SINGAPORE. 401 



It might be expected that English law and English justice would 

 exist at a place where the authority of Great Britain avowedly exists, 

 and over which its flag waves ; but this is not the case in Singapore. 

 No rights of property in the soil are acknowledged ; no security and 

 no redress are to be had against the will of the public officer. He 

 may tear down a resident's house, and there is no preventive for 

 the wrong. Instances have occurred where the very soil has been 

 dug off a garden by his order, and against the wishes and consent 

 of the owner, because it so pleased the dignitary to will that it 

 should be level with the street, which had been graded a foot or two 

 below the level. On expostulation and incmiry, no redress would be 

 given, or damages allowed. Fortunately, neither the land nor build- 

 ing is of great value, for a hundred dollars in Singapore would go as 

 far in the construction of a building as a thousand with us. 



Of the society we saw but little ; what we did see appeared to be 

 sociable and agreeable, but is necessarily small, being confined to but 

 sixty or seventy individuals. 



The island of Singapore is composed of red clay, sandstone, and 

 in some places granite. The locality of the town appears to have 

 been a salt-marsh, with a narrow strip of rocks and sand near the 

 beach. In consequence of its rapid increase, they are beginning now 

 to fill up the low ground with the surplus earth taken from the sur- 

 rounding hills. 



The highest point of Singapore is called Buhit Tima, and does not 

 exceed, it is said, five hundred feet in elevation. Although this 

 height is but seven miles distant from the town, I was told it has 

 never yet been visited by a European, and seldom by natives, on 

 account of the obstructed nature of the intervening country. There 

 are a few small fishing or piratical establishments (the two names are 

 synonymous here, for when the people are not engaged in the one, 

 they are in the other,) on the north and west end of the island. 

 The length of the island is twenty-seven miles, and its greater 

 breadth is fifteen. It is divided from the peninsula by the old strait 

 of Singapore, so long followed by navigators, for reasons it is now 

 difficult to surmise, when the short, wide, and safe channel was open 

 to them, which is now altogether used. 



The botany of Singapore is far from being thoroughly known, 

 notwithstanding so many scientific expeditions have visited it; nor 

 is it likely to become so very soon, infested as the woods are with 

 tigers. It is remarkable that before the island was inhabited, tigers 



VOL. v. 101 



