SINGAPORE.
ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF SINGAPORE--CULTIVATION
OF THE NUTMEG AND COCOA-NUT--ROADS AND SCENERY--
MOTLEY POPULATION--EUROPEAN RESIDENTS--CHINESE
EMIGRANTS--KLINGS--SAMPAN-MEN--PLACES OF
WORSHIP--TIGERS.
In the month of May 1824, I returned from my trip to the eastward, and
was kept tightly at work in Batavia, till fate sent me wandering in July
1826. Singapore was the first place I visited; and to it, therefore, I
must devote the next few pages of these retrospective lucubrations.
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles deserved a great deal of credit and praise
from the mercantile community of Britain, for having established this
emporium of trade. A more lovely or better situation could not have been
chosen; and its surprising prosperity has more than realized its
founder's expectations, sanguine as they were. Since 1826, I have
resided some considerable time in Singapore; have witnessed its progress
towards its present nourishing condition; and am sufficiently well
acquainted with its trade and its inhabitants to enable me to speak
confidently respecting them. The Island itself, though only seventy-six
miles from the Equator, enjoys a delightful climate, and is remarkable
for salubrity. Its proximity to the Line secures frequent refreshing
showers, and its foliage is in consequence always in the full bloom of
summer. During an acquaintance with it of eighteen years, I have never
known a drought of more than three weeks' duration. Its soil, with
little tillage, produces the nutmeg, the clove, coffee, the cocoa-nut,
the sugar-cane, the pepper-vine, gambia or terra japonica, and all the
fruits common to Malacca and Java. The East-India Company's regulations
regarding land checked, for a few years, the spirit of the
agriculturist; but, within the last ten years, a few spirited and
praiseworthy individuals have laid out considerable sums of money in
nutmeg, coffee, sugar, and cocoa-nut plantations. It is a somewhat
doubtful point, in my opinion, whether sugar or coffee plantations on
this island will ever pay; but, of the nutmeg and cocoa-nut groves, I
have the best opinion, and think their proprietors have a very fair
chance of ultimately being well paid for their outlay. Of the nutmeg
gardens, that of Dr. Oxley's is by far the finest on the island. This
gentleman has spared neither trouble nor expense in bringing his plants
forward, and has now five thousand of the very finest nutmeg-trees I
ever saw. Nothing can be finer than their beautiful position, tasteful
outlay, and luxuriant foliage. It is now eighteen months since I last
saw those trees: they were then just coming into bearing; and they are
now, I hope, paying their spirited proprietor for his monthly outlay at
all events, though it may be a few years yet before they return him
interest for his money, and adequate remuneration for his trouble.
A plantation of ten or fifteen thousand cocoa-nut trees is a more
valuable property than many people imagine. As soon as they come into
bearing, which they do in five years from seed, they are worth
three-quarters of a dollar each per annum net profit, after paying the
labourers: thus, fifteen thousand of them will yield their proprietor
10,250 dollars per annum, (_i. e._ at the moderate calculation of 4s. 2d.
to the dollar, 2135l. 8s. 4d. sterling,) a sum that would cover all the
outlay incurred during the five nonproductive years, and be a secure
revenue to the owner of the estate for ever, provided that he is careful
in replacing the old trees, as fast as they die, with new plants.
My reasons for doubting the success of coffee-plantations in Singapore
are, that there is not sufficient depth of soil for the tree, and that,
if there were, labour is too high to enable the planters to compete with
those of Java. As regards sugar, Singapore being a sugar-importing
colony, its own produce pays, on being imported into England, 8s. per
hundred-weight more duty than the produce of non-importing British
colonies.[6] The high price of labour is also against the sugar-planter.
An able-bodied labourer costs, in Singapore, four dollars per month,
while the same man can be had in the mountains of Java for three
guilders in money, and the value of two in rice. Thus, the Singapore
planter pays more than double the rate of wages for his labour; and, as
his lands are not so rich as his neighbour's, he stands, I fear, but a
poor chance in the competition with him.
