of two pieces of stick, laid one across the other, and
tied together at the centre ; this the fisher dips gently
into the most likely part of the stream, and then
quietly awaits the passage of some fish over it, when
he draws it up to the surface and bags his prey. I

ABORIGINES, THEIR DWELLINGS.

110

Ely mention here a rather remarkable feature of fresh-
iter fishing which I have noticed in Singapore, The
jads there are generally lined by ditches a few feet in
lepth, which carry off the rain in wet weather, bnt are
totally dry after three days' drought. I have often in
le mornings on my way to town passed by these
itches when they were as dry as the road over which
travelled, and on my return in the evening, after a
iay of heavy tropical thunder showers, found two or
ree feet of water flowing through them, and men
id women with rods a couple of feet in length sitting
m the banks pulling out good-sized wholesome fish —
)me of them four or five inches long. I believe that
iese fish, when the water begins to dry up, burrow
lto the mud, and lie caked there till the next wet day
3news the stream.

The dwelling of the aborigines varies according to
le custom of the tribe ; all, however, are well elevated
rom the ground. The greater number are built upon
posts some seven or eight feet high, and covered with
leaves or bark ; but as they are liable to be forsaken at
any moment, it is seldom that much care is bestowed
on their construction, or that they contain much
furniture or many stores. Confident in the resources
of the forest and its streams, these primitive people
never lay by the surplus of to-day to provide for the
wants of to-morrow, but share it with their dogs.
Many of the Jacoons, who according to some are the
lowest type of the aborigines, build their huts in the
trees, often at an elevation of twenty-five to thirty feet,
and seldom of less than twenty feet. They are reached

120 POPULATION.

by means of ladders, up which their old men and
women, their children, and even their dogs, learn to
climb with ease. It is difficult for the traveller to
detect the locality of these huts by any indication
which the surrounding forest offers ; but on a windy
day he will be apprised of their vicinity by hearing
strange wailing musical notes rising and falling with
the breeze. These sounds are produced by long thick
pieces of bamboo, split between the knots so as to
resemble the chords of a harp, which they hang on the
tops of the highest trees in the forest in such a manner
that the wind vibrates the chords as it sweeps by. In
addition to these Eolian harps, they make out of the
smaller bamboos a number of pipes, which they string
together and expose, so as to be sounded by the pass-
ing wind. In stormy weather the soft wailing notes of
these instruments can be heard miles off.

In appearance the aborigines are prepossessing,
though it is evident at a glance that they are a low
type of man.* They are of exceedingly short stature,
the men seldom over five feet in height, their bodies
and limbs arc neatly moulded, but the former appear a
little too heavy for the latter. Their heads are small
and the foreheads slightly retreating, the mouth is
large and the lips thick and hanging, almost entirely
devoid of nerve — the nose is low in the face and shows
no sign of bridge. Their eyes are small, but well set

* The Jacoons arc believed to he the wildest of the tribes: andh
was solemnly asserted by early travellers that they had short tails ; and
this is still not an uncommon story imposed upon the credulity of new
arrivals.

ABORIGINES, THEIR CHARACTER.

121

not sunken, and have an honest open look ; the
is generally woolly. But the various tribes differ
appearance materially, and I cannot do more than
thus superficially describe them ; any minute examina-
tion, though it might be valuable as applied to one
tribe, would be useless in a description of the whole
race.

In disposition they are simple and amiable, sen-
sible of and grateful for the slightest good turn or
kind word ; they are, however, timid to a degree that
prevents their seeking intercourse with Europeans.
Contented and happy among themselves, they are little
ambitious to alter or improve their mode of life.
They are indifferent even to laziness, and are only
forced to exertion by the hunger of themselves or
families. They live peaceably one with another, and
it is seldom indeed that even an altercation ensues
between them ; but if any cause of dispute should
arise, they do not resort to blows, but the party
believing himself injured withdraws with his family
and friends to another hunting ground until a recon-
ciliation is sought by the offender. The wandering
nature of their life, and the little attachment they
have to locality, renders these separations often per-
manent ones. They are like children— playful and
well disposed to all, but acutely sensible of wrong or
unkindness. They are thoroughly truthful, and have
not yet learned to lie — leading simple lives, they have
little to conceal.

That these aborigines believe in a God may be
ithered from the accounts they themselves give of

122 POPULATION.

their origin ; and that they believe in the immortality
of the soul may be also conceded, though some d
them seem to doubt as to the preservation of then
individual identity, and look upon life as a simple
element in creation, distinct from substance, which
on death will return to a common source to be red*
tributed as required. Others again speak of a heara
to be the reward of good men, and of a hell as the
punishment of the wicked ; but their religion whit-
ever it may be is strongly mixed up with demonologj.
They believe that every man is accompanied by a gooi
and bad angel — one leading him into danger and sick-
ness, and another bringing him happiness and gooi
health — but it is worthy of remark that they are wa£
more anxious to appease and conciliate the latter this
to improve acquaintance with the former ; in fact, it
would appear that they are rather influenced by fear
than by hope. It is only when on the point of death
that any of them offer up prayers to God, and these
are little else than the expression of a vague dean
that their souls should be well cared for. They burj
their dead sometimes in a sitting posture and some-
times erect, and lay beside the bodies a supply of food
and some weapons, which would seem to indicate *
hope of resurrection.

The following account of the end of the world u
related by the Mantra tribe.* " The human race having

* Some interesting details of these people are given by Father Bom,
the Unman Catholic missionary to the Jacoons. stationed near Malacca;
when I visited this gentleman in February, 1809, ho gave me some
papers he had written concerning them, a translation of which I after-
wards contributed to the Singapore newspapers.

ABORIGINES, RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF.

123

3d to live, a great wind will rise accompanied by
t the waters will descend with rapidity, lightning
fill the space all around, and the mountains will
down ; then a great heat will succeed ; there will
no more night, and the earth will wither like the
38 in the field; God will then come down sur-
>nnded by an immense whirlwind of flame ready to
>nsume the universe. But God will first assemble
le souls of the sinners, burn them for the first time
weigh them, after having collected their ashes by
leans of a fine piece of linen cloth. Those who will
ive thus passed the first time through the furnace
rithout having been purified, will be successively
)nrned and weighed for seven times, when all those
souls which have been purified will go to enjoy the
lappiness of heaven, and those that cannot be purified,
it is to say, the souls of great sinners, such as homi-
cides and those who have been guilty of rape, will be
st into hell, where they will suffer the torments of
les in company with devils — there will be tigers
id serpents in hell to torment the damned. Lastly,
k>d having taken a light from hell, will close the
>ortals and then set fire to the earth."

No doubt when the Malays first conquered the
peninsula they must have mingled with these people,
probably drawing from among them the wives which
they had neglected to bring with them at their inva-
sion. This is evidenced in the features of some of
both; but the two peoples being ill-suited to amal-
gamate, the aborigines retired to the solitudes of the
interior, and there remained for centuries in the con-

POPULATION.

ditioii I have described. Not many years ago, how-
ever, when the virtues of gutta percha became known,
the Malays pushed into the forests, and induced many
of the border tribes to collect this valuable gum in
exchange for cloth, tobacco, opium, &c. This second
meeting of these two people has proved to the abo-
rigines more unfortunate even than the first ; for
wherever the contact has taken place it has intro-
duced among many of them, tastes to which they iww
formerly strangers, but that when once acquired thej
cannot controL To satisfy these, they regardlesdr
place themselves under a bondage of debt, which in
many cases ends only with life. In their dealings with
these childlike people the Malays are most unscru-
pulous and practise all sorts of imposition ; but the
aborigines though conscious of their own simplicity
and alive to the roguery they suffer, are yet too
honourable to throw off obligations into which thej
have voluntarily entered, no matter by what deceits
they were induced to do so. Their timid nature, how-
ever,* and the subdued demand for the products of the
forest, will it is to be hoped preserve the great bulk

* The dread some of these tribes entertain of contact with tbt
Malay® was lately ill UHt rated in a peculiar manner. The ToroongOBf
had to cut a road through the forest, across part of hi*
Johore; the aborigines were the only people who could do it properly
and an intimation of the Tumongong'B desire that they should under
take the work, was by some means conveyed to them. They commented
operations at once, without any bargain being made, but tied into iht
jungle on every attempt to approach them; they, however, marked ■
■totals of a tree in a peculiar manner, and on this the reward
labour was placed from time to time. It was always taken away in th«r
night, no complaints being made as to its sufficiency The whole weak
was completed in this way.

MALAYS, THE PEOPLE OF SINGAPORE.

125

the aborigines for a long time to come from this
contact ; and the benignity of the British Govern -
it at Malacca will at least secure to the tribes
10 wander thexe, protection from oppression and
iposition. But it would be unjust to the Malay to
i\e him to be judged by the influence which his
>ntact has had and is likely to have upon the abo-
lal tribes. The Malays, who have pushed their
%j into the recesses of the jungle to force a trade
3n its primitive people, are not a fair representation
the race. They are those who have themselves
en sadly corrupted by intercourse with the hetero-
sis trading communities of European ports, and
10 have had their avarice and cupidity excited to the
exclusion of many good and amiable qualities. Both
in Singapore and the other English settlements the
ralk of the Malay population mix but little in com-
lercial pursuits, and retain most of the good qualities
id many of the original habits of their race.

The Malays are entitled to be looked upon as the
st rulers and the present people of Singapore and
le Malay peninsula ; for the aborigines were never
lumerous, nor do they appear at any time to have
ised up a system of government, but only to have
idered about in scattered tribes ; and though their
litions point to a time when they checked the
Malayan invasion, it seems to me that this was in
all likelihood only the driving back of a few stranger
prahus, and not the repelling of an invasion. It will
be seen from the short sketch which I have given
of the early history of Singapore, that there at all

12(5 POPULATION.

events the Malays were met by no resistance, and
as they had greatly increased in numbers before thej
were driven from that island by the Javanese to seek
a new settlement on the mainland of the peninsuli
near Malacca, it is highly improbable that their landing
there could have been seriously opposed by a few
rudely armed tribes possessing no organization.

For the origin of the Malays we must look a long
way beyond either Singapore or the peninsula ; for
though we know it was from Sumatra that they came
there, still it is believed by some that Sumatra itself
had been invaded by them not many centuries before.
But the search has proved a fruitless one to many
painstaking inquirers. We find the entire Archipelago
as far east as New Guinea, and from some degrees
north of the line to the borders of Australia, peopled
by Malay races more or less resembling those of the
Straits, and using many words in common ; but it i|
impossible to say for certain where they are indigenous
and where they have merely planted themselves br
migration, or, perhaps, by conquest. In all probability
the Javanese, the Dayaks of Borneo, and the Bogia
of Celebes, are the aborigines of the islands they
inhabit, but whether they alone have peopled the rest
of the Archipelago, must remain a matter of conjecture.
The maritime habits of all these peoples, the smooti
tempestless waters of the seas that surround them,
and the regular and reliable changes of the monsoons,
point to an easy and rapid colonization, Mr, Crawford
inclines to the belief that each tribe came into being
in the country in which it is found, like the indigenous

"CXIVU-'

MALAYS, THEIR NUMBERS. 127

plants and animals that surround it, and that the
similarity of languages is owing to those circumstances
which I have set down as favourable to the idea of
colonization ; but it appears to me that the bulk tit
eyidence is in favour of the whole of the inhabitants
of the Archipelago and of the Malayan peninsula being
one family of the human race.

Long separation, however, the seclusion of the
inhabitants of some countries and the exposure of those

E others, first to the converting zeal of the Mahom-
edan missionaries, and afterwards to the contact and
fluence of western nations, has gradually given birth
distinctions of greater or lesser breadth ; and the
Malays that we find in Singapore and the British

Eissessions in the Straits are but in part the repre-
ntatives of the entire race* It is to them, however,
at I must here confine my observations. They
number, as will be seen from the table given near
the beginning of the present chapter, nearly 140,000
in the three possessions ; in Singapore, 13,500 ; in
Penang and Province Wellesley, 72,000 J in Malacca,
,000. The independent native states of the penin-
sula are entirely peopled by them, and from these
and from Sumatra, constant additions are being made
to the Malay population of the British possessions.

Unlike the nomadic tribes of the aborigines, the
Malays of the peninsula have always been lovers of
good order and an established government* In their
independent states they have first a sultan, who is
all powerful ; under him there are datuhs, or governors,
selected from among the men of rank, and under these

POPULATION.

again there are pangulus, or magistrates, all standing
very much in their relation to the people as our own
nobility stood in feudal times to the people of England,
They are, therefore, easily governed, and sensible of
the benignity of English law, they form the most
peaceable and probably the most loyal portion of our
native population.

The Malays in the Straits of Malacca were con-
verted to the faith of Mahommed in the thirteenth
century ; but whether it be that their conversion was
not at first complete, and that many of the early super-
stitions were left behind, or that it is simply the result
of degeneracy, certainly the duties of their religion
seem to sit very lightly upon the great bulk of them.
It is true that when they accumulate a fortune, which
very few of those in the Straits ever do, they expend
a portion of it in a trip to the shrine of the prophet
at Mecca ; but this is scarcely an indication of great
piety ; it is rather a desire, by one considerable
temporal sacrifice, to make up for a good many
spiritual shortcomings, both past and future. But
their sins, or at least the sins of those who are
uncorrupted by the vices of the other populations who
have crowded in upon them, are not heinous, and,
as concerns their own religion, are chiefly those of
omission. I should perhaps here except the ancient
practice of piracy, which is not yet quite eradicated ;
but this sin has to be laid to the doors of a sea-
faring population, for whose shortcomings even in
our own country, we are accustomed to make con-
siderable allowances. Malays as a rule seldom

MALAYS, THEIR MODE OF LIFE. 129

in our criminal courts ; when they do, it is
generally for some act committed in a sadden out-
taret of passion; they are rarely charged with theft
Ar fraud.

In their domestic relationship they are frank,
aniable, and often generous. Deceit forms but a
■mall part of their nature. They are strongly attached
to their homes and to their families, and there is
probably no more pleasing picture of social happiness
than is presented by many of the Malay hamlets, even
in British territory. And it is, indeed, rather to
these than to the crowded streets of our towns that
we must go for a glimpse into the life of this people.
Their hamlets are composed of twenty or thirty neat
little houses or huts, built of the leaves of a species
of palm-tree, usually raised on posts some four or five
feet from the ground, with little ladders reaching up
to the doorways. The houses are uniform in appear-
ance, but not planted with much regard to order;
and the entire hamlet generally reposes under the
shadow of a cluster of cocoanut and other fruit-trees,
which though unfenced are not held in common, but
are allotted so many to each family, and scrupulously
respected as private property. The people of a hamlet
are generally connected by birth or by marriage, and
share each other's joys and sorrows. A marriage is
a feast and a holiday, and a death a day of mourning
for the entire hamlet. Under the shade of the same
trees as shelter these houses, rests the village ceme-
tery ; and round the grassy mounds and wooden posts
that mark the graves, I have noticed their little naked

ISO POPULATION.

children playing fearlessly. I have often seen, too
gently laid on an old grave from which the head
post had nearly rotted away, garlands of fresh, sweet
smelling flowers — a fair token that their dead are no
soon forgotten.

Though their religion permits it the Malays hav<
seldom a multiplicity of wives. The poverty of th
bulk of the people, and the proportion of the sexes
probably combine to prevent it. I once asked
sensible Malay how it came that so few of his country
men had more than one wife, when the prophe
authorized polygamy both by precept and example
" The women in the prophet's time," he replied
" must have been different from what they are now
"for I never knew a man yet who kept two wives i
" one house here, and led a happy life." Whateve
may be the cause of these single marriages, they hay
had a very happy effect on the life of the Malay
for between husband and wife, though the matrimonii
contract is easily completed and as easily annulled
there subsists a sincere and generally lasting attach
ment. The men are far more gallant than the native
of other parts of the East, and those they love, the
also respect. But as a consequence of the sligb
nature of the legal bonds that bind man and wif
together, and of the ease with which divorce can b
obtained by either party, they are jealous in proportio]
to the intensity of their love. The Malay who know
that a few dollars to the katib, or priest, will obtau
for his wife a divorce which is valid both in the eye
of his own society and in English law, watches wit]

MALAYS, THEIR PARENTAL AFFECTION. 131

natural uneasiness the attentions paid to her by
another man ; and very many of the amoks which
have taken place in Singapore have had their origin
in jealousy.

As a rule, however, the women are constant and
faithful, and after marriage esteem their virtue their
chief ornament. Before marriage I am not quite clear
but that gallantry is carried to somewhat extreme
lengths, and that small attentions to the gentler sex
are rewarded by favours altogether fatal to maiden
chastity ; but as betrothal frequently takes place before
puberty in the female, and very seldom long after it, but
few are ever exposed to these dangerous attentions, and
those who are so, suffer but for a short period. When
women become mothers they throw aside, apparently
without regret, their pleasures, and the finery of their
own persons, to give their whole heart to the nursing
of their offspring; and, indeed, before they are many
years married, they have time for little else, for they
are fruitful to a degree unknown in colder latitudes.
It is a common sight to see one of these dusky
matrons, still young and comely, with a baby at her
breast, another too young to toddle — slung behind
her, and a troop of four or five naked urchins gambolling
at her heels. Both parents are kind to their children,
and govern rather through affection than by force, the
result being that old age is with them an honoured
estate.

The physique of the Malay is of a high order.
The men are short, being on an average about five
feet three inches in height ; but they are well pro-

9—2

132 POPULATION.

portioned, round, full limbed, and generally possessing
a good, honest, open countenance. Their feet and
hands are small, and their fingers long and tapering
with well-shaped nails. In fact, they show most of
those points which we ourselves set down as the
indices of good breeding. Their eyes are dark brown,
or black, with a bold, yet not impudent expression;
and their hair — which only grows upon the head— is
jet black and usually cut short. In hue they are a copper
colour, varying a good deal in intensity, and when
young have soft, smooth skin. The women are gene-
rally fairer than the men, equally well made, and with
all the more liberal development of the sex ; in one
respect, at least, they have in form the advantage over
the women of Europe. Their eyes are soft and
lustrous, with long drooping lashes, their lips are full,
but not thick, and when they part, discover well-set
pearly teeth, except in those, by far too numerous,
who are given to siri chewing. The women wear
their hair long, combed back from the forehead, and
gathered into a thick knot behind. The expression of
the face is one of modesty, kindness, and good-nature.
I would describe the majority, when young at all
events, as good-looking, and very many are more than
that. Nor is their comeliness of a kind attractive
only to their own countrymen ; they are eagerly sought
for in marriage by the Chinese, the Arabs, and other
native races ; and it is well known that they have not
unfrequently charmed the taste, and won the love of
Europeans, who if they do not take them to wife, at
least ought to do so, according to strict justice.

Both men and women dress neatly and tastefully,
and however meagre and worn out the garments they
may use while at work, still the very poorest never fail
to appear to advantage on holidays. The uniform
dreBS of the men consists of a baju, or jacket, generally
white ; of the sluar, or a short pair of pants, with a
sarong, a sort of petticoat, as wide at the top as at the
bottom, gathered round the waist, and reaching as low
as the knees, and a coloured handkerchief, or sapuiawjait,
tied round the head. The garb of the women is even
more simple : a sarong is fastened under the arms and
over the breast of the young, and round the waist of
the full grown, reaching a little above the ankle ; and
over the shoulders is worn a kabia, a loose flowing
robe open in front, and reaching to within one or two
inches of the ground. A few wear the same hand-
kerchief over the head as the men, but tied in another
way; the majority, however, wear no covering, but
have the hair adorned with gold or copper ornaments.
"With many virtues, the Malays of the present day are
mot industrious. It has been claimed for the Dyaks of
Borneo, that they are all gentlemen, because they
never accumulate the fruits of their labour ; they will
WGffki it is said, for the day's, or it may be the week's
support ; but, when they have attained the required
means and laid toil aside, the payment of no consider-
ation will induce them to break in upon their leisure
or enjoyment — they are above everything but the
immediate pressure of want According to this theory,
which I do not dispute, the Malays are essentially
gentlemen too ; they have no acquisitiveness, and if they

134 POPULATION.

can satisfy the wants of the moment they are happy —
they lay great store by the proverb that sufficient for
the day is the evil thereof. In a less genial dime,
and with a more selfish people, the philosophy would
be a poor one ; but here, where nature is so kind, and
where generosity is a native characteristic, it is sound
enough. Long usage gives the Malay almost a right
to partake of the hospitality of his neighbour, whom it
might be his turn to relieve next day, and should the
worst befall, he knows that with the jungle before him
he need never starve. Under these circumstances, it
is no wonder he is a more independent man than the
English labourer at home, who sees nothing before
him but daily work or starvation.

Those who live in the country districts of the settle-
ments, and are not labourers in plantations, direct their
attention altogether to the cultivation, generally of fruit
and paddy ; * seldom or never to that of gambier or
tapioca, probably because both these require a laborious
preparation before they are fit for market. They also
hunt and fish when the seasons and circumstances are
favourable. The occupations of the Malays in the
town are much more diversified, a very considerable
number become sailors, and form the crews of most of
the vessels employed in the country trade of the
Straits ; that is, with China, Siam, Java, the Archi-
pelago, Burmah and India, and very good sailors they
make as long as they are kept in warm latitudes.
They divide with the Chinese the supply of the town

* The rice plant.

MALAYS, WANT OF AMBITION-

with fish ; bat while the Chinese adopt the more
laborious and more profitable method of casting and
hauling their nets, the Malays in most cases simply
erect permanent stakes on the fishing banks, and
content themselves with the few chance fish which
each ebb tide leaves them. Nearly all the private
coachmen and syces, or grooms, in the employment of
Europeans are Malays ; they appear to be fond of
horses, and manage them well. It is remarkable that
though Chinamen are to be found in almost every
calling here, there is not I believe in the three settle-
ments, certainly not in Singapore, a single Chinese
groom or coachman ; nor on the other hand have I
seen or heard of a Malay tailor. Most of the gardeners
attached to the residences are Malays, and a few are
employed as private hoase-fiervants. Besides these
regular employments, a very large number of Malays
find a living by hawking poultry, fruit, and other
products about town.

Though there are numerous Malay traders arriving
throughout the year from all parts of the Archipelago,
it is somewhat remarkable that as yet in none of the
three settlements are any Malay merchants to be found.
Parsees, Chinese, Klings, and Bengalese have mercan-
tile establishments that closely vie with those of Euro-
peans, but the Malay never rises to be more than
a hawker; and this is the result, no doubt, of that
want of ambition to be rich which I have noticed
before, It cannot be from want of education, for the
larger proportion of them here can both read and
write their own language. When the Malays were

136 POPULATION.

converted to Mahommedanism, 600 years ago, they
were also taught by the priests the use of the Sanscrit
character, and this has been preserved to the present
time with singularly few alterations, so that an Arabic
scholar would find no difficulty in reading Malay
writings.*

The head of the Malays in Singapore is the
Tumongong, whose grandfather, with the then Sultan
of Johore, signed the treaty by which the island was
ceded to the British. By a subsequent arrangement

* I have not alluded to the manner or to the implements either of
husbandry, of the chase, or of other pursuits, though some of these
might be worthy of notice in a work of more extended limits. There is
one peculiarity, however, which I will mention, as it might, I think, be
capable of improved application at home ; it is the method adopted by
some of obtaining fire. It is true that this is not the usual method, nor
do I remember to have seen it alluded to by any other writer ; I have
witnessed it, nevertheless, repeatedly availed of by the Malays of the
Straits ; and in some of the islands to the eastward of Java where I first
saw it. it is in constant use. A small piece of round horn or hard wood
about three or four inches long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter
is carefully bored through the centre for three-fourths of its length, with
a hole about a quarter of an inch in diameter. To fit this, a sort of
ramrod or piston of hard wood is made, loose all along, but padded with
thread and cotton at the point, so as to be as nearly air-tight as possible,
when placed into the hole of the little cylinder. In fact, the apparatus
exactly resembles the small tow or pop-gun used by boys at home,
except that the hole is not all the way through, but only three-quarters.
When used, the cylinder is held firmly in the fist of the left hand ; a small
piece of tinder, generally dried fungus, is placed in a cavity on the point
of the piston, which is then just entered into the mouth of the bore : with
a sudden stroke of the right hand the piston is forced up the bore, from
which it rebounds slightly back with the elasticity of the compressed air,
and on being plucked out. which it must be instantly, the tinder is
found to be lighted. The light thus produced has certainly nothing to do
with friction, for it is the stuffing of the piston only that comes in con-
tact with the cylinder, the tinder being placed in a cavity on the point
of the piston, clear of the sides of the cylinder. I can only attribute
the light produced to the sudden and powerful compression of the air in
4 he bore of the cvlinder.

MALAYS, DISPUTED SOVEREIGNTY.

137

etween themselves, but with the approval of the
British authorities, and to which I have already re-
ferred, the present Sultan not long ago sold his birth-
right of the sovereignty to Johore to the present
Tumongong's father, who was his hereditary vassal ;
but, strange to say, retained as he still does the title
of Sultan* It has been a badly managed piece of
business, and has given rise to great dissatisfaction
among the rajahs of the peninsula, who refuse to
acknowledge the Tuniongong — because, in point of
hereditary rank, he is beneath many of them. With
respect to the island of Singapore it is beyond doubt
that the Tuinongong's family had great claims, both
because they so cordially assisted our settlement, and
because, though subject to the seignory of the Sultan,
the soil appears to have been their property. In point
of ability and education, too, the Tumongongs have
been far in advance of the Sultans ; and, in the affairs
of the island, have been the men with whom our
Government has invariably had to deal* But, ou the
other hand, we have done a great deal for the Tumon-
gong's family, which by our occupation has been
raised to a wealth and importance it would never
otherwise have attained ; and it appears to me that
the English Government will do wisely to abstain from
much interference in the native politics of the penin-
sula, and should disturbances arise there, our course
should be to let the popular will have its way. We
had a lesson taught us in the Tringano business,
which it will be well to bear in mind. Our moral
influence, added to a few days 1 vigorous bombardment,

138 POPULATION.

was used in favour of one claimant to the Bandahan-
ship of Pahang, whose family has after all been set
aside, and the man whom we opposed now reigns
peaceably and quietly by the people's choice. The
present Tumongong is an amiable and high-minded
native gentleman, more desirous, I think, of peace
and quiet than of great power; and if difficulties
should afterwards arise in our relation with him, it
will be very much the blame of those who incon-
siderately forced ambition upon him. In illustration
of the false position which some people in their zeal
assign to him, I may mention, that not many months
ago — in a civil action brought against him in Sin-
gapore — the jurisdiction of our court was disputed,
because it was argued that the Tumongong was an
independent sovereign, and the evidence of the resi-
dent councillor was decidedly in favour of the inability
of our court on that account to try the case. The
point has not yet been determined, but it is to be
hoped the court may be able to rule otherwise, and so
avoid a precedent which would be most calamitous in
its consequences.

I now pass on to the Chinese population, which,
though entirely the result of immigration since the
British settlement in the Straits,* stands next to the
Malays in the census of the colony — numbering over
120,000 — at the three stations. They are by far the
most industrious, and, consequently, the most valuable
people we have in these possessions — the development

* Except at Malacca.

CHINESE, THEIR ENTERPRISE. 139

— of the internal resources of which is almost entirely due

>to them. In Singapore all the gambier and pepper

■- produced is of their growth, and the sago is of their

v manufacture ; in Penang and Province Wellesley also,

-r- &e chief plantations are in their hands or worked by

them ; and in Malacca all the tin, all the sago, and all

the tapioca is of their production. Unlike the Malays,

they are ambitions and become rich ; and though this

ambition has generally its origin in the desire to

Setnrn to China in affluent circumstances, yet our

possessions not the less benefit by their labour, and

"while many never attain the full realisation of their

aspirations, others as they grow rich become attached

-fto the country and its laws, seek wives from among

-the comely daughters of the soil, and abandon all idea

of returning to their native land.*

The proportion, however, of those who may be
said to have permanently settled down is small, and
the yearly addition to the Chinese population from
birth altogether insignificant. The number is kept
np entirely by immigration. During the months of
December, January, February, March, and April, fleets
of junks crammed with Chinese coolies arrive at all
the ports in the Straits from the different provinces of
China. In Singapore the arrivals for the first four

* A Chinaman who had come to Singapore a poor man about thirty
years ago, died in March this year (18(54) worth close upon two millions
of dollars. He had gradually grown up to be an extensive merchant,
planter, and tin-miner ; had adopted the settlement as his home, and
has left behind him many memorials of his public spirit and charity.
Another Chinaman, I ought to mention, failed this year for about
750,000 dollars.

140 POPULATION.

months of the present year (1864) were 8,560 males
and 109 females — and for the whole year about
14,000, which is not mnch above the average of
other years. Were this immigration in no way counter-
balanced, the Chinese population of the Straits would
soon become enormous, bnt it may be estimated that
those who yearly return to China number quite two-
thirds of the arrivals. The manner in which this
Chinese immigration is carried on, and the contracts
by which the men are bound down, I have already
mentioned ; they are often unsatisfactory enough, but
those upon which the females are brought into the
country are, according to all accounts, still more
deplorable: young girls from twelve years old aid
upwards being retained in forced courtezanship to t
population where the males are as fifteen to one
of the females. Thanks, however, to the demand for
labour and its high reward on the one hand, and to
the demand for wives on the other, neither condition
of bondage endures long.

The character of the Chinese has frequently been
described, and no change of scene or circumstance I
seems materially to affect it. They have attained a
high civilization of their own sort, and this keeps, and
I think always will keep, them distinct from the other
peoples with whom they mingle. I have met them in
the most out-of-the-way islands in the Archipelago,
where, perhaps, a dozen of them had formed a settle-
ment, and had gradually monopolized the trade of a
people numbering many thousands, without any con-
cession in dress, in religion, or in manners ; they were

CHINESE, THEIR DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES, 141

ie same in every respect as are to be found in Java,
the Straits, and in the sea-ports of their own
mntry. There are good and bad among them ; the
>st have bad points, and the worst a few redeeming
les ; it is only as their character and manners affect
lem as an element in the population of the Straits
mt I have anything to say.

One of the characteristics they seem to carry with
leni into whatever country they may adventure, is a
rong love of home, not a patriotic attachment to
la generally, but a love for the province, the town,
id the very homestead from which they come. This
lvolves many good and amiable qualities — a kindly
rd for all who may belong to the same province
)r district, and a constant industry and a careful
economy, that they may by a yearly remittance testify
their relations they have left behind at home that
ley do not forget them. But from this very love of
iome and country springs the great evil which marks
the Chinese population of the Straits, China is
divided into many large provinces, with nationalities
as distinct as the different States of Europe, and this
is no exaggeration, for the inhabitants of each speak a
different language. Between these, from time out of
mind, have jealousies existed and feuds been carried
on ; the people of the one are bom and reared up in
hatred of the other, and these jealousies are not
obliterated by emigration. The Chinese who arrive
in the Straits come from several of these distinct
provinces ; and the people of each find themselves, for
the first time in their lives, thrown together in a town

142 POPULATION.

or in a district where they must lay aside at least all
outward display of enmity.

Instead of forgetting their national prejudices, or
postponing their indulgence of them till their return to
China, the people of each province clan together and
form a hoey or secret society. The avowed object of
these hoeys is to afford mutual protection, but they are
often used for the infliction of wrong, and have been
found a great stumbling-block to the perfect adminis-
tration of justice in the law courts of the Straits,
The form of admittance to these societies is sufficiently
solemn in the eyes of the Chinese, and the oaths
administered, sufficiently binding, to afford security
against the disclosure of their organization, and always
to obtain implicit obedience to their mandates. Every
candidate for admission is led blindfold to the hall
where sit the officers of the society; all the doors
are guarded by men dressed in rich silk robes, and
armed with swords. A few preliminary questions are
put to the candidate, when he is led into the centre of
the hall, and the bandage removed from his eyes. He
is then forced to worship in silence for half an honr
before any oaths are administered to him. After this
a priest comes up, and opening a large book swears in
the candidate : " You have come here uninfluenced by
fear, by persuasion, or by love of gain, to become a
brother ; will you swear before God to reveal nothing
that you see and hear this night, and to obey all orders
you receive from the society, and to observe its laws ? M
On the candidate solemnly affirming to this, the laws
of the society are read out, each being separately

CHINESE SECRET SOCIETIES 9 RULES. 143

Eworn to. Some of the chief of these, for they are
very numerous, are —

" You shall not reveal the proceedings of the
society to any bnt a brother."

" You shall not cheat or steal from a brother, nor
induce his wife, his daughter, or his sister."

" If yon do wrong or break these laws, yon shall
come to the society to be punished, and not go to the
authorities of this country/ 9

" If you commit murder or robbery yon shall be
dismissed for ever from the society, and no brother
will receive you."

" If a brother commits murder or robbery you
shall not inform against him ; but you shall not assist
him to escape, nor prevent the officers of justice from
arresting him."

" If a brother is arrested and condemned, and
is innocent, you shall do all you can to effect his
escape."

A number of signs by which the members may
recognize one another are also communicated. The
whole ceremony has a strongly religious aspect, and
the hall of meeting is furnished very much as their
temples are. Nor would there be much cause to com-
plain of the influence of these societies were their
rules conscientiously adhered to, and the exercise of
power by their head men confined to the settlement of
disputes between the members, or to the punishment
of petty crimes. Or, could there be but one society
for the whole Chinese population, its influence might
be equally harmless. But each nationality has one or

144 POPULATION.

more societies of its own, and they keep alive all that
rancour and clan jealousy which is imported from
China. The Chinese riots of 1854 were originated
and maintained by the power of these societies, and
almost all the fights which so frequently take place in
the streets of Singapore are due to the party spirit
which they foster.

The manner in which they interfere with our admi-
nistration of justice is very deplorable, as it renders
Chinese evidence on oath a most unreliable test, in any
case where members of rival hoeys are concerned, or
where the heads of a society have prejudged the
matter for or against a culprit ; in these cases, even
means is deemed legitimate to bring about the purposes
of the hoey. A case strongly illustrative of this
occurred in Singapore many years ago. A murder
had been perpetrated, and three men were charged
with the crime before the police magistrate, on the
evidence of an eye-witness. The prisoners were com-
mitted, and on the day of trial at the Supreme Court
the principal witness stepped into the box, declared to
having seen the murder committed, and gave all the
details which had been taken down by the magistrates.
The man was about finishing his evidence, when the
magistrate himself happened to come into court, and
looking narrowly at the features of the witness declared
to the recorder that he did not believe he was the
same man who had appeared before him at the police
court. A strict inquiry was made, and at last the wit-
ness confessed that the man who had seen the murder,
and given evidence before the police, had run away,

CHINESE, GOOD CITIZENS. 145

and that he was told to take his place, and say what
he had said. The recorder ordered him to be taken at
once to the bridge across the river, and there receive
six dozen. No doubt, one hoey, on behalf of the
prisoners, had procured the deportation of the original
witness, and another, determined that justice should
not be defeated, had obtained this substitute.

Were it not for the evil influence of these societies,
the Chinese would be unexceptionable, as they cer-
tainly are very valuable citizens ; but as it seems that
these institutions are ineradicably planted among them,
I think they might be taken advantage of to introduce
a system of registration so much required among this
section of the population of the Straits.

When I say that, the Chinese would be unexcep-
tionable citizens were it not for these secret societies,
I mean as regards the commonwealth, for individually
considered they have many vices. They smoke opium,
and they gamble ; the former is a vice which extends
in a greater or less degree to probably one-third of the
Chinese population. I have explained in a previous
chapter the method of opium smoking; its conse-
quences when indulged in to excess are too well
known to require that I should describe them ; it is
enough to say that continued and heavy indulgence
utterly destroys ihe strongest and most robust consti-
tution, leaving the miserable sensualist for ever unfit
to enjoy life if lie be rich, and unable to continue
labour, if poor* I am not aware, however, that its
moderate use is attended with any particularly dis-
tressing consequences, nor do I think that this mode-

146 POPULATION.

rate use of opium is half bo likely to lead on to an
abandoned and unlimited indulgence as a moderate use
of alcohol is likely to lead to excess and drunken-
ness.

Gambling is a vice which may be said to be
national among the Chinese, and all more or less
indulge in it ; it is also shared, but in a much
smaller degree, by the Malays. They elect various
games upon which to hazard their money, but the
favourite one is Poh, played with a single die, which
is remarkable in so far that, though a bank game,
it gives no advantage to the banker, who is paid by
a percentage on the winnings. It has this in its
favour, too, that it leaves no room for cheating. A
heavy fine is now exacted fron\ all found gambling,
but the vice does not appear to yield to this treatment,
and there is too much cause to fear that compromises
for these fines are paid in advance to the police, who
are thus corrupted while the vice is unrestrained.
Some disclosures which took place four years ago will
bear out my remarks respecting the police.

The morality of no people that I know of varies
so much with their circumstances as that of the
Chinese. From among the poorer and lower orders
our criminal calendars are chiefly filled ; they supply
all sorts of offenders, thieves and housebreakers in
the greatest number ; nor do they appear to be very
straightforward in their dealings with one another.
The upper classes — those that have grown rich — on
tho other hand, leave behind them nearly all their
vices, and lead a life distinguished by outward probity.

K LINGS.

117

It is the old story : the pressure of want and the
influence of temptation removed, the same people which
subject to them would he vicious and debited, become
moral and virtuous. But when we remember that
nearly all the industry and much of the enterprise
of the Straits is due to it; that it furnishes good
hard-working coolies and persevering, adventurous
traders, the Chinese element in the population cf
these settlements ig entitled to be esteemed among the
most valuable.

Next in the population tables of the Straits come
the natives of India, chiefly Klings from Madras and
the Coromandel coast, and Bengalee from Calcutta.
The Klings are by far the most numerous, and
are a conspicuous clement in the population. They
immigrate much as the Chinese do, but, leaving one
British territory to come to another, the terms of
their engagements are usually reasonable and just ;
latterly the arrivals of this class under the coolie
system have very much decreased in number. The
occupations sought by these people are numerous,
and some of them distinct. They are traders, shop-
keepers,, cooks, boatmen, common lahnutvrs, \nwk-
carriage runners, and washermen 5 the two latter
occupations are almost entirely monopolized by them.
They are industrious and persevering, and consequently
valuable to the Settlement; hut they have failed fed
obtain any measure of good-will either from the Euro-
peans or the other native races in the Straits. The
dislike of the European is due to an insolence of
iiMimer, which in either natural to them or acquired

10— a

1 18 POPULATION.

in the pursuits they adopt. As hack-carriage runners,
the bargainings and bickerings they have about their
fares are not weH-calculfitecl to encourage a respectful-
ness of manner. Neither is their appearance prepos-
sessing ; they are very black, often ugly, and go about
nearly naked.

The Bengalese are not numerous, nor do they
appear to have selected any distinctive occupation as
the Klings have ; but may be found sharing various
employments.

Under the term " other Asiatics/' are included
Burmese, Siamese, Javanese, Bugis from the Celebes,
Boyans from the Island of Bawian off the coast of
Java, Parsees, and Arabs. I have also allowed to be
added to the numbers under this head all such as
are of mixed blood, and whom it has been usual to
class as the " descendants of Europeai I have

done this with no view to disparage the imi?
superiority which an admixture of European blood
undoubtedly gives, but because I am anxious to
the Europeans themselves distinct, as I believe a
better conception of the condition of the Settlement
will be thereby secured to the reader. The number
of those who are not of pure European blood may
be set down at 6,500 ;* but the degrees of remoteness
are exceedingly varied, which is another cogent reason
for the course I have adopted.

The populations of all the three stations have

* Inclusive of the Portuguese of Malacca, who number about 2,500,
but who almost appear to hare 3 of t!u blood M VtiBfl as

uf the ipdiit of their anreatur*

INCREASE OF POPULATION.

149

steadily increased during the past forty years, as will
be seen from the following table : —

—

SlHOAFORK.

Pehako and Province
Wujlulet.

Malacca.

1824
1834
1844
1854
1864

11,500

20,000
40,500
05.000
91,000

48,500

82,000

94.000

113,000

127,000

29,000
49,000
03,000
71,000

And it would be difficult to show any good reason
why this increase should not go on by similarly rapid
strides. I am, however, of opinion that at Singapore,
at least, it will not. Province Wellesley (the population
of which has, since 1827, always considerably exceeded
that of Penang, with which it is incorporated,) and
Malacca may continue to be largely increased by an
easy immigration from the native states of the penin-
sula around them ; and both containing an extensive
territory of rich agricultural soil besides mineral wealth,
may turn the increase to the best account. But with
Singapore, I think it must be otherwise; it has no
internal resources to develope beyond the cultivation
of its soil, and the success of the few gambier and
pepper planters at present on it has apparently not
been such as to lead of late to an increase of their
numbers. Any additions, therefore, that are now
made to its population will, in all probability, do
little more than swarm the town; they cannot very
well, at any rate in proportion to their numbers,
increase its trade.

C 150 )

CHAPTER VI.

CULTIVATION : CLIMATE — FRUIT— PRODUCTS.

Temperature — Rain — Freedom from Disease — Fruits : the Man-
gosteen; the Purian — No fixed Seasons — Products — Gutta
Pcrcha: Manner of Collection — Gambier: Method of Preparation
— Pepper : Preparation of White and Black — The Nutmeg : early
Plantations at Bencoolon and Penang — Begun at Singapore —
Planting Mania — Appearance of Disease or Blight — Its rapid
Progress — Death of all the Plantations — Cultivation Extinct —
CocoanuN.

Within seventy-seven miles of the equator, it might
be expected that the climate of Singapore would be ill
suited to Europeans. Such, however, is not the case.
Neither is the high temperature nor the extreme
humidity of the atmosphere found to interfere seriously
with their health or even with their comfort. So green
and beautiful is all around, that heat which would be
intolerable in an arid plain or sandy desert is there
scarcely appreciated, and is borne without difficulty.
In Singapore time ceases to be reckoned by summer
and winter ; there are no seasons, not even a wet
and a dry season — all is constant midsummer; and
this extreme equableness, while its most remarkable
feature, is after all, perhaps, the greatest objection to

TEMPERATURE. 151

the climate. It has the effect of slowly enervating the
system, and unfitting it to withstand any acute disease
that should overtake it. No bad effects, however,
should be felt from a residence of six or seven years,
and it has been maintained by all the best medical
authorities in the Straits that, after such a residence,
one year in a cold bracing climate is sufficient to com-
pletely restore whatever vigour may have been lost,
and fit the European for another term of residence of
similar duration. *

The extreme range of temperature, as shown by
the thermometer for the last three years, has been —

De*. Deg. Dag.

1861 71 to 02 or 21

1862 71* „ 92 „ 20*

1863 70 „ 92* „ 22*

In the last year, which may be fairly taken as an
illustration of all others, the average range of the
temperature of each month was —

I*K. Do*.

January 70 to 91*

February 71 „ 90

March 71J „ 91*

April 72* „ 92*

•May 72* „ 91*

June 73 „ 91

July 73 „ 90J

August 72 „ 91*

September 7. "J „ 91

October 72 ., 91

November 72 „ 89*

December 71 „ 88*

It will be seen from this how very slight is the dif-
ference between the temperature at one time of the year
and another. But though this uniformity is, as I have

152 CULTIVATION : CLIMATE.

remarked, the most unfavourable characteristic of the
climate, still it is not accompanied by a never changing
aspect of the elements — in fact, there is not an ever-
lasting sunshine, as untravelled folks are so apt to
associate with the extreme heat of tropical zones. On
the contrary, there is throughout the entire year— it
might be said, throughout every day in that year — an
agreeable alternation of sunshine and shower. Latterly,
as the jungle has been cleared away from the vicinity
of the town, rain is not quite so frequent or so copious
as formerly, when it used to be said of Singapore,
and apparently with much more justice than a similar
proverb is related concerning the Scotch town of
Greenock, that it rained every day. Even to the pre-
sent time the longest drought that is remembered did
not last quite a month, and this was broken by one or
two light showers. From the observations made by a
friend, and which he has kindly placed at my disposal,
I find that in the last year (18G3), rain fell on 184
days, and that the quantity as indicated by his
pluviometer for the whole year was 86£ inches — a
quantity, I believe, considerably in excess of that of
temperate countries generally.

It seldom rains a whole day through ; the greater
part is discharged in short but heavy showers, and in
big drops like those from thunder-clouds at home.
The effect of these is very refreshing ; they generally
come when the air is unusually close and wann, and
though not lasting perhaps more than half an hour
or an hour, they leave it both cool and purified.
Another good point in the climate is the rare absence

FKKE FKUM DISEASES

of a good stiff breeze from one quarter or another
during the day, and of the soft land airs breathing out
from the jungle at night when all more boisterous
winds arc hushed to rest. To these land winds is due
in a great measure the coolness of the nights, which
will generally admit of good sound slumber — a sine qua

to health here as elsewhere.

