Produced by Ronald Lee
PRISONERS THEIR OWN WARDERS
[Illustration: _Frontispiece_
GENERAL MONTHLY MUSTER OF THE CONVICTS, SINGAPORE JAIL.]
PRISONERS THEIR OWN
WARDERS
A RECORD OF THE CONVICT PRISON AT SINGAPORE
IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS ESTABLISHED 1825,
DISCONTINUED 1873, TOGETHER WITH A
CURSORY HISTORY OF THE CONVICT
ESTABLISHMENTS AT BENCOOLEN,
PENANG AND MALACCA FROM
THE YEAR 1797
BY MAJOR J. R A. McNAIR
_Late Royal Artillery, C.M.G., A.M.I.C.E., F.L.S., and F.R.G.S
Late Colonial Engineer and Surveyor General and
Comptroller of Indian Convicts
Straits Settlements from 1857 to 1877
Author of "Perak and the Malays"
(Sarong and Kris)_
ASSISTED BY W. D. BAYLISS
_Mem. Soc. Engineers Lond., Late Superintendent of Works and
Surveys and Superintendent of Convicts, Singapore_
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
"A willing bondman."
--SHAKESPEARE
(_Julius Caesar_, Act I., Sc. 3)
WESTMINSTER
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO
2 WHITEHALL GARDENS
1899
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
BUTLER & TANNER,
THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS,
FROME, AND LONDON.
[Illustration: DUFFADAR ARJOON, SENIOR PETTY OFFICER
OF ARTIFICERS.
_McNair._]
Preface
Some explanation appears to be due from us for writing this account of
the Singapore Convict Jail so long after the date of its final
abolition.
The truth is, that for several years it has been our opinion that it
ought to be written by some one, and the same suggestion had often been
made to one of us by the late Doctor Mouat, Inspector General of Jails,
Bengal, and others who were well acquainted with its administration.
An opportunity lately occurred to bring us into communication on the
subject, and when we came to compare the voluminous notes that each of
us had collected during the time that the jail was in full vigour, we
arrived at the conclusion that there was abundant material for a work
upon it. It also appeared to us that there were some exceptional
features in the training and discipline of these native convicts, that
might even at this day prove of service to other Superintendents of
native jails in different parts of India and the Colonies; while, at the
same time, such a work would not be devoid of some interest to those who
make a study of the punishment and reformation of the criminal class of
all countries, a subject in regard to which, in spite of the great
progress we have made, the last word has certainly not yet been said.
This, then, is our apology for the attempt we have made, and we trust
that our joint labours may be received with indulgence.
When this old Singapore jail was put an end to in 1873, some six years
after the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Crown, the convicts
then under confinement were removed to the Andaman Islands, at that time
not long established as a penal settlement for India; while those on a
ticket-of-leave were permitted to merge into the population, continuing
to earn their livelihood as artizans, cow keepers, cart drivers, and the
like. Those who were old and infirm were retained at Singapore at the
expense of the Indian Government, and a certain number of convicts from
Hongkong were returned to that colony to complete their sentences. There
remained, therefore, only the local prisoners to be dealt with, and for
these, under the subsequent orders of the Colonial Government, was
planned and constructed by our Department, and under our supervision, a
spacious prison on the cellular system, and situated on a more healthy
site than the old convict jail, which had become surrounded by the
buildings of the town.
We should much like to have given a consecutive history of this old jail
from the date of its first construction until it was finally abolished,
but unfortunately the jail registers have not been carefully kept from
the beginning, or are not forthcoming; but we have had access to some
old scattered letters and papers, and to statistics from the year 1844,
since which time the records have been regularly kept from year to year.
A good deal of useful information has also come within our reach from
works written upon Singapore and the Straits Settlements, and especially
are we indebted to an _Anecdotal History of Singapore_, published by the
_Free Press_, and extending from the year 1822 to 1856, which gives an
interesting account of our early occupation of that island, and of the
use to which the labour of these convicts was turned.