[Footnote 6: Since my arrival in England, an Act has been
passed, removing, in some measure, this bar to the prosperity
of the Singapore sugar-planter;--I allude to the recent
reduction in the duty on all sugars, excepting slave-grown. The
Singaporeans are naturally anxious to be allowed to send their
sugars to the English market on the same terms as their
brethren of Prince of Wales' Island have lately been permitted
to do. This they can hardly expect, however, while they
continue to be such large importers of Siam and other foreign
sugars as they are and always have been. To require them to
give up this foreign trade, would do them far more injury than
the granting of their planters' petition would benefit them.]
To the eastward of the town of Singapore, extends a considerable plain,
on which the sugar and cocoa-nut plantations stand. To the westward and
inland of the town, the country consists almost entirely of hill and
dale; and its aspect is very striking and picturesque. On many of these
miniature (for they are but miniature) hills, stand pretty _bungalows_,
surrounded with nutmeg and fruit trees: they are delightful residences,
and have the very great advantage of cool nights, when the tired planter
or merchant can enjoy a sound sleep after the fatigues of a hot day.
A great deal has been done for Singapore by gangs of convicts from
Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, who, under an experienced and able
superintendent, have cut and made excellent roads, that now extend east,
west, north, and south, for several miles. Cutting these roads has
drained, and thereby rendered available, large tracts of land that were
recently quite valueless: they also add much to the enjoyment of the
Singaporean, by enabling him to extend his ride or drive of an evening.
The scenery along the different roads consists of hills and dales,
covered with the richest and most luxuriant foliage, with here and there
a clearing, where some industrious China-man has squatted, in defiance
of tigers and East-India Company's regulations. Now that land can be got
on better terms than formerly, these clearings are being purchased by
Europeans of the squatter,--whose prior right the Government always
protects to the extent of a fair remuneration for his labour,--and are
being turned into gardens or plantations. This drives back the
squatter, who, like his brethren all over the world, is ever willing to
sell and move further inland; thus materially increasing the extent of
cleared land from year to year. The primeval jungles of Singapore are so
thickly timbered and covered with underwood and large, tough creepers,
that the man who undertakes to clear them has before him an Herculean
task. According to the best information I could obtain, it requires a
cash outlay of sixty dollars to clear a single acre; and even that large
sum does not thoroughly stump it (_i. e._ clear off all the large roots
and stumps of the larger trees) for the planting of coffee, nutmegs, or
pepper. For these, however, this is less necessary, as the plants are
placed at a considerable distance from each other: for sugar, it is very
desirable to have every stump taken out.
Swamps abound on the island: fortunately, they are all salt-water
swamps, and flooded daily by the tide, which keeps them sweet, so that
no one suffers from residing in their neighbourhood.
A full description of the inhabitants of Singapore would fill a volume,
they are of so many countries. Here may be seen, besides Europeans of
different nations, and Americans, the Jew, the Armenian, the Persian,
the Parsee, the Arab, the Bengalee, the Malabaree, the China-man, the
Malay, the Javanese, the Siamese, the Cochin Chinese, with the native of
Borneo, of Macassar, and of every island of the Eastern Archipelago;
all in the costumes of their respective countries, and forming motley
groupes that can nowhere be surpassed. With the exception of the
Europeans, Americans, and Armenians, each class occupies a distinct
quarter of the town, mixing but little with the rest, except in business
hours, when one and all may be seen in eager converse on the
all-important subject of money-making.
