6 
MALACCA. 
delicate pink cheeks, a wealth of golden hair, and a bodice of crimson satin. This, I 
suppose the first introduction of European art of its kind, was the object of adoration to 
many dozens of Chinese. Whenever we passed that shop a crowd of Celestials were to be 
seen gazing with admiration at perhaps their ideal of feminine loveliness. However, the 
Chinese admiration did not save the business; for some time after when I passed the 
barber’s shutters were up, and that block, the pride of the Singapore coolies, had gone with 
the business. 
A visit to the Governor of the colony is one of the duties of a would-be resident in 
Singapore. Sir Cecil Smith, who was at the time of my visit Acting-Governor, received 
me with kindness, taking a keen interest in my natural history pursuits. Owing to the 
wholesale slaughter of birds for the London and Paris markets, in Malacca, the Government 
passed a law forbidding any furthur destruction. As I wished to visit Malacca in order to 
inure myself to forest travel, and thought it best to begin as easily as possible, no place was 
more suitable for my purpose. So at my request Sir Cecil Smith kindly granted me 
permission to make a collection. 
One or two days were necessary to buy provisions and other necessaries for a 
three months’ trip to Malacca. Now, whilst on the subject of provisions, I cannot help 
saying a few Avords to express my disgust at the want of legislature that is absolutely 
necessary to prevent people being occasionally poisoned by eating tinned foods. In 
the first place, all tins containing food ought to bear a date stamped in the metal; that 
date being the day when the tin was soldered down. Now it is impossible to tell 
what you are buying, there being no mark to guide you. The gases which accumulate 
blow out the ends of the tins ; this at present affords the only means of guessing what 
the contents may be like. I have seen tins of soup when pricked squirt up like little 
fountains of impurity; I have heard of anchovies that burst their bottles and stuck on the 
ceiling, of tinned lobster that poisoned the partakers thereof; and all this because people 
are allowed to sell in 1892 provisions that were potted—well! who knows when ; yet if a 
shopkeeper were to expose meat that we can both see and smell is bad, he is had up at once 
for “ exposing meat unfit for human food.” These remarks do not apply to the European 
houses in Singapore, as provisions from these depots are nearly always fresh; but unfor¬ 
tunately all that is not disposed of when fresh is sold to the Chinese, who may get rid of 
them perhaps before they explode. To remedy this I would suggest that a small tax be 
imposed on all tinned food. The profit from this tax would amply repay the official 
surveillance necessary for the correct dating of all tins. Such a tax would in no way 
interfere with the poorer classes, as they seldom consume such provisions. Eoreign 
exporting countries might possibly be forced to follow such a regulation, as doubtless 
dated tins would have a larger sale than undated ones. 
My next job was to find a Chinese servant, which 1 did in one Ah Hing. As he spoke 
English fairly well, I am afraid it retarded my knowledge of Malay considerably. 
We embarked, my Chinaman and I, on board one of the small coasting-steamers which 
run between the port of Singapore and the small coast-towns on the Peninsula. The sea 
was luckily quite smooth, or it would have been a most horrible voyage. We ought to 
have left Singapore early in the day, but, with true Eastern unpunctuality, we did not start 
