Armenians. Parsees. Arabs. Caflres. 

 Ship of the king of Cochin-China. 



SINGAPORE. 



Interior of a Chinese junk. 



343 



their snow-white raiment, thrown over a richly- 

 embroidered coloured vest, fitting tight to the body, 

 with loose trousers, tied just to meet their embroi- 

 dered slippers at the ankle. 



The most distinguished men as to looks are the 

 Armenians. Although few in number, yet they 

 have much influence from their wealth; they are 

 an exceedingly handsome race, dress after the 

 English fashion, and generally speak English or 

 the Portuguese fluently. Some of them, that I had 

 occasion to visit, were extremely courteous, but 

 spoke of the inhabitants of Singapore generally as 

 of a low class. The Armenian church is one of the 

 finest buildings in the place. 



Parsees are not numerous at Singapore, but they 

 rank among the most wealthy of its inhabitants. 

 They are dressed partly after the Eastern and 

 partly after the European fashion. They excited 

 our attention as being worshippers of fire, which 

 they venerate as emblematical of the Deity. They 

 are of various shades of colour, and generally more 

 robust and portly than the other races. Many of 

 them speak the English language. 



Some persons, who were said to be Arabs from 

 the east coast of Africa, were also pointed out to 

 me, who were quite different from all the other 

 races. They had what would be termed woolly 

 hair, with large whiskers, and one of them was 

 remarkable for his large blubber lips. Their com- 

 plexion did not strike any of us as being much 

 darker than that of the Hindoos or Malays. Their 

 face was long, and the nose by no means promi- 

 nent: one of these had a strange appearance about 

 his head, and it was some time before it was dis- 

 covered that it was owing to his beard and whis- 

 kers, which were long, being in gray and black 

 stripes. Although it was undoubtedly done by 

 some artificial process, yet it seemed quite na- 

 tural. 



Individuals of the Caffre tribe, from the east 

 coast of Africa, were also met with; and it is said 

 that there are many of them in Hindoostan, whither 

 they have been carried by the English from Mo- 

 zambique ; but they are rarely met with so far 

 east as Singapore. They resembled those seen by 

 us at Rio, though we had no opportunity of identi- 

 fying them by their tattooing. 



One of the most amusing incidents that occurred 

 during our stay at Singapore, was a visit to a ship 

 of the king of Cochin-China, which we made by 

 express invitation. The whole trade of Cochin- 

 China is a monopoly in the hands of the king who 

 owns the ships, which likewise compose part of his 

 navy. They are built after the European model of 

 some half a century back. The vessel that fur- 

 nished it belonged to France, and was wrecked on 

 their coast many years ago, after which missiona- 

 ries and artisans were sent out by Louis XVI., 

 who taught them many of the arts of Europe. The 

 outward form of the old French ship appears to 

 have been pretty well imitated, but the stern is 

 more elaborately carved and ornamented with 

 gilding. The internal arrangements also show a 

 great variation from the model, and in them the 

 notions of the Cochin-Chinese prevail, unmixed 

 with those of Europeans. The two ships were 

 about five hundred tons burden; they are very 

 roughly built, have huge sterns, and exceedingly 

 thick sides. Indeed, every thing on board is un- 

 sightly, and all the work is of the rudest descrip- 



tion, giving no very high idea of the proficiency of 

 the mechanics of Cochin-China. 



These vessels have a middle-deck, which is 

 pierced for guns. The cabin, into which we were 

 shown, had a josh-temple, and with josh-sticks 

 burning. There were two cabins; that under the 

 poop had small rooms, and was very low between 

 decks. There were no fixtures, but simply a mat 

 to lie on. The binnacle is a bed of sand, in which 

 the compass-box is set for security; and a number 

 of small, coloured sticks were stuck into the sand, 

 which were represented to be markers, by which 

 the way of the vessel was noted. A manuscript 

 chart, which the captain took great pride in exhi- 

 biting, was shown us. This was evidently a copy 

 of an English one, but all the names were in 

 Chinese. The crew had a decided Malay look, and 

 were small men; they are in form stout, but are 

 not athletic. There did not appear to be any mix- 

 ture of races among them. As we passed around 

 the deck, we observed a party of five or six of the 

 men engaged in gambling with cards, in which 

 they were so much engrossed, that they heeded not 

 the command of their officers to desist and make 

 room for us. This vessel was furnished with 

 rattan-cables, which were exceedingly well made. 

 The wheel for steering appeared odd, on account 

 of its small size, and the helmsman sits when he 

 takes his trick. On either side of the deck, just 

 abaft the foremast, there is a cook-house, formed 

 of a huge box of earth, about three feet above the 

 deck, in which a few large stones are set to sup- 

 port their earthen cooking vessels. 



The officers and men have but a small pittance 

 of pay. The captain, for instance, I was told, re- 

 ceived only three dollars a month. A supercargo 

 or factor is appointed for each voyage, and is obli- 

 gated to do all the business for his master, and 

 take charge of the whole commercial enterprise 

 without receiving any of the profits for the success 

 of the undertaking; he is also held to be responsi- 

 ble, and his property is accountable likewise for 

 any depreciation in the foreign market; and if any 

 suspicions fall upon him of mismanagement, he is 

 sure of the bastinado on his return. The conse- 

 quence is, that the king of Cochin-China is a suc- 

 cessful merchant, grows rich on his commercial 

 speculations, and is always well served. The re- 

 compense of the factor is but a small quantity of 

 rice. 



Four or five of his ships resort annually to 

 Singapore, loaded with sugar, coffee, ivory, and 

 many other articles of less importance, in return 

 for which they take British and India goods, fire- 

 arms, iron, glassware, &c. I have been informed 

 that his success in trade has been such that out of 

 its profits within a year he has added a steamer of 

 six hundred tons to his navy. 



Almost every one has some idea of the external 

 form of a Chinese junk; but the arrangement of 

 the interior, although of great antiquity, was new 

 to us all. From the appearance of every thing on 

 board, the arrangements cannot have changed 

 much in the lapse of many centuries. The junks 

 are of various sizes : the three that were visited 

 were from seventy-five to eighty feet in length, 

 about twenty-two feet beam, and about eighteen 

 feet high forward, descending in a curve to within 

 three or four feet of the water amidships, and then 

 again rising in a like curve to the height of twenty- 



