Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Ii Part 5

[8] Vide, "Indian Political Dispatches," of 1st February, 1848: also the "Hamburger Correspondent," of 30th August, 1848, and "Friend of India,"

for 1853, p. 455.

[9] Thus, for example, we find on the island of Kar-Nicobar the following specimens of barter:--

For Pair of ripe cocoa-nuts.

a sort of hunting-knife or cutla.s.s, worth about $1-1/2 300 a small knife-blade 100 six table knife-blades 300 an American knife 50 a hatchet 300 a musket 500 a double-barrelled gun 2500 a large spoon 150 thirty feet of silver-wire 2500 a small cask of rum 2500 a flask of arrack 10 three "sticks" of (negro-heads) tobacco 100 a flask of castor-oil 50 a cabin lamp 500 a sack of rice 300 a piece of blue calico (about 6 to 8 ells) 100 a neck-cloth 100

Epsom salts, turpentine, spirit of camphor, eau-de-Cologne, and peppermint, are also much-prized articles of barter, and bring a large profit, being exchanged for old clothes, salt meat, onions, and biscuit.

[10] Thus, for instance, there occurred in one of these doc.u.ments:--"In the village of Aurong, or Arrow, the best anchorage is opposite Capt.

Marshall's hut, in from 13 to 15 fathoms water. At many points the coast is so dangerous, that one s.h.i.+p lost two of her men, who were endeavouring to land in a boat." In another certificate it was announced that the barque _Batavia_ of Rotterdam, freighted with rice, of 442 tons burthen, while on her voyage from Rangoon to Europe, was wrecked in Danson's pa.s.sage, 7th April, 1857, and her crew was very hospitably treated by the natives of Kar-Nicobar. Almost every one of these certificates concludes with the remark that whoever wishes to be on friendly terms with the natives must play no pranks with their women, nor shoot their fowls or hogs in the forest.

[11] This place of interment is situated close to a small village on the north-east side of the island, where the graves are visible in the shape of a number of round stakes sunk about three or four feet into the earth, which are adorned with all sorts of variegated cloths and ribbons.

[12] It is customary to call the liquid contents of the green, unripe cocoa-nut by the name of _cocoa-nut milk_; but it is rather a clear, delightfully palatable water, which neither in colour nor taste at all resembles milk. This is obtained or pressed from the white, sweet, rather hard kernel, which is itself extraordinarily nutritive, and forms the daily food of the inhabitants. For an entire month, during which we could procure neither cows' nor goats' milk, we experimented on the use of the fluid obtained from the ripe cocoa-nut in our tea and coffee, and found it so excellent that we hardly felt the privation of animal milk.

[13] See Vol. I., p. 240.

[14] This vocabulary, which probably will not be found altogether valueless for the purposes of comparative philology, as also for the a.s.sistance of future travellers, will appear at the end of this volume as an Appendix.

[15] See Appendix.

[16] Most of the Austrian sailors are from the Adriatic coast, and accordingly speak an Italian patois.

[17] "Letters on the Nicobar Islands, etc. Addressed by the Rev. I.

Gottfried Hansel, the only surviving missionary, to the Rev. C. J.

Latrobe. London, 1812." We are indebted for these rare pamphlets to the kindness of Dr. Rosen of the community of the Moravian Brethren at Genaadendal in South Africa, and do not think, despite its deep interest in the history of missions, that it has ever been translated into another language. Brown in his "History of Missions" has made a few brief extracts from it.

[18] "If an inhabitant of the South Sea Islands have planted during his life but ten bread-fruit trees," says Cook, "he has fulfilled his duties towards his own and his grand-children as fully and effectually as the denizen of our rougher clime, who during his life-long endures the severity of winter, and exhausts his energies in the heats of summer, in order to provide his household with bread, and to save up some trifle for his family to inherit."

[19] From the Malabar word Elettari. This is the common seed so well known in the pharmacopeia in the form of a carminative tincture, and is usually known as Alpinia Cardamomia.

