428 SINGAPORE. 



carefully taken out of the pipes, and sold to the less opulent, who in 

 like manner smoke it, though without the luxury of mats and lamps. 

 I was told that there is still a poorer class of Chinese, that again use 

 the residuum of this second smoking. 



The Chinese at Singapore possess every facility for full gratification 

 in the smoking of this deleterious drug ; for there is no interdiction to 

 its introduction, and most, if not all the vessels engaged in smuggling 

 it, resort there in their passages to and from Bengal, and many of 

 them are owned or under the agency of the merchants of this place. 

 It is not a little remarkable that even those who are engaged in the 

 trade, condemn its immoral and hurtful results, while others at a 

 distance offer many reasons in its defence. I must say that it appears 

 to me truly strange that with the scenes that daily offer themselves 

 in Singapore, before the eyes and under the cognizance of the 

 governor and officers of the place, some steps should not be taken to 

 put a stop to the practice altogether, instead of making it a source of 

 revenue. 



This government seems to be actuated by totally opposite principles 

 from all others that attempt colonization; for while it has been consi- 

 dered necessary in other places to introduce females in some propor- 

 tion to males, for the purpose of softening the manners and the savage 

 propensities of our sex, they have been here interdicted altnost alto- 

 gether. I made many inquiries respecting the reasons that had 

 induced so extraordinary a course, but all appeared to be equally 

 ignorant with myself. 



The population, from the most authentic returns, is in all about 

 sixty thousand souls : of these forty-five thousand are Chinese, eight 

 thousand Malays, seven thousand natives of India, and about one 

 hundred and fifty foreigners; and only one-tenth of the whole are 

 females. 



A short description of the Malayan peninsula will be a proper 

 sequel to the account of the island of Singapore. What is usually 

 included under this name extends as far as latitude 7° N. It is nearly 

 five hundred miles in length, by about one hundred and fifty miles in 

 width, and comprises about fifty thousand square miles. It is moun- 

 tainous and hilly, and destitute both of extensive valleys and plains. 



A range of mountains traverses its whole length, rising gradually 

 towards the north, to the height of about six thousand feet. Its 

 geological formation, from the best reports, is exclusively granite ; 

 which towards the south has been found to contain many minerals, 



