To continue the narrative according to date, we trace that in the year 1858, after the mutiny, the Indian Government came to the conclusion that at all principal centres "field redoubts" should be constructed, to be available as places of refuge for Europeans in the event of a native rising; and accordingly orders were given for the fortification of Singapore. Colonel Collyer, of the Madras Engineers, was therefore sent over from Madras to design and carry out the necessary military works, and he was given the appointment of Chief Engineer of the Straits Settlements.

He selected Government Hill for the main work, and improved and enlarged the batteries on Mounts Palmer and Faber, being of opinion that, beyond the idea of a place of refuge, the island should be fortified to resist aggression from without. All his plans were approved, and, as Lord Canning had then become the first "Viceroy" of India, the main work was named after him, which name it bears to this day. In the execution of most of the earthwork, Chinese labour was employed, but the convicts were utilized in building the sally ports, constructing the drawbridge, sinking the deep wells; and the whole of the bricks, and much of the lime and cement required, were manufactured by the convicts at the Government kilns on the Serangoon Road. Colonel Collyer also designed other important works in the place, notably the Collyer Quay. Major Mayne, of the same corps, succeeded him, and in his time the waterworks scheme for the town was initiated, but not carried fully to completion, and fresh designs became necessary under his successor, in consultation with the late Sir Robert Rawlinson, K.C.B.

During this year also the convicts were employed in the erection of a new court house (now the public offices), the general hospital, lunatic asylum, pauper hospital, and some other minor public works. They also built the walls of the reclamation works along the sea front, now known as Collyer Quay, and above referred to, and the river wall at Campong Malacca. Both these sea and river works had been attempted by free labour, but the work of the convicts for this class of rubble walling was found more suitable, and therefore it was carried on by them, and with satisfactory results in every way.

Shortly after the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Crown, which occurred on the 1st April, 1867, the Governor, then Sir Harry St. George Ord, called upon Major McNair, who had been appointed Colonial Engineer and Comptroller of the Indian Convicts, to prepare plans for a Government House to be erected near Mount Sophia, somewhat under two miles from the town. The plans were approved by the Governor, and passed by the Legislative Council early in 1868. The land on which it stands cost $43,800, and the building, furniture, and laying out of the grounds, $115,000, and the work, with convict labour, was finished for the reception of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh[8] in December, 1869.

Description of the Singapore Convict Jail.

We have already incidentally referred to the plans of Captain Man for the erection of a permanent jail for the Indian convicts, which he had agreed to construct wholly by convict labour. The enclosure wall already existed, within which the original temporary buildings and thatched huts had been run up for their shelter. Only one solid building was within it, part of which was used as a hospital and the remainder for the confinement of convicts in irons. The next permanent building to be erected was quarters for the chief warder, and then came the solid gateways and guard-rooms. After these were built the wards for the fourth and fifth classes, or convicts in irons, then Nos. 1 and 2 wards, all shown on the plan (Plate X.) attached. Then a work-yard was enclosed by a solid wall, and offices built near the outer entrance to it, for the offices of the engineer and Superintendent of Convicts. While this wall was under construction by one gang, other gangs were employed in erecting within the main enclosure a refractory ward and punishment cells, and other minor buildings required in the way of store rooms, filter rooms,[9] chain room, and a receiving room for fresh arrivals; and the effectual drainage of the whole prison.

It was only when all these buildings were actually completed, in the year 1860, that the establishment assumed the character of a prison; and the convicts themselves were not slow to realize the fact, for it became a proverb amongst them that "an open campong, or village, had become a closed cage."

In 1857 there were altogether under the control of the convict authorities no fewer than 2,139 transported felons from India and about fifty from Hongkong. About one half of this number were localised in the main prison, the other half being employed upon the country roads, the quarries, and brickfields. These were of the third class; the second class men were detailed for duties as Government messengers, punkah pullers at the hospitals and Government offices, and others of this class also as "lookout men" at the flag-staff stations, helpers to light keepers, crews for the Government boats conveying firewood to the jail and brick kilns, and others digging and conveying coral for lime burning.

