SINGAPORE. 199 



passing a number of Malay fishing boats, with square 

 brown sails made of cocoanut fibre. 



On the following day we passed Malacca, the shores 

 of the Peninsula and of Sumatra remaining nearly all 

 the time within view, and early on the following 

 morning the Strait Islands hove in sight, which re- 

 quired very careful navigation, as we passed through 

 narrow passages and inlets, until we weighed anchor in 

 the harbour of Singapore. Here I had to waste a 

 couple of hours in the transfer of my luggage, part of it 

 to shore and part on board the Dutch steamer, " Vice- 

 Admiral Fabius," bound within a few days for 

 Batavia. 



The island of Singapore, including a great number of 

 small islets, N. Lat. 1° 17', and E. Long. 103° 50', is 

 larger than Penang by about one third, became a 

 British free-port in 1819, and is the entrepot of produce 

 from all parts of the world for exchange and re-shipment 

 to its ultimate destination ; besides, it has a consider- 

 able home trade in gambeer, sago, cocoanut, and nut- 

 megs, produced on the island. 



The popidation, in all barely a hundred thousand 

 souls, consists principally of Chinese and Malays, — say, 

 about two-thirds of the former and one-third of the 

 latter ; they all speak the Malay language, and their 