By resorting to the neighbourhood of the jungle a
degree at least of reduction in the temperature may
be secured. In such places as Sclita, mentioned in
the fourth chapter, lying well in the interior, and with
the primeval forest all around them, the additional
coolness is palpable, and cannot be less than two or
three degrees. Sea bathing is also a relief within easy
reach, and is often availed of; but the neighbourhood
of coral banks which are exposed at low water is
avoided, as the exhalations produced by the heat of
the sun have been found to be very unwholesome

The climate is also one in which more out-door
amusement can be enjoyed than in that of most other
tropical countries. From sunrise till eight o'clock in
the mornings and from half-past four in the afternoon
till sunset, the sun is comparatively harmless, and even
in midday Europeans walk about the square in town
with apparent impunity. To be safe, however, the
head should always be kept well covered, and with this
precaution, the more out-door exercise indulged in the

Free of nearly all the diseases experienced in colder
latitudes, neither Singapore, nor, indeed, either of the
other stations in the Straits, is subject to any peculiar

l->4 CULTIVATION : CLDIATE-

epidemic among the natives or among the Europeans.
Small-pox breaks ont from time to time in the native
hamlets and districts, bat it is not peculiarly fatal;
and kit* rly. as the benefits of vaccination have become
more generally understood, its ravages are confined
within much narrower bounds. Cholera at intervals
of one or two years makes its appearance, but has
never vet extended to an alarming degree, nor attacked
Europeans. The last time it showed itself was in the
early part of 1862. after some more than ordinarily
heavy rains, bnt the number of victims did not exceed
100. What the European has to fear is the same as
in all other hot countries, namely, a disordered liver.
But this is due, perhaps, as much to the over-
taxations style of living as to the climate ; and all the
doctors agree that, keeping the head well protected,
living temperately and regularly, and taking plenty of
exercise, Europeans should, with the periodical changes
indicated, enjoy nearly as good health in Singapore as
at home.

Such is the climate of Singapore as it affects the
residence of Europeans ; and to its influence, much
more than to that of the soil, is due the luxuriance
.and variety of the island's natural products. The soil
is not particularly rich, consisting chiefly of decom-
posed granite, overlaid in the low-lying lands with a
thin alluvial deposit, erst time carried down by the hill
streams, and in the jungle by a few inches of decaying
vegetation. It is to the extreme moisture — to the
almost daily occurrence of refreshing showers, and to
y night dews — that the green grass, the rich

ri; r its: mangosteen and durian.

L56

>liage> and rare fruits of Singapore owe their excel-
&nce. Every intertropical plant known will grow,
id most will flourish, in the Straits. Possessing
.•umparatively few indigenous fruits of excellence or
plants of commercial value, the best have, by constant
iportation and acclimatisation from the countries
around, begun even as far back as 300 years ago, been
so increased as to preclude their being enumerated in
the text- Among the appendices to this volume will
be found a list of the chief fruits to be obtained in the
market places of the three stations.

Entitled, however, to some prominence as being

fruits which are indigenous, and in a great measure

tiliar to the island, are the nnmgosteen and durian.

The first is the seductive apple of the east, far more

I delicious and delicate in flavour than its English
prototype ; by many it is declared, par excellence, the
finest fruit in the east, if not in the world. The
durian differs essentially in nature as in appearance
from the mangosteen ; it grows on a veiy tall, wide-
spreading tree, and does not ripen on the extremity
of the branches, but like the jack and some other
fruits, drops by a short stalk from the trunk, and the
thickest of the branches. It is somewhat less than
a man's head in size ; outside is a thick, prickly husk,
in the inside chambers of which lie the sections of
the fruit, consisting of a number of seeds of about
the size of a walnut, surrounded by a soft, pulpy
substance, like custard in appearance, which is the
edible part. The taste of the fruit it' is impossible
to describe, but the BfQeil of it, from which the flavour

156 CULTIVATION : FRUITS.

may be judged, is such that no gentleman in England
would care about having one in his house ; even in
the Straits it is never set upon the table. The Malays
and natives generally are passionately fond of it, and
will go through any amount of hardship to procure it.
A former King of Ava is said to have spent enormous
sums to obtain constant supplies ; and the present king
keeps a steamer in Rangoon awaiting the arrival of
supplies there. The fruit as soon as received is sent
up the river as speedily as possible, to the capital
500 miles distant. With Europeans the liking for H
is, I think, in all cases acquired ; the first venture is
generally made in bravado, and so singular is the
fascination it possesses, that if the new arrival can
overcome his repugnance sufficiently to swallow the
coating of one or two seeds, he will in all probability
become strongly attached to it.

I do not think, however, that the most passionate
lovers of durian are disposed to acknowledge their
taste. There is something decidedly unclean about
the fruit ; a tacit acknowledgment of this is, I think,
to be gathered from the fact that it never appears
on any gentleman's table, but is devoured in silence
and solitude in some out-of-the-way part of the house,
and a good bath indulged in afterwards. I cannot
forget the exclamation of an old Scotch lady in
Batavia, well known there, when she saw a newly-
arrived countryman of her own being sorely tempted
to try the strength of his stomach on a full-grown
durian.

44 Mciister Thanipson ! Maister Thampson ! ye

BANANA, PINEAPPLE, MANGO. 157

ma'na eat that, it'll no' agree wi' ye ; and, besides,
it's a maist unchaste fruit." The old lady was right
and hit the proper expression.

Though I have particularly noticed the man-
gosteen and the durian, it is not because the supply
of them is particularly great, but because they are
peculiar to the Straits. The most abundant fruits
are the plantain, or banana — of which there are
about thirty different varieties, the pineapple, the
jack fruit, the mango, the rambutan, the docoo,
the orange, and the custard apple. The mangosteen
is most plentiful in December, January, and February ;
the durian, of which there are two crops a year from
the same tree, in June and July, and in December
and January ; and the docoo in November, December,
and January. The other fruits are, I think, not more
abundant at one time than at another, and even those
I have mentioned can be obtained in any month of
the year. So great is the uniformity of the tempera-
ture and the climate, that even nature thus neglects
to mark the passing year by her usual order in the
distribution of her gifts.

But the fruits which are consumed on the island
possess less interest in many points of view than
the products that are prepared for export. These latter
are not numerous, and as very little is known of
their origin, however prominent a place they may
occupy among the East Indian produce sold in the
English markets, I propose to allude to them at
greater length.

Gutta-percha, though not now obtained in any

158 cultivation: products.

appreciable quantity from the forests of Singapore,
continues to pour in from the various native states
in the peninsula, and forms an extensive item of
export. The tree from which it is procured is termed
by the Malays the tuban ; it is of large size, with
wide, spreading branches, and a trunk varying from
seven to ten feet in circumference. It bears a fruit
at very long intervals, it is believed, but which it
is very difficult to obtain. It flourishes luxuriantly
in the alluvial tracts which he between the hill ranges,
and forms in many localities the chief foliage of the
jungle. Unlike the means adopted by the Burmese
to obtain the caoutchouc, the gutta-percha, or tuban
tree, is not tapped merely, but cut down and absolutely
destroyed to obtain its juice. It is stated that the
quantity of juice obtained by tapping the live tree is
so small that it would never remunerate the search
for it. This is much to be regretted ; the tree is
of very slow growth, and under the present system,
which requires the destruction of ten trees to produce
one cwt., the supply must sooner or later fall short
from the forests of the peninsula, as it has already
done from those in the Island of Singapore.

The Malays obtain the gutta-percha in the following
manner : — A lull-grown tree, whicli must be twenty or
thirty years of age at least, is cut down and the
smaller branches cleared away ; round the bark of the
trunk and the larger branches, circular incisions are
made at a distance from one another of a foot or
a foot and a half. Under each of these rings a
cocoanut-sliell or some other vessel is placed to

GUTTA PERCHA. 159

reeeive the juice, which, exuding from round the cut,
trickles down and drops from the under part of the
tree. In a few days the tree has given forth its
life-blood. The juice in the vessels is then collected
into pitchers made of the joints of the larger bamboo,
and conveyed to the huts of the collectors, where it
is placed in a large cauldron and boiled so as to
steam off the water which mixes with the juice, and
to clear it of impurities. After boiling, it assumes
its marketable consistency and is brought in for sale.

The introduction of the article to the world as
a merchantable commodity is due to Singapore. About
twenty-one years ago attention was directed to the
coach-whips and to the various other articles which
were hawked about town by the Malays, made of a
peculiar elastic gum differing essentially from caout-
chouc. Specimens of the gum were sent home, and
when its valuable qualities were acknowledged, a
search for the tree from which the gum was obtained
commenced. At that time the jungles of Singapore
were well stocked with them, but they rapidly dis-
appeared before the increased demand for the article,
and now very few remain. One of the uses to which
it was put by the Malays before it obtained European
notice, was in the composition of a sort of bird-lime
with which animals as well as birds were captured.
The tenacity of this composition is described as some-
thing extraordinary, and a story is told of its being
used successfully in the capture of a tiger. " A man
having been killed by one of these animals, the body
was left upon the spot, and a large quantity of this

100 cultivation: products.

gutta bird-lime disposed on and about it ; all around
at a few paces distant the chaff of paddy was thickly
strewed, and more bird-lime applied. The animal
returned to finish his repast, and his month and
claws were soon clogged by the bird-lime, while
quantities stuck to his body. To get rid of this
annoyance he rolled himself in his rage on the chaff,
which soon swelled his body to a most portentous
bulk ; and after haying exhausted himself in fruitless
exertions, he was easily killed." *

Another commodity which still continues to be
produced in considerable quantities in the jungle dis-
tricts of Singapore, and of the growth of which
probably less is known at home than of any other
eastern import, is gambier, or terra japonica. As it is
brought to the market there, edible gambier resembles
in appearance and consistency little square rich blocks
of yellow mud, in a half-dry condition, and is as little
suggestive of its origin as can possibly be conceived.
I have already alluded to the gambier plantations in
the interior of the island. They are selected far from
town, in the midst of the jungle, and very picturesque
little clearings they are. The plants, which are small
and bushy, seldom over seven or eight feet high, are
planted six feet asunder ; the leaves are small, smooth,
and of a dark green colour, having an astringent bitter
taste. In about fourteen months from the time they
are planted the first crop of leaves may be cut, but
in about two years' iiuie the plant has attained full

J Mat -J liv ('.iloncl J-ow.

PEPPER.

lfil

strength, and may be cropped once in two months.
The croppings, which consist of leaves and young
branches, are gathered together, and thrown into a
huge cauldron of hot water, and boiled till all the
strength has been extracted ; after this, what remains
of the twigs and the leaves is withdrawn, and the
liquid, which contains a strong decoction, is kept
boiling for six or seven hours, till a great part of the
water has evaporated, and nothing but a thick, pasty
fluid is left behind, This is now poured into shallow

I troughs, a little more than an inch deep, and allowed
to cool and then dry, when it is cut up into little
inch blocks, and is then ready for market.

The reason of its being cut up in this manner is
twofold— first, to enable it to dry and harden more
quickly, and secondly, because in this shape it is better
suited to the markets in Siam, Cochin China, and the
Archipelago, where it was originally, and still is largely
consumed as a masticatory, wrapped with betel -nut in
leaves of Siri.

Pepper, that has all along formed such an extensive
article of export from the Straits, is still grown in large
quantities both at Singapore and Penang ; but it does
not appear extensively among the products of Malacca.
In Singapore it is grown in the same jungle districts
as gamhier ; indeed the cultivation of the two plants
generally goes on together, and it is advantageous that
it should do so, both because the refuse of the gambier
affords an excellent manure for the pepper, and because,
the gambier plant not requiring much attendance
between the croppings, the labourers of the plantation,

1R2

r( LT1VATION : PRODUCTS.

when that work is over, can devote their time to the
pepper. The plant, or rather vine, of the pepper is
planted more frequently from slips than from seeds.
These are set out at flint meefl of ten or twelve feet in
regular rows, with props to each slip, op which the
young tendrils may creep. These props are cut from a
thorny tree strongly tenacious of life, and frequently
take root, and thus afford not only a support, but
a welcome shade to the young vines. When the slips
have heen some months planted, and have attained
three or four feet in height, their tendrils are del
from the props, and the whole plant bent down and
buried a few inches below the surface of the ground.
In a short time the buried vine sends up a nuinl
shoots, and the strongest of these are selected and
carefully trained up the props.

In appearance of leaf and manner of growth the
pepper is a compromise between the common grape
vine and the currant plant at home, though the leaves
are perhaps a little darker. At the end of each of the first
three years a small quantity of pepper is obtained, and
in four years the plant may be said to have matured,
and yields its full return — probably three or four
pounds weight. The berries, which are about the size
of a pea, grow in clusters exactly like currants. To
produce black pepper, the berries are gathered while
green, about a month before they would ripen, and
are first exposed to the sun, which causes the soft
outer skin to dry up round the little seeds inside,
giving the rough, shrivelled -up appearance which th
marketable article possesses. They are next con-

veyed to a shed, and placed in a series of sieves over
a slow wood fire ; this last process appears to give the
pepper its black tint.

If white pepper be desired, the berries are allowed
to ripen, and become of a beautiful bright red colour ;
the outer, or fruity skin becomes tender and soft, and
is of a sweetish taste. When plucked, the berries are
collects! in loosely-woven bags, and steeped for a day or
two in water, either cold or hot. This serves to loosen
and detach the pulpy red skin that covers the seed,
and when taken out and dried in the sun, a little hand
friction is all that is required to clear the seeds. They
are then winnowed, and thus made ready for market.
There are some slight differences in the manner of
preparing both the dark and white pepper on some
plantations; but in the main they resemble that which
I have described, which is certainly the most general.

The owners and labourers of both the gambier and
pepper plantations in the Island of Singapore are
invariably Chinese, and such is generally the case at
Penang too. It seems that this section of the popu-
lation is the only one gifted with that reliant and
steady perseverance which will toil on with only a
distant reward in view. The Malays encroach upon
neither of these occupations ; they appear to have a
rooted aversion to the culture of any product which
requires the least manufacture or manipulation to
prepare it for market. To this they add a complete
want of enterprise, and seldom attempt culture of any
sort on a large or combined plan ; indeed, I never
heard of a Malay on the island who, on his own

11—*

164 CULTIVATION: PRODUCTS.

account, regularly hired and paid wages to other
labourers. What products they bring to market are
the growth of the numerous little homestead gardens
in the country districts, where each man with his
family labours separately.

The nutmeg still continues to be exported from
Singapore, but in very small quantities, and before
long its production there will have ceased altogether.
It has proved a most disastrous deception to all who
have engaged in its culture. Though a wild species is
indigenous to many of the islands of the Archipelago,
and, it is said, to the forests of the Malay peninsula
itself, the nutmeg of commerce was first cultivated
and brought to perfection in the Moluccas, by the
Portuguese, nearly 300 years ago. The spice riches
of those distant islands, held in such a rigid monopoly
by the Dutch, into whose hands they fell by conquest
in 1605, were long regarded by the English East India
Company with the most covetous eye. Despairing of
any pretext which might enable them to take forcible
possession of the rare gardens of Amboyna and Banda,
they determined to rear up rival ones for themselves
in their possessions near the Straits of Malacca.
Bencoolen was the first station at which the culture of
spices was tried. By some means a supply of seeds
and young plants both of the nutmeg and clove had
been procured from the Moluccas, and they were
guarded with great care.

During the first year, the progress of the plants
was so promising that it was determined to extend
the cultivation to Penang also, and we read that, in

NUTMEG TREES. 165

1800, five thousand nutmeg and fifteen thousand
clove plants were imported from the Dutch spice
islands. In 1802, twenty-five thousand nutmeg seed-
lings were obtained from the same quarter, and in
the latter part of that year, the company's botanist
reports that, u up lb that time, he had imported in
all seventy-one thousand nutmeg and fifty-five thou-
sand clove plants/* By what means these large
quantities were obtained does not appear, but some-
thing more, I think, than diplomacy must have been
resorted to. The Dutch authorities, it is true, when
an expedition was despatched to the Moluccas about
twenty years ago from Singapore, to endeavour to
obtain a supply of fresh nutmeg seeds, showed every
desire to oblige, and granted much larger supplies
than were demanded ; but forty years had worked a
wonderful change in Dutch policy, and it is well
known that at the time these spices were first
introduced into Bencoolen and Penang, the Nether-
lands East India Government would rather have
parted with pure gold at once than knowingly have
furnished to English rival possessions the germ of a
source which to them had proved equal to many a
golden mine.

The nutmeg is a very beautiful tree ; when of full
size, it is about twenty-five or thirty feet high, and,
if well formed, should have a diameter from the ex-
tremes of its lower branches of little less. It is
thickly covered with polished dark green leaves (like
those of the bay tree at home), which continue thick
and fresh all the year round, one leaf being ready

166 cultivation: products.

to take the place of the other as it drops. The
blossoms are small, thick, waxy bells, closely resem-
bling in size and form those of the common hyacinth,
or lily of the valley. The fruit grows slowly up, and
to within a few days of ripening, might be readily
mistaken for the peach ; it is of the same size, and
has the same downy texture of the skin — all it wants
to complete the resemblance is the pink cheek. When
the nut inside is ripe, the fruit splits down the centre,
and remains half open, discovering the bright crimson
mace that enshrouds the nut. In a few days, if not
gathered in, the fruit opens wider, and the nut, with
the mace around it, drops to the ground, leaving the
fruity husk still hanging to the tree, till it withers
away and falls off. When the nuts are collected,
the mace is first carefully removed and placed in the
sun to dry. Under the mace is a thin hard shell
containing the nutmeg, and this is not broken till
the nutmegs are prepared for shipment. A good tree
yields 600 nuts per annum, or about 8 lbs. weight.
There is no particular season for the nutmeg crop,
and the blossoms and the ripe fruit may often be seen
hanging together on the same branch. Altogether
there are few prettier trees — prettier in form, in
foliage, in blossom, and in bearing, than the healthy
nutmeg.

The spice gardens both of Bencoolen and Penang
remained for the first few years entirely in the hands
of the company, though it does not appear that private
residents were forbidden to venture upon the cultiva-
tion, and long reports used to go home regularly to

Leaden hall -street concerning the number, progress,
and prospects of the trees. At Penang the plants
were less fortunate than at Bencoolen ; many of them
ftifid in the second or third year, and half the sur-
Tivors proved to be male trees, which do not bear.
Large sums had been spent, and an expensive botanical
staff was still to be maintained ; so the directors, tired
of an experiment so expensive and so problematical
in its results, sent out instructions to sell both the
gardens and the plants.

This gave an impetus to private enterprise, and the
number of plants and plantations rapidly increased-
When Singapore was settled, the fruits of many years'
labour and outlay were just beginning to be reaped
at Penang. But the outlay had been so great, and
the fruits so long delayed, that it was some years
before any were found bold enough to adventure upon
spice planting in the new settlement. A report, how-
ever, which spoke of the soil and the climate as much
better suited to the growth of spices than that of
Penang, induced a commencement to be made with
nutmegs; but it does not appear that cloves were
introduced with the view of extensive cultivation. A
great many of the disappointments that had been ex-
perienced at Penang and Bencoolen were also met
with at Singapore, and it was long before the planters
obtained any return for their labour and outlay.

When this return did come, however, in Singapore,

(it was a good one, and promised to be a steady one.
The trees grew strong and vigorous, and were fruitful
to an extent unknown even in the Moluccas, These

168 cultivation: products.

were powerful inducements to hold out in a settlement
whose residents had not only grown rich beyond
measure, but who had grown attached to the land
itself, and were ready and willing to embark in any
enterprise that, while likely to be remunerative for
the capital invested, tended further to develope its
resources. Planting in Singapore now went on with
a vengeance. A nutmeg mania seized upon all the
landed proprietors. What had been flower gardens
and ornamental grounds of private residences were
turned over, and nutmegs planted to within a stone's
throw of the house walls. Besides this, large tracts
of jungle, at a distance of four or five miles from town,
were bought up from Government, cleared at great
expense, and turned into plantations. Some of these
newly reclaimed properties, upon which the young
plants looked strong and healthy, changed hands at
exorbitant prices.

But all this planting was destined to end in bitter
disappointment, and many of those who had adventured
on it most boldly were brought near to ruin's doors.
Never, perhaps, was there a clearer example of those
curses which at times overtake man's industry,
apparently unprovoked by his own default. Ere the
first trees of the new planting were in fair bearing,
a disease showed itself, the nature or origin of which
has, as far as I know, defied all conjecture. Beginning
at the top of the tree, the leaves would slowly wither
off, the twigs and branches whiten and die, and this
while the lower part was in apparently vigorous health.
The descent from top to bottom was very slow, but

? TTMEG trees, disease.

was very sure ; and probably In a year from the
first appearance of the blight, nothing remained of
the once green, bushy tree but a bleached skeleton.

PThe progress made by this disease upon a plantation
was alike strange and unaccountable. It did not
I commence at one spot, and then extend itself by a
gradually widening circle, but generally broke out in
several places simultaneously, and this without regard
to situation or soil. The trees on the hill-tops and
those in the valleys suffered alike. Some plantations
decayed more rapidly than others, but in most cases
the destruction has been slow, especially with trees
that had matured before the disease broke out.

Great efforts were at first made to check it* Trees
were rooted out as soon as they showed the first
symptoms of decay, and those that remained sound
were carefully manured and tended. Sums as great
as the original cost of the plantations were expended
by many planters in their attempts to overcome the
disease. But all was in vain. Slowly but surely
tree after tree died away ; hope and perseverance
were worn out, and disgust and recklessness took
their places. Whole plantations were abandoned be-
fore half the trees were dead, and the fruit of the
good trees left to rot or be picked by any one who
took the trouble to look for them. To the present
day, so slow has been the decay in plantations that
have long since been abandoned and become choked
with jungle undergrowth, that the rich green foliage
of many a sound, healthy tree may be seen standing
out in welcome relief from among the whitened

170 cultivation: products.

branches of its dead neighbours. The few nutmegs
that are now brought into town and sold, are for
the most part the collections made by Malays and
Chinese from these half-dead plantations. I only
know of one plantation on the island which is still
cultivated ; it is well inland, but it has lately suffered
severely from the blight, and will in all probability
soon cease to form an exception to the statement
that the cultivation of the nutmeg in Singapore is
extinct.

Another extensive product of Singapore, and one
which, unlike the nutmeg, is rapidly on the increase,
is the cocoanut. It is an article of extensive local
consumption, but, as yet, of export only to the
neighbouring native states and to Bnrmah. It is
quite possible, however, that before very long oil
may be produced in such quantities as to figure in
the list of exports to Europe. The tree does not
appear to have been indigenous, for none are ever
found in the jungle ; but, together with the common
plantain, must have been introduced by the Malays
many centuries ago — probably when they first colonized
the island. The natives had never cultivated it to
any extent, and for many years after the settlement
of the English it was considered too insignificant
or too remote a means of acquiring wealth to be
embarked in largely. Twenty years ago attention
was for the first time directed to its cultivation on
an extended scale, and several Europeans bought up
large tracts of land along the sea-shore, and systema-
tically commenced to lay them out as cocoanut planta-

ions, These have now been long grown up, and in

'ill! bearing, and the richness of the first crops they
Ided soon led others to follow in the footsteps
of the earlier adventurers. Low-lying lands, formerly
considered of no value, have within the last seven
or eight yearB been greedily bought up and covered
with young cocoanut plants, which before very long
will commence to yield a crop profitable to the planters
and valuable to the island,

A cocoanut plantation has altogether a singular
appearance. The trees being of one age are of a
uniform height, thickness of trunk, and spread of

;op; they are planted in horizontal Hues at equal
distances, and growing up straight and perpendicular,

^resent a series of long tall thin grey columns roofed
over by green feathery foliage. The trees at maturity
attain a height of forty feet, unbroken by a leaf or

>ranch, and rarely inclining more than two or three
degrees from the perpendicular ; the tops have a spread
of about twenty-five feet in diameter, and, as the trees
are seldom planted further apart than thirty feet, their
fuliage forms nearly an unbroken canopy, shading the
ground below. The nuts grow in clusters between

he roots of the leaves or branches at the top, in all
conditions of ripeness. If not picked when ripe they
drop, and even with careful picking many nuts are

ost by dropping and being broken on the ground.
Indeed, in a large plantation the noise of the falling
nuts and the dead old branches strangely breaks the
silence that reigns around. The force with which
they fail is considerable,— sufficient, if they alight on

172 CULTIVATION : PRODUCTS,

the head, to kill a man of ordinarily thick skull, and
I have thought it remarkable that no deaths should
have happened from this cause, — at least, I have never
hrard of a single case. This is especially remarkable
among the native villages, which are thickly crowded
with cocoanut-trees, under the shade of which the
huts repose, and the little black children play about
from morning to night.

The annual produce of a full-grown plantation is
almost 100 nuts per tree, and these are yielded not
all at one crop, hut steadily throughout the year, the
trees being examined and the ripe nuts picked every
ten days. For oil, and for most other purposes, the
nuts are allowed to ripen, but a young eocoanut
plucked before the husk thickens, and when the milk
contains most of the nutriment, affords a most agree-
able and wholesome drink, and often takes the place
of soda-water in a brandy compound, especially at
picnics. The method at present in use in the Straits
for extracting the oil is exceedingly primitive,, and
must, I think, sooner or later give way to machinery.
The nuts are simply husked, broken, and the kernel
taken out, and then rubbed by the hand against a
grater until reduced to a pulp, which is afterwards
boiled till all the watery particles are evaporated,
after which it is passed through strainers, and the
refuse cast away. The oil is then allowed to stand
and purify before it is brought into market.

I shall have to notice, when I come to treat of
Penang and Malacca separately, some products which,
though grown at these two stations more extensively,

GENERAL REMARKS. 173

are, nevertheless, cultivated in Singapore as well.
Among these are the sugar-cane, tapioca, coffee, and
paddy: bnt for the reason stated I need not allude
to them here. There are others besides too insignifi-
cant in their value to require to be particularized at
all. As I said at starting, the soil and the climate
together are capable of producing in luxuriance almost
every intertropical plant or tree ; and no doubt as
time goes on, and as experiments, even already com-
menced, become realized, we may expect to find the
list of staple products far increased beyond the narrow
limits to which these observations have been confined.
I find also another reason for not allowing myself
greater range here, in the fact that in the list of
products and fruits which will be found in the Appendix,
I give an array sufficiently long and minute to satisfy,
if not to fatigue, the most curious inquirer.

( 174 )

CHAPTER VH.

COMMERCE : SINGAPORE — PENANG — MALACCA.

Nature of the Trade of Singapore — Its rapid Progress — Comparatfr
Progress of the three Stations — Imports at Singapore from differei
Countries — Their Character — Singapore Exports — Of what thi
consist — Number and Nationalities of Vessels arrived during tl
Year at the Port of Singapore — Future Commercial Policy-
Imports at Penang — Sumatra Produce — Exports from Penang
They exceed the Imports — Number and Nationality of Shi
arrived at Penang during the Year — Imports and Exports
Malacca — Tin, the chief Export, — Royalty reserved by Gover
nient — Concluding Remarks on the Commerce of the Straits
Malacca.

The commercial prosperity of Singapore has bee
steadily progressive from the first year of the settl
ment, and there seems no good reason to belie
that it has yet reached its extreme limit. Bat
may be well, at the very outset, to put prominent
forward the fact, that, comparatively speaking, tl
island neither produces nor manufactures. It neith
grows to any extent the products it exports, m
much improves or renders marketable those whi<
pass through it ; and it is in the measure of caref
regard to be paid by our legislators to these circus
stances and their consequences that we must look f

CAUSES OF COMMERCIAL PROSPERITY. 175

the future advance or retrogression of the trade of
Singapore. So evenly balanced are the causes which at
present affect favourably or otherwise the commerce of
this entrepot, that the slightest burden thrown in the
scales against it, would sink it, it might be irrevocably,
below the reach of the current of prosperity. The two
great advantages that at the beginning drew the trade
of the East towards Singapore, were — first, the central
and convenient position of the station ; and, second,
the entire exemption from commercial imposts or
taxes on trade, at a time when the Dutch in the
neighbourhood drew their chief revenue from import
and export duties, and when even the Company them-
selves had no other free port. The first of these
advantages still remains, and must continue to remain,
in its favour ; the second exists, too, but in a qualified
degree. The port is still as exempt of trade restric-
tions* as it was at its foundation, but it does not now
possess this exemption singly; pur policy has been,
at length, widely copied by our Dutch neighbours,
who have scattered half-a-dozen free ports over the
Archipelago, one of which is only sixty-three miles
distant from Singapore. These Dutch ports, it is true,
have not robbed the Straits of much of its old trade,
but they have certainly deflected a good deal of that
which, in their absence, would doubtless have reached
it, especially towards the south-east of the Archi-
pelago ; and they remain ready at any moment to

• The stamp tax imposed nearly two years ago can, I think, scarcely
be said to he a trade restriction, at least of the port ; and the ease with
which it has worked, proves that it is not severely felt.

176 COMMERCE.

engulph all that may be driven from it by restrictive
legislation.

The gradual increase of the imports and exports
of Singapore from 1,200,000/. of the former, and
950,0002. of the latter, in 1823, to 6,500,0001. and
5,500,000/. respectively, forty years afterwards, in
1863, is owing in a large measure to the development
of the native states around it, to the extension of their
knowledge of and taste for British manufactures on
the one hand ; and, on the other, to their anxiety to
derive from the cultivation of their soil, and from the
free products of their forests, the means to obtain
them. Undoubtedly this development may, and in-
deed must, reach a limit when it will cease to benefit
Singapore. Native ports, whose earlier trade was con-
ducted in junks, will, under the impulse given by the
new-felt wants of the people and their newly-devised
means to satisfy them, grow in importance till they
become the resorts of large shipping and have direct
intercourse with Europe. We have already had this
illustrated in the case of Borneo and Siam. Bnt
so vast is the population of the Archipelago and of
the native states on the eastern continent, that, as
one port is withdrawn from the supply of Singa-
pore, another will be ready to take its place ; and this
must go on for the next century at least, provided
always we keep its port completely open and trade
unfettered.

Singapore, however, has a large trade quite inde-
pendent of the native states that through it may draw
their supplies and transmit their produce. It arises

SINGAPORE AFFORDS CHOICE OF MARKETS. 177

from the central position of the island, and is carried
on between Calcutta, Burmah, Java, and China ; con-
sisting chiefly of imports from the two first, and of
exports to the two latter. It is not at all unusual in
England to send goods to Singapore which are ulti-
mately intended either for China or Java, because
doing so gives the choice of two or three markets.
If on arrival there, the goods are low in China but
high in Java, they are of course sent on to the latter
port, and vice versa ; or, if both in China and Java
they are unsaleable, there is still the chance of Siam,
Saigon, and Borneo.

The same course is adopted with the opium and
rice of India. Fully one-halt* of the opium, and more
than three-fourths of the grain that comes down to
Singapore from India is consumed in China; and a
large portion besides goes to Java, There is, un-
doubtedly, as little difficulty in procuring freight from
India to China, as there is from India to the Straits,
and the cost of direct shipment is always considerably
less ; still, to take the chances of the several markets,
obtained through Singapore, is found the most pro-
fitable course.

This trade, as I have said, has not had its origin
in the insignificance of the ports with which it is
carried on, nor can it be adversely affected by their
future growth and prosperity. It appears to me, too,
that, as the native markets around grow into an
importance deserving direct intercourse with Europe,
they will come to rank in the trade of Singapore as

the ports of China, Java, and 8iam do now. The
only peril to this part of our commerce is too clear
to be mistaken. As long as the port of Singapore
remains free of tonnage dues, or of harbour dues, as
long as bonded warehouses are unnecessary because of
its freedom • from import or export duties, — in point
of feet, as long as ships can enter and leave its
harbour at will, and goods can be landed and shipped
at no cost beyond the cooly and boat hire — so long
need we fear no diminution of what might be termed
its inter-colonial trade, Singapore has grown too
great to fear any rivalry on equal terms. It has paled
the ineffectual fires of the Dutch, while it keeps down
and makes subservient to itself the commercial ardour
of the French at Saigon. But as surely as any attempt
is made to tax its imports or its exports, or to burden
its port with any tonnage or harbour due, that moment
the ebb of its commercial greatness begins.

Though I have directed these observations to Sin-
gapore only, they have also, in a smaller degree,
application to Penang. To Malacca as yet they have
none ; nor does it seem likely that they ever will ha
But, as the three settlements form one colony, it is
desirable that a comprehensive view of the whole
should be given, and I propose first to estimate
the commercial condition of them together, before
passing on to the separate consideration of each.
In order to shew, without entering at present into
details, that, however varied the degree, the trade of each
of the settlements has been progressive, I may refer

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OP THE COLONY. 179

to the following table, which I have accurately pre-
pared, of the imports and exports during the years
1883-48-53 and 63 :—

Dtote.

SmoAroas.

YtHAVQ AfrD P.W.

Malacca.

1833

Imports ..

£
2,043,000

1,705,000

£
427,000

440,000

£
104,000

Exports

58,000

Total

3,748,000

867,000

162,000

Imports

1843

2,953,000
2,505,000

473,000
549,000

95,000
62,000

Exports

Total

5,548,000

1,022,000

157,000

Imports

1853

3,488,000
3,027,000

725,000
962,000

299,000

Exports

218,000

Total

6,515,000

1,687,000

517,000

Imports ,

1803

0,462,000
5,555,000

1,684,000
2,392,000

453,000

Exports

.300,000

Total

12,017,000

4,076,000

H13.000

Gross total for 1833 4,777,000

„ 1843 6,727,000

,. 1853 8,719,000

,. 1863 16,906,000

or, summed up, a business for the joint settlements of
four millions and three quarters in 1833, of six mil-
lions and three quarters in 1843, of eight millions
and three quarters in 1853, and of no less than
seventeen millions in the year that has just closed. It

12—2

180

will be found on examination, that the trade of both
Penang and Malacca as shown in these four periods
has progressed proportionately by even a greater ratio
than that of Singapore— for whereas the latter has
been a little more than trebled, the two former have
been multiplied, the one four and a half, and the other
five-fold.

The magnitude of the amount in the one case, how-
ever, is now such as to involve a tremendous body of
trade in any proportional alteration of the figures.
And if we go ten years further back, say to 1823,
with Singapore and Penang, and to 1825 (the date
of our final occupation) with Malacca, and estimate
the progress of the respective stations since then, we
shall find the retrospect considerably less favourable to
the two latter. It will be found that from 1823 to
the present time, the trade of Penang has barely
multiplied itself three and a half times, and that of
Malacca, since 1825, has progressed in no better pro-
portion, while that of Singapore has increased seven-
fold.

But it is satisfactory to gather, at the same time,
that however rapid and gigantic the progress made
by Singapore, it has not involved, as has frequently
been asserted, a retrograde movement on the part of
the other stations ; on the contrary, I believe that the
continued prosperity of the younger settlement has
been, and will be the strongest stimulus to the trade
of the other two.

So much for the commercial progress of the three

STATISTICS, ETC., OF IMPORTS.

181

stations of the new colony. It wiE now be necessary
to consider the present condition of each apart. The
imports of Singapore for the year ending 30th April,
1863, have been from the following countries, and of
the values placed opposite each : —

Imi^rt^

Great Britain

1,500,758

North Alliens; i

B0J&9

Europe

888,091

Australia

32,000

Calcutta

899,839

884M8

Bomfe*;

35,5tt0

China „

1 toabfin China

181

Sinm

242,01*3

Manila ,

Java, Uhio, Sec.

088,174

Borneo

m,nm>

Celebes.,

112.61D

Sumatra ..

l(M,1tt3

Malayan lY'iui^uLi

170,503

Miscellaneous, including Malacca,

Penang, and British Bunuah

ui '2,200

Total.

(1401,720

To give a complete and exact analysis of these
extensive imports would occupy too great a space, and
prove of comparatively small value. I shall, however,
briefly enumerate the chief articles which make op
the sums respectively standing opposite each country j
and with regard to Great Britain, British India, China
and Java, where the amounts are so considerable, I
shall be more particular.

1.— The principal imports from Great Britain for
the period embraced in the table above I have carefully

182

OOMKBBGK.

gone over, and for the sake of brevity have tabulated

the principal items as under : —

Treasuiv

Cotton Manufacture fl

?I1

Woollens

Bft ,

U.448

Wines

10,829

Arms ami Ammunition

Iron and Ironwork

Copper a ml W How Met&l

f ivild

Earthenwaiv

Canvas, it<*.. «.

l&ios

Besides these, there is a long list of miscellaneous
articles which, though amounting together to a con-
siderable value, are individually considered of small
importance. Of the cotton manufactures, arms and
gunpowder imported, only a very small proportion is
for the use of the Straits, the former find their way
all over the Archipelago— the two latter both to the
Archipelago, and, until very lately, in great quantities
to China. The other articles particularized are con-
sumed in greater degree in the Straits, but still the
bulk of these, too, is re-exported,

2, 3. — From North America and Europe the im-
ports partake very much of the nature of those from
Great Britain, with the exception of ice, which is
supplied from the former, and need not therefore be
more than stated at their gross values in the general
table.

4.— Australia furnishes chiefly horses, bread-stuffs,
coals from the mines at New South Wales, and sandal-
wood from Western Australia.

STATISTICS, ETC., OF IMPORTS.

183

5, 6, 7. — From Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay the
imports have aggregated very nearly a million sterling.
I tabulate together the principal items from the three
presidencies, simply remarking that the opium and
grain are chiefly supplied from Calcutta.

Opium
Grain
S ,-ilr |»t 'i it

7,8118

Guunie Bags 24,782

Cotton in former years also formed a considerable
article of import from India, but since the American
war this importation has altogether ceased. The
opium that is landed here finds its way to Java and the
Archipelago, Siam, and Cochin China, about thirty-
five or forty chests a month, or 60,0002. worth annually,
being the consumption of Singapore itself. Saltpetre
is sent on to China and Java. The other articles are
to a considerable extent consumed in the Straits.

8, — The imports from China more than equal those
from British India, amounting to 902,921/. They
chiefly cpnsisted of, —

Gold Bars and Ihist

Silver and Dollaft
China Cash
Sqgftt

Tea
Cwp] M

Casein

Alum

Raw Thread Silk

Tobacco

£
805,516

L84AG

15. 111?
U/,*:n
i;t.l->;>
UMfl

35,574

Many of these articles are sent on to Europe or
America. China cash, 1,200 pieces of which go to

184 COMMERCE.

the dollar, is sent down to the islands of the Archipelago
to purchase rice and other native products. It is the
only coin below the dollar which is current throughout
the Archipelago, and being suitable to the payment of
very small sums is never likely to be superseded. I
believe it has been frequently tried in Birmingham to
produce an imitation of these, but it was found impos-
sible to obtain a similar metal at anything like the
price.

9. — From Cochin China the imports have chiefly
consisted of rice ; but of late years, since the French
occupation, the quantity has fallen very much below
the old standard. Sticlac and bee's-wax are also
articles of import from Cochin China.

10. — Siam imports, like those of Cochin China,
chiefly consist of rice, but instead of being on the
decline, the trade in this staple is progressing steadily.
Sticlac, horns, and hides, are the other principal items.

1 1 . — From Manila the largest imports are of tobaccos
and sugars ; partly for consumption in the Straits, and
partly for re-exportation home, and to British India.

12. — The imports from the Dutch ports in Java,
Rhio, &c, are very considerable, amounting to close
upon a million sterling. The chief items were to the
following values : —

Treasure 688,905

Tobacco 04,074

Rice 45.861

Pepper .88,861

Gambier 24.443

Coffee 20,382

Cottons 30,858

Birds-Nests 11,349

STATISTICS, ETC., OF IMPORTS.

188

Beside these, there are cloves, cassia, cinnamon v
id other spices. Nearly all of the pepper, gambier,
id coffee finds its way to Europe. The rice and

Is'-nests are partly consumed in the Straits, and

ly sent on to China.

13. — From Borneo, the principal imports were
unprepared sago, antimony ore, rattans, gutta-percha,
from Sarawak, and coals from Lab nan. The sago,
as it is landed from Borneo, is simply the pith of
the sago palm, scraped out and packed in small
baskets ; it is washed out, dressed, and prepared for
the European market by the Chinese manufacturers in
Singapore, who were the first to introduce the method
of pearling, which has done so much to render it an
article of consumption. In the notice of Malacca
is an account of a tapioca manufactory, The pro-
cesses are nearly similar. AH the imports from Borneo,
except coals, find their way to Europe ; the coals arc
now being consumed by many of the steamers in the
trade between India and China ; but I believe they
are too bituminous, and would be better suited for gas.

14. — The imports from the island of Celebes, which
is the fifth in magnitude of the Archipelago, consist
chiefly of sandal -wood, sapan-wood, coffee, and gutta-
percha, the products of the island, and of mother-of-
pearl, bartered for with the natives of New Guinea
and other islands to the south-east of the Archipelago,
Birds'-nests and a small quantity of bee's-wax also
form items of importation from Celebes. The former
are obtained at great risk of life from the caves along
the rocky coasts of the surrounding islands ; the latter

186

COMMERCE,

is gathered from the forests of the interior without
much difficulty, as the wild bees of the Archipelago
build their hives like wasps at home, dropping from
the branches of the large trees.

15.— From Sumatra, which is just on the other
side of the Straits, opposite our own possessions, the
more extensive articles of import are pepper, sago
(raw), coffee, gutta-percha, gum benjamin, gum
mastic, and ivory. Of pepper only a comparatively
small quantity comes to Singapore, Penang being a
much more convenient market to most of the native
ports. Ivory comes also in small supplies, but it is
said that the number of elephants on the island is
decreasing,

16, — The imports stated as from the Malayan
peninsula, do not include those from our own posses-
sions in the Straits. They consist chiefly of vice,
gutta-percha, and tin ; bat also include small supplies
of ivory horns, hides, and birds'-nests.

17, — Under the head miscellaneous, in the general
table, are included the imports from Penang, Malacca,
and British Burniah. From Penang the imports aw
greatly speculative, and fluctuate according as price*
may rise or fall at either port. From Malacca the
chief imports are tin and tapioca, the former to the
value of 388,357/. From British Burmah the imports
are almost altogether made up of rice.

I now come to the exports for the same period as
I have given the imports, that is, from the 1st of May,
1862, to the 30th of April, 1863 ; and as I began in
the one case by giving a general table of the gross

EXPORTS FROM SINGAPORE. 187

lues of the imports from the various countries, I
I pursue the same course with the exports. These
re been —

Great Britain - 652,217

North America 48,448

Europe 79,006

Australia 21,188

Calcutta 810,103

Madras 48,895

Bombaj' 137,085

China 1,249,187

Cochin China 328,992

Siam 825,254

Manila 19,620

Java, Rhio, &c 557,490

Borneo - 187,521 #

Celebes 90,817

Sumatra 72,489

Malayan Peninsula 197,858

Miscellaneous, including Malacca,

Penang and British Burmah 790,503

Total 5,555,573

What they have consisted of may be gathered in a
eat measure from the (able of imports. But a more
articular inquiry may be useful.

1. — To Great Britain the chief articles of expor-
ition during the year have been, —

Gambier 133,740

Tin 29,846

Sago 68,101

Tapioca 5,200

Black Pepper 109,549

Tortoise SheU 2,825

Mother-o'-Pearl 7,583

Gutta-Percha 103,606

Nutmegs and Mace 8,368

Camphor 17,170

White Pepper 18,318

1R8

Gum 1
Coffee

SiipUl! -\\ - ■-!

Rattan**

Of these, gambier, black and white pepper, and
nutmegs are the only articles of production on the
island, and then only to about one-half of the value
exported — gambier being also received in considerable
quantities from Java, pepper from Sumatra, and nut-
megs and mace from the Moluccas. Sago is imported
in the raw state from Borneo and Sumatra, and
manufactured here before exportation • Tin comes
chiefly from Malacca, and the Native States of the
Peninsula. Tortoiseshell and mothcr-o' -pearl from
the far east of the Archipelago ; gutta-percha from all
over the Archipelago and Peninsula ; camphor from
China ; coffee chiefly from Java and Sumatra ; sapan-
wood from Celebes, and sticlac from Siam and Cochin
China,

2. — The exports to North America have
chiefly of gambicr, pepper, gutta-percha, and rattans

3. — To the continent of Europe the exports hate
been very nearly of the same character as those sent
to Great Britain ; but of course in considerably smaller
quantities*

4. — The exports to Australia have consisted chiefly
of tea, coffee, and sugar — the products probably of
China and Java— and of pepper grown here,

r>. — To Calcutta the exports exceed in value those
to Great Britain, Europe and America pat together,
but this is owing almost entirely to the large amount

>chin

EXPORTS FROM SINGAPORE. 189

of treasure which they include, as will he seen from
the following table of the chief items : —

Treasure « 587,704

Sapan-Wood 3,644

Pepper. 16,402

Cotton Goods „ 142,466

Camphor ...... 10,971

Next to treasure, in this table, comes the exporta-
tion of piece-goods, which has been owing greatly to
speculative ventures, induced by the American war.
The camphor exported comes from China. Besides
these, are many other articles in smaller quantities,
among which is Japan copper.

6, 7. — To Bombay and Madras the exports have
chiefly been of treasure, cotton goods (speculative
ventures), sugar, Japan copper, sapan-wood, articles of
import from other countries — and nutmegs, pepper,
and tin the products of the Straits.

8. The export trade to China has exceeded that to
any other country, reaching nearly to a million and a
quarter sterling. The chief items are, —

Arms and Ammunition 85,731

Cotton Goods 186,872

Treasure 58,091

Rice 170,333

Rattans 35,183

Beech de mer 16,817

Birds'-Nests 33,977

Sapan and other Woods 33,472

Pepper 62,767

Betel-nut 12,887

Tin 299,465

Opium 144,656

The arms, ammunition and cotton goods are those
which have first been imported from Europe. The

190 COMMERCE*

opium is, with the exception of a small quantity of
Turkey, the product of India. The rice is that o(
Bunnah, Java and Siara. Rattans, beech de mer f
sapan-wood, and birds'-nests are from the islands of
the Archipelago. Pepper, betel-nut, and a great
portion of the tin, are, on the other hand, the pro-
ducts of the Straits.

9, 10. — To Cochin China and Siain, the exports
are similar in kind as they also are in amouut.
The manufactured cotton of Europe, the opium of
India, and treasure for the purchase of produce are the
principal items.