[20] With respect to the resemblance if not indeed ident.i.ty of the vegetation of the Nicobar Archipelago, with that of the surrounding islands, and the mainland, we beg to refer here to the excellent work of an Austrian naturalist, the learned Dr. Helfer, who, stricken in the flower of his days by the poisoned arrow of a native of the Andaman Islands, fell a victim to his zeal for travel. To the Imperial Royal Geographical Society of Vienna, science is indebted for the German edition of this important information, under the t.i.tle of the Published and Unpublished Works of Dr. J. W. Helfer upon the Tena.s.serm Provinces, the Mergins Archipelago, and the Andaman Islands, in the third volume of its Proceedings for 1859.

[21] An extensive description of the zoology of these islands is reserved for the zoological part of the Novara publications, published at the expense of the Austrian government, at the Imperial Printing-office in Vienna.

[22] The Tagali maidens of Luzon regard it as a special proof of the honourable intentions and eagerness of pa.s.sion of their admirers, if these latter take the betel quid from their mouths!

[23] We did fall in with some few individuals on these islands who by dint of much exertion could count as high as 100.

[24] At Pulo Penang the _picul_ of ripe cocoa-nuts, 300, is worth 5-1/2 dollars.

[25] "On measurements as a diagnostic means for distinguis.h.i.+ng the human races, being a systematic plan established and investigated by Dr. Karl Scherzer and Dr. Edward Schwarz, for the purpose of taking measurements on individuals of different races, during the voyage of H. I. M.'s frigate _Novara_ round the world." Vide Proceedings of the I.R. Geographical Society of Vienna, vol. II. of 1859, p. 11.

[26] In the Sydney chapter the reader will find the Transportation question pretty fully discussed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Forest Scene in Singapore.]

XI.

Singapore.

Stay from 15th to 21st April, 1858.

Position of the Island.--Its previous history.--Sir Stamford Raffles' propositions to make it a port of the British Government free to all sea-faring nations.--The Island becomes part of the Crown property of England.--Extraordinary development under the auspices of a Free Trade policy.--Our stay shortened in consequence of the severity of the cholera.-- Description of the city.--Tigers.--Gambir.--The Betel plantations.--Inhabitants.--Chinese and European labour.-- Climate.--Diamond merchants.--Preparation of Pearl Sago.--Opium farms.--Opium manufacture.--Opium-smokers.--Intellectual activity.--Journalism.--Logan's "Journal of the Indian Archipelago."--School for Malay children.--Judicial procedure.-- Visit to the penal settlement for coloured criminals.--A Chinese provision-merchant at business and at home.--Fatal accident on board.--Departure from Singapore.--Difficulty in pa.s.sing through Caspar Straits.--Sporadic outbreak of cholera on board.--Death of one of the s.h.i.+p's boys.--First burial at sea.--Sea-snakes.-- Arrival in the Roads of Batavia.

The island of Singapore or Singhapura[27] is situated at the southernmost point of the peninsula of Malacca, from which it is only separated by a strait nowhere above a mile in breadth. It is about 29-1/3 statute miles in length from east to west, by 16-3/5 in breadth from north to south. The superficial area of the island is estimated at 206 square geographical miles, which will make it about one half larger than the Isle of Wight.

Up to the year 1819, Singapore was a howling wilderness, and the only settlement upon its sh.o.r.es was a couple of wretched Malay fishermen's huts; a lurking-place for the pirates, who at that period made it dangerous to navigate those waters. After the rendition of the Dutch colonies in the Indian Archipelago, which it will be remembered were the property of England throughout the great continental war up to the year 1814, Sir Stamford Raffles, the former Governor of Java, was intrusted with the office of founding on it, as the most suitable spot in all the Malay seas, a free emporium where the general trade in those seas of all the sea-faring nations of the world might be concentrated and exchanged.

England had further in view to leave not a single foot to stand on to the Dutch, whose interests in those seas clashed with her own, to obtain an emporium in which to collect all the more important products of the Archipelago for exchange against the teas and silks of China; and, lastly, to procure for the reception and repairs of the s.h.i.+ps of war and merchantmen, a suitable harbour, such as, being in the vicinity of the teak-growing countries, would also have the advantage of supplying timber for her s.h.i.+ps at any period when there might be in England a deficient supply of oak.