Europeans generally live in garden-houses in the suburbs. The favourite
situation is along the beach to the eastward of the town, from which the
merchant has a full view of the harbour, as well as of both its
entrances, and can see every vessel that comes or goes. Pleasant,
however, as is this part of the suburbs, it is gradually being deserted
for country situations, where the hot winds of July, August, and
September are not so much felt, and where the nights are cooler than on
the sea-shore. The houses generally occupied by these gentlemen, are
large and roomy, with verandahs in front and rear, enclosed with
Venetian blinds: these are kept shut from ten A. M. till four P. M., which
darkens the house so much that a visiter can with difficulty see his
host or hostess for two or three minutes after entering a room, till the
pupils of his eyes, contracted by the glare on the road, expand, and
enable him to distinguish objects. This custom keeps the house
wonderfully cool, and is universally adopted by newcomers after the
first few months of their residence. The Chinese occupy the next best
part of the town, and many of them have built substantial and commodious
houses. A portion of this class are the descendants of Chinese who
settled at Malacca two hundred years ago: they have never been to China,
and speak Malay much more fluently than they do their own language.
Numbers of them keep their families at Malacca, having superstitious
objections to a final removal far from the graves of their ancestors.
The real Chinese emigrant looks on Singapore only as a temporary home,
and invariably remits something every year, according to his means, to
his aged parents, wife, or sisters. He usually consoles himself for his
absence from his wife, by taking to himself another of the country he
resides in: the offspring of this second marriage is always properly
cared for on the father's return to China, where he probably takes the
eldest boy to be educated.
The Chinese junks bring annually to this part of the world, from six to
eight thousand emigrants, ninety-nine-hundredths of whom land without a
sixpence in the world beyond the clothes they stand in. The consequence
of this is, that those who cannot succeed in obtaining immediate
employment, take to thieving, from necessity; and some daring gang
robberies are committed every year. They do not, however, long continue
this mode of life; for the eight thousand new comers soon scatter, and
find employment either on the Island, in the tin-mines of Banca, or on
the Malayan peninsula.
Ship-loads of these men have been sent to the Mauritius, where they have
given general satisfaction; and no better class of emigrants could be
found for the West Indies. A tight curb on a China-man will make him do
a great deal of work: at the same time, he has spirit enough to resist
real ill treatment. All the mechanics and house-builders, and many
boatmen and fishermen of Singapore, are Chinese.
Of the other inhabitants, the most numerous are the Malabarees, who are
principally employed as shopkeepers, and are as knowing in the art of
bargain-driving as any tradesmen of London or Paris. They generally go
here under the denomination of "_Klings_," an appellation synonymous, in
the Singapore vocabulary, with "scamp," to which I have no inclination
to dispute their title. The boats employed to carry cargoes to and from
the shipping in the harbour, are almost all manned by these _Klings_;
and excellent boatmen they are. When pulling off a heavily-laden boat,
they cheer their labour by a song, led, in general, by the steersman,
the crew joining in chorus. They are a willing, hard-working race,
though rather given to shut their eyes to the difference between _meum_
and _tuum_. The original Malay inhabitants of this Island are now the
most insignificant, both as to numbers and as to general utility, of the
many races that are found on it. From this remark must be excepted,
however, the _sampan_-men, who are of great service to the mercantile
community. In their fast-sailing _sampans_ (a superior sort of canoe,
peculiar to the place), they go out ten, fifteen, and even twenty miles,
to meet any ship that may be signalized as approaching the harbour. They
are usually employed to attend a ship during her stay here, few masters
choosing to trust their crews on shore in boats. Of late years, reports
have been in circulation of a suspected connection between the
sampan-men and the Malay pirates in the neighbourhood; but I question
their having any foundation in fact. Those Malay families whose young
men are thus employed as _sampan_-men, are called _Orang-Laut_, or
"People of the sea," from their living entirely afloat. The middle of
the river just opposite the town of Singapore, is crowded with boats
about twenty feet long by five wide, in which these poor people are
born, live, and die. They are wretched abodes, but are preferred, from
long custom I fancy, by their inhabitants, who, if they chose, could
find room on shore to build huts that would cost less than these marine
dwellings.
