146 Voyage of the No vara. 



barkation, 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 passage out of his monthly 

 wages. He usually receives at first 3 dollars a month (about 

 12^. Gf?.), out of which he lays aside IJ doL, and so gradually 

 pays off his indebtedness to the ship captain. The passage- 

 money, which a few years back was only about 10 or 12 E.s. 

 (£1 to £1 4^.), 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 shore 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- 



