POSSESSIONS IN THE STRAITS OR MALACCA. 145 
as they were stii ring at Singapore, and instead of seeking occupation 
by investing a portion of their wealth in rearing plantations of Spices, 
Sugar, Paddy or any thing else (for there is at present no commerce 
in the place,) they build splendid dwellings in a close and crowded 
district of the town, and in an impure atmosphere the remainder of 
their days are passed without following any serious occupation. Such 
is Malacca- at this day, in an agricultural point of view. 
The hard conditions formerly imposed by the East India Compa¬ 
ny on their tenants, as has already been stated in the first part of this 
paper, kept back European enterprise at Singapore as at the other 
end of the Straits. But however a few Europeans and many Chi¬ 
nese ventured to make settlements in the interior of the Island, hop¬ 
ing for a more liberal policy. 
The Chinese undertook the growth of Gambier and Pepper, and 
gradually have extended themselves over a considerable portion of 
the Island. But they are evil doers rather than doers of good to the 
land, which after a few years cultivation they abandon, empoverished 
and overrun with lalang grass, and remove to a fresh clearing in the 
jungle, where the virgin soil becomes in its turn exhausted and a 
nuisance. 
The emigrants from China who yearly arrive here are of the very 
lowest classes of labourers in their own country, and for the most 
part enter into engagements with their countrymen already esta¬ 
blished here to labour for one year, in consideration of the payment 
of their passage money hither. At the end of the year, if perchance 
they have not quietly emancipated themselves before, they are free 
to do as they please, and as they are mostly taken up by the Gam¬ 
bier and Pepper planters they usually bargain with a Chinese shop¬ 
keeper in Singapore for money and provisions to enable them to set 
up with, pledging the future plantation and its products on conditions 
highly favorable to the capitalist. After having found a suitable lo¬ 
cation they squat upon it, not unfrequently without even applying for a 
license or cutting paper from the local authorities, a clearing is soon 
made in the forest, a part is planted in gambier and a part in pep¬ 
per, the fallen trees being preserved for future use in boiling the 
