Mode of trai^inng Tigers. — Chinese Emigration. 145 



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 

 grass and brushwood, and fasten close by a goat, a dog, or 

 some other living creature. As soon as the tiger, eager for 

 liis 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, in- 

 habit the town itself or the smTounding 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, Parsees (Fire-worshippers), Ben- 

 galees, Bm^mese, Siamese, Bugis (from Celebes), JaA^anese, 

 and from time to time visitors from every corner of the Archi- 

 pelago. 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 em- 



VOL. II. 