From the Memoirs of _Sir Stamford Raffles_, written by his widow in
1830, and from his _Life_ by Demetrius Charles Boulger, in 1897, we have
been able to trace that, so far back as the year 1823, there were
between 800 and 900 of these Indian convicts at our settlement of
Bencoolen, on the south-west coast of Sumatra; and that, when this place
was conceded to the Dutch by the London treaty of 1825, these convicts
were removed to Penang, and were subsequently distributed amongst the
three settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. This distribution
would in all probability have taken place about the year 1825, when
Singapore was incorporated with Penang and Malacca, under the Governor
and Council of the Incorporated Settlements.
We think the account which we are about to give of the various
employments of these Indian convicts at Singapore, will abundantly show
how considerably this important settlement has benefited by their early
introduction. They made most of the roads in the settlement, including
timber bridges, viaducts and tunnels, and executed for the Government
many important public buildings. Moreover, when released from
imprisonment upon a ticket-of-leave, they were absorbed innoxiously into
the native community, and again contributed to the advantage of the
place in the various occupations they had recourse to, in order to
obtain an honest livelihood. By a judicious system of rewards, and a
graduated scale of promotion, a very remarkable spirit of industry was
infused into the bulk of these convicts during their incarceration, and
it may be honestly said that this was effected without the sacrifice of
that wholesome discipline always essential in the control especially of
the criminal class.
We could not, of course, interfere with their religion, but by a
well-judged scale of punishments and rewards, and by instruction given
to them in their own vernacular, we endeavoured to raise their character
by helping them to good conduct, and to a better way of living. To
encourage and foster that industry to which we have referred, we taught
them the trades to which each of them appeared to be best adapted, and
held out to them the hope that they might again become good citizens,
and earn for themselves a creditable subsistence; and, as it was our
practice to deal with each of them "individually," we were often made
aware that there was many an honest heart immured within those prison
walls.
In the narrative we have given of the Settlements, it may seem that we
have dwelt at too great length upon their early history, but we thought
it would add to the interest of the work, if we gave what is really only
a limited sketch of the various places to which those Indian convicts
were first banished beyond the seas.
In the initiation of the system of industrial training among these
convicts, special credit is due to the late General (then Captain) Man,
who in his early years had been trained at Chatham as a sapper. The late
Colonel Macpherson, who succeeded him, carried on and improved the
system, and both these officers were well seconded in their efforts by
the late Mr. J. Bennett, C.E., who practically was their clerk of the
works. Mr. Bennett subsequently rose to a high position in the
Department.
It would be impossible to mention the names of all the subordinate
staff, but Burnett, Stuart, and Lamb are prominent in our recollection
as having done good service as warders and instructors.
In 1864, the Resident of Rhio, Java, Mr. E. Netscher, was appointed by
the Dutch Government to study and report upon the convict system in
force in Singapore, and both the Siam and Japan Governments sent special
missions for the like purpose, the mission from Japan being accompanied
by Mr. Hall, of the British Consulate. Many others, also, recorded their
opinions in its favour, and some among them were authorities upon prison
systems pursued in some parts of both Europe and America.
The local government, we should add, in their direction of this convict
establishment, fully recognised that the distinctive feature in the
native mind was to look to one rather than to many masters, to one
European executive officer rather than to a collective body of
magistrates, and, therefore, beyond that general supervision which the
Government must ever assume over its Departments, it committed the whole
of the management, discipline, and control of this large body of
convicts entirely to their Superintendent, under the approved rules and
regulations for his guidance, and for the administration of the whole
establishment.
J. F. A. McNAIR, R.A., C.M.G.
W. D. BAYLISS.
SCOTIA, PRESTON PARK,
BRIGHTON, SUSSEX.