1 1 . — The exports to Manila are insignificant, and
are made up of sundry small articles of European
manufacture, and of opium.

12. To Java, Rhio, &c, the exports are consider-
able, consisting chiefly of the following : —

Treasure UiS.lirt

Opium l^t>,7io

Cotton Goods . 66,037

Silk* Si
Rice,.

By reference to the imports previously stated, it
will be found that both treasure and rice are received
at Singapore in large quantities from Java ; and it
certainly seems strange that they should here form
such a considerable proportion of the exports to that
country. Treasure, however, is subject to such fluc-
tuation, and is so easily affected in value by the
arbitrary rates of exchange which are from time to
time imposed, that its shipment to and fro is almost

EXPORTS FROM SINGAPORE,

191

a natural consequence. Rice is more generally an
article of import from, than export to, Java ; but the
severe floods that from time to time desolate that
country, create temporary scarcities which have to be
supplied from abroad. The opium is from India, the
cotton goods from Great Britain, and the silks from
China.

13. — To Borneo, the exports which amounted to
137,521/., consisted chiefly of cotton goods, treasure,
opium, rice and tobacco.

14. — To Celebes they have consisted principally
of cotton goods, opium and gambier, which is eaten
with the siri plant.

15. — The exports to Sumatra have been cotton
manufactures, treasure, opium, and rice in small
quantities.

10. — To the Malayan Peninsula, the exports have
been very varied ; but the following are the largest
itt'ins : —

tY.tlun Goods HMHl

Opium :»K,75!i

Trirumn

Silks 10,050

Rta 8,088

17. — Under the head of miscellaneous are included
the exports to Penang, Malacca, British Burmah, and
some other parts. The bulk of this part of our trade
consists of transhipment and speculative exports to
Fcuung, and the entire supply of Malacca which,
with very trifling exceptions, comes through Sin-

192 *

COMMERCE.

These are the chief exports of Singapore. The
imports I have already considered; but as it may
assist materially in arriving at a distinct understand-
ing of the trade of the port, I propose to give the
number of vessels which have arrived throughout the
year, with their tonnage and the places from which
they come. Of the junks and trading prahus which
frequent the port, no very reliable records are kept ;
but about 200 arrive annually, and it is estimated that
they carry about an eighth part, in value, of the yearly
trade. The square-rigged vessels which arrived at
Singapore from the 1st May, 1862, to the 30th, 1863,
were —

From

No.

Africa

America

Amsterdam

Arabia

Arracan

Australia

Bally

Bombay and coast

Borneo

Bremen

Calcutta

Cape of Go.xl

Hope

Celebes

Ceylon

China

Cochin China

France

Great Britain

10
9
213
04
15
70

T>rnug<?.

273

10,594

2,740

2,005

3,048

10,414

3,120

37,784

10,023

1,000

33,990

7,229

2,327

5,553

100,593

20,556

5,915

43,245

From

Carried forward.. | 054 \ 307,328

Brought forward.

Hamburg

Java

Madras and coast

Malacca

Malay Peninsula

Malta

Mairla

Mauritius

Moulmein

New Zealand

Penang

Rangoon

Rhio

Siam

Spain

Sumatra

Tringanu and
coast

Total

No.

654

2tf

175

lift

1,279

307.32*
6.9«1
411,029
2.6G9
1,7*6
5.K37
3,9t"«2
4,345
6.2W
l.iMU

3ft.»34

15,659

1-423

31.119

1,301

1,01*

214

471,441

SINGAPORE — AN ENTREPOT.

193

The nationalities of these one thousand two hun-
dred and seventy-nine vessels were : —

—

No.

Tonnage.

No.

Tonnage.

American

Arabian

Belgian ..

Bremen

81
6
1

23
2

80
279

68
4

29
8

61,240

2,604

800

11,372

290

7,161

70,401

43,041

22,310

1,103

3,181

1,069

Brought ford.....

Oldenburg

Portuguese

Pniwian . ,

690
1
9
4
4
6
64
4

224.462

616

2,347

865

Chinese

Rnsfp'an

2,023

Danifth

Spanish

2,170

Ihitch

Siamese

16,649

French

Hamburg

Hanoverian

Native States

Swedish.

British

2,683

671

608

260,616
220,826

Total

1,279

Carried forward..

690

224,462

471,441

Such is the actual trade of Singapore, and such
the channels through which it is conveyed. It will
not he difficult to gather, from a comparison of the
imports with the exports, confirmation of what was
pointed out at starting, namely, that the consump-
tion of the island is insignificant as compared with
its imports, and that its production is even more dis-
proportioned to its exports. It may be roundly stated
that 90 per cent, of the European manufactures and
Indian produce which are landed there, are again
re-shipped further eastward, and that not 5 per cent.
of the products exported to Great Britain, America,
the Continent of Europe, and India, are of local

growth or manufacture. To no other port in the
world therefore can the designation of entrepot be
more justly applied ; and with tins important fact,
and all its consequences prominently before their eyes,
it is impossible that either local or imperial legislators
can ever seek to encumber its free trade without being
guilty of the most wilful disregard of the national
interests.

And it must be borne in mind that imposts which
would produce no damaging effect upon the trade of
a European port, might have the most fiatal effect
upon the trade of Singapore. A harbour due, a ton-
nage due, wharfage or anchorage charges, are all fair
enough means of reimbursing a Government for its
outlay on harbour improvements and facilities, and are
ordinarily understood and willingly acquiesced in. Bat
at Singapore it is very different. The native traders are
men altogether unable to distinguish the causes of a
particular impost, and ily from them all as from op-
pression ; besides this, they know nothing of uiur
language or of our rules and regulations, and would
possibly have to entrust the agency of their shipping
business to some sharper of their own nationality, who
might practise fraud and extortion on them to any
extent.

The port of Singapore must not only be free from
burden, but the forms of business must be maintained
as plain and simple as possible.

Of the commerce of Penang and Malacca I am
unable to give the same details as I have given of
that of Singapore, and must deal more generally.

Total 614BM98

In kind they do not differ materially from those
of Singapore. From Great Britain, America, and
Europe, the imports are comparatively insignificant —
the manufactures of these countries for the greater
part finding their way through Singapore, the imports
from which amount to fully a third of the gross values
from all the other countries put together. It will
be seen, that the imports from Sumatra, consisting
chiefly of pepper, are nearly double the value of those
received from the same country at Singapore ; but
they are nevertheless considerably smaller than they
were in previous years. This falling off is attributed
to the policy of the Dutch, who, it is suspected, are
pushing their way in Sumatra somewhat unfairly.
By the treaty between England and Holland of 1824
we evacuated our possession of Bencoolen, and gave
i and title which we might have to the

island of Sumatra to the Dutch, receiving Malacca
and the hitherto disputed supremacy of the Malay penin-
sula in return* But by the 3rd article of that treaty
it was stipulated that no fresh treaties should be made
by either power with the native princes of the respec-
tive territories, exclusive of the trade of the other, or
imposing unequal duties thereupon. It is strongly
suspected, however, that exclusive treaties have not-
withstanding been lately made by the Dutch in
Sumatra —and the suspicion receives confirmation
not only from the diminished imports of that island's
produce at Penang, but from various reports, more
or less reliable, from the native princes themselves*
All the protests, however, which may be made by the
Straits' merchants in the dark, must, from the terms
of the treaty of 1824, be unavailing ; but it is certainly
high time that the Government of the Hague should
be asked for copies of whatever treaties their East
Indian authorities may have concluded in Sumatra.
Copies of these the Netherlands Government is bound
to furnish in terms of the 3rd article of the treaty
of 1824, and if they are found to be restrictive of
our trade, they should be at once disavowed. If,
on the other hand, the terms are consonant to
all the articles of the old treaty, copies of them
should be placed in the hands of the Straits autho-
rities, that their true intent and meaning may be made
known to the traders who still flock into the English
ports in the Straits, and thus be disseminated through-
out the produce districts of Sumatra.

From Siam the imports, which exceed those from

PENANG. 197

the same country to Singapore, have consisted chiefly
of rice, a great portion of which crosses over for
consumption to Province Wellesley and the Native
States on the north-west coast of the Peninsula.

The exports from Penang for the same period as I
have given the imports, were as under : —

Exports.

Great Britain. 453,623

North America 111,026

Europe 51,153

Calcutta 101,667

Madras 36,687

Bombay 13,228

China 155,046

* Siam 253,155

Sumatra 310,496

Malayan Peninsula 230,502

Miscellaneous, including Singapore,

Malacca, and British Burmah 669,460

Total (sterling) £2,392,109

It will be seen that while in Singapore the exports
fall short in value of the imports, in Penang they
are nearly one-half more. There is also this differ-
ence between the ports, that while in Singapore the
local consumption and the local production are quite
insignificant as compared with its imports and ex-
ports; in Penang, on the other hand, the imports
are, with some trifling exceptions, consumed on the
island, in Province Wellesley, or in the adjacent Native
States, and the exports are entirely the production of
the same territories.

To Great Britain, America, and the Continent of
Europe, as indeed to most of the countries named

198

COMMERCE.

above, the chief articles of export are pepper, gambier,
nutmegs, and sugar. The cultivation of pepper is not
so extensive as it was in former years, and owing to
the blight which has extended all over the Straits,
it is probable that nutmegs will before very long
cease altogether to be exported. The production of
the other articles, especially of sugar in Province
Wellesley, appears to be on the increase. Cotton is
produced in small quantities, but according to the
best authorities it is never likely to become a staple
article of export. Indigo and nilam have also at
times been exported in small quantities, and cocoanuts,
siri, and betel-nut (the nuts of the Areca palm, or
Penang tree, from which the island takes its name),
are produced in tolerably large quantities, but chiefly
consumed in the ports of the Straits.

The arrivals of square-rigged vessels in Penang
have been for the years 1862-63 : —

From

No.

Tonnage.

i From

No. ! Tonnage.

America

3
1
8

15
2

12
1

17
5
6

1,378

300
4,048
4.104
1,522
0,574

238
9,188

953 i

2,292 1

12,393 !

1,259 i

Brought ford

Great Britain

Goa

1)8 4~l lrt-l

AuiHtcrdam

15
2

707

Arabia

ftf)7

Arracan

Hamburg

2 1 i run

Australia.

Madras and coast
Malacca

177

7 043

Bombay and coast
Bremen

1.085

Moulmein

2 991

Calcutta

Rangoon

9 848

Coringa

Siam

1,339
210

Cevlon

Spain. .. . .

China

Singapore

Sumatra

54 591

France

6 003

Totnl

Carried forward..

44,404 |

514

130.434

MALACCA.

Their nationalities being : —

199

—

No.

Tonnage.

7,999
3,680

444
1,200

768
2,329
6,414

No.

Tonnage.

American .

Arabian

Belgian ......

Bremen

Danish

Dutch

13
6
1
6
3
11
16

Brought ford.....

Hamburg

Native States

Portuguese

Siamese

British

Total

426

22,816

1,670

926

4,678

422

106,016

614

136,434

Carried foi

•ward

22,816

The proportion of trade carried by junks and native
prahns is even greater at Penang than at Singapore.

The trade of Malacca, which at one time might
be said to comprise the sum of European intercourse
with the far East, is now comparatively unimportant.
But the decline has not been under British rule ; on
the contrary, since our final acquisition of the territory,
the trade, as will be seen on reference to the com-
parisons made at the beginning of this chapter, has
steadily progressed. Still, however, the commerce of
Malacca is far from satisfactory and far from what
it might be. The imports for 1862-63 were : —

Imports.

Calcutta 1,960

China - 713

Sumatra 8,217

Malayan Peninsula 81,894

Jeddah „ —

British Burmah ~ 3,060

Miscellaneous, including Singapore and

Penang 356,830

Total (sterling) - £462,664

200

COMMERCE.

The exports on the other hand were : —

Calcutta —

China —

Sumatra 15,228

Malayan Peninsula. 61,752

Jeddah - 18

British Burniah 1,744

Miscellaneous, including Singapore and

Penang « 281,098

Total (sterling) £359,840

The arrivals of square-rigged vessels at Malacca
for the same year have been : —

From

No.

Tonnage. ; From

No.

Tonnage

Arabia

Bombay

Calcutta

Ceylon

Penang

2
o

4
1

•

1,284 ,

794 !

1,620 !

192 l

12,435 |

Brought ford.....

Rangoon

Singapore

Sumatra

Total

152

10,331

1.962

26,733

284

254

45.310

Carried forward.

10,331 |

Their nationalities :

American

Arabian

Dutch

Native States

No.
1

3
3

Portuguese 1

British 240

Total 254

Tonnage.

869
3,954
019
210
220
39,940

45,312

The number of junks trading to Malacca is not
large.

It will be seen that the amount of the exports
of produce is a fourth less than that of the imports ;
and this, for such a possession as Malacca, must I

MALACCA.

201

think be deemed an unwholesome state of trade.
nth an extensive tract of territory and a soil not
>nly fertile but rich in mineral wealth, and a numerous
population, the station is still unable to return to
Singapore produce sufficient to pay for the value of
le manufactures and other goods imported from it,
Ihe articles of import to Malacca consist chiefly of
sotton manufactures and opium, received through
Singapore and Penang ; its exports are chiefly of tin,
tapioca, and sago, besides fruit, fowls, and live stock,
ehich, though they do not appear among the exports,
re pretty regularly supplied to Singapore by a fleet
}f small schooners plying between the two ports.
[t was for many years thought that the prosperity
of this station was retarded by the unsatisfactory
lature of the land tenure, but about three years ago
a new land bill was introduced which entirely removed
whatever objections had previously been thought to
exist, and yet no extension of cultivation resulted.
Perhaps as tin is the chief article of export, the
royalty on metal still reserved to the Crown should

»be abandoned, with a view to the further development
of the metallurgie resources of the station.
Such is a brief epitome of the trade of the Straits*
I have been careful that all the figures which I have
given should be accurate and reliable, and for this
purpose have taken the sum of the entries during the
years indicated at the import and export offices of
the three stations. But as there is no law to compel
correct entries being made, or rather to punish those who
neglect to make such, it is more than probable that these

RSC2& ikL sameviac short <d the actual trade;
tsfgiQaZy sc wii lbs* p:raoa in the hands of native
Be gss^d erai by these records, the
A lie Sszas of ifalanra aflsmnes a magni-
tude wrirr, rescsg as 5x does on but a precarious
fpcndstko, eriirfc& it to all the solieitnde which I
hare rianrrfd fcr it at the outset of this chapter.
The prosfgiity and progress of no country ever lay
» completely at the morj oi its rulers. It is possible
Ly one rear of port imposts utterly to ruin the settle-
ment ; it is also possible by a liberal, enlightened,
completely free-trade policy not only to mftinfami its
present prosperity, but to make its progress keep pace
with the development of the countries around it.

( 203 )

CHAPTER VIH.

GOVERNMENT: REVENUE— EXPENDITURE— MILITARY

DEFENCE.

Past Government — Present Administration — Supreme Court — Sources
of Revenue — Farming System — Its Advantages — Government
Farms — Opium Farm — Its Morality — Toddy and Baang, Spirit,
and Pawnbrokers' Farms — Expedience of a Gambling Farm — Its
Value — Evils of the present Attempt to restrict the Vice — Land
Revenue — Stamp Tax — Municipal Revenue — General Expenditure
— Public Works — Government Salaries — Military Expenditure and
Strength — Fortifications of Singapore — Their Faults — Advantages
of a Sea Defence — Singapore a Naval and Military Depot — Evils
of a Local Corps or Local Marine.

Of the past Government of Singapore and the Straits
Settlement very little need be said; and that little
not all evil. Doubtless, the affairs of the Straits
have occupied but a small share in the deliberations
of the Council of India, and have systematically been
set aside to give place to the more pressing and
the undoubtedly more important concerns of the
Continental empire itself. The causes of this neglect
were manifold. The Straits formed an outlying station
fifteen hundred miles away from Calcutta, of a com-
pletely different character from India itself, unaffected
alike by its prosperity or misfortune. The races by

204

iOVKRXMENT.

whom it was peopled were numerous and distinct,
chiefly gathered together by immigration siu
became a British possession, from whom no reiolt
was to be anticipated, and on whose account th<
was no anxiety felt for the safety of the settlement.
Besides all this, the legislators of India being ci
ignorant themselves of what could benefit or what
would injure the Straits, and unwilling to trust too
implicitly to the representations of the individual whom
they from time to time placed there as Governor,
preferred pretty well to refrain from legislating alto*
get her.

It must be admitted, however, that at no time
has the Indian Government sought to derive a profit
out of the Straits. The most it has done was to
endeavour to raise the revenue to a sum sufficient to
cover the military as well as the civil expenditure,
and though the former is not a just charge to impose
upon the Straits, not at least to its full extent, still it is
one for the cost of which the Indian Exchequer has
every right to be refunded. For protection against
internal revolt the military are not needed, and if
retained for any other purpose the cost of their
support ought to be matter for adjustment with the
Imperial Government, not a charge upon India. But,
not to anticipate, it is only in the last year, 1863-64,
that the endeavour has really been carried out, and
that the revenue has been raised by fresh taxation,
in the shape of a stamp duty, to a sum equal to refund
India for the military expenditure. During the long
Years that preceded this last, India haa suffered and

HASTY LEGISLATION TO BE AVOIDED, 205

fered patiently a yearly drain upon her treasury on
lount of the Straits settlements of over 30,000/.

With respect to the want of legislation, too, it
lay be doubted whether the Straits has really suffered
luch on this account. Certainly there is less risk

a country in men who are ignorant of its wants
^staining from legislating altogether, than in hurrying
lactment upon enactment with ill-directed haste*

I think it has proved with Singapore. Founded
id its earlier development watched over by men

the enlightened policy of Sir Stamford Raffles and

r. Crawfurd, it only required to be allowed to grow

np unmolested to maturity to present the picture of

rosperity which it now does ; and perhaps had the

3al even of those on the spot moat interested in its

rogress, been permitted at all times to display itself

multitudinous reformatory enactments, the result

Id not have been so satisfactory* Indeed, I
insider that when the Government becomes local, it
require to carefully avoid hasty or revolutionary
egislation. Stability lays claim to first respect in the
itive mind, and any policy that would seek to be
>nstantly altering the laws and administration of
tovernment even for the sake of improving them would

a disastrous one.

When the Indian Government hands over the
Straits settlements to the Crown, it will deliver a
ist honestly kept and well deserving the solicitude

its new guardians. It has shown, too, an example

high-minded forbearance in abstaining to check
le growth of a promising colony to save its own

200

GOVKliNMJ;

treasury, an example which, though owing to iinproyed
resources it need not now be followed by the Imperial
Government, should nevertheless be set down on that
colony's history against any day of unforeseen calamity.
With the new colony, the Indian Government will
also hand over to the Crown a revenue ready made
ample in all respects, and gathered in a manner that
leaves trade and industry unburdened, and lays the
pressure chiefly upon native vice and luxury.

From the time of its foundation till 1805, Penang
was subordinate to Bengal ; from that date till 1829
it ranked as an independent presidency. During the
first four years of its settlement, Singapore was $
dependency of Bencoolen ; for the next two years 3
was placed under the Bengal Government, and in
1825 both it and Malacca, which had in that year
come finally into our possession, were united to
Penang, and formed for the first time * * the in
porated settlement of Prince of Wales' Island, Sin-
gapore and Malacca," by which title the three stations
are still officially designated. For four years the
incorporated settlement continued the fourth presidency
of India, but in 1829 it was deprived of the somewhat
expensive distinction, and placed once more under the
Bengal Government, in which condition of dependency,

tand with no alteration whatever in the form of its
administration, it has remained down to the present
day.
The Governor, who is placed with supreme local
control over the three settlements, is the appointee
— —•

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT.

207

long time after their incorporation the chief seat
rf government was Penang, but now and for many
pears back, the Governor's residence is in Singapore,
and he spends only about three months of each
pear between the two other stations. Under the
Governor, there ore three Resident Councillors : one
at Penang as sort of Lieutenant Governor ; another
at Singapore as secretary and treasurer to Government ;

id the third at Malacca as the Governor's representa-
tive there. In each station there is either one or
two Assistant Resident Councillors, who, except in
the absence of their chiefs, discharge the duties of
police magistrates or other appointments of a similar
nature. The Governor and the Resident Councillors
may be said to comprise the executive government,
collecting and disbursing the revenue, registering the
trade, conducting the diplomatic and political corre-
spondence, and having supervising control over all
the other departments.

The Public Works Department is under a chief
engineer and an executive engineer. The municipal
works of each station are under separate and partly
elective commissions. There is a Commissioner of
Police with a deputy and staff at each station, under

le executive of course, but partly paid from the
municipal funds. There is also at each station a
police magistrate, a marine magistrate and master
attendant, and a Court of Requests with a commissioner
to adjudicate on civil suits of trifling value. The
military throughout the Straits consists at present of
two regiments of Madras Native Infantry, and three

208

GOVERNMENT.

garrison batteries of European artillery, tinder the
disposition of a brigadier resident at Singapore, The
incumbents of nearly ail the chief offices of Govern-
ment are military men of the Indian army ; there
is no covenanted civil service as in India, but I do
not propose to consider here either the personnel of
the Government, or particularly the nature of the
various offices. Further on will be found a list of
the salaries attached to all the chief Government
appointments. My object is to get as directly as
possible to the revenue and expenditure ; the former
a matter of paramount interest just now to the
Imperial Government, and the latter involving some
questions of great importance both to the settlement
and to the mother country, such as the military
defence and fortifications.

Before passing on to these, however, I onght per-
haps to notice here the singular advantages which
the Straits settlement has always possessed in the
administration of justice. From their establishment
each of the stations has possessed a supreme court
of judicature, in which English law, civil and criminal,
has been administered as in the courts of Westminster.
Up till 1855 only one judge presided at the three
courts, upon circuit, but in that year an additional
judge was appointed The courts of Singapore and
Malacca are now presided over by one, and that of
Penang by the other. To the non-official commm
these courts have served the purpose of a representa-
tive institution, and have always been a wholesome
aeck upon the mal-administration of Government.

SOURCES AND AMOUNT OF REVENUE.

209

In earlier times, when the Company's servants,
responsible only to an indifferent council at Calcutta,
paid little regard to the interest and little respect
for the opinion of the mercantile residents, the
supreme court remained as a place of appeal where
the grand jurors might from time to time raise their
voice in such a manner that it could not well be
disregarded. The judges have always been men of
standing and ability, hamsters of the courts at home,
whose acquirements were such as to obtain for them
from their sovereign the distinction of knighthood,
in addition to the honour of an appointment of no
small value. They were completely secured from
the Indian authorities, and, by supporting the pre-
sentations of their grand juries, have done good
service to the settlement independent of the value of
their ordinary duties.

The sources of revenue, while they are certain,
have the advantage of being few. The excise farms
alone, being more than two -thirds of the gross income ;
the following being the revenue derived from all sources
for the past official year; that is, from 1st May, 1863,
to 30th April, 1864 :—

to and ottm brma .137,521

Land and 6,705

Stamp tax $0,170

Law and Justin 0,957

Public works.

Marina 4,aoo

Miscellaneous &.OS0

Total.. 1111,000

The system of excise farming, or yearly selling

■210

GOVERNMENT.

out to the highest bidder the ex. met of n

is one, I believe, peculiar in a great measure to China
and the European settlements in India and the Archi-
pelago. It was first adopted by the Dutch, who
found it the only practicable method of collecting
revenue derived from a restriction tax upon the con-
sumption of luxuries. It was copied from the Dutch
by the English at Penang shortly after the occupation
of that island, and has ever since continued in opera-
tion in the Straits. In later years it has been imitated
by the King of Siain, by Rajah Sir James Brooke at
Sarawak, and by the French at Saigon ; and no one
at all acquainted with the actual working of this
revenue system will doubt its many advantages in a
country where a small dominant race have the govern-
ment of an extensive mixed population.

The frauds to which any European Government
would be subjected were it attempting in such
possession as Singapore to exact an excise revenue
by a paid establishment, would be so serious as
reduce the product by one-half, and at the same I
expose to corruption its own servants. Even could
the men be spared, no staff of purely European officer
could contend against the trickery and evasions of the
Chinese and other elements in the papulations*
a thief to catch a thief," and set a native to d
fraud on the part of his countrymen. But unfortu-
nately native constabulary in Government pay are
notoriously incompetent to resist temptation, and
what would be gained in some cases by their gr
skill and cunning would be lost in others by their

ANECDOTE OF THE RAJAH OF LUMBOCK. 211

dishonesty. With the farmers — usually Chinese of
large capital — it is otherwise. They employ men
of their own country and caste against their own
countrymen, on a principle of gradually descending
responsibility, which renders fraud difficult ; or, as
is frequently the case, subdivide their farm and
ensure themselves against imposition by selling the
subdivisions to smaller farmers under them for sums
certain. The profit obtained by the farmers above
the amounts paid by them to Government is often
considerable, but it is not more than would be the
cost of collection by a paid establishment, and the
taxes yield their full product, which I think they
would fail to do under any other treatment. Indeed,
a system of descending responsibility in the collection
of revenue is adopted not only by the Chinese but
by most of the native rajahs throughout the Archi-
pelago, though not in the nature of farming. When
in the Island of Lomboek some years ago, I became
acquainted with a rather singular method of detecting
the abuse of this responsibility adopted by the rajah of
that populous and important island- The rajah's
revenues, derived from a head tax, were falling sadly
short, apparently without any decrease of the popu-
lation. After sore tribulation as to the probable cause
of the deficit and the means of detecting it, he hit
upon an idea which he wisely kept to himself. It
was the cu.4<>m of himself and his forefathers to repair
every year to the summit of a high mountain and
sleep there alone one whole night, during which
slumber God was believed to reveal any important

Ml
fell

iiah

GOVERNMENT,

danger that threatened the country or people, as
also the means of averting it. This year when the
day came round, the mountain was ascended in grei
pomp by the entire court to within a hundred fe
of its summit. When nightfall came, the rajah
kiiving his attendants behind, proceeded alone to
the summit, and having spread his mat lay down to
sleep. In the morning at daybreak he rejoined bis
courtiers and announced that he had been vouchsafed
a most wonderful dream, God had appeared to him
and told him that a desolating plague would that
year overrun his and the neighbouring countries ;
but all who chose might be protected from it by
sending in to the palace a single steel needle, not
more or less, for himself and his wife and each of
his children if he had them. Of these needles the
rajah was to have two large swords made and to
hang them in the temple, and they would be a
protection to all those who had contributed towards
their material. Needles came pouring in by the
bushel ; each chief sending those from the people of
the district over which he ruled. When the contri-
butions were announced as complete, the wily rajah,
instead of having them melted down had every lot
carefully counted over, and in his hall of state con-
fronted each chief with the number of needles rec
from his district in one hand and the poll-tax returns
in the other. The dream was a useful one to the rajah,
next year his revenue increased by more than one-half.
European houses of business or individuals never
compete for the purchase of the Government farms

ADVANTAGES OF FARMING THE REVENUE. 213

in the Straits, as the difficulties in the way of the
direct collection of excise by Government wonld be
opposed to them in even a greater degree ; for while
they would have to rely upon a native excise service,
they would lack that respect which the authority of
Government gives its officers. The Chinese are the
only other class who have capital, energy, and system
sufficient for the successful management of a revenue,
and from the beginning, the chief farms have continued
in their hands.* The policy of letting out the revenue
in this way has frequently been called in question on
the grounds that the servants of the former might
take advantage of their quasi authority and become
oppressive and extortionate ; but there would be the
same chance of this with Government excise officers,
and against oppression on the part of the farmers,
the people know they will much more easily find
redress in our courts than against similar treatment
on the part of Government officers. Besides, all fines
for the infringement of the fanners' rights must be
recovered in the magistrate's court, and no illicit opium
or spirits can be seized except through the instru-
mentality of the police. For my own part, I think
that almost every source of revenue from taxation
might, in a country peopled as Singapore is, be farmed
out with advantage, provided the tax in no way
affected trade or commerce. The farms in the Straits

* The only farm wliich i& not held by Cliineae, is the excise upon
toddy and ba&ng; them two nrtuUs are oonsunii {greatest

mflunrm by natives 6f India, and the farms have generally b&m pwr-

ttd by ptoplf of that nationality.

21 1 GOVERNMENT.

are now four in number ; they are sold in April each

year to the highest bidder either for one or for two

years according to the nature of the farm, Dur

the year that closed on the 30th of April last the

farms at Singapore brought the following yearly

rentals respectively : —

£
Opanm,,

1. 1 btlijg '

Bpinti
Pawnbrokers ,

Total EN -.".08

The gross returns of the same farms at Pemang
and Malacca for the same period was 40,953/.

The opium farm, which is essentially a tax on I
Chinese, gives the exclusive right to prepare and
retail that drug. In the condition in which it is
imported from Calcutta and Bombay, opium is a very
different article from that which administers to the
sensual enjoyment of the consumer, and the conversion
of the imported article to chandoo, or the treaclj
consistency required for smoking, is one of the mono-
polies secured for the protection of the fanner. The
opium is received from Calcutta in boxes containing
forty balls each of the size of a 32 lb. cannon shot.
Theses balls have an outer husk of compressed poppy-
leaves, and contain a certain quantity of moist opium
inside, but which in this state is unfit for consumption ;
so that, as long as the privilege of reducing it to
chandoo remains with the fanner, he is tolerably safe
in the enjoyment of his exclusive privilege to sell
for consumption. The method of reducing the drug

MODE OF PREPARING ClIANDOO.

215

is thus described in an interesting paper on the
habitual use of opium in Singapore : — •*

Between three and four o clock in the morning. the fires are lighted.

A dust is then opened by one of the offloeri of tin- eotabliBhrnaoJ ■

opium farmer, and the number of balls delivered to the workmen is

proportioned to the demand. The halls are then divided into equal

• - by MM man, wh OQt, with his fingers, the inside or soft

pert, und throws it into an earthen dish, frequently during the operation

fed washing his hands in another VflOjp^ tin- water of win. h

illy preserved When nil the soft part is eareftilly uhsinirtrd

from the hardened skins or husks, these are broken up, split, divided

And torn, and throws into the rmftftftB vanel containing the mite

already BpofcaQ of, saving the extreme otitsidi «, whiHi are not mixed

with the others, hut. thrown away, or sometimes sold to adulterate

in Johore und the bad <>f the i hmd.

The second op lo boil the hnaka with a sufficient quantity

of water in a large shallow hon j>ot for such a length of time as may

be rer|nisiT.to break down thoroughly the husks and dissolve Khi

This is than strained through folds of China paper, laid on a frame of

bash* (work, rod over the paper is placed a cloth. The strained fluid is

thren nixed frith the opium scooped trot in the first operation, and placed

tin a large iron pot, when it is boiled down to the ronsisi^uee of fhhkish
treacle. In this second operation, the refuse from the straining of the
boiled 1; in boiled DO I'd through paper, and the

filtered Ihiid added to the mass to he made into chnndoo. The refuse ia
thrown outside and little attended to. It is dried and sold to tho
Chinese going to China, for three to five do pieul, who pound it

and Adulterate good opium with it. The paper that has been used in
lining contains a small quantity of opium — it is carefully dried and
I medicinally by the Chinese in hemorrhoids, prolapsus ani. and a
few other oomplainta.

third operation : the dissolved opium being reduced to the con-

enee of treacle, is seethed over a tire of charcoal of a strong and

ly. hut not fierce temperature, during which time it is moat carefully

ted, then spread out, thru worked up again and again by the super

tiding workman, so as to expel the water, and at the same tune avoid

luirniug it When it is brought to the proper consistence, it is divided

into half a dozen lots, each of which is spread like a plaster on a nearly

j ron pot to the depth of from half to three -quarters of an inch, and

then scored in all manner of directions to allow the heat to be applu j

equally to everj* part. One pot after another is then placed ovei the

Are, turned rapidly round, then [ so lis to expose the opium

itaelf to the full heat of the red tire. This is repeated three times ; the

• By It Litth , Eeq., M D

216

GOVERNMENT.

length of time requisite and the proper hont are judged of by the inoik-
mun from the efilm ium and the colour, and here the greatest d»
is requisite, for a little more tire, 01 a little less, would destroy tht
morning's work, or 800 or more dollars worth of opium. The head
workmen are men win* lisf« learned their trade in China, and, from
tht-ir great experience, receive lu^fli \vai_

The fourth operation consists in again dissolving this fired opium in
a large quantity of water, and boiling it in copper vessels till it i*

1 in the consistency of the ehandoo used in the shop-
of ten i - the index <«i its oomptote prep&rutiou, which is judged

of bj drawing it out with slips of haml-

I :v ilds long proces* many q| the impurities in the opium are got nil
of. and are left in the refuse thrown out, such as vegetable matter, a put
of the resin and oil, with the extractive matter, and a litti
the seething process the oil and resin are almost entirely dissipated. »i
thai the < humlno or extract as compared with the crude opium, is less
irritating and more soporiiie. The quantity of chandoo obtain*
the soft npium is about 75 per cent. ; but from the gross opium, that k
including the opium and the husk, tho proportion is not man than fro©
50 to B i [

Opium-smoking is undoubtedly a vice, and to gome
over sensitive minds the deriving of a revenue from it
may appear a moral dereliction ; but it is a subject
which must be dealt with in a practical spirit, and
there can be no question that unless we are prepared
to interdict the use of opium altogether in our posses-
sions in the Straits, and to double or treble our police
to keep the interdict effective, we can work no imm-
inent whatever on the present system. Now in the
first place, I question seriously if we, a small, foreign,
though governing race, have thq right to sup;
in a large people the indulgence of a vice of this sort
provided it does not directly affect good order; cer-
tainly to exercise that right with any show of justice
we must first close our public- houses and stop our
imports and manufacture of strong drinks ; and in
ie second place, no settlement such as the Straits

OPIUM-SMOKING MUST NOT BE PROHIBITED. 217

mid spare the cost of a police sufficiently strong
>r this suppression without a taxation seriously
renching upon the industry of its people.

Next to the suppression of the vice is its regulation
and confinement within reasonable bounds, and for
this purpose the farming system is I think well suited.
I cannot go the length, as I notice some local writers
on this subject have gone, of saying that the main
object of the farm at its establishment was the restric-
tion of opium consumption. With the East India
Company revenue was a matter of considerably greater
solicitude than the moral condition of the large popu-
lations under their rule ; and there can be very little
question that the opium farm had its origin in the
necessities of the local exchequer. But the fact that
it has continued to contribute fally one-half of the
revenue of the settlements has not deprived it of
its beneficial influence. By greatly enhancing the
cost to the consumer the consumption is kept within
narrow bounds. To the labouring classes it is all
but banned and forbidden fare, and even to the rich
its indulgence to excess would be a serious item of
expenditure. Besides this, the consumer is supplied
by the farmer, though at a high price, with good
sound opium free from the baneful adulteration to
which so precious a drug would be subject if an
unrestricted traffic were allowed. Altogether the opium
farm is a source of revenue to the Straits of which
no friendly councillor will seek to deprive it.

Toddy and baiuig are purely native indulgences.
Both are intoxicating, and therefore may fairly be

subjected to a tax on the consumption. The farm
however realizes but a small snm comparatively
speaking, from the fact that the farmer's dui
large and that the consumption of both is confined
to a small section of the inhabitants. Toddy u
sap of the eocoanut-tree, drawn by an incision from
the npprr am] greener port It possesses a peculiar
property; it is a fine wholesome refreshing drink
when newly collected, is strongly stimulating a faffi
hours afterwards, and when kept fur twenty-four horns
a very small allowance indeed will suffice to in
the most hardened drinker, I obtained from

a small bush not unl Hax-plant, and is a strong

harsh narcotic like tobacco; it is both chewed and
smoked by the natives of India. The toddy and
baang farm is, as already stated, the only one not
rented by Chili

The spirit farm, which is next in value to that of
opium, deserves no particular allusion ; it confers a
right to tax at a certain rate the retail of all liq.
containing alcohol, except toddy and baang. The
nature of the pawnbroker's farm may be gath
from its name ; it confers the exclusive right
advance small sums of money upon pledged articles ;
but it is strongly illustrative of a feature in tiki
character of the native population, that in Singapore
alone, where there are not 100,000 souls, the farmer
can pay a premium of 450L a month for the mono}
of the pawnshops. Buying and selling it is said is
an indication of fair civilization ; and mortgaging,
fe which followed long afterwards in mercantile history,

GAMBLING FARMS UNWISELY ABOLISHED. 219

ie of positive refinement- If this be bo the native
x>pulation have carried their refinement to a high
point.

»The Government farms were not always confined
to their present number. In the earlier days of the
settlement there were several others ; some of them
were trifling and unimportant, but there was one
which ranked next to, if indeed it did not take pre-
cedence of, that of opium — this was the gambling
farm. It was established at the same time as the
others, and abolished in 1829 on a presentment of
the grand jury of Singapore. Some of those grand
jurors have lived to bear witness to the error they
committed when, yielding more to the influence of
official blandishments than to their own convictions,
they recommended the Supreme Government to sacri-
fice a large revenue, and at the same time withdraw
the most wholesome restriction which it is possible
to impose upon a popular vice. The preponderance
of public opinion now is certainly in favour of the
farm, and several agitations have been begun with
a view to urge its reintroduction upon Government ;
but the fact that no additional revenue was acknow-
ledged by the community to be required has doubtless
prevented public opinion taking such a decisive form
as it might have doue under other circumstances.

Gambling is an inherent vice in three-fourths of
the population of the Straits. Legislation has done
all that it can to suppress it, and that all has been
futile. It has increased steadily with the population.
The interdict we have placed upon it baa only served

GOVERNMENT,

to drive it from daylight to darkness — from open, fair
and moderate gaming to surreptitious, stolen, and
unbounded indulgence, where the simple can be tic
timized by the crafty with impunity, and win: re violence
and bloodshed may be resorted to with little fear of
detection. As with the use of opium, no police that
the settlement can afford to maintain will be able
do more than drive the vice into hiding-places. The
cases which are brought before the magistrates, indi-
cate a very fair activity on the part of the poll
and though the fines inflicted after conviction are as
heavy as they can be made consistently with the
nature of the offence, yet they and the exposures
fail altogether of their effect as a deterrent to oth
and the charge-sheet of the magistrates' court con-
tinues to show an undiminished daily crop of offenders*
Indeed, the vice would appear to gain strength from
the very difficulties we oppose to it. It has frequently
come to light that fines which are levied upon indi-
viduals have been refunded by subscriptions made
over the next night's gaming-table. The chances of
detection and of fine seem to be well calculated, and
to be looked upon and provided for simply as a pre-
mium on the play — just as a farmer's tax would be.
Those who question the morality of a gambling fann,
therefore, would do well to reflect that, in point of
fact, the settlement now derives a very heavy addition
to its revenue from gambling. The money collected
in the magistrate's court in Singapore alone from
fines on gambling for the first four months of the
present year (1864), and handed over to the muni-

gamblers' picnics.

:*ijml fund for public purposes, was, in round numbers,
6,112 dollars, or 1,3701., and the only practical differ-
ence between swelling our revenue with these fines,

id drawing the produce of a gambling farm, is that,

the one case we heavily tax those few unfortunates

mly whom we detect in the indulgence, and, in the

ler, we should tax all who actually do indulge in

le vice.*

It is amusing the stratagems to which some of

le wealthier if not of the better classes resort to
obtain peaceable enjoyment of a good day's gambling.

ivitations, often printed, are issued ostensibly for a
picnic to be held in some lonely district of the jungle,
where the police would have no little difficulty to find
them out. One of these printed circular invitations
was placed in my hands by the Commissioner of Police
at Singapore, It is an amusing document, and I give
it in facsimile. Where or by whom they had got it
printed it is difficult to say,

/Hr- ©uartff Coon Hn presents liis best Compliments to Mr Tun
Wok, and requests the pleasure of his Company to Pic-Njo
Entertainments, on Sunday next the 20th Instant at Sailing Ti^a, Bukit
Timah Road, Plantation of Kim Tiang Hoo, next door of Beng 1
Plantation, and also be requested all his Amiable in vi tors will start at
5 a,m. punctually on that day.

Cftr faboux erf an aiutonr is oblige*.

Sln'-uvhie, }
b March, 1864 J

• Not only are these fines appropriated to public purposes as staled,
but they hav< come to he calculated upon as a part of the

uue. That I am not mistaken in this, tin- following » xtvact from the
annual report of tin president of llie Municipal CoflfflttwriflttgBB for I
will show. The president in this case was also resident councillor, or
next in authority to the Governor. After alluding to the items of revenue

222 GOVERNMENT.

If it was only at those picnic entertainments that
illicit gambling went on, there would be little to fear
beyond what evil there is in the vice itself; for though
surreptitiously indulged in as far as the police are
concerned, there is sufficient openness and generally
honour in such gaming to secure against foul play or
violence. But the great bulk of gambling is carried
on by those who cannot afford to send out printed
invitations, and indulge for a whole day in a country
picnic. These are forced for concealment into hidden
dens in the lowest slums of the town, where, if they
are secure from the police, they need place no limit
of time or money on their play, and may fearlessly
resort to any extremes which may be prompted by
the fortunes of the game. Indeed, there is something
in the necessity for concealment which of itself re-
moves a natural and wholesome restraint upon the
gambler ; for if to gamble is to break the law, ho
must feel that as a law breaker he has already placed
himself beyond the social pale ; and it is well known
with this consciousness how reckless in other respects
such men become. It is beyond all doubt, too, that
to be secure against interruption, these town gaming
parties extensively bribe the police. In the entire
police force of Singapore, numbering over 400 men,
there are only six Europeans, and the native races
of which the bulk is composed are notoriously weak

which showed an improvement, the report says: — •• The increase of
revenue from the above sources is, however, unfortunately counter-
balanced by a heavy decrease in magistrates' fines and fees — a falling off
equivalent to a fourth of the revenue derived from this same source last
year, a sum of more than 5,000 dollars."

GAMBLING

22;)

against bribery, A case was brought to light about
four years ago where a systematic receiving of bribes
was proved to have been practised, and this not by
the native police only, but by some of the European
as well. To the gamblers it is a simple calculation
what their chances of detection and fine against an
unfriendly police amounts to, and if they can com-
promise the risk by payment to the constables of a
lesser sum beforehand , they gladly do so.

The consequences of the present system as com-
pared with that under the farm, may shortly be summed
up to be an even greater practice of the vice— a clan-
destine indulgence without stint or regulation, and a
corrupt police. With a farm — such as that which
was abolished thirty-five years ago — the vice would
be heavily and evenly taxed ; it would be forced within
reasonable bounds— would be fair and open, and free
from scenes of violence. There would be a certain
number of gaming-houses in each district ; these
would be open at certain hours only, and subject to
rules and regulations, for the observance of which the
farmed would be responsible* A number of police
000 might be present at each gaming-house as
a guarantee against violence; and the public would
have free access to them at all times, and habitual
gamesters thus become marked men. By such a farm
the police would not only be kept pure, but be relieved
of a very large part of their present labour. The
farmer would have an organized system of espionage,
independent of, though subject to, the general super-
vision of the police. It is possible that illicit gambling

224

GOVERNMENT.

might still go on, and that the officers of the farmers
would be bribed, as the police are under the present
system ; but though possible, it is very unlikely. The
premium charged by the farmer would probably amount
to less than would be the cost of bribery ; and, besides,
even if such bribery did take place, it would have a
very different consequence from the corruption of the
police upon whom the settlement must depend other-
wise for so much.

Nor do 1 think there is any good reason why such
a question should not be openly and seriously con-
sidered from a revenue point of view, and some esti-
mate be made of the amount likely to be realized where
a gambling farm is re-introduced. The same maudlin
morality that would, with a knowledge of all the cor-
relative attvantages of the farm, reject such a source
of income to the state, must, to be consistent, reject
also every excise possessed by the settlement. Indeed,
it almost appears to me that, strictly speaking, there
are better grounds for abandoning a revenue derived
from the licensing of spirit-drinking and opium-smoking
than from a tax on gambling; for whereas the two
former vices permanently injure the constitution, the
latter, directly at least, affects the pocket only.
With regard to all such taxes, I would set it down
as a rule, that where a government finds itself either
without the right or without the power to suj
a popular vice, the taxation of that vice becomes a
much more legitimate source of revenue than any
burden laid upon honest industry.

Of the probable returns of a gambling farm a

REVENUE FROM GOVERNMENT FARMS.

225

very accurate test can be obtained by a reference to
those years in which it was in operation. In Singapore
the farm existed from 1820-29, and during those nine
years it took precedence of all other sources of revenue.
The returns in dollars for that period of the three
principal farms at Singapore were : —

—

Opium.

Spirits.

Gambling.

Dollar*.

Dollars.

1820-21

7,845

3,805

5,275

1821-22

0,420

5,115

7,335

1822-28

14,200

7,700

9,500

1823-24

22,830

8,270

15,076

1824-25

24,000

9,600

25,680

1826-26

24,030

12,000

33,657

1826-27

24,600

12,000

30,390

1827-28

24,720

12,180

32,616

1828-29

82,640

15,600

33,864

It will be seen from these that the gambling farm
increased with the population more steadily and in a
greater ratio than either that of opium or of spirits ;
00 that the increase which it would if continued have
made up to the present day, may at the least be taken
as equal to that made by the opium and spirit farm.
From the table of farms first given, it will be found
that in 1863-64 the produce of the opium farm is nine
times, and that of the spirit farm seven times, greater
now than they were respectively in 1828-29 ; taking
the mean of these rates, the sum realized from the
gambling farm in 1828-29 has to be multiplied eight
times to give its present value, which would therefore
be for Singapore 205,000 dollars, and adding a third
for Penang and Malacca 273,000 dollars, or equal to
61,000i. for the entire settlement yearly. Here then

GOVERNMENT.

lies a sure and legitimate source of income, equal to
close upon one -third of the present gross revenue,
ready to pour into the Colonial exchequer when occa-
sion shall require and when her statesmen shall have
the power and shall grow bold enough to legislate
according to her best interests, independent of the
clamour of a distant sect alike uninformed and un-
interested.