In the main prison the wards were built of a uniform length of 230 feet, breadth 60 feet, and height of walls 20 feet. The wards were not ceiled, but open to the tiles, with a ridge ventilator along the whole roof. Beneath the side windows, which were barred, ground ventilation was provided, in order to ensure a current of air throughout the whole building. The floors were laid in concrete, and cemented over with "soorkee," or brick dust and cement mixed, and graded to the sides. Each ward was arranged to contain four hundred convicts. All the convicts were in association, separate confinement being restricted to the punishment cells. In each ward were platform sleeping benches. They were raised three feet at the head, and two feet nine inches at the foot, above the floor, and were coated with coal tar except on the actual sleeping place.

Lime-wash was used for the inner roofing timbers and tiles, and generally for the walls, except for the three feet of dado, which was coated with coal tar. Parts of this dado were daily re-coated with hot fresh tar, as we found coal tar to be a valuable deodorizer. To each ward there were four night urinals, detached from the main building and provided with double spring doors. In each urinal there were utensils coated with coal tar, and at every corner iron crates filled with wood-charcoal to absorb noxious vapours. Down the centre of each ward spit-boxes were provided for second and third class convicts accustomed to betel chewing. There was always a night watch of one petty convict officer in each ward, and surprise visits were often paid at night by the Superintendent, his assistant, and the chief warder. Going down a ward at night, one might see four hundred or more of these convicts, each enveloped from head to foot in a "chadar," or native sheet, literally over head and ears in sleep. They were all properly worked, properly fed, and properly punished when they deserved it; so, with the benefit of the two first, and a wholesome dread of the third, no wonder they were soon lulled to sleep when the prison doors were closed upon them. Now, at the risk of being a little tedious, we propose to describe in some detail the "day" latrines in use in this old jail. The information may, we think, be of service to those who have native prisoners under their charge either in jails or police stations in the East. At this period of time, when conservancy has rightly taken a first place in all such establishments, it may be thought by some to be superfluous, but the system pursued by us worked so very well that we do not hesitate to give an account of it.There were many such latrines in the prison, so we will confine our remarks to one only. The building in use for this purpose was about seventy feet in length and twenty feet wide, and the tiled roof was supported upon brick pillars raised twelve feet from the ground. In its construction care was taken, above all things, to ensure a solid floor "impervious" to "moisture." This was made by first laying down six inches of well-prepared concrete, consisting of pounded granite, brick-dust, and gravel cemented together by hydraulic mortar, then overlaid with pure cement, and after this coated with an inch thick of asphalt. Around the whole building was an open drain, about two feet inside of the pillars, and built like the floor, and carefully graded to the outfall. The walls, pillars, and drains were coated with coal tar, and here and there daily renewed to ensure deodorization. Close to the drain, and at eighteen inches apart, were placed troughs of hard wood two feet in length, one foot nine inches wide, and nine inches deep, with stout handles at either end. These troughs were smeared over with pitch. Between every second trough was placed a box containing about a bushel of powdered red earth, perfectly dry, and in each box was a ladle made of half a cocoanut shell attached to a handle. Two convicts of the sixth, or feeble class, were placed in charge of this latrine, whose duty it was to see that the red earth was sprinkled by those using the troughs. When the troughs were full they were emptied into a conservancy cart with a hermetically closed screw top, and when this was full it was conveyed by bullocks to plantations in the country.

We think we are quite warranted in saying that this was the first jail, if not the first establishment anywhere, in which this dry earth system of conservancy was used. For centuries, no doubt, in India the well-known habit of the cat had been followed by many of the native castes, but it was not until vast numbers of these convicts from India were aggregated in association that the application of the system to their dwellings was initiated, and we think that the clever invention of the "earth closet" for certain localities may have suggested itself to its inventor when a resident at Singapore.

It may be as well to give here the testimony of Dr. Mouat, the Inspector-General of Jails, Bengal, on the efficiency of the conservancy of this old jail, and in no spirit of self-satisfaction we quote his own words "verbatim," which are as follows:—

Perhaps the last addition to the jail buildings was the erection by the convict bricklayers and plasterers of a stand to hold the prison bell, and from whence to call the roll at general musters. It was built in the form of a "monopteron," a sort of structure without walls, and composed of columns arranged in a circle, and supporting a covered cupola.