324 EAMBLES OF A NATUEAi:iST. [Oh. XIX. ^ 



ground, and I soon saw the folly of pursuing, alone and totally 

 unarmed, a band of Chinese thieves into their fastnesses ; 

 and seeing them all turn into a narrow slum, I retraced my 

 steps with the intention of at once informing the police. 

 Not fifty yards from where the robbery took place I met a 

 Malay constable, whom I took with me to the station and 

 saw the superintendent of police, to whom I stated my case, 

 and gave a description of the stolen property. An inspector 

 and a Chinese interpreter, &c., were at once despatched with 

 me to the spot ; but it was impossible for me to do more than 

 poiat out the place where the affair had occurred. As for re- 

 cognising any one who was standing by, every one who knows 

 the Chinese knows also the impossibility of distinguishing one 

 Chinaman from another, unless he is personally acquainted 



with one or both of them ; and I was therefore unfortunately 



* 



entirely unable to identify any of the numerous rogues who 



stood cooUy looking on while the attack was being perpe- 

 trated. A number of men loitering about the spot were 

 arrested as suspicious characters, and their tails being tied 

 together they were carried off to the police-station ; but 

 nothing could be proved against them, except that some of 

 them were " old offenders." 



Now here surely is a circumstance calling for the gravest 

 attention, and most vigorous correction. An Englishman 

 walking at mid-day in the crowded streets of an English 

 colony, having a governor, magistrates, and establishment of 

 police, may be knocked down with impunity, and robbed 

 in the presence of a hundred people, who coolly look on 

 and smoke their pipes during the performance, as if it were 

 the most ordinary and common-place occurrence. Nor is 

 this the worst — it is a common occurrence for an English- 

 man (usually a stranger) to be so robbed, irrespective of 