The revenue derived from land and forests is not
great, nor can it be expected materially to increase.
It comprises not the sums derived from the soles of
unoccupied land, but only rents, quit-rents of land
conditionally alienated and the amounts paid for com-
mutation of quit-rents, together with a small sum
for the right to cut timber on waste lands* The sums
received for the sale of land are carried to a deposit
account against the public debt and do not appear
at all as revenue. In the early days of the Company
the fee simple was seldom parted with ; and both town
and country lands were sold for a term of years only T
subject to a small annual payment. From official
carelessness and other blenders, however, some groi
both at Penang and Singapore, appear from the first to
have been held in perpetuity, and in later years, when
the giving to purchasers a permanent interest in the
soil became an acknowledged principle in good govern-
ment, the sales were made in fee simple or next thing
to it, and every facility offered to previous holders to
convert their leases to the same tenure on equitable
terms. As this process of conversion is still going on,
and as no new rents are now being reserved, the had

LAND UNDER CULTIVATION AND WASTE. 227

revenue so far most gradually decline, but the increased
value of the unsold lands as they are brought to
market will probably compensate for this in another way.
According to estimates drawn up by the sorveyor-
general in 1860, it appears that in Singapore there
were at that time about 25,000 acres under cultivation
and about 120,000 lying waste, of which probably five-
sixths or 100,000 acres remained in the hands of
Government. In Penang there were in the same year
500 acres, and in Province Wellesley 50,000 acres,
available for sale. In Malacca the territory is much
more extensive, measuring over 1,000 square miles ;
and of this 250 are calculated to be under cultivation,
and the remaining 750 to be disposable in the hands
of Government. When we came into possession of
Malacca it was found that nearly one-half of the
territory had been granted away by the Dutch some
fifty years before to private hands on somewhat pecu-
liar terms. To buy up these rights our Govern tnent
granted annuities to the aggregate value of nearly
2,000/., and also agreed to the somewhat extraordinary
condition that these lands should, in the event of the
settlement being abandoned by our Government or
transferred to any other Power, be returned to the
representatives of the annuitants. This condition
long remained a stumbling-block in the disposal of
these lands, it being impossible for our Government to
grant them in feo simple. This difficulty has now
been removed however — somewhat arbitrarily it is
true — by the late Land Act, so that the whole of
the waste lands of Malacca may be said to be at

15— *

228 GOVERNMENT.

the disposal of Government. The disposable land
then in the British possession in the Straits of
Malacca is as under : —

Singapore 100,000 acres.

Penang 7,000 „

Province Wellesley 50,000 „

Malacca 400,000 „

Total „ 657,000 acres,

which, valued at the minimum selling price of five
rupees, or ten shillings per acre, gives a sum of 278,000/.
as a standing capital to the settlement, either to be
gradually gathered in at improved rates, or ready at
any moment to be pledged for its necessities.

The stamp-tax, which is now a considerable source
of revenue, was only introduced at the beginning of
last year. Great outcries were made against it by
the mercantile community, who based their remon-
strances first on the assertion that no further revenue
was required, and that the settlement already paid all
her legitimate expenses ; and secondly on the nature
of the tax itself, which they declared was an infringe-
ment of that free-trade policy which it is so essential
to maintain in the government of these dependencies.
The first objection however was unreasonable as
applied to India, for though the existing revenue
was equal to the civil expenditure, still it left the
military almost entirely unprovided for ; and however
small a share the settlement ought to have to pay of
its military defence, India ought certainly to have
to pay none, as it derives no advantage therefrom ;
and, if there are only the two pair of shoulders on
wliich to lay the burden, those of the settlement ought

STAMP-TAX. 229

certainly to bear it. So at least thought the Indian
authorities, and those at home too it would appear,
for the remonstrances of the Chamber of Commerce
to both were alike disregarded. As to the nature
of the tax itself the objections were scarcely better
founded, because a stamp duty has always been found
a very fair means of raising a revenue and not par-
ticularly burdensome upon mercantile transactions,
as on all but legal documents it amounts only to a
fractional percentage. At all events it has not as
yet, after eighteen months' operation, proved any
perceptible restraint on the business of the Straits ;
and the merchants have done their best to turn its
burden away from themselves by making it a regular
recognized charge upon their constituents at home.

The product of the tax during the year 1863-64,
for which I have stated the general revenue, has been
so regular from month to month as to permit it to be
taken as a tolerably certain index of its value in time
to come. The following are the monthly returns at
Singapore during the year : —

1863— May „ 1,672

June 1,322

July 1,679

August 1,636

September 1,972

October 1,583

November 1,526

December 1,681

1864— January 2,308

February 1,460

March 1,879

April 1,919

Total £ 20,637

The returns of Penang and Malacca are nearly as
regular, and bring the gross amount realized for the
year up to 26,175/.

The fourth item I have set down in the account of
revenue includes all fees received by the registrars of
the two divisions of the Supreme Court of Judicature,
the Commissioners of the Courts of Requests, and the
Deputy Sheriffs ; all unclaimed property of intestates,
also all fines and forfeitures except those levied at the
police courts which go to the municipal funds. The
fees of the Supreme Court form perhaps the largest
part of the sum set down under this head ; these w^
until lately, the perquisites of the registrars, who
received them in lieu of salaries ; they were very
large, and it is asserted that the incomes of the regis-
trars were, at one time, greater than those of the
judges of the court* However this may be, there is
no doubt that the change to fixed salaries was ill
relished by them* I have certainly heard one of the
registrars talk bitterly of the Act that ** robbed him of
his fees/' Litigation appears to be a weakness with
some sections of the native population, and there is
no lack of business for the court in its civil jurisdiction,
npr does there appear to be any lack of agents to
conduct it, the number of practitioners authorized to
plead at the bar of the court numbering no less than
thirteen in Singapore alone.

Under the head of Public Works are included the
rents of public markets, that are let out yearly by
public auction at the same time as the farms, rents of
Government bungalows and other buildings. Under

MUNICIPAL FUXD.

281

Marine, are placed rights of Government steamers,
light dues, hospital charges recovered, and sale of coals
and stores to H.M.'s steamers* &c. As to light dues,
though no European skip-owner would ever grudge
to pay such a tax, they might, I think, if the revenue
could spare it, be abolished ; the sum they yield is
not great— barely amounting to 2,000/. annually — and
they interfere with that absolute freedom of the port
which it is desirable that the Straits settlement should
maintain in name as well as in substance.

In addition to the ordinary revenue, but distinct
from it, is the municipal fond of each station. These
are supplied by assessment upon dwelling-houses and
carriages, supplemented also to a large extent by the
fines recovered at the magistrate's courts. In Singa-
pore the municipal receipts for last year amounted to
25,207/,, of which sum 22,233/. was derived from
assessment and other sources, and 2,974L from the
magistrate's court. From these funds are defrayed the
entire cost of the maintenance of the police force at
each station, the cost of maintaining the public roads
and bridges within a certain radius of the towns, and
all other expenditures connected with municipal affairs.
The administration of them is entrusted to committees,
consisting partly of nominee or official members, and
partly of members elected by a majority of the rate-
payers. The expenditure of the Singapore fund for
last year was 22,963/., of which 9,99Gf. was for the
police establishment.

Such are the purely local sources of the revenue of
the settlement, and they could scarcely be more satis-

ctory. The yield of the Excise farms, on over too-
thirds of the gross income, can be affected only by an
increase or decrease of the population — by the former
favourably and adversely by the latter, and as the cost
of Government will probably rise or fall by the same
causes, so far the revenue will be self-adjusting. The
stamp- tax, which forms the next largest source, will
be affected chiefly by commercial prosperity or prostra-
tion, and it is worthy of remark that the present year,
for which its returns have been given, has, owing to
the American war and other causes, not been a very
bright one. The other sources are so legitimate in
their nature, and even taken together, comparatively
so small, that by no combination of unfavourable cir-
cumstances can a falling off in them seriously affect
the financial condition of the settlement.

The general expenditure of the Straits for the last
official year ending 30th April, 1864, may be set
down under the following heads : —

Collection of revenu-

A Uowaii on under treaties I

rublic works... .

Siilurirs and expenses of departments 25,861

Law find justice

Marine 14*006

Retired allowances and grants in enmity I

Kil unit inn. M&9

Miscellaneous i»,744

11!
Military M

Total £ 100,005

The expenditures under these heads embrace every
rhargc civil and military at present incurred on account

MILITARY EXPENDITURE.

233

£ the Straits, and except only the cost of maintenance
>f the Indian convicts, which, though paid out of the
treasury here, is clearly an item for reimbursement.*
The cost of the post-office is also omitted, as the
receipts under that head I have not carried to the
credit of the revenue ; but I may mention that the cost
of the post-office is only 2,124?. annually, while its
receipts on collection of postage was 14,280/. for last
year. Taking, then, the gross outlay comprising as
it does every possible charge against the settlement
from the revenue as stated at page 209, there is left a
deficit of only 4,096/., and this after paying the
monstrous sum of 81,000/. or very nearly one -half of
the entire revenue, for the support of military, in
addition to the sum of 15,O0OL, the cost of the local
marine. In no year previous to this last has the
military expenditure exceeded 50,000/., and had it
remained at this figure, instead of now showing a
deficit of 4,000/., the public accounts of the settlement
would have displayed a surplus of 26,000/.

The cost of the collection of revenue is necessarily
small from the nature of the taxes themselves. The

■ Tin- hi In nir of tki it bus been m ain turned by some, BMHM

Hum reooBopeiw tha wdptommi r<>i the cod of their rapport j and I

lind that public works urn for the future to be charged with the wages
of (he number of convicts employed, at two thirds the rate paid to I
labourers, and the amount then charged will, it is rxpected, cover a large
portion of the outlay on their maiiileiiiiuri:. But this is scarcely lair to
the settlement ; for though some of the men iubv be worth that rah o4
wages, all are not, and besides it is hard that th< til should have

(I ral hundn I S lODI famed upon it for w horn it is hoand to lind work,
or* at aU events, whom it is bound t<i suppnrt. Labour of this sort will
ilwnvs Im la\i*hed. und r<iniparativi'ly n undertaken simply

lo fad i* nt

234 GOVERNMENT,

farms bring in their returns net, so that of the sum
set down here, 3,8842* is for the cost in salaries, &c.
of gathering in the land-rents, and 2,749/. the expenses
and salaries of the stamp offices.

Allowances under treaties are: first, at Penang,
10,000 dollars a year to the Rajah of Qnedah, his
heirs and successors, fox the cession of that island
and Province Wellesley ; second* at Malacca, a pension
to Syed Sahaney ; to the family of the Captain China
of Dutch times, who possessed an important magis-
terial post, and to some few others ; third, at Singa-
pore, —

To Sultan Ali and family i'M per aimum,

Tri Tuonkoo Mahomed 134

To Toonkoo Slejman . 1M

To Tumongong and family MS „

Total £ 1,860

These pensions are paid according to treaty, and

were part of the consideration given by the Govern-
ment for the cession of the island. The payment
at Penang to the Rajah of Quedah must continue a
permanent burden upon the resources of the settle-
ment ; but the pensions at both Malacca and Singapore
will be considerably reduced and ultimately extinguished
by the effluxion of time.

The expenditure under the head of public works
has of late years been a heavy one in the Straits,
and it may be doubted whether the settlement has
reaped any benefit at all commensurate with the
outlay. In the first place, an extensive system of
fortification for Singapore was devised about seven

PUBLIC WORKS— CHIEF ENGINKKi:.

23.3

years ago, and is now barely completed, after having
been tortured by a long series of modifications and
enlargements according to the fluctuations of military
tactics, and according to the different opinions of the
officers who have held the appointment of chief
engineer; so that whether or not such works may
be fairly debited to the local instead of the imperial
revenue, it is just ground of complaint that they should
be set down at three or four times their proper cost,
Fnrther on I shall have more to say of these forti-
fications, and of their value as works of defence. In
the next place, with respect to public works of a non-
military character, the Straits settlement has been
unfortunate, in so far that these have been under-
taken quite as often to develop the plans of the
department as to provide for the necessities of the
place. The appointment of chief engineer, which has
continued since 1857, has had much to do with this ;
it has been held by officers of some rank in the Royal
Engineers, who draw large salaries from the local
treasury in addition to their military pay and allow-
ances, and feel bound in honour to project some work
worthy of their professional status, and on a scale
corresponding to the large emolument they receive.
Fortunately these projections have seldom lately taken
a substantial form, and it was determined to abolish
the office in April this year ; but the Indian Govern-
ment had apparently some difficulty in finding another
post for the incumbent, and so instruction was after-
wards sent down that the appointment was to continue
another year. The chief engineer's salary, and the

236 GOVERNMENT.

expenses of his establishment, axe debited under the
head of public works. Some creditable and useful
undertakings, however, have been carried to com-
pletion under the direction of the chief engineer's
department. Among others an extensive range of
public hospitals ; a new sea-wall on the western side
of the river, which reclaimed some valuable town land ;
a fine granite-built lighthouse at Cape Rachado, and
the imposing pile of St. Andrew's Cathedral.

The salaries and expenses of public departments
call for no special remark ; the former, with perhaps
one exception, are in every respect ample for the duties
performed, and the latter quite as great as they are
likely to be under any other form of government.
The exception I allude to respecting salaries is that
of the governor. Even now — but especially if he has
entrusted to him powers as her Majesty's plenipo-
tentiary — it is most desirable that he should be in a
position to entertain largely and liberally. From its
central position, Singapore is the calling place of her
Majesty's ships and of her Majesty's representatives
on their way to or from China, Japan and the Archi-
pelago ; and its governor should be well subsidized,
that he may without trenching on his private resources
display that liberal hospitality which undoubtedly goes
a long way to secure good feeling and respect. It is
scarcely creditable, at all events, that her Majesty's
representative in Singapore should be found to study
economy so much more than the Dutch governor-
general in Java, or the Spanish capitan general of
the Philippines. It should be borne in mind, too, that

SALARIES OF GOVERNMENT OFFICERS. 237

the residents of Singapore for the most part indulge
in a somewhat lavish hospitality, which often threatens
to eclipse that of the governor.

The principal officers of Government, and the salaries
they at present receive, are as under. Their salaries
are not all debited under the same head, but many
are charged to their respective departments ; such as
the chief engineers and executive engineers to public
works, surveyor general to land revenue, recorder,
registrar, &c., to law and justice, &c. &c.

General.

The Governor 4,200

Secretary and A.D.C. , exclusive of Staff-pay 4 '.'0

Chief Engineer (including military pay) 1 , 1 ho

Senior Surgeon JWO

Surveyor General him

SlNOAPORK.

Resident Councillor l.Hon

Magistrate of Police h40

Executive Engineer (including military

pay) !.. 1,240

Commissioner of Police 1/200

Commissioner of Stamps 000

Master Attendant (MM)

Postmaster 400

Commissioner of Court of Requests 510

Deputy Commissioner of Police 52H

Chaplain 000

Assistant- Surgeon 504

The Recorder 2.5ou

Registrar of the Court 1.200

. Sheriff *<W

Pen an o.

Resident Councillor 2,400

Magistrate « 20

Magistrate, Province Wellesley 720

Executive Engineer 4hii

Harbour Master 4*0

238 GOVERNMENT.

Deputy Commissioner of Police 628

Chaplain 960

A Bsistant- Surgeon 064

The Recorder 2,000

Registrar of the Court 1,080

Malacca.

Resident Councillor 1,200

Magistrate 720

Surveyor 600

Assistant- Surgeon 664

Missionary Chaplain 420

Registrar of the Court 600

The amount charged under the head of law and
justice in the general table of expenditure it will be
seen is far in excess of the salaries given to the
recorders, registrars and sheriffs; for it includes,
besides the court establishment, the expenses of the
jail and house of correction, the Court of Bequests, &c.
Under the head of Marine is comprised the cost of
some small steamers, and which are noticed further
on. The sums spent on account of education, retired
allowances, charities, and those set down under mis-
cellaneous, are unimportant, and call for no special
remark.

The military expenditure is one of the largest, and
probably the most unsatisfactory of the items that
appear in the public accounts. It is one against which
the residents have protested for a long time back ; and
though these protests may appear to have been some-
times carried to unreasonable extremes, yet they are
based upon indisputably good grounds. It is not so much
the extent of the sum charged upon the local revenue —
though in the last year it has swallowed up nearly one
half of the revenue — which has caused dissatisfaction,

UNWISE MILITARY EXPENDITURE.

as the fact that the military strength it pretends
to secure is no defence at all. Against internal revolt
or disaffection the Straits settlement needs no such
force as it at present maintains. An additional police,
perhaps better armed, would in such an event serve
this purpose, and be otherwise useful besides. And
though the local resources would be ungrudgingly con-
tributed towards an efficient outward defence too ; yet,
against external attack — that is, against the assault of
a European force, on such a place as Singapore, what
could 400 or 500 sepoys do ? Why, as far as any
infantry is concerned, the town could be laid in ashes
by an enemy from his ships without the exchange of
a single musket-shot* The military strength in infantry
of the Straits is, and has been for a long time back,
two regiments of Madras native troops — numbering
about 1,000 bayonets, 400 of whom are stationed
at Penang, 100 at Malacca, 100 at Labuan, and 400
at Singapore. Scattered in this way, it is not difficult
to appreciate the value of the protection they would
afford. In Singapore the 400 men do little more than
furnish the ornamental guards to the treasury, the
Government offices and other public buildings.

There are forts, it is true, which have cost the
Indian Government and the settlement large sums of
money, and which give Singapore the empty re-
putation of being a stronghold. But since these
have been constructed, they have never yet been
manned ; far from this, there have not been men
enough to keep the guns in order. On the Queen's
birthday, some two years ago, it was determined

240 GOVERNMENT.

to fire the royal salute from the big guns at Fort
Canning. At sunrise, the military and the volunteers
were drawn up in order on the plain beneath, and
they were to wait the firing from the fort to commence
their evolutions. I was at the time standing with
some others on the ramparts overlooking the southern
battery of the fort ; from the seven sixty-eight
pounders mounted on which the salute was to be
fired. The guns were manned by a detachment
of European Artillery. At six o'clock the royal
banner was unfurled, and run up to the mast-head of
the large flagstaff in the centre of the fort. This was
the signal for the firing of the first gun, but unfortu-
nately it hung fire, and would not go off — the trigger
of a second was pulled with similar result; a third
also failed, and only the fourth, sixth, and seventh
guns of the battery could be discharged. New tubes
were tried on the guns that had missed fire, but it was
no use, and the salute had to be bungled through with
the three guns only, much to the astonishment of the
disconcerted infantry and volunteers on the plain
beneath.*

The fortification of Singapore consists of four
earthworks — Fort Canning, Fort Fullerton, Fort
Palmer, and Fort Faber. Fort Canning is a redoubt,
following the contour of the top of Government Hill,

* I have been told that the cause of the guns not going off was that
the junk wads wliich had been placed in them after last drill practice
were not withdrawn before loading; but I can scarcely tliink a detach-
ment of Royal Artillery could neglect such a precaution, and I prefer
rather to blame the guns than so seriously to call in question the effi-
ciency of the Artillery.

P0RTIFICAT1

241

yhieh stands near the centre of the town about half a
mile back from the beach. The hill rises abruptly
from the level land around, in the shape of a cone, to
the height of some 200 feet. Its apex is of consider-
able extent, the ramparts measuring nearly 1,200 yardr .
It mounts at present seventeen heavy pieces, namely,
seven 68- pounders, eight 8-inch shell guns, and two
13-inch mortars; there are also in course of constric-
tion, platforms for eight more heavy pieces. Besides
these, the ramparts of this fort are furnished with a
number of 14-pound carronades. Within the ramparts
are barracks, hospital, and accommodation for 150
European artillerymen. Fort Fullerton is a battery
a fleur iVeau, built on the promontory at the western
entrance of the Singapore river, containing barracks,
&c, fit to accommodate about half a garrison battery
of European artillery, or about 40 men ; it mounts
nine G8-pounder guns, and one 13-inch mortar, with
platforms ready for five more big guns. Fort Palmer
is a small earthwork overlooking the eastern entrance
to New Harbour, and contains merely a guard-room
with magazines, &c«, and mounting five 56-pounder
guns. Fort Faber is also an earthwork, half way up
the hill of that name, overlooking New Harbour, with
guard-room and magazine, and mounting only two
56-pounder guns. At the summit of the hill two
mortars are also placed in position. The total of
these guns and mortars actually mounted and sup-
posed to be available in case of emergency in tho
defence of Singapore, is thirty-six ; and if to this is
added the fifteen for which platforms are ready made,

242

GOVERNMENT,

and which only want lifting into their places, there is
a total of fifty-one guns of the largest calibre indepen-
dent of smaller mounted ordnance. Until September
last year the European artillerymen to work these
fifty-one guns was exactly seventy ; at that time the
number was increased to 120, which now gives the
somewhat more liberal allowance of two men to each
gun — the other duties of the forts being left to look
after themselves. Garrisoned in this way, it is easy
to understand of what value the best of fortifications
can be. But unfortunately there are good reasons to
believe that the forts themselves are so placed that,
even if fully garrisoned, it would be unwise to use
them against an enemy's ships in the roadstead.

They have all, with the exception of Fort Fullerton,
been constructed within the last seven years, and Fort
Fullerton itself has been so extensively remodelled as
almost to be considered a new work. It was in 1857
that the plan of this modern defence was first drawn
out. At that time local disturbances among lbs
Chinese and the rebellion in India, pointed, it was
thought, somewhat ominously to the unprotected con-
dition of the settlement. The object at first in view
was to provide rather for the safety of the Euro] •< an
residents in event of an outburst of local disaffection,
than for defence against an outside enemy ; at the
same time to combine as much as possible the one
with the other. But before the works had been
commenced, the renewal of hostilities in China, the
unsatisfactory condition of the foreign relations of
the Imperial Government at the time, and the opera^

FORT CANNING. 243

tions of other European powers to the eastward, deter-
mined a wider range to be given to the system of
defence, and new plans were drawn up by which, if
carried out, the place might be considered safe in
event of a European disturbance. It was at this
time too that the Imperial Government directed
barracks to be constructed for the accommodation of
a full regiment of European infantry.

The war in China however, came to a speedy close,
the position of affairs in Europe became settled and
satisfactory, and the French did not seem inclined to
push their advantages in Cochin China to a dangerous
extreme. In fact, immediate danger appeared to have
passed away, and with it it was thought the necessity
for the extended works contemplated. Piece by piece
the system of fortification was reduced until all that
remained of it were the works described. They had
been from the first a compromise, and by extension
here and contraction there, by the desire to serve
two purposes at the minimum of outlay, they have
proved ill-suited for the one and inefficient for the
other.

Fort Canning, which is much the largest of the
forts, from its position must be used with great dis-
advantage against an enemy's ships at sea. It is
placed right in the centre of the town, and would of
necessity draw his fire upon the chief buildings of the
place. Besides this, its distance from the beach is
so much loss of power. A vessel with guns of the
same calibre as those mounted on the fort, might so
anchor as not only to be able to blow up all the

16—2

244 GOVERNMENT.

merchantmen in the harbour, but to destroy the
greater part of the town itself, and yet be by a
quarter of a mile beyond the reach of the fort.
With even the powerful weapons now mounted upon
it, this is painfully apparent. At the last shot and
shell practice I witnessed, the target was placed just
in the range of the anchorage of the larger ships.
The distance was about a mile and a quarter, and the
elevation required by the guns was so considerable,
that together with the height of the fort the balls
went plumping into the water at such a great angle
that a ricochet was impossible. If they had hit the
deck of a ship, they might have gone through her
bottom; but they would require to be fired with
extraordinary accuracy to drop in this way on to
their mark.

Fort Fullerton possesses the advantage of stretch-
ing out on a slight promontory for some few yards
into the harbour, and its embrasures being only some
fifteen feet above the sea level, the shot from its guns,
if even moderately well directed, would, owing to the
ricochet, seldom fail to hull an enemy. But the fort
is placed right in line with the densest and most
valuable part of the town, and an enemy, in the
attempt to silence it, would sweep away one-half of
the richly-stored godowns of the port.*

The two small works at Mount Palmer and Mount
Faber are well enough ; they are clear of the town,
and command two important portions of the harbour,

• Since the above was written, the dismantling of Fort Fullerton has
actually commenced, for the reason assigned in the text.

SINGAPORE NOT IN A CONDITION OF DEFENCE. 245

but wonld of course be useless unless supported by
extensive batteries bearing on the other unprotected
points. In event of a war between Great Britain
and any Power possessed of territory and of fleets
and forces to the eastward of the Straits of Malacca,
the safe possession of Singapore would secure an
incalculable advantage in a strategetic point of view
alone, and quite irrespective of its commercial value.
It guards indeed the highway of steam navigation
between India and the western world and China and
the far east. With the Straits of Malacca in her
possession, and with Singapore as a half-way house
to provision, recruit, and repair her expeditions, Great
Britain is sure of ascendancy in the far east. For from
the vast military resources of India, Bhe could pour
in the very shortest time an overwhelming force upon
any given point, and also so rapidly transfer them
backwards and forwards as never to endanger the
continent itself from which they were withdrawn. It
is on this account that I have been so particular in
dealing with the fort defences, and to prevent any
false reliance being placed upon them. It is not
unusual in China, Java, at Saigon, and in India itself,
to hear people talk of the extensive fortifications of
Singapore, which have been built and heavily armed
to render the place a military stronghold. I do not
know whether such a belief is Bhared by the War
Office at home, but I hope not, for it is a very false
one, and might prove a very fatal one.

Singapore is in no condition of defence whatever,
and the town might be shelled and knocked to pieces

246 GOVERNMENT.

with impunity by a vessel mounting modernly heavy
ordnance ; or a couple of regiments of infantry might
be landed at some point a few miles from the
harbour and quietly marched from behind into the
heart of the town. It ought here to be borne in
mind that the destruction of the town is synonymous
with the destruction of the station, which has no
agriculture and no inland resources to fall back upon,
but being an entrepot, has its entire wealth stored
up in its merchants' warehouses. It is not that the
forts are ungarrisoned, though by being left so they are
even placed at the mercy of any powerful local rising
did such take place, but that they are unserviceable.
Except from Fort Fullerton* not a shot could be fired
into an enemy lying securely at anchor some two miles
from shore and pouring broadside after broadside with
deadly effect upon the warehouses of the town from
guns of no greater strength than those mounted on
the forts ; and as to the landing of a body of infantry,
I may mention that there is not a single heavy gun
mounted on any of the forts capable of being turned
to deliver its fire inland.

Nor does it appear that any system of fortification
could be carried through that would prove by itself
a satisfactory defence. The town might perhaps be
rendered safe from the fire of an enemy's ships ; but
it must be borne in mind that the wealth which floats
in the trading ships at anchor in the roadstead must
at most seasons represent one or two millions sterling,

* When Fort Fullerton is dismantled an enemy's ship in such a
position would be completely secure.

SINGAPORE REQUfRES NAVAL DEFENCE, 247

and owing to the gentle curve of the bay there is no
point of land on which we could erect forts whose guns
would bo able to protect these. The best military and
naval authorities whose opinions I have been able to
obtain now agree that the protection of Singapore and
its shipping in case of a European war can be best
secured by the presence in the Straits of one or two
of H,M/s heavily armed ships. The position of the
island is exceedingly favourable for a defence of this
sort. At its western extremity the navigable channel
of the Straits is not more than ten miles broad ;
at its eastern extremity, which with Bintang to the
southward forms the eastern entrance to the Straits
of Malacca, the navigable channel is barely eight miles,
and admission here by night time could in an extremity
be rendered highly perilous, if not impossible, by the
extinction of the lighthouse which guards an important
danger in the centre of the channel. The blockade of
the Straits therefore either to eastward or westward of
the island of Singapore could be easily maintained,
and the distance from the one point to the other is so
small, barely thirty miles, that the squadron, of what-
ever it might consist, could in case of danger be concen-
trated at either extremity at the shortest notice.

In no other way do I think could the safety of the
shipping in the roadstead be secured, or the town
protected against the possibility of an attack from
m enemy's infantry landed at an unprotected part
of the island and marched up on its rear. Efficient
fortification might, as I have said, secure the town
itself against destruction from an enemy's ships, but

248 GOVERNMENT.

it could never secure the ships in harbour nor prevent
such a landing as that indicated. And, therefore,
whether or not it be necessary to keep up the forti-
fication of Singapore to a certain standard, the first
and chief reliance must be placed upon a sea defence ;
which while it is the best will also be found the
most economical to the State.

Some years ago it was resolved by the Imperial
Government to construct a royal dockyard, arsenal,
and coal depot at Singapore for the use of the China
fleet. I believe the intention has not been abandoned,
though the carrying of it out has been delayed. The
site has been selected, and contracts were only a few
months ago entered into for the construction of sub-
stantial stone piers along the length of the water
frontage ; these are progressing, and the Government
on entering upon the land came into possession of
coal-sheds, a half-finished dock, and other premises
ready made, the property of an unfortunate squatter
who has up to the present moment received no recom-
pence whatever. If these works are carried out on
a scale commensurate with the requirements they are
devised to supply, they will of themselves render the
defence of the island an imperial necessity. And
though some land batteries for the greater security
of the dockyards themselves may require to be thrown
up and kept garrisoned, yet the general defence must
be by sea, and this will in part be secured by the
very vessels that in the ordinary course of events
must resort to the docks.

With regard to infantry, as I have said, it is not

Sl'ITABLE FOR RESERVES OF INFANTRY.

249

required for the security of any of the stations in the
Straits against internal revolt. Nor could it come
into service against an outside attack until the very
last extremity ; and then no such paltry detachments
as at present of 400 or 500 men could avail. But
it seems to me that there could be no better point
at which to keep a reserve of European infantry for
general imperial purposes. By recent medical returns
of the army and navy, the China station has proved by
a long way the most unhealthy for European troops ;
and it is almost certain that for a considerable time
to come, Great Britain must continue to back her
influence there by the occasional display of military
strength. Singapore is but six or seven steaming
days from Hong Kong, and ten from Shanghai, even
in an unfavourable monsoon ; its climate has been
established beyond all doubt to be kinder and more
genial to the European constitution than any other
in the east. It has no pestilence, no epidemics or
endemics that extend themselves to Europeans. In-
valids, broken down and exhausted/from China and
Bengal alike seek its shores, and after a sojourn of
six or seven weeks leave it in health and vigour.
Why, then, not station in the Straits one moiety at
least of the troops intended to be available for China
and Japan ? At Singapore about five years ago under
orders from the Home Government, a magnificent
range of barracks and cantonments were erected in
the midst of scenery rarely equalled in its beauty,
destined for and capable of accommodating 1,200
European soldiers and their officers, which have never

250

GOVERNMENT

been occupied, and are now going fast to wreck and
ruin simply from the want of tenants. What a saving
there would be in the mortality, and what a difference
in the condition of the troops detailed for the China
service if, instead of being all hurried on to the cholera
and fever swamps of the Yangtze, one-half were main-
tained in health and vigour in the luxuriant quarters
of Singapore, and allowed to exchange from time to
time with their less fortunate comrades at their po
Far more efficiency than would be lost by reason
of the fortnight's or three weeks' delay (for it could
not be more) in the appearance of the section of the
forces left at Singapore on China soil in case of emer-
gency, would be gained by the superior condition in
which they would arrive. Besides this, it is apparent
that any body of troops stationed at Singapore would
be available not for China only, but for India; and
that within a period so short as to meet any emer-
gency which is almost possible to arise, nine days
would serve to convey both men and baggage to
Calcutta, Madras, or any point on the east coast, or
in Burmalu Indeed, I think that, irrespective of the
China force and in regard to India only, Singapore
might with great advantage be used as a health re-
cruiting or reserve station for European infant

There is another reason why it should be the object
of the Imperial Government to carry out such arrange-
ments as I have indicated, both with respect to the
naval and the military forces of the east. It is that
they would dispone with the necessity for any local
force naval or military, and \\h:d Minis now are

STRAITS MARINE.

251

proposed to be, spent from the local exchequer
under these heads, eoukl be handed over to the
Imperial Government in the way of a subsidy. Deter-
mined to have some sort of marine available when
need be for the suppression of piracy and other local
purposes, the Government of the Straits have obtained
three steamers, the yearly cost of which may be noted
in the table of general expenditure. Unfortunately
this marine is little better than a name only ; one
steamer is a wooden vessel of 400 tons, going at full
speed probably five knots, and carrying two old 32-
pounders and two swivels, useless for all purposes
in India, and Bent down to the Straits on that account.
The other two are old Thames river-boats, of about
100 tons each, carrying no arms at all, which were
sent first out to Calcutta, and then up with the last
China expedition for conveying messages between the
larger ships in the rivers.

This lilliputian fleet is officered by gentlemen in
the uniform of the Straits marine, but barring the
uniforms of the officers, its appearance is too ridiculous
to have any moral weight, and as to its usefulness
that can be understood from the description of the
boats, and from the fact that with some very few
exceptions where they have conveyed diplomatic
despatches, they have been used for nothing else but
passenger traffic. Even in this last capacity they
have proved sadly insufficient. It is not many months
ago that the Government medical officer of Malacca
had the misfortune to fall from a height and fracture
his leg bu seriously as to necessitate amputation ; no

252

GOVERNMENT.

doctor besides himself however was at the station, and
as he was suffering great agony one of the two little
steamers which happened to be there was despatched
for the residency surgeon of Singapore, The distance
between the two ports is barely 100 miles. Late on
the night of the accident the steamer left Malacca and
got into Singapore on the following night. She was
despatched again early next morning with the neces-
sary assistance on board and got back to Malacca that
night, having occupied altogether two days for a
passage which could have been completed there and
back by one of the Malay sampans if well manned
in thirty-six hours. When the steamer reached
Malacca the patient had died after helplessly sufferini:
the most excruciating agony, and when it was believed
that amputation would have saved his life. What
steamers of this sort could do against pirates or any-
thing else with means to fight or means to run, must
be left to conjecture only, for though especially destined
for the purpose, as far as I can learn none of these
vessels have ever yet been able to obtain more than
a fading glimpse of a pirate and that while there were
many reported to be about. There appears to me no
public purpose which can be served by a local marine
that could not be equally well secured by H.M/s
ships, except it be that Government officials, instead
of travelling free of expense by the colonial boats,
would like other people have to engage their passages
by the regular opportunities.*

* The Court of Judicature on its circuits to Malacca, and the
I tovernoi OO his yearly visit to Malum* nm\ J'eiian^, could be conveyed
in any bf H.M.'s vessels which Knight be stationed in the Straits at the

LOCAL CORPS, NOT ADVISABLK TO CREATE, 253

The advantages of making Singapore a constant
station for at least a fnll regiment of European infantry
and doing away with the Madras troops or any local
force, would be shared alike by the Imperial Govern-
ment and the colonial. Li addition to the available
position of Singapore its good climate and magnificent
ready-made barracks before alluded to, a very con-
siderable part of the cost of such a force might be
defrayed by the subsidy drawn from the colonial
resources. The sum set down in the public accounts
of the past year for the support of the Madras regi-
ments stationed in the Straits is no less than 80,000/. ,
and it has always before averaged close upon 50,000/.
The cost of the local corps, which dissatisfied with the
expenditure on the Madras troops it was at one time,
I think unadvisedly, recommended by the residents of
the Straits to raise, was set down at 44,000/. for 1,050
men. The Imperial Government then might safely cal-
culate, I think, on a contribution from the local treasury
of about 50,000/. yearly towards the military stationed
at Singapore, and this ungrudgingly. An infantry
regiment of Europeans would be many times more
worth paying for than any local corps which could
be organized.* Indeed, I consider under any cir-

istances a local corps is to be avoided. No such

• The outdoor non-military guards, eueh as those to the Treasury
and other public offices, might be fundHhed by I body of the native
poUte, specially armed for the purpose. The few purely military
guards which it would be absolutely necessary to maintain in the day-
time could be protected by a ooreringi whii b. while it would shelter from
the nmi f need not interfere with etheieiicy; the peri mis of the guards,
o, might be made half the ordinary dura: iuii,

254 GOVERNMENT.

force composed of any elements within reach in the
Straits would be worth maintaining. With years of
training they would fail to attain that discipline which
would enable them to share effectively with regular
troops in the defence of the place against a European
attack, and besides lacking skill they would lack
prestige and fail to obtain respect. Considered as
a local defence merely, and if kept distinct from the
police they will have nothing to do but to furnish
guards for the public offices, to turn out on State
occasions, perhaps in the absence of artillery to fire
a few salutes, and so to consume the public money.
If, on the other hand, they share in any way police
duties they cannot be maintained as a separate body
without leading to endless jealousies and frequent
collisions between them.

I am strongly opposed both to a purely local land
force and to a local marine being maintained at a
point which must, if it is to be maintained in time
of war at all, be defended by H.M.'s troops and H.M.'s
ships ; and which even in times of peace will in all
probability continue a place of resort for both. All
that it remains for the local government to do is
to support an efficient police for the security of
internal quiet, and to contribute in money to the
general defence secured by the imperial ships and
forces. The measure of this contribution must be
calculated according to the peculiar circumstances of
the colony, of its being both an imperial stronghold
and a commercial emporium ; but it would in all
probability be less than the amount hitherto drawn

COST OP LOCAL FORCES. 255

from the colonial treasury to pay the Madras troops,
or than the residents proposed as the cost of a local
corps and the present local marine, or in round figures
60,000/. annually.*

* It may be remarked that I have made no provision for the defence
of Penang and Malacca. I have purposely omitted to do so, because I
think neither of these stations is entitled to have regular troops stationed
at it ; unless, perhaps, at Penang a small shifting detachment might be
maintained, but more for the purpose of affording change to the troops
themselves than of securing defence to the island. To both Penang and
Malacca, in a strategetic point of view at all events, may be safely
applied the proverb, " Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator."

( 255 )

CHAPTER IX.

KX< ITKMKNTS: AMOKS-GAXG ROBBERIES— RIOTS -
THE "ALABAMA.

Security of Kn^lish Residents — Amok running — First instance in Sin-
gapore- Remarkable Case — Cause or Motive — Severe Measures to
nfprcHH llif-in — Gang Robberies — Two serious Cases — How thev
wuru Hii]i|>ri!MfMfd — First Chinese Riot in 1*>54 — Its Origin— Its
Incidents— llie Military and Special Constables — Second Chinese

Riot in lh57— ItH Cause — Its Incidents — The Volunteers Its

I'uf-iiicfitinti The Alabama — Her Arrival — Native Excitement

lift Aj»jH;aranco-— Her Officers and Crew — Captain Senunes Her

I)<'|MLrtun:--Sho burns the Martahan, Sonora, and Highlumler. in
tin* StniitH - Tlie Effect of her Appearance in tlit East on American
Shipping.

DuuiNo oven the short period of its history in con-
nection with our rule, Singapore has not been without
itB excitements, sometimes of national, though more
frequently of local interest ; but of these, very few
have been of a dangerous character.

Although the native population numbers 300 to
one of the European, no attempt has ever been made
to use this fearful disproportion as a means of coercion
or menace. There are 13,000 Malays, whose country
we have occupied ; there are 60,000 Chinese, with
whose empire we have been twice at war, and there
are nearly 10,000 natives of India of the same castes
as those who rose up against us there, and yet with

INSURRECTION IMPROBABLE. 257

but 500 European residents, and some 400 sepoy
soldiers to protect them, there has been no display
antagonistic to onr role, the most thorough good order
has been maintained and the most complete obedience
to our laws secured.

Some have attributed this long security entirely to
the mixed and opposite elements of which the popula-
tion is composed, and to the jealousy entertained by
one section towards the other. The Chinese would
certainly find no co-operation in any disturbance they
thought fit to raise, from the Malays or Indians, or
vice versa; each stands distinct by itself, speaking
another language * and writing another character.
But though this condition of the population may be
unfavourable to a combined insurrection, still it would
be quite possible for any section, moved by a sense of
injustice or by a sudden love for power, of itself to
overthrow the existing Government. It is true that
no usurpation of the kind could be long maintained
among a population more than half antagonistic, but
still it is proverbial that people worked up to the
revolution point do not stop to weigh consequences,
and a few days of such a revolution would be suffi-
ciently appalling to m^ke up for the limited length of
its duration.

It is, I think, to the thorough feeling of good-will
which subsists between every section of the population
and the European residents, that the long immunity

* Malay is the language generally used by Europeans in their
transactions with all sections of the native population alike, yet, among
themselves, each section speaks its own tongue.

258 EXCITEMENTS.

from Herious disturbance is due. There may be
hatreds between one native nationality and another,
bnt all agree in looking up to and respecting the
English community. The Government is respected
too, for it has always been mild and just; but it
would bo quite possible, as has been too often seen
already, for a small dominant population such as the
English are in Singapore to render themselves so
obnoxious that the mere possession of an abstract
right to justice and equality would fail to establish
contentment or good-will amongst the masses. Bat the
conduct of the European residents of the Straits is
rarely, if ever, domineering or oppressive, and the
superiority which it is necessary for them to maintain
has nothing assuming or arrogant about it. So pro-
verbial indeed has this become, and so favourably
does it contrast with the bearing of the Dutch in their
Eastern possessions, that throughout Java and in every
island to tho eastward of it, there is no better intro-
duction to native kindness and protection than the
English name.

Liko other countries inhabited by Malays and
Bugis, Singapore is subjected occasionally to the
dangerous practice of amok running. In apparent
obedience to some sudden impulse, a Malay, or Bugis,
will arm himself with two large krises, or daggers,
ono in each hand, and rushing from his house along
generally the most crowded street in the neighbour-
hood stab at random all who come in his way. As
many as fifteen persons have been killed or seriously
wounded, and many others slightly hurt by one of

amoks: first instance.

258

these aiiink runners before be WHS slain, but the
killed always bear a small proportion to the wounded
as the strokes of the infatuated man fall promiscuously
and are ill-directed. As soon as an amok runner
makes bis appearance, a warning cry is raised and
carried on in advance of him all along the street. On
hearing this cry a general rush into the houses is
made of all the women and children and of all the
men who are not armed — no attempt is made to cap-
ture the maniac alive, but he becomes a mark for the
musket, spear, or ifcm, of every man who can obtain a
favourable opportunity for attack. He ceases to be
viewed as human and is hunted down like a wild
bout, yet it is surprising how long he will escape
the death which is aimed at him from every side.

L6 of these unfortunate wretches have run the
gauntlet of nearly a mile of street that was up in arms
against them, and have temporarily evaded destruction,
some for hours, and others for days. But the end is
inevitable, they refuse to be captured, and are ulti-
mately shot down or stabbed.

The first instance of running amok in Singapore
occurred more than forty years ago, and Colonel
Farqnhar, then resident, narrowly escaped becoming a
victim. It was in the time when the residency bunga-
lows stood along the beach, where the esplanade is
now, and the man was descried coming tearing down
within the palisade that enclosed them, brandishing a
weapon in each hand. The cry of alarm was raised,
and Colonel Farquhar, who was at dinner at the time,
ran out to learn the cause. He just got out as the man

11— %

260 EXCITEMENTS.

was rushing past, and received a deep flesh cut on the
shoulder ; an instant afterwards, however, the infatu-
ated wretch was ran through the body by the sepoy
guard on watch close by.

At the time of the Chinese riots, about ten yean
ago, an amok was run by a Bugis who made almost
miraculous escapes from death before he was captured.
The town was under guard at the time, the streets
being patrolled by the troops and the volunteers,
and fortunately few of the inhabitants were abroad.
Towards evening the man was seen by his friends,
with whom he had lived quietly, to arm himself and
leave the house. A few moments afterwards he had
commenced his work, and was rushing madly along
one of the busiest streets. Many shots were fired at
him both by the troops and volunteers, and repeated
attempts made to arrest his progress; but though
badly wounded and bleeding profusely he reached the
side of the river alive. A large force was now after
him and it was thought that his escape was impos-
sible. It was getting dusk however, and the man
throwing away one of his swords, placed the other
between his teeth and plunged into the water. Some
of those in pursuit got into the boats which lay around
and gave chase, while others blazed away from the
banks ; but the man, who kept swimming up the river
under water, only appearing now and then to take
breath, evaded all attempts to take or shoot him and
disappeared. An hour afterwards a dark slimy object
was seen to creep from one of the small muddy canals
in the upper part of the town. Those around went

amoks: causes of*

up to it, and as they approached recognized the form
to be that of a man evidently in great pain. No
sooner however did the man see that he was watched
than he started op, brandished his kris, and made a
rush towards them ; but his strength failed him, and
in a moment afterwards he lay stretched powerless on
the ground. On examination the man was found to
be the late amok runner, and was conveyed to the
hospital where he died the same night.

