BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 6 



Just as the insular situation of Great Britain has made its 

 people bold sailors and given them dominion over the sea, so the 

 physical character of China has made the people essentially 

 fishers, and spread them over the east to teach nations that 

 industry. For it is Chinese fishermen we meet everywhere in 

 the east, and they are the only men who ply the trade in North 

 Australia. The fishermen supplying the markets of the Straits 

 Settlements are principally Chinese. In nautical skill the 

 Chinese fishermen in the Straits Settlements are far behind the 

 Malays. Although originally a sturdy race their morals and 

 frames are deteriorated by gambling and opium. Their trade 

 exposes them, in those latitudes at least, to little hardship, and 

 their leisure, which is considerable, is spent idly if not viciously. 

 The consequence is that though Chinese immigrants are gladly 

 welcomed in general in the Straits Settlements, the fishermen are 

 ever looked upon with suspicion.. They congregate in lonely little 

 spots along the least inhabited parts of the coast of all the Malayan 

 region, and iu such places they are ready for anything. Piracy, 

 robbery, murder, — nothing comes amiss. During my stay at 

 Thaiping it became necessary for the Government of Perak to 

 burn down one of the fishing villages between Port Weld and 

 Penang, which had become a kind of piratical hornet's nest. I 

 am sorry to say that I could give many other illustrations of the 

 desperate and lawless character of this class. 



The fishmongers of the East are also natives of China, but they 

 are a class far superior to the fishermen. At all the fish markets 

 that I have visited in certain places, namely : — in Singapore, 

 Malacca, Thaiping, Penang, Saigon, Sulu, Menado (Celebes), 

 Amboyna, &c, the fishmongers were Chinese. In Java it is not 

 so for this simple reason : each nationality is confined to its own 

 quarter and has its own market. 



To deal with the Chinese fisheries in the East, for they are 

 mainly Chinese, is a subject whose aspects are rather complex. 

 Let us begin with the trade in the Indian Archipelago. The 



