34 SINGAPORE. [chap. ii. 



barrels of guns by hand, out of solid bars of iron. At 

 this tedious operation they may be seen every day, and 

 they manage to finish off a gun with a flint lock very 

 handsomely. All about the streets are sellers of water, 

 vegetables, fruit, soup, and agar-agar (a jelly made of sea- 

 weed), who have many cries as unintelligible as those of 

 London. Others carry a portable cooking-apparatus on a 

 pole balanced by a table at the other end, and serve up 

 a meal of shell-fish, rice, and vegetables for two or three 

 halfpence ; while coolies and boatmen waiting to be hired 

 are everywhere to be met with. 



In the interior of the island the Chinese cut down forest 

 trees in the jungle, and saw them up into planks ; they 

 cultivate vegetables, which they bring to market ; and 

 they grow pepper and gambir, which form important 

 articles of export. The French Jesuits have established 

 missions among these inland Chinese, which seem very 

 successful. I lived for several weeks at a time with the 

 missionary at Bukit-tima, about the centre of the island, 

 where a pretty church has been built and there are about 

 300 converts. While there, I met a missionary who had just 

 arrived from Tonquin, where he had been living for many 

 years. The Jesuits still do their work thoroughly as of old. 

 In Cochin China, Tonquin, and China, where all Christian 

 teachers are obliged to live in secret, and are liable to 

 persecution, expulsion, and sometimes death, every pro- 