It is impossible to give any explanation of the
motives which lead to these fatal frenzies. Some
have written that they most generally arise from the
dejection succeeding an over-indulgence in opium.
But the Malays are seldom addicted to the use of that
drug, and nearly all the amoks that have occurred in
Singapore were run by men who had never tasted it.
It seems to me that they are those who from some
cause have become disgusted or tired of life and are
determined to die, but that as their religion and super-
stitions prohibit suicide they resolve to provoke death
at the hands of others. This may not account for
the efforts they apparently make to escape when they
have once started, but I would put these efforts down
as unpremeditated, and as an obedience to an after-
felt yet irresistible instinct of sell-preservation. Not
many years ago an amok, in which several lives were
lost, was run in Campong Java by a Bugis who was
known to be a peaceable, well-to-do, industrious
man. He was also a very devout Mahoinniedan, and
for nearly twenty -four hours before he started on the
amok was iutently perusing the Koran. He was not

262 EXCITEMENTS.

killed, but was stunned by a blow from behind and
taken prisoner. He was condemned to be hanged,
and suffered death with the greatest indifference.
When asked a few minutes before his execution
regarding his motive, he said that he had felt his time
was come, and that he was irresistibly impelled to seek
death in the manner which he did.

So numerous at one time were these amoks in
Penang, and so little did the punishment of hanging
such as were taken alive appear to act as a deterrent,
that Sir William Norris, the Recorder there, resorted
in one case to the extreme measure of accompanying
the ordinary sentence of death with orders that the
body of the condemned man should after death be cut
up into small fragments, some of which were to be cast
into the sea and others exposed in public places of the
town. No little indignation was felt and expressed
by the more sensitive portion of the English com-
munity regarding this sentence ; undoubtedly it was
rather a bold exercise of judicial functions, but it
apparently had the desired effect, for amoks were
afterwards of much rarer occurrence. Mussulmen,
while they pay little regard to death, have a horror
of the mutilation of their dead bodies. Sir William
Norris most probably knew this and resolved to turn
it to advantage.

About twenty years ago an evil began to show
itself in Singapore which threatened to extend to
somewhat formidable dimensions. Up to that time
thefts and robberies had been committed, and had
increased pretty much in the same ratio as the popu-

GANG ROBBERIES. 263

lation, but had never been distinguished by any
approach to combination. Then however what were
termed "gang robberies" began to be perpetrated —
at first by perhaps only ten or twelve men and directed
against the houses and property of natives, but by
and by the robber bands grew much stronger in
numbers and open attacks were made upon the resi-
dences of Europeans. In one case the house of a
merchant,* only about two miles from the town, was
surrounded by a gang of forty to fifty, who were
evidently under the belief that a large sum of money
was concealed in the proprietor's bed-room, for they
broke into this first. The proprietor had been aroused
and met the intruders with a couple of loaded pistols
which he levelled at the foremost ; the weapons how-
ever missed fire, and were immediately knocked out
of his hands, and he himself cut down and left for
dead. The house was pillaged, and the robbers es-
caped with impunity. The owner was shortly after-
wards picked up by his own servants still insensible,
with a deep gash extending across one side of the
face. It is said that his life was only saved by the
presence of mind of a Chinese female servant, who,
after he had been knocked down and when one of the
robbers was proceeding to cut his throat, cried out,
— " What ! are you going to waste your time cutting
the throat of a dead man while his house is yet
nnplundered ? " the appeal succeeded, and the robber
turned his attention to pillage.

* Mr. McMicking.

264 EXCITEMENTS.

Not long after this a gang robbery of even a more
alarming nature occurred to the house of a resident in
Orchard-road.* The attack was made between ten
and eleven o'clock at night, and about 250 men were
engaged in it. The roads approaching the house were
guarded, and every precaution taken to prevent inter-
ruption. Intimation of the intended attack, however,
had by some means been conveyed to the inmates a
few minutes before the arrival of the robbers, and
some measures taken for the safety of life ; the doors
of the upper part of the house were barricaded, while
arrangements were being made to carry the females
of the family up to the roof of the building. The
robbers first entered the lower part of the house and
drove out all the servants they could find. Here they
stayed for some time. They lighted all the lamps of
the billiard-room, and burned on the table a plenteous
supply of joss paper, apparently to conciliate the fates.
This done they commenced to pillage, and then attacked
the upper part of the house. This was defended for a
considerable time, during which a good many shots
were fired among the robbers. At last the windows
and doors were broken in, but the whole family had
got on to the roof, and, though the house was pillaged,
no injury was done to the occupants.

Many other cases occurred, but these two were the
chief; at least where European residents were attacked.
The gang robberies were ultimately suppressed by a
very decided action on the part of Government, who

* Mr. Hewetson

CHINESE RIOTS. 265

gave liberty to the police and to the residents to
challenge all bodies of men going about at night in
larger numbers than ten ; and if the challenge was
unattended to, to fire into them. Several men were
shot in this way, and a wholesome dread of attempting
combined robberies implanted. One of the Chinese
hoeys, or secret societies, too, gave up twenty of the
men engaged in the second attack I have described,
no doubt with the view to conciliate Government, and
this also had a salutary effect. At the time these
societies possessed great power among the Chinese ;
and though there was no direct evidence of the fact,
it was strongly suspected that at the courts they were
known to hold, they frequently awarded and had
carried out the sentence of death. Many murdered
bodies were found about the country, each mutilated
in a peculiar manner : generally with either the right
or left hand chopped up into a certain number of
parts, left hanging together by the skin ; and in these
cases Chinamen never were the informants, nor could
they ever be induced to give evidence.

There have been two great riots among the Chinese,
both of which created for the time a good deal of un-
easiness — not so much regarding the safety of the
English residents, as from fear that the disturbance
might spread and prove destructive to order, and fatal
to large portions of the Chinese themselves. The first
occurred in 1854, and was entirely a war of nationality
between two of the largest divisions of the Chinese
population — the Tu Chews and the Hokiens. Its
origin was very insignificant. A man of each clan

266 EXCITEMENTS.

had a bazaar dispute about some plantains, upon
which blows followed. On this the clansmen of each
belligerent who were in the neighbourhood joined the
battle, which gradually grew in extent and spread
from street to street. All the shops and houses were
quickly closed and barricaded, and the fight became
general throughout the town. The military were then
called out, and they succeeded in clearing the streets ;
but the spirit of clanish jealousy and hatred had been
roused. None of the shops would open, and when any
of the streets were left unguarded the men on both
sides would rush out and have a fight. This state
of things grew gradually worse, and when the clans
found they could only fight at short intervals and in
small numbers in town, they each marched out in
large bodies to the country, determined to have an
uninterrupted trial of their respective strengths. Many
battles took place and large numbers of men were
killed on both sides, the heads of the dead men being
cut off and carried on the spears of their adversaries.
All the merchants' godowns in town were closed and
business completely suspended. The residents were
sworn in as special constables, as also many of the
captains and officers of the ships lying in harbour,
and detachments of these sent all over the country ;
the military being principally left to guard the town.
Very little resistance was made by either of the belli-
gerents to the Europeans. One position in the .country
had been palisaded by about 150 of the rioters. Here
they made some stand, but after a little firing they
abandoned it and fled; they were pursued, and it is

P1KST CHINESE RIOT. 267

to be feared were not treated with much humanity
by their pursuers. Several were shot, and among
those brought into town as prisoners some were old
men with broken arms and severe flesh wounds re-
ceived in their retreat. Many of the dead bodies,
too, that were afterwards picked up, contained what
were undoubtedly bullets from the muskets of some of
the special constables.*

After about a fortnight of this work both parties
began to quiet down, and the most influential Chinese
merchants, who suffered severely from the interruption
to their trade, used their best efforts to cement matters.
In ten days from the commencement of the riot 600
prisoners were accumulated in the lock-ups of the
central police station, and as this was far in excess
of what they could well hold, the authorities were
anxious to allow the matter to blow over in the easiest
manner possible. In three weeks all was quiet, and
the shops began to open again and trade go on as
before. No great efforts were made to capture the
ringleaders, or single out those who had taken life;
and though several hundred lives had been lost, only
two men were hanged for murder committed during
the riots, and in these cases the circumstances were
too glaring and the evidence too strong to allow the
matter to be passed over.

It was in this year and in a great measure owing

* It is worthy of notice, too, that not one of the troops, police, or
specials was seriously hurt, much less killed. « Colonel Buttcrworth,
the Governor, was struck on the head hy a hrickhat while walking
through the streets with a view to quiet the riots hy his presence, hut it
may be doubted whether the missile was intended for him.

268 EXCITEMENTS.

to these disturbances that the volunteer rifle corps
sprang into existence. Some necessity was felt for
an organization among the residents that would enable
them effectively to supply the deficiency of the military
in case of any sudden insurrection among the natives,
and the idea was warmly supported, few refusing to
join in such a praiseworthy movement. For the first
seven years of its existence the corps was maintained
with enthusiasm and deserved to be esteemed as a
part of the colony's defences. The breaking out of
the Indian mutiny in 1857 and the reports that wen
then continually going about regarding the disaffection
of the Indian population gave the volunteers an import-
ance which was acknowledged by the Government of
India. This flattered the vanity of the corps, which
afterwards carried on its banner (and with justice)
the motto : In Oriente 'primus. But the chivalry of
other days has passed away, and one decade has been
the measure, if not of the existence, at least of the
efficiency of the " Singapore Volunteer Rifles."

The second Chinese riot broke out in 1857, but
was not marked by the party feuds or by the violence
which distinguished the one of three years before, for
it had entirely a different origin. A new municipal
Act had just come into operation, and it was dissatis-
faction with, or rather a misunderstanding of its
terms that determined the Chinese to make the
demonstration they did. One section of the Act gave
the police magistrate power to inflict for certain minor
offences fines not exceeding 500 rupees. The Chinese
overlooking the discretion which was left with the

SECOND CHINESE RIOT. 269

magistrate concluded that the extreme penalty was in
all cases to be exacted, and judging that the offences
mentioned (one of which was gambling) were those
which they could not long avoid, determined to make
a stand against it. Some collisions did take place
between the Chinese and the troops, volunteers, and
police, but they were not serious. It was rather a
passive resistance which the Chinese had resolved
to offer ; they closed their shops to a man and abso-
lutely refused to do business or carry on their daily
avocations; but though passive it was a powerful
resistance, for all the bakeries, groceries, and pro-
vision trades are left in the hands of the Chinese.

It was a short time before the real cause of dis-
affection became known to the authorities, and in
the interval a collision took place. The military
and the volunteers were called out and distributed
over the town, and the streets patrolled as they
were in 1854. Some of the residents, too, afraid
lest it might be the prelude to an outburst similar
to that which was brewing in India, sent their
wives and families out of the settlement, some to
Sarawak and others to Java. But the Chinese who
had no cause of quarrel amongst themselves, and
who are tolerably well impressed with the uselessness
of open resistance to the English Government, kept
close to their houses ; and the few encounters which
occurred were, it is believed, provoked by the over-
zeal or over-officiousness of the volunteers, who,
warmed up to a taste for adventure in one or two
instances, forcibly broke into the blockaded houses and

270 EXCITEMENTS.

dragged out the inhabitants. Some of these adven-
turous parties met however with a rather warn
reception. The leader of one who had penetrated
farther than his comrades found himself surrounded
by twenty or thirty Chinamen, and after a short and
ineffectual resistance was knocked on the head and
tumbled down a well, but he was not seriously hurt
and was spared to fight another day. It is stated
too that on one occasion the captain of the coipB
himself was seen together with two or three of to
subalterns to come tumbling oyer the wall of a Chinese
temple with rather indecorous haste.

But beyond a few of these escapades, which rather
afforded the bases of after-tales of adventure than any
cause for present alarm, this riot passed quietly over,
and business was not suspended for more than a week.
The Governor, Mr. Blundell, got a few of the most
respectable of the Chinese merchants together and
explained to them the exact nature of the Act, that
though power was given to the magistrate to impose
fines to the full extent of 500 rupees, yet the power
would not be exercised unless there were peculiar cir-
cumstances calling for it. Notices were then circulated
among the Chinese to meet at the police-office. A
large concourse assembled and the Governor read out
the Act from the roof of the building, and had it
interpreted with the necessary explanations of the
objectionable section. After this the crowd dispersed
quietly, and that same day all the shops were open
and business going on as before.

These appear to me the only events out of the

THE ALABAMA. 271

common which have in any way threatened the public
safety, and after all the excitement they created had
very little of real danger in it. Some of the harmless
excitements which have from time to time been felt I
have casually alluded to in the first chapter while
glancing at the history of the settlement, and also
elsewhere. There was the first China expedition,
and the gaiety and bustle it created. There was the
first appearance of tigers on the island. There was
the agitation created by the Indian mutiny, and by
the second expedition to China. There have also
been the excitements attending the visits of great
men to the place, and the changes of the respective
governors.

Nor must I omit to mention the excitement into
which the people of Singapore were thrown by the arrival
of the renowned Confederate cruiser Alabama. Her
appearance at Cape Town, and her subsequent de-
struction of three American ships in the neighbourhood
of Sunda Strait, had brought her prominently into
notice, and it had been confidently prophesied by the
newspapers that she would ere long visit Singapore.
A considerable time had passed away, however, since
her appearance in the Java Sea, and there had been so
many false alarms that people grew doubtful and were
in a condition to receive with great distrust any further
reports concerning her.

She arrived at dusk on the evening of the 21st
December. A few made her out as she came to anchor,
but as the larger part of the residents had retired to
their houses in the country, the news did not spread.

272

EXCITEMENTS.

Early next morning however, for it was the morning
of the despatch of the Europe mail, around Com*
mercial Square were clustered groups of eager and
inquiring faces learning the particulars of the arriTal
of the renowned cruiser. The effect of these gronpa
was heightened by the appearance, here and there, of
the strange grey uniform of the Confederate Govern
nient. There was no longer any doubt about it, the
Alabama was lying in the roads in full view of all the
gudowus facing the beach, and here, knocking about
talking in an unconcerned yet affable manner, were
the men who had held the torch to many a stately
merchantman, and who had taken not a few thousands
out of the pockets of some of the very merchants
with whom they were standing side by side.

From the beach, a considerable way out, the long
low black hull, with its raking masts and stumpy
funnel, could be seen. There was no doubting her
identity; and how other vessels could so often have I
been mistaken for her by those who had once seen her,
it is difficult to understand. At ten o'clock in the
morning she proceeded from her anchorage of the night
to one of the wharves at New Harbour to take in a
supply of coals ; she moved with great rapidity, and yet
made but a ripple in the water. The promontories of
the land soon shut her out from the view of the town,
and Captain Semmes caused a notice to appear in the
newspapers that visitors could not then be received, as
his ship was coaling, but that all who chose to inspect
her on the following day would be gladly welcomed
on board.

THE " ALABAMA/' 273

New Harbour is three miles distant from the town
by the road, and next day carriages were at a premium,
for natives of all classes, as well as the European
residents, had determined to avail themselves of the
opportunity to inspect a ship that will possess some
place in the history of the present age. The excite-
ment among the natives was the more remarkable;
for they generally display no interest in events which
do not purely relate to themselves. Seven years ago,
at the time of the Chinese war, the town batteries
were constantly saluting the arrivals of important
plenipotentiaries in the finest ships of the British
Navy, and yet seldom was even an inquiry ventured by
the natives as to the cause of these unusual proceed-
ings. All however, from the smallest boy to the grey-
headed old patriarchs, could tell that the Alabama was
in. They had learned her name, and flocked in
crowds to see her. What their conjectures were con-
cerning her, or what they could see about her more
attractive than about the war-ships of three times her
size and armament, which arrive in the roadstead at
all seasons of the year, it is somewhat difficult to say.
Some had doubtless learned her story, but the great
mass must have been ignorant of it. Perhaps a clue to
the interest they displayed might be found in the often
repeated exclamations, — "Hantu, Kappal Hantu —
* Ghost— ghost ship.' "

The Alabama is in appearance a small vessel, I
should say barely of 1,000 tons register; she looks
trim and compact, however, and likely to prove a
match for a much larger enemy. She is very long

274 EXCTTEXENTSw

sad very narrow : I paced her length as she lay along
the Timf. and made h 210 feet, her breadth is baietj
27 fc«c : asd she is extremely low in the water. She
is t&rk. b:n not fall bark rigged, with long raking
spars : and has the greatest spread of canvas in her
fore and a£ sails, which are of enormous size. I
was assured that wixh canvas alone, under favourable
dnransSan^s^ she has gone thirteen knots per hour;
whether this be exaggerated or not, she must have
grea: sailing powers, for one of the officers on board
toU me that she had only coaled three times since she
had been in commission, before coming to Singapore.
Her deck appeared to me slightly crowded for a fighting
ship, bet while she was taking in stores was not the
best time to judge of this. Her engine-room is large,
and her engines kept in beautiful order. She has
they sail, as much as fourteen knots under
ctl: her ordinary speed was ten to eleven knots.
Her mounted armament consists of six 32-pounder
broadside guns, and two large pivots, one 100-pounder
rlded Blakely. placed forward, and the other a smooth
fc; r<: OS-pounder. She is not a slimly built vessel as
has been frequently represented, but is of thorough
man-of-war build. The only action in which she had
vet been engaged was off Galveston, when she was
chased bv the I/j"?nw. The action was a longer one
than is conenillv believed, for it took eight broadsides
of the -l.«ii*zifiii to sink her enemy, and not one, as
was reported. Her officers pointed me out several
places where she had been damaged by the fire of
» ll<t;r.i .}< % one was just under the main chains

THB "ALABAMA/* 275

where the shot had gone right through her side
and lodged in the opposite timbers ; one ball hud
hulled her a little before the foremast — low down
— one struck her on the deck, close to her middle
rtarboard broadside gun, nearly killing a number
of the crew who were working it, and another shot
went clean through her funnel. These are small scars
for a ship eighteen months in commission during war
time ; but I could see that they were carefully
cherished. Round the wheel, inlaid in large brass
letters, I noticed the rather remarkable motto, M Aide
toi, et Dieu t' aidera."

I was anxious to ascertain the loyalty of the crew,
of which, according to late accounts, there were good
reasons to doubt. When I went on board they were
washing decks and cleaning up after coaling, by no
means an occupation calculated to foster the most
agreeable spirit in a sailor; and yet I must say I
could remark no sign of impatience, much less of
insubordination. Nor could I attribute this contented
behaviour to fear of the officers, who were far from
rough or domineering in their manners ; so that I
conclude whatever may be their hardships or the pre-
carious nature of their pay and emoluments, the crew
of the Alabama would stand by her in case of danger.
The officers were all Americans, except two, an
Englishman and a German. They were all fine men,
and seem enthusiastic in the service on which they
had adventured, Some of tliem admitted to me, how-
ever, that the capture and destruction of merchantmen
had begttn to lose its excitement, and I should not be

18—2

•270

EXCITKMEN

surprised, were the officers left to themselves, to learn
that the Alabama had risked an encounter with the
armed ships of her enemy ; her commander how*
should say was a man slow to move on a rash enterprise.

Captain Semmes is in appearance as well as in
character a remarkable man. He is not tall, is thin
and rather bilious-looking, and would consort much
more readily to the picture of a Georgia cotton-
planter than to that of a sailor. He speaks very little,
but when he does allnde to the Confederate States it
is with a bold confidence as to their future fate, some-
what surprising in these latter days of Southern
reverses. When the somewhat disheartening news
for the Confederate cause just received by the previous
mail was handed to him on his quai
Harbour, he simply replied, pointing to the Confede-
rate ensign above him, — u It is no matter ; that flag
never comes down." Time will tell whether or not
his boast be a true one.

"Whatever may be one's impressions when
sedately views the mission of the Alabama, it is im-
possible in the presence of the trim little ship herself
not to be momentarily carried away by a sympathy
for her cause ; and perhaps some more tangible pal-
liative than momentary enthusiasm may he urged
in her favour, " You must remember, sir/' said one

tof her officers to me, M that we but retaliate on our
enemy that destruction of property which he has
been the first to inaugurate in this war. His power
at s ■- - - K e -

OtigM

im-

at sea was by a simple chance too much for us to
cope with from the first, or we should by this time

THE u ALABAMA."

have had a small navy of our own, built in our own
dockyards ; and as we have been content to fight him
in the field with a disparity of numbers, bo we should
have attacked him at sea with a weaker force* Such,"
he continued, u has not been our fortune ; but it has
been our fortune to obtain this and some few other
ships, and to bring them to bear on our enemies' most
salient point. General Gilmore himself, when he
uses the advantage which the Federal ships have
placed in Ins hands to destroy from his batteries the
warehouses and mansions of Charleston,* endorses
our course as legitimate. It is true, Charleston has
its forts and batteries which do their best to protect
these defenceless buildings, but does this alter the
parallel ? Is it confessed that the merchant shipping
of the Federal Government can find no protection in
the Federal navy ? and if it is so confessed, is it
urged that we should therefore hold back from the
advantage which our enemies' defencelessness gives us
in one particular, while he advantages to the full by
our insufficiently protected state in another ? No !
when the Northern hordes pause on their onward raid
by the consideration of the inability of the Confederate
Government to afford protection to its cities, then may
we too pause on our course, for the reason that the
Federal Government cannot or will not spare ships
from the blockade of Southern ports to protect her
foreign shipping.'* It was a strong argument— as
strong probably as could be urged, and it did not

* Thi nam of the shelling of Chudestou with Cireek lire hftd
reached Siutfti] • previous mail faun Brarppt.

278 EXCITEMENTS.

lose its force from being put on the deck of the
Alabama.

There the renowned ship lay, in calm unruffled
water, making with a background of the beautiful
green islands of New Harbour as pretty and as
peaceful a picture as the eye could wish to gaze on.

On the morning of the 24th, at about ten o'clock,
the Alabama proceeded out of New Harbour, to the
westward, and her long low dark hull, raking span,
and short stumpy funnel, rapidly faded from the view
of the green island of Singapore — probably for ever.
But like Dundee and his blue-bonnets of old, if Singa-
pore had seen the last of the Alabama, it certainly had
not heard the last of her and Captain Semmes and
his grey-coats. On the night of her departure from
New Harbour, scarcely thirty miles off, she came up
with and destroyed the British, or at least British
registered barque Martaban; two days later she
burned the American ships Sonora and Highlander, as
they lay at anchor in the Straits of Malacca. Captain
Semmes foun<J means, too, to send back to Singapore
a justification of his destruction of the first ship
which appeared in the newspapers there three days
after the event.

In very few foreign ports could the proximity of
the Alabama have created a more visible effect than
it did at Singapore. At the beginning of the present
year there were eighteen large American ships, aggre-
gating over 12,000 tons* measurement, lying idle in
the harbour, when there was a brisk demand for ship-
ping. Fully one-half of that number changed owners

286 SOCIETY.

times of animadversion. Faultless, it certainly is
not. But thut it has faults in any greater degree
than other foreign settlements, I am inclined very
seriously to doubt. It may be said to be stronglj
conservative, but it is not a conservativeness based
upon the low standard of pounds, shillings, and pence.
The man of narrow means has often the doors thrown
wide open to him, while Ms wealthy neighbour is left
to grope about in utter darkness. But while a nearly
complete disregard is paid to wealth, a too great watch-
fulness of position is evinced. I do not say that the
line drawn at Government House is too circumscribed,
but all the distinctions which are necessarily made
there need not be made outside of it ; nor need fresh
ones be drawn, as is often the case. The community
is a very small one. There are not, I think, over forty
families who aim to form a part of society, and if I
might offer an opinion on bo very delicate a subject,
it would be that, among so few, a more gegeral,
though less intimate, intercourse should spring up.

Whatever it may be under the new regime, the
official world has certainly not hitherto taken a pro-
minent lead in social affairs. But this is doubtless
accounted for by the expensive nature of hospitality
as practised in these parts. To Government officers
who receive fixed salaries, the cost of houseke<
must be a more serious consideration than to the
merchants whose profits on a single venture may out*
bid the highest salary in the land. Probably nothing
has served to preserve certain distinctions so much
as this expensiveness of hospitality, and the extent

OF WHOM COMPOSED.

to which it is practised. To an extreme it must be
indulged in but by few, and as it cannot long live
miless it is reciprocal, it degenerates too often into
little better than an account current system of enter-

ttainment. Latterly, there has been apparent some
approach to improvement in this respect, which it is
to be hoped if of slow will be of sure growth. The
>ple of Singapore must eome to appreciate what
long experience taught the Dutch in Java, that heavy
dinner-parties are scarcely suited either to the climate
or to the purses of settlers anxious to push their way
to fortune. In Batavia dinner-parties are now of rare
occurrence ; the much more sensible fashion prevails
of giving occasional evenings " at home," at which
people can reasonably enjoy themselves without danger
of morning attacks of indigestion.

Society may be said to be composed of the chief
Government officials, the merchants and bankers with
their assistants and clerks— the lawyers, the doctors,
and the military,— at least, any of those positions

rie give the necessary social status. Unfortu-
nately however, here as elsewhere, circumstances
occasionally combine to render the best of these
positions unavailing, and it is not always owing to the
faults of those who are excluded, but sometimes to
their misfortunes. One of the chief of these impedi-
ments appears to be an insuperable, though a some-
what over-sensitive objection taken to all who are
descended in any way from the people of India, no
matter how remote the descent ; and it has happened
more than once at a ball, that one lady has refused to

288

SOCIETY.

dance opposite another because her r

slightly darker than herself in complexion.

can be no real necessity for such extreme sensibility

as this.

It is to the merchants chiefly that Singapore is
indebted for the introduction of its very expensive,
though very pleasant style of hospitality. Their
dinners are affairs of every week; tiny possess the
charm of being at once magnificent and unrestrained,
and they do much to maintain a spirit of emulation in
household luxuriance. It is wonderful how pel
too, is the kiif possessed *of the measure of

hospitality of each house, and how soon new tun
and visitors become acquainted with the comparative
degrees of excellence in this respect. The di
bachelor scarcely allows a week after his landing to
puss by before he makes his calls upon the resbl
and it is remarkable how closely they follow in the
ascertained order of hospitality. The military, h<
have tire credit, and with every appearance of justi
of being the most accurate and rapid in their diseovei
of this desirable information. They scent the quanj
from afar off, and come down upon it with singularly
good success. In addition to household h<
picnics to various parts of the island are of frequent
occurrence. As can be inferred from the description
I have given of its scenery, the island is in ever ,
favourable to these, and so, .also, is the weather,
spite of the extreme noon-day heat. A few public
balls, too, are scattered throughout the year — on
occasion of the racfcs, of the opening of a pu

STYLE OF LIVi

289

building, or the arrival or departure of some important

personage.

But even the ordinary style of living in Singapore
may be set down as luxurious, and this to a degree
that could not well be indulged at home on similar
means. Any distinction, too, in this respect between
one class and another is merely of degree. All have
alike that exemption from the necessity of positive
exertion in domestic concerns, which a large supply of
native labonr gives. There is also an abundance of
what at home would be termed rare delicacies, and
with which even on the spot, the taste never com-
pletely palls. Neither are the substantiate of the table
so expensive as to render an economy of these neces-
sary. The tables of the wealthiest are to be distin-
guished from those of the poorest, rather by the lavish
supply of European preserves and condiments— and,
of course, by a draft from a choicer and more extensive
cellar, than by any greater abundance or variety of
dishes. Again, every one has his stable — though the
poor man may have but one steed, and the rich man
a dozen.

To give a correct idea of the everyday life of the
European it is necessary rather to distinguish between
the unmarried and the married, than between the man of
narrow and the man of extended means. Most of the
bungalows, as I have before mentioned, are about two
miles from town ; nearly all, at least, are within
hearing range of the 68-pounder gun on Fort Canning,
the discharge of which each morning at five o'clock
ushers in the day. This is the accepted signal of all

290

SOCIETY.

old residents to start from bed, the younger hov.
usually indulge in an extra half-hour's slumber. Still,
six o'clock generally sees all dressed and out of doors,
to enjoy a couple of miles walk or ride through the
lovely country roads, in the delicious coolness of
morning, before the sun's rays become disagreeably
powerful,

The air at this hour is of that temperature which
may be described as a little colder than cool, and
it has a sharpness which I have experienced only in
the early mornings of tropical countries, or on a frosty
day at home. A slight mist, too, rises from the
ground, that, whether it does in reality lend any
measure of coolness, certainly by association giv
frosty aspect to nature. Indeed I have often, when
setting out on my walk at sunrise, been positively
startled by the resemblance of sharp frost. All over
the grassy patches of lawn, on the shrubs and bus] us,
and on the roadside hedges, a species of spider work
their fine cobwebs upon which the dew is caught and
held in minute pearly drops, giving exactly the appear-
ance of hoar frost ; add to this, the rising mist, the
sharp air, and the red sun just showing his upper limb
above the hills, or peering through a low-lying bank of
clouds, and the illusion is tolerably complete, I mav
remark that, throughout t\w year there is barely
thirty minutes difference in the hour of the sun's
rising. In June and December if dawns about quarter
past five, in March and September at a quarter to six.

I have already partly described the appearance of
the country or suburban roads, but if beautiful at any

time, they are certainly much more so during the two
first hours of morning. The rich, green, wall- like
bamboo hedges which generally line those parts of
the roads which border the various residences, sparkle
with large drops of dew, and from many of these that
have been newly clipped may be seen shoots of over
a foot in height, the growth of a single night. The
trees, which are almost all evergreens, have also their
large leaves wet and glistening with the refreshing
moisture. Here and there, too, a strip of jungle-
covered land is passed, from which breathes forth the
last fragrant airs of the night blossoms. Everything
living seems to share the vigorous freshness ; the birds
that are hushed in shelter during the mid-day heat
now chirp and carol forth their short and musical
notes.

Nor are these morning w T alks always given over
to solitary commune with nature. At no other hour
of the day are the roads out of town so lively with
Europeans. One can always depend upon picking up
a companion, and getting and giving all the little
gossip of the night before ; or more seriously dis-
cussing the last China or Europe mail news. During
these walks, too, may be encountered pretty nearly
the entire rising generation of European parentage —
the heirs and heiresses, to be, of Singapore's mer-
chants, who with their ayahs or native nurses ftre
sent to "niakan angin" — literally, "eat "the morn-
ing air.

Than this practice of exercise in the early morning,
there is, perhaps, none to which the inhabitants of

19— a

Singapore are more indebted for their singularly good
health. It has an effect quite opposite to fatigue;
and whether it be considered as a corrective of the
previous evening s dinner and its accompaniments, or
simply as a means of bracing up one's nerves for the
day's labour, it is invaluable. Most people limit their
walks to two miles, or about half an hour; but
this is by no means a rule. Some go as far as four,
five, or six miles in a morning ; these are the early
birds who start at gun-fire sharp, and they are in the
minority. I know one gentleman, now nearer seventy
than sixty years old, who is out of doors at five each
morning, goes a round of six miles, and comes back
to his tea at about half past six. He has kept up
this practice during forty years of residence, and has
reaped his reward in still robust health, strong nerve,
clear head, and a yet lively enjoyment of the good
things of life.

During the training season for the races, it is at
this hour that the horses are taken their rounds, and
the course then forms to a great many the limit of
their walk. As early as half-past four the syces or
native grooms are up preparing their horses, and
start a Little after gun-fire for the course, a distance
of about two miles. At sunrise the horses commence
to go their rounds, and as they wait their turns, it is
generally half-past six before all have been exercised.
As the distance is to most a tolerably long one, the
stew T ards provide tea on the course, so that it is alto-
gsther a very favourite resort for about six weeks
before both the spring and autumn meetings. Very

MORNING OCCUPATIONS,

293

little training takes place privately ; but still some
liorses have occasionally been met returning from the
course before daylight. The Malays however have
a superstition connected with this "moonlight train-
ing," which is not favourable to it* A few years ago
an owner, anxious to test his horse's strength and
speed in secret, had Mm taken to the course about
two o'clock in the morning ; some Malays who lived
on the borders of the course saw the horse saddled,
mounted, and started. Ho went round, they aver,
once, twice, thrice, gaining in speed each time ; the
fourth time he passed like a bird, the fifth time like
lightning, and the sixth time nothing but a blast of
wind went by. Certainly the horse was never seen
on the course again, and so the Malays think he must
have been translated into the spiritual world, where
both horse and rider are still going their rounds with
undiminished velocity.

On coming home from these morning rounds, the
custom is to get into loose, free and easy attire, gene-
rally baju and pajamas. A cup of coffee or tea, with
biscuit or bread-and-butter and fruit, is then con-
sumed, and the next two hours spent in reading,
writing, or lolling about in the verandahs which front
each apartment of a house. I have said reading,
writing, or lolling about ; but, more correctly speak-
ing, the time is devoted to a combination of the first
and the last. In the daily avocation of most, the pen
is pretty actively handled ; and unless at mail times,
or by those of a literary turn of mind, it is seldom
taken up out of office. Reading is generally aecom-

plisluJ in Che extremely reclining posture for which
the verandah chairs of Singupmv are bo admirably
adapted ; and no doubt a deal of u quiet contempla-
tion M must be gone through in the same attitude,
in (act, perhaps, more than is generally conceded.
The " dolce far niente*' has its charms here as well
as elsewhere, and what is more, it has a good 8XCB

At half-past eight the breakfast dressing gong or
bell is sounded, A gentleman's toilette in this part
of the east is not an elaborate one, and half an hour
is ample time for its completion. The bath is
chief feature. Attached to the dressing-room of each
bedroom in almost all houses is a bath-room, with
brick-tiled floor, containing a large bathing jar hold-
ing about sixty or seventy gallons of water. The
orthodox manner of bathing is to stand on a small
wooden grating close to the jar, and with a hand
bucket to dash the water over the body. This is by
no means such an unsatisfactory method as to the
uninitiated it may appear. The successive shocks to
the systt in which are obtained by the discharge of
each bucketful of water, seems to have a much more
bracing eflect than that of one sudden and con-
tinued immersion. Every gentleman has his native
boy * or hotly servant, whose sole duty it is to attend
upon him personally. While bathing, thesi lay

out their master's apparel for the day ; so that on
coming from the bath a gentleman has little trouble
to get himself attired. As to shaving the process is

■ The tons boy m implied lu all servania of (Ins clasa, whatever their
Some <>r <!.. -> !■■■. tin <l dm n of cr

BREAKFASTS— DRIVE TO TOWN.

295

generally performed by itinerant Hindoo barbers, who
for the small charge of a dollar or a dollar and a hall*
per month come every morning round to the resi-
dences of their customers. The charge is so small,
and the saving in trouble ho great, that almost all
avail themselves of the convenience.

The universal breakfast horn' is nine o'clock, and
when the bell then rings the whole household assemble,

j should there be ladies of the number this is the
first time of their appearance. Singapore breakfasts,
though tolerably substantial and provided with a goodly
array of dishes, are rarely dwelt over long, half an hour,
being about the time devoted to them, A little fish,
some curry and rice, and perhaps a couple of eggs,
washed down with ■ tumbler or so of good claret,
does not take long to get through and yei forms a

ry fair foundation on which to begin the labours
of the day. After breakfast the conveyances drive
round to the porch or portico and having received
their owners hasten in to town. No matter how
many may reside together, each bachelor has gene-
rally his own " turn-out ; " and for half an hour every
morning the two bridges leading across the river into
town present an endless string of these rather motley
vehicles — by no means an uninteresting spectacle. On
the whole both the private conveyances and horses of
Singapore ire creditable to it, though the same cannot
be said for the miserable pony hack-gharries that are
let out on hire. A large number of horses are brought
up from Australia, not less I should say than 100 each

ar, and all find a sale at what must be remunerative

296

SOCIETY.

prices. None are ever exported again, and where they
aU go to it is difficult to conjecture, for the European
population who chiefly make use of them increases bat
slowly, and yet horseflesh is not subject to greater
mortality here than elsewhere. The climate seems
to agree well with them ; they grow fat and sleek and
live long, though they can scarcely go through the
same amount of work as in their native country;
each horse has its groom and grass-cutter, and pro-
bably the additional attention they receive compen-
sates for the exhausting temperature

Arrived in town, ten minutes or a quarter of an
hour are usually spent in going the rounds of the
square to learn the news of the morning. These
commercial square gatherings are quite a characteristic
of the place and of the community, and whatever
channels they may open to the flow of local gossip,
or it might even be scandal, yet they are so far
useful that they serve the purpose of an open air
and non-commercial exchange. Differences of position
are in most cases left behind in office, and all meet
here on a footing of equality, or if there is any
ascendancy at all it is that which is obtained by the
readiest wit or perhaps by the greatest measure of
self-assurance. As scarcely a day passes without the
arrival of a steamer with news from England, China,
India, or from some interesting point in the neigh-
bourhood, there is always ample material for an
animated exchange of ideas and information on leading
topics, whether they be European politics, the war
in America, the position of affairs in China, the com-

TIFFINS—COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE. 297

biiied action at Japan, the affairs of India, Java,
Borneo, the administration of the local Government!
or the condition and prospects of the adjacent markets.

This sort of congress takes place between the first
arrival in town and ten or half-past ten o'clock. At
that hour business has commenced and continues in
full force till tiffin time, or one o'clock ; and certainly
it is gone through in quite as smart and active a
manner as at home. The climate, though it may
produce a greater languor in the evening, has appa-
rently no such effect during the day. There is not
much out-of-door bustle ; but still when occasion
requires the folks post about the square under the
midday sun at a lively pace and with apparent
impunity.

Tiffin time does not bring the luxurious abandon-
ment to the table which it does in Java ; people in
Singapore are more moderate in their indulgence,
yet some show of a meal is in most cases made ; a
plate of curry and rice and some fruit or it may
be a simple biscuit with a glass of beer or claret.
Half an hour's relaxation too is generally indulged
in, and as the daily newspaper comes out about this
hour, there is a goodly flocking either to the exchange
or the public godowns in the square for a perusal
of it.

Two o'clock is the exchange hour, and though
I do not think there is really much intercommuni-
cation on commercial subjects, yet as a rendezvous
and a place where the leading men of the mercantile
world can have an interchange of ideas even on

SOCIETY.

•

irrelevant matters, it has the good effect of promoting
and maintaining a more general intimacy than might
otherwise prevail. Unlike the chamber of commerce,
from which it is distinct, the exchange aa a body
assumes no political influences, and is thus no doubt
saved many a humiliating experience which it has
fallen to the lot of the former body to encounter.
The exchange is rather distinguished for its hearty
and mixed co-operation in all that tends to ameliorate
or enliven the condition of life in the settlement.

Business hours are not particularly severe, and
by half-past four or five o'clock most of the mercan-
tile houses have got through their work. But only
a few proceed direct home at this hour ; the grata
number, at least of the younger members of the
community, resort to the tives-court or the cricket-
ground on the esplanade. The former is an institu-
tion of long standing in Singapore ; as far back as
thirty years ago it was erected, and at no time since
then has the interest taken in the game subsided.
On the contrary, about two years ago it was found
necessary to build another court out at Tanglin about
two miles from town in the vicinity of the residences,
so greatly had the number of members increased. The
game is well-known at home, and I need not describe
it further than to say that it is a kind of rackets, but
that the hands instead of bats are used to play up the
ball and that consequently the exercise is much more
severe. It is really surprising, in a temperature seldom
ranging at the hour the game is played below 82°,
to see those who have gone through a fair day's work

fives; cricket; band-nights.

1 the desk come here and doff their vests, coats, and
shirts to an hour or an hour and a halt* of about the
most severe exercise in which it is possible to engage ;
and this too in an unroofed building with the rays of
the sun if not directly beating down, at least reflected
in fierce glare from the whitewashed walls. And yet
medical men attribute the extreme good health of the
residents to this continued exercise indulged in, begun
by the inoming walk at sunrise and ending with cricket
or fives at sunset. Cricket is of course precisely the

e game in Singapore as it is at home.

But there are two evenings in the week when the
whole European community may generally be seen
upon the esplanade, whether or not they be fives or
cricket-players, and these are band evenings, generally
Tuesdays and Fridays. The band, which is that of the
regiment on the station at the time, or from one of
the men-of-war which occasionally visit the port, plays
on a raised mound on the centre of the esplanade
green. The chains which protect the green on ordi-
nary occasions are on these evenings let down, and
carriages, horsemen, and pedestrians are alike admitted
to the greensward. Gathered round the band in a
tolerably broad circle are the beauty and fashion of the
place. The ladies, to whom almost all the other out-
door amusements are denied, partake at least in this,
and though the ruddy glow of the colder latitudes has
fled from most cheeks, still there supervenes a languid
softness which is more interesting and perhaps more
beautiful. The pretty pale-faced European children
too may on these occasions be seen tripping about in

300

SOCIETY.

playfulness a little less boisterous, but quite ad cheerful
as is witnessed at borne. The band plays from h
past five till half-past six, at which hour it is all but
dark, when the carriages make for home in a long
string, gradually falling off one by one as the various
residences are reached.

Except on band nights however, most of the com-
mercial and all of the official world retire home a Ktilfl
before six o'clock. Arrived there, probably a glass of
sherry and bitters will anticipate the refreshing process
of dressing for dinner. A slight difference as to
dinner-hour prevails ; some dine at half-past six, some
at seven ; the former however is the time most com-
monly adopted. There is one advantage here which
is too seldom to be found in other parts of the world.
Whatever may be the hour, a clock-work regularity
and punctuality is observed, and this not with respect
to dinner only, but with respect to all other meals.
No doubt this regularity also has its share in the
maintenance of the good health of the European
community.

Dinner in Singapore is not the light airy meal
which might reasonably be imagined from the nature
of the climate ; on the contrary, it is quite as substan-
tial a matter of fact as in the very coldest latitudes.
The difference is not that the substantial are few
but that the luxuries are more numerous. Indeed the
every-day dinner of Singapore, were it not for the
waving punkahs, the white jackets of the gentlemen.
and the gauzy dresses of the ladies, the motley array
of native servants, each standing behind his master's

DIXXERS.

301

mistress's chair, and the goodly display of argand
ips, might not unreasonably be mistaken for some
more special occasion at home. Soup and fish gene-
rally both precede the substantiate, which are of a
solid nature, consisting of roast beef or mutton, turkey
or capon, supplemented by side-dishes of tongue, fowl,
cntlets, or such like, together with an abundant supply
of vegetables, including potatoes nearly equal to
English ones grown in China or India, and also
cabbages from Java. The substantiate are invariably
followed by curry and rice which forms a characteristic
itnre of the tables of Singapore, and though Madras
and Calcutta have been long famed for the quality of
their curries, I nevertheless think that those of the
Straits exceed any of them in excellence. There are
usually two or more different kinds placed on the
table, and accompanying them are all manner of
sambals or native pickles and spices, which add mate-
rially to the piquancy of the dish.

During the progress of the substantiate and of the
curry and rice, the usual beverage is beer, accompanied
by a glass or two of pale sherry. The good folks of
Singapore are by no means inclined to place too
narrow restrictions on their libations, and it has been
found in the experience of older residents that a
liberality in this respect conduces to good health and
long life. Besides this the American Tudor Company
keeps up a tolerably regular supply of ice, and as it
is sold at three cents, or less than lj-d. per lb., it is
within the reach of all, and is an invariable adjunct to
all beverages.

SOCIETY.

To carry and rice succeeds generally some sort of
pudding or preserve, but sweets have not the same
temptation here as at home. Very good cheese how-
ever is obtained in fortnightly supplies by the overland
steamers, and, as good fresh butter is always to be had,
tins part of dinner is well enjoyed, accompanied as
by no illiberal allowance of excellent pale ale. Bnt it
is in the luxuriance of the dessert perhaps more than
anything else that the tables of Singapore are to be
distinguished, and it is little wonder that it shoul

: for there is*no season of the year at which an
utmiulunre of fruit cannot be obtained. Pineapple
may be considered the stock fruit of the island, and
one or two splendid specimens of these generally
adorn the table. There are plantains, ducoos, man*
goes, ranibutans, pomeloes, and mango ; the

latter fruit is peculiar to the Straits of Malacca and
to Java, and so great is its fame that to India or China
no present or gift from Singapore is more acceptable
than a basket of them. It is of a somcw igular

genus ; it is round, of the size of a small orange, is
covered with a thick woody purple bark in place of
rind, which has to he cut or broken off, and inside
are the snowy-white cloves of the pulp, sweet and
with a very delicate but delictus flavour, unlike any-
thing else I know of. But though dessert generally
makes l finer display than any other part of dinu
y is not tlmt to which most attention is directed- A
cigar and a glass or two of sherry after the ladies
are gone, and dinner is over.

Many of the residences have billiard -rooms attacl

AFTER DINNEK.

which case the usual custom is to retire there after
iner. Where no billiard-room is within reach, a
mt in the verandah, a little meditation, or perhaps a
>ok paeeefl the hours pleasantly enough until beet-
le. And as dinner is seldom over before eight
/clock, and the usual hour for reBt is ten, it is not a
very long interval between them that has to be dis-
posed of.

As I have remarket! before I think it is to be
regretted that the people of Singapore so determinedly
set their faces against every sort of entertainment
which does not include a dinner. I am quite sure
that much of the after-dinner time, that is under the
present system in a manner thrown away, might be
more agreeably, and at the same time more profitably
spent, if the custom were to Bet in that people should
meet occasionally after dinner, and pass their evenings
in the same sort of social intercourse as is usnal at
home, and in most other parts of the world.

Such is the everyday life at Singapore. It is true,
I have taken rather an uncommon method of describing
it, and one which might be thought more to become
the pages of a journal or diary, than a book such
as this, but it appears to me that by thus detailing
the various acts of the day as they succeed one
another, I shall have carried out more effectually the
object I have in view, and presented a clearer picture
of the nature of the European's life there to the
people at home, than had I confined myself more to
generalities.

( 304 )

CHAPTER XL

PENANG: SETTLEMENT— PROGRESS— SCENERY.

