60 EXPEDITION TO MOLUCCA ISLANDS. 



74-gun snip's mast may be bought for two hundred dollars. 



The population of Malacca does not exceed 14,000 or 15,000, 

 which is calculated from the quantity of rice imported, and may be 

 tolerably exact ; they consist of Malays, Chinese, Chulears and 

 Europeans; and as there is nothing bearing any resemblance to a 

 llaja or Supreme Head among them from the interior part of the 

 country, each caste has its own Chief or Captain as he is called, who 

 are all subordinate to the Government. 



The disposition of the Malays about Malacca is quite inoffensive, 

 nor has there been any act of treachery, that I could learn, com- 

 mitted by them for a considerable time past. In their domestic 

 habits they are free from the prejudices of the Hindoos, and are 

 reckoned Mahometans, though I fancy their chief tenet is abstaining 

 from swine's flesh. They are extremely indolent, and, if not tempted 

 by the hope of gain, would never exert themselves. Though very 

 muscular in their make, and better formed for strength and activity 

 than any of the Natives of India, they are passionately addicted to 

 gaming and cock-fighting, which arc their chief amusements. Creese- 

 fighting is the principal public exhibition I could observe, in which 

 the combatants pride themselves, not in the boldness of attack, and 

 manly agility, but in the wily approach of a tiger, where their 

 greatest merit lies in getting unawares behind their antagonist, 

 and surprising him by a stab in the back ; and this circumstance I 

 look upon as strongly indicative of the general disposition of the 

 Malays. 



The Chinese are equally addicted to gaming with the Malays, 

 and have here and at Penang licensed houses where they play with 

 dice, a kind of hazard that seems to have a good deal more variety 

 than ours. They are also fond of theatrical exhibitions in which 

 their merit is considerable ; their chief performers are carpenters 

 and other artificers, and I doubt not if people of the same rank in 

 life, in a distant country town in England, were to attempt getting 

 up a play, they could hardly outdo the exhibition of the sort we 

 saw at Penang, on a stage erected for the purpose in the streets. 

 The spectators sat on chairs and benches in the open air and were 

 refreshed with tea and sweetmeats ; their music is certainly very 

 disagreeable, being composed of gongs and very harsh hautboys. 

 They are very industrious, almost all of them keep little shops 



