SINGAPORE. 401 



These prahus are said when trade or employment fails, to turn their 

 attention to piracy, if a favourable opportunity should offer; though 

 no one seemed disposed to class them as pirates of the same character 

 as the Malays, but rather to look upon them as generally inclined to 

 be peaceable. 



The island of Celebes sends to Singapore nearly a hundred prahus 

 annually, and they also come from Flores, Timor, Amboyna, Sumbawa, 

 Lubok, and even from Papua and Aroo. From the latter countries 

 they bring the bird of paradise, so abundant in the market of Singa- 

 pore. The prahus that come annually from these distant ports are 

 not more than fifty in number. 



With the ports of Sumatra and Java there is a great deal of inter- 

 course, and I was told that the native vessels engaged in it, indepen- 

 dently of those belonging to Europeans, amount now to some six 

 hundred. These are of various sizes, and keep up a constant inter- 

 course, some of them visiting the ports several times during the year. 

 These arrive from both coasts of Sumatra, and belong to the rajahs 

 or chiefs of small places, of which even the names are little known, 

 and whose subjects are mostly engaged in piracy. The island of Bali 

 likewise engages in this trade, through the agency of the Bugis. The 

 products of the Malayan peninsula, and of all the ports of the Malacca 

 Straits, are also brought to Singapore ; but these may be termed 

 incidental supplies, for they fluctuate much, both in quantity and value. 

 The most regular of all the trade is that with the islands of Rhio 

 and Lingin, in the neighbourhood on which the Dutch have a factory. 

 This trade is carried on in the sampan boats, and the people of these 

 places prefer resorting to this free port to dispose of their produce, 

 rather than sell it to the Dutch. The number of the vessels employed 

 in this traffic was represented to me to be somewhere about five hun- 

 dred. The articles brought from all these places are very much the 

 same, and consist of pepper, rice, camphor, sago, coffee, nutmegs, oil, 

 tobacco, wax, benzoin, sea-weed, dragon's-blood, biche de mar, birds'- 

 nests, tortoise-shell, diamonds, gold-dust, pearls, the pearl-oyster-shell, 

 sandalwood, rattans, ivory, some hides, and articles of native manu- 

 facture, such as sarongs (worn as a wrapper, which come principally 

 from Celebes), salendongs, and lacquered ware. 



The foregoing detail exhibits a vast variety of articles of commerce, 

 and accounts for the employment of the fifteen hundred, or two thou- 

 sand vessels of various sizes, that are continually pouring into this 

 mart. It may readily be imagined what a stir and life this commerce 

 must create ; and when it is considered that nearly all the various 

 nations of the East resort here for the purpose of trade, it will not 

 vol. v. 2 I' 2 51 