Sir Stamford, having previously examined several other localities, ultimately selected Singapore, and on 6th February, 1819, the English flag was hoisted on this solitary island, thus unsuspectedly inaugurating the beginning of a new era for the sea-faring world! At last, in 1824, came the Treaty of Cerum, by which Holland withdrew her pretensions in favour of England, and Singapore became an inalienable possession of the British Crown for a sum of 60,000 Spanish dollars paid over to its previous owner the Sultan of Djoh.o.r.e, together with a life-rent of 24,000 dollars annually payable to the same Malay chief. The slaves on the island were set at liberty, slavery was entirely abolished, and Singapore proclaimed a Free Port. The importance of Singapore as a site for a colony had already been pointed out and justified a century since by Captain Alexander Hamilton, who visited these seas at the beginning of the 18th century, and in a work ent.i.tled "A New Account of the East Indies," describes most circ.u.mstantially his stay at Djoh.o.r.e in 1703 on his voyage to China. In that work Hamilton narrates how the Sultan of Djoh.o.r.e wished to make him a present of the island, and how he declined this proposal with the remark that this island could be of no use to a private man, but would be eminently suitable for a colony and an emporium of trade,[28] because the winds were at all seasons favourable for egress from and entrance into these waters on every side. A hundred years later, the choice of Sir Stamford Raffles, to whom this relation of Hamilton seems to have been entirely unknown, fell upon the same locality, thus testifying alike to the eligibility of its position, and to the wise forecast of the founder of this British settlement.

Before the arrival of the Europeans in India round the Cape of Good Hope, towards the commencement of the 16th century, the trade of these countries was exclusively confined to the Arabs and Hindoos, who acted as a medium between the far East and Europe. Every island in the Archipelago, in proportion to the abundance and value of its vegetable produce and its foreign intercourse, had one or more harbours, at which the products of the surrounding districts and islands were gathered and heaped up until the monsoon permitted the arrival of the merchant vessels from the West.

At the beginning of the fine season, Arabs and Indians entered these harbours in their s.h.i.+ps, and brought Indian and other manufactures and merchandise, which they were in the habit of exchanging for gold, gum, spices, tortoise-sh.e.l.l, rosin, jewels, and such like. Acheen in the north of Sumatra, Bantam in Java, Goa in Celebes, Bruni in Borneo, and Malacca in the peninsula of the same name, were the most important of these depots for merchandise and centres of trade. At present the importance of all these places has faded into history, whereas Singapore, from its singularly favourable geographical position, and the liberality of its political inst.i.tutions, has made such a stride, as is entirely without parallel in the history of the world's trade. From a desolate haunt of piratical foes, the island has been converted into a flouris.h.i.+ng emporium; about 1000 foreign vessels, and fully 3000 Malay prahus and Chinese junks, flit backwards and forwards annually with all sorts of merchandise and produce, while the value of the goods annually exchanged here amounts to about 11,000,000. Such is the change that has come over the old unhealthy, ill-omened Malay pirate abode: thanks to a clearly defined Free Trade policy! If a doubt should still obtrude itself as to these brilliant results of the utmost freedom and absence of restriction upon trade, it must give way before the spectacle presented to the view of the astonished beholder in the harbour of Singapore, the Alexandria of the 19th century!

Unfortunately, however, our stay in this harbour, so interesting in a scientific as well as in a commercial point of view, was sensibly curtailed by the prevalence of such exceedingly unfavourable conditions of the public health. Hardly had we cast anchor ere an officer of the English frigate _Amethyst_ came on board to salute, and to inform us that for several weeks past the cholera had been ravaging the city, especially what is known as the Chinese quarter. In another war-s.h.i.+p then in the harbour, the screw corvette _Niger_, several of the crew had already succ.u.mbed to the pestilence; and even in our own immediate neighbourhood was anch.o.r.ed a s.h.i.+p with flag half-mast high, a melancholy signal that the angel of death was once more seeking victims. Our original plan of pa.s.sing several weeks at Singapore had of course to be abandoned, and we determined at once to get under weigh, so soon as the s.h.i.+p had been re-victualled and sundry other matters of imperative necessity carefully looked to. Meanwhile the naturalist corps landed, and proceeded to see and examine as much as they possibly could.