Each different class of the inhabitants of the Island have their own
place of worship. The English Church, built in 1836 by a contribution
from the Government and a subscription among the European inhabitants,
is a handsome building in a central situation, capable of holding four
times as many people as are likely to be ever collected within it: it is
neatly fitted up, but lacked a steeple, or even a belfry. This
deficiency, however, is about to be supplied by a subscription raised at
the suggestion of the Bishop of Calcutta, during his last official visit
to this portion of his immense diocese.[7]
[Footnote 7: Since this was written, the Chapel has been much
improved, and an elegant steeple added to it. There seems to be
some fatality attaching to Clergymen at Singapore. The last
three incumbents, Messrs. Burn, Darrah, and White, all died
young, and of the same complaint, namely, diseased liver. My
own opinion is, that they were all three too strict adherents
to teetotalism. In warm climates, a moderate and rather liberal
allowance of wine, I believe to be absolutely necessary.]
The Chinese pagoda is a splendid building, according to the celestial
taste in such matters, and is really well worth seeing: the carving and
general fitting-up of the interior are very beautiful, and substantial
enough to make one believe they will last a thousand years, as the
Chinese say they will. In the centre, the Queen of Heaven is seen decked
forth in robes of the most superb figured satin, richly embroidered
with gold; robes that the wealthiest dames of the proudest cities of
Europe might envy, but the like to which they never can possess. Her
Majesty was brought from China; and the owner of the junk in which she
came, would not receive a penny as freight for the room she occupied. On
her arrival in Singapore harbour, the whole Chinese population of the
Island turned out to see her land, and paraded her through the town,
with all the noise they could by any possibility extract from about a
thousand gongs. The building in which she has taken up her quarters,
cost 40,000 Spanish dollars, and does credit to the Chinese workmen of
Singapore. One day, shortly after the building of this temple, I asked
an intelligent and wealthy Chinese, how often he went to it. His answer,
in broken English, ran thus: "Sometime one moon, sometime two moon.
Suppose I want ask God for something, I go churchee. Suppose I no want
ask any thing, what for I go?" On my asking whether he never went to
return thanks for past favours, he seemed to think my question a very
silly one, and said, "No use."
The American Chapel is a remarkably neat little building. Besides these,
there is no other place of worship in Singapore worthy of notice.
Before quitting the subject of the inhabitants of this land of perpetual
summer, I must mention one class which the others would gladly get rid
of: I allude to the tigers of a large size which abound here, and which,
having cleared the jungles of wild-hog and jackalls, and nearly so of
deer, have lately commenced preying on man, to whom they have become a
most formidable and dreaded foe. Were I to set down the number of
unfortunate individuals who have, since 1839, been killed by these lords
of the forests, I should scarcely expect to be credited. Let any one
look over the newspapers of the Island for the last five or six years,
and they will tell him a tale of horror that will make his blood freeze.
Many of the more distant gambia-plantations have been deserted by their
proprietors in consequence of the ravages of these monsters. Government,
in the hope of remedying or mitigating the evil, offered a reward of one
hundred dollars for every tiger brought in alive or dead; but so dense
are the jungles in which they seek shelter, that their pursuers have
hitherto been far from successful. One is brought in now and then, for
which the captor receives his reward, and sells the flesh for some forty
dollars more; for the reader must know, that the flesh of a tiger is
readily purchased and eagerly eaten by the Chinese, under the notion
that some of the courage of the animal will be thereby instilled into
them. Some time before I left the Island, a Malay fell in with two tiger
cubs in the woods, and captured one of them: next day, he went back,
like a fool, alone, in search of the other, when the dam captured and
made a meal of him; a lesson to his countrymen, which has effectually
cured them of meddling with tiger-whelps. On another occasion, a
China-man, having set a trap for tigers, took a walk out about midnight,
to see if his plan had been successful. He paid dearly for his temerity,
being carried off by some prowling monster; and his mangled body was
found near the place a few days afterwards.