PIRACY ABOUT SINCAPORE. 



on the landiDg-place, and seen the woandod sut'vivora 

 of some trading- vessel's crew borno away to the liospital,^ — 

 miserable illustrations of pirate barbarity^ and — we junst 

 therefore add — of civilised indifference I How else could 

 these things be ? 



" It is known,'* says the Dutch Resident at Riow — " tlio 

 English themselves acknowledge itr— that a vast number 

 of these robbers find m asylum at Sincajwre itself, as well 

 aa in the neighbourhood, Sincaporc and Kiow are both 

 surrounded by pirates, and the very scum of the neigh- 

 bouring populatioiiB. At the same time piracies are more 

 deplorable and more frequent at Sincapore than at Riow. 

 The pirates of these latitudes obtain their powder and 

 ball secretly from Sincapore^ and the booty captured is 

 taken there privately, and mid at low prices, or exchanged 

 for ammunition/* 



If this be not a libel on our respectable settlement^ it is 

 surely a grave charge against ourselves* We have 

 however lately made a beginning, and with results highly 

 promising. 



It is quite possible that severe examples may still 

 occasionally be unavoidable, before so widely spread a 

 system can be wholly disorganised : but the history of 

 piracy from the earhcst ages, as well as the most recent 

 experience, warrants the assurance that, with the exercise 

 of uuremittuig vigilancCj severity would very soon be 

 unheard ot from lack of subjects, 



I have alluded to the early history of piracy, A 



