APPEITDIX. 305 



them are buried here the same as other people. Some of them 

 have become naturalized British subjects, and one Chinese mer- 

 chant, Mr. Whampoa, has been so benevolent and useful a citizen 

 that the British Government has conferred upon him the Colo- 

 nial Order of Knighthood. There is probably a larger percen- 

 tage of the merchant and trading class here than in California, 

 but this is due to the fact that the Chinese are so treated on the 

 Pacific coast that there is no inducement for a well-to-do China- 

 man to emigrate there, while here all are protected in their rights, 

 both of person and property ; and hence the result in their being 

 permanent, useful, and respected citizens. 



Pepper is one of the principal exports from Singapore, and 

 the variety of this article produced in this section has always 

 been more highly esteemed than that produced in Sumatra and 

 other of the great Spice Islands. Desiring to learn as much as 

 possible about the peculiarities of production of this, as well as 

 other articles which enter into the trade with which I am con- 

 nected, I arranged for a visit to a pepper-plantation. There are not 

 many upon Singapore Island itself, the soil not being considered 

 as rich and productive as that of the Malayan Peninsula, immedi- 

 ately opposite ; but a number of Chinese planters have grown it 

 successfully, and it was one of their plantations, owned by a Chi- 

 nese planter named Tan-Oh-Hoon, at Sarengong, some nine miles 

 from Singapore, that I visited. At a distance, a pepper-planta- 

 tion somewhat resembles a hop-farm, the pepper-plant being a 

 vine trained upon poles, much the same as hop-farmers train 

 their vines in the United States. Unlike the hop-vine, however, 

 the pepper-vine or plant has a strong, woody growth, and does 

 not throw out long, slender tendrils, as does the hop-vine. In- 

 deed, unless carefully tied and trained around supporting poles, it 

 would, probably, in many instances, spread over the ground in- 

 stead of climbing. It is propagated from cuttings, has a smooth, 

 glossy leaf, and begins to bear when fi'om two to three years old, 

 after which, with proper cultivation, it lasts many years. The 

 grains of pepper form on stems, much the same as currants, 

 and are picked twice a year, for in this tropical latitude nearly all 

 plants remain green the year round, and yield two or more crops. 

 The first picking usually extends through November, December, 

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