The Straits of Malacca. 283 



landing at certain islands for water or provisions. By this 

 time the Straits have been very fairly surveyed. In the 

 infancy of hydrography the East India Company did ex- 

 cellent service in this respect, and the Dutch navigators have 

 ably assisted in the production of a good chart of the reef 

 and island-bestudded seas. 



The beauties of the Straits of Malacca grow upon you as 

 you reach their southern terminal at Singapore, which, since 

 the days when Malacca, the oldest European settlement in 

 the far East, declined from its ancient prestige, has become 

 not only the seat of Government in this quarter of the world, 

 but the metropolis of general commerce. Through Penang 

 come the sugar grown in the province of Wellesley (about 

 140 miles of coast country opposite the island) and the 

 fruits of Penang itself. Malacca, too, has not entirely retired 

 from business, but lives on in hopes that the development of 

 the mineral resources of the interier of the peninsula will by- 

 and-by give it a new lift in the world. But Singapore is at 

 present master of the situation, and Singapore must on this 

 account, and because of its peculiar attractions, be one of 

 the calling places which will most delight the traveller who 

 is bound to China, or who selects the short and diversified 

 sea route (the Eastern and Australian Company's line) to 

 Australia through Torres Straits. 



The island of Singapore is covered with small hills 

 wooded, as is the fashion in these seas, on summit, slope, 

 and plain. The European residents have naturally taken 

 advantage of these airy coigns of vantage, and it is their cool 

 bungalows which, while we cluster on the poop, with eyes 

 fixed upon land, we discuss admiringly, and not without 

 some envy, as the engine slows, and finally stops till the pilot 

 arrives. There are the airy verandahs, the sleek broad leaves 

 of the tropical trees and shrubs, which are in the old country 



