126 



EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



gold thread, and the thousand " nicknackeries" of cunning invention for which Chinefse 

 ingenuity is famous. They take hack the pernicious opium, edihle birds' nests, and various 

 articles of European manufacture. 



The town of Singapore is huilt upon an island, separated from the Malay peninsula by a 

 narrow and scarcely navigable strait. The ancient capitol of the Malayan kingdom, or, as it 

 was sometimes called,, the kingdom of Malacca, formerly stood upon the site of the present 

 town. This old city was built in the twelfth century, and conquered by a chief from Java, who 

 transferred the royal residence to Malacca. From that period its population and wealth 

 gradually declined, so that in 1819, when the English took possession, there were but few 

 vestiges of the former city, which indeed had become but a haunt for pirates, where, as well as 

 in the neighboring islands and passages, they found a secure retreat from the vessels of the 

 English and the Dutch sent in pursuit of them. The natives still offer for sale models of the 

 various descriptions of the Malay war, pirate, and sailing proas ; and most of them present 

 exceedingly beautiful specimens of graceful form. So much was the Commodore struck with 

 the beauty of the model of the sailing proa that he purposed sending one home to the New 

 York yacht club. 



Malay Proa. 



The town bears all the appearance of being in a most prosperous condition ; its port, as we 

 have said, is always crowded with shipping, and its traders are thriving and wealthy. Marine 

 storehouses are seen throughout the place, but chiefly along the front of the harbor and upon 

 the quay. The principal merchants occupy commodious and tasteful residences, built fronting 



