OBSERVATIONS ON SINGAPORE, EAST INDIES. 347 



minions by the English. Well might this monarch regard 

 that potent drug as a curse to a nation, which has already 

 begun to suffer from its dangerous seduction, and which shows 

 for it a decided taste. 



A single glance of these opium dealers will convince you 

 that they are their own best customers. Their soiled and dis- 

 orderly dress, the palsied hand and pale cheek, the sunken 

 eye and vacant stare of each of these wretched men, show 

 you that they are not themselves. 



The Chinese Bazaar is filled with goods manufactured in 

 that industrious country. Here you may purchase beautiful 

 Canton shawls, for fifteen or twenty dollars, rich silks and 

 satins, carved ivory-work in chessmen, backgammon boxes, 

 card-cases, grass-cloth handkerchiefs, vases, chimney-piece 

 ornaments, tea-pots, and the familiar little tea-cups and sau- 

 cers so highly esteemed by the ladies. There are also found 

 here camphor-wood trunks, so useful to preserve clothing, 

 books, and furs, from the white ants, which are so destructive 

 to this sort of property. 



But in trading with the Chinese, it is necessary to be care- 

 ful. They call all Europeans " foreign devils," and consider 

 them a fair game. But the greatest cheats among them are 

 those who come off to the ships to sell their goods, as these 

 not only ask the highest prices, but invariably give you a bad 

 article. 



The Chinese are very numerous in Singapore, and all seem 

 to be industrious. They dress after the manner of their 

 country ; and we saw some whose queus almost touched the 

 ground. It is said that they return home as soon as they 

 have acquired something like a competency, though they run 

 the risk of being punished by the Emperor, for having left 

 China. They have a popular saying, " If he, who attains to 