Contents
Chapter I
EARLY RECORDS OF BENCOOLEN AND
OBSERVATIONS ABOUT CONVICTS 1
Chapter II
A SLIGHT SKETCH OF PENANG AND THE
TREATMENT OF THE CONVICTS THERE 14
Chapter III
OLD MALACCA, AND THE FIRST INTRODUCTION
OF CONVICTS THERE 25
Chapter IV
A RUNNING HISTORY OF SINGAPORE: ITS JAIL
SYSTEM AND ADMINISTRATION 31
Chapter V
SINGAPORE (CONTINUED) 47
Chapter VI
SINGAPORE (CONTINUED) 59
Chapter VII
SINGAPORE (CONTINUED) 75
Chapter VIII
DIVISION INTO CLASSES, TRADERS,
FOOD AND CLOTHING 84
Chapter IX
PUBLIC WORKS AND INDUSTRIES 96
Chapter X
STORIES ABOUT INDIAN CONVICTS AND
EUROPEAN LOCAL PRISONERS 113
Chapter XI
ABOLITION OF THE CONVICT DEPARTMENT
AND DISPOSAL OF THE CONVICTS 143
Chapter XII
DISEASES AND MALINGERING 147
Chapter XIII
CONCLUSION 156
APPENDICES 169
List of Illustrations and Plates
GENERAL MONTHLY MUSTER OF THE CONVICTS,
SINGAPORE JAIL _Frontispiece_
TO FACE PAGE
DUFFADAR ARJOON v
Plate I
OLD MAP SHOWING PENAL SETTLEMENTS 1
Plate II
FORT CORNWALLIS, PENANG 14
Plate III
BOUNDARIES OF MALACCA, PORTUGUESE PERIOD 25
Plate IV
OLD MALACCA 26
Plate V
ALBUQUERQUE 26
Plate VI
MALACCA RIVER 28
Plate VII
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 28
Plate VIII
TOWN AND ENVIRONS OF SINGAPORE 31
Plate IX
ORIGINAL HUTS FOR CONVICTS, SINGAPORE 39
Plate X
DISTRIBUTION OF JAIL BUILDINGS, SINGAPORE 77
Plate XI
MAIN GATE OF SINGAPORE JAIL 78
Plate XII
DUFFADAR RAM SINGH 84
Plate XIII
HEAD TINDAL MAISTRI 86
Plate XIV
CONVICT OF SECOND CLASS AND MUNSHI 88
Plate XV
CONVICTS OF FIFTH CLASS, AND FIFTH CLASS SECTION A 90
Plate XVA
CHETOO--CONVICT OF FIFTH CLASS 92
Plate XVI
CATHEDRAL, SINGAPORE 97
Plate XVII
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, GARDEN, AND MORTAR MILL 101
Plate XVIII
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, APPROACHING COMPLETION 102
Plate XIX
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, COMPLETED 104
Plate XX
CONVICTS STONE-QUARRYING 111
[Illustration: Plate I.]
Chapter I
EARLY RECORDS OF BENCOOLEN AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT CONVICTS
In opening this account of the old convict jail at Singapore, it will be
necessary to refer, as we have said, in some little detail to the
history of the settlements of Bencoolen, Penang, and Malacca, to which
convicts from India were first sent, prior to their reception into the
Singapore prison.
The first penal settlement was Bencoolen, the Banka-Ulu[1] of the
Malays, to which they were transported from India about the year 1787,
much about the same time that transportation to Australia for English
convicts was sanctioned by our laws.
[Footnote 1: Literally, swollen at the source.]
Bencoolen was singularly adapted as a receptacle for convict labour; it
was not a populous place when we took it in 1685, nor, as far as we can
gather, had the population much increased up to the year 1787, and the
few Sumatrans and Malays that were its inhabitants were an indolent
race, and preferred a life of ease to any kind of labour. They were
content to get their livelihood from fishing, and they had no artificial
wants. They would occasionally work upon pepper plantations, and would
bring the berries to Bencoolen for sale to British merchants. Labour was
therefore wanted here, and the East India Company thought that by its
introduction they would make of Bencoolen a thriving settlement; but as
it turned out they were greatly disappointed, for both pepper and
camphor, which were the only commodities there for trade, greatly
declined; and commerce, which was all-important to the East India
Company, almost entirely disappeared after its establishment for some
few years. It was a miserable place from all accounts, and was described
by Captain James Lowe, in 1836, "as an expensive port, and of no use to
any nation that might possess it," and he only echoed what was
previously said of it by William Dampier, who had once been there in the
humble position of a gunner, that it was "a sorry place, sorrily
governed, and very unhealthy." So unhealthy was it, that it became
necessary as early as 1714 to remove the Residency and offices to a
point of land about two miles further off the coast, which was called
Fort Marlborough; but even this locality was found not to be beyond the
reach of malaria, and the place continued, as Crawfurd says, to be more
or less unhealthy down to the cession of the settlement in 1825. But it
had, however, done its work in providing for us a firm footing in those
seas, and was a help to the next step in our progress towards a wider
empire.
