536 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



a book on Cochin China, giving his experience while 

 a captive in that land. 



May Vitli. — We continue, this morning, to pass 

 small islands, and now, by degrees, we are able to 

 make out many ships and steamers at anchor in a 

 bay, and soon the houses by the bund or street bor- 

 dering the shore begin to appear. We are neariug 

 Singapore. A year and fourteen days have passed 

 since I landed in Java. During that time I have 

 travelled six thousand miles over the archij^elago, 

 and yet I have not once set foot on any other soil 

 than that possessed by the Dutch, so great is the 

 extent of their Eastern possessions. 



The activity and enterprise which characterize 

 this city are very striking to one who has been liv- 

 ing so long among the phlegmatic Dutchmen. Singa- 

 pore, or, more correctly, Singapura, "the lion city," 

 is situated on an island of the same name, which is 

 about twenty-five miles long from east to west, and 

 fourteen miles wide from north to south. 



When the English, in 1817, restored the archi- 

 pelago to the Dutch, they felt the need of some 

 port to protect their commerce ; and in 1819, by the 

 foresight of Sir Stamford Raffles, the present site of 

 Singapore was chosen for a free city. In seven years 

 from that time its population numbered 13,000 ; but 

 has since risen to 90,000. Its imports have risen 

 from $5,808,000 in 1823 to $31,460,000 in 1863, and 

 its exports ft'om $4,598,000 in 1823 to $26,620,000 

 in 1863. 



As soon as I landed, I found myself among Amer- 

 ican friends, and one of them kindly introduced me 