The town of Singapore, situated at the southern extremity of the island of the same name, is divided by the river Singapore, on whose banks it is built, into two parts, in the northernmost of which are the churches, the law courts, the residences of the European settlers, and a little further away the native dwellings, as also the Kampong-Klam or Bugis quarter, so called from the number of Bugis from Celebes who congregate there to do business; while on the south bank of the river, only a few feet above the level of the sea, are the warehouses and offices of the various European and Chinese merchants. Still farther to the southward and in another small cove, called New Harbour, are the buildings and docks of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam-s.h.i.+p Company.

Behind the city are visible three hills of inconsiderable height, called Pearl Hill, Government Hill, and Sophia Hill. The middle one, on which stands Government House, rises on the left bank of the river, about half a mile from the sea-sh.o.r.e, to a height of about 156 feet above sea-level. On Pearl Hill, which commands the Chinese and mercantile quarters of the town, a citadel has been constructed. The environs of the town on every side consist of a rolling sweep of hilly country, diversified in outline by about 70 different eminences varying in height from 60 to 170 feet, crowned with the elegant villas of the European merchants or government officials, or the residences of wealthy Chinese or Malays. The loftiest point is Bukit Turiah or Tin Hill, lying about the centre of the island, and 519 feet in height. Although accessible in a few hours from the city, it is very rarely made the scene of any excursions, in consequence of the forests which encircle it having for long been frequented by great numbers of tigers. These animals, eager for prey, cross from the mainland by swimming the narrow strait, hardly more than half a nautical mile in width, which separates it from the island. Dr. Logan, the excellent editor of the Singapore Free Press, a.s.sured us that till within the last six or seven years, 360 natives had annually been carried off by the tigers! Even at present, over 100 persons a year are killed in the forest by the tigers that prowl there. Shortly before our arrival, in the month of March, four persons had perished by these voracious animals. For an explanation of such horrible occurrences, we must consider the heedlessness of the natives, and the peculiar conditions affecting the mode of agriculture followed on the island. The soil of Singapore is not sufficiently fertile to make the cultivation of land a customary occupation. Even for rice-growing it is found to be unsuitable, so that the greater part of that chief staple of subsistence has to be imported from the neighbouring islands. So far as the island has been cleared, viz. to a distance of about five miles round the city, attempts have been made to plant nutmeg, clove, and fruit-trees. But the majority of the natives busy themselves with sowing the Gambir and Betel shrubs in the jungle, the leaves of which are readily disposed of at a good profit among the betel-chewing inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago for an ingredient of their beloved masticatory. The mode of cultivating these, however, is very peculiar. As Gambir speedily exhausts the soil in which it is planted, and renders it quite barren, the cultivators find themselves compelled to advance as though by a sort of perpetual emigration. They hew their way into the jungle, where they plant the Gambir (_Nauclea Gambir_),[29] the withered branches and leaves of which, after it has served their purpose, are used as manure for the _next_ shrub planted, the Betel (_Piper methystic.u.m_).

After a short time the soil becomes unsuited for this also, and needs several years' rest before it can again be made to produce any crop.

In the prosecution of this thriftless cultivation the natives are compelled to penetrate deeper and deeper into the forest, in order to clear away with the axe spots of virgin soil for the planting of the Gambir. They frequently pa.s.s months at a time in the jungle, and with the carelessness characteristic of all southern races, constantly allow themselves to be surprised by wild beasts. Government, however, does not neglect publis.h.i.+ng ordinances, by which as far as possible to discourage these formidable invaders. They have offered a reward of 50 dollars for every tiger killed. So soon as the track of a tiger has been struck, the natives usually dig a pit fifteen or twenty feet deep, which they cover slightly with gra.s.s and brushwood, and fasten close by a goat, a dog, or some other living creature. As soon as the tiger, eager for his prey, seeks to seize the poor animal, the brushwood gives way under him and he falls into the pit, where he is speedily finished with muskets.