Introduction — Object of the Settlement — Founded by Mr. Light in 17W
— Its formal Inauguration — Early Contentions between the Officials
and Merchants — Death of Mr. Light — Proposed Abandonment-
Major McDonald — Continued Contentions — Contumacy of the
Merchants — Death of Major McDonald — Sir George Leith succeed!
— Extension of Establishment — Annexation of Province Wellesley
— Penang becomes a Presidency in 1805— First Recorder arrives—
Rapid succession of Governors — Eccentricities of the Recorder
— Deficiency of the Revenue — Lord Bentinck's Arrival — Scenery
— Approach — Town and Shipping — The "Valley" — The High
Lands — The Waterfall — View from Government Hill — Climate
— Society.

Penang, the earliest British possession in the Straits
of Malacca, though its importance is cast into the
shade by the magnificence into which the younger
settlement of Singapore has grown, retains, neverthe-
less, an interest of its own. Its history is the history
of the first great efforts made by the East India Com-
pany to obtain a footing in the native States of the
Malay peninsula, and to set up a commercial and
naval depot, that, while it would prove of incalculable
service to them as a midway station between their
seat of Government and China, would also enable
them to exercise a wholesome influence in the affairs

IIS SIZE AND POSITION.

of the Eastern Archipelago, from which the Dutch
seemed to be rapidly excluding them.

Nor is it in point of historical interest only that it
claims notice ; a commerce of fully four millions
sterling annually is too considerable an item in British
trade to give the dependency that possesses it no com*
mercial significance* And it mnst also be home in
mind, as was stated in the previous chapters of this
book, that the trade of Pemuig stands on a far more
secure basis than that of Singapore, its exports being
chiefly the production of its own soil, and that of
Province Wellesley, which is incorporated with it ;
while, on the other hand, its imports are of equally
local consumption. The cultivation of these products,
too, which brings its exports up to so considerable
a figure, forms of itself a matter of interesting
study.

In point of size the island of Penang is consider-
ably less than that of Singapore, being some 18 miles
long by 10 broad, and containing an area of about
70,000 acres. It lies on the west coast of the Malay
peninsula, in lat. 5° 24' N., and long. 100° 21' E., and
having the northern point of the island of Sumatra
lying to southward and westward of it at a distance of
less than 100 miles, may be said to guard the north-
western gate to the Straits of Malacca. It is separated
from the mainland of the peninsula by a small belt of
sea at its narrowest point, not wider than three miles.
The territory opposite, for some years after the island
of Penang was in the bands of the Company, con-
tinued the property of the Sultan or Rajah of Quedah,

808 PENANG.

from whom Penang itself hod been purchased; but in
1800 a strip of this territory measuring twenty -fire
mi les long by four or five broad, and fronting Penang,
was purchased and added ho the settlement tinder the
title of Province WVllesley.

Penang was founded in 1786, after the Company
had held Beneooleu on the south-west coast of Sumatra,
near the Straits of Sunda, for just one century. Ben-
coolen hud never been a satisfactory station however,
costing far more for its government than was returned
to the coffers of the Company from its own produce,
or the trade it created. It seems indeed to have been
held merely as a supplement to the Company's power
in the far east, and as a counterpoise to the growth oi
the Dutch ascendancy in the Archipelago. But even
these objects it failed to secure to any extent, as
it offered no facilities for the provisioning or repair of
the Company's ships, and was removed out of the
highway of the China and Indian trade. It was with
the view therefore, in a great measure, to obtain what
Beneooleu failed to give that Penang was founded.

As far back as 1771, in the time of the great
Warren Hastings, the settlement of the island was
first contemplated. Mr, Light, its founder, in a letter
dated 1787, says, — u So long ago as 1771, I wrote t
Mr. Hastings particularly concerning the country o:
Quedah, and the utility of Pulo Penang as a commercial
port, recommending it as a convenient magazine for
Eastern trade. I had then an idea of a naval port
being necessary on this side of India, and before the
commencement of last war wus convinced of the

ITS SETTLEMENT FIRST PROJECTED.

307

jealousy of the Dutch, and their endeavours to exclude
the British entirely from any part of the Eastern
commerce.* 1 A plan was not long afterwards formed
to carry out a settlement as indicated, but the breaking
out of the war with France delayed it, and it was uot
till 1786 that Pulo Penang came formally under
British dominion.

Mr. Francis Light who thus early contemplated the
occupation of the island was the master of a merchant-
man who had traded a great deal with the native
States of the peninsula, and more especially with that
of Quedah to which Pulo Penang belonged. A story
was for a long time told by the early settlers in
Penang that during his intercourse with the State of
Quedah, Mr. Light had wooed and won the affections
of the Rajah's daughter, one of those comely maidens
who are still beautiful though of dusky hue, that he
had married her according to the rites of her country,
receiving from her father as dower the jungle island of
Pflto Penang which then contained but a few fisliiug
huts on its eastern shores, and that he afterwards sold
his wife's dower to the Company for the comfortable
annuity of 10,000 dollars. The story however has no
good foundation. Mr. Light was a man of high prin-
ciple and unselfish in nature ; and, besides, the annuity
*i 10,000 dollars is received to the present day by the
Rajah of Quedah, to whom in Mr. Light's lifetime it
also appeals to have been regularly paid.

It was on the 16th of July, 1786, that the Com-
pany's ships, Eliza, BpeethvelU and Primr Hrnnj, first
anchored opposite the sandy point where Fort Corn-

20—2

808 PENANG.

wallis now stands, and they came with all the men
and material necessary to lay the foundation of the
new settlement. Early on the morning of the 17th
Mr. Light disembarked with the marines and Lascars
and the small body of European officers who had
accompanied him. On landing they found extending
down to the strip of sand on which the boats had
grated nothing but a dense jungle with an impenetrable
undergrowth of shrubs and creepers. Immediately
skirting the sand at one or two points where a few
fishing-huts stood were some clusters of the tall
slender areca palm-tree, the Penang of the Malay,
and from which the island takes its name. The
reduction of the jungle was immediately commenced,
but it seems to have been no easy task. In his diary
of the 29th July Mr. Light records that, " In cutting
the trees our axes, hatchets, and handbolts suffer much ;
the wood is so exceeding hard that the tools double
like a piece of lead." In the end the work had to be
chiefly on trusted to the Malays who gathered around
them from the mainland. It is said that even
their patience frequently gave way and they were
often on the point of abandoning the work, but that
Mr. Light, on several occasions when their spirits were
at the lowest ebb, administered a somewhat novel
incentive by loading a cannon with a small bag of
dollars in place of grape and discharging it right into
the thick of the uncleared jungle ; in the search for
these dollars the undergrowth at all events was sure
to be cleared away.

About a month after landing a considerable patch

I AKJIX ft ON OF.

*>f land in the locality of the present fort and esplanade
^was cleared, and a few temporary barracks and houses
erected. On the 10th of August two of the Company's
ships, the Vansittart and the Valentine, anchored in
sight of the clearing and sent their boats on shore
with despatches from Madras. It was now that
Mr. Light inaugurated on the island that hospitality
which so long characterized it while in the Company's
possession, and we find him modestly chronicling in
his official diary of that day that , * ' I wrote to the
captains and requested their company ashore for a
few hours in the evening." What was the nature
of their evening entertainment in the temporary shed
that served for a Government House, with the newly-
hewn jungle all around, is not mentioned; but it
Iliad have been satisfactory, for the captains returned
again on the following morning and Mr. Light fixed
upon that day for taking formal possession of the
island. He records the event in his faithful journal
in the following words: " August 11th.— Captains
Wall and Lewin came ashore with several passengers.
Saluted them with nine guns. Thought this the
most favourable opportunity for taking a formal
possession of the island. At noon assembled all the
gentlemen under the flag, who unitedly hoisted the
flag, taking possession of the island in the name of
His Britannic Majesty and for the use of the Honour-
able East India Company ; the artillery and ships
firing a royal salute, the marines three volleys/'
Such was the manner of the establishment of a
dependency which has come through many vicissi-

810 PENANfj.

tudes and many alternatives of good and bad govern-
ment, but has survived them all, and at the present
moment, nearly eighty years afterwards, possesses &
trade of nearly fonr millions sterling annually.

From 1786 till 1794 Penang continued under the
government of Mr, Light. During those eight years
the progress made was considerable, and a compact
little township stood with its fort and public buildings
on the once jungle-covered point upon which the
expedition had first landed. Up to this period the
European residents, official and non-official, had con-
tinued very much as one family; though, from the
old records still extant, there appears to have been
no lack of family quarrels and dissensions. From the
Governor, or Superintendent, as he was then called,
downwards, all the officials dabbled in trade and
might be seen between the discharge of their official
duties haggling with the natives about the prices of
all sorts of produce and merchandise. It seems also
that they traded at some advantage over the other
residents, for all produce brought to the island for
sale had first to be submitted to the Government
officers before it was taken to the merchants. This
was a constant source of bad feeling; and though
the advantage appears to have been very moderately
used by the officials, yet the bare existence of such
a state of matters was sufficient to drive away
all ordinary commerce. Mr. Light in his letters to
the Government at Calcutta urgently requested that
the public servants of the Company, himself among
the number, should be deprived of this trading priviL

and receive extended salaries instead
mendations were disregarded.

In 1794 Mr, Light died, and it was then seriously
contemplated to abandon the island, and perhaps to
form a settlement on one or other of the Andamans.
Major Kid was directed to report npon the relative
merits of the old, and the newly-projected settlement,
and his report seems to have been so favourable to
the retention of Penang, that the idea of its abandon-
ment was laid aside. It does not appear however that
any successor to Mr, Light was appointed for three
years after his death, and it is probable that the duties
of superintendent were during that time discharged by
one of the inferior local officers, In 1796 Major
MacDonald became superintendent, though it is not
recorded from whose hands he received the reins of
Government. Early in his administration he experi-
enced the evil effects of that rivalry in commerce
between the officials and the merchants which had
80 disturbed Mr. Light, and ho addressed long remon-
strances on the subject to Calcutta* His very first
letter contains the following remarkable but quite
characteristic passage :—^ The history of the island
since its establishment under the British flag, is only
to be gathered ironi the journal and ledger of a certain
mercantile house, which indebted for its uncommon
prosperity to the preponderating weight it derived
from having us its principal and most ostensible head
the Company's superintendent, and the convenient
command of the public treasury, is too much interested
in defeating all retrospective inquiry to allow more

812 PENAXG.

to transpire than what the publicity of certain mer-
cantile transactions forbid it to dissemble, or to be
gloaned with caution from its equally anxious although
less favoured competitors, who are not backward in
their attempt to prove by no scanty store of anec-
dotes that to the accomplishment of its interested
viows was, too frequently for the general good, most
avowedly sacrificed the real interest of the infant
sottlomont."

Major MacDonald however appears to have been a
man of more firmness if not severity of disposition than
Mr. Light, and he went heartily to war with the diffi-
culties that surrounded him. Under the somewhat
friendly administration of the first superintendent,
and the three years interregnum which appears to
have followed, the merchants had grown as the major
tonus it " a most contumacious body," and he directed
liiH attention first to tho reduction of these traders to
a proper understanding of their position. In virtue of
powers entrusted to him by the Government at Cal-
cutta, lie addressed a circular letter to all the non-
ollieial residents somewhat in the nature of that which
Mr. Kullerton long afterwards resorted to in Singapore,
demanding to know the authority or permission by
which they resided there, and requesting them to
report their names and characters, that the propriety
of withdrawing or continuing such permission might
be determined on.

The replios to this general interrogatory form a
very fair confirmation of the charge of contumacy,
and bIiow anything but a respectful or even conciliatory

FIRST LIEUT. -GOVERNOR APPOINTED,

313

disposition on the part of the merchants* One of the
replies is sufficiently characteristic to be singled out ;
it is from a Mr* Mason, and is addressed to Major
MacDonald : —

11 Sir,— .... I beg leave to inform you
for the information of the Governor-General in Council
that my authority or permission to reside in India is
from his Majesty King George the Third — God save
him ! — also from Superintendent Francis Light, Esq.,
the public faith being pledged for that purpose.

. . . And as to my character I shall take par-
ticular care that it be laid before the Governor-General
in Council." When the writer of this letter was after-
wards asked regarding the nature of the Koyal autho-
rity which he pleaded, he is said to have referred
Major MacDonald for particulars to his Majesty King
George the Third,

It does not appear, however, that much good came
of this warfare, and Major MacDonald ill pleased with
the result of his labours and the position in which he
felt himself placed, and broken in health, obtained
leave of absence, and died in 1799 while away from
the island. Bat in spite of these bickerings between
the mercantile and the official world, the substantial
prosperity of the island had been steadily progressive ;
both its commerce and its revenue had increased ; and
in 1800 the Earl of Mornington, who was then
Governor-General, sent down Sir George Leith in
the exalted capacity of lieutenant-governor and com-
mander-in-chief, with Mr. Phillips, Ids secretary, and
Mr. Dickens, a barrister of some reputation, as judge;

IV. .VANG.

Mr. Caunter, who had acted as superintendent after
the death of Major MacDomild, became first assistant
under Mr. Phillips. A few months after his arrival
Sir George Leith, having purchased from the Rajah
of Quedah the tract of land opposite Penang, now
known as Province Wellesley, took formal possession
of it on the 7th of July, by planting the British
colours on the point at the mouth of the Prye river.
The amount of purchase money, 2,000 dollars, for
nearly 150 square miles of territory, was not great,
but it was probably the full value. The chief object
of adding it to the Company's possessions was to
extirpate piracy in the neighbourhood of Penang, by
depriving the marauders of their favourite and most
convenient resort.

At this time the brilliant prospects of nutmeg and
spice planting which had just been introduced afforded
a strong stimulus both to the exertions of Government
and private individuals. In 1801, too, a ship of some
800 tons was completed and launched on the island,
and it was hoped by many that ship-building might
ultimately be a large source of wealth to the settle-
ment. The revenues rapidly improved, and in the
year 1805 approached for the first time to within
2,000 dollars of the ordinary expenditure. Altogether
the Council at Calcutta looked with hopeful satisfac-
tion on the settlement, and were inclined to sanction a
somewhat lavish expenditure upon it. In 1805 more
than 70,000 dollars were expended upon the forts, and
in the same year it was resolved to supersede Mr, Far-

*ar, who had administered the Government since

CONSTITUTED A PRESIDENCY.

315

the retirement of Sir George Leith in 1808, by a
governor and council, and to constitute Penang into a
regular presidency.

In September, 1805, Mr. Dundas, the first inde-
pendant governor, arrived with his council, which
consisted of two members, besides himself and
commandant ; the other functionaries of the new
establishment numbered twenty-seven individuals,
Mr. Dundas administered for two years, when he died
at the early age of forty-live ; it was a painful coinci-
dence that he, his wife, and the first member of his
council, Mr. Montague, were all carried to the same
cemetery within a fortnight. Colonel Macahster suc-
ceeded to be Governor in 1807, and in the same year
Sir George Stanley came out as first Recorder of
Penang. In the following year the destruction of the
fort at Malacca, which had come into our possession
in 1805, was completed ; and a great fire swept the
commercial division of Penang, and destroyed over
half a million dollars' worth of property. Part of the
force destined for the capture of Java arrived at
Penang in 1810, under Lord Minto, and the value of
the island in a military point of view, was for the first
time recognized. The expedition for the capture of
the Moluccas took place shortly afterwards. In these
years, too, there was a change of governors, Mr. Bruce
assuming control. Indeed, it is remarkable the fre-
quency with which the supreme authority was passed
about from hatid to haiul. Mr. Bruce was succeeded
by Mr. Seaton in 1811, Mr. Seaton by Mr, Petrie in
1812, who continued in power till his death in 1816,

310 PEXANG.

when Mr. Phillips, who had at many intervals been

acting Governor, exercised supreme authority for a

year, until the appointment of Colonel Bannerman as

Governor in 1817. Colonel Bannerman continued to

administer the Government till 1820, when he died,

and was succeeded by Mr. Phillips, who shortly after

assuming power was confirmed in the appointment of

Governor, retaining it until he was succeeded by

Mr. Fullerton, in 1824, and of whose administration

of the incorporated Settlement of Penang, Singapore,

and Malacca, I have spoken in the first chapter of

this book.

During those years over which I have passed so
hurriedly many of the little jealousies which character-
ized the earlier administration were still at work ; but
the Executive had become so strong as to form a
circle of its own, and maintain complete independence
of the mercantile body. In the Recorder, Sir George
Stanley however, a new source of trouble to the
administration arose ; as this functionary claimed,
and with some justice too, the right of independent
action. Sir George appears to have been of eccentric
character, and thought proper at times, especially
when opposed by the Executive, to push his authority
to somewhat obnoxious extremes. On one occasion
he had a Captain Cookson of the Royal Artillery
arrested and cast into prison, because he had taken
out probate of a will of a deceased relative which was
said to contain some libellous reflection upon his
administration of justice. In this he had acted with-
out the knowledge, much less the co-operation, of the

IXSATISFACTORY CONDITION OF AFFAIRS. 31'

ier officials ; and having vindicated what he con-
sidered to be the respect of his position, he determined
to act equally alone in the display of his leniency, and
proceeding early one morning to the gaol, he released
the prisoner himself. It was somewhat singular, that
during the ensuing night the roof of the gaol fell in,
killing several persons, and in such a manner that it
would have been impossible for Captain Cookson to
have escaped, had he still been in confinement. Not
very long after this, much in opposition to the remon-
strances of the local Government, he seized and placed
in gaol a Malay chief named Syed Hussein, on the
charge of having excited a rebellion in Acheen, and
driven out its king. Probably in this instance con-
vinced of his error, he proceeded late one night to the
gaol, by himself as on the previous occasion, and
peremptorily ordered the gaoler to release his prisoner,
the Syed.

But in addition to the little dissensions that occurred
on the island itself, a gradual dissatisfaction with the
condition of affairs was growing up in India. The
heavy establishment which was introduced in 1805,
had gone on increasing, and this without effecting any
proportionate improvement, either in the revenue or
commerce of the island. In 1818, the disbursements
were 90,900/., the receipts only 43,200/., and ten
years afterwards affairs had got still mora unsatis-
factory, the expenditure for 1827-28, being 137,000/.,
while the receipts ere only 63,000/, It was this
cuntinnal deficit whi J seemed to grow and not dis-
appear with the growth of the settlement that led fco

318 PEXAXG.

the arrival of Lord W. Bentinck's mission in 1827, to
remodel the Government, and as this brings me at
present to the point at which I have treated of the
history of the three stations together in the first
chapter, it will not be necessary to consider that of
Penang any farther apart, especially as after this
period the island came to hold a secondary place.
Indeed, I have only given so much of its early history,
because it may not prove uninteresting to learn the
long-suffering and unselfish policy of the East India
Company in the management of at least some of its
acquisitions.

Penang has high claims to beauty of scenery. The
island, with the exception of a narrow belt of plain on
the eastern shore, is a mass of hills rising steeply from
the water's edge in little cones, and gradually increasing
in height towards the centre, where three distinct
mountains compete for the extreme altitude. The
bases of all these hills, and the valleys running
between them are clothed in jungle brushwood, with
here and there a patch of the tall forest trees that
once covered the entire island. The slopes are in
most cases cleared, and smile out in healthy culti-
vation of pepper vines and fruit-trees, and on the
summit of many stand the neat bungalows of the
residents, belted often by a fringe of cocoanut and
areca palm, or Penang trees ; the latter being the tree
from which, as already stated, the island takes its
name, though it does not seem that it was indigenous,
or that it even was produced- in great quantities.
Malacca is named in the same way after a tree that

APPROACH TO THK TOWN.

cannot now be found* or at least is no longer dis-
tinguished by that name. Penang has probably more
title in later days to the name it bears, than it had in
the time of the Malays; for it now exports more pmm§
or bet<'l-nut, as it is termed in commerce, than any other
eastern port, receiving as it does not only the collection
of Province Wellesley, but of the whole western coast
of the Peninsula.

The point where the European residences or ware-
houses are collected together is called George Town :
but except in official papers it is seldom distinguished
by that name, claiming like Singapore the name of
the island itself. It is built upon a level sandy point
running out on the south-eastern extremity of the
island, and separated by a narrow channel of less than
three miles from the mainland. The approach to the
town from the southward is, as may be inferred from
the nature of the island, very beautiful. Between
the south-eastern point of the island, which rises in
a bold wooded promontory, and the opposite shore
of Province Wellesley, the distance is about eight or
nine miles ; tins is some twelve miles south of the
town, and the intermediate water has more the appear-
ance of a deep bay than of an open channel. The
northern part of the island and the mainland close in
together, and shut out the view of the northern outlet.

At the entrance of this bay some pretty green islets
are passed, wooded in some parts to the water, and at
others encircled by a sparkling beach of white sand.
The main island itself towers majestically up ou the
one hand, and ou the other the low mangrove shores

820

PEN

of Province Wellesley stretch along, backed in the
distance by the blue mountains of the Peniusul;
land -locked is this passage, that as soon as the southern
point of the island is passed, the sea assumes a placid
lake like appearance ; and indeed it is seldom at any
season disturbed by more than a ripple. About four
miles up to right of the usual passage rises the lofty
island of Pulo Jeraga thickly covered with wood
the tall PlOfti fnus which were long ago, in 1787!

mrncnded to the directors, and it is belli I nallr

collected for the purpose of furnishing masts and
for the Company's ships* Between the island and
Pen an g there is a deep though narrow channel, but
which is seldom made use of by large vessels. The
considerable native village of Jaruestuwn, surrounded
by cocoanut imd other palm-trees, can just be
peeling out from behind Pulo Jeraga. Further up
on the Province Wellesley side the mouths of the
Juru and Prye Rivers are passed ; on the northern
hank fanned by the confluence of the latter stands
Pryc town, the chief village of Province Wellesb

The shipping of Penang rides at anchor right oppo-
site the town, the chief feature of which is the stone
fort which surrounds a small promontory running out
into the sea. There is no wharf or pier at which
large ships can lie, the landing and discharging being
effected by means of lighters. The town is said by
the residents to he in the " valley " of the island as
distinguished from the high land further back. This
44 valley" is in the shape of a triangle, the poin
which are the fort on the cast, Mount Erskine on

ROAT>s,

321

xe north, and Sungie Glogor on the south, and
comprising about ten square miles. The town, with
its suburbs, covers perhaps a square mile of ground,
and besides the sea frontage has one principal street,
with others branching off from it. The houses present
the same Oriental appearance as I hare remarked of
Singapore, but they are perhaps less compact and more
diversified, small attap -covered native huts being fre-
quently close up against handsome European build-
ings ; besides, the residences are removed only a very
short distance from the business part of the town.
The bustle in the streets is also considerably less,
though the character and appearance of the people
that wander through them are very much the same,
except perhaps that there the natives of India are
more numerous.

The roads that intersect the "valley" from the
limit of the town to the base of the high lands are
numerous and well made, and lead through some very
beautiful country. They are for the most part planted
on either side by rows of angsana or other umbrageous
trees, which afford a grateful protection from the fierce
heat and glare of the noonday sun. One of the finest
of these roads is that leading to Government Hill, and
which passes close by the largest of the two beautiful
waterfalls for which the island has a local celebrity.
For some distance from town, neat little Malay cottages
with enclosure cf fruit-trees, cocoa-nut and sogar canes,
are passed; and further on, though lying back from
the road, are the large nutmeg plantations of the Ayer
Itam and Ayer Eajah districts, which though severely

322

pi:nang.

shaken by the same blight as has ruined the species
of cultivation in Singapore, are still kept partly
attended to.

The soil of the "valley," which is light and sandy
near the town, gradually improves as the bilk are
approached, and is capable of producing with ordi-
nary culture almost any species of intertropical fruit
or grain. The hills themselves, however, are for many
reasons esteemed the most valuable for cultivation;
the soil is deeper and richer, being made up of the
disintegration of granite in which felspar and mica
have predominated. From their height they secure
a constant supply of moisture in the shape of rain
and mist, and have also a cooler and more agreeable
temperature than the valley below. These advanta-
were early seized upon by the first settlers, and the
summits and slopes of all the smaller hills were soon
cleared of the tall jungle with which they were ori-
ginally clothed and laid out in gardens of nutmeg,
clove and cinnamon trees, interspersed with patches of
pepper and sirii vines, sugar canes, tobacco, coffee,
and indigo. Fruit-trees have now on many hills
taken the place of the clove and nutmeg, and other
products have greatly fallen into neglect, as Province
WeUesley opposite has been found better suited both
in point of climate and soil ; and the greater facilities
of obtaining land there have also served to draw away
from Penang the attention of the planters of all descrip-
tions of eastern produce.

About three miles out on the road to Government
Hill, a small bridle-path diverges towards the valley

WATERFALL.

323

through which runs a stream. This stream, higher up,
falls in a series of cascades over the granite roeks and
dead and dying vegetation of a deep gorge between the
high backland hills of the Ayer Rajah districts, The
waterfall itself is in comparison with the cascades of
colder and sterner lands little worth remarking upon ;
but the denseness and luxuriance of the vegetation by
which it is surrounded, the beauty of the flowers and
mosses and the strange character of the creepers,, lichens
and parasitical plants that abound in its neighbourhood,
must be sought for in vain in any colder clinie. And
added to these beauties, this waterfall secures around it a
coolness which in the " valley " below is unknown,
and its neighbourhood is sought as much by those
in search of health and relaxation as by the lovers
of the beautiful. Within the last year an hotel has
been built on the road to Government hill a few yards
before the path leads off to the falls. Its bath-houses
have been so planned as to collect the waters of the falls
before they have become heated by a long exposure
to the sun ; and combining with tbe advantages of
those cool and refreshing waters all the requisites
of a quiet retreat surrounded with great beauty of
scenery, it will I think be largely made use of.

Passing the gorge of this mountain torrent the
ascent to Government Hill becomes steep and winding,
and the hack or palanquin must be here exchanged for
the saddle, a sturdy breed of Sumatra pony being
generally "well up*' to the weight of travellers of
ordinary bulk. Sometimes the " valley " and the
town are completely shut out of view by the inter-

21—2

VIEW PROM GOVERNMENT HILL. 325

eye. At its month can be traced thd outlines of
the native village to which the river lends its name,
and where in former times stood a gun battery of
the honourable Company. Its broad course upwards
as it reflects the morning's sun presents the aspect
of a stream of molten silver meandering tortuously
through the dark green moss of some shady dell.

As the clouds and the mists continue to clear
away the channel between stands out like a mirror
to repeat the beauties that surround it. Then the
shores of the island itself, with the town and shipping
in front of it, become distinct — Pulo Jeraga and Pulo
Era away down to southward like watchers of the
channel. Between the shore and the point of view
is the long sweep of plain or " valley " already alluded
to, and the little minor hills which intervene having
their slopes and their summits green with cultivation
and the passes between them clothed in jungle. The
prospect on the other side is confined to the hilly
ranges to westward, which though inferior in height
to Government Hill, shut out from it the view of the
Indian Sea behind them. The peaks of many of these
ranges are crowned by neatly built bungalows, and
have their slopes covered with various fruit-trees.

These hills and the retreats which they afford, are
the chief charm of Penang, and have made for it a
reputation quite independent of its commercial im-
portance, and give it rank as one of the sanitaria
of India. The lowland or " valley " of Penang does
not compare advantageously in point of climate with
either of the other stations in the Straits. Its tern-

326

PENANG.

perature is nearly two degrees higher than that of
Singapore, and more than one degree higher than
that of Province Wellesley opposite, or of Malacca;
besides this there is a disagreeable heaviness or sultri-
ness about the atmosphere. But these disadvantages
are more than counterbalanced by the easy access to
the high lands of the hills, where a climate is obtained
differing but little from a mild summer in Europe.
While the mean temperature of the " valley" ranges
throughout the year at about 81°, that of the Govern-
ment or Flagstaff hill, which is the highest, averages
about 72° ; the rain, too, is much more considerable
on the hills, for whereas the yearly fall on the plain
rarely exceeds 65 inches, that on the hill generally
measures over 100 inches. To the summit of the
highest of these hills is just six miles, so that it is
no wonder Penang is so frequently sought by the
invalids of other parts of India, and that the residents
there are well content to broil away in the heated
plains below with the knowledge that an hour's ride
will at any time secure them a relief which neither
Singapore nor Malacca can offer.

( 327 )

CHAPTER XII.

PROVINCE WELLESLEY— TOPOGRAPHY— AGRICULTURE.

Fertility of the Soil— Climate — Sea Frontage— Rivers— Early Piratical
Nests — Roads — Culture — Rice — Malay and Siamese Farmers —
Intermixture of the Races — Malayan Tradition of the Origin of
Paddy — Siamese Account — Harvest Ceremonies and Amusements
— Sugar Culture— Advantages of the Province — Early Chinese
Cultivation — Their Method of Milling — European Planters —
Varieties of Sugar-canes — Manner of Planting — Principal European
Estates— Future Prospect of Sugar Culture — Other Products —
Wild Animals — Tigers — Elephants — Rhinosceros — Bison, &c.

Province Wellesley is interesting almost entirely
in an agricultural point of view. Purchased in the
year 1800 for the small stun of 2,000 dollars, with
the view to deprive of their principal rendezvous the
piratical marauders who in these early times committed
extensive damage to the native trade that began to
pour into the new entrepot of the Company at Penang,
the province has now come to be the only satisfactorily
productive possession held by the British in these
parts. The causes that have led to this agricultural
development are manifold, though a long time elapsed
after the settlement of the province before they were
properly appreciated or acted upon. In the first place
the soil at least of the low-lying level lands available
for cereal products was richer, more plentiful, and

328 PROVINCE WELLESLEY.

consequently cheaper than in the limited "valley" of
Penang. The climate too was better suited to most
kinds of cultivation ; the temperature was lower and
more equable ; rain fell in quantities nearly as great
as on the hills of Penang, and at night-time in the
hottest weather and during the longest drought a
heavy and refreshing dew could always be depended
upon. And last though not least the province when
it came into our hands possessed a tolerably large
indigenous population, which has ever since continued
to be augmented by an easy immigration from the
bordering states of the peninsula, whose peoples are
not unwilling to exchange the arbitrary and uncertain
rule of their native princes for the security and justice
to be obtained on British territory ; and as a conse-
quence of this, abundance of labour could be obtained
by the European planters at a very moderate rate,
besides furnishing an abundance of native ryots for
the cultivation of rice and other products which
leave no room for the skill or capital of Europeans,

Though the province has only a little more than
twenty-five miles' frontage to the sea, it is irrigated
by four rivers of considerable volume. The Muda
river forms the northern boundary of our territory ; it
is well defined and has high banks, but is not navi-
gable for boats of any draught of water. Between the
Muda and the river Prye, which disembogues nearly
opposite to the town of Penang, there are several
creeks or streams which permit small boats to reach
the native villages that line their banks. The Prye
itself is over 200 yards wide at its mouth, and though

longn

STAMTggTC LEGEND. 335

They then both went forth to the plain and called on
their missing children by name, bidding them return.
The two other children, who had followed them out,
answered, 'We are coming/ Adam and Hawah
now beheld with wonder the wide plain, waving with
a golden harvest. On a sudden the whole grain
became samangat or instinct with life, and then rising
in the air like dense swarms of bees, poured onwards
with a loud buzzing noise, until it entered the habi-
tation of the first man and woman from whom it had
its birth. Hence it is incumbent on cultivators to
treat paddy with respect."

The Siamese farmers, and such of the Malays as
retain the Buddhistic faith pure, have a different
legend respecting the origin of paddy. They affirm
that its growth has always been presided over by a
goddess — equivalent to the ancient Ceres, and " that
of old when mankind were yet in a state of innocence,
grain grew spontaneously on the earth. At length the
women began to steal, and men compassionating their
weakness pardoned their error four successive times.
It then became necessary to have a king to control the
evil now just appearing in the world. The men how-
ever soon followed in the steps of the women, and
they even ventured to show every degree of disrespect
to the goddess of grain, by the rough manner in
which they cultivated the corn. At length disgusted
with the insults heaped upon her, and at the crimes of
the human race, she fled and took refuge in a deep
cave on a high mountain. Famine now ravaged the
earth. To avert this calamity holy men were sent in

830 PROVINCE WELLESLEY.

the act was so sudden, vigorous, and altogether so
unexpected that the pirates gave way in disorder.
Simultaneous with the attack by sea three companies
of sepoys, a body of native artillery, and some twenty-
five Europeans were landed on the beach of the
province, and attacked and after some hard fighting
at great odds took the stockades from their pirate
defenders.

About four miles south of the Prye is the mouth
of the Juru river, which is about 100 yards wide ; but
this breadth grows rapidly less until at a mile from
the sea it becomes a very small narrow creek quite
unnavigable. Four miles further south behind the
two steep islets of Pulo Era, and skirting the northern
slope of the small promontory of Batu Kawan, is the
stream of the Junjong river, which is navigable to
small boats about a mile up to the base of Bukit
Tambun. The Krean river, which forms the southern
boundary of the province, has a volume of water more
than equal to that of any of the other rivers I have
described, and is navigable for a considerable distance
beyond the British boundary, affording a valuable
outlet to the products of the native states of the inte-
rior. Following the windings of this river for about
ten miles from its confluence with the sea, though
only six miles distant in a direct line, is the boundary
pillar that was long ago erected to mark the south-
east limit of the province. Close to this pillar a
police-station has been placed to protect the freedom
of the river and afford security to the settlers on the
confines.

338 PROVINCE WELLESLEY.

the level plain-like formation of the land offered much
greater facilities for cultivation than the more hilly
districts of Singapore. The chief cause, however,
that led to the rapid and continued increase of sugar-
planting in Province Wellesley, and the early suspen-
sion of it in Singapore, was, that shortly after the
cultivation had commenced at both places, it was
decided by the Imperial Government to admit the
sugar and rum of Province Wellesley into the home
market at the reduced colonial duties, while the same
products of Singapore were to be charged foreign
duties. This was a death-blow to the early efforts
at sugar-planting in Singapore; but it was after all
a fair measure on the part of the Imperial Govern-
ment, for Singapore was even then an entrepot for
the collection of sugars from China, Java, and Manila,
to ten times the value of what could have been pro-
duced upon the island for many years to come, and
it would have been very difficult to have distinguished
between the transhipment of foreign sugars and the
exportation of bona fide local produce.

In Province Wellesley a kind of coarse sugar had
been brought to market by the Chinese settlers long
before the cultivation was undertaken by Europeans ;
but whatever might be thought of the tact and industry
of these people in raising the canes, their manufac-
turing process was a very primitive one and little cal-
culated to extract the full value of the product. Their
mill consisted generally of a pair of vertical rollers,
either of stone or of very hard wood, resting on a
sort of bason platform raised at the rim and having

CHINESE SUGAR-MILLS. 389

an outlet leading to a large barrel sunk in the ground,
and which collected the juice of the canes ; the rollers
were set in motion by bullocks and the canes passed
between them by the hand. Close to the mill and
under the same shed a large fire-place was built of
mud or mortar, with three separate shallow boilers
embedded in it. The juice was carried in buckets
from the barrel at the mill to a reservoir close by
the boilers and within reach of the sugar-maker, who
ladled it in as required. No stated temperature was
maintained, but the fire merely increased or diminished
so as to keep the juice always bubbling. A jar of
cocoa-nut oil was kept close at hand, and any sudden
ebullition was checked by pouring a little oil into the
pan. After the juice was sufficiently boiled in the first
pan it was poured into a flat-bottomed wooden reser-
voir, where it cooled and left behind it many of its
impurities. Prom this reservoir it was conveyed by
means of a syphon into the second boiler, when nearly
the same process was gone through. Finally it was
led into the last boiler, where it was boiled with a
little shell-lime and then poured into a cooler. From
this cooler, when reduced to the proper temperature,
it was slowly drained off into conical, porous clay jars,
one layer being allowed to partially crystallize before
a second was added. These jars were arranged on a
wooden platform, and the molasses which oozed from
them collected thereby into a large barrel. In twelve
or fifteen days the molasses had generally drained
away, and the surface sugar of each jar was then
scraped off and placed in the sun to dry. This scrap-

22-2

840 PROVINCE WELLESLET.

ing was repeated every few days until only the refuse
at the bottom was left, which was thrown in with the
molasses.

It may be readily understood that the planters of
the present day have found little to imitate in this
rudo process of manufacture ; but it is nevertheless
probable that the present extensive sugar estates in
Province Wellesley owe their existence there in a great
mooHuro to it. It was very easy to see that if, under
a rudo and imperfect milling, which lost it was esti-
mated nearly one-third of the juice of the canes, and
roquirod twice the amount of labour needed for the
finost Wost India mills, enough sugar could yet be
brought to market to recompense both for the planting
and milling, the prospects of remuneration on the in-
troduction of modern machinery were more than favour-
able. My the early Chinese planters, too, the suitability
of the soil was demonstrated ; and it is somewhat re-
markable that the European sugar-growers have as
yet effected but little improvement in the manner of
cultivation ; and though the examples of both Java,
Manila, and tho West Indies are before them, they
have boon content very much to adopt the system
previously prevailing among the Chinese.

There are several varieties of sugar-cane at present
produced on the estates under cultivation : different
species both from tho West Indies and from Mauritius
have boon also tried, but it may be said that only the
indigenous plants, or those which were early intro-
duced by the Malays themselves, have come into any-
thing like extensive or remunerative production. The

SUGAR-CANES, METHOD OF PLANTING, 341

varieties in common use in the province are thus stated
in Colonel Low's dissertation on Penang.

1. The large cane or Tubboo, which is compara-
tively free from the ashy powder found on several
other kinds. The Malays consider it to be less sweet
than Tubboo Itam,

2. Tubboo bittong beraboo, the powdery bark cane.

3. Tubboo Merah, a red cane, the juice of which
is considered more acidulous than the two foregoing.

4. Tubboo Rotan, the rattan cane, thin and hard.

5. Tubboo kookoo karban. Buffalo hoof cane, a
hard cane with a chocolate-coloured rind,

6. Tubboo Itam, a black cane, esteemed by the
Malays ; will attain to the height of twelve feet.

The juice of all these canes immediately after it is
expressed will show a strength of 9° to 11° by Baume's
saccharometer.

The first object in sugar-planting is to clear the
ground of all obstructions, not only of jungle but of
undergrowth and old stumps and tree roots ; the sur-
face grass, too, must be cleared away and the naked
earth kept clean* The canes are then set out in long
parallel rows six feet apart, each plant in the row being
about two feet and a half apart. From April till June
is the season best suited for the planting of the canes ;
but this is not strictly adhered to, and ripe canes may
be generally seen at all seasons of the year. As the
plants grow up trenches of about two feet in depth are
dug between the rows ; the canes are manured from
time to time with decayed fish, bat guano, and other
manures which can be obtained in abundance. Upon

842 PROVINCE WELLESLEY.

the attention paid to trenching and manuring, the
period of maturity in a great measure depends, but
fifteen months may be taken as the average time
which elapses from planting till the canes are ready
to be cut. They are then folly seven feet in height,
are thick and well filled, and in many respects superior
to the canes of the West Indies. Each acre contains
about 2,500 plants or bunches, each bunch yielding
about eight canes ; and the produce of these would
be about a ton of good sugar, with a proportionate
quantity of molasses.

There are now eleven extensive sugar plantations
in Province Wellesley the property of European capi-
talists and under European superintendence. Of these
no fewer than six — the Caledonia, Krean, Victoria,
Jawee, Golden Grove, and Valdor estates — are the
property of the Right Hon. Edward Horsman, M.P.,
H.M.'s Privy Councillor. Mr. Horsman, who I
believe has never seen these valuable properties of
his, ombarked some twelve years ago upon the venture
of sugar-planting solely upon the representations which
wore conveyed to him of the productiveness of the soil
and the suitability of the climate. Nor as far as I can
learn have these representations proved exaggerated.
An onormous outlay, larger perhaps than could at first
have been contemplated, was necessary at the outset,
but the returns have already been large, and are likely
to be progressive for a good many years to come, and
this with no commensurate increase of annual outlay.
The other estates are : Batu Kawan, the property of
the Messrs. Brown and Nairne ; Tassek, the property

EUROPEAN SUGAR ESTATES.

343

of Mr. Naime ; Makkoff, the property of Mr. Chas-
seriau ; and Jam and Simpang Ainpat, the properties
of Messrs. Herriot and Co,

To most of these plantations is attached milling
machinery of the highest order, in all cases driven
by steam power, and an extensive staff of European
superintendents and engineers. But to the intro-
duction of fine modern machinery the efforts of the
European planter seem to have been confined ; for,
as I have remarked before, the culture of the cane is
left pretty much as it was in the hands of the Chinese
and native pioneers. This is probably the result of
the character of the labour that must be depended
upon, for it would perhaps be a fruitless task and
at all events would be an expensive experiment for a
handful of Europeans to endeavour to break a whole
people off their old method of cultivation in favour
of a new one. Besides this, large patches of land
remain in the native hands, and no modem inter-
vention could affect the manner of cultivation on these,
and they furnish, I have been told, a very considerable
proportion of the canes that are crushed at the
various mills.

There can be no doubt whatever that in sugar
production a large and sure source of wealth will
continue to be derived to Province Wellesley ; but it
is to be regretted at the same time that as long as the
boundaries of the British territory remain as they are,
this source must be confined within sure but ascertained
limits. It appears that beyond the estates already
secured every acre of land suitable for the cultivation

PROVINCE WELLESLEY.

of this great staple has already passed out of the hands
of Government, A small portion of what is held by
the planters still remains uncultivated, but the
and best tracts are taken up by the Malays and Chinese
for paddy-fields and fruit^gardens, and cannot be
In night from them* So that I rely for the increase
of the sugar returns rather on an improvement of the
estates already in existence than to the establishment
of new ones. There is only one way of overcoming
this obstacle to the full development of this valuable
product in these parts ; that is, by the extension of the
territorial boundaries of Province Wellesley, and to
this I am of opinion the British Government should
early direct its serious attention.

On many of the sugar plantations and also on the
slopes of some of the hills in Penang, the cultivation
of coffee has been attempted, but though meeting with
no discouragement its growth has never been more
than experimental ; the trees that have been planted
bear a beautiful small blue bean quite equal in flavour
to that of the best Ceylon. Indigo is grown almost
entirely by the Chinese in the province, and only for
local consumption. The plant is in most count ries
considered as an annual and renewed every year, but
in the richer soil here it continues productive for two
years. This drug however will never be able to be
pruduced in the province cheap enough for exporta-
tion. Tobacco is grown by the Malays, but it is
badly prepared and never exported. Tapioca has in
late years been cultivated somewhat extensively; it
dl flourish upon land unfit for sugar, and several

WLLD ANIMALS.

345

Europeans have directed their attention to it. In
addition to these there are a number of other products
of limited growth, and Province Wellesley produces in
abundance all the fruits of Singapore and Malacca.

While Penang is almost untenanted by wild
animals Province Wellesley boasts a very fair list.
Tigers are here in considerable numbers and are
very often seen prowling about the outskirts of the
native villages; but whether it is that they are less
ferocious than their sturdy brethren which swim across
from the mainland of the Peninsula to Singapore,
or that the people of Province Wellesley are more
scattered, and their pursuits and the nature of the
country less favourable to a surprise, the loss of life
by these monsters is comparatively speaking insig-
nificant. Still however a few victims pass off every
year, and it was here that the remarkable case related
in the fourth chapter of this book occurred, in which
a tiger broke into a house on the outskirts of a village
and carried off a man.

Elephants were plentiful in Province Wellesley
at the time the British first took possession, and
are still to be met with in the bordering forests.
They are not nor does it appear that they were
more largely used by the Malays in field labour or
as beasts of burden, though it is said that the tin
from the Patani and Perak mines is chiefly conveyed
by these animals to the various depots. They at one
time formed an item of export to British India, the
traffic having been carried on by the Coromandel
native traders. The vessels used in the transport

846 PROVINCE WELLESLEY.

were constructed bo that the planking of one ode
would open out or let down ; these vessels were nm
some miles up the Prye river and moored in deep
water close to the bank, the side was opened oat
and a broad planking sloped from the bank into the
hold. The elephants were enticed on to this planking,
the extremity of which reaching on board was then
suddenly lowered a little and the animals slid down
into the hold. It is many years since this export
stopped, and the demand in Siam is so great as to
absorb all that are now reclaimed from the forests.

The rhinoceros is still plentiful in the bordering
forests, and they not unfrequently make incursions
into the province itself. They are hunted by the
Malays for the sake of their horns and hides. The
wild ox or bison is also in great abundance ; its flesh
is Hweet and wholesome, and the Malay hunters cure
tlio moat and bring it into market to be sold to the
Chinoso junks and native prahus; these hides are
also valuable, but the great object is to capture them
alive and break them in to be beasts of burden.
Wild hogs and deer abound; the former is a very
powerful animal. A few months ago a planter in
the province shot at one and slightly wounded it,
on which tho beast rushed upon him, knocked him
down, and a deadly scuffle ensued, from which the
planter very narrowly escaped with his life. Besides
these that I have enumerated, there is an abundance
of smaller animals, such as monkeys, squirrels, (fee,
also birds, alligators, and snakes ; and any one really
bent upon sport, with some good guns in his kit, and

GOOD SPORT TO BE HAD, 347

rmined to undergo all the hardships and discom-
5 of a ten days' campaign among the creeks and
sts on the borders of the province, would be amply
urded both in the number and variety of the game
ould secure.

( 348 )

CHAPTER Xm.

MALACCA: ITS ANTIQUITY— TRACES OF ITS EARLIER

DAYS.

