146 THE SEA. 



underneath which flowers in China vases, and easy chairs of all kinds, are placed. If 

 perfect peace can steal through the senses into the soul if it can be distilled like some 

 subtle ether from all that is beautiful in nature surely in such an island as this we 

 shall find that supreme happiness which we all know to be unattainable else where ." 

 Alas ! even in this bright spot, unalloyed bliss cannot be expected. The temperature is 

 very high, showing an average in the shade, all the year round, of between 85 and 

 95 Fahr. Prickly heat, and many other disorders, are caused by it on the European 

 constitution. 



The old Strait of Singhapura, that lies between the island of Singapore and the 

 mainland of Johore, is a narrow tortuous passage, for many centuries the only thoroughfare 

 for ships passing to the eastward of Malacca. Not many years ago, where charming 

 bungalows, the residences of the merchants, are built among- the ever verdant foliage, it 

 was but the home of hordes of piratical marauders, who carried on their depredations with 

 a high hand, sometimes adventuring on distant voyages in fleets of forty or fifty prahus. 

 Indeed, it is stated, in tho old Malay annals, that for nearly two hundred years the entire 

 population of Singapore and the surrounding islands and coasts of Johore subsisted on fishing 

 and pirating ; the former only being resorted to when the prevailing monsoon was too strong 

 to admit of the successful prosecution of the latter. Single cases of piracy sometimes, 

 occur now; but it has been nearly stopped. Of the numberless vessels and boats which 

 give life to the waters of the old strait, nearly all have honest work to do fishing, 

 timber carrying, or otherwise trading. "A very extraordinary flotilla," says Mr. Cameron, 

 " of a rather nondescript character may be often seen in this part of the strait at certain 

 seasons of the year. These are huge rafts of unsawn, newly-cut timber; they are generally 

 500 or 600 feet long, and sixty or seventy broad, the logs being skilfully laid together, 

 and carefully bound by strong rattan -rope, each raft often containing 2,000 logs. They 

 have always one or two attap-houses built upon them, and carry crews of twenty or 

 twenty-five men, the married men taking their wives and children with them. The timber 

 composing them is generally cut many miles away, in some creek or river on the 

 mainland/' They sometimes have sails. They will irresistibly remind the traveller of 

 those picturesque rafts on the Rhine, on which there are cabins, with the smoke curling 

 from their stove-pipes, and women, children, and clogs, the men with long sweeps keeping 

 the valuable floating freight in the current. Many a German, now in England or 

 America, made his first trip through the Fatherland to its coast on a Rhine raft. 



The sailor generally makes his first acquaintance with the island of Singapore by 

 entering through New Harbour, and the scenery is said to be almost unsurpassed by 

 anything in the world. The steamer enters between the large island and a cluster of 

 islets, standing high out of the water with rocky banks, and covered to their summits by 

 rich green jungle, with here and there a few forest trees towering above it high in the 

 air. Under the vessel's keel, too, as she passes slowly over the shoaler patches of the 

 entrance, may be seen beautiful beds of coral, which, in their variegated colours and 

 fantastic shapes, vie with the scenery above. The Peninsular and Oriental Steamers' wharfs 

 are situated at the head of a small bay, with the island of Pulo Brani in front. They 

 have a frontage of 1,200 feet, and coal sheds built of brick, and tile-roofed; they often 



