CHAPTER III. 



MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR. 



(JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1854.) 



"DIRDS and most other kinds of animals being scarce at 

 Singapore, I left it in July for Malacca, where I spent 

 more than two months in the interior, and made an ex- 

 cursion to Mount Ophir. The old and picturesque town 

 of Malacca is crowded along the banks of the small river, 

 and consists of narrow streets of shops and dwelling- 

 houses, occupied by the descendants of the Portuguese, 

 and by Chinamen. In the suburbs are the houses of the 

 English officials and of a few Portuguese merchants, 

 embedded in groves of palms and fruit-trees, whose varied 

 and beautiful foliage furnishes a pleasing relief to the eye, 

 as well as most grateful shade. 



The old fort, the large Government House, and the ruins 

 of a cathedral, attest the former wealth and importance 

 of this place, which was once as much the centre of 

 Eastern trade as Singapore is now. The following de- 

 scription of it by Linschott, who wrote two hundred and 



