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 has 

 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 with 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 way 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. 



