THH OLD CEMETERY ON FORT CANNING, SINGAPORE. 79 
For the translation of the inscriptions on the tombs of Chinese 
residents who lie buried here, I am indebted to the Hon’ble 
C. J. Saunders, Secretary for Chinese Affairs, who has kindly sup- 
plied me with the following notes :— 
“The inscriptions on the Chinese tombs were carefully deci- 
phered as far as possible by Mr. Yung Sz Meng, my clerk 
and interpreter, who copied the inscriptions in Chinese. 
He has also helped me in transliteration and transla- 
tion. In cases in which the grave does not give the 
birthplace or place of origin of the deceased, it has been 
assumed that he was a Tiechiu.”’ : 
“The Christian names gave some difficulty and I am indebted 
to Mr. Go Lai Ques, of the Supreme Court, for interpreting 
many of them. In graves B. 24, 25, 67 and 101, I have 
had to content myself with giving the Chinese sounds.” 
The gravestones, as is customary with the Chinese, often 
mention the names of those who erected the stone: it has 
thus been possible to give the information as to the 
relatives of the deceased which is found in column 3.” 
“The names of prefectures and districts in China are given in 
Romanised characters: the names of smaller localities 
are given in Chinese characters. Where it is possible 
and necessary, the tribe ( bangsa’) of the deceased is 
given in brackets.”’ 
“No English-Chinese calendar is available for the years before 
1834, and for years up to 1833 the month and the day 
are therefore given according to Chinese reckoning. 
Where the year of an event is alone given, or where the 
event happened in the 11th moon and no day is given, 
it is impossible to say in which of two years according to 
Western reckoning the event happened. The Chinese 
year is often given not by the year of the Emperor’s reign, 
but merely by the characters of the 60 years cycle, and in 
a few cases (e.g. B. 34) in the absence of evidence as to 
the deceased’s age at death, it would be impossible to say 
whether he died e.g. in 1798 or 1858, if we did not know 
that at the former date the Cemetery was not open. 
In a few cases the graves give dates according to the 
Western calendar.” 
‘ Most of the graves in Section B., two of the graves in Section 
D. and one grave in Section C. had at the top four 
Chinese characters meaning May Eternal Light shine 
on him (or her)’ with a cross or a cross in a circle in the 
middle of the inscription.” 
The accompanying plan shows all tombs and graves, but those 
without inscriptions, or with illegible ones, have been omitted from 
the following list. This accounts for the gaps in the consecutive 
numbering. 
R. A. Soc., No. 61, 1912. 