It is important to relate here that its last Lieut.-Governor was the
founder of our now important settlement of Singapore. He took up the
appointment at Bencoolen on the 20th March, 1818, founded Singapore in
1819, returned to Bencoolen in 1820, and finally left for England in
1824.
It is not our present purpose to dwell upon the intellectual and moral
greatness of this remarkable man, for full justice has been done to his
memory in the recent account of his life by Demetrius Boulger, and by an
impressive tribute to his worth by General Sir Andrew Clarke, R.E.,
G.C.M.G., in a paper read by him in May last at the Royal Institution.
It is of course impossible at this late date to trace what was done in
connection with the convicts on their first arrival at this settlement,
though we gather from old letters that they were employed principally
upon road-making, and on clearing estates which, "owing to their owners
having died intestate, had reverted to the State." They were also let
out to planters on a guarantee as to their not quitting the settlement.
The first authentic information we have in regard to the management and
treatment of these convicts is from a letter to the Government by Sir
Stamford Raffles, written from Bencoolen in 1818; which we give bodily
from his Life, written by his widow in 1830. It is a paper which gives
evidence of the soundness of his views upon this subject, and indeed it
may be truly said, that with every question with which he had to deal he
always displayed the greatest judgment and keenness of insight.
It is as follows:--
"But there is another class of people that call for immediate
consideration. Since 1787 a number of persons have been
transported to this place from Bengal for various crimes of
which they have been found guilty.
The object of the punishment as far as it affects the parties
must be the reclaiming them from their bad habits, but I much
question whether the practice hitherto pursued has been
productive of that effect. This I apprehend to be, in a great
measure, in consequence of sufficient discrimination and
encouragement not having been shown in favour of those most
inclined to amendment, and perhaps to the want of a
discretionary power in the chief authority to remit a portion
of the punishment and disgrace which is at present the common
lot of all. It frequently happens that men of notoriously bad
conduct are liberated at the expiration of a limited period of
transportation, whilst others, whose general conduct is perhaps
unexceptional, are doomed to servitude till the end of their
lives.
As coercive measures are not likely to be attended with
success, I conceive that some advantage would arise from
affording inducements to good conduct by holding out the
prospect of again becoming useful members of society, and
freeing themselves from the disabilities under which they
labour. There are at present about 500 of these unfortunate
people. However just the original sentence may have been, the
crimes and characters of so numerous a body must necessarily be
very unequal, and it is desirable that some discrimination
should be exerted in favour of those who show the disposition
to redeem their character. I would suggest the propriety of the
chief authority being vested with a discretionary power of
freeing such men as conduct themselves well from the obligation
of service, and permitting them to settle in the place and
resume the privileges of citizenship. The prospect of
recovering their characters, of freeing themselves from their
present disabilities, and the privileges of employing their
industry for their own advantage would become an object of
ambition, and supply a stimulus to exertion and good conduct
which is at present wanting.
It rarely happens that any of those transported have any desire
to leave the country; they form connections in the place, and
find so many inducements to remain, that to be sent away is
considered by most a severe punishment.
While a convict remains unmarried and kept to daily labour very
little confidence can be placed in him, and his services are
rendered with so much tardiness and dissatisfaction that they
are of little or no value; but he no sooner marries and forms a
small settlement than he becomes a kind of colonist, and if
allowed to follow his inclinations he seldom feels inclined to
return to his native country.
I propose to divide them into three classes. The first class to
be allowed to give evidence in court, and permitted to settle
on land secured to them and their children; but no one to be
admitted to this class until he has been resident in Bencoolen
three years. The second class to be employed in ordinary
labour. The third class, or men of abandoned and profligate
character, to be kept to the harder kinds of labour, and
confined at night.
