396 
SINGAPORE. 
lation. The hope is, that the results of educating the young, and 
impressing them with the truth of the Bible, will be apparent in after 
years, and may conduce to some good. Only one of the scholars lias 
as yet been baptized. They are all represented as well-behaved and 
docile. 
The Singapore Institute, another academical establishment, is under 
the care of the Rev. Mr. Montgomery, an English missionary. It is 
delightfully situated on the public ground fronting the bay. There are 
in it about one hundred boys, who are taught on the monitory system. 
The branches here taught are those comprising a common school 
education: there are no schools for the higher branches. 
Although the Protestant missionaries have not met w T ith any success 
in propagating their tenets, this cannot be said of the Catholics, who 
have already made one hundred and fifty proselytes to their faith. 
There is likewise a very interesting establishment here under the name 
of the Raffles School, of which Mr. Dickinson, the third American 
missionary, is principal. These gentlemen have, given up their more 
direct missionary employments, as it afforded no prospect of success, 
and turned their attention to the more immediately useful object of 
teaching the children. They are known in Singapore as the “ Ameri¬ 
can padres.” The Raffles School is kept in a palace-looking building, 
but as houses are of small value, the rent is proportionably low. 
Mr. Dickinson made the voyage in the brig Himmaleh to many of 
the islands in the China seas, and possessed much information in rela¬ 
tion to those he had visited, and their inhabitants. It appeared to be 
his impression that there was no opportunity afforded for missionary 
labours in any of the ports under the authority of the Dutch. There 
is a mission established at or near Batavia, and this is the only place 
they will permit one to exist, in order that it may be immediately 
under the eye of the government. Mr. Dickinson is of opinion that 
an establishment is much needed on the island of Celebes, and that it 
would be productive of decided good. It seems scarcely possible to 
believe that any European nation should have held possession of these 
islands so long, and not have introduced a single valuable custom 
among those who are under their rule. The natives in fact are now 
as much at liberty to pursue their infamous acts of piracy on each 
other and Europeans as ever, and to capture and carry into slavery 
such as they deem fit. These slaves even find their w r ay to Singa¬ 
pore, where they are not even aware that they are free by the laws of 
the land, in defiance of which they are held in slavery. These are of 
the race of Papuans or Negritos, a portrait of one of whom has been 
given in the chapter on Manilla. 