How and when it came into European Possession — Its former Great-
ness — Traces of its earlier Days — The Stadt House — St Paul's
Cathedral — Old Tombs and their Epitaphs — The Ancient Fort — Its
Destruction by the English — Underground Passages and their
Traditions — Curious Discoveries — Evidences of extensive Gold
Mining — Painful Incident — The Modern Church — Practical Spirit
of the East India Company.

Malacca was founded about the year 1260 by the
Malays who were driven from the Island of Singapore,
as related in the first chapter. By the inherent energy
of these people and by good government, the colony
rose in little more than a century and a half to be a
place of great importance, its rulers claiming equality
with the kings of Siam and Java, and maintaining
friendly relations even with the emperors of China.
The states of Patani, Quedah, Perak, Pahang, Kalantan
and Tringanu, were all under its dominion, besides
several provinces in Sumatra opposite. It continued
in a condition of almost uninterrupted prosperity, until,
attracting the cupidity of the Portuguese, it was, after
an unsuccessful assault in 1508, captured by Albu-
querque in 1511. During the Portuguese occupation

MALACCA, RUINED STATE 0F«

349

it appears fully to have maintained its importance ;
bat when it came into the hands of the Dutch in
1642, its onward progress was seriously arrested, for
the latter power inaugurated a cruel policy, which
drove away the Malays in large numbers to the
neighbouring states. In 1795 Malacca was wrested
from the Dutch by the English, and remained in our
hands till 1818, when it was given back to come finally
into our possession seven years afterwards, in 1825,
by virtue of the treaty with Holland.

But it had ceased long before British rule to be
a point of attraction to the busy adventurers who
poured eastward in the search of riches,* Time was
beyond doubt, for the impress of enterprise long dead
still remains, when Malacca was a great commercial
emporium, at least according to the ideas of that time.
Nor are there wanting indications to show that its
local resources were developed to a degree that has
been long forgotten ; so much, indeed, is this the
case, that the richness of the land we hold is now
judged of rather by the knowledge of what it has pro-
duced than by our own research and examination.
Malacca is a ruin — ruin moral and material ; not a
moral ruin because its people have become bad, but
because they have fallen into that negative state of
existence which is most fatal to progress. The people,
like the place, gather to themselves glory only from the
past, not from what they are and what they do now,
•but from what they were and what their ancestors

* Here I partly transcribe from notes made by me during a vkH u>
Mithtivii in ltt0&

850 MALACCA.

did before ; and with this reflected splendour they are
content to a degree that forbids the hope of reawakened
energy. The material rain of Malacca is less painfid
to behold ; in truth it is its most pleasing feature ; for
though we can look upon the broken arches and
crumbled walls of the dead works of dead men with
an almost tenderer admiration than we should have
bestowed upon them in their full strength and per-
fection, if is not so with the broken or wasted spirit
of a people. At the present day, therefore, it is but
seldom that Malacca is approached by Europeans in
search of commercial advantages. Those who may
land there on their passage through the Straits,
examine it as a relic, and those who proceed from the
sister settlements do so generally for pleasure or
from curiosity only.

The appearance of the town from the roadstead
is to say tho least pretty. The anchorage for vessels
of any great draught of water is about two miles out
from the landing ; and from this, the eye embraces
a view of nearly twelve miles along the coast, extending
from Tanjong Kling on the westward to Water Islands
on tho eastward. In front there rises prominently
the old ruined church or cathedral on St. Paul's hill,
where tho flagstaff is erected, and where the light-
tower is built up against the wall of the old church :
at the foot of the hill stands the ancient Stadt House,
which is nearly hid among the foliage of the stately
Weringan trees which cluster round the bend of the
hill and are of a size unknown in Singapore. Close
to the Stadt House runs the Malacca river, and this

THE STADT HOUSE. 351

divides the native part of the town on the westward
from the European to the eastward. The former is not
attractive, though from a distance, the tiled and closely
packed roofs, which gradually lose themselves among
the cocoanut and other foliage, have no had effect.
The European part of the town is, on the other hand,
very picturesque ; for the houses, which line the sea
wall, are tastefully built and in most cases surrounded
by trees and flowers ; and these also become gradually
shut in by the foliage on the islands to the eastward.
The background is composed of a series of wooded
knolls and hills gradually increasing in elevation and
size as they go inland, until abruptly terminated by the
rugged outline of Mount Ophir. Altogether, the view
of Malacca that is presented to the visitor newly arrived
in the roads, is one which invites to a closer inspection.
The Stadt House is probably the place to which
the stranger will first direct his steps ; and this not
entirely with a view to commence his researches after
the curious; for though the building is properly
speaking the Government house, it is too large for
any single family, and, except when in the occupation
of the Governor or the Recorder on their periodical
visits, the use of one or two rooms can be obtained by
application to the Resident Councillor. And indeed
the fine old edifice is no bad place where to sit down
and collect and arrange some fragments of the past
history and present condition of the country whose
rulers had for a century and a half dwelt within the
same walls. The palace, for it is still as worthy of
that name as any edifice yet reared in these parts

II mil ^uio^r is ri>rl: not the least

■rf. * -' > tTLL — eL T±z style of its

_ zj:? :. ^i ^rr Ili*; u^s iiiv gone by,

•1 •:' .-.? :-.«ijcrL.i-.c l^ars no resem-

i_.o:.=l :«zli!Lz-rf Lr:vii;5 it. It is

.■n fr: .: :• -2jz "it-s: sryle :: the Dutch

i iz^lrz-i lzI ifrj yr&rs &£■:». It has

"_-- "vr_i lit: }rzi. Tr: irregular aspect
::- :. ":•- s—^. .n :: E;"*.y"id. Nor is
:: L:: : -7 -^: " • f7 ^:i.~.:^ :: ilr :I5 I^tch palaces.

7: L: .^ : — ^..It^i zz^izir? in lie East, "which

ijr : «. .r.-ri. : 1: "llt i-L^ZziohTi representations of
:it_* r-j'-i— ~-f. ill is >:Iii szi scbsdantial. Indeed
ttll r-s:T-r. :. -.~rry .1- :: :lz :15 riildin^s ax Malacca
*Lir:t .* _.v "* j "ll^; "^ill scrlir ile tho^Ltfd observer
:_.:•.: ""-rrrrlllf :_.~ :1.t -~" ?:^l:L1 jLar-y.er of their

;-.::.:. -._."■-. \-.r-; :~: ":y ?~">r:-t.L: observation.
"._..". "._-. - 1 — i_rr -*z_ t ■- .1 ".— . s-_ j..* .lays were cc»*«-»iiists,
.— ". 1 : l.rl* ;: -..— ....r iz.r-.-y. TLty must no:
: ..". . iv. .-,* :L-. :..:"-- .: En^r.! now dock to the
...-:. :. j.,;l_-.r : j_:Lrr s; ht^-L 0: the wealth of the
I..L.1 as :Lt; . .ill -rr:.^ A-i "L<>- to hurry back and
?;vii :: ..: L _y L—lles- of the a:ur late of the
<.-:-.;:;trr ;'r.:_ »■!.:■/":. :: Lad been derived. Both the
I'.-rtn.riv-r a:..i ;:.-.■ P:.:.L appear u« have determined
to tleai Liore fairly by their Indian possessions, and to
r-o:iteiit theu^-lves with a luxurious life in the east
as th<_- reward *>i their enterprise and industry. The
flights of stairs, tin- pavements of all the courtyard:*

ST. PAUL'S HILL.

358

and halls, and also the facings of the building, are of
solid blocks of stone, which it is said must have been
brought from a great distance, and which is of such
a flinty nature as to have required no little masonry
labour to have reduced it to shape. The building,
which after the capture of Malacca by the English had
become slightly dilapidated, was subsequently repaired,
and many of its oldest features swept away ; but still
more than enough remains to tell its date and origin.
It would seem too, that an effort has been made in
later times, probably by some romance-loving Resident
Councillor, to make the inward furnishings of the
building have some consistency with its quaint exterior ;
for the stranger who retires to rest within its dreary
chambers, reposes on an antiquated canopied bed of
gigantic proportions and sombre aspect, standing four
feet and a half high at least off the ground, with the
old-fashioned steps on either Bide ; and by a natural
process, the mind is carried away in dreams of stately
Stadtholders and portly Burgomasters. But, unlike
many ancient buildings in Europe, the Stadt-house
appears never to have owned any ghostly tenant ; and
whatever may be the vagaries of the traveller's mind
during sleep, he need not fear in his waking moments
to encounter the spectres of any of its bygone in-
habitants. The mornings in Malacca are cool, and this
even in the hotter part of the year, and give time for a fair
amount of inspection before the sun becomes uncom-
fortably strong. St. Paul's Hill, with its ruined Cathe-
dral, its tower and its flagstaff, is the point to which
a visitor is most likely to be first attracts! ; and if he

354

MALACCA.

be of a contemplative mind, if he have it in his power
with the relics of a past age before him to call back
some shadow of its life and manners, he will be amply
rewarded. The Cathedral must have been one of the
first works of the Portuguese after their occupation
of the Settlement, and cannot be much less than three
hundred and fifty years old. At the first dawn of the
Beformation, while Henry the Eighth was still toying
with the great religious revolution, the walls of St.
Paul's Cathedral at Malacca were slowly rising by the
forced labour of a conquered people under the guidance
and direction of the enthusiastic and powerful mission-
aries of Rome. There can he no doubt that forced labour
was employed upon this, and upon most other buildings
at the time ; the extent of the work would prohibit the
possibility of its having been executed by European
artisans, and a careful examination of the masonry
would rather confirm this opinion; for though the
design is faultless and the carving of the stones minute
and laboured, still there is the want of that perfect
symmetry and regularity which is so remarkable in the
contemporaneous works of Europe. But, even if the
religious enthusiasm of the emigrants, or the wealth
of the church, had secured European stone-cutters,
the great bulk of the work must still have been per-
formed by the people of the soil, — and the principle of
remuneration adopted in those days is well known.
According to the opinion of the present local authorities
the procuring of materials, and especially of stone,
must have been the heaviest part of the work ; for this
last, a hard honeycombed iron-stone, it is said cannot

RUINS OF ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL.

355

be found within many miles of the Cathedral. I
scarcely agree, however, in this, or in the Dutch legend
that it was built by the Portuguese with the stones
of the ancient Malay Mugs ; for according to my ob-
servation, all the large boulders on the beach on
the Malacca side of Tanjong Kling bear a very close
resemblance to the material which composes the old
church.

Whatever may have been the difficulty attending
its construction and whatever the skill of its design,
they have been unable to rescue it from the inevitable
decay of age. But time has dealt gently with it ; the
roof it is true is gone, and the sun and shower of
near a century have wrought their work ; yet the walls
stand and the plan of the building remains perfect.
There are the groined arches of the windows and the
doors, the built-up niches which had held saints or
martyrs, and the recesses where had stood the holy
water and consecrated wine. The Dutch, who in
1642 wrested the settlement from the Portuguese,
had done their best to efface all memorials of the
Romish worship, for it appears that for some years
after their accession this church was used by them
for Protestant service. Still, however, they have
been more merciful or more enlightened than the
reformers of Europe, and when they had built a
church for themselves they continued to respect the
walls which had been the temporary shelter of their
own faith.

It is not to the walls however of this old church
that we must look for the story of the past. At our

23—2

350 malai I

feet lie the ehronicles of the dead ; indeed, the pave-
ment is of tomb-stones, of all sizes, of every variety of
stone, and of sculpture of different degrees of fineness.
The earlier stones — those marking the resting-places
of the Portuguese —are mostly granite and of a plain
and simple character. Those set up after the Dutch
accession have much finer carving — finer by far than
is now to be found in most modern cemeteries ; the
stone, too, is a something between dark limestone
and black marble, and unlike any to be found near
Malacca, from which it would appear that the wealthy
Dutchmen must have procured these tablets from
Europe, Most of the Dutch stones bear crests or
armorial bearings, in which the ship and lady of
Holland are conspicuous ; these crests, together with
the limited number of graves which the enclosure of
the church walls permits, would favour the conclusion
that the influential citizens only of Malacca obtained
their last resting-place within the favoured ground.
The rules of admission, too, appear to have been
calculated with singular foresight, for though every
nook of the old ground is now appropriated, still the
tenants of no particular generation predominate, but
commmeucing three hundred years back, the dates
come gradually down to within the present age ; now,
however, the ground is closed to all but two or three
families.

The most ancient date that remains legible upon
^f the tombs is 1568 ; but the body of the epitaph
inch effaced to enable anything but a conjecture
fined of its purport. There are several other

ANCIENT TOMBS.

357

stones of the same material and stylo of inscription as
this first, but all worn away to such an extent that
neither name nor date is now discernible. The most
perfect stone of the time of the Portuguese is that of a
Jesuit bishop of the Japan mission, bearing the following
inscription : —

H1C JACBT DO

MINOS PETRUS

S0CIETATT8

JEStJ 9ECDN

PCS EPEBCOPOS

JAPONKN8IB
ORttT AD FBE
TUM 81NOAPO

ite loom FEB

REIARIS ANNO

" H pre lies Bishop Peter of the Jesuit Society; second Bishop of
Japan. He died in the Straits of Sin^Rpore in the month of February,
1598."

A great deal may be learned from this stone. It
tells, in the first instance, of the wonderful extent to
which the Koman Catholic religion had been pushed
in these days by the powerful, ambitious, yet self-
denying followers of the order of Jesus. This man,
not the first but the second bishop who had laboured
to spread the gospel in Japan, no doubt on his return
from that far-off land, that Ultima Thule of the then
known world, and probably after many years of ministry,
died in the Straits of Singapore. We learn here, too,
that the island of Singapore, though not reclaimed
to civilization for 250 years afterwards, bore then the
same name as it bears now, and gave its title to the
narrow straits between it and the coast of Johore —

358 MALACCA.

a channel which, though altogether abandoned within
the last 70 years, was until then believed the only safe
thoroughfare to China.

Fifty years before this Jesuit Bishop had laid his
bones in the old church, the renowned St. Francis
Xavier had arrived in Malacca and had directed the
great fire which terminated in the entire destruction of
the Achinese fleet, whose admiral had sent a defiant
challenge to George de Melo, the Portuguese com-
mander. Nor had trouble entirely ceased at the date
of the bishop's sepulture ; for, according to the old
chronicles, from the year 1597 to 1600 the Portuguese
garrison at Malacca was subjected to a succession of
exhausting attacks both from the Malayan princes in
the interior, and from the powerful rulers of Achin in
Sumatra, then the most important naval power in these
quarters. However, though the times were troublous
enough when the grave closed over the good old
bishop, no rude hand, raised in local faction or
lifted by foreign foe, has disturbed the tablet to
his memory, which remains in a singular state of
preservation.

There are many other ancient graves, but they only
serve to carry the enquirer's mind back to the period
of their dates, and leave it there to fill in the life and
manners of the age according as his knowledge of history
may be more or less perfect. There is one however,
which I must notice, for it tells some story of domestic
life. As far as antiquity is concerned, it loses by com-
parison with the grave I have just considered. It is
of the Dutch age— when the Portuguese had for nearly

ANCIENT TOMBS. 359

half a century ceased to be rulers of Malacca. It reads
in this way, —

DOM

PIAEQUE MEMORIAE

AGNITAE TRIP

UXOBI8 CA8TAE

FOECUNDjE DELECTS

HOC MONUMENTUM FT.

ARNOLD VAN AL8EM

FI8CI ADV0CATU8
14 KALEN FEBRUARI8

M. D. C. XCVH

" To the pious memory of Agnes Trip, a chaste, fruitful, and beloved
wife, this monument was erected by Arnold Von Alsem, Crown Counsel,
14th February, 1697."

Here can be gathered a little of the inner life of
the people of that time. We learn that then as now,
chastity in woman was her chief virtue and ornament ;
but when it is specially recorded to the honour of a
wife's memory that she was chaste, we have some
reason to doubt of the general morality of the times
in which she lived. In an age like our own, and
among a people —

44 Whose daughters are always virtuous,
Whose sons are always brave."

— a husband would scarcely seek to gain respect for
his wife's memory by recording on her tombstone that
through life she had been chaste. Nor does history
serve to dispel such misgivings. As far back, it is said,
as the time of St. Xavier, that sainted worthy found the
morality of the people of Malacca at such a low ebb,
that, unable to make head against it, he saw no other
course before him but to curse the place and fly from
it. But the grave of Yon Alsem's wife tells us that in

360 MALACCA.

addition to her being chaste she was fruitful; and
though it is a singular virtue to have piously recorded
on an epitaph, yet one cannot but admire the honesty
and forgive the pride of the husband who thus tells to
future ages that his wife had increased and multiplied
according to God's commandment given to our common
ancestor. Besides, the husband appears to have been
keenly alive to the fact, that to be both chaste, and at
the same time fruitful, is a greater virtue than to be
chaste and not fruitful. From this stone, too, we
learn that at the time the lady died, there was a
Crown counsel, or State advocate in Malacca, for so I
translate Fisci Advocatus. A hundred and seventy
years later, Singapore, that has grown to ten times
the importance of Malacca in its palmiest days, is
behind it in this one respect, — in that, to the present
day, though much wanted, there is no office of Crown
prosecutor.*

Altogether, the graves within the walls of this old
church must continue one of the chief attractions of
Malacca. The epitaphs on many are quaint and
curious ; — some, too, may be simple — and others per-
haps faulty ; but, strange as it may seem, they stand
forth in bold superiority to those of modern times
which are to be found in the building now used for
Protestant worship. I said that the roof of the old
church had fallen in ; I must, however, except the
chancel, which has, in a spirit of irreverent economy,
been appropriated by the English Government for a

* Since tliis was written a Crown prosecutor has been appointed for
the Straits.

STRIKING APPEARANCE OF THE RUINS. 361

>wder magazine. Though, whether the roof that
now shelters the gunpowder of her Majesty is the
selfsame as that which sheltered the worship of the
faithful in the time of St. Xavier, is of course a matter
of conjecture only*

There is about the broken walls of this church some-
thing far more striking than is to be observed in the ruins
of a similar age at home. Instead of the weird and
sombre surroundings which as it were by prescription
belong to such ancient memorials in Europe, we see
on every side the fresh and lusty growth of tropical
vegetation. Where at home we would look for old
oaks or stately pine-trees, here we find the feathery
cocoa-nut, the werringan, mango and mangoosteen ;
though the yellow rice-fields in the distance might,
with no great effort of imagination, be taken for the
corn-fields of Europe, In the very centre of the
eastern wall of the rain, may be seen a tropical plant
which, having taken root in the basement of the
building, has in the vigour of its upward growth fairly
split the old walls rather than deviate to right or left
of its course. From every chink and crevice, too,
droop a luxuriant profusion of lichens, and some of
those lovely orchids which are but rarely to be seen in
the choicest conservatories of Europe. Altogether, it
is a picture not often to bo met with ; to see the
reverend old pile, gray with age, surrounded by that
warmth of Eastern scenery, which is associated in the
English mind with everything that is mutable and
transient.

Round the base of St. Paul's Hill, to seaward,

362 MALACCA.

stood one of the strongest forts which had probably
ever been constructed by Europeans in Eastern parte,
either before or for many years after its date. It was
designed and begun by Albuquerque in 1515, or about
four years after his conquest of Malacca from Mahomed
Shah, its Malayan ruler. From its size, and from the
durable materials from which it was composed, a con-
siderable number of years must have been devoted to
its construction ; old traditions among the Malays
state, that its building occupied thirty-six years and
fourteen days ; this period, however, seems too nicely
measured to merit much credence. It is also stated
that Albuquerque at the same time laid the foundation
of the old church already described, and that he
dedicated it to the " Visitation of our Lady."

The fort remained in a tolerable state of preser-
vation till the year 1807, when the British, who had
some time before taken Malacca from the Dutch, caused
it, at an enormous expense, to be razed to the ground.
This was done in anticipation of the abandonment of
the place, and so to prevent its afterwards being occu-
pied as a stronghold by any other European power.
The expense of this destruction, which was close upon
70,000/., will give a very good idea of the extent and
durability of the ancient fort. All that now remains
is the eastern gateway, which has probably been spared
as a sort of relic of the old work ; the material of
which it is built is the same honeycombed iron-stone
as is to be observed in the church on the hill ; the
stones have all been well cut and fit perfectly into one
another, and the gate must originally have been orna-

OLD FORT. 363

mental in appearance. But the Dutch, with that
strong love of plaster and whitewash which has at all
times distinguished them, most shortly after their
occupation have commenced to renovate the fort after
their own style, for though the walls of the gateway
have in many places been bared by time, it is evident
that at one period they had been well coated over with
plaster; and immediately over the entrance, on the
plaster that remains, may still be seen the impress of
the Dutch coat of arms, and the date 1670 below — a
very glaring record of cool appropriation, whereby the
Dutch have sought for themselves the credit of a work
which had been completed more than 100 years before
their accession ; it would seem too, that, at the time,
they were not unconscious of a measure of effrontery
when they wrote on plaster instead of on stone.

It is difficult to imagine any other purpose for
which the fort was built than as a protection from an
attack upon the town by an enemy's ships ; and yet,
unless the physical geography of the harbour has con-
siderably altered, and its depth of water was much
greater than it is now, the fort must have been entirely
useless except to prevent an attack from a landing
party in small boats. At the present day, vessels
capable of carrying guns heavy enough to be destruc-
tive against a fortification, must, unless they would
ground at low water, anchor so far out as, even with
the superior weapons of modern days, to be safe
themselves, and at the same time harmless against the
fort. That some material alteration in the depth of
water in Malacca Roads has gradually taken place

within the last 350 years, seems a most probable con-
jecture. In 1508, when the Portuguese admiral,
Lopez de Sequeira, east anchor for the first time in
Malacca roads, it is recorded that he opened a heavy
fire on the town from all his vessels, and the effects of
which are thus described in the Malay annals* M All
the people of Malacca were frightened when they heard
the sound of cannon ; saying, what sound is this like
thunder ? And the bullets came and struck the people
who were on the land, and some had their necks
severed, and some had their waists, and some their
hands and their feet. The terror grew constantly
worse and worse, and they said what is the name of
this weapon, wliich is so round ; it is not sharp, yet
will it kill ? M And three years afterwards when Albu-
querque came to take possession of the place, as soon
as he dropped anchor he commenced a heavy can-
nonade, referring to wliich the same annals tell us
that ** multitudes ran searching for a place to shelter
themselves from the bullets/ ' It is plainly enough to
be inferred from this, that the harbour could in these
times permit tolerably heavy vessels to lie within gun-
shot of the shore, whereas now, at low water, even
a ship's boat cannot approach to within half a mile,
except by following the veiy narrow channel which the
river has formed for itself through the mud. If the
depth of water was no greater in 1807 than it is now,
the destruction of the fort by the British authorities,
at a cost of 70,000/., must be set down as little else
than a piece of thoughtless Vandalism.

The decay of Malacca has been gradual, and very

SUBTERRANEOUS PASSAGES.

365

little besides bare walls has been left to tell of its
past importance. The later poverty of the people
had doubtless made them reduce to money every relic
that had any intrinsic value ; still, however, some of
its ancient stores and implements which had escaped
their notice or cupidity continue from time to time to
turn up. Twelve years ago, while opening out a subter-
raneous passage at the foot of the hill, two cases of
ancient cutlasses were found, which, with a lamentable
disregard of their historical value, were distributed by
the authorities amongst the convict and sepoy work-
men, and we believe not one can now be found. The
passage in which these weapons were discovered, is
reported to have been some sort of communication
leading from the town to the monastery behind the
church, and which the old monks availed themselves
of when engaged in those scarcely clerical enterprises
on which it is said they at times adventured. A more
unkind legend prevails, that from the same monastery
another subterraneous passage led to the nunnery of
11 the Mother of God," which was erected on St, John's
Hill, about three quarters of a mile distant, but which
was afterwards pulled down by the Dutch to build
a fort to check the incursions of the Malayan princes,
The distance, however, is too great to make such an
underground passage possible, and the tradition has
probably had for its origin the loose morality into
which the people themselves had fallen, and which, as
we have seen, made chastity so scarce a virtue as to
be specially recorded in favour of those who had
practised it.

366 MALACCA.

But however questionable may be the truth of the
popular traditions concerning these subterraneous
passages, there can be no doubt that underground
communications did exist in the neighbourhood of the
old hill. Nearly opposite the present landing is the
orifice of a stone-built passage which runs directly
into the hill a few feet above the level of the road.
Not many yards from the entrance this passage is now
blocked up with stone ; and though it was here that
the two cases of cutlasses were discovered, no per-
sistent effort has since been made to clear away the
intervening masonry, and ascertain the place to which
it leads, or the purpose which it served ; a couple of
convicts could surely be well spared for this work. In
the old church the mouth of another underground
entrance has also been laid open, but nothing has
been done to follow it up. It is said that in this case
the authorities have been deterred from going to work
by respect to the prejudice of the old Malacca families,
who consider the ground is too holy to be disturbed,
either to satisfy curiosity or to afford an additional
page to the history of the place. So far indeed was
this feeling allowed to prevail, that many years ago,
when a coffin was discovered in a recess of the walls
of the church, displaying all the indications of great
age and of the importance of the individual whose
remains it contained, being surrounded by a metallic
case, it was returned unopened by the Resident Coun-
cillor of the day to the place where it was found, and
the recess built up.

But the most curious discovery of late years was

ANCIENT STORE OF QUICKSILVER.

lade by Captain Playfair about twelve months ago. A
part of the road that now runs round the base of the
had to be straightened and levelled, and in making

le necessary excavations the walls of a cellar or store -
>m which had formed part of the old Portuguese

rovernnient buildings were broken down, and in a
small recess were discovered forty or fifty earthenware
H>ts, many of which were crumbled to pieces, but in
Bach of those which were whole was found a small
juantity of quicksilver. Only about four pounds
weight in all was recovered ; but had the pots been full,
as they doubtless were when the light had last closed
upon them, they must have contained considerably
more than a ton weight of this uncommon metal.
There is only one purpose for which such a large
quantity of quicksilver could be required or made
available, and that is for the amalgamating process in
gold mining. It is well known that the greater portion
of the lands in the interior of Malacca are auriferous.
Ten years ago, when the rich discoveries of Australia
had revived over the world the gold fever which was
fast declining under the reduced returns of California,
prospecting parties, European as well as Chinese,
spread themselves over the jungled valleys around
Mount Qphir, with the hope of striking some rich lead
of the precious metal. No such lead could be found ;
but it is worthy of remark that in almost every spot
which was tried gold iu small quantities was procured,
and though all the sinkings were ultimately aban-
doned, still some had been worked for nine months or
a year. But it scarcely required this modern rush to

368

MALACCA.

point to the auriferous locality, for the name
Ophir is sufficiently indicative of the presence
precious metal. No doubt an extensive system of gold
mining was carried on in the time of the Portuguese,
and that whether or not richer fields were then known
than can now he discovered, by forced labour and by
the introduction of European appliances they were
able to make it an important source of revenue ; and
if the jungle of 800 years could be cleared away, it
possible that there might still be seen the abandoned
diggings of the early colonists of Malacca, But at all
events I think it well here to point to this discovery of
quicksilver as giving rather a startling proof both of
the extent of the auriferous resources of the country,
and of the skill with which they were developed in
olden times.

Before closing these observations in the vicinity of
St. Paul's hill, I should notice the Light Tower which
is built up against the southern gable of the old church,
Its origin is materially different from that of the older
building to which it clings. It was erected by the
Dutch for the purpose which it now serves, of being a
guide to ships passing to and fro, or approaching the
harbour. From its elevation and from the superior
character of the light with which in late years it has
been fitted, it has proved of great use to vessels pass-
ing the Straits, A rather singular incident occurred
here, which will serve to impress this tower somewhat
painfully on my memory ; for it happened on the
morning of the first arrival at Malacca of the party of
which I was one. Two fine boys, six years and three

PRESENT CHURCH.

309

years old respectively, children of the signal-master
and light-keeper, obtained by some means a bottle of
brandy, and either from playfulness or from the gratifi-
cation it afforded, drank so deeply that one of them died
within half an hour, and the other, after lingering
insensible until next morning, also expired.

The building at present used for divine service
stands close to the Stadt* house. It had been built
by the Dutch as soon after their accession as they
could spare the necessary time and expenditure, and
is probably 150 years old. It remains in an almost
perfect state of preservation, and promises for many
years to come to afford ample accommodation for all
the Protestant worshippers of the place* Outside it
presents a very plain appearance, nor is it of imposing
dimensions. It is gable-ended, having the entrance
at one extremity and the altar at the other, No
attempt has been made at a tower, but the peak of
either gable bears a curious ornament in the shape

I of a large sphere composed of iron bands, which
give a somewhat prison-like aspect to the building.
The interior is of more pleasing appearance, its fur-
nishings are plain but neat, and are strangely old*
fashioned. Immediately over the entrance is a gallery
where stands an organ which now discourses very
doleful music in somewhat trembling and uncertain
voice ; it has the merit however of being in keeping
with everything else around it.

Like the old Cathedral of St. Paul's, under the
pavement of this church lie the bones of some of the
old Dutch residents, among whom most have been

370 MALACCA.

the fathers of the church. These graves are covered
with carefully carved tablets which form a paving
right up the centre of the building from the entrance
to the altar. Since our time in Malacca, if not earlier,
all burials within the walls of the church have been
discontinued, but so strong is still the desire of the
older residents to keep the names of their dead
before the eyes of the living, that though the bodies
lie in the burial-ground at the back of the hill, the
walls of the church are lined all round by monumental
tablets. The inscriptions on these as a rule do not,
as I have before observed, compare favourably with
those in the old cathedral. In one place some sorrow-
ing friends in the fulness of their esteem for a deceased
gentleman have recorded on the tablet to his memory
that —

He was a loving husband and father
and a sincere friend to all who knew him.

And the most conspicuous if not the most ornamental
slab around the walls is a huge block of white marble
four times the size of any of the other tablets, and
from its weight must have been set up in its position
with great difficulty, which has nevertheless been
erected by a disconsolate husband as a small mark
of his regard for his amiable and affectionate wife.
The epitaph reads in this way : —

Beneath this stone is interred

the remains of

Her disconsolate husband has caused
this stone to be placed here as a
small mark of his regard for an
amiable and affectionate wife.

OLD BUILDINGS. 371

Unfortunately for the veracity of the tablet, the
remains in question do not lie under this stone, but
are quietly interred in the burial-ground beyond the
hill ; the stone, too, originally marked the place of
sepulture there, but has now been removed by the
disconsolate husband to its present scarcely appro-
priate place on the church walls. In the rear of the
church are some old buildings which have an inte-
resting appearance, and are said to have formed a
monastery, but which are now used as store-rooms
and barracks. Indeed it seems to have been a policy
inaugurated by the Dutch and faithfully followed up
by ourselves, to adapt to some present practical
purpose all the old buildings in the place. The
sword that rusts in its scabbard will sooner wear
away than that which has to do hard fighting, and
possibly the British authorities have had some such
conviction when originally making their arrange-
ments within their newly- acquired possession of
Malacca. Nor except with reference to the chancel
of the ruined cathedral which is still used as a
powder magazine, can much fault be found with the
results of this practical spirit.

24-

( 372 )

CHAPTER XIV.

MALACCA : INHABITANTS— AGRICULTURE— MINING.

Native Division of the Town — The Inhabitants — A Convict's Story-
Internal Resources of the Territory — Fruit Gardens — Paddy Cul-
tivation — Tapioca — Its Growth and Manufacture — " Ayer Panas"
Bungalow — The Hot Springs— The Tin Mines at Kassang— The
Roman Catholic Mission to the Aborigines — Father Borie — The
Jacoons — Tiger Story — Superstition of the Jacoons — Deserted
Nutmeg Plantation.

As I stated at the outset, the European and official is
divided from the native part of the town by the river
Malacca, a turgid water of canal-like appearance,
which at high tide enables tonkangs and small cargo-
boats to come up and discharge opposite the numerous
godowns which line the banks. All the old build-
ings as yet remarked upon are on the European
or official side of the river, which is both the most
ancient and picturesque part of the town. But the
western or native division, if less interesting, is by
far the most characteristic of the present condition
of the place. A handsome iron bridge communicates
from one side of the town to the other. The western
division is built upon flat ground, no part more than
ten or fifteen feet above the sea level ; and it slopes
gradually off towards the beach, the houses running

APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN.

out on posts or piles considerably beyond high -water
mark. It is strange that the houses thus built out
into the sea in most cases over mud-banks, which
when the tide is out emit a strong repulsive smell,
are nevertheless perfectly healthy ; indeed it is said
even more so than those built on firm dry ground.
The same thing may be remarked in most eastern
seaports ; and in Singapore not only is the beach
built out upon in this way, but the numberless
mangrove swamps which are filled and emptied by
the river seem to be much more thickly built over
than the adjoining dry land, and yet no evil effects
are believed to result. The selection of these sites
however can scarcely be the consequence of pure
choice, and most likely arises either from the com-
parative cheapness of the land or from the greater
facility for receiving and delivering goods ; as at high
water boats can load and discharge at the very doors
of these houses.

The division of Malacca of which I am now treating,
and which is properly speaking the business part, is
densely peopled ; the houses are small and closely
packed together and appear to teem with human life.
The streets are also crowded; but still the entire
aspect is essentially not a busy one. People never
seem to bustle or bestir themselves, but saunter along
in a dreamy, spiritless, and yet apparently contented
manner; and a stranger accustomed to the activity
of any of the great Eastern marts, is at first strongly
impressed with the idea that he is in the midst of some
holiday or religious festival.

374 MALACCA.

Of the varied races who compose its population,
there is none whose hearing is more suggestive of this
feeling of indolent apathy than the descendants of the
founders of the settlement — the Portuguese. They
are still called the Portuguese, but they have long
ago ceased to deserve to be distinguished, at least
favourably so, from the native inhabitants. Indeed
they have so intermarried with the Malays and other
native people that they would now with great difficulty
be distinguished from them, if it were not that, with a
strange remnant of ancestral pride, they rigidly adhere
to the European style of dress ; and more black bell-
topped hats — napless and dinged it may be— are to be
seen in a morning's walk through this part of Malacca
than would be met with during a whole year in any
other part of India. A black alpaca jacket, perhaps
a shirt, but as often none, and a pair of cotton pants,
the legs reaching a little below the knee and the bodies
braced up close under the arm-pits, complete their
attire. Nor do the minds of these people show any
indication of their superior descent ; they are not
clever or industrious, and not ambitious. It seems
that as soon as they accumulate a little money, either
by accident or labour, they cease working and either
live in indolence until it is spent, or as is more
frequently the case — for they are given to good-fellow-
ship among themselves — they have one grand " blow
out." They are great musicians, and are prolific to a
degree ; and at the close of day the married men sit
out in the verandahs of their houses fronting the
street, discoursing, generally on the violin, some melan-

DESCENDANTS OF PORTUGUESE* 375

choly dirge for the amusement of their wives and families
who are gathered around them. Another remarkable
feature connected with these people is, that notwith-
standing the fact of Malacca having passed over two
hundred years ago into the occupation of the Dutch,
and having again been transferred to the English in
the early part of this century, and the fact of their
intermarriage and close contact with the native races,
they have yet managed to preserve their original tongue,
and continue to speak a sort of broken Portuguese.

It is not easy to discover to what pursuits these
people chiefly devote themselves ; for though there are
no European houses of business in Malacca and the
trade of the place passes through native hands, yet
there is, I believe, no Malacca-Portuguese merchants
in Malacca itself, nor in either of the neighbouring
settlements. In Singapore and Penang, to which
large numbers of these Portuguese have flocked, they
fill the positions of copying-clerks in mercantile houses,
head servants in hotels, and generally constitute the
entire strength of the different printing-offices there ;
but these men are or become more intelligent than
the friends they leave behind in Malacca. In Malacca
however there are no hotels and no printing-offices,
so that the Portuguese have not there any of these
vents for their labour. They are fishermen, but not
tillers of the soil to a greater extent than the cultiva-
tion of the small patches of ground attached to their
houses ; it is probable that a good many of them
inherit means enough to live upon, and that others
eke out an existence upon the profits of occasional

876 MALACCA.

small ventures to or from Singapore ; while some
few hold subordinate clerkships in the Government
offices. Still there remains a large section whose
means of livelihood I have been unable to discover.

But the Portuguese though the most interesting
inhabitants of Malacca are not the most numerous.
Chinese, Malays, Klings and other natives of India
(many of these time-expired convicts,) each equal if not
outnumber them ; and in the country, few but Chinese
and Malays are to be met with. Here, as in the other
Settlements of the Straits, the Chinese are the most
industrious. The Malays are not particularly active ;
they fish, and grow and sell fruit, but seldom trade.
The Klings are chiefly boatmen and road labourers,
the better circumstanced being money-lenders and
money-changers. The convicts form a strange medley,
having a decidedly mixed nationality ; many return to
their own country when they have served the term of
their transportation, but others remain, and betake
themselves to whatever turns up. A very singular
and remarkable man of this class, but in whose case
the majesty of the law, according to his account, had
dealt somewhat harshly, is known by the name Tickery
Bandah, who has by sheer strength of character made
himself a notability of the place. He is a shopkeeper,
a scribe, gives legal advice, and is a most useful man
to all strangers in the search either of comfort or
information. He is a native of Ceylon, and was sent
a convict to Malacca for seven years, but as to the
cause of his expatriation he is not very clear ; he is
now a free man, his sentence having expired early this

TICKERY BANDAHS STORY.

377

ear* He is fond of displaying his law library to all
strangers! and shows autograph letters from the King
of Siam, with whom he corresponds regularly, and

hose royal liberality he has more than once

Kperienced, His acquaintance with the King of
Siam is owing to his having when in Ceylon per-
formed a great service for a holy mission which had
>een despatched there by the King. The story, as

ickery tells it, is not uninteresting : —

When the English took possession of Ceylon,

'ickery Bandah and two or three brother s — children
of the first minister of the King of the Kandians — were
ken and educated in English by the Governor.

Pickery afterwards became manager of coffee plantations,
and was so on the arrival of the Siamese mission of
priests in 1845 in search of Buddha's tooth. It seems
he met the mission returning disconsolate, having
spent some 5,000/. in presents and bribes in a vain
endeavour to obtain a sight of the relic. Tickery

earned their story, and at once ordered them to
unload their carts and wait for three days longer, and
m due time he promised to obtain for them the desired

iew of the holy tooth. He had a cheque on the bank

or 2001. in his hands at the time, and this he offered
*> leave with the priests as a guarantee that lie would

ulfil his promise ; he does not say whether the cheque
was his own or his master's, or whether it was handed
over or not. Perhaps it was the cheque for the mis-
appropriation of which he found his way to the convict
lines of Malacca. The Siamese priests accepted big
dt-rtaking and unloaded their baggage, agreeing to

378 MALACCA.

wait for the three days. Tickery immediately placed
himself in communication with the then Governor,
and represented, as he says, forcibly, the impositions
that must have been practised upon the King of
Siam's holy mission, when they had expended all their
gifts and not yet obtained the desired view of the tooth.

The Governor, who Tickery says was a great friend
of his, appreciated the hardship of the priests, and
agreed that the relic should be shown to them with
as little delay as possible. It happened, however, that
the keys of the mosque where the relic was preserved
were in the keeping of the then Resident Councillor,
who was away some eight miles elephant-shooting.
But this difficulty was not long allowed to remain
in the way. Tickery immediately suggested that it
was very improbable the Councillor would have included
these keys in his hunting furniture, and insisted that
thoy must be in the Councillor's house. He therefore

asked the Governor's leave to call upon Mrs. ,

tho Resident Councillor's wife, and presenting the
Governor's compliments to request a search to be
made for the keys. Tickery was deputed accordingly,
and by dint of his characteristic tact and force of
language, carried the keys triumphantly to the
Governor.

The Kandy priests were immediately notified that
their presonce was desired, as it was intended to exhibit
the great relic, and their guardian offices would be
necessary. Accordingly, on the third day, the mosque
or temple was opened ; and in the building were
assembled the Siamese priests and worshippers with

TICKER Y BAXDAI1*S STOUV. 379

Tickery on the one side, and the Kandy or guardian
iriests on the other, the Recorder and the Governor
n the centre.

After making all due offering to the tooth of the
*reat deity, the Siamese head priest, who had brought
i golden jar filled with otto of roses, desired to have
I small piece of cotton with some of the otto nibbed
Dn the tooth and then passed into the jar, thereby to
consecrate the whole of the contents. To this process
the Kandy priests objected, as being a liberty too great
to be extended to any foreigners. The Siamese, how-
ever, persevered in their request, and the Governor and
Recorder not knowing the cause of altercation inquired
of Tickery. Tickery, who had fairly espoused the
cause of the Siamese, though knowing that in their
last request they exceeded all precedent, resolved
quietly to gratify their wish ; so in answer to the
Governor's interrogatory, took from the hands of the
Siamese priest a small piece of cotton and the golden
jar of oil. " This is what they want, your honour,
they want to take this small piece of cotton — so ; and
having dipped it in this oil— so ; they wish to rub it

this here sacred tooth — so ; and having done this
return it to the jar of oil — so ; thereby, your honour,

consecrate the whole contents. 1 ' All the words of
ickery were accompanied by the corresponding action,
d of course the desired ceremony had been performed

affording the explanation. The whole thing was
the work of a moment. The Governor and Recorder
did not know how to interfere in time, though they
knew such a proceeding to be against all precedent ;

380

MALACCA.

the Kandy priests were taken aback, and the Siamese
priests, having obtained the desired object, took from
Tickery' s hands the now consecrated jar with eve
demonstration of fervent gratitude. The Kandy priests
were loud in their indignation ; but the Governor,
patting Tickery on the back, said, " Tickery, my boy,
you have settled the question for us, — a pity it is yon
were not born in the precincts of St, James's, for you
would have made a splendid political agent/'

Tickery received next morning a douceur of 1,000
rupees from the priests, and ever since has been held
in the highest esteem and respect by the King of
Siam, also by the Buddhist priests, by whom he is
considered a holy man. From the King he periodi-
cally receives honorary and substantial tokens of royal
favour. He has a carte blanche to draw on the King
for any amount ; but he says he has, as yet, contented
himself with a moderate draft of 700 dollars.

The territory of Malacca is now extensive, having
been nearly doubled since it came into our hands from
the Dutch by the war with Nanning in 1833 ; and it
is to the development of the resources of the inl;
lands that we must look for any increase in
prosperity of this settlement. These resources are
two in number — agriculture and mining — and though
they have occupied undivided attention since Malacca
ceased to be resorted to as an emporium, it does not
seem that they have attained that progress which
latterly, at all events, might have been expected of
them. With regard to agriculture, the unsatisfactory
nature of the land grants alluded to in a previous

the

PRODUCE.

381

chapter, was long thought to be the chief cause of
the in activity that prevailed. But now that the Soil
is ready to be granted away in fee-simple, reserving
only a royalty upon metals, very little improvement
is perceptible. The indolent character of the Portu-
guese population, and its contagious eflect upon the
other races, added to the aversion entertained by
European capitalists to begin extensive cultivation in
a new field, have doubtless been, and still are, the
chief causes why Malacca has not attained that agri-
cultural development for which its soil and climate are
so singularly suited.

The exports of produce are, with the exception
of tapioca and sago, confined entirely to what might
be termed garden products- — chiefly fruits. These are
for the most part grown in the gardens of the houses
in town, and embrace almost every variety of inter-
tropical growth, besides some that may be considered
peculiar to the peninsula. Along many of the streets,
drooping over the garden walls of the houses that line
them, maybe seen rich clusters of mangoes and jambu
fruit, and mangoosteen, custard apple, durian, and
ramhutan trees actually loaded with fruit. Further
out of town the fruit gardens though fewer are larger,
and stocked with greater variety. Beyond these fruit
gardens, however, the products of the soil of Malacca
must be viewed at some distance from town, as also
must the entire mining wealth of the station.

The road to the tin mines of Kassang serves tw T o
purposes very well ; ultimately leading to the chief
mines now working about eighteen miles inland, it

382 MALACCA.

affords along its length a tolerably perfect insight to
thd character of the country and the extent of culti-
vation. As soon as the straggling houses of the
town and the many mosques and temples that abound
on its outskirts are passed, long prairie-like plains
of waving paddy stretch away from either side of
the road, till they are broken by a belt of jungle or a
range of hills. The fields which compose these plains
are seldom more than an acre or two in extent, and
are marked off by little mud-dikes a foot or two in
height, which, though sufficiently marking the boun-
daries of each plot, do not interrupt the prairie-like
appearance of the whole. Dotted here and there
over these yellow fields, are little dark green clumps
of cocoa-nut trees shading the homesteads of the
husbandmen, chiefly Malays. The paddy or rice plant
very much resembles corn in its growth and appear-
ance when ripe, but by the Malays, at all events, it is
both planted and gathered in a peculiar manner.
When completely ripe, the women of the homesteads
proceed to the fields with a kind of scissors, and
commence to gather it by clipping off the tops or
ears of each stalk, the stubble being left standing
some eighteen inches high. As soon as the reaper
has a handful of these ears, she ties them firmly
together and places the bundle down with a heap of
others, to be carried to the homestead when the day's
work is over. It is singular how exactly similar in
weight these little bundles are made by practised
reapers ; and in disposing of the paddy for husking,
it is never weighed out, but sold at so much the

PADDY-FIELDS. 383

hundred bundles. The husking is a very primitive
operation in the Straits ; the grains are stripped off
these bundles into a bowl-like cavity dug in a large
log of solid wood, and pounded by a long heavy stick
till the husk is gradually loosened, when it is taken
out and winnowed, and again pounded till perfectly
clean. After reaping, when the rains come, the fields
are dammed up and the water allowed to collect.
When a foot or so of the water lies over the surface,
bullocks and other cattle are turned in to tread down
the stubble, which soon rots under water, and forms a
valuable manure for next year's crop. When the rains
dry up and the ground is ready for planting, small
holes are made about a foot apart, and into each of
these a few paddy stalks or seedlings, about forty days
old, which have been reared from the seed in a separate
part of the field, are planted at the depth of four
inches. Though undoubtedly a more laborious method
this than sowing, it is more economical and more
efficacious.