In cases of particular good conduct a prospect may be held out
of emancipating deserving convicts from further obligation of
services on condition of their supporting themselves and not
quitting the settlement.
Upon the abstract question of the advantage of this arrangement
I believe there will be little difference of opinion. The
advantage of holding out an adequate motive of exertion is
sufficiently obvious, and here it would have the double
tendency of diminishing the bad characters and of increasing
that of useful and industrious settlers, thereby facilitating
the general police of the country and diminishing the expenses
of the Company."
These intentions were acted upon afterwards, and the good effects of
the regulations were soon apparent; a large body of people who had been
living in the lowest state of degradation soon became useful labourers
and happy members of society. So grateful were they for the change, that
when they were sent round to Penang on the transfer of Bencoolen to the
Dutch in 1825, as we have stated, they entreated to be placed on the
same footing as they had been placed at Fort Marlborough, and not
reduced to the state of the convicts in Prince of Wales Island, who were
kept as a Government gang to be employed wherever their services might
be thought most desirable.
Upon December 20th, 1823, Sir Stamford Raffles wrote a further letter to
Government in regard to these convicts, of which we can only give an
extract, which runs thus--
"As the management of convicts ought to be a subject of
consideration, I send you a copy of the regulations established
for those of this place. The convicts now at Bencoolen amount
to 800 or 900, and the number is gradually increasing. They are
natives of Bengal and Madras; that is to say, of those
presidencies. The arrangement has been brought about gradually,
but the system now appears complete, and, as far as we have yet
gone, has been attended with the best effects. I have entrusted
Mr. John Hull with the superintending of the department, and he
feels great pleasure and satisfaction in the general
improvement of this class of people."
It is greatly to be regretted that we have been unable to obtain a copy
of the regulations to which Sir Stamford Raffles refers, but we have no
doubt they formed the basis of what were hereafter called the "Penang
rules."
It was, as we have said, in the year 1825 that the whole of the
Bencoolen convicts were transferred to Penang, and thence, as
opportunities offered later on, to Malacca and Singapore. One point we
trace in regard to those convicts is that, greatly to their
disappointment, they missed the freedom they had possessed at Bencoolen,
for they were sent to work in gangs upon the roads, and in levelling
ground near the town of Penang. At first they were tried at jungle
cutting and burning, but had no aptitude for it. This work was therefore
entrusted to Malays, who we all know have a natural bent for cutting
down trees and underwood, and are possessed of implements wonderfully
suited for the purpose.
We may remark here that transportation in those early times had its
terrors both to the European from our shores to Australia, and to the
native of India to these settlements, and more especially to the latter.
Though, by a system of "assignment" or "compulsory" servitude to
masters, or by a ticket of leave which made it open to the European
criminal to work for whom and where he pleased, expatriation became in
time to be less severely felt; still, for a long period it continued to
act as a deterrent to others, though to the convict himself it was
"greater in idea perhaps than in reality." To the native of India it
meant even a severer punishment than to the European, for to be sent
across the "kala pani," or "black water," in a convict ship or "jeta
junaza," or "living tomb" as they called it, meant, especially to a man
of high caste, whether of the right or left hand section, the total loss
to him of all that was worth living for. He could never be received in
intercourse again with his own people, and so strong are the caste ideas
of ceremonial uncleanness that it would be defilement to his friends and
relations even to offer to him sustenance of any kind, and he was in
point of fact excommunicated and avoided. Happily this dread of caste
defilement has now, by railway communication over the country and
equalization of classes under our rule, greatly diminished, but it is
still, as Balfour says, "a prominent feature in every-day Hindu life."