The entire population of the island amounts to about 100,000 souls, of which the greater number, say 60,000, inhabit the town itself or the surrounding villages. One meets here with a singular mixture of races, Europeans, Malays, Chinese, Klings (as the natives of the Coromandel coast are called), Arabs, Armenians, Pa.r.s.ees (Fire-wors.h.i.+ppers), Bengalees, Burmese, Siamese, Bugis (from Celebes), Javanese, and from time to time visitors from every corner of the Archipelago. Of these the Europeans, although exercising far the largest and most preponderating influence upon the trade of the place, are much the weakest in point of numbers, the entire community not exceeding 300 or 400 on the whole island. On the other hand, the Chinese out-number all the rest, and are still constantly on the increase. Every year, as the N.E. monsoon sets in, in December and January, vast swarms of Chinese flock hither, fleeing from the poverty and distress of their native land. There are individuals, who make a regular trade of importing into Singapore coolies from China and the Coromandel coast. At the port of embarkation, each coolie engages with the captain, to serve one year after his arrival in Singapore with a European or native master, and to repay the cost of his pa.s.sage out of his monthly wages. He usually receives at first 3 dollars a month (about 12_s._ 6_d._), out of which he lays aside 1-1/2 dol., and so gradually pays off his indebtedness to the s.h.i.+p captain. The pa.s.sage-money, which a few years back was only about 10 or 12 Rs. (1 to 1 4_s._), is at present as high as 20 Rs., or 2. After the first year his earnings may amount to about 4 or 5 dols. a month. If, however, the coolie have repaid his debt, he is free, and may either earn a very good wage as a servant, or start in any business for himself. The facilities for earning money are so great here for men of industry and steadiness, that a few years' stay suffices to convert these naked, filthy, hang-dog looking wretches into clean well-to-do workmen, and some of them even attain a certain status in the community, as planters and merchants. Many a Chinese, who is now an important and wealthy man, possessed not a farthing when he landed on the hospitable sh.o.r.e of the English colony. The number of Chinese resident in Singapore is estimated at 60,000, or nearly two-thirds of the entire population of the island.

We need not feel surprised therefore to find that the long-tailed children of the Flowery Land living in Singapore have begun to develope a certain taste for luxury. They already boast a theatre of their own, a wooden booth, like a gigantic dolls' house, in which actors from China yell out their "sing-song," while the auditory, penned in within a carefully-locked court-yard, chant a vociferous accompaniment to this somewhat monotonous exhibition. Moreover, Singapore possesses a Chinese temple of such splendour, that one would hardly find its match in the Flowery Land itself. This is called the Telloh-Ayer, situated in the street of the same name, and is decorated with handsome carvings, innumerable mysterious inscriptions, and grotesque figures of stone and wood. The Chinese who conducted us all round were exceedingly friendly, and when, at parting, we slid a few pieces of silver into their hands as a recompense for their trouble, they gave vent to their feelings in repeated chin-chins, a mode of greeting which corresponds to the Salaam of the Mahometan races.

Many of the Chinese of Singapore belong to secret societies (Hoes), the members of which seem banded together for both good and bad objects and for mutual protection. Their rules are so strict, and their slightest infraction is so fearfully punished, that hardly an instance has ever been known of an a.s.sociate having been denounced or proved a traitor. In the British possessions, where the government attaches no sort of importance to these a.s.sociations, and suffers them to pa.s.s unmolested so long as the laws of the country are not violated, these societies are unimportant, and are productive of no evil consequences; but in the Dutch East Indies, where the government has always kept their subjects in a state of tutelage, and is in a marked degree adverse to the Chinese settled in their colonies, these secret societies a.s.sume a far more dangerous character, and murders on purely political grounds are far from infrequent.