For about four miles inland from the town these
paddy-fields stretch uninterruptedly along. At this*
distance belts of jungle and half-cleared land appear,
beyond which very little paddy is grown. Here,
however, commence the tapioca tracts; they scarcely
deserve to be called plantations. There can be no
more slovenly cultivation, I think, than that of tapioca
in the Straits. A piece of jungle is cut down and
fired, and as soon as the brushwood is burned away
the planting commences, amid all the confusion of
fallen, half-charred logs and stumps. The plant is

feet high, and grows in gmt
of mriL It has a root verr
■ from this root
The roots of the young
as the older ones are modi
the sulk of the plant is very brittle, sod
by breaking op a stalk into a number of
in the ground ; a man
in a day. It is said
Jk nuts* be pot in the ground, lower part
sad thai if this order is reversed the root
but this is believed by natives

Whe* the roots are gathered they are peeled or
in a sort of mill, where tier
and ground to a flowery palp*
and placed on a sieve of
of water are poured upon it
i backwards and forwards, allowing
the wm&er to cany all the substance through the calico
into * tab beaeaih; the robbing is continued until
the ffare only is left on the calico, and this is then
kid aside sad afterwards used for pig's meat The
water with the substance of the root passes from
the tab through a long series of vats, depositing
the particles of substance, which, from their specific
gravity, seek the bottom, and allow the water in the
end to pass off pore. The tapioca first taken from
the vats looks exactly like pipe-clay, and until it has
washings, is discoloured; ulti-
however it becomes beautifully white, and is

PROCESS OF SAGO PEARLING.

then allowed to dry, when it is taken out in a sort of
cakey state, but being heavy crumbles into flour on
the touch. I do not know how it receives the sort
of lumpy form in which it is ordinarily sold ; for
at the manufactory I examined it was made up into
small globules or pearls like sago. The process of
thus making it up is exceedingly simple. A sort
of hammock of white cloth is hung up with a stick
across the centre to distend it; into this hammock
the flour or cakey matter is cast while still a little
damp, and the hammock is then rocked backwards
and forwards ; from an adhesive property in the flour,
the motion makes it take the form of the small
globules, which the longer it is rocked become the
larger, something on the principle of snowballs.
These small pearls are reduced to a uniform size by
being riddled through sieves. The pearl, however,
has as yet no solidity, and is reduced to powder on
the slightest pressure, and all those that are too large
or too small are at once reduced to powder and
returned again to the hammock. The pearls of the
proper size are rolled about as much as possible and
allowed to dry, when, from a sort of affinity in their
material, they gradually become hard, and enabled
to stand the final process of rubbing with the hand
on smooth boards, which gives them a perfect con-
sistency. Sago is made nearly in the same way.

About ten miles from town these tapioca tracts
cease, and the road runs then through jungle for some
five miles to the hot springs, or Aifer Panas, at which
stands a small native hamlet, and a Government

386 MALACCA.

bungalow. Up to this point the road is iA*iti**l with
that which existed two or perhaps three hundred years
ago, and had been constructed by the Dutch or
Portuguese. Very little traffic goes over it now, for,
with the exception of visitors to the springs and the
mines, it is only used by pedestrians ; but it must hate
been a more busy road in olden times, for it has been
substantially made. The sides are now for the most
part overgrown with tangled brushwood and ferns, and
a foot track only laid bare ; but at some points where
this brushwood is cleared away, can still be seal the
hard well-cemented brick coping on the edges of the
drains, a precaution to keep the road from being washed
away with the heavy rains, which, though it must
undoubtedly have been an expensive one, has singularly
well served its purpose, for at those points where these
copings still remain the road is found indeed almost
concrete and beautifully level.

The Government bungalow at Aver Panas is
some 300 yards distant from the hot springs, which
lie down in a hollow, and have a shed built over them.
There are three separate springs, and they have been
cleared out and walled round in a square form, each
well being about three feet by three feet, by six feet
deep. The hot water comes up to the top of the
brick enclosures, and flows over by a small drain. The
hottest spring is about 130° and is quite unbearable,
scalding the hand or foot if immersed. The other two
are cooler, but too hot to bathe in. From the bottom
of each of the wells large bubbles of phosphorated
hydrogen gas are sent up at intermittent periods, and

TIN MINES. 387

the water itself is so strongly impregnated with this
gas as to he highly disagreeable to the smell. Close
to the shed enclosing the wells there runs a rapid
stream of cold water which is used for the irri-
gation of the rice-fields. At the level mark of the
hot water in each well is a deposit of green crystals.
A bath is effected either by taking a bucket of cold water
to the springs and bringing it to the desired heat, or
haying the hot water carried up to a large and
convenient bath at the bungalow, and there cooled
down to a proper temperature.

The road from the bungalow to the mining village
of Eassang leads irregularly through the forest for
almost five miles. The inhabitants there are almost
entirely Chinese, numbering several thousands, and
their attap houses are built close together in the
centre of their workings. The mines reminded me a
good deal of some of the abandoned diggings in
Australia, with a difference in the colour of the soil,
which is white and greyish, instead of yellow and
brown as in the gold-fields. A great deal of ground
seems to have been opened up and worked, but the
present sinkings are very few and far between. The
ground is entirely open cast ; no attempt that I saw
having been made to get at the washing stuff by the
more economical plan of shaft working ; probably the
sandy nature of the soil would render this last plan
impracticable. The wash dirt of those workings that
I saw was about twenty or twenty-five feet from the
surface, and I was informed averages about four feet
in thickness. The miners do not wash out the tin

25—a

;iss

MALACCA.

as they collect the dirt, hut wait until they ha*
gathered together a good pile and then "wash out"
by means of sluices: the latter operation I did not see.
The ore is smelted on the ground in a very primitive
but quite effective manner. In the shed I saw, there
were two furnaces made of mud, bound together by
saplings. At the bottom of each farnace there were
two small holes of two inches in diameter for the
molten metal to run out, and the draft to be carried
up. One furnace was working while I was there, the
ore was mixed up with charcoal and a light applied,
no artificial draft was created. The metal drops
through the small holes as it melts into a cavity
scooped in the earth, and from this it is ladled up and
poured into the moulds, then sent to town, and there
generally remelted by the exporting merchant.

A very interesting feature in the neighbourhood
of Malacca is the Roman Catholic mission to the
Jacoons, a tribe of the aborigines of the peninsula.
The station is about eight miles out of town; the
road to it for some distance skirts the western sea
beach, and is shaded by a stately double row of augsana
trees, which were planted fifty years ago, and are now
in magnificent foliage having a height of seventy and
eighty feet and a diameter of even more than that.
At two miles from town the road strikes away from
the beach straight inland, and passes through country
similar to that first noticed on the way to Eassang ;
a long plain of paddy-fields stretching away to right and
to left, till at almost five miles from the shore cultivation
ceases and the confines of the jungle are reached. Here

MISSION TO THE JAOOOXS.

389

too the road becomes choked up with underwood and
tiger grass and difficult of passage to a conveyance*
The jungle on either side, however, is not dense ;
many of the larger trees have been cut down, as if an
attempt at clearance had at one period been made and
abandoned.

About a mile within this jungle where the trees
begin to get closer and the undergrowth denser, is
the palisade of the priest's homestead, About five
acres of ground have been cleared and laid out with
fruit-trees. The buildings of the mission comprise
a chapel, a school-house, and the padre's dwelling,
which are all constructed of wood with attap or leaf
roofs, but of neat design. On the borders of the
clearing are a number of the huts of the natives, as
many as generally constitute a Malay hamlet in the
interior. Everything has an aspect of cleanliness and
order which at once impresses the visitor favourably.

It was on a Sabbath morning when as one of a
party of four, I visited this mission about a year ago.
We had chosen that day because the Jacoons, who
were for the most part away hunting and fishing in
the forests during the week, would then be gathered
together in the chapel to offer up their prayers and
have their sermon preached to them. The service had
just commenced when we reached the chapel, but the
priest, Father Borie, suspended it for a moment to
come out and welcome ns, and procure us seats. The
service lasted for about half an hour, and the sermon
for probably half that time ; in the former there was
not much to remark or admire ; but the sermon was

390 MALACCA.

a good honest simple one delivered in Malay ; and I
am sure was suited even to the very limited capacities
of his hearers. There were probably one hundred and
twenty natives, men, women, and children, present in
the church, of whom probably two-thirds were Jacoons,
and the rest Malays. Great must have been the
labour of this lonely missionary before he assembled
this crowd of worshippers, for to the Jacoons he must
first have had to teach Malay before he could teach
them the Gospel ; and he must have taught all his
lessons in a spirit of love and forbearance, for so
timorous and gentle are these people that the slightest
exhibition of harshness or unkindliness would have
frightened them all away from him.

After the service had closed Father Borie led us to
his house close by, a neat little bungalow, where he
opened his little stores and freely invited us to partake
of his hospitality. He had been eighteen years in the
Malay peninsula labouring to convert to Christianity
the strange tribe that were now gathered around him.
He had met many vicissitudes and many adventures,
but had little to complain of the treatment he had
received from the aboriginal tribes. His flock now
numbered 450 Jacoons, and they were attached to the
mission by the strongest tie by which it was possible
to attach their simple natures — that of affection. I
have heard missionaries of the Protestant church in
some parts of the East, when alluding to the spread of
the Romish faith among the natives, attribute it to
the showiness of the Catholic service as compared with
that of our own church. No doubt a service which

FATHER BORIK.

391

appeals so much to the senses has its advantages in
point of attraction to the simple mind of the native ;
but I think that this is but a small cause of the
success of the Catholic missions in comparison with
the laborious devotion of the Catholic missionaries.
Here was Father Borie, a man of good parts and
education, who had for nearly twenty years with-
drawn himself from the world, built his home in the
midst of these people, and set himself about their
education and conversion to the exclusion of all other
ambition ; and this on the fat living of some 50/,
a year, which was itself all shared with his flock.
Dried fish and rice, enriched at times by the birds or
venison of the jungle brought to him by his flock, was
his food, and water with now and then a flask of old
French wine was his drink . And there was no rushing
back for relief from this seclusion into the presence
and excitement of civilization, as we have witnessed
with our own missionaries. Malacca was barely eight
miles distant from Father Borie's mission, and yet a
visit in six months was the most ho made to it.

Father Borie gave us many interesting particulars
of the Jacoons, of their habits, and of their character
and superstitions. As for their appearance we could
judge of that ourselves, for about fifty or sixty of them
were squatted in a semicircle round the front of the
padre's house where we were sitting. They were
mostly of very diminutive stature with woolly hair,
but wearing an amiable expression on their features.
Their wives and children were with them, and I
noticed that the little boys came fearlessly up to the

392

MALACCA,

padre, and while staring rather timorously at us kept
linn hold of his gown. These he took in turn upon
his knee, patted and patted them and apparently
m-oiiciled them to our presence, when they grew
braver and came up to us. We saw an old couple
of the Jacoons who could give no idea of their age,
but could point to their married grandchildren. They
were very small, and old age while it had silvered their
woolly locks and shrivelled them up, appeared to have
robbed thein of little of their activity or liveliness.

The neighbourhood of the mission was more or
less frequented by tigers, and the padre told us an
adventure he had with one. He had been out in the
forests looking for game, and was returning home,
having been unsuccessful, with one barrel of his
fowling-piece still loaded with small shot. When
within a few hundred yards of his clearing he turned
round to light his pipe, laying his gun on the ground,
and taking his hat to protect the match from the
breeze, commenced to strike the steel against the
flint. At this moment he was surprised to hear 1
two dogs each give utterance to a short winning cry,
and he noticed that they crept close to him, their hair
bristling with terror. Alarmed at these symptoms he
removed his hat from in front of him, and standing
right in face of him, not more than ten yards distant,
was a huge powerful tiger, his tail erect, uneasily
pawing the ground, and uttering a sort of low hissing
growl. In a moment — as the padre admitted — of
great terror, and in obedience rather to instinct than
reason, he snatched his musket from the ground and

SINGULAR SUPERSTITION.

393

scarcely waiting to take aim he fired off the contents
of the loaded barrel in the direction of the tiger. Not
waiting to see the result of the shot, but conscious that
he had exhausted his entire means of defence, the
priest turned and fled, followed by his dogs, in the
direction of the mission. Fear lent him strength and
speed, and he reached his clearing in safety, but in an
almost fainting condition, A well-armed party was
formed and went to the spot where the tiger had been
seen, but no sign of him could be obtained. That
night one of the dogs which had been with the padre
in the morning, after a succession of convulsions, died,
as far as could be judged, from the effects of terror
only, and the other one only lingered a few days
longer. About a week afterwards, as the priest was
passing the spot where he had fired at the tiger, he
felt a strong smell of animal decay ; and gathering a
party of the natives together a search was made, and
in about half an hour the dead body of the tiger was
discovered. The small shot from the musket had
lodged in the animal's face, and though barely piercing
into the flesh, the pain and irritation had so annoyed
him that he had literally torn himself to death with
his claws, his head and neck being all in strips.

Father Borie told me that the Jacoons have a fixed
and singular superstition concerning tigers, ninety-nine
men outof every hundred believing it, even in face of their
Christian teaching. They believe that a tiger in their
path is invariably a human enemy, who, having sold
himself to the evil spirit, assumes by sorcery the
shape of the beast to execute his vengeance or malignity.

394 MALACCA.

They assert that invariably before a tiger is met, a
man has been or might have been seen to disappear in
the direction from which the animal springs. In many
cases the metamorphosis, they assert, has been plainly
seen to take place.

We left the good priest's homestead deeply im-
pressed with the remarkable devotion to the cause of
an imperfect religion, which had led a gentleman and
scholar of no mean pretensions thns to seclude himself
for life in the jungle borders of Malacca. On our way
back, we visited a half-forsaken nutmeg plantation,
famous for the extraordinary size of the nuts borne by
the trees. Some of those which we gathered were
fully nine inches in circumference of the fruit or husk,
or more than twice the ordinary size. Over the chief
entrance of the bungalow which had been erected on
this plantation was a large black board with the first
lines of the sixth canto of Sir Walter Scott's Lay of
the Last Minstrel. What sudden access of enthusiasm
had caused the proprietor to break out in such rhapsody
it is difficult to understand ; it had possibly been induced
by the exceedingly fine prospects of the nutmeg crop ;
at all events, the patriotic sentiment now reads drearily
enough in sight of the whitened branches of the
blighted trees which are fast being choked up by tiger-
grass and jungle.

APPENDICES.

( 397 )

APPENDIX I.

U8T OF THE FRUITS TO BE FOUND IN THE BAZAARS OF
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.*

Gfaah, the Malay term for fruit in general, is always prefixed to the specific name.)

Malayan Names.

Ltanean,fcc Names.

Remark*.

Angoor

i gloogoor..

kambing

eejoo.

Assam kundisun.

Babesaram

Bafhiwig

Bangkudu. ,

Batee..

Beenjai.
Bidara .

Vitis vinifera.

Tamarindus indica....

Morns indica

Mangifera foetida ....

Morinda citrifblia ....

Papaya

Mangifera cassia of
Dr. Jack.

Rhamnus jojoba.

Grapes. Cultivated occasionally 1

fullv, but not abundant.
Principally used in the composition of

curries, for which the Malays are famed.

The fruit is also used with water as a

cooling laxative drink in fevers.
The mulberry. Used by the natives as a

mild emollient.
The horse-mango. A very coarse fruit,

of unpleasant odour ; much eaten by

the lower classes, and producing cholera,

diarrhcaa, and dysentery.
The leaves of this plant are used by the

Javanese in various diseases as astrin-

fents. M Bontius mentions their use in
iarrhoea and cholera. Internally they
act as a mild emollient diuretic." —
Horsfield in Trans. Batt. Soc., vol.
viii., p. 25.

A very large, oblong, brown-coloured,
rather agreeably tasted fruit, like the
common mango.

A subacid fruit of a bright yellow colour,
about the sise of a cherry, the pulp en-
closing an elliptical-shaped seed. " The
bark of this tree is possessed of mild
tonic virtues ; it is recommended in
weakness of the stomach, and in dis-
eases of the intestines." — Horsfield
loc. cit., p. 23.

* Compiled by Dr. Ward.

398

APPENDICES.

Malayan Names.

Bilimbing bisee.
Bilimbing bnlu.
Brambang

Brangun

Champadoo

Chirimi

Dalima

Dookoo

Doorian...

Gajook

Gayer

Jambao merah

Jambao aver
Jambao bain
Jambao ayer ma-
war
Jambao cbeelee..

Jambao kling.

Unneaii, fcc. Names.

Averrhoa carambola
Averrhoa bilimbi.
(Not ascertained) .....

Fagi species

Arctocarpus integri-

folia
Ayerrhoa acida, or

Cicca disticha

Pnnica granatum

Lansium domcsti-
cum, Blame. " Bij-
dragen tot de Flora
ran Nederlandshe
Indie," 4 de stuk.,
p. 175.

Durio zibethinus

Remarks.

(Not ascertained) .
Ditto

Eugenia Malaccensis
Eugenia aquea
Eugenia jambos
Eugenia rosea

Eugenia rosea var
Mvrtus cumini

Two well-known, pleasant tart fruits, re-
sembling, strongly, unripe gooseberries.
A soar fruit, ased for making chamies

and carry.
In appearance and taste strongly re-
sembling the European chestnut
The jack. Farinaceous, mucilaginous, and

nutritive.
A pleasant tart fruit " The root of the
Cicca disticha is said to be emetic, and
great activity is ascribed to it."— Hors-
neld, loc. cit, p. S3.
Pomegranate. The rind is used as an
astringent, and the bark of the root as
an anthelmintic by the natives.
This delightful fruit is the produce of a
large tree. It grows in clusters : each
is about the size of a cricket-balL The
brownish thin skin being broken, dis-
plays the pulp in six cloves, of a plea-
santly acid taste, enclosing a greenish
kidney-shaped seed. It is by many
reckoned the finest fruit in the penin-
sula. The month of July is the season
at Malacca, in which it is had in
greatest perfection.
I This fruit is well known from the de-
1 scriptions of travellers. Those who
i have overcome the prejudice excited by
' the disagreeable foetid odour of the
I external shell, reckon it delicious. From
experience, I can pronounce it the most
1 luscious and the most fascinating fruit
1 in the universe. The pulp covering the
seeds, the only pait eaten, excels the
finest custards which could be prepared
j either by Ude or Kitchener. Bontins
says it proves laxative, diuretic, and
I carminative ; but when eaten in too
great quantities, that it predisposes to
! inflammatory complaints. The natives
consider it to possess aphrodisiac qua-
lities. It is certainly in some measure
exciting.

The seeds used by the Indian boys as
marbles.

Some of these, when in perfection, have
a fine flavour, but in general they are
insipid, being in taste something be-
tween a good turnip and a bad apple.
The first species is commonly called
Jamboo Malacca, and is certainly the
finest. The fourth goes under the name
of rose-apple.

APPENDIX I.

399

Malayan Names.

Jambao irong .....

Jambao bijee or

portgl

Jintue Jintae

Kadondong

Kalapa

lEamang

KtptJ

Karkara. .....

Kamoonting

Karta-tanga

Katapang

Kayookolit

Kboorma

Kichanee

Kiloor

Kitapang
Kledang

Manean, fee. Names.

Anacardium occiden-

tale
Psidium pyriferum

(Not ascertained)

Phyllanthus Chryso-
bolanum of Mars-
den Spondias —
Horsneld

Cocos nucifera

(Not ascertained)

Bombax pentandrom

(Not ascertained) .
Myrtus tomentoso.

(Not ascertained) .

Terminalia catappa..

(Not ascertained)

Phoenix dactilifera

(Not ascertained)

Gnillandinia moringa

Remarks.

Callicarpa japonica..
(Not ascertained)

Cashew-nnt. Fruit coarse, not much

eaten. Nnt astringent
Common guava.

A handsome-looking jungle fruit ; an
orange pulp surround* a small seed
about the size of a pea, and the whole
is enclosed in a trilocular capsule of a
deep orange colour, hanging in clusters
from the branches. Taste sour.

The bark of this is used by the natives as
an astringent

Cocoa-nut. Of this Rumphius enume-
rates thirteen varieties.

A fruit of the appearance of a mango ;
sour, used principally in curries.

The fruit of the cotton tree, taste sweetish,
much eaten. Seeds occasionally eaten.
The gum of the tree is astringent, and
sometimes given in bowel complaints.

A very common and rather handsome
plant, bearing a dark purple-coloured
fruit, about the size of a hip, pleasant
in tarts or preserved.

A very hard brownish black fruit, about
the size of an egg, containing a fari-
naceous substance, boiled and eaten
like yam.

A large tree : the fruit and kernel being
very like those of the common almond.

A small brown coloured fruit, of sweet
taste, common in the jungles.

Dates; mostly imported from Arabia.

Resembling the soontool in appearance ;
pulp sweet, tough.

Bon-nuts of old authors. The whole tree
is esculent; the seeds and leaves are
aromatic, and used in curries ; the root
is an excellent substitute for horse-
radish. It is a valuable external sti-
mulant. Rumphius says, in large doses
it produces strangury and abortion.
" The leaves are recommended in
gonorrhoea as a mild diuretic."— Hors-
field, loc. cit, p. 20.

An acid fruit, resembling a machang in
shape.

A small and very handsome fruit, consist-
ing of an outer shell strongly resem-
bling that of the Rarabootan, of a bright
red colour, within which is the seed,
surrounded by a whitish pulp— the part
eaten.

400

APPENDICES.

Malayaa

Kolit liwmg.

Kolit layoo

Lauras knfit Iawid ..
1 (Not ascertained)

Kooefnee

j Ditto —

Korinche

1 Ditto .

Km _

Kumbut

■ Ci milium cordifo-

linm. The Jnglans

camirinm of Lou -

reiro

(Not ascertained) __

LAngoonee

Vitex triloba

Small tweet jangle frails, eaten by the
children, as hip* and haws are in Eng-

Lampanee (Not ascertained) ._..

Langsat Langsii domestici var.

Lanjoot Mangifene species... .

Leemoo gadang..

Leemoo manis ...

Leemoo kustooree
Leemoo jainboa
Leemoo jaj>oon
I^eemoo Dee pis
Leemoo soonoo
LooLar

Malaka

Citrus decumana ....
Citrus anrantinm ....
Citri varis species.....

Borassus
mis

flabellifor-

I Phyllanthus emblica

A small subacid fruit, of the appearance
of a mango, with the same flavour and
a Terr fine scent.

A small rery dark brown fruit, consisting
of a hard outer shell, containing t
flesh-coloured palp, hanging inbuncho.
Sourish taste.

A fruit of the sise and appearance of the
winter apple, resembling, in all its
qualities, the walnut of Enrope.

The seeds of a large capitate flower, wed
in curries.

A small greenish subacid fruit, growing
in numerous clusters, excellent in tarti
" The root and a bath or cataplasm of
the leaves is applied (by the Javanese)
externally in rheumatism and local
pains in various parts." — Horsfield, te-
nt, p. 16. The leaves are said to cure
intermittent fever, to promote urine,
and relieve the pain of the colic— Id.:
They are stimulant and aromatic.

Small jungle fruit, eaten by the Malm
Used by infusion by lying-in women.
[ A very pleasant, subacid, and favourite
fruit of the Malays and others. In ap-
pearance it is like the dookoo already
described. The seeds of it are said to
possess anthelmintic properties.

The oblong, large, coarse-looking, green-
coloured fruit of a variety of mango—
rather prized by the natives,

Pumpelmoose or shaddock ; rind, a verr
agreeable bitter.

Several varieties of orange, both indige-
nous and imported* are to be met with.

Different varieties of limes and oranges
the list of which might be greatly in-
creased. Some of them are made' into
excellent preserves.

The seeds of the Palmyra tree form very
good preserves, and" are only used for
that purpose.

A handsome tree and fruit From its
abundance round the site of the town
at the first arrival of the Malays,
Malacca is supposed to have derived its
name. The fruit has astringent pro-
perties. The fruit is made into a cata-
plasm, and applied to the head in cases
of giddiness.

APPENDIX I.

401

Malayan Namei.
^fangis or Man-

Maagistan ootan.

Manga dodol

i pao

4 Ifftta kuching

J Mala pjandoq .

Nana*

Nanka

Naaee nasee

Neebong ...

.If ana

Pala

: Papaya

Pinang

Pisang

Linncan, 8ic. Nainn.

Garcina mangortena

Remarks.

Embryopteris gluti-
nifer

Mangifera indica

Mangifera aml>oi-

(Not ascertained)

Ditto

Cynometra can li flora

Bromelia ananas

Arctocarpus integri-

folia
Phyllanthes alba

Caryotn urens

Annona reticulata

Myristica moschatn..

Carica papaya

Areca catechu

Mnsa paradisca

The far-famed mangoosteen. The fruit
has been justly praised by all who hare
ever written upon it It is too well
known to require description. The
habitat of it is extremely limited. We
believe that it does not extend further
to the northward than the old fort of
Tennasserim in lat 11° 40', and all
attempts to cultivate it on the continent
of India have failed. The shell of the
fruit is strongly astringent, and de-
coctions of it are used by the natives
in bowel complaints.

Wild mangoosteen.

Two varieties of mango, the first of
which is very excellent, but much in-
ferior to the graft-mangoes at Madras.
The common coarse mango is very
abundant and much used.

A small fruit growing in thick bunches,
consisting of a rough brownish-
coloured round shell, containing a deep
purple-coloured seed, surrounded with
a whitish, opalescent looking pulp like
a cat's eye, hence its Malay name ;
much prised.

A small sweetish- tasted jungle fruit.

A fruit of the size and shape of a kidney,
of a brownish green colour, growing on
the stem of the tree; the outer shell is
the part eaten, and when good has some
resemblance to an apple.

Pineapple; very abundant and very cheap.
" The unripe fruits are diuretic, and
employed as a remedy in gonorrhoea."
— Horsfield, loc. cit, p. 27.

A variety of jack fruit— well known.

A small white sweetish fruit in clusters
not much prized.

The small flat pulpy fruit of this palm is
made into a good preserve for the table.

The bullock's heart— a much prized fruit.

Nutmeg. Made into preserve, when in a
half-ripe state.

A pleasant, well-known fruit. The seeds
are employed by the natives as anthel-
mintics.

Common betelnut. Sometimes employed
in decoction as an astringent in diarrhoea.

The plantain. Of this about 40 varieties
might be enumerated. The best are
the Pisang mas, P. raja, P. oodang, and
P. medgi. Decoctions of the root are
used as emollient applications.

Bahl

Bafma

Sc»i knvn

Mkn doduk

Sookoou

-,'OoI ootan,
Surba rasa

S< w »jH>>in . , ,..,

BOVOTMO

Tnmpang
Tanjong

Timpoo-ee
laVpOOBM

onu fcoxni

Mctroxylon sagu _
Carrissa spinarum _

Calumus salacca
(Not ascertained) .

Ditto

Mimusaps elcTigi

Lansii species **.

Arctocarpo (a Aims ?>

Flscoartin incriiiis

A very delicate and pleasant fruit

Differs from the preceding in sue, and is
having long bnsilc-like processes on "*"
Mtfor <hcli.

This pleasantly subacid fruit, about
size of a plum, bang* in
clusters from the branches of a
tree. The pulp surrounding the
I lie pan co 1 1

From the pith of this tree sago Is
pared. The tiattiah fruit is made in
for the utile.

A common fruit, of a purplish cote;
clustered round the stem, good in tam
or making jellies.

Fro it used as a preserve,

A fruit of a yellow brown colour, abort
the size of a moderately large appk
consisting of a thick hard rind, oca*
taining five or six cloves, reseabfisf
the mangoosteen; taste, sour

Little used.

Custard apple. Well known*

A - 'iiiinon wild fruit, rather astringent-
little prized,

The bread-fruit. Little used.

A kind of mango, oblong, large; pslp
surrounding thcaeedofarichsweetam

A sour fruit of the mango kind, used a
curries and in making chatnie*.

A jungle fruit.

A hand some deep red jungle fruit, akst
the size of a hen's egg^ consisting of s
sweetish pulp, surrounding three saafl
brown seeds.

This fruit exactly resembles an overgrow*
straw Km; cxternall y it isofagiee*
ish colour mixed with red; inteniall}' • '
a fine pink colour. Taste subacid.

Of little value as a fruit. ■ The barkb
a mild tonic; it has been found naYnu
in fevers, and as a general robonnt:
used in detections."— Horsfield, '
p. 39.

A small subacid fruit.

A fruit in external appearance like •
small jack, and like it also contahuaf
rows of seeds, but without kernels
The pulp, of a yellowish colour, is d
an agreeably subacid taste, and is highly
i both by natives and Europeana

A small reddish fruit, used in niukinj
tarts and jellies.

iTuuip* Q£S
Kinung Pmgam
Moon Tspoos ...
M,

unafa

Cbingei

Mitddang-lcber-duim
Milium Tik'".

A very rcsinnim, heavy, and durable wood; dnta not float in
water ; very hare] ; perhaps the most valuable! of the woods
found here; will remain uninjured for twenty veurs under
grand] 1 wains a foot square, or even nui- It larger, can l* had.
r> itnotis wood, and, although durable, is more dis-
posed to Wtfp than Dam me r Laut ; it is useful for rafters ;
Itfl obknx is l i glit straw; the tree is high ; it is most fre-
quently hollow, hut beams from six to tin inrlies square can
M had ; this wood will remain uninjured 100 years under
ground.

Is a very hard and durable wood, excellent for btmm bttildillg j
it is of a light- reddish and yellowish colour.

A white WOOd, fracture yellowish coloured, used for IkkiI-
Imildiiig.

Is a wood with a loose hark, used for spear shafts, pmalu it
snicks, and such purposes ; large spars of it rnav be hud ; it
is chiefly found in Perak and Pillow Trootow or Trot to ; it
sinks in water

U la Bond 80 the Upper zones of the hills, at an alevntkn <»l
titiotit 2/Joo feet; large spars may he had.

I »i i torts, red and white; tlie red is most used; plunk* may
be had three feet broad ; it ti chiefly used for plunking ;
, and river banks and hills; it limits.

A high tree, from 18 to 25 feet in circumference, used for ship
and boat building; stands the salt water well; ismnohnaM
on the Tennasserini coast ; the wood itself float* ; fracture
rather short; it grows in sandy grounds.

Fracture fibrous; uxed for house building olour; broad

leaf; large spars may lie hud.

liiddle-alaed tree, colour hmwm*h- yellow ; fracture rtnai
fibrous; used for house building : its red bark is much used
to tan lishing-ncts; the wood is BOfl EM

A large tree which grows on the banca oj riwi n near the am
shore , colour dark brown; the planks arc user! for a defence
agaiaal moakatrj bv Malayan ptrao limin r ami

to Ugh.

404 APPENDICES.

Kayoo liftut UmmI fur house posts; lasts five or six years if exposed; colour

yellowish; the tree prows in brackish water.

Kummiyah High tree; the wood is a light dirty-brown when young, of •

dark brown when old, and sinks in water ; cross fracture,
splintery; grows on hills; the fruit is eaten ; used as potto
for houses.

Api Api A large tree, has a white wood; is excellent firewood.

Brua*. A moderately sized tree, which bears a sour mangoosteen; the

wood is used for house building and for making oars ; smka
in water.

Killnt Very tough ; very fibrous fracture ; tree high ; timber not

durable if exposed to weather; used in house building and for
planks; light colour; sinks in water.

Rungga* A lofty tree, the juice of which is deleterious to the hmnsn

frame, creating swellings over the whole body ; the wood
is of a reddish-brown colour ; it is used for making furni-
ture; the fracture is cross and splintery; it is often prettily
enough veined, and takes a good polish; sinks in water.

NiriH Rattu A high tree ; the wood is of a dark brown colour; itismed

for house pillars; it grows in mangrove jungle.

Marulilin I'scd for rafters ; wood straw-coloured ; fracture fibrous ; Utf

not large.

Babi Koortxw White wood.

Ghindral Firewood, light and white; the tree is not large; the leaves are

used in bowel complaints; lying-in females arc kept near a
fire of this wood; is very inflammable.

Butabuta The juice is boiled, and the oil collected, and used in cutancoo*

disorders externally.

(itding White wood, white thin bark, used by Malayan women fur

tambouring frames.

Jimirlang Sittooci . . Crow fracture; used in house and boat building.

Middang Semi High tree, used in l>oat-building.

Rotigor \\vr 1'srd for i>oat oars, floats.

Purian and Duriaii High trees, afford valuable spars, and the latter masts for
Riiroug \csscls; a large mast will cost 120 dollars.

Mora hi jam White wood : its root and leaves are mashed, and used as a

cooling application in cases of brain-fever; the infusion of
this root is drank in eases requiring astringent medicine ; it
is not a strong wtxxl.

Roonoot A large tree Ixuiring an acid fruit, edible ; the wood is of a

dark chocolate colour ; it is used as house posts and in lioat-

• building.

Pittaling . A good-sixetl tree; the wood is close grained, of a light red or

brown colour; used in house building.

ToomuuMw High tree, grows in mangrove jungles; nscd for rafters.

l.angadei A tree growing in mangrove jungles ; the wood is white, used

for firewood.

Rintangoi High tree, few brandies; used for masts and spars for vessels;

floats, and is tough ; it is approved More all others for these
pur|x)ses— Calopbvllum mophyllnm, L.

Middang Kunyit Fibrous fraeturc; used for planks of boats.

Niris Rungs A tree growing in mangrove jungle, used for house-building

and fencing ; colour reddish ; its fruit is as large as a cocoa-
nut.

Nnnka l'ipit Is the lightest, perha|*, of the durable woods; its habitat i> on

high land; it is difficult to saw; it is the sparrow jack ; it is
useful for house pillars, as it endures being sunk in the
earth; sinks in water.

Bar™ It* bark is u-cd for making t\\ me, caulking, and other purpotcs.

B*£" 1* another of the same kind.

APPENDIX 11.

ei Laut

jnwi

It is used for wh cK bo* i, nod apeai shaft*.

Different spec icy erf tin Ficus indiens, with entire leases; they
are planted near tempi en.

Jtwmildil charantia.

A species of banian*

This is a high tree, affording hm plunks tW making table*,
chdn, &r., j i No for house pillars and boat huili
durable.
>au Etam, or Are varieties,
tdo, IL Darah,

tong
in j Kanmngi ..... Sassafras apparently ; soft and fragrant wood ; has a rough
bark.
U
*ng Soory . Is used for planking and in house bin!.

IDgBeiirir
» SodBaa Wry large tree, ami very hiirtl wood; makes good plunks En

ImimIs; sinks in water.
> Knolit

i'h A high tree, red for about two-thirds of the diameter, 18 ins.

diameter, t<mgh, and Dftftd for making; paddles, oars, &c,

Rhammus jnjnba.

Very durable.

A large tree ; yield* crooked timber for knees ol
infusion of its leaves and root* it* applied to the eyes to allnv
LTitlumnuilinii; on the Mulabar coast this tree is exiled Alex-
andrian laurel, and in Bengal, Mttlailflft| it grow* OOlj OB
the so a- shore, ill sandy places ; its TOM is used for ribs of
boats.

Apparently the Chaka* panicuhtta of Lin,; Astroniiiof BaLavia
Transact ; it is an ornamental wo**), and the roots,which
arc large, and flat, and twisting, are formed into kris
handles, and take a fine polish; there are sevinil kind*, atu h
as the Kavoo Kainooning ama*, K. K. k tiny it truos, K
karbati, iL K. an gin, and K, K. battu ; the *■
rocky places.

Is a tall tree; inhabits swamps; it is used for plank*.

Is a hard and durable wood t much in request by native boti>
builders, who are good 1 judges of the best kinds o» timKoi ,
it -inks in water, and resists the salt water insects a long while.

Is (mother, used for the same purpose; a sacred tree.
Beanie here.

A high tree* grows in marshy places; fuwu coloured; Binks in
niiirr; diM.'STioi resist the worm or bft t tl a,

Is a high tree, with a snccitlcnt fleshy leaf, and ha^ a poisonous
^n|» ; has an edible acid fruit ; the branches grow in shape of
an umbrella.

A slim tree, used in house building.

A graceful tree, somewhat tapering, and resembling nonir
species of the tir ; it has small couch and fibrous leCfBSj
Casuurina littorca; the wood is hard; not prized.

Is a small tree.

Its bark is used by the Chinese to dye their sails aud lines of a
brownish red.

For rafters and fiUt W PO OJ.

A species of mimosa, resemhliti
edible, bul lias I am IL

Lar^e tree, used for boat building :

grounds h best for making taMe >.
tron-wotid

i Chjcoi

I Kai nooning

■

Arrow

An.
dei

a COMBimt ; the fnm i
thnt gfOWlftg on high

406 APPENDICES.

Hrangan Is a large tree, with a broad leaf; light woud, and not s&bjcct

to dry rot ; has an edible fruit; cnUn-ated.

Kayoo Hingam Thin tree grows in mangrove tracts; it is approved for bast

and boose building.

(iharoo Agila wood.

Tinkaras From this tree gharoo is also, it is said, obtained.

Krooing This tne yields a raluable oil called miniak kooing or

Kalookoob Thorny tree ; has an acidulous edible fruit

Kammiyan The tree which yields the benjamin.

I pel Is a large tree, having a reddish coloured wood; the

use it in house-building ; rery fibrous fi at im e ; planks for
boat-building arc cut from it ; it is reckoned equal to Menfasa;
ninks in water; the diameter is sometimes two feet

Matati Very brittle wood.

TataU For house posts.

K. Taui|NUiK HitHC'c Hard iron wood, used in some places instead of betel-out along

with betel-leaf ; used in house-building.

K. Bcnar Used in house-building.

K. Boongs Ditto ditto

Kanangn A largo tree.

Hahuta Is a low shrubby tree; its bark contains a very viscous joke ;

an oil is extracted from this, which is used in c ntaa eoai
affections by the Burmans; great care is required in catung
the tree down, for if the sap reaches the face of the wood-
cutter, it will be swelled in a hideous manner, and his sight
will be endangered.

To J oak A dark-leaved small tree, to which superstition affixes a stoed

character; most old and isolated trees are held to be kramit,
and small white flags are stuck up near them, and often pro-
pitiatory offerings made to the spirits supposed to reside od
the K)x)t.

8tid«M> soodoo The Kuphorium; the Malays use it as a drag for cattle.

Kriuip I*arge tree ; does not float ; fibrous fracture ; it is a valuable

wood; the Chinese use it for masts and rudders to the junks;
the Malays for house posts ; less durable than Tampcncs or
Tutnmassoo ; the hark is astringent, and is used by Malays
instead of lictel-nut when the latter is scarce ; the fruit is
edible; the wocxl is not very buoyant

Kayoo araiig, or Sinin A black w<xxl, which takes a high polish ; it may l* had, but
wood does not gn>w here.

Chutnpada Aver ... . High tree, growing in marshes; the wood floats; it is yellowish;
it is used in making boats; its bark is very flexible and
strong, and is used in making walls for native house*,
granaries, &c.

Nipis Kulit Is a moderate-sized tree, about 1$ feet diameter ; the hark is

very thin, and vertically striated; colour fawn; hard, used to
make mortar i>cstlcs, and as it sinks in water is used to make
anchors.

Seeat A tree having a red bark, which is called by the Burmese

" Chekha," and is used to eat along with betel-leaf; it is
sold at Junkceylon, at 8 drs. the pieul; it is a very scarce
tree here.

K. SSrayiui A hard wood used for house-building.

Nimkn'or .lack ... Is well known; its wocxl is not much used here.

Itittont . (Jnms in mangrove jungle; fawn-coloured; of little u&c.

Middling lltiiiga Fawn-coloured wood; not durable if exposed.

K. Maralilin

Kranam A crcejHT; medicinal.

Tmiipang High tree; grain yellowish; g<»od for hoiu>c-post> ; very

durable: n«\xt to TuimuHssoo for this jmr|»osc.

II.

I
Timpenes putih
lliinnei Burong

K. Tnmak hukir
Mengoopoo>

ffiboifl

ijina or Ramoongei.

Bayas

Bintaro
Pangkap
ml Lingi

Assam Jawa
K Pinna l'isaug

Dammar mcniah

Dammar e bun

Balloug A vam

8 ream
Tummak
Meddutig kilning
Tabangow battu
Tin 11 j. a van am as

and

I <e 1 1 for I *>at-bu 1 1 J i ng ; not ve rv mm h pri ltd,

Not so good as the dark Tain] tones.

Small tree; its leaves are used in medicine, and given to lying-
ill women, and externally in certain cutaneous affections ;
birds arc very fond of its seeds.

For planks, boat-building; good white.

Reckoned nearly equal feo Tarn penes; it is dark-coloured.

White wood, for planks only.

Very white; these Modi are chic fly used by undertakers.

For firewood; sinks in water.

Large tree, used in boat-building; dark-coloured.

Caryota nrens; is a fftrtnJfH of palm ; the wood is valuable 1
house-posts and r aft ers, lath**, &r, ; prows in marshy pi a
it is very hard and MHOTa, a-* is its fracture.

For ships' planks.

The Guilandina moringa of Lin. and Bengal.

A tree having a root of a pungent flavour, resembling horse-
radish, for which it is substituted ; the natives eat I »r>i h the
leaves and pods; the latter form a good table vegetal ilc.

Is a h"ee of the palm tri he, which grows on the hills, and is put
to the same purposes as the Xihong, and is reckoned stronger.

Carbcra of Lin.; yields a deleterious milky juice. *

A species of palm; its fibre ie used to tie' on thatch.

A tree, the outer coats of wood wbite, the heart red; is easily
worked into planks, and is durable.

The tamarind tree; it is scarce, and cultivated for its fruit.

High tree; useful for ship*' masts; very tough; colour yellow.

Is the long-dreaded poison tree of Java; with the inspissated
juice the Sainangs, or wild trills in the interior, poison ill- ir
arrows; but thi> juice, which is prepared over a lire, must Ix*
used soon after the process, or it loses much of its virulence.

A high tree, the p nice of which, or even the exhalations from
il T et&M swelling in the face, eyes, ami body of the wood-
cutter, who is careful, therefore, to peel the bark before using
the fixe.

Not ct|ual to 1 himniarlaut. Its oil is mixed with Killing nil for
paying prshus,

Heavy wood.

Used for house-building.

For boat-building.

Tallow MMftw

A hill tree.

A hue-grained yellowish wood, used for furniture.

The rattan, a generic term; there aie many varieties of the

Rntan; —
Knotted ; used for chair-bottoms.
Three-sided.
Used for rigging.
It grows on the banks nf rivers, and drops in strong tendrils

armed with crooked thorns; these will pull a man out of

a boat.
Used for walking-canes.
Also for walking-canes, dark-coloured and glossy, with joints

far apart; grows to many hundred feet in length.
A very long and thick cane, perhaps the largest species; the

gatherers of the edible hirds**nesL make their ladders for

scaling precipices of this spceii
Long and delicate, colonr while; it is used bv the Malays for

cables and rigging of prahnv

408 APPENDICES.

R. Ligor benar True rattan.

R. Jomang Produces the " dragon's blood.*'

R. Salak Produces an edible fruit; the Calumus zallacca.

R. Bum ban Grows about seven or eight feet long; is used for tying ad

thatch ; it is a ground rattan, growing: straight up.

R. Saboot Is made into cables and rigging tor native prahus.

R. Binni orDinni Its leaves are poisonous.

R. Oodang Red rattan ; the cane of which the Samangs and other trifan

make their blowpipes for poisoned arrows.
Bulnh Bamboos: —

B. Bittang The large bamboo ; it is used for house-building and for

ladders; a section forms a water-pitcher ; fishing weirs, fcc

are constructed of it
B. Trimiang Used by the wild tribes to make their blowpipes for poisoned

arrows.
B. Bitting. A large bamboo; its root is pithy; it is used by the wild tribes

to make bows.
B. Dnri Thorny bamboo, used for high fences ; it grows GO or 70 feet

high.

B. Gading Yellow bamboo.

B. Siggei Used for ladders to scale precipices.

THK END.

London : Printed by Smith, Elder akd Co., Old Bailer. E C.

569

406 APPEKDICES.

R. lipvbmr Tntntta.
R. ioanos Prodafw the •* dracoa**

R.fialak Prodnmtt edible frak

R. Bamboo _ .... Grow* aboaft kicb or

tfaaieh ; it fa a

R. rfabooc In made into

R- Hi inn or Dnuu In leavM ir .^
R.Oodng Rri rattan ; the cane of

make then* bloauwca fi

P blOVUEjtca Hff

B. Bittang The large bamboo; it fa need for h— 'm^l=aa; aad ix

me conrtracted of h.
B. Trimiang C«d by the wild tribes to sake their blowpipe* fcar

B. Bitting' A large bamboo; its root fa ftthy; it h taed by the wiU cribs

to make bom
B. Don Tborar bamboo, asied for Ugh feaee* : Iz zrova «»> or 70 feet

bigh-
B. Gading Yellow bamboo.

B. ftiggei U«d for ladder* to Male precipice*.

THF, END.

London : Printel by Surra. Elder and Co., Old Bailer. EC.

3 tlDS Oil 174 40b

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