Sir Stamford Raffles' views as to the treatment of those transported
convicts have in the main been recognised by all authorities in the
Straits Settlements since his time; and his suggestion as to the
privileges to be granted to men of the first class, though not defined
by him as a "ticket of leave," has been all along kept in view, and was
in regular force in the jail of which we treat. He divided his convicts
into three classes only, but as time went on they were separated into
six classes, and later on in the narrative will be given the reasons for
this enlargement of the number. Dr. Mouat, Inspector General of Jails,
Bengal, in a paper read before the Statistical Society some few years
ago, spoke of this jail and the ticket-of-leave system as follows:--
"I visited the Straits Settlements in 1861 when under the rule
of my friend, Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, and found in existence a
system of industrial training of convicts superior to anything
we had at that time on the continent of India. It was said to
have been inaugurated by the celebrated Sir Stamford Raffles in
1825, when Singapore was first selected for the transportation
of convicts from India, and to have been subsequently organised
and successfully worked by General H. Man, Colonel MacPherson,
and Major McNair. The ticket-of-leave system was in full and
effective operation, and very important public works have been
constructed by means of convict labour, chief amongst them St.
Andrew's Cathedral, a palace for the Governor, and most of the
roads. The ticket-of-leave convicts were said to be a
well-conducted, industrious lot of men, who very rarely
committed fresh crimes, who all earned an honest livelihood,
and were regarded as respectable members of the community
amongst whom they dwelt. The public works were creditable
examples of prison industry and skill St. Andrew's Cathedral,
built under Major McNair from plans prepared by Colonel
MacPherson entirely by convict labour, struck me as one of the
finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture which I had
seen in the East, and I believe there exists in no other
country a more remarkable example of the successful industrial
training of convicts."
We are not of course greatly concerned in this treatise with the
original crimes committed by those Indian convicts, and for which they
had received a sentence of transportation. Suffice it to say that their
warrants showed generally that, in the case of convicts for life, the
crimes were for the most part those of Murder, Thuggee, and Dacoity;
while those sentenced to a term of years had been tried and convicted of
frauds and forgeries, robbery with violence, and such like
misdemeanours. "Thuggee," we all know, though it will bear repetition
here, was in full operation all over India from very early times, but at
the beginning of this century it engaged the serious attention of the
Indian Government; and it was found to be an hereditary pursuit of
certain families who worked in gangs--the Hindus to satisfy their
goddess Bhawani, and other sects the goddess Devi--and they committed a
countless number of murders all over the country. Thugs were a bold,
resolute set of men, and as a rule divided themselves into groups
consisting of a leader, a persuader, a strangler, a scout, and a
gravedigger, but all the gangs, happily for India, were finally broken
up under Colonel Sleeman about 1860. Some of the men were hanged, and
many transported to our penal settlements in the Straits of Malacca.
Dacoity was in some parts of India akin to Thuggee, for the leaders
carried with them in the same way a sacred implement, which was devoted
to Bhawani. In the case of the Thugs this was a pickaxe, but with the
Dacoits it was an axe with a highly-tempered edge.
In the early days we talk of, it was the common practice of the
authorities to brand these life convicts with a hot iron to indicate the
character of their crime, and this was in some cases done upon the
forehead both in the English language and in the vernacular of the
district where the crime was committed. This was very properly put a
stop to shortly after the custom became known. We have seen some of
those in our jail who, by good conduct, have risen to a ticket of leave,
using their utmost endeavours to get rid of the marks, but without
effect; and finally as a last resource they were obliged to be content
to hide the "stigma" by wearing their turbans, or head-dresses,
inconveniently low down over their brows.
It is worthy of remark here, in reference to those native criminals who
are in the habit of working in gangs, more especially among the Thugs,
how signally they often fail when they attempt to act alone. Amongst our
Thugs we had one (a strangler) who, coveting a pair of gold bangles on
the wrist of a fellow-convict employed at the General Hospital, one
night tried the handkerchief upon him, but missed his mark, and got away
without being detected. Later on, the convict authorities examined the
warrants of all the men at the hospital, and this gave them a clue,
which they followed up successfully and caught the "Thug." He was
punished, and then confessed, saying, "Bhawani was unkind, and I could
not do it by myself; I missed my companions," or "saubutwalé" as he
called them, literally meaning those "I kept company with."
It will not be inappropriate to mention here the callous and brutalized
nature of those gang-robbers, of whom it is recorded that, when one of
their gang was suddenly arrested, they at once decapitated him, and
carried off the head, lest the whole gang should be betrayed.