Opium shops. 



SINGAPORE. 



Population of the island. 



345 



favourable opportunity should offer ; though no 

 one seemed disposed to class them as pirates of 

 the same character as the Malays, but rather to 

 look upon them as generally inclined to be peaceable. 



The island of Celebes sends to Singapore nearly 

 a hundred prahus annually, and they also come 

 from Flores, Timor, Amboyna, Sumbawa, Lubok, 

 and even from Papua and Aroo. From the latter 

 countries they bring the bird of paradise, so abun- 

 dant in the market of Singapore. The prahus that 

 come annually from these distant ports are not 

 more than fifty in number. 



With the ports of Sumatra and Java there is a 

 great deal of intercourse, and I was told that the 

 native vessels engaged in it, independently of those 

 belonging to Europeans, amount now to some six 

 hundred. These are of various sizes, and keep up 

 a constant intercourse, some of them visiting the 

 ports several times during the year. These arrive 

 from both coasts of Sumatra, and belong to the 

 rajahs or chiefs of small places, of which even the 

 names are little known, and whose subjects are 

 mostly engaged in piracy. The island of Bali 

 likewise engages in this trade, through the agency 

 of the Bugis. The products of the Malayan penin- 

 sula, and of all the ports of the Malacca Straits, 

 are also brought to Singapore ; but these may be 

 termed incidental supplies, for they fluctuate much, 

 both in quantity and value. 



The most regular of all the trade is that with 

 the islands of Rhio and Lingin, in the neighbour- 

 hood of which the Dutch have a factory. This 

 trade is carried on in the sampan boats, and the 

 people of these places prefer resorting to this free 

 port to dispose of their produce, rather than sell it 

 to the Dutch. The number of the vessels em- 

 ployed in this traffic was represented to me to be 

 somewhere about five hundred. The articles 

 brought from all these places are very much the 

 same, and consist of pepper, rice, camphor, sago, 

 coffee, nutmegs, oil, tobacco, wax, benzoin, sea- 

 weed, dragon's-blood, biche-de-mar, birds' -nests, 

 tortoise-shell, diamonds, gold-dust, pearls, the 

 pearl-oyster-shell, sandalwood, rattans, ivory, some 

 hides, and articles of native manufacture, such as 

 sarongs (worn as a wrapper, which come princi- 

 pally from Celebes), salendongs, and lacquered 

 ware. 



The foregoing detail exhibits a vast variety of 

 articles of commerce, and accounts for the employ- 

 ment of the fifteen hundred, or two thousand ves- 

 sels of various sizes, that are continually pouring 

 into this mart. It may readily be imagined what 

 a stir and life this commerce must create ; and 

 when it is considered that nearly all the various 

 nations of the East resort here for the purpose of 

 trade, it will not excite much astonishment that 

 Singapore has grown up so rapidly in the face of 

 older and longer-established marts, which it bids 

 fair to surpass, both in wealth and importance. 



The opium shops are among the most extraor- 

 dinary sights in Singapore; it is inconceivable with 

 what avidity the smokers seek this noxious drug at 

 the shop windows. They then retire to the interior, 

 where a number of sickly-looking persons, in the 

 last stage of consumption, haggard, and worn down 

 with care, are seen smoking. The drug is sold in 

 very small pieces, and for ten cents enough to fill 

 a pipe once is obtained. With it are furnished a 

 pipe, a lamp, and a couch to lie on, if such it may 



be called. The pipe is of a peculiar construction, 

 and is in part of metal, having an interior or cup 

 just large enough to contain a piece of the size of 

 a pea. The opium is difficult to ignite, and it re- 

 quires much management in the smoker to obtain 

 the necessary number of whiffs to produce intoxi- 

 cation in one habituated to its use. The couch is 

 sometimes a rude bench, but more often a mat on 

 the floor, with a small raised bench. Each of 

 these mats in the frequented shops is generally 

 occupied by a pair of smokers, who have a lamp 

 between them. 



These shops with their inmates formed one of 

 the most disgusting spectacles I saw during our 

 extended cruise; although, to one who could be 

 amused with human degradation, this sight could 

 not have failed to afford pastime. 



It was not difficult even for a stranger to dis- 

 tinguish those who have long indulged in this per- 

 nicious practice, from those to whom it is yet new. 

 The eagerness with which the former sought the 

 mat, seized the pipe, and inhaled the smoke, 

 showed a nervous anxiety to reach that point where 

 forgetfulness should come. This in the novitiate 

 was but the work of^a few minutes, while those 

 whose organs had become accustomed would draw 

 long whiffs and puff away until the weakened state 

 of their lungs would betray them, and cause them 

 to stop to renew their breath before they were 

 enabled to accomplish their wishes. I learned 

 that many of the old smokers found so great a 

 difficulty in inducing the action of the smoke, that 

 they were accustomed to have recourse to swallow- 

 ing the drug itself. The Chinese only are addicted 

 to this practice : the Gentoos and those of the 

 Moslem faith look upon it with great horror and 

 disgust. 



The individuals whom I have described above 

 are the wealthy, who can afford to smoke the drug 

 as it is found in commerce. From the difficulty 

 with which it burns there is a large residuum left, 

 which is carefully taken out of the pipes, and sold 

 to the less opulent, who in like manner smoke it, 

 though without the luxury of mats and lamps. I 

 was told that there is still a poorer class of Chi- 

 nese, that again use the residuum of this second 

 smoking. 



The Chinese at Singapore possess every facility 

 for full gratification in the smoking of this delete- 

 rious drug; for there is no interdiction to its intro- 

 duction, and most, if not all the vessels engaged in 

 smuggling it, resort there in their passages to and 

 from Bengal, and many of them' are owned or 

 under the agency of the merchants of this place. 

 It is not a little remarkable that even those who 

 are engaged in the trade, condemn its immoral and 

 hurtful results, while others at a distance offer 

 many reasons in its defence. I must say that it 

 appears to me truly strange that with the scenes 

 that daily offer themselves in Singapore, before the 

 eyes and under the cognizance of the governor and 

 officers of the place, some steps should not be taken 

 to put a stop to the practice altogether, instead of 

 making it a source of revenue. 



The population, from the most authentic re- 

 turns, is in all about sixty thousand souls: of these 

 forty-five thousand are Chinese, eight thousand 

 Malays, seven thousand natives of India, and about 

 one hundred and fifty foreigners; and only one- 

 tenth of the whole are females. 



