398 SINGAPORE. 



huge box of earth, about three feet above the deck, in which a few 

 large stones are set lo support their earthen cooking vessels. 



The officers and men have but a small pittance of pay. The captain, 

 for instance, I was told, received only three dollars a month. A super- 

 cargo or factor is appointed for each voyage, and is obligated to do all 

 the business for his master, and take charge of the whole commercial 

 enterprise without receiving any of the profits for the success of the 

 undertaking ; he is also held to be responsible, and his property is 

 accountable likewise for any depreciation in the foreign market ; and 

 if any suspicions fall upon him of mismanagement, he is sure of the 

 bastinado on his return. The consequence is, that the king of Cochin- 

 China is a successful merchant, grows rich on his commercial specula- 

 tions, and is always well served. The recompense of the factor is but 

 a small quantity of rice. 



Four or five of his ships resort annually to Singapore, loaded with 

 sugar, coffee, ivory, and many other articles of less importance, in 

 return for which they take British and India goods, fire-arms, iron, 

 glassware, &c. I have been informed that his success in trade has 

 been such that out of its profits within a year he has added a steamer 

 of six hundred tons to his navy. 



Almost every one has some idea of the external form of a Chinese 

 junk ; but the arrangement of the interior, although of great antiquity, 

 was new to us all. From the appearance of every thing on board, the 

 arrangements cannot have changed much in the lapse of many centu- 

 ries. The junks are of various sizes : the three that were visited were 

 from seventy-five to eighty feet in length, about twenty-two feet beam, 

 and about eighteen feet high forward, descending in a curve to within 

 three or four feet of the water amidships, and then again rising in a 

 like curve to the height of twenty-five feet. At the top of the stern is 

 the poop-cabin, with accommodations for the master, his clerk, and the 

 trader, in four small sleeping-rooms ; under these are other cabins, with 

 an eating apartment, and before this is a platform or small deck, from 

 which the vessel is steered. The rudder is an extraordinary piece of 

 wood, fully equal, in point of size, to that of a line-of-battle ship. While 

 in port it is always unshipped, and drawn into the vessel on a small 

 inclined slip or way. The junks have usually two large masts, with a 

 jigger, and there are no less than three windlasses, which are used 

 upon every occasion; without these the junks would really be almost 

 unmanageable. In order to preserve the vessel dry, they have waist- 

 boards of solid thick plank, which are unshipped in port; these reach 

 from the plank-sheer to the rail, and from appearances effectually 

 answer the purpose for which they are intended. The cargo, however, 



