Malacca and Mount Ophir. 37 



CHAPTER III. 



MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIE. 

 JULY TO SEPTEMBEK, 1854. 



Birds and most other kinds of animals being scarce at 

 Singapore, I left it in July for Malacca, where I spent more 

 than tAVO months in the interior, and made an excursion to 

 Mount Ophii". The old and picturesque town of Malacca is 

 crowded along the banks of the small river, and consists of 

 narrow streets of shops and dwelling-houses, occupied by the 

 descendants of the Portuguese and by Chinamen. In the 

 suburbs are the houses of the English officials and of a few 

 Portuguese merchants, embedded in groves of palms and 

 fruit-trees, whose varied and beautiful foliage furnishes a 

 pleasing relief to the eye, as well as most grateful shade. 



The old fort, the large Government-house, and the ruins 

 of a cathedral attest the former wealth and importance of 

 this place, which was once as much the centre of Eastern 

 trade as Singapore is now. The following description of it 

 by Linschott, who wrote two hundred and seventy years ago, 

 strikingly exhibits the change it has undergone : 



" Malacca is inhabited by the Portuguese and by natives 

 of the country, called Malays. The Portuguese have here 

 a fortress, as at Mozambique, and there is no fortress in all 

 the Indies, after those of Mozambique and Ormuz, where 

 the captains perform their duty better than in this one. 

 This place is the market of all India, of China, of the Moluc- 

 cas, and of other islands round about, from all which places, 

 as well as from Banda, Java, Sumatra, Siam, Pegu, Bengal, 

 Coromandel, and India, arrive ships, which come and go in- 

 cessantly, charged with an infinity of merchandises. There 

 would be in this place a much greater number of Portuguese 

 if it were not for the inconvenience, and unhealthiness of the 

 air, which is hurtful not only to strangers, but also to natives 

 of the country. Thence it is that all who live in the country 



