150 . THE SEA. 



lias a splendid chance of securing, on merely nominal terms, the inevitable parrot, a funny 

 little Jocko, or some lovely corals, of all hues, green, purple, pink, mauve, blue, and in 

 shape often resembling flowers and shrubbery. A whole boat-load of the latter may be 

 obtained for a dollar and a half or a couple of dollars. 



Singapore has a frontage of three miles, and has fine Government buildings, court- 

 house, town-hall, clubs, institutes, masonic lodge, theatre, and the grandest English 

 cathedral in Asia that of St. Andrew's. In Commercial Square, the business centre of 

 Singapore, all nationalities seem to be represented. Here, too, are the Kling gharry- 

 drivers, having active little ponies and neat conveyances. Jack ashore will be pestered 

 with their applications. " These Klings/' says Mr. Thomson, " seldom, if ever, resort to 

 blows; but their language leaves nothing for the most vindictive spirit to desire. Once, 

 at one of the landing-places, I observed a British tar come ashore for a holiday. He was 

 forthwith beset by a group of Kling gharry-drivers, and, finding that the strongest of British 

 words were as nothing when pitted against the Kling vocabulary, and that no half-dozen 

 of them would stand up like men against his huge iron fists, he seized the nearest man, 

 and hurled him into the sea. It was the most harmless way of disposing of his enemy, 

 who swam to a boat, and it left Jack in undisturbed and immediate possession of the 

 field." The naval officer will find excellent deer-hunting and wild-hog shooting to be had near 

 the city, and tiger-hunting at a distance. Tigers, indeed, were formerly terribly destructive 

 of native life on the island; it was said that a man per diem was sacrificed. Now, cases 

 are more rare. For good living, Singapore can hardly be beaten ; fruit in particular is 

 abundant and cheap. Pine-apples, cocoa-nuts, bananas of thirty varieties, mangoes, custard- 

 apples, and oranges, with many commoner fruits, abound. Then there is the mangosteen, 

 the delicious "apple of the East," thought by many to surpass any fruit in the world, 

 and the durian, a fruit as big as a boy's head, with seeds as big as walnuts enclosed in 

 a pulpy, fruity custard. The taste for this fruit is an acquired one, and is impossible to 

 describe, while the smell is most disgusting. So great is the longing for it, when once the 

 taste is acquired, that the highest prices are freely offered for it, particularly by some of 

 the rich natives. A former King of Ava spent enormous sums over it, and could hardly 

 then satisfy his rapacious appetite. A succeeding monarch kept a special steamer at 

 Tlangoon, and when the supplies came into the city it was loaded up, and dispatched at 

 once to the capital 500 miles up a river. The smell of the durian is so unpleasant that 

 the fruit is never seen on the tables of the merchants or planters ; it is eaten slily in 

 corners, and out of doors. 



And Jack ashore will find many other novelties in eating. B,oast monkey is obtainable, 

 although not eaten as much as formerly by the Malays. In the streets of Singapore a 

 meal of three or four courses can be obtained for three halfpence from travelling restaurateurs, 

 always Chinamen, who carry their little charcoal stoves and soup-pots with them. The 

 authority principally quoted says that, contrary to received opinion, they are very clean 

 and particular in their culinary arrangements. One must not, however, too closely examine 

 the nature of the viands. And now let us proceed to the Australian Station, which includes 

 New Guinea, Australia proper, and New Zealand. 



This is a most important colony of Great Britain, although by no means its most 