The natives proper of Singapore are Malays, and their language is that most in use for general intercourse and trade. But as open-air labourers they are far inferior to the Chinese, who are much more enduring, more contented, and more sociable. In this connection the following comparative statement, prepared a few years since by W. J. Thompson, Esq., government engineer in Singapore, of the relative values of English and Chinese labour, will be found of much interest. To build a wall in England containing 306 cubic feet would, according to Mr. Thompson's estimate, employ one bricklayer and one ordinary labourer 4-44/100 days, the former receiving 5_s._ 6_d._ per day, the latter 3_s._ 6_d._, the total expense amounting to 30_s._ In Singapore a similar piece of work, executed by Chinese labourers, would require 8-54/100 days, and the daily wage would amount to 2_s._ 9-3/5_d._ for the bricklayer and 1_s._ 7-3/5_d._ for his a.s.sistant, the total expense amounting to 37_s._ 6_d._ Thus, English labour shows an economy over Chinese in the proportion of 52 to 100 in time, and of 4 to 5 in actual expense. The following is also interesting by way of confirmation. It had been resolved to fill up a swamp in Singapore, the material for which was at hand at either extremity. The swamp was 1200 feet long, 1 foot deep, and 21 feet wide. The contract was allotted to the Chinese, and completed in 326 working days, at 13 cents or 11-1/2_d._ a day. An English, or indeed any other European labourer, would have completed the same in 187 days, so that here also English or European labour in general is more valuable than Chinese or any other Asiatic labour in the proportion of 100 to 57.

These results must not however be held to indicate that the Chinese labourer possesses less physical strength than the European, nor must we leave out of view this element in the calculation, that the one executes his work in a temperate, the other in an excessively hot climate, to which European labourers speedily succ.u.mb, or at all events lose their powers and their strength in a very marked degree. Indeed it seems to decide the question in favour of the Chinese over the European labourer, that the former can work without taking any heed for his health in even the most variable temperatures. These instructive comparisons seem to be in so far especially valuable and useful, wherever it is projected to carry out certain undertakings, the cost of which may be estimated, due reference being had to the well-ascertained expense of constructing similar works in Europe.

Next to the Chinese, the Klings, or natives of the Coromandel coast, are in the greatest request as boatmen, coachmen, pedlars, porters, and house-servants, by Europeans as well as by their own successful fellow-countrymen. From their habits of extreme sobriety, they speedily save money, and generally return home, although a certain number continue permanent settlers in Singapore. The Armenians resident here are the most like the European mercantile community; the Arabs are the descendants of those Mahometan priests and merchants whom the Portuguese found here when they first visited this quarter of the globe, and are recruited from time to time, but on the whole rarely, by fresh arrivals from their mother country.

One very marked peculiarity of the population of Singapore is the enormous disparity between the numbers of the s.e.xes. The proportion of females to males is as one to seven. The most probable explanation of this phenomenon is the circ.u.mstance that hitherto the emigration of females from China has been entirely prohibited, and consequently almost all the Chinese residents, who const.i.tute by far the majority of the whole population, are unmarried. Among them the proportion of females to males is as one to thirteen.

The health of Singapore is not always so bad as at the period of our visit; indeed, judging by perquisitions made for the purpose, the climate may rather be regarded as salubrious, particularly since the immediate vicinity of the town has been so extensively cleared. The outbreak of cholera was entirely new, and on that account an all the more appalling visitation. The temperature is tolerably equal throughout the year.

Observations carried on uninterruptedly during five years give an average of 81 3. Fahr. for the hottest month (May), and of 79 5. Fahr. for the coldest (January). Once only during the five years (in June) did the thermometer attain a height of 87 2. Fahr. and once only in January did it fall as low as 74 8. Fahr. By comparing the present range of temperature with that of thirty years since, it appears that since the foundation of the settlement it has gained three degrees in temperature, a phenomenon which may be ascribed to the increase of buildings, and to the large clearings for a distance of five miles round the town, and perhaps also to the spot itself where these observations were made being exposed.