447 
TO OUR READERS. 
to communicate even a small part of them by translation. 
The best method will be to take up particular subjects, and 
embody the latest information that can be gathered from 
all the sources open to us. To keep pace with the Javanese 
and Continental publications will demand every hour we 
can command, so that we can hardly hope to carry out 
the series of papers in question without a more general liter¬ 
ary aid on the part of our Straits supporters. The first 
of the projected series is an account of the trade of Singa¬ 
pore with each place in the Archipelago with which it has 
any commercial connection, embracing the kind, amount 
and value of commodities ; the vessels in which they are 
carried ; the classes of persons employed in the trade as 
owners, freighters and crews ; the peculiar modes in which 
the trade is conducted, joint adventures, maritime laws or 
customs &c. Some of the requisite information we can 
obtain from the courtesy of the local authorities, some lies 
directly in the field of our enquiries into the languages and 
races ; but the most practical part is so entirely foreign to 
our pursuits that we could not acquire it without a great 
sacrifice of time, and after all it would probably be crude 
and imperfect. Now what would cost us so much to do 
badly, there is not one of our numerous mercantile support¬ 
ers who could not do readily and well. If they will let us 
make a bargain with them, we promise that if they will 
assist us a little in this matter, we shall give them more 
practical information about the Archipelago than we have 
hitherto been able to do, distracted as our attention has 
been. The very liberal support which we have received 
from them, and without which the Journal could not 
exist, testifies that they consider it a public undertaking 
which, for the sake of Singapore, they would not willingly 
let die, but rather foster during its early struggles and short¬ 
comings, in the hope that it may ere long become a fitiing 
medium of communication between observing and enquiring 
men resident here and their countrymen elsewhere, and a 
less unworthy representive of the principles and intelligence 
of Englishmen in the Archipelago. We address our local 
mercantile readers in this feeling. The object is a common 
one, from which we individually can gain nothing more than 
what our contributors and supporters share with us, the 
pleasure of acquiring and communicating information and 
aiding in the spread of humane feelings and just principles 
of action, both politically and socially, towards the natives 
of the Archipelago. We do not therefore hesitate to solicit 
