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.
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]
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.